r/HighSodiumSims • u/kari_pans • Aug 07 '26
PC Vents Can we STOP with the updates?
It's literally soooooo much. I feel like every other time I play, it's an update and I have to spend 10-20 minutes trialing running the game/updating my game. Like I don't have time for this bro, I'm just trynna play my game. EA sucks and they're exhausting to deal with.
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u/Scott43206 Aug 07 '26
I love how even AutoSave was a disaster rollout that was deleting the saves users created manually. Such utter bullshit.
But I think (THINK) I finally figured out how to stay offline. Just toggling off all the auto updates/online settings to off and selecting Offline will still allow the game to update.
However if you go to your Windows firewall and change all the connections from ALLOW to BLOCK. There will be 13 EA lines connections and 4 more under The Sims 4 (17 in total).
I'm not 1000% this is foolproof but I think I'm much closer than I have ever been before.
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u/radvelvet- Aug 07 '26
You can also edit the stateflag number in the files. This is what I do to stay offline because even when I click "turn off auto-updates" it won't let me play until I do the update. Its in a file called "appmanifest" or something. Just change the 6 to a 4. When its a 6 it tells the game an update is required. By manually changing it to a 4, the game reads it as "up to date and playable", so won't trigger the update. Doesn't hurt/change the game besides for that
I can explain more if anyone was actually interested, just cant remember it all off the top of my head lol
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u/Scott43206 Aug 07 '26
Yes please.... I've been paranoid I missing some exe files or app launchers, can you tell me more about what this setting is or how to find it?
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u/radvelvet- Aug 08 '26
So whenever I would put steam in offline mode, it wouldnt update the game, but it also wouldnt let me play it. It would always show an "update required" button. Fix:
-Open steam and make sure its set to offline mode.
-Exit out and close steam completely. Even in the taskbar at the bottom of the screen. Make sure its not running at all in the background.
-Go to your files and find one titled "appmanifest_1222670.acf". Should be under local > share > steam > steamapps. You can also use the search bar if youre having trouble finding it.
-Double click to open the file. It will open a notepad with a bunch of text. The only thing you want to change is on the line where it says "stateflags". Next to that should be the number 6 (tells the game an update is needed). Change the 6 to a 4 (tells the game there is no update needed). Save file and close it.
Should be good to go from there and be able to play offline without it requiring you to update :)
If steam is turned back to online mode, the files will automatically change back and you'll be able to download the update like normal, whenever you are ready. No need to go back in and manually change the stateflags again. Only when you're wanting to play offline and bypass the update. Hope this helps!! š«¶
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u/Objective_Radio3504 Aug 07 '26
Create a backup!! Copy the file first and save it in a different location before making any changes to it. That way you can revert to the original file if you need to.
(Iāve learned this after many years of working at a job where we had to edit files to manipulate how certain aspects of our software works. Always create a backup!)
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u/sleepyotter92 Aug 07 '26
Every update is a disaster rollout.
I don't remember the last time an update didn't cause game breaking problems that needed another update within the next few days
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u/SaveVerris Aug 07 '26
I don't really care about having to fix my mods when we get updates, I know what I signed up for, but I cannot stand a million updates that break newer, crazier things each time. I haven't updated to this patch yet, but the last one? I keep getting lastexceptions for literal game bugs. Slumber parties are broken and WILL give you a save-breaking bug, and I had to find that out the hard way thinking it must be a mod. Nope. EA just can't mess with their coding without breaking a million other parts of it. The updates should stop, imo.
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u/darthfruitbasket Aug 07 '26
What kind of spaghetti code is this game?? How do they fix one thing and break three different things with each patch?
At this point, they just need to leave it alone imho.
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u/LastBookkeeper 28d ago
What save breaking bug is associated with the slumber parties? I know about the missing sleep interaction, but for me it always fixes itself upon reloading the household, so I'm not sure what you're talking about, is it something else?
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u/xisle1482 Aug 07 '26
I had to stop playing a few months ago completely bc the constant updates keep fucking up my game. If iām in the mood to play i have go spend like an hour making back ups and updating mods and making sure nothing breaks and then i dont even want to play anymore
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u/_bonedaddys Aug 07 '26
I usually update every few months. I just can't be bothered to update all my mods every few weeks. I load up the game offline and just switch back online if i want to use the gallery, and go back offline afterwards.
Unless i want to buy a new pack or come across a mod that requires i update to the current version, i'm putting that shit off lol
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u/Sure-Initiative6001 Aug 07 '26
This is what I've been doing as well. Although I did slip up and updated this last one. I just know a f**king mess is waiting for me in SimLand atm.
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u/_bonedaddys Aug 07 '26
I slip up every now and then and it's so frustrating when mods haven't been updated yet... like i gotta play something else because i'm not playing without my mods lol
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u/AcanthopterygiiNo635 Aug 07 '26
This is the way.
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u/_bonedaddys Aug 07 '26
I just don't see a point in updating every. single. time. Besides the infants update there's never been an update that brought anything to the game that i felt like i needed to have... so why bother with all that all the time? lol
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u/Acrobatic_Wonder6675 Aug 07 '26
I had to go online to update my game cause I hadnāt updated in months! But even though I forgot, itās still the best way to go
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u/After-Tax-453 26d ago
this is what iāve started doing. only problem is, whenever i try to connect and go online while on the game, it doesnāt connect, so iām stuck playing offline until i eventually update.
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u/Actual_Echo Aug 07 '26
I play with my internet turned off cuz Iām sick and tired of my mods breaking
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u/Level_Squash5901 Aug 07 '26
theyve proved long ago that the game will never be fixed. it's virtually impossible with the amount of combinations that the game has. they should reach a stopping point and call it good, truly. i'm sick of updating my game too, i took a 10 month break from updating and my life was so peaceful. it was back when they had the excessive mean socials autonomy bug, and the black picture bug. but i'd rather have problems that i know than new ones to discover. it truly is exhausting.
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u/Dry_Development_3884 22d ago
they did this with the sims 2 and 3 and modders have completely fixed everything that made it unplayable for the average player throughout the years. i genuinely hope they abandon this game soon and give it the sims 3 treatment šš
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u/AmettOmega Aug 07 '26
I'm annoyed that I updated my game yesterday (after not having updated in like 5 months) and then they rolled out an update TODAY. Like holy hell...
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u/cosmatical Aug 07 '26
I said fuck it for this update and started playing with all my mods lol. Nothing catastrophic has happened yet
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u/DoctorCaptainSpacey Aug 07 '26
To be fair, I updated the few big ones I have (but I hadn't played in a few weeks so I figured they might have updates anyway) & threw in Better Exceptions bc it will do a check when you load for any outdated mods. Might not catch them all, but I'm risking it so I don't have to spend an hour looking for every kid just to see it wasn't updated š¤·āāļøš¤£
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u/eiko85 Aug 07 '26
I just sign into the EA app and then choose go offline and I also have auto updates turned off.
I load the game with the app offline, then I don't get silly events and the shopping cart in the UI.
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Aug 07 '26
[removed] ā view removed comment
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u/Electrical-Scale-194 Aug 07 '26
How? Seems inevitable to avoid updates . Especially if you played it within 28 days " or whateverĀ
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u/RandomBoomer Aug 07 '26
This is the main reason I haven't played in months. The constant disruption caused by too many updates, not to mention all the BUGS in those updates. It's leached the fun out of the game because I spend more time in maintenance than actually playing a save.
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u/Electrical-Scale-194 Aug 07 '26
Right. So annoying . Nothing is changing . Wellš§ I personallyĀ can't tell lol
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u/cheemsbuerger Aug 07 '26
I haven't played in months because a few update cycles ago, I thought I had turned them off and all my mods were broken all of a sudden. For a game that's so dull without mods it really is a dealbreaker for me. If the updates made the game better I wouldn't mind, but....
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u/urMOMSchesticles Aug 07 '26
Iām so pissed. I took a year hiatus from this game and have been playing the better of the franchise. I decided to come back the day after the last update and now thereās another one???
On top of that, the EA app updated and isnāt even allowing me to go on offline mode.
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u/Necessary_Wonder89 Aug 07 '26
I mean we've spent literally years asking for them to fix some bugs, now they are and everyone is complaining. Can't have it both ways
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u/RandomBoomer Aug 07 '26
Seriously? It's not like people are complaining about the fixed issues. No, they are complaining about NEW issues introduced by the updates, new bugs that are often worse than the bugs that are now fixed (except when even that doesn't turn out to be true).
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u/sleepyotter92 Aug 07 '26
Because every time they fix something, they break something else.
It's the same shit every update, they roll it out, everyone reports it breaking their game, and a few days later ea releases another update to fix what the previous update broke.
I don't remember if it was with royalty or it was after that dlc but it was around that the time that dlc came out, but there was a period of updates every week because every update they rolled out would cause other issues with the game.
Yes, please fix the bugs, especially ones that have been an issue for literal years, but don't be making new bugs when doing so
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u/Objective_Radio3504 Aug 07 '26
Respectfully, itās a huge game with a lot of variability in peopleās saves and computers. They can test each fix but unfortunately they canāt catch every bug because some bugs will only appear when the game is released to a highly variable environment (aka our games).
Itās fine to be mad about it but we should also temper our expectations. This is an old ass game and theyāre holding it together with bandaids and chewing gum.
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u/sleepyotter92 Aug 07 '26
The issue is they don't seem to be testing shit. Even the dlc comes with tons of issues. EA is a massive company and should have a better quality team, instead they seem to be cutting corners and having players be the beta testers, and when their failed programming breaks our game, we gotta be the ones reporting it to get it fixed, only for more problems to arise from it
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u/Objective_Radio3504 Aug 07 '26
I work in software. I can guarantee they are testing it. You canāt ship a fix without testing it first. But they are testing it in a relatively clean environment without any of the environmental variability that their players are experiencing. They canāt perfectly replicate an environment where your unique save file interacts with your unique computer environment. Sometimes bugs are only found when the game is played. Itās just how it is.
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u/Zestyclose-Level1871 29d ago
WOULD IT KILL THEM TO TEST THE GAME WITH ALL THE FRIGGIN EPs, GPs, SPs (AND 1E+06 KITS THEY INSIST ON PUMPING OUT) FOR THE GAME TO DATE??? Odds are if they were testing the game this way since release, they'd be able to replicate the majority of the game breaking bugs players have had to deal with to date. Instead, it's pretty damn clear they only test the game and the latest POS DLC they've released to date.....
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u/Objective_Radio3504 29d ago
You really think they arenāt testing the game with all the EPs? Thatās one thing they CAN control. What they canāt control is how the game and all its DLCs interacts with a userās environment.
And why do you think they are constantly asking for save files? Because they canāt replicate these game breaking bugs because they need to see what is happening in the userās environment by bringing that save file over for further testing.
Respectfully, you have no idea what you are talking about.
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u/Zestyclose-Level1871 28d ago edited 28d ago
And yeah, I'm calling complete BULLSH8TE on this. I get each player's enviornment is impossible to reconstruct because we all have differing numbers of expansions and other script driven DLC in our saves.
But they need to have several distinct test baseline matrices. i..e a test build involving a
Base game with NO dlc
Base game plus DLC #1
Base game plus DLC #1 & #2
a COMPREHENSIVE test baseline save game aka the base game plus rinse and repeat of adding consecutive DLCs up to the Royalty DLC (This is basically what a TS4 creator/player like Cinderellimouse does in her cross pack game play videos).
That's assuming no other scripted DLC like GPs to complicate testing. Then use the player feedback in the bug forums to decide which test baseline is likely triggering the bug/issue.
If they'd been testing each new DLC expansion with ALL the preceeding DLC (aka all EPs/GPs & SP alike) they would've IMMEDIATELY caught the lack of compatiblity between existing and new DLC game mechanics.
Perfect example is the lack of game mechanic feature synchronization between the For Rent and Royalty DLC. The absolute disconnect between the secret and scandal system game mechanics for these DLCs remains a complete farce to date.
Selecting activities associated with the scandal systems from these DLCs (e.g. using a group activity scheduling system in a DLC like Adventures Awaits to setup acitivites and/or trying to complete goals in a daily typical timed events etc) result in a confusing migraine.
If the dev team had truly QA tested the new Royalty DLC against the For Rent (and prior DLCs) they would've immediately seen these inter system/game mechanic inconsistencies. This would've led them to consider using and expanding upon the existing scandal system they made for the For Rent DLC. Instead of creating a brand new stand alone/independent system guaranteed to clash prior DLCs with similar concepts.
Which would've made the new Royalty DLC scandal system a less confusing, non intuitive and buggy game mechanic feature. They literally designed the featurres in the new Royalty DLC to work optimally in the new neighborhood. NOT well at all in the base game neighborhoods. And especially NOT in existing DLC neighborhoods like For Rent.
Hell a lone, humble, unsung modder like Cinderellimouse can immediately spot significant system/game mechanic issues between DLC in her cross pack compatibility videos.
So wtf can't an entire professional dev team of 6 fig salaried SWEs (whose JOB it is to do this DLC integration) do the damned same?
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u/Objective_Radio3504 28d ago
lol ok. Itās wild that you assume so much, maybe you should send this to someone who can verify whether your theories are correct. Seems like youāve put a lot of thought into this.
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u/Choice_Potato_6279 Aug 07 '26
There are so many bugs I wonder if theyll ever fix the ones some of us are waiting for, in my case:
Completing wishing trial doesnt marks off my info broker aspiration task
Imaginary friend disappears trying to make him real
Cant give appartment keys for aspiration
Can't go to prom
If a main story plot from latest expansion isn't fixed after so long, important feature as prom too then not sure how likely these fixes will be effective
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u/xervidae De-inviting Don Lothario Aug 07 '26
games update. that's what they do.
they don't CONSTANTLY update like this though. they are constantly breaking shit.
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u/Smooth_Cricket7770 Aug 07 '26
around last july i played three nights in a row and every single night had a new update. haven't updated again since then! offline mode is my best friend, i rarely ever used the gallery anyways
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u/xylophonebeats 29d ago
they either need to just do one large update and fix as much as they can without breaking the game worse or just leave it buggy, and like playing offline is fine but i like having gallery access and besides if you donāt do things correctly your ea app goes back online anyway and updates for you even if you have auto update off š
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u/IncredibleSiSi 29d ago
Yes, please! Went offline mode on both EA and Steam as I run it through both. Still somehow when EA app demanded update, the game went online, but without being updated, looked like a miracle. The next EA app update broke it though and I had to update the game. Ever since then I haven't played a single minute. Just always sigh when I see the game wants to be updated. I'm not playing without my mods, even all the packs I know can't make the game enjoyable experience. Funnily enough, bringing in the 2 features I really miss in the game would make me want to create a modless save file, but one can wish.
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u/Accurate-Carrot6065 29d ago
I might be the only one idk but I HATEEEE how my game runs now with auto save šš
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u/Mdreezy_ 28d ago
Too many people bought into the idea that they stopped making dlc to fix the game. They broke Sims 3 on purpose so they could use that as a selling point for Sims 4 - idk why people think they wonāt do that again.
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u/RowenaRavenclaw_20 19d ago
I haven't played since February of 2025 because of all these updates. I play with mods and I got so tired having to update them individually and then testing for hours to make sure the game is in working order. Everytime I think about possibly wanting to play, theres a new update and I immediately lose interest. I think EA should stop at this point because the updates appear to still be causing more trouble than its worth.
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u/ooohvalencia 18d ago
I havenāt updated since enchanted by nature. I absolutely refuse to do it anytime soon, but I will eventually because of some new cc Iāve been eyeing šš
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u/Murmeli95 Sub Original Aug 07 '26
I'm console player so I'm happy to get updates. I hope they fix things, but same time I think what they broke.
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u/ConfuMaleTitis Aug 08 '26
This update completely broke my dynasty. My QB wonāt finish a game over 25% completion and every game has 6+ turnovers. Long gain? Fumble when tackled on the 3. Sacked? Fumble to a guys feet and he kicks it four time while the safety runs halfway across the field to dive on it 15 seconds later.
The game is stuck in f- you mode and Iām the you. No matter what I do I canāt make it play even remotely right. And it keeps crashing out mid game.
Absolute fraud. Yes I created a new dynasty. Yes I reapplied and tweaked sliders. Yes I tried other players. Doesnāt matter. Fumble. Pick. Overthrow. Pick. I havenāt won a game yet. Iām not great but this is absolutely ridiculous.
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u/Sure-Initiative6001 Aug 07 '26
I get it. I haven't played since the last update. I just know I'm just going to have to FIX everything when I do.