The Sims 4 team held a Discord Q&A session today to talk through the design choices behind next week's October 27 patch, and the conversation surfaced everything from absurd Dine Out bugs to a spreadsheet that cataloged every recipe in the game. Here's what stood out.
Dine Out's autonomy problems were worse than you think
The patch addresses a long list of bugs where Sims would abandon their restaurant meals to do something else entirely. Developer SimDevMorgan shared several patch notes written specifically for these fixes, and they paint a picture:
- "Sims will no longer autonomously get up to Duel each other with swords while eating at a Restaurant." (Requires Dine Out and Royalty & Legacy.)
- "Sims will no longer autonomously get up to give themselves a Pep Talk in the Mirror when eating at a Restaurant."
- "No more zooming! Sims will no longer autonomously get up from dining at a Restaurant to go play with Paper Airplanes."
- "Customers will no longer leave their table to go dig in the trash."
SimDevConor confirmed the dueling bug was discovered during internal playtesting: "my diners all got up and started dueling. It was then and there I knew I needed to shut that down."
The team didn't change restaurant food delivery timing directly, but they expect the autonomy fixes to help with the notoriously slow service. SimDevMorgan also noted that restaurant layout plays a role: "the more space a Restaurant venue has, the longer it takes food to be delivered," so builders should keep walking distances in mind.
One bartender-related bug was fixed in this patch, but SimDevMorgan was upfront that a second known bartender issue is still under investigation.
How the team repriced and recalorized every recipe
A designer on the team built a spreadsheet covering every recipe in the game, setting baseline prices and calorie values for each serving type. SimDevMorgan described the process: the designer filled in tuning suggestions with color-coded highlights, then Morgan and Conor reviewed them before the values were updated one by one in the game files.
For calories specifically, the team wanted a "light touch." Some values went up, some went down, and a number of items that previously had no calorie tuning at all now have values assigned. Zero-calorie foods that existed by accident have been corrected, though certain salads were intentionally left at zero. SimDevMorgan's reasoning: "if you're trying to eat foods that won't increase weight gain, we didn't want the player to feel like the game wasn't meeting expectation, even if expectation isn't realistic."
The full patch notes for the October 27 update cover the calorie and weight toggles in more detail, including the option to disable body changes from food and exercise entirely.
375+ Family Recipes, TV locking, and other additions
When asked which pack-specific recipes now support the Family Recipe feature from Businesses & Hobbies, SimDevMorgan said the list was too long to share: "It's over 375. MOST things work now. There are very few recipes that aren't in it."
The patch also introduces TV locking, which works similarly to the existing computer lock. You can restrict a television to specific Sims, so the adults in your household stop camping out in the kids' playroom. Free Build Mode items and new CAS outfits for Elders are included too, with details reserved for the full patch notes.
A few things the team acknowledged but couldn't address this time around:
- Cakes can't be recategorized under the Baking skill because Baking is a Get to Work feature, and the base game update can't restructure pack content that way.
- Fridge locking was explored but turned out to be too complex. The team asked players to report specific scenarios where Sims use fridges they shouldn't, since those are more likely individual bugs they can target.
- Ice cream still has no ingredients.
- The soda-can-turns-into-a-white-bowl-in-the-sink bug was news to SimDevMorgan, who asked for a report on EA Forums.
A Seasons and Events update is coming next year
SimDevMorgan closed the Q&A with what they called "an actual teaser": the team is planning a Dev Drop In session in the coming months to gather community feedback for a Seasons and Events-themed quality of life update arriving sometime next year. "Events" here refers to in-game parties and gatherings, not seasonal festivals.
An earlier answer hinted at this scope. When asked about garden produce selling for too much, SimDevMorgan said they didn't touch it in this update but added: "Could work well with a Seasons-themed QoL update if we did something like that in the future though..."
The October 27 patch drops next week as a free base game update. The team confirmed there are over 150 bug fixes total, well beyond what the preview Laundry List covered.
Source: Sims Community