The Sims Team dropped the latest Laundry List today, previewing a hefty September 22 update that tackles 95+ bug fixes across autonomy, stability, and relationship systems. Here is what is changing, what got fixed, and what the team is already working on for October.
Autonomy fixes that actually matter
The headline improvements target Sim behaviors that have annoyed players for years. Sims will now face each other during conversations instead of staring into the void. They will use a sink in the same bathroom as the toilet rather than marching to the kitchen. Low-energy Sims will stop randomly waking up to perform unrelated tasks.
A few other autonomy changes worth noting:
- Couple walkbys from Lovestruck will no longer spam romantic interactions like Sky Gazing or kissing at non-residential venues like the Library.
- Sims who dislike dancing will no longer dance autonomously and will stop if a song they dislike comes on. Stereos could previously cause Sims to spam dance interactions in their queue, and that has been fixed (new saves only).
- Sims will walk faster during the "needs to pee" animation when their bladder is low.
- The Dance interaction will no longer queue autonomously while a Sim is painting.
These follow the autonomy pass earlier this year, and the team says more detail will appear in the full patch notes on September 22.
Freezing, stuck queues, and crash stability
The update addresses several of the most-reported freezing and interaction-queue bugs from the EA Forums. Here is the rundown:
- A freeze where time and Sims stopped while the environment kept animating has been traced to a Sim trying to use an object while another Sim occupied their spot. The team notes this may have been hardware-specific.
- A major instance of interactions getting stuck in the queue has been fixed, specifically related to interaction priority and completion time for sleep and group chat interactions. The team plans to extend this fix to other interactions.
- Sims waiting indefinitely on "tending" object interactions has been adjusted. Future instances will need individual fixes.
- Sims becoming idle and frozen after WooHoo when an autonomous interaction queued during the act has been resolved.
- Infants popping out of cribs or playmats after reloading a lot, or stacking on top of each other, have been addressed.
On crash fixes specifically, the team targeted around ten notable crashes using automated player reports. They also discovered that their top automated crash report stemmed from a conflict with outdated mod files, and recommend checking the [Mods & Game Updates Guide on the EA Forums](https://forums.ea.com/blog/the-sims-game-info-hub-en/mods, game-updates-best-practices-and-getting-you-back-into-the-sims-4/12938569) if you use mods or CC.
The team is still investigating other freezing and interaction-canceling bugs and describes the situation as a "6 raccoons in a trench coat sort of thing," where similar-looking issues have different underlying causes.
Relationship balancing for Lovestruck and Growing Together
Two expansion packs received tuning passes on their relationship systems:
Lovestruck changes:
- Relationship Satisfaction will no longer change for inactive households, fixing a long-reported issue where Sims you were not playing would drift apart on their own.
- Romantic Satisfaction now decays more slowly over time.
Growing Together changes:
- Sims with awful compatibility and Difficult or Distant Family Dynamics will now rarely start conversations, avoid each other, and keep interactions short.
- The Compliant and Jokesters Family Dynamics will trigger less frequently, while the Distant dynamic (which was rarely seen) now has a chance to appear after malicious interactions or fights.
Separately, Sims with bad luck from Enchanted by Nature will see fewer negative relationship impacts while socializing.
Build mode and other fixes
Roof trim segments have been improved so nearby geometry like platforms or half walls no longer clips or invalidates trim with inward-facing eaves. The Gallery server issue from August where content showed "No Results" or "No Connection" errors was already fixed server-side and did not require a patch, but the team is noting it here for visibility.
Married Couples will also no longer revert to Partners when entering CAS through Custom Tattoo planning or Plan Outfits, which was another top-voted forum issue.
What is coming in October
The team previewed that the October base game update will focus on Food, Dining, and Drink improvements, including a tuning pass on calories and food pricing, bug fixes across base game and all packs within that theme, and a new quality-of-life feature that remains redacted for now.
Ongoing investigations include controller inputs stopping on console, Infants not falling asleep until their energy is very low, and continued work on the remaining freezing and interaction-stuck bugs.
The Sims Team hosted a Dev Q&A on the official Sims Discord today to walk through these changes and take questions. If you missed it, the full update drops September 22. In the meantime, earlier this summer a similar QoL pass finally let players silence their Sim's phone, so steady progress on long-standing annoyances continues.