If there’s one thing that’s for sure about The Sims 4, it’s that it’s got its fair share of jank going on. But today, the team shared a big update on the official EA Forums, giving us some insight into what fixes and updates to expect between now and November.
The Roadmap is focused on fixing pre-existing problems (hopefully including the long ongoing save file corruptions, although it remains to be seen) alongside any ‘technical disruptions’ that might arise throughout the course of Adventure Awaits rollout.
Anyone want to predict what those disruptions might be? Kayaks cutting through buildings? Imaginary friends going rogue? Whatever they are, it sounds like the team are going to be hot on the button to fix them.
What’s included in the Quality of Life Roadmap?
The Roadmap promises to cover a lot of ground. First up, we’re going to get a Base Game update in the next few days, way ahead of the release of the next Expansion Pack. The exact contents of the update will be shared tomorrow, on September 16th, as part of the newest Laundry List.
Why so early? Well, rolling the update out so soon gives the team the chance to spot and fix any glitches or other problems before Adventure Awaits comes out. Similarly, it gives modders and custom content creators the chance to make sure their content is compatible with the update.
The Sims team is also planning on supporting modders by releasing TDESC files on the official Sims 4 Discord server. Those files are being shared prior to the update’s release, so keep an eye out.
Boatloads of fixes
Another part of the Roadmap set to kick off in September is the ‘community prioritised fixes.’ The update confirms that they’re triaging issues based on the amount of upvotes they got on the EA Forums Bug Reports section. The more upvotes an issue has on the forum, the higher a priority fixing it will be to the team. So, go vote with your, um, upvote.
They’re already looking into a number of common problems on the forums. They also say that they’re going to give another update in the October Laundry List if they haven’t been able to tackle all the hottest problems.
Simming it and seeing
There’s a little less on the cards – at least, in the public-facing sense – for October, besides Adventure Awaits launch. But, it sounds like the team will be waiting to Sim it and See for issues with the next Expansion.
Throughout October, the Sims Team will be waiting to fix any issues brought about all of the new content. This means there’ll be playtesting, focus groups, and other work behind the scenes to try and keep our saves working as smoothly as possible.
That might sound damning, since you’d hope DLC wouldn’t come with issues, but considering the amount of significant changes that seem to be on the horizon, it makes perfect sense that there might also be some problems lurking behind them. Plus, it means the team will be locked and loaded ready to deal with them as they come.
You mentioned freebies..?
Ah, the moment you’ve been waiting for. Free stuff.
November 4th will bring us an update with some free goodies in it. We don’t know what they’ll be yet, but I was a big fan of the Pride freebies from earlier in the year, so I’m pretty excited anyway.
Alongside that, a few fixes should (probably) be shared relating to any problems with Adventure Awaits. At least the free stuff should sweeten the deal.
Key dates on the Roadmap
If you’re at all like me, then you might struggle with keeping all the different dates in the roadmap in your head. A few days you might want to keep in mind are:
- September 16th: Laundry List release
- September 18th: Base Game update for PC and Mac, plus Patch Notes published
- September 23rd: Base Game update (the same as above) for Xbox and PlayStation
- October 2nd: Adventure Awaits release date
- November 4th: Fixes based on community feedback, plus new free content
There’s also a brief mention of another Laundry List in October, but no date is given. It could land around abouts the release of the next Pack, though.
