Home› Discussion› The Sims 4 General Discussion
  • Categories
  • Discussions
  • Activity
  • Best Of...
    • Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

    Some Questions Since I Haven't Played in a While

    talongirl6talongirl6 Posts: 184 Member
    in The Sims 4 General Discussion
    Hello! I'm a user who wants to return to playing the Sims 4 after about a year or so of not playing (maybe longer). I've missed playing, honestly. However, I've seen that there are a lot of updates, and I'm hesitant to update the game and play without knowing some stuff. I'm kind of picky about updates and what gets added to the game. So I have some questions about some of the more recent updates.

    Is it possible to still play without updating now that the game is connected to the EA app? Or can you no longer do that? I don't see an option to just play, so I'm a little confused. It only says to update.

    Can you completely disable life stages somehow? I've seen that infants were added, and I would prefer to not have them in my game at all if possible. I liked the babies how they were originally, and I'm not personally fond of having my Sims go through another life stage.

    And for the last question, is it possible to revert the Sims actions menu back to how it was before? I saw my sibling and some YouTubers playing not too long ago, and the actions menu where you select what your Sim gets to do is different. I would like to be able to use the old one instead. Is there a way to change it back?

    Thanks for reading my questions, and I hope you all have a nice day!

    Comments

    • Options
      SweetieWright_84SweetieWright_84 Posts: 4,129 Member
      edited November 2023
      I'm not 100% sure on the answers to your questions so take what I say with a grain of salt. Please correct anything I say is wrong, so I'll know for next time.
      I don't think you can skip updates but I do think you can disable automatic updates. I usually update when one is available. I just don't play until the important mods I use are updated.
      You can age up sims when you want but I think there might be a "cooling off period." I think for infants and babies, there's an option in the Baby Care section of the pie menu.
      As for the pie menu or the action menu, I don't know anything at all about that. There may be a setting that I'm not aware of, or even a mod. There is a thread here on the forums that shows you where everything is with the new menu.
      https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/1007134/what-interaction-is-in-which-category#latest
      Gallery ID: SweetieWright_84--Save File Thread--Youtube Channel
    • Options
      FreddyFox1234FreddyFox1234 Posts: 509 Member
      talongirl6 wrote: »
      And for the last question, is it possible to revert the Sims actions menu back to how it was before? I saw my sibling and some YouTubers playing not too long ago, and the actions menu where you select what your Sim gets to do is different. I would like to be able to use the old one instead. Is there a way to change it back?
      Do you mean the social interactions menu? If so, yes, there is a setting in the Game Options to revert it back to the traditional (previous) format. I haven’t tried it so I don’t know if it works, but it should do.

      Hope you can get back to playing and enjoying your game! I personally have loved all the new content that’s been added in the past year and think it’s added a lot of depth.
    • Options
      Kita5399Kita5399 Posts: 2,112 Member
      If you don’t want to update right now, you can play offline. Just open the EA app, click the three lines in the top left corner, select Go offline, it will ask if you’re sure, click “yes I’m sure”. It then will show a black screen that says “couldn’t connect to servers” but will list any games you can play with a blue “play” button next to them, clicking that will launch your game as is without updates. The only issues with that is not being able to connect to the gallery while offline.
    • Options
      SimplyJenSimplyJen Posts: 14,828 Member
      edited November 2023
      You can turn off auto updates and play offline to avoid patching. The downside is you won't be able to install newer packs if your game isn't up to date. Also, if auto updates are still turned on for you then you may have to keep your eyes peeled and cancel the game updating upon opening the app or shut off your internet before making changes.
      edit: There used to be a trick that you could still use the Gallery without updating but it seems they fixed that. So as mentioned here already... no Gallery use either.
      Turn off auto updates
      - Open EA app
      - Top left corner ≡ > Settings
      - Under Settings > Application tab
      - Turn Application updates off This will stop automatic updates for all EA app games.
      Play offline
      - Top left corner ≡
      - Go offline
      - You should see a list of Installed games to play offline.

      Babies still exist. Though they are now called Newborns and some changes have been made. (see spoiler) Then the next life stage is infants.
      I also want to share some improvements we’ve made to your existing Sims. The babies that you’ve had in your game since The Sims 4 launched are now known as Newborns, and they still play an important role in the early progression of your Sims’ life. The time spent in this age has been shortened significantly; Newborns now represent the first couple of days after birth before they age up to become Infants. Although you’ll spend less time with Newborns, we added some great changes to improve this age. First and foremost, Newborns now have the same range of skin tones as all of our other Sim ages! Other visual changes include having their correct eye colors, and adjustments to their appearance and movements that help skew them even younger. They’ll now fit right into the family from the moment they’re brought home from the hospital! Children and Toddlers are finally able to interact with newborns, such as taking the opportunity to approach the bassinet and entertain them with youthful antics. We’ve also made significant quality of life improvements - no longer will caregivers awkwardly set Newborns back inside the bassinet in-between every social interaction. With all of these changes, you’ll find that the Newborn age now represents a short-but-sweet moment in each Sims’ life.
      via https://www.ea.com/en/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/the-sims-4-infants-dev-diary
      There's no turning off life stages to skip infants... Unless you find a mod for it but I personally don't know of one. You can always age up infants to skip it that way instead as suggested already.

      The Traditional Social Menu option under Gameplay Settings isn't quite what you would expect. All of the categories still have subcategories like the revamped version. Check out this thread to get a better idea of what I mean:
      https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-and-Mod-CC-Issues/traditional-social-menu-stuck/m-p/12597570
      i7-13700K • 16GB • RTX 4070
      S3 simblr: http://simplysimming.tumblr.com/
      S4 simblr: http://simlogic.tumblr.com/
    • Options
      talongirl6talongirl6 Posts: 184 Member
      Thank you to everyone who answered! Those are all very helpful answers. I'll maybe try updating soon, but until then, I'll see if I can get it to work offline since I'm still a little hesitant. Thank you all again for letting me know how to do that!
    • Options
      FreddyFox1234FreddyFox1234 Posts: 509 Member
      SimplyJen wrote: »
      The Traditional Social Menu option under Gameplay Settings isn't quite what you would expect. All of the categories still have subcategories like the revamped version. Check out this thread to get a better idea of what I mean:
      https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-and-Mod-CC-Issues/traditional-social-menu-stuck/m-p/12597570

      Oh that’s really misleading then. Thanks for correcting me. I guess I’m not the only person who assumed it reverted back to the old style. Why do they call it ‘traditional’ when it’s just a different version of the revamped menu?!
    • Options
      SelinaKylesSelinaKyles Posts: 4,337 Member
      edited November 2023
      There’s a searchable pie menu mod, by twistedmexi. You just type and it finds the interaction you want
      https://www.patreon.com/posts/smarter-pie-menu-81030137
    • Options
      babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
      FreddyFox1234 wrote: »
      SimplyJen wrote: »
      The Traditional Social Menu option under Gameplay Settings isn't quite what you would expect. All of the categories still have subcategories like the revamped version. Check out this thread to get a better idea of what I mean:
      https://answers.ea.com/t5/Game-and-Mod-CC-Issues/traditional-social-menu-stuck/m-p/12597570

      Oh that’s really misleading then. Thanks for correcting me. I guess I’m not the only person who assumed it reverted back to the old style. Why do they call it ‘traditional’ when it’s just a different version of the revamped menu?!

      This setting has been in the game the whole time. The menus are contextual vs traditional. Contextual means the first layer of menu options has suggestions based on context, acting as a shortcut to get to an interaction you might choose. You have to click “More” to get to the traditional menu. Traditionally, the social categories show on the menu upon the first click.

      The Growing Together update added subcategories to the traditional menu but it didn’t affect this setting which only serves to bypass the contextual menu.
    • Options
      FreddyFox1234FreddyFox1234 Posts: 509 Member
      Ah, OK. Thanks for the explanation @babajayne — that makes sense now. Just shows how much I don’t pay attention to details in the game.
    Sign In or Register to comment.
    Return to top