Growing Together Problems and Solutions

[Rhoxi]

Hey guys, just wanted to post a few problems + solutions for anyone struggling with getting your Growing Together expansion.

DO NOT use the EA app to buy your game. Go to the Sims 4 website and order it there. Purchases through the EA app aren't registering properly, and the app will tell you that you still need to purchase the game, even though you have the receipt in your email and have actually been charged. If you have already purchased through the EA app, you can still buy it through the Sims 4 website and petition for a refund.

If you PRE-ORDERED the game, go to myaccount.ea.com and check your purchase history. Many peoples' pre-order did not go through and actually charge people for the game (even if you got an email saying it did). Click the + by the game, and you have an option to cancel the purchase. Simply cancel the purchase, and go on the Sims 4 website to buy the game.

Furthermore, if you find you cannot interact properly with your infant (it will have a grayed out bar saying something about how you aren't introduced and where are the parents anyway - even though you are the parents), hire a nanny and ask the nanny to introduce you to your infant. This should unlock the rest of the infant interactions.

Hope this helps!

[oshizu]

Rhoxi
I'm taking a bit of a simming break and won't be buying Growing Together until the break's over.
As I haven't bought the pack yet, your tip is extremely helpful!

Honestly, imho, I think your tip should be moved to the main Growing Together thread, at least until the EA App sorts out its purchasing issue.
We all know that dealing with EA's Customer Service is a nightmare.
The only reason I checked this new post in the Technical Help thread was because you posted it.

[scoed]

One bug I face involves the tree house. I put one one the community center. One completed it wasn't actually built. Tried resetting it and no luck. But traveling from the lot then returning fixed the tree house. So a bug report with a work around for you.

[Brian_Z]

Oh, thanks scoed, good to know!  My family booted the Michaelsons out, so there's a treehouse that's been purchased but not built yet.
They also had their own set of splash pads, but the dog kept turning them on.  I can only imagine what that was doing to the weekly bills, so I got rid of them and built an outbuilding for their fitness gear.

[scoed]

The one on a home lot I did didn't have issues.

[Rhoxi]

NEW BUG: Do NOT age up to teen if your child still has a LOOSE TOOTH or other tooth related moodlet. Also make sure if they have lost a tooth to "FIX MISSING TOOTH" before aging up. If you age the sim up to teen with the moodlet, then when the moodlet expires it will cause your teen to turn jet black and randomize all facial features/outfits/etc. Even if the moodlet is gone, make sure to "fix tooth" before aging up, as having a missing tooth when aging up may also cause this issue.

Example: My teen sim when he first aged up:



My teen turning black when the moodlet expired:



What I see if I pop this sim into CAS:

[Brian_Z]

There's also another bug related to losing teeth.  Each time it happens, it alters the child's face permanently.  By the time they reach teen, they now look a lot different than they should have.  The only fix for this that I know of, would be to use MCCC.  Save the household to library right after the child ages up from toddler.  Then, just before aging up to teen, use the Paste Tray Sim feature to paste the child's appearance over their current one.  This will make them look the way they would have, if losing teeth hadn't done odd things to their face.

The examples I saw elsewhere look a LOT like Rhoxi's screenshots-- the round face and big eyes.

[Rhoxi]

Oh! Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I usually check all my toddlers (now infants) in cas.fulleditmode to see what they look like grown up (helps decide personality/style/etc). I *THOUGHT* Castor looked very different as a teen to what CAS originally showed me, but I didn't take a screenshot so I figured I was imagining/misremembering how he was supposed to look. I remembered him with a normal sized nose and not the tiny one here in his teen pic. Different facial structure too, and smaller eyes.

Can you please explain a bit more about MCCC and the Paste Tray Sim Feature? I'm not familiar with this mod.

I've also heard (but not verified, because I thought I had the issue solved) that by cheating your sim's sleep need to always be full, you can avoid getting any loose teeth. I guess tooth stuff only happens in a child's sleep? Some were saying that you could avoid all issues by never letting your sim sleep and just keep using cheats or need potions, etc. I will look into it more tomorrow.

Quoting DracuAlice2017:

"From what experimentation I've done, the loose tooth moodlet works like body hair growth in that it triggers when the child sim sleeps in a bed. If you don't mind cheating your sims' needs, a workaround to avoid the moodlet is to make them happy or cheat their energy bar up. It's a bummer that you can't experience a loose tooth without altering the teens looks, but it will help in not having to deal with a bugged out teen."

[Brian_Z]

Sure! 
First, MCCC is carried on CurseForge, or googling "deaderpool" will bring up the website.  It installs like any other mod.
MCCC does so many different things, I can't type up a whole manual for it here.  Not that I'm knowledgeable enough to do so anyway.  But a quick and dirty how-to for the copy-paste appearance function:
Click the sim, then choose MC Command Center.  MC CAS, Copy Paste, Paste Tray Sim, Any Saved Sim.  At this point, an alphabetical list of all of your saved households comes up.  Click the one where you saved the newly aged-up child.  Under that, all sims in that household that are suitable to paste over that sim come up (I know you can't paste the opposite gender over anyone, for example).  Next, one last menu.  Here you can choose whether or not to overwrite their name, traits, etc.  We're just trying to roll back this kid's appearance, so de-select all these options.  "Paste Sim Now" and it's done.


A cool thing about this feature, is that you don't have to control the sim getting pasted over.  So for example, you don't care for the Goth family remake.  The "Classic Goth Family" has been uploaded to the gallery.  So if you download them to your library, you could put them back the way they were without taking over the household.

[oshizu]

Brian_Z
Thanks for explaining the Paste Tray Sim feature!
I've used MCCC for years and have always been curious about this feature but never figured out how to do it!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Rhoxi
So sorry about Castor!

[scoed]

Well tooth loss has been disabled as of today's patch.

[Brian_Z]

I don't know if I'm seeing a bug, or if there's some other milestone I'm supposed to get first, but I have two infants who just won't learn to crawl.  They can both "scoot," which actually looks more difficult, but no matter how many times their parents practice crawling with them, they won't start crawling.

[MrsFlynn]

It looks like it's an issue others have experienced. Not sure if it's been reported as a bug yet.

In EP13 Growing Together how do infants learn to crawl?
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion-Feedback/In-EP13-Growing-Together-how-do-infants-learn-to-crawl/td-p/12402270

There is this one ? that is possibly about not crawling and other milestones?

[OPEN] [GRO] Toddler milestone 'max movement skill' won't complete
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-GRO-Toddler-milestone-max-movement-skill-won-t-complete/td-p/12403747

Thought I saw something about not crawling, but now not seeing it mentioned? Left in in the post just in case it's related.

Here's a list of Grow Together Issues and Bug Reports
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/READ-FIRST-Compiled-list-of-reported-Issues/m-p/12357394#M241746

[Brian_Z]

Ah, so lots of people are seeing this.  I went through the bug report section and didn't see anything specifically about crawling.  And I can't seem to find anything about cheating infant milestones.  You can max their hidden skills through MCCC, which appears to work because once you do it they get milestones very easily.  They just won't learn to crawl.

[MrsFlynn]

Thank you for the confirmation.  Maybe no one has reported it as a bug yet? Though that does seem a little strange since the issue has been happening nearly a month now.