The Sims 4 - "20th anniversary Hottub-Patch" [VERSION 1.61.15.1020], OUT NOW!!

First topic message reminder :





Fans and followers of G4TW!

With a slight delay we have now come up with a G4TW repack for the newest update for The Sims 4! Namely patch version 1.61.15.1020, and which you can apply directly after "Tiny Living", from G4TW (or another repack-group). Read more on the official patch notes here:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/972214/february-4th-2020-patch-notes

I would suggest you take the time now to read this introduction. Read it slowly, then read it again. And again.




Credits
Credits to the group CODEX for creating the No-Origin files.  

Credits to @Freezer Bunny for allowing us access to a legit Origin version of this..."game".      

Credits to those unnamed people (too many to name) who volunteer for seeding these items.    

Special credits to @Sim Architect for providing a virtual-machine-environment, that was very crucial in preparing this update!



Requirements/Contents


You should install this patch, after having installed "Tiny Living" from G4TW (refer to this guide for details), or from another repacker-group.

The download is 4.02GB in filesize, includes all 18 language strings, and a complete "Game"-subfolder, as always.



"ISP warning"

For all of you digital internet travelers out there, a warning for the following countries is issued.

- America
- Canada
- Australia
- The United Kingdom
- New Zealand
- France
- Germany
- and probably a few other Western satellite states (Italy and Spain seem "on the ball" lately)

If you happen to torrent the item using your internet while being in one (or more) of these countries, you risk a termination of your internet subscription, and maybe severe fines too. If that happens, then whatever further consequences you may face are out of our hand, and it will be solely within your responsibility to make the necessary arrangements. In general, make an effort to actively inform yourselves about the situation in your own home-country regarding torrenting, as the above-listed countries are by no means an exhaustive listing; these countries are just your "usual suspects" in that regard. Use a paid VPN service like NordVPN, VPN.ac, Windscribe or ProtonVPN to cover your activities.

And note that these services are just recommendations. There's many more decent VPN services out there. As long as the basics of the VPN provider are present (privacy-friendly jurisdiction/location of company headquarters, DNS leak protection, killswitch, no-logs-policy) you're good to go with any VPN service that supports torrenting.

"Does it have to be a paid VPN service???" Yes, it does, because free ones are not going to cover your properly. VPN services are aware of the fact that more and more countries don't allow torrenting, and they want to exploit these trends, by offering P2P-capability only on paid plans.

Even if you use a VPN, try not to connect to servers located in the above-mentioned countries...if at all possible with your particular VPN service.


Adverts information

We are also using adverts on these download links, as usual. Yes, I know: "Evil adverts", and so forth. But since we need the revenue, we'll have to ask you to bear with us. Read this information on adverts to learn how to navigate this 'obstacle'. Your Support in that regard is crucial for our mission, and I'd also like to give a big shoutout to everybody who has supported us in that regard! Your contributions will not be forgotten, which you may understand better...in the near future.

I think I said everything I wanted to say for the moment. Stay safe everybody, and good luck!



Download Links



 Magnet link

Self-explanatory I hope, but if you suffer from 'ISP surveillance' then you should only torrent this thing through a good VPN service. Examples are NordVPN, Windscribe, VPN.ac or ProtonVPN. Otherwise use the direct download option below.



 Language Strings

(for people who downloaded a different repack in the meantime; it will give you all 18 language versions of the game).



 "Game"-folder

(the people who have downloaded the full patch & DLC from ZLOrigin already, can use this "Game-folder" to bypass the ZClient log-in. Otherwise you can use this as a backup for your No-Origin files, in case they get purged by antivirus/antimalware software).



#mfga
#maketheforumgreatagain

What you show me is the contents of the folder SP16

In the first post of this page where we are on now you can download a folder Game.
It's is just a small file, some 300 MB.
Download it, extract with 7-zip.
Delete the existing folder Game from your installation folder.
Copy the just downloaded and extracted folder by right-clicking on it and select Copy
Then go to an open space in your installation folder, right click again and select Paste
Make absolutely sure that you do not accidentally paste that Game-folder into a folder with another name.

Yeah I did that and I'm still getting an error like this. I have no idea what's wrong now.

Can you send s screenshot of the contents of the installation folder Game\Bin ?
That folder can be found by right-clicking on the icon of the shortcut you start your game with and then select Open path.

bbongers wrote:Can you send s screenshot of the contents of the installation folder Game\Bin ?
That folder can be found by right-clicking on the icon of the shortcut you start your game with and then select Open path.

EDIT
Or open location.

I know this is probably in the wrong place but not too sure where else to ask?
I'm not able to download "Tiny Living" so if anyone could share the google drive file with me or direct me on where to get it (the magnet link isn't working for me) that would be very appreciated.
Also would love to know where to post questions or requests like these in the future.
Thanks in advance. 

Do you mean this folder?

I see that your The Sims 4 folder is within the folder Origin Games (default folder for the genuine Origin bought Sims 4)
I hope you did not recently run Origin. If so, you have lost all pirated DLC's..
Your previous picture about the error showed that Game\Bin\Codex.cfg could not be read by the dlc-toggler.
As that particular file is visible in your latest picture it might be damaged. Replace it with the one from the latest downloaded Game folder of Tiny Houses.

EDIT
Also make sure that the files dlc and dlc-toggler are in the main directory of your installation folder of the Sims 4 
In your case probably  C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 4

Where do I go from here?

It looks like your installation folder Origin Games -> The Sims 4 does not contain any EP,FP,GP or SP folders.

Thanks for your help but I'll find another method. I did all this run around for absolutely nothing. The older method was 10x easier. Thanks again though!

I agree that the older method was easier as long as you kept up-to-date. That method is still kept alive though.

When however you have not updated for a longer period since f.e. Seasons, the new system saves a lot of downloading and installing.

After Seasons you had to download: Get Famous, Strangerville, Island Living, Moschino, Magic Reals, Discover University, Tiny Living + update 1.61.15.1020 take a total of 57.91 GB following the old method and you also had to install in the correct order.

Even starting from scratch: Base game (8.58 GB) + global patch 1.61.15.1020 (6,79 GB) + maximum of 22 GB for ALL DLC's ever published totals "only" 37.4 GB with this new method.

I kept up to date with everything. The only thing that was missing was Tiny Living stuff. I came back and see that yall don't use the dlc installer. The dlc installer made everything 10x easier. Just download dlc, use origin no fix and play. Every time I try to use the no origin fix they tell me I need to update it but no one uses it anymore so I can't find the update for that lol. It's just a mess at this point and I'll install an all in one and get everything.

So the good news is, I finally had my DSL line repaired, despite a shortage of ISP technicians (and as a result of heavy storms in my area). So I have my internet back, and with my usual speeds. I'll get back to questions on the weekend again.

Also skimmed over some comments here, and I see people start discussing about that "new" format of TS4 repacks. Not so bad, for now. But despite the text guide and the video walkthrough, I also see that a lot of explanations are still needed.

Someone asked something about anadius's version of this alt-installer. Yes, you can ask about it here too. In fact, you can ask about stuff from other download sources here as well, as is stated in Forum FAQ, I believe under section II. I never used anadius's stuff myself, though I am roughly familiar with what it achieves. In fact, this whole new format on G4TW is based on the ideas of anadius, and to a smaller extent also on G4TW's "Update-Only Ultimate Fix", that was discontinued years ago.

So where was I, yes. It is absolutely allowed to merely ask for Support on stuff from other sources. But keep in mind we may not be able to offer satisfactory answers, all the time. We do specialize on our own G4TW items, after all.

reichenbastard wrote:I'm kinda in the same boat as Shane here, but more of a "usually direct dl but the tiny living patch was taken down early/same day I came for it" bank. And because no one volunteered an alt direct for tiny living, now I'm falling out of date. From what I can tell of the new format, and what other people have posted about their experience, it seems like I would have to essentially clean start and build back up from the new format? At least, that seems like it would cause the least issues anyway. I do have to say it was easier to know when everything updated when you said so on twitter a few years ago.

@reichenbastard, the Global Patch is intended to be applied regardless of what your current patch version of The Sims 4 is. That is the whole point of the "new exercise": instead of doing the step-step-step procedure from the old TS4 Must-Read guide, you only have to apply one (1) patch now, which will update your TS4 (base)game. Technically the Global Patch also provides updates for the DLC essentially in the form of the "Delta"-subfolder, but let's not get too technical here.

So you have a basegame, maybe even some DLCs installed, regardless on which patch version. You delete your current "Game"-subfolder within the TS4 installation. Then apply the latest available Global Patch, then use anadius's DLC toggler, or if you feel confident enough just edit the codex.cfg yourself, and BOOM! You're done. You don't have to start over, at all.

About your Twitter-related comment. I assume you are in fact referring to the old G4TW Facebook page that was maintained by the old Admin and his staff. After the old Admin's departure, we maintained the page for a while, but we started getting problems. A smaller and smaller post reach, plus URLs to G4TW websites were blocked. Eventually our page got deleted due to violations of Facebook's "Community Guidelines". Despite the fondness of most people for American-based social media platforms, we are not going to use those anymore for the purpose of G4TW. It used to be fine back in the days, but times change.

People need to realize the political dimension and implications of our work: it's just not going to work out, to use anything hosted in America. Copyright enforcement is getting bolder and harder every day. Anadius had his old Discord taken down. Sim Architect nearly got his YouTube taken down. Do I have to mention more examples? Again, I understand that most of our audience are fond users of (American) social media platforms. But for us, it won't work out.

As for the deletion of the old format GoolgeDrive links, I believe I made an announcement about that too somewhere. I did this to free up space for the new format. Let's face it: the old format downloads are too big and cumbersome to use.

As for people volunteering for creating mirrors, well. Some people signed up for MediaFire, thereby giving me more space there. Many thanks for that! But as for the GoogleDrive, there has been less activity. Of course, I anticipated in advance that this odd request of mine for Google-accounts would be met with disinterest, or even outright hostility/suspicion. But I felt I needed to try something.

In the meantime, we are working "internally" to create more Google-accounts.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:the Global Patch is intended to be applied regardless of what your current patch version of The Sims 4 is. That is the whole point of the "new exercise": instead of doing the step-step-step procedure from the old TS4 Must-Read guide, you only have to apply one (1) patch now, which will update your TS4 (base)game. Technically the Global Patch also provides updates for the DLC essentially in the form of the "Delta"-subfolder, but let's not get too technical here.

So you have a basegame, maybe even some DLCs installed, regardless on which patch version. You delete your current "Game"-subfolder within the TS4 installation. Then apply the latest available Global Patch, then use anadius's DLC toggler, or if you feel confident enough just edit the codex.cfg yourself, and BOOM! You're done. You don't have to start over, at all.

About your Twitter-related comment. I assume you are in fact referring to the old G4TW Facebook page that was maintained by the old Admin and his staff. After the old Admin's departure, we maintained the page for a while, but we started getting problems. A smaller and smaller post reach, plus URLs to G4TW websites were blocked. Eventually our page got deleted due to violations of Facebook's "Community Guidelines". Despite the fondness of most people for American-based social media platforms, we are not going to use those anymore for the purpose of G4TW. It used to be fine back in the days, but times change.

People need to realize the political dimension and implications of our work: it's just not going to work out, to use anything hosted in America. Copyright enforcement is getting bolder and harder every day. Anadius had his old Discord taken down. Sim Architect nearly got his YouTube taken down. Do I have to mention more examples? Again, I understand that most of our audience are fond users of (American) social media platforms. But for us, it won't work out.

As for the deletion of the old format GoogleDrive links, I believe I made an announcement about that too somewhere. I did this to free up space for the new format. Let's face it: the old format downloads are too big and cumbersome to use.

As for people volunteering for creating mirrors, well. Some people signed up for MediaFire, thereby giving me more space there. Many thanks for that! But as for the GoogleDrive, there has been less activity. Of course, I anticipated in advance that this odd request of mine for Google-accounts would be met with disinterest, or even outright hostility/suspicion. But I felt I needed to try something.

In the meantime, we are working "internally" to create more Google-accounts.

I'm sure that infodump helps someone, but I wasn't complaining... I haven't had problems switching to the new format, just I have limited time online so updating took two days. I did see the notice that you'd delete the GoogleDrive link after a week - and then you deleted Tiny Living a few days early and four hours before I got online. It was kinda funny, that's all. As for the Twitter/Facebook thing, I only mention it because this forum is cumbersome to look through on mobile, so I don't check it as often as I did years ago. If there was someplace else to get a notice that the place updated, I'd go there. But there isn't. It is what it is.

I like the new system as long as the old system will be available as well.
In the new system a new DLC or even an update will take at least 7.5G for the adapted new Global Patch + the GB's required for the DLC or update itself.
The way the new system is presented right now will ask a lot of work for the admins on this forum, such as uploading a new Global Patch of some 7.5 GB + new selectable DLC's of about 22 GB.
Using direct downloads will drastically reduce the DLC folder as items could be on offer separately instead.

Question is: How long can a direct download-site survive ?
Sooner or later it will be taken "off air".
Other problem is bandwith and max. size for up-/downloads, look at mega.nz, where downloads, even from your own mega-cloud, are restricted to 5 GB per day.

The_gh0stm4n wrote:

Shane wrote:Thank you so much ! I'm kind of lost at the moment with the other format, so I'm gonna stick with this one until I figure out the other 

Hello @Shane,

I can give a fairly quick reply to that.

"Normal" G4TW repacks = for people who show up regularly here

"Global Patch" = for people who show up here once or twice a year, or less than that.

The Global Patch is by definition bigger in download size than our normal repacks, because we pack ALL update files in it. Not just the ones that change from one patch version to the next (as we do in our normal downloads). So using the Global Patch, the people who don't regularly follow the platform can fast-track their updating process, without resorting to the multi-step TS4 Must-Read Guide.

Ooooh OK! Then I'm not concerned, I grabbed every single update whenever there was one haha. Thank you so much for explaining, this might interest some friends of mine who aren't "regulars"

reichenbastard wrote:I'm sure that infodump helps someone, but I wasn't complaining... I haven't had problems switching to the new format, just I have limited time online so updating took two days. I did see the notice that you'd delete the GoogleDrive link after a week - and then you deleted Tiny Living a few days early and four hours before I got online. It was kinda funny, that's all. As for the Twitter/Facebook thing, I only mention it because this forum is cumbersome to look through on mobile, so I don't check it as often as I did years ago. If there was someplace else to get a notice that the place updated, I'd go there. But there isn't. It is what it is.

@reichenbastard, I can try for the future indeed to keep up the old format-links for a bit longer, yes.  The reason I "pre-maturely" deleted it before the un-official deadline, was because I miscalculated the available storage space to me, on GoogleDrive.

Forums are in general not as "nice" to look at on mobile devices, compared to the likes of Facebook/Twitter/Discord/et cetera. I know this will sound cheesy now, but the best I can suggest for the moment is that you try using the desktop version of the Forum, on your mobile browser. Maybe zoom in on the page depending on your available mobile browser options. And which is what I do. Then again, on my end, actual message posting is somewhat jacked up on the desktop version: whenever I want to actually type anything, the system inserts random line breaks, and I'm not familiar/technical enough to get behind the cause of this. On the mobile version of the forum, even though I find it "harder to look at", I can type without any issues.

If you (or anybody else) have ideas on a secondary outlet where we can post news about the Forum, then we'll evaluate it. I was thinking on some kind of free blog-website. We could also use it for announcing extended downtimes, or similar things when the actual Forum is inaccessible. But I don't know. If it's hosted in America or one of its numerous proxies though, it's still very probable that the mini-blog would get taken down ...

Edit: I am also closing the topic now. @reichenbastard, feel free to get in touch with me through e-mail, for further ideas/suggestions!