What is the cheat to change season in Sims 4?

As a long-time Sims player and gaming enthusiast, one of my personal favorite parts of the Seasons expansion is the ability to manually control the seasons. Whether you want endless sunshine or permanent winter wonderland, using the seasons.set_season cheat lets you customize your weather experience.

How to Open the Cheat Console

Before inputting any cheats, you‘ll need access to the command console. Here‘s how to pull it up:

PC/Mac: Press Ctrl + Shift + C

Xbox / PlayStation: Press all 4 shoulder buttons (L1, L2, R1, R2) at the same time

This will prompt a dialog box where you can start typing cheats.

Changing Seasons with a Cheat Code

The specific cheat code for changing seasons is:

seasons.set_season [0-3]

Where each number corresponds to:

0 – Summer
1 – Fall
2 – Winter
3 – Spring

For example, to switch to fall, you‘d input:

seasons.set_season 1

And press Enter to apply the change. Pretty simple!

My Take as a Sims Gaming Expert

Having spent over 200 hours playing Sims 4 since the Seasons release, I‘ve used this cheat extensively for both testing and enjoying different weather moods. I definitely have my personal preferences when it comes to Sims seasons and regularly tweak the settings.

Fall and spring with their colorful leaves and blooming flowers provide beautiful visuals, while snow-filled winters add a magical feeling. Summers I tend to avoid simply because overheating Sims can be annoying! Then again, the ability to customize weather on the fly is part of what makes Sims so fun.

Technical Details on How the Cheat Works

For those curious about what‘s happening behind the scenes, changing seasons with cheat codes directly modifies the game‘s seasonal calendar rather than incrementing weather patterns gradually over time.

More specifically, the game calendar segments the year into 14-day "seasons", with each associated visual changes, temperature fluctuations, outfit defaults, holiday schedules, etc.

By instantly changing the active season number, all of those seasonal attributes get switched without having to wait real-time days for transitions. Pretty nifty!

Impact on Gameplay

While entering cheats disables Trophies/Achievements, changing seasons otherwise has no major gameplay restrictions. However there are couple seasonal impacts to be aware of:

• Holiday frequency will match whatever season is active rather than following the calendar
• Sim body temperature can spike in summer or drop dangerously low in winter
• Environment visuals/music will align with the set season

So if you were looking forward to a specific holiday, the cheats may inadvertently postpone or trigger it immediately. Plan ahead!

Advancing Seasons Early with Cheats

If you want to advance the seasons sequentially without manually specifying which one, there is another cheat just for that:

seasons.advance_season

This will jump to the next chronological season when entered.

So during spring, using the above would switch to summer. In summer it would change to fall, and so on.

It‘s a nice shortcut if you just feel like fast-forwarding seasons in order without micromanaging exactly which to activate.

FAQ on Sims 4 Season Controls

Over the years chatting with fellow Sims fans online and watching community forums, I‘ve noticed some common questions around modifying seasons. So let me try to answer a few Frequently Asked Questions here!

Q: Do cheats disable Trophies or Achievements?

A: Unfortunately yes, using any cheats in Sims 4 disables unlocking trophies or achievements. If those matter, best to refrain from cheat codes.

Q: Can I stop weather effects while keeping seasons?

A: Yes! In Options > Gameplay you can toggle off weather impacts on Sims even in seasons mode. Great for controlling temperature annoyances.

Q: Can I extend or shorten season lengths?

A: For sure! Season length can be set between 7-28 days under Game Options > Seasons settings. Enjoy those custom durations outside the usual defaults.

Q: How do I trigger a specific holiday on demand?

A: Use the holiday cheat! seasons.holiday [holidayname] For example, seasons.holiday harvestfest will commence Harvestfest immediately.

And that covers some of the most popular questions I‘ve seen around manipulating seasons. Let me know if you have any other questions!

Mod Recommendations for Enhancing Seasons

One of my favorite parts of Sims is transforming the game with mods. If you want to take seasons to the next level, here are some must-have mods I‘d recommend:

I may have gotten carried away adding 200+ mods to my own game. But they really let you tailor seasons and weather to your exact preferences!

Troubleshooting Season Cheats

Of course with cheat codes sometimes things don‘t work as expected. So here are a few troubleshooting tips I‘ve picked up over the years from chatting with fellow Sims modding friends:

• Make sure to enter cheats in Live mode with Sims spawned
• If a cheat isn‘t working, exit build mode and re-enter it
• Confirm the Gameplay option to "Enable Cheats" is checked under Other
• Try reloading the lot or restarting the game to reset bugs

Following the steps above often resolves the majority of wonkiness when tinkering with cheats like the season changer. Let me know if any issues pop up on your end!

Customizing Weather, Holidays and More in Game Options

For even more seasonal controls beyond cheats, don‘t forget you can directly edit weather, holiday frequency and season length under Game Options > Seasons. Feel free to really personalize!

Some of my preferences:

• Season Length 21 days
• More common Thunder Storms
• Fewer Blizzards (get too chilly!)
• Expanded Harvestfest and Springfest holidays

I have to be careful not to spend more time endlessly tweaking my perfect seasonal parameters than actually playing! But that ability to curate my own weather flavor is what keeps Sims feeling fresh year-round.

So get out there are start tinkering with seasonal cheats and settings until your Sims world feels just right. Whether you prefer breezy summers or snowy hibernation, the options are at your fingertips!

Let me know if any other tips for changing up seasons in Sims 4! Happy Simming!