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Please Fix the Alien "Discovery" Issue

worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
edited November 2017 in The Sims 4 Game Feedback
@SimGuruDrake @SimGuruNinja @SimGuruLyndsay @SimGuruHydra

You know, the issue in which Sims will "discover" that another Sim is an alien, despite the alien not being in disguise to begin with. This wouldn't be so bad, if not for the fact that the Sim that "discovers" them usually gets an angry moodlet and the poor alien gets embarrassed. Sometimes the human Sim will get confident instead of angry, but it will almost always make the alien embarrassed. Not only that, but the aliens take an immediate hit to their relationship when they get "discovered" by a Sim who gets angry, putting their relationship in the red. Sims that get confident, however, will have their relationship boosted with the alien. Yeah, I know about the Shameless reward trait, but we shouldn't have to save up our points for a reward just to fix a flawed game mechanic. It doesn't fix those negative relationship hits either. There's also a mod that removes the angry and embarrassed buffs, but it also doesn't prevent the negative relationship hits.

This was made even stranger when I looked into it further. I decided to see what the caption for the angry moodlet was, and it said something along the lines of "why didn't they tell me?!" This makes NO sense. It implies that the Sim has known the alien for ages and is only just finding out that they are an alien, but this isn't the case. You WERE told, the very second the alien approached you without a disguise!

Also, that annoying little blurb that pops up whenever the undisguised alien is "discovered," which pops up EVERY TIME they meet a new Sim without their disguise. It says something like "and the disguise seemed perfect!" What disguise? They were never in a disguise to begin with!

Not to mention, this is actually a very long-standing issue. It's actually been a problem in the game since GTW first came out in 2015. That's right, this has been an issue for TWO YEARS and it has never been fixed or even acknowledged. I think it's about time that something was finally done about this, because this issue has really put a damper on my enjoyment of playing aliens, and I'm sure that I'm not alone on this.

More on the issue on Answers HQ.
Post edited by worldofdrakan on

Comments

  • linkinsenpailinkinsenpai Posts: 25 Member
    I'm in agreement with this. What's even worse is that sims' siblings will even do that, "discovered ___ is an alien". I play mostly with families and a lot of them have had abduction babies. You have known them since they were a baby, you should already know that they are an alien.
  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited November 2017
    Oh gosh, the issue is actually worse than I remember. I completely forgot about this old thread. To summarize, your Sims can apparently get angry at "discovering" undisguised aliens on their own home planet. They can also get the Aliens Among Us achievement for discovering 10 disguised aliens by "discovering" undisguised aliens. Seriously, this is super ridiculous!
    Post edited by worldofdrakan on
  • PancakesandwichPancakesandwich Posts: 2,038 Member
    I played a basically brainless Sim a few weeks ago together with my niece, and it did give some laughs how it took him two dates to notice the woman he was dating was an alien, despite never being in disguise. It was surprisingly fitting for that Sim.
    But aside from that I don't like this bug.

    What I like even less however, is how they are never disguised! Except for that one science career event. All the other times they walk around like normal people during daytime and totally undisguised, and none of the NPCs seem to care. That's a pretty big blocker for whenever I want to play "Catch the aliens"; they show themselves too easily.
  • MagdaleenaMagdaleena Posts: 971 Member
    The mom in the legacy I'm playing didn't "discover" her husband's alien twins were aliens before they grew into children. That was kind of ridiculous. At least she thought it was cool, though.

    But?? Like????? Discovering undisguised aliens at all is silly. They don't discover it. They're making an observation. Big difference.

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  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited November 2017
    It's the November 2017 patch, and this issue STILL hasn't been addressed or even acknowledged. I am so disappointed. :( Everything else is awesome, and there's so much new stuff, but!.. It's just bothersome how long some issues are taking to be fixed. I mean, it's really been two years. Do the gurus even know about this issue?
  • SjofnSjofn Posts: 332 Member
    This started bothering me a lot more post-vampires, where even though there's the whole dark form thing, everyone just knows who's a vampire and no one cares. Yet my undisguised aliens freak people out? Bah!
  • geoffreypageoffreypa Posts: 355 Member
    Mine kept dying of embarrassment, till i realized i needed to put the form on before leaving the house lol or if they were my first household of the game die almost on entering their zone ( dumb other sims being in my instance hehe). have a mod now so no one cares would be nice to not have to mod thou.
  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited November 2017
    Exactly! It totally stinks that we have to buy a reward or use a mod to fix a flawed game mechanic that should not even be a problem to begin with. Even then, though, the mod doesn't entirely fix the issue. Even though it does away with the negative moodlets, it still does not fix the immediate negative relation or prevent that annoying "x discovered that y is an alien" blurb from popping up.

    Seriously, just take a minute to read the description of the mod in question. It really is ridiculous how Sims behave in response to aliens by default. How can you get angry at "discovering" an alien when there is nothing to discover? They aren't even in disguise to begin with, so the fact that they're an alien should already be obvious, and thus not cause negative reactions!
    Sjofn wrote: »
    This started bothering me a lot more post-vampires, where even though there's the whole dark form thing, everyone just knows who's a vampire and no one cares. Yet my undisguised aliens freak people out? Bah!

    And it seems that Sims are also hypocrites. Tsk tsk!
  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    Good News! The folks over at Answers HQ have confirmed that this issue is still on their list, so the Sims Team is definitely aware of it. They are not allowed to disclose if or when it will be looked into, though.
  • MagdaleenaMagdaleena Posts: 971 Member
    edited November 2017
    Sjofn wrote: »
    This started bothering me a lot more post-vampires, where even though there's the whole dark form thing, everyone just knows who's a vampire and no one cares. Yet my undisguised aliens freak people out? Bah!

    Oh my god true???

    Would have been neat to have this "known vampire" status as well.. even though some of mine don't even have a normal-looking form, let alone a dark form. Maybe that could be why.

    But there could be other ways to go about it. Maybe they'd discover someone's a vampire when they observe them doing that hand clawy idle animation, or see them drink from someone nearby in public, or ask to drink from them or see them in front of a mirror or something.

    Or if they just.. plain have those glowy eyes and sharp teeth and other vampire-exclusive features. Even in their default appearance. Sometimes you can just literally tell someone's not quite human. Other times they may be good at hiding just that in their non-dark form. It's what I like about the customization options here.

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  • FirandeFirande Posts: 816 Member
    Magdaleena wrote: »
    Sjofn wrote: »
    This started bothering me a lot more post-vampires, where even though there's the whole dark form thing, everyone just knows who's a vampire and no one cares. Yet my undisguised aliens freak people out? Bah!

    Oh my god true???

    Would have been neat to have this "known vampire" status as well.. even though some of mine don't even have a normal-looking form, let alone a dark form. Maybe that could be why.

    But there could be other ways to go about it. Maybe they'd discover someone's a vampire when they observe them doing that hand clawy idle animation, or see them drink from someone nearby in public, or ask to drink from them or see them in front of a mirror or something.

    Or if they just.. plain have those glowy eyes and sharp teeth and other vampire-exclusive features. Even in their default appearance. Sometimes you can just literally tell someone's not quite human. Other times they may be good at hiding just that in their non-dark form. It's what I like about the customization options here.

    Yes! This bothers me quite a bit. Why is there no known vampire status? I mean, it's already there for aliens so wouldn't be too hard to use that same (though fixed, please) system for vamps. There's lots of (unwanted) townie aliens walking around in my game undisguised yet Sims have no idea that they're aliens, while they know that my completely disguised vampire is, in fact, a vampire the moment they meet him. :expressionless:

    I only recently started having aliens in my game, and this issue is bothering me too. Though I do have to lol at the notification about how good the disguise was "except for that one alien detail." Dude... I've only had Sims be Confident upon finding out about aliens, though. Could have something to do with the fact that I usually don't play aliens, I just have my Sims interact with them. Apparently, all of my own Sims are really open-minded about it lol.
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  • Artemis_DreamerArtemis_Dreamer Posts: 200 Member
    I agree that this is definitely an issue requiring attention. A frustrating, pointless, two year old issue.

    When I play aliens, I play them BECAUSE they're aliens - because they look unique and interact in different ways. I don't want to be forced to use human disguises on them at all times - I might as well just play a human sim!

    Would definitely appreciate if a fix was introduced to prevent natural (non-disguised) aliens from being embarrassed when "discovered". They weren't hiding in the first place, and it implies that alien sims should be ashamed simply for being alien - a negative message.

    Since vampires do not get embarrassed or discovered, it implies that occult beings are accepted in the sims world. I would appreciate if aliens were likewise accepted when being themselves.
  • GodleyjeansGodleyjeans Posts: 336 Member
    I’m at a point where some of these missed realizations are hilarious as they are unfathomably frustrating. I’m a big aliens simmer, 80% of my sims have met, married or been involved with aliens somehow and plenty have had alien children. What bothers me is when sims who’ve known them the entire time suddenly appear to realize their friend/sibling/grandchild is an alien when I never have them wear the disguise. A few times I’ve had my sim have family over the entire time his alien children have been there and they can be in their teens before nan suddenly jumps and the notification pops up saying she’s uncovered their secret like you’ve practically raised these bright blue kids, how can you only just notice they are blue, have a weird voice and have a secret handshake they only do with their other blue sibling?!

    Get up to speed, grandma!

    There was a time when I believe it was the aunt and my sims kid reached adulthood before she realized they were an alien, after that it was all downhill because she seemed to have a problem with them after that. The cousins didn’t care but the aunt was like welp bye Jeffery!

    Like I said they are funny, but at some point common sense needs to kick in, especially when you make no effort to hide like surely they can patch in some sort of edit that stops these late realizations, or holds them off except for when a sim really is trying to hide their alien secret.
    Like if you wear a disguise then the notification pops up, but if you don’t then there’s no shocking discovery.

    No Gran, the neighbours always been green what are you talking about? Go back to the cookies before the cat gets them you know his stomach isn’t all that great
  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited November 2017
    I’m at a point where some of these missed realizations are hilarious as they are unfathomably frustrating. I’m a big aliens simmer, 80% of my sims have met, married or been involved with aliens somehow and plenty have had alien children. What bothers me is when sims who’ve known them the entire time suddenly appear to realize their friend/sibling/grandchild is an alien when I never have them wear the disguise. A few times I’ve had my sim have family over the entire time his alien children have been there and they can be in their teens before nan suddenly jumps and the notification pops up saying she’s uncovered their secret like you’ve practically raised these bright blue kids, how can you only just notice they are blue, have a weird voice and have a secret handshake they only do with their other blue sibling?!

    Get up to speed, grandma!

    There was a time when I believe it was the aunt and my sims kid reached adulthood before she realized they were an alien, after that it was all downhill because she seemed to have a problem with them after that. The cousins didn’t care but the aunt was like welp bye Jeffery!

    Like I said they are funny, but at some point common sense needs to kick in, especially when you make no effort to hide like surely they can patch in some sort of edit that stops these late realizations, or holds them off except for when a sim really is trying to hide their alien secret.
    Like if you wear a disguise then the notification pops up, but if you don’t then there’s no shocking discovery.

    No Gran, the neighbours always been green what are you talking about? Go back to the cookies before the cat gets them you know his stomach isn’t all that great

    Oh gosh, your story about the aunt reminds me of a similar story pertaining to this issue. The original thread with it is gone now, but this is the story:

    "I've been against aliens because I didn't like the way they were handled in Sims 3. I finally decided to give them a go in Sims 4. I made a female alien. I gave her a brother and gave him a human husband, I played that family long enough that they had a teen daughter and twin female children. Then I switched to the sister and played her.

    She used the wormhole generator to contact an alien and the perfect male stepped through (for her). I sent her over with her new husband (she was pregnant at the time because things went fast, lol) to meet her family. The human male was downright rude. he insulted her new husband, he was so angry that he destroyed his daughter's doll house.

    Then after the baby was born, I had them come over to meet the baby.

    The human male was again flipping out. He insulted my Sim and her husband, he broke their doll house, and he threw a fit because he was so angry about being surrounded by aliens.

    This is his family!

    He is married to an alien and has three half-alien children.

    I got so disgusted with all of this that I've pretty much abanadoned that save and that makes me sad/mad. I really loved this alien family and I am rather upset that they (the developers) would do this. I don't understand why a Sim is still flipping out and angry over his family being aliens.

    GAH......and I'm done with aliens because of this."

    Yup, it's bad alright.
  • TerraTerra Posts: 1,353 Member
    Glad to hear that the team is aware of this issue! It is definitely annoying.

    Does anyone know if it's random whether your Sim gets the confident or angry moodlet?
  • FreezerBunnyCowplantFreezerBunnyCowplant Posts: 3,957 Member
    This needs to be fixed soon!
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  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited November 2017
    Terra wrote: »
    Glad to hear that the team is aware of this issue! It is definitely annoying.

    Does anyone know if it's random whether your Sim gets the confident or angry moodlet?

    Not necessarily. This is how Sims react by default, according to the description of the improved alien reactions mod:

    "Sims always get a +2 angry moodlet discovering an alien if their relationship (friendship bar) is worse than -5 ; moodlets are randomly angry or confident if the relationship is between -5 and +5 ; the moodlet is always +2 confident if the relationship is superior to +5.

    When discovered, aliens have 50% chance to feel +2 embarrassed.

    When discovering an alien, sims get a random relationship gain or drop varying between -10 and +10. The exceptions are insane sims (random, between -20 and + 20), cheerful sims (always +10), geeks (always +20), mean sims (always -10), hot-headed sims (always -10)."

    And all other traits result in a random reaction, I suppose. I was especially dumbfounded when I found out that good Sims were not among the Sims to always have a positive reaction. Come on, they're supposed to be GOOD. I would not expect a GOOD Sim to be a xenophobe! Now, these reactions MIGHT make a little more sense if the aliens were in disguise to begin with, but they're not!

    Needless to say, I'm really looking forward to the day that this mod FINALLY becomes obsolete.
  • MellonuialMellonuial Posts: 47 Member
    > @Sjofn said:
    > This started bothering me a lot more post-vampires, where even though there's the whole dark form thing, everyone just knows who's a vampire and no one cares. Yet my undisguised aliens freak people out? Bah!



    Until the November patch, all my Vampires were recognized as Vampires whether or not they were "showing" their Dark Forms, and every relationship started on a negative note (there is a weakness trait that can make this negative relationship status worse, but all of my Vampires were instantly recognized either way). One or two bad Vampire puns later, and every NPC would then be at ease and praising Vampires to the sky. Now they only take notice if my Vampires drink "without permission" from a Sim at a public venue, and even then it's only a minor dislike, and NPCs no longer even mention Vampires in random conversation anymore.

    As for Aliens, Alien NPCs have all but vanished from my game since the November patch. Before the addition of Vampires, Aliens were my favs. Now I am afraid to go back to my Alien family (Alien husband=stay-at-home-dad, Human wife=doctor; children=two half siblings, one fully human, one part human, part Alien) for fear of his wife and son humiliating him to death! Before all these troubles began the only major problem I had with Alien Sims was a tendency for them to be abducted by their own kind while undisguised, "Yo, dude, I'm one you, ya idiot!" lol

    I've said this before, and I'll probably say it again, Occult Simmers are the forgotten middle children of TS4. I don't even own the Pets EP, yet I've found piles of dirt near treasure hunting nodes that if I dig in (like a dog :s ) will yield upgrade parts (yay?) as if to compensate for messed up characters and stories that I've played for months.

    As an intellectual exercise, I think I will create a blended family of Aliens and Vampires just to see what happens.

    Good luck, all, and hang in there, I'm sure the developers will sort things out....eventually.
  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited December 2017
    @SimGuruDrake @SimGuruNinja @SimGuruLyndsay @SimGuruHydra

    SIGH.

    Another month, another patch in which an extremely annoying two year old issue is STILL not fixed. And it's going on three years. :(

    Why? I really want to be able to enjoy playing aliens again! In other news, though, I'm at the very east really glad that the Sims Team fixed the nightclub outfits issue. That, I can say, I am very thankful for.

    But still... WILL this be fixed soon? It would be really great if we could get some official confirmation. Seriously, it would be awesome if someone could tweet this thread at the Gurus.
    Post edited by worldofdrakan on
  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    Probably best to let @SimGuruArvin @SimGuruNick and @SimQARobo know about this since they work on the bug fixes.
    “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
  • SimQARoboSimQARobo Posts: 248 SimQA
    edited December 2017
    We're aware of this issue. However, I'm not allowed to comment on if or when it will be addressed.
    If I don't actively respond here, I'm sorry. I can get a bit busy over at https://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4/ct-p/the-sims-4-en
  • worldofdrakanworldofdrakan Posts: 329 Member
    edited January 2018
    ...

    Wow, STILL not fixed in today's patch! I don't know what I expected. I expected nothing, and yet I'm still let down. In the back of my mind, though, I was really hoping that the Sims Team would consider starting off the new year right by fixing it. As of this year, this super annoying issue is getting close to becoming a three year old bug!

    Let our aliens live happy lives already!

    ...

    I really am sorry if I come across as rude here. It's just that it really bothers me how a really serious bug is coming close to being unfixed for three years.
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