Dead Sims look alive in the familytree

[VraieEsprit]

Like I said before, I'm not playing with them, nor do I want to play with them. Aside KIora, none of them show up in my played or unplayed sims and I only clicked on Kiora when I noticed he'd gone from dead to alive in the house menu to get screen captures and data to report the bug in order that it could be investigated. Hopefully they'll patch it soon, and they'll go back to being dead, but I'm lucky in that at this point I don't have any but Kiora actively interfering in my game. I don't have many empty houses, just empty lots, so I'm hopeful I won't get any more random undead moving in!!

[thebluekimchi]

Ah!  I am having this problem as well!

Sims who died before the Nov 15 update/Pets expansion are showing properly deceased in the family tree and I can still mourn them at their tombstones.  (One odd thing though is that I had released all of their spirits before the update, but now they are all showing up as ghosts in-game as if I never released their spirits.  The option to release their spirit is also not available, because I already had released their spirits once upon a time...)

Sims who have died since the update and have had their spirits released show as alive in the family tree and I cannot mourn them at their graves.  They also have lost all ties to relationships via a "?" relative.  So for instance, I had a pair of siblings in my town I created without a parent, so the parent shows as "?" icon on the family tree.  Before the update, these types of sims and their families are still linked together in the family tree after dying.  Since the update however, these types of sims have had their relationships void and their extended family removed from the family tree if I released their spirit to the netherworld (and only if they died/had spirit released SINCE the update.  The trees are still intact for the families of "?" related sims who died before the update)

This is very frustrating and I hope there's a way to rectify this... I can't believe my family trees have been wrecked by this!

I should also note that I do not use any mods, and I have not noticed whether or not these sims are showing up in my unplayed household bin--I never even thought to look until I read that other people in this thread's "deceased" sims were.  I'll have to look tomorrow, but it seems likely that they'll be there.

[VraieEsprit]

I wonder if this relates at all to the EP (I don't know if anyone else doesn't have C&D like me here?)

In my case the undead sims are all ones who died before the 15th November patch and are all sims without graves. None have been released to the other world.

I have no problems with sims who have died since the patch, they are showing as dead and (mostly) manifesting tombstones (one exception being the sim that was in the middle of dying when I returned to the house).

In any case, it seems some people have issues with new deaths and some with old ones which may make this two connected bugs rather than one bug.

[paradiseplanet27]

It's a long stretch, but it could be a strange bug involving the combo of the new ghost culling system combined with ghost pets that also start appearing with Cats&Dogs. I created this one haunted house once with three ghosts in it and one living old man; once the old man died the ghosts remained ghosts for awhile until suddenly I saw them on Manage Worlds that all three were alive but traitless. Seeing as this was the only ghost household that I saw having this problem I simply deleted their household entirely. I also did too witness the bug in question on this thread, where the parents of this brother/sister I play shown them very well alive but old, even though they died months ago. It even gets stranger still when the sister has a child with this man and on the father's branch of the family his grandmother still shows deceased and is ghostly. I am unsure if this discrepancy is caused by the fact that the father's household still keeps his grandma's urn in the household inventory.

[VraieEsprit]

I don't have Cats and Dogs, so it's a patch bug not an EP bug but it makes sense that it would have extra consequences in the EP based on what is happening. It seems to affect different games differently...

Now all of the sims who have no graves in my game show up as alive on family trees but no others have become 'playable'. Something has changed with Kiora now, he still has no traits on the main screen but instead of showing up as 'away from home' he shows up as though he's home when I hover on his house.

His house has been a crime scene twice in the GTW career path without problems so the house isn't bugged. He doesn't appear, though, when I go to investigate that as a crime scene, so he isn't actually there.

Adding to the above, I noticed three things today.

#1 now sims who died since the patch are also affected if they died when I wasn't on the lot.

#2 Graves appear on the lot long after the sim died. The example here is a sim I had called Max. He died of old age when I was away from his lot. His grave wasn't on the lot. When I went to the family today, he randomly appeared as a ghost. When he did, the urn THEN appeared, it wasn't there before that. He then proceeded to help his son and daughter in law take care of their newborn twins, so I kind of didn't mind much, but it was a bit of a surprise since previously only his wife's tomb had manifested. Max's brother Erasmus and HIS wife died not long ago too. I only have a tomb for Erasmus but not for his wife. I now wonder whether I have to wait for the ghost to appear to get an urn in this case.

#3 I mention Erasmus because for some reason while all the ghosts show up on the page as greyed out, he shows as blue. He died of old age, the game says so - but he was sad when he died, his wife had just predeceased him. I have no idea whether that is connected or coincidence, but it looks weird.

I still have no undead half-formed sims showing up in my unplayed or played sims. I still only have Kiora, but all the sims who don't have graves in my game show up as pseudo-alive on all family trees now and it really annoys me looking at it...

Hope some of these details prove helpful to people investigating the problem.

[crinrict]

Added because of the amount of reports.

[thebluekimchi]

Update to my last post!

So I checked the unplayed households bin and my undead sims are actually not in there like other's have reported.  So they are dead and have tombstones with their names, but they are not reporting as dead within the family trees.

Another thing I have noticed (and was unaware of until recently because I used to always release my sims spirits to the netherworld) is that your dead sims connection to the real world gradually fades out anyways.  So I can't even spare my family trees by not releasing their spirits.... all my family's with "?" linked relationships are doomed to being disconnected until this is rectified I guess...

[caitycupcakes]

I'm having the problem that camsim mentioned. Some of my sims I know are dead appear as alive in family trees, but when I try to find them they're dead. This doesn't bother me much though and it usually goes away, it's the second issue you mentioned which I have a problem with. Half of my households are unnamed, not in world, traitless ghosts! It's so annoying! It's not just very old ghosts. Every single time a sim dies in any household, they become their own nameless household. I can't delete the ones I don't know because that'll leave holes in family trees which might one day merge with mine and I hate seeing that. The issue only popped up for me a month or two ago in a patch. I have a few packs and MCCC, but I'm not sure if any of them are the culprits.

[unicorn_vdb26]

HI EVERYONE :eahigh_file: 

Since the last update i've had some strange things happening with my sims. Sometime they will freeze and stick their arms out. also i notice that one of the family i am playing at the moment is the goth family and i've notice that my mortimer is not in the household but on the family tree he is an old man but i don't know if he has die or just disapper ? and this can be very frustrated. i can't find a gravestone of mortimer so i really have no clue if he is in the game or not,even though i like him in the family. i see everyone is having some similar of the ghost  or gravestone. has anyone or how can u report this and sort this out because i really like the goth family.   This would be great if we can get some answers  

[unicorn_vdb26]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Occasionally (10% - 49%)
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? none
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? all the sims that are dead in the family are old people and not ghosts. and there no ghosts about in the community
What happens when the bug occurs? i think since the patch but i just saw it couple days ago since i played the goth family. because my mortimer is maybe dead i don't know really because he look like a old man in the family but he not in the household.
What do you expect to see? to see the ghost in the family or some ghost walking around the community.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Never used.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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I have notice since i started to play the goth family. that my mortimer was not in the household and i don't know if he had die or disappered. i haven't got a clue but on the family tree he look like he is an old man and also i've notice that normally sometime there would be ghost walking about in the community and now they are not. i would like to some help to understand what has or could happen.