Vampires Never Invade Sims Home Lots - Attacks Broken

[sushicrow]

This is really weird. The vampire break-ins were gone completely from my game and then started again after I installed Seasons and Island Liiving. It seems liks having or not having certain pack really effects a lot in the game now. I'll also mention, in case it matters, that my first break-in was a vampire townie that I created. Second break-in was Caleb. This townie existed in my games before the additional DLC were added and I had no break-ins. They are tuned down, though. It hasn't happend much, which seems more reasonable.

It's more than frustrating and also sad that the vampire pack is so broken now. The random vampire attacks while wandering around outside at night was broken a long time ago. The power to fight and protect other sims is pretty useless now. When I first got the pack (years ago), Caleb would knock on my sim's door at night and start talking to her about being attacked and chased by other vampires (speech bubbles) and would then stress-eat any excellent quality food in my sim's fridge. It also used to be that if your sim answered the door at night to a vampire, with the exception of Caleb (makes sense), you didn't know if, after a short conversation your sim would get bitten. If your sim's a vampire and spouse is not, a visiting vampire friend (Lilith in particular) would somtimes try and attack the spouse when invited over (my sim got into it with Lilith more than once.)  I really miss all that. It seemed that content disappeared when the vampire breaking into public lots bug started (and also the bugged guaranteed attacks on your sim when sleeping at other sim's' homes, that was ridiculous), I mean it seems like attempts to fix that broke a lot of content.

[onemorekayaker]

Hi u/sushicrow - thanks for weighing in! Your post had me wondering if the vampires pack itself was broken, or if it's a pack integration issue that's more to blame. So I removed my mods folder, disabled all packs but Vampires, and started a new save file. Lo and behold, Vlad called my Sim on day 2 and on day 3 she'd gotten her plasma drained in a vampire break-in. In my other saves this event never triggered, even when starting a new save file.

I'm going to keep testing to see if the other stuff you mentioned still happens with just the base game and the Vampires pack - I've never seen it before, but that may be because I purchased Strangerville before Vampires, and also got Vampires as part of an Origin bundling deal. So something in there might have broken it.

After that I'll experiment with adding in more packs and see which combos break things. I have a save point that's right before the Vlad break-in that I can reference. I'll update this post with the results.

Results with Vampires pack only:

• It looks like the vampire loitering (coming up to your door, knocking, and then not doing anything) is a problem with the Vampires pack and/or the base game. I had two elder vampire ladies come to my Sim's house in Forgotten Hollow, knock on the door, and then had a nice conversation with my Sim for about two in-game hours. One of them was evil and the other actually had an uncomfortable buff (likely from low thirst) and neither tried to drain my Sim's plasma.
• I've spent a few days in-game and have wandered around Forgotten Hollow after dark, both loitering near vampires and talking to them. No attacks.
• When Caleb appears after dark (8:30PM so far), I do not get any of the pop-up messages @sushicrow mentioned appearing back when the pack first launched. Was this functionality stripped out? Or is there a specific thing I need to do to trigger it?
• No further break-ins as of the close of week two.
• Halfway through week three the old ladies came back, and this time I invited them in to see if anything would happen. Both times my Sim spoke to them for a few in-game hours, and absolutely nothing. They're just like any other NPC that comes randomly to your house.
• Still no break in events as of the close of week three, outside of the initial first one. If I was playing on short lifespan, my Sim would be mostly through her life already. I'll try for another in-game week.
• As of Wednesday of week four, I have had no more break-ins at all, and this is with my Sim interacting with vampire-related things as much as possible.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the Vampires pack itself is either broken at this point, or the conditions needed to trigger a vampire break-in are so specific that it's nearly impossible to trigger without either knowing what they are and doing them specifically or having them accidentally match your playstyle. This is harder than getting a Sim abducted by aliens. What I have done: go to bed at around 9PM daily, be friends with a vampire (Caleb), socialize with non-friend Vampires (Lilith and Vlad, the two older ladies), use vampire-related social interactions, gain vampire skill, and harvest and plant vampire pack plants. These don't appear to trigger break-ins.

[sushicrow]

@onemorekayaker  I'm interested in your findings, it would be nice if the other stuff I mentioned would return, too (not holding my breath.) I don't remember exactly what packs I had before things went haywire, but I know I had City Living and Get to Work installed. How do you disable packs? Rename them?

[onemorekayaker]

@sushicrow, you have to open the Origin app, navigate to "my library", right click on the Sims 4 game, and then go to "game properties" and "advanced launch options." From there you need to type in a command line argument that specifies which packs you want to disable. The coding isn't the most intuitive, so I went to James Turner's (a YouTuber) website where he has a tool that lets you select which packs you want to disable and will generate the coding for you.

The exact line I typed in was: -disablepacks:EP01,EP02,EP03,EP04,EP05,EP06,EP07,EP08,EP09,EP10,GP01,GP02,GP03,GP05,GP06,GP07,GP08,SP01,SP02,SP03,SP04,SP05,SP06,SP07,SP08,SP09,SP10,SP11,SP12,SP13,SP14,SP15,SP16,SP17,SP18

This disabled everything but Vampires, and Batuu (which I don't have).

[SimGuruNick]

For anyone experiencing this issue, could you possibly share a save file with me where you've seen it occur? A list of packs you have installed would also be helpful. You can DM me the link to your save, thanks so much for the help!

Instructions for sending me your save: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4-Bug-Reports/INFORMATION-How-to-Send-User-Files-to-The-Sims-4-Tea...

[BoSalgado]

Not only have I almost never had break ins.. but the call to offer to turn that I got a few times when friends with vampires NEVER... really NEVER happened anymore.
Anyone still receives these calls?
I have basically every dlc on.

It's simply VERY bizarre that official non modded stuff breaks itself with so much frequency on The Sims 4.

[Saihyou]

When I first bought the pack on sale a while back, there were a few break-ins, and a few townie vampires randomly generated. But once I bought other packs, it just all went away. Vampires may as well not exist in the game at all unless I turn one of my Sims into one on purpose, and even then they're really the only ones doing anything.

Edit: Forgot to mention, after reading the above post I never got any call with offers to turn. I never knew that was a thing at all!

[Loulicorn]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? Français
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.76.81.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Expansion packs = Every packs but Island Living Game packs = Every packs but Journey To Batuu, Jungle Adventure and Spa Day Stuff packs = Paranormal, Nifty Knitting, Tiny Living, Moschino, Laundry Day, Vintage Glamour, Kids Room, Romantic Garden, Movie Hangout,
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? --
What happens when the bug occurs? Vampires don't break in. At night when my sims are sleeping, a vampire will show up and then just stand by the front door and will get inside the house and act like any other visitors. Vampires act like normal visitors and never break in, never bite.
What do you expect to see? Vampires breaking in, doing the creepy walk, biting the sim.
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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Svp aidez-moi !

[Naodyr]

I have that problem too, for a long time now. I don't even know whether it's a bug at all or if it is gameplay as intended. I can't remember when I've last seen a vampire actually breaking in. Vlad always arrives when I start a new family, but he never breaks in. It's quite unfortunate.

[simvasion]

There's a difference between an actual vampire break-in event and a visitor at the door (who just happens to be a vampire).

The game will have random door knockers, usually throughout the daytime these will be random sims that give you a chance to make a new friend or meet a stranger. The game still has these in the evening too, and some of these might be vampires, because they're allowed out during the night. They are still just rando door knockers and aren't there to break in.

A true vampire break-in event will start with them creeping on to the lot, and they won't bother to knock, they just come in, mesmerise your sim and then drink plasma. These can be easily aborted - a vampire will only break in if all sims in your house are asleep by a certain time when the event begins. If any sims are awake, or if you have a pet or a roommate NPC that are awake, the vampire will turn around and leave. You might not even realise an event even happened if the vampire spawned in at a spawn point far away from the lot, detected your sims were awake and then turned around and left without you even seeing them.

That's why I see vampire break-ins easier in San Myshuno apartments - because the spawn point is the elevator in the lobby, you have a greater chance of seeing them arrive and then leave (or proceed and break in).

I don't think there's a bug here if all the stuff above is happening - that seems to be the intended gameplay to me. For a break-in to be successful and actually happen, you need the perfect conditions (all sims in the house asleep at the right time). Ignore random door knockers - that's a totally separate thing.