November 2017 - last edited December 2020 by crinrict
Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? n/a
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Have an alien Sim introduce themself to any human Sim without a disguise on.
What happens when the bug occurs? A blurb pops up when the undisguised alien Sim meets a human Sim. This blurb goes on about how x "discovered" that y is an alien and that the disguise seemed perfect, even though the alien wasn't disguised to begin with. These "discoveries" also count toward the Aliens Among Us achievement where you discover aliens in disguise. But the alien isn't in disguise!
What do you expect to see? I would not expect a "discovery" to occur in this situation. The alien is not in disguise. In this case, they are making an obvious observation, NOT a discovery. I would also expect these so-called "discoveries" to not count toward the Aliens Among Us achievement.
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? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. This has been a problem ever since Get to Work came out in 2015. It's been two years!
Seriously, I believe this problem to be THE most glaring issue that has yet to be addressed in any patch. It 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 (Improved Reactions to Aliens) that removes the angry and embarrassed buffs, but it also doesn't prevent the negative relationship hits or that annoying "discovery" popup.
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 "x discovered that y is an alien, and the disguise seemed perfect!" What disguise? They were never in a disguise to begin with!
Not to mention, this is 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. More information on the issue, to prove that it IS in fact an issue for many:
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/comments/3e59pu/easily_embarrassed_aliens/
http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/859461/aliens-not-in-disguise
http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/829710/alien-embarrassment
http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/869445/alien-embarrassment-xenophobia
This occurs with AND without mods and CC enabled.
EDIT: The is a new thread for old issue. Me Too Count on the old one was: 15
Edit By Crinrict: Adjusted Tag
Solved! Go to Solution.
December 2020
We made a clarification on the Xenophilia moodlet when interacting with Alien Sims. It should no longer say “From Discovering Aliens” but now it correctly reads “From Interacting with Aliens.”
Fixed in Patch 1.69.57/ 1.35
If you're still experiencing this issue, please create a new thread.
Good Luck
Crin
I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.
Important Threads
December 2016 - last edited January 2017 by crinrict
Issue
Alien Sims in my game keep having the interactions in which human Sims realise that they're aliens even though they're not wearing disguises. It's frustrating because when the human Sims "see through the disguise" it causes negative moodlets (like the alien Sim feeling embarrassed and the human Sim feeling angry) which makes no sense if the alien Sim is obviously an alien.
Steps you took for Issue to occur
This issue has occurred in several situations; it has happened a few times when my human Sim is talking to alien NPCs even though none of the alien NPCs were wearing disguises (which I think in itself might be a bug? I've never come across a disguised alien NPC, they all look like aliens), and has also happened when my alien Sim has talked to humans while not wearing a disguise.
Mods/CC
I am not using any mods or custom content.
Expansion Packs/Game Packs/Stuff Packs
Get to Work is the only expansion pack I have.
Occurring since
I'm not sure - it definitely started at least a month ago but I forgot to make a note of the first time it happened.
Operating system
Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.
December 2016
This has always happened in my game. Not sure if it's by design actually but I'll add it cause there's currently no chance for me to find out for sure till after XMas break
Good Luck
Crin
I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.
Important Threads
January 2017
Seems I forgot an added post to this
so
Added
Good Luck
Crin
I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.
Important Threads
August 2017 - last edited August 2017
I don't think I've ever pressed the "me too" button so quickly before. This has been an issue in my game ever since I first installed GTW a long time ago. This has indeed been an issue for a very long time. It's really making it hard for me to enjoy playing aliens. I can link to places where many others have reported the same issue.
https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/comments/3e59pu/easily_embarrassed_aliens/
http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/859461/aliens-not-in-disguise
http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/829710/alien-embarrassment
http://forums.thesims.com/en_us/discussion/869445/alien-embarrassment-xenophobia
Note: The last link is actually a thread I made a year ago.
EDIT: Apologies for linking to a pirate site. I did not realize that it was a pirate site.
August 2017
It's definitely an annoyance. I never bother with the disguise feature and especially if you're playing with multiple aliens, it can be really tedious every time you meet someone "X has discovered Y is an alien!!!"
October 2017
Confirming that I too have this issue. I prefer to play my alien sim mostly without her disguise on, but frequently, whenever she meets someone new it's always "x has discovered y is an alien!" and then the alien because embarrassed, and the sim has a chance to either gain confidence or anger. I feel like aliens should be able to walk around without a disguise without being bombarded by negative moodlets.
I'm at least glad families with humans/aliens seem to be working correctly now
November 2017 - last edited November 2017
Found another old thread documenting this issue:
Yes, you're reading that right. Sims can get angry at "discovering" 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!
November 2017
For the most part the recent patch is great, but I'm still super disappointed that this issue still has not been addressed. It's been a problem since GTW first came out in 2015, two years! Are you guys aware of the problem, and do you intend to fix it? I made a thread on this on the Sims Forums.