[FIXED] Moodlets disappear from sims upon loading a save

Upon opening an old save to test things, I can confirm that quite a few moodlets have disappeared.

I decided to test things in the save where I had Alex make a deal with a sea witch because there were several things I wanted to test. This is currently fully modded with MCCC, the Expanded Mermaids Mod, Occult Preferences, and Sea-Nery Stuff. So, Mods by Deaderpool and SpinningPlumbob are the most in use. I tested a pose by Serinion to see if the pose player was affected.

Upon opening the save, these are the moodlets that still remained:

Initial Load of the Save before Creating a New Mod Test Save

Immediately after unpausing the game, Ukupanipo posed exactly as he was supposed to, but all my sims in the same room also got an immediate moodlet from their surroundings. Oddly, the object that grants the inspired moodlet comes from the Sea-Nery Stuff pack by Spinning Plumbob. I did not have the aura enabled, so they should not have gotten the inspired moodlet.

Suddenly Inspired

Spoiler

The next thing I tested was the Sea Witch Contracts from the Expanded Mermaid's Mod. First, a Moodlet is connected to Sea Witch Contracts that lets you know how long you have to repay your debt. Second, a sea witch spell, Poseidon's Luck, grants a Confident Moodlet that disappears over time. My instincts told me this was worth checking out once I started to see a pattern. When I started the contract interaction, I also noticed that Damion got a moodlet from the Island Decor. That turned out to be an important detail.

So, I had Alex make a deal with the Sea Witch and everything worked exactly as intended:

Signing the Sea Witch Contract and Initiating the Deal

The way things were playing out, I started to wonder about something.

Before I went to the Main Menu, I checked all of Alex's Moodlets since he was the one that got the moodlet from the Sea Witch Contract.

Checking Moodlets before Exiting Save to Main Menu

Spoiler

Upon reloading the save after saving it, I noticed something very interesting. Many different moodlets related to traits and hidden traits connected to aspirations remained. The moodlet for the Sea Witch Contract also remained but the confident moodlet from the Poseidon's Luck charm was gone. I could still track how long Alex had to repay the Sea Witch's Debt, but he was no longer benefiting from the spell the Sea Witch cast.

Damion on the other fin was still being affected by the decorated moodlets. The impeccable taste moodlet comes from him liking Island Decor. That moodlet is not connected to traits, but he remained affected by it. He also got a different moodlet he didn't already have when I loaded the game that was also connected to the environment he was in.

Now, one of the things that are worth noting about the Child of the Ocean Trait and Merfolk is that they get a happy moodlet from swimming and that is a moodlet they get from their environment. This is true for the Console too. The expanded mermaid mod does affect the Child of the Ocean trait so the exact manifestation of moodlets could be affected in some way by that mod. But the one common element is that it comes from the environment. 

All the moodlets that remained after reloading the same save were influenced by the environment. The decorated moodlets never went away.

The Sea Witch Contracts are also actual objects in game tied to the moodlet.

Still Influenced by Decor

Spoiler

Now, when I un-paused my save, I noticed another emotional aura moodlet trigger. All my sims in the same room suddenly got energized despite the emotional aura not being active. 

Suddenly Energized

Now, I'm not a programmer and I did not create the Expanded Mermaid Mod, so I can't explain everything that happened. But from what I can observe, the Crystal Creations Stuff Pack does stuff with items that come with emotional auras that are also tied to moodlets sims get when they are in a room with an active emotional aura. The crystal is from EA and the shark tooth is from custom content, both can have emotional auras. 

I suspect the items inside the game that influence moodlets might be connected to the bug in some way. Crystals and Metals are the big thing with Crystal Creations. 

The fact that the Sea Witch Contract Moodlet remains after reloading a save is interesting to me. I would definitely take a closer look at the conclusions the modding community made because they definitely caught a lot of important details. 

It was purely by chance that I picked a save with sims in a room with items that had emotional auras in them. The fact that my sims were getting the energized and inspired buffs despite the auras not being active and the fact that each time I loaded the save and un-paused the game they got a different buff from an emotional aura, I would take a closer look at that.

The easiest way to look more into the emotional auras is to have a sim with the impressionist trait from the painter aspiration create items that influence emotional auras since they don't need to have the moodlet to create items that grant a desired moodlet. I do feel like actually build mode objects with an Environment Value and the objects with Emotional Aura might be closely tied to this bug. These moodlets seem to be the things that aren't working the way they are supposed to, sims influenced by auras that aren't active, and the moodlets that remain after a save reloads.