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Re: [FIXED] Townies with no Sexual Orientation at all

So here is a slightly less technical version of my previous post (https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Townies-with-no-Sexual-Orientation-at-all/m-p/11735371/highlight/true#M228240)

HOW TO REPRODUCE THE BUG (tested without mods)

  1. Create a new save.
  2. Play as any Sim and go to different venues in order to have random NPCs be created. Go to the gym, library, bar etc. and pay attention to the librarians, gym trainers, bar keepers or any vendors that might spawn. With a fresh save there won't be too many NPCs that get generated that way because there are already so many townies in the save.
  3. After some time go to "Manage Worlds"/"Manage Households" and choose "Other Households". Sort the households by "Date created" so you should see the service NPCs and some others.
  4. Check the sexual orientation of the Sims.

In my test save I checked 12 NPCs. 9 of them were aro/ace+not exploring and 3 were bi+romantically exploring. These settings seem really absurd and make it almost impossible to find partners for Sims.

HOW TO WORKAROUND THIS BUG

  1. Create a new save
  2. Create a household with three Sims of the same sex.
  3. Play as one of these Sims and initiate a romantic relationship with the two others. This does not have to be much, but there should be two romance bars.
  4. CONGRATULATIONS! YOU HAVE NOW PROVEN TO THE GAME THAT YOU ARE ABLE TO DEAL WITH SAME SEX RELATIONSHIPS! AS A REWARD YOU WILL NOW ENCOUNTER TOWNIES THAT ACTUALLY USE THE NEW SEXUAL ORIENTATION FEATURE! (I wish I was joking)
  5. Go to "Manage Worlds"/"Manage Households" and choose "Other Households". Sort the households by "Date created" and delete any "Not in World" NPCs that might have been created in the save while you were proving that you are not homophobic.
  6. Repeat steps 2 to 4 of the bug reproduction to have some new townies be generated.
  7. You should now get sexually diverse random townies.

In my test save I had some straight, some homosexual, one asexual/aromantic and a bunch of romantically straight but sexually bi Sims.

SO WHY ON EARTH DOES THAT WORK?

There are actually two configurations which determine how the sexual orientation for new townies is set:

  1. The "default" way, which appears to be broken (but I assume it should generate bi Sims if it worked as intended, see my previous post on the details: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Townies-with-no-Sexual-Orientation-at-all/m-p/11735371/highlight/true#M228240)
  2. The "special" way, which only gets activated if you prove to the game that you can handle same-sex relationships. This generates sexually diverse townies. If you are interested in the numbers, they are 67% hetero, 17% homosexual, 8% bi, 8% neither.

A quote from the python code which describes the property ENABLE_AUTOGENERATION_SAME_SEX_PREFERENCE_THRESHOLD: "A value that, once crossed, indicates the player's allowance of same-sex relationships with townie auto-generation." WTF...

SO THAT RAISES A FEW QUESTIONS...

  1. Why does EA claim that sexual orientation cannot be turned off while the truth seems to be that it is turned off by default and has to be switched on by gameplay? (See https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/sexual-orientation-in-the-sims-4, they say "While we try to give players the option to toggle certain gameplay features,  LGBTQIA+ identities are a fact of life and not a toggle to be switched on and off.") 
  2. Why does EA not dare to put this switch in the settings and instead hides it in the code? How on earth should people know how they can control the way townies are generated?
  3. Why does EA assume that people that tend to play with same-sex couples do not want the old pansexual settings? Maybe they prefer it this way so their Sims have more Sims to date?
  4. Why does EA assume that people that tend to play with different-sex couples do not want the new diverse settings? Maybe they prefer a more diverse and realistic townie population?
  5. Why does EA use the precious time of the developers to hide a sneaky toggle in the code instead of fixing bugs or making sure that the sexual orientation feature actually works and integrates with other features?

Again, @crinrict I would very much appreciate if you could direct the attention of an EA employee to this thread.

5 Replies

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  • flauschtrud's avatar
    flauschtrud
    Seasoned Ace
    3 years ago
    @crinrict Thank you for pointing this out. Then I hope they won't be silent about this issue (and others) forever.
  • crinrict's avatar
    crinrict
    Hero+
    3 years ago
    @flauschtrud Basically if you post something in the bug forum, it gets added to the Maxis Bug Database and then they'll prioritize things and look into it.

    This is why it's so important to always test on vanilla so EA can concentrate on the real issues and doesn't waste too much time on mod ones :D
  • Madokami14's avatar
    Madokami14
    3 years ago

    That's just repulsive. Shame on you, EA. Wish I could say I was shocked, but honestly it's not surprising at all. I remember my flag never got included back when you released LGBTQ+ flags, but by god did you remember the straight ally flag! I'm just tired.

    Thanks for the mod, flauschtrud. It's shameful you even had to go through the effort. And thank you for calling out EA's virtue signalling. We're asking for actual diversity and representation, not little treats to keep us quiet while EA collects virtue points.

  • shortfry55's avatar
    shortfry55
    3 years ago

    Thankyou so so much for this solution. This has literally saved my game! 

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