[BY DESIGN] [V] Vampire gets bad moodlet for eating plasma fruit salad

Hi All, 

As previously confirmed by SimsGuruNick, this is working as intended, and not a bug. A bug is defined as: an error, flaw, failure or fault in a computer program or system that causes it to produce an incorrect or unexpected result, or to behave in unintended ways.

Considering that the developers intended the Plasma Fruit Salad to work as it is in terms of being able to be eaten by Human and Vampires, it is not a bug.

Needless to say, many of you disagree with this design decision, which you're more than welcome to. Its good feedback for us to gather and be aware of for future design decision that will be made within the Sims universe. No bug report is needed for this, as it is not a bug.

If you find a bug with another area of the game, we invite you to report it here: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/bd-p/The-Sims-4-Bugs

Arcadia

Thank you, bug reports being closed down need official confirmation.

@DonroaAkashu 

The bug report forum is not being shut down as far as I am aware.

If you are talking about individual bug reports within the boards being closed, our Heroes and Champions are informed of bug report status's from the Development team to assist with keeping the board relevant and useful. If you have a further concern on this, please DM me. 

Thanks, @EA_Arcadia !

Do you think it would be worth opening a new report that's simply "misleading description of vampire weakness," since my main quibble is that the weakness description says "human food" or "normal food" when I think it should say "solid food" if it includes plasma fruit (which isn't a human food)?  That's honestly my main complaint. 

@EA_Arcadia   The Bug Forum is not the same as individual bug reports as far as I understand it, so yes, I meant the latter. Do all bug reports made get forwarded to the Sims Team? I am not sure what you mean by concern. 

Disclaimer:  I do not work for EA.  I work for a non-game software company.  I apologize in advance for answering a question addresssed to EA_Arcadia.

I suspect that any bug that is reported in the forum and not closed as by design, user error, etc., is a candidate for closer scrutiny.  I'm reasonably certain that, for example, "MY SIM DIED IN A FIRE ON THE FIRST DAY COOKING EGGS AND TOAST!" would not be forwarded to the Sims Team as a bug.  😉  (That's not a bug;  my Sim is just really bad at cooking.)

When I see "Needs Saves" that suggests to me that, yes, QA is trying to reproduce the exact steps needed to reproduce the error. 

Software is really complicated. The Sims 4 is a huge and extremely complex piece of software.  Complexity means that code can behave in unexpected ways sometimes (bugs) and sometimes it's hard to reproduce the steps to get it to break.  Finding and fixing bugs is complicated and takes time; the first step is finding the steps needed to reproduce it consistently so they can understand why it happens.  That said, not every bug report is a legit bug. 

In short:  I suspect they would be flooded out of finding any bugs at all if everything on the forum was passed on as-is.

Thanks! I do agree. As a player and costumer of the game I do want to know that the bug forum is handled by personnel that knows what they are doing and that can be held accountable for it. A player managed bug forum is not the same thing as a bug forum being controlled by personnel hired by the company that produces the game. When reading the forum it is obvious that a lot of the bug reports do not belong there, but the question is who is responsible for making that decision, and have the right to do so, and on what basis.

@DonroaAkashu Thanks for clarifying what you meant.

Typically, if a bug report is complete - it is given to the team. Now in saying that, we get many reports that do no contain all the requested information, or poorly describe the issue. Our Heroes and Champions, and staff will try and make sense of them or request further information to gain the missing information before forwarding them onwards. If the original author never comes back to provide more information, they do not always get forwarded. What Xochiquetzl said, in its simplest form, is more or less correct in terms of what gets forwarded

That's why its so important, and we ask you, to make your bug reports as detailed and descriptive as possible. It makes it easier for our teams to find and fix issues.

Hi there @xochiquetzl_xkvn, nice to meet you.

So since this is not a bug, there is no need to submit a report on it as it will just be closed as working as intended. Since this is a key feedback point for yourself and others, a post in General Discussion / Feedback (where this post is) is enough.

A general piece of advice for anyone making a feedback thread, it's great to include the following points:

• What item are you giving feedback on
• What is the issue you have with it
• Why does this impact your gameplay/experience
• What you would suggest to do to fix the issue
• Is there/What are any possible negative impacts of your suggestion

@EA_Arcadia  Thank you. I think this conversation is beyond the original scope of this thread, but I would advise you, as EA hired personnel, to take with you and forward to who it may concern, that the decision on what gets forwarded should not be in the hands of players, no matter the internal system of rewarded titles they are afforded. I see what you mean by incomplete bug report templates, but we have had that discussion before, on the sims forum, and I have stated my opinion on what could be done about that, there.

@EA_Arcadia  Thank you!  I appreciate your response, and nice to meet you, too!

So, this is the description of the weakness (I googled, sorry, game is on my other machine):

(Sim Name) vomits when eating human food.

Putting on the appearance of a normal Sim will be less practical, as (Sim Name) will become nauseous and vomit from eating normal food. What's more important? The ruse, or his/her digestion?

My objection is to the terms "normal food" and "human food" when referring to plasma fruit and plasma fruit salad, since normal and human Sims get sick eating it.  Based on the fact that vampires who have taken Withered Stomach can drink Plasma Janes, or even normal human bar drinks, I consider this misleading and think the Team perhaps intended that the vampire is no longer able to eat solid food.  I think a better description would be

(Sim Name) vomits when eating solid food.

Putting on the appearance of a normal Sim will be less practical, as (Sim Name) will become nauseous and vomit from eating solid food. What's more important? The ruse, or his/her digestion?

How this impacted my gameplay:  The first time I took this weakness I read "normal food" and "human food" to mean things like grilled cheese sandwiches, eggs and toast, Harvestfest Grand Meals, etc. I was upset that my Sim couldn't eat plasma fruit salad any more because she's a gardener and put some effort into growing plasma fruit trees to support her new lifestyle.  I ended up giving her a Potion of Reconfiguration over it.  Er, maybe that's not game-breaking, but I was pretty salty.  😉  I honestly avoided this weakness like the plague for a long time over it.  Now that I know how it works I can deal, but it was a rocky first impression.

Negative impact of my suggestion:  Er.  I assume (and you know what they say about assuming) that the wording is in a limited number of places (one? the code supporting the Vampire Powers UI?) and updating it wouldn't be TOO heinous. (I also don't know if this is a big enough change to warrant running it past the translation teams.) I can't think of a negative impact to other players. 

@EA_Arcadia and @xochiquetzl_xkvn , I had at first thought that the Plasma Fruit salad was put in the game in the first place specifically for those Vampires with a Withered Stomach.  So i was disappointed that they couldn't eat this.  (I guess they don't like fiber! 😉 Good thing they don't need to use the bathroom! 🤣😅).  But that reinforces What @xochiquetzl_xkvn was saying that if the description had stated solid food, then the confusion wouldn't have happened!  So even on this small forum at least 2 people thought the exact same thing!  Plasma fruit salad is certainly not normal or human food!  And then that that same Vampire can turn around and have a plasma Jane with no problems doesn't make sense.  
And this is also why I avoid the Withered Stomach weakness for the same reason😕 , even though I like the idea of it in theory! 😉
Thank you for your time! 🥳

Hey there @KatastrophicSim 

I believe I did give you a place to talk about it "a post in General Discussion / Feedback (where this post is) is enough", if you need a link to the General Discussion & Feedback forum section, here it is. Talking about it here is the correct place, and what is you all are doing 🙌

I'm here for two reasons, I like browsing posts, and hearing from an EA staff can help reassure the community that the information presented is correct. Which for this particular thread meant reaffirming and presenting the information previously provided by SimsGuruNick, that the Plasma Fruit Salad is working as intended, and they don't intend to change it.

Now from reading everyone's discourse within the thread, I can totally see the merit in why you believe this should work in a different way. This feedback has made it to the Sims teams before, thus the official statement from SimsGuruNick.