👽 "My Face is Melting," a thread on the Alien face bug no one's fixing

This bug is still active as of September 2021. Any notable changes will be appended here.

This isn't the first topic on this issue, but I wanted more awareness on this actual, gamebreaking bug for those who play the Sims for the genetics/legacy play and especially for those who play with occults--namely aliens.

Alien faces are still broken.

Alien faces will distort when they age up or down, whether it be in CAS or in Live mode. Eyes would enlarge, the nose will shrink, and the chins will become pointy. These modified changes affect their children, both full alien and half-alien (on the premise they TFB post-distortion). Genetics is essentially broken for aliens.

https://i.imgur.com/TRAdosg.gif

Here are also some stills for comparison.

https://i.imgur.com/2vZxm3M.png

I'm hoping that if more people know about this issue, maybe there would be an actual possibility for EA to fix it after all these years. That's right; Years. This bug has been prevalent in-game after only a few months of the very first TS4 Expansion Pack, Get to Work was released in Late March 2015. In the following months of June, July, August, September and October of the same year, this bug has been reported. Going onto 2016, 2017, 2018 and now toward the end of this year, this bug is still not fixed despite other reports on the issue. My tests for this glitch in 2016 and 2017 are archived here, but I always test this issue with every patch with the same result of it not being fixed.

I am aware this face glitch is similar to the male face glitch posed from the early release of the game, where male sims would age up with small eyes and wide jaws; As it was fixed then, I am hoping the fix would be similar for aliens. As a note, I would like to include that this glitch is not as noticeable if the affected features (eyes, nose, chin) are not modified past the generic "alien face" standard. This means randomly generated alien townies that were not modified whatsoever will not be submitted to facial distortion unless you were to take that alien into CAS and change those specific features.

See below for an exaggerated example of facial distortion:
https://i.imgur.com/h0riwxT.gif

This bug has been tested with and without mods, and there is an AHQ thread.

I assume the low popularity of aliens in comparison to other occults is the reason for the neglect and notice of this issue. Still, even if you find the aliens in your game extremely annoying, please click Me Too on the AHQ thread so this glitch can be looked at and be fixed by the team. We should all strive to have a bug-free game 👽

Thank you for reading 💕

feedback

Plumsbob
5 years ago
Thank you for making this thread. This has been bothering me for so long. I’ve played with aliens once when the pack first came out, noticed their faces got messed up, and decided i wont play them again until it’s fixed.

I once used a mod that fixed the same issue for normal sims, so it’s not like it’s impossible to fix. I can’t believe that it’s still there after so many years :/
AineOfMay
Seasoned Spectator
5 years ago
There are mods that address similar issues, but I'm not sure if it actually works for aliens. For instance this mod was made ages ago and addresses some issues that the game used to have (not anymore as far as I can tell) - maybe a similar mod could be made for aliens? I'm not a modder though, so I'm not completely sure.
SilentK008
Seasoned Newcomer
5 years ago
Thank you!!

Yes, this is a really awful bug, especially when you try to do legacies. Added my voice to it, had a poor little sim that was so distorted after ageing up that I took him out of the game.

It just feels really wrong when you don't recognize your sims anymore. I often play without headline effects so I have no name-tag or plumbob floating above the sims. I like it that way. It gets really odd when you play for a bit longer time and your townie sims start agening up. Once a sim-friend was out with their club on an event and sporting their outfit, didn't know it was my sims buddy until they started talking... that was odd. Or when they are wearing their usual everyday wear and you sort of stop in your tracks and zoom in close. Is that the neighbor or did a new townie sim spawn with the same outfit?

When I play with headline effects on I know who they are, but still feel sad about it. Also, my main legacy are forbidden to add aliens spouses because I run the as a genetic challenge on the side and that won't jive.

Todays patch was really good for several of my occult-bugs, now I would like to see this oldie but not goodie gone as well.
Cmehnt
Seasoned Newcomer
5 years ago
@Faberries Yeah, it was getting pretty annoying that it seemed like no one was recognizing this as a problem--And seeing the AHQ thread at <20 Me Toos made me worried this was going to stay broken forever once TS4 runs its course. Hopefully more awareness would get this dumb glitch fixed.
Regarding the old face glitch mod, @Aine, I'm not a modder either so I don't know how to fix it :pensive: I would've done it a long time ago if I could! Even if there is a mod that would fix this issue, the fact that we need a mod to make this lifestate playable is embarrassing on EA's part. :/

@SilentKitty Yeah, the alien I use is my super-sim, but I play with aging on and seeing his face distort when he got older was depressing. He's been barred from having kids, and the only current ones he has are basically clones I had to cheat with MCC. :/ I stopped aging for all the aliens in my whole save too, just because I don't want their faces ruined. :(
karon_shiruba
5 years ago
I would like to add up a feature I'd like to have for aliens. i like that we have disguises in Sims 4, but I hate that the disguise looks like a completely different sim. I'd rather have the skin color change to a normal sim, as well as the pointy ears and the alien eyes, but keeping all the rest. Would be more pleasing to see, honestly.
keekee53
Seasoned Newcomer
5 years ago
wow I probably would have not noticed because I usually keep them in disguise. I wonder if that is why there was no visibility around it. Thanks for the thread so I at least know about it.
InfraGreen
5 years ago
Bumping to say what @Cement reported is still ongoing even in June 2020. I don't play with aliens, but I respect those that do even when they can't keep their faces. I did the CAS test just to confirm:

https://i.imgur.com/efYDcgZ.png

https://i.imgur.com/QcX7QfE.png

The difference is clear even though she blinked. Mouth unaffected, rest of face is.
Cmehnt
Seasoned Newcomer
5 years ago
A not-so-happy 5th birthday to the alien face glitch. Thanks @InfraGreen <3

Maybe someday they'll fix it, but as @kwanzaabot said, they don't even acknowledge GTW--Lately, or ever. Even when 2/3 jobs became unplayable, it took them more than half a year to fix it or give notice that it was broken. Even now some people still have the pregnancy job requirement in the Doctor career broken and the only walkarounds are to quit and reemploy, or cheat.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

@MaggieMarley Re: human skin tones on aliens, it is a possibility, not a glitch, to have aliens with human skin tones via generational breeding. Last I recalled doing ts4 sim genetics, it can happen as early as the 3rd or 4th generation, as 2nd gen human/alien children are more likely to get alien skin vs alien occult. :)
Cmehnt
Seasoned Newcomer
5 years ago
@MaggieMarley Wow, that's pretty cool! I wonder if it could be recreated? ?

I haven't done any more genetics testing for a while with school and work in the way, but I absolutely loved looking at sim genetics, especially ones with my aliens. ...Though my legacies with aliens have been halted for the past several years since aliens are apparently banned from ever breeding thanks to EA. It's difficult to gauge alien genetics because of this glitch, but, in reference to your odd outcome, I had full human girls from an alien/human couple in-game.
They both have human skin and no alien features (if not counting their shrunken, pointed chins and abnormally small noses thanks to the glitch) as second-gen, but only full-alien children in the 3rd or 4th gen of a family that mingled with aliens. I guess humans are more likely as an outcome since "half-alien" sims are still considered human despite prompts of them being able to "ask about atmospheric pressure" and all that. (Unfortunate for my tastes, tbh)

I do wonder if they changed anything else with sim genetics for this iteration, but I kind of doubt it since one of the most interesting wrenches to genetic pools is completely botched. I doubt that ts4's simgenetics would ever hold a candle to sims 2's, but if we're getting any closer there it'd be a step in the right direction.

~~...not that EA ever knows what direction that is ok i'll stop being salty~~
AyKooChao
5 years ago
I've clicked "me too" and asked @SimGuruNick about it on Twitter. No reply yet.