The new Sims 4 High School expansion launched on Thursday, but the update to the base game earlier this week had some unintended side effects: it causes some Sims to age too quickly, while other Sims are attracted to members of the family.
A representative for The Sims 4 acknowledged the Sims auto-aging bugs in a tweet on the official Sims Twitter account. “We are currently investigating cases involving auto-aging Sims in short or long life saves,” EA said via The Sims account. “We recommend temporarily playing or creating new saves with the default/’normal’ lifespan while we work on a fix.”
Image: Maxis/Electronic Arts via Polygon
Players logging into The Sims 4 will also receive a pop-up warning about the bug, encouraging players not to play Sims that have been flagged as having a short or long lifespan. (The Sims 4 has three lifespan options: short, normal, and long.) Sims can still die in accidents regardless of which option they choose, but this allows players to choose how long their natural lifespan is.
The Sims 4 players across social media and Reddit are reporting that their Sims are aging too fast and the old ones are dying.
A quality designer for The Sims 4 who goes by SimGuruNick on Twitter mentioned the incest bug and noted that the developer is working on a fix. Players reported that their Sims were receiving “wishes” (a replacement for the “whims” added in a recent update) to date their family members. Wishes are usually based on a Sim’s personality and traits, and include things like calling a friend, dating a specific sim, or being abducted by aliens. There are also “fears”: things like death, failure, and cow plants.
Knowing a Sim’s wishes earns you points that can be used to buy things, as does overcoming fears.
“Just wanted to acknowledge that Want to Date a Family Member is something we know about, we’ve played it, we’re working on it,” SimGuruNick wrote. “We are looking to fix this as soon as possible, thanks for all the bug reports, we appreciate it. Of course, we are also working on the aging bug.”
Polygon has reached out to Electronic Arts for more information and will update this story when the company responds.