Odd bug and a playable Hawas family (Al Simhara)!

[Kilwala]

I just had the strangest thing happen in my game.  I can only guess it is a bug, and I've never had anything like it happen before.  I don't mind as it happened in a not even five-minute old game.  Anyway, I made a new Sim named Odessa Green and moved her into an unfurnished house in Barnacle Bay (Maritime Shanty at 428 Tidal Terrace).  Odessa got the wish to travel to Al Simhara, so I chose to travel there.  When she arrived, I could not see any of her details in the Sim Panel, her funds were at 0, and I could not see her on the screen, so I decided to save and exit to the main menu.  When I reloaded the file, I had a screen as if I had started a new game, only in Al Simhara!  I was able to place Odessa into an Al Simhara house or choose an Al Simhara family to play.  I decided to choose the Hawas family.


I noticed that the members of the Hawas family had 0/3 listed as their travel times.  After choosing the Hawas family, I wondered if I would be able to switch active families in the Edit Town screen, but I could not do so, as I was told I was on vacation.  Curious, I decided to Return Home via the phone to see what would happen...

And here is the result!



All five members of the family moved into the unfurnished Maritime Shanty where Odessa had lived!  Strangely, they all have the Mourning moodlet, even though the entire family was transferred.

Update: Turns out they're mourning Odessa!  Here you can see Sopdu Hawas thinking about her (Odessa is the redheaded woman in his thought bubble):



Here is a screenshot of the family from the Edit Town screen (Barnacle Bay):



I saved the Hawas family to a new file and reloaded the first bugged file and unfortunately this time was unable to select a household as active in Al Simhara.  I switched to Champs Les Sims on the Edit Town screen to see what would happen, and I could not switch the active household as I wasn't in my active location.  When I chose to switch back to Home, the screen showed me Barnacle Bay.  However, I could not select an active household there as it wasn't my active location.  Odd stuff.



I am still able to play the Hawas family in Barnacle Bay from the file I saved.  I was disappointed to learn that their original Al Simhara house was not owned as a vacation home when I traveled to Al Simhara.

Sorry I didn't get more screenshots along the way! I would have liked one of Al Simhara when it allowed me to pick an active location there.  

Has anyone else had something like this happen before?  I think this is pretty cool and I wish I could duplicate it with French and Chinese families.

[Hosfac]

Nope, this has never happened to me, nor have I ever heard of it happening.

It sounds like you may have got nailed with the disappearing sim travel bug.  It's not unheard of for sims to vanish entirely when they take a vacation.  But what normally happens when this bug strikes is that players will exit without saving, so one possible reason I've never heard of it is because nobody has ever thought to do what you did.  Plus, it sounds like your ability to take control of the Hawas family may very well have been a fluke.  But it might be worth making an attempt at it if someone gets stricken with this bug (I'd suggest doing a "Save As" and creating a brand new file, of course).

[limefrog]

I just had the strangest thing happen in my game.  I can only guess it is a bug, and I've never had anything like it happen before.  I don't mind as it happened in a not even five-minute old game.  Anyway, I made a new Sim named Odessa Green and moved her into an unfurnished house in Barnacle Bay (Maritime Shanty at 428 Tidal Terrace).  Odessa got the wish to travel to Al Simhara, so I chose to travel there.  When she arrived, I could not see any of her details in the Sim Panel, her funds were at 0, and I could not see her on the screen, so I decided to save and exit to the main menu.  When I reloaded the file, I had a screen as if I had started a new game, only in Al Simhara!  I was able to place Odessa into an Al Simhara house or choose an Al Simhara family to play.  I decided to choose the Hawas family.


I noticed that the members of the Hawas family had 0/3 listed as their travel times.  After choosing the Hawas family, I wondered if I would be able to switch active families in the Edit Town screen, but I could not do so, as I was told I was on vacation.  Curious, I decided to Return Home via the phone to see what would happen...

And here is the result!



All five members of the family moved into the unfurnished Maritime Shanty where Odessa had lived!  Strangely, they all have the Mourning moodlet, even though the entire family was transferred.

Update: Turns out they're mourning Odessa!  Here you can see Sopdu Hawas thinking about her (Odessa is the redheaded woman in his thought bubble):



Here is a screenshot of the family from the Edit Town screen (Barnacle Bay):



I saved the Hawas family to a new file and reloaded the first bugged file and unfortunately this time was unable to select a household as active in Al Simhara.  I switched to Champs Les Sims on the Edit Town screen to see what would happen, and I could not switch the active household as I wasn't in my active location.  When I chose to switch back to Home, the screen showed me Barnacle Bay.  However, I could not select an active household there as it wasn't my active location.  Odd stuff.



I am still able to play the Hawas family in Barnacle Bay from the file I saved.  I was disappointed to learn that their original Al Simhara house was not owned as a vacation home when I traveled to Al Simhara.

Sorry I didn't get more screenshots along the way! I would have liked one of Al Simhara when it allowed me to pick an active location there. 

Has anyone else had something like this happen before?  I think this is pretty cool and I wish I could duplicate it with French and Chinese families.

Yes, a few times randomly. Once in Al Simhara and once in Shang Simla. I also got the mourning moodlet, although I chose a copy of the same Sim and continued the game normally this way. Made me feel very weird for some strange reason. Freaky.