Problem with an outing initiated autonomously by one of my playables

[Maygus]

Here's the situation:  My first generation of born-in-game sims are teens now and they're going out on dates.  Two of my teens (Mary and Calvin) went out together and had a dream date - the date was initiated by Mary.  The following evening, Calvin's father called Mary and invited her on an outing "because his friend Calvin had a great time and told him about her".  Mary accepted the invitation.

The outing timer appeared as soon as Mary hung up the phone, even though she's still at home, and the taxi never showed up.  Furthermore, Mary's mother was somehow assigned to the outing group and both of them began walking around the house with the blue outing plumb-bobs.  No other family members were affected.  Eventually the outing timed out, and the game displayed a message from Calvin's father complaining that he had been stood up.

What's going on here?  My sims have been asked to go on outings many times by NPC downtownies and nothing like this has ever happened.  Is this a bug that shows up when playables autonomously invite other playables on outings?

[Emma]

Just get your sim to either call a taxi on the phone or walk/fly to the community lot. The outing will proceed as normal.

[Maygus]

Ok, I restored my most recent backup and tried again.  Mary called a taxi and the game insisted that Mary's mother get in the taxi too, even though I never got the dialog box which allows me to select household members to join the outing.

Is there a way to remove Mary's mother from the outing group so that she's not forced to go along?

[Magicmoon]

Ask her to leave the group before the taxi shows up.

[Maygus]

More weirdness . . .

1.  I'm playing the Pleasant household.  Cassandra Goth and Mary-Sue Pleasant are best friends.  Phone rings, Mary-Sue answers, it's Cassandra.  Cassandra invites her downtown for an outing.  This time, I get the dialog box which allows me to select family members to join the outing and I select Daniel.  As soon as Mary-Sue hangs up, Cassandra materializes in the basement of the Pleasant house !!  The outing timer appears and Cassandra wanders upstairs to chat with Mary-Sue while they wait for the taxi.  The taxi arrives and the three of them get in.

2.  My teens, Mary and Calvin, have had two dream dates now.  One evening, Calvin calls Mary to ask her out again.  Mary's motives are low so I decline the date by selecting "Stay Here".  Mary hangs up and Calvin materializes in the basement of Mary's house  !!  (All of my houses have basements.)  He wanders upstairs to flirt with Mary, Mary tells him goodbye, and he leaves the lot.

This strange basement teleport phenomenon happens only when a playable from another household attempts to initiate a date/outing.  Any idea what's going on?  Is there something I could fix or nuke with the batbox that would repair this problem?

I would be willing to put up with some of this strange stuff if the outing timer didn't start right away.  That's a big problem because a full hour is lost before the outing group arrives downtown.

[seelindarun]

It's an old EAxian bug.  Callers teleport to the lot if you have more than one phone call in the queue for that family -- no fix that I'm aware of.  It's most noticeable around 6-8pm if the members of your household tend to go on a lot of outings or dates.  Invitations get spawned during those hours. 

The FOJ has recommended never answering the phone; have your controllable sim initiate outings or dates only.

[Tigerlilley]

Is there a way to remove Mary's mother from the outing group so that she's not forced to go along?

This isn't helpful, but I would hope that Mary's mother insisted on joining an outing initiated by Mary's boyfriend's dad.  Ew.

[Menaceman]

Yeah, its not just when playables initiate the calls. I've had townies spawn in my Sims' living rooms after accepting an outing from them.

[Maygus]

Tigerlilley, I had the same thought.  And when Mary's mother was assigned to the outing, I initially assumed that she was meant to be a chaperone.

I have saved games which reproduce each of these scenarios, so I spent an afternoon replaying and analyzing them.  For the sake of completeness, I'll document what I found here.  (Experienced Simmers probably know all this stuff, so if you're an old hand you can stop reading now.)

Scenario described in my first post:  Mary's mother is a Popularity sim and has 20+ best friends, one of whom is Calvin's father.  When the game autonomously spawns an outing, it assigns a random selection of the Invitor's friends to the outing group.  If one of the friends happens to be a member of the Invitee's household, the outing starts right away because part of the outing group is on the lot.  The taxi never arrives because the game treats this situation like an at-home outing.  (magicmoon, my game doesn't give Mary's mother a way to leave the group - she can either go along or end the outing entirely, those are the only two options.)

This bug could easily be fixed by checking to see if a randomly chosen friend is a member of the Invitee's family before assigning the friend to the outing group.  Given that the Invitee can chose family members to accompany him/her on an outing, performing such a check would not close off any gameplay options.  (I'm astonished that EAxis has produced 8 EPs and at least as many patches and has not addressed this problem.)

Teleport scenario #1:  There are multiple incoming calls in the queue and Cassandra teleports to the lot.  The outing timer starts as soon as the Invitor is on the lot, but the taxi was summoned before she teleported.  The game does not treat this like an at-home outing so the Invitee can select family members to go along.

Teleport scenario #2:  It doesn't matter whether Mary accepts or declines the date - Calvin teleports because there are multiple incoming calls in the queue.

After posting this thread, I observed the teleport phenomenon in situations where no outings were involved.  Mary's household has lots of friends and if I use the call-friends macro to keep all of the family members talking on their cell phones, somebody will eventually teleport to the lot.

[seelindarun]

Yeah, its not just when playables initiate the calls. I've had townies spawn in my Sims' living rooms after accepting an outing from them.

What I meant was that if you have a policy of only allowing playables to initiate outings/dates, then there is simply never a reason to answer the phone.  Anyway, that's not my personal policy, I like some of my sims to be buffeted by the winds of chance.    My preferred way of dealing with it is to keep BRY handy and command unwanted visitors to bugger off.

As I said earlier, the trigger is simply the number of callers queued.  If just one sim, any sim, answers you're prone to random teleportation.  I simply pointed out that it's more noticeable at certain hours because more calls are spawned at that time.

(magicmoon, my game doesn't give Mary's mother a way to leave the group - she can either go along or end the outing entirely, those are the only two options.)

With Mary selected (as the leader of the outing), click on her mom.  One of the interaction options is for Mary to ask her mom to leave the party.  You were self-clicking on Mary's mother if you saw an option to end the outing.

[Marhis]

With Mary selected (as the leader of the outing), click on her mom.  One of the interaction options is for Mary to ask her mom to leave the party.  You were self-clicking on Mary's mother if you saw an option to end the outing.

I would also add: if the mother is the only other sim in group present in the lot, telling her to leave the group will also end the outing at once (I did it ). You should first ask another sim to join the group (for instance a non playable you don't mind to have around) and only then tell the mother to bugger off the party.
When you'll arrive at destination, you can then tell that added sim to leave the party and it will go away.

[Maygus]

When I replayed the scenario, I tried it both ways:  selecting Mary then clicking on her mother and self-clicking Mary's mother.  In neither case did I get an "ask to leave group" menu item for Mary's mother.  The only option was to end the outing altogether.

I should point out that Calvin's father is the group leader (what I call the Invitor) not Mary.  If Mary had initiated the outing, perhaps she would have been able to tell her mother to leave the group without ending the outing?  (When I get a chance, I'll test that.)

What I meant was that if you have a policy of only allowing playables to initiate outings/dates, then there is simply never a reason to answer the phone.  Anyway, that's not my personal policy, I like some of my sims to be buffeted by the winds of chance.   

I agree with you, seelindarun, I like the spontaneity of autonomously spawned dates and outings.  One of my sims got a call from a downtownie she met briefly on a community lot and he asked her out on a date.  I was surprised at this because their rel score was only 5.  She accepted and they had double-bolts for each other, and now they're married.  I'd like to see more surprise dates and outings in my game.

[seelindarun]

It doesn't matter if Calvin's father was the one who initiated the outing, one of the playables in your current family (either Mary or her mother) is effectively the ringleader.  I forgot that Mary and her mother started out at home without the rest of the party.  You must not have had that option for the reason that Marhis cites (because there are only 2 members on the outing at that time). 

You could try again with Marhis's workaround.  Additionally, I'd suggest keeping Inge's teleporter handy in case you don't have a suitable townie available on the lot.