Phone Hack v8.3

[J. M. Pescado]

I think AL reduced the harassment hour -- if you play apartments, you'll notice that most of the other tenants go to bed at 10pm, and even your playables will sometimes get the urge to go to bed @ 10pm, even if they're not all that tired.

AL's "harassment hour" is not fixed, and actually depends on when the tenants are flagged "asleep", such as vampires being listed as asleep at night. This can produce some peculiar behaviors to that I am working on addressing in an Undiscovered Shiny.

[EsotericPolarBear]

I'm not sure if this is phone hack related or something else, but every time I tell my sim to use the phone, I have to do it twice.  The first time, they pick up the phone and immediately hang it back up.  The second time, it functions as normal.

[SJActress]

I'm not sure if this is phone hack related or something else, but every time I tell my sim to use the phone, I have to do it twice.  The first time, they pick up the phone and immediately hang it back up.  The second time, it functions as normal.

I have had this happen a couple of times, but not every time.  I have the DC with a few hacks taken out, and some "no autonomous pillowfight/danceontoes/annoying the shit out me" hacks.

[J. M. Pescado]

Never encountered this issue. I'm guessing it's a local problem caused by a corrupt lot.

[EsotericPolarBear]

Never encountered this issue. I'm guessing it's a local problem caused by a corrupt lot.

It happened on several lots, though with the same sim. So I guess the sim could be a plague-bearer.  I just reset my neighborhood anyway, so I'll see if it happens again.

[Magicmoon]

I'm playing a dorm and I don't have the 'call targets' option anymore. If I 'call Sim' I will find the Sim at home and available to talk. I know that the target must be known, not a friend, and available to talk and the menu is on the Sim. All of these are true yet 'call targets' isn't showing up.

[Jack Rudd]

I'm playing a dorm and I don't have the 'call targets' option anymore. If I 'call Sim' I will find the Sim at home and available to talk. I know that the target must be known, not a friend, and available to talk and the menu is on the Sim. All of these are true yet 'call targets' isn't showing up.

Call Targets only comes up if the Sim is in a dwelling for which targets are useful. That is, a non-uni residential lot or a Greek House.

[jsalemi]

I believe 'call targets' also disappears if the sim has more than enough friends and is at the top of his/her career, since there's no need for it anymore.

[seelindarun]

I think it counts the total number of household friends in the family against the number required for the top of the career that sim is in, or for level 6 in a greek house.  A few times I've seen it come back because one of my popularity sims graduated, or was claimed by the Reaper.

[twistingsims]

I'm not sure if this is phone hack related or something else, but every time I tell my sim to use the phone, I have to do it twice.  The first time, they pick up the phone and immediately hang it back up.  The second time, it functions as normal.

I've had the same problem with all my sim families in Belladonna Cove with the phone hack, always having to do it twice.  I took out the phone hack, but left in the phone talk module, so it doesn't happen anymore.  This was happening with all the families on any of the pre-existing lots. I only use the DC so  .

[J. M. Pescado]

I've had the same problem with all my sim families in Belladonna Cove with the phone hack, always having to do it twice.  I took out the phone hack, but left in the phone talk module, so it doesn't happen anymore.  This was happening with all the families on any of the pre-existing lots. I only use the DC so  .

I am not able to reproduce this issue on any ACTUAL lots. Premade lots tends to be full of massive borkedness anyway. You can try deleting the phone line controller and reloading the lot to respawn it, maybe that will help.

[Ruann]

Call Targets appeared on the Newson family despite none of the Sims being employed.  I did notice that it only shows up if Sims are actually available to be called, though, and if they are not already Friends, and thus more appropriately handled under Call Friends.

As far as sims picking up the phone and dropping it right away, I noticed this ONLY happens if I ignore a phone call until it auto-drops and then attempt to do a Call Sim.  I need to play around with the screening features because the stupid "hey, want a magazine subscription?" calls will ring for freaking EVER if you don't pick them up.

[twistingsims]

<snipped>
As far as sims picking up the phone and dropping it right away, I noticed this ONLY happens if I ignore a phone call until it auto-drops and then attempt to do a Call Sim.  I need to play around with the screening features because the stupid "hey, want a magazine subscription?" calls will ring for freaking EVER if you don't pick them up.

I really hope you can find out what might be causing this, because the constant whining from "friends" and the stupid "would it kill you to call" messages drove me so crazy I had to put this phone hack back in.  I would rather have to do it twice!

[J. M. Pescado]

Unrelated. The Phone Hack doesn't modify phonebook generation. You probably have a different hack stopping this, or perhaps they are secretly loitering stuck offworld.

[SJActress]

nor am I able to call to socialise with any of my service sims.

Didn't an EAxis patch address this?  Are you patched?

[mitchellcjs]

Supposedly, but they did it wrong and it doesn't work out that way.  The paperboy can't be called, for one.  The postman, for two.  I've taken to giving every sim I see a cell phone when I reclothe/makeover them with the Clothing Tool, just in case.

[mitchellcjs]

On the FFS Lot Debugger, there is an option to Nuke offworld loiterers.

[Blech]

I'm in the same boat as EPB and twistingsims, but it only happens when they are far away from the phone. So, if they are sitting at the desk, for example, and I tell them to use the desk phone, it goes through with the first order, but if they are in the kitchen and I direct them to the wall phone in the living room, they walk up to it, pick it up, and put it back. With cell phones, they pull it out, then immediately put it back, but it goes through with the second order.

[J. M. Pescado]

I am consistently unable to reproduce this, so I strongly doubt it has anything to do with the Phone Hack.

[Magicmoon]

I had that symptom (Sims hang up the first time you tell them to use the phone, but it works the 2nd time you tell them) with an old version of this mod which was only up for a few hours before it was updated again, which made the problem stop. Make sure that you have the latest version for your EP and that you don't have a 2nd version hiding in your downloads somewhere.

As for those complaining about not being able to call NPCs that they have met socially, they have been missing from the call list since FT. Giving these Sims a cell phone as a gift doesn't help either. They just won't appear on the call list. Even the college directory which usually contains all the Sims currently in college plus the professors, was empty for me except for Sims that I had actually met.

Paladin has a fix for this under Fixes/Free Time at:
http://www.simwardrobe.com/

I am just now trying this out to see if it works well with my other mods and so far it appears to be OK. However it is non-awesome and won't be supported here.

[Count Four]

I'm still getting no option except Set Ringer with latest Phone Hack.  uni, nl, ofb, ssns, gls.

I've been using an older version, 'cause I'd hate to live without this.   

[Magicmoon]

What happens if you have ONLY the latest phone hack and no other Custom Content in your Downloads folder?

Are you using Maxis phones or custom ones? Do you have a cell phone replacement? I remember a problem with the Razor or some similar cell phone download.

[Blech]

Well, I don't have any custom cell phones, and I've tried it without any other hacks, but not without any other CC at all. The only CC I have that pertains to phones is recolors for the cheap wall/desk phones. I'll try it as you suggested without any other CC and get back to you.

[Count Four]

What happens if you have ONLY the latest phone hack and no other Custom Content in your Downloads folder?

Are you using Maxis phones or custom ones? Do you have a cell phone replacement? I remember a problem with the Razor or some similar cell phone download.

With nothing in downloads except the latest version of phonehack, I get scared to death at the sight of my sims in Maxis hair...

But I still have nothing but Set Ringer.  No custom phones, no replacement cellphones.  The only thing I have that effects phones is mixmugs telephone recolors from MTS2 (and those were pulled, too.)  Cellphone use is unaffected in my game.

[Magicmoon]

I know what you mean about your Sims suddenly looking stupid with Maxis hair

Are you using the Maxis phone that came with the base game or are you using one of the ones that came with a later EP or SP? (I remember having a slight problem with one of the Maxis phones, but can't remember what it was or which phone other than it wasn't the base one).

One last thing to try. What happens if you don't have anything in downloads? Not even the phone hack. Does your phone start working properly then?

ETA: A new version of phonehack is up today.