Flamingo Problem

[Kyna]

I always put more than one flamingo on a lot so that if one gets 'stuck' while a sim is kicking it, the sim will head to a nearby flamingo.  Then I can go into build mode and rotate the stuck flamingo 180 degrees, thus presenting the 'unstuck' side of the flamingo to the sim.  If the two closest flamingoes are stuck, the sim stands there facing first towards one then towards the other, repeatedly - but the kick stuff icon stays in their queue, everything else stays in their queue, and if I see the icon in their queue but their fun isn't rising I know it's time to go rotate the flamingoes.

This worked for me, until last night.

Last night I found the 'kick stuff' icon kept dropping out of their queue.  College rampage then also dropped out of their queue, as the fun was bottomed out.  I went to the flamingoes to rotate them, but apparently they were already in use and I couldn't pick them up to rotate them.  My sims were behaving as if there was no available flamingo on the lot.  OK, I figured I was on a dorm lot, and maybe the other dormies had decided to 'view' or 'kick' the flamingoes, thus putting them in use.  I turned move objects on so I could delete the flamingoes, then replaced them.  Had to do this several times in the last 2 semesters for my 2 sims in the 5-room dorm.  Thankfully it was near the end of their time at uni.

Then I'm back in the main hood, and the same thing happens.  There were no visitors on the lot (I checked that there was nobody to clear off with Inge's teleporter shrub), and all my sims were busy skilling, none of them had low fun apart from the kids, none of the adults were trying to kick the flamingoes.  The kids homework macros were dropping out as a result of the kick stuff macro not finding an available flamingo.  Since I queue skilling macros after the homework macros, the skilling macros were also dropping out.  So I had to turn move objects on, delete the flamingoes, replace them, turn move objects off, then requeue the macros.  It was much simpler when all I had to do was rotate a flamingo while the sim was trying to kick a nearby one.

The flamingoes seem to think they're still in use now when they're stuck.  This is new behaviour after installing Pescado's director's cut, but I don't think the director's cut would mess up the Sport of Kings.  I haven't added anything else to my game in the last few days.  Anyone got any idea what could be causing this?

[SaraMK]

Lately I have also been plagued by stuck flamingos. It's really horrid. Mine seem to get stuck almost every time they're kicked.

It doesn't seem to be directly related to Macrotastics and Kick Stuff. I have manually told sims to go kick a flamingo, and they would still get stuck from that.

I don't know why it started happening. It almost never happened before NL. I can really only recall one time that it happened before NL... now it's impossible not to notice that it's happening constantly.

[Kyna]

The problem is not that they're getting stuck (as in not kickable from one side, but are still kickable from the other side).  I'm used to that and work around it by rotating the flamingo.  Although I agree, I also noticed an increase in flamingo stuckage post NL.

The problem is that once it's stuck, the game thinks it's still being used by a sim, and I can't do my normal workaround of picking it up and rotating it.  And the queues are dropping out.

[Ancient Sim]

Mine have been like that lately, too.  Even though the position of them doesn't change, sometimes they will act as if they aren't able to kick them and I have no idea why.  If I delete them and replace them with another in exactly the same place, then they will kick them.  On one dorm lot in particular this happens regularly, they go from one to the other repeatedly and I have to keep buying new ones. 

[Kyna]

On one dorm lot in particular this happens regularly, they go from one to the other repeatedly and I have to keep buying new ones. 

That's what my sims used to do, go back and forth between them, with the icon still in their queue.  And I want them to go back to that again, as it was a sign that it was time to rotate the one they weren't trying to kick at that second 180 degrees.

What I don't want is to have the 'kick stuff' icon drop out of the queue, then use move objects to delete the flamingo, replace it, requeue the macros that dropped out ...  My problem here isn't the ordinary stuckage that we're all used to.

[J. M. Pescado]

The flamingo stuckage problem is a persistent issue that I've been trying to identify for some time, with no real success.

[eaglezero]

My flamingoes have been getting stuck on a regular basis since NL. They didn't do it very often before.

[lefty]

Mine have also been stuck for a while, but I found that using the gnome works just fine (if only sims wouldn't steal it, *sigh*)

[ZephyrZodiac]

I love giving the gnome to poor Fortune sims when they demand a sculpture, then when it gets stolen  and they go haring off to get it back, I find it really amusing!

Since my flamingo sits under the house because it's hacked, it never gets kicked and never gets stuck, so I can't help!

[agcons]

I can't add anything concrete to the information about this problem, but the following may be useful.  I get stuck flamingoes on some lots and not on others.  For example, they routinely get stuck on the Goth lot, but only twice so far on the Pleasant lot.  Both households have children and teens, so there's a hell of a lot of flamingo-kicking going on in each.  On both lots, rotating them has worked (so far). 

I've not been able to find any incident in common between the Goth and Pleasant lots, either, prior to the flamingoes getting stuck on each.  Except, of course, for the "kick stuff" or "do homework" macro actions in the second Pleasant incident, but the first Pleasant incident occurred before I had Macrotastics installed.  Until that installation I was cueing up all relevant actions manually, and once when I sent one of the Pleasants out to kick I found out then, like SaraMK, that it was stuck.  Because of this, I don't believe, either, that the problem is hack-related.  It would be nice to have more evidence than just this one incident, and I might take the hacks out to see, even if I'll go nuts without them.   

I have four flamingoes on one dormitory lot, and none of them has ever become stuck.  There is a lot of stuff-kicking happening there too; this is also the only dorm lot I have with anything kickable. 

Pre-NL, I spent nearly all of my time building instead of playing, and I have no idea whether in my game this is peculiar to NL or not. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think sometimes an NPC, such as the maid, wants to stand the flamingo up again, but something alters their queue and they leave without doing it.  I don't know if this is something to do with the problem - I have noticed that, since my one flamingo is out of reach, the maid, the repairman etc., all get very annoyed about it!

[agcons]

Interesting.  I'll watch for that on my household lots.

That might also be why my dorm lot isn't affected.  The maids are bone-bloody-lazy at Uni, usually failing to mop up the mess the dormies make by setting off the sprinklers, and nearly always failing to clean anything in the bathrooms.  I've never seen him, the slack-ass bastard, even get close to the flamingoes. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Odd, since they're the same maids you have in residential lots.  Have you a very neat sim in your dorm, who's either asleep or at class whn the maid comes?  If so, that sim might already have decided to mop up!  Funny how six sims will all try to wash up at once, answer the phone at once, but if one has decided to mop up, or make a bed, it's almost impossible to stop them!  (Unless you install the lessbedmaking hack, of course!)

What I have noticed also is, that since NL, the maid will not make the Soma bed.  He/she will make all the cheap beds, and the expensive ones, single or double, but for some reason they just won't make the Soma!

[BlueSoup]

What I have noticed also is, that since NL, the maid will not make the Soma bed.  He/she will make all the cheap beds, and the expensive ones, single or double, but for some reason they just won't make the Soma!

Which one is the Soma bed again?

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's the midrange one, with the curved headboard, not the modern one.