Radio Controlled toy car, still hazardous to game?

[twistingsims]

I haven't seen or heard anything about this in any forum dicussions or complaints lately.  I was just wonder if the problem was ever resolved or patched or whatever?

Seems such a shame to have in the game and can't use it! 

[ZiggyDoodle]

I've had no problem with it.  They're great to scare the hell out of any cowardly pets in the house.

[Emma]

I still never use it Damn greek students keep bringing one back from campus though

[SaraMK]

I still avoid it. It helps that I don't like it....

I never saw Maxis say that a particular patch fixed it.

[Marhis]

I dare to ask... what bug it has? I've never heard of it before.
Luckily, I usually never use it anyway, but I'm curious now.

[witch]

I believe it is because the game sees it as an NPC and for all sorts of reasons I don't understand, this is a VBT. I haven't used it since I was told this, I'd like to know if it's OK now too.

[kewian]

I t was fixed in a previous patch  the blank icon radio car bug. I think with the Uni patch.  Although its still seen as a NPC. :p

[notveryawesome]

Seriously? The remote-controlled car is seen as an NPC? How retarded. Stupid EA.

[Venusy]

The problem with the RC car is not only that it is an NPC, but that the NPC is stored in objects.package. If anything goes wrong with the RC car (NPC), then it nukes part of the objects.package. This is the VBT, but it can be avoided by making your objects.package read-only.

Other NPCs to avoid messing with:

Mrs. Crumplebottom
The OFB Robots (not Servo)
There are probably some others, but that's all I can think of right now.

[maxon]

I thought it caused portal corruption - maybe I remembered that wrong.

[Emma]

I remember seeing a message once that the RC had the flu and it needed rest and relaxation to recover I always keep my objects.package as read only anyway even since the Crump corruption problem, even though MaxisEA claim to have fixed it.

[jrd]

The RC is one of the "unknown" Sims you can see in SimPE.

[Marhis]

The RC is one of the "unknown" Sims you can see in SimPE.

Ahhh!!! THAT is! Now I understand.
For some reasons I thought that the "NPC remote control car" was something that handles carpools in game; maybe because I never use it, it's annoying.

[PlickaPlicka]

Why would Maxis want it to be an NPC? What purpose does it serve?

[jsalemi]

Probably because the sim doesn't really 'control' it -- the RC car kinda just buzzes around on its own when the sim activates it. Having it as an NPC gives it some scripting capabilities, I suppose.

[jrd]

Probably. I think the OFB drive and hover bot, as well as the Pets bird, are handled the same way.

[Sagana]

To the code, sims are really just objects with extra options/the ability to move (you can move them with 'move objects' for example). If they need what we used to call a "controller mob(ile)" they start with an object that can move (i.e., a sim) and make it an NPC to hide it/keep it safe from certain interactions/limit what it does. If you use one of the insim functions that brings up the phone dialogue with all 'sims' listed, the RC car shows up as well (one for each car actually) clearly labeled which is nice as the unknowns from SimPE are confusing, IMO

[notveryawesome]

Hmmm, so am I right in assuming that this would also affect any objects that were cloned from the RC car?

Edited to add: Does anybody know if problems occur with simply stocking this object on an OFB shelf, or do the problems only occur when sims are playing with the car?

[Venusy]

Only when playing. When the car is being played with, the NPC is teleported onto the lot. As soon as playing stops, the NPC goes away again. So stocking it on OFB shelves is safe.

[twistingsims]

  You folks here are awesome!  Thank you everyone for your comments, input, and clarification, it has been all very helpful!!