Bon Voyage dissatisfaction

[jolrei]

I've just been testing with the Traveller family at Twikii Island.  Have had no problems - in response to issues of dissatisfaction suggesting that the piano is broken again, my Sims using the grand piano in a Pleasantview lot had no problems (creativity and fun running as usual).  Have not found a piano yet on Twikkii, so that test is still pending.

[jsalemi]

Apropo to nothing, I did find where the secret lots are in each of the three vacation hoods. I play with Gunmod's Camera Mods, and if you zoom all the way out on the hood, you see a tiny road not connected to anything in some far-off corner of the hood.  Each has one, so I'm guessing that's the location of the secret lot, though you can't actually see the lot itself.

[Invisigoth]

And the waiter likes to make my Sim's bed. The maid is completely useless IMHO. At least the waiter does something.

LOL! Yeah, the waiter at the hotel my sims were staying at spent the entire day running back and forth cleaning the hotel up, picking up plates from hotel rooms, emptying the trash cans. I thought that it was kind of weird. Very motivated! The maids are making the beds though. Especially at inappropriate times, like when my sims are trying to sleep in the bed. She'll walk up to the bed with sleeping sim in it and just stand there making confused faces for awhile, then she'll go away. The first time I noticed it she was looming over a sleeping sim child and my first thought was "Oh god, pedophile maid? Stupid EAxis!"

[Morigale]

Well, now I'm getting annoyed.

First, if I tell a sim to 'walk to lot' and then switch sims before the popup shows to choose which lot to go to, the currently selected sim tries to leave instead of the sim who I originally told to leave. And since I tend to switch sims every two seconds, I never know who's going where.

Second, the fire dance takes WAY too long to learn. I can't find anything that tells me what skills, if any, make it go faster, but I had a sim who was a little bit under halfway for hunger and tiredness when he started, and I had to cancel the fire dance instructing at halfway because he was about to pass out and/or starve.

Third, I had an old lady sim who was all green in her needs except for about 1/3 down for hygiene, told her to learn to fire dance, and she did ONE TWIRL before quitting to go take a shower. *strangling motions*

[skandelouslala]

skandelouslala-
Something about that doesn't sound right. Please check and see if your computer is attempting to do this connection even when not playing sims. (sitting idle might work)
400+ attempts at connection is more like viral activity, not unheard of with half assed attempts by companies to "phone home" but still , the shear amount is worrying.

Well I've had no more attempts since last night when I quit playing...leading me to believe it has been the game.  I could still be wrong...I don't know much about all this stuff but just the process of deduction...it is only happening when I play the game...leads me to believe it is the game..I dunno though, just my uneducated guess.

To the fire dancing rant...I was not very amused by how long it took either.  Especially for my first vacation taking elders.  I figured they needed something to spend their fortune on so they were the first to go on vacation.  My elder sim whom I had learn, was more or less ready to pass out when she got back to the hotel but had managed to learn. 

I don't mind how expensive everything is...b/c I want my sims to find a way to spend their money.  Hence the beach lots, I love even more b/c they are pretty pricey for lots. 

Does anybody know what happens to vacation homes own by sims once the sim dies?  I'm wondering if another sims inherits them or if they just revert back to "for sale"

[Ness]

I've not been too bothered by the fire dancing - it hasn't seemed to take very long at all for my sim (Maxis traveller sim, no skills).

What's frustrating me is the few vacation memories that I can't seem to get - the album and discovering the treasure - it's just not happening!

[jolrei]

Second, the fire dance takes WAY too long to learn. I can't find anything that tells me what skills, if any, make it go faster, but I had a sim who was a little bit under halfway for hunger and tiredness when he started, and I had to cancel the fire dance instructing at halfway because he was about to pass out and/or starve.

Third, I had an old lady sim who was all green in her needs except for about 1/3 down for hygiene, told her to learn to fire dance, and she did ONE TWIRL before quitting to go take a shower. *strangling motions*

Yeah, you pretty much have to start out with all needs at full, so you have a long time at your disposal to learn it.  I tried it with an adult female just after breakfast, and she managed to learn the dance just as her bladder need hit yellow.  I did have to use the testingcheatsenabled ability to pull the bars back up to get her to finish learning all in one go.  Obviously this is not the ideal solution for those who don't like to play with debug mode on.

[zoebme]

Do you really need to learn the fire dance all the way from the fire dancer? I had an elder sim who started learning and then quit after a while because of his needs. After he was back home in the main hood, he had the want to "learn to fire dance". I was a bit surprised, because there are no firde dancers, but it said to just click on the sim and choose "fire dance". Which worked, and he started practicing. I don't know though whether he'll get any better, because there was no learning bar anymore (I think), but I thought it might worked like other hidden skills.

[Aggie]

I've noticed with learning the dances that you can learn about the skill (as in it appears in the Traveller's Accomplishments section) but when the want appears in your Wants panel, you have to actually master it (as in, pay the fire dancer to teach you the entire thing).

[Zazazu]

in response to issues of dissatisfaction suggesting that the piano is broken again, my Sims using the grand piano in a Pleasantview lot had no problems (creativity and fun running as usual). 

It's not that the fun or creativity isn't rising. It's obscenely quiet. I turned all my sound settings back to max to make sure, and I zoomed in right on the sim playing...could barely hear it. This has happened to me after almost every EP, and whenever they patch and mention fixing the piano bug, it gets fixed. I assumed that was all the bug was. This was the upright, too. Haven't tried the grand yet.

And yay! Another bug. Playing a single sim camping in Three Lakes. She ordered flapjacks for her morning breakfast. Last I checked, flapjacks don't come in a bowl, aren't eaten with chopsticks, and don't look kind of like ramen noodles. Gah! At least she's having a rip-roaring time...keeps commenting on how much she loves it there.

Kind of wish they added some way to cook fish on the grill. Camping + fishing =/= grilled fishy.

[jsalemi]

I hit one maybe-bug.  One of my sims wanted to buy jewelry, so I sent her off to the store (I had already added a jewelry counter thing to it).  She goes, she buys, she leaves the register, but the want doesn't get filled.  ARGH!

[ZiggyDoodle]

Does anybody know what happens to vacation homes own by sims once the sim dies?  I'm wondering if another sims inherits them or if they just revert back to "for sale"

The vacation home passes to 1) the member of the owner's household with the highest lifetime relationship to the owner; 2) the owner's closest married or blood relative; 3) the owner's closest friend; 4) back to the community.

Encountered one major glitch tonight: my Sims had to check out but some dude was glued to the floor in front of the hotel desk.  No way to move him and this went on for 12 Sim hours.  Finally exited without saving, then went back in and checked out the couple immediately. 

I finally got so fed up with the food issues in the game, I added grills, small refrigerators, and trashcans to all the bungalows and cabins.  If your Sim has fish in his/her inventory, it will show up on the grilling menu.

Ness, if by album you mean the photo album, I think your Sim has to order prints and the album off his home computer.  Charge is $45 and it is supposed to be delivered to the Sims home.    Haven't tried it yet...

[Aggie]

Ness, if by album you mean the photo album, I think your Sim has to order prints and the album off his home computer.  Charge is $45 and it is supposed to be delivered to the Sims home.    Haven't tried it yet...

It works; I've done it multiple times. I haven't actually gotten the deliveryperson to hand the album over yet (they've just placed it on the ground), but I suspect this is due to poor lot design on my part.

[Ness]

Kind of wish they added some way to cook fish on the grill. Camping + fishing =/= grilled fishy.

I've had camping sims cook fish they've caught on the grill.  Once the sim had fish in his inventory, the option to cook bass with squash came up on the grill, instead of just hot dogs.

Thanks for the album tip, off to try now.  Should just leave me with the find buried treasure memory as the only one to unlock.

[witch]

OK, I give in, how does one trigger the damn ninja. I've only seen him on two lots and because I answered the question wrong both times, he's vanished. Does he come back again during the same holiday? Does he appear on a different lot? I can't find my damn ninja. HALP!

[Ness]

The ninja is a frustrating little character.  He does reappear, but won't reappear on the same lot until you've been somewhere else.  I found the zen gardens to be one of the best places to get him to appear.

As for the questions he asks...  ARRGGHH!!

I had the know self/know enemy one twice, and both answers were wrong.  I got the wisdom/courage one wrong repeatedly.  I'm not sure if there's a random correct answer each time, or whether there are some questions that have no correct answer and only some questions that have a correct answer.  Make sense?

[J. M. Pescado]

What's frustrating me is the few vacation memories that I can't seem to get - the album and discovering the treasure - it's just not happening!

Treasure's easy. You don't even need to go on vacation for that. Click on Macro -> Dig For Stuff. Right now, you have to be on ground floor for this to work, or an existing hole must be present. This will get a fix soon. It doesn't really take THAT long, but it *IS* random...on the other hand, it's also fire and forget now, heh.

[witch]

Cheers for that Ness, I've found him twice on the Lucky Shrine lot and once somewhere else, don't think it was the Zen Garden though. Damn, so the answers may vary? I figured I had a bank of at least two correct answers, after getting it wrong twice.

[Ness]

I did discover the dig for stuff macro - and was disappointed when I discovered that you can't dig with snow on the ground!

Witch, I got it once with selecting ninja on the which comes first - the ninja or the sword question, and I got a correct answer again on another question, but I can't for the life of me remember what the question was, let alone remember which answer!

When I was seeking him out, I'd have my vacationers constantly walk between the shrine and the zen gardens lots...  walk to lot, answer question, lose ninja, walk to new lot... rinse and repeat.

[kuronue]

Wait, is this ninja like the genie from TS1? the one who loved to be sadistic and ask "fire or water", and if you answer the former he sets your house on fire, but if you answer the latter he floods it?

[Ness]

He doesn't actually do anything if you get the wrong answer - he just calls you stupid and vanishes.  If you get the right answer, he teaches you to teleport. 

Pescado, did you see my thread about bigfoot and his problem with BUY?

[Aggie]

The problem I have with that wretched ninja is catching the little fucker! He seems to teleport in and stays only for about three seconds before he's gone again, so if my Sim is at the other end of the lot, there'll be no chance of catching him. I've seem him about ten times and only caught him twice. The first time he asked me which came first: the ninja or the sword (I said sword and got it right), but the second time was with an elder Sim who runs slower than some Sims shuffle and he asked me if it's better to know yourself or your enemy. I said self and he disagreed. Bastard! 

Oh, and Witch, this may just be superstition, but I just ask the tour guide What's Cool Here, and as soon as he mentions the ninja, I immediately go to another lot and within a very short period of time, he appears. It's catching the guy that I haven't gotten the hang of yet. Maybe this will work for you.

Still no confirmation on the eggplant juice? I seem to recall a patch EA released that said it would ensure that skills earned from drinking it would be properly credited and I'm thinking Bon Voyage may have broken that fix.

[sloppyhousewife]

As for the maids: they're lazy slobs in my game. On Twikki Island, they cleared a plate after it's been there for over 2 days, the bed wasn't made ever. This was when I played w/o any hacks. In Far East, they didn't even clear the plate (now with DC installed). Haven't checked Three Lakes so far, because I try to avoid Yeti area as long as possible.

Fire Dance: I think it's quite realistic that it takes a little to learn it, I actually wouldn't like to learn it faster. But maybe that's just me.

I hit one maybe-bug.  One of my sims wanted to buy jewelry, so I sent her off to the store (I had already added a jewelry counter thing to it).  She goes, she buys, she leaves the register, but the want doesn't get filled.  ARGH!

I had the want fulfilled when buying jewelry, but that was on vacation. Did you add the counter to a store in your normal neighborhood?

[eevilcat]

Kind of wish they added some way to cook fish on the grill. Camping + fishing =/= grilled fishy.

Unless they've changed something with BV, you'll need a surface to prepare your fish before it goes on the grill. No suitable surface = no option available to cook it.

[witch]

Ness, yeah, I've been going back and forth to the most open lots for the ninja. I've not seen him at night at all. I'll try DJ's suggestion of asking the tour guide. I got a wrong answer on the ninja or the sword - and I answered ninja too.

I have to make my sim stand in the middle of the lot and procrastinate - if she's doing Tai Chi or something the animation doesn't break in time to catch him.