More Awesome Than You!

I haven't seen anyone else with this problem. My Sim, Wyatt, was just about to advance to the top of the culinary career and fulfill his lifetime aspiration but when his carpool came, he couldn't go to work. Whenever I would select for him to go to work, it would drop out of queue. I had him quit his job and then get another job and he still couldn't go to work so now he cannot have any job. The carpool always comes but he just can't get inside the car. He has a wife and 5 kids. He needs to have a job.

I can't think of any hack that would have caused this as I had pretty much all of them removed after I installed the patch.  I think the only ones I have left is the nowhatsthis and twoJeffs Casual Woohoo.

Have you tried moving him to a different lot? The lot might have become bugged. If so, you'll probably want to raze it to the ground and salt the earth.

I've read about this happening countless numbers of times.  It's my understanding that moving them to another lot fixes the problem.  I agree--I would definitely doze this lot just to be on the safe side.

Yeah, that's the first thing I thought of too but I just moved them from a corrupted lot and everyone else is fine, just him.  I'm going to kill this family if I have to move them yet again. I'll just have him move out and unto another lot and see if it's a lot problem first before I move the entire family.  Damn these pesky Jitmakusols!  >:(

You may have a missing car portal.  Check out this thread for more info and a fix:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=79045
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=83684

And if, like me, you have difficulty understanding how to replace the darn thing, use Crammyboys mod to prevent it happening again, then move you family out, bulldoze, rebuild, move back in and hopefully they can live there safely forever!  (And if they lose a lot of cash on the move out, I'd say it's ok to kaching a few times if necessary! - And if you have NL, buy them the poker table!)

Doesn't the clothing tester thing in the testing cheats also cause this? Did you use that, by any chance?

I thought the original sims2 patch fixes this problem. I had it too in the early days and I didnt know any better and reinstalled..grr. dumb me!

The sims2 patch fixed the clothing tester? I didn't know that. Maybe it's not the problem, then... :P

Im not sure about the clothing tester but it was supposed to fix the no go to work or school problem. Im not sure about the clothing tester. Sorry should have been more clear.

Well I remember having that problem before the Sims 2 patch, and I'd never used any of the boolprop cheats. But the patch fixed it.  (It was certain career levels that just couldn't go to work because the carpool didn't come.  Couldn't have been a portal problem then, as other sims living in the house didn't have the same difficulty!)  At least if you have Nightlife and get them a car, you might be able to get them to drive to work!

Ah. Okay. Thanks for clearing that up.

I haven't had the problem with the carpool since the original game, now that I think about it. I did have an odd problem a few weeks ago. I installed crammyboy's preventative portal hack, and I had the carpool come every hour on the hour all day long. My sims couldn't go to work because they kept popping out of the car. I think he's updated since then (this was a long time ago) because I put it in again (took it out after the hourly carpool issue) and it hasn't done that again. It may not have been to blame in the first place, who knows?

How does a portal get deleted, anyway? I got a dialogue pop up week before last, I think, that said "Warning! A portal has accidentally been deleted! Exit the game without saving!" . I don't remember deleting anything! Does it just randomly disappear?

Read Crammyboy's thread over at MTS2 for a better a better explaination where MaxoidTom was asking about it, and Crammyboy was explaining it to him.  But it sounds like the game is deleting things it shouldn't be as in the instance he describes with a child asking to be read to and it gets canceled out and the game deletes a portal.  Sounds weird, I know, but that was in the list of fixes for NL.

I think some people have actually deleted portals using the move objects cheat..I know for sure the mailbox, and pedestrian. This used to happen all the time in sims1 and I think they do now as well.

Oh, well that's logical... ::)
I can't remember what I was doing when it happened. I didn't delete anything, so it may have been the reading thing.

But how?  I remember the problem in Sims 1 with deleting mailboxes (someone had the neat idea that you wouldn't get bills anymore if you deleted the mailbox-yay! :P). You can see the mailbox but you can't see a portal.  That's why you have to be careful when using Erzengel's replacement portals to get them right the first time you place them because you can't move them once you let go.

Im not sure can you still see them when you are in the cheat mode and are moving near the area (maybe Im still thinking sims one) it used to say pedestrian portal...I would think if you could screw up your mail and garbage then you could theorectically screw the others up if you are in that mode too long. But maybe Im wrong. That reading thing  that could happen-there have been many weird things happening. 

Yeah, I remember something like that in Sims 1, but I haven't heard of anything like that in Sims 2.

If your game is patched, you do not need Crammyboy's fix.  It is confirmed they put it in the patch.  so cancelling a "read to..." at the wrong point doesn't ever delete a portal in a patched game.

If there is a portal problem, it is either a new one, or one we didn't find before.
You can still use Crammyboy's diagnosis tool to see if a portal is missing.
If one is missing you can replace it though it's a little techie.

portal fix and portal prevention..........
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=83684
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=79045

I deleted a portal once in University when it had a kicky bag stuck on it (this was before any of Pescado's or TwoJeff's fixes for that). The portal's are invisible, but you can grab them with moveobjects on. At least I could. I believe it was the second or third sidewalk square in. For some reason, even though there were two portals, one on the left side of the screen and one on the right, they insisted on always using the one on the right and because it was blocked they would never go to class. When I deleted the portal on the right, then they started using the one on the left and I had no problems further with that lot unless you consider always having to exit on the left side of the screen a problem.

If nothing else works for you and you are pulling your hair out of your head you can try turning move objects on and clicking on the first few sidewalk squares on the right or left sides of the screen and deleting one of the portals if you find one. Just make sure there's an alternate one that's available and they are willing to use it before you go saving.

I had a stuck kickybag in my secret society lot bathroom, and I couldn't delete it with moveobjects on because I couldn't see it.  How were you able to do this?  Could you see the kickybag?  Mine was invisible and I couldn't place any objects there because the sims couldn't use them.  I couldn't bulldoze the lot because it was a secret society.  I had to work around it until TwoJeffs released his college adjuster that killed stuck kickybags.  Do you think maybe the portal got deleted as a side effect because the kickybag was attached to it?

I couldn't see the bag or delete it it was the portal I deleted. The one on the right side of the screen. I actually found it by accident. There's nothing when you hover over it, but when I grabbed at the ground on the sidewalk that was about the second or third square in from the edge and had move objects on I could grab the portal and then move it or delete it. So that's when I deleted it. I assume the bag was still there but after that they just exited the portal on the other side of the screen.

Hmm, very interesting.  Well I guess you fixed the problem in an indirect way that worked at the time.

I've had the bug described in the original post. It wasn't a portal (I don't think) as the car arrived properly and left the lot after waiting an hour, but the sim couldn't use it. This was... before the patch. I tried everything I could think of to get the sim in the car... if you paused the game and clicked "go to work" - the action would stay there until the game was unpaused, and then drop out. "Go to work" wouldn't come up autonomously like it's supposed to. Originally, it was just her and the kids could get on the bus, but I believe it spread and eventually no one could leave. I had to move them into another house to fix it.

Iiirc I had never used testing cheats at that time and had no hacks - I don't believer the clothes rack from the cheats had anything to do with it. I've used it since many times and had no problem, although these days I prefer hacks.

I've had the same problem too, in a previous gameplay that was quite a while ago. It happened to 2 sims in 2 different families at the top of the Science career. Getting a new job for the afflicted sims solved the problem for 1 of 2. For the other still afflicted, I moved the family onto a new lot, when that didn't work, I got the sim to change her job again before the problem was fixed. I still don't understand why that happened, nor why getting a new job fixed things for only 1 of them :-\.

It's not a portal issue because the carpool, all carpools and schoolbuses, etc. other transportation, come and leave with no incident.  It's just my one Sim can't get inside and so the carpool drives away after an hour.  Does the lack of a portal account for a Sim not being able to enter the carpool?

And now my game isn't even running because there is a problem with my disk so I suppose this problem is moot now for me.  There are days when I just want to burn these discs in a Nazi-like bonfire.  >:(  I suppose I'll grumble today and try to figure out the disc problem tomorrow or when I have more patience (read: more sugar in my system).

When I first played the sims I had a problem after awhile where the kids were qued to go to school and the other sims to work but when they were almost to the bus and car the icons went away and no matter how hard I tried they would not get on the bus or car.  I thought the original patch had addressed this issue. I havent had it since I got Uni.

I had this a long time ago at Don Lothario's place.  He had married Bella and they had three kids (at least the three of his that were living with him--two were his and Bella's and one Bella had with a townie  ::)).  At some point they developed this problem and I couldn't find any help for it at the time, so I ended up moving them out, bulldozing the lot, importing his condo from another version of pPleasantview, and moving them back in.  I never had the problem recur, and I never found out what caused it.

Hi Nikita

I've had this happen a couple of times - why - I have no idea.  But I fixed it by using move_objects to delete the affected sim.  Exit to the neighbourhood (save the game) and when you go back into the lot the deleted sim is beside the mailbox and should now be quite happy to go to work or school.

Well I had to reinstall anyway because the game wouldn't even start.  My Sim is fine and I just sent him off to work.  And so with this problem fixed, I now have another where the tombstones of the dead are on EVERY LOT.  And to make matters worse, even after I delete them, they reappear when I leave the lot and come back.   ::)  Methinks this is the workings of the patch.

Actually it sounds like a problem with the yellow pee hack by Dukasha. If you have that one and remove it, it should solve the problem.

Actually, I just downloaded that.  Thanks Motoki.  You just saved me from another reinstall.  :)

I have a lot of disappearing portals for some reason.
In one lot I couldn't place the new one where I wanted, so I made a next best guess and the schoolbus ended up dropping the kids off in their bedroom.
It would have been really handy if they didn't have to wait for it to clear and then dash out to the mailbox to check their report card so they could head back in to drop off their homework but these glitches are half the fun of the game I suppose ;)

seriously considering changing my name to glitchgirl

That's funny though.  I wish my bus driver would have dropped me off in my bedroom.  :D  Is their bedroom near the front of the house?

Yep, I really did try to place it where it belonged. Their bedroom is smack dab where a driveway would go if I had nightlife installed. I don't normally build homes this way, but it's on the 2x2 lot and I needed to expand. These guys will never get a car anyway, it's my selective breeding townie replacement lot - where pretty and personable townies are created... heh heh