More Awesome Than You!

I recently installed BV, and I've had a couple odd occurrences. Not sure yet if they're one-time glitches, new features, or a sign of bad things. But I found them mildly amusing.

The least suspicious or amusing, but somewhat annoying: children/teens bringing friends home from school can now draw from the tourist pool as well. I noticed a couple new kids showing up who didn't look familiar (they weren't Marsha, Chloe, Orlando, or Ricky.) I thought nothing of it, until I tried to call them, and noticed the option to invite over for three days. Similar thing happens with the gypsy matchmaker: she keeps hooking my sims up with masseuses from the vacation hoods.

Speaking of the gypsy, I noticed her do something weird. One of my sims was partying downtown with his date at a karaoke bar. The gypsy walks onto the lot... and rings the doorbell. Hunh? I had the sim greet her to see if she was there for a special reason, but no; she just showed up in case he wanted anything. Does she always ring the doorbell on commercial lots? For that matter, why didn't she ring the doorbell when she visited the same sim at home?

Here's something that may be a new feature: you can get a child townie to show up at any hour of the night, even if they aren't friends, by crank calling them. They don't turn tail and run immediately because it's past curfew, either. They follow ordinary visitor rules, leaving when one of their needs drops too low. This is probably because EAxis didn't think through the crank call code very carefully. If a sim crank calls an adult, the adult shows up, bursts into the house, and yells at a random member of the house. Children can't yell at another sim, normally, so they just show up on the lot and stand around, waiting to be greeted. I've been exploiting this to experiment with turning children into family enemies.

Now, for the really weird one: I wanted one teen to attempt to play with a recently-met visitor (and be rejected: I was aiming to fulfill a fear, not a want.) No play options were available yet, but another teen had the "influence to play with..." option, so I used that on the first teen. That teen then decided to tell the far-eastern tale. That would be weird all by itself, but this teen hasn't been on a vacation, hasn't heard the far-eastern tale, and doesn't have the scroll (only thing in inventory is the potion they get when they age from child to teen.) I know a lot of the vacation behaviors are aggressively viral, but this is just going too far.

Get antivacationactions.package from the Awesome director's cut.  This should stop the viral spread of vacation actions, like the far-eastern tale (until someone in the 'hood actually has a scroll and starts spreading the story around).

If your sim knows another sim who has been on vacation and heard the tale, that may be why he is able to tell it.

Nope. As I said, the sim has not heard the tale. In fact, I had just sent another couple on a far-eastern vacation and only one of them got the scroll, so I tested whether the tale was available after hearing the legend from another sim, and it doesn't seem to be. So it *shouldn't* be viral, and this teen should not have been able to tell the tale at all. It's not the viral behaviors that I'm worried about, but sims being able to do actions that aren't supposed to be viral.

I don't think this is necessarily a sign of borkage, at least not more than the usual EAxian amount.  Sims under influence have access to interactions normally restricted to them, like high-rel socials.  They've always been able to do this since Uni, as long as the influence suggestion was accepted.  In one of my 'hoods I developed a greek house where the members would exclusively influence outrageous flirt or irritate interactions among their visitors.  :D  It's random whether a sim under influence chooses an interaction normally available to him or not.

It's interesting that the vacation actions are also available this way.

As for the crank calls, in my game only very mean sims can send crank calls.  This isn't a new interaction, and my nicer sims in BV still don't have it as an option.  I don't know why you can only call children.  SimPescado in my 'hood can crank call anyone he knows.  They come over at any time of day or night, and stay until he orders them to leave.  He does it whenever he needs some social in the middle of the night.  :D

No, I wasn't saying I could only call children. I was saying that crank calls appear to be an easy way around the curfew restrictions on children. The sim I was using is mean (no mystery there) and has crank called adults, too. I'm just focusing on crank calling children right now.

I was aware that Influence allows access to normally-accessible actions. That's why I tried it: Play was inaccessible, so I had another sim influence the first to play with the target. What's weird is that the far-eastern tale should have been impossible, not just inaccessible, and it shouldn't be a play interaction, anyways. It's just weird.

Another odd thing I've seen: I recall Hang Out as being restricted to teens/YAs before, although adults could join a hang-out session in progress. Now, adults can autonomously hang out with each other. Strange. Not b0rkage, since it appears in the pie menu. But why did they change that?

I wonder if elders can hang out?

Children can hangout in Freetime. I don't recall seeing that before.

Children through adult could hang out at least since Seasons, maybe even before with Pets or OFB?  I can't say I remember seeing elders with the option, but probably they have it as an option, too.  It's convenient for getting sims to stay put and raise rel score a little if you tire of watching the military efficiency of autosoc, because the interaction doesn't quit at the first negative comment the way chat does. 

Who knows why EAxis expands certain useless features, while borking the ones we'd use?

P.S. Why is this thread in Peasantry, talysman?  This area is usually for creations offered by the commoners.  ???

She's been doing this in my 'hoods for a couple of EPs now - at least since Seasons and possibly back in ZOMGPetz! as well. Who the frick rings a doorbell at a nightclub? And what the frick nightclub has a doorbell?! Around the same time she started that lameassery, I also noticed that my sims' guests had completely forgotten how to ring doorbells on residential lots. Aside from the welcome wagon, everyone who comes over will just wander towards the mailbox and just sort of wait to be noticed. If the inviting sim is outside, the visitor may amble towards them in hopes of being greeted, but once that welcome wagon's come and gone, the doorbell is never used again. Poor, cobwebby doorbell.

Good question.

A mistake. I thought I was in Podium. In fact, since I looked for a forum with threads which were similar (comments about things in game,) I still swear I was in Podium. It's been so long since I've added any comments to threads in Peasantry, I can't even remember if I ever have.

My Visitors still ring the Doorbell sometimes. But mostly invite themselves, shy Sims do it also. Before they have never done this.

For some reason, this is what happens after you throw a party on the lot. Prior to party,  Sims who will wait for you to admit them will ring the doorbell. Post-party, no visitor will ring the doorbell.

Now i am glad i never trow a Party because tey are useless.

Gah, that is lame. Typical of EA's sloppy coding, though. I'm guessing that once it's set that "go right on in" thingy for the party guests it never unsets it or whatever for the lot. At least there's a reason - thanks for the explanation! It's been really bugging me, trying to figure out the why.

I noticed the doorbell-ringing did stop for certain sims, but didn't connect it to having a party. Probably because I was throwing parties in practically every house that wasn't "quarantined".

The "teens bring home tourists" feature has caused further spread of vacation behaviors. I haven't even used the mountain vacation yet, but a couple mountain teens have come home from school with teens I'm playing. As a result, they've learned the chest-pounding gesture. As I said, I don't mind this part of the viral behavior. Hey, it means they can fulfill vacation goals before they even leave on vacation! Ah, if only ninja teleport were viral! (Yes, I know there's a hack that allows sims to teach teleport.)

Gypsy showed up and rang the bell at the Crypt o Night Club  in downtown for me.  Thought it was weird and she wouldn't leave even after I told her to.

After installing free time I noticed new stores, places to go and a graveyard in the down town area.

The graveyard's been Downtown since NL came out.

Talking about BV, does anyone know of a hack to stop Eaxis from taking vacation pals out of the bed at 4 AM?
I send Sims on vacation only to fill up those stupid mementos and am very happy to do it the quickiest. So, I would like them to SLEEP in the meantime.
Thanks.

Is there any point in getting all the mementos?  I thought there was no reward for it, so I have not bothered to try to fulfill them.  If I think the tea ceremony would add to the story, I let them have tea.  Likewise buying local souvenirs, but I don't ever do it to fill a memento slot.

Nope, no reward. I spent forever to guess and collect all of them when BV had just come out, and nothing happend.

I think it's just a roadmap. For example, if you hadn't heard about people learning ninja teleport, didn't get the random fortune cookie about ninjas from the tourguide, and never tried to click on the ninja, you might not know you could learn anything from the ninja. The mementos makes it clear you can. Same with the secret lots; the mementos make it clear that there *are* secret lots to unlock.

Also, if you *think* you've unlocked a memento, but haven't, the mementos suitcase makes it clear you haven't. Just had this happen: sims on island vacation met the pirate, sang the chanty, but didn't have the "learned sea chanty" memento, so I had them go back to the lot.

In other news, Twikki Island seems to be the most b0rken when it comes to learning gestures. The locals won't spontaneously gesture very often, compared to locals for the other vacation spots. It took about four or five days for one of the locals to try the gesture on my sims, compared to the far east, where all my sisms learn to bow on the first day, or the mountains, where it took two or three days to find a local who would spontaneously chest-pound.

And actually, I don't think it was even a local who taught my sims to hang loose. I think it was a tourist. Locals love the non-playable tourists too much.

Yeah.  I noticed that about Twikkii (wasn't that the stupid robot in Buck Rogers?).  In the end I made one of the locals selectable and forced him to teach the gesture.

Twiki!

(http://i251.photobucket.com/albums/gg286/pickles_pirate/twiki2.jpg)
Voiced by Mel Blanc.


By the way, that show is awesome.

I feel compelled to add a "Bidi Bidi" at this point.

*goes back to lurking*

I was a regular watcher when it first came out and I was 13 or 14...er...12.  But I still hated the robot.

The mementos do absolutely nothing and I just lost my time to gather them to observe how they work.
My friend had made all of them automatically unlocked by other reasons. I was just testing to help him to know what to dah... screw up!
But it doesn't answer my question - anyone knows how to stop vacation pal from waking up in the middle of the night?
I hate 4 AM. This is the time of the middle of the night no one should be awaken, much less to wake up in a so stupid time point.

I can't imagine the tedium of taking a noncontrollable sim on vacation. With controllables, at least in Takemizu, there isn't really any reason to sleep at all. Among the "shiatsu" massages, tai chi & espresso, your sim can easily stay awake 24 hrs/day and not waste money sleeping away their holiday. Of course, that makes paying for a room to sleep in a little silly, but at least that gives them a place to get the 'ordered room service' item ticked off the list.

This may be part of a known issue where vacation guests do not sleep properly - part of maxis codes.  Apparently, if their energy is low enough, the controllable sim can tell them to "come to bed", but the game tends to do a "vacation guest protect" thing and replenishes energy levels, presumeably to stop them peeing themselves and passing out in their own urine.  Even if you can get them to sleep in a bed, I'm not sure how you make it so they don't wake up again in the middle of the night.

Reference: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9523.msg273269.html#msg273269

I only tried taking a visitor on vacation once. She mostly just stayed in the hot springs, so I sent the controllable off on his own. Never saw the "wake up at 4 am" thing.

The problem was that I'm trying to use BV on a totally different way. I don't send anyone over there to make holidays but to have a second house. Some of my hoods don't have beaches so I buy a second home for my Sims on the beach. If you build the house in one of the OFB subhoods, they are forced to Move in. In Vacation Lots, you can have a second house without necessarily live in it.
The mementos are only sort of curiosity for me. Why would someone add 45 tokens to the game that have absolutely no function?
One from two - someone requested (???) or there's the intention to use those tokens in possible future EPs and connect interactions that will force you to BUY BV.
Well, if I'm wrong in both theories, I can have good use for those tokens.
Back to the waking up 4 AM. Besides this stupid bug, the game does not speed up anymore while Sims are sleeping. So, I spend the night time having to observe vacationists dancing hula on my camping places. Well, I had to take advantage of this bore and them I started to change appearance of the vacationists in the meantime. It is very useful to add hats, sunglasses, etc on the superfluous Sims. I wished I could self change their clothing too. It is really a limitation that you have to move a Sim in to be able to change their clothes. Most of them are unproperly dressed for the hood they visit. One of my vacationists was using Fur Coat on a Tropic hood.

This is why many of us installed the empty BV templates and generated locals with moar appropriate clothing. Fur coat in tropics is just too facepalmish for words.

I have empty templates for every EP but recently I had to reinstall the game because one of the computer poofed and had to be replaced. Even when I replace all the templates by empty ones BEFORE the game is even launched for the first time, go to the installed hoods and make a complete clean up on all fields, there's somewhere a darned thing that reconstruct the original characters at the minimun slide. So, I got PleasantView with all the flatted noses in spite of all my measures.
I just used SimPe and simsurgeried everybody with the very same model. So, everybody got exactly the same look.
I have a prepared hood I downloaded that was exactly what I wanted, but I'm stubborn and like to lose my time. :(
I'm going to delete it anyway. So, I use it for tests meanwhile.

edalbformat, to keep the Pleasantview townies from spawning in your custom/empty hoods, you need to rename the C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001 folder to something else, like N001-bak. This step is included in Jordi's custom hood tutorial instructions.

It can be named N001 at all other times. I prefer to keep it that way so that I can generate a clean Pleasantview for testing purposes. I just rename it right before I generate a new neighborhood, and then change the name back after the hood has been created.