More Awesome Than You!

Right now I have a sim on holiday in Three Lakes, and like the vacationer before her, she's staying at the campground. And as with the previous vacation, when the locals come by and attempt to fish, they keep going through the whole bait/cast routine, only to whip their rods right back into their butt-pockets. Remove rod again, re-bait, re-cast, immediately re-stash in ass-cupboard. It's happening for every local, whether they attempt to fish alone or en masse. Bigfoot, however, has no trouble fishing at his little vista (nor does the Dragon Legend Dude over in Takemizu).

This also happened on a home lot between vacations when a townie was invited over and did the cast-n-stash polka a few times at the playable's pond. However, the next townie guest was able to fish without incident. Still, back on holiday, and the problem has again arisen. Playables are able to fish at home and on holiday without incident.

All EPs installed, plus all SPs but TSS, KB, & IKEA. Only hack installed I can think of that might be related - even if only tangentially - is fishandharvestfix.

Any ideas what's going on here?

No, but I can second it. I have a couple Greek houses with ponds, and I think I've been seeing the same behavior from visitors. I haven't bothered trying with a clean game yet to see if it's hack-related, though.

What are your sims' moods and personalities like?

I noticed (with my poverty challenge house, where moods are usually bad) that if the fun is below about half, sims will do the stop/start thing when fishing.  If I got the mood just above half (and all other needs weren't bottomed out) then they'd fish steadily and their fun would go up.

It also seems like my very active/playful sims (who burn through their fun reserves very quickly) are more snooty about fishing.   

This is occurring right from the start of the "local shift change" when a new batch of locals arrives at the lot. Anywhere from one to half of them, each time there's a shift change, will walk straight to the pond and begin the bait/cast/stash dance. Personalities vary (I made 'em myself). Don't know where their fun meter is when this dance begins, but I'll take a peek the next time I see it happen.

This does not happen in my game if a playable is fishing and asks townies to join.  They all seem to fish like mad then.  Perhaps it's just autonomous fishing.  My townies do not seem to autonomously fish that much.

A logical guess, but on the one home lot where a visiting townie did this dance (first autonomously and then again when asked to join), the next townie guest finished eating, walked outside, and started fishing on her own with no encouragement or difficulty. Bigfoot and Dragon Legend Dude also have no trouble fishing autonomously, but I suspect they're coded differently anyway.

I think in my case it's mostly been autonomous fishing that is problematic, primarily the cheerleader. But since I have yet to really examine it in the game, my case is anecdotal at best.


(PS - Liz, I finally realized how I knew your signature quote... it's been nagging me for days. You quote Cordelia, I quote Xander. :) )