More Awesome Than You!

My toddlers are driving me mad. I don't know what's changed in my game but previously my toddlers were quite happy to autonomously play with the toys provided for them and only occasionally went to harrass the adults in the household. I always played with nobabyharrassment, but not the baby controller.

Now suddenly my toddlers seem to be obsessed with 'following' their parents around the house. Everytime I cancel the action it just comes back and they will only play with the toys if I literally lock them in the nursery. I've tried replacing nobabyharrassment with TJ's nobabytoddlerswarming in case this helped but it didn't.

Since my playstyle involves allowing sims to choose what skills they learn I hate having to direct them into using a specific toy, but this follow thing is driving me insane. I'm sure it never used to happen. Does anyone know how to stop it?

Install and deploy the baby controller. Problem solved. Otherwise, use APO to lock the nursery against babies so that they are unable to leave without impeding anyone else from entering or leaving as needed. We are not interested in creating a product to address an already resolved issue merely because you refuse to use the existing solutions. All Sivanys suck.

Heh ok I guess I asked for that. I didn't think of APO, I shall start using it immediately on nurserys. I guess my toddlers are doomed to not see any other parts of the house until they become children.

What was really puzzling me was why this had only just started happening. As I said previously they didn't have this obsession with following their parents around and rarely did it. I was wondering if I was the only one or if FT somehow altered this behaviour (unlikely, I know, since no one else here as mentioned this, I suppose it could be a weird hack conflict instead).

I doubt it. More like it's EAxian autonomy stupidity. Why would toddlers NEED to see any other part of the house? It's not like any other objects are even toddler interactable.

I keep toddlers in the barracks section, preferably on an upper floor of the house.  This secludes them nicely from adult sims who have other things to do downstairs.  They are very happy to chew on their crayons and pull the ears off the pink bunny all day then.

I keep them on the viewing deck where I can see them! No hiding! Ceiling Cat is watching you!

I've been letting my toddlers have free will since I installed FT, as I don't want them maxing out their skills too young.  I've also noticed the follow obsession, but since my toddlers haven't had free will since pre-NL, I can't tell if FT increased it.

One of my neighbourhoods is made up only of beach lots.  I was surprised one day when a toddler went outside and started eating sand.  He wasn't hungry, he just decided to toddle past all his toys, head outside past the adults (who were all out on the beach), and decided to see what sand tasted like.  I hadn't seen that interaction before.

Usually toddlers are either in a baby-gated & locked play area or on a different floor from the other sims. They can pine all they want, but mom & dad are busy making more babies. In pet households, the cats and dogs allow themselves to be squeeze half to death. That keeps them happy.

In my mega-lot, with 12 sims, three of whom just stopped being toddlers, they rarely had a moment to pine or skill. They were being fussed over 24/7.

I only notice "Follow" (or "Ask to Be Read to") popping up when the toddler is dead tired and no adult is immediately available to put the kid in the crib. Of course, since I *do* use the baby controller, it may be squelching excessive following. The downside is that, if the toddler isn't about to pass out, I have to keep cancelling toy interactions or turn off the controller in order to do anything else, like fulfill a bunch of wants immediately before grow-up. It's all a matter of trade-offs.

Honestly, I'm not seeing the point of giving toddlers free will at all, it's not like they have anything to DO. The alternative to skilling is to just sit there and do nothing. Or scream obnoxiously. That just makes me inclined to want to murder them. The problem with the "follow" nonsense is that there is no corresponding countermove, "kick", like there is in real life. In real life, this doesn't happen because kids that follow around underfoot all the time get kicked. Usually after intercepting a few boots, they get the hint. A stiff regimen of beatings quickly teaches them that attention is a bad thing.

I think FT did increase it. If you let them follow, and sit around next to their parents (which is all they do usually when they get there), the toddlers gain enthusiasm for whatever the parents are doing (dunno if that includes woohoo or not). As enthusiasm is a FT thing, the extra following probably is too. I still enjoy watching my toddlers dance and you can't have that without freewill. I'm easily entertained however.

I can click on a stereo and direct a toddler to dance. Not sure about instruments...I don't have many of them in play, and have just seen a toddler dance to a piano once or twice.
Screaming toddlers. Wolves, who are more attracted to lots with young spawn. I can practically smell the "Dingo Ate My Baby" hack now.

There's the doll's house or the toy box for them to amuse themselves with.  I really don't mind if they don't get 8 skillpoints in creativity, mechanical, charisma and/or logic as toddlers.  In fact I prefer it if they don't.

I used the baby controller for a few years in my game, and then had my simkids skilling away to get 9 or 10 scholarships.  It makes for a boring game when every sim is maxed out in skills, every sim graduates with 4.0 GPA, and every sim hits the top of their careers too easily (even with harder jobs).

I no longer supernuke my toddlers.  Well, I do for as long as it takes to potty train them, then I force an error on them to remove the smartmilk effect.

I give them a reasonably well-equipped nursery with doll's house, toy box and a range of skilling toys, and I let them have free will.  Once they've passed the toddler stage they only skill if they want to earn a skillpoint, want to get a promotion and the skillpoint is required, or if they autonomously do a skilling activity.

Can't you just lot debugger them to make them stupid?

"Follow"obsession seems not only toddlers related problem.Attracted sim sometimes or mainly even more stupid animals than toddler.For examle "4 zits attraction"is most annoying thing that I ever seen in game.

It's actually 3 bolts. There is no 4. The icon being so small doesn't help, and a lot of simmers imagine it is 4 instead. But yes, I'm right there with you. At some points, the following behavior can have a creepy stalker overtone. I'm thinking specifically of sims following their target while the target is asleep. Reminds me of this roommate I had for a few months. I'd wake up in the middle of the night and she would be standing over me, staring at me. Very creepy.

Mine usually get two skilling toys or the activity table, plus a teddy bear. Thank ?TJ? for that hack that stops autonomously talking through the teddy bear.  I usually don't give them the toybox as it can get unmanageable in large homes with multiple messy children.

I have more trouble with Sims who insist on stalking their loved one in defiance of the need to eat, sleep and pee than with toddlers "following" their parents.  It's an annoyance, but on the scale of annoyances it's at max maybe a 4.  My Sims do about 90% of their living on the ground floor, where the nursery is.  At the Legacy house, there are two snaps in the nursery, too, which means the babies and toddlers practically never need to eat or pee.  They do scream to be let out of their cribs when they wake up, but my Servos are smart enough to go do that right away.

What I AM sick of is adults carrying the toddler upstairs to Bathe Toddler when the Toddler is not dirty!  Hygiene 85-95% full, and still they have to carry them upstairs to the bathtub.  Cancel the action, and the kiddo is trapped up there. 

I've kind of been getting a kick lately out of playing the toddlers to Ask For Attention or Ask For Food and see if the adults have a clue what the kid wants.  Is there a challenge that involves toddlers and never playing the adult--just the kid to Ask For stuff?

PB

You know, it's occurred to me that I haven't seen a wolf (and rarely a stray) since I installed FT.  The skunk comes around all the time, as does the penguin.  I've been playing the Desiderata hood, though, and I'm wondering if Pesc's hack to cut down on strays being spawned has something to do with it....

Same here. Not even howling at night. Maybe I need to plop down a Wolf Attraction sign...

My toddlers only follow when their motives are too low to continue to skilling but the baby controller hasn't directed anyone to do anything about it.


I fixed that by just not having any bathtubs until I need one, then selling it after it was used. Then I got nobabyharassment and the problem stopped.

A lot of times I add a 2x2 'bath closet' to the nursery and stick a tub in it; if a sim gets an irresistible urge to bathe a toddler, they'll usually go for that one instead of dragging the kid all over the lot.

I grabbed a toddler bed and eating station off MTS2 so the little ankle biters take care of themselves. Only need help when they shit themselves, but I potty train them early to stop that.

Then, they have free will. Except in Autumn, then they skill.

That's a good idea.  I absolutely would do that if there was room.  I don't think there is, but I'll check.

PB

Same. I removed Wolfwatchers from DC and all is fine again, they prowlz my hoods and everyone wants to be friends with Kirby.

I loaded petz after I had FT, and have never had a stray or a wolf at all.  I also get the skunk - have not seen the penguin yet.  I'll try removing wolfwatchers and see what happens.

No wolf yet for me, or penguin, but I'm getting more strays than skunks.

As for toddler bathing, it varies from house to house. One has no tub on first floor. Onee has a tub in a nearby room. Most have a tub in the first-floor bathroom.

Inge at Simlogical has a hack that allows toddlers to get out of their cribs autonomously. I'm not altogether sure, but they may need to be able to walk first. Either that or it's dependent on personality - a very few of my toddlers won't do it.

I think it's based on the lazy/active level of the toddler, but yea, that's a very handy hack.

As for my no-wolf/stray issue, I took out nostrayrespawn last night before playing Desiderata, and immediately got strays on the first lot I played.  Didn't see a wolf until I used the NPC spawner on the mailbox to spawn one, but now there's one in the hood at least.  So I guess nostrayrespawn keeps any strays or wolves from spawning in a new hood. Now that I have some, I can put nostrayrespawn back in.

Excellent strategy!  Glad I thought of it.  :-[  I will try this.

I've only have up to Seasons, but my toddlers were always bent on following, since the base game time - the only autonomous thing they would ever do after I hack-protected crappers against them (although neglected toddlers override that restriction). If a target is on another floor and there's a fishtank nearby, they'd at least go and gawk at it, if no fishtank - nothing. Just would sit and think of the stairs.

How I handle them, depends if I'm playing out some scenario or just killing time. If the latter, just lock the little bugger in the small room with floor blanket, a couple of snapdragons and a rabbit head and you can forget about it until its birthday. And nobabyharrassment is a must in any case. Arguably one of the most necessary hacks ever.

That's a good side effect for my 'hood-in-building. There aren't supposed to be any plants or animals on the mainland. No life, period. I'm going to set the visitor controller to ban all critters, but not having those character files will be nice. Right now, absolutely everyone is banned (no bills, not that it matters), though somehow the gypsy still showed up to drop off a lamp. No one was over 6 points in enthusiasm and no one had a LTA bar even a fourth full or was permaplat.  ::)

In Teardrop Isle, without having wolfwatchers at any point, I do get wolves on lots. Like with the other EP setups, wolves are more likely to show up on heavily treed lots, and I've definitely noticed that in play. I only have two stray pets left, which I need to get adopted into families or given to the pound, but the suckers never show up when someone is on the lot. Stupid tiny jack russell terrier and overgrown chihuahua thing!

Can't you also adopt strays via the tele-ma-phone? If you're tired of waiting for them...

I'm not sure if the pool of pets on the phone is the same as the pool of strays that wander lots. Maybe if you exhaust the pool on the phone, it gets filled with the strays?

I wasn't sure. I rarely do pets. I have it installed for the Space Theme furniture for the kiddos.

They are not the same pool. However, the dragooning of strays occurs if you have a piece of Awesomeware installed, nostrayrespawn. If you try to adopt pets and the adoption pool has been depleted, nostrayrespawn causes the game to start catching strays to offer prospective pet-adopters.

Ah, I knew there was more than one reason I kept nostrayrespawn in my game. :)

Well, that's nice. I have quite a few pets in the adoption pool at the moment (mostly kittens/cats and puppies, as Terrence has depleted all of the adoptable dogs, I believe). I want the strays gone the long way as it is part of the mayor's animal control initiative. All strays adopted/turned in, then I'm banning wolves.

I thought they only did it if 1) they can walk and 2) their Fun bar was really low.  I'm pretty sure that they need to have learned how to walk already, but my guess about the Fun need is just blind speculation.  That's what I've noticed anyway.

The Maxis default is to allow toddlers who have learned to walk to escape from their cribs.  Inge's hack allows all toddlers to do this.

I was just noticing last night that I hadn't seen any stray animals in a long time - thanks to the mod - but I rather prefer it that way. Seeing strays on the sidewalk, especially when they're dumb enough to pass by when it's raining, guilts me into letting my sims befriend them. No strays, no guilt! I've also noticed, though, that three different wolves have spawned, one leader of the pack and two others. But this is also fine with me, as I like the wolves better than any of the Maxis dogs. Now, if they'd just eat the misplaced double bed on my apocalypse lot so I don't have to cheat and move it, myself and leave the damn cheapest trash can alone...

My toddlers follow their parents a lot, as well, but it hasn't been too annoying. Of course, I made it a bit worse on myself by finding a hack on MTS2 that lets toddlers walk up and down stairs. I got it for the reason professorbutters mentioned: when a bigger sim drags it off for whatever reason and leaves it marooned on a different floor from all its stuff. I prefer to use the toddler blanket or Rebekah's one-tile crib (with the added functions that all toddlers can get in and out, alone) and MsBarrow's feeding bowl. With sleep and eating autonomous, there's nothing to pay attention to toddlers for but aspiration boosts. Success!

I always wondered, because I never see any wolves, if you have the clean templates and nostrayrespawn... do you have to manually summon a Leader of the Pack?

Or do I just need to place some trees on my lots?

I couldn't figure that out.  In the end I created a few wolves and a Leader of the Pack (two actually, by mistake) out of sheer impatience.  One of them ate Jfade's sofa.  I'm leaving nostrayrespawn out for a bit, until some strays actually spawn.  Then I can reinstall.

Still haven't seen a penguin.  I must get moar fishes.

I've seen penguins. Let your sims build snowmens.

Is there a safe way to summon LotP? I vaguely remember something about using boolprop is a Bad Idea, or is that only in neighborhoods that don't use the templates and should already have a LotP? My mind is making the connection that boolprop make LotP is along the same lines as using boolprop to give a sim an alien pregnancy. Bad mojo.

I really don't know what's bringing my wolves. It's an apocalypse lot on dirt terrain - no trees, no bushes, no pond. When the leader of the pack showed up, there was only my founder living there. He just came over and started digging a hole in the far corner. The other two came around before any kids were born.

I didn't use the cleaned-up templates when I installed the game on this laptop.

I use clean templates as well as the anti townie, dormie, and stray respawn hacks. My new 'hood spawned a white wolf (not LotP) night before last. I haven't gotten any other strays, and no townies or vacationers have spawned. I only have 19 townies and no vacation goers or locals.

The penguin is over all the time in this 'hood. No fishies and no snowmen. Winter only had a light dusting.

Well, apart from the eaten sofa, and the fact that the wolves all seem to hate each other and fight constantly, there does not seem to be any borkage from my create LotP actions.  Mind you, time will tell, no doubt.

Beancounters is plagued by penguins - no idea why. Maybe someone smells of fish.

Do they have any fish/boots up on display?

I created mine with the NPC creator on the mailbox, and no problems that I've seen.

Not in the house, not. There are fish on display in the fish museum on one of their community lots. Currently the family owns 6 businesses and 3 vacation homes as well as the regular house.

Can sims become slum landlords in AL?

According to L&P, the landlord is an NPC, and apartments, like hotels, cannot be owned. There is, however, a landlord mod at MTS2. I couldn't give you a link, though.

I've been thinking of how I'm going to work with the stupid NPC Landlord thing. It works perfectly as-is for Silent Crossing. For my informal non-written 'hood I'm thinking that it will be an intermediary for some mogul or another. The townies there don't age; they are absorbed. For Teardrop Isle, I'm not sure. Theoretically, we could use sim surgery and rename it to have the appearance of a real sim, then do...something...about the money. Familyfund it?

Since FT, I've seen an increase with toddlers following a parent The toddlers were born pre FT and hadn't been so inclined before. Also noticed that veggie gardens seem to need more watering and weeding since FT iwas nstalled. I've had to cut back from 5 or 6 of each plant to 2 or 3 of each. Even with reducing the number of plants, veggie gardens still take more time and attention than before FT.