More Awesome Than You!

Sticks head up cautiously.

Hi all. Sorry first post and all but I did search first and got no answers.

My problem is this. I have all EP's up to BV. None beyond as I am a mac-user. I have a Legacy family with two cars. On one day the job start-times coincided and the car the wife was driving became stuck, greying out buy and build modes.

Her icon is still there with her needs falling rapidly but nothing I have tried unsticks build/buy. She and the car are stuck in the driveway and I just don't know what to do.

Please help.

Please?

Try forcing an error and reseting.

How do I force an error? I know I can do it with a lot debugger but there isn't one on the lot.

Look up the cheat mode code, enter it, then shift click the offending objects/personages and force error.  If you're not running in debug mode, they'll reset automatically.

Also, look up debug mode and start running your game with it on all the time.  It's too buggy not to.

Sorry you can call in the Idiot Police if you like but I don't understand. What cheat mode code? To what do you refer?

Do you mean boolprop? I tried that

So you enabled the testing cheats, yes?  But did you then force an error on the car or your sim (if you can shift-click on her)?

You could always exit without saving.

I  tried boolprop.

No options that can help

1) It is not called boolprop, it is called 'debug mode'

2) Turn on debug mode

3) Shift click on sim, or car, choose 'Force Error'

4) Try choosing 'Reset'

Sorry how to turn on debug mode?

CTRL Shift C

then type:  "boolprop testingCheatsEnabled true" without the quotes, but including the spaces where indicated.  Shift-click (pressing the "shift" key while clicking your left mouse button) on either the car or your sim (or both, if necessary, just not at the same time, duh) and choose the option "force error" then choose "reset"...if that does not work, "delete" will (do not worry, your sim will not go "poof" and vanish).

I figured the poster knew the command as she previously stated 'boolprop' didn't work.

I should start misunderestimating people.

Yes, but then the confusion, so I thought I would spell it all out for the Mrs. simply because I was having a difficult time believing that she had tried "boolprop" but not found any options that could help.  My only other thoughts were that maybe she looked at the multitude of options and panicked, without so much as looking for the "force error" option.  If that is the case, a walkthrough is necessary just to reassure the OP of the fact that she is definitely on the right track.

I did try the boolprop "force error" command.

Nothing happened (as it never seems to with that command)

Never mind. I'll just have to move the family out before the wife dies in the stuck car.

Your doing it wrong.

Why don't you read the fucking advice people give you!

For some reason, my brain escapes me at the moment... if B/B is greyed out, are you still even able to exit the lot? I thought that option vanished during car departure. If you're able to exit without saving in order to move out, is there any point to moving out?

To be sure there's no confusion, once again, the process for entering debug mode:

Hit the Shift, Ctrl, and C keys all together.
This will bring up the 'cheats' window at the top of your screen (the small window, which looks like a search bar).

In this space, type the following: boolProp testingcheatsenabled true
Hit Enter.

You will not see any immediate indication that you've entered debug, but you will now have additional options. One of these will be to "force error" on an object and/or sim.

While holding down the Shift key, use your left mouse button to click on the car.
Look through the menu that pops up until you you see the Force Error option.
Click on it.

This will bring up an error window on your screen. Two of the options will be Reset and Delete.
Select either.

If one of these options does not work, try again, this time selecting the other.
If neither option works on the car, try zooming in until you can click on the sim without clicking on the car.
Force error on the sim instead.

If this process is not working for you, please tell us specifically at which point it "didn't work".

*witch awards Liz a medal

Haha...indeed.  I gave up.  :D

Ooh, shiny medal!
You guys looked a little tanked; figured I'd tap in and take my lumps. ;)

Once you've enabled the testing cheat, shift+click on the car, "force error" and select "reset".  Your sim should pop out of the car and be standing on the sidewalk.  Then shift+click on the car, "force error" and select "delete".  If you don't get rid of her car, the other car will not be able to return.
It's a NL bug that happens when 2 cars are tyring to use the garage door at exactly the same time. 

In order for it not to happen again you're going to either need to make a side by side parking arrangement or have someone park outside the garage. 

(hi everybody! somehow back here and there, out of the little time I have to play or hang out on the net; better greetings and hugs [or kicks/stomps if preferred] later in more appropriated places)

There may be an additional problem for the OP: since she states she's a mac user, for some reason only Aspyr and their gods know, forcing an error on mac version does not work. Neat feature, uhu?

...I could make it work. Who has a Mac and wants to find out?

And I see you seem to have managed to be alive. I was just about to allow your sim to die off in Awesomeland. SHOW UP MOAR!

That's incovenient.
As a Mac user can you still enable the testing cheat?  Errors (in this situation) should pop up all by themselves without having to force them.

Dude, that's what Liz just said. You're just going to confused the already thoroughly confused OP.

No, not exaclty but that's what needs to be done to fix it.
I've had it happen several times.

Doesn't matter anyways, apparently mac users can't force errors.

That would be awesome (needless to say); I may test it in BV (no FT nor AL for us Mac paeons, probably forever).

You know, I was afraid of something like this (my bad, of course). Actually, my boss seems to realize that internet connection at work might be useful sometimes, so I hope I'll can use my spare time at work for - at last! - browsing, reading and posting. During this year I become a crossword expert, sigh.
Next issue could be having that Windows ME connect and properly display sites between a blue screen and the next one... but that's another story.

Yep, "autonomous" errors do pop up regularly in debug mode, but force error does not pop up any window, nor it creates any log file.

Thanks for responses.

Pity you didn't believe me in the first place when I told you force error did not work instead of calling me all sorts of an idiot.

Problem resolved. I resorted to moving the family out.

I could test up to Seasons (no pets).

Well, that's a very nyaah, nyaah, nyaah post. I'm sure you're so very pleased and excited to be proved right.

Basically if something sounds like an idiot, acts like an idiot and looks like an idiot, we have to make a call.

Oh lordy, yes please.  I have EPs up to BV.

To the OP: you were not sufficiently articulate to be believed.  When half a dozen helpful posters ask you to report exactly where force error doesn't work, you didn't.  Instead you blathered about how boolprop didn't do anything.

(Why, oh why, must mac noobs always post like doorknobs?)

I've had this glitch.  I speculate that it happens when the portals get clogged with too many carpools, gardeners, maids, whathaveyou.  At the time, I think I forced the buy/build tools (boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled false) and then deleted the car (moveobjects on).  I subsequently retrieved the spouse with the mailbox, but lost the car.

Macs are specifically marketed to appeal to the computer illiterate and noobtastic. Those who do not fit that profile are the exception. Yay you!

<sigh>  It wasn't always like that.  The first computer case I cracked open was a very dusty old mac...
Computer literacy aside, there is still no reason why owning a mac should lobotomise a person's ability to use w-o-r-d-s?

Wait wait wait....

back up



Doorknobs can post?

The proof is in the pudding. See above.

I still have the mac copy of the game. I could give it a go later.

This doesn't make sense to me.  I have a Mac, and I've certainly done a Force Error in Debug mode (and produced an error log.)  I'll be interested to see what results come up.

The only thing that does not quite seem to work is re-rolling wants.  Whether I use something spawned in Debug (the Sim Modder?) or the Lot Debugger, re-rolling wants only results in the exact same wants being re-rolled.  Otherwise, everything works fine, as far as I know.

If Debug Mode did not work, one would not be able to shift-click on a sim, mailbox, etc., and have the usual options come up, yes?  Then this seems incorrect, because as I said, I have certainly done it in the past.

PB

They're not saying debug mode doesn't work. Just that specifically "Force Error" doesn't.

This is normal. Rerolling wants will not produce any new results unless the conditions that caused the current wants have changed. Wants that roll are determined by a number of seed conditions, so unless your sim does something that would trigger new wants to reroll, nothing is going to change and the same wants will roll up.

Not necessarily as evidenced by the outrageous number of pc-using folks in the sales dept. who keep having to ask us mac-using art dept critters how to add an attachment to an email. *sigh*

The problem isn't what's on the desk, it's between the desk and the chair.

That's really interesting; I've never been able to have a Force Error spawn the window and the subsequent log. Something probably happens, though, as when I click e.g. "Force Error on all" with the batbox the game freezes or lags for a few seconds, even if no visible outcome occurs.
I didn't any extensive test with different combinations of EPs; now I have every damn EP and SP those lazy Aspyr programmers ported for Mac (I was so sick to wait that now I play in my Windows partition, to enjoy all the remaining SPs and at least FT).

Yesterday I tested the "Force Error an all" in Winzozz game... VERY bad idea.

Oh yea, you don't want to do that if you have the testing cheats enabled -- it'll generate thousands of errors as it errors everything in the game.  If you're going to use that one, turn the testing cheats off first, and it'll only error things associated with the lot you're currently playing.

Download this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/spec/macspork.package) and see if it enables force-error to do something on Mac.

Seems to work as advertised, and plays nicely with other Awesomeware.  I didn't really have any scenario that I could bork in a repeatable way, so it's hard to tell.  Random resets on the sim and on working objects always gave Undefined Transition errors, which aren't quite the same as the error logs that are generated from forcing Object Interaction errors off the mailbox.  Probably meaningless.

Diddling around with traffic-jammed portals, I did accidentally produce the borkage in the original post once.  In that case, forcing resets did nothing (except reset everyone else's calls to the portal!), but I was able to force error - delete.  That produced the expected results.

Without the hack, I can confirm that it's impossible to force errors at will on sims or on objects.  Using the mailbox, I can force errors if there is a suitable object that a sim is using.  The game of course does produce errors when there is a real one, but it's not possible for a user to force an error.  I double-checked on an Intel mac, but I recall that my PPC mac behaves the same way.

Canceling a "go someplace" or "go to another lot" or "go home" action once it's started should cause something close to the error the original poster mentioned.  Good enough for testing purposes. 

I'd try it but I don't do Macs.  Spent years trying to ignore a Mac is the "One True Computer" evangelist who was, even without the Mac-fetish, one of the most obnoxious human beings of my acquaintance.   As a result I wouldn't touch a Mac if the only alternative was doing each calculation for the game with pen and paper.  :P

I didn't have any luck re-producing that one fortuitous traffic jam.  My test lot had a couple of carpools stacked with two owned cars -- all 4 sims leaving for work at the same time.  Cancelling one or more of the departing cars after the sim is inside didn't work except that one time.  Mostly, the cars just depart in spite of my cancelling the action.  I do remember that they used to be more likely to get stuck in an NL/OFB game but in my BV game; the portals seem to be better protected now, or something.

I may fiddle around a bit more with pedestrian portals on comm lots, maybe start a fire to clog up the portal...  In any case, I think the hack is at least serviceable as a secondary line of defense, for those few cases where the batbox is not available.

P.S. The One True Computer is dead.  Macs are now merely PCs with a better wardrobe, if it makes you feel any better. ;)

That wouldn't happen if you didn't buy cars for each member.  Or it shouldn't, unless something has changed since the last time I checked it.

And with "walk to lot" buying a car is purely aesthetic now.

But all sims that leave while a carpool exists should get into the same car.  Again, unless it's changed since the last time I tested it.  I could be talking out of my ass, though, I haven't tried that since EP2.

I'm really not sure why carpools exist.  Why can't the sims walk to work (ostensibly, to a bus stop)?

Because then we'd never see all the cool crappy vehicles they made for the game, or be awed annoyed by the hellicopter. 

Before the 'Walk To' feature, I found the cars a nice, rare example of EAxis actually listening to the players for once. Throughout The Sims, players/fans kept begging and begging for drivable cars, and it was a pleasure to see them arrive early in TS2. This was an immense and welcome improvement from constantly needing to call for transportation every time you wanted to hit a different lot (with the exception of Makin' Magic's 'Hole in the Ground', which is orsum).

Having a car/carpool still can provide an actual benefit, as the more expensive cars help boost energy/fun/comfort. This can be a timely boost if you've been attempting to skillinate and/or handle other things before leaving for work. It also helps to offset some of the energy drain your sim loses on, say, a 2-game-hour jaunt to the local convenience store to grab a dog collar/water wiggler/whathaveyer. So while they're largely unnecessary, cars do still at least have their uses.

The helicopter, on the other hand, is kind of cool at first but then just becomes a nuisance, what with all the head-grabbing gnashing and wailing about the noise.

I don't mind the ownable cars, it's the carpools that annoy me.  Mostly because of the incessant honking every five seconds.

And the vehicles for Sims2 aren't nearly as much fun as the ones for Sims 1.  I used to keep Sims stuck in the "Clown" job on the circus career just for the fun of seeing them get into that little clown car.  :lol

In my more "realistic" 'hoods, often the sims have buildings in the 'hood that symbolize where they go to work. And often they aren't very far from it. No one without some sort of ambulatory issue takes a carpool to work when work is only two blocks away.

Are sims allowed to walk to work when their preggers in AL?
That's the main reason why I bother to give cars to a few of my families.  The carpool will not come for expectant sims, but if they own a car they still have the option to drive.  Other than that, I only have one other family who runs an off-site diner, and it's a little easier to round up 3 sims if they go by car than if I send them on foot.


If you read a few posts above the one you quoted, I'm not the OP.  I was testing a hack for the FOJ.  I was trying to bork the portal in a repeatable way, and in fact failed to do so.  Having 3 assigned cars depart/return simultaneously, along with one regular carpool, does not jam the portals very often.  (Unbelievable I know, Maxis may have done something right! :o )  I managed to glitch it one time in 12x2 departures/arrivals, before I got bored. :P

No, I don't think the option appears for pregnant sims to walk to work.

Beggin' your pardon, Miss Emma ;), they will walk to work in the early stages, or my game is kerplunked.

I had a guy get his first bump just as he was walking out to get in the carpool. The icon for the carpool dropped from
his queue. He needed the money for work that day, so I clicked on him to see if he could walk to work and
was overjoyed ( ok, maybe not overjoyed, maybe just pleasantly surprised) :) that he could.

Death to EMMA!

I've never seen that option. ??? My pregnant sims can still drive to work though.

Really?  Mine insist on never leaving the house.

 :D

It is now my mission to get one of my pregnant sims to walk to work! I bet it is a hack I have that is preventing it.

It worked! Yay! I'm able to force errors on Mac!

Taken out of context... this is ROFL-worthy. I want to see this on a Mac/PC commercial now.

I don't see the benefit of sending preg sims to work. If they stay home they use a vacation day and get paid for staying home.  If I send them to work they use a vacation day anyway.  I was hoping that they could save up those vacation days, but they can't.  They can save the vacation days after the baby is born though.

The benefit is less time watching their ass and playing the feed-pee-sleep game. Also, possible promotions.