More Awesome Than You!

New Phone Hack for OFB+

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/terror/blue.gif)
OFBp2+: (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif) phonehack.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ofb/hacks/phonehack.zip)
OFBp1-: (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif) phonehack-p1.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ofb/obsolete/phonehack-p1.zip)
NL: (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif) phonehack.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/hacks/phonehack.zip)
UNI: (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif) phonehack.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/uni/hacks/phonehack.zip)

Phone & Taxi Hack (v8.3) for TS2OFBp2 - TS2FT
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado & Doctor Boris)

Special Thanks To:
LilAbner, for the Swedish translation
Hobbsee the Scrawny Pencil Neck
Fat, Hairy-Bellied Ness

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.
Install optional TalkModule if you want the smart-conversation-lengths back.

BUGS FIXED:
1. The parent of a child who is on the phone will not invite himself inside.

2. The Headmaster will no longer self-invite himself when he calls you, nor
   will the phone freeze up.

3. You should now be able to properly invite new Headmasters even if your Sim
   has married a Headmaster.

4. Teen Go/Sneak Out in Pets hopefully unfarkled.


ANNOYANCES ELIMINATED:
1. Teens can now go and sneak out even, or especially if, they lack a guardian.
   This should not be construed as support for parenticide, although we're sure
   some of you are going to try it now. In event that no adult is present, the
   teen sim no longer requires permission to go out, because, obviously, he has
   nobody to request it from but himself. The options to "Go Out" and
   "Sneak Out" will appear at the appropriate times.

2. Harassment Call Lock - Ever wondered why your Sims somehow seem to decide to
   go to sleep earlier when you're not playing? Tired of them simply screaming
   at you even though normally, they never go to sleep under YOUR direction
   until like 2 in the morning? We couldn't make insomnia-tracking to determine
   which families are regularly insomniacs, but you are now protected from
   accidentally doing this: If your sim attempts to call another sim outside of
   valid calling hours, he will pick up the phone, then realize this is a bad
   time and put it down before bugging the other sim. You may still attempt to
   place emergency, service, transportation, sneak-out, and crank calls
   normally.

3. No more dumbass phone calls: Friends who miss you no longer make stupid
   phone calls just to waste your time with their whining: They will instead
   make a USEFUL phonecall, so if a friend you haven't heard from in awhile
   calls you to talk, instead of bitching about it, this is why.

4. Sim-children should no longer bug random adults that they bumped into on
   some community lot by phone. Sim children should only call their relatives
   or other children.

5. Sims should no longer place casual calls when they are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE
   HOME. No more truant children calling for kids which are at school, or
   people calling when they SHOULD be at work.

6. Now possible for teens to introduce people to adults using the phone:
   Teens no longer shouted at unless phone call join is declined.

7. Now possible to invite headmaster if toddler will auto-transition at 1800
   while headmaster scenario is in progress.

8. Calling in sick no longer generates a useless NPC to clog your data files.


FEATURES ADDED:
1. Set Ringer - Set the number of rings you want your phone to ring when an
   incoming call is received: 5, 10, 15, the default 20, or even OFF, which
   means you will not be notified or receive any incoming calls.

COMPATIBILITY:
This hack is for TS2OFBp2+ ONLY. It does not function with the previous
versions.

SIDE EFFECTS:
May cause computer damage, incontinence, explosion of user's head, coma, death,
and/or halitosis.

CHANGELOG:
v8.1: Pets fixes. Taxi feature reinstated.
v8.0: Pets Compatibility, Taxi feature cut.
v7.5: OFB Updates
v7.1: No talk animations bug fixed.
      Restored conversation length feature as optional module.

Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh! I'm so excited to try this out I've lost all my words!  :o

I'm wondering if this silly bug means somewhere in Ikea stuff we can call our furniture on the phone?

Did anyone actually figure out how to fix this yet?

*whines pitifully about *absolutely needing* phone hack and wife *absolutely needing* ikea. 

Make sure you have the latest version of all hacks before whining -- the problems with the Phone hack and AutoYak have been fixed in recent updates.  If you still have problems, you have either an old version of the phone hack hiding elsewhere in your downloads directory (it's a hack that will hitchhike on downloaded lots), or another hack that's conflicting with it or with the game (aka, tight pants).  Get the clean installer from MTS2 and the Hack conflict detection utility from simwardrobe, and run both to find your problem(s).

they've been updated since ikea came out?

Seems that the latest phone hack might have made it so that ringing cell phones wake up sleepers?

Yes, at least twice.  I suggest you keep an eye on the 'Hack Directory' thread in the Armory, as new updates are reported there as they happen (or pretty soon afterward :) ).

Oooo, I knew the folks here were awesome, but I didn't know they were *that* awesome.

First, you are oldversioned. Second...
(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/cats/kittenkiller.jpg)
Once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

actually, I downloaded the newest moreawesomethanyou.zip as of yesterday.

I realize that the inteen is a notorious hack, but I have the patch that doesn't kill kittens. I'll remove it, but I had no problems since Kitchen and bath.

EDIT: I removed inteen. I realized I downoaded the newest moreawesomethanyou.zip but it was moreawesomethanyou-ft.zip that I was supposed to download.

Thank you Pescado. *bows*

Moral of the story kids:
Download the one that has the expansion pack abbreviation at the end.

Actually, it doesn't make a bit of difference -- both names point to the exact same file (the ol' Unix alias function, dontchaknow), so it doesn't matter if you download moreawesomethanyou.zip or moreawesomethanyou-ft.zip.  The real moral of the story is to get the moreawesomethanyou.zip from the directory that corresponds to the EP you have.  Or if you always have the latest EP, just download it from the link in the Hack Directory thread in the Armory.

Pescado, could you possibly add the option to remotecontrol business from vacation?

I don't believe business decay and income even function on vacation, so it'd be pointless.

Actually I didn't know this was a bug, as I was quite fond of this little feature. My main sim went to college, and her little sister calls every day. And most of the time mom or dad comes over during the phone chat and dance the time away in the dorm lobby. After hanging up, my sim comes to her dancing mom/dad and shares a family kiss, hug and some inside jokes before sending them off. Happens almost every day. Quite the heartwarming experience.  :D

The problem is that this is actually a bug: The sim is showing up to collect the child...who isn't really there. This becomes more apparent when your caller is Marsha the Stalker and some random townie invites himself into your house and begins destroying things as a result.

With the latest phone hack installed + Ikea et al all Sim attempts to phone for Sneak Out are turning out to be Crank Calls.

Basically I click on Call - Sneak Out, but the Crank Call option window comes up. I select a Sim to call. The Sim I am controlling shouts abuse down the phone and hangs up. A little later the called Sim turns up on the lot.

Wasn't that an old pets-era bug that was fixed in some fix here? I remember getting that after installing pets, before I found out about this place.

Maybe, I don't remember it. The new phone hack has cured the problem in my game. My Sims can once more Sneak Out.

Since yesterday's update, I get this error whenever a Sim clicks on a Phone.  If they click on themselves to use the phone, no error occurs.

Edit: Problem fixed in last update.

Call/Targets isn't working like I remember, the sim hangs up straight away and says something like "I don't know anybody", they can place other calls normally.  I initiate the action by clicking the sim.

Targets are Sims that you have met but are not yet friends, so friends won't show up. They also must be at home, not at work or in school and during normal calling hours 7am to midnight, or 7pm to 7am for vampires IIRC. I don't think enemies show up either.

Oh bugger! I should know that already, he would have been in work *head desk*.  Never mind then, nothing to see here :P  (Thanks magicmoon :-*)

I just installed AL and I haven't been playing with it very long yet, but one thing I noticed already:  The "phone harassment" time seems to be set much earlier than it used to be.  I've tried it on several lots, and attempting to call another Sim (whether on cellphone or regular phone makes no difference) after about 10 pm will result in the "Phone harassment is bad, m'kay?" message.  I tried once at about 10:15 pm, and on another lot around 11:30 pm.  Same results.  FWIW, it was a Monday night on both lots, not that the day of the week should make any difference.  And these were adults trying to call other adults...not that it matters.

I am running the latest version of the AL director's cut (phonehack dated 9/1/08 6:30 am, autoyak dated 8/30/08 6:08 pm) plus a couple of Twojeffs' hacks (ACR and Smart Beds), but that's it at the moment.  Have not played long enough yet to risk putting any non-awesome hacks back in.

I can't remember if the phone harassment code is part of autoyak or the phonehack, but thought I'd post it here just in case.

Karen

I think AL reduced the harassment hour -- if you play apartments, you'll notice that most of the other tenants go to bed at 10pm, and even your playables will sometimes get the urge to go to bed @ 10pm, even if they're not all that tired.

That's ridiculous.  (And definitely something I would love to see fixed!)  But thanks for the tip.

Karen

AL's "harassment hour" is not fixed, and actually depends on when the tenants are flagged "asleep", such as vampires being listed as asleep at night. This can produce some peculiar behaviors to that I am working on addressing in an Undiscovered Shiny.

I'm not sure if this is phone hack related or something else, but every time I tell my sim to use the phone, I have to do it twice.  The first time, they pick up the phone and immediately hang it back up.  The second time, it functions as normal.

I have had this happen a couple of times, but not every time.  I have the DC with a few hacks taken out, and some "no autonomous pillowfight/danceontoes/annoying the shit out me" hacks.

Never encountered this issue. I'm guessing it's a local problem caused by a corrupt lot.

It happened on several lots, though with the same sim. So I guess the sim could be a plague-bearer.  I just reset my neighborhood anyway, so I'll see if it happens again.

I'm playing a dorm and I don't have the 'call targets' option anymore. If I 'call Sim' I will find the Sim at home and available to talk. I know that the target must be known, not a friend, and available to talk and the menu is on the Sim. All of these are true yet 'call targets' isn't showing up.

Call Targets only comes up if the Sim is in a dwelling for which targets are useful. That is, a non-uni residential lot or a Greek House.

I believe 'call targets' also disappears if the sim has more than enough friends and is at the top of his/her career, since there's no need for it anymore.

I think it counts the total number of household friends in the family against the number required for the top of the career that sim is in, or for level 6 in a greek house.  A few times I've seen it come back because one of my popularity sims graduated, or was claimed by the Reaper. :D

I've had the same problem with all my sim families in Belladonna Cove with the phone hack, always having to do it twice.  I took out the phone hack, but left in the phone talk module, so it doesn't happen anymore.  This was happening with all the families on any of the pre-existing lots. I only use the DC so  :-\.

I am not able to reproduce this issue on any ACTUAL lots. Premade lots tends to be full of massive borkedness anyway. You can try deleting the phone line controller and reloading the lot to respawn it, maybe that will help.

Call Targets appeared on the Newson family despite none of the Sims being employed.  I did notice that it only shows up if Sims are actually available to be called, though, and if they are not already Friends, and thus more appropriately handled under Call Friends.

As far as sims picking up the phone and dropping it right away, I noticed this ONLY happens if I ignore a phone call until it auto-drops and then attempt to do a Call Sim.  I need to play around with the screening features because the stupid "hey, want a magazine subscription?" calls will ring for freaking EVER if you don't pick them up.

I really hope you can find out what might be causing this, because the constant whining from "friends" and the stupid "would it kill you to call" messages drove me so crazy I had to put this phone hack back in.  I would rather have to do it twice!

Unrelated. The Phone Hack doesn't modify phonebook generation. You probably have a different hack stopping this, or perhaps they are secretly loitering stuck offworld.

Didn't an EAxis patch address this?  Are you patched?

Supposedly, but they did it wrong and it doesn't work out that way.  The paperboy can't be called, for one.  The postman, for two.  I've taken to giving every sim I see a cell phone when I reclothe/makeover them with the Clothing Tool, just in case.

On the FFS Lot Debugger, there is an option to Nuke offworld loiterers.

I'm in the same boat as EPB and twistingsims, but it only happens when they are far away from the phone. So, if they are sitting at the desk, for example, and I tell them to use the desk phone, it goes through with the first order, but if they are in the kitchen and I direct them to the wall phone in the living room, they walk up to it, pick it up, and put it back. With cell phones, they pull it out, then immediately put it back, but it goes through with the second order.

I am consistently unable to reproduce this, so I strongly doubt it has anything to do with the Phone Hack.

I had that symptom (Sims hang up the first time you tell them to use the phone, but it works the 2nd time you tell them) with an old version of this mod which was only up for a few hours before it was updated again, which made the problem stop. Make sure that you have the latest version for your EP and that you don't have a 2nd version hiding in your downloads somewhere.

As for those complaining about not being able to call NPCs that they have met socially, they have been missing from the call list since FT. Giving these Sims a cell phone as a gift doesn't help either. They just won't appear on the call list. Even the college directory which usually contains all the Sims currently in college plus the professors, was empty for me except for Sims that I had actually met.

Paladin has a fix for this under Fixes/Free Time at:
http://www.simwardrobe.com/

I am just now trying this out to see if it works well with my other mods and so far it appears to be OK. However it is non-awesome and won't be supported here.

I'm still getting no option except Set Ringer with latest Phone Hack.  uni, nl, ofb, ssns, gls.

I've been using an older version, 'cause I'd hate to live without this.   :D

What happens if you have ONLY the latest phone hack and no other Custom Content in your Downloads folder?

Are you using Maxis phones or custom ones? Do you have a cell phone replacement? I remember a problem with the Razor or some similar cell phone download.

Well, I don't have any custom cell phones, and I've tried it without any other hacks, but not without any other CC at all. The only CC I have that pertains to phones is recolors for the cheap wall/desk phones. I'll try it as you suggested without any other CC and get back to you.

With nothing in downloads except the latest version of phonehack, I get scared to death at the sight of my sims in Maxis hair...

But I still have nothing but Set Ringer.  No custom phones, no replacement cellphones.  The only thing I have that effects phones is mixmugs telephone recolors from MTS2 (and those were pulled, too.)  Cellphone use is unaffected in my game.

I know what you mean about your Sims suddenly looking stupid with Maxis hair ;D

Are you using the Maxis phone that came with the base game or are you using one of the ones that came with a later EP or SP? (I remember having a slight problem with one of the Maxis phones, but can't remember what it was or which phone other than it wasn't the base one).

One last thing to try. What happens if you don't have anything in downloads? Not even the phone hack. Does your phone start working properly then?

ETA: A new version of phonehack is up today.

Count Four-is there anything in CEP extra that could affect phones? If so, try moving the phones.package to desktop and trying again.

FWIW, I updated my director's cut the other day and ran into the exact same issue (nothing on the menu but Set Ringer).  The 11/04/08 version seems to have fixed it.

The latest phone hack seems to be causing a problem with being able to call neighbors living on the same lot. With the hack in, the neighbors don't show up in the phone book to call, even if my sims know them. After I took the hack out, it seems to be working fine.

The Phone Book generation routines are not altered, so the Phone Hack is not specifically the cause of this: It is most likely coincidence, depending on the "active state" of the neighbor sims. If the neighbors are on walkabout, they cannot be called, but if they are in their rabbit holes, they can be called, and your yanking process simply caught them at the right time.

You were right: I tested the exactly same situation both with and without the hack, and this time the neighbor did show up in the phone book. So, it was just coincidence earlier.

Basically, as apartment neighbors are "live", they will randomly roam about, and when they are "active", you cannot call them. Only when they disappear into their rabbit holes and completely shutdown can they be called. From the perspective of an IgnorantBliss trying to dial them, they will appear to randomly disappear from your phonebook, as they can be "active", yet not visible anywhere you can see.

The inability to call sims has sometimes been my only warning that they were trapped in a shallow basement where I could not see them. 

Mine isn't working... At ALL. Like, my phone isn't selectable, even in a new neighbourhood. And whenever it rings, my sims just seem to jump about, plumbbob disappearing and appearing.

You most likely have conflicting hacks. Read:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7437.0.html

The technical support section will tell you how to track down your problem. Pay special attention to the box at the bottom of the section titled "binary search".

That shouldn't happen, because I've used these same hacks with the phone hacks many times before. (All the same sex hacks)

While it's unlikely that TJ's same sex mods would suddenly conflict with the phone hack, you should still apply the basic debugging techniques in case you have a hack in game that you've missed, or various other possibilities.

I've recently had the same situation with the jump bug and Simmies unable to make calls at all (they begin dialing and jump out).  I've diligently removed all hacks to isolate the problem... Unfortunately, removing the phone hack seemed to be the only solution at the moment.  I'm still searching because it was running flawlessly until a week ago.

So: what did you download, install, or change one week ago?

I'm going through the weeding out of files now.  Haven't yet found a culprit.

Hi, I just reinstalled the whole game and expansions after a long while, and only added CEP, MATY Apartment hacks (zip), and a few default skintones. The phone hack makes my sim jump whenever there is a phone on the lot, when I just wave my mouse over the phone, the sim jumps. I took out the phone hack and all's fine. But I really do want it back, and I don't have any non-awesome hacks.

 And resetting the sim with testing cheats doesn't stop the problem. I tried this on the default neighborhood of Apartment life, in different lots with the same sim and weeded out all the hacks. The culprit does seem to be the phone hack. Logs attached, I hope it's fixable :)

Have you tried removing CEP-EXTRA_Phones.package from the My Documents\The Sims 2\zCEP-EXTRA folder? I've read before that it can cause errors.

You seem to have an unusual install profile. Try the new version.

new version of the phone hack? Or CEP?

@blubug. Both. Probably.

@Roux, where & when did you read that?
If you're talking about this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12828.msg367602.html#msg367602) cosmetic bug from an August post, then I'd guess that the latest CEP9.1 from November must have fixed that.  Works fine now for me.

It was just something I remembered reading somewhere along the way. I don't use that particular file, since I don't bother with phone recolors, but it's good to know it's sorted out.

I had the latest official CEP package and the OFB +p2 phone hack, and I took out the CEP-extra phones package out of the cep extas folder and put it on my desktop, all works fine now. I have the phone hack back in my game.

Woo, I think I blew it up!

I put TS2 in on a new computer and after moving all my hacks over, I discovered that I had the phone hack, talk module, and also autoyak installed all together, which i THINK is not supposed to happen...

Anyway, calling the landlord works, but anytime I try to have my sims call another sim, they dial and then jump away from the phone and the phone hangs itself back up.  Any idea what this might be conflicting with?  Aside from MATY hacks, I also have InSIM installed, but it still happens when I take InSIM out.  Hints, tips, mockery?

Never mind!  It helps if one reads the entire thread, I suppose... I downloaded the new version of the hack and installed it, and everything works fine.  Mock away!   ;D ;D ;D

Tonight I spun up the game after not playing for a bit. I sent 3 sims through college and each of them, after graduating, has been receiving almost constant phone spam (str > 95 ltr > 80) from their ex-professors. Mind you, these are the first sims I have graduated since installing AL.  I was just wondering if anyone else has encountered this?  Latest awesomeware phone hack installed all awesome mods updated and game(s) patched.

Well, I have a tiny question.. might be a stupid one but I figured I'd ask anyway.

I have all the expansions minus OFB (and AL but I don't think that's too important) so I downloaded the NL one. I figured that it would work alright since I have no OFB but I had only one problem with it.

Everything worked out great except for calling other sims. I could call a service and emergency but no calling sims, throwing parties, etc.. Like others have said in the thread, they just hung up. This happened any time I tried to call a sim.

I only have this one phone hack. Now, my question is, should I download the OFB files even though I don't have OFB? I really loved this hack :(

Thanks in advance for any help. :)

Your latest EP would be Free Time.  You should be using the Free Time version.

Well, I took out the hack and they still can't use the phone. I took out all the hacks I had that I thought effected the phone but they still can't use it.

If I download the FT version, would that fix my problem? :(


Edit: Yes, that worked. Thank you so much! ^___^

There is actually only one version since OFB, so the same version should work for everything.

At one time I used the phone hack all the time, how ever, I had to reload my game, and now it causes the lot to not load, or to lock up if I add a new phone.

I have Double Deluxe, with NL, UL, BoB, Pets, and Seasons. Which hack is right for me?

You have Seasons, so you should be using the Seasons one. If your lot is locking up and not loading, something else is occurring. There are several issues which can cause this: First, turn on debug mode and see if an object is chain-erroring. If an object is triggering a chain error, your lot will never load for that reason.

Thanks for the replay, I had the wrong one. I forgot to update it when I got Seasons.

Whenever I hover over the phones, they are unusable and I get an object error. I traced the problem back to this mod. The same happened when I tested it in a clean, new game with no other hacks. When I take out the mod, the phones work fine. The error log is attached. It says the error is a bad gosub tree number, but I got the phonehack from the AL-version of the director's cut and my latest EP is AL. I also have Deluxe and University.

Yes, you seem to have a peculiar combination of installed items that doesn't detect properly. Try new version.

The new version got rid of the gosub tree error but now I get a different object error. It's attached.

Try now.

Oldversion. Try flushing cache and redownloading.

Oldversion worked like a charm! Much thanks, truly.

So I've fell for the allure of the PhoneHack and now anytime I mouseover a phone (even after removing the hack from my download folder) the selected sim jumps from spot to spot (or I guess resets) and then a food delivery prompt comes up and then it asks "would u like to set this parameter to 0?"

I'm running Double Deluxe (NL + Celebration pack) and then I have Uni and OFB installed after that. A little help please?

I also have the romance mod, ACR, stereohack, and no respawn SS member (just covering all my bases)

If the problem persists even with the removal of the hack, it is caused by non-Awesome content.

SCHEIßE!

back to the drawing board (downloader folder)

I'm having a problem where my Sims are unable to drive home from community lots. I removed PhoneHack, as I was told that this could have been causing the issue. Now, anytime I click on a phone, I get a "Phone-Line controller" error with testingcheats on. Has anyone else had this issue?

I've run Clean Installer on my packaged lots to make sure there were no unwanted hacks, I've deleted both phonehack & talkmodule.pkg files. I reinstalled the game... any other suggestions?


Thanks!

Welll, show me the error. Also, if you're running an unsupported configuration, like MGS without AL, things won't work.

This is not useful. Attach the relevant "scripterror" log found in your userdirectory.

I have read the entire thread and the Wiki, but cannot figure out what this is:

"Restored conversation length feature as optional module."

Will someone please explain exactly what the optional module does, and what happens if you don't have it? Trying to judge if I want it or not, but doing so blindly. Hate being blind.

The optional module continues the conversation until the relationship is maxed out. Without it, the conversation goes on for a short duration regardless of the outcome, then stops and forces you to redial if you want to continue.

Oh, very nice. No longer blind *has seen the light!*

ive just reinstalled my entire sims 2 game, all eps to apartment and most of the stuff packs except mansion

Autoyak and the phone hack used to be one of my favourite hacks, but ive tried installing the phone hack and autoyak or variations of one or the other, but cant find any options on the phone to call friends. Should these hacks work with all the eps?

AutoYak is located by clicking on your sim. It will be in the Call menu, where your cellphone would ordinarily be.

I have all of expansion but I'm not sure which the files to download.  ???

DIE IN A FIRE.

After installing this I can no longer call downtownies or service NPCs, because they "don't have a phone" apparently. Is this behavior intentional? I'm using the AL version.

It sounds like you have a version detection failure, causing the townie check to be skipped. What stuff/expansions did you install? I recall that if you install certain stuffpacks and fail to install certain expansions, things can go wrong, but I forget the exact combination which produces this behavior offhand.

I'm using the Ultimate Collection, so I don't think it has anything to do with missing an EP or SP.

Well, it's VERY unusal that you cannot call a service NPC, since the service NPC "has phone" check is unconditional and does not depend on game edition checks, as service NPCs and their associated constant fambly ID existed in all editions of the game, and is the first check performed. Are you sure you're installed correctly, and that you're actually calling a service NPC, and not perhaps an evil data corruption clone?

I'm calling the maid for some hankey pankey, not using the "service" category on the phone. Sorry if I was unclear on that part. Basically I want to call them over for a visit, not in order for them to clean my house. I first realized this with the maid, and the problem seems to go away when I remove this mod. It also happens when this is the only mod I have installed.

I've also tried calling townies, gardening members, social group members, etc, and they never have a phone.

I understood that, yes. Not sure what is causing this, though. Force an error on a random object and attach the log so I can see the game dump values. It's odd that you are the first to report this, ever.