More Awesome Than You!

Hi there. I just wantetd a quick and to the topic answer to a weird little occurance I have in one of my houses.

Now, im growing increasingly paranoid about the Big Ball Of Flame Visible From Space that happens to neighbourhoods, so I hope this is not an indicator of sucn things.

Anyways, in one particular family, in one particular house, they cant use the fridge untill they use the option of Juggle. They dont even have to do the actual juggling, just have it queued for 5 seconds, and then they can prepare food out of the fridge. If they dont juggle, there is only one option for food in the fridge, and that is Instant Meal. Now, my sims have 10 in cooking, and I've tried replacing the fridge, to no avail. The food options dissapear sometime during the night, and in the morning, its juggle or starve.

My first thought is, that i should probably vacate the lot asap, and relocate the family to an entirely new lot, and build them a new fancy house, without all those annoyingly sentimental family portraits, and wedding photos from 7 generations......  :'( ( The cow plant is a prominent guest at all wedding photos, as my family has grown quite attached to it.)

Is that right, or might there be a no-move-and-demolition sollution? I have the Fridge refills at midnight hack from Inge, and I used to have the sensible portions of food hack found on MTS2, but i removed the later cause i thought it was the culprit. Aparently that is not the case.

you dont have the smart serve hack do you?

not anymore, i removed it like i said. I just couldnt remember the right name of it.

hmm, I think Inge has a stay things shrub or something like that, not sure if that will work on the family portraits though, however I could have swore someone posted a way around that one too.

I assume you have already replaced the fridge?

That would be a yes.

I am going to shut up now. My attention span is apparently too short this afternoon. :-\

I am completely at a loss to explain this bizarre, completely irrelevant behavior. It MIGHT be some variation on the "too many skillpoints to cook" bug, but why juggling does anything baffles me. Does the behavior obstruct Macrotastic Eat as well?

Hm, I shall have to try that. Im running the game in windowed mode, and im nearing a new day for the family, so we shall see.. Give me 5 minutes :)

Oki, I only needed 3. Now, Ive tried the macro Eat, with and without juggling, and it does not work in either case. Ive been using various other macroes with great succes, and, ive changed the test subjects hunger to 25% so he should be plenty hungry.. Still no result. I am going to make som breakfast now, and see if he will macro Eat that....
And hes eating now.. But he wont use the macro, as long as he has to use the fridge to get food. Manually its ok to get food out of the fridge, but not with the macro..

Oh, and i noted the time the fridge goes Juggly. 12 PM.. which is when Inges refill fridge hack should well.. refill the fridge...

What if you use a non-Ingelogical fridge, or Cooking Skill < 10?

Well, i can try and remove the hack from my game, seing as how its a global one if i recall it right. And, i got a cooking < 10 candidate lined up, for a before and after test. But, I need around 15 minutes to set it all up. As it only happens once a day with the hack in game...

Well, no rush. Most likely you're going to find out by yourself anyway....

Well, im blaming inge hehe, as its the only hack i have that has to do with fridges, and the 12 pm time.. But, its only affecting one house like i said, so that has me stupified.
Ive done a few tests, and they can use the fridge just fine once its been Juggled... Auonomous (yes, they got the luxury of free will, silly me, i know) or, using the macro. Even the one that couldnt before, now can. Apparently the macro only wont work till the first meal has been cooked, then the fridge is working as intended, till 12 pm. Now, i am going to remove the hack, redo the tests, and see what happens. My bet is, they can cook just fine.


And boy was i wrong....

After removing the hack, i waitet till nightfall. As soon as the menu on the fridge changes from Dinner to breakfast, at around 2 am, it goes back to being juggly. So, its something on the lot, and not in inges hack, as its not in my game anymore... Just great. Im leaning towards the burninate the  lot scenario, and simply move the family to another clear lot. Dang, it was a pretty house.

And, before anyone asks the obvious, yes, ive replaced the fridge once more,a fter having removed the hack from Inge. That should have cleared any residues left fromt he global hack. Still no breakfast, till you juggled. Oh, and to the post below this, I think if I were hungry enough, I could learn to juggle pretty fast.

Sorry, but this is hilarious.  I had this picture of all households all over the world (well, ones with fridges anyway) having to juggle before they could eat.  I'd starve for a start, I can't even juggle one ball.

Well, of course you can't juggle one ball. In order to qualify as "juggling", you have to be juggling at least one more object than appendages used. Otherwise, what you have is not "juggling", but "holding". Therefore, in order to juggle one ball, you need to use no hands. This basically is a good test for telekinesis.

So, El Presidente.. Ill just go rip of my lips, and save you the trouble, and I presume your wise advice would be to nuke the lot, and make sure nobody ever settles in that part of town again?

Well, I have to admit that I randomly get the same problem. I haven't tried juggling, my sims just have to eat the instant meal. It happens with various houses, and with with various fridges. It isn't consistent.

I have no fridge hacks whatsoever.

It corrects itself at some point during the game. Because I have just shrugged it off as another maxis glitch and I haven't paid any heed to a pattern of events.

From memory, it only happens with sims who have cooking skill level 10.

I will pay more attention to it in future and see if I notice a pattern.

I've noticed that I have a similar problem if my sims are:

a) not on the lot (ie work/school)
b) asleep on the same floor
c) on a different floor, awake or otherwise (In this case, I have to tell them to physically move to the appropriate floor, then tell them to serve/have meal)
d) occasionally in a different room, on the same floor (telling them to move into the kitchen though seems to bring up the right options though) ???

The only serve/have option becomes Instant Meal.  Pain in the butt when one wants to queue up actions for them.  I haven't had to have them juggle though.

I have no idea why this happens, so cannot offer any real solutions at this time.

Yeah Vecki, I think my problems happen during the same times that you have described. Difficult to quantify.

I recall that when I had a sim move in with another sim, the fridge didn't work until the kids (who were also moving in) arrived home from school to their new home.

Suddenly I can sense that JMP or someone else is going to tell to NEVER move a sims into another house IF some of the parties moving are at work or school.

Why do I feel so stressed playing this game now??

I have to agree with you there...
This is simply the most bizzare event I have ever seen in my history of Simming...
Darkstormyeve, and Vecki, have you tried juggling as well?  :-\

Duckspeak, do you call yourself this because you can do Donald Duck voices?

I will definitely try juggling next time it happens.

I could try, but I would sound horrible and everyone will laugh at me and His Awesomeness Pescado will probably rip my lips off.  ;D

'There is a word in Newspeak,' said Syme, 'I don't know whether you know it: duckspeak, to quack like a duck. It is one of those interesting words that have two contradictory meanings. Applied to an opponent, it is abuse, applied to someone you agree with, it is praise.' - Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell

In good terms, it is talking in such a monotone, banal voice that you distort reality, believing only the things you are told.
In bad terms, it means the opposite but duckspeak should be perceived as a more brutish sound, as in like a real duck.

No, I've not tried juggling, because usually the espresso machine is in the kitchen, and just getting them into the kitchen or even the right floor is enough to bring up the right options.

Geez Duckspeak, that truly is odd. And I feel very odd typing the word "Duckspeak".

You should learn to bask in the light and glory of duckspeaking. It makes you much more awesome, although you certainly can't be the epitomal, archetypal exemplification of quintessential awesomeness.  ;)

Wow Duckspeak, is this level of awesomeness you describe similar in vagueness to recieving an award titled "Outstanding Achievement in the Field of Excellence"?

 ;)

Possibly, since true awesomeness is so awesome that no title could ever describe its awesomeness.
Maybe that is why the site simply referred as "moreawesomethanyou," without any limitations on the extent of awesomeness.  :)

I had an option to only make instant meals once, but it turned out there was still burnt food in the stove that I couldn't see. Have you replaced the stove?

It's late, and my monitor is going screwy, so have you mentioned wether or not you have diagonal walls? I have a problem with no food options appearing except for instant meal and juggle if there is a diagonal wall in the path between the sim and the fridge.

I have diagonal walls but not in the path of the sim told to make a meal. Ummmm, I will check my sim houses abit more.

Well, At least I am not Utterly Insane.

I do have a diagonal wall in the kitchen, but it should in no way interfere with the walk path of my simmies.

And, although ive picked juggling as my method, im pretty sure there are other ways of unlocking the food in the fridge, i just find juggling the most amusing. Taking out an instant meal, or doing an inventory might do the trick as well, although I havent been able to use the two later options consistently. The one that seems to do the trick for me, is juggling. They dont even have to do any actual jugling, they just have to get close enough to the fridge, with the option queued. Just going close to the fridge actually seems to do the trick as well.

Come to think of it, moving a few walls around will probably be my next experiment, but you might be on to something with the diagonal wall. The layout of their bedroom is that all corners are diagonal walls, and as long as my sim with a mere 7 in cooking aint in the kitchen itself, there is only the instant meal option. I just ran a few more tests, and i guess i have to redo part of the house.

I will let you know if removing some of the diagonal walls actually have a curing effect.

As to having burnt food in the stove. If that was the case, juggling, or going near the fridge should have no effect. Im certain the stove works as intended.


/edit so as to not spam too many useless posts around:

I've moved the doors from diagonal walls, to regular walls, and now the family can once more use the fridge with no problems. Meaning, basically, if you have a door between you and the fridge, and its on a diagonal wall, you are going to live on Instant Meals. Creativity in designing interior walls apparently dont get applauded by the fridge.

The logic behind that is entirely baffling. It's almost like there's actually an accessibility check, albeit a broken one. That'd be potentially useful if I could find it.

I recently had this problem again, but this time it was an archway (all doors/arches are on straight walls) that was causing it. I frequently use arches instead of doors leading into kitchens. I used the new arches from the Grand Trianon Collection. For a while, all was well, then Sims could not use the fridge unless they were in the kitchen when I queued it. I pulled out the custom arches and put in Maxis ones. Still no go. I then put in a door and all was well. I changed the door out for a Maxis arch today, so I can see if it goes buggy again.

I knew there was something caused this and I remember now, having read one of the previous posts.  It's diagonal walls.  Before I added a mod that tells you the fridge capacity when you click on the fridge, the only way I could get Sims to cook a meal if there was a diagonal wall between them and the fridge when I gave the instruction was to get them to check the supplies first.  I daresay juggling would also have worked.  I think the fridge must 'lock', because with the smart serve hack I have in, the fridge locks for an hour once a Sim has started cooking to avoid another Sim cooking as well.  All that works then is check supplies, have a snack, etc.  Maybe whatever is used in that hack to lock the fridge is locking it for diagonal walls too, although goodness only knows what the connection is between the two.

I remember this problem being discussed on the Maxis forums, but I'm too fat and lazy at the moment to go do a search.

I do remember that if your Sim was in a bathroom, you couldn't click on the fridge to make a meal.  You could do juggle, or Check Food Supplies, but you couldn't fix food.  Now, why the bathroom is special in this regard is totally beyond me. 

Maybe there's an overly-fastidious programmer at Maxis who didn't like Sims thinking about food while in the potty.  Ok, let's really mess with them:  Put the potty in the kitchen!

I'd try this one out myself, but refer back to the first paragraph of this message. :D

Hook

Well, my sims are rarely in the bathroom when i direct them to make the breakfast, they are usually just getting out of bed, and thus in their bedrooms.
After removing the diagonal walls, and placing the doors on the boring straight walls, i again have access to all fridge menues

Is this one of Inge's? I don't recall seeing it around. Sounds good!

No, its on MTS2. It's a nice hack made by dizzy-two (or dizzy2, they allow numbers in names :D)

G.

Thanks Veilchen, you are a veritable fount of information!  ;D

I think I heard diagonal doors bug the maids too. They leave before their work is done.

Yep, they do, that was another side effect i noticed.

My maid simply wouldnt make the beds in the two bedrooms that had diagonal doors. I thought it might ahve been a side effect of me having used the SimVac on her, and was considering firing her to get her replaced. But after fixing the dors and walls, shes gone back to cleaning as she should.

Oh, and sorry bout the confusion with the smart serve hack.  For some reason my mind was determined that it should be a hack by Inge. Ops. *goes away and hides*

Diagonal doors lock up two tiles at once. Given the fact that a door with one tile can stick for no apparent reason, diagonal doors double your pleasure. :P

Wherever possible, I avoid using walls, let alone doors.

Yep, thats my problem. Had a play around with my house in question and yep, when my sim was taking a shower or just in the bathroom, no one could cook a meal.

I am not using a single maxis bathroom item. They are all downloaded objects.

I just had this problem yesterday, for the first time. My sim was standing in the kitchen juggling bottles. I'd cancel it out, and she'd immediately queue it back up again. I'd never noticed her juggling before, but now she was obsessed. She was also very low on energy and should have been using that energy to go to the bedroom! What was kind of funny was that her uncle (who also was not the juggling type, a very serious sim) was standing in the kitchen with "juggle bottles" in his queue. He was waiting for her to stop! He was also in desperate need to go potty, but he figured juggling was the better choice, I suppose. I also had only 2 food options available on the fridge: instant meal and chef salad. Now that I think about it, it was in a kitchen with a diagonal door. They'd just moved in.

Just remembered!! Yep, I have a one tile diagonal wall in my kitchen.

Curse anything diagonal in this game me thinks.

Note to self: dont put anything diagonal near your fridge.

Additional note to self: don't put doors in diagonal walls as NPC's won't go through them to make beds, clean etc.