More Awesome Than You!

For no particular reason I can yet find, whenever I make use of a birthday cake, horrible things start happening: Sims begin to error (of no particular thing that makes any sense), skate around the lot when they move, and stand up while sitting in chairs and couches, clipping through the couch and rendering the couch inoperable until errored replaced.

When they try to pick up the cake, many times the entire cake plate simply disappears (with no error).

Anyone else encounter anything like this?

No! But I'm deeply concerned...are YOU asking for help?  The rest of us lipless wonders had best move away from our pcs before they explode.  There is no hope. :o

The only problems I have with the cake is when I try to age a baby to toddler. And that's more of a baby problem than a cake problem, I think?

No, I'm asking if anyone else has experienced this particular problem. That way I know whether this is a real problem that people have actually seen, or just a bizarre quirk that specifically afflicts my system.

I generally have no problems with birthday cakes and I use them for practically every age transition. Every now and then, the grow-up doesn't take for some reason and I have to repeat the process, but that's it. My regular practice is also to delete the cake afterwards with move_objects rather than have the Sims clean it up.

My problem with birthdays and cakes is that usually I'm trying to make sure everyone is all set for the transition, and the child is over in the corner, acting like they have sparkly ants in their pants and aging without me.   :P  I need to get those bday parties started much earlier in the day.

Chris

The only odd behaviour I've noticed with the cake is that sometimes when I place it and click on it, the only option is "Clean Up".  I think that's more a problem with babies ageing to toddlers than anything else, seeing as that's when it happens.  Sometimes I need 3 cakes to get it to work.  And, of course, I am only using the cake in the first place because the stupid baby refuses to grow-up any other way.

As for this: This is the second time I have seen the Lip Collector ask for help.  When it happens a third time I will think about worrying, because things that happen in threes are generally not good omens in my book.

I haven't used birthday cakes that much - mostly because I find them such a fuss - but I've never experienced a problem like that.

I think your FFS Lot Debugger causes it. I have in my inventory, but when I put it outside, a lot of weird thing happen. One of them is non-stop rolling of the wish panel, and lose of one wish rectangle. When I put it back in the directory - all returns to be normal.  So I play with it "in and out".
Perhaps you chaeck it? It's very complicated mod, and can cause many weird consequences.

I've had quite a few anomolous incidents because of birthday cakes but I haven't seen a pattern to it yet.  There might be a pattern related to the infant-to-toddler transition and the teen-to-adult transition because that seems to be where I encounter these problems most often.

The glitches seem to occur between the initial noise-making and the action where the sim shakes a bit and then grows up.  That must be the point where the game is setting up whatever it sets up for the sim's next stage of life.

In the teen-to-adult transition, they fall out of love with their teenage lovers.  That's a clue that it might be a "too many sims" or "unknown sims" kind of problem because the game would have to be reviewing the list of people that the sims knows before it can change those relationships.

In the infant-to-toddler transition, the adults will quite often simply abort the action so that the infant doesn't grow up.  Then it's a Keystone Cops routine until finally somebody helps the child grow.  That might be related to waiting for the other sims to show up at the cake and make noise.

Based on my experience, I'd say that the Lot Debugger is not the smoking gun.  I have it in every house in my game, and in the past couple of weeks I've had a run of at least a hundred successful birthday cake sessions in a row, including more than a dozen infants. 

University precluded using the birthday cake for the teen-to-adult transition (because I always send them to college) so I don't have any recent data on that one.

Nope.  I haven't had any such issues with the cake.  It's usually problematic because every sim has to watch when you use it - an issue I think you dealt with in your noswarm hack.  I used to have the whole household just sit on couches (no action queued), right before the birthday sim blew out the candles.

For infants, it's just difficult to age them.  I was using the tombstone of L and D (AGE baby option) to try and age 2 sets of infant twins, and it just wasn't happening.  Then I used the Make All Happy option on the mailbox and everything started to work like a charm.  Next time I have to age an infant I going to make sure the kid is as green as I can get 'em before using the cake.  I don't know if that will help, but it's worth a try, I think.

I haven't seen those problems, JM. The only issue with birthdays is the aging swarm, and the general bugginess of parties.
And I have just about all your released mods installed.

One thing is that the infant won't age if it's about to soil its diaper. That is one constant which will cause the action to abort. Tired and/or hungry don't seem to affect it.

Aha!  That would explain many of the infant-to-toddler anomalies I've encountered.  Lately I've been using the Testing Cheats to check up on the babies, especially just before their birthdays, which might explain my unusual string of successes.

yetyak thanks reggikko for this helpful post  ;)

I do seem to get a lot of "help with birthday" icons fading while the sim stands there with a smelly baby, now I know why.

I have the constant rolling wants on lots with teens and mobile phones.  If someone uses the phone while their there it seems to set it off.  I'm not entirely sure whether the rolling stops when the mobile phone call ends.  I'm still monitoring this.  I thought it might be due to a clash of hacks; I have the inTeeminator installed as well.

Funny you should mention this--I had the Wants rerolling every hour in houses with the cell phones, and that was before I had any hacks at all. The hourly rolling goes away eventually, but I haven't paid attention to the pattern.

This happens to me too, not just with babies. Toddler to child seems to cause a lot of problems for me as well. I usually end up having to use the Insimenator to grow them up. 

Oddly enough, I have problems with the Insimenator growing my sims up...it doesn't happen.

I have random buggyness with my cakes - sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. When they don't, it usually means I end up with a bunch of Sims standing around looking at each other, nobody doing anything... but then all this happened before I installed the Awesomeness that is the Lot Debugger.

I have seen lots of weird random bugginess in the game that simply goes away if you quit and restart the game. This is what I normally tell people to do.

My theory: Maxis coders rely far too heavily on unpredictable uninitialized variable values.

I have never had any problems using the birthday cakes - no quirks or oddities or anything strange.

I have seen many of the issues that you have with Birthday cakes.  Including them disappearing or just being unclickable.  Most of the problems seem to occur with baby to toddler transitions, however, that is really the only time I use the cakes unless it is for a popularity sim.  Even with your noswarm hack, if I use the cake, they seem to wait forever for everyone to come watch the transition, and if everyone else has been cued to do something else, the transition seems to fall out of cue before everyone can get there.

I have never known whether it was the cake or the transition causing the problems, so I have never worried about it, but now that I know it is happeneing to you, perhaps it is something that will now get fixed.

Nenechell

I once, and only once, had the stand in the chair while sitting down thing. It was really werid. The sim was sitting at the dinning room table eating. Suddenly stood up, was frightened by a ghost. and then rather then sitting back down, he contined to eat as if he was sitting down. But in fact he was standing right in the center of the chair. Very odd. But I haven't seen it since then.
But than again, this is the same lot where I had the frightened by object thing going on, so it really didn't surprise me to see this happen.

I use the birthday cake for almost every transition, whether I have a party or not, and have never encountered any of this.

Phyllis

The only other time I remember the "Lip Collector" asking for help was my first real introduction to him. I didn't know what I was getting myself into. There were a lot of pain-killers involved.
As for the birthday cake, I've only had the same problems everyone else here has. They don't work sometimes. But no skating around the lot and standing in couches, which is a pretty funny picture. I can just see JM's reaction to his sims gone mad! ;D I have had those symptoms in my game, however not because of a birthday cake, as far as I can remember.

I do have a possible problem with the Lot Debugger, but I'll make another thread for that. 

I have, on more than one occasion, seen the birthday cake disappear when they try to pick it up.  Once or twice they have stood in the center of a dining room chair and continued to eat.  Plus, of course, the innumerable problems with the infant to toddler age transitions.  This all occurred before I downloaded your lot debugger and hasn't bothered me since.  This could be a coincidence or the fact that your fixes have saved my games from being a big fiery ball visible from space.

I stopped using the birthday cake.  Everytime I get one on my lot it only has the option to clean up.  I have had problems with the wedding cake too.  My couple just stood there finally I stopped the cut cake option and then later they wouldn't get into the limo.  Finally the husband got in but the wife never did (he went on the honeymoon alone) both of their stats got refreshed though so I wasnt too worried.  I think it is a problem with the fact that everyone on the lot has to attend these two.  If it takes a while for everyone to get there it drops from the list.  The few times I had problems with the birthday cake I had to buy 2 or 3 before I got one with the options and even then I am lucky if anyone will eat it, it again gives the only option as clean up so I cannot make PS's eat a peice if they don't do it autonomously after the transition.  It also makes everyone freeze in place for a brief time after the transition (maybe thats when the cake is going into 'you can't have me mode').  I did have them standing up in the dining chairs once but I cant remember if that had to do with the cake or not.

I stopped using the birthday cake, too, except for transitioning babies into toddlers.  Seemed like almost every time I got a cake the sim who was supposed to transition went ahead and did it without going to the cake, even though I had told them to blow out the candles.  And any time I've tried doing a wedding or birthday party, or even a graduation party, it's rarely even a good time, let alone a roof raiser, by the time its over, so I quit doing parties, too.  (They might be roof raisers with 10 minutes left, and drop dramatically, even though nothing had changed otherwise.)  So I think that whole birthday cake/party thing is severely buggy.

And the only reason I use the cake for babies is that I got tired of one or more of the older or adult sims in the house trying to "help with birthday" for simhours on end, then standing and holding the baby while their energy went to hell.  I haven't had any problems with using the cake for that except for the occasional "clean up" notification otherwise mentioned here.  Buy another cake and its ok.  Haven't had to buy a third yet, though.

I guess I should also say that using cakes worked fine, at first, then seemed to slowly but surely degenerate down into the abyss of a black hole that most of the routines that developed bugs fell into.  I didn't have any real problems until I started reading about other people having problems on the main site's bbs.  Then, those bugs suddenly started showing up in my game!  (Must be a Maxis plot - buy next expansion to fix the bugs you pick up when you visit TS2 website.)

Hmmmm..... I hope I don't have this one show up, now!   ;D

I've been using B day cakes more and more.  Did 2 parties late last night child to teen and haven't had any problems.  Don't use them as much for toddlers, not at all for infants.  Did once for elder and no problems except depression lol.

After reviewing the code for the entire cake affair, I'm actually suspecting that the cake is not, in fact, necessary for a birthday party at all, despite previous observations. I'm planning on putting this one to a field trial soon, a cakeless birthday party. Honestly, that always did seem like a strange alien ritual. We never had birthday cakes in my family. Like Sims, we only celebrated age transition birthdays, and this was generally celebrated with the slaughter and immediate consumption of an animal.

Sounds delightful JMP

I have had 2 of my sims have birthdays w/o a cake. I have always used a cake for the baby to toddler transition and have never had any problems. I have, however, had the standing in the middle of a chair but it was fixed by removing a jewelry mod that I had. I was definately annoyed by that one until I found the reason.

I tend to find that the party score becomes 'disaster' if the candles aren't blown out and the transition doesn't take place. I don't know why, but sim guests at a birthday party expect a cake, and no amount of socialising, flirting or woohooing ups the score.  I look forward to your test results.

I agree Sandilou. The cake is the key to a "roof raiser".

Sandilou and Dark - the cake is not the key for a successful birthay party, the simulator "HATES" parties for babies, toddlers, and childs, and 90% of them will be a disaster. I have tasted it on my own flesh and blood.

In Strangetown, only the birthday party of Jonny (from teen to adult) got "Roof Raiser" rate. Any other party I tried to throw got a "Disaster" rate, and I had to play them again and again until I got "Good Time" at least - even the birthday party of Ophelia (teen to adult) was a disaster, although I kept all the requirements for a party. I played it 3 times until I got "Good Time".

After that, when playing at Grunt's house, I didn't dare to throw a birthay party - I just invited some friends, blowed out candles, and watched the age transition of Tank, Ripp, and Buck.

Then I noticed, that all my toddlers got a first fear "of party". From then on I don't throw birthday party at all, only to adult becoming an elder, wedding party, and anniversary party. Only these three get "Roof Raiser" score.

That was in TS2. The parties in Uni are more successful (may be the progamming changed), and I succeeded to throw a couple of partie to childs-to-teen, which got "Good Time" score.

At the college, most of the parties are "good time" and a few - "Roof Raiser".

But still my toddlers have a fear of party...:).

Everytime I have a party I make sure I get chinese takeout and fruit punch - when I have those two I always seem to get good time or roof raiser. 

Present, it's NOW, not when I played TS2 alone.

And, I use without shame the motherlode cheat, and have eternal booster too. I have the fruit punch in the yard (two of them), one in the living room, and one in the kitchen - the blow-buubles too, and at least 3 pool tables, 2 swings, 4 dart boards, 2 love tubs, and 2 hot tubs, 2 myshunoes, 3 pinball machines, and 2 stereos - in the yard and in the living room. Oh, yes, a barman too.

This is above the requirement of any party...:). With the eternal booster, all my sims are in platinum mood, and full green - none of them needs bathroom at all, they don't even eat from the buffet, only dance and socialize.

But I noticed that the "Roof Raiser" comes, when I succeed to befriend between more than 3 sims at the party. Thus, if Komei passes by, and my sim doesn't know him - he greets him, and gives him a lot of attention. And I send another sim to befriend more passers-by. NOW I get "Roof Raiser" for sure.

Oh well, just like in real life, I throw fantastic birthday parties. ::)  In the game I think the trick is to socialise and make everyone feel wanted by getting them to participate in group activities.  

Ensure that there's a hot tub and get guests in as soon as the age transition has happened.  Get other guests to play on a snooker table or watch television.   Put your toddler on the talking rabbit and have them get stray guests to 'play with'.  Have music on and make sure that there is a musical instrument available for those that must.  Have an extra supply of food just in case the cake transition is 3mins+ into the party so hungry guests can eat beforehand.  

Making new friends and best friends during the party also seems to up the score.  Woohooing gets it to a roof raiser in no time, as does lots of flirting, kissing and general romancing.    

I've never had a birthday party without a cake, but I have had parties where the cake event failed so the guests stood around till they were bored rigid which got the 'Disaster' rating.  No transition at all?  What happens then?

I know that the option of throwing a birthday party is available only at the last day, at 4-5 PM, to enable the kid to blow the candles exactly at 6 PM, and have age transition.

Without a party, you can invite some relative and guests from 3-4 PM, and then, when you get a message that the kid will grow to a teen (at 6 PM), buy a table with a cake, and give hime to blow out the candles. Until now, From the beginning of TS2, it works fine for me.

Hate cakes, hate parties - the only time any of my Sims see a cake is when they grow up into a toddler, every other birthday they just get to grow up without the aid of a cake/stupid balloons etc. And parties just shit me to tears, everybody always congregates in the bathroom, nobody can even LOOk at someone they're not married to without the daggers flying everywhere, and all for the sake of one lousy "Had Good Party' memory?

I have to admit that I haven't had one for a while. Only Wedding Parties and then I only invite 2 people. Easy to manage.

I find them stressful and I feel really deflated when they're shit.

Bugs me that at weddings, people will use the shower and then they don't change back into their formal gear. I like the formal gear on them. I wish they would wear it all the time. Seriously thinking of doing a Royal Family theme like someone here (can't remember who).

I use the b'day cake, no problems so far, occasionally in the old n'hood (that crashed and burned), I had a cake command that didn't work, but since the new n'hood no probs.

I see a couple of people say the party needs to be at 6pm, have the sims blow out the candles at this time, this is not true. The party can be held at any time during the last 24 hours, the cake can be done at any time.

I have stopped using a cake for the infant to toddler transition, the two times I've done this both infants became toddlers before 6.30pm, no problems.

Socialisation is the key to parties, not food, not toys. Use JM's autosocialiser on maybe three sims during the party and most of the time it's a roof raiser.

So, sorry JM, this is one bug I don't got.

Defintely, socialisation is what having a party is all about.
I was just commenting on an observation in my game that when I include those things the guests seem happier.   :) 

If you get a cake, some pizza, put the radio on to "pop" station and use poopbrop to type in "partiesR2fun" you will have a roof raiser.

 ;)

Chris

I remember the first birthday party I threw for a toddler aging to a child. I had no clue what the game wanted. I thought, silly me, invite the guests, get a cake, several multi-colored tables and chairs, lots of balloons, put a stereo outside, set up the buffet...HA! "Had a lousy birthday party" memory was born. I don't even bother anymore. When it's time for them to age, they'll do it on their own.

The best party in my game was when two sims who were in love were invited to a party.  They spent the whole time hugging each other and making out.  None of the sims throwing the party interacted with them at all, but the party got a great rating.  I thought it was hilarious.

Darkstormyeve - if you like formals, get Inge's door that changes every one into formals:

http://www.simlogical.com/

I love it.  You could use it as the bathroom door, so everyone would change back to formal wear.  I only have it on the front door, which lead to the funny situation of guests being in formals and family members being in pajamas.  But I kind of like that.

The Baby Controller lets you grow up a baby without a cake. Especially useful since normally, the baby cannot grow up at all.

Sounds like you should stop having people start random affairs. And get the Romance Mod to get rid of the silly flying daggers.

I've found that the birthday cake has a very short "table life". It seems to go bad (green clouds & flies) within an hour of being placed. So I buy it only after the party has started and immediately before I want the child to grow up.

The wedding cake doesn't seem to suffer from this problem. It lasts all night, like the gelatin.

This one thing happened to me,  just one time (and not recently). I have experienced a few other cake bugs though, such as "cake misfires" where the ceremony stops in the middle with no growing up, leaving the only option on the cake to "clean up". I've also experienced immortal cakes that never go bad (one sat on a seldom used table for an entire life stage before I noticed it, still waiting to be eaten from). I think these are all symptoms of the usual 'stuck in-use flag' class of problems. What EA/maxis content isn't buggy in this game?

Speaking of bugs, I ran into a doozy involving Bathroom Uses You. I got into an unpleastant situation where the only shower was busted. A kid I was torturing training up on the obstacle course ran into the bathroom in extreme stink mode, and ZAP - it was a line of hammer&sickles all the way across the screen and beyond. I had to replace the shower, and then delete about 40 queued actions before things became sane again. I keep hoping that the TP shows up on the firing range so that I could report it.  I haven't been able to reproduce it though, which is of course every programmer's least favorite sentence.

Ding! That was exactly the situation that led to the aborted birthday I was talking about. Immediately after the party stopped, the baby dumped. This made me laugh out loud, but I didn't connect it to the cake breaking. This makes sense - the cake got stuck in use so you couldn't queue up another birthday party. Coolness.

I have found like some other people here that the cake will last a lifetime. I hate the darn thing as it takes up valuable bench space and makes my sims fat. So I don't like them eating it but hell, the thing never goes bad! So I always cancel out the "eat cake" command and have a family member clean it up asap.

Hmm, yes, I had the baby controller in the house, where the babies grew up to be toddlers with no birthday party or cake. Before I had the baby controller I never had a stuck baby though I always had a party and cake. I must've just got lucky.

It's because the bathroom is continuing to call the sim, but it is not possible for them to be used.  I had the same thing happen with power idle eat when the fridge got low and they ran out of pork chops.  Once I refilled the fridge.... all better.

Chris