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TS2: Burnination => The Podium => Topic started by: humybyrd on 2005 August 19, 20:02:52



Title: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: humybyrd on 2005 August 19, 20:02:52
When I first enter a lot I run the debugger.  Even though my sims have not even lived a day there it always kill a bill and after that I get no mail.    I have yet to have the repo man show up but is this supposed to happen?  It continues to happen even after saving and coming back later.  Oddly enough this started in strangeville which I just started to play (yeah I know but I didnt care too much for the maxis made hoods-just got curious about having an all alien hood so trying to breed out the humans).  I see the mail man come every 3 days and put it in but I cannot get it out (box has no actions message) and if I run the debugger it doesn't kill any bills.  Where are they going?


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: veilchen on 2005 August 19, 20:11:00
I had that happening in one of my dorms Humybyrd, and I didn't use the LotDebugger at all. The student didn't get a single bill for the duration of his stay. After graduating him and moving him back, I moved another teen in that same dorm, but she did get bills right from the start.

I don't know if its related, but it could be that it is just another bug/glitch that the game so happily throws at us just to keep us on our toes.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: dizzy on 2005 August 19, 20:23:57
Maybe it's another "in use" bug. I suppose anything can be stuck in use, even the mailbox.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: veilchen on 2005 August 19, 20:28:01
That's possible. The mail carrier did come, went to the mailbox, but never went through the pull-out/stick-in animation. It just stood there for a moment and then left.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: Ancient Sim on 2005 August 19, 22:19:49
I always have the option to kill bills on the debugger, too.  If I click it, it deletes the bill in the mailbox.  Similarly, I always have the option to get rid of headmasters even on Uni lots.  I don't click to get rid of the bills unless I get a message saying the repoman is considering paying a visit.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: humybyrd on 2005 August 20, 18:55:26
So finally after a sim week the mail started back up so I guess the problem isnt permanent.  Too bad, I kind liked not having to worry bout the bills.  ohh well life goes on.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 20, 21:05:12
I did find if I killed stuck bills and then left the debugger in situ, thast no more bills came, but as soon as I sold it, things went back to normal.  Sometimes what happens is a wandering sim gets in the mailperson's way and he/she doesn't go to the mailbos, though this is more common when they're collecting rather than delivering, and has been the cause of the repoman's unjustified visits!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: bluecatvon on 2005 August 21, 18:00:41
I sometimes don't get mail for a very long time too. saves me $, so i'm not angry :)


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 21, 18:03:50
Bad design, though!  and moving the mailbox doesn't help, since the wandering sims seem to go anywhere in front of the house!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: vecki on 2005 August 22, 01:17:09
I had that happening in one of my dorms Humybyrd, and I didn't use the LotDebugger at all. The student didn't get a single bill for the duration of his stay. After graduating him and moving him back, I moved another teen in that same dorm, but she did get bills right from the start.

I don't know if its related, but it could be that it is just another bug/glitch that the game so happily throws at us just to keep us on our toes.

I've got that happening right now in a dorm.  Sheldon the mailman comes by every so often, but doesn't drop any bills off.  No stuck bills showing in the debugger.  I don't understand.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 22, 01:23:49
Try getting rid of the debugger, sometimes it seems to continue preventing bills from getting stuck by preventing the mailman from posting them in the mailbox!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: vecki on 2005 August 22, 01:33:18
I do.  I tend to only pick up the debugger when I have a problem, then immediately sell it again.  Sadly, that object is not especially attractive (unlike the fabulous college clock), and it mucks up snapshots :)

So the process goes:

-I spot Sheldon hanging around outside the dorm (no, the student has no relationship with him, it's not a casual drop-by, but he acts like it is)
-Sheldon walks off the lot, no bills delivered
-I buy the debugger and check for stuck bills.  Nothing.  Nada.  Only options are Rerandomise, fix AWOL Headmaster, clear offworld loiterers (which gives some weirdarse message about what sounds more like the rerandomise option), and one other which I forget.
-delete debugger


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 22, 01:36:22
Are you by any chance using the 6-room dorm from the dorm-bin?  If so, I found it had all kinds of minor bugs and got rid of it.  A pity, as it was far nicer than the others!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: vecki on 2005 August 22, 01:43:35
Nope :p  The rather plain 5 room dorm in La Fiesta Tech.  (Oasis, I think it's called)

Oh well, no bills=more money for my college graduate to spend/save.

 :D


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 22, 01:45:11
Well, that's true!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: veilchen on 2005 August 22, 12:19:03
I do.  I tend to only pick up the debugger when I have a problem, then immediately sell it again.  Sadly, that object is not especially attractive (unlike the fabulous college clock), and it mucks up snapshots :)
So the process goes:

-I spot Sheldon hanging around outside the dorm (no, the student has no relationship with him, it's not a casual drop-by, but he acts like it is)
-Sheldon walks off the lot, no bills delivered
-I buy the debugger and check for stuck bills.  Nothing.  Nada.  Only options are Rerandomise, fix AWOL Headmaster, clear offworld loiterers (which gives some weirdarse message about what sounds more like the rerandomise option), and one other which I forget.
-delete debugger

That's exactly the way it happened to me, and it's even the same dorm. I also get the debugger, use it, and then sell it right away. If it continues on the same venue, the next sim you move into that dorm after the present one graduates, will get bills again. At least that's what happened with mine.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: Kitiara on 2005 August 22, 13:44:15
I do.  I tend to only pick up the debugger when I have a problem, then immediately sell it again.  Sadly, that object is not especially attractive (unlike the fabulous college clock), and it mucks up snapshots :)


I keep the debugger and the macrotastics launcher on site at all times. I agree, the esthetics leave something to be desired, so I turn MoveObjects On and place them under the foundation. Both objects are then out of sight, but always a simple click (floor down) away.
Convenient.

I've had the weird disappearing bills before, but it never lasts long, so I just ignore the phenomenon.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: RainbowTigress on 2005 August 28, 00:56:47
As long as the repo man isn't taking your sims stuff, I guess it's not a major problem.  Someone else here was having the opposite problem in that they did get mail and they did pay the bills, but the repo man came anyway!  And there were no stuck bills shown by the lot debugger.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 28, 01:04:02
C'etait moi!

I'm still planning a very nasty treatment for the repoman when I go into SimPE again!!!!!  Wish there was a way in game that I could get him eaten alive by cockroaches!  Poor Lilith has bad memories of each and every item he took!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: RainbowTigress on 2005 August 28, 01:16:03
I thought it might have been you, but I was too lazy to use the search tool, LOL.  When I first got Uni and the Dreamers had stuck bills, I deleted the bad memories in SimPE, replaced the sink he took, and added the money back to the household funds.  Not the same as torturing the repoman, but at least it was as though it never happened and Ivy and Darren stopped crying about it.  I couldn't put Dirk's aspiration points back though.  I didn't know how at the time..


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 28, 01:34:26
Well, I suppose by the time you'd bought him half a dozen expensive sofas and a thousand shrubs he'd have got them back!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: RainbowTigress on 2005 August 28, 02:19:01
Yeah but that costs money!  I suppose I could kaching that away too, but dang, it's enough to give me a headache.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 28, 02:22:14
Send him to college, he gets other wants then!  Also, let him have an affair with the youngest Broke (provided he's a Romance sim) - he'll just get woohoo wants which cost nothing to fulfill!


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: RainbowTigress on 2005 August 28, 03:07:02
Too late, he's already married to Lilith with 4 kids, and the youngest Broke kid?  Do you mean Brandi's third child with Skip, or the fourth one she had after the other seven she had with my Sim?  The third child is grown up and married to Meadow Thayer, and they have 5 kids.  So it's all rather moot at this point. :)


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 28, 10:55:00
Well, next time you play Pleasantview - I do mean the youngest of the original brothers.  I always make him blond and Romance and he's probably my favourite sim to play, certainly out of the Maxis ones.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: humybyrd on 2005 August 30, 10:26:48
Ok, I took time out of my busy schedule to play again and low and behold-no mail at uni AT ALL.  The mail man just stands around for a while and leaves.  Its working fine in the hood as long as I dont use the kill bills before they even recieve any.  Strange things are a happening.  Perhaps its time for a re-install.  Hmmm come to think of it maybe I will just clean out my download folder first and see if it helps.
Only upshot to this is they kids are saving a lot of money and nothing gets reposessed.  Even if the man comes he doesn't take anything.  Just lazors the object but doesn't remove it.  Me thinks he cannot take dorm items that came with the house and I rarely buy items or redecorate the dorms.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: RainbowTigress on 2005 August 30, 11:25:39
I just saw something on MTS2 where someone had a similar problem with mail not being delivered.  I believe they were able to fix it by using a mailbox from Carrigon's lot setup collection, which has a mailbox, garbage can, and pizza!  I would back up my neighborhoods before trying this though. 


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 August 30, 14:16:28
Hate to say this, but I just removed the PayatBox fix, and now everything is working fine!  The mailperson doesn't get waylaid by passersby and not collect the mail, there are no stuck bills on the lot and no problems with the repoman.

I think also that Windkeeper or someone on TSR has made mailboxes with  a shelf so sims don't go trekking up to the attic to find a surface to put the bill down, and avoid the problem of sticking desks or endtables on the front lawn.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: humybyrd on 2005 September 01, 17:48:37
It is not a problem with the pay-at-the-box hack.  I had to remove that a long time ago when no matter what I did the repo man came.  It doesn't seem to matter what dorm I use-none of them get mail.  When I try to use the lot debugger I have no stuck bills.  Actually not getting the mail is a good thing for my simms but I have to wonder if it isn't going to be with a higher price later (like game crashing or other bugs that have yet to rear their ugly head).  Funny thing is that I am not getting any error log for this.  Things to make you go Hmmmmmm.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 September 01, 18:14:08
Have you tried selling the debugger once it's checked your lot?


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: humybyrd on 2005 September 02, 07:23:24
I never keep them on my lot-too ugly, and last time I never even bought one.  I usually get one if I have issues or before a birth.  I just don't understand why its only my uni lots that get no mail.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 September 02, 16:31:48
I've had it happen too, but it seems to fix itself eventually.  I've also had it happen on home lots.  One thought, though, do you have the NPC and Visitor Zapper?  If so, could you have accidentally banned the mailperson from your lot?


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: humybyrd on 2005 September 05, 00:05:16
nope no zappers. I got mail delivery back in my hoods just not the uni ones.  I never move the sims out to private homes in uni so I am not sure if it is just the dorms.  May have to test the idea to see if it is just the dorms.


Title: Re: my sims no longer get mail
Post by: ZephyrZodiac on 2005 September 05, 09:53:00
Some dorms do seem to be bugged, though it can happen in houses as well.