More Awesome Than You!

One house I'm currently playing has a room with a very low environment score, but I can't figure out what's bringing it down.  I built the house myself.  I never download houses.

The room isn't dirty, there's no books on the floor, no newspapers, etc. Now that I've put in a 10-point painting, the sims' environment score only drops to mid-range when they go in there, but before that it would drop very low.

The room has environment-raising objects that total 31 points.  The furnishings that don't actually raise environment are at least mid-priced, nothing cheap.  Well, the windows are the cheap ones, but so are the ones in the rest of the house, and the rest of the house is fine.

The room is a study, which is one of the rooms I usually show the headmaster during a tour, but in 3 tries, he's never given it more than 1 tour point.  Between the first and second headmaster scenario, I added several decorative objects.  Between the second and third, I upgraded the floor and wall coverings and added a 10-point painting.  I usually can get 10 tour points for much plainer rooms--as long as they are clean and neat.

I thought maybe there was a stuck object in there that was causing the problem, so I went over every square of the room with the stuck object remover.  Nothing.

It's not actually a problem--I finally did manage to get the kids into private school, and the family has plenty of simoleons to afford expensive paintings for the room.  But it's making me crazy not to be able to figure out why.  Any ideas?

Edit: I have Uni, NL, & OFB, all fully patched.

I've frequently had rooms like that, and there is absolutely nothing I was able to do to improve them, and then something wierd like moving a door would bring the score right up.  I think it's much more to do with the build objects than the buy ones - I've got uni rooms with cheap furniture, secondhand furniture, nasty walls and floors, but the environment score is nearly at maximum.  Go figure!

There's a bamboo floor tile that makes room score drop, but you said you'd changed the flooring .....

On occasion I've discovered that there's a piece of wall I failed to paint -- that'll make for bad room score.

I've also have some rooms in which I make sure to keep the lights on all the time.  Even though there are windows and they seem light enough for me, my Sims' enviornment scores would drop until I turned the lights on and kept them on.

Just some thoughts.

It could be stuck Flaming Bags of Poo, too. Try clearing the stuck poobags with the debugger.

Wouldn't the Stuck Object Remover on every tile do that though? And the original poster said they did that.

Try moving a door!  This hapened when I was playing the Ramirez house.  I enlarged the bathroom at the front of the house and made it 3x3, and the living room score went really low, and I tried everything I could think of to improve it and nothing worked, until I moved the doorway round into the small part of the L by the bathroom.

I'm wondering about that.  The house has been heavily remodeled--as the family grew and as they could afford more stuff.  This room wasn't part of the original floor plan.  Also, one wall of this room got moved several times as I tweaked that side of the house.  So maybe I introduced something wierd.  OTOH, I remodel all my houses frequently.


It was originally carpet, but is now hardwood.  I don't think I chose the bamboo, but I'll check the next time I go in.

What BlueSoup said.  Wouldn't the stuck object remover get that?

I have the lot debugger, but I've never used it.  I'll have to go check the RTFM.

Edit:  There shouldn't be any flaming bags of poo because none of them has ever had a bad date, but I know should doesn't always mean much in this game.

And I needed to download the latest version of lot debugger anyway.

When this has happend in my game I've solved it by removing one wall segment, unpausing, then replacing the segment and paint. 

Do you have drapes/curtains on all the windows? I had a room with a low score and it was because I forgot to put them on one of the windows. Once I did that the score went up.

Is there plenty of walking-around room?  I had a room that only had 1 tile-space of walk area around the furniture.  I moved things around and my sims were much happier.  They're claustrophobic little buggers, I guess.

ZephyrZodiac: The room has two doors, archways, actually.  One goes to the living room, and the other to the hallway for the children's bedrooms and bathroom.  There really isn't space to move either, but I could try deleting one.

Marvelleaux: I'm trying to remember the sequence of events, whether I first noticed this before or after changing the location of one wall.  Anyway, I wouldn't have gone into live play while the wall was open, so I may try this.

U_dog_U:  I rarely use curtains, with no problems, but that is one of the things I added when I first discovered this.

starrling: Yes, it's a 5x6 room with only 1 sofa, 1 bookshelf, 1 desk & chair, and 1 ficus tree occupying floor space. 

There are a couple of traffic flow issues with this house anyway.  I feel a remodel coming on...  (I was trying to wait until the last kid left for college, and then downsize.)

I tried several of the suggestions so kindly offered, but this is the one that did it.  Even with most of the decorative objects removed, environment now stays green.

Arrgh!  Stupid game!  Why?

At least you figured it out. :)

Ours is not to reason why, ours is but to do or.....remodel!

Eh, you need a few cruddy rooms to get the most of your headmaster tour anyway. Crappy rooms let you bump the score up just shy of 40 before you show him something to put him way over.

If you have a really nice garden you can almost do it in one go!

I've had problems with a "dirty" wall section plenty of times.  Don't ask me why it occurs, I haven't a clue.  Change the wall section adn viola, it's right as rain again.

I've also had issues especially during remodeling that the ceiling "tiles" don't get back to where they're supposed to be, and hence the room "thinks" its outside, when clearly it isn't.  The only way I've found to rectify the misplaced ceiling tiles is to use one of the one-story columns to put it back into its place.  Making sure to cover every floor tile one by one just to make sure.   Just had this problem last night as a matter of fact..

Ivy

The Ramires fine furniture lot has a host of ceiling tiles out at the back, and you can't get rid of them!  Most of them will let you delete them, but you get left with several that just refuse!  I ended up just bulldozing the lot (Checo had sold it back to the community) and rebuilding in the same place.  Then Lisa bought the new Ramirez Interiors, and every time she goes there, she keeps stopping in her tracks to admire it!  (Well, I did swop their Aspirations over, and of course, there's no cheap rubbish at Ramirez Interiors!)

you already fix it but one thing not mentioned is that the amount of light in the room is supposed to make a big difference according to the game manual. it advised putting bright lights near where the headmaster sits to bring up environment score.

However, if the room is right, it can have no windows at all and dim lighting, and get a high environment score!  Sims are just unpredictable!

As I mentioned earlier, I fixed the environment score in the study by removing a wall section, going live, then putting the wall back. 

A couple of simdays later, the husband and wife both aged to elder and the last kid went away to college.  I decided to remodel again to downsize for retirement.  Among other changes, I switched the kitchen around, putting the table where the counters and appliances had previously been and the counters and appliances where the table had been.  I also moved some doors and windows in the kitchen.

When I went into live play afterwards, I noticed a strange mass of black blobs above the table.  Since there was a dirty plate on the table, I assumed they were just weirdly magnified flies, and they gradually got smaller, so I thought it was no big deal.  But even after my sims cleaned up the plates (and counters, etc.), the kitchen environment was extremely low.  WTF? 

The good news is that everytime anyone cleans anything in the kitchen the environment score gets a lttle bit higher (compared to the last time it was cleaned).  So it looks like this one will work itself out.

I vaguely remember seeing something about black blobs a long time ago--maybe early last year?  Probably not here at MATY, but it could have been at one of JM's previous locations.

verdaeni:  I've run the headmaster scenario dozens of times.  I can usually zoom through it with no problems at all.  The most important factor, in my opinion, is that the rooms shown on the tour are spotlessly clean and tidy.  Anything actually dirty or spoiled, is a big negative, so are puddles, and so is anything left on the floor, like a book, newpaper, or the fingerprint scanner, also unmade beds.  Basic lighting is usually fine, as is the cheapest paint and carpet.  Having at least one painting or sculpture seems to help, but it doesn't have to be expensive.  I have a theory, not yet confirmed, that certain items are deemed to be "educational" and given more weight than mere environment points would justify.  Things like the chess table, piano, bookshelf, desk, easel, as well as paintings and sculptures.  I doubt that's a complete list--possibly all skill-building objects count.

that may be true about the objects.  we get so little information on how the game actually runs even when you run out and buy the prima guide.   in ofb i noticed the cook got skill points as she cooked, but no one seems to be getting creativity points for toymaking or robot making.  back to light.. why is the outside always listed as ugly no matter how clean? its bright...  or do they count outside as being bright?  not sure.

Sometimes they don't like change, especially if you are making a room smaller!  But I have no idea about the black blobs, although I'd suggest removing any furniture underneath them to see if they move with the furniture.  If so, then sell the furniture and buy new, if not, the you could try the stuck object remover.

maybe it would be easier to add a bribe interface so you can just write the headmaster a check  even though you are a slob?   the worse your house the more money you have to spend?

Good for those sims who are too busy to entertain!

Although I made the house smaller, the kitchen didn't change size.  It was basically that I needed to reposition the door to the living room because of changes there.  All I did to the kitchen was move things into different positions. And replace the plain back door with a sliding one.

The blobs started out large, but shrunk and vanished within a few seconds.  If I hadn't been looking right there when I went live, I would have missed them completely.  They moved around kind of like the flies do.  At first I assumed they were hugely magnified flies due to some sort of graphics glitch.  It was only after I noticed the kitchen now had a bad environment score that I wondered if there was any connection.  Also, they tickled a memory I can't quite put my finger on.

Oh well, it's really just curiosity at this point.  The environment score for the kitchen is slowly rising and, as far as I can tell, the blobs are gone.

i wish i had an idea on the blobs but i never heard of them before.   hm, its tickling an old memory of a classic star trek memory where these blobs were haning in the dark parts of the alien city and one of the attached to spocks  and they had to irradiate him to get it to let go and he was blind for awhile..   maybe some bright lights are in order.   those blobs didnt like the light?  (yes im well aware im crazy)

Do you have plants outside the window?

Well, the insimenator has an option to just add kids and teens to private school, which comes in pretty handy. After going through the headmaster thing once or twice, it gets pretty boring, so one click to add kids to private school, and another with the testing cheats on to fulfill the want, and you're good to go. :)

With Pescado's private school hack that charges tuition, it's still only well-off families that can send kids to private school. It's just less boring to do so. :)

Might make more sense if they didn't still all travel on the same school bus!

sure but they have problems with too many cars on the same lot so if they fixed it, they'd break more

True, but if all the kids in the family go to private school, then they could have a different bus - or what about a taxi?

okay yeah, if all the kids went to private school it should be a blue bus, whatever the color of their uniforms are.   come to think of it, kids should be able to take a bus to a community lot so they can meet other children...  its really hard to find friends for my kids.

Well, teens can take them, I think - at least they used to.

yes, i have a teen center community lot (everything else blocked by twojeffs lady in red paintings).    now i need a way for my children to get to a commity playground to meet other children.

Well, once you get one there, you can teleport others in, or you could get one of your sims to open a playground as a business, ban all but kids and teleport kids in.  But the business will never make any money because kids can't spend it!  Maybe they'll make a Vacation type EP with the kids clothing racks and stuff!

yeah i summon kids in now with the insiminator, but the first families always get used because im lazy.   now in the regular community lots with ts2 plain you did get kids in the community lot, although your own couldnt go there.   maybe we could have a hack where 'someones dad'  takes you, just converting the taxi and male driver to a standard car,  or get a toddler day care van show up and pick up the toddlers now and then so mom could sleep. 

Well, I would imagine if you used the sitter hack that the sitter could take them - I'll have to try it out!

yes, must test.  i have all sorts of new ideas to check out now.

totally off the subject, i think if there is a really annoying family member you should be able to try and drown them in the toilet or fishtank...  im tired of those sissy fights they have,  how picking up the scissors ad going for them?

You can always take the pool ladder out!  I did that to Angela once - but you have to put up with the water dripping all over the house!

i'ved drowned people,  walled people off. and set them on fire.  in fact in my bluewater area i had the geike guy buy the electroncis store ad he thought it would be neat to put the firepots out.   well he set himself on fire walking too close to one and the store was inherited by a customer...  who then went and bought back his house and raised him back to a zombie and lets him wait on customers.  but you have to fake all those deaths, i think there should be a chance that in the fighting ball with someone you could hit a critical and end up killing them.  THAT would spice the game up, eh?

As Maxis will keep insisting, The sims is a game about LIFE!