More Awesome Than You!

I know the Met Self memory is a plague mainly infested through the use of electronic devices, and I've steered clear of those, patch or no patch. It seems, however, that with OFB the problem is back, and manifests itself through the use of...bars!
Two times yesterday, in owned community lot businesses, two different sims were struck by Met Self when I directed them to Tend Bar. In the first case I directed the owner to Tend Bar, in the second an employee was directed to Be Barista through the use of Business Runs You. In the case of the employee, I noticed that prior to directing her to Be Barista I had her Be Bartender, and that seemed to work fine. Also, in the first case the bar was retro-added on an existing comm lot by me (the Mission Series bar), in the second case the bar was already there (the Neon-ish bar from NL).
Ideas? Explanations? Links to other threads dealing with this problem?

ETA: I have all the expansion packs plus their patch(es), except the "booster packs". 90% of the hacks I use are Awesomeware. I'll try and reproduce the problem later today after yanking out all my hacks to see if it's hack-related or not.

Did your sims happen to meet anyone new after being assigned to the bars? Mine occasionally get the Met Self memories after meeting someone new but I can't remember if the person they met received a memory of meeting my sims whenever this happen. Sometimes, I wasn't even aware of what had transpired until I looked in SimPE because some of the afflicted sims (usually of the Knowledge aspiration) didn't roll a want to befriend themselves. It can get a tad annoying to have to quit the game just to make the necessary corrections in SimPE to prevent the memory from getting passed on.

I have only the expansion packs (Uni, NL & OFB) and patches installed, my sims own only cellphones now and because this Met Self memories occur only after they met someone new, I'm thinking the game either got confused or couldn't process the new info fast enough. It's just a wild theory though, I didn't bother trying to reproduce (if it could even be reproduced) the seemingly random problem to see if it would still occur without hacks. :P

Well, I did some further testing. I took one of my sims to her owned comm lot, saved, then selected Tend Bar. As soon as the command was issued, she got a Met Self memory. I exited without saving, pulled all my hacks out, loaded up, repeated scenario, Met Self again. I replaced the bar with another one, same story. This is definitely a non-hack issue. Oh, and she hadn't met any new people for days. She always makes best friends with everyone she's ever met. As a side-note, I went to a comm lot with a bar (not business) and selected the bartender who was there (I've plopped down an assorted collection of goodies in the comm lots my sims frequent, one of those being Merola's Mind Control Mirror). He didn't have such a memory. Bravo Maxis yet again!

Don't know if it's any real help Dr Beast but I found the link I had mentioned, doesn't look good though....

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=3400.0

Thanx for the link Simlover, but I've already checked that thread, and nothing in there applies to my case. That's why I started this thread in the first place.

Employ a townie to be your barista and let them get the stupid memory!

Did that in the second case. But the thing is, even this false memory will spread like wildfire, and I don't want such potentially damaging stuff happening in my game.

I see your point, and you can hardly ban the townie from every single lot, especially as s/he will still spread the memories where s/he is working!  Big problem.  I haven't had a sim be bartender for a whil, but I think I remember Coral Oldie being one for a few sim hours, so I could check out her memories and see if she has that one.  Game isn't loaded, I'll do it now, and then get back to you.

Checked her out, and no memory of having met herself.

The problem can be circumvented by using Business Runs You and selecting the employee to be Bartender, NOT, I repeat NOT Barista. That way the memory doesn't spawn. The owner however is stuck to Tend Bar only, which leads to the aforementioned problem. Definitely something to pay attention to, until someone *pokePescadopoke* comes up with the solution.

Well, I think if I had had Coral selling coffee, it would have been the barista option, and I didn't have businessrunsyou then - none of us did!  I have seen the occasional met self memory since OFB, but not in conjuntion with being baristas or tending bar in any way!

What if you use that hack (by the unawesome Squinge) that stops all "met _____" memories from being created? I wonder if it would just mask the problem, or actually help solve it. I have it installed because I hate memory spam.

I think I was lucky enough that when this bug first manifested, my sim had a "meet someone new" want, so I caught it immediately. And I knew the employee was struck too because, as soon as I had realized my mistake (Be Barista instead of Be Bartender), I looked at her (couldn't select her, unfortunately) and saw the +1000 Asp drifting upwards, a tell-tale sign of what had occured. Sure enough, after I checked her out with SimPE the Met Self was there.


You know, that reminds me of a saying we have here in Greece: "leg hurts? Cut off leg. Head hurts? Cut off head!". Needless to say, I don't like that approach at all. Thanks for the advice anyway.

Dunno if it would stop the gossip.  I suppose it would depend on what exactly the hack does and whether it erases the memory immediately after it is formed, or does in fact prevent it altogether.

It most likely prevents it all together. I think those type of hacks of his prevents the creation of those memories. I wonder what would trigger this when using the bar... I can see why this happens with hot tubs. Things get a bit weird because of the slot being occupied and I guess the code gets confused sometimes? At least I vaguely recall that being the reason for hot tubs. Perhaps the creation can be modified so it fails if the subject is the same as the sim themself? Maybe I can peek into this sometime this week, unless Pescado gets to it first. :P

Ste

I think that would be a terrific idea!  I don't like the idea of sims not getting the normal memories of meeting other sims as I should think all the related wants about talking to them, making friends with them etc. would also be wiped out, but just this wierd split-personality type thing is a darn nuisance!

Yes, anything you or the rest of the Awesomeware team can dig up would be greatly appreciated!

I've found a way to stop this from happening. I can't find out exactly where the bug is in the espresso cart, but I'm going to add a safety valve to the global that's being invoked to spawn the relationship/memory. Maxis should have done that in the first place to make sure the global is receiving valid data.

TJ to the rescue again!  That espresso cart has been nothing but trouble since the barista spawn days!  Oh, for a nice, unbugged cart like we had in Unleashed!  But TJ, if the Queen was a simmer, I think you'd be Sir TwoJeffs by now!

Wow, so the espresso cart can invoke the Met Self memory too? Jees! Much appreciated, TJ, I'll patiently await the arrival of your hack.

Actually, I already have something that does that, AND suppresses the drama professor spam. It's currently on the test docket, but I can stick it out early. I'd have to go clean it up to "universalize" it, though, so it will work for all versions...

Okay, fix up. Includes the "Drama Professor" anti-spam as well. Drama Professors should no longer constantly pop up the "lost best friend with" icons, which are actually generating both visible and invisible memory spam.

I'll have to try that - just wish there was some way of stopping the perverts from turning up uninvited, even though I've banned all professors!

Right, I'll try this out as soon as I get home and report back tomorrow.

Heh, I'm not so concerned about them, since with the Romance Mod, sims are largely shielded from their unwanted advances and it's funny to watch people recoil from them and let them plop on their asses onto the floor, without having to worry about how their repeated attacks are warping your sim's orientation (rejected advances by others in the default game still warp sexual preferences), or breaking up families. They just land on their asses and get shoved away. It's funny to watch.

True, but then they clog the darn phone book, and probably keep ringing up!  And since i've banned them, they don't have an icon you can click on to stop the phone call, so you have to either tell them to hang up or use the clearoffworldloiterers option with the debugger - by which time they have made friends and then autoyak is unuseable for that sim until they aren't friends any more!

Bah, I simply delete all traces of having met them with SimPE.

Yet another chore which interferes with playing time!

Is it possible the bug is a result from the ability for sims to "Take over as" a Barista or Barhop on lots they don't own?

Maybe there is some kinda of conflict over the work as... and the ability to actually work at one you own.

Maybe. But I'm not all that smart about codes, but it seems to me that the only issues arising with OFB is with stuff that you could take a part time job as on non-business lots. (One of the few others being a personal trainer for gym equipment, but for gyms you use the ticket machine, not man the machines)

Doesn't make sense, really, that a gym wouldn't employ a trainer to actually give people lessons!  I'd love it if Maxis could come up with a way of sims having an aerobics class!

I know, you can have personal trainers on University campuses. What's wrong with telling people how to "wail on their delts" after graduation?

Well, you can actually be personal trainer if you are the owner of the gym or one of the family (and presumably a controllable manager) but usually the customers just wander off to the hot tub!  Get rid of the hot tub and maybe they'll want to train - and buy espresso too!

Ah, well I uninstalled OFB a while ago, so I don't have to worry about all that mess. I was just commenting on what I figured was the only thing the bar and the barista had in common that might be causing the bug.

Well, I didn't say being a PT wasn't buggy, just that it was possible!  I would think the problem is more closely connected with the barista and the espresso cart, which was buggy from the start of Uni..

Ah, luckily I don't usually make my simmies perform PT jobs. Getting straight A's in college keeps you from having to take up work on the sly.

And if you don't care about relationships, meditate is your friend in college. =p

Being a PT is good, though, if both sims need a body point - one for their college requirements, the other perhaps for the job requirement later on, but since they both build the skill and also get money whether they do it at home or on a comm lot, it's a handy thing to do!  I don't use dorms a lot, and living in a house is expensive for first generation sims - they have to pay for all the restrucuring I do!

If your playable sim has full body points they can take a yoga class.  (and you could, for story-telling purposes, get a group of sims to *let's smustle* which would look like an aerobics class)

Here's some more feedback on the Met Self issue: unfortunately, Pescado's Dramafix did not get rid of this problem. I took my experiment a bit further, and tried to invoke the memory with an espresso cart by instructing an employee to Be Barista. Well, espresso carts at least are safe to use, but regular comm lot bars are still a big no-no.
Oh, as a footnote: owners CAN be personal trainers, managers cannot. Also, managers cannot, for some strange reason, Call Over another sim.

I never tried with managers, but just thought they would be able to if they had high body points - oh well, that's just another problem with managerss - they just aren't controllable in the right areas!  They can't use the phone or the espresso machine either!

That has to do with the "Visitor" checkbox. Managers have difficulty doing any action that is not "visitor-enabled".

Oooh, with the "let's smustle" and with that mod that adds body skill building to dancing that WOULD be an aerobics class.  8)

As long as all the visitors weren't in the hot-tub!  Need it behind lockable doors, and only unlock it AFTER all the townies have taken a bit of exercise!

There's a thought. Although I never really tried my hand at any other business besides a home salon/novelty shop.

Herb and Coral have a gambling den!  (Herb was a mean poker player in NL, so I thought, this is the life for him!)  Lilith has one of the toyshops.  Jennifer has two gifte shoppe type shops and a lumberyard called doorsareus.  JimmyCash has a cheap electrical store and his father-in-law Tom Penney has a babystuff shop, a cheap antiques stall, a grocer's shop and now the expensive antique shop ......and Malcolm Landgraab still hasn't visited any of his businesses!

I heavily modified Maple Springs Pool And Spa (got rid of the floors altogether) and used it as a comm lot business. Visiting sims get to work out, play chess (healthy mind in healthy body my ancestors said!), swim in the pool and soak in the bathtub. I've seen them indulge in all of the aforementioned activities, they don't all rush heads over heels to the bathtub. This was the business lot I used as a testing grounds when I found this bug by the way.

Well, I found they had a quick look at the gym, then off to the hot tub they went - and that included active sims like Komei!