More Awesome Than You!

I downloaded a small community lot a while ago and re-zoned it as a residential lot. I moved a sim in and things seem fine, except that most cookiing appliances refuse to work on this lot.

My sim can cook ramen in the microwave but when a stove, toaster oven, or grill is placed on the lot, it acts as if the item can't be used. Making the appliance dirty in debug mode gives me the option to clean it, but nothing else. She has a few cooking points, so she should be able to make pop-tarts and TV dinners. I was beginning to wonder if this has anything to do with the fact that there is no mailbox.

Since this lot started out as a community lot, it doesn't have a mailbox on it. Oddly enough, this doesn't seem to have caused any of the major issues I thought it would. My sim runs a home business and visitors can come and go quite easily. I've been wondering if the lack of a mailbox was causing the game to treat this as a non-residential lot (hence the malfunctioning stove), but that doesn't seem to be the case as my sim can still sleep, gain skill points, and gets the newspaper delivered. And grills don't work, even though they should work on all lots.

Anyone have any idea what's going on? Will a replacement mailbox fix this, or is the lot a lost cause?

I don't know about the stoves, but you absolutely do need a mailbox and garbage bin for a residental lot to work properly.  You can download them at modthesims2 I think.  Just search mailbox and RTFM to make sure that the one you're downloading isn't just a worthless piece of deco.  Its at least worth seeing if it fixes it before you burninate the lot.  Although don't get this forum started on the problems one can encounter when downloading lots from the exchange.  Laverwinkle is a good place to download non broken lots.  But I'm cool so I don't remember the url right now.

frillen @ mts2 has a collection with the ingame mailboxen and trashcans in it, among a ton of other things:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=131127

If you want just the mailbox and trash can you can get those at Sim a Little Dream a Lot http://www.simsfiles.de/outgoing.php?id=269&pid=15&jump=http%3A%2F%2Fdaydream.etowns.net%2FS2hacked.htm

I downloaded Frillen's collections and placed a mailbox back on the lot. (Thanks for the links!  :) )
However, the stoves/grills/toaster ovens still aren't working...  ???

Have you replaced all the objects that won't work since you added the mailbox?

Have you tried a different sim on the same lot? I've had inconsistent issues since the base game --when I was hack free-- with a few sims who either can't use the stove (I can't recall if they even got the clean option) or can't clean plates.

Got diagonal doors in the kitchen?

Did you place the residential trashcan as well as the mailbox? Like exactly how did you change the zone and are the stoves in question meant to be on a res lot? Have you picked up the stoves, deleted them and replaced them? Is the sim that is tring to use the stove in the room with the stove when you click on it?

What kind of stove is it? If it's the large 2-tile stove that community-lot chefs use, then it won't work on a residential lot unless you use hacks. Also, sometimes just picking up an object in Build or Buy mode and putting it back down in the same spot will do the trick, but more often than not you must completely replace it.

No diagonal doors. There's a residential garbage can on the lot. All cooking appliances have been deleted and replaced numerous times since the mailbox has been replaced. The stoves I'm trying to use are just the usual one-tile household stoves.

As soon as I put this lot into my neighborhood, I went into it and used the "changelotzoning residential" cheat so I could move a sim onto it.


I'm going to try to put another sim on this lot and try that. Did these sims regain their ability to cook/clean when they were moved out and moved back in?

I never tried. I just decided it was a personality quirk...you know, the celebrity chef who makes delicious meals but will never pick up the dishes.

I've no solution to the problem, but the subject line sure would make a good title for a plaintive country song.

Ziggy gets out her guitar and sings:

I have no mailbox and
My stoves don't work.
I'm stuck in this joint
With a drunken jerk

Wah, wah, wah.
Wah, wah, wah.

ROTFL!  I clicked on this thread just to add something similar.  Drat.  XD

/me gets out her harmonica and accompanies Ziggy.

I got them...
No-mailbox
Busted-stove
Simmin' bluuuuues.

Love the song. My reaction when I read the topic was: "You're trying to bake yourself a new mailbox?"

And there's the song title; Bakin' Mah Mailbox

When all else fails, I would try moving the family out and then back in again. Maybe because of the mailbox situation, the game is still seeing it as a community lot for some reason.  ???  Just make sure you have a proper trashcan and mailbox before trying it.

Might also be worth checking the sims Neighbourhood Memory for problems, such as Attraction Markers, if you don't use the FFSDebugger with the option to remove them.  It may be some form of the NL jump bug which in my game at that time cause certain sims to be unable to pee or shower, or even wash their hands.

The lack of mailbox can break the game's detection of the lot as residential, possibly interfering with the ability to use the stove.

That's true, but some downloaded stoves might work, you never know.  Failing that, try Paladin's replicator or buffet tables - no cooking skills required and your sims won't starve.  And they can charge visitors!