Easy way to Magical gnomes and are they bugged?

[spaceface]

Those gnomes are way creepy. I prefer not to have things on my lots that move about in an unauthorized fashion.

[virgali]

Thank you sooo much for a link to the hack. I actually need those seeds too since it takes ages to get the opportunities to unlock the seeds. I got two sims at lvl 10 gardening and I only JUST got the first opportunity to unlock the special seeds.

Back on topic, I wish someone would check and see what's up with them gnomes codewise. I fished my very first gnome, named him right away and he moved nicely a couple of times but then stopped. So I decided to kick it after a a sim week or two without any activity.

I guess it's easier to find them by doing all those activities (fishing/collecting/catacomb exploring), especially the meteor collecting seem to be very profitable when it somes to gnomes... in the meantime I'll be downloading that hack

[jweslake]

There are two things I noticed with my Sims. First, I didn't get a magic gnome guy unil I had a plant planted (Sim planted, not through the build mode) on the home lot. Also, my (one and only) gnome has never ventured inside the house (does a foundation matter?). He moves almost every night, but he runs around and then poses somewhere near the planted garden. Perhaps there can't be a fence between them and a planted garden (gate included?)? Honestly, I don't know. My gnome has been active ever since I got him (and I renamed him as soon as I got him, so that doesn't stop them from moving). I just thought I'd share what happened to me.

[chaos]

I had my magic gnome inside of a fenced garden, and he stopped moving after a few days. It was a small garden. Maybe he needed more space to roam about in.

[uknortherner]

My current gnome has yet to budge. I placed it several (sim) weeks ago on the floor by the TV, and he's stayed there ever since - not moving, changing pose... Nothing. I might have to get my sim to kick the poisoned dwarf's arse just so it'll adopt a new pose or something.

[jweslake]

Murphey's Law. As soon as I said it and went back to my game, he stopped moving. However, by then the guy who found it moved out of the active household with his two kids. That's the only thing that changed. He hasn't moved for a while now.

[uknortherner]

Had my sim go out on a rock hunt, courtesy of Supreme Commander and had her send off all the metals and gems to be smelted and cut. Got five Mr. Gnomes back in return.

Laid then out in the garden, and for nearly two weeks they happily moved about - two of them seemed to have a permanent fixation with the mailbox, dancing around it whilst the other three roamed the house.

Then I saved. Gnomes carried on going about their business. I exited the game.

When I went back in, the gnomes were now frozen in whatever poses they had been in when I saved the game and haven't moved since. It would seem that the game, when writing the save data is treating these gnomes as normal gnomes and must be flagging them as such, basically killing off anything special about them. I can still rename them of course, and if you have developer cheats enabled, there's still an option to reactivate their old behaviour (don't know if it works though), but they won't do any of that sneaking around stuff on their own. Trust EA to break functionality through the criminal act of actually saving the bloody game!

[FrickinIdjit]

They seem to like being outside.  Maybe it goes with finding 'em in fishing holes or rocky places?  I have one who's pissing me off.  He likes to turn on the stereo while the family sleeps.  The kid's a light sleeper, too, so I'm about to sell his painted little ass.

I'm pretty sure they attach themselves to the sim who found them.  I had two that I packaged in a family inventory who have never moved.  The two I left in the personal inventory are really active, the pain-in-the-ass virtuoso included.

[Marq]

I had my magic gnome inside of a fenced garden, and he stopped moving after a few days. It was a small garden. Maybe he needed more space to roam about in.

I was thinking this as well.  I got two gnomes, both were "picked" up by my sim at work when he got to the top of the evil criminal career track.  The first one I put in the fenced in garden.  I had a sim kick it and he changed to a different pose but never moved.