Personal Trainer: bug or feature?

[AnnaM]

I've never used the "Be personal trainer" command much before, but now one of my fitness-obsessed Sims has opened a gym business (using a modified 1-2-3 Gym), and the idea was to hire someone to sell entrance tickets, and for herself to work as personal trainer to clients.

The clients use the machines (well, almost only the treadmill, but I can live with that), but the option to be personal trainer only appears very rarely on the machines while a client is using them.

Does anybody know if this is a bug, or otherwise what are the conditions for getting the option? (I thought "higher body skill" as the obvious one: my would-be trainer Sim has max body skill, so she should get it for most townies...). I tried searching the forums but didn't find any hints.

(I have all EPs but no SPs, most of the Director's Cut installed and up to date, and a few select other mods with no mod conflicts at last check.)

[Lion]

but the option to be personal trainer only appears very rarely on the machines while a client is using them.

Yes, that's when the option appears, almost always, and when the client has lower body skills than your trainer. But I haven't done a gym for FT though.

[rome_raven]

I'm pretty sure they introduced the "Personal Trainer" feature in University, so the students could make some extra cash.

[J. M. Pescado]

Except that due to the various docking-related issues, it's actually a counterproductive feature.

[cwykes]

Didn't realise that - still learning my way round Uni stuff.  So I guess the trick is to start with full needs bars and maybe a snapdragon within range, so they keep going for hours.  I've used it in a family like that and the trainer maxed out body skill while the other one gained a lot of lower points.  It's less boring than studying fitness from the Edumacation bookcase anyway.

The clients use the machines (well, almost only the treadmill, but I can live with that), but the option to be personal trainer only appears very rarely on the machines while a client is using them.

I agree. The option doesn't always come up for me when I'm expecting it to. But, like I said I'm still learning Uni and could be missing something blindingly obvious.

[Jelenedra]

It's a slower way to teach the Body skill, as the Trainer kicks the client off the machine to show them how to do it "properly." So, instead of having a sim that trains their body skill for two hours, you instead only get about 30 minutes worth of training.

May I suggest having your maxed fitness sim sell protein ... I mean... Fitness Shakes? That's all the stupid employees at my gym ever do. Talk on the phone and try to shove expensive drinks in my hand.

[AnnaM]

Eh, yes, selling drinks... As for it being slow for teaching, that's ok, I'm only teaching townies anyway. I just like the idea of the fitness freak working as a trainer.

As for the original problem... I've done some testing by making the non-trainable customers selectable (which I don't like to do because they then immediately leave) and checking their skill points. One of them had 5 body points, another had 2 -- my "trainer" has 10. So I scratched my head for a while.

Then I tried adding another treadmill, and lo, here she could "be personal trainer" to another customer with 5 body points. So, it was probably a problem with the specific treadmill.

I tried forcing error and resetting, but this didn't fix it. So it seems that the only solution is replacing the equipment. Bit of a bummer because it my fitness sim isn't rich -- in fact, after buying the gym she's almost skint -- and treadmills are expensive; but at least it seems I have found my answer.