Macro Control: Macrotastics

[nemesis]

Nemesis = too lazy to read all of this, so I apologize if this question has been asked already.

When using "Kick Stuff" on a college dorm with a pink flamingo, the pink flamingo will occasionally become stuck with a pie menu option of "Stand Up" while it is standing up.  If you direct a sim to do so, said sim will throw a fit about not being able to walk over to the flamingo, even while standing next to it.  I tried enabling boolProp testingcheatsenabled true, and forcing and error - and there were no options on the flamingo at all.

So I keep rebuying new flamingos and selling the old ones.  But.. is there any way to fix this without resorting to that?

I have inSiminator (NOT Teen).  But other than that I have only Awesome hacks.

[J. M. Pescado]

This is a known issue apparently caused by poor robustness in the EAxis code. They didn't design flamingos to withstand repeated rapid whomping, so occasionally, they break. The cause of this has never been adequately explained or uncovered. Most of us have switched to using gnomes or The Cheats.

[nemesis]

Gnome it is.  Stupid EAxis.  Thanks for the quick reply!

[Emma]

Has anyone noticed the 'Auto Detect' bed setting for Sleepclock is borked?

[lordrichter]

Define borked?

[Emma]

It doesn't detect the type of bed automagically.

[Blueblood]

It doesn't detect the type of bed automagically.

I don't know if it's the same as your problem, but I had a detection problem with one bed just recently. I thought it was odd because all the other beds were detected just fine, even another bed that was exactly the same as the bed I was having problems with. But all the beds that were auto detected normally were ones I had just added. The one that wouldn't auto detect was in the house when my Sims moved in, so I figured that was the problem.

I had just matched the rating with the other bed instead of re-buying it, so I don't know for sure if re-buying would have fixed it. I should have tested it, but I magic wanded the house for them to be able to move in and they barely made it so I wouldn't have been able to buy it back after buying all the other stuff they needed.

[Emma]

I've tried replacing the beds with new ones and these are all EAxian beds. The only CC beds I have in-game are the life stories ones and I wasn't even using them, just EAxis ones. I try out all options before reporting borkage.

[edit] Sleepclock has just been updated so hopefully it will work again.

[Emma]

'Macro>Eat' still doesn't work for me. I've replaced all the kitchen items and downloaded the latest version but it just drops out of queue. No custom fridges and 'don't shoot food' is installed. When directed sims can prepare and eat meals as normal.

Also, 'Macro>Hobbinate' isn't working properly as the Autoyak is still borked for me. Phones have been replaced, latest version installed yadda, yadda.

[lordrichter]

Hobbinate frequently does not work for me, and I have long since stopped expecting it to.  Usually, they do everything except build the hobby and when they are done doing other things and ready to start, it often drops out of the queue.   Occasionally, it stays in the queue but the Sim just stands there doing nothing.  Less often, the FPS drops to 1 or 2 until I cancel it.  I am sure it is simply not the proper (approved) hobby building items or there is some perceived blockage to the item, but it is usually just easier to manually direct them to the objects and let them hobby away. 

Eat has been dropping for me lately, as well.  I rarely use it, anyway.

Detecting beds seems to be working fine for me.  I tried different ones (all Maxis beds, though) and they all worked OK.

[J. M. Pescado]

Are these all IKEA-based issues, or what? Because I see none of these problems with currentversion on FTp1.

[lordrichter]

I do not have any stuff packs.  I do not have FTp1 installed.  I do have a lot of mods, mostly awesome, some otherwise.  They have been checked for overt conflicts with SimWardrobe's conflict detection program.

As for Hobbinate, for me the biggest issue might be the selection of items on the lot.  I suspect that Hobbinate is unwilling to use the TV as a source of hobby interest, which might be deliberate.  On some of my poor lots, the selection of available hobby items can be slim.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hobbinate will detect the TV for use with movie-interest, but I've found a few dodgy TVs that have misbehaved. If you can indicate which TVs misbehave, I might be able to pin that down better.

[Kyna]

Hobbinate doesn't seem to detect the TV for sports.  I don't know what its learning rate is, but watching the sports channel is easier on motives than the FT sports equipment (running FTp1).

[Emma]

Are these all IKEA-based issues, or what? Because I see none of these problems with currentversion on FTp1.

Ikea & FTp2 here. Things were working fine until I installed Ikea. It isn't game-breaking but a minor annoyance really. I can't understand why the phones are broken. I can direct my sims to phone>targets, phone>friends and phone>family, but they don't just do it automagically. This is why hobbinate is broken. If I remove all phones they hobbinate still works-get me? And why can't my sims macro>eat? I don't know what has broken it.

[vikitty]

College Rampage is acting funny for me since Ikea Stuff Pack, though it may have been before since I only resumed playing Uni dorms recently.

Am using only Awesome hacks at the moment.

Problems include Sims freezing as soon as I select "Rampage", Sims flocking to bookcases and then freezing, and other asshattery. In some instances "Rampage" cannot be cancelled, and I have to use "Force Errors" on the lot debugger to reset everything.

[lordrichter]

Some Hobbinate oddities that I have observed today.  FFS mods through 6/30/08, currently at FTp3, but no change since FT no patches)

All Hobbinate activities start with extended use of the phone.  This is occasionally preceded by use of the terlet and a refreshing shower.   They will use the phone until social is maxed.  They will return as often as necessary in order to keep social maxed.

Sometime around 1-2 hours after instructed to Hobbinate, they will be done with the terlet, shower, and phone and then they get down to business....

Hobbinate / Tinkering for a Level 7 hobby person generated some sort of "use interwebs" action with a picture of the standard Moneywell computer that was sitting unused in the next room.  Apparently, they have direct wireless access since all they did was stand there thinking about using the computer.  I eventually canceled, but they always came back to it if I started Hobbinate / Tinkering.  If the computer is busy, they will go to the bookcase.

Hobbinate / Nature always results in birdwatching.  No problems there.

Hobbinate / Cuisine for a Level 9 person went to the Moneywell and started blogging.    No problem there.  This was after the Tinkering person was done wirelessly accessing the computer, by the way.  I don't know if the wireless access blocked the blogging action, but the blogger was still on the phone building social when the wireless sim was accessing the interwebs.

Hobbinate / Film and Literature level 8 went to the bookcase.   No problem there that I can see.

Hobbinate / Sports (no current interest) was sitting on the sofa doing nothing for a long time, two squares away from a Trottco 27" TV, still off.  After sitting there a while, the social score dropped down a pixel or two so now they are heading to the phone to call everyone they know.  When done with that, they will return to the sofa and just sit.  Rinse and repeat until some other motive needs attention.

More:
On a different lot, I noticed that Hobbinate / Music&Dance with someone who had no prior interest in music and dance resulted in the same sitting on the couch behavior I noted with the Sports activity above.  It occurred to me to check the icon to see what they thought they were doing and the action was labeled ""Call.../Family" under the hobby icon (the only one in the queue).  Their social was maxed, being that they just got off the phone talking to everyone they knew.  I predict they will sit there all day, getting up only to tend to various needs, and behaving, for the most part, like they are on Power Idle.  They are sitting in front of a Trottco 20" TV and are ignoring a Fun-Kadelic stereo in the same room where they talked on the cell for an hour to build social before coming out to sit on the couch and dream about calling family.

More Edit:
Turns out that Hobbinate/Music&Dance is more about playing music than dance.  If there is a musical instrument on the lot, they lose interest in calling the family and go play it.  I suppose that the family will have to live with the idea that a guitar is more important than they are. 

[vikitty]

lordrichter, I had the same issues a while ago and Pescado assured me that this is normal behavior -- sims will take care of their needs before hobbinating.

[J. M. Pescado]

All Hobbinate activities start with extended use of the phone.  This is occasionally preceded by use of the terlet and a refreshing shower.   They will use the phone until social is maxed.  They will return as often as necessary in order to keep social maxed.

Hobbinate is basically Power Idle With Hobbies. Therefore, sims will perform basic motive and status maintenance in the process.

Hobbinate / Tinkering for a Level 7 hobby person generated some sort of "use interwebs" action with a picture of the standard Moneywell computer that was sitting unused in the next room. Apparently, they have direct wireless access since all they did was stand there thinking about using the computer.

This is normal. Level 7 unlocks the "blog" action which has a higher enthusiasm rate gain. You probably were not allowing them to reach the computer, so they could not complete the action. Tinkering hobbination works fine on the computer in my game, so you must have prevented that sim from accessing the computer somehow.

Hobbinate / Nature always results in birdwatching.  No problems there.

Birdwatching is a nature-based action, which is why it is chosen. Hobbinate is also clever and will make use of the fact that gardening is also nature-based, preferring that as the dominant nature-based action.

Hobbinate / Sports (no current interest) was sitting on the sofa doing nothing for a long time, two squares away from a Trottco 27" TV, still off.  After sitting there a while, the social score dropped down a pixel or two so now they are heading to the phone to call everyone they know.  When done with that, they will return to the sofa and just sit.  Rinse and repeat until some other motive needs attention.

Sports currently only recognizes the sports equipment. TV is too prone to ADHD and other issues like sims attempting to arbitrarily change the channel. Higher levels of sports can use the Internets actions.

Turns out that Hobbinate/Music&Dance is more about playing music than dance.  If there is a musical instrument on the lot, they lose interest in calling the family and go play it.  I suppose that the family will have to live with the idea that a guitar is more important than they are.

Provide better dance actions. The sims will use the ballet bar, the musical instruments, or the regular dance, but only if the stereo is on. They will not turn on the stereo on their own, because that's really obnoxious. Without the stereo, they won't dance.

[Kyna]

Hobbinate / Tinkering for a Level 7 hobby person generated some sort of "use interwebs" action with a picture of the standard Moneywell computer that was sitting unused in the next room.  Apparently, they have direct wireless access since all they did was stand there thinking about using the computer.  I eventually canceled, but they always came back to it if I started Hobbinate / Tinkering.  If the computer is busy, they will go to the bookcase.

Is the desk accessible from the right-hand side?  I've noticed that if the right-hand side of the desk is blocked (e.g. against a wall) that sometimes the sims will think their path to the computer is blocked.

[mildlydisguised]

I am finding that with Ikea SP and no FT patch that my sims cannot macro > hobbinate when call targets is the designated action.  They, in fact, won't even pick up the phone, they just sit on the sofa fidgeting.  This doesn't interfere with their basic needs maintenance though.

[rohina]

I have the same issue Emma describes with IKEA installed and patch 3. Sims pick up the phone, dial and then put it down again.

[Zazazu]

With latest version posted, I just directed a sim to Macro...Clean. He did all cleaning except taking the trash out of the compactor and into the composter. Action was queued, but he queued Tinker for the compactor in front of it and proceeded to keep doing that whenever I canceled out and redirect to Macro...Clean.

[Emma]

I had that 'error*' too Zazazu, I think it is something to do with the composter. Households that didn't have one could put the trash in the curbside trashcan fine, with no errors.

*No error logs generated though-just looping queue.

[J. M. Pescado]

EAxis must have changed the compactors at some point again, since the code has not been altered.