Macro Control: Macrotastics

[J. M. Pescado]

I use SimWardrobe Auto Bill Payer.  No problems so far, except on one house I get the Macro Pay Bills option but every time I click that option, Sims just open the mailbox, reach in, pull nothing out.  Option doesn't go away.

Obviously, the auto-bill-payer is not correctly fixing all object attributes. Stop using it.

Also, Mortimer just died, and whenever i tell Cassandra or Alex to Macro Kick Stuff, they sometimes kick his grave.  They did it at least twice and Cassandra's husband never had the urge to kick the grave, so I'm thinking it's a family thing?

What'd you do to make them hate him?

[Exiled]

What'd you do to make them hate him?

I didn't do anything.  They were on good terms.  Cassandra got $7100 and Alexander got $5100 when he died, so they must have had a really good relationship with him.  But...that's supposed to happen, they can kick the grave and it raises their fun?

[J. M. Pescado]

Tombstones are normally kickable, yes. But only if the sims in question hate each other, normally.

[discrete]

I have yellow pee installed.  Sims ignore the yellow pee when they're macro cleaning.
Is it on purpose, odd or should I put the blame on tight pants?

[Magicmoon]

I thought that adult Sims weren't supposed to spray plants under macro control due to the possible side effect of turning into a plant Sim.

I have a single fruit tree on the property. Since I never know the right time to harvest, I use business> be farmer. If the tree can't be harvested, they just trim the bushes. But I've noticed that my adults are spraying the tree when it is infested.

Did something change or does Macrotastics figure that they aren't in danger because a single tree won't need sprayed often enough to cause a problem? Should I be using macro> garden instead of be farmer?

[J. M. Pescado]

I have yellow pee installed.  Sims ignore the yellow pee when they're macro cleaning.
Is it on purpose, odd or should I put the blame on tight pants?

This is Puddle Rage Avoidance. The reason this happens is because this would cause puddle rage, and therefore, is not safe.

[spammer]

In junction to the post above I ask myself: Is there actually any difference between Business->Be Farmer and Macro->Garden?
And: Would it be possible (<-used quite often today) to draw a line between "taking care of the plants" and "harvesting".
I would like to have one of my sims to take care of watering, weeds, bugs etc and one Sim to only harvest the crops

I also realised in the latest version that a sim with garding badge gold is overwatering the plants before harvesting to get their need up instead of talking to the plant. Is that on purpose?

Thanks in advance

Edit: How about sim-specific (Macrostatistics Launcher/Business Runs You Sign) options: Watering On/Off, Spraying On/Off, Pull out On/Off, Talk to On/Off, Harvesting On/Off?

[J. M. Pescado]

I also realised in the latest version that a sim with garding badge gold is overwatering the plants before harvesting to get their need up instead of talking to the plant. Is that on purpose?

Yes, yes it is. Because it works faster, and the subsequent health drain over time is irrelevant when you plan to eat the plant anyway. Haven't you notice how it is smarter than you are?

[spammer]

Yes, yes it is. Because it works faster

I should have mentioned that I use a hack which makes talking to plants faster. I asked my sim why the heck don't you just talk to the plant and harvest it already instead of watering it all the day xD. I know I am impatient.
Now the pieces seem to fit.
And what about the options?
If I found a tutorial which explains how the code with all it's expressions works I would do it myself.
(All I did find were tutorials about how to do specific tasks. But none about how everything works together.)

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes, well, Macrotastics is designed with the idea that you are playing the game "fair", as opposed to CHEATING with magic-plant-talk.

[drace]

*delurks*

I redownloaded the macrotastics only a few hours ago from the FT directory (don't have AL), while I was updating my hacks. I loved quite a few options on it in the past (which always worked as intended), but hadn't used other options at all yet.

So I tried to tell my sim to macro > hobbinate > Arts - which I never tried before - and expected him to do something arts related. Instead he went to the phone and phoned random friends up (It showed "Interacton > Call" or something like that in the queue, followed by the hobbinate arts icon.) acting like he got the command Call > friends.

*very confused now* Is it supposed to do that, or am I doing something wrong?

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes. All the hobbinates take care of business first, so if your sim has unfinished maintenance he needs to do, that will be done first. All the Hobbinates are just idle macros, basically Power Idle with Hobbies instead.

[Exiled]

Does the kid/teenager need to know how to study before he/she will Do Homework?  I was playing the Ottamas family and Sharla just got an A+, but every time I tried to get her to do homework, she wouldn't do it.  I finally found her homework and had to manually have her do it.  The only reason why I could think that this wouldn't work was because she didn't know how to sutdy.  I have Seasons and am using Macrotastics last updated on 1/2/09.

[J. M. Pescado]

Does the kid/teenager need to know how to study before he/she will Do Homework?

They should't need to, but they will attempt to acquire this skill with greater priority if they don't.

I was playing the Ottamas family and Sharla just got an A+, but every time I tried to get her to do homework, she wouldn't do it.  I finally found her homework and had to manually have her do it.  The only reason why I could think that this wouldn't work was because she didn't know how to sutdy.  I have Seasons and am using Macrotastics last updated on 1/2/09.

Well, first, make sure you're using the latest version. Secondly, define "wouldn't do it". Exactly HOW is it that she is not doing it? Does the option simply not exist? Does it drop from queue? Does the sim move to the destination first? Are motives all sufficiently green, and if not, are the relevant things needed to FIX the problem installed? Do Homework will attempt to restore motives to functional levels before doing anything, so if, for instance, there are no approved Fun Objects, or soforth, the sim will not be able to green up and therefore the task will drop.

[Exiled]

It drops from the queue (similar to if I try to have them skill up and the appropriate object isn't present).  Motives were green and and I have flamingos installed.  I've installed macrotastics last updated 1/31/09 and will try again.

[Emma]

Quite possibly you have a stuck flamingo. Try using the Cheat instead.

[Malapietra]

Hello and thanks for the wonderful hack.

A few questions here about Socialize > Friendly.  I was wondering if perhaps 'Gesture' instead of the 'Chat' interaction was more efficient at raising Sims relationship to get to the higher social interactions?  Is there a reason for using 'Chat' which is prone to failure and seems to be slower than 'Gesturing'?  My apologies if the answer turns out to be something obvious.

If it's not to much to ask, I'd also be interested in knowing how you decide which social interactions to use and at what point in the relationship bar they are triggered.

[lordrichter]

I have an interesting situation with Business->Be Witchcrafter.

When I select this on most lots, the witch will run to the pot and start cooking.  However, if I have a lot with a garden plant sign on it, the witch will run back and forth between the garden and the pot, not really doing much of either.  It seems the poor witch can't decide whether the be a farmer or a witchcrafter.

Edit: I cannot guarantee that it happens only on lots with the garden signs.  I have only one lot that has both a witch and garden plots.

[Malapietra]

I've encountered a problem that I'm not sure is directly related to Macrotastics but I suspect it is.  I had a Uni Sim in need of food and I had on Hobbinate > Auto.  When I clicked on the 'Eat' command my Sim rushed to the kitchen area but the 'Hungry Desperation' picture kept looping with my Sim performing no action. It appeared to be in a loop causing the game to seriously lag until I cancelled the Hobbinate > Auto action.  There was no food readily made and my Sim made no effort to make food either.

[CandyToast]

Speaking of food, does macrotastics check for Grilled Cheese asp. before macro>eating? I do not think it does.

[J. M. Pescado]

Speaking of food, does macrotastics check for Grilled Cheese asp. before macro>eating? I do not think it does.

It does, yes. Grilled Cheese will always make Grilled Cheese when it tries to prepare food.

[CandyToast]

Really? I must look into this deeper. 

[Emma]

Yes, it does. Definitely.

[J. M. Pescado]

Really? I must look into this deeper. 

There's a reason it's called "More Awesome Than You".

[sloppyhousewife]

Would it be possible to take novel calls into account for "Skillinate... Creativity"? I had a sim skill creativity on the computer, and when he finished the novel, he made a friends call to raise his social (cell phone). This took so long, that the normal phone stopped ringing, so he didn't get the royalties. Since the skillinator never lets a motive get so low that it becomes really critical, these short calls wouldn't do any harm, I guess?