Lot Sync Timer: All BlueSoups Suck Edition

[Sam]

If this is any help to anyone, I have OFB and tried this mod after installing it, and found this problem (don't know if anyone else has had this):

None of my residential lots are home businesses. Yet after playing one lot and jumping to the next, a member of the family I'd played before would turn up and invite him/herself in as though they lived there. There was no option to say goodbye, I couldn't select the Sim but messages were popping up saying the carpool was about to arrive, as though they lived there rather than visiting. On returning to the neighbourhood after saving, I was most puzzled to find a taxi in the loading screen instead of the usual neighbourhood symbol.

BUT! One time after playing a lot for a bit experimentally I went to quit without saving. I got a warning dialog asking not only do I want to quit without saving, but explaining the dangers of quitting straight away from a business lot! Or words to that effect. At any rate, I think the game thinks you've got a business specific item on the lot, like a ticket machine etc. I believe that's the source of the problem Is that any help in getting it fixed?

[BlueSoup]

The Lot Jumping tool shouldn't be used after you've installed OFB.  It's been fubar'd since then.

[Issy]

I kinda skimmed through this whole thread and I'm so confused

So just a simple question I guess - Does this currently work with OFB?  I already went through the hack directory for OFB but can't see it listed there.

[Avalikia]

The object itself works with OFB, but you should not use the lot jumping feature or bad things will happen.  You should save and travel to other houses the normal way instead.

[J. M. Pescado]

The current version does not have the lot jump enabled in OFB, so you don't have to worry about it. Anyone who can still do that is using an old version. With many missing shiny things.

[RainbowTigress]

You can still use the lot jumping feature built into the game as of NL, where you can click on neighbors and go to that lot without having to go to the neighborhood screen.  That should still work.  If your neighborhood is large, you may have trouble seeing some houses to click on them, but it can be done.  It's just not as convenient as it was using this hack.  You do need to have clickable neighbors turned on, though, and the wider your view settings are, the more neighbors you can see to click on from the current house.

[Issy]

I never lot jump anyway, just not used to it I guess.  Thanks for replies, putting in the new shiny now

[Kyna]

I no longer use the lot debugger to jump to the next lot.  If the next lot I want to play isn't near enough to click on, I use the loadlot cheat.  It doesn't seem to be causing any problems for me.  You need to know the lot name for the cheat to work so for the Beaker lot you would enter loadlot "1 Tesla Court"  - to remember the lot name I use Sims2DB, which has a field for recording that info on the Household screen.

[RainbowTigress]

I didn't know about that cheat, or if I did, I forgot it. 

[kutto]

I tried looking, but I can't find it. What does the Time Warp do?

[Karen]

I tried looking, but I can't find it. What does the Time Warp do?

It allows you to set the exact day/hour/minute on the lot.  If you try to use it you will get several strongly worded messages telling you not to do it.  But if you want to try it, use Time Warp to set the day/hour/minute to what you want, then click Engage to actually make the change.  (Or Abort to cancel, if you change your mind.)

Karen

[Sam]

The Lot Jumping tool shouldn't be used after you've installed OFB.  It's been fubar'd since then.

This all happened while my net connection was down, so I had to find that out for myself - I just posted that in the hope it'd be useful

[kutto]

Why so strongly worded? What kind of bugs would it trigger?

[GayJohnScarritt]

Why so strongly worded? What kind of bugs would it trigger?

I also would like to know of any possible problems.   I really need to move my main Royal Family to a 'more playable' home i've already built them.   I already know i need to do this when everyone is at home (preferably before everyone goes off to work/school.   I've already tested it on a 'throw-away' family, but i only changed the hour/minute, not the day, went thru the entire day and the day changed at midnight correctly.  For the Royal Family, i'll be changing the day from monday to friday, plus moving back time 30 minutes.

[J. M. Pescado]

Why so strongly worded? What kind of bugs would it trigger?

Some things operate in a "pulse" mode where they're supposed to occur at a specific time. When that time occurs, they then perform a "long pulse" of waiting an hour's worth of ticks. If you change the time out from under it like that, there's no telling how confused it might get. In most experiments, there do not appear to be any lasting effects from changing the hour, or changing times on community lots, but changing anything other than the day can be potentially risky on residential lots.

[Thanatos]

When will this be compatible with OFB?

[twojeffs]

Now?

[jrd]

Lately I've had the problem that each time I load a dorm lot, the lot sync timer there is uninstalled for the family. I can install it again, and it will remember what day it was on, but next time I load the lot it will be uninstalled again.
This does not happen in college residential lots or greek houses, or in normal residential lots.

Paladin's hack scanner doesn't find any conflicts.

Any clues?

[Karen]

I'm happy to report that the synctimer is working just fine with Pets.  I didn't bother deleting it from my downloads before installing, and the settings were exactly where I expected them to be when I loaded the game with CC enabled.

Karen

[PlayLives]

Edit -
nevermind. 

[Karen]

I noticed the same thing.  I actually find it useful, as it's an easy way to keep track of which lots haven't been played yet since I installed Pets.  I imagine that once you've played every lot, things will go back to normal.  I've visited 20+ lots now out of 37 and the list is filling up as I go.

Karen

[Meska]

I know its been asked before and I don't mean to be a nuisance. Its just that I was playing last night and again this bugged me. Is there any way possible this could be remeshed into something smaller? I'd actually prefer the plain square box like Macro and the Debugger to this huge neon green fits into none of my houses monstrosity. Those at least I can hide under the foundation or under a bed. Its not that I'm ungrateful. I use this item in every one of my houses after all. I thought it might hurt a little to ask but figured I'd give it a shot anyway.

[seelindarun]

Have you tried using the moveobjects to hide it in the foundation?

Given how tall it is, I expected it to poke up through the floor, but it doesn't.  I don't seem to have any graphical artifacts in my game (EPs up to OFB) from it at all.  In houses without a foundation, I tuck all my MATY tools in the attic.  Just a few floor tiles under the peak of the roof does the trick.  In one house where I have neither foundation nor peaked roof, I just built a small 'closet' with no door.  It doesn't show in pictures, and sims don't interact with anything inside anyway.

I know none of those solutions is as elegant as a new mesh, but I get the feeling Pescado isn't an elegant sort of guy.   

[KevinTMC]

I've been trying to hide this and the debugger and Macrotastics controller in my foundations but can't figure out how to make it work. Can that even be done if the whole foundation has already been laid...and if so, anyone have some handy instructions to share?

[RainbowTigress]

This would be a good idea, although I hide this under the foundations also with no problem.  There are some houses without foundations though that are a bit of a problem.  Once we were discussing this with the Baby Controller, and Pescado mentioned making it morphable at one point.  Nothing ever came of that though.  But after playing with twojeffs ACR and the option to change the model of the controller, I find I absolutely love it.  I can make it into a small plant on a desk or table or a large plant to sit on the floor, and hide it in plain view.  If I forget where it is for some reason, I can click on a sim and click Adjust...Casual Romance...Zoom to controller.  I'd love it if similar functionality could be added to the FFS controllers.  Incidentally, InSim has had this for the various sectionals for some time. 

ETA:  Kevin, have you tried turning on moveobjects?  Normally you can't place objects in the foundation, so you have to enable moveobjects on.