Headmaster just doesn't want to have fun anymore!

[MissDoh]

Ok yesterday I decided that all the kids in Pleasantview (all born in game not the Maxis one) should get into private school.

So at 4h30pm I called the headmaster, the scenario goes well, I make it take a tour of the house and he follows me no problem but after the tour he just stand there walking around in cercle.  He does not go play dart or watch tv at all or go in hot tub or on swings outside.  What is wrong with him???

I also notice that no kids can actually Shmooze him, adults can shmooze about school and work but for kids the action just drop-out by itself, kids can only talk to the headmaster.  I have no teen yet so I cannot try with teens.

I had no problem getting him at the table to eat and all, the kids did get into private school but something is defenitely wrong with the headmaster.  I even took out all of my hacks/mods to see if it was related to any of them but he still reacts the same way.

Anybody else notice this?  Is there a fix somewhere so he can have fun again and kids can actually schmooze him?

EDIT:  The 3 headmasters coming with Pleasantview came to different houses and they all reacted the same way. I did not try it in any other neighborhood yet.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Perhaps they changed it with NL?  I never bother with private school, most of my families are still beginning, and don't have loads of rooms to give him a tour of!   But it could be, that like everything else, they've altered it!

[MissDoh]

Well unless my game is buggy (which I sure hope not) it definitely looks like they change something in the programming of the headmaster.

It is not a huge a bug since kids can still get into private school but it is annoying and I woulld really appreciate a fix for that.

[Avie]

The Headmaster is notoriously glitchy. I get a wide and charmingly diverse range of failiures with the gentleman in question. Let me count the ways:
1. Fails to turn up at all.
2. Turns up but will then spend 5 hours on the swing or in the pool refusing to interact with anyone.
3. Turns up and ignores "Call to dinner" losing me my hard-earned Lobster Thermidor points.
4. Unexpectedly leaves rendering me incapable of ever summoning him again.

[SciBirg]

There is a fix for number 4. Just download JM's Lot fixer, it has the option "Fix AWOL headmaster".

[gali]

Although I Threw the Headmaster to the Trash long ago (use the InSimenator, or SimPe to send the kids to a private school), when I used to call him, the quickest way to get rid of him, and approve the accaptance of the kids to a private school was - after the dinner, and the tour, I used the Merola's Multi-painting, to fill all his moods. Right after that, he went home, and I got the approval.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Unfortunately Avie can't use simPE, she's a Mac-user.

One thing you can do, if you aren't a Mac-user, but you want the kid to go to private school the traditional way, is to turn the current headmasters into babies, then the game will generate new ones and maybe they will work properly.  I had to do that once with Mitch Wolosenko (the delivery-man) because he was totally bugged, and the replacement worked fine.

[Lythdan]

My headmaster seems to be working fine, as in he will still go right to the nearest fun obect and start using it. And it still takes ages to shoo him off  . But I also noticed that kids can't schmooze him. Teens seem to be able to though. This is in a custom 'hood, by the way.

[Kyna]

He does not go play dart or watch tv at all or go in hot tub or on swings outside.  What is wrong with him???

Don't you mean what is 'right' with him? 

It used to REALLY annoy me when he'd go in the hot tub or use the instruments, I'd use entertain/call for dinner so he'd come eat with the family, and he'd stay in the hot tub for ages.  I'd send a sim to shoo him and he'd go to the instruments.  Shoo again, chess board, shoo again, back to the hot tub or instruments ... Meanwhile the timer is ticking away, and the food is sitting uneaten.

Now for most of my hoods I just use Merola's painting to put the kids into private school, only in some of my 'less cheaty' hoods do I still call the headmaster.

[J. M. Pescado]

This is why you use things like Authorized Personnel Only or Ingelogical doors to restrict blocks of the house as being offlimits.

APO even has specific classification for things like the Headmaster, "Tourist", that can be used to explicitly bar headmasters from entering rooms with objects that tend to suck him in, like, say, hot tubs.

[angelyne]

I kinda like it when he gets in the hot tub.  You get extra points!.  The way I manage it, is I never leave the Headmaster alone 2 seconds after he shows up, to avoid him getting distracted by something shiny.  I get someone to meet him at the door and just queue up a bunch of chats action to keep him occupied.  You don't need a whole lot of rooms to make him happy, although that helps. I've once succesfully got the Broke family into private school with just a spaguetti dinner, a tour and lots of chatting.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I would say that if you max the interests of your family, and check before you load what the different headmasters' interests are, you should be able to chat successfully, just make sure your sims choose the right subjects!  And if father is a Romance Sim, schmoozing is good!  And if you fail first time around, then father can chat to him on the phone and make a friend of him, then you can try again.  The few times I've bothred with Private School, I have noticed the headmaster tends to fall for male Romance sims in a big way!

[dmchess]

The few times I've bothred with Private School, I have noticed the headmaster tends to fall for male Romance sims in a big way!

I think that varies with HM.  I always get my kids into private school, and the headmaster visits have never been a problem.  Like angelyne I never leave him alone for a second, so he doesn't do anything stupid.  But what typically happens afterward (the next day, or even later that evening) is that he calls and wants to talk on the phone for hours with the lady of the house.  The masher!

[Inge]

I don't think the headmaster gives points for anything other than the tour since I had NL.   Guests sit down to dinner more readily now, and he sits and eats without waiting to be "entertained" and I think that's why he doesn't give the points.

I am making my school set now, and the controller allows you to choose a school for your kids too.  I have added 3 new schools - a weekly boarding school (Mon-Fri), a prep school where they stay at school till 5 and complete their homework at school, and a Flexi school with no days marked as school days for people who are really setting up schools and don't want the bus involved on any particular day.

[Swiftgold]

I've had success with just having someone greet him, immediately take him on the tour while the high-cooking Sim of the house is making dinner, call him to dinner, and then find whichever Sim will give him plusses when they schmooze. The headmaster never gets a chance to do anything else and I haven't had a Sim rejected for private school yet other than thanks to things like saving beforehand forcing an insta-reject. I just bring him into whichever rooms have the highest environment score... little bathrooms can get up there with a painting on the wall... and that's about it.

[rma]

This may seem like a silly question, especialy since the headmaster IS notoriously buggy, but did you end the tour? After your Sim shows the headmaster all the rooms he's going to he should end the tour.