Traffic jams and other car related annoyances.

[Dark Trepie]

I made a second copy of Pleasantview a few days ago so I could play it sort of like an alternate universe from my original Pleasantview and I've run into a couple of carpool problems.

First one happened with the Burbs.  John went to work in the carpool, Jennifer went to work in the car they owned, and Lucy went to school in the bus like usuall.  But as luck would have it they all came home at the same time.  The carpool with John popped up first with Jennifer right behind them in her car.  It sat there like that for a few seconds with nothing happening but Jennifer sitting in her car and honking the horn.  Finally John jumps out of the carpool and onto the other side of the road and walk to the mail-box.  When the carpool goes away the schoolbus immediatly pops up, so Jennifer is still stuck back there in her car honking the horn.  But Lucy never gets off of the bus.  I let it sit there for about a minute waiting for something to happen, but it doesn't.  And buy/build mode are greyed out.  Finally I just turn testingcheats on and force an error on the bus.  Bus disapears and Lucy appears next to the mail-box with no homework.  And finally Jennifer is able to pull into the driveway.

This might have been a one in a million fluke I thought.  But I still unassigned Jennifer from the car.  Figuring that I won't get anymore traffic jams if everyone uses the carpool.

My second car mix-up was with a wedding limo.  I had Dina Caliente get married to Mr. Big.  And when they got into the limo it didn't go anywhere.  Eventually Dina and Mr. Big appeared next to the mail-box with they're motives all maxed.  But the limo still didn't go away.  So I just did the same thing I did with the Burbs and forced an error on the limo.  It still didn't go away and the game started getting really slow.  So I figured the game was generating a million useless NPC's and exited without saving.

Ran them through the wedding again.  They got into the limo and the same thing happend.  But this time when they popped out next to the mail-box I just deleted the blasted limo with Moveobjects.  That seemed to work.



So I'm left sitting here wondering what the heck is going on.  I have a sneaky suspicion that it has something to do with portals.  And for the record I haven't installed the latest patch yet.

[radiophonic]

First one happened with the Burbs.  John went to work in the carpool, Jennifer went to work in the car they owned, and Lucy went to school in the bus like usuall.  But has luck would have it they all came home at the same time.  The carpool with John popped up first with Jennifer right behind them in her car.  It sat there like that for a few seconds with nothing happening but Jennifer sitting in her car
[...]

Interesting. Usually the stuck car just magically appears in the driveway when that happens.

My second car mix-up was with a wedding limo.  I had Dina Caliente get married to Mr. Big.  And when they got into the limo it didn't go anywhere.  Eventually Dina and Mr. Big appeared next to the mail-box with they're motives all maxed.  But the limo still didn't go away.  So I just did the same thing I did with the Burbs and forced an error on the limo.  It still didn't go away and the game started getting really slow.  So I figured the game was generating a million useless NPC's and exited without saving.

I had that happen as well. Unfortunately it was in the middle of a wedding party. Forcing the error on the car only seemed to fix the problem. When I returned to the lot the next day, the party meter was still running and nobody was there. The party went from rockin to dud in no time flat and they got the "had a bad wedding party" memory. I did finally manage to fix it, I can't remember how I did it though.

[Ancient Sim]

I have quite a few problems with cars.  I have one on the Dreamer lot at the moment - Darren & Dirk go to work at the same time in separate cars (I can never get anybody to carpool, it never works), but Darren returns 2 hours before Dirk.  Nevertheless, when Darren returns, Dirk comes back as well and an error pops up about a sedan.  On top of that, Dirk gets told he's missed work and gets no money.  The last time it happened, Dirk's car never came back - normally it appears in the driveway and he appears by the mailbox; Darren appears sitting in the middle of the road with no car and his car also back in the driveway.  In this case, I think it's maybe because Dirk's car is a recolour, can't think of any other reason.  I'm going to have to delete the driveway piece next time I play the lot because it won't let me place another car in Dirk's spot.

I also have problems with some service vehicles arriving or leaving if there are cars parked on the road rather than on driveways.  I had to delete a delivery van tonight because it was just stuck there, for some reason the delivery man couldn't get out even though he was parked on the other side of the road to the two cars and there was nothing blocking his exit from the van.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I had a similar problem to yours with the Burbs, Trepie.  This was in a downtown lot, and for some reason when the school bus arrived, it wouldn't move, the kid wouldn't get off, and his father was stuck in the car behind.  In the end I exited without saving via TaskManager since everything was greyed out and the sims' were half-dead!

I now only use the car for a sim whose work-time is different from the school bus!

Ancient, some recolours are wierd - try Hairfish's ones from mermaid cove, I know they're fine!

[RainbowTigress]

I moved the Burbs into one of the Maxis trailers when I restarted Pleasantview this time, and I had a problem with Lucy not being able to get off the school bus.  Her mother could get out of the carpool, but the bus just sat there forever with Lucy stuck on it.  I had to move the mailbox with moveobjects a few tiles down.  I didn't have any more problems after that.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think that's probably the main cause of the problem - sometimes they'll teleport through the mail-box or trashcan and sometimes it seems to block their path altogether!  Why Maxis puts portals and mailboxes so close together beats me!

[J. M. Pescado]

As a general rule, you should not bother to assign cars unless you REALLY don't want that person's carpool to show up, since it will have no effect on whether or not everyone else who works at the same time has their carpool or school bus appear. Plus, it stops the Go To Work from being added to the queue. Unless you really don't want that sim trying to go out to the carpool (vampires), don't bother assigning the car and just keep it as a backup.

[Lythdan]

I usually only assign cars when someone has a helicopter carpool...I found in some house, if the maid was there, the carpool wouldn't come in until the maid was gone.

[RainbowTigress]

I have found that if I assign a car, and I don't want the sim to go to work, even if I cancel the Go To Work icon, it will still be pushed again and I'll find that the sim went to work anyway, and then it's too late to cancel it because they are usually already in the car by then.

[SIMplyLisa]

I had a small downtown lot house that had the maid and repair persons vehicles parked.
The repair guy set the dishwasher on fire and the firetruck had to wait for the maid to leave before it could arrive.
Then as the fireman gets out, had to wait for someone to take the car and leave for work, then the school bus shows up and nearly ran him over. he made it to the sidewalk in from of the bus finally. By then the fire was out after everyone in the house had a go at it with the fire extinguisher. So the fireman left without ever going in the house.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Bring back the pedestrian maid, I say!  On what he/she earns, how on earth can they afford to run a car anyway?

[SIMplyLisa]

Or wait for the OFB robomaid to arrive!

[ZephyrZodiac]

There again, one could hope they'll revive the skeleton maid from MM!  So much more fun waiting to see if she would clean stuff or destroy it!

[jsalemi]

I had a similar backup at the Pleasant house last night (Angela now lives there with her son-of-CAS-couple husband and new baby).  The husband's car got stuck behind the carpool coming for Angela -- he gets home an hour before she goes to work, and I didn't bother getting a nanny since I figured he'd be home in time for her to leave.  But he wasn't able to get into the driveway until her carpool left without her.  So I waited until he left the car and then used it to send her to work a couple of minutes late.  Fortunately she has the next couple of days off, but I suspect this would also happen with his carpool returning at the same time her's arrived.

[maxon]

I had a similar problem to yours with the Burbs, Trepie.  This was in a downtown lot, and for some reason when the school bus arrived, it wouldn't move, the kid wouldn't get off, and his father was stuck in the car behind.  In the end I exited without saving via TaskManager since everything was greyed out and the sims' were half-dead!

I now only use the car for a sim whose work-time is different from the school bus!

Ancient, some recolours are wierd - try Hairfish's ones from mermaid cove, I know they're fine!

Odd - there must be something going on.  When my sims do that (car arrives behind the school bus), the car just drives straight through the bus and turns into the driveway.  'course being me, I'm disappointed the car doesn't ram the bus and/or run the little buggers over, but there you are.

[ZephyrZodiac]

This happened before the NL patch and before I had the original portal fixes installed - so I think it's probably a portal problem.  If you had either the patch or the portal fixes, that's possibly why you never had the problem.  Since the patch I usually see the car simply teleport itself onto the driveway.

One thing you could try, Ancient, is putting the driveway at the other end of the lot, obviously in a small lot it would have to be the extension piece, but if I remember correctly, the Pleasant house has plenty of room at either side.

[anelca]

biggest annoyance with the cars to me is, you generously give your teen a car and maybe get him/her to drive the siblings to school and the school bus still bloody turns up, by the time all the kids have done the Dance Around the Car thing, half the siblings have got into the bus, someone always manages to miss both and those in the car are late for school

[ZephyrZodiac]

I suppose it was to complicated to programme it so that all the kids went by car!  Just as a couple who work the same hours can only carpool in the family car if they're both running late, and the non-driver still returns via the carpool.  Really, having cars at all was just to make the EP more attractive to potential buyers, I think, as mostly the driveways and cars take up more space than smaller lots can comfortably manage, and the actual amount of use the car gets is minimal - unless you frequently use it as a woohoo wagon!
And the price of the cars is ridiculous!  The Smoogo costs about the same as the expensive toilet or fridge!  Now, is that reasonable?

[vilia]

I used to have problems with cars but downloaded Gwill's lovely want fullfilling paintings and I don't have cars anymore and don't have car problems anymore.  http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=122834

Sure my sims sometimes miss work, even though I have queued them to go.  Stiff bickies, you decided not to go, so you can suffer the consequences

Edited: Woah, I just noticed I've got my first set ripped lips - noice noice!

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you play with free will ON, then they never miss work unless you give them something to do they can't stop of their own accord, like playing chess.  Since NL, the got to work interrupts everything you've queued, just as Go to college does in Uni.  Now, when I was working, I always went to the loo before I wnet, then waited till I got home to wash my hands!

[vilia]

I have free will on but my sims seem to develop a life of their own.  My sims do things like want to finish off their meal which they just cooked and then time runs out.  Just recently I saw the warning box that John Burb missed the car pool - he was dancing - I doubleclicked on his thumbnail to find him am convinced I saw a smirk.   I guess I'll have to be more careful when I give them the directives before work.

[ZephyrZodiac]

John Burb has some hidden coding!  Once you split him and Jennifer up, he usually improves a bit, but not a lot!  But change his aspiration to something else, and you never know what will happen!  (It's Jennifer who has Family at the beginning of her Neighbourhood Memory, not John!)

And a family sim who, when living apart from his only child, who almost never gets the want to call his daughter to chat, or invite her over? 

[RainbowTigress]

I have been using Monique's hack, "Stop skilling and go to work/school."  They will drop whatever they are doing and go to work or school, even if they are sleeping and not full energy yet.  It works very well, except that I wish it made them take off their thinking caps first.  That's my main problem is that I've had several sims go to work with their thinking cap on.  I'm not sure if the cap is actually being used during that time though.  I've worked around this by having them quit skilling after I receive the hour warning about the carpool or bus.

[J. M. Pescado]

It does keep burning even when they're at work, yes. And I personally don't care for such a thing because skilling can be a higher priority task than work. If your sim already has an A+, he doesn't need to go to school unless you want the Free Food, or have a want/fear pertaining to going/not-going. Conversely, if your sim does not have the required skills for promotion, and does not have platinum mood, there's probably no point in going to work unless you desperately need the change or have wants/fears pertaining to it. That, and having your queue stomped is never cool.

[RainbowTigress]

But if your sim teen doesn't go to school, s/he will lose grade points and lose their scholarship.