Hello Me, Meet The Barista Me!

[DrBeast]

I know the Met Self memory is a plague mainly infested through the use of electronic devices, and I've steered clear of those, patch or no patch. It seems, however, that with OFB the problem is back, and manifests itself through the use of...bars!
Two times yesterday, in owned community lot businesses, two different sims were struck by Met Self when I directed them to Tend Bar. In the first case I directed the owner to Tend Bar, in the second an employee was directed to Be Barista through the use of Business Runs You. In the case of the employee, I noticed that prior to directing her to Be Barista I had her Be Bartender, and that seemed to work fine. Also, in the first case the bar was retro-added on an existing comm lot by me (the Mission Series bar), in the second case the bar was already there (the Neon-ish bar from NL).
Ideas? Explanations? Links to other threads dealing with this problem?

ETA: I have all the expansion packs plus their patch(es), except the "booster packs". 90% of the hacks I use are Awesomeware. I'll try and reproduce the problem later today after yanking out all my hacks to see if it's hack-related or not.

[C.S.]

Did your sims happen to meet anyone new after being assigned to the bars? Mine occasionally get the Met Self memories after meeting someone new but I can't remember if the person they met received a memory of meeting my sims whenever this happen. Sometimes, I wasn't even aware of what had transpired until I looked in SimPE because some of the afflicted sims (usually of the Knowledge aspiration) didn't roll a want to befriend themselves. It can get a tad annoying to have to quit the game just to make the necessary corrections in SimPE to prevent the memory from getting passed on.

I have only the expansion packs (Uni, NL & OFB) and patches installed, my sims own only cellphones now and because this Met Self memories occur only after they met someone new, I'm thinking the game either got confused or couldn't process the new info fast enough. It's just a wild theory though, I didn't bother trying to reproduce (if it could even be reproduced) the seemingly random problem to see if it would still occur without hacks.

[DrBeast]

Well, I did some further testing. I took one of my sims to her owned comm lot, saved, then selected Tend Bar. As soon as the command was issued, she got a Met Self memory. I exited without saving, pulled all my hacks out, loaded up, repeated scenario, Met Self again. I replaced the bar with another one, same story. This is definitely a non-hack issue. Oh, and she hadn't met any new people for days. She always makes best friends with everyone she's ever met. As a side-note, I went to a comm lot with a bar (not business) and selected the bartender who was there (I've plopped down an assorted collection of goodies in the comm lots my sims frequent, one of those being Merola's Mind Control Mirror). He didn't have such a memory. Bravo Maxis yet again!

[Simlover]

Don't know if it's any real help Dr Beast but I found the link I had mentioned, doesn't look good though....

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=3400.0

[DrBeast]

Thanx for the link Simlover, but I've already checked that thread, and nothing in there applies to my case. That's why I started this thread in the first place.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Employ a townie to be your barista and let them get the stupid memory!

[DrBeast]

Did that in the second case. But the thing is, even this false memory will spread like wildfire, and I don't want such potentially damaging stuff happening in my game.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I see your point, and you can hardly ban the townie from every single lot, especially as s/he will still spread the memories where s/he is working!  Big problem.  I haven't had a sim be bartender for a whil, but I think I remember Coral Oldie being one for a few sim hours, so I could check out her memories and see if she has that one.  Game isn't loaded, I'll do it now, and then get back to you.

Checked her out, and no memory of having met herself.

[DrBeast]

The problem can be circumvented by using Business Runs You and selecting the employee to be Bartender, NOT, I repeat NOT Barista. That way the memory doesn't spawn. The owner however is stuck to Tend Bar only, which leads to the aforementioned problem. Definitely something to pay attention to, until someone *pokePescadopoke* comes up with the solution.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I think if I had had Coral selling coffee, it would have been the barista option, and I didn't have businessrunsyou then - none of us did!  I have seen the occasional met self memory since OFB, but not in conjuntion with being baristas or tending bar in any way!

[SaraMK]

What if you use that hack (by the unawesome Squinge) that stops all "met _____" memories from being created? I wonder if it would just mask the problem, or actually help solve it. I have it installed because I hate memory spam.

[DrBeast]

Well, I think if I had had Coral selling coffee, it would have been the barista option, and I didn't have businessrunsyou then - none of us did!  I have seen the occasional met self memory since OFB, but not in conjuntion with being baristas or tending bar in any way!

I think I was lucky enough that when this bug first manifested, my sim had a "meet someone new" want, so I caught it immediately. And I knew the employee was struck too because, as soon as I had realized my mistake (Be Barista instead of Be Bartender), I looked at her (couldn't select her, unfortunately) and saw the +1000 Asp drifting upwards, a tell-tale sign of what had occured. Sure enough, after I checked her out with SimPE the Met Self was there.

What if you use that hack (by the unawesome Squinge) that stops all "met _____" memories from being created? I wonder if it would just mask the problem, or actually help solve it. I have it installed because I hate memory spam.

You know, that reminds me of a saying we have here in Greece: "leg hurts? Cut off leg. Head hurts? Cut off head!". Needless to say, I don't like that approach at all. Thanks for the advice anyway.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Dunno if it would stop the gossip.  I suppose it would depend on what exactly the hack does and whether it erases the memory immediately after it is formed, or does in fact prevent it altogether.

[syberspunk]

It most likely prevents it all together. I think those type of hacks of his prevents the creation of those memories. I wonder what would trigger this when using the bar... I can see why this happens with hot tubs. Things get a bit weird because of the slot being occupied and I guess the code gets confused sometimes? At least I vaguely recall that being the reason for hot tubs. Perhaps the creation can be modified so it fails if the subject is the same as the sim themself? Maybe I can peek into this sometime this week, unless Pescado gets to it first.

Ste

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think that would be a terrific idea!  I don't like the idea of sims not getting the normal memories of meeting other sims as I should think all the related wants about talking to them, making friends with them etc. would also be wiped out, but just this wierd split-personality type thing is a darn nuisance!

[DrBeast]

Yes, anything you or the rest of the Awesomeware team can dig up would be greatly appreciated!

[twojeffs]

I've found a way to stop this from happening. I can't find out exactly where the bug is in the espresso cart, but I'm going to add a safety valve to the global that's being invoked to spawn the relationship/memory. Maxis should have done that in the first place to make sure the global is receiving valid data.

[ZephyrZodiac]

TJ to the rescue again!  That espresso cart has been nothing but trouble since the barista spawn days!  Oh, for a nice, unbugged cart like we had in Unleashed!  But TJ, if the Queen was a simmer, I think you'd be Sir TwoJeffs by now!

[DrBeast]

Wow, so the espresso cart can invoke the Met Self memory too? Jees! Much appreciated, TJ, I'll patiently await the arrival of your hack.

[J. M. Pescado]

Actually, I already have something that does that, AND suppresses the drama professor spam. It's currently on the test docket, but I can stick it out early. I'd have to go clean it up to "universalize" it, though, so it will work for all versions...

Okay, fix up. Includes the "Drama Professor" anti-spam as well. Drama Professors should no longer constantly pop up the "lost best friend with" icons, which are actually generating both visible and invisible memory spam.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'll have to try that - just wish there was some way of stopping the perverts from turning up uninvited, even though I've banned all professors!

[DrBeast]

Right, I'll try this out as soon as I get home and report back tomorrow.

[J. M. Pescado]

Heh, I'm not so concerned about them, since with the Romance Mod, sims are largely shielded from their unwanted advances and it's funny to watch people recoil from them and let them plop on their asses onto the floor, without having to worry about how their repeated attacks are warping your sim's orientation (rejected advances by others in the default game still warp sexual preferences), or breaking up families. They just land on their asses and get shoved away. It's funny to watch.

[ZephyrZodiac]

True, but then they clog the darn phone book, and probably keep ringing up!  And since i've banned them, they don't have an icon you can click on to stop the phone call, so you have to either tell them to hang up or use the clearoffworldloiterers option with the debugger - by which time they have made friends and then autoyak is unuseable for that sim until they aren't friends any more!

[DrBeast]

Bah, I simply delete all traces of having met them with SimPE.