Perpetual Nanny? Oops, I broke it!

[webwench]

So, the Elvishtoo family is a happy family, now in its sixth generation.  There's five kids, the youngest two still toddlers.  Mommy and Daddy are both Natural Scientists (they rolled LTWs for it - strange but true), so leave at the same time.

Mommy called a nanny two hours before the carpool, and Nanny Heidi showed up!  She played with the kids and the dollhouse some, and when Mommy and Daddy got home and dismissed the Nanny Heidi, Nanny Heidi waved and her van showed up but did not pull into its regular position in the middle of the street.  Instead, it stopped right where it appeared at the beginning of the street.

Nanny Heidi decided to go swimming.

I had to kill Nanny Heidi by locking her in the bathroom, then boolProp away the van.  The next nanny, Nanny Jeni, came, played, and refused to go home.  I sent her to Bluewater in a taxi and deleted her van. 

I appear to be bugged.  Without completely destroying my sixth-generation family, how do I fix the perpetual nanny issue?

Thanks, ahead of time!

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe a portal was deleted, and now the car can't properly stop. You'll have to probably replace the portal or move to a new lot.

[webwench]

Thanks, JM!

How do I replace the portal?

[ZephyrZodiac]

You need to go to MTS2 and download the carpool fix by Erzengel, which comes with a tutorial on how to go about it.  Good Luck!  And why not get the sitter hack at the same time?  They walk to the lot, can be any sim that your sim knows, and are controllable while sitting! 

[webwench]

Thanks for the tip, Zephyr, I'll take a look into the sitter

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's great, they stay on as visitors after the parent gets back from work - stop being controllable then, though, - and since they can be controlled, you can use custom cribs and stuff without any real problems.  However, like any visiting relative, or new sim moving to the house, they can only actually do things for the baby or toddler after they've picked them up or otherwise got to know them, at least, that's what I found.

[webwench]

Are you talking about Christianlov's, or Dizzy's, hon?

By what you've written, I'd almost say Dizzy's, but you never know.  I've never heard of her

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's the one that Dizzy wrote, and was updated for OFB by FreakyRufus.

[webwench]

Okay, according to the file for the portal fix, nothing's broken 

Dizzy's nanny, however, is wonderful!  I'll just consider it a workaround until I finish with this legacy round.

Thanks for your help, guys!

[ZephyrZodiac]

One thing I would do is check in simPE that you have only the normal 3 nannies and haven't acquired nannyspam!  (Brandi Lothario (Broke) in one of my games ended up with about 20 of them, one after the other, and I just couldn't get rid of them no matter what I did!)

[witch]

If you mean this mod: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=154779&c=1&page=2&pp=25 which I just hunted out on mts2, it seems to have a couple of issues, with babysitters not leaving, with the sitters aging on the lot if it passes 6pm and it clashes with any social worker hacks. I've got Inge's social worker hack, so I think I'll pass. Pity, it sounded good.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Yes, I know those issues are mentioned, but I never noticed them, but then  I never got the issue with them not being able to feed the baby or toddler.  Also, the parent would be home before 6pm, so they'd be uncontrollable and like any other visitor by then.  Haven't checked whether they've aged a day, but if so, it really doesn't matter, the ones I used had had aging off on their lots since they came back from college, and both are romance sims so it's easy enough to get them into platinum for long enough to take a dose of the old elixir!

[starrling]

I use the sitter hack all the time, whether it's for the (awful) nanny or a relative/friend.  Haven't found any problems yet.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Yes, I'd agree.  Works fine for me too, I thing Freaky Rufus was just being cautious.

[webwench]

One thing I would do is check in simPE that you have only the normal 3 nannies and haven't acquired nannyspam!  (Brandi Lothario (Broke) in one of my games ended up with about 20 of them, one after the other, and I just couldn't get rid of them no matter what I did!)

I've never actually used simPE.  I'm afraid I probably wouldn't even know what I'm looking at.    Really, I leave it to the experts to fiddle with things like that!

[Magicmoon]

If you mean this mod: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=154779&c=1&page=2&pp=25 which I just hunted out on mts2, it seems to have a couple of issues, with babysitters not leaving, with the sitters aging on the lot if it passes 6pm and it clashes with any social worker hacks. I've got Inge's social worker hack, so I think I'll pass. Pity, it sounded good.

I am using the previous version of this hack because I don't have OFB, but it is wonderful and I haven't experienced any problems, that is unless you call the actual nannies that come with the game as they are weird anyway.

In my game you can call the sitter even after your carpool arrives. They arrive (by foot not car) as soon as you hang up the phone so you won't miss the carpool. The sitter can be anyone in the neighborhood. Grandparents and older siblings are good choices. They appear in the family icons that are on the left side of your screen and have the "at work" symbol next to their name. Just click on their icon like you would any other family member and they are fully controllable so you can get them to do whatever you want. A nice bonus to this is that they can also build skills when they aren't busy. After their shift is over they hang around the house as a visitor and they are no longer selectable and dissapear from the list of sims in your family. If you want them to go home just ask them to leave like you would any other guest that you are tired of.

As far as problems with interacting with the babies, it is helpful to use Maxis cribs and changing tables (recolors are ok). Squinge's autonomous baby changing table works fine as it uses the tables that you already have in-game. Also since the sitter can be controlled by you, you can have her feed smart milk to toddlers if you desire.

As far as aging...I have never seen it, but since they are controllable sims I would think that if today is their birthday and 6:00 rolls around it would be possible for them to age. Also, I would be careful calling a pregnant sim that is close to her due date for the same reason. I don't think you would want them to give birth at your house. I have never seen this happen, but I would think it might be possible. After their shift is over they are treated as any other visitor so aging or birthing should not be possible.

This mod is also compatible with Christianlov's nannies and npcs. I use both in my game and have never had a conflict.

(When I say age, I mean age transition. If they are on the lot at 6pm they will "age" one day just like everyone else). I have also never had a stuck sitter as described on the download page).

Also I have used various Social services mods with this and not had any conflicts although possible conflicts will be listed with the hack finder.

[webwench]

One thing I would do is check in simPE that you have only the normal 3 nannies and haven't acquired nannyspam!  (Brandi Lothario (Broke) in one of my games ended up with about 20 of them, one after the other, and I just couldn't get rid of them no matter what I did!)

I've never actually used simPE.  I'm afraid I probably wouldn't even know what I'm looking at.    Really, I leave it to the experts to fiddle with things like that!

Actually... having downloaded it and after taking a peek at it...  It doesn't look too scary at all.  I found my lot in it; what precisely am I looking for when you say 'nannyspam'?

[witch]

OK. You've all convinced me, I'll give it a try. I do hate those nannies. I also never got around to trying ChristianLov's NPCs, must give that a go too. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

The OFB version seems to include only known sims, as there were no teens included, or it may be that it only includes sims who are not at work or school. I know the sim who called for the sitter knows nearly every sim in the neighbourhood, but only a small number were actually available as sitters.

As far as a pregnant sim is concerned, I wonder if they could sit for a few hours in the morning, then call another sitter - I think it's possible as I'm pretty sure in my game, the first day Jimmy called Keanu Broke, the next day he called another friend, Denzel Carpenter. Denzel seemed a bit down so I had him call for a nanny and got Keanu, and they wre both selectable until Jimmy and Tara got home.

Webwench, when I say nannyspam, I mean loads of nannies.  Now, if you load the neighbourhood you're playing from the tools menu, then load the sim browser from there, you will see all the sims in the neighbourhood.  If you click on the bar at the top over the family names, then all the NPCs should be together in one household (I don't know what it will be called in your game) and you need to scroll through them and look for all the nannies you can find.  You can tell them by their hair and uniform.  You should have just three - if you have more , then you should eventually delete all those who haven't yet met anyone.  However, that isn't the end of it as they will leave behind annoying little bits of themselves all over the place which will need to be cleaned out too.  If you find any extra nannies, then post back for help in doing the deletions properly, but if you don't find any, just get yourself familiarised with the program until you do actually need to use it for something.

[starrling]

It will only include teens in the late afternoon/evening (non-school hours).

[ZephyrZodiac]

I assumed it was something like that.  And that's just a mod - it took two patches before Maxis stopped teens from working 9-5 when they should have been in school!

I'll be interested to see if they've fixed the energy depletion for employees too - and the problem with them not being paid.  But I just started a new hood as I got bored with the one I was playing so may not be for a while.

[webwench]

You can tell them by their hair and uniform.  You should have just three - if you have more , then you should eventually delete all those who haven't yet met anyone. 

We're in luck!  Three nannies, accounted for, no more, no less.  Whew.  It's a neat little program, though - after fooling around with it a bit, I see why people rant and rave over it   Thanks for the crash course, Zephyr!

[Magicmoon]

OK. You've all convinced me, I'll give it a try. I do hate those nannies. I also never got around to trying ChristianLov's NPCs, must give that a go too. 

Christianlov's npcs and nannies are probably the best mod that I have ever downloaded for the Sims. I don't know if I would want to play without them. Although the instructions appear kind of complicated, it really is simple and you'll wonder how you ever made it without that mod.

One warning: The npc (cook/gardener/maid/repairman all in one) does NOT count as an adult when you leave the house. You either have to have his nanny on the lot or hire a sitter if planning on leaving children or younger at home.