interrupting toddler behavior

[verdaeni]

most of my children problems are resolved between pescado's manager and inge's custom stuff (toddlers now leave the cribs and grab the always full bottle)  but im left wih problems interacting.   toddlers will requeue themselves back to a toy faster then i can requeue mom or dad to hold them, or whatever they were going to do.  last time it was to check the new change appearance interaction, and i had to unqueue the toddler 12 times.. and finallly it appeared it had a favorite toy and i deleted it and thats the only way i could pick up the ornery tyke.   anyone else notice favorite toy syndrome?  so my question is,  is this a bug? i mean,  toddlers dont really get a CHOICE in  RL.   mom picks you up, you automatically stop playing with the toy.   it is a extremely unrealistic 'feature'.   or maybe its just not that easy to change the global way the game is played and make toddlers autointerruptable.  so if this isnt hackable, i guess there isnt any point in whining about it.    although i do note that we really needed a toy so toddlers could play together, always annoying my twins dont know each other..  and they let the whole OFB come out with new toys and still only the dollhouse for toddlers to play together with.   as far as i can tell toddlers cant even play with the water wriggler.. 

[Ness]

If you are using the baby controller to manage your toddlers, this is likely to be the cause of this behaviour.  You may need to tell the baby controller to stop processing toddlers in order to do some action with them.

[verdaeni]

i thought the baby manager just processed the baby/toddler wants in effect with the adults?  i'll give it a try though and see.   

[J. M. Pescado]

If you have extremely slow, fat fingers, try pulling the emergency stop button.

[liegenschonheit]

I've noticed this with and without the baby manager. In one house, before I had the baby manager installed, it was particularly bad. I would que mom to come in and teach the toddler to potty, the toddler would play with the dollhouse. Unque dollhouse, now mom has lost interest. Little brat starts playing again. Rinse and repeat endlessly.

[J. M. Pescado]

Leaving free will on just begs for sims to find the most stupid, useless thing to do and then do it.

[laeshanin]

So not allowing sims to have any freewill is the only thing you can advocate, J.M? I really couldn't cope without the baby manager as they drive me nuts when they don't look after their spawn properly, but even with it and the other hacks mentioned by verdaeni this particular behaviour is extremely vexing.

[J. M. Pescado]

It's either my way, or the Squinge way, in which you download 150 hacks to try to shut down about as many obnoxious, useless behaviors, and then discover the 358 other obnoxious, useless actions that surface as a result.

[laeshanin]

Furry muff... Bloody stupid sims!

[starrling]

I have the same problem and I only use JMP's hack (and don't put it in all the houses either).  Unfortunately I've resorted to hitting the pause button, un-queing the toddler, queing the adult/teen and then un-doing pause.  Works much better, but it's a pain in the ass. 

[J. M. Pescado]

If you're using the baby controller and just aren't adept enough at queueing to tag things on the dot, then pull the EMERGENCY STOP option on the eyeball. That will halt all functioning until you hit resume.

Of course, then stupid free will behavior will run amok, but that's why you turn that shit off anyway.

[daephene]

Well, in my game, if the toddler autonomously begins playing with a toy, they will automatically stop playing when the parent reaches them.  The only time I have to stop the action manually is if I told them to play with the toy in the first place.  Even then they stop when the parent brings a bottle if they're hungry, but they don't turn and the parent throws a fit and leaves the bottle on the floor.  I have no hacks related to toddlers at all, so is it the hacks that stop the child from being interupted?

I always play with free will on, but tend to keep my sims micromanaged anyway so they don't have time to use their will very often. 

[J. M. Pescado]

I tried leaving free will on once, but ended up basically stopping them from doing anything and intentionally locking them into actions which precluded any autonomous behavior, lest I have to slap them down and go "NO!". Frankly, I think the autonomy engine is coded to be intentionally sadistic. You'd think that they'd have managed to choose the right action by pure random chance at least once, but no, they never do. Even if you present them with an empty lot and the ONE item they're supposed to attempt to use, they manage to botch the job.

[liegenschonheit]

It is a bit strange, how free will operates. A sim can be on the verge of starving to death, but he'd still rather play pool or turn on the TV.

[laeshanin]

Oh, this is so true. 

[rohina]

On the other hand, this is what makes the asylum and hostel challenges such amusing bloodbaths.

[witch]

On the other hand, this is what makes the asylum and hostel challenges such amusing bloodbaths.

I resemble that remark!

[laeshanin]

That's only because you're a murderous goddess and you're up to your knees in entrails!  I've seen the pictures, oh yes.

[witch]

That's only because you're a murderous goddess and you're up to your knees in entrails!  I've seen the pictures, oh yes.

Words fail me!