Can't "sit in car"

[sharpefan]

Hello everyone,
I need some help and this is obviously the best place to find it. I had hoped my first post would be supportive and helpful, not a request, but ...oh well.   Here's the problem.   I can no longer have a sim join another sim in the car.  That's been my preferred method of sneaky woo-hooing.  The first sim can get in and can ask another to join him/her.  Then the second sim walks up to the car and then just stands there stuck. If the second sim is not controlled I have to delete the car before they move again. Controlled sims can have the action cancelled. 

 I thought it had something to do with new houses, cars, or the invisible driveway, but I experimented and it's still a problem with the standard driveway and Maxis cars and houses.  I have all the expansions except FFS and all the patches.  Has this happened to anyone else? 

[J. M. Pescado]

It seems to afflict random houses with no apparent pattern or purpose, particularly those of Maxian construction. It is not known why this happens.

[RainbowTigress]

I've been having the same problem.  I thought it had to do with the second OFB patch.  You don't have to delete the car though.  Forcing a reset on the visiting sim works, or making the visitor selectable and cancelling the action.  I've found that having my sim go and talk or flirt with the visiting sim also helps.  That way at least you don't have to replace the car. 

I haven't figured out how to fix this though, because the problem still exists even with no hacks.  I first experienced this problem on a lot with a house that I built in a custom neighborhood.  Oddly, they can still woohoo in the car on a community lot, on the occasions that the option is actually available, but not at home.  I went back to my Pleasantview neighborhood that I've been playing since TS2 first came out, and the problem exists on several lots there, on lots with Maxis-built houses and houses I've downloaded. 

I asked about this over in the OFB patch thread, but no one else seemed to be having this problem.  I would love to be able to find a solution.  I know it was working before, and it seems to have started after installing P2, but I can't be sure of that without reinstalling everything.   

I also noted that after my sim couple had children, a child and twin toddlers, they couldn't sit in the car because the game seemed to think they were leaving the children alone and kept asking me to hire a nanny.

[Hegelian]

I've been having the same problem.  I thought it had to do with the second OFB patch.  You don't have to delete the car though.  Forcing a reset on the visiting sim works, or making the visitor selectable and cancelling the action.  I've found that having my sim go and talk or flirt with the visiting sim also helps.  That way at least you don't have to replace the car.

This does not always work (at least, they still can't get in the car)—I've tried, multiple times.   

[RainbowTigress]

This does not always work (at least, they still can't get in the car)—I've tried, multiple times.   

No, I've never been able to get them to get in the car, even after replacing it several times.  But at least you can get them unstuck this way without having to replace the car every time.  You say you've been able to get them to sit in the car by replacing it?

[Hegelian]

No, on the lot in question only one person can get in the car even when both are selectable. However, sims on the lot can carpool to work in the cars that are there.

[J. M. Pescado]

Which lot is it? Is it a perfectly flat lot, or does it suffer from warped edges?

[RainbowTigress]

All of the ones I've tried, including Don Lothario's condo.  The one in my custom hood is as flat as I could make it, but there is a bit of a tiny slope at the back.  The other ones I'm not sure about.  I downloaded them, but they worked before.  It's just recently it stopped working. 

[Hegelian]

Which lot is it? Is it a perfectly flat lot, or does it suffer from warped edges?

It is JuniperSun's Texas Oasis lot. It is not perfectly flat. I will need to look at it again, but I can say it is raised slightly from the sidwalk, so that the driveways are a bit below the surrounding ground level.







I have since flattened much of the area to the right of the driveway, to no apparent effect.

[J. M. Pescado]

That seems to have been the common thread I had with the same problem at the Jacquet house. Anytime your lot is not perfectly flat around the edges, driveways may freak out.

Predictably, this wrinkle will be scored accordingly in the Contest of Awesomeness!

[RainbowTigress]

So how does one fix it?

[J. M. Pescado]

So how does one fix it?

Use only flattened terrains?

[RainbowTigress]

How does one get the terrain perfectly flat?  And why hasn't this been an issue until now?

[J. M. Pescado]

How does one get the terrain perfectly flat?  And why hasn't this been an issue until now?

Build on a terrain that begins completely flat. There may also be a config modification somewhere about lot flatness allowed, so you can force lots to be flat by decreeing that the difference angle between points on the lot must be zero.

[Mirelly]

Just a thought ...

I never had any car related problems. I always allow a one tile area of flatness on three (accessible) sides of a driveway or driveway extension. I note that the house in the pics does not include this. Also there does not appear to be a central pedestrian refuge between them, which another factor that I consider to be a no-no in my own building code of practise.

Like I said, just a thought. I have almost no totally flat lots and 30 properties with cars and the only times I have had problematic behaviours the fault was invariably easily curable ... and rather dumb.

[Hegelian]

I tried it also with just one driveway and extension, and a Maxis car. But the driveway was hard left against the slope. I would try a different configuration but I'm about to move everyone I'm playing off this lot because while fun in a somewhat perverse way, the lot is highly impractical for game play and takes a lot of work (with seven or eight sims, stuff is always happening that I don't know about—especially interesting with LizzLove's woohoo bed installed).






It would be a fun place to live in real life, though.   

[Jelenedra]

LOL, that house looks like the last house they used in America's Next Top Model last season.

[Horanda]

I never had any car related problems. I always allow a one tile area of flatness on three (accessible) sides of a driveway or driveway extension. I note that the house in the pics does not include this. Also there does not appear to be a central pedestrian refuge between them, which another factor that I consider to be a no-no in my own building code of practise.

I also build my driveways/garages with flat areas around them, more for aesthetic reasons than anything else. I have noticed the car problem in University and the main 'hood, but in my downtown houses both parties can sit in the car.  Maybe a Neighbourhood specific issue?

[RainbowTigress]

I haven't tried it in a house downtown because I don't have any sims living downtown, but they were able to sit in the car at a community lot.  The default Downtown neighborhood is very flat, though.  Perhaps that's why?  I still don't know why this just started happening. 

[J. M. Pescado]

Downtown lots tend to be totally flat, and certainly the street is usually pretty flat, which is why when the car is parked on the street while at a community lot, there's usually no problems.

However, residential lots should only be built on flat ground. Lots which are warped around the edges cannot be moved to any other position or neighborhood and can exhibit errors.

[Mirelly]

Lots which are warped around the edges cannot be moved to any other position or neighborhood and can exhibit errors.

Oh. Aha! I don't move houses. I chose the lay of the land carefully for each house. I tolerate the neighborhood display problems caused by my rugged terrain as a minor visual defect.

[J. M. Pescado]

Welp. I think I've found the culprit for why sims will stand there in front of the car door and stare vacantly at it.

It appears Maxis changed the code for getting into cars in OFBp2. Predictably, the new code doesn't seem to work as reliably. Hack that rolls back to the p1 code available in ofb/test.

[RainbowTigress]

Yessssss!!!!!!!  I knew it had to be something with the second patch.  I'd tried different lots and tests, and I couldn't find any reason why some worked and some didn't.  I even did the terrain surgery to replace my terrain with something flat, but I figured it must be too late.  I put in the new patch, and it worked like a charm.  I am going to try it in other houses that had the problem now, but I'm pretty sure it will work now.  Why did they mess with the code for that anyway?  It wasn't broken before!

[MsMaria]

So that's it! I had problems with the Beaker house today and couldn't figure out why. My Sim wouldn't take his car to work. I just started playing this house last night. Thanks, Pes.