I'm new here, wondering about an automation feature!

[Passerby]

Hello everyone, I've of course come here before (because this place is, in fact, awesome) and today I realized there is one thing for the sims I'd like that I don't have.  Moreover in the few sims 2 mod sites I know, I can't quite find what I'm looking for.

What I am looking for is a house maintenance macro for my sim.  I've searched all over, but cannot seem to find one.  I know that the servo 'do chores' option allows for autonomous care-taking, but I'd like a similar option for a non-servo playable sim on my lot.  Even if it was just to force the 'do chores' to appear for them as if they were, in fact, a servo.  I have a household in which one person stays home and keeps friendships (though I do enjoy the 'no friends needed for careers' found here, did anyone else need to use the 'nightlife' version to have it work in open for business?), and another works.  However with the one person staying home, I realized that the maid coming in wouldn't be necessary, my sim has more than enough time to keep the house, but the 'free wil'l does not seem to reliably do...well much at all.

Does anyone know if such a 'tend the house' game modification exists?  Barring that, might I request it from the talented modders here?

P.S.- I am waiting on my delivery of sims 2 pets, but what breeds do they have?  I want to interbreed a british bulldog with a shih tzu will a bull mastif terrier.  The "British BullShihtz TerriBull Dog" would be a fantastic addition to my sims!  Barring that, a poodle, labrador retreiver, pug would be okay.  Labradoodle Repugnant.

[Jelenedra]

Isn't there a macro for macrotastics for "clean"?

[travellersside]

Sounds like someone needs the Macrotastics suite. Speciffically the Macro: Clean, Macro: Garden and Macro: Repair functions.
Have a rummage around, you'll find them quickly enough.

[PlayLives]

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,208.0.html
*see feature VI.

[idtaminger]

And also autosoc works well w/ maintaining relationships. Invite over, sic the macro on them, and wait for the relationship bar to fill.

[Passerby]

thank you for all the replies everyone!

And though that is good, in fact I use autoyakyak, I am looking for a macro like clean, which sticks with the player even after they have cleaned the area.  Though it is nice to be able to simply choose clean rather than find each mess on my lot, to rely on that for cleaning I would need to constantly re-issue the clean command.  Though I can do that, a short time using it brought me to the conclusion that it was more convenient to keep a maid on duty.

But my question, I just realize, is ignoring a possibility I didn't think of!  Is it possible to 'lock' the clean, garden, and/or repair macro on a character, so that they take the time every now and again to see if anything needs tending in any of those areas?

[Tamha]

But my question, I just realize, is ignoring a possibility I didn't think of!  Is it possible to 'lock' the clean, garden, and/or repair macro on a character, so that they take the time every now and again to see if anything needs tending in any of those areas?

"Maintenance Power Idle"! I like that idea too.

[PlayLives]

Umm, how about making the one you want to clean all the time maxed in neatness.   

[Passerby]

The sim I want to clean all the time does have maximum neatness.  However my experience has shown that even with maximum neatness (and cleaning by the by) free will still does not consistently compel the sim to clean.

[nectere]

I can see where 'assign - clean' would be a useful function. I thought at one point I had read that the business mod had a assign janitor function?

[Gwill]

I also miss a decent slavedriver object.

[rohina]

What, like a collar and chain, or a whip?

[Gwill]

Something like a slave controller you could put in a sim's inventory to force them to just constantly run a poweridle-clean-garden-repair loop.
I like having semi-playable slaves.

[PlayLives]

Well, there is christianlov's npc thingy (forget name, comes with stove and picture) that allows you to have a live in npc or playable sim that comes in and leaves when you specify. You can set it up to have the sim clean, repair bascially do anything you want or don't want.

[Passerby]

I'm checking around for that, I can say that if it's the mod I'm thihnking of, you need to use a specialized NPC.  Interesting of course, but my two sims could just as easily power up the servo they have, if I needed it (or call the maid back up).  I actually want to avoid another person wandering around, though.  Partly because it's another sim wandering about my house that can cause path finding errors and make my sims want  to stop what they're doing to socialize, but mostly because, I've noticed, this system gets a bit slower with the third person mucking about.

[Passerby]

Yes indeed.   Sadly, that mod, All-In-One and Nanny NPC, does in require a specific NPC in the house.

Thanks though, for searching so vigorously for me!  I know it's not life or death, but freedom from service NPC's (does anyone else get random inexplicable slowdown ocassionally when they are about?) or servo's endless need to cook snacks that are not desired by the house, is something I was excited to think might be out there.

While I'm asking, I know there is a mod here that checks inventory first for food before cooking when a sim is hungry.  Is there a mod that, when a sim is hungry, it checks the inventory of all sims in the family and gets a plate, then ALSO returns the remaining food to inventory?

In my larger families I always seemed to have trouble synching up mealtime when they all had different jobs.

[Ness]

macrotastics does this.

The only time the plate isn't returned to inventory is when the serving plate is empty.  Why do you want an inventory full of empty plates anyway?

Honestly, I think if you try out the macrotastics and associated other mods, you'll be very happy.  Sure, it doesn't do exactly everything that you want, but it gets damn close!  Sims sitting on power idle will tend to jump up and clean by themselves at random intervals.  And directing a sim to garden/clean/repair a couple of times a day is much less painful than having to direct every single action that they need to do.

[Shivani]

A stupid question, but whatever.  Can the NPC routines from maids be piggybacked onto a normal sim, or is that unlike say... the cheerleader behavior which can be removed from one that's been married/moved into a "normal" family.

[J. M. Pescado]

Honestly, I think if you try out the macrotastics and associated other mods, you'll be very happy.  Sure, it doesn't do exactly everything that you want, but it gets damn close!  Sims sitting on power idle will tend to jump up and clean by themselves at random intervals.  And directing a sim to garden/clean/repair a couple of times a day is much less painful than having to direct every single action that they need to do.

If the neatest sim in the house detects a mess in their immediate vicinity while power idling, they will auto-clean it.

[Li'l Brudder]

So that means we need a trail of messes to lead the clean sims to more messes?

[rohina]

Won't a broken clean bot do that for you?

[Passerby]

Of course I've tried (and use) macrotastics ness!   That is how I know what I know about it, it's one of the many awesome things that has brought me here no less!

I see my problem with the food though, the hungry sim must be power idling to make use of inventory, otherwise free will usurps it and they never get to use that stored up food.  Not that the loss of free will is horrid, in fact free will is often a pain in my patoot!   Realizing how it works though, a family egg timer which gets everyone to the table at a specified time for their meal might be nice.  In soviet russia, egg times me?

Anyway, but that's good to know!   And we've both said, I could just continue to macro-clean, macro-garden, macro-repair, at regular intervals depending on the task and it would be much easier than hunt-and-peck through flowers and puddles for things that need attention, but if I were to do that, I'd likely be better off keeping the service NPC's so I don't have to worry about forgetting something, or having to pause my sims when I'm getting up to grab a sandwich so I don't fail to keep up on basic maintenance.

Personally I think a maintenance routine macro could easily be a feature that people would enjoy, in case servo's or maids and gardeners weren't their bag.  But in truth macrotastics and all other such things already make it so much less troublesome than the Maxis seemed to want it to be, thus this is certainly NOT a 'this needs to be done!' demand.

I'd like it, but I'm not gonna up and die without it, that's for darn sure!

And so in case it needs to be said, this thread is by no means intended as a complaint.  I would give warm fuzzies to the automation features, but for the fact that it might be better to place an alien zombie lycanthropic vampire sheep up for sacrifice in the name of J.M.Pescado. (places the sheep on an altar)  Would anyone care to do the honors?

P.S.-I am planning a fifth generation alien zombie vampire werewolf freak-boy in one of my neighborhoods.  It feels so good, to be so bad.

P.P.S.-Hehe Lil Brudder and rohina!  NOW I know why maxis made those things so quick to break down!  It was all part of their dangerously obtuse plan...

[Kyna]

On the food platter thing - every sim in my households have a platter of food in their inv.  I get a sim to "make many" until I have enough for every sim to have one platter in inv.  When a sim is pregnant I get the pregnant sim to make another platter for the offspring, and transfer it to the kid's inventory when it's a toddler.  Then I usually never have to worry about making more platters again in that household.  By the time the platter is empty the sim is usually capable of cooking for themselves.

On the cleaning thing - I run macro clean once a day, or maybe twice.  Generally I try to use the neatest sim in the house if they're not busy, as they'll find more dirty spots and if their neatness is high enough they'll enjoy it.  Apart from that I don't worry about it.  I'd rather my sims were doing useful things (e.g. skilling, making needed friends, or helping others in the household skill on career reward equipment) than running to the one dirty counter in the house - that doesn't even look dirty - and cleaning that.  A sim that spends all it's time scanning for things to clean isn't as productive as a sim that is helping others with skills or socialising to make new friends for the household.

On free will - when I first started using macrotastics I found it hard to let go of 'free will' for my sims.  It took a while before I felt comfortable turning free will off.  Now I can't stand to have free will on.  Recently I played a challenge that initially required free will to be on (so sims would sponge bathe) and the incredibly stupid behaviour of free-will sims just about drove me nuts until I was able to put in showers and turn free will off.

[Passerby]

I never noticed macro-clean ever missing anything even with less neat sims, I didn't know that could happen Kyna!  I'll have to keep an eye out.

But as to your statement that you wouldn't make use of this macro function because there are others which you could use instead, I can certainly understand that!  However, when your friendships have reached a point that they are easily maintained by other sims, and no sims in the household need training assistance from that particular sim, I think this would be quite convenient!  Though of course I very much enjoy those macros you would prefer to use constantly.

However, this potential macro could be another one that I would use in addition to those for own my peace of mind and convenience.  It would allow me to designate one person that has a priority for household tasks, without that person having to be a servo and without needing the service sims about.

However though some people seemed to enjoy the idea, this is another post I've responded to where I'm not sure the poster really likes what I'm asking for.  I'm not here to march against the band, does the idea bother anyone?

Well regardless, everyone was very kind in sharing their opinions and experiences with me!  I'm sure the idea is out there in case a programmer here likes the concept, and if not, I'm simply glad that the game enhancements here are available to me.

(Sacrifices the sheep)