macrotastics questions

[LordHellscream]

since there isnt a thread for all the old hacks u made before u made your own site, im posting the question here instead.
as i read from the rtfm file, when a sim is on power idle mode, they are supposed to sustain themselves without player intervention. and it's also mentioned that sim should even call friends if autoyak is installed
now my sims on power idle mode doesnt eat when hungry (eat macro is working perfectly), doesn't go to bed when energy is really low (go to bed macro is working), and doesnt call friends when social is low as hell and everything else is full. (autoyak is working fine in other situations)
other needs seem to be fine, though i would really like them be a little bit more active, i mean, when they are being idle, they might as well do something more productive instead of standing/sitting there until a need is getting really low. (may be start fixing needs when one drop below 75% and there is no other pressing thing to do, also clean/repair/gradening more actively, autoyak when threre is nothing else to do just for the sake of it etc)
the goal should be that when im back controlling the sim again, he/she should be in a near-perfect condition

[LK]

Aaahh!!  Save your lips!

The old FFS hacks are in The Armory (or if you're Brirish, the Armoury).

[veilchen]

LordHellscream, I am not entirely sure, but I think JM fixed something that had to do with the power idle only recently, although I don't know if it was connected with your particular problem. You might want to check the updated version for that, unless of couse, you have already done that and it did not solve your problem. In that case, my apologies for redundancy.

As I said, I'm not sure at all about this (I read about this when JM was still on the VS forums, so it's not real news), but it can't hurt to try, no? :P

G.

[LordHellscream]

laurenke, the hack is there but there isn't a thread to discuss it, in the armory

veilchen, the version i got is the latest

[J. M. Pescado]

since there isnt a thread for all the old hacks u made before u made your own site, im posting the question here instead.
as i read from the rtfm file, when a sim is on power idle mode, they are supposed to sustain themselves without player intervention. and it's also mentioned that sim should even call friends if autoyak is installed
now my sims on power idle mode doesnt eat when hungry (eat macro is working perfectly), doesn't go to bed when energy is really low (go to bed macro is working), and doesnt call friends when social is low as hell and everything else is full. (autoyak is working fine in other situations)
other needs seem to be fine, though i would really like them be a little bit more active, i mean, when they are being idle, they might as well do something more productive instead of standing/sitting there until a need is getting really low. (may be start fixing needs when one drop below 75% and there is no other pressing thing to do, also clean/repair/gradening more actively, autoyak when threre is nothing else to do just for the sake of it etc)
the goal should be that when im back controlling the sim again, he/she should be in a near-perfect condition

Some needs are treated more aggressively than others. Some conditions suspend things. For instance, a sim will not eat until a MUCH lower point if he expects to receive free food from work or school soon. As for "energy really low", I'm not really sure how low you meant by low. Social is not inherently balanced, though: If a sim has no friends that need calling, he can't use the AutoYak macro, and is reliant on the "sitting" thing to regain social. Otherwise, since all his relations are maxed, he has nobody to call and must simply wait for the bunny. The three needs you mentioned as "not working" are the ones that I'm extremely fascist about, and this appears in the idling macro as a result: Food is expensive and wasteful, and if a sim starts to run out of energy well before bedtime, he normally will seek caffeine. If none is available, he's made to suffer until he gets much lower. Eating food is considered only as a last resort action.

[Karen]

I'm still having problems with pregnant Sims set to Power Idle nearly starving to death because they are too exhausted to eat.  The scenario goes something like this:  Pregnant Sim's hunger and energy are both very low.  Eventually her energy drops low enough that the Go to Bed is triggered.  Meanwhile her hunger continues to drop.  When hunger gets into the red, if I try to get her out of bed to prepare food or eat (or if the Macro...Eat is triggered automatically), often the Macro...Go to Bed will be triggered before she even takes a bite.  So she goes back to bed, but now she's too hungry to sleep.  She wakes up, signals hunger desperation, maybe takes a few steps toward the kitchen, but she's still exhausted, so the Go to Bed is triggered again and she jumps back into bed.  Cycle repeats until she is in danger of starving to death, or until I take pity on her and put a source of food (and a chair and table) right next to her bed so she won't have to go far to reach it.  Even then it takes a lot of effort to get her to stay awake long enough to eat.

Is it possible to make the Macro...Eat take precedence over the Macro...Go to Bed, in situations where both are in the red but Hunger is so low as to be life-threatening?  Given a choice between having my Sim pass out or starve to death, I'll take the "pass out" option any day.

Karen

[J. M. Pescado]

Is it possible to make the Macro...Eat take precedence over the Macro...Go to Bed, in situations where both are in the red but Hunger is so low as to be life-threatening?  Given a choice between having my Sim pass out or starve to death, I'll take the "pass out" option any day.

I think this is actually a "duelling" problem between the Sleep Clock's "Call" feature and the Macro Idle. This was reduced in an update, but ultimately, Hunger and Energy being simultaneously low is still a high-risk killer for sims. If both go red at once, it's time for the Energizer.

[linolino]

Different Subject:

I have the NL patch installed and i downloaded the new Macrostatics in the NL section of the Armory, so i'm guessing it is compatible with NL.
However all my sims just don't do anything when it is is on. they will all act like all their need are full, even with their needs in red!
Can anyone help?

Oh, also, does the Power Idle send sims to bathroom even wthout "bathroomusesyou" hack installed?

[Motoki]

It's been working fine for me for the most part. They do take care of their needs, but only when they get down fairly low, but not all the way. The only part I'm having trouble with is caffeinate. When their energy is around say a third to a half or higher they'll do just fine with it, but if their energy is really low, they immediately stop, put the cup in the dishwasher, then go get another one etc etc in and infinite loop and don't seem to gain any energy.

That's the only real issue I've had with it though. Otherwise it works as normal with or without the patch. I wonder if maybe you have something else that might conflict with it? You don't have lesswhiny do you? Because I know that has an issue with NL that makes sims just stand around.

[jrd]

Power Idle requires bathroomusesyou to exist before it sends Sims to the bathroom.

As an alternative, try dizzy2's "ask plumbob" mode, which does not make Sims boring.

[Motoki]

Hmm, I may have to try the ask plumbob. I tend not to use Bathroomusesyou in some houses because it puts Christianlov's maid npc in an infinite loop every time she tries to clean the bathroom. 

[linolino]

i don't like bathroom uses you. then i guess going to the bathroom will be done manually..

I have the ask plumbob, but it works really strangely.

Whenever the sim is just a little hungry even just a little bit, the ask plumbob will make them go eat, even if there is a need in the red.

Also, it keeps reseting to normal. you have to check if they are in ask plumbob mode all the time...

[Oddysey]

Power Idle isn't terribly effective without large amounts of available caffeine. Then it's brilliant. And it's not supposed to do anything useful; there are other macros for that, and if you didn't have to manually activate them there would be even less "game" in the game.

[Motoki]

Okay, I think I spoke too soon. I'm now getting the issue with the Skillinator where it's WAY biased towards hunger over all other needs, to the point where if their hunger bar is 75% full and other bars are only 25% full, it's making them eat. 

Actually, it's acting just like those damned nannies do when they keep trying to force feed tired toddlers who have to go to the bathroom.

I'm not sure what started this, maybe it was the patch? But it definitely was not doing this on me before. I only starting noticing it today, ironically after I opened my mouth and said I had no problems with it.

[linolino]

Power Idle isn't terribly effective without large amounts of available caffeine. Then it's brilliant. And it's not supposed to do anything useful; there are other macros for that, and if you didn't have to manually activate them there would be even less "game" in the game.

then power idle is just useless, because just by beeing on, it will prevent sims from having ANY free will, and the way it is working for me it just ignores all of the needs, no matter if they are at the green, yellow, red or completely red, -100! it just ignores everything. the only thing it will let sims do is to clean something or, most of the time, sit on a couch.

Look! look at this! look at those stupid sims Power Idling. Look how his needs are! and notice the power idle in the queue.

if the picture is not showing, then click this link:
http://salveoplanet.vila.bol.com.br/poweridling.jpg

[Oddysey]

This doesn't happen to me, generally speaking. Power Idle works in my game. Although, if a sim is in dire straights, I usually have to do something about it myself and then turn power idle on. Best for maitenance. But if it's not working at all . . . that's rather weird.