FFS "Batbox" Lot Debugger v2.0: NUCLEAR WAR EDITION

[Bane~Child]

ETA: Still can't get YAs to graduate, unfortunately. I threw a grad party for the sim, and afterwards she just stood there doing nothing. So I used the debugger and it said 2 things fixed, and I could get her to use the phone to 'Return to Pleasantview', however she still stood there doing nothing. So I used the debugger again and it fixed 1 thing, was able to use the phone to 'Return..' again, and the same thing happened again, over and over. Eventually had to boolprop her out of there because her Aspiration was falling below Platinum.

Don't know what's going on, but detonating the move-out controller doesn't seem to fix the problem.

This happened to me with the very first CAS I tried to graduate when the EP was new.  She took her final exam and finished, but this is when I first experienced the 'Trance-Stance'.   I thought maybe it had something to do with that particular house being left empty, so I brought in two more CAS students.  My stuck Sim remained behind for 3-4 more terms with her housemates.  She did the cooking for them and read for skill.  I tried everything I could think of and as long as she didn't use the phone to call home or throw a party she was fine - I did not have any mods or hacks in my game - played straight from the box.  If she tried to move out by computer, I received a message that said another Sim was trying to move out and to try again later.  I finally had to move the three out and into the bin and then move them immediately back into the same house.  She transitioned immediately and the game proceeded as expected.

[hedgekat]

When I click the debugger I get different items on different lots.  Some options are fairly obvious but others aren't.   What does "Reroll randomized sim" do?   And there is one about stuck bills that has appeared on several lots but as far as I can tell there is nothing wrong with their bills, other than not having paid them yet.   The one lot that did seem to have missing bills did not have the stuck bills option.  I could not find unpaid bills anywhere on the lot but got the notice that the repo man was coming.   And I got the slowdown bug from it.  After using boolprop to delete the stuck vehicle they kept trying to come back and kept getting stuck so had to vacate the lot.

[Marvin Kosh]

As long as you have bills, there is the capability for them to get stuck, I think.

Randomise Sims is a tool that you need to use before, for example, a Sim childbirth.  The random table for Sim personaliities is not very random, so this actually runs along a good few entries by creating and then discarding Sims.  Any Sim child that is subsequently born should have a different personality to his/her siblings.  However, in order to discard Sims, your lot must exit to the Neighbourhood and not save, so save your game beforehand

[hedgekat]

I've never had any particular problem with personalities for born-in-game sims.  Often several in the family may have the same zodiac sign,  but their allotment of personality points is usually pretty random.  I've heard lots of people complain about "clone children",  with all the children in a family looking identical.  I've had this happen a few times but think it is more likely to be due to strongly dominant genetics.  Have only had it happen with children of townies or npcs.   

What is bothering me more right now is the majority of newly generated npcs and townies all having the same personalities.   They are nearly all popularity-Aries.   Can Randomize Sims fix that?

[RainbowTigress]

One of my sims had several children who all looked alike.  I thought this might be due to dominant genetics, but skintone does not have a dominant gene in the Sims.  Since the mother has skintone 3 and the father has skintone 1, then there should have been children with skintones 1, 2, and 3.  Only after using the randomize function did I get a child that was S1 with facial features that were different from the other siblings and more like the father.  The child still has black hair and brown eyes, but that is to be expected since those are dominant genes.

[Bane~Child]

One of my sims had several children who all looked alike.  I thought this might be due to dominant genetics, but skintone does not have a dominant gene in the Sims.  Since the mother has skintone 3 and the father has skintone 1, then there should have been children with skintones 1, 2, and 3.  Only after using the randomize function did I get a child that was S1 with facial features that were different from the other siblings and more like the father.  The child still has black hair and brown eyes, but that is to be expected since those are dominant genes.

Rainbow,

Did the mother or father have any custom genetics?  I understand that if the genetic code information if also not changed when the skin is cloned and only the color is changed, that the genetics will default to the original set.

Bane

[RainbowTigress]

Did the mother or father have any custom genetics?

Nope, the mother is Cassandra Goth and a CAS sim I made for her to marry after that horrible Don Lothario left her at the altar.  As you know, she has black hair with brown eyes and S3 skin.  My sim I made has red hair, light blue eyes, and S2 skin.  I made a mistake above.  He has S2 skin, not S1.

I have also observed the same with other sims.  I made a CAS sim for Brandi who was the brother of the sim I made for Cassandra, only he had dark blue eyes and black hair.  They had 5 girls and 2 boys.  All the girls looked alike.  One even could pass for Brandi with the same hairstyle and clothes, except her lips were fuller like her father's.  The boys looked slightly different, and one was almost a clone of his father.  All of them had black hair, dark blue eyes, and S1 skin, except for one, but she was a twin.  Go figure that.  I'm sure it goes along with what JM said, when you have twins, they will look less alike than singles because the Sim generator is rolled twice.

[Bane~Child]

[Go figure that.  I'm sure it goes along with what JM said, when you have twins, they will look less alike than singles because the Sim generator is rolled twice.

True, and I think we decided that you couldn't rely on the genetics when playing the Maxis Sims.  I knew that Don was sneaky, when I played Cassandra he did not get the chance to leave her.

So, are you saying that we should consider using the randomizer for more sensible genetic outcomes?  At what point did you use it in the new baby situation?

[Marvin Kosh]

What is bothering me more right now is the majority of newly generated npcs and townies all having the same personalities.   They are nearly all popularity-Aries.   Can Randomize Sims fix that?

I would tend to use SimPE once you've moved them in to fine-tune their personality.  As far as in-game tools go, there is the Encouragificator, a macro to repeatedly encourage Sims to alter their ways.  Of course, the Sim doing the encouraging must be in the subject's family and has to be older.  A mother-in-law might work

[Marvin Kosh]

When I run my mouse over the FFS lot debugger, the sim selected gets reset. If at work, they are now on the sidewalk. This is annoying, and I have no idea what's causing it.

I'm experiencing this problem too.  In debugging mode it pops up 'Stack number out of range' for the Sim in question.

I'm going to try a previous version if one is still kicking around, and let you know if that helps.

Edit: Reverted back to FFS Debugger (09 June 05) and no jumps so far.

[RainbowTigress]

[Go figure that.  I'm sure it goes along with what JM said, when you have twins, they will look less alike than singles because the Sim generator is rolled twice.

True, and I think we decided that you couldn't rely on the genetics when playing the Maxis Sims.  I knew that Don was sneaky, when I played Cassandra he did not get the chance to leave her.

So, are you saying that we should consider using the randomizer for more sensible genetic outcomes?  At what point did you use it in the new baby situation?

That's what JM recommended and I think that's exactly what it was intended for.  That and personality.  I always save right before the baby is born, and then use it.  That's when the new character is created.  You only have to use it once per game session because when you close the game down, it is reset when you next start the game.  So I would use it before every birth.  I used it for Cassandra's 11th child (I was going to stop at 10, but Risky Woohoo kicked in, so I decided to see what I would get this time using the randomizer).  I believe you would get the same results if you didn't save after a birth and reloaded the lot several times since everytime a new character is created, but that takes forever.

After I found out about Maxis-created sims having messed up DNA, I fixed them.  I can't stand having stuff being messed up like that!

By the way, you need to delete some PMs.

[Bane~Child]

That's what JM recommended and I think that's exactly what it was intended for...After I found out about Maxis-created sims having messed up DNA, I fixed them.  I can't stand having stuff being messed up like that!

By the way, you need to delete some PMs.

Oh...that's right, I completely forgot about that part - the baby's birth.  I haven't had any born in awhile, but I have been using it for everything else though and it's great.  I'll check my PM's right now - thanks Rainbow.

[hedgekat]

What's the matter with Maxis created sims DNA?  And how did you fix it?

[vcline]

When I run my mouse over the FFS lot debugger, the sim selected gets reset. If at work, they are now on the sidewalk. This is annoying, and I have no idea what's causing it.

I'm experiencing this problem too.  In debugging mode it pops up 'Stack number out of range' for the Sim in question.

I'm going to try a previous version if one is still kicking around, and let you know if that helps.

Edit: Reverted back to FFS Debugger (09 June 05) and no jumps so far.

This is happening to me too.  Fortunately, I still have the older version, I'll try using that one.  Thanks for the helpful post.

Vicki

[J. M. Pescado]

If you're experiencing an error with the current version, attach the error log produced. That was a bug in an older version, which should have been squashed in the current version, possibly same-day.

[Marvin Kosh]

Okay, I'll pay more attention to the timestamp from now on   The latest one is just fine, no problems with it.

[vecki]

Regarding Randomise and the First-born effect:

When one randomises with this object, does this change all future babies to be born with another specific starsign?  I've noticed that suddenly several of my babies born in game - especially my Trojan legacy (since hitting the randomise function several playing sessions ago - only touched once) are Libras rather than the Aries sign.

Or does it make it run more along genetic lines?

[J. M. Pescado]

It doesn't guarantee future babies to be born with any specific sign, as the sign is determined by personality and personality is determined partially by your parent sims: Thus, a given pair of sims will exhibit a predisposition towards certain signs. The "firstborn effect" is what causes all of your babies to be identical to each other in personality...unless you randomize. It's still possible they'll end up the same anyway, but that's another factor at work.

[jrd]

Could you perhaps add a function to this that can clear the "on campus" bit for adults?
Occasionally on graduation a Sim of mine will still have this set, and therefore won't be able to get impregnated or get a job.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I could not find unpaid bills anywhere on the lot but got the notice that the repo man was coming.   And I got the slowdown bug from it.  After using boolprop to delete the stuck vehicle they kept trying to come back and kept getting stuck so had to vacate the lot.

I've had this problem too, and it's soooo annoying, but I don't think the debugger is to blame for this.  However, I have another problem which I think is a result of the Clear Offworld Loiterers option, which immediately spawns large numbers of nannies, which take ages to get rid of.  The option doesn't, in fact, clear them it causes them to enter the lot!!

JM, I'd really appreciate it if you could take a look at this, and why it could be happening, and if there is an answer other than move the Brokes out.  The only thing I did wonder is whether the fact that I reported in another post that Beau has a file which is twice the normal size could have something to do with it.  Are the nannies all hiding in his file, I ask myself!

[Karen]

The "firstborn effect" is what causes all of your babies to be identical to each other in personality...unless you randomize. It's still possible they'll end up the same anyway, but that's another factor at work.

I like this randomize feature a lot.  Sometimes it produces surprising results.  I have a kid in one of my families who was born with zero nice points, even though his parents have at least 6 or 7 each.  This happens to be a kid who was born after I'd used randomize a bunch of times in a row.  I haven't quite decided what he's going to be when he grows up (Criminal, probably....)

One question:  I saw an option on the Lot Debugger that had something to do with mood meters (I think....I only saw it once and I forgot to write it down.)  Can you tell me what that is for?

Karen

[ZephyrZodiac]

Have you got the parents desperate to encourage him to be nice?

[Karen]

Have you got the parents desperate to encourage him to be nice?

Not yet, but I've been playing other families recently and haven't spent much time with this family in a while.  He only just turned into a kid, so maybe they just haven't had the opportunity yet.

Karen

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, well maybe if they encourage him a lot, he'll improve!  You never know!  He could always go into the science career and be a knowledge sim, that doesn't seem to require much in the way of niceness!

The niceness thing is bugged anyway, I've got a few Leo's with only one nice point, and usually they're quite pleasant even to strangers, while sims with five or six nice points want to ventrilo-fart everyone they meet!

[JenW]

I have a Maxis-made dorm where I paid the last set of bills just before moving out the last student. I just put two more students through Uni in that same dorm and when I moved them in, the flag on the mailbox was still up. The mailman comes, but he just walks around the mailbox and goes on. In four years he didn't take the bills or bring new ones. Is this the stuck bill problem? Will the lot debugger fix this? Not that I *want* my students to pay bills, but there must be something wrong for this to be happening.

Jen