Family is not able to clean up food anymore

[MissDoh]

This is the 1st time it happened to me in a full year of playing.  After a few trips on downtown lots, I played with a family that I did not for awhile which is in a custom neighborhood I made.  I resetted my game after I install Nightlife so that family was created after Nightlife was installed in case it matters.

When I arrived on the lot, my 2 sims were in bed (I tend to save my lots when my Sims are in bed).  There was a serve bowl of pastdue mac and cheese on the counter and one little bowl on the table.

When my Sims woke-up I wanted them to clean that mess with no luck, the option to clean-up was not there anymore, there was only the "call family to dinner" or grab a bowl options.  Neither of my 2 Sims were able to clean it up.  When the maid came she was able to clean it up no problem, so I said to myself "Maybe this lot has become corrupted for some unknown reason" so I decided to move them into a new house.  They were not able to clean-up in that new house either ...    The other families did not have that problem only that one.

So far, I have no custom stuff at all in my game so it is not a mod or hack that is causing this.  I was wondering if this ever happened to others and if there is something I can do so it won't happen again.

Luckily, I made a back-up before this happened and place it back and that family was ok but I want to avoid it happens again.

thanks for your help 

[eamethyst]

I've had something similar happen since installing Nightlife.  I reset my game after installing NL, deleting all of the premade neighborhoods, and only have my one custom neighborhood in the game.  I had just installed Inge's hack to refill the fridge automatically.  The first house I went in to play had just a single Sim, and I was no longer able to direct him to clean up dirty dishes.  Like you said, I had to let them sit until the maid came in.  I exited the game, removed the fridge hack, but could still not get that Sim to clean up the dishes.  During that play session, I had him invite his girlfriend, a downtownie, to move in, and I could get her to clean up the dishes.  I've since moved them into another lot back in the main neighborhood, and can now get him to clean up dishes.

After reading your post, I am thinking it wasn't the fridge hack, but I don't know what else may have caused it.

[miramis]

I had this happen last night, if you use the 'testingcheats' and 'force error' on the sim then hit reset things should return to normal again.

[MissDoh]

I had this happen last night, if you use the 'testingcheats' and 'force error' on the sim then hit reset things should return to normal again.

Are you sure it won't create other problems, I am always afraid to hit the "force error" button on my Sims and mess it up.

With 2 others that have the same problem I am starting to wonder if this is not a new bug that came with Nightlife.  I am trying to remember if I used boolprop to make them found a job or not since I did do it with other Sims family in that neighborhood, but still it has nothing to do with the ability to clean-up food.

[miramis]

In truth Missdoh I'm not aware of any problems using the 'force error/reset' on a sim as yet, but I'm not too bright either and know little of how things work    I have used it on a number of problem sims though with no noticeable side-effects, it's rather handy when you get a frozen sim on a community lot blocking your sims exit from a toilet, but I don't use it lightly.  As long as when the options come up, you don't hit delete (especially for carpools/objects) it should be okay.

[Dark Trepie]

I had something like this happen with the Pleasents after I re-installed with NL.  Except I could click on the dish/bowl at all.  Its like it became part of the table.  Though after a while the dish did spoil and the green smoke and flys appeared.  Finally I just used Moveobjects to sell the table and bought a new one.

I didn't wait to see if the maid could clean it up.

[MissDoh]

In truth Missdoh I'm not aware of any problems using the 'force error/reset' on a sim as yet, but I'm not too bright either and know little of how things work    I have used it on a number of problem sims though with no noticeable side-effects, it's rather handy when you get a frozen sim on a community lot blocking your sims exit from a toilet, but I don't use it lightly.  As long as when the options come up, you don't hit delete (especially for carpools/objects) it should be okay.

Thanks, I will try it next time if it ever happens again.  One thing that troubles me though and I don't really know if it was normal or not, I put moveobjects on in hope to delete the bowls of food and was not able too, I never had to do that before so I have no idea if we should be able to delete it or not.  I also made the objects.pacakge file a "read-only" like suggested so Mrs. Crumplebottom would avoid being change.  I am wondering if all these things can be related in any way?

[miramis]

I don't think moveobjects worked on the plates for me either, but it's the sim that seems to glitch rather then the plates since another sim gets the pie menu option to clean them up.  It would be wise to keep a lookout for any other oddities that may be related.  That sim did just graduate from Uni and after she left the dorm someone phoned up for her as though she were still there, I think maybe something went wrong while she graduated but I can't be sure.

[MissDoh]

I am still wondering why it has happen in the 1st place, what did go wrong? Oh well maybe someone have an idea... I just wonder if we are almost alone with this problem or not 

[Myth]

I have the same problem in my house all the time.  Every now and then no matter how badly I want to I just can't clean up my house... 

[Hook]

I saw it happen once in my game since installing Nightlife.  The maid was on the lot at the time so I figured she'd already had the action queued to clean up the plate.  Seems quite silly tho to have a maid who isn't even there yet already have the action in her queue, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's how it worked.  Let's hope it's a bug caused by something else.

Hook

[MissDoh]

I saw it happen once in my game since installing Nightlife.  The maid was on the lot at the time so I figured she'd already had the action queued to clean up the plate.  Seems quite silly tho to have a maid who isn't even there yet already have the action in her queue, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's how it worked.  Let's hope it's a bug caused by something else.

Hook

It could have been that but since I moved that family in a new house no Sims ever lived in and did not scheduled a maid right after they moved in (actually I did not even had the time too since I made them eat right away to found out if I had the same problem and they could not clean-up their mess) unfortunately I don't think it was related to that but hey I am no programmer so of course I could be wrong.  I read a few others on the "official" bbs did have the same problem, but they did not put a lot of details about it.  Were you able to solve this or did you just let it be?

Hook I must say I love your cat picture, I personally have 3 cats and fell in love with that picture.  Now all I need to know is how to put a picture next to my name and in what type of format so it fits there (I am no good at that).

[MissDoh]

I have the same problem in my house all the time.  Every now and then no matter how badly I want to I just can't clean up my house... 

I wish I could hire a maid like in the game... maybe one day.

[Ancient Sim]

It happens to me quite a lot and has done since before installing NL.  It happens especially with plates left outside, especially on the ground (although also on tables as well sometimes).  I have one house which has had a plate on the pathway for ages now, nothing will get it to disappear, including moveobjects.  The maid ignores it and so does everyone else.  It has green stuff and flies and everything, but refuses to be cleaned away.

[bluecatvon]

Hook I must say I love your cat picture, I personally have 3 cats and fell in love with that picture.  Now all I need to know is how to put a picture next to my name and in what type of format so it fits there (I am no good at that).

huh? did you mean how to put a picture as your avatar here on the bbs?

[miramis]

I saw it happen once in my game since installing Nightlife.  The maid was on the lot at the time so I figured she'd already had the action queued to clean up the plate.  Seems quite silly tho to have a maid who isn't even there yet already have the action in her queue, but it wouldn't surprise me if that's how it worked.  Let's hope it's a bug caused by something else.

Hook

It could have been that but since I moved that family in a new house no Sims ever lived in and did not scheduled a maid right after they moved in (actually I did not even had the time too since I made them eat right away to found out if I had the same problem and they could not clean-up their mess) unfortunately I don't think it was related to that but hey I am no programmer so of course I could be wrong.  I read a few others on the "official" bbs did have the same problem, but they did not put a lot of details about it.  Were you able to solve this or did you just let it be?

Hook I must say I love your cat picture, I personally have 3 cats and fell in love with that picture.  Now all I need to know is how to put a picture next to my name and in what type of format so it fits there (I am no good at that).

The first time I saw it was the same day my sim moved in, (it was a nightlife pre-built house) the maid wasn't hired until after the problem started but when he did arrive he was able to clean the plates.  It was just that one sim who couldn't - very puzzling.

[MissDoh]

Hook I must say I love your cat picture, I personally have 3 cats and fell in love with that picture.  Now all I need to know is how to put a picture next to my name and in what type of format so it fits there (I am no good at that).

huh? did you mean how to put a picture as your avatar here on the bbs?

Yes I was talking about that but since that post I found out where I need to place it (I was too lazy too actually search a little and it was really easy to found, shame on me!), only thing left for me to do is find a good picture.  I have plenty of time to found it since next Monday is a holiday for me (Thanksgiving).

[ZephyrZodiac]

I don't have NL yet, but I did have one thought - if you influence that sim to clean, will they then clean up the plate?  Or not?

[MissDoh]

I know this may sound like a silly theory on why it happens but you can be the judge of that and tell me if it would make sense, here it goes:

Since I send plenty of other Sims on downtown lots except the ones of that family since I did not play them for a little while, I notice that some Sims on downtown lots would clean-up dirty plates in downtown restaurant if the waiter would not be fast enough.  Now what I am wondering is if it would be possible that a Sim I don't have control on would have pick-up a plate to clean it and did not had the time too because I either decide to go back home or go on another lot and that Sim would have lost the ability to clean-up because it did not finish its action on a community lot.

Does this make sense and be a reason why it could not clean-up the plates anymore when I started to play that family?  Remember I save while they were in bed and they were ok then, I reloaded the lot and they could not clean-up dishes anymore for an unknown reason.  No custom stuff is involve here since I don't presently have any in my game, but if a mod exist to prevent it I will surely install it (yes I did change my mind on mods and know they are very useful, I changed the way I talk about them too and suggest to look for newer version in case they are no longer compatible with the expansion pack they have, see I am no fool anymore ).

If it ever happens again, I will definitely take one of those Sims on a downtown lot and see if it would got reset in any way and be able to clean-up plates while they are there.  Unless someone with the same problem is willing to try it and let me know.

Please let me know what you all think of that theory.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sounds reasonable to me, but as I say, I don't yet have NL, but I've given in and ordered it.  I'd be inclined to take another family downtown, wait until one of them starts to clean up plates, then send them home under similar conditions, and see if the same thing happens.  It would at least prove or disprove your theory once and for all, and then you would know exactly what mod is needed to correct it.  And if the family has a kid still at college, get them graduated and home fast so they can clean up, while you wait for someone to create the fix you need!  (Or grow up a toddler if you've got one in the house, or adopt a child - kids are usually very willing to clean up dirty plates.)

[MissDoh]

Sounds reasonable to me, but as I say, I don't yet have NL, but I've given in and ordered it.  I'd be inclined to take another family downtown, wait until one of them starts to clean up plates, then send them home under similar conditions, and see if the same thing happens.  It would at least prove or disprove your theory once and for all, and then you would know exactly what mod is needed to correct it.  And if the family has a kid still at college, get them graduated and home fast so they can clean up, while you wait for someone to create the fix you need!  (Or grow up a toddler if you've got one in the house, or adopt a child - kids are usually very willing to clean up dirty plates.)

This is exactly what I am doing right now, trying to have another Sim that I created clean-up a plate and leave before they have the chance to clean so I can check if this could make any sense (it is not that easy though since I cannot choose which Sims will be on the community lot, it is really a question of timing, I am sending Sims which don't have a high cleaness level so they would not attempt to do it instead of other Sims with higher clean level) so in other words, I am trying to reproduce the same conditions. To have the best chances, I am sending them on regular community neighborhood lots in which I added restaurants so there is no downtown townies (or very few) on those lots and more of the ones I have control on normally since I created them. 

In the past, uncontrol Sims never wanted to clean-up a mess, only the Sim we had control on while on the community lot would do such a thing, so this feature is kind of new and I thought it could be the reason why this is happening, I am happy to see that it does make sense and will push that test further and let everone know about the result I came with, if other feels like joining me in that test I would be really happy.  If this is true, more and more people will have that exact same problem in their game after they send Sims on lots in which there is a restaurant. 

I always use the "intprop maxnumofvisitingsims" cheat now to increase the number of visitors I can have on a lot since before I install NL I could have 8 and now I can only have 2.... if there is a way to make this permanent please share so I will modify my logs (or any other file just point me in the right direction) the way it needs to be so I won't have to manually modify it everytime I start the game.

After I reproduce that error, for sure I will try and see if by influencing the Sim it will clean-up the mess or not, I just wish now I did not place that back-up....

Sorry if sometime my grammar is poor, my mother's tongue is French not English so I know I do make grammar errors sometimes... but as long as you can understand me I am ok. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think if you use the teleporter shrub (the one which just teleports in at intervals, not the selectable sim one) then this has an option for masimum numbers on lot, and is quicker than entering a cheat.

What I originally thought was, if you could actually recreate the same problem in another sim household, then it would prove your theory, that it is definitely related to NL and not your sim him/herself.   Also, the mind control mirror could be used in your family when they have a visitor to get the visitor to clean up!

[MissDoh]

What I originally thought was, if you could actually recreate the same problem in another sim household, then it would prove your theory, that it is definitely related to NL and not your sim him/herself.   Also, the mind control mirror could be used in your family when they have a visitor to get the visitor to clean up!

That is another way of doing it that I did not thought of and it will be a lot more easier to achieve, I will work on that.  Thanks­.