taking toddlers to community lots?

[incurok]

I couldnt find information on this anywhere... but I was wondering... Are you able to take toddler's to community lots, or is there some special thing you have to have in your game to be able to do that? Because if you're able to, it won't let me... Thanks.

[Gwill]

You can't.
I don't know of any hacks that enables it either, and I don't think it would be a good idea to try.

[vcline]

So many community lots I've downloaded have a changing table in one of the restrooms.  I always wondered why.  Just to tease us, maybe.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Probably were added just as useless decorations.  Can your Simmies use any of the hanging pot racks that came with EP5?  Nope.  But they look nice.

[V]

A long time ago I would occasionally get toddlers as part of casual groups meeting downtown. Sometimes they had a parent with them, but usually not. It was always weird and made for a very odd outing. It seems like the interactions with the toddlers were limited also so you couldn't really take care of them while they were there.

Especially disturbing was when the toddler announced that they were going home now and started crawling off the lot all by themselves.

I don't remember how long ago it was since that happened. I do remember the specific toddlers since it was always such a surprise to see them.

[Ellatrue]

I think the game allows you to add changing tables and toddler items to community lots in buy mode. Maybe EA originally intended for bringing toddlers to community lots, but scrapped it?

[J. M. Pescado]

Ultimately, it seems like a pointless exercise: The only thing a toddler could do on a community lot would be to cry, whine, and crap itself, seeing as there are no toddler-to-toddler interactions and very few toddler-actions, none of which you can't already have at home, and frankly, why WOULD you want to subject a toddler to the prodding and harassment of total strangers? Eventually the larva would run out of power, anyway, and while changing tables can be placed on community lots, cribs can't, so now you have a screaming, tired toddler which wasn't contributing anything to the community lot experience anyway. Like in real life, you really shouldn't bring the little monsters with you.

[Sleepycat]

well if you really wanted a toddler on a community lot, couldn't you just summon it there... (using InSIM or Inges teleporter shrub)

[Strangel]

For storytelling reasons, I make a "comm lot" nook in the corner of the property, like a little movie set, summon a few "customers" and have total control over the domain.

That's IF I need a toddler in a toy store, etc. or a mother changing the baby in a bathroom.

Once I'm done, the corner gets blowed up with either fire or the build mode hammer and all's well.

[Soylent Sim]

Well, yes, but moviemakers quickly learn how to stage a shot to imply things that can't actually happen.  They also tend to be bright enough to see when other people are trying to do the same.  (See: EA screenshots.)  That doesn't mean it would be a good idea to implement the actual action.

Most requests for commlot toddlers arise from a mistaking of the game and the real world.  Humans have unified time, and can enjoy just walking around for no reason.  Neither of these applies to the sims.  Sims gain neither relationship nor motive benefits from just walking from one place to another (excepting environment, and even a sim who walked through a high-environment museum will be entirely unaffected when he gets to the low-environment exit), and a sim who spends all day at a commlot will come back at the same time.  A sim who spends a whole day on another sim's lot, even if you save while the visitor is on-lot, will show no change where they are or what they're doing when you load their lot again.  So barring a massive overhaul of the engine you can't engage in silly bonding rituals or foist your spawn off on other people, which are the main reasons people send them elsewhere in the real world.

[Sagana]

<blink> Baby pools at the swimming pool, sandlots in parks, sand pails at the beach are fun. As is the sim that runs a daycare because she lost her own child in a fire and went kind of crazy. It doesn't matter if there's no 'game' advantage from it. The sims don't know the difference between a shack and a house or an expensive spa on community lot and one with just a hot tub on it either, but I do so that's what makes it fun to do.

Once upon a time there was a hack that would teleport in toddlers at whatever specific time you set it at, but I didn't use it and don't know where it is, so that's not much help...

[Soylent Sim]

<blink> Baby pools at the swimming pool, sandlots in parks, sand pails at the beach are fun.

These also fail to exist.  In the case of the sand pails you don't even have proper beaches, and for the others I wonder how much player enjoyment could be derived per programmer hour, especially compared to other options.  It's kind of like how pets was expected to be everything a simmer could expect, and ended up being a big letdown in reality.

Don't get me wrong.  I'd like more toddler interactions in the house, even though the same opportunity cost thing mentioned above probably applies.  (Designing and programming a toddler interaction enhances four days of a sim's life, adult/elder ones can enhance 60-ish for a similar investment.)  But, especially given their inability to do much on their own, allowing them to appear on non-home lots would require a lot of overhead to make sure it works right.  This might be one spot where EA sees a load of bugs waiting to happen, and has actually decided it's not worth letting them come to fruition in play.

[Sagana]

All of the things I mentioned exist. Echo made the toddler pools ages ago and I have several from others since then. Echo also did sand pits, there are also some on TSR and some on the sims mod board. The sand buckets are at TSR.

You can use 'em in the house. I think Echo's stuff isn't normally set for community use, but that doesn't stop anyone from putting them on community lots if'n they wanna. Either use a one of the buy hacks or start with the zoning residential and switch it - either will allow you to put anything on a community lot, including cribs if you wanna. And teleporting in whatever sim you want to be there is easy.

[Khaki]

A long time ago I would occasionally get toddlers as part of casual groups meeting downtown. Sometimes they had a parent with them, but usually not. It was always weird and made for a very odd outing. It seems like the interactions with the toddlers were limited also so you couldn't really take care of them while they were there.

Especially disturbing was when the toddler announced that they were going home now and started crawling off the lot all by themselves.

I don't remember how long ago it was since that happened. I do remember the specific toddlers since it was always such a surprise to see them.

This used to happen to me every now and then, I was always quite upset when everyone in the outing would pile into the van and leave the toddler there. I think one time someone brought an infant, promptly put it on the ground on the sidewalk and just left it there....

[SimDebster]

I would like to see toddlers have the ability to go to a community lot.  I have a family on its 6th generation that has tons of money.  Besides making gifts to the other college grad children that do not move back in by using Pescado's money order, I had to figure out something else to do with the money.  I turned a couple of residential lots into community lots which I placed in a new sub neighborhood and turned all of the weather to winter (I use it as their Christmas vacation home - it saves me from having to decorate and take the decos down repeatedly).  So, my family bought one of them and goes there whenever it is winter in their home neighborhood.  They stay one or two days, just long enough to enjoy a turkey dinner and for Santa to arrive.  As it is now, babies and toddlers cannot accompany the rest of the family during this time.

[Zeljka]

As mentioned, with the proper mods in place, you can do almost anything.
I have teleporter shrubs on all my community lots and if I actually wanted toddlers there, it would be nothing to create a residential lot with all the toddler fixins, re-zone it to community, then teleport them in when they're wanted there.

Inge's bottomless bottle if a community fridge doesn't produce bottles, the autonomous toddler blanket, a potty or two, some skilling toys, a toybox if you wanted to set up  'playdates'...

Personally, I try to limit the Sims my toddlers meet as I hate their want panels spammed with wants for Sims I don't care about...

[notveryawesome]

You can also place toddler (and pet) items in a sim's inventory and unload them at a community lot. This is how I have pet-toys and full petfood dishes when my sims take their pets to community lots. Theoretically, this should work for toddler stuff, as well. You just have to remember to load it back up before your sims go home.

[Magicmoon]

Personally, I try to limit the Sims my toddlers meet as I hate their want panels spammed with wants for Sims I don't care about...

Monique at MTS2 has a relationship gnome. You make a Sim active, click on it, and you can remove as many Sims from your list of known Sims that you want. Once a Sim is removed from your list, your Sim will no longer roll up any wants to deal with that Sim. I don't even receive phone calls from those idiots any more after that.

If you interact with a Sim later in the game that you removed, that Sim is placed back into your known Sims panel, with the same exact relationship you had with them when you removed them. For example, if you remove the headmaster with whom you had a relationship of 32/15 he won't call your Sims and your Sims won't roll wants to call him or be his friend. Later when you call him back to your house for another child and greet him again, he shows back up in your panel with the same 32/15 plus any points you just gained from talking to him. He can be removed again after he leaves the lot.

I use it all the time to remove the maids, delivery boys, the headmaster, and customers met at owned businesses.

Since it was cloned from the gnome, Sims do tend to steal it. So I went into SimPe and removed the theft option. Her gnome can be kicked, but it won't be used by macrotastics. So I keep the gnome around to remove irritating Sims from the relationship panels, and keep a regular gnome, kick the cheat, or other object for macrotastics to use.

It can be used to remove pets as well as Sims, and also has a function to "find" Sims whom you would like to call but haven't met yet. They are added to the relationship panel with a score of 0/0.

[Strangel]

Personally, I try to limit the Sims my toddlers meet as I hate their want panels spammed with wants for Sims I don't care about...

Monique at MTS2 has a relationship gnome. You make a Sim active, click on it, and you can remove as many Sims from your list of known Sims that you want. Once a Sim is removed from your list, your Sim will no longer roll up any wants to deal with that Sim. I don't even receive phone calls from those idiots any more after that.

If you interact with a Sim later in the game that you removed, that Sim is placed back into your known Sims panel, with the same exact relationship you had with them when you removed them. For example, if you remove the headmaster with whom you had a relationship of 32/15 he won't call your Sims and your Sims won't roll wants to call him or be his friend. Later when you call him back to your house for another child and greet him again, he shows back up in your panel with the same 32/15 plus any points you just gained from talking to him. He can be removed again after he leaves the lot.

I use it all the time to remove the maids, delivery boys, the headmaster, and customers met at owned businesses.

Since it was cloned from the gnome, Sims do tend to steal it. So I went into SimPe and removed the theft option. Her gnome can be kicked, but it won't be used by macrotastics. So I keep the gnome around to remove irritating Sims from the relationship panels, and keep a regular gnome, kick the cheat, or other object for macrotastics to use.

It can be used to remove pets as well as Sims, and also has a function to "find" Sims whom you would like to call but haven't met yet. They are added to the relationship panel with a score of 0/0.

I used to have that gnome! Let me tell you, it was a sanity saver when I was running a greek house with (if I remember correctly...) twelve Young Adults AND their girlfriends, boyfriends, best friends, childhood friends, professors, cheerleaders, mascots... you get the idea...
Anyone under Teen - removed. Anyone NPC - removed. Eventually it got to Anyone Outside Family And/Or Love Interest - removed.

[Zeljka]

thanks,
I make them strangers with the Insim, but I'm still playing two neighbourhoods I started when the game first came out so there are a lot of sims and it's a pain removing so many relationships everytime I play a family. (I personally would be somewhat concerned if I brought home an acquaintance from work and couldn't pry them off my toddler.)

I suppose the idea of a daycare/nursery is cool and I can see why people may want one, but when I want my toddlers to meet, I teleport them to someone's house. In Legacy homes, I may bring in Spares' offspring so Grandma and Grandpa can actually meet them. The kid stuff is already there, and it just makes more sense to me that if they have 10 adult friends, those friends are aunts, uncles, cousins etc...

[pixiejuice]

I don't know if any of you have dropped by the BBS lately, but they're all talking about Bon Voyage allowing you to take your toddlers on vacation with you... so maybe community lots too?  I guess we'll see.