Bon Voyage time issue. <SOLVED>

[Inge]

Ah yes, if you actually have them in bed before going out, I can see that working.  I was thinking if the teen went out in the morning and got back at midnight, then the kids would be up all night.

[Hecubus]

By the by, the noon checkout/payment thing is from TS1: Vacation. Many's the time I lost track and got charged for another day. (Come to think of it, that's happened to me IRL as well.)

[notveryawesome]

Huh. I bet that'll be in the patch, then, since aside from the fact that it causes overcharging and loss of vacation days, time in vacation subhoods is supposed to be continuous, like it is in Uni subhoods.

Yes, but Uni subhood time is broken also. It has never worked correctly either, as evidenced by what happens when only part of a lot goes out, resulting in semester times getting completely desynchronized.

Yes, but on uni lots, you at least have the option to cancel the 'go to class' action (since the student will just have to go to class again once s/he goes home). That's what I do, and thus I never have semester-desynchronisation, unless I choose to exploit it in order to make a certain sim 'older'.

[jolrei]

Yes, but on uni lots, you at least have the option to cancel the 'go to class' action (since the student will just have to go to class again once s/he goes home). That's what I do, and thus I never have semester-desynchronisation, unless I choose to exploit it in order to make a certain sim 'older'.

And in Uni lots this can actually be beneficial - student can go to class once from the comm lot and once from home/dorm in one day, filling out the performance bar, eliminating need to go to class in other days, thus allowing for more interesting activity.

With BV, the time/double charge issue would have a negative/cost impact.  It also seems now that the time synch issue is specific to some installations.  For others time away from the hotel is in synch with the hotel time (i.e. if sims leave hotel at 9am and go to comm lot, and leave the comm lot at 8pm, it will be 8pm when they return to the hotel and they are charged for only one day).  Things do not seem to be working consistently.  Might be a difference between CD/DVD and torrent versions?

Naturally, I can't really say, since Amazon has not sent me a copy of BV yet.

[KatEnigma]

Have we verified that the synch problem isn't a weird hack conflict? I'm running vanilla (well, okay, I had to add the teleporter bush because I was dumb and had to rescue my family) and everything was fine.

[jolrei]

Have we verified that the synch problem isn't a weird hack conflict? I'm running vanilla...and everything was fine.

This could be the case.  There seem to be a lot of the sheeple that simply won't run without their hacks, which may now conflict, so a lot of problems may be related to that.  It'll take some time to sort out what are real problems and what are "sheeple induced" issues.

It appears that JMP has updated his director's cut already for BV (just downloaded that in preparation), but I will run vanilla to test before moving in my regular hood and any hacks.  Looks like I have time to plan anyway.  Thanks Amazon.

[Loncaros]

I've installed BV already, but I haven't played yet. Is this EP so FUBAR that I should uninstall it again?

[cyperangel]

Ive had no trouble with the time issues mentioned. I played the game vanilla from the geto-go (got the lesson the hard way the last pack...)
When i leave the home lot (hotel, tent or vacation home) and head out somewhere, time passes as usual. If i go home again at 9, then it will be 9 when i arrive at my home lot. So no double payment there.

And no, its not so fubar its to be uninstalled. I quite enjoy it.

[jolrei]

Is this EP so FUBAR that I should uninstall it again?

There is always some issue with a new EP.  Awesome hacks and fixes are already either updated or being updated (check the War Room section for the FFS director's cut for BV if you use these hacks).  Other issues seem to be experienced by some people, but not by others - this may be due to running with non-updated hacks.  All this stuff is normal. 

If BV is installed already, play a vanilla game for a bit (no hacks or CC) and see how it goes.  If you experience issues, check back here - likely someone has already had the same issue and there may be some commentary or ideas about how to fix it. 

If you take your entire downloads folder out (eg your custom clothing, objects, etc.) make sure you have a backup of your current neighbourhoods, because your sims will lose everything except maxoid clothing, and your houses will lose any custom content as well.  You can replace your neighbourhood from the backup after you test to see if you have any problems with BV.

[Kralore]

I or my game is having some sort of psychotic episode...   Has community lot/home time always been synchronized in Sims 2, or is there a particular expansion when time synchronization started?  The reason I ask, is I now seem to recall when seasons came out that one of the first things I noticed was that lot time was now synchronized.  I've just tried a family in a main hood, and time isn't synched there either.  But I do know at one point it was.  So it looks like i will be reinstalling sims 2, because I think something is definitly fubared.

[Zazazu]

I suppose the drawback is that when you get back to the hotel, exhausted at bedtime, the kids you left behind in the morning still have their green energy ready to play all night?

Kids generally tire out early anyways. I always give them naps on the weekend. Weaklings. I never took naps. That's actually how I figured out that time was passing for me...I had the family at the hotsprings and the kid was about to drop, so I took them back to the hotel for a nap until they could go out to someplace for a destination dinner. Ack! It was still 8:00 pm!

[jolrei]

I or my game is having some sort of psychotic episode...   Has community lot/home time always been synchronized in Sims 2, or is there a particular expansion when time synchronization started?

Until I get BV, my game is currently running only base and Uni.  comm lot/home time is not synched there.  If a sim teen leaves home at 7am to go meet friends at a comm lot, and stays all day, when he returns home, it will still be 7am, time for brekkers and going to school.  If comm lot/home time was synched, it was after Uni in any case.

[syberspunk]

Huh. I bet that'll be in the patch, then, since aside from the fact that it causes overcharging and loss of vacation days, time in vacation subhoods is supposed to be continuous, like it is in Uni subhoods.

Yes, but Uni subhood time is broken also. It has never worked correctly either, as evidenced by what happens when only part of a lot goes out, resulting in semester times getting completely desynchronized.

I think the desynchronization is actually a purposeful feature and not really a 'bug' per se.  I mean, I don't know how you guys handle it, but when I had sims synchronized, and I actually let them play out the last 72 hours of their Uni time, they all tend to age transition about the same time.  Things got a little wonky for me.  I had this happen to me once though, so I don't know if it's reproducable... but when the taxi came, only one sim got in.  And then the other sim got left behind.  I waited for another taxi to come, and it never did.  2 sim 'days' passed (that is 4 semesters worth of Uni 'time') and still no taxi.  I was like wtf? In the end, it wasn't a huge problem, since I think I was able to move him back home by phone.  But still, he woulda persisted 'living' there like forever as an adult.

So... I think the desynchronization tends to help out in this way.  The other minor annoyance with synchronized YAs, if you have 8 (or more... heh, with hacks of course) they all tend to pile up by the mailbox.  Again, not a huge problem, but with autonomy on, the pile up can be hectic and annoying when they start doin stuff you don't want them to.

Ive had no trouble with the time issues mentioned. I played the game vanilla from the geto-go (got the lesson the hard way the last pack...)
When i leave the home lot (hotel, tent or vacation home) and head out somewhere, time passes as usual. If i go home again at 9, then it will be 9 when i arrive at my home lot. So no double payment there.

Someone correct me if I've misunderstood, but... I think the OP was saying that, they sent their sims to a vacation hotel lot.  Then... from the vacation hotel, they sent their sims to a comm lot, that I assume is in the same vacation neighborhood.

Also... you mention that you sent your sims home at 9.  But the problem occurred when the OP kept their sims past midnight/noon.  They were charged an additional fee and lost an additional vacation day, even though, when they returned to the hotel lot, the time warped back to when they had first left.

I or my game is having some sort of psychotic episode...   Has community lot/home time always been synchronized in Sims 2, or is there a particular expansion when time synchronization started?

Until I get BV, my game is currently running only base and Uni.  comm lot/home time is not synched there.  If a sim teen leaves home at 7am to go meet friends at a comm lot, and stays all day, when he returns home, it will still be 7am, time for brekkers and going to school.  If comm lot/home time was synched, it was after Uni in any case.

I think that comm lot/home time is still not synchronized in Seasons.  I'm pretty sure you needed Crammyboy's hack to keep comm lot and residential lots synchronized.  That's why I mentioned that it would be great if Crammyboy could incorporate a similar fix for these vaction/hotel lot and vacation/comm lot issues.


Ste

[jsalemi]

Has community lot/home time always been synchronized in Sims 2, or is there a particular expansion when time synchronization started?  The reason I ask, is I now seem to recall when seasons came out that one of the first things I noticed was that lot time was now synchronized. 

As Ste said, no, time between home lots and comm lots has never been synchronized in the game (without a hack, anyway).  You could have a business owner go and run 5 businesses for 12 hours each, and he/she would still be home in time for lunch.

From earlier discussions here (in the various BV threads), it sounds like time IS synchronized on vacation lots, at least as far as the hotel and comm lots are concerned.  One or more incompatible hacks seem to be causing problems where the synchronization gets borked.

[cyperangel]

Someone correct me if I've misunderstood, but... I think the OP was saying that, they sent their sims to a vacation hotel lot.  Then... from the vacation hotel, they sent their sims to a comm lot, that I assume is in the same vacation neighborhood.

Also... you mention that you sent your sims home at 9.  But the problem occurred when the OP kept their sims past midnight/noon.  They were charged an additional fee and lost an additional vacation day, even though, when they returned to the hotel lot, the time warped back to when they had first left.

My poing being exactly, that I do not warp back to the time i left, i come back at the time it was when i went home from the com lot, (home being a hotel or a vacation home). This means that even if i stayed past midnight, it would be past midnight when i return to the hotel, and thus i dont get whacked with a double bill.

[jsalemi]

Does vacation time sync with the real home lot time?  IOW, if the family goes on a vacation at 8am Saturday, and stays 3 days, is it still Saturday when they return, or have 3 days passed at their home lot and it's now Monday?

[jolrei]

Does vacation time sync with the real home lot time?  IOW, if the family goes on a vacation at 8am Saturday, and stays 3 days, is it still Saturday when they return, or have 3 days passed at their home lot and it's now Monday?

The preview/adverts for BV indicated that sims do not age while on holiday, so I suspect that it may function like going to a comm lot with regular non-synched time.  I would expect sims would return and it would still be Saturday, in that case, since we are now talking about moving sims from the vacation scenario back to main game scenario (where time is non-synched).

[jsalemi]

Yea, I guess you're right, since they don't allow sims to give birth while on vacation.  So it treats the whole vacation trip like one long visit to a comm lot. Makes sense in a EAxian sorta way, I guess.

Otherwise the Lot Sync Timer would either get a major workout, or be rendered completely useless.

(I'll probably pick up a copy of BV this weekend...)

[jolrei]

Yea, I guess you're right, since they don't allow sims to give birth while on vacation.  So it treats the whole vacation trip like one long visit to a comm lot. Makes sense in a EAxian sorta way, I guess.

Otherwise the Lot Sync Timer would either get a major workout, or be rendered completely useless.
(I'll probably pick up a copy of BV this weekend...)

I was just thinking that it would be more of a time coding issue than EA is normally willing (able?) to handle, to synch the time throughout at this stage.  Anyhow, I generally don't mind the time synch issue in the main game - I can get 2 days out of one for interactions, if necessary by sending sims to the comm lots, and then running a normal day at home.  I'm happy if time is synched in the vacation scenarios, because who wants a full extra day to play just inside the hotel (unless the hotel is damned interesting).

I am going to try to buy after work today - I have an order pending on Amazon, but I hate the idea of waiting until mid- to late-October for delivery.  If I find one tonight, I can still cancel with Amazon.  Then I can join the "fun" by the weekend (since my wife is ultra-busy right now anyway until Sunday afternoon).

[syberspunk]

Someone correct me if I've misunderstood, but... I think the OP was saying that, they sent their sims to a vacation hotel lot.  Then... from the vacation hotel, they sent their sims to a comm lot, that I assume is in the same vacation neighborhood.

Also... you mention that you sent your sims home at 9.  But the problem occurred when the OP kept their sims past midnight/noon.  They were charged an additional fee and lost an additional vacation day, even though, when they returned to the hotel lot, the time warped back to when they had first left.

My poing being exactly, that I do not warp back to the time i left, i come back at the time it was when i went home from the com lot, (home being a hotel or a vacation home). This means that even if i stayed past midnight, it would be past midnight when i return to the hotel, and thus i dont get whacked with a double bill.

Ok... I are confused.  I think the OP said that, when they stayed past midnight, while still at that comm lot, they get charged (a fee if past noon, a vacation day if past midnight).  Upon returning... they time warp back to the time they left i.e. they had left the home/vactaion/hotel lot at 9pm, went to a comm lot in the same vacation destination 'hood, stayed at that lot past midnight/noon, and returned to the home/vacation/hotel lot where it was still 9pm.  When staying at that hotel lot past midnight they get another vacation day deducted, and when they stay past check out time, they get 'double billed' as you put it.

I confused with this sentence:

My poing being exactly, that I do not warp back to the time i left, i come back at the time it was when i went home from the com lot, (home being a hotel or a vacation home).

When you say, you come back at the time it was, when you went home from the comm lot, you mean to say that it is now the later time?  i.e. you leave the comm lot and it is 9pm.  you stay on the comm lot Past midnight, Past noon, which results in losing a vacation day and being charged an extra night's stay in the hotel.  You leave the comm lot and it is 2pm.  When you get back to the hotel, it is 2 pm (or... a little after 2pm that is)?!?!?!?

At this point, you aren't charged anything extra and you don't lose any other vacation days?

So... that means some hack must be borking this?


Ste

[KatEnigma]

Yes, that's what they mean. In my game, if I leave my hotel/vaca home lot at 9 AM and stay out at a community lot until 1 AM, when I return to my hotel/vaca home, it is now 1 AM there, as well. It works like it does for Uni. It sounds to me like the OP isn't playing without their precious hacks to me, too. Which is why I asked if we were sure it wasn't a hack, since things like that aren't usually random.

[Invisigoth]

When you say, you come back at the time it was, when you went home from the comm lot, you mean to say that it is now the later time?  i.e. you leave the comm lot and it is 9pm.  you stay on the comm lot Past midnight, Past noon, which results in losing a vacation day and being charged an extra night's stay in the hotel.  You leave the comm lot and it is 2pm.  When you get back to the hotel, it is 2 pm (or... a little after 2pm that is)?!?!?!?

At this point, you aren't charged anything extra and you don't lose any other vacation days?

So... that means some hack must be borking this?
Ste

Last night I tested the time thing pretty extensively with nothing but JM's director's cut in. I tested with two separate families. Both had the same results.
If my sims left the hotel at 9 AM and were gone for five hours it would be 2 PM when they returned to the hotel. The hotel time would say 2 PM.
If one sim (or more) stays at the hotel and the other sim/s leave at 9 am and are gone for 5 hours it would be 2 PM when they returned to the hotel. The only sucky thing about this is that the sim who stayed at the hotel will have the same motive state as when you left (so even if five hours have passed and they were asleep when you left their energy bar wouldn't have filled). The easy work around for this is playing in debug mode and dragging up the motive/s that you wish to impact. So if your sim was asleep when you left and five hours have passed you can drag the energy bar up so that they get "credit" for time spent asleep. I don't think that sounds cheaty since they did just lose five hours of time, but everyone is welcome to make their own decision of course.
The times are just examples, the time thing continued to work this way no matter what time they left the hotel and no matter how many hours they were gone for. This sounds like a hack conflict to me.

[Kralore]

First I should say i'm running Bon Voyage with no custom content.

There seems to be a bit of confusion about what the problem is.   This is how it's working on my game.

I have a family checked in to a hotel. It's 9 am in the morning. I send the family to a community lot, when they arrive at the community lot they stay for the day. 

When it's 6 pm at the community lot, I send them back to the hotel. 

When they arrive back at the hotel, as soon as they appear on the lot, I get a message saying "Checkout time passed while you were away from the hotel, 800$ has been added to your bill".  This is correct and working properly.  I've gone past the 12 noon checkout and i'm being charged for another day stay.

The problem is. the time at the hotel is still 9 am, the same time as when they left.  I keep the family on the hotel lot.  At 11 am I get a message saying its time to checkout, if I stay past noon, 1 day stay will be added to my bill. At 12 noon I get a message saying "Thanks for staying. Another 800$ has been added to your bill". I've been charged a second time for the same day's stay.

The way it's supposed to be, and the way it seems to be working for everyone except me LOL is this.

When I leave the community lot at 6 pm,  when I get back to the hotel, I get the message saying "Checkout time passed while you were away from the hotel, 800$ has been added to your bill" like i'm supposed to, but the hotel time should be 6 pm, the same time when I left the community lot.  This way the 12 noon checkout is not passing by again and i'm not being double billed for the day.

I've already tried uninstalling Bon Voyage, H&M Stuff, Celebration, and Seasons. I then reinstalled Seasons, then Bon Voyage. And i'm still getting the problem of the lot time not synching.  So i'm going to uninstall the whole thing and reinstall everything from the beginning again and hopefully things will work then.   I've never had problems with sims or sims 2 in the past, this is the first time i've ever had serious gameplay issues. So i'm very frustrated at the moment.   I do appreciate and thank everyone for all the input you've given so far.

[KatEnigma]

You said that the game started synching lots for you automagically with one of the EP's. That wasn't supposed to happen. Are you sure you don't accidentally have something in your downloads folder?

[Skadi]

Have you actually checked the bill? I had this in my game, but when I checked out I only paid for 2 days, even though I had 3 pop ups.