Scanner Gun hack screwy since patch?

[RainbowTigress]

If I cancel the interaction they still finish it anyway, even if I've queued up something I thought was more important (like using the toilet before they have a bladder failure).

Do you have JM's abortable bedmaking hack?

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'm getting fed up with the way this board loses your replies to posts, it's just done it again!!!!!!

I've found what i was going to say, and I've posted it below.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Actually, I made Don Lothario get really high cleaning skills (he needed them anyway to be a celebrity chef) and if you leave him alone, he'll clean up his own mess in the bathroom, and he'll autonomously clean sinks and stuff too!  He mostly only complains if I put these things in his queue, not if he thinks of it for himself!

[J. M. Pescado]

Yeah they do learn faster with someone teaching them.  The Skillinator will ignore the scanner when they are kids and have them study from a book unless someone is acting as an instructor.

The Skillinator ignores the scanner for children because kids are actually specifically programmed to be completely ADD when using the scanner. Kids, and only kids, explicitly stop on fun. Attempting to add an ADD compenator to the Skillinator resulted in wiggy behaviors, and so kids simply ignore the object unless an instructor is present (the presence of the instructor suppresses the ADD).

[RainbowTigress]

Yeah they do learn faster with someone teaching them.  The Skillinator will ignore the scanner when they are kids and have them study from a book unless someone is acting as an instructor.

The Skillinator ignores the scanner for children because kids are actually specifically programmed to be completely ADD when using the scanner. Kids, and only kids, explicitly stop on fun. Attempting to add an ADD compenator to the Skillinator resulted in wiggy behaviors, and so kids simply ignore the object unless an instructor is present (the presence of the instructor suppresses the ADD).

That's kinda what I though.

[ElviraGoth]

This last sim that dropped it was just scanning the wall.  If the patch doesn't  have anything in it that interferes with anything else, I'm putting it back in.  Tired of hunting everywhere for that stupid gun.

The only sims that I have use it alone are adults, YAs and teens.  I always use adult or elders to train children on the career rewards.

And the chocolate factory needs a teacher for any age if the learner's cooking skill level is too low.  But I usually put a teen or older on it alone anyway, because while they're trying to get the thing started, they're still learning.  The little skill level thingy comes up above their head, anyway.  I have had problems with teaching on that occasionally.  The teacher and the student will sometimes drop out of that, too.  I just chalked it up to some Maxis bug.

[Hook]

If your Sim has absolutely no cooking skills and you want them to learn on the candy machine, there's a little trick that might help.  Have 'em run to the far corner of the lot, put on the thinking cap, then click on the candy machine and "Make Candy".  They get the skill indicator as soon as they start walking toward the machine, and with any luck they'll gain enough skill just trudging across the lot to the machine that they won't make a mess.  Repeat as necessary.

Pescado says they need 6 cooking points to be successful, but in practice I've found that my Sims quit making messes after gaining 4 points.  And they are often successful with fewer than 4 points, often enough to make it worthwhile to keep trying.

Hook

[ZephyrZodiac]

Useful if your sim can't afford a TV or a bookcase!

[Hook]

Actually, I don't even care if there's a failure.  They're still learning while they're standing there fretting about the chocolate puddle they're creating.   And studying with a trainer is still faster than using the TV or bookcase.

Hook

[ZephyrZodiac]

And the TV's a damn nuisance anyway, they're forever either switching channels or "having a little rest" on the sofa and they stop watching!

[ElviraGoth]

If your Sim has absolutely no cooking skills and you want them to learn on the candy machine, there's a little trick that might help.  Have 'em run to the far corner of the lot, put on the thinking cap, then click on the candy machine and "Make Candy".  They get the skill indicator as soon as they start walking toward the machine, and with any luck they'll gain enough skill just trudging across the lot to the machine that they won't make a mess.  Repeat as necessary.

Pescado says they need 6 cooking points to be successful, but in practice I've found that my Sims quit making messes after gaining 4 points.  And they are often successful with fewer than 4 points, often enough to make it worthwhile to keep trying.

Hook

Yeah, I usually put the candy machine in the basement or on the roof of a dorm, and they have to walk a ways to get there.  Even without the thinking cap, they still are learning.  And I usually get them to start actually making candy about the time they get into the 4th level of cooking skill, too.  Usually my children are at level three (or higher, if there's a candy machine in the house) by the time they're a teen, and by the time they've gone to uni they're usually level 4 or higher.  (I only allow my sims one career reward per adult sim.  No buyables at home unless the one they earned goes screwy.  Part of the challenge I've given myself.)  I use the (buyable) career rewards at college because the uni students' fun level goes down so fast, and since they have to learn these things for classes anyway, they might as well have fun while they're at it.  Sometimes with a teacher, sometimes without.  It depends on if the sim with the highest skill level has something else they need to learn or someone else they need to attend to.

I noticed something with the CM last night that I thought was kind of odd.  From a distance, when the sim using it was picking up the candy, the candy that disappeared was the pair next in line, behind the candy that was being picked up.  So the candy that was supposed to be picked up, dropped off into the wastebasket.  This happened several times in a row.  But when I zoomed in and watched, the candy was being picked up like normal. (Or dropped off, or eaten Lucy Ricardo style.)  Never noticed this before.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Always amazes me how much chocolate they can eat without getting fat!

I only use the buyables to replace lost earned rewards at home too.  I mainly use them at Uni when I have poor students in a house who need to earn money fast and learn skills at the same time, so I do put the hydroponic garden and the chocolate machine in for them, and usually they get the golf course as they get quite high fun from that.

[ElviraGoth]

And why doesn't eating the chocolate satisfy their hunger?  It does mine! 

[RainbowTigress]

And why doesn't eating the chocolate satisfy their hunger?  It does mine! 

Yeah, I wondered how they could be starving to death while gobbling all that chocolate off the machine.  How do they have enough to sell, adn why don't they get fat?  It makes me hungry watching them.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Also, since chocolate is a mood-booster, why don't they get happy?

[RainbowTigress]

Also, since chocolate is a mood-booster, why don't they get happy?

And since the toddlers get a huge jolt of energy from eating the puddles, why don't older sims get energy while making/eating the chocolate?

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's all a mystery!