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

[RainbowTigress]

Once, Erin Grunt (formerly Singles) was pregnant and died at her brother Loki's wedding party unbeknownst to me.  I entered her home lot to play it, and I noticed that she looked very strange, she was kind of whitish and transparent.  I had left her skiiling Creativity with Macrotastics, and she continued to do so, but no one could interact with her.  This continued for a long time, until I cleared her queue.  I then got the message that she had died on another lot and she would return there in spirit.  I didn't know where she had died at that point, so I searched everywhere to see where she might have died, LOL.  Then I remembered she was a guest at the wedding, and I found her urn right outside the bathroom in Loki's bedroom.  So I had Loki resurrect her.  Being a Mad Scientist, it just seemed fitting that he should do it.  Besides, he had more money than General Buzz.  She then went back to live with her husband and had the baby and everything was fine.

[aussieone]

I've seen that thread Sleepycat....

it didn't really give me the info I was after.....

it would be good if after you decimate the neighbourhood, that the pop up would tell you who has been decimated, insted of the 'guesswork' 

[Swiftgold]

So, what exactly does "decimate neighborhood" do, that we should not use it (other than kill a bunch of sims)?

And if we shouldn't use it, why is it included?

Because somebody begged and whined for it. That doesn't mean it's a good button to push.

Heh, well, if that's what it takes. I will use it anyway, though (after backing up, of course). If that assignable gravestone I used to have pre-NL still works with NL, all the better, then the decimated dead can have their tombstones too...

[Ancient Sim]

Heh, well, if that's what it takes. I will use it anyway, though (after backing up, of course). If that assignable gravestone I used to have pre-NL still works with NL, all the better, then the decimated dead can have their tombstones too...

The assignable gravestones don't work anymore, they mess up your game, at least they did to mine.  You don't need them anyway, there is a mod on this site to spawn fresh tombstones for any sims who have lost one or never had one (as long as they have character data).  You can get it here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2083.0

Later ...
I have now had a chance to check-out the option that kills off Sims.  I tried it out in my original Pleasantview and it got rid of 57 Sims, roughly the same amount I got rid of when I had my mass delete a while back.  Although I like the idea, in practice it wasn't as good as I'd hoped.  The main problem was that far too many NPC's were killed-off, which is a pointless exercise insofar as they will just regenerate.  I lost all 3 dorm cooks for a start, plus a Count, a Slob, a couple of DJ's, 4 Professors ... the majority of the Sims killed were NPC's.  The playable Sims lost were 10 male adults, 2 male elders, 2 female adults, 1 female elder, 3 teens, 1 YA and 2 toddlers.  Three downtownies went (1 elder, 1 teen, 1 child) and 1 townie (Goopy of all people).  I also lost a townie adult female who shouldn't have been there as it was the file of a previously deleted Sim that had somehow appeared back in SimPE.  There were also 8 already dead Sims killed again, although I did get a great deal of pleasure when I saw that Mary-Sue had died for a second time. 

I also noticed that the Sims were still classed as resident on their original lots when I went in, although they didn't show on the resident panel.  In one case, a carpool arrived and left again - it was 6pm so I assumed it would have been bringing the dead Sim home from work.  At the same time, he received a phone call.  I checked with Inge's bush and he was still shown as being part of the family, so I teleported him in and spawned his tombstone, at which point he moved into the Default household.  I didn't receive any messages saying the dead Sims had died on another lot until they'd had their tombstones spawned.  I also teleported in a dead Sim from another lot and he behaved like a normal visitor (very much so, he went straight to play on the swing).  This Sim had not had his tombstone spawned, so was still part of the household.

The main problem though is that none of the family members get a memory of the Sim's death, so they don't react to it, so for me at any rate it would be necessary to go through all the relevant Sims and add the memories.  I don't like cowplant deaths for the same reason, there's no memory of them.  Whether that's intentional or a Maxis mistake, I don't know, but I strongly suspect the latter.

Anyway, I would still like to see something else to get rid of Sims.  I'd like a sort of random illness effect where Sims can suddenly become ill and pop-off without warning.  Not only would this help cull the neighbourhood, it would also add some suspense to the game (something which is sorely lacking).  I'd like to see Sims sometimes die from fighting (it happens in real life) and I'd occasionally like to see accidents other than just electrocutions, such as Sims (esp. nannies) run over by the school bus or carpool.  I just want more 'Will it happen in this lot?" suspense stuff really, whether it be deaths or something else.  I'd also like to reverse the change in the NL patch that stopped deaths from occurring on community lots (I don't know why they did that). 

The main thing I noted was that JM Pescado was NOT killed-off. 

[syberspunk]

Thanks for that test run and all that info. Pretty interesting stuff!

The main problem though is that none of the family members get a memory of the Sim's death, so they don't react to it, so for me at any rate it would be necessary to go through all the relevant Sims and add the memories.  I don't like cowplant deaths for the same reason, there's no memory of them.  Whether that's intentional or a Maxis mistake, I don't know, but I strongly suspect the latter.

So... the nocorruptdeathmemorythingamabobhack doesn't fix this? Do death memories specifically mention what method a sim died of? I don't remember... and... cowplants don't create death memories for the living sims?!?! Not even the related ones? Wtf is up with that? You would think that a death should be some generic function that, no matter how or where a sim died, at least the immediate family would be telepathomagically notified. Sims seem to be telepathic for just about everything else, including who is using the private toilet up on the second floor parent's bedroom.

I realize that sims usually get the death memories if they witness them... but what about sims who died on other lots? Wouldn't the sims who are from the same household realize that their loved one died?!?!

For the cowplant deaths, is it that only the witnesses get memories of the death? Or no one at all gets death memories?

Anyway, I would still like to see something else to get rid of Sims.  I'd like a sort of random illness effect where Sims can suddenly become ill and pop-off without warning.  Not only would this help cull the neighbourhood, it would also add some suspense to the game (something which is sorely lacking).  I'd like to see Sims sometimes die from fighting (it happens in real life) and I'd occasionally like to see accidents other than just electrocutions, such as Sims (esp. nannies) run over by the school bus or carpool.  I just want more 'Will it happen in this lot?" suspense stuff really, whether it be deaths or something else.   

Ooooh... I'd love to see that as well. This would probably have to be added to thefightclub if you wanted to have random death by fighting. Perhaps it could depend on mood, motives, and or aspiration failure. I remember reading somewhere here about someone letting their sims run loose after getting caught in an affair. The spouses fought all the time, and the wife had low motives. After breaking out into a fight again, the wife died (presumably of hunger) and the hubby just laughed. It was probably the hunger that killed her, but still that was kind of amusing and surprising to hear about. Maybe if a sim has really low needs (energy, hunger, and/or comfort?) and in a really bad (red) mood or low aspiration/aspiration failure, there could be a random chance of death after the fight.

I'd also like to see a bit more randomness with death and what not. Not to be morbidly obssessed with death, but you're right, sims kind of live extremely long lives, and it's fairly easy to keep them going. I know this is more of a simulator and not a game that's really meant to be challenging for "hard-core gamers" or whatever, as someone pointed out, but still, it would be nice to be surprised now and then.

I'd also like to reverse the change in the NL patch that stopped deaths from occurring on community lots (I don't know why they did that). 

Pescado mentioned something about this in another thread, I forget where, but it's a bad idea for sims, at least playable ones, to die on comm lots. Something about, if a sim dies on a comm lot, and they are the only playable one, then there is no one to "return home" and you can't save on comm lots either. Something to that effect, I don't remember the exact words. But that I guess it makes sense to me. I don't remember ever having any deaths (at least not of my playable/selectable sims) on comm lots before. I might have seen a townie death once on a comm lot, but that was kind of rare and probabl due to some bugginess. I think he got stuck somehow, starved most of the time, and then got unstuck somehow and died of hunger.

The main thing I noted was that JM Pescado was NOT killed-off. 

Why does that not surprise me? lol. I bet the ol' bloody bastard is a resilient mofo, tough to kill in-game as in real life. Apparently, even death can't sneak up on him.

Ste

[C.S.]

Do death memories specifically mention what method a sim died of?

IIRC, they don't. I used to grab townies with the mind control mirror as they walked past, spawned the TOL&D and killed them off. Checked the memories of family members who were home at the time and witnessed the death, it only said '[insert name] had died'. The last victim was fugly npc Gordon King. I had wanted to see what colour the ghost of a sim who had starved to death would be, or if they are even visible when they come out around the 3rd day to haunt (in the base game on another pc, I had weird episodes of floating cutleries stabbing away at plates of food and invisible sims my playable ones were talking to in the hot tub, yet I don't see any tombstones/urns on the lot), so I summoned him onto the Broke's lot, killed him off and all Dustin remembered was Gordon King died .

I've had only 2 cowplant deaths, both intentional and only because I wanted to see how it works with the 'milk' and zombie thing. Frankly, it freaks me out. The plant with udders, I mean . Never did it again, and kinda glad I didn't because of all the reports surrounding the lack of death memories if sims kick the bucket this way .

[Dark Trepie]

Just grabbed what I assume is the newest version and noticed an option to "Wipe Mystery Sim Memories".  I absolutely love this.

[TaWanda]

Dear God, you have such a huge security gap in your system! 

Sorry for posting this here.  This is Doc Doofus (You know me from other forums, been around a long time.) 

I found this thread through Google, and was reading it, and wanted to add a comment, then noticed, just now, that it has me logged in as TaWanda!  Holy Moley!  I can only assume this is because I came in through this link:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=1ffdc38901d7d654cecdbec60e2f57c6;action=post;topic=72.0;num_replies=282

I can also read TaWanda's PM's (although I won't read them, being a polite person).  However they are available to me, which should be upsetting. 

JM, you might want to figure out what's going on and fix it.  I only post this here as a well-meant warning.  Not trying to cause trouble at all.  If I can do this, others can as well, and maybe with other accounts. 

I'll get my own login to post my comments.  (I think I may already have an account).

[Doc Doofus]

About Randomize Sim Generator, and getting stuck on one gender...

Somebody mentioned that, way above, and I have experienced the same thing, multiple times now.  I don't think it's just bad luck, but seems to be an honest loop in the random number generator.

Since, as I understand it, the FFS Lot Debugger doesn't replace the Sims' random number generator, but, rather, reseeds it, I tend to think the problem is in the game .exe file.  I speculate that Maxis probably made their own random number generator, rather than using the C Standard Lib one, and did a hokey job of it.  A poorly designed random number generator can go into a perpetual loop, and that's what seems to happen here.

I have had it where I just get boy, boy, boy...  ten, twelve, fourteen, twenty times, before I give up on it.  It's possible, I suppose, that reseeding the RNG may invite the loop condition.

I have observed, however, that exiting to the neighborhood and using the CAS screen to make a dummy temporary Sim will jog it out of this.

When the sex gets stuck like this, the faces generated for the babies (tested by growing them up) will still change.

....  Other issues...

I have had a problem several times now where a particular Sim becomes unable to exercise any of the gym equipment.  Mousing over the gym gives no clickable options.  I am not SURE...  But I think that the times that I have experienced this, it happened with recent invited move-in Sims.  Doing a Force Error on the Sim or the Gym doesn't help.  Other Sims can still use the gym, but one particular Sim can't.   Delete/Replace doesn't help.  A different type of exercise machine doesn't help, either.  (The TV, I think, can still be used to exercise.)   I have had it happen on a Downtown lot and on University Lots, twice.  The only fix that I have found is to move the Sim out and then move them back in from the Sim Bin.

This isn't a problem with the Lot Debugger, but I only mention this as another problem that it might be nice if the Lot Debugger could fix, in the future.

[Doc Doofus]

Somebody mentioned above a problem where student Sims get stuck doing College/Research with the bookcase.

I think I know how this happens, but I'm not sure because I didn't hear enough details.  If you are doing Research and you invite another Sim to do Research with your Sim, that Sim will come over and study... and study... and study... until you shoo them or something else intervenes, like maybe a mood failure.  They don't seem to be able to easily break out of Join Research on their own.  That's probably fixable with a hack.

The same thing can occur if you invite a Sim to join you at chess but you bail out before he gets to the board.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have had a problem several times now where a particular Sim becomes unable to exercise any of the gym equipment.  Mousing over the gym gives no clickable options.  I am not SURE...  But I think that the times that I have experienced this, it happened with recent invited move-in Sims.  Doing a Force Error on the Sim or the Gym doesn't help.  Other Sims can still use the gym, but one particular Sim can't.   Delete/Replace doesn't help.  A different type of exercise machine doesn't help, either.  (The TV, I think, can still be used to exercise.)   I have had it happen on a Downtown lot and on University Lots, twice.  The only fix that I have found is to move the Sim out and then move them back in from the Sim Bin.

This is actually a known condition. The problem is called "Stuck Selectableness". The Lot Debugger should include a fix for it, but if the option is not appearing, or the sim remains stuck, simply save, then delete them with move_objects, then save and exit to force them to respawn by the mailbox.

[flowerchile]

Dear God, you have such a huge security gap in your system! 

Sorry for posting this here.  This is Doc Doofus (You know me from other forums, been around a long time.) 

I found this thread through Google, and was reading it, and wanted to add a comment, then noticed, just now, that it has me logged in as TaWanda!  Holy Moley!  I can only assume this is because I came in through this link:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=1ffdc38901d7d654cecdbec60e2f57c6;action=post;topic=72.0;num_replies=282

I can also read TaWanda's PM's (although I won't read them, being a polite person).  However they are available to me, which should be upsetting. 

JM, you might want to figure out what's going on and fix it.  I only post this here as a well-meant warning.  Not trying to cause trouble at all.  If I can do this, others can as well, and maybe with other accounts. 

I'll get my own login to post my comments.  (I think I may already have an account).

In the famous words of Professor Julius Sumner Miller, "Why is this so".....

[csweet]

I have a big problem..I have 2 corrupted dorms...the sims after graduating cannot not move out! I tried to nuke them with the lot debugger...it doesnt help..I installed the new patch ...and it didnt help ..I  really dont know what to do..(I hope I dont have to reinstall my game.) Any suggestions?

[RainbowTigress]

I had this problem recently at the frat house I've been using.  I moved them all out and into another house.  Then I moved them out of that one and back into the one where they were.  I did a test, and he was able to call home and graduate.  So I reloaded the game and had the graduation party like I planned.  Since I used Inge's shrub to make objects stay at moveout, they didn't have to refurnish the house.  They just had to pay another $20 for a Greek charter, and it wasn't long before they were back at Level 6.  People say moving the sims to another house will solve the problem, but I didn't want to have to refurnish their house.  I had everything already set up like I wanted it.  Fortunately moving them out and back in seemed to fix whatever it was.  Moving them out to the bin and back didn't seem to work, I had to move them into an empty lot first.

[csweet]

I have done something like...used the teleporter to take them to another house and let them call home...but now that house is corrupted too because they cant move out from there! I am afraid the whole neighbor is going.! 

[RainbowTigress]

Well, I'm not sure exactly what the problem is, but by having them move out of the house and into a new one, I think it reset something.  Perhaps by teleporting them instead of using the move out function of the game, whatever it is didn't get reset properly.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I never seem to get that problem since NL, but maybe it's because I don't use Greek Houses and dorms much!

[RainbowTigress]

Somehow I don't think it has to do with being a Greek house or a dorm.  I have never had that problem before.  I'd only heard other people talk about it.  So I don't know what happened this time.  I wish I did.  I had been throwing a lot of graduation parties, and then all of a sudden, it quit working.  The party ended, it was a roof raiser, and he didn't grow up and graduate.  Calling to move home did nothing either.  The sorority house worked fine, so it was just this one lot.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Odd!  I mean, on the lot I've just been playing, Georgia went to the bathroom just before she was due to grow up, and Steve, her fiance, followed her in and sat on the loo, so she couldn't get out.  I thought, this is it, trouble!  But no, she started to grow up there, then teleported to the front of the house and the taxi came as it should and off she went!  No problems!  I have JM's moveoutbugfix installed, but none of TJ's exam or graduation mods.

And I can't see why the moveoutstaythingsshrub should be necessary in Uni.

[paranoidandroid]

De-lurking with a (possibly dumb) question.

The debugger is not showing up in my catalogue at all.  Nor do any of the other MATY hacks appear to work in my game (they're still trooping all over the house to put coffee cups down, for instance).  It's a fresh re-install, custom content is enabled, both EPs.  The only other hacks I'm using are a censor blur remover, a lighting mod, and one to change townies' names, and all of those work. I deleted the Pescado hacks and re-installed them.  Nothing.  Also, other custom objects aren't showing up -- only recolours seem to be working.

What's wrong?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Where exactly are they?  I have all mine in Downloads>Hacks>Pescado/TJ/Crammyboy etc. and they all work fine.

[JenW]

I have what appears to be the latest version of the debugger (Jan 26) and I am not seeing many of the shiny options people here are talking about What could be wrong?

[BlueSoup]

Some options only show up under debug mode (shift+click on lot debugger box) and some only show up if there's that problem on the lot.

[JenW]

Yeah, but I'm not seeing the "upgrade pre-Uni Sims" which is suppose to fix moved in mascots and the like, right, so they'll have the right number of slots and such? I have a house with two former mascots living in it now and neither have the right slots and the option isn't showing up.

[paranoidandroid]

Where exactly are they?  I have all mine in Downloads>Hacks>Pescado/TJ/Crammyboy etc. and they all work fine.

They're in Downloads\Hacks.  I even tried moving them up into the main Downloads folder, but it didn't help.