Fun with the moveObjects cheat

[Lynet]

This is a cautionary tale.

I have been using the moveObjects cheat rather more than usual lately because of Errol and Harcourt's adventures. There are some things a sim won't do. For instance, they won't walk through mirrors. Go figure. So I will set them up, turn on moveObjects, move them closer to the mirror, maybe even partly through it, take my pictures, and then carefully put everything back in place and turn off moveObjects.

At the moment I've got Errol and Harcourt on a boat surrounded by 'water,' and mermen and mermaids. I haven't been entirely satisfied with the fact that the sims, even those with fish tails, won't actually swim in the dirt, even though it looks very much like water.

Idea flash! Build swimming pool on the edge of the property and by means of moveObjects put a swimming sim in the water colored dirt.

Maybe JMP already knows the outcome to this bright idea.

I took no pictures because all you could see of my swimmers in the water colored dirt was their heads. Not good for pictures. I put them back in the pool and I turned moveObjects off. REALLY. Trouble is, they continued to behave as if they were in the pool. It was really very funny to watch. The two sims I'd been using for the experiment swam EVERYWHERE after that--through the ground, the building floors, all around the entire lot, no matter where I sent them. They'd jump out of the ground or the floor to climb stairs, but otherwise all you saw was their heads moving around.

Unfortunately, :o:( (and you'll find this impossible to believe, but it's true,) I did NOT get pictures. All I could do was laugh and worry that I had irretrievably corrupted my neighborhood. (Actually, I've already done that by doing something else really stupid but so far it hasn't yet interfered with the Errol and Harcourt household.) I exited without saving and that seems to have restored everything to normal again.

So even moveObjects, the cure-all, has risks. ;)

[ASHMEANS r a d]

bah that's great.
i haven't actually messed around with move objects in sims2 but my friend rachel and i would have our fair share of good times with move objects in sims1 :)

[Mirelly]

Oh life would be too darn hard without moveobjects. I usually play with it permanently on! Most essential uses include deleting the Llama mascot's book when he is doing college research so that he can be sent home and deleting the pesky newspaper that some sims seem determined to read when they get home from work instead of doing something useful (what ticks me off most about that is that they are heading for a chair to sit down and read but when you cancel their action they actually just stand there defiantly and take a quick look anyway! How DARE they! :mads:

[Lynet]

My misadventure with the swimming sims did not scare me away from the cheat. :p I can't continue with my story without it. I just have to think a little more carefully about saving a game which is something I usually do without thinking. And it's probably when you start using it to move sims around like chess pieces that gets you in trouble.

And, yeah, I've noticed that my sims will occasionally and defiantly ignore my commands for a few moments, despite the big red X in the box, particularly when they're reading books and newspapers.

[Kristalrose]

I never thought of it as ignoring! LOL I just thought of them as "stuck". But, I guess, in a way, ignoring is exactly what they're doing! LMAO

Mirelly, I usually play with it on as well, for the same exact reason you do. I've just read in some posts somewhere that it's not such a good thing to do, it can corupt the game. Not sure if this is true or not. I'm finally reaching my 3rd generation in my neighborhood, something I hadn't done yet in the previous two neighborhoods that exploded into FBVFS. ;)

[person123]

And they also always ignore our commands for them not to make the bed! You'd think they'd be more obedient, seeing as we give them everything they have--a house, a job, a family...a life. :rolleyes:

[suitemichelle]

I'm not sure that that's so very different from our relationship with our creator. I'm sure I've told Him any number of times.."I can't get there from here!" and generally thrown a hissy fit only to end up doing it His way.

[J. M. Pescado]

And, yeah, I've noticed that my sims will occasionally and defiantly ignore my commands for a few moments, despite the big red X in the box, particularly when they're reading books and newspapers.
The reason this happens is because most interactions are programmed with only a certain number of "exit points". A sim can't exit the interaction for any reason, not even dying, until he performs all of the necessary actions needed to get his animation to a completed state and empty out all of his the objects he picked up. So a sim who is dying will not be allowed to die until he has closed and put down his book. Nobody just dies face first into their book.

And they also always ignore our commands for them not to make the bed! You'd think they'd be more obedient, seeing as we give them everything they have--a house, a job, a family...a life. :rolleyes:
It sounds like you need "abortable bed making", so you can actually X it out and it will stop. 9/10 things you complain about probably have fixes.

[Sacharissa]

I'm not sure that that's so very different from our relationship with our creator. I'm sure I've told Him any number of times.."I can't get there from here!" and generally thrown a hissy fit only to end up doing it His way.

Man, isn't THAT the truth!

[person123]

It sounds like you need "abortable bed making", so you can actually X it out and it will stop. 9/10 things you complain about probably have fixes.

What can I say, I like to complain. :) For some reason, when I try to download hacks and/or mods, they don't work in the game. I click "Enable Custom Content," but they don't affect the game. At least, I think. I don't remember which one I tried to download, and I couldn't be bothered to look more into it.

[Lynet]

Nobody just dies face first into their book.Oh, rats! That's exactly how I'd planned to leave this veil of tears.

As to the programming behind sim behaviour, it's all a matter of degree, the difference between them and me. :p