Strange Problem...

[Lady Aran]

I've been wondering if I should post this or not, but after having just played my game again, and seeing that the problem didn't correct itself like I'd hoped, I decided to post my question. Yesterday I was playing my game, and a college professor friend of one of my Simmies called him (don't ask me why he's friends with a Uni professor, lol). At the time, the gardener was over doing his job (and complaining). After the Uni professor "Prof. Ebony" and the Sim were finished talking, I directed the same male Sim to go outside and pull the weeds/trim the shrubs the gardener, for whatever reason, refused to manicure. Because it is now Winter in my game, the Sim changed into some Outerwear (Using a mod I found here that allows for more Outerwear clothing options) and then started pulling weeds/trimming shrubs. A short while later, I got this weird pop-up message from Prof. Ebony (I wrote it down, even). It said: "Prof. Ebony says, 'You invited me over to spend the night, but then you didn't let me get any sleep! I'm leaving!'" Now, prior to this, I had NEVER ONCE invited her over to my sims' house to spend the night! At any rate, now I can't get the damn pop-up to go away; it'll pop-up, I'll click "OK" then, sometimes not even a few seconds later, it'll pop-up again! Seriously, it's driving me insane! What's more, it only affects the sim's home lot; as a test, I sent him to a Community Lot and didn't get the stupid pop-up. I was thinking it could be the Outerwear mod, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[simsplyr]

I've been wondering if I should post this or not, but after having just played my game again, and seeing that the problem didn't correct itself like I'd hoped, I decided to post my question. Yesterday I was playing my game, and a college professor friend of one of my Simmies called him (don't ask me why he's friends with a Uni professor, lol). At the time, the gardener was over doing his job (and complaining). After the Uni professor "Prof. Ebony" and the Sim were finished talking, I directed the same male Sim to go outside and pull the weeds/trim the shrubs the gardener, for whatever reason, refused to manicure. Because it is now Winter in my game, the Sim changed into some Outerwear (Using a mod I found here that allows for more Outerwear clothing options) and then started pulling weeds/trimming shrubs. A short while later, I got this weird pop-up message from Prof. Ebony (I wrote it down, even). It said: "Prof. Ebony says, 'You invited me over to spend the night, but then you didn't let me get any sleep! I'm leaving!'" Now, prior to this, I had NEVER ONCE invited her over to my sims' house to spend the night! At any rate, now I can't get the damn pop-up to go away; it'll pop-up, I'll click "OK" then, sometimes not even a few seconds later, it'll pop-up again! Seriously, it's driving me insane! What's more, it only affects the sim's home lot; as a test, I sent him to a Community Lot and didn't get the stupid pop-up. I was thinking it could be the Outerwear mod, but any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hi Lady Aran,

This is not a definitive reply, but what I think happened.  I don't have the outerwear mod you have, but I do have all EPs and SPs.

I believe the gardener's actions were normal.  At least I've seen the same effect when one of my sims tried to help the gardener out.  If the gardener had other types of things to do, such as raking leaves, then they would move to that but didn't finish with the original task.  It probably has something to do with the way the tasks are queued up for the gardener, e.g., one "trim bushes" task.  If they can't do that task on even one bush, then they quit trying.  On the other hand, I have seen cases where the gardener couldn't physically get to a bush or shrub and proceeded to move on to another.  So a household sim helping out could be a special case.

The message from the Professor I've seen from other guest sims who were not invited to spend the night.  It's because their energy has dipped to desperation levels.  A difference is that when it has happened to me, the sim in desperation has then left immediately and the message was shown only that one time.  I believe one way to fix this could be to give the professor more energy and you could then spend more time with them or say goodbye.  There are objects and "cheats" for giving a guest energy.  Let me know if you wish to know of any. 

That the professor isn't leaving is of concern.  I don't imagine you have them in a room without doors or the exit is otherwise blocked to them?  Are you seeing any signs of frustration in the professor?  Thought bubbles of doors with a red 'X', stamping their feet, etc.?

Hopefully someone else will have a more definitive answer.

Thanks, simsplyr

[Engram]

If you are playing with debug mode turned on, turn it off before doing what I am about to suggest (just type boolprop testingcheatsenabled false into the cheat box). You will need Pescado's Lot Debugger, aka the bat box, for this. Have the sim buy the bat box, then click on it and select the option to clear off-world loiterers. Also clear on-world loiteres for good measure. I can't quite remember which menu it's under so click around the options until you find it. This should hopefully get rid of the pop-ups from the professor.

Sims staying behind as if they had been asked to sleep over is a bug that was introduced with either FT or AL, I can't remember which. Perhaps it's even older than that. It's just something that goes wrong with the saying goodbye action. I've had it happen quite a few times and these days I never have my sims say goodbye to visitors and instead let them leave on their own. Though of course you could not do that with a sim on the phone, but it's the same sort of thing.

[Lady Aran]

Thank you for the suggestions Engram and Simsplyr -- I can't tell you how thankful I am for the much-needed help  

Fortunately, I *think* I've managed to solve the problem, but more testing is needed. Basically, after removing a gardening mod I'd found here, I had the "affected" family move (let's call them Family A) into a friend's place (let's call them Family B), played the now combined households for a good while, then had Family A move back to the affected lot (which was now completely empty thanks to the move), then began re-furnishing the house. Once that was done, I started playing Family A again, on the same lot, and so far I've not encountered problems (Prof. Ebony Lynn is even back in Semin's phone book, which is a good sign).

I know it probably doesn't matter now, but I wish to address both of you individually

To Simsplyr: The weird thing was, even though I'd keep getting these strange messages from the Prof. like she was *actually* on the lot, she was no where to be found on the lot...like maybe she was invisible or something. Just for the heck of it, I checked the whole lot (to see if maybe she was hiding under a bed or something, LOL) and she was no where to be found. The only places I keep locked on the lot are the gates (to disallow pets/strays) and the master bedroom.

To Engram: I don't use the boolprop testingcheatsenabled true/false cheat much -- only when I want to impregnate a male and make him have a normal baby that looks like the father (and I don't really like adopting Sims via the phone), and when I want to rename a Sim. So, I'm not sure what debug mode is, though I have seen it in the pie menu. Honestly, I'm afraid to click on stuff I don't know anything about, out of fear I'll screw my game up, haha. 
Also, if you could give me a link to the Bat Box, I'd appreciate it. Even though my problem seems to be solved, I'd still like to have the handy box in case something like this does happen again.

Again, thank you both very much ^_^

[Engram]

Here it is!

[Lady Aran]

Aha, great! Thank you Engram!