The Violin and the Weenie Roast

[wfgodot]

Trying to get the Weenie Roast done for my Dynasty... but I can't figure out how to play a violin at the campfire.

I've tried placing it in the world, but they don't play at the campfire.  I've tried keeping it in their inventory - I've read you can click on the campfire and the option to play comes up - not for me, all that comes up is sing songs if you have a guitar.  I bought a guitar and tried that option, but it didn't give me credit for the violin thing.

Luckily it doesn't seem to be a necessity, as my Weenie Roast still achieved gold level without completing it.

Is it a bug?
Can anyone tell me how to do it? 

[Playalot]

Just checking that you weren't trying to use the child's sized violin with an adult....

[wfgodot]

It's the stringvarius violin, which says it can't be played by children.
I thought you had me there, that is the sort of thing I'd do, but nope.  Standard violin, as far as I can tell.

Here is a photo of Luke attempting to play it near the campfire.  Obviously that didn't give credit, but it was worth a try. 

[Playalot]

Hmmm weird. Obviously some sort of glitch. I'll fire up my game and give it a go and post back soon.

*edited: omg... I can't get the violin option to trigger lol. I'll have another go a little later today. I won't give up, just have rl things to do!

[wfgodot]

thanks for the help!  I'll be waiting to hear how it goes.  When I googled I'd found one other person with this problem.  They, too, still managed a gold rating without doing it.  Still, it is kind of stressful to be in the last moments and unable to do something.

[Playalot]

Wow... that is one very buggy party. I remember it being a little buggy ages ago but I've had to jump through hoops to make the party a success. I found that pausing the game long and often sorted most of the bugs where goals would not register despite the sims having completed them. At one point I paused for at least 35 seconds while I waited for the violin playing to register. It did and then all the sims got stuck around the fire, so I paused the game again this time for over a min and when I pressed play all the sims reset and ended up jumping to one side of the fire. Ugh!

I found the best way is to have as few guests as possible that are outside your own household, always a good strategy for parties anyway, and to have really long pauses after your sims complete a goal.  Not ideal.

To get the play a violin/guitar to register I clicked on the fire while the instrument was in the hosts inventory. He played until the queued action expired and then I hit pause. After I hit play, the goal registered. In some games the 'Play a violin/guitar' requirement came right back... such a pain all around really.

I also noticed that some goals such as 'tell a story' just didn't get the correct animations, instead all the guests just stood with their heads nodding and yet the goal completed anyway. (Although the sims didn't get the moodlet that they would normally have got for listening to a story.)

Don't know if this helps you really but it is certainly a lot of hard work getting this party to function semi-normally.

[wfgodot]

On that particular party I didn't encounter any bugs, though I've had goals not register in the past on different parties.  I've also had problems with my caterers not even doing anything. 

I wonder if maybe the violin just didn't register in the host's inventory then.  I tried it in two different sims' inventory, and then I tried just setting it nearby on the ground and clicking play.

Oh well, I'll give the weenie roast a shot again with generation 2.

[Playalot]

Caterers generally can be quite useless. I usually nominate one of the household do do the cooking. If the household member that is going to do the cooking has the 'Always Welcome' trait you shouldn't run into any problems. 

[wfgodot]

I usually have Luke do all the cooking for the parties, but... this one time.  You'll find out later   

Thanks for all your help, Playalot.