Analyzing prints

[violeta8l8]

My sim is an investigator in level 6 (Gumshoe) and for the first time she has prints to analyze. According to the game, I have to go to the police department to complete the task, but when I click on the police station I only get "Join Law Enforcement Career" and "Do Low Level Police Work". I also tried clicking on the "Analyze Prints" button that pops up, and when the action tile comes up, my sim doesn't do anything and the tile simply disappears.
Heh, I guess there's something I don't know about this thing. Would someone care to help me?

[Metropolis Man]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

I have never delved into the private investigator career, so take what I say with a grain of salt. But, my guess is — like other opportunities — it's a time issue — you may be only allowed to analyze prints at certain hours of the day and you happen to be checking at the wrong times.

[malteser60]

It could also be a minor glitch, but from which EP is anybody's guess. For example, I finally created a vampire and sent her to a bar to hunt. She did the whole hunting thing, got the wish to drink from target, and the helpfull pop-up you get when you first hunt. However I could see no target on the map, no target sim in her relationship panel, etc. I spent most of the evening searching the internet trying to find how you hunt - as in what does the target on the map look like, etc. Finally I gave up, had her hunt again the next night and voila, all necessary info of target sim were where they should be.

So my guess is try again.

[Hosfac]

While dusting for prints can be a time sensitive action, you should be able to analyze prints any time of day or night.  While I've never had this exact issue, I have had issues similar.  So I'm not entirely sure they'll work, there's a couple things you could try:

It could be a simple routing issue.  Try going to the sidewalk in front of the police station and then selecting "Analyze Prints."

You could try resetSim.  Sometimes when a sim is acting goofy, this can fix it. 

Or perhaps the rabbit hole itself is bugged.  Try selecting "Do Low Level Police Work" and see what happens.  Your sim will either make his/her way to the police station, or the action icon will disappear like it does when you dust for prints.  If the latter happens, the police station itself is likely the problem.  Try deleting it via edit town, and placing a new copy of it in the same spot.  I've personally never had to do this, but I've heard tell of people having similar issues with rabbit hole buildings.  Either way, it might not be a bad idea to save before trying it.

If none of these fixes the problem, the case is probably bugged.  This has happened to me numerous times, and it seems to be a regular issue with the investigator profession.  So unless someone else has an idea, it would probably be best to just cancel the case and get another.

[TheGamerSim]

If you haven't, then you should go to the suspects house and there will be a surface with a magnify glass circling it and all you have to do is click it and select "Dust for Finger Prints" then you will be able to analyze them a the police station.

[Hosfac]

If you haven't, then you should go to the suspects house and there will be a surface with a magnify glass circling it and all you have to do is click it and select "Dust for Finger Prints" then you will be able to analyze them a the police station.

After reading this, I realized I misinterpreted what was said in the original post.

A lot of times, that icon doesn't really help.  As stated above, you need to go to the house to dust for prints.  If you zoom in from the town view, try clicking on the house to visit.  Sometimes, if it won't go directly there, it's because the sim who owns the house is out somewhere.

[TheGamerSim]

Oh then you could wait for the owner to come home or you could do it my, COMPLETELY with out a doubt LEGAL way, break into their house dust for finger prints and then before they get home stea... I'm mean take some stuff as "permanent evidence" and keep it at your Sim's home for "safe keeping" .