Toddlers and Apartments issues

[malteser60]

I've had a quick look through the LN section and didn't see this so my question is...

What are people's experience when it comes to raising children in an apartment.

My vampire sim's baby just aged up into a toddler and I'm finding it a bit of a nightmare with queuing up actions. For example the Potty train action just won't 'stick' in the queue. And if I want my sim to pick up her toddler they both end up going all the way down the lift and outside to do this. Now I realise it's possibly a space issue, but I've made sure that, for example, in the bedroom there is enough space to do this. And there is, as I've seen her pick up her kid in the bedroom. But most of the time, for some reason, the game insists on sending them downstairs.

Has anybody had frustrations with dealing with toddlers in apartments?

[Hosfac]

Not many, but shortly after the sims I have living in Bridgeport had their baby, they had enough money to move to a much larger apartment.  Likewise, I've been spending a lot of time on the tournament challenges and Immortal Dynasty challenge lately, so I haven't spent a great deal of time playing that family.

[Leto85]

It is a bit trouble maybe to drag around with furniture to get the new baby and toddler stuff all in that one small appartment, but eventually it is possible.
Although apartments are not really ment for big families. Three, maybe four if the last two are kids, but more is really not handy.

[malteser60]

Hmm, that's what I thought leto, so I made sure that there were 'pockets' of space available. So, if toddler and mum is in the bedroom it's not a problem so much, but if they are in the living room somehow both mum and toddler think it's easier to go all the way downstairs and outside the apartment. Even thought the bedroom is close, as well as the kitchen (which has space as I've seen her pick her up there), and in the foyer outside the apartment door. Also, actions won't stick when it comes to interacting with the toddler. I've kind of figured it out - I always play with free will on high, and it seems like everytime I click on the potty to train, the toddler would have already queued up an action. At which point the mum would stamp her feet saying something's in the way. So, I cancel the toddlers action, by which time mum's decided to do something else.

I was so frustrated the other night by all this that I had to stop playing. It seriously made me want to use the motherlode cheat so they could buy a big house. But then it would kind of ruin the story as I want the kid to be raised in an apartment in the middle of a city.

[Joh]

Hi Malteaser!

This may not be so much an apartment issue as a Bridgeport issue. I'm sure I've seen something about this elsewhere in the forum.

I haven't played an apartment in Bridgeport (I don't like them in real life, so I head for the hill with the houses). My first test game in a new expansion is often one of the ready-made ones, and for Bridgeport I played the Striker family, Richie, Stella, and toddler Sebastian. I actually got hooked on that family, rebuilt their house and poured a lot of time into it.

Right from the start I noticed that when interacting with the toddler the parents would start to walk toward him, then abruptly pull a U turn.  After a stroll around the yard, they'd either do something else, or walk back to him.  By then the toddler would be doing something else, parents stomp feet, and drop the action. I had to put the game in pause, cancel all of their actions, start it again until the kid pulled himself away from the toy, pause again, and line up their actions again. It took forever to do anything that way.

I also developed disappearing butler issues. Then they got the bug where they got stuck in bed, and I was constantly resetting them, and by that I mean every ten minutes or so in real time. I did every fix I saw here for all of it, and none of it solved the problems. So I stopped playing them, and tried another game in Bridgeport, without a child, to avoid the frustration. Their butler kept taking off too, and a firefighter got stuck in their house (finally got rid of her), then they started to get stuck in bed too. 

So I quit playing Bridgeport. I'm hoping for a patch someday that will make it playable for me.  I've fled the city for sweet rural Riverview, as I'd never really played it much, and I can't handle the pressures of Bridgeport city life.

[Pam]

I've had this same issue with toddlers in apartments.  I think there's just something glitched in the programming that's making the parent take the toddler downstairs.  It really makes no sense to me.

About the queuing of interactions with toddlers...  sometimes it's a little tricky.  For one thing, the toddler and parent both have to be on the same level for the potty train interaction to work.  If the toddler is upstairs and the parent is downstairs with the potty, it won't work.  You'd need to bring the toddler downstairs so that everything and everyone is on the same level of the house/apartment.  Also, if you've put a toddler to a task (such as playing xylophone), the parent cannot interact with the toddler until you cancel the task.  It will just cancel itself out.  If the toddler is doing the task on his own, it's no problem.

I hope this helps. 

[malteser60]

That's what I thougth Pam, but I seem to have more problems with it in the apartment. For example, in another world, in a nice big house I'll click on the potty to train. The parent will then go to the child (normally on the same level), and will do the patiently wait until the toddler stops doing whatever they were doing - i.e. until I select the toddler and cancel their action. Following that the potty training will commence. However with the apartment the parent won't patiently wait. Also I did it so that I sent both toddler and parent into the bathroom with the potty in it. Then clicked the potty to train and the action just gets dropped straight away. About 10 times in a row at one point. Or I'll send the toddler into the toilet and as soon as she gets there she does a u-turn back out to say, play on the peg box. As in no pause nothing, not even enough time for me to pause.

I am considering just ageing the toddler up with a birthday cake. I decided I would randomly choose traits using the dice option so I guess it's not that important to age her up well.

It's a pity as I wanted to experience the whole apartment life of a city, along with the whole being cramped business. Maybe I'll get them working on money so that they can buy a bigger appartment.

[Hosfac]

I've had this same issue with toddlers in apartments.  I think there's just something glitched in the programming that's making the parent take the toddler downstairs.  It really makes no sense to me.

This particular issue happens everywhere.  It's a common occurrence in my Dynasty house in Barnacle Bay.  I've even cued up an action to place the toddler on the floor before sending them to do something downstairs, but sometimes they will pick the kid back up and take it with them.

[Pam]

I'm playing a small family in Bridgeport at the moment and this toddler issue is just a mess.  It's not a tiny apartment, but it's apparently too small to do anything with the toddler.  The only area that's big enough is the parent's bedroom, but for some reason, Forest doesn't acknowledge it.  Both Forest and Buttermilk try to go down the elevator.  Of course, with Buttermilk being upstairs and unable to walk, she just sits at the top of the stairs while Forest continues.  When he gets to the street level, the action drops.  The best I could do was to send them both to the large bedroom, then give a command.  It was very annoying.  I wanted to do the thing with raising a family in the city, too, but it's just too difficult with all these space issues.  I ended up buying them a house on the other side of the bridge where they have plenty of room to do all the activities.

[malteser60]

I'm still having those issues. In my last gameplay in Bridgeport it took about 3 sim hours just to get the dad to put the toddler in the crib. They were in the bedroom where there was space and the action either dropped off the queue immediately or he would stamp his foot for lack of space. After 3 hours I changed the action to just pick up the toddler and no problems. Then I clicked on place in crib.

I'm sorely tempted to 'pinch' some apartment space from the NPCs apartment in edit town mode.

[Joria]

The issue of parents or care givers taking toddlers for a long walk to nowhere before they take them to the potty is not just a BP issue.  My dynasty family was constantly leaving their toddler at the gate of their huge compound, then drop the queue, walk away and leave her there crying and peeing herself instead of being potty trained.  Her nursery was a very large suite with it's own bathroom, mom and dad's bedroom attached and with another bathroom, all within a few steps away.  Yet they would frequently, though not always, come in to the toddler, pick her up and go outside after going through the entire house instead of just opening the bathroom door and going in.  It got very annoying.

[Redlaw]

I have always tended to use the apartments as a stepping stone to my house I build on the hill. So this type of stuff happens just not as often Though there are a few that I have friend swapped (befriended one of the people in the apartment then had them move in, in turn moving into there place then moving them out making the place mine). There are many that work well over all. Just getting into them can be a pain. The old house with the long stares down town is a good one (even has a parking spot). Main problem with it is that it has the two sets on longs stares in the front, but that is a miner thing.

But when I was doing that I was only playing epic games, so taking my time and planning for bigger spaces was a tiny bit easier.

Edit: Now I play long games, I still might have problems, but I tend to move to a place to build a house within the first gen (the lot out of the two with has a good view bonus) and stay there. Bridge port is not an easy city. But since I started there I have grown to adapt to how it works. Though I am glad I have stop having to deal with a full weeks play with babies and toddlers.

[originalsim]

The main issue I've noticed is platforms in apartments. I set up my twin's cribs on a pretty platform that extended about 4 squares out from the cribs, which I thought would be plenty of room. The tots treat the platforms like stairs and won't go over them and the parent gets frustrated and leaves. I had to take all the platforms out of the second floor to fix it and even then I've never been happier to blow out those candles when they aged up to kids.

[ejnarts1]

When the caretakers go to feed a toddler on the floor, they try to take it to wherever the arrival spot is for "coming home". In my multi-level homes, this causes the baby to go sit at the top of the steps to wait to be picked up, while the caretaker walks on down the stairs and then drops the task since the baby isn't in reach.

I'm really puzzled about this. It doesn't actually seem to matter where the baby is sitting on the upper floor, if I just tell the caretaker to "feed on floor", this confusion ensues. If I have them go pick up the baby, then say "put baby here" and "feed on floor" right there where they are, that seems to work better.

I thought it may have to do with there not being enough room in the area, much like playing the guitar; you need a lot of clear area for the Sim to start playing. But, I'm not certain this is the cause. I even have a routing mod that does help in most other situations.

Does anyone else notice their Sims hauling toddlers to the arrival point?
And why DOES EA give us an 'arrival point' in the lot to which every Sim goes before finishing the 'coming home' action?...seems like it should be the mailbox, not somewhere in the house. From what I've observed it appears to be just inside whatever is set as the official Front Door.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum!

This problem has already been discussed, so I'm merging yours with it.  I think you'll find some good information in it.