Patch 536839

Love Beds Now Give the Comfort They Advertise

Several love beds were giving far less Comfort than their catalog ratings suggested while also filling Energy much too quickly.

That combination meant Sims woke up almost immediately, before the Comfort bar had much time to move.

The affected beds now use the proper Comfort and Energy rates. Sims will sleep for a normal amount of time and wake up with the expected Comfort gain.

This fix applies to:

Sims still wake up at the same Energy level as before — the sleep simply takes the proper amount of time instead of being cut short.

Pane In The Glass Stove No Longer Gives Free Cooking Skill

The Pane In The Glass Stove was accidentally giving Sims Cooking skill every time they prepared a meal.

The object was converted from The Sims 1 and had retained an old behavior where cooking itself could award Cooking skill.

That behavior has now been removed.

The stove still cooks normally with the same food, speed, and fire risk, but it no longer awards skill points or displays a skill-progress balloon.

Any Cooking skill already earned from the stove is unchanged.

Resident NPCs No Longer Pace Forever When They Can’t Find Food

A resident NPC on a lot without a usable food source could become stuck wandering around instead of sleeping, even while exhausted.

Resident NPCs normally try to eat before going to bed. If no fridge or other reachable food source existed, that rule could prevent them from sleeping indefinitely.

NPCs now check whether food is actually available before refusing to sleep. If there is no usable food source on the lot, they’ll go to bed instead of pacing endlessly.

NPCs with genuinely nothing to do will also stand around normally with the occasional stroll instead of choosing a new destination every few seconds.

Lots with a working kitchen are unchanged — residents will still eat before sleeping when food is available.

Eyedropper: Better Floor and Roof Targeting

The Eyedropper Tool has received another targeting improvement.

Hovering over a floor could sometimes select wallpaper or another surface farther away instead of the floor directly under your cursor.

The tool now compares the distance to everything under the cursor and selects the closest valid target.

This also means floors on lower levels can now be picked properly through openings such as:

Floors also block the Eyedropper’s line of sight now.

If a lot uses floor tiles as a roof, clicking that roof will no longer accidentally select furniture or other objects underneath it.

Beer Kegs Are Solid Objects Now

The TDS beer kegs, including both the two-keg and five-keg versions, previously had no collision.

They could be placed inside counters, tables, crates, other kegs, or even directly on top of a Sim.

The kegs now occupy their tile like normal furniture.

They can no longer overlap other objects or Sims, and Sims will walk around them instead of straight through them.

Kegs that are already overlapping something will remain where they are until moved. Once picked up, they’ll need to be placed in a valid location.

Gardeners Water Houseplants Again

Gardeners had stopped watering potted houseplants entirely, and the normal Water interaction had also disappeared from those plants for players.

Both problems came from the same interaction conflict.

Watering is now restored.

Outdoor flowers and flower beds were never affected.

Two smaller limitations remain: the gardener option may still appear on a plant that doesn’t currently need water, and crops don’t yet have their own Have Gardener Water interaction.

Servo No Longer Interrupts Busy Sims

Servo could decide to entertain the Sim having the least Fun on the lot — which often meant someone currently grinding away on a skill object.

His jokes, dances, chats, and other entertainment interactions could then interrupt whatever that Sim was doing.

Servo now avoids Sims who are already busy with activities such as skilling, painting, eating, or watching TV.

If Servo is already walking over when you start another activity, his interaction will wait in your queue instead of cancelling what you’re doing.

Tournament Treadmill Alignment Improved

The previous treadmill fix stopped Sims from sinking into the machine, but runners could still end up jogging along the edge of the belt.

Their height and position have now been corrected against the treadmill’s actual artwork.

Sims should now run in the center of the belt at the correct height, regardless of which direction the treadmill is facing.

Build Mode Floor Catalog Crash Fixed

Paging through the floor catalog could crash the game when Build Mode reached a page containing Yakko’s Glass Floor.

That floor had an empty preview graphic, and the catalog wasn’t prepared for a pattern with nothing available to draw.

The broken pattern has been hidden from the catalog.

Build Mode has also been hardened so a bad floor or wallpaper preview can no longer crash the entire game. If another broken preview ever appears, the catalog will simply show it as blank instead.

No other floor or wallpaper patterns were moved or reshuffled.

Gardener Billing Fixed

Gardeners were accidentally charging twice for a single visit.

You were being billed a flat §40 call-out fee when the gardener arrived and then the normal §10 per plant charge when the work was finished.

The duplicate §40 charge has been removed.

Gardeners now charge only for the plants they actually tend.

The Bills panel has also been cleaned up. Service charges that previously appeared under the mysterious name “*NPC Controller” will now show proper labels such as:

Existing bill entries are updated as well.

Maid billing is unchanged.

Servo Has Robot Hands Now

Servo was using standard human Sim hands because his robot body didn’t include a dedicated hand model.

He now uses proper metal robot hands instead.

Nothing about Servo’s behavior changes — he just looks considerably more like a robot now.