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Toddler Quandry - Can't Pick up Toddler on Second Floor

MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
Okay, so I've run into this problem before and I wonder if someone can help me. I'm not an incredible builder, but I always make sure that there are empty spaces on the second floor of a house. Despite this, if the toddlers room is on the 2nd floor of the house, no one can seem to actually pick up a toddler there. The adults go downstairs and the toddler walks/crawls to the top of the stairs and just stands there.

Can anyone let me know why this might be happening to me? I made sure that there wasn't roof clipping into the room but it's difficult as it doesn't show the roof, but still there is free space on the landing big enough for a sim to pick up a toddler.

At the moment I'm having to teleport the toddler to the lower level of the house just so they can be put into bed. My sims will feed and teach to talk on the second floor, but will not do anything that requires them to pick up the baby (teach to use the toilet or put in crib) without first going downstairs. How large a space do they need? Is there something else that might be on the second floor which is making this action impossible?

I'm resigned at this point to remodelling my sims house again just to ensure that parents and the babies/toddlers can always be on the first floor of a home.

For information: The house has a foundation. No one complains of any routing errors on the second floor. There is a 1 tile wide staircase. The toddlers room has only a crib, peg box, toilet, teddy bear and xylophone in it. The parents can take the toddler out of the crib and place them on the floor for feeding. Once picked up on the first floor, they have no problems putting the toddler down on the second floor on the toilet (which is immediately next to the wall where any roofing would be) without a routing error of any kind. I'm stumped.

Thank you!
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Comments

  • IreneSwiftIreneSwift Posts: 6,247 Member
    It happens all the time to me, too. It has nothing to do with the design of the house. What I do, instead of trying to give the parent an action that requires them to pick up the toddler is to first use "go here" to send the toddler to a place where there's plenty of room for them to be face to face, then send the parent to stand right in front of the toddler. Once they are facing each other, then I will give the parent the actual task of whatever they need to do for the toddler. Then, the parent will always pick up the toddler without either of them going anywhere else.
  • MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
    I think I might just have to move them all downstairs. I'll go insane having to move them around like that constantly as I'm just on toddler 1! At least if the toddler is downstairs, even if the parents are upstairs I won't have any issues giving one click commands. I'm not giving up my second floor though, I'll just have to remember that I can't have toddlers up there.
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  • candystormcandystorm Posts: 321 Member
    Happens to me all the time, so annoying! I thought it was a glitch.
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  • MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
    At least I know I'm not alone now!
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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    Besides not having enough space to maneuver upstairs, which is common enough, another cause of this problem is invisible objects called jigs left behind after certain things happen that can get in the way of sims' routing. Sims being reset in the middle of social interactions can cause these things, as can (for some unknown reason) teaching a toddler to walk.

    Sometimes you can see them as dark ovals if you go into Build/Buy with the Buydebug cheat on, but they don't always reveal themselves that way.

    NRaas MasterController can be used to flush out abandoned jigs in a couple of steps even if you cannot see them.

    Another way to get rid of them is to retreat to Edit Town, evict your entire household to the side of the screen, copy the uninhabited lot down to the bin, bulldoze the original, replace it with a copy, and move your household back in without having left the screen.

    Either way is worth a try, especially if your sims used to be able to pick up toddlers upstairs before and now can't with the floor plan not having changed in between.
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  • MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
    edited November 2015
    @igazor There aren't any socialjigtwoperson rugs on the floor and there isn't a space that they avoid (I've had problems with these before), they just won't pick up toddlers on the 2nd floor of a house for some reason. I think I just need to keep them on the lower level because they've never picked up a toddler from the 2nd floor. So, I don't know what the issue is but it's frustrating.

    Thanks though!
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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    There are other types of jigs that can get stuck, aren't ruglike, and only take up 1x1 floor tiles each. Sims can even seem to be able to walk right over them, unless you have a room full of the pesky things all adjacent to each other, but certain other tasks are not possible to perform with those in the way.

    Regardless, one thing you might try as a test is build a 2nd floor on some other lot where the upper story is wide open and essentially the size of a football field. Can sims pick up toddlers up there when given an absurd amount of space to work with?

    Or, of course, you can spend your time differently by playing forward and enjoying your game with toddlers' bedrooms on the ground floor. Wouldn't blame you either way. :)
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  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,908 Member
    Another thing I've discovered that can happen is having items on the floor below that invisibly poke through the floor above them.

    Things that do this that I know of are the Swift Gro Gardening Stations and the Group Science Project - it takes up 4 floors in total. These items have a flame that is only visible occasionally but it still takes up the space. I don't know what other objects do it. I found this issue when I couldn't move furniture around on a floor that I'd previously been able to do that.
  • MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
    Nothing oversized on the floor below. I'm going to have to check and see how different my two storey homes are from my daughters as I know that she doesn't have the problem, but I do. It's possible that despite having several available squares to move around in, it's still considered too small a space for this with anyone else present on the second floor. While I have learned to prefer my homes to be compact, I might experiment tonight and see if any 2nd floor remodelling makes it easier or if I would just be best to have all toddlers be on ground floor only!

    Thanks again to everyone for all the advice. Hopefully I'll figure out why this is happening.
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  • SincerboxSincerbox Posts: 2,279 Member
    Something to consider. I frequently play the Goths in Sunset Valley In their original house. Cornelia Goth has the Neat trait. Consequently, she automatically wash hands after using the toilet (like all sims do in TS4.) I observed a long time ago that if she uses the toilet in the master bathroom she will walk past the sink in that bathroom, go down the stairs and then use the sink in the downstairs bathroom to wash her hands. Very annoying if I have cued her to do several other things because the extra walking between floors drags out that initial interaction. Over time I have observed that sims will wash up dishes at the nearest available sink which is not always the kitchen sink. The point being that sims look for the nearest space to complete a task that has been cued. If that space is down the stairs that is where they will go. Sims look for the nearest spot and choose it regardless if their routing causes them to walk past several other spots equally appropriate. If that is the issue the solution is to make sure the sims are in a location that is nearest an appropriate location for the interaction so that they can choose it.
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  • HappySimmer3HappySimmer3 Posts: 6,699 Member
    edited November 2015
    igazor wrote: »
    Besides not having enough space to maneuver upstairs, which is common enough, another cause of this problem is invisible objects called jigs left behind after certain things happen that can get in the way of sims' routing. Sims being reset in the middle of social interactions can cause these things, as can (for some unknown reason) teaching a toddler to walk.

    Sometimes you can see them as dark ovals if you go into Build/Buy with the Buydebug cheat on, but they don't always reveal themselves that way.

    NRaas MasterController can be used to flush out abandoned jigs in a couple of steps even if you cannot see them.

    Another way to get rid of them is to retreat to Edit Town, evict your entire household to the side of the screen, copy the uninhabited lot down to the bin, bulldoze the original, replace it with a copy, and move your household back in without having left the screen.

    Either way is worth a try, especially if your sims used to be able to pick up toddlers upstairs before and now can't with the floor plan not having changed in between.

    This is very helpful info. I did not know that MC had such functionality; I need to look into this! I've had routing go all wonky before out of no where so now I am wondering if this is the issue.

    OP it is a matter of space because I've had houses where this happened all the time and other houses where it didn't. The common theme when it wasn't a problem was that the upstairs landing was quite spacious. Otherwise I do as @IreneSwift said and use the 'go here' command to send them inside one of the bedrooms where there is more space. But in order to avoid this problem a lot of times I just build the Master and the Nursery on the first level of the house and put the kids' bedrooms upstairs.

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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    On the ground of the lot in question, NRaas > MC > Object Stats > Non-Inventory, look for anything with the word "jigs" in the name, and select to Flush. Be very careful not to Flush anything really important, like your sims or the active plumbob as there is no undoing this action (except quitting without saving).

    (MC base mod and MC Cheats add-on module required)
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  • MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
    edited November 2015
    @igazor That's a really nice functionality. I used to have MC but I uninstalled it because I rarely used it. It's been a while since I've had a jig issue but when I did, I had to move my sims to delete the rugs as they couldn't use their stove or fridge. It would be nice to have a quick fix for that issue!

    @HappySimmer3 I'm just going to have to move them all downstairs, because the space upstairs is no smaller than the available space downstairs. I might experiment with it this weekend to see what's causing it but I'll probably just move the furniture around so the toddler and parents are on the first floor (as I do have two downstairs bedrooms).
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  • HappySimmer3HappySimmer3 Posts: 6,699 Member
    Thanks @Igazor. I'll check this out the next time but right before I quit the game, but after I've saved - that way I can exit without saving if something goes terribly wrong. :p
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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited November 2015
    Thanks @Igazor. I'll check this out the next time but right before I quit the game, but after I've saved - that way I can exit without saving if something goes terribly wrong. :p
    The same function is also really useful for zapping away used plates, glasses, etc that you know are on the lot somewhere but have somehow landed in a place you can't see or get to -- more than once I've let go of the mouse while moving such things around and they've landed in a snowbank or under the floor, places like that. :)
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  • TreyNutzTreyNutz Posts: 5,780 Member
    I've had a similar issue with a house recently. The second floor nursery worked great until I added a 3rd story to the house. That required a staircase on the 2nd floor which necessitated redesigning the nursery area. I thought I squeezed everything in ok, but sims were unable to pick up any toddler on the 2nd floor. I had to use TCE to teleport toddlers to the 1st floor to get a sim to pick them up.

    As I sat there mulling over this problem, I started to wonder how the game saw the 2nd floor. If I assumed every object's highlight was unavailable, and every tile required by an object but not highlighted (like tile in front of the dollhouse) was also unavailable, then suddenly it looked like there was no empty space large enough for a sim to pick up a toddler.

    I don't know how much open space is needed for a sim to pick up a toddler (2x1? 2x2? larger?). Given the layout of the house, it was easier to expand a corner room on the 1st floor to build a new nursery (I needed 4 cribs at the time). I made sure there was at least a 3x3 open area in that room just to be really safe. The room seemed to work fine and my sims didn't have much trouble. Other areas of the first floor were problematic though, and often the sim and toddler would route to an empty space in the kitchen when a sim needed to pick up a toddler. I ended up having the toddlers crawl or walk to the open area of the nursery every time they needed to be picked up which was usually only at bedtime and the cribs were right there, so it worked out well enough. They moved to a larger house a month or so later. I made sure the nursery had plenty of open space that couldn't be claimed by an other object.
  • IreneSwiftIreneSwift Posts: 6,247 Member
    igazor wrote: »
    Thanks @Igazor. I'll check this out the next time but right before I quit the game, but after I've saved - that way I can exit without saving if something goes terribly wrong. :p
    The same function is also really useful for zapping away used plates, glasses, etc that you know are on the lot somewhere but have somehow landed in a place you can't see or get to -- more than once I've let go of the mouse while moving such things around and they've landed in a snowbank or under the floor, places like that. :)

    I have also used MC to move serving plates of food to the household inventory that have disappeared when I tried to move them from the refrigerator to a countertop so my sim can serve the food, or when I've tried to move a homemade birthday cake from the place where the parent that baked it put it, to a place more appropriate for blowing out the candles. Then, I can go into buy mode and get them out of inventory and put them where they need to be.

  • KarritzKarritz Posts: 21,908 Member
    My houses usually have an entrance hallway. I tend to give my houses a similar layout for the living area so I don't have to think where various rooms might be while playing the game.

    Anyway there was a mystery tile in the middle of the hallway. It had a little round shadow on it.

    This really annoying little round shadow was there for a few real life months.

    Sims could walk over it ok but the tile was reserved for something and I couldn't put anything on it.

    I tried various resets in all possible ways. It stayed put no matter what I did.

    Then one day I decided it was going to go and I had along think and found I could delete the floor tile it was occupying. I found grass below it, and the grass had a little round shadow on it.

    I put the floor tile back and it worked fine. But it had a little round shadow on it.

    Then I decided to try Debug Enabler on it.

    Eventually, because nothing else did anything, I chose Debug Enabler move up.

    It was an apple that was slightly below the surface.

    I still couldn't delete it because it was in use but now it was floating in mid air.

    Next thing I did was Debug Enabler and Move to Family Inventory.

    It was then gone from the hallway.

    I do recall having to use a cheat SetImportedTerrainOffset to place that property and it is possible the lot had its level changed but objects on the lot may have stayed at the old level. I suppose there could be lots of other things buried slightly below floor level.

    If I come across any other mysterious floor tiles that have an invisible something occupying them, I'll delete the tile and look through the hole to see if there is anything down there. I've done that before and found lots of stuff sitting below the surface.

    If they are on ground level then it requires the use of terrain tools to lower the surface. It's a bit like mining - but if the stuff is down there that is the way I have found it before and freed up otherwise mysteriously occupied floor tiles.

    The thing is, if you don't know what's down there it's a bit hard to pick it from a list to delete the offending items.
  • dx1965dx1965 Posts: 335 Member
    My last house with my first toddler had ladders. It was fun watching them climb the ladders with the toddler. A couple times I had issues but nothing major and I had kid first on second floor then the top.
  • MiyuEmiMiyuEmi Posts: 2,404 Member
    Okay well, I did some experimenting and even in a smaller room with more items on the floor, sims were capable of picking up and child and placing them down in her bedroom if it was on the ground floor. I opened up a huge space (8x8) on the second floor which had been an open landing area so I know there weren't any items in it, yet the sims would not pick her up or feed her on the floor in this space. They were resorting to bringing her all the way downstairs and into the kitchen. I don't know what the issue is but I didn't notice any shadows, unusable space or otherwise in Buy De Bug, but despite now having a room smaller than her previous room, they can pick up and put down the toddler easily on the first floor. I think in future I'm just not going to have toddlers on the second floor!
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  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited November 2015
    (pours coffee) "So tell me, you guys have had this great house ever since you got married and it was built just for you. Why are you moving?"

    (reaches for a pastry) "Well yes, the house is great but every time we want to feed little Bobby or Susie or put them down on the floor, we have to bring them downstairs and it's wearing us out.
    =========================
    See, it happens all the time in real life too. Okay, I would give up at that point as well. Your plan is better. :p
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