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the aggrevation that is Phone call spamming

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DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
i'm pretty sure someone mentioned this be4 but i can't find it and well...necroposting right? so i am gonna ask it here:

is there a mod or a way to reduce or end the flood of Phone calls even if you met just one random person?? because even though you can just reject them it is extremely annoying imo and they never freaking stop! every festival you'll Always get these, and also for every celebrity meet, talent show excetera…

it would be fine if there was one party somewhere once a week or two but every single day i get bombarded with parties going on or those stupid bar evenings which just cause your sim bin to be flooded with even more of those aggrevating random generated freaks (like the game already doesn't flood my worlds with creepy pearshaped elders stalking my YA females >.< ) and it drives me insane because i don't even like those since celebrities will ruin each party anyways once they start dancing... so what's even the point of nightclubs anymore imo? i have better thing to do than being forced to watch some celebrity i don't care about dance and turning each other sim into a braindead fan.

then there is the festival calls...really...every single festival they bother me with it. if they were interesting sure i would care but they are Always the same and apart from geek con (free 3k computer in the hacking contest? yes please :p easy free money ), spice festival ( great way to get the hidden food recepies and learn the two hidden traits) and flea market (you have a shot at missing collectibles and locked items there like the cocktail shaped lamp) festivals are utterly pointless and boring: fun festival?? yawn + i don't wanna die of hysteria tyvm! love festival?? no thanks i don't wanna be hit on by ugly random generated freaks who had a sip of the sakura.
festivals are way too frequent and if you have seen them once there is nothing new to it the next time and being stuck there for hours just to gain 50 satisfaction points if you complete the objective?? waste of the time and effort if you can just quickly complete a whim for 50 points :P

and don't even get me going on the celebrity greet and meet... i don't mind the celebs but it is usually a four star and those are extremely annoying with their begging for cheers spamming and if time drags on the game will spawn random townie celebs because of these as well! do i have to worship Genji the pearshaped freak and beg for his autograph?? over my cold dead corpse! i genuinely hate random townies so i'll die before i let my sims be fans of them! the talent show thing is also utterly useless since it doesn't even work properly and well... i can gain more celeb points just playing the guitar on the Streets without all the celebs there to keep the crowd too busy with their nonsense.

in other words: i am pretty sure i speak for many if i say those calls are annoying and the events are not even worth bothering with as they are atm.
and this endless flood of calls has driven me to the point where i actively try to avoid ai controlled sims at all cost! them visiting is also extremely pointless since they just sit behind the computer all day anyways untill they leave again -.- but that is another headache and at least locking the coms behind doors fixes that little problem :p but yeah… avoiding every single townie just to be rid of the Phone call spamming is kind of a game ruiner :(

Comments

  • KathykinsKathykins Posts: 1,881 Member
    I'd like to find a way to block the "I heard you became friends with so and so..." calls. That'd make my day. And of course the other annoying calls I have to cancel every day. Some of my sims are 4 and 5 star celebs. Why would I want to go to a Celeb meet & greet...? Don't need a special event for that, you meet them all over the place anyway? Same with talent shows. They are already stars, its not needed.

    Silencing the phone is good and all, but it blocks ALL calls. A more configurable way to screen the calls would be great.
  • DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
    edited August 2019
    Kathykins wrote: »
    Why would I want to go to a Celeb meet & greet...? Don't need a special event for that, you meet them all over the place anyway?

    exactly..plus all you'll meet at those are the same old ones: Judith Ward, Thorne Bailey and Brytani Cho (and in my games Bella Goth because i Always make her a 5 star since well.. she is a sims legend after all!) but once you had those the game will spawn even more random townies to be new meet & greet celebs! like i want my sims to be fans of some useless random generated trash sim! plus i dislike it that they flag your sims as fans, even if you are a 5 star celeb :/ like my celeb cares about Genji Ghomari's autograph XD and she deffo doesn't want to hug that old stalking freak! but boy does the game force those whims once you visit one of those celeb meets!!


    Kathykins wrote: »
    Same with talent shows. They are already stars, its not needed.

    even if your sims are not stars they are utterly useless and it is tons better to just play the guitar at a park or a lounge. at those talent shows everyone is too busy fawning over the celebs there to bother with your sim playing plus there is nothing to them anyways: no contests or anything just nothing at all except for a lot of celebs showing up to slow you down.

    it's like i said: the events are not worth it to even bother with but like with the festivals: you cannot remove these from the calendar and each and every time they are active you WILL get that call even if you couldn't care less for it!

  • MaggieMarleyMaggieMarley Posts: 5,299 Member
    edited August 2019
    Tell me about it. It is extremely aggravating, especially the “I heard you became friends with X” even when X is your sim’s toddler!
  • ChazzzyChazzzy Posts: 7,166 Member
    I put my Sims’s phone on silent, use MCCC to disable texts, and then downloaded another mod so that only certain Sims that I want to contact my Sim may do so. I can set it individually for each Sim my Sim knows.
  • DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
    edited August 2019
    Tell me about it. It is extremely aggravating, especially the “I heard you became friends with X” even when X is your sim’s toddler!

    mehh those are only if you befriend someone and could actually be useful if you wish for other sims to know the guy/gal sending that tekst. you'll gain a relations boost out of them as well and if you don't want the boost just ignore them. they can be obnoxious if you befriend lots of folks but it is the other calls which are the reason why i hardly ever bother with non-active sims anymore except for a few premades i love ofc so i hardly ever get those anymore XD the toddler one is weird i do agree but mehh don't mind her getting a big friendship boost with Zoe Patel <3 Zoe is cool in my book anyways so she can think my little toddler is cool :P

    they are a pain if you make lots of friends but compared to the festival invites or the daily dance party (2 a day is also quite common atm) they do not bother me as much. especially the festival ones are my biggest headache. the i heard you befriended calls will stop but those festival and dance party ones are endless >.< and all day long!

  • SharoniaSharonia Posts: 4,853 Member
    I actually like that my sims get calls to be invited out. Most of the time I always accept the invitation.

    What I really don't like is that calls happen at like 3am. "Like no Karen I don't want to go clubbing at 3am I'm sleeping". If we call them anytime after 10pm they get annoyed with us so why shouldn't we be the same way?

    I also don't like that ghosts can call but maybe that's a separate issue?
  • DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
    Sharonia wrote: »
    I actually like that my sims get calls to be invited out. Most of the time I always accept the invitation.

    What I really don't like is that calls happen at like 3am. "Like no Karen I don't want to go clubbing at 3am I'm sleeping". If we call them anytime after 10pm they get annoyed with us so why shouldn't we be the same way?

    I also don't like that ghosts can call but maybe that's a separate issue?

    i used to like the dance parties too (except for the late ones) untill Get Famous came… ever since the dancing celebs have ruined night clubs and thus now if you accept those invites and a celebs shows up to ruin the party! the DJ will usually keep getting dragged into the watch celebrity perform nightmare mechanic you'll end up getting a big relationship penalty because of this. the outdoor parties were already ruined since seasons because it almost Always rains whenever these are active causing the DJ table to break and thus no music party dead enjoy your relationship penaly -.- i do like that non-actives are more social towards your sims (unless they visit your home...then your computer gets all their attention!) but it doesn't work if EA keeps failing to synergize it when introducing new features like rain or forced watching celebrity dance garbage mechanics!

  • GalacticGalGalacticGal Posts: 28,284 Member
    I would really love it, if our Sims could receive useful phone calls. Such as a pregnant Sim being able to phone her spouse when in labor and the spouse is either at work, or somewhere else. I also find the endless nonsensical calls annoying, even in RL. Anonymous calls my house several times a day. When I do pick up, very often I get a resounding click in my ear of them hanging up. What is up with that? I really don't need it in my game, too.

    As far as ghosts calling while it's unusual it played in well when I was blogging about my Pinstar Legacy Challenge game. My Sim was psychic, along with his younger sister and it was inherited by his kid. Who was a cop. On the job. Investigating. When his decease Mom called to congratulate him on his new squeeze. Face/palm.
    You can download (free) all three volumes of my Night Whispers Star Trek Fanfiction here: http://galacticgal.deviantart.com/gallery/ You'll need to have a pdf reader. New websites: http://www.trekkiefanfiction.com/st-tos.php
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  • DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
    edited August 2019
    I would really love it, if our Sims could receive useful phone calls.

    exactly! i did like how non-active sims were more actively involved towards your actives (ts 3 sims weren't at all and you were Always forced to take the initiative for any social interactions to happen between friends) but as usual the execution is rather poorly done. it is shallow and limited and too random... why would a elderly father care for dance parties? he is a sophisticated guy who prefers a game of chess and a good meal over a dance party, yet Candy Behr, a friend of his daughters who met him through the i heard you became friends call, keeps calling him for dance parties :/ shouldn't she be calling his daughters who do like a good party?? (even tho celebrities ruin all of them nowadays…)

    as for the ghosts...yeah i find this weird as well...but i'd rather chill out with them than with those aggrevating stalking random townies who just cannot leave my sims alone.

  • SharoniaSharonia Posts: 4,853 Member
    Sharonia wrote: »
    I actually like that my sims get calls to be invited out. Most of the time I always accept the invitation.

    What I really don't like is that calls happen at like 3am. "Like no Karen I don't want to go clubbing at 3am I'm sleeping". If we call them anytime after 10pm they get annoyed with us so why shouldn't we be the same way?

    I also don't like that ghosts can call but maybe that's a separate issue?

    i used to like the dance parties too (except for the late ones) untill Get Famous came… ever since the dancing celebs have ruined night clubs and thus now if you accept those invites and a celebs shows up to ruin the party! the DJ will usually keep getting dragged into the watch celebrity perform nightmare mechanic you'll end up getting a big relationship penalty because of this. the outdoor parties were already ruined since seasons because it almost Always rains whenever these are active causing the DJ table to break and thus no music party dead enjoy your relationship penaly -.- i do like that non-actives are more social towards your sims (unless they visit your home...then your computer gets all their attention!) but it doesn't work if EA keeps failing to synergize it when introducing new features like rain or forced watching celebrity dance garbage mechanics!

    I think the celebrity thing was improved since the Island Living patch. My sims seem to be a lot less obsessed with celebrities in general and even the DJ's manage to keep doing their jobs now. It was really annoying me before the patch so much so that I had a mod to tone it down. I've deleted the mod now as it seems to be much better and the mod is no longer required.
  • DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
    Sharonia wrote: »
    I think the celebrity thing was improved since the Island Living patch. My sims seem to be a lot less obsessed with celebrities in general and even the DJ's manage to keep doing their jobs now. It was really annoying me before the patch so much so that I had a mod to tone it down. I've deleted the mod now as it seems to be much better and the mod is no longer required.

    hmm odd...whenever i go to a nightclub the DJ still gets distracted by dancing celebrities. same goes for other sims visiting tho i did notice sims paying a bit less attention towards 2 star celebs as in way less fan requesting all the time which i do applaud. but the dancing issue is just as bad as it was be4

  • HoveraelHoverael Posts: 1,230 Member
    I'm getting this very often, it isn't annoying or anything of the like, but it can be difficult to select between messages that are useful for those that aren't. You are hoping for a friend to come and hang out only for them to mention that they wish you congraulations on getting a job instead. While it reinforces confidence in having that job from others who notice, never the less it isn't constructive in any practical sense as it just clutters the phone ability.

    this is why i really hope to have hardline phones added in this game, and the ability to toggle off mobile phones in the household. I'd much prefer the simplicity of not relying so heavily on getting that glue on your thumbs and your eyes to stick them to the phone screen, checking for any little response to your social account every other moment.

    Something more constructive as an idea under the popular aspiration is having an aspiration towards social media, at least this way EA can be perverse about how much phone spam they can put into it on that one aspiration for that character and lessens the impact on every other, a win win.
  • logionlogion Posts: 4,712 Member
    Yes, there is. As Chazzzy said, use MCCC --> "Silence_Phone_Texts": "F", and put the phone on silent. I wish maxis could realize that silent on a phone, means silent.
  • KathykinsKathykins Posts: 1,881 Member
    Sharonia wrote: »
    I think the celebrity thing was improved since the Island Living patch. My sims seem to be a lot less obsessed with celebrities in general and even the DJ's manage to keep doing their jobs now. It was really annoying me before the patch so much so that I had a mod to tone it down. I've deleted the mod now as it seems to be much better and the mod is no longer required.

    hmm odd...whenever i go to a nightclub the DJ still gets distracted by dancing celebrities. same goes for other sims visiting tho i did notice sims paying a bit less attention towards 2 star celebs as in way less fan requesting all the time which i do applaud. but the dancing issue is just as bad as it was be4

    I'm using a mod that adds a lot trait to any public venue (from LittleMsSam, she has loads of other mods I'm using as well). Then you click on any (I believe) door and you can choose to NOT allow celebrities, fans and paparazzi, along with a bunch of other options. You can still go there with your celebs of course, but unplayed celebs won't spawn. At least sims will only be obsessed with YOUR celeb then :D

    I'm also silencing my phone, and I'm not getting a single text or call through. Don't need invites to get out of the house, I'm fine with traveling when I want to.
  • SiliCloneSiliClone Posts: 2,585 Member
    There is a mod by coolsper over at the sims 4 asylum... Nukes most of the annoying phone calls.
  • iliekponieziliekponiez Posts: 454 Member
    edited August 2019
    We really need an option to just turn off phones. Let sims unplug for a while.
  • KatAnubisKatAnubis Posts: 3,241 Member
    What gets me are the phone calls that when you answer them (if you have Parenthood) turn out to be, not from the person they said they were, but from the school saying that one of the kids did something (with every answer that makes sense being negative for a part of the character trait that are hardest to recoup.) I tend to just X out of the calls without taking them (although it annoys me that they still make the game switch from "high speed" to "low speed.")
  • ldmarkoldmarko Posts: 5,487 Member
    KatAnubis wrote: »
    What gets me are the phone calls that when you answer them (if you have Parenthood) turn out to be, not from the person they said they were, but from the school saying that one of the kids did something (with every answer that makes sense being negative for a part of the character trait that are hardest to recoup.) I tend to just X out of the calls without taking them (although it annoys me that they still make the game switch from "high speed" to "low speed.")

    I really wish we could turn those off, I really don't give a plum about those character traits. The only reason I even keep Parenthood is for the stuff.

    But what gets me is that if you decline invitations, they just keep calling for other things. No, I'm just going to change my mind about not wanting to go out if you keep calling me every 30 seconds. In real life people call that harassment.
    Gallery ID: LDM2
  • DanmanNefariusDanmanNefarius Posts: 947 Member
    also forgot to mention one other major pain in the neck: the reputation call spam once you hit the second tier of good OHH MY GOD!!!! it makes you want to misbehave just to prevent getting above good! sure you get a lv 5 job but it's not hard to get that anyways :p and the blind date call? just another attempt of the game to force those ugly pears though your throat! like i want a date with those hideous random townies... no thank you!!!!
  • annaliese39annaliese39 Posts: 2,797 Member
    edited August 2019
    also forgot to mention one other major pain in the neck: the reputation call spam once you hit the second tier of good OHH MY GOD!!!! it makes you want to misbehave just to prevent getting above good! sure you get a lv 5 job but it's not hard to get that anyways :p and the blind date call? just another attempt of the game to force those ugly pears though your throat! like i want a date with those hideous random townies... no thank you!!!!

    Haha, yes being popular can be both a blessing and a curse! My good vampire was recently offered a level 5 job as a style influencer, which is so ridiculous I had to laugh. My introverted, old-fashioned vampire hasn't got a clue about modern trends bless him. :D A bad reputation isn't much better for avoiding calls though. My evil vampire is often getting offers from other 'sims of ill repute', as well as angry messages from friends scandalised by his dastardly deeds (despite them often having bad reputations themselves! They know he's an evil vampire criminal boss, so honestly what do they expect? If you want to play with the big boys... >:))
  • NylaliaNylalia Posts: 64 Member
    My call spammers show up at the door two minutes after I ignore their call.
  • ElaineenicoleeElaineenicolee Posts: 95 Member
    In my experience silencing the phone never works. Granted I haven’t tried blocking texts in MCC. I’ll have to do that next time I play.

    But I agree with all the above. I wish they’d tweak the phone system massively.
  • puderosasimspuderosasims Posts: 522 Member
    do i have to worship Genji the pearshaped freak and beg for his autograph?? over my cold dead corpse! i genuinely hate random townies so i'll die before i let my sims be fans of them!
    Off topic, but your passionate hatred for townies never fails to make me laugh. :joy: I can't stand them as well.
    Origin ID: puderosasims | Simblr
    English isn't my first language, so please excuse any mistakes.
    tumblr_n8pqhqmpdh1th4xn0o1_400.gif
  • invisiblgirlinvisiblgirl Posts: 1,709 Member
    In my experience silencing the phone never works. Granted I haven’t tried blocking texts in MCC. I’ll have to do that next time I play.

    But I agree with all the above. I wish they’d tweak the phone system massively.

    Silencing the phone keeps the game from shifting to 'normal' time when a Sim gets a call or text - it's not intended to block calls.

    What I really want is the option to block texts and calls from a particular Sim - that would allow my Sims to get the calls from the school and death notifications, but I could block everyone else.
    I just want things to match. :'(
  • FanPhoriaFanPhoria Posts: 1,655 Member
    Complete agree. Like, I'd appreciate some calls and invites? But I'd rather it be a little more selective, so it feels more special, y'know? And DEFINITELY agree about the meet and greets with celebrities! If celebrities sightings were actually rare that'd be different, but as is? Um, no thanks! I also hate getting invites when my sims are on vacation?? Like, um, no, I just paid for this rental, thanks. I wish you only got calls and invites from the world you're vacationing in at the time.

    And, just a little particular annoyance of mine...I have a fair number of sims who work from home, so I get that notice an hour before work starts asking what that want to do and, well, more than once that notice has been INTERRUPTED by some random text or phone call invite! So then I have to go and manually choose to stay at home through the phone (which, I think sometimes I can't even do??) and if I do it too late then they automatically go to work! It's hard enough managing my bigger households and all their calls and responsibilities without that hiccup thrown in. I think, at the very least, there should be a black out on calls an hour before work starts, y'know? :-/
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