Gift giving party - not enough room?

Nivyx · November 2012

So I've just recently started building a new house and the house is only 80% filled up. the huge basement only has a laundry room, other than that, it's completely empty. the living room is big and has lots of space but I keep getting the message saying I don't have enough room for the gift pile

I even tried clearing up the garage because I saw someone's post saying their gift pile spawns in the garage. I do have lots of lights hanging from the ceiling and I'm wondering if I should clear those up too :shock: can't the gift pile spawns in the basement since the basement is completely empty, I'm sure it has plenty of room for it to spawn.

Sid1701D9 · November 2012

Doesn't the gift pile that spawns have to do with how many people you invite over for the party. Small houses you may want to only invite a few people.

Nivyx · November 2012

Sid1701D9 wrote:

Doesn't the gift pile that spawns have to do with how many people you invite over for the party. Small houses you may want to only invite a few people.

I've never thought of that :shock: I'll give it a try

roggek · November 2012

Certain ceiling lamps causes the game to think thst the floorspace is occupied. I had the same issue when my sims couldn't exercise due to a placement of a ceiling lamp...

Try to remove all ceiling lamps in the room where you intend to have your Gift giving party, use wall or floor lamps only...

Gabbryrose · November 2012

The gift giving party requires a clear 4x4 space to put gifts in, regardless of the number of people attending. However, ceiling lights, and the spaces in front of windows and doors count as "unavailable" space so it has be completely unobstructed. Basically any piece of furniture or decor whose footprint is larger than the object itself will obstruct it.

eliwood_sain · November 2012

See I have an blank area of at least 6x6 (if not more) in one of the rooms in my house, but it still says "not enough room".

Gabbryrose · November 2012

eliwood_sain wrote:

See I have an blank area of at least 6x6 (if not more) in one of the rooms in my house, but it still says "not enough room".

Are there any objects whose footprint overlaps that space even if the object is not physically in the same space? (Especially ceiling lights)

For example, the pool table is only about 3x3, but it's footprint is something like 6x6 because it needs the space around it to ensure sims have enough room to use it. The empty space between the pool table and the end of its footprint is still considered used space.

Also, make sure that you don't have any mods or CC installed that could interfere with it. And, with as many people as have had problems with this, it could also just be bugged and not your setup at all.

Nivyx · November 2012

I think this is plenty of room for the gift pile :? I even cleared out the ceiling lights in the area. I only invite 2 people over and tried it twice and still got the message saying not enough room. For what I can see, there are lots of room in the living room for both 4x4 and 6x6, and there is a 4x4 space in the kitchen too.
c4cekb4

keekee53 · November 2012

I think it is how you have the seating set up. Try setting up some couches away from the television area. The gift pile is usually placed near couches. The guests usually sit on the couches and talk while gifts are being opened.

I hope that helps.

Nivyx · November 2012

keekee53 wrote:

I think it is how you have the seating set up. Try setting up some couches away from the television area. The gift pile is usually placed near couches. The guests usually sit on the couches and talk while gifts are being opened.

I hope that helps.

aahh I'll try that now

Edit: It didn't work =/ I took off the coffee tables and expanded the seats so there's a 4x4 space for the gift pile, I even tried taking out the TV lol. Still get the message

Oh and I moved the ceiling light too

keekee53 · November 2012

AznChaos wrote:

keekee53 wrote:

I think it is how you have the seating set up. Try setting up some couches away from the television area. The gift pile is usually placed near couches. The guests usually sit on the couches and talk while gifts are being opened.

I hope that helps.

aahh I'll try that now
Edit: It didn't work =/ I took off the coffee tables and expanded the seats so there's a 4x4 space for the gift pile, I even tried taking out the TV lol. Still get the message
Oh and I moved the ceiling light too

and you moved the seating away from the windows? I believe the windows take up room too. Move everything to the middle of the room...that big open space by the piano should work.

Nivyx · November 2012

keekee53 wrote:

AznChaos wrote:

keekee53 wrote:

I think it is how you have the seating set up. Try setting up some couches away from the television area. The gift pile is usually placed near couches. The guests usually sit on the couches and talk while gifts are being opened.

I hope that helps.

aahh I'll try that now
Edit: It didn't work =/ I took off the coffee tables and expanded the seats so there's a 4x4 space for the gift pile, I even tried taking out the TV lol. Still get the message
Oh and I moved the ceiling light too

and you moved the seating away from the windows? I believe the windows take up room too. Move everything to the middle of the room...that big open space by the piano should work.

I even tried deleting those seats and place 2 normal sofas down and still didn't work

CimaraNyx1 · November 2012

Your house may be glitched...for some reason certain houses just won't let you throw a gift giving party no matter what you do. I finally had to move my family into a new house and it worked perfectly. Try your Christmas lights...if they're glitched too, you most likely need a new house.

You can read how I fixed the same issue here: you have to scroll down to about the 10th post and you'll see what I figured out.

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/610798.page

CimaraNyx1 · November 2012

Sid1701D9 wrote:

Doesn't the gift pile that spawns have to do with how many people you invite over for the party. Small houses you may want to only invite a few people.

Not really..those Sims just add to it when they get there. It needs a 4X4 space and mine always shows up in front of the front door.

Nivyx · November 2012

CimaraNyx1 wrote:

Your house may be glitched...for some reason certain houses just won't let you throw a gift giving party no matter what you do. I finally had to move my family into a new house and it worked perfectly. Try your Christmas lights...if they're glitched too, you most likely need a new house.

You can read how I fixed the same issue here: you have to scroll down to about the 10th post and you'll see what I figured out.

http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/610798.page

I can set up the xmas lights just fine, I tried switching to 2 different premade families and both can have gift giving parties with no problem. I think my house is glitched =/ hope EA would release a patch to fix it soon.

DilEMMAARRR · November 2012

I'm having the same problem, truth be told my house is a lot smaller than yours, but the same I made available is all valid enough for 4 x 4 at least!

Penelope · November 2012

I tried having a gift-giving party twice, and it didn't work either time. :? I was using a premade house in Sunset Valley. The first time, I'd only invited 1 person but the second time I invited 3. I guess I'll try it again with only 1 and totally clear out the room completely to see if that'll work. I'm glad I saw the post about the ceiling lights, because I now realize the house may have come with a ceiling light I wasn't aware of.

I didn't get any trick-or-treaters for Spooky Day, either, so my attempts at holidays in Seasons so far have been pretty much one big FAIL, and quite disappointing.

mljones88 · November 2012

AznChaos wrote:

I think this is plenty of room for the gift pile :? I even cleared out the ceiling lights in the area. I only invite 2 people over and tried it twice and still got the message saying not enough room. For what I can see, there are lots of room in the living room for both 4x4 and 6x6, and there is a 4x4 space in the kitchen too.

I know this is off topic, but what house is that? I love the set up.

lesley418 · November 2012

Try just pulling it from buydebug and put the cheat "moveobjects on" and see what that does. I can't think of anything else and this is usually how I solve routing or placement issues. mostly cuz I'm lazy!
I hope this helps? =(

julienrob2004 · November 2012

I tried it in 2 different houses

In the first i had an 8x8 empty space and could NOT have a gift party i keep getting the message not enough space .

In the second house the party worked fine it placed the mat on a 3x3 empty space . The mat itself is only 2x2

I have not managed to test again since but the only other possibility is that the room needs somewhere for every person to sit

The smaller house that had only the 3x3 space had eight seats in the room and everyone sat down 2 family members 5 guests , the bigger space only had 6 seats in the room and 4 family members and 6 guests

lesley418 · November 2012

Hmm...my house is really small. One sim sat on the floor while everyone else stood and watched. I hope this gets fixed soon for everyone!

leelujack · December 2012

I have been having trouble to but i fixed the issue, the presents pile spawns near the front door. I had a celebrity gate as the front door so i deleted it, clicked on my front door and made sure it was set as the front door. Then i made some room near the front door,threw a party PROBLEM SOLVED hope this helps other people

keekee53 · December 2012

leelujack wrote:

I have been having trouble to but i fixed the issue, the presents pile spawns near the front door. I had a celebrity gate as the front door so i deleted it, clicked on my front door and made sure it was set as the front door. Then i made some room near the front door,threw a party PROBLEM SOLVED hope this helps other people

I think you are correct. I think the system is looking at the room closest to the front door. I think her staircases are causing the issue. Maybe clear out the items in the back or set the door near the living room as the front door. The Gurus should let us know what the gift pile looks for so we can rearrange our houses accordingly.

lizbethbear · December 2012

or you can download shimrod's mod or the one at simlogical, shimrod's mod adds the gift pile to the buydebug catalog, and the one at simlogical adds the giftpile to the normal catalog. So that way if you throw a party and it stiffs you on the gift pile you can just go into buy mode and pull it out yourself. Or you can open presents without having to throw the party at all

KarinV · January 2013

I'm really fed up with this gift giving not working. I tried every little trick and nothing works. Loved the idea of Shimrods mod, but he moved his mods to God knows what side now and I can't find it. Has anyone any other idea to make this gift party work ? I'm pretty fed up with this ! :evil:

cygaoz · March 2013

So i found that with my Late Night expansion when ever i would put the front gate as the "Front Door" (seeing as my sims were celebrities)i would always get a message saying there wasnt enough room,,, i moved from house to house until i realized that whenever it would work, the gift pile always spawned near the front door. So that gave me an idea, the next time, i made a huge space near the front door then it worked and a gift pile appeared! i was so happy so maybe this is the problem with all of your games? Always remember to set the actual front door (not a gate) and have plenty of room around it. i mean it makes sense i wouldnt want people going onto the third floor, rec room (where there is alot of space) just to put a gift in the pile (just saying) Hope t

this helps

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Gift giving party - not enough room?

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