Off-world loiterers

[Josepina]

This is mentioned in the simswiki article about hood corruption, in particular:

"Bin empty lots that have been lived in without getting rid of the off-world loiterers. [need note about how to remove off-world loiterers]" - http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Avoiding_Hood_Corruption

Who or what are they and how does one confidently get rid of them?

[Darby]

Pescado's batbox/lotdebugger has an option to "Nuke Offworld Loiterers". The option only appear if there actually are offworld loiterers.

[Josepina]

Thanks. I'd looked at lot debugger which says, "Indiscriminately removes all sims loitering invisibly off-lot. May cause undesired side effects if used at the wrong time."

Which implies the option appears when it shouldn't be used. Which is why I was asking: "Who or what are they and how does one confidently get rid of them?"

Also does this affect community lots or just residential?

[Darby]

Hm. I must confess, as many times as I've read the rtfm, I'd failed to notice that warning.

Found this at MATY: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,10207.0.html
Second post:
Quote
VIII. CLEAR OFFWORLD LOITERERS
Indiscriminately removes all sims loitering invisibly off-lot. May cause
undesired side effects if used at the wrong time.

Just make sure you don't use it when walkbys/npc's are scheduled to enter the lot.
Fourth post:
...don't use it while any kids are at school or sims are at work either. Make sure all your sims/pets are on the lot.

Offworld loiterers are sims who attempted to arrive at or leave a lot, but weren't quite successful and are kind of in an in-between limbo. The game detects them as being there, but they aren't visible. This can happen on any type of lot, but it causes the most difficulty on owned lots as business owners try unsuccessfully to clear everyone out so they can close.

[joandsarah77]

I would also think using it when a sim is on the phone wouldn't be a good idea either. But if you are getting ready to bin a lot, you would be checking for off world loiterers just before moving your sims out so they wouldn't be at school, work etc. Well they shouldn't be. I always make them stand out by the mail box or at least check they are doing nothing apart from sitting or talking to each other before going to hood view and moving them to the sim bin.

[Josepina]

Thanks that explains a lot. I suppose with downloaded lots I could make a new hood for shooing loiterers just in case. Now it's making me wonder about saving. Should you also nuke loiterers before saving? I sometimes (read often) save when a sim is away or a sim or service people is/are visiting or they are in the middle of doing something. When I reload everything is as it was barring I don't have any hacks that cause errors. Is this bad?

[Ghost sdoj]

Just don't put a formerly occupied lot into the lots bin without nuking the loiterers. Saving a game that you are coming back to play again should be fine. Since this isn't the Sims 3 open neighborhood, nuking offworld loiterers on one lot isn't going to affect the household you played last week and saved while the kids are at school. In my personal experience, it didn't really affect the rest of the family that was left behind on the home lot when a business owner had to nuke offworld visitors on a community lot so that he could go home. It was just that lot that was affected. The kids were still doing homework, the baby (toddler, actually) was still getting a bath from a random visitor, and the mom was still chatting with the burglar who had hit the place a while ago, because "you never call anymore."

[Darby]

I'm pretty paranoid about the state in which I save a lot before leaving to play another, or closing the game down. If it's just a save after a major event, I don't care what's going on or who's where, but if I'm leaving, I make sure all sims are home, guests are gone, no ghosts are haunting, no one is due to leave or arrive, and no one's doing much of anything. In fact, my normal routine is to leave save and leave the lot shortly after 6:00 am while everyone is sleeping or just getting up and making their beds.

I don't know if it's necessary to be this cautious, but it's one of my "better safe than sorry" things that certainly doesn't hurt anything. The practice has been validated with learning that leaving a lot while a sim is on the phone is a potentially bad thing, and I believe there are other things (can't think of examples at the moment, unfortunately) sims shouldn't be doing when a lot is closed.

I think part of the issue is that you don't want sims to be in the middle of certain activities during a game reset. Resets happen when a new EP or SP is installed, which is something many of us don't have to worry about due to already having the full game, but it can also happen with the addition of certain hacks.

Saving my lots at 6:00 am or so means if there's a reset, all I'm going to have to deal with is a couple beds with wonky-looking covers. Topped-off motives don't harm anything, because they're just getting up to start their day anyway. :)