So my sims can fish in the water, but whenever I ask them to wade, collect water, or look for frogs they complain about not being able to reach it. I've tried having different heights to make it easier to reach and I can't seem to get it to work. There's a fishing spot on the map that I can collet water at just fine, just not the pond on my lot... This is my second save file and it worked just fine before, so I'm a little confused. Does anyone have any tips?

"Kita5399;c-17945367" wrote:Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well. My Sim hasn't been able to fish with bait, look for frogs or wade in my pond on my lot. I did not use MOO, but I do have loads of stuff in the pond, so I think that's probably the problem. I thought it was my terrain manipulation - I can't get the edges all nice and smooth.

"invisiblgirl;c-17945477" wrote:"Kita5399;c-17945367" wrote:Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well. My Sim hasn't been able to fish with bait, look for frogs or wade in my pond on my lot. I did not use MOO, but I do have loads of stuff in the pond, so I think that's probably the problem. I thought it was my terrain manipulation - I can't get the edges all nice and smooth.It’s probably all the decor, I just left a free area of water near one edge of the pond and it works fine now. The edges of mine are rough too, I’m not great with the terrain tools so I think you’re probably ok there too.

"Kita5399;c-17945367" wrote:Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well. There is one premade pond maxis made and it has ducks in it that you can't interact with.

I can't fish with bait on my pond either, it offers a screen with Choose Your Best Bait' but all the choices are greyed out so if I can't choose I can't fish with bait. I can fish without bait no worries, meaning the decor in the pond has nothing to do with the fishing, I doubt the sim/script even knows it's there as its only effects.

"zap608;c-17946249" wrote:I can't fish with bait on my pond either, it offers a screen with Choose Your Best Bait' but all the choices are greyed out so if I can't choose I can't fish with bait. I can fish without bait no worries, meaning the decor in the pond has nothing to do with the fishing, I doubt the sim/script even knows it's there as its only effects.I had to remove the ducks in my pond to be able to fish in it. To be fair I was trying to use a really really small pond. I also had to move the fishing sign around (ended up close to the middle) before fishing would work. As @catloverplayer said, it seems even a premade pond has this issue. There are other reports of issues with the ducks, so they may just be glitchy or something. On the two lots I’ve built with ponds only one seemed to have a problem.

Need help with Ponds, can't interact!

18 Replies

Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well.
invisiblgirl
4 years ago
"Kita5399;c-17945367" wrote:
Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well.

My Sim hasn't been able to fish with bait, look for frogs or wade in my pond on my lot. I did not use MOO, but I do have loads of stuff in the pond, so I think that's probably the problem. I thought it was my terrain manipulation - I can't get the edges all nice and smooth.
Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
"invisiblgirl;c-17945477" wrote:
"Kita5399;c-17945367" wrote:
Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well.

My Sim hasn't been able to fish with bait, look for frogs or wade in my pond on my lot. I did not use MOO, but I do have loads of stuff in the pond, so I think that's probably the problem. I thought it was my terrain manipulation - I can't get the edges all nice and smooth.

It’s probably all the decor, I just left a free area of water near one edge of the pond and it works fine now. The edges of mine are rough too, I’m not great with the terrain tools so I think you’re probably ok there too.
catloverplayer
Legend
4 years ago
"Kita5399;c-17945367" wrote:
Do you have a lot of decorations on the pond (ducks, bugs, plants)? I haven’t tried to collect water, but my toddler and child can wade & play in the water fine. I did notice issues when I used a bunch of decor with the MOO cheat though, however that prevented them from fishing as well.

There is one premade pond maxis made and it has ducks in it that you can't interact with.
FreeasabirdS4S
New Vanguard
4 years ago
I can't fish with bait on my pond either, it offers a screen with Choose Your Best Bait' but all the choices are greyed out so if I can't choose I can't fish with bait. I can fish without bait no worries, meaning the decor in the pond has nothing to do with the fishing, I doubt the sim/script even knows it's there as its only effects.
Kita5399
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
"zap608;c-17946249" wrote:
I can't fish with bait on my pond either, it offers a screen with Choose Your Best Bait' but all the choices are greyed out so if I can't choose I can't fish with bait. I can fish without bait no worries, meaning the decor in the pond has nothing to do with the fishing, I doubt the sim/script even knows it's there as its only effects.

I had to remove the ducks in my pond to be able to fish in it. To be fair I was trying to use a really really small pond. I also had to move the fishing sign around (ended up close to the middle) before fishing would work. As @catloverplayer said, it seems even a premade pond has this issue. There are other reports of issues with the ducks, so they may just be glitchy or something. On the two lots I’ve built with ponds only one seemed to have a problem.
AncientMuse2
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
"zap608;c-17946249" wrote:
I can't fish with bait on my pond either, it offers a screen with Choose Your Best Bait' but all the choices are greyed out so if I can't choose I can't fish with bait. I can fish without bait no worries, meaning the decor in the pond has nothing to do with the fishing, I doubt the sim/script even knows it's there as its only effects.

I have no problem fishing in my ponds with bait. Are you sure your sim has some things in their inventory that can be used for bait? If there's nothing to use as bait in their inventory (veggies/herbs, minnows, other fish, etc) then they can't fish with bait (the option will be greyed out).
AncientMuse2
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
"Kita5399;c-17946266" wrote:
"zap608;c-17946249" wrote:
I can't fish with bait on my pond either, it offers a screen with Choose Your Best Bait' but all the choices are greyed out so if I can't choose I can't fish with bait. I can fish without bait no worries, meaning the decor in the pond has nothing to do with the fishing, I doubt the sim/script even knows it's there as its only effects.

I had to remove the ducks in my pond to be able to fish in it. To be fair I was trying to use a really really small pond. I also had to move the fishing sign around (ended up close to the middle) before fishing would work. As @catloverplayer said, it seems even a premade pond has this issue. There are other reports of issues with the ducks, so they may just be glitchy or something. On the two lots I’ve built with ponds only one seemed to have a problem.

It seems to me that if people overdo the MOO cheat with ponds (too much foliage, ducks, and other vfx) then they will naturally end up with routing problems.... just like using the MOO cheat anywhere else in the game. Moderation is the key and spacing things out to make sure your sims can route around various parts of the pond to fish, look for frogs, or wade/splash around, etc.

And from playing around with the new fishing sign, I find that it needs to be placed in a deeper part of the pond rather than around the shallow edges. For whatever reason, the sign needs a certain amount of water surrounding it (grid spaces) in order for the game to process it properly for sims to use.

Sure putting a whole bunch of stuff on and around our ponds looks pretty and all, but it will inevitably cause routing issues if you want to actually use the pond. Just like with over-cluttering houses and cramming things into small spaces or piling things on top of each other, ponds are no different.
SilentK008
Seasoned Ace
4 years ago
I briefly had a problem with access to a pond. In my case I had to make sure to lower the ground. I thought that my sims were close enough but that was not the case. Prefer to have different parts of my lots at various heights so sometimes I have to fiddle about a bit.
invisiblgirl
4 years ago
Try clicking on the log, by the way, if you've got one. (It won't fix the bait or access problem. Just a cute little surprise.)