Ok, so my two little people are tired/exhausted. I've gotten them to both to go to bed. I exited the game and returned about an 30 min to 1 hr. later and see my people are up moving around, etc. I've done this at least twice yet their status is still the same (Tired or Exhausted). Anyone know why I cannot get my people to go to sleep & "recharge" their energy levels?

I don't see anything about this in the strategy guide nor do I see any posts about this.

Thanks in advance & good luck everyone!

Im having a similar problem Vicki. My two people have been tired for a while, so I have them go to bed. They wake up themselves when they aren't tired anymore and continuing doing whatever, but they still have a low energy level and are tired again within minutes...

I had the same problem with the guy.

I solved it by keeping the game open and putting him to sleep every time I would see him wonder around.

It took a while but it worked.

There is also an energy drink but I did not have it in the store.

I am also having that problem. Can't get them to stay asleep long enough for it to have any affect.

Keep putting them to bed. They'll eventually get there. And, read the emails from you peeps; it could contain tips.

maybe bed upgrades?

same problem here, but also mine won't sleep in the bed. They will only take a nap on the couch. Is this time thing a glitch because it looks like the days aren't advancing either.

Praise them when they go to sleep or take a nap and they will do it a little more often. Did this with my kid and had to start praising him for playing to keep him from sleeping all the time.

I think this is a major issue with this game...

The people sleep, and yet they wake up before they are 'happy' again, or else just wake up and do other things.

No-one wants to see their little person with status 'exhausted', but with nothing that will console them.

(with use of the praise glove) they choose to 'take a nap' and 'go to bed' now, but with no effect to them - they don't get less tired from doing either.

Even if there is an energy drink in the shop, I believe sleep should be better than that to keep them healthy!

If real humans take 8 hours to recharge, surely it should be an equivalent in this game.

is it night or day where you are elizabeths184? Last night my peeps were getting more and more tired, but after I shut down for the night and turned back on this morning, they were nearly fully rested. Their energy level has been steadily dropping all day, and my workaholic has hit exhausted twice today. Both times he took a nice long nap and woke up with significant increase in his energy (though not even close to the overnight full level)

Do your peeps play? Watch TV or listen to nature? My gal does that about half the time and her level has not dropped as much or as fast as his. I have to pick him up and make him do things other than work every so often or he forgets to look up and smell the coffee.

There are other things in the store that can help.

There are other things that will help your little guys sleep too.

Of course those things need to be in the store before you can buy them.

i suffer from the same problem to i put my person on the bed, leave the game on and about 5 minutes later he wakes up, exausted

Highlight below:

Ok I have been playing around with this and this is what I have noticed. My girl does not get as Tired as easy as my man. I have been making him go to bed over and over with hardly any change. Then I started alternating putting him to bed and taking a nap and now his energy bar is increasing faster! So try alternating between napping and going to bed.

When you shut down the computer were they sleeping?

Because when I turned the game on this morning they were all exhausted, the energy bar was at the minimum!

But when I turned the game off yesterday they were not sleeping, this could be the reason.

They were, but I shut it down today while they were sleeping and they were back up and moving but still tired. Perhaps they will only stay asleep overnight?

Thank you for the reply, anyway this is abit annoying.

I am spending my time trying to make them sleep, I can't put them to bed until they're tired, but then when they woke up they hardly went up for being happy, and I can't make them nap, they do that by themself, can you order them to nap? If yes how?
Putting them on the couch won't work.

To make mine nap, I dropped him on the couch several times until it said taking a nap. He is a major workaholic (gotta lay off the praise glove and candy ) so normally he says working on career wherever I put him.

I don't know where the rest of you are, but it's 10 pm my time right now, and both of my families just curled up and went to bed. I checked their food amounts, then closed the game down. I'm not going to mess with it until morning. Hopefully they'll get a good night's sleep.

Yep, my family went to sleep too. Apparently they're set to just sleep at night. Which is nice.

I think I saw LadyC say something about getting around that by setting it so it doesn't match the day/night timing of your area... I think. I'm not sure, and right now I'm not going to test it so they can just sleep without interruption.

The harder you work your peeps they more tired they seem to become. I'm alternating between work and play, between chores and napping, and they are doing alright.

I think that they sleep for about 5mins at a time. If their bars are down low enough, they will still be exhausted when they wake up. So my idea is to just not let them get into the exhausted zone before I'm ready to put them to bed.

Ok, I fixed that problem by praising them every time they went to bed or napped.

I closed the game this morning for a couple of hours and when I turned it on they all had the energy bar about 70-75% full.

I am not sure it is linked with night or day, and if it is you can solve the problem even during the day.

Just my experience ...

Seems like everyone has different ways to remedy the sleep issues. I still believe the rate of recovery should be higher. Even when they are not working hard, they are tired or exhausted. Sleeping over and over works, for about 10 minutes, then they are tired again. Probably the most frustrating part of the game thus far.

Yes, this part of the game actually has me wondering if I should just set it on pause and not play anymore at all, because I'm getting so fed up with it.

I put them to bed, they wake up after a few minutes no matter what I do (praising them when going to bed, etc etc). They don't go to bed on their own at all, even if they're only just not tired anymore (you know in 30 seconds they will be again), they won't go to bed when I put them there, whether it's night or day.

If I put them in bed (at night) and leave the game I come back some hours later and they're even more tired (they get out of bed at some point, or maybe only after a few seconds). If I don't put them in bed at night and leave the game, they're not in bed when I get back either and even more tired.

Often they'll be more tired somehow after some time of me forcing them to sleep than they were before.

I could spend some hours forcing them to sleep, but that would only put their energy bar at just one notch better than 'tired' and after a few minutes they'd be tired or exhausted again. I just don't feel like playing 1.5 hours forcing them to sleep, then 5 minutes of them being able to do something else without having it say 'exhausted'.

Haven't seen an energy drink in the store yet, and all the chamomile drinks did for me is drain their energy and then they sleep for a few minutes and don't regain even half of what they lost.

I also have encountered this but I have brought it back up a little by alternating between naps, sleeping in bed, doing relaxing things like reading, enjoying nature,working on hobby, watching tv,playing video games etc, and have even noticed that making them shower seems to help the energy a little, (works in real life when somone is tired or exhausted , so I figured I would try it) not sure if it was just a combination of things or not but I actually admire the fact this is in the game, it totally parallel's real life !

I have them doing all kinds of things, play and work, naps, everything, but now they're always just exhausted. I put them in bed, they just get out, they don't nap on their own anymore, they don't go to bed, and now all they ever want to do is watch TV. Nothing happens to significantly increase their energy bar, no matter what I do.

norah, do you praise them every time you put them in bed? I have three families going (I know I'm addicted) and the first family I spent a lot of time praising them for going to sleep, they would get up, do something, be tired again, I'd put them to bed and praise them. The other two do not sleep on their own, but I did not work with them as much. It takes a little while but I think the point of this game is you're supposed to train them in a way, like kids. You put a kid to bed and they want water, potty, toys etc... but eventually after you say good boy/girl most their childhoods, they sleep on they're own lol

Just my opinion, hope its helpful.

I've been praising them so much when I put them to bed that a few times they've ran away because I was nagging. I know I'm supposed to train them, and it has worked in the other areas, but it's not working with the bed thing.

norah, well then I'm outta ideas... sorry I couldn't be of more help.

That's ok, thanks for trying .

I didn't really expect there to be any sure-fire solutions to something like this yet so early after the game's release.

edit:

Meanwhile though, I'm getting a little worried: They've aged 4 years and have only been exhausted the whole time, not getting anything done, either work or play.

I gotta say, that's lame. I know it is frustrating as I have similar issues but there has to be better ways around the issue. Maybe the Guide will give hints.

Well, I was getting a little tired, then exhausted, myself, so my way around the issue was deleting the aggravating family with the sleep issues and starting over :P.

Now I'm hoping the new family won't have the same issue, and otherwise I'll just keep deleting and starting new families until I or others can find a way to solve this ^^.

jbart:

The game has only been out just over a day. Don't expect somebody to come up with immediate answers to your questions straight away. It takes time to find the best ways of playing. Much of the fun of the game is in trying out different solutions yourself, not running to the forums for an easy answer for every little perceived obstacle.

One of my families got a hammock from a friend (as an event) I put one on it to relax and that seems to help the energy level some. The hammock in the store is a bit expensive for just starting out, so if you don't get it as an event it can be troublesome. But I agree, praising them when "going to bed" seems to help them stay in bed a bit longer. I exited each family when they were sleeping (at night) last night and this moring all of them had recovered more than 50% energy. I also gave one lady an energy drink - wow did it boost her energy , but she also couldn't seem to stay at one task for very long either.

arnie, I came here for the same reason -- to see if anyone else could offer suggestions on how to get them to sleep long enough to actually raise their energy level to more than barely above exhaustion. I agree with Norah, it is extremely frustrating. I have praised them so many times that they are also telling me to "Stop nagging!" and running away from me too.

I think this may be something that the game developers should fix with an update. Either that or give us good advice on exactly what we need to do to make it so they are not always exhausted.

Well, I started the new family, and tried the tips and tricks in this thread again, and imagine my surprise:

My family goes to bed at night.... often on their own!
I vary their activities (as I did with my old family), and they do not get tired as fast as my old family!
When they are in bed, and I turn the game off for the night, and I come back in the morning and check, they are almost fully rested!

Now I suspect something weird was just going wrong with my old family.

Thanks for letting me know, Norah. I just bought the game earlier today so I'm really new to it. I have two families. My first one is the one that I cannot seem to get to stay asleep, although I just started my second family tonight. Really, I should be in bed, but I'm a Night Owl myself -- maybe that's the problem. I should just turn the game off and maybe they will be fine tomorrow. I hope so.

Where are the energy drinks?! I don't see them at all!!! And my female is at her weakest point!!! HELP!!!!!!!!!!

THE SAME EXACT THING HAPPENED TO ME!!! HELP PLEEAAASEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hi. I have one peep who just won't go to bed. She was exhausted and I just dropped her on the bed but she won't stay. I tried this, non-stop for about 10 minutes, (probably missed all the good collectibles!)but she just won't go to bed. The naps don't seem to do her any good at all. She dislikes red so maybe she just hates the sheets?!!!

Elisa725, sometimes when you look at what the Store has to offer you will see an Energy Drink listed in the section below the food, but they are not always offered. On top of that, I think they only work for one member of the family although since I haven't tried them yet I'm not sure. I have bought the vitamins though and as soon as I offered a vitamin to one family member they were gone. $7.00 to give vitamins to one family member? That seems a little steep to me, but maybe when I offered it to the one member all the members actually got one. I really can't tell.

Dansmot, you can also try dropping her on one of the couches or on that chair in the corner in the living room. They will nap on those too. Although one time I had to drop my guy on the couch about 5 times before he finally said, "Taking a nap." So if it doesn't work at first, just keep trying. That would be a real pain if your lady won't sleep on the bed because she doesn't like red. If she becomes too frustrating to work with, maybe think about deleting that family and trying again?

You know I had this problem last night with the exhausted and I only played for a few hours. Today I was thinking about this they are on our time, so for some of us when we get time to be with our families it's night for us and them too! So what I did tonight was change their time frame to reverse so I could have some day light hours with them. Every thing was good for my family. Just change it back so they are back on my time frame (night)as soon as I changed back they where exhausted. I'm going to close program for night. That way they will be on my time tomorrow where I can have some time to work with them.

I have a theory on the tired/exhausted issue...

My little people were tired/exhausted all the time. I couldn't even get them to complete a work cycle, then they would lie down for one minute and go brush their teeth or something, so they never- ever recovered from being tired/exhausted. Then my daddy told a story to lil dude and it changed his status from exhausted to "elated". And he was refreshed for a good little bit. My mommy seems to become "elated" after playing with the towel rack for some reason, but same result- - when they are elated they are not tired/exhausted and they can work for a good while longer.

Since trying out my theory, my people in three different games vary between happy and elated (with the occasional not feeling fresh). But this is the first time I've been able to play during daylight hours, so I'll see if it holds this evening.

Kalon, I have found the same thing... and it mimics life, IMO, just like the game is supposed to. In the beginning of adulthood, we may not eat as well as we should and we're running like chickens trying find that 'niche' in life, etc.

With a little more experience and more stability through money, people tend to be a bit more responsible and eat better. OK, maybe I'm reaching, but your theory is right as far as I can see, I have it working on 3 families and the one that doesn't eat well is tired and has low energy all the time.

Tis a shame people rushed to complain and make it such a big issue when it's a pretty easy fix that comes with a little more time in game playing.

Furthering the energy drink thing... of course it's not a longterm solution, it's a quick fix that wears off rather quickly, just like in real life.

Thanks for all the help. I changed the sheets on the bed (although the original sheets looked orange, not red, you just never know with these peeps!!)and she still won't go to bed. I keep giving her power naps!! Not that it helps much but it does stop her from being exhausted, she's just tired all the time. I'll try an energy drink when one shows up in the store!! She's just had a baby so I guess it's not surprising she's always tired!

SoulSmilen --

Thanks for the confirmation. If you've played Plant Tycoon or Fish Tycoon you can see that it's a recurring concept with LDW.

Indeed it is!

I've also found, that if I let them go watch tv or play a video game after a work cycle, they don't get tired as fast. Usually they go right back to work after a bit of a fun time.

One of the quicktips IS "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy", so that makes sense.

So, kalon and SoulSmilen, are the elated/happy families getting all 4 food groups or all organics? Kalon's theory was actually two different theories, so just wondering which one you're talking about.

Just like in other LDW games, better food means better health and better energy, soooo...

Not really a spoiler, but in case someone doesn't want to see it spelled out:

Ah, I see. And no, I didn't actually know that about LDW games. Cause the VV games don't include that concept. :P

Hmmm, you made me think! It's a matter of perspective, I guess. Mine not being the norm, maybe? haha Thanks for pointing that out, Special Princess.

I saw the food and food gathering improvements on VV the same way as I do this, it just wasn't grocery store food or the same things being better quality; it was a combination of all of it, and the further it got, the more healthy items were, IMO. Sorry if I lost ya on it!

Fish Tycoon is a more direct comparison, I guess I should use that one.

I'm so glad I'm not the only one having trouble with my little friends not sleeping. I swear...they sleep for about 5 minutes at a time and then wake up still exhausted. Even weirder, they wake up and get out of bed just to go right back to bed. Tell me how that makes sense. Why don't they just STAY in bed?

Elated? My male sim has barely slept, his energy is probably only 1/3 full, and he's ELATED?

Ok, I think I may have figured something out. It's 12:33 a.m. here and the father in the family just said "Calling children for bedtime". So apparently, our little friends don't go to bed until very late. Hope that helps.

I find 2 things work, 1st I don't let them find the remote, their is a lot of things they can do for fun with out the TV and they have less of a tendency to spend all there time watching it.
2nd when it starts getting late and they are all exhausted I send them to bed then don't load the families till its morning in the game. I was having a big problem with them being exhausted till I did this now they are all fine most of the day time.
I play more at night because I work during the day so I have day/night switched but when i load the families they are all happy and have at least 3/4th of a bar full of energy. Just make sure you stock the fridge well or they will get weak.

My family goes to bed fine, but they won't stay there. I have all 4 food groups and over 1800 units of food in the fridge. I exit the game when they are all in bed, at night, but they just keep getting up again.

Very frustrating,

Deb

Edit to add info: The family has been woken up TWICE by people or packages arriving at the door in the middle of the night. I really think there is a bug here somewhere.

Getting Annoyed,

Deb

I think if you put your people to bed and don't turn the game on again until you get up the next day, they sleep. I had trouble at first, but after I stopped checking the game 3 or 4 times after they went to bed, their energy levels were a lot better. I hope this helps.

Add me to the frustrated list. I get all 4 food groups, organic when i can and shut down for the night around midnight and don't open it again till usually mid-afternoon the next day and if they aren't exhausted already then they are within 10 minutes of game time. I can't make them do anything because they are all always exhausted. I can't buy 100% organic because just like in real life its not in the budget, and I have a disorder similar to chronic fatigue, have 3 kids plus 2 more 24 hours a day 4-5 days a week, don't eat organic and I still manage to not be exhausted 100% of the time. Its really frustrating that every time I want to play all my people are totally wiped out and I really can't do anything but watch them alternate between activities in the bathroom and napping.

I am frusterated with this game because it is boring-it does not move fast enough- The store should be stocked more often and there should be more puzzles to solve. Also when they are sick I purchase different cures and it seems that it is always the last cure that cures them. What does the fish tank do they dont even acknowledge that its there.

I am very disappointed in this game it is not very interactive you get bored easily you can not speed up the game like you could in VV. My 2 eldest kids just disappeared i have no idea where they went.

The game needs to include us more. Also we should be able to have more then one pet most families do. We were so excited about this game we thought it would be very different.

the are always exhausted yeah, and if you got six children you get bored with the game. I played the game with the trial and after that I was bored with it already.

The game contains to less. I thought it would be much more diffrent

Sorry for the delay in responding, SpecialPrincess

I was busier than expected this weekend.

It's really one theory in two stages. Work up to all 4 basic food groups, then work up to all 4 organic food groups. This appears to work if you are experiencing tired/exhausted during the day. As night approaches they'll become tired and then later tired/exhausted.

So, I've had to switch day to night this morning.

Have you tried doing different things to see what works? There are actually quite a few interactive opportunities that people are missing.

Try to see what the interactions are between the parents and kids, and experiment with where to drop people to see what all is in the game. It is way too soon to know all there is to know about the game, and new interactions are being discovered daily.

Relax and enjoy it for what it is - a casual game to occupy time.

I found that having their nap in the hammock made them sleep deeper

Well, don't buy and use the chamomile extract drink in the store. I finally got my lil guy to "elated" and energy up to halfway and then I bought the drink because it said it induces sleep. It didn't tell you that it drains all the energy from the lil person and it's "exhausted" now. Ugh.

I've posted already in this forum and I've just got done reading several posts from other people. I still like this game, but I do think that maybe the game developers should look into fixing a few things. One, make the store restock several times a day -- maybe up to 5 or 6 times a day as it's impossible to do some of the things in the game unless you can get what you need from the store and it simply does not restock frequently enough.

Then, they need to make it so the little people do not get tired as early in the day and so they would only hit the exhausted point when they've been up for 16 hours or so. They really shouldn't even be getting tired until they've been up for at least 10 to 12 and exhausted should only be after 16. Maybe have the kids get tired after only 8 and hit exhausted at around 12, but teens on up shouldn't get tired nearly as easily as they do.

I'm going to keep playing for a while to see if I can discover any other interactions, but in reality I really think this game needs some fixes.

I will review the energy level management, and likely tweak this for an upcoming update.

Thank you, Arthur. I imagine it must be difficult to try to make it so there's a good balance. I have actually tried to make sure that my little guys play and just relax often throughout the day. I have bought all organic foods to see if that helped and have also tried vitamins. I praised them when they are exercising, thinking that if they are physically fit they will have more energy.

But when I really would like to play (often the evenings) they are so tired or exhausted no matter what I do.

Also, in my first family their kids are grown and gone and I have yet to see the item needed to repair the hose; which, since I haven't done that, it prevents me from being able to repair other things as well. I really do feel that the store should restock more frequently -- at least some of the items in the store anyway.

I am likely to put in something to keep them a bit refreshed during the day. In testing, when we overdid this they would not sit still even for a moment at night. It IS a challenge to balance.

One thing to keep in mind, though: if you are like me and train at least one to be a work-a-holic, that one will be exhausted often. Frequent naps help. That's working as intended and is just like real life, isn't it...

Well, my favorite family is my very first family and, unfortunately, the husband just died and the mother's only dislike was "solitude" so I had to have the grown daughter move in because I couldn't manage to get the mother happy again.

But they were both workaholics somewhat. They are also the ones that I tried so hard to praise them for exercising -- no matter what type of exercising they were doing. I did notice that, over time, they seemed to balance out somewhat at least. I also learned that they seem to get more "quality" sleep if they can use the hammock, but if it's raining they can't of course.

I think I understand what you guys were trying to do when it comes to their energy level -- where if they work hard they tire more easily, if they eat properly they have more energy, etc. And too be honest with you, as frustrating as it is for me as a player, I can see that there must be a TON of variables to that coding and it must be really difficult to find the "perfect" balance.

To make sure you realize that I also see the "good" things that you guys have done with this game.

I love that when they find a collectible, whether new or not, you can move them as soon as they have picked it up and they don't lose it. Same with emptying the garbage.

I find it amazing and amusing that there are so many interations! Brushing hair and teeth. Flossing. Putting on deodorant. Washing and drying their hair. Doing laundry. Straightening the closet. Dusting the furniture. Cleaning the nightstand. Fixing the router and the computers. Cooking, eating, cleaning up after a meal and doing the dishes. Oh, and let's not forget turning the stove and television off.

Jumping on beds, writing on walls, rolling and playing in the dirt, poking the plants, playing board games, studying and doing homework.

The list just goes on and on -- I loved the VV games, but you guys "OUTDID" yourselves on this one! I thank you all!

I think you need to keep praising them when it says they are "going to bed". Maybe that'll make them go to bed when ever you turn off the game.

I can't get ANY of my peeps to go to bed! I am tired and I want to go to bed but I don't want to leave them up all nite! They are all "A little bit weak".

When you talk about shutting down for the nite are you talking about putting the game on pause or just quitting?

I feel like I have SOOO many questions!

I have tried it all..praising them when they go to bed, quitting the game after getting them to sleep at night...even the stuff to make them sleepy. But nothing seems to work. I finally started over and was doing fine until I quit for the night. I went back and found them exhausted, unable to stay in bed. I imagine that I will have to toss that family too. I loved the other games but am very disappointed in this one. I am sorry..its a great concept, but it makes the game unplayable for me. What was fun about the others is that I could leave it running in the background while I worked on other things and come back to see what happened. Now I have to constantly micromanage them to keep them rested. I hope the changes help.

I would but I can't get them there! hahaha

And when you turn off the game do you mean put it on pause?

When I turn off my game I just exit the program, I don't pause the game. Then I leave it alone for a MINIMUM of 6-8 hours. (i.e. I don't open it again to check what they are doing...I just leave it closed.) I always make sure that I leave plenty of food for them first. My people are always elated when I open the game (usually the next morning) and aren't exhausted until really late at night (real time)

Thanks.

Just checked them. I have 2 watching tv but its not on! lol! Guess they must be really tired!

I love the game as the sleeping issue does at least keep you on the hop and you have to manage your family - so requires more effort from the user than VV who didn't have the sleep/happy etc bars.

But where I'm finding it difficult, is when I decided to start a new Family (another game slot). I put everyone to bed, and then click to do the same for my new Family, but once I do that it triggers something in the game that gets them all out of bed. I've tested it a few times. I will switch back within a few seconds, and all the peeps that were "in bed" are out of bed exhausted. So if the update that is being worked on could possibly help in that regard, it would help. At this point I'm thinking of pausing my 2nd Family as I don't want my main Family to suffer from exhaustion.

My boyfriend works from 7am - 3pm and he says that when he goes to play the game when he gets home they're all exhausted. I told him to try to switch night and day but then he says it's almost night time when he gets home.
We're trying to work out solutions for this but so far nothing has really worked other than constant napping.
Then again he did mention something about being a "slave driver so the chick would get a promotion." I tried explaining him that working makes them tired more quickly...and then scolded him for treating a woman like that!

My solution to exhaustion is that I reverse day/night twice. I don't play during the day and keep my game on pause. When I get home from work I unpause the game and switch day/night. Around 11 pm I switch day/night back to normal so they can sleep overnight and get refreshed (which seems to happen between 2 am and 6 am somehow)but keep the game running. The next morning I pause the game again.

Out of curiosity, I've started a couple of test families to try and get the 'weak' messages, because I've never seen them in my main families. I don't mean to sound incredulous at the exhaustion issues, because I can understand the frustration some of you must have, but I still can't get these families to say 'weak' and I'm feeding them non-organic food, no vitamins.

Sounds like a silly question, but are some of you expecting them to eat on their own or do you initiate meals by dropping someone on the bar to 'prepare a meal' and follow through with making sure everyone sits down to a meal?

Another question.. I do have one family that doesn't get fed as regularly and they are tired more of the time, occasionally going to exhausted, but their activity level is still the same, never making the game unplayable as I've seen some of you say.

Where are the hunger levels of the weak people some of you are experiencing? That's the only thing I've done differently with the one family that seems to leave them tired more often, but I never let it get lower than 3/4 of the way. I might try one more family as a test and not initiate any meals, but that seems cruel.. lol

: dazed and confused :

My families eat on their own. They are usually well fed when I log on and the fridge is empty. Today, they were less exhausted but the bar was still half empty and I imagine very quickly they will get tired and be exhausted before this evening. I don't think this has anything to do with hunger.

Thanks LauraW.. it's crazy that it's not happening to all of us. I'd really like to know what the difference is.. oh well, I'm a puzzle person, so I'll just keep trying to duplicate it and figure it out.

VF forensics! LOL

SoulSmilen, I think there are two issues. One is degrees of weak & I think we've worked that out to be a lack of food - whether or not you feed them with a prepared meal, or just have a well stocked fridge. If your food levels are really low (like I did accidentally the first night of playing), it seems to make them weak.

Lack of rest - sleep, naps seems to cause the tired & exhausted.

At least that's what I've found. Since I've stocked up on food I've not had weak at all, but I still get tired, but a lot less with the 2nd gen family. Not sure if it's because I did reverse the day/night with the 1st gen and maybe they skipped a whole night of sleep!

I am still having issues with sleep with two families running. When I put them to sleep in one game slot, then switch to the other, they automatically get out of bed and wander around getting really tired. Again, not sure if this is because it's a new family 1st generation and it will work out in a day or two.

Bren, that makes sense on the food/weak thing, thanks for the confirmation. I wasn't sure if people were saying being weak was tied to being tired/exhausted or not.

I'm not trying to be difficult, I would just really like to know where the differences are for those that have issues and those that don't.

I do have one of the fathers in one family that gets exhausted sometimes, but like I said, it doesn't affect game play at all, and his health is still full tilt. All it takes is one nap session and he's back to work with no issues. I see this as being pretty much inline with real life.

Regarding putting a family to sleep only to have them get out of bed and wander around after switching to another slot... how does one know they do that? LOL Is there a spy camera in their house?

The key to giving your peeps enough rest is to let them sleep overnight without checking on them or bothering them. Most 'real' people sleep many consecutive hours a day. When you keep checking on your peeps, they think you want them to be awake so you can play with them. They'll try to get fitful bouts of resting in, but it won't be enough. Just turn the game off (without pausing) and let them get some rest. It should work wonders after a day or so of that.

but Lady, its SOOOOO hard to do that! at least for me! i just HAVE to make sure they have alot of food! and make sure i dont miss a collectible!

You can certainly do all those things, but understand that it will make your peeps tired (just like if your parents kept coming into your room all night long, turning on the light, and checking on you and your stuff).

lol i see ur point! maybe i will TRY and i did say try to let them sleep all night. it will be hard tho!!

Lady, while my little people appear to be getting a little more rest, they certainly do not sleep all night, even if I don't check in at all. The little bars do not fill all the way and after an hour or so, they are tired again. I don't check on them at night.

I wonder about the issue someone is having running two games and waking one family up while playing the other. I am going to try this but hope it isn't a huge problem.

I have done the same thing from the beginning and have had no problems with exhaustion until 9 to 10 PM. I am exhausted by then since I get up between 4-6 AM, as, I think do my peeps. My husband, who works a late swing shift stopped checking on his peeps in the middle of their night and has stopped having problems with them being over tired and exhausted. Each morning, their energy level is back near the top.

Ahhhh, that might be the difference all in itself. Lady, is simply not waking them up at night to check on them a good part of the reason some of us are not having these issues? Your comment about letting them sleep without interruption and it taking a couple days to see the benefits makes sense, too.

Along these lines...

- I've never paused the game
- I never switched from day to night or back (it runs normal time)
- I keep 2000 units of food in the fridge because I don't play from 10pm one night until 6'ish pm the next evening
- Even though I know they prepare meals when they're alone through the day, I still initiate it when I open it up, bringing the level to full green bar, even if it takes sitting someone down a 2nd time
- Once I shut it down around 10 when they go to sleep, I don't open it back up to check on them; they don't see my until the next evening and their energy levels are always over 3/4 of the way (except for the 1 test family)
- I did play late into the morning over the weekend, but again, once they were in bed, that was it.


It stands to reason that if they're being checked on after going to sleep at night, and then being put BACK to bed, praising them, only to wake them up again when checking to see if they're asleep, and praising again.. would cause a repetitive cycle of sleeplessness and confusion and that would cause the exhaustion...? In the process, it seems that it would untrain them to go to bed.

I'm going to try this with the test family who has no exhaustion issues and see if this causes some.

***Back to the drawing board***

Woops.. looks like I was posting while these two were being posted.

Now that I've read them, I'm glad to see you two are not having issues either; I was beginning to wonder if I was in la-la land.

I have the same problem that all of you are having, but the thing is that as time passes they get older. And is just a waste to struggle with this issue when they can be working on their careers and other things. The fun of the game is to see them progress the can achieve doing the things meant to be for the game. If for example, it takes them 8 human hours to recover their energy what's the point of playing, by the time they recover it they’ll be too old, and as they get older it gets harder for them to work already. So sleep problem is a glitch and should be address further. The whole point of the forum is to be able to give opinions that will make this game better furthermore and now that is being tested by us is the time to mention it. Other than that so far the game is good and entertaining

Keep up the good work LDW!!! and thanks for all your hard work and effort

I can't play the game at all because of the tired/exhaustion thing. No matter what time I try playing, even if they are relatively replenished, their sleep levels seem to sink so quickly. I have done EVERYTHING that I have read about here in the forums. Nothing seems to really help. I am at a complete loss...

Glad that helped a little SoulSmilen.

Regarding the switching game slot. When you put your peeps to bed and stay in the game, they will stay in bed for at least 10 - 15 minutes. I've put them all to bed, immediately changed game slot, then changed back (so probably a 30 second change), and the peeps are all up watching TV or doing something else. No-one is in bed. It's like when you make a stew in VV and change game slot & it immediately disappears.

But I've read the rest of the thread, and while I'm not having huge issues while I had the one Family, I'm going to try and not turn the game on when it's their 'night time' (day time) to see if improves the 2nd Family. I had them on reverse - so one I wanted to play during the day as day, and one I wanted to play at night as day, but I don't think it's going to work out??

But Lady, they don't get 8 hours of sleep; they get years of sleep in game time, like virtual sleeping beauties. I really don't want to leave and come back to find them years older. Much can happen in 4 (or 8?) years, kids can leave home, mother can pass child bearing age, they may get sick and perhaps die. I really want to witness how the family evolves, and I really feel that there should be a way for us to be able to do that rather than closing the game and so closing our eyes.

And there's another problem about it. I usually leave the game about 3 AM and come back next day afternoon. So no matter how I set the day/night, they'll still get half of their night's sleep. And it's quite impractical for me to adjust my life according to my virtual family

So, my little people are constantly taking naps (naps seems to replenish more energy) when they're tired. Their energy bar is usually half full, but it's the best solution I could find without leaving them alone all night.

Aye, there's a few things that might want to be looked at

The game plays in real time, so being able to pause (and fast forward :p) would help, along with a look at the energy composition.

Also, perhaps either an increase in wages (or how often they are paid?) and a lowered amount in the food. lol granted, food in rl is expensive, but cripes, lol you have to buy so much when you log back on. (plus if you have lower than 2000 they croak Oo and the organic costs an arm and a leg, specially the meat).

But aside from looking at those, another look at adding a fast forward:

If we could pause when we sleep (and some of us work, have kids, husbands, and other icky rl things ) and then fast forward so that we can enjoy the game more when we can play, I think it would help a lot.

And someone on *Shoutbox was just mentioning something I forgot about:

When women have birth, they become exhausted (which is understandable) but their health drop to half lol. (quoted from Marian Frae).

And yes, I work mine too much maybe >.> But they don't make much money, and most of my income is seeming to come from selling the collectibles. But I can't seem to have them going off and playing if they can't afford to keep the food 'in line' lol. Thanks to a tip from someone else on finding out what's making them sick as I'd fill them with meds and they'd be like 'nope' lol, so that's saving me some money.

I absolutely love this game I am hoping that all those points are being looked at ^^ And nice to meet you guys ^_^

edit: and yes, going to try some of the tips you all wrote, but still think some of the issues could stand to be looked at :p

This whole thing is very frustrating for me because I DON'T want a fix.. lol It will change the whole dynamics of the way I play the game and I don't see how it will be better in my particular case. Don't try to fix what isn't broke! C'este la vie, eh?

LDW, if you're going to do other fixes, can you do one that doesn't have this one but has the rest? Eh, I know you can't do that, but it's going to suck that I won't have the rest of the updates. I will go cry now.

I agree I don't want a fix if it means the game forces sleep on the peeps and makes the energy bar easy. As it is, it makes it a more challenging game, and I know that with the right workaround, you can get your family well rested.

The only thing I'd like fixed, if it's possible, is the sudden change in peeps when you change to another game slot.

I love this game just as it is (with the exception of what I just said & maybe slow time so they age slower).

Bren, I think I love you!! LOL
I wish more of the same opinion would chime in.

:going to recruit people:

I made sure that last night I put them to bed then exited the game and did not reopen it again. I have so far done the same thing tonight and, as I'm tired myself tonight, I'm sure that will be the case. This morning when I opened the game, they were only about 3/4 full of energy and this evening after dinner was cleaned up and I sat down and opened the game back up (it was about 8:00 - 8:15) some of them were exhausted and some were tired but became exhaused very quickly. I'm happy that there are people who don't seem to have any problems, but for me at least, this issue is definitely making the game less enjoyable. I did pause the game one time -- the very first night I had it, which was last Saturday night because I didn't know how much food they needed to get through the night and I was going to be busy on Sunday morning. I have not paused it even once since then though. I'm only saying this because it sounds like some people feel that pausing the game causes problems.

Maybe I should completely uninstall it using Add/Remove programs and then re-download it and start again? I have already tried wiping out 3 of my 4 families and starting with new ones, but it hasn't helped. Does anyone know if pausing it that first night may have caused a permanent sleep issue?

I don't think it's any one thing, and I can understand that pausing it gets more years out of their lives, so I can see that point of view, for sure.

I doubt that uninstalling will help, and would highly doubt something could permanently effect the outcome from one action, especially in a game where the characters are trainable. I learned a lot tonight in the shout box and another place how different folks are playing, and because of all the dynamics and versatility in how we do things, there is no "One size fits all" answer. What makes it work for one might be the exact thing that makes it NOT work for someone else.

I just hope they find a happy medium and take into consideration that there are people who ARE happy with it the way it is and will most likely never post because of that. There are people that tend to post only when there are issues, so that's what is represented here.

I said it in another post of mine and I'll say it again.. there's no way LDW can make all of us happy, so it makes sense that a fix will be done for the majority, and that's ok. It's how life works!

That dern mileage and the way it varies... hehe

I don't think uninstalling would make any difference. I found my 1st gen family were always tired, but my 2nd gen family have been a breeze to get rested.

The new family I started, they seem to be doing ok as the first gen - so maybe it's just like we are, individual peeps have lower energy, or maybe you work them longer than we do. Or their job may make them more tired. I think just like real life, some peeps are going to have a more tiring day than others. It does keep the game fresh & exciting.

I wouldn't keep deleting families. I would try to get one gen through, and you may find as I did, the 2nd gen are a little easier to handle.

And no problems agreeing SoulSmilen. I do love this game as it is apart from a couple of little issues. I don't want to see it become so easy to maintain it takes the involvement out of it. It's one thing I do love about it. It's harder than the VV series, or at least I think it is.

Posing a question here... for those of you complaining about the exhaustion and stuff(which I have some issues... but nothing I'd want to be fixed. It's just... they make me think of me when it comes to sleeping *glances at clock and winces*)- are you dragging them straight back to bed when they wake up? Because then it's NO WONDER they're not getting any better. There are some things in this game(like collecting and taking out garbage) that can be interrupted but still be counted as done... and others that have to be played till status changes(like pulling a weed... and guess what? "Going to bed" and "Taking a nap").



EDIT: O_o" Holy [censored]... THAT shouldn't happen. My woman just went to bed "Tired" and woke up "Exhausted".

SoulSmilen and Bren, thanks for the advice. I still have the daughter from my very first family (well, her and her husband and kids) but familes 2, 3 and 4 were wiped out and restarted. I will just keep trying to figure things out. Here it is 12:35 in the morning where I live and I'm still up (just about to go to bed though) but I closed my game around 10:20 tonight and haven't reopened it since. Hopefully after a few nights like that they will start having more energy. It's just that I was disappointed that when I tried to play around 8:00 to 8:30 this evening they were either really tired or already exhausted, but I kept at it anyway until almost 10:30. Now, as I said, I won't open the game before tomorrow morning and hopefully they will have more energy tomorrow.

Marian Frae, when my peeps voluntarily nap during the day, I leave them alone until I see they are up again on their own. I will play another family member instead. I have even put some of them into the hammock throughout the day and purposely left them alone until I noticed they were back up on their own, so I have been trying to let them sleep and just playing the family members that have more energy.

I have also been stopping my "workaholics" and trying to make them watch t.v., read, dance, etc. to force them to relax more. Maybe everyone that says they don't want it changed is right -- it's just a more challenging game in that we have to learn to work with them as individuals. I just wish that I actually had more time to play them when they weren't tired. It's too bad that I couldn't make their morning start when I was ready to start playing, but that would probably mean changing my computer's clock which I really don't want to do. I know that with all the VV games, I never once changed the clock, I just played it the hard way.

I can certainly relate to having to play the game when it suits the Family, not you, but that's why I reversed time as I play only at night. I just check in during the day as I'm busy then. Would that work better for you Simsane? Their day is your night time?

And re the energy bar. I never get a full energy bar. It gets just over half or at best 3/4 full. Are you trying for a full energy bar like you can do with the others?

bren, thanks for responding to my comment. Well, I got laid off last August and after a few months, basically gave up trying to find work. So, as I no longer have to get up at a set time in the morning (hubby is still working, fortunately) my hours are somewhat turned around, although I still try to be up by no later than 10:00. Which means that I usually try to make sure I'm actually in bed by 2:00 or so.

I just wish that I could make their daytime start at around 2:00 in the afternoon (after I've done some household chores, grocery shopping, etc.) and have time to play for a while before I have to start dinner. But since their hours coincide with our real life hours, I'm afraid that if I switch day to night that their morning would be more like around 10:00 at night. sigh...just am not sure what to do. Oh well, I still like the game, I just have to figure out how to be able to play it while they can actually do something. It's now 1:50 a.m. where I live and I've been good -- I still haven't opened the game since I exited it at around 10:20 tonight. Now I'm really tired so I'm going to head to bed too, but if I could change anything in the game, it would be that I could pick the time for their morning.

I find that as soon as the sun starts to set here, their morning starts, so that would mean around 5.30/6pm. I doubt it would be 10pm, so if you could play their 'day' from around 5.30pm - 2am your time, then reverse time would be better for you like it is for me. I still check in around 2pm my time & even though it's their night, they still are doing things, but you'll find most of their night would have been from sunrise your time (so guessing around 6am your time).

putting them to bed (with a pat on the back) the first couple of nights seemed to help. the first night i was so disappointed i was sorry i bought the game, but they seem to have caught up. i notice the older they get the harder it is for them to catch up though.

They do get better eventually if you make them go to sleep or take naps everytime you see they're awake. Or you can buy the energy drink from the store and give it to them.
I had a family (parents and one child) with the same problem - I gave the father an energy drink and made the mother and the daughter rest all the time. Their status is back to Happy/Elated now.

Wow, I just got my first couple that had some energy and they just run all over the place!

Okay this is what I found out after playing the game for 5 days I've been playing with all the families to confirm my theory, when I started buying the house upgrade and praising them for using it. They stop being Exhausted, the problem got solved completely I'm serious. I think that they need to have these things in other to relax and do other stuff than work or do homework. Also they have to have a lot of food like all the time plenty of groceries especially if your family is big. Buy first the less expensive upgrade and proceed with the other item as money grows. But I’m almost 100% sure that this upgrades will solve the problem, Can someone else tell me if they've tried that already and it didnt work? I want to know if my theory is correct.

So 7 days after my original post....

my little people are still tired/exhausted. I buy the organic food (one tip), praise them when they nap or go to bed (another tip), not working them non-stop (yet another), letting them goof off in between working (yet another), buying upgrades (most recent), not checking the game late at night (another) and their energy levels still seem to be no higher than "elated" which quickly drops back to tired/exhausted. I am on my 3rd generation of families and the only time their energy is above elated is when they're first born/adopted. This is really aggravating! The tired/exhausted affects everything including having children (my families have yet to have multiple births, only the occasional single).

I haven't heard or seen anything from anyone at LDW yet about whether this is a bug or not and I'm really frustrated. I love the Virtual games but this is just downright annoying.

Instead of posting the same tips which are in other threads on this site, or quoting the strategy guide, can someone from the company actually take a look into this?

*shakes head* I didn't mean disrupting them while in bed or napping elsewhere. Even when they've woken up from bed, they have to fiddle at the nightstand, walk down near the entryway, look back toward the bed, and then back toward the entryway before they actually get the resting energy.

I've been studying how they gain/lose energy- and their energy only goes up in increments of | | with each "going to bed". This means an incredible time that they have to be sleeping... and even "Reading an Email" takes half that much energy. If they do manage to become exhausted, it takes roughly 20 minutes to get them back to a safe energy level. That's not "hard", that's time-devouring.

Another thing is that I cannot get the adults to get a bit of extra sleep. If they're no longer Tired, they won't go to bed and will rarely nap on the hammock. Which means... they do one action and suddenly they're Tired again. Perhaps making the energy gained when sleeping would ammend this without taking away from the need to adapt to each person?

I can't figure out why they're always tired/exhausted, I only know that they are. It's really, really a huge disappointment with this game.

I bought every edition of Virtual Villagers, and thought that this was going to be great as it's so much better than Villagers. Instead it's frustrating.

I can only play the game between 5-9 pm due to my work hours and kids at home, but each and every time I see my little family they're exhausted. I feel like I spend most of the time putting them to bed or to naps and praising them for that...which in theory they should be well rested and quite used to napping and such. It does no good. They are still exhausted. My first family has all the upgrades, only one teen left at home, the dad is a master in his career, they have over $200,000 in the bank, and eat organics. They can have whatever they want from the store, yet they're constantly exhausted. And I keep wondering what I'm supposed to do with them now. Is there more to the game or is this it? They master a career, get the house comfy, then that's it?

My question would be... if your family is that successful, why is the tired/exhausted thing an issue? The game is obviously still functional and the family is WAY more successful than mine is and mine don't get exhausted often.

In my mind, like real life, a couple who works that hard to get the finer things in life IS exhausted much of the time, so it makes sense... No?

I think it's legitimate in your case, you're working them a bit TOO much. Arthur has even said as much regarding working the people all the time.

Just my .02

Vicki, we are still looking into this issue, and we have made adjustments since the game was released. The problem is that, as of this writing, there are roughly 3000 posts in this forum alone, and I'm still running several test groups and working on the game. I try to keep up with everything, but you all can post faster than I can read them, much less reply.

We aren't done tweaking the game yet.

what shall i do when my players bcome weak?

Weakness is usually caused by lack of food, bristi

To prevent this from happening, make sure to buy your people plenty of food.

If you already have a weak person, try

This is only a theory, and I might be wrong, but when I check in on my families during their 'night time' they always are tired and or exhausted. But after an hour of their 'day time' they start to nap and it sorts itself out.

Are the players who are sick of seeing tired & exhausted peeps playing the game during their 'night time'?

If so, I would try reversing time and playing their 'day time' as it's more fun and they are less tired during the day.

When you think about it, we are tired & exhausted at night, and we just walk around watching TV etc, which is what they're doing. By day time (after coffee for some of us), we are more bright & less tired.

Just a theory anyway. The game is certainly not unplayable, as you can just leave them tired & exhausted during the night and they sort themselves out during the day if you praise naps.

It seems a big complaint on the exhaustion issue is the time people are able to play. Many of us have time restraints that only allow us to play in the evenings most days and by then our little people are wiped out. Switching the day/night still means that most of the time I can play I am either sleeping or busy. Switching would make my peeps ready for bed at 10:00 am rather than 10:00 pm which means my peeps would be waking up around the time I am busy with night-time mom duties, then bedtime for myself. I do think an option to decide what time morning is for our people would help a lot. For instance, I generally play after noon, sometimes only after 5:00. If I could set my peeps wake time at say 1pm rather than whatever time they currently wake up (7am, 8am?) then the times I am able to actively play would coincide with the times my peeps are well rested and ready to be played with.

Just a thought.

I realize I posted this before but I seen the drastic change in my family once I switched day and night. I'm a night person so I usually play late at night, when I turn on the game before I go to work I notice my family is exhausted but then I put then to bed & turn the game off. By the time I get home not only is there energy ALL the way up by like 5pm but they don't even nap at all. When you turn on the game at like 3pm with day/night regular the family has been up already since like 7am and are ready to go to bed. If your family is already exhausted then just trying the switch can't really hurt. I don't even praise them for sleeping at all and it saved my game.

Oh boy. I came to the forums to see if the Exhausted thing was a problem for anyone else, but I certainly didn't expect this mammoth thread.

I won't say that it's ruining the game for me, but it's extremely irritating.

My idea for an easy solution is to just make the energy drink permanently available in the store like the clothing. We'll pretend our people are coffee addicts. The good thing about this solution is that it's easy to implement, since the store already has permanent slots for clothing, so this wouldn't require new programming or trying to change the old programming.

some how my people got so tired and exhausted so they all died

Hmm, lately I began to change their timezone always to daylight (whenever they begin their night I change it to day), then all my tired/exhausted peeps take naps in turns and recover themselves enough to do their daily chores. During the day, they go and take a nap themselves whenever they feel tired, and even sometimes when they're close to being tired (yes I did praise them for taking naps). This seems to work, but of course, their energy level is never more than half.

I tested in several different ways (day, night, same and different peeps, different games, etc), but napping restores much more energy than sleeping (when the game is open). Whenever I send someone tired to sleep, he/she usually wakes up tired, but napping does give a significiant amount of energy; only two doses of nap can rise an exhausted member to a half energy bar. Does this also happen to you? and isn't this a little weird?

Make sure they have food #1 priority
and if you have the towel warmer, take them back and forth, warming hands, drying hair..etc.. it increases health

Okay, I was having (several) issues with my sleep deprived VF Families (even with both patches). They wouldn't stay asleep (would get up at a quarter bar), they wouldn't nap unless it was a quarter-ish bar...and it was quite consistant. Tried many many things... (and I am very nice with them, fruits, organic, rest, everything lol)

I tried something new today, though, and it seems to of 'solved' my issues for the most part.

I always pause (was before too) if I'm going to be gone for a while. Then like an hour or so before I play, I unpause the game (was before too) shut it off, and come back later.

But that wasn't helping before at all either... but today I deleted all my families (cry) and made my families anew... It seems to of solved it pretty well. Maybe try it with just one family, see how it works for you. I deleted all of them, though. Not sure, but I think the 'games' kept the memory of the current families (or something, I don't know, I don't design, lol I just play :p)

Either way, they seem to rest more, the bar goes up more, and they are generally happier too. Hope this helps someone at least ^_^

Jeania, that's exactly what I ended up doing too after I got the second update added to the game. It wasn't helping with the exhaustion problem at all until after I deleted all my families and started over. Plus, because I mostly play at night, I switched the day/night as well.

I only have two families going right now, mainly to test things, but I have not had any problems so far with tiredness/exhaustion problems. Although I must admit that I just did this earlier this evening so I'll have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of days, but I do know that just adding the newest update to the game didn't help the tired/exhausted problem at all until I wiped out the old and started new.

UPDATE: Yesterday, I played several hours after installing version .02, but didn't see any significant change in energy levels, then paused, exited the game. But today, after 30-45 mins of play, the energy levels miraculously recovered. I started a new family, and their energy levels cause no trouble also

I thought the new version was the first patch? .01? now there is a new one to install? where does it tell us about that? I thought Arthur said to redownload the game on the first nite, and that was the newest version, and everything would work ok? I hadent heard of .02? can anyone explain to me what the .02 does? and where i can DL it? Thanxs

I have the same question how do you get this patch to fix the exhaustion problem.

Just go to the virtualvillagers.com site, download and install the trial version. It says it's version 1.00, but in fact it is .02.

Hmm, but, if I remember right, this procedure might be different for mac users. I've seen a discussion about it here, but I didn't read. Just look aroud the forum, the topic should be in the first few pages.

now i can not do anything

Mine were about to die the weak line was almost gone and i gave them all a couple doses of pennicillian. It brought the line up a bit to were hopefully they wont die and then i made it dark outside so they could rest and gave them all showers plus made sure their food was stocked with organice groceries.

I've been testing, and yes, after deleting my fams (or starting a new one...I had all 6 slots full anyways, so now have brand new fams lol) and the energy is doing muuuch better.

Another thing I'm doing now (always) is to reverse their day/night with mine (I'm a night owl)...and I always pause when I'm not playing for more than an 3 hours ^_~.

I do 'wish *hint hint* lol that there was a 'sticky' with the updated 'version number' on top of this forum :p

when youinstall the updated version does it restart your game over? I dont want to loose any progress. And will i have to put my info in like when i first bought it like my credit card info??

It will install over your current game without disrupting your families. If you're a Windows user, all you need to do is download and install the trial from our Web site. You computer will remember that the game is activated.

I just ran the upgrade. Most of my folks are now weak and extremely weak now. I can't figure out what to do for them other than make them eat and sleep until they rebuild themselves. The store doesn't have any vitamins. I gave one weak one antibiotics and it made him extremely weak.

I deleted (or make sure you have a family spot) and started a new fam, and it seemed to clear it up


edit: i deleted my familes...the game just installs over your current game, so nothing will change (acct stuff). I didn't (and they don't say to) uninstall the previous

I never had any problems with my peeps being sickly or weakened until the upgrade either. Then all of a sudden they started getting weaker and weaker. I've never let them go without food or medical attention, and they were always real healthy until after the .02 upgrade.

Lewanda, sending ya a pm lol

I've learned that if you want the full benefits of a new version you must delete the families you have and create new ones. For some reason, the new version seems to cause odd problems (only sometimes) with established families. So, I delete the old and create new. Eventually LDW won't need to make any new versions (I don't think they need anymore now as my game runs beautifully now, thank you LDW!) and then you won't need to start new families anymore.

Simsane, there's nothing wrong with my 2 main families, and they've been going strong since launch day, and through new versions as well.

My families are fine today but last night everyone was exausted. The game is a simulation in real time so I'm guessing it wasn't made to play 24/7. I didn't have to delete any families though.

I haven't deleted any of my families, and I've just done the .04 update to see how it goes. I started a new family after .02 & I didn't notice too much difference at night to be honest. They were still wandering around 'exhausted' and recovered early in their morning hours with naps. I'll see how they go at night time with the .04 update as the read me does say it addresses it. It wasn't a huge problem to me as I played the game their day time, and they really did recover from tiredness quite rapidly with naps.

Xay and Bren,

I found that installing the new version and then not deleting my old families just wasn't fixing it for me, but I'm glad that it worked for both of you!

The biggest improvement in my game came from following Bren's advice to switch day to night. Now my peeps are doing great -- I even just had triplets in one family. Yay!

Well Simsane, I'm not sure if they are fixed, or they just recovered with naps during the day.

They certainly seem to nap a lot less, but I have a test family on night while I'm playing my usual families on day, and the child goes to bed, but the parents are still walking around exhausted. This is a new family started after .02, so I'm not sure what is normal as I usually don't play their night time, but thought I'd give it a go to see what happens.

I'm glad the switching day to night worked for you. It's always nice to have the game work with you. I'm glad your peeps are doing well, and those triplets will keep you busy. I had boy triplets, but they're 14 now and have stopped all that naughty stuff.

Yea, these are boy triplets and two of them seem to be really well behaved but one wants to do all the "naughty" stuff like writing on the walls, jumping on the bed, hiding the toys, etc. They are all 4 right now and they have an older brother who is 7. The older brother also wants to write on walls, bang pots, dig to China, etc. So he and the one triplet do keep me busy -- picking them up and plopping them down somewhere else like the sandbox or the toys so I can use the green hand on them there instead of having to use the red hand on them for whatever it was that they were doing.

I have 3 families where I've switched day/night and then one where I haven't switched so I can play during the day too. The one family that I haven't switched seems to be having problems too. I think that the way the game is set up, that when your families should be sleeping, you are not supposed to even open the game. So, it may turn out that I will have to just have ALL my families on the same time schedule, but there are times when I like to sit down to play earlier in the day so that's why I left one family as is instead of switching the hours around. I just did this yesterday though, so I haven't had much time to test it to see what will happen in the long run.

They're most energized in the morning hours. It's not much fun to play after 5 or so, as they are tired or exhausted for 12 virtual years (or 12 hours for us). This is something I wish they'd change about the game.

I have an idea for the exhaustion in the evening hours. If the developers could make the energy drink last say...oh for 4 hrs. and make it readily available in the GROCERY section so you could buy as many as you need, then you could use it for the exhaustion hours so that most of us night owls could play. It wouldn't effect the way the game runs for those of you that are happy with it as it is. You could use the energy drinks, or not, depending on when you choose to play.

The whole problem of the NIGHT/DAY thing is that these little peeps have 12 virtual hours of night, and it's no fun to play with them when they're so exhausted. Nothing you do after about 5 or 6 really helps...Even the naps only have a small temporary effect.

I love playing in the hours between 6 AM and 4 PM, because they're energized. From late afternoon and evening hours the game just isn't any fun to play. I like to play the game a bit at different times of the day, and would like the evening hours to be as much fun as the morning hours with it.

Lewanda, I mostly play during the evening hours and into the early morning hours myself. I was having the same problem as you until I switched the day/night. So, for my first family I switched day to night, then my second and third families as well. I do keep the 4th and 5th families on the original day when it's day where I live and night when it's night where I live so I can play them off and on throughout my day, but the other three families are sleeping then and I start playing them around 5:00 in the evening and then play them off and on until I go to bed. It's been working out fine for me.

I'm just mean & spank them with the red glove, but not for many things. Just the two that would annoy me in real life, banging dishes & writing on the wall. I love jumping on beds, even if it's naughty.



That's exactly what I have done Simsane. What started out as a test "their night" family during my night has turned into my day playing family. Of course the house isn't as well run or as clean because I don't get as time during the day, but it's there to play daytime if I want to. Plus it's interesting to see how it goes pretty bad when you're not keeping an eye on it regularly. Socks, weeds, garbage with flies, toilet clogged & hungry!

But I am happy to report, since downloading the update and switching it off for the night, the original family I have had since day one is less tired & exhausted. It must have needed to be rebooted. I also have two other families reversed, as you do, that I started before this latest update and they are also working out well. Love all the new actions.