Her plants used to glow.
May 21, 2012 7:25 PM Subscribe
Plants vs. Zombies Zen Garden iPad filter. My obsessed hoarder mathematician spouse's cherished plants are not happy, and apparently nothing can be done to make them happy, and Crazy Dave will not sell her any new ones.
She has tried and failed to make her plants happy in the usual ways: she has tried watering them, spraying them, playing them music. Crazy Dave won't sell her more plants, even though she has a vacancy in her garden. Her only currently happy plant is one she was awarded as some kind of game trophy, and now that it is fully grown she fears it too will succumb to nameless ennui.
Reasons to care: she used to stroke the plants adoringly with her fingers, so proud that she could make them happy (unlike the many actual plants she has killed in her lifetime by, say, accidentally leaving them under her bed inside a drum majorette hat). She collected a fully stocked nursery, a night garden, even an underwater garden. I'd begun to dream of a future in which her collecting impulse radiated into virtual worlds, sublimating the drive for thift-store sewing machines, anvils, Fluevogs, and all such costly or bulky impedimenta.
Yes, I have tried searching video game fora. Probably ineptly, as I am a simple country feral_goldfish.
She has tried and failed to make her plants happy in the usual ways: she has tried watering them, spraying them, playing them music. Crazy Dave won't sell her more plants, even though she has a vacancy in her garden. Her only currently happy plant is one she was awarded as some kind of game trophy, and now that it is fully grown she fears it too will succumb to nameless ennui.
Reasons to care: she used to stroke the plants adoringly with her fingers, so proud that she could make them happy (unlike the many actual plants she has killed in her lifetime by, say, accidentally leaving them under her bed inside a drum majorette hat). She collected a fully stocked nursery, a night garden, even an underwater garden. I'd begun to dream of a future in which her collecting impulse radiated into virtual worlds, sublimating the drive for thift-store sewing machines, anvils, Fluevogs, and all such costly or bulky impedimenta.
Yes, I have tried searching video game fora. Probably ineptly, as I am a simple country feral_goldfish.
Mine (not iPad, MacOS) are very specific in their demands, and as long as I give them what they want they're happy. You don't mention fertilizer, are they asking for it? She's collecting their coins, giving her snail chocolate, etc?
I don't know if there comes a point where they won't be happy unless she plays the game.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:38 PM on May 21, 2012
I don't know if there comes a point where they won't be happy unless she plays the game.
posted by Lyn Never at 7:38 PM on May 21, 2012
I love this question so much.
Has she tried deleting the app and re-downloading it? Fair warning, I don't know if this erases your gameplay information or not. Backup the phone first!
Has she purchased the aquarium and night gardens already? AFAIK you can only win those plants by smashing zombies in replay levels. (I have yet to win any water plants.) Has she tried selling unhappy plants back to Crazy Dave?
posted by nicebookrack at 7:57 PM on May 21, 2012
Has she tried deleting the app and re-downloading it? Fair warning, I don't know if this erases your gameplay information or not. Backup the phone first!
Has she purchased the aquarium and night gardens already? AFAIK you can only win those plants by smashing zombies in replay levels. (I have yet to win any water plants.) Has she tried selling unhappy plants back to Crazy Dave?
posted by nicebookrack at 7:57 PM on May 21, 2012
Ack, missed that she already had the other gardens.
An email to Popcap as charmingly worded as this post could work!
posted by nicebookrack at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
An email to Popcap as charmingly worded as this post could work!
posted by nicebookrack at 7:59 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
P.S. Popcap minor-updated the game this month; has she download her app/OS updates? (Or did she update and that's when things went wonky?)
posted by nicebookrack at 8:02 PM on May 21, 2012
posted by nicebookrack at 8:02 PM on May 21, 2012
So there are no golden sparks emanating from the plants?
I have had a look at my garden - only the sunflower "looks" happy - but after a month of complete neglect, a bit of water, fertiliser spray and music has them all sparking and producing coins.
What is stinky doing? Has she tried feeding stinky some chocolate?
I am up to daet with any app update - but I haven't done the recent apple update
(using a touch if that makes any difference)
posted by insomniax at 9:23 PM on May 21, 2012
I have had a look at my garden - only the sunflower "looks" happy - but after a month of complete neglect, a bit of water, fertiliser spray and music has them all sparking and producing coins.
What is stinky doing? Has she tried feeding stinky some chocolate?
I am up to daet with any app update - but I haven't done the recent apple update
(using a touch if that makes any difference)
posted by insomniax at 9:23 PM on May 21, 2012
Best answer: I had a similar problem - my plants didn't have the happy sparkle, Stinky would wander aimlessly and no coins were being emitted by the magnolias. My wonderful spouse did some searching and found that this is a known bug, but nothing has been done about it yet. The solution he found was to go into the iPad's settings and change the date (I moved it ahead one day). Success! The plants are happy again and I'm busily collecting coins. Good luck!
posted by mogget at 9:30 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
posted by mogget at 9:30 PM on May 21, 2012 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: Mrs. Goldfish roused herself seven hours early to go try mogget's wonderful spouse's solution, and found that indeed It's a New Day. We jubilantly thank y'all for your various kindnesses!
(In case spousal questions fall under the same rule as kittehs.)
posted by feral_goldfish at 8:19 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
(In case spousal questions fall under the same rule as kittehs.)
posted by feral_goldfish at 8:19 AM on May 22, 2012 [1 favorite]
This thread is closed to new comments.
Also, this is an awesome question.
posted by verbyournouns at 7:31 PM on May 21, 2012 [3 favorites]