considering getting more expansions, seeking advice

[notveryawesome]

As Gali would say, I am outrageous cheater. I just use Christianlov's baby animal creator thingie.

[xoferew]

I have Nightlife, Pets, OFB, and Seasons.  I've never been interested in actually sending my sims to university, but I'm starting to wonder if I should get Uni for the other stuff.  Are the extra want slots the only thing in Uni you have to actually educate your sims to receive?  The main plusses are musical instruments and zombies, right?  Is there anything else important I don't have automatically with the later eps?  Any input is appreciated.

I agree with those who like Seasons and OFB -- my sims often can't advance in their careers, if they even have any, since they are always pregnant and raising maximum spawn.  Fishing and the ticket machine save the day.  (My eight original sims have crash landed on an alien planet and as the last remaining humans, they must reproduce like the wind to avert extinction.)

[notveryawesome]

A uni degree helps to boost a sim's career, and offers new jobs, as well. When finding a job with the newspaper or computer, an educated sim has options that aren't available to uneducated sims, and an educated sim also starts farther up the ladder, in any job, than an uneducated sim does.

[Lord Darcy]

has anyone made/seen a hack that lowers the attractiveness of the bubble blower? I only buy them when sims who want them are really in need of an aspiration boost, but I generally end up deleting them a day or so later to keep sims on the lot from obsessing over them.

Jfade made Less Bubble Blower Obsession.

Also, are there any hacks that people find especially useful for Seasons?

antiweatherreaction and warmthfixes are essential for preserving your sanity.
Numenor's Invisible Water from Sprinkles and antigardenlag to avoid insane lags from garden sprinklers and ladybug houses.
fishandharvestfix is useful if you're planning a home business with gardening and fishing.
eggjuicememfix (in DC only) for avoiding false "maximized XXX skill" memories when drinking eggplant juice.
Juice tray mods by mike_1102. I'm using all except for NeverBecomeSpoiled, and haven't experienced problem so far.

[dream_operator]

I have Nightlife, Pets, OFB, and Seasons.  I've never been interested in actually sending my sims to university, but I'm starting to wonder if I should get Uni for the other stuff.  Are the extra want slots the only thing in Uni you have to actually educate your sims to receive?  The main plusses are musical instruments and zombies, right?  Is there anything else important I don't have automatically with the later eps?  Any input is appreciated.

I really like the career rewards that come with the University careers...especially the cowplant. 

[Ellatrue]

I don't send my sims to community lots much, and still haven't sent any of them on a vacation since getting BV--it just doesn't seem that interesting to me. However, I really enjoy the new objects BV added to the game, and I've been wishing for beach lots since day one. They really made a big difference in my coastal and island neighborhoods, if only for the ambiance. I love the waves and being able to have my sims swim in the ocean.

If you are worried about bugs, however, get seasons, and then STOP. Seasons was very stable, but the following EPs much less so. Pets doesn't really add much to the game, but the pets can be nice to have around. I like the birds.

[jennydeenyc]

Well, today I managed to get out to Best Buy and pick up Seasons, but I'm not going to install it until I track down Seasons-compatible versions of pretty much all my hacks (argh!). This'll probably take me a few hours, sigh. Wish me luck!

[jolrei]

Well, today I managed to get out to Best Buy and pick up Seasons, but I'm not going to install it until I track down Seasons-compatible versions of pretty much all my hacks (argh!). This'll probably take me a few hours, sigh. Wish me luck!

Remove your Downloads, back up your hoods, make sure you don't have a no-cd crack where an original .exe should be, then install Seasons.  Patch Seasons.  Find a no-cd for patched Seasons, but only if Seasons is your latest EP (i.e. you're not running BV or FT, which I believe you're not).  I know Seasons doesn't have securom, but a no-cd makes it easier to load and saves wear and tear on the disks. 

Run the game to make sure it works - run tests in a throwaway hood.

When satisfied, install awesome hacks from the Seasons director's cut.  Run it again to test.  When you're satisfied, reinstall your downloads and your "in-play" hoods.

If you don't do it that way, good luck.   

[jennydeenyc]

Well, I was too lazy to test the game with no downloads before trying out Seasons, though I did backup my neighborhoods before install, and tracked down updates of every hack I have installed. The game loaded fine, as did Veronaville and the Somerset family lot. Everything seems to be in working order, with one glaring exception. My sims body temperatures do not change, regardless of season, activity, weather, or if they are inside or outside. I checked the temperature stats of one of my sims with the FFS Debugger and it gave me the following info:

Outdoor Temperature: 23
Personal Temperature: 0
Warmth Delta: 0

This is while the sim was indoors, but I get the same reading when he is outdoors as well. I did install the warmthfixes hack, but tried disabling it and restarting the game, with no change. Any thoughts on how to get my sims feeling the cold (or heat)? Is there some option on the debugger that would reset their stuck temps that I'm missing? I know this is probably my own fault for not starting "clean" and adding back my downloads bit by bit, but it just seems like such an odd bug to have when everything else works just fine.

[J. M. Pescado]

23 is the "normal range" temperature. Between -30 and 30, sims have no temperature effects. Between -70 and 70, nothing interesting ever happens. It is only when temperatures reach +/- 70 that any effect happens. Also, indoor temperature always moves to 0.

[jennydeenyc]

Ah, thanks for clearing that up! On a side note though, speaking of glitches...

I noticed that my noroadpillows hack hasn't been functioning for some time (even prior to installing Seasons, that is). I didn't realize it wasn't working until I re-read all the descriptions of the stuff I had installed and saw it should be preventing my sims from pillow fighting unless there is a bed in the room, which is certainly not a restriction they seem to be bound by. I have the latest version of the hack installed, but it just isn't having any effect. Thoughts?

[J. M. Pescado]

It should be functioning. However, the lock is now purely on autonomous behavior, and allows the player to order it anyway if you really want to.

[jennydeenyc]

Nope, my sims run around pillow fighting every 5 minutes in every room of the house, as well as outside on the deck. Is there anything known to conflict with the noroadpillows hack that I should try tracking down and removing? I've also noticed a major upswing in pranking behavior since installing Seasons that I wasn't getting before: VentriloFarting, Joy Buzzering, and Water Ballooning are once again rampant on the lot.

[J. M. Pescado]

Once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

[jennydeenyc]

So if I remove my pants, that might help? 

[Liz]

A case of tight pants indicates you likely have a previous (outdated) version of a hack still installed. Also, if you want to check out your sims' body temps in flux, either send them to work out on a treadmill outdoors, put 'em in the hot tub for a while, or tell them to go build a snowman in winter. You can also see their temps jump into the red while taking a long shower or making out with their simnificant other. A temporary, short-term spike or plunge isn't necessarily a problem, but if left untended your sim can suffer frostbite or sunstroke, sometimes with amusing results.

Of course, if you think taking your pants off might help, it might be worth a shot (^_-)

[Zazazu]

"Tight pants" means "run your game through Hack Conflict Detector". You can find that at Paladin's Place under Sims2, then Programs (2nd listed item). It will show conflicts if you have the same hack in two places (I've done this) or downloaded hacks that are editing the same functions and most likely fighting amongst themselves, causing undesirable behaviors in your game.

[Ellatrue]

I feel like the method of removing everything, and slowly putting the game back together, is way too much work for a game, and mostly unnecessary. And there's no point in running a clean game with no CC if you have updated hacks. I propose a simpler procedure, especially when installing an EP that's already been out for a while:


1) Only backup your hoods if you would mind losing them if you uninstalled the EP. I think you can do it easily with SimPE (not sure)

2) Update your hacks first.  Don't remove hacks that have been updated for the EP, just replace them with the newer versions.

This is especially important if you play with inteen, because removing it can actually make things screwy if you have currently pregnant teens, etc, and it just isn't worth the trouble. There's a Seasons version, so install the new version of inteen before running the game.

3) Identify potential problems. Remove hacks if you suspect they might cause problems.
Hacked objects with unique GUIDs that don't replace maxis content, or hacks that are very simple and only effect one (simple) aspect of the game, are less likely to cause problems than complex hacks with multiple functions, like the phone hack.

4) Leave custom objects, sims, recolors, walls & floors, and clothing in place. In general, they shouldn't cause problems. If you have problems with recolors, and are using the CEP from MTS2, this indicates that you need to update the CEP. Problems with non-hacks are very specific, and can easily be fixed should you find you have them. It's a short list: custom fridges won't have all the functions of the Maxis ones in Seasons, and custom furniture won't be properly "used" by pets (as if you'd want that). Custom skilling items, etc. need to be updated for FT. That's pretty much it.You might have trouble with CC like stairs or custom pool wall, because they modify core files of the game, but those problems are identifiable right away and easy to fix, IF you have them.

So, now you should have a downloads folder that is more-likely-than-not problem-free, and there's a good chance you won't have any problems at all. IF you have a problem, first look at your "questionable" hacks and hacked objects, check for conflicts with the utility second, and then do a binary search. Chances are your problem might not be related to the EP at all. Procedure for a "binary search" is in the stickied FAQ (I think it claims to have spore torrents). This will help you pinpoint the hack causing your problem.

This method is MUCH faster than slowly replacing all of your CC 10% at a time and testing the game over and over again (and IMO safer and more useful, since many conflicts/problems might not be obvious until you've been playing for a while and the initial test won't tell you anything meaningful). Minimize possible potential problems first, then do damage control if you actually HAVE a problem. Assume that if you've updated your hacks properly, the problem lies elsewhere. Removing everything only makes sense at the time the EP first comes out, before most creators have had a chance to update their hacks.

[Lorelei]

O HAI, jennydee!

I think you'll enjoy Seasons. You made a good choice.

I have all Eps and SPs up through SEAS (well, I have BV, but don't feel like messing with the SecuROM hassles right now...maybe this summer, when I have MOAR free time...and Free Time EP) and my game is pretty stable. Most issues I have are "too much CC"-related, as I really need pare down my stash by about 80%. (My kingdom for an "I'm not using it anywhere in the game" program. I could zorch a mess of stuff in one blow if such a tool existed to check my lots and Sims against the Downloads folder files. )

Paladin DOES have a handy tool called SimCat, which shows thumbnails of some stuff, but it is not too helpful with BodyShop content.

Get Pescado's Director's Cut for Seasons first. Run the Hack Conflict Detector program. Anything non-Pes that conflicts with a Pescado hack, quarantine it outside of your Downloads folder and get your game stable before attempting to squeeze into any kind of tight pants.

[Sivany]

Jolrei you have far more patience than me if you go through that every time you install an EP! My method is to take out my neighbourhood and downloads and install the new EP. I then reinstall downloads (after checking for relevant hack updates) and run the game in order to turn on custom content (at this point I might have a little play if the new pack has installed a neighbourhood, like Freetime did, but more because I'm impatient than for any testing purposes). Finally I exit the game, put my neighbourhood back in place, run the game again and play!

Basically the game gets loaded once in order to turn custom content on (I hate that every EP turns it off by default) and after that I just dive in and play as normal. The game takes far too long to load to mess about testing everything step by step. So far I've had no major problems and only a couple of minor ones due to missing a hack update. Maybe I've just got lucky so far.

Jennydee, antiprankhack was the one which stopped the stupid pranks from happening, double check you've got the Seasons version of that installed. Also check through your downloads folder for any other hacks which affect autonomous socials or autonomous playing (since pillow fights are a play interaction) and try playing without them if they are none-awesome or updating them if they are JM's. If not then the hack conflict detector program is probably the way to go.

[jolrei]

Jolrei you have far more patience than me if you go through that every time you install an EP!

Ah, but my game is also remarkably bug and hassle free, compared to many others. 

That being said, no, I do not necessarily do every single step I mentioned, but I feel when giving advice, that I should give them the "fail safe" version, as much as possible.

My method is to take out my neighbourhood and downloads and install the new EP. I then reinstall downloads (after checking for relevant hack updates) and run the game in order to turn on custom content (at this point I might have a little play if the new pack has installed a neighbourhood, like Freetime did, but more because I'm impatient than for any testing purposes). Finally I exit the game, put my neighbourhood back in place, run the game again and play!

My personal method is actually similar to yours and to the "alternate method" proposed by Ellatrue.  I remove my Downloads\Hacks directory, back-up my hoods, and then reinstall.  I don't bother removing cc content, because I do not use cc objects that have "special functions" (i.e. no fridges that dance, terlets that double as bookshelves, cribs that teleport babies to cow plants, etc.).  My method for backing up a hood is to copy the neighborhood folders to a backup folder using Windows Explorer.  Why be fancy? 

I then install the new EP, install the no-cd crack if necessary, and run a vanilla game for an hour or two to see what happens.  Then I download all new awesome hacks (keeping my old versions in back-up) so I'm sure I don't have any old hacks in my game at all.  Then I gradually add other hacks, if I want them, as I go along.

[Zazazu]

I just copy my Downloads and Neighborhood folders to my D: drive and my memory stick (I once accidentally deleted the Downloads folder from the D: drive while cleaning, so I learned to double-backup on that thing). Then delete the Downloads folder from My Documents. Install new EP & no-CD crack. Put everything but my Hacks subfolder back in and play. I keep a tab on what hacks I have are cleared for the new EP and download new versions as needed referring to the backed-up copy. Delete hacks from the backup as I get the shiny cleared versions, so I know what I still need to look for updates for. That's about it. Never had a kablooey yet.

[fransoad]

I agree with most of you all -Seasons is really the utmost considering you have previous EP along - pets are an asset with seasons turning the game in a nice homely game with a lot of true to life possibilities. As to BV and FT I decided not to have them owing to the mass of negative information gathered everywhere.

[akatonbo]

K&B is a definite skip...very light on content and very high on bugs/lack of past EP features enabled, etc.

K&B had content I wanted, light or not... what's the issue with bugs? I'm aware that there are objects missing functions they should be rights have and will be nabbing the fixes.

[Kazzandra]

K&B had content I wanted, light or not... what's the issue with bugs? I'm aware that there are objects missing functions they should be rights have and will be nabbing the fixes.

Yes, the essential question is: does EA deserve $20.00 for a handful of objects that aren't even fully compatible with their own products? I'd think not.