Sims won't interact & no skill books

[cheesetastic]

I made a new couple. They're married, but the only interaction I got with either of them to do is "Mean...Scare"
Her traits are loves outdoors, hopeless romantic, green thumb, artistic, and lucky. His are good sense of humor, loves outdoors, natural cook, family oriented, and angler.
"Mean" shouldn't even be an option, I would think.
I spent the first day building skills and gardening, and didn't try to make them interact until the second day.
Also, I tried to get them on the bed to relax, seeing if they would cuddle, but she got up, laid back down, then he disappeared through the wall to the outside. I switched beds to an EA bed thinking maybe it was a poorly made bed, but still the same results.
After reading that taking out mods can help, I removed mine. That didn't fix it. Now the problem is only worse. They have no interactions available at all.                                                      This problem is popping up all of a sudden with quite a few people. It's really odd because every other person I've read about just updated and have WA.
I didn't change anything in my game before this happened, and delete cache files every time I play. I also tried resetsim, that did nothing. I'm patched up to 1.7.9 with the base game only, and refuse to patch any further.
Has anyone seen this before?

My second problem is that all of a sudden I can no longer buy skill books at the library when I have the faster skills mod from MTS. I haven't downloaded a new version of it or anything, I have the one that was made back when 1.7.9 was the latest patch. Can mods like this become outdated somehow? I know that this is the mod that caused the problem because it's the only thing I removed, then the books were back.

[snowbawl]

*P&L

[cheesetastic]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what that means.

[myskaal]

I'm sorry, but I don't know what that means.

None of us are surprised by that statement.

[friendlyquark]

I had that problem with the books as well. It was a mod conflict with another mod that altered the books' behaviors. As for the Sims not being able to interact, sounds like something has gone horribly wrong with them. Try moving them out of the house and into another one. If that doesn't work. Delete them and start over.

[cheesetastic]

I'm glad I got one helpful response. I knew I was taking a risk asking this here, since there is no tolerance on this site for asking a simple question. I moved them next door, same problem. I've having the same problem with every save game I have. I ran the dashboard, no conflicting mods. The mods I have have worked together for months now.

[Claeric]

This is the kind of topic I like, because it's one that is very easy to yell at and totally deserving of being yelled at.

You were just told it is a mod conflict and yet you STILL want us to fix it for yo- actually, no, let me start from the very start.

This problem was EXTREMELY common. Know why nobody asks about it anymore? Because people are smart enough to search for answers to their problems. And searching on MTS or, I'm sure, here, would have given you an immediate answer- mod conflict.

ANd now that you've been told it's one, you still want your hand held? Figuring out mod conflicts is the absolute most basic CC issue knowledge one needs to have and is has TONS of well documented instructions all over the damn internet.

We can't fix your CC conflict. We can't tell you what file to move. We don't have your damn packages folder and we dont know what packages you have.

DONT! Dont open up the folder and start typing a list! Nobody's issue but yours! Figure it out on your own by going through the simple, basic, well known process of determining conflicts!

No, there is no tolerance for asking a SIMPLE question, as SIMPLE questions have SIMPLE answers that SIMPLE people should be able to SIMPLY find themselves.

[myskaal]

Why are you bothering to "assist" this dimwit in any way, shape, or form?

It knew it was a mod conflict before anyone replied at all. It stated so in it's original post. Goatcheesehead does not know how to use the search function and has absolutely zero common sense. It does not deserve assistance or even friendly nudges in the right direction. It deserves to have it's game melted for it's inability to RTFM about general mod use and compatibility.

[cheesetastic]

Claeric, you're a dick. I certainly didn't need to read all that, as soon as I saw your name I knew it was a bunch of shit. People on this site are a lot smarter than me, obviously. That's why I came here for help. I have searched on this topic. I found nothing that helped fix it. I know it's not a mod conflict. Trying to fix my first problem, I removed all mods after posting this. Same results. All I want to know is if there's a fix for no interactions whatsoever.
As for the skill books not appearing, I know it was a problem with the mod. That's why I removed it with the kind, helpful advice I got from Cadiva over at TSR. I was just asking why all of a sudden the mod didn't work anymore. I have not installed anything since the problem started yesterday.

[Claeric]

I have searched on this topic. I found nothing that helped fix it.

bullshit

[cheesetastic]

Well, I would provide you a list of the sites I went to, but you wouldn't want that, now would you? I know you're a smart guy. I was actually hoping someone like you would respond to my question. I just want to know more about my game and how it works. You come out with some great downloads. I just wish you were a little more polite to people that are dimwits like me.
Also, if it was a conflicting mod, why is the problem still there after I removed them all (pertaining to my no interaction problem)? I said I removed them in my first post. Clearly I'm not THAT stupid. I have been playing since TS1. I think I have a basic knowledge of how things work. Usually when there's a bug like this, there's some oddball fix.

[The_Goddess]

Ignore him—he is all bark.  Do you have an earlier save you can go back to?  I'm wondering if your saved game might have some corruption in it.  If you have an earlier save you could check to see if the same thing is happening with it.  Barring that, you could start a new game to experiment with.  The problem might be isolated to just that one household.  Have you checked all your other residences?  This family might have to be scrapped, like friendlyquark mentioned.   As for why this happens; I don't think anyone could give you an answer to that.  The game gets a bit touchy at times.  This problem could have happened as the game was trying to save your newly created family to the bin, or it could have happened at some other save point along the way.  If the data does not save correctly, glitches happen.

[cheesetastic]

Thanks for the reply. I checked all other saves, nobody else can interact either. Looking at TSR, MTS, and the official forums, I have found this problem has just started to crop up. Most of the threads I read are from people who have just patched and have WA, like I said before. I really haven't come across a fix for it yet, everyone keeps saying "conflicting mods". How do mods conflict when they're NOT INSTALLED?
I guess it's time for a fresh install. If this happens again, I give up.

[The_Goddess]

By "not installed", do you mean all of them, or all but Awesome?   Try taking out all your custom content and see if it still occurs.  There could be an item lurking in there.

[cheesetastic]

I don't use awesomemod. I had all my .package format files in subfolders, and put all my mods in a folder called hacks. I removed all of them and deleted the cache files also. I have now started a fresh install, and the problem is fixed. I even put my backup of the packages folder back in with all my mods from before and everything's fine. I was really hoping I wouldn't have to do this, but I jumped the gun and did it. Thank you very much for your help.

[jwaas]

Sorry to interrupt, but I actually might have another bit of information to add.

My second problem is that all of a sudden I can no longer buy skill books at the library when I have the faster skills mod from MTS. I haven't downloaded a new version of it or anything, I have the one that was made back when 1.7.9 was the latest patch. Can mods like this become outdated somehow? I know that this is the mod that caused the problem because it's the only thing I removed, then the books were back.

The answer to this question is an unqualified "yes."  I once had an old book-affecting mod installed, patched the base game and WA, stupidly forgot to remove my mods, and started my game up.  While the bookcases at home were fine, all bookcases in China were empty.  I went through, found this mod, uttered several unrepeatable phrases under my breath, and removed it.  The books did not return to Chinese bookcases.

I started up a fresh instance of Egypt from within that same game, with the mod removed.  The bookcases there were fine.  Quit without saving.

Then I put that mod back in, started up a fresh instance of Egypt from within that same game, and the Egyptian bookcases were then broken just like the Chinese ones.  Quit without saving, then removed the mod again.

No matter what I did, including following all the advice I could find here and elsewhere, I could not get the books to return to the Chinese bookcases, even after removing the mod.  So it seems to be possible for an outdated mod to change something permanently within a game save, like The_Goddess is talking about.  I'm going to guess that this is what has happened in your case, though I've never heard of such a severe reaction as all Sim interactions being killed.

[cheesetastic]

The really weird thing about my experience is that I didn't patch or anything. It shouldn't just stop working all of a sudden, I have the correct version of it. You wouldn't think a mod would magically change in my folder to a higher version, would it? That's the only thing I can think of (which is completely ridiculous). I downloaded the skill book mod when the highest patch was 1.7.9, which is my game version.
But since reinstalling, all the mods are back in, including the skill mod. Everything works fine. It must have been something else. I guess I'll never know.

[friendlyquark]

The Goddess is correct. The game gets weird sometimes. I think there is a core instability somewhere in the code. If you get too far with a family, a few generations along, it will start to spawn errors all over the place, even if you are playing a relatively simple game (one family, no foreign travel, etc). Saving multiple backups of your game is critical, because you never know when it will turn into a BFBVFS. It just goes ka-blooey for no apparent reason..