The Case of the Tree Breaks and the Missing Portals

[ZephyrZodiac]

It doesn't stop the nannies, as I know to my cost!!!!  The Lotdebugger doesn't stop them, Clear OffWorld Loiterers (8 objects deleted) and there they are again!!!And again!!!! And again!!!!  Are the nannies really servants of the Pollination Technician?

[miramis]

I refuse to use Nannies, they are off-limits with mobile phones and the other Uni gadgets.  Learn to get along without them is my advice, it's easier then you think.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I don't use nannies any more, but I'm still suffering from residual ones!  Now I either use a new graduate or a single family member and get them to move in.  sometimes one of the sims asks them, sometimes I just combine households and get the extra 20grand!

Trouble with mobile phones is often outweighed by other things if you have a couple of Popularity or romance sims in a house who need to spend hours on the phone!  But I'm definitely going to cut down on their use, and mainly just use the house-phone for "Call Friends" and keep mobiles for answering personal calls and making calls to a selected sim.  And now I'm careful not to save while they're being used!

[miramis]

Asking someone to move in is a good idea, but I like a challenge sometimes.  Try having a single mother bringing up twins on her own - now that is fun *grin*.  I never thought about different sims being able to use their own phone at the same time, the moment I realised the mobile woke a sleeping sim I deleted it and never bought another.  Perhaps in the future I'll give them another try.

[gali]

If you have JMP Phone-hack - you will never receive phone call at nights, and never will be let to phone others after midnight. You get a warning "phone is harrassment", and if you in spite of it call - the relationship points drop down.

[miramis]

Thanks Gali, I have the phone hack amongst many others from here and had forgotten about it.  Do you know if it prevents sims sleeping in the day from being woken by their mobiles too?

[witch]

Well I for one never have testing cheats turned on, I've never been able to get it to work anyway!

If you turn 'testingCheatsEnabled true' on while you're in a lot, you won't get it. You will need to exit and re-enter either the same lot or another lot.

If you remember to turn it on when you are in n'hood view, you will have it turned on when you enter a lot. You can see the version number in the top right hand corner of your monitor if it is turned on.

[ZephyrZodiac]

As to the mobile phone ringing in the night and waking your sim up, if you also install the AutoYakYak, it appears to cancel that out and phones ring all the time! At least, that's what I've found.

[miramis]

I have the autoyak too, haven't noticed housephones ringing non-stop though, does that only happen with mobiles?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Housephones too, but maybe it depends on whether there are any sims still up!  Trouble is, if it's for the sim who's in bed, then his rings too!

[miramis]

Is it because the relationships are dropping to a certain level maybe?  The sims I've played since getting those two hacks had between 80-90 friendship scores so perhaps thats why.  I'll keep an eye out from now on.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think it may be specific to Keanu Broke and his family, I haven't noticed it on any other lots, but both he and his girlfriend work nights, so maybe that's why.

[RainbowTigress]

I have both hacks and have not noticed any problems of this sort with my sims.  Also, if your sim answers an incoming call whether on the house phone or his cell phone, no one else in that house can place an outgoing call until he hangs up.  But it doesn't matter how many sims place outgoing calls at once or if they are already on the phone when another sim answers an incoming call.  I have just about stopped answering all incoming calls since my sims use the Call/Friends feature to keep their friendships maxed out, and other than that, there is usually no reason to answer the phone.  If a sim misses work, you get the message and get paid anyway.  I have been using the yellow burglar alarm from Danny's site, and I love the caller ID.  So most of the time, my sims don't even answer the phone.  If it's someone they want to talk to, they will call them back.  Kind of like real life, LOL.

[miramis]

The caller ID sounds interesting, who is Danny?

[RainbowTigress]

Danny operates the DMA Sims 2 website at http://valdea.com.  It is part of his Workers NPCs Set.  I don't use the NPCs, but unfortunately you have to download the whole set to get the dmaTeleport (yellow burglar alarm).  It does a bunch of other stuff besides caller ID.  It has some cheats built in that you can access, and once I believe it called the fire department when I had a fire.  Download the starter kit, and it will install everything in your Downloads directory.  If you don't want the other stuff, you should be able to delete the other stuff from your downloads.  He has a full version that you have to pay for, but you don't need that just for the dmaTeleport box.

[miramis]

Thankyou Rainbow, I really like the idea of Caller ID.

[RainbowTigress]

Thankyou Rainbow, I really like the idea of Caller ID.

Yeah, me too, just like in real life, it's hard to imagine how you ever lived without it!

[pet_peeve]

If you turn 'testingCheatsEnabled true' on while you're in a lot, you won't get it. You will need to exit and re-enter either the same lot or another lot.

Not true. Some features (such as movable motive bars) only work if you do that, but if you type the code right, most of the features take effect immediately. I have an item in my startup file specifically to turn testingcheats (and a few others, like move objects) on and off without typing the whole dang thing. Since you seem to be having problems turning them on and off, here's some lines to cut and paste into your userstartup.cheat file:


alias m+ "moveObjects on" "Enables the ability to move normally unmovable objects" ""
alias m- "moveObjects off" "Disables the ability to move normally unmovable objects" ""

alias s- "boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false" "Lets you move objects off the grid" ""
alias s+ "boolProp snapObjectsToGrid true" "Makes objects snap to the grid" ""

alias f+ "boolprop constrainFloorElevation false" "Enables the ability to change terrain under buildings" ""
alias f- "boolprop constrainFloorElevation true" "Disables the ability to change terrain under buildings" ""

alias t+ "boolprop testingCheatsEnabled true" "Enables a lot of hidden features" ""
alias t- "boolprop testingCheatsEnabled false" "Disables a lot of hidden features" ""

alias l+ "boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled false" "Allow all building tools in dorms" ""
alias l- "boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled true" "Disables some dorm building tools (default)" ""

alias r+ "boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true" "Allow 45 degree rotation" ""
alias r- "boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation false" "Disallow 45 degree rotation" ""

[miramis]

Rainbow, do you know if there are any conflicts with JMP's work and the DMATeleport?

[RainbowTigress]

Rainbow, do you know if there are any conflicts with JMP's work and the DMATeleport?

No, I wouldn't think so since it's a separate object.  I haven't noticed any conflicts. 

I also like the Autogreet, so I can invite sims over without having my sim stand around to make sure to greet them before they run off.  They get greeted and come on in while my sim can be taking a shower or fixing dinner while they wait.  This can be disabled on a per-lot-basis if you don't like it.  Autogreet does not work for the Headmaster, which is good.

[witch]

If you turn 'testingCheatsEnabled true' on while you're in a lot, you won't get it. You will need to exit and re-enter either the same lot or another lot.

Not true. Some features (such as movable motive bars) only work if you do that, but if you type the code right, most of the features take effect immediately.

Quite true in fact. My testing cheats won't work by enabling them whilst in a lot, only if I enter a lot after I have turned them on. I'm referring specifically to the debug mode. MoveObjects and so on work fine without having to enter the lot again.

Since you seem to be having problems turning them on and off, here's some lines to cut and paste into your userstartup.cheat file:

Thanks, I have a userstartup file full of alias's (plural for alias?!?), I can add quite a few extras to your list if you are interested.

[RainbowTigress]

alias's (plural for alias?!?)

That would be 'aliases'.    Sorry, English was my favorite subject.

[witch]

cheers rainbow.

I have the same problem with viruses for some reason. 

[RainbowTigress]

Well, the general rule is that to make a word ending in 's' plural, you add 'es'.  An apostrophe 's' indicates possession. 

I love aliases!  They make it so much easier to turn moveobjects on and off.  I get so impatient sometimes.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Wouldn't be so bad havein to type it if it wasn't for the darned "_" which I frequently mis-type as "-"!!!