Don't they play their own game???

[Jysudo]

Another issue is that if a ReNu You Senso Orb is on your lot, it won't load in your hood or Uni.

That essentially takes 90% of my families out of play. Maybe more.

So far my "gamplay" tonight  has consisted of waiting for the game to load, waiting for a lot to load, alt-tabbing out when it doesn't load, shutting down w/task manager, then doing it all over again.

SO that's what was causing my lots to refuse to load!

I was fixing it by moving the family out and back in again.

Try Jfade method below :
Turn on boolprop testingcheatsenabled true at the neighborhood screen.
Load the lot that normally freezes for you.
Click delete when the object error comes up. (May happen more than once.)
After you click delete on all object errors, it should load the lot just fine, you can save and turn off the boolprop testingcheatsenabled true cheat and enjoy your game, and the loading problem shouldn't happen again.

[miramis]

Hmmm.  So, just to recap, because I'm getting OFB tommorow if at all possible.

1.  Don't use cars to go to community lots.  Use the taxi.  (Does this include all community lots?  Or just the new ones in the new sub-neighborhood?)

2.  Don't have Renyu-U-Senso orbs on your lot.  (Which won't be a problem because 99% of the time I delete them right after I use them.)

From the sound of it these are the biggest bugs yet to hit this game.  I wouldn't be surprised if this patch comes out really fast.

The problem with the ReNuYu is if they were on a lot saved prior to installing OFB.  Any orbs placed on the lots after installing OFB should not cause a problem, at least this is what was reported by some players who were among the first to narrow the problem down to ReNuYu. 

I'm still not sure if the Car problem is the same as the saving at a community business problem.  I'm kind of afraid to try saving at a comm-business.

But in regards to the original topic, I am pleased with what appears to be a reformed attitude by EA/Maxis.  The second Nightlife patch surprised the heck out of me, and I'm sure the issues that patch caused (lmao!) will be addressed around the same time as the OFB 1st patch.  The increase in feedback on the bbs by MaxoidKane on behalf of the team is surprising, and not at all unwelcome.  This is how it should be :-)

[Motoki]

I had the same thing too, ThyGuy, but I figured it's just 'cause I don't know what I'm doing quite yet.

LOL me too! Then I figured out you have to actually put the items up for sale. And for a while after that, I wondered why I was losing money until I realized I wasn't buying at wholesale. 

[ZiggyDoodle]

Thanks for the info on the debugging tool; I've gone through my 12 families and deleted the orb.  There is also a problem with a "computer game/video player" but I've no idea which one it is.

However, if the orb is in the inventory of a Sims, the lot will load fine.

I did notice that if your play on a particular lot ended during a school/work schedule, all of your Sims are going to be at home, not at work or at school.  I sent my Sim to work and she was reprimanded for being late - even though she was at work when I exited that lot.  Am guessing the grades will drop for the kids who "missed" school because of the EP install.

So if you haven't installed the EP yet, you may want to get everyone home from school and work first.

[simmiecal]

I did notice that if your play on a particular lot ended during a school/work schedule, all of your Sims are going to be at home, not at work or at school.  I sent my Sim to work and she was reprimanded for being late - even though she was at work when I exited that lot.  Am guessing the grades will drop for the kids who "missed" school because of the EP install.

So if you haven't installed the EP yet, you may want to get everyone home from school and work first.

This happens for every expansion installation. A good thing before installing an installation (if this sort of thing bothers you) is to make sure that all sims are home and no visitors are on the lot when you save. I like to go to each lot, get each one into bed and asleep and then save just before "morning". That way when the lot refreshes after the installation of the expansion, they are more or less where they would have been in their normal routine.

[Swiftgold]

I did notice that if your play on a particular lot ended during a school/work schedule, all of your Sims are going to be at home, not at work or at school.  I sent my Sim to work and she was reprimanded for being late - even though she was at work when I exited that lot.  Am guessing the grades will drop for the kids who "missed" school because of the EP install.

So if you haven't installed the EP yet, you may want to get everyone home from school and work first.

This happens for every expansion installation. A good thing before installing an installation (if this sort of thing bothers you) is to make sure that all sims are home and no visitors are on the lot when you save. I like to go to each lot, get each one into bed and asleep and then save just before "morning". That way when the lot refreshes after the installation of the expansion, they are more or less where they would have been in their normal routine.

Heh, a couple of my Sim kids got their first Ds because of various popping back after NL installation (though I think there must have been some other reason, too, because it happened more than once). It's so easy to get them As, I kinda liked it

[ZiggyDoodle]

I like to go to each lot, get each one into bed and asleep and then save just before "morning". That way when the lot refreshes after the installation of the expansion, they are more or less where they would have been in their normal routine.

Alas, I remember that only after I've installed each EP [smacking forehead].  Luckily, most of my families were in bed this time around.  One of the exceptions was Erik Swain, who happened to be taking a shower pre EP and now can be seen totally in the buff - no censor.     Got to capture that in a photo before I release the pause button.

Another oddity I discovered is that any photobooth pix that may have been on a wall is face down on the floor and if rehung, there are no characters but rather a metallic blue that flashes. 

Maybe I'll open a gallery and sell them for big bucks as kinetic art.

[trancejeremy]

While Maxis does have a deadline, there was actually an extra cushion between when the game when gold and when it was released.

It went gold on the 14th, and was released 2 1/2 weeks later.  It only takes about a week to make the game and box it.

So basically they could have worked on it for another week to 10 days or so.  Which is perhaps not a lot, but enough to have caught the Orb problem at least, which was found and diagnosed almost immediately by fans.

[speedreader]

So, I can't drive my car to my business and I can't take a taxi to downtown.  Interesting. 

So far I haven't had any issues with driving owned cars to owned businesses.  But within days of loading NL I discovered that if my Sims took a taxi to downtown when they left instead of loading their homes the game reloaded the downtown lot in a mode like buy or build, without those tabs enabled.  I could exit and go to my Sims lot and all was okay.  If they drove their own vehicle all was well.  I hoped that with OFB that would be all fixed, but it isn't.  Does anyone know what is going on?  I should maybe do a search, eh?

[anyeone]

You know, I have a hard time reading posts like these about Maxis "stupidity". I'm not in bed with Maxis, but I appreciate their hard work. I wonder if people who actually DO software development for a living have the same response.

I do, that's my job.  If I released a product with the stability issues that most of the Sims expansions have had, I'd have been fired long ago.  Some bugs are inevitable but a bunch of the bugs that people have reported are what we call show-stoppers.  A product shouldn't go gold with showstoppers in it.  Period.

That said, I also know that much of the time it is higher-ups that would make the decision to release the product in that condition.  So the blame probably rests on management rather than the developers.  Given the infamous way EA treats its employees, it wouldn't surprise me that they impose unreasonable deadlines and don't give a shit whether the product they're releasing is ready for prime time.

Luckily my employers have a lot more ethics than that.

[Shivani]

I worked in QA for a number of years for a company that wrote and sold anti-virus software.  Every last dinky bug we entered into the database was reviewed and assigned a priority, and you could be damn sure no new builds went out that contained showstoppers (though, things were more lax for beta builds, since our external testers knew what they were getting).

I remember working around the clock at times, waiting for the next build to hit the server so we could test, test, and retest all over again, and finally getting a gold master set and us being told to go home.

I think the worst problem I ever ran into during those years was a constant refrain from our programmers of, "But it works on my machine."

Still, I think EA/Maxis really needs to shape up a bit.  I don't know if it's EA that's the real problem, or what, but it's sad to see such glaringly horrific bugs make it into a release build of a product--bugs that even the most lacking of users can replicate on demand.

On the other hand, having been used to years of my old Win 98 machine spontaneously rebooting and simply having got used to it, sometimes I think I'm just too laid back when it comes to bugs.  I know someone out there, either Maxis or a modder, is going to fix it for me, so I just don't usually sweat it.

[skandelouslala]

I didn't realize the orb problem...that explains some of my lots.  Will have to remember to load each lot in debug until I reenter them all again.

Also didn't realize the buy wholesale thing...heh heh..good to know..maybe some of my sims will MAKE money now lol

Anyways..no I don't think they test the game out well at all.  But we got through this with every EP.  It obviously isn't going to change anytime soon.  Unless you make the entire community and it's millions of players band together and refuse to purchase the thing until we're somehow 100% certain Maxis is going to release an un-buggy product..haha...yeah right.

The whole taking cars to the community lots I have experienced no problems with..but then again I am also not saving on the community lots.  This seems like a dumb feature to me anyways..but that's another story 

[anyeone]

I think the worst problem I ever ran into during those years was a constant refrain from our programmers of, "But it works on my machine."

Heh, I know I've said that a time or two - it's the defensive reaction when you see a bug that shouldn't have made it through unit testing.  But often times (esp. with web based applications like the ones I build these days) there are configuration issues on the test web server that don't get updated properly or with traditional desktop apps like games, the testing needs to be on multiple operating systems and on non-"clean" machines as well as freshly ghosted ones, and also on different hardware as the Civ IV video card debacle proved last year.

[Shivani]

Heh, I know I've said that a time or two - it's the defensive reaction when you see a bug that shouldn't have made it through unit testing.  But often times (esp. with web based applications like the ones I build these days) there are configuration issues on the test web server that don't get updated properly or with traditional desktop apps like games, the testing needs to be on multiple operating systems and on non-"clean" machines as well as freshly ghosted ones, and also on different hardware as the Civ IV video card debacle proved last year.

Oh, I know.  We had a wiley bunch of programmers.

We had a complete network of machines set up with multiple servers, and our machines were set up (I had several on my desk) with removable drives, so I could yank out Windows 98 and put in Win XP (in German, French, etc.).  Gah, installing Windows in a foreign language was not my idea of fun, never mind testing the software in it.  We only ever rebuilt those if the hard drive died on us or something else happened to make the install unusable.

It's a bit different when we're talking about games though, I understand.

I used to take great delight in having a gaggle of programmers clustered around my workspace so I could show them exactly how to replicate a bug.  Fun a lot of the time, but frustrating too.

In contrast, the job I had doing support (which morphed into testing as well) involved a single programmer who I sat down with once a day with a list of issues reported by our customers.  He was an amazing guy.  Always listened, never gave anyone grief, always assumed it could be done if I showed up with a problem, and then proceeded to fix it.  I really liked him.

[J. M. Pescado]

I think the worst problem I ever ran into during those years was a constant refrain from our programmers of, "But it works on my machine."

Well, that's the thing: If the programmer cannot reproduce the bug, it becomes that much more difficult to track. Although it certainly may exist, and not simply be some kind of user error, it's harder to pin it down if you can't watch it happen. This is why we like exact steps of how you caused it.

[Shivani]

Well, that's the thing: If the programmer cannot reproduce the bug, it becomes that much more difficult to track. Although it certainly may exist, and not simply be some kind of user error, it's harder to pin it down if you can't watch it happen. This is why we like exact steps of how you caused it.

Yup, but as anyeone said, sometimes it's a defensive reaction.  Then they'd give me a coy smile and act all innocent.