Service NPC Generator Fix for Pets p0 *CRITICAL*

[J. M. Pescado]

Sometimes I wonder whether this expansion is supposed to be about PETS, or whether they meant PESTS, because there's more bugs than an Ethiopian outhouse!


petsp0-servicecallfix.zip

Service Call Fix for TS2PETSp0
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado)

Special Thanks To:
Hobbsee the Scrawny Pencil Neck
Fat, Hairy-Bellied Ness

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.

FEATURES:
Fixes error when game tries to generate a service NPC called from the old
pre-Pets service-calls that were passing Stack Object instead of species.

COMPATIBILITY:
Compatible with all FFS hacks. For TS2PETSp0.

SIDE EFFECTS:
May cause computer damage, incontinence, explosion of user's head, coma, death,
and/or halitosis.

WARNING:
Do not open, crush, dispose of in fire, put in backwards, short-circuit, or mix
with non-awesome hacks - may explode, leak, or catch fire, resulting in injury
and/or death.

[TheCheat]

Another bug stomped...but the number of bugs this game really has isn't a machine-size real number!

Speaking of bugs, I find it funny that Maxis can't even spell "Glamour" correctly. When you use "boolprop showcatalogepflags true," GLS items show as "The Sims 2 Gamour Life." Does Maxis even have a Quality Assurance department?

[jrd]

Maxis did, EA doesn't

[J. M. Pescado]

Speaking of bugs, I find it funny that Maxis can't even spell "Glamour" correctly. When you use "boolprop showcatalogepflags true," GLS items show as "The Sims 2 Gamour Life." Does Maxis even have a Quality Assurance department?

To be fair, you're never supposed to actually see that and probably neither does QA. The more fascinating typos can be found inside the code, like the call to a LUA script for a "Randon" something-or-other. I am not certain whether the script name is actually typoed as well, resulting in a situation where two wrongs somehow make a right, or whether it's actually broken.

[V]

Would this be fixing the problem I had when my Sim tried to interact with the animal control guy and he ended up stuck on her lawn in the "I'm driving away" position until I finally had to reload that lot without saving?

[FatedCircle]

I assume this will fix the problem I had where in my old pre-Pets neighborhoods, I got an error whenever I tried to call for non-pets related service NPCs (saying something about an "invalid species")?  If so...thanks! 

[J. M. Pescado]

Would this be fixing the problem I had when my Sim tried to interact with the animal control guy and he ended up stuck on her lawn in the "I'm driving away" position until I finally had to reload that lot without saving?

Pretty sure that's an unrelated Vtuggle problem.

I assume this will fix the problem I had where in my old pre-Pets neighborhoods, I got an error whenever I tried to call for non-pets related service NPCs (saying something about an "invalid species")?  If so...thanks! 

If you've updated antiredundancy (or aren't using it), then yes, this should fix that problem.

[LadyCrimsonSkye]

Where is this "Antiredundancy", and if I have installed this particularly piece of awesomeness, do I need it in my game?   

[Fish Dude]

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/pets/hacks/

Look in there.

[Hegelian]

Is this fix still required for the current Pets patch (which I assume is P2)?


NECROMANCY IS BAD, M'KAY?



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Unless you're sure you want to reply, please consider starting a new topic.

[notveryawesome]

I was wondering this too. And will it still be necessary once I install Seasons or later EPs?

[Emma]

Well, the fix is in the Seasons directory and I also have it in my hacks folder so I am guessing it is still required.

[J. M. Pescado]

I was wondering this too. And will it still be necessary once I install Seasons or later EPs?

It didn't scan as changed, so it doesn't hurt. Feel free to try taking it out and letting me know if it errors.

[notveryawesome]

Well, my main question was, is this fix necessary even after installing the second Pets patch? If the problem was fixed by the patch, I assume I no longer need this fix. If it wasn't fixed by the patch, then I assume your fix is still necessary. Some clarification on this would be helpful.

[MissDoh]

For what its worth since I do not have the pet ep install anymore but I do have the seasons ep.

Since I install Seasons, I took this fix out.  Been playing Pleasantview in a fresh resetted game for a little while and I did not  encounter any problems so far with the service NPC.

Maid, gardener and repairman are always coming when I schedule them too and I did not got any pop-up error so far.  They would be hard to miss since I play with the testing cheat at on all the time.

What kind of error am I suppose to experience anyway?  I do not quite understand the problem.

[jrd]

In a clean neighbourhood (no Sims at all), the NPC generator is borked.
The first time you call a certain NPC, say a maid, the game has to generate it. This fails horribly.

If you play without clean templates, or pregenerate your NPCs using the tree or mailbox, you never encounter this bug.

[MissDoh]

Well I will create a hood this evening using the N001-bak rename method and report if it can be useful.

If not, I won't waste time doing that.

Edit:  Well I did what I mention above for my personal knowledge and even deleted my diownloads folder to make sure nothing would be in the way.  I did not had any errors at all, the service NPC where in time and created without any error pop-up.  I don't know if the fact I do not have the Pet ep can make any difference but I do have the Seasons ep install.  For now, I see no reasons to add this fix in my game unless someone can show me my test was no good at all.

[jrd]

Well the code hasn't been fixed since Pets, so likely the bug exists still.

If you want to test this, take the mod out, make sure you begin a clean neighbourhood (no Sim character files should exist after creating it), then create a Sim and call the maid. If you get an error, the bug still exists.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I checked my hacks, and I don't have it in.  I have had no problem calling for a maid etc, but since I do have the antiredundancy hack, it's always the same one, but never any problem with any service npcs arriving and doing their job.

[jrd]

As mentioned, the problem only exists if you have zero of a certain NPC. The only way to get to this point is by starting from scratch.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I did!

[MissDoh]

If you want to test this, take the mod out, make sure you begin a clean neighbourhood (no Sim character files should exist after creating it), then create a Sim and call the maid. If you get an error, the bug still exists.

Jordi, if you read my Edit note I already done this:

Well I will create a hood this evening using the N001-bak rename method and report if it can be useful.

If not, I won't waste time doing that.

Edit:  Well I did what I mention above for my personal knowledge and even deleted my diownloads folder to make sure nothing would be in the way.  I did not had any errors at all, the service NPC where in time and created without any error pop-up.  I don't know if the fact I do not have the Pet ep can make any difference but I do have the Seasons ep install.  For now, I see no reasons to add this fix in my game unless someone can show me my test was no good at all.

By renaming the N001-bak no characters were created at all and I already said I removed all my mods (delete my downloads folder completely) so it looks like the bugs does not exist anymore in Seasons.

[jrd]

Ask JMP then.
I checked the code, and the code has not changed between Pets p0 and Seasons p3. So provided the game code caused the problem, the fix should still be needed. I'm too lazy to test it myself in greater detail

[MissDoh]

I am sure he will read this post 

I made 2 characters in CAS and place them in 2 differents lots.

2 paperboy
2 maid
2 postman
2 gardener
1 repairman
2 carpool driver
1 passerby
2 gypsy
1 cludb gardener

Were all created without any error pops-up.  I played each of them for 2 days.  Looks like they change another code to fix that.

[J. M. Pescado]

This is a possibility, as the trap for the bug is placed at a higher level, since it was an endemic problem in many places. Instead of trying to hunt down and patch every instance, I instead installed a detector for bad input, and if the input was found to be bad, correct it.