Submit Issues about Nightlife

[witch]

Thanks sanmonroe, interesting information. As a player option 3 is definitely the one that would buy my customer loyalty. Plus the company gets a better product, as no-one knows a game like the players. Win-win all round.

Perhaps he's left this site out of loyalty to the users of his own BBS who have been shamelessly slandered here?  I think it's really ugly, and if saying that loses me friends I'll have to cope with it.

I find the concept of that forum rather ironic.

I have commented before on the irony of the contributors, to the aptly named forum, being self-selecting. 
I think it is ugly too Inge.

[simmiecal]

Thanks sanmonroe, interesting information. As a player option 3 is definitely the one that would buy my customer loyalty. Plus the company gets a better product, as no-one knows a game like the players. Win-win all round.

Yes, thanks sanmonroe. You expressed it better than I did. I've only been poking around the forums for the past few months, so if a Maxoid has been on non-EA boards previously, I missed it. I had (stupidly) thought EA might be going with a concept close to your #3 example.

[Inge]

Maxoid Tom has been posting at MTS2 for months

[nectere]

My one replicable issue (so far) is the case of the missing sims after asking for a love potion from the gypsy while on a blind date. My live button goes grey and my sim disappears. This has happened every time with the exception of the very first time I tried it in game, but that could be because I was on a community lot, all other instances have occurred on home lots. If I save the sim becomes completely corrupted and continues to disappear intermittently until I move them to another city within the neighborhood (i.e. uni, downtown or the main hood), if I exit without saving I can salvage the sim to the prior state...which could be hours old.

The only other oddity I have found thus far is grand vampires often show up as the blind date, but never bites. The date goes great, makes friends with the sim, then the vampire scampers off at 6:00am never to be heard or seen from again. You cannot call the grand vampires and they don't seem to show up in my game on any lots or in any of the sub neighborhoods. I do have one vampire townie that I have no idea how he got that way as he is not a townie in play, he is also never seen at night on any lot ever.

I am not sure if my issues are related to making custom clean (i.e. delete all current characters and generate new ones so I dont get the same canned core townie and npc characters) neighborhoods or not so I will be testing that theory next.

[Oddysey]

Sanmonroe, where do you come up with these insights? Your posts equal mine for sheer verbiosity--but it's actually interesting, rather than being random ramblings. A most impressive feat.

Any of those three options would be better than the current EA policy. The third does definitely sound the niftyest. I have heard of a company (off the top of my head, I think it's the half-life team. Valve? Not sure.) that actually invited a modding team to their headquarters to basically give them access to their development tools for the sequel to the game that the modders had made a bunch of stuff for. (Some Half Life mods, and those of similiar games, are basically seperate games that use the same graphics.) Roughly equivalent to Maxis saying to FFS "Hey, you've made a lot of awesome stuff for our game, how about we show you how to use Edith?"

[MaxoidTom]

After the Sims 2 shipped, I volunteered to be the software engineering liason to the modding community.  My original charter was for that purpose--to support the technical members in the community that came up with the tools to enable game customization and make sure that it would work happily with the game and not cause problems for end users.  We love seeing recolors, new meshes, etc.  It shows how creative the community can be--the Sims 2 is a sandbox to enable such creativity.

As of late, I have been fielding bug reports and interacting with the community mainly because I want everyone to enjoy Nightlife and the Sims 2.  We have resolved some good issues this way, but the size of the community by far dwarfs my ability to keep up with it.  That's why I requested for the Nightlife issues form be posted, so that we could gather information and deal with it in a more organized fashion.  As Pescado has complained about, my time spent here is time spent away from coding and fixing issues.  I did find time to visit more often to respond to issues earlier on when Nightlife shipped, simply because I wanted to make sure that we caught the biggest things Sims 2 users were having problems with.  However, time to do so in the immediate future will probably be more elusive as my priorities shift.

We (Maxis) are working on being more communicative with the community as a whole.  We do have some dedicated people on the official website, as well as the volunteer SimMasters.  The perceived lack of communication may stem from the fact that things are not set in stone and we do not want to make a promise or give a statement we cannot fulfill.  The community has a very good memory (weather anyone?) and is very vocal about such things.  Still, I do believe that more open and honest communication is the way to go.  Though it may take some time, we are trying.

[nectere]

While I appreciate your efforts I can only speak for myself in saying that going to the official website is painful on so many levels. It is huge, clunky and very slow - not everyone has broadband (or wants it). Posting on the bbs about any technical issues draws out a rash of snotty self important children that chant the same mantra over and over, "Maxis is god and how dare you speak about such things", or my favorite, "well if you didn't have custom content you would'nt have these problems", and the ever popular standard "If you have so many issues with the Sims just don't play and take it off your computer"…

Of course I personally have never bothered to post (about issues) because I have learned from everyone else; the official site/bbs is not a place to go for legitimate discussion on issues (or anything else for that matter). End of story. Taking steps to improve those issues would be greatly appreciated as well.

[syberspunk]

I also want to throw my 2 cents in the hat and offer thanks for all your dedicated efforts MaxoidTom. I think it's fantastic that you took the time to addresss our concerns and issues, and hopefully you, or someone at least, will be able to do so each time a new EP comes out. I think the most crucial period is in the first few weeks/months of releasing a new EP that the community experiences an uproar over new "features" and bugs. The response is both good in bad over improvements and unforeseen issues that come up which may have unfortunately not been caught in time before a new EP is released. I think it's great that Maxis has made an effort to actually listen to its customers about these issues. I think the biggest problem is receiving placating or patronizing responses which feel condescending at best, insulting at worst.

Anyways, thanks again for everything you've done thus far and hope that you continue to provide the wonderful contact and support you have, schedule permitting of course. I think after getting past and catching the more flagrant, critical bugs, the community tends to settle down again, and starts to focus on more creative, personal tweaks and "fixes" for adjusting gameplay tailored towards individual tastes, and that is something I definately look forward to.

Ste

[MsMaria]

I have an issue where someone will call my sim to go downtown, the taxi comes, the sim gets in, the downtown screen loads but when downtown shows up it is in build/buy mode and there is no sim/taxi in sight.

I have to go back to the neighborhood. The sim is there on the lot, getting out of the taxi as if he has been downtown and his "outing meter" is still running.

Thanks, Maxoid Tom

[witch]

Maxoid Tom, I also appreciate the fact that Maxis have decided to be more communicative, I hope you're enjoying your time on the forums as well. Interesting you are still referring to 'Maxis' as your employer, I'd like to see Maxis survive as an entity.

Any dates on the patch(es) release? I think for many people that will be evidence of Maxis putting their money where their mouth is.

Ditto on the official sims2 site, it's an assault on the senses. I even hate the little whoot whoot noise every time a menu option is moused over. When I had a modem, load times and access were excruciating. Don't suppose you could develop a hidden part of the site, where grownup players could crack a code to enter? No? Oh well. Seriously, the forum/board format is rubbish, non-intuitive, difficult to navigate and ugly. (IMHO ) Basically I just don't go there.

Anyway, hope we keep seeing you round these parts, good on ya!

[MaxoidTom]

I have an issue where someone will call my sim to go downtown, the taxi comes, the sim gets in, the downtown screen loads but when downtown shows up it is in build/buy mode and there is no sim/taxi in sight.

I have to go back to the neighborhood. The sim is there on the lot, getting out of the taxi as if he has been downtown and his "outing meter" is still running.

Thanks, Maxoid Tom

I believe we've fixed some of these issues in the NL patch, but please submit these using for form I referenced at the beginning of this thread.

[MaxoidTom]

Maxoid Tom, I also appreciate the fact that Maxis have decided to be more communicative, I hope you're enjoying your time on the forums as well. Interesting you are still referring to 'Maxis' as your employer, I'd like to see Maxis survive as an entity.

Any dates on the patch(es) release? I think for many people that will be evidence of Maxis putting their money where their mouth is.

Ditto on the official sims2 site, it's an assault on the senses. I even hate the little whoot whoot noise every time a menu option is moused over. When I had a modem, load times and access were excruciating. Don't suppose you could develop a hidden part of the site, where grownup players could crack a code to enter? No? Oh well. Seriously, the forum/board format is rubbish, non-intuitive, difficult to navigate and ugly. (IMHO ) Basically I just don't go there.

Anyway, hope we keep seeing you round these parts, good on ya!

There is no firm date yet.  The patches are undergoing testing and hopefully will be out soon <crossing fingers>.

[Brynne]

Perhaps he's left this site out of loyalty to the users of his own BBS who have been shamelessly slandered here?  I think it's really ugly, and if saying that loses me friends I'll have to cope with it.

I find the concept of that forum rather ironic.

I have commented before on the irony of the contributors, to the aptly named forum, being self-selecting. 
I think it is ugly too Inge.

I'm in total agreement with you guys, there. Glad you're mentioning it. I was wondering if I was the only one who felt that way!

I've read this posted elsewhere, but I'm having problems with cars being unavailable for use on downtown lots. I have to have my sims call a taxi to get home, then use boolProp to delete the car out of the way of the cab, otherwise the cab will remain honking forever. The sim always arrives home in his car, though.

And on the subject of uncancellable actions, is it just me, or is the karaoke action uncancellable if you don't get to it in time? If a sim autonomously sets his mind to singing karaoke, there's no way to stop it once it's begun. He has to go through the whole routine.

[witch]

I'm in total agreement with you guys, there. Glad you're mentioning it. I was wondering if I was the only one who felt that way!

Shadenfreude.

The glow and shadow buttons don't appear to work for me.

[Brynne]

I'm in total agreement with you guys, there. Glad you're mentioning it. I was wondering if I was the only one who felt that way!

Shadenfreude.

I had to google that, LOL
Shadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others

Agreed.

[MsMaria]

I have an issue where someone will call my sim to go downtown, the taxi comes, the sim gets in, the downtown screen loads but when downtown shows up it is in build/buy mode and there is no sim/taxi in sight.

I have to go back to the neighborhood. The sim is there on the lot, getting out of the taxi as if he has been downtown and his "outing meter" is still running.

Thanks, Maxoid Tom

I believe we've fixed some of these issues in the NL patch, but please submit these using for form I referenced at the beginning of this thread.

Thanks again, will do. 

[sanmonroe]

Sanmonroe, where do you come up with these insights? Your posts equal mine for sheer verbiosity--but it's actually interesting, rather than being random ramblings. A most impressive feat.

Alcohol + years and years of following game development + years and years of being dissapointed.

[Bane~Child]

I had to google that, LOL
Shadenfreude: Pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others

Agreed.

Love it!  That should become the new name for Retardo Land.

[Bane~Child]

Before NL, lots with missing terrain paints wouldn't package or load at all, the game would crash. I have NL and was installing lots with all custom content removed (I wasn't really paying attention to what the CC was, I just wanted clean lots) and those with missing terrain paints would load like any other lot. However, the areas that were supposed to have the missing terrain paint would flash blue. There was no way to cover the blue with another terrain paint, it would only paint below the blue and not on top. I didn't see a place to include anything other than a dxdiag log on the submission form and I don't know if this pic is helpful in any way, but this is what a lot looks like with missing paint.

I always had the problem of removing a pool and the water tiles remaining behind.  I had to lay another floor tile on top of them and then delete it in order to remove the 'water'.

While I'm here, I have this weird display issue with lot thumbnails. This has happened ever since I got TS2 and I think it's just a cosmetic issue, but I was wondering if there is an explanation or if this happens to anyone else. Whenever I go into an uninhabited lot and edit it, when I save the thumbnail updates with this red streak along the right side. It almost always happens with community lots and is about 50/50 with residential lots. I don't have any problems with the lots themselves, the thumbnails are just wonky.

Sorry, I have never had this happen, nor have I seen it mentioned before.

[Bane~Child]

I think it all started when he bought some love potion...

I read over at MTS2 that there was a bug with love potion 8.5 (?)

[Bane~Child]

Maxoid Tom has been posting at MTS2 for months

Yes, he's been quite helpful there, too.  I think he's spreading himself pretty thin.

[witch]

I think it all started when he bought some love potion...

I read over at MTS2 that there was a bug with love potion 8.5 (?)

MaxoidTom said on this site somewhere, that if your sim doesn't really want the potion, don't force them to drink it, it causes the sim to disappear.

[SJActress]

Shadenfreude.

witch, you've been watching the Simpsons WAY too much! 

[nectere]

I think it all started when he bought some love potion...

I read over at MTS2 that there was a bug with love potion 8.5 (?)

MaxoidTom said on this site somewhere, that if your sim doesn't really want the potion, don't force them to drink it, it causes the sim to disappear.

I didnt force the sim to drink it, the first time several actions cued up automatically, including drink potion, bleh and be blehed - although there were no vampire anywhere. After that the sim continued to disappear randomly on this lot even after exiting and restarting the game. I finally moved him to another lot and it continued to happen, then I moved him to a dorm and he was able to finally hang around long enough to finish college. (YA at uni) He seems fine now in the main hood, although he still has potion in his inventory.

The second sim I experiemented with simply was cued to buy the potion (by me), although no potion buying ever took place, she just up and disappeared. I exited and didnt save and she seemed fine after that (adult in main hood).

I tested other random combinations with other sims at home and at community lots, it seems that home potion drinking is not allowed, it worked without issue (for me) on community lots. I should also mention I didnt get the auto cueing at community lots like I did on home lots.

I just dl the newest SimPE QA today so I will start poking around this weekend and see if I can break some more stuff....

[kewian]

I only noticed this issue happening when I installed Nightlife.  I developed the remote car=no icon,blank memory, no announcement of promotion or no teenage listing of job  bug. I found a fix on the Sims2 site but I had to reinstall because in my (not the game folder) nightlife files there was no object manager file to paste into the ts data and when I reinstalled it still wasnt there-is that normal? (( I have since reinstalled 2 more times due to  an error with clicking on sims and nothing happening and then when I added a previous sims 2 folder  back onto my computer and having that EVIL NASTY remote car from hell on a lot))  Its playing fine now but I heard it will come back.  It isnt devestating but I do want to know about promotions and to see what they are thinking.