More Awesome Than You!

Actually, it seems that several items that used to be available in more than one colour now are only available in one colour. The first one was the expensive bed... different beddings are available, different frames? No longer there. Same thing for this "make-up table" (don´t know the english word), one of the more expensive windows and a lamp.
It is this way with or without downloads, with or without CEP and even after a complete re-install. In fact, the window lost the colour options only after the re-install...
Oh, and I am not talking of something I downloaded but of Maxis originals.
What can I possibly have done to make this happen? Is this a bug?

Is custom content enabled?

It is enabled. I am not only missing custom content but I am missing the Maxis original recolours. (EG.: I am absolutely sure the bed came with 3 different frame colours - I did not download any - but as of today, I can only have one)

Do you have the latest version of CEP?

Yes I do. But I shouldn´t need, as I am missing stuff that came with the game. I am really talking about things Maxis created and gave us with the CD, not downloaded custom content or stuff from the BBS.

Did you try replacing your objects.package file?

Does it get replaced when I re-install the game? I have done that, and it didn´t help.
How else can I replace it?
(Thanks for your help, I am starting to get really confused of the things this game is doing...)

Anytime you install an expansion it will install a new objects.package. There are some bugs (remote control car, Mrs. Crumplebottom being bitten by a vampire etc) that can corrupt that file. It's on your CD in a file called compressed.zip. For Nightlife it is on CD #2. It's important that you replace the objects.package from the most recent expansion, if any, that you have. So if you have NL, get it from the NL CD and copy it to Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2 Nightlife/TSData/Res/Objects and if you have University but no NL copy it from the University CD to Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2 University/TSData/Res/Objects if you have just the base game copy it from the TS2 CD (not sure which one it's on since I have the DVD) to Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2/TSData/Res/Objects

If you have or want the latest patch for whichever version you are running you will also want to install the patch again (hopefully it will let you) as the patches also do update the objects.package files and fix some things. Once you've installed the latest patch for whichever version you are running, I would make a backup of the newly patched objects.package file in case you have problems in the future and then also set the one in the game's directory to read-only as this should hopefully prevent any further corruption of that file.

If all this is too much for you (it sounds a lot more complicated than it is) then you can always backup your neighborhood files and do a clean install but it really is much easier to just copy the file over.

Thanks a lot for the description, it really helped so much.
I did replace the object file which gave me back colour options for the bed and window, did another clean install...but
no Lamp colours, no colours for this make-up table (what´s the english word anyway?). But as for the lamp, I found a fix from Numenor at MTS.
Now, if anyone knows about a fix for that table, I´d love to know because I used to like that piece of furniture.

There normally aren't alternate colors for the makeup table, or are you saying you have custom recolors and they are not showing up? I know Maxis only made it in one color, but it is included in CEP and if you have CEP any custom recolors you have downloaded for it should show up.

It didn´t come with more than one colour? I was sure it did.
Then this is just a problem of custom stuff not showing up
which shouldn´t be too bad. Maybe I just download it
again and try that.
I´m still wondering about the lamp thing though...
too bad Numenor wouldn´t explain what causes the Maxis colours not to show up anymore.

I'm positive the university makeup table only came with one color from Maxis because I remember being dissappointed by that. But then other people made recolors so it's not so bad. :) I know Numenor talked about the problem in the files for that lamp and had the fix for it, but last time I checked he said the fix was no longer needed as the latest CEP version is supposed to fix that now.

I can also confirm that the vanity came with 1 color only.