More Awesome Than You!

Just seen on the official site under Freetime that EA have admitted to a cock up

If your sim has sewn the gold badge custom clothes it changes the skins file in game and the patch cannot install because of that and henceforth the message to uninstall and reinstall freetime when patching

Obviously they didnt test the patch installation but is this a first by them to admit fricking it up

My patch loaded just fine.  I suppose it was a good thing my only sim who had a gold sewing badge died before the patch came out. 

Oh noes can this be!? Yep, it's true.

http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=af0e6c010e9a5076852043768446ffc2&directoryID=217&startRow=1&openItemID=item.217,root.1,item.43,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23

How funny is that? They only bother testing when there is a problem. Or rather, the QA team didn't do jack shizzle and left it up to the programmers to track it down.

In my experience very few so-called testers actually test let alone give feedback.  I have a handful or less of communicative reliable people to test my hacks, and the rest just want to download the stuff and go off and whinge on other sites if it doesn't work.

I wonder what would happen if we made skins.package readonly and our sim got a gold badge?  Would the game crash?

I have experienced both good and bad testing. When you have a proper dedicated test department with experienced testers it makes bugs much easier to track down. Of course that also assumes the team producing the code/content have provided detailed specs of expected behaviour for the QA team to test against. By this stage in the game EA will be far more interested in getting the product out the door than delivering something that is perfect; as time goes on the quality bar is lowered.

Why the hell should that matter? If you sign up to be a tester for something, you should fucking test it!

A number of things can interfere with proper testing.

I've worked with QA departments who saw themselves as adversaries to the development team.  Weird, I know, but it happens, and it makes proper testing nearly impossible.

I've worked with individual testers who were awful.  It's a low paid job, often on a contract rather than permanent basis, and as a result the people in QA often aren't very good.  Some are, of course.

I've worked with prima donna programmers who refuse to acknowledge bugs until you beat them around the head and shoulders.  As a programmer, this annoyed me no end.

Worst of all, sometimes management decides to force release before either QA or development thinks the game is ready.  There's just no defense against that.

 - Gus

I couldn't figure out why the patch kept getting an error at skins.package, but it makes sense now since I have made lots of clothes on the sewing machine. Either way, I'm not deleting my skins.package since I'd lose all those clothes. It seems like they should have caught this error in the first place since they programed the game. I mean, they made it so clothes made on the sewing machine saved to the Skins.package and they knew the patch won't work if the file size of any of the files it needs to update is different than after a fresh install. So how'd they not know this would happen?

See someone said ..oh we can make this work faster by saving these new skins to the skins.package. Then didn't tell QA.
QA probably only ever tested originally to see if "yes" the new clothes appeared on a gold badge. Probably by just giving a gold badge and trying to sew.
My hunch is that the QA at EA is outsourced. They probably get a list of "this is what we changed" with no additional information about what those changes may or may not hook into. Why would the testers need to know that?!? If they knew the "details" they would be developers right?

The "darn" testers only need to know what to test and test it. The direct result of this thinking is exactly what we see here. I would bet they never tested the patch on a game that had been running in process to have multiple long term families. Who wants to lay bets that they often use a testing environment. Possibly half the game, one lot. They can only test whatever is to be tested at that moment in time. I can also guess that if they spend time messing around doing things other than what they are to test they get in trouble.

Gold badging a sim, making clothes then testing the patch is not obvious. The number crunchers may never have thought about testing it.

Am I wrong, but I thought that making custom clothes was silver badge thing. Am I not remembering right?

Not to mention that no one ever bothered to tell the new programmers that it's usually not a good idea to modify system files -- that's what the 'My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2' directory is for.

Soo true Jsalemi..

and Jelenedra--
to be honest no idea, if it is silver or gold. I haven't gotten a sim that high in sewing yet. I was using the given examples in the thread of gold badge level.

I can't remember, I don't THINK my sim got the gold badge, but my memory is a bit shady sometimes. I do know I've been using him as a clothing tool. All the toddlers in the house grew up into nice clothes thanks to him.

I'm pretty sure you need the gold badge to make custom clothes (where you pick the colors or patterns for each part) and with only a silver badge you can only make the clothes (Maxis or downloaded) that you find in CAS and can buy for your sims. So instead of them buying clothes to add to the wardrobe, sims can just sew those same clothes for less money.

And this is why I haven't even ARRRed FT.

So, if that is all I have done, I should be okay without reinstalling?

At this rate, I fully expect TS3 will cause our computers to catch fire and explode.

Stop arguing and let's discuss what really matters. When will they get a new patch up and running?

Looks like someone ate his Wheaties this morning.  :D

I'm so glad I didn't install the patch the other day after I downloaded it. I don't need any more EA borkination.

Er, why are you asking this here? The modders here just fix whatever is borked by the patch, they don't make the patch itself.

Not only that, but I bet it breaks multi-user support.

Well speaking of updating files erroneously - what about all the data files?  When you play one hood, *every* hood file is touched.  I bet they're all read and saved back, which is probably why the game takes so long to unload after you've finished playing.

Yeah, I've never understood why the game needs to do that. It's just a waste right? Going back to The Sims 1 (yes I have a slight obsession with it at the moment, but for the right reasons), it only ever opened up the neighborhood you were using. You could go ahead with external editing programs (like IFF Pencil) in say Neighborhood 1 for example while the game was in Nhood 2. It's fantastic, trust me.

Idk. That's why I only put one Neighborhood folder in at a time. The rest just hibernate in MyDocs.

Good, at least it's not just me that's having that problem. The shutdown time with Vista isn't too bad, but for 2003 it was absolutely horrible. Took longer to close up and clean up than to actually start the game.

I need to start doing that...I really only play one 'hood at the time, but I keep the last couple abandoned ones around because I feel guilty (dumb, I know). Should just back them up and delete.

I'm not shocked that the so-called "patch" fucked something up.  However, how many other things has that usless piece of crap screwed up?  (This is making me glad I didn't buy FreeTime).

Laura

If you don't have the patch how does the gold sewing badge effect the game? I haven't downloaded it yet.  Will it bork my game if I have a sim with a gold badge make clothing without the patch?

From what I gather, if you have sims that use the gold sewing to make custom clothes in-game, when you save it overwrites a system file. That's what borkenating the patch. It tries to install, sees that the file isn't the same it should've been and coughs out. That's why they're telling people to reinstall, to set the skins2.package back to what it should be.

Actually, they've removed the patch from their web site.  Does this mean that the patch was worse than the unpatched game?

Thank you, Jelenedra I will keep my sims from getting a gold badge until there is a working fix. 

Oddly, before the patch I had had  a sim sew both custom clothing and regular clothing, but I had no problems installing the patch. However, there was something weird going on with the custom clothing (pre-batch): At first it showed up fine on the toddler it was made for, but later on it reverted to a regular Maxis outfit. Maybe in this case the custom outfit was not saved and therefore the system file was not modified? That would explain the lack of problems with patch installation.

You probably did the sensible thing and read-onlied your system files, so the game was not able to destroy them.

This is a freshly installed game on a new computer, and I don't remember making the files read only. I guess it was read only by some default setting, if that's possible. Otherwise I can't explain it. In either case, I'm not complaining  :P

So we have to reinstall?

We can't just delete skins.package and replace it with a clean one someone might like to upload?

You can retrieve it from your disk. No need to download it.

Re-installation is what they were recommending the BBSers to do, since EA probably doesn't thing that they're intelligent enough to grab said files from their installation discs.

Maybe EA has finally figured some of us don't HAVE installation discs  :P

Well, they're easy to lose when you don't want to use them... I once somehow lost my Pets discs for months, and I actually used them. ::) Couldn't play at all until the next pack came out. This was obviously before I thought of using a NoCD exe. Why would I ever need one of those? Heh.

(Of course, I have the ARRRfficial version of FT, so...)

You know, if it wasn't for securom.  I would have installation disks.  I was willing to pay for the games and paying for the  games till this securom thing happened.  I think it kind of backfired on them.  But I don't think that they are smart enough to realize that.

It's really weird to allow system files over-written when it's not for updating.

To ask people to reinstall is to fool those who still don't know they can get copy files directly from the disc but not those who know.  Maxis must have known some players not having the discs for a long long time by now.  They do know that speech trickery won't fool all the people but at least those people who happen not to know or think of.
From an another viewpoint, some people really think it's complicated to copy such file back into their game system files, Maxis' suggestion will still work for those people.

The simpler the process and the fewer step, the more people will know what to do and hence the less work to respond to enquirers.



As for the over-writing and system files....

Guess what, even if certain files in the custom folder are made read-only, such files will still be over-written in the next time the game saves.  So, somehow the game can undo the read-only attribute during processes.

So, a complete back-up of the custom folder is what I'm doing... I've  made a template for varied usages like building, testing, playing... They're all separate, I also trim away unless neiughbourhood as well as useless data (especially the space-eater jpg preview files, they can occupy the file size from 15-70% in my cases, and I don't share them in EAxis site) in lots to save the space and the loading time.  The lot folder size plunges down to ~25-30 MB from 100Mb.  the more lots you have the more it matters.

The stupid tutorial folder is yet annoyance coz we can't delete it in-game for a safe delete.  Need we that crap all the times?  They should provide a safe way to delete it easily and maybe a new copy-back from the template in the system files just in case one needs it back.
Well, I've nullified some of those anyhow without destroying the files structure.  But, that shouldn't be my work on it!

So, I've kinda optimised the loading and closing processes with lots with only 1 full preview and 1 or 2 neighbourhoods in a running copy.


added:

Because of SecuROM, EAxis still owes me the price at the time of a DVD-RAM drive! :( N, worse of it is the loss of a gift from an already deceased person...

I what I want to know is what happens now with custom clothes? Are they going to change where it saves, or remove the update to the skins.package?

In the mean time if I make that file read only, then I can't make custom clothes...

Either way the end user get fucked over.

They're either going to have to change the exe file so the game doesn't write to those files (writes instead to a new file somewhere in the The Sims 2 directory), or make future changes/updates to a new skins2.package or something.  That way, the custom clothes don't get destroyed while the new/patch stuff overrides the parts of skins.package that need fixing.

I hope for the former; I assume the later. :)

I think they should also make an option for those who have made new custom clothings to extract them for later re-integration before patching

Could they just set this patch to ignore the fact that the skin package has been modified?  That might be possible if they don't need to change that file at all. 

All I can say is thank God I didn't buy this EP.  I was waiting to see how fucked up it was and now I am glad I didn't do it!  I'm stopping at BV and EA be damned!

Honestly, it's a pretty damn annoying EP. EVERYONE RUB YOUR BELLY 'CAUSE YOU LOVE CUISINE! I probably would've never bought it if I'd known that this was what it was going to be like.

It's obnoxious that every action ever leads to phone calls, and invites, and obsessions, and the like. You can't even earn 2 cooking skill points without being harrassed.

You can kind of tell that this is the end, and the game/creators are running out of steam/just don't give a shit anymore.

Actually, I'm finding I like FT more than I thought I would.  I'll like it even more when a fixed version of the patch is out and my sims can use the new items without running their needs into the ground.  The patch is also supposed to kill those "do you want to subscribe" phone calls.  In my opinion FT definitely beats BV, which I only have now for the ninja teleport, since the other features I installed BV for - walk to lot & new turn-ons/offs - are in FT.  And it certainly beats Pets, which I only keep installed for some of the objects (particularly those nifty floor dividers).

So what are they doing about the, "Join our cult!" and "We've given you a worthless, shitty plaque! Shake our hand!" stuff?

Codswallop. Pirates *ALWAYS* have the installation disks! It's those hapless schmucks who downloaded EAxislink Spyware Versions that don't. Sucks to be them.

Hiya all,
Maybe this is a stupid post but it's my first one. I'm not a newbe I'm a lurker, been trying to read before I speak  ;D

I was reading EA's site and had a question?
Here is the post I read from the site...
http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=af0e6c010e9a5076852043768446ffc2&directoryID=217&startRow=1&openItemID=item.217,root.1,item.43,item.104,item.41,item.127,item.23


Subject:  Patch workaround 
 

Hi folks,
We have tracked down the problem.
Creating an outfit on the sewing machine changes the skins.package, thus not allowing the patch to modify that file during install. We have fixed the problem and are testing it now. We hope to have a new patch out to you very soon.

If you would like to install the patch now, you can copy the skins.package from the DVD and overwrite the one you have on your machine. This will delete any outfits you may have already created on the sewing machine.

Steps to replace skins.package:
1. Insert The Sims 2 Freetime, Disc 2 or DVD.
2. Locate compressed.zip folder.
3. Unzip TSData\Res\Catalog\skins\Skins.package to desktop.
4. Copy new skins.package (from your desktop) to the location that you have installed the game. Default location is here: C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\Catalog\Skins,
5. Confirm File Replace, Yes.
6. Run The Sims 2 Freetime Patch again. <----- now if you patched Freetime again wouldn't it over rite the file you just replaced?  ???   
 We are very sorry!!  
 

Wouldn't this fix the skins file that messes with the CC in the game.
Couldn't you could leave the patch installed skip step #6, and not have to un and re install the game and not have to mess with your NOCD.EXE also???


Hope this helps


HarleyBarbie 

Red is bad on the eyes.

That is exactly what it's supposed to do, yes. The idea is to replace it with the original, undamaged version, so the patch program can recognize it and make the relevant patch changes.

It is not. It is a super fun colour that makes people look extra special. Others might not be able to detect the speshulnezz right away, so using a different font than everyone else will make it undeniably obvious.

So sorry about the red color just thought it would be an attention grabber for peeps not to have to go through all the un, re  & CC hassle  :-[
I also couldn't believe somone would tell you to go through the mess of finding the files replacing them and then repatching the game only to mess up all the hard work you've just done?
Seems kind'a silly to me  ;)

Hope this helps
Thanks  J. M. Pescado

Harleybarbie  ;)

The problem is: the patch refuses to run unless it can find the original (unmodified by the game) file.  EA's mistake was in allowing the game to modify this file in the first place - very bad programming practice.  So, their solution is to go back to the original file, which at least allows the patch to run.

In the future, highlight the text you are quoting, and then hit the little speech bubble on the toolbar. This will put the text in a little Does the same thing you are trying to do by making it red, but much easier to read.