More Awesome Than You!

I really love all of your hacks, however (I don't mean to complain) I seem to be experiencing some weird side-effects which I suspect may be caused by your hacks. Here is the list of your hacks I am currently using
(I'm not sure what the hacks themselves are called, but here are the file names):
-abort bedmaking
-amnesia fix
-"anti-baby" lecture
-"asprechargetweak"
-authorized personel only
-baby contol
-breakup fix
-call over
-captain hero
-carpool fix
-clothing tool
-clothing tool-globals
-coffee cup hack
-daily gardener
-doorbell quieter
-encourage gratification
-enemies accumulate
-faster buy clothes
-ffs debugger
-fire mod
-front door hack
-ghost buster
-hugging hack
-interact wogregret
-later bedtime
-less whiny
-lobo nanny
-"ltwvariety"
-manual navigation
-marriage post-mortum
-marriage traditional
-money order
-nmefix
-no 20k handouts
-no age discrimination
-no "aging swarm"
-no auto email
-no baby harassment
-no "bogartingswings"
-no "buskers"
-no cheering hack
-no corrupted death
-no cry babies
-no drop tired baby
-no eat cr*p
-no "gizmo" wants
-no rabbit spin
-no random crush
-no random flirt wants
-no resurresct wants
-no retired job spam
-no reunion memory
-no route fail
-no shock for outgoing
-no smart milk drag
-no stranger dance
-no telepathy
-no "teleport puddle"
-no turn off computer
-novel progress
-no what's this
-pay at box
-phone hack
-piano fix
-pool hack
-romance mod
-save the trees
-scanner gun hack
-"skillinator"
-sleep clock
-sshack
-stereo hack
-the fight club
-tipping fix
-toasting hack
-vg-finnish game
I have no expansion packs, but I have been using SimPE and InSimenator for a while w/o insident.

You will need to provide a bit more information for JM to even begin to know how to answer you. What side effects are you having? Be specific.

 
edited quickly to correct embarrassing mistake

Oops! I thought I found this in Retardo Land, and was confused as to why you would post this there. What the hell is wrong with me???
I've been spending too much time in Retardo Land, I think.
Oh, and now my answer above seems a bit rude. Don't mean to come off that way, I just removed the portion of the post where I had put the smileys and picked on you a bit.  ;)
No offense!

In The Podium the seond sticky thread is called "Official NL List" and list all the hacks that have been found compatible so far with NL.  Try comparing the official list with what you have. 

Also I second what Brynne said, that you need to post specific errors.  It may help someone pin point your problem more.

Of course, he *does* need to know what the weird effects are, at the least

Oh, I make a mistake and forgot to mention my actual problems, b/c I had posted this at another site who recomended me to ask JMP. (*smacks self in forehead*)
 Okay, here goes: I have recently downloaded and installed many JMP hacks, and I have noticed that some of my sims (I haven't checked if every house has this problem) either don't have any wants, or when a want is fufilled, a new one doesn't appear in its place. I have also noticed that the option to throw a party on the phone is not appearing. I know that i meet all of the requirements of throwing a party (ie. know sims, PC can support more sims on lot, etc.). I believe that the hacks may be the cause of these.


EDIT:Looking over the list, i have realized that I have at least one hack ("buskers")that is meant for Uni, which I don't have. I will see if uninstalling this will solve the problem. I also don't have NL.

I can see a few problems right away:

Remove ltwvariety from your game. Lifetime Wants are a Uni/NL feature, so that mod isn't necessary. I don't think the Skillinator works properly with no EPs, and you're missing some items required for it to run anyway. The sshack and the nogizmowants are more Uni fixes, so remove those. And make sure your phone hack is the oldest version available.

EDIT: noresurrectwants is another Uni hack. And you don't need to censor the crap in noeatcrap.

Okay, thanx, Venusy. I will remove these when i get home, and update.  ;D

Upadate: Have uninstalled (well, deleted) the mentioned hacks (Itwvariety, nogizmowants, sshack, nobusker, noressurectwants,skillinator), and still have problem. I also have discovered a new (though possibly unrelated, but not likely) symptom: When I try to make smartmilk, the sim stops making it, but the sound effects continue. I managed to get the milk once, but the "jump" (I am pretty sure that is the correct term) happened later, before the sim fed the bottle to my toddler. This always causes the smartmilk to disappear. Any help or thoughts on this would be most apreciated.

Can you turn on debug mode and attach an error log for the jump? That may help some here figure it out.

Yet another update: Now my sim "Enabledtrue" herself seems to be bugged (or corrupted, or something like that...). Whenever she does a new command, either the command box disappears, or she will start doing it then suddenly stop and just stand there, and all items she is holding will disappear. This has caused several smartmilk bottles and a thinking cap (or a "Smart Person's cap with a Lightbulb") to disappear.

P.S. I am hesitant to use debug mode b/c I have recently been experiencing bad interactions with boolProp and some hacks.

You seem to be experiencing bad interactions, period. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Have you patched your game? It sounds very "jump buggish".

I realized I forgot to delete "noeatcrap". Deleteing this seems to solve this jumping problem, but the wants problem (or lack thereof) still remains. Apparently the game works much better when my sims eat crap.
Baddmark:I don't believe I have a lot of patches. How do I check for installed patches? I know there is a cheat or something that displays available patches...

Go to the Official site for that:

                  http://thesims2.ea.com/update/

Downloading patch now (will take about a hour b/c I have dial-up :'( :-[) thanks for the link, Brynne.

Edit:Will now take well over 2 hrs to download patch. I can't wait to get high-speed internet.

No problem. Hope it fixes things for you...

I have now downloaded the patch, however, when I try to install it, an error occurs. What is going wrong. Error says:Error during update installation.

Do you have a modified .exe file? I think the patch won't install correctly over that.

Not to sound stupid or anything, but what is a modified ".exe" file? How do I check if I have one?

You seem to be being helped already, but I was just wondering whether you have the InSimenator and the MATY hacks installed together, because some versions of the InSimenator don't play nicely with other hacks. It would be very helpful to tell people which version & flavour pack (if appropriate) of the InSim you're running.

Also, almost all the MATY hacks that are compatible with The Sims 2 only require that you have the second Sims 2 official patch installed - the one that is currently on the site as "Sims 2 patch" when you go to http://thesims2.ea.com/update/. Make sure you get the correct version - the CD version if your game came on 4 CDs, or the DVD version if your game came on 2 DVDs.   

A .exe file is an executable program - basically, the program that runs to start TS2. If it's been modified it means it's not identical to the version that was originally installed off the CD or DVD. This would happen if you had, for example, already run the patch. Have you ever downloaded & installed one of the TS2 patches from the official site? The first patch had a lot of problems, apparently, and they had to withdraw it and make a new one.

As for checking whether your .exe file has been modified, go to C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSBin and look at the date stamp on the Sims2.exe file. Mine  says 20th January 2005, which means that I have the second patch installed. If yours says something like October 2004, you probably don't. 

Yes I do have InSimenator installed

See updated post above.
1) Which version number & flavour pack of InSim are you running? There are about 2000 different versions (only slight exaggeration!).
2) Is your game patched with the second patch?

Edit:
OK, I don't have all of the hacks you have. However, according to the RTFM files for the ones I do, the following are incompatible with the base game only:
-amnesia fix
-clothing tool
-clothing tool-globals
-coffee cup hack *see below
-"ltwvariety"
-money order
-no "buskers"
-no "gizmo" wants
-no resurresct wants
-sleep clock
-sshack *see below
-tipping fix

There may be others - I don't currently have the motivation to download the .zip files of hacks I don't have to read the RTFMs for them. Sorry :P.

Bemused by you having to take out noeatcrap - the RTFM for that one says it's ok with TS2 only.

There exist Old versions of the
- coffeecuphack
- outfitplanner
- phonehack
- sshack
which can be obtained from here (http://moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/old/) - these are the versions to install if you don't have Uni.

1) I have InSimenator (UV) 2[1].1 (that's what the file name says anyway)

2)I don't have any other patches.

Okay, so what is the time stamp on your .exe file? Do you have a censor blur-remover? That may also have modified your .exe, depending on which one you have.
Have you tried running the game without Inseminator, btw? There's a newer edition now that fixed a lot of bugs. It's universally compatible. You may want to switch to that one, anyway. And make sure you only have one version of the Insiminator installed.

http://www.insimenator.net/viewtopic.php?t=403   

The time stamp on my game is  (at least the "properties" says)
Modified and created Tue,August 17,2004, and the "Original File name" is "Sim2.exe". Is this the time stamp and is this then.exe file you are talking about?
the censor blur is technically turned on (at least in SimPE>Extra>Preferences>Game Settings> the "blur nudity" box is checked), but in the game, I unfortunately have to see naked sims without any blurring.
Will try game w/o InSimenator (at least while I am downloading the latest version.)

Ok, so your game is currently unpatched. You MUST run the patch from the official site, else we can't help you. Too much else depends on having that patch.

If you're getting errors in installation of the patch, check that you have the right version. If your game came on CDs, you need the CD version; if it came on DVDs, you need the DVD version. If you definitely have the right version of the patch but still can't run it, I'm not sure what to do then.

regarding patch installation:

Try moving your downloads folder to your desktop (so that it is out of the way) and rerunning the patch. It is also possible that you have a corrupted download of the patch, I also have dialup and this happens quite often with large files. The solution I have found is to use a download manager, the one I am currently using, which works quite well is flashget, I used to have getright but I have found that I much prefer the former. Flashget will allow you to schedule, start, pause, cancel, redownload from a memory etc your downloads and will also help reduce corrupt or incomplete downloads. (as well as allow you to configure a myriad of other settings such as using proxies for certain sites etc)

You must be certain however that you did not change any of the original settings for the game, there are floors and walls as well as cameras that you can download that require you to change config settings.

Thank you, Nectere, I think I will just wait on downloading the patch until Tue, when I get fios (fiber-optic high speed internet). Doesn't dial-up suck? ::)

Another possibility is that it's not just the exe the patch will complain about, it's pretty much any file modified in the Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2/ directories. Some people changed one of the files there to up the max sims they can invite to a party and that will make the patch complain. As will changing the graphics ruls.sgr which I changed a while back in my game.

Try to think if you've modified any files there in any way or have installed anything that did. Modified files in My Documents/EA Games/... is fine but if you mess with stuff in Program Files/EA Games/... the patch will complain.

If you changed any files there in any way and made a backup of the original then restore your original. Otherwise you will have to backup all your neighborhoods and reinstall the game and then patch. That should work because all the install files will definitely be at their original state.

Good luck, oh and love the avatar. ;)

Okay, i will look, but I don't think I have messed with any files there, and I know I haven't downloaded the partyguest hack.

-Thanx ;).I got a new one b/c my other one was kinda dull.

Call me crazy, but would UV indicate that this is a University version of the InSiminator?
I am currently also EPless, but have the InSiminator 1.6Sim which has been fine.

Many of the mods you've mentioned are designed to be used with the EP and do ugly things to an EPless game, I say this because I tested them (without other hacks) and found it to be so. Off the top of my head:

The skillinator doesn't work 100%, you can macro-encourage, but you don't get to choose the skill you are encouraging, I still have it, in case it picks the skill I want, which it sometimes does.
Baby control and baby harassment did weird things and I removed them, as mentioned, ltw is unnecessary, as is buskers, gizmo, resurrect and piano fix. I believe the sleep clock is also EP only.
I never did patch my game, but don't see the point as I have the EPs, just haven't installed them yet.
Good luck.

UV stands for Universal. It works with any version of TS2, but certain options are disabled without EPs installed.

ahh, guess I could have checked.
The Insiminator is very cool, but I've had problems with certain versions so once I found one that doesn't seem to interfere with anything else, I stuck with it.

Nice signature, we had Monday mornings designated to catch up on Strongbad's latest e-mail and whatever else we needed to see there to establish the proper mood for the week. It was so effective that they actually started scheduling staff meetings directly afterwards (because everyone was voluntarily in one spot)

I know the problem is not caused by a bad reaction with the InSimenator, b/c removing it doesn't help. Using boolProp makes the game almost completey un-play-able. I really need the patch, which I will download tomorrow.

Okay, I have downloaded the patch (it took less than a minute!), and installed it sucessfully!
Will upate as to if this solves the problem.

Update: Unfortunately this hasn't helped. Still lacking wants, having frequent jumps (this is interfering with gameplay), and unable to throw a party. :(

I guess the best thing to do would be to remove all hacks and try them one at a time to figure out which is fubaring your game.

Don't know if this helps at all to narrow things down, but EPless, I have the following and no problems in my game:

abort bedmaking
"anti-baby" lecture     
asprechargetweak   
captain hero           
coffee cup hack
daily gardener         
doorbell quieter   
faster buy clothes 
front door hack
hugging hack
-manual navigation
no age discrimination
no cheering hack
-no corrupted death
-no drop tired baby
no reunionmemory
-no shock for outgoing
-no smart milk drag
-no telepathy
-no "teleport puddle"
-novel progress
-no what's this
-pay at box
-phone hack
-save the trees

You could try them as a group to see if they work for you, and add the others singly, or just start out trying them all one at a time.

Either way, good luck

Thank you Zeljka, I will try weeding out all of my hacks. Will update...

Wait, does that mean I shouldn't use the Authorized Personel Only?! I love that!
awww... :'(

Doesn't mean anything except that I don't have it.
I'm just saying this is what I have that works for me, there will be a lot that also work, but I just don't have. There could be some that work for me, and not for you. I just posted this in case the same group of hacks that work in my game works for yours.

It could work beautifully for you, just try the game with it, if it works - great! If it doesn't work, try the game without it.

Oh, okay. Thanks. Anyway, this has helped some, as I now have wants back, (where as before I had blank spaces), but I still have the jumping, and can't fufil my Popularity sim's new want of "Throw a Party." Any more suggestions?

I'm still not certain about the jumping. If it was the infamous jump bug (aka chat bug) then the patch should have fixed it.

The part about not being about to throw a party may be an old Maxis bug that happens when there are a lot of characters in the neighborhood. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's nothing to do with hacks, but Pescado has a couple of hacks that can fix it:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/uni/hacks/housepartyfix.zip for regular parties

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/uni/hacks/weddingpartyfix.zip for wedding parties

You'll probably want them both.

Are they compatable with just the base game (no EPs)?

Yep. He made them a long time ago before University came out.

Great! Thanks for the link, Motoki. :) Will update...

Update: No go. Still unable to throw parties, and still very frquent jumps.  :(

The only other things I can suggest is try going into debug mode (boolprop testingcheatsenabled true) and then post the error log here and see if anyone can make heads or tails of it.

The other thing you can do, which is a bit of a pain but probably what I would be doing right about now if I were in your shoes is the process of elimination.

First I would say temporarily move ALL your downloads, the whole downloads directory and any subdirectories and also savedsims to your desktop or somewhere else, try running the game and look for the jumping and not being able to throw parties. Don't save, just do this to check and make sure it's not a corrupt install or glitched up lot.

If everything runs okay then it's got to be one of your downloads. Try putting half your hacks back in and running the game. If it works fine, move those ones somewhere else and mark them as okay and try the other half. Every time you don't get the problem move those files out as fine and every time you do, take another half out and move them somewhere where you now they still may need to be tested and try again until you narrow down the culprit.

Also keep in mind in some rare instances objects can cause issues too so it's possible it might not be the hacks. You could try running the game with just the hacks and no other downloads to try and eliminate this possibility.

Again, all this is a pain to do, but I've had to do it before. :(

I supose I have no choice but to go through that tedious process.   :-\  This will take a while, since I have a LOT of downloaded files. Will update....

My own experience was that inadvertently installing the wrong version of the phonehack (Uni version in original, patched game) broke the game. The phones no longer worked--Sims could not use them even though they rang--and Sims developed a tendency to jump from place to place. Removing the hack did not fix the problems.

Reinstalling the game and the patch fixed the problem. Fortunately, I was able to determine the cause early in the process, because simply uninstalling and reinstalling the game took much less time than going through all my custom content one batch at a time would have done. I just moved the entire The Sims 2 folder in My Documents to a safe place so the new installation wouldn't overwrite my existing neighborhoods and other saved-game files.

I'm thinking that in your case it may be faster and less frustrating to simply reinstall the game rather than trying to hunt down a hack or object that is messing up your current installation. If my experience is any guide, it may be that even if you find the problem hack, removing may not solve your problem. Just be sure to copy your gameplay folders to another directory before the reinstall, and copy them back after--Neighborhoods, SavedSims, Storytelling (if you have any screen captures), LotCatalog.

Most at risk are the three neighborhoods and the playable Sims that come with the game. The installation program will probably overwrite the lot files in the neighborhoods, which would erase any families you have there (at least those in Maxis houses) and whatever histories you have for the playable Sims--but it won't erase files that are not part of the installation, such as screen captures you have made, or Sims you've created. It wouldn't empty out your Downloads folder, for example, or delete .WAV files you've added to the Music folder. But it is always better to be safe, so back up any folder that might have custom or saved-game content.

It is probably best to uninstall the game before reinstalling it, which might erase the EA GAmes Folder in My Documents if you move your Downloads folder rather than copying it (most uninstall routines will not delete a folder created by the installation program if there are subfolders in it which were not part of the original installation), so it's safest to backup the files there. It's easy enough to copy the entire The Sims 2 folder to a TEMP folder until after the reinstall.

Did you try selling and rebuying all the phones? Also did you check and make sure no rogue copies of the phone hack snuck in with a house download. It's been known to happen and the file name gets scrambled up, so you'll have to use Sims2pack Clean Installer and look for any red highlighted entries that say "Phone Line Controller".

Hegelian: I have a pretty new version of the phone hack, but your story seems so similar to mine I think it's worth a shot to reinsatll the game. I'm very relieved I don't have to undergo the tedious task of sifting through all those files! Will update on reinstallation. I didn't know I could reinstall without destroying all of my custom neighborhoods. Thanks for that tip!

Motoki: Using the clean installer, I looked up the entire "moreawesomethanyou" folder, and everything except the FFS lot fixer is highlighted red! The "Phone Line Controller" is red, too. Does this mean they are conflicting/incompatable? Should I remove them?

The clean installer highlights anything it thinks is a hack in red. So yea, all of your "moreawesomethanyou" files will probably show red. Pink files are duplicates, but you can't see pink if they are already marked in red. Red just means its a game modification file - nothing more.

You should be looking for a rogue hack, one with an unintelligible name, highlighted in red, and most likely not in your "moreawesomethanyou" folder. It would be a red file that snuck in with a house through the teleport folder, so it would most likely be in the base download folder unless you have moved it. JM says to delete any red (hack) file that is a just a series of numbers and letters as it is most likely something you didn't want or intentionally download as respectable modders take the time to appropriately name their hacks....most likely.

Well I glad I don't have to get rid of all of my favorite hacks. I will look for any "rogue" files I might have unintentionally downloaded. Thank you, nectre for your post.

Indeed - it happened to me only a few days ago (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1477.0)! In my case it was the Uni version that slid into a NL game, but it was still driving me nuts.

 Um, I actually don't remember if I tried to delete/sell the phones, but I have a vague memory that perhaps I did. It is the sort of thing I would typically try. I have all of about three downloaded houses, all of which I got the first week I had the game installed (I like to build my own), which was well before I installed the incorrect phonehack. I run the Clean Installer fairly regularly, and I've never seen any mystery hacks. And when I did the reinstall, the only file I had removed was that Uni phonehack, and the game has worked fine ever since--with the correct phonehack. As it happens, NL arrived today, so we shall see how it goes from here. . . .

But these are good suggestions.


 I wasn't thinking it was necessarily the phonehack itself, as your symptoms aren't quite the same as mine--in my case, the sims couldn't interact with the phones at all, on any lot. Although, I too had a fairly new version of the phonehack and it was the wrong one for the original game. I was thinking that in more general terms it seems that some hacks for Uni can damage one or more files in the original game, such that removing the hack doesn't fix the problem. In truth, this is just an inference based on my experience, but if you have a corrupted game file, simply removing the hack that caused the problem will not fix it.

It may be that your problem is caused by one of the other Uni hacks you installed (there seems to have been several?). I didn't really make it clear in my previous post that what I was suggesting was a reinstall after you had located and removed all the Uni and/or NL hacks--otherwise you would just recreate the problem. I just sort of assumed that you'd already done that, but when writing on the Internet it's always a good idea to be really clear about what you're saying.

Similarly, I wasn't real clear about which Neighborhood folders to back up.  As you may already know, your saved games are made up of the collection of files in the various neighborhood subfolders in the Neighborhoods folder in the same The Sims 2 folder as your Downloads folder (in My Documents). There is also a Neighborhoods subfolder in the The Sims 2 folder where you installed the game itself, typically Program Files>EA Games>The Sims 2 (assuming you're running Windows)--these are the default neighborhoods, and are not the ones that need to be backed up. There are four Neighborhood folders in the game installation location:  001, 002, 003, and Tutorial. The neighborhoods you actually play (copies of the defaults) and custom neighborhoods (004, 005, etc.) are in the Neighborhoods folder in the My Documents location.

In the same The Sims 2 folder in My Documents, the Sims you create in CAS are in the SavedSims folder, so you want to back those up also.

Now, when I did my reinstall, I copied these folders rather than moving them before uninstalling the game. It's been a while now, but I don't think the uninstall routine actually deletes the EA Game folder in My Documents. I don't remember whether or not I had to copy the Neighborhoods and SavedSims back after the reinstall (I don't want to give any misleading advice!). This makes sense if you think about it:  In Windows, if you have several user accounts on your PC, you don't need to install the game separately for each user--just be sure the shortcuts for the game are in the Start Menu for All Users rather than for just one user. Each user will have his or her own My Documents>EA Games>The Sims 2 folder, including Downloads and Neighborhoods, and so can have completely different saved games and custom content. I'm guessing the uninstall program can only "see" the My Documents folder of the account that's logged on, and (I'm still guessing) it doesn't try to remove the TS2 folders in My Documents.

Basically, the game stores the default files in its installation folders, and copies them into the My Documents directories of each user account when a user runs the game for the first time from that account.

But it's always a good idea to be safe, and back up everything! I just want to be clear about which folders need, or may need, to be copied to a safe place.

I should probably shut up now.

Thank you for your advice. Thankfully, I haven't gotten around to reinstalling quite yet. I am still unsure of which hacks I need to remove/update before the installation, since it seems that some of the updates aren't compatible w/ just the base game (correct me if I've misunderstood). The files I have now are:
-abortbedmaking
-antibabylecture
-asprechargetweak
-authorized_personel_only
-captainhero
-dailygardener
-doorbell-quieter
-basterbuyclothes
-ffsdebugger
-frontdoorhack
-hugginghack
-manual-navigation
-no20khandouts
-noagediscrimination
-noagingswarm
-nocheeringhack
-nocorruptdeath
-nodroptiredbaby
-noreunionmemory
-noshockforoutgoing
-nosmartmilkdrag
-notelepathy
-noteleportpuddle
-novelprogress
-nowhatsthis
-payatbox
-phonehack (not sure which version, was dowloaded 7-28-2005)
-savethetrees

Not sure if relevant, but my phone hack is dated 1/08/05.
I was pretty careful to test everything released after university (base game only) removing what caused errors (macrotastics), and leaving what worked somewhat (encouragificator) I didn't try authorized personel, lot debugger or aging swarm, but maybe I will to see if they work for me. (I've been curious about the lot debugger as I have a lot where the handset to the phone vanished and now when a Sim calls someone, they 'stay on the line' indefinately unless I delete the phone and play a bit before replacing it. It's now spread to two homes)


Have you definately narrowed this down to a hack though? (entered game without hacks folder and the game is fine) If not, it could be a new object.
I had a new object that made my sims jump. Though they couldn't use the bookcase or eat, an error log revealed the problem to be a sofa (Sunair Sims modern fabric sofa) I have a ton of them, so didn't bother seeing if it caused problems in other homes as removing it from the one in question completely solved the problem.

I have just noticed many pink highlighted random strings of #'s and letters, which are probably "rogue hacks/mods". I'm not sure if they are new (I have recently been on a downloading spree), so they might not be the original cause of the problem, but I will definately delete them anyway.

Wow. There must have been over 40 of those rogue files. Unfortunately, it didn't help my problem.
 Haven't totally narrowed this down, but the Clean Installer will certainly make doing this easier. Will update...

Pink means dupliucate file, as in you have more than one of the same file.
Red means hack

However if you have a duplicate hack (red) you wont be able to see the pink


(erm that sounded dirty....)

Like nectere said, these are duplicate files. They could be objects or recolors; in your Downloads folder they have different files names (which you can see if you hold the cursor over the item's name in the Clean Installer), but their MD5 checksums are the same. If you click on the MD5 column heading, the files will sort by checksum and the duplicates will be next to each other. You can decide which you want to keep--the one with an actual file name or the one with the TS2 string of numbers and letters as a file name.  :P

As for isolating the bad hack(s), the most thorough and most tedious method would be to take them all out, reinstall the game, and then put them back in a few at a time until the game breaks again, and do another game reinstall and  reinstall your hacks except for the problem ones. I can't say I would recommend that, though.

You might start by reading through the list of older hacks and their compatibilities (really just a compilation of the RTFMs) in the Hack Directory - All Hacks thread in The Armory (scan the thread until you find the group of posts by gali that lists them in alpha order). The files aren't linked there, but you can use the list as a cross-reference for the files in the FFS Director's Cut download in the same forum. In my case, I used the phonehack from the Director's Cut, which turned out to be the wrong one (they have the same file name). The file date for the phonehack.package for the original game is 2.6.2005.

I think if you stick to the hacks that are listed as compatible with the original game in the Hack Directory - All Hacks thread, you should be alright.

no20khandouts is only for use if you have university.

Also the phonehack could potentially be the university version. I would delete it and redownload this version:

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/old/phonehack-old.zip

That one is definitely for just the base game so you should be okay with that one.

Try getting rid of no20khandouts and replacing the phonehack with the one I linked above and see if it helps. If it doesn't, run clean installer again and let us know the names of all items showing up highlighted in red in any of your download directories, not just the moreawesomethanyou directory.

The no20khandout removal, and phonehackupdate was a no-go. :(

Here are all my "red" downloads (not inl. the ones listed previously, from moreawesomethanyou):
-Find Own Place for Teens
-AdoptInPoverty
-Fishman Weapons Systems "Authorized Personel Only" (is duplicate, should I remove it?)
-WooHoo in bordello w/$ubject
-EndlessBuffetPatch
-housepartyfix
-ijCribGetOutAll
-InSIMenator(UV)v2.1 SIM Edition
-Simlogical Intercom Transmitter
-Flamingo
-Flamingo of Decay
-Stay Late
-Energizer Painting
-No more corrupted "Jagged Line" Memories
-MQ_No_Spoied_Food
-homeworksometimesfasterfun_v2
-Bella Goth rescue Mission
-RiskyWooHooInBed
-RiskyWooHooInPublic
-RiskyWooHooInTub
-QuietPregnancy
-MQ_Bookcase_Global
-NoCareFlowers_patch
-Controller-Disease
-No-empty toddlers potty
-NoKickTrash
-NoTeenRunaway
-No Social Worker abduction patch
-SimlogicalNoCareShrubs_patch
-simlogicalReserveBeds_patch2
-Spongebath_patch
-Always Flush Toilets-Wash Hands
-Controller- Triplets&Quads Adjuster
-weddingparty fix
-The Urbs: Sims In The City

If I were you I would simply remove all my hacks and start over. Its less painful. Just remove all the hacks, do whatever it is you need to do with the base game, patch it whatever and then go back and grab the hacks you need making very sure that you dl only hacks that are for the base game. You really dont have all that many hacks, looks like most of them will probably tell you who the creator is in clean installer, I see mostly Inge, JMP and possibly 2Jeffs and Dizzy, plus the insim. Personally I stick to those creators as well with exception to the insim which I dont think I want to tackle. I make it a habit of removing all custom content from the game before I update/install/reinstall anything, and even then sometimes its not enough. The sims have a habit of corrupt installs and I am sure Maxis knows it since that was always their answer - reinstall.

As far as I can tell those hacks should work okay with just the base game, but there's some of them I'm not too familiar with.

And yes if you have duplicates of anything get rid of one of them.

Just a quick question before I reinstall: I am pretty sure there is an easy way to disable all custom content. How do I do it? ???

rather than disable actually move the entire downloads folder to your desktop, I also move my lots that I have made that are in the bin so they dont become corrupted. Just drag and drop the whole folder(s).

OK. Thanx, nectre. I knew it was something painfully obvious.

Update: At first, there seemed to be considerably less jumps after the reinstall. So, I crossed by fingers, held my breathe, and clicked on the phone....
....and, unfortuately, the "Throw a Party" option was still not there. Then, to my horror, I noticed my sim had caused an entire pan of omletes to disappear! The game still thought there was something cooking, b/c soon, the stove was on fire. Fortuanely I just remembered to buy a smoke-detector the other day, so the fire wasn't too bad. After letting them take a shower, I removed a blackened plate of omletes, still smoking, from the stove.
 So, this re-install thing was a no-go :(
What now? ???

*Smacks self in forehead*
Ooops. I had just copied the downloads folder to a different location, hadn't deleted it.
Removing the folder actually solves both the jumping and the Partying (or lack thereof). I love most of my downloads, but since I have over 100 download files (maybe around 200), "weeding" the whole thing will take an exorbant (sp?) ammount of time. Will try just using my absolute favorite downloads and hacks (of course moreawesomethanyou is included in this), and gradually/eventually (read: when I have some free time) put in more.
 Will update on that for anyone who is interested when I figure out the source of the problem.
Otherwise, THANK YOU for everyone's advice (even when the answer was "painfully obvious") and patience. You guys are awesome, though of course you don't need me to tell you that...

Have put back a few download files (at least compared to how many I used to have), and, while I am able to throw parties, the jumping is still occuring. Here are all of the "red" files I have:
-WooHoo In Bordello with $ubject
-housepartyfix
-ijCribGetOutAll
-LessAutonomyBabyCare
-Flamingo (Game Object)
-Flamingo of Decay (Game Object)
-Stay Late
-Energizer Painting(Game Object)
-All the "moreawesomethanyou" hack previously stated
-Controller-Disease (Career) (This is a career? huh?   ???Is this a corrupt file?)
-SimlogicalNoCareShrubs_patch

I have some other, regular downloads, which I could list if needed. Could these be the source of the Jump Bug?

No, it's not the file it's clean installer. It doesn't identify some files properly and I have no idea if it ever will. The creator has been notified about this for a long time now but hasn't bothered to fix it. :P

Just wondering if anyone might know...
What causes jump bugs, in general?

Look in Pescado's newest hacks section.  I believe you'll find what you're looking for.

I'd say that makes it pretty easy. Remove these (all hacks) and see if it works. If it does, you've just narrowed to problem down to one of these.

In my game, they've been caused either by
+a Sim with too many memories. I believe around the 200 mark-very easy with a born in game elder, particularly in a home with a lot of kids. I didn't notice if you have noA+spam, but that and deleting excess memories helped me.
+a missing animation - when they jumped at the bookcase and I created an error log, it came up with a missing bones type error related to the sofa. Deleting the sofa fixed the problem.

Have you posted an error log? I know what you mean - enabling debug can wreck your game, the errors pop up faster than you can reset them and you feel trapped in a loop... what I do in this case is pause with the keyboard. (reset with mouse, use left hand to hit P to pause) it seems the only way I can pause fast enough to get out of that endless loop of errors... then you can turn debug off. An error log would really help those who can interpret them to help you.

As for narrowing down the specific error, if it is a hack you have installed now (as listed above) I would try the autonomy baby care first. In my experience, Inge, twoJeffs, dizzy mods have been fine with the base while JM's cause fiery balls if created for an EP you don't have. (It just depends what coding is modded) I would also lose the Controller disease... if you use the insiminator, it includes a disease immunity so this is redundant anyway.

Will lose the redundant disease controller.

In extreme cases, I have experienced the "incessant error log" syndrome while the game was paused, but this seems like there won't be too much of a hassle going into debug mode. Will update and post error log.

Well, i didn't even need to "force [an] error".As soon as I loaded a lot I got this error log:

An error occured in object "N004_User00223_Catlyn" #152
Error: Transition to node that does not exist.

And I had trouble exiting, because I developed another case of "incessant error log syndrome".

Usually if you post a log (entire log), someone will be able to help.

The entire error log:

Build: 1.0.0.932
at Aug 17 2004,19:20:44

Object id: 152
name: N004_User00223 - Catlyn
Stack size: 7
Error: Transition to node that does not exist.
Iterations: 0
  Frame 6:
    Stack Object id: 184
    Stack Object name: Fridge - Moderate - Stainless
    Node: 256
    Tree: id 8195 name 'Baby Bottle - Feed - TEST' version -32753
    from FridgeGlobals
    Prim state: 0
    Params: 1 0 1    Locals: 0 0 0 0
  Frame 5:
    Stack Object id: 184
    Stack Object name: Fridge - Moderate - Stainless
    Node: 0
    Tree: id 8193 name 'Interaction - Baby Bottle - Feed Baby - TEST' version -32756
    from FridgeGlobals
    Prim state: 0
    Params: 1    Locals: 0
  Frame 4:
    Stack Object id: 0
    Node: 0
    Tree: id -1 name 'No behavior' version 0
    from
    Prim state: 1
    Params:    Locals:
  Frame 3:
    Stack Object id: 152
    Stack Object name: N004_User00223 - Catlyn
    Node: 65534
    Tree: id 8233 name 'Function - Main - Process Autonomy' version 51
    from PersonGlobals
    Prim state: 0
    Params:    Locals: 0 0
  Frame 2:
    Stack Object id: 152
    Stack Object name: N004_User00223 - Catlyn
    Node: 6
    Tree: id 8283 name 'Function - Main - Loop' version 90
    from PersonGlobals
    Prim state: 0
    Params: 0 20 1    Locals: 0
  Frame 1:
    Stack Object id: 152
    Stack Object name: N004_User00223 - Catlyn
    Node: 5
    Tree: id 8193 name 'Function - Main' version 69
    from PersonGlobals
    Prim state: 0
    Params:    Locals: 1 20
  Frame 0:
    Stack Object id: 152
    Stack Object name: N004_User00223 - Catlyn
    Node: 1
    Tree: id 4096 name 'Function - Main' version 2
    from N004_User00223
    Prim state: 0
    Params:    Locals:

Y'know what? You need to check carefully that you don't have hacks from multiple places that try to modify the same bit of code. If this happens, it's called a conflicting hack, and you have to decide which one you want to keep. Having the two in there together will certainly cause jumping.

Now, that error log mentions fridges and baby bottles, so I immediately looked to see whether you have a hacked fridge (if you do, it's not coming up in red) and whether you had hacks that affect caring for babies. You're listing that you have a hack called LessAutonomyBabyCare (from source unknown), but you also have J.M. Pescado's antibabylecture, nodroptiredbaby and nosmartmilkdrag. That could easily be a source of conflict, for starters.

Hacks from reliable sources should always come with a readme.txt or RTFM.txt file in the zip to tell you what they do, and any known conflicts with mods by other creators. You do need to cross-reference these and not blindly download anything that sounds useful ;).

Thanks, baratron

Must go through my gigantic list of dowload files one of these days. I forget which ones I have already downloaded.

Will update...

Update: Haven't noticed any jumping yet! Holding breathe...

THANK YOU, baratron, for pointing out the painfully obvious. ::)

Is it really fixed? I do hope so! ;D

It's always worth having a look at the error logs that get produced, even if you know nothing at all about the Sims code. In amongst the gobbledegook code stuff you'll see words that are in recognisable English - in that case, there was Fridge and Baby Bottle. That hinted where the problem was. It's possible that you have other conflicting hacks still that'll cause jump bugs in other situations, but you at least you now know how to produce & find an error log. That should give some clue as to what's going wrong.

Yes, as I to have no good grasp of the complex art of the codes, hack, and files that in essense comprise The Sims 2, I still find it interesting that this confliction displayed such prominent effects when I was doing absolutely nothing that had to do with babies and their care. Well, whatever the cause, it seems that this saga has ended.

Again thank you for everyone's patience and advice. Now I can spend my time playing the game rather than chatting online about it. ;)