More Awesome Than You!

Hey, I'm new here and I'm having an issue with the phone hack shiny edition. But when I went to the thread for that hack, I didn't have the option to reply. Help please?

what is the issue?

All of my phone menus are now in reverse alphabetical order. That in and of itself hasn't been a problem, but when I try to adopt a child I get the message saying I've been approved and the pop-up saying the child will arrive at 10 the next morning, but the next morning the social worker doesn't come. Also, the buy and build mode buttons get grayed out. I've had this happen in two different neighborhoods. The latest one the couple really wanted a child, so I've tried everything I can think of. I disabled the package using sims2pack clean installer, removed the hack from my downloads folder completely, moved the family out of the house and into a new one, deleted the phone and bought a new one, and the problem continues. I don't have any other phone-related hacks that I'm aware of but can post a list of hacks if that would help. Most of them are J.M.'s, so I know they're compatible, but I do have a few from other modders.

oh, I also tried a reinstall and kept all of my files when the option was offered. Still having this problem. No other bugs in the game, but body shop crashes when I try to build or clone sims. reinstall didn't fix this either, wonder if the two issues are somehow related?

you may have a corrupt sim in your saved sim file I had that problem just a day or so ago I couldnt clone from another neighborhood or open body shop. it kept crashing  so I decided before I threw in the towel and did a clean reinstall .I would check the saved sim file and what I did was make a file on my desk top and move the saved sim files in the saved sim folder to my special holding folder .I then opened body shop and no crashes. so 1 by one put files back  I tested it each time I had 3 files  in the saved sim folder  after putting in all but  3 files with no crashing body shop I put in the remaining three 1 by 1  tesating after each one was put in the very last file was put in I opened body shop and bam it crashed to the desk top . so I removed the file and tried body shop again it opened no crashes. the problem went away with out that file so I deleted the file that was corrupt.fortunately saved sim file doesnt tend to be very big

Most of JM's hacks are tested on Uni.  Do You have Uni?   I only have the base game and some work fine for me, some don't. I only try the Uni ones with a back up and if I have nothing left to lose!  Today the build and buy icons greyed out after I chose an option on the FFSlotdebugger  - reset controllers or something.  That's the only time I've seen that apart from a Sim dying... (I think!)   (EDIT - ffsdebugger is one of the "tested on Uni ones")

I think Bangelnuts is on the right track though - check for a corrupt file. 

Thanks for the responses, I will try cleaning out savedsims and let you know what happens. do you think that will fix my phone menu too? I have the newest version of non-EP shiny edition because I don't have UNI, and I realize that edition has been discontinued but I love it so much I can't bear the thought of simming without it and have no desire to get Uni.

you said something about the social worker not coming? Does anyone think this could be a portal problem?

good luck .I dont use the phone hack but if oyu have latest edition for the original game and its still not working  after the rest of the game is I would post a bug thread for His awesomeness

I was running an adoption story line with a particular family so I adopted several children for them over a course of time.  Game wise at that point I was running with no EPs and JM's shiny phone hack.  

I would swear that it took a whole extra day for the social worker to arrive.  I blush because it is probably bad clock management on my part or a misinterpretation of "next day" relative to the time I called.  Point is, every adoption, I had people take off of work...banquet tables out...vistors over...and no social worker.  

The NEXT day, there she is, 10AM with the new child.

And I felt stupid every time.  

Did you play through to the following day?

Body shop works now, thanks for the help. Well see, I've had adoptions come through on the proper day before no trouble, but now that I think of it I can't recall if those were before or after installing the phone hack. I will try playing through an extra day and see if SW shows up. Thanks for the hint, I hope it works. Oh and there's also the issue of buy and build becoming immediately grayed out after the adoption call... that's kind of irritating.

buy and Build mode are designed to gray out during three different life altering events.1) Death 2) the birth 0f a baby and 3) when the Social worker arrives with the new adopted child,baby,or Toddler

It also greys out when someone comes home/leaves home in the car.

Thanks I forgot about that grey out

well the buttons are greying out as soon as my sim hangs up the phone after making the adoption call, and they stay grayed out. they used to only gray out when the social worker actually showed up.

Hmm, yes well, that's not right.  Have you used the lot debugger?

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=72.0

Put that on the lot, misc/misc and when the controls grey out at the wrong time, try hitting the "renable controls" option on the debugger.   Also look to see if the debugger gives you any weird options, meaning it's found something funky with your lot that needs to be fixed.

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It's worth considering adding Uni and NL to your game, not that I'm suggesting you should have to do that, just considering the thought in general.  I held off on Uni forever and finally bought it mostly because it was getting too difficult to use community hacks and get community help when my game wasn't the same as the majority (expansion packs added).

Between the Maxis patch (finally) and the excellent work of the modders, most of whom are on this site, Uni is now not dangerous and campus life can either be played or avoided.  If you decide to add Uni, I can dig up the thread for you where the kind folks on this board held my hand through installation. 

I've gotten several things through adding Uni, which have made it worth the price of the expansion pack (and the trouble of installing new) to me.  Extra want slots, a couple of new careers, cellphones, and the bridge to NL which I love.   I say "bridge to NL" because even though Uni is not necessary for NL play, I'd find it quite difficult to look for hacks or help if I had the base game plus NL and no Uni.   Thanks to TJ's college adjuster and JM's critical fixes, Uni has had no downside for me.

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Back to the original question, keep us posted.  Those children need to be adopted! 
 :-\

oh let's not forget the Repo Man, the burglar or a good roaring fire...
heh heh

my sims are stupid when a fire breaks out they stand there jumping around like idiots instead of calling the fire dept. then even after you get thm to call the fire dept. they run back to the fire and do the dance sll over again :P

hm, will try the lot fixer and let you know what happens. I've been thinking about Uni but still see more reasons not to buy it than to buy it, from my own game-play point of view.

You need the Fire Mod. It gets rid of the "run towards the fire" to scream, and sims that are experienced with seeing fires will, instead of standing around screaming, try to put it out on their own.

thanks for the info

Hm, I went to download the lot debugger and noticed it's intended for Uni. Do you think it still might fix my social worker problem or would it cause more badness since I don't have the EP?

I am unawesome, but the way I read this:

FFS Lot Debugger (v1.1b) for TS2 v1.0p2 & TS2U v1.0

It's not just for Uni.  (I checked before I gave you the link in my earlier post.)

Good luck!

It used to say tested on Uni I think.  I don't have Uni and back when I had headmaster bug and was desperate for a fix, I remember dithering about whether I dared try it.  DK if the hack changed or just the readme after it had been tested more.  I've tried it out in my game - hitting reset controllers blanked out my build and buy buttons.  I think that is supposed to get control back if you lost it and using it without a problem caused me one!

I don't have the fire mod -until I install the ep, but one of my Sims married a Fire(wo)man.
She was of the wide jawed, fish-lipped variety and annoying to boot. I was just considering if I was going to move her out or kill her when a fire broke out and she autonomously ran in and extinguished it. I was so impressed I kept her. My last Fireman stood there crying like a schoolgirl until he peed his pants and his teenage daughter had to extinguish him.