More Awesome Than You!

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/terror/orange.gif)
UNI/OFB+: (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif)dramafix.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ofb/hacks/dramafix.zip)
NL ONLY: (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif)dramafix.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/hacks/dramafix.zip)

Drama Professor & Met Self Fix for TS2U - TS2PETS
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado)

Special Thanks To:
Twojeffs
Fat, Hairy-Bellied Ness
Hobbsee the Scrawny Pencil Neck

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.

FEATURES:
Prevents creation of drama professor "lost best friend" visible and invisible
memory spam and "met self" memories.

COMPATIBILITY:
Compatible with all FFS hacks. Tested for TS2OFBp2.

SIDE EFFECTS:
May cause computer damage, incontinence, explosion of user's head, coma, death,
and/or halitosis.

WARNING:
Do not open, crush, dispose of in fire, put in backwards, short-circuit, or mix
with non-awesome hacks - may explode, leak, or catch fire, resulting in injury
and/or death.

I'll try this next time I load my game!  Since you don't like to be thanked, I won't thank you, , but if I ever load the game with the beautiful Lucrezie de la Mort, I'll put simPescado into the game and he can try and win her affections from Komei!

Sorry Chief, no go. The Met Self memory still manifests when I direct my sim to Tend Bar. Is this an indirect hint by Maxis NOT to place bars in owned comm lots?  ???

Hmm, that's strange. It must occur by more than one vector, then. Let's see where Jeffy finds it.

I hate that lost best friend memory spam that the drama professors get every time a sim interacts wtih them.  It's the stupidest thing. 

Thought I might add this info here as well: use of the espresso cart does not spawn Met Self memory.

Dr. Beast:

Try adding this along with JM's fix. If this works then he can just roll the two together.

For whatever it's worth: I've been editing a hood that I just deleted a bunch of character files out of. I found "met self" memories for sims that I haven't played ever (townies, maxis made) and for my sims and I have never told them to tend bar.

From what I saw of the memories and relationships, it seemed to me that there is an...entry for each possible relationship in a hood--even if a sim hasn't met another, the entry is there for when/if they do meet. When they meet a check mark goes into the known box and an icon is then placed into the sims relationship panel.

Maybe, it just seeemed most likely to me as I looked at them, some maxiod coder took the 'possible relationships thing' as a strictly mathmatical expression which would have to include the possiblity of a sim meeting itself  or rather matical terms a number being multiplied by itself when they should have exculded that possibility. So that leaves: how did the check box get marked and hence develop into a 'met self' memory. Got me...I DO know it has nothing to do with bar tending.....maybe when they look in the mirror? Maybe the entry is just corrupting somehow?

I looked at them a long time! Started with just over 300 character files and a little over 4000 sim relationship entries. Ended with around 200 some character files and just under 2000 sim relationship entries. SO over 2000 edited out. and all of them looked at. Most of those were unknown towards unknown--but there was a self towards self for many--I think all of them but I can't say for sure because 4000 entries is a whole lot for entries to go thru and remember.

Oh yeah: for those using Danny's whores: I'm pretty sure Danny's girls are creating unkown memories. For some reason they are not getting dubbed their names (woohooed with Jeanie, pubic woohooed with Jeanie--nope no names I saw only public woohooed with unknown. And Jeanie is the only sim I have that has no modesty--she'll woohooo anyone anywhere for a buck.) I've, sadly, pulled Danny's girls to see if any unknowns are made without them around to blame it on. But, like I said, she's the only public woohooer around--so she must, therefore, be guilty (she only woohoos in public IF she can remain anonomous? :))

That's because these problems are with global bhavs, they can be called by any object in the game and if they are passed garbage data (like the same sim id twice) that is not filtered out you can end up with sim met self memories.

The additon to JM's fix that I posted specifically targets NPCs and sims working an NPC job in a business that could bypass JM's fix and still end up with the memory due to crappy code. There may be even more instances that could bypass global fix, but these should cover most of them.

I also had to edit out a lot of unknown relationships, but in doing so it was fairly obvious that many sims did not have anything like the maximum number of possible relationships filled in.  Out of a possible 400 or so, some had only 10 or 11, all of which were relationships with sims they had met.  Others had the maximum, including the met self one, which I just deleted since I'd already dealt with the odd ones when I'd edited memories.

Got it TJ, I'll try it out and report back tomorrow (no internet at home sucks!)

Edit, one day later: nice work, gentlemen. I'm pleased to report that your collaborative efforts have squished yet another bug!

I have merged the two files together (The Jeffy-Addon is no longer needed), and backported it so that it will HOPEFULLY apply to older versions (Uni/NL) as well. Naturally, this part is untested. It should work, though.

Merged file works a-ok too. BRU command to Be Barista does no longer work on bars, only on espresso carts.

I don't THINK I've ever had the "Met Self" memory, but I'm glads that this hack should ensure that it never crops up in the future.

Thanks once again, JMP. :)

When I put the dramafix mod in my Downloads folder and go into the game, my Sims are standing by their beds instead of asleep in their beds as I left them.  I only have University installed.

This is a peculiar artifact triggered by installing patches or some mods. It is uncertain why some things trigger this, and others don't, but it only happens the first time you install something.

There is another problem associated with this mod installed in my game.

Here is an example that just happened to me.  Sim A was in his house studying cooking.  Sim B walks by outside on the sidewalk.  I cancel Sim A's studying of cooking and send him out to greet Sim B.  They shake hands, and Sim B immediately turns around and leaves.  She walks down the sidewalk and disappears.  There is no indication that Sim A has ever met Sim B.

Immediately leaving is an artifact of Maxian motive initialization, and not because of this. Sims sometimes spawn with motives below their departure points, and thus immediately leave on arrival. This is normal. Since the sim immediately left, they do not appear to have had the opportunity to exchange anything else.

When I take the dramafix mod out of my game, I don't have this problem at all.  With the dramafix mod in my game, it happens all the time to every Sim.

Does it happen once, after you place the mod in your game? Or... does it happen all the time, while you are playing the game? In other words... are you playing several sim days and your sims keep popping out of the bed? Or... does the popping out of the bed only happen when you install the hack and enter your game? :P

If it happens all the time, then I suggest turning on debug mode (boolprop testingcheatsenabled true) and posting the error log for Pescado to inspect.

If it Only happens Once per game session, and only After you install the hack... then that's expected behaviour. Theoretically it will happen once (reseting all sims on all lots) but it shouldn't happen repeatedly.

Ste

It's not the popping out of bed that's the problem.  I think that only happens once.  I've never played several sim days with the dramafix mod in my game.

The problem is when I greet a drop by Sim.  They shake hands and the drop by Sim just leaves instead of going into my house.

I can get them to chat.  But when they're done, the drop by Sim turns around and leaves.

Hrm. That is very odd... and you say this stops happening when you remove this hack? Are you sure that isn't just pure coincidence?

When a sim 'drops by' as you say... how long do you wait before you greet them? Typically, 'drop by' sims will leave if their motives have dropped below some threshold. When they leave, do they have thought bubbles about their needs (i.e. hunger, bladder, energy, etc.)?

Sims will also leave pretty abruptly at certain times during the day. Probably as soon as night falls (around 6 to  7PM) and definitely after 2:00 AM. I've had this happen when I invite a sim over really late, and by the time they show up, it's after 2AM, so even if I greet them, they will just turn around and leave.

I assume this is on Residential Lots, since you mention your house. On Community Lots, sims can tend to turn around and leave abruptly even if they are greeted as soon as they arrive. This is most likely due to the Visitor Controller, which will randomly spawn new people now and then, and due to the limit of people that can be on screen at a time, it will probably force other sims to leave. At least that's my limited understanding of how that works.

I would check to see if any of those conditions could be the cause. Otherwise, maybe you should see if you have any hacks related to motive checking or sim limit or something. Do you have a Business on your home lot? If so, do you have that ticket machine? Well... other than that, I'm out of ideas. ???

Ste

Thanks for all your suggestions, syberspunk.  It's really appreciated.

1.  I only have University installed.

2.  When a sim walks by,  I greet them as quickly as it takes to cancel out working on a skill and getting outside.  Pretty normal gameplay, right?

3.  When they leave, under these circumstances, they do not have thought bubbles about their needs.

4.  I don't invite sims over really late.  In fact, I rarely ever iinvite sims over unless I want them to fall in love and get married to the sim I'm currently playing.  Or if I want to get two teens to get the dancing scholarship.  I keep relationships up using the phone.

5.  You are correct in assuming that this on a residential lot.

6.  I  currently have 75 hacks in my Downloads folder, of which, 41 are by J.M. Pescado, 24 are by TwoJeffs, and there are 10 others.  They are:

     --  Jenflower's:  "homeworksometimesfasterfun"

     --  LizzLove's:    "no-privacy"
     --  LizzLove's:    "no-jealousy-at-all"

     --  Monique's:    "No_Spoiled_Food"
     --  Monique's:    "Work_Bring_Friend_Dialog"

     --  Inge Jones':  "Crib Sleep thru Night"
     --  Inge Jones':  "Aspiration Flamingo (set to keep all sims on the lot in at least gold aspiration)"
     --  Inge Jones':  "No-empty toddler's potty"
     --  Inge Jones':  "No Kick Trash Can"
     --  Inge Jones':  "Always Stocked Fridge Patch"

Thanks again!   :)

Ahh... apparently I hadn't seen Pescado's replies to your other post when I refreshed the thread earlier. When I first read your post that I replied to right below it, I had thought you were still talking about the bed pop up issue. So Pescado had pretty already said the same thing about motives being the cause.

From the looks of your list, I don't see anything that would immediately cause a conflict. I don't use Monique's work hack, so I don't know off hand whether there are different versions. But just in case, make sure you have a Uni compatible version. I'm just grasping at straws here, but other than that, I can't think of anything else that would cause this except for motives.

Try purposefully inviting people over and see if you still get the same problem, where they leave immediately after you greet them. Even still, I can't say for sure whether you definitively say it's a bug/problem.

You could try an experiment (if you're willing to put the time in) playing several sim days, and trying to greet every passer/walk by, and see if they all leave immediately. Quit without saving, and go back in again to the same lot. Do this also on different lots in your game. If there is any case or several cases where a sim stays and everything is fine... then I would conclude that it isn't a problem and it just due to Maxis' sadorandomness with motives.

Even if you do find that every single case, in repeated trials, on the same and differnt lots, that greeted passer/walk bys always leave immediately after being greeted... that is unfortunately not enough to rule out the possibility of Maxian sadorandomness, because it really is that sadisitc. :P

Case in point, several volunteer testers of a certain baby gender choosing hack claimed to report that it worked for them, when it was painfully obvious that it did not. Supposedly, there were cases where it appeared to work all the time for some people, but this was most likely attributed to Maxian sadorandomness, and could not be definitively corroborated by other results.

Oh... one thing I just thought of. If you have TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller, have you set it up to ban any type of sims from your lot? I have not yet used the banning features of that mod myself, so I don't know the details of its inner workings. Again, just graspin at straws. :P

Ste

I know the answer to that last thing.  TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller pretty much prevents anyone that's banned from appearing on your lot in the first place.  The only exception I've heard to this is if the newspaper deliverer or the mailman comes to your lot, they appear but are zapped quickly.  (zapped meaning teleported out of there, not walking off the lot-it's easy to tell the difference).  So it does not sound to me like that could be the problem.

Thank you syberspunk and Avalikia for your input and trying to help me.  I do use TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller.  But I don't ban visitors.  I just ban the silly Streakers, cheerleaders, etc.  I do ban Professors, also.  But I don't think that has anything to do with it.  I was having this (dramafix) problem before I ever put TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller in my game.

There is just one version of Monique's work hack as far as I know.  I've been using it (with University) for ages.

Syberspunk, in your reply you say that, essentially no matter what I do, there is no way to rule out the possibility of Maxian sadorandomness.  I think it would be a losing propostion for me to spend any time trying to figure out what might be causing this to happen.  Because it can always be said that my testing hasn't ruled out the possibility of Maxian sadorandomness.   :P  I hope you can understand that I don't want to put in hours and hours of testing only to be told that I can't rule out the possibility of Maxian sadorandomness.  (No sarcasm intended).   ;)

In the mean time, I will just have to avoid enrolling my Young Adults in the Drama Major.  Heck, I just want to play the Sims2 and have fun...!   :D

I don't have Uni, so Drama professors's aren't a problem.  Should I install it to deal with any other "met self" problems?

Heh, yeah, sorry about that casey. I wish there was an totally absolute way to be 100% certain that it isn't merely Maxian sadorandomness. You'd probably have to play several sim days with and without this hack to be even sort of sure. And since other people don't seem to report the problem, it's unlikely (but not impossible) that the hack is the cause. If other people with a similar configuration as yours (Uni only?) report the same problem limited to sims leaving upon being greeted, then it would seem quite possible that the hack is a cause.

But yeah, I totally don't blame you. Testing for this sort of thing is definitely painful, hence the sado part of the randomness :P and I wouldn't want to put any huge amount of time into this either. Maxian sadorandomness is just pure evil.

If you ever upgrade to OFB or FFS or later... maybe/hopefully you could use the hack then and not have the same problems.


I would guess that it would be safe to use the hack for "met self" problems. I took a peek and it looks like they are all fixes to global BHAVs anyway. The changes make sure that the two sims in question that are being passed to the BHAVs that set these memories are not the same, essentially preventing the "Met Self" memories.

Interestingly, it looks like the reason why drama profs are such freaks is because the game considers them "Lecherous" and Lecherous sims apparently fall in crush/love with every person they meet. Now who's brilliant idea was that? That's some freaky drama profs those Maxians had. ::)

Ste

I wonder if it's possible to fix the sadorandom thing, or if it's just too embedded and complicated to do anything about.

I think the sadorandomness is built into the executable or primitives and isn't something modders have easy access to. Sadorandomness is what is responsible for the First Born effect, which I don't think has ever been 'fixed' so to speak. It really has to do with however they heck they are seeding (or not seeding) their sadorandom number generator.

Ste

No fixed, but at lest Pescado's Lot Debugger has the option to rerandomize the generator to avoid the FB effect.

What the heck is a  sadorandomness? And a first born effect? I haven't heard of that one.

"Sadorandom" is a wordplay combining the process of computer random number generation, "pseudorandom", with "sado-", like in "sado-masochism". Thus, a "sadorandom" number is a number randomly generated to be one of the worst possible choices. If you've ever had straight strings of misses with a 80% hit chance, you know what a sadorandom number is.

The Firstborn Effect is documented in the War Room. Basically, all spawn born to a pair of sims will follow an established sequence that is reset everytime the game starts. Unless you're in the habit of playing very long stretches continuously, this means that you will likely play a bit, have a baby, save, quit, come back, have another one....which will be identical to the first.

Ah! Of course! /slaps head

Yeah I've had that annoying first born thing. I used to and I guess I have to still (as it aint fixed yet right?) to generate a sim in cas to fix that first born thing. It has worked in the past.

And my god you are fast!

The Lot Debugger saves you the trouble of having to go in CAS and generate a randome number of sims.  Just generating one sim in CAS won't fix it, as you'd then be getting the second type of sim in the sequence every time instead of the first.

When I have a pregnant sim who is about to give birth to her second or more child from the same man, I go into CAS and make the game generate the same number of sims as children.  Then I head off back to the lot for the birth.  That way the children aren't clones and it's easy for me to remember how many Sims I need to generate to get semi-unique spawn.  I would just use the lot debugger, but my little sister plays the game too and she's the kind of person who says, "Hmm, 'Decimate' sounds like fun!  I've gotta try that!"  :-X  But this system has worked out well.  Incidently, is it possible to sort my hacked objects so that they appear nowhere except for a custom collection?  It would be easy enough for me to tell her "Touch that folder and you die!"

You could set up a different user profile on the computer for your sister.

She will then only be able to access downloads that are in her profile's My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Downloads folder, and unable to access your game or downloads. 

If she has sims in any of your neighbourhoods, make copies of those neighbourhoods on her user profile so she can still play her sims there.

You'll need to put a copy of the downloads she uses in her downloads folder, otherwise she won't be able to access them.  If you want to be nice, you could even take responsibility for maintaining her downloads folder - everytime you update your hacks remember to update hers as well.

I was thinking about that but our computer is very slow when it comes to rebooting, and we found out long ago that our computer doesn't respond well if we try to load a major program like the Sims 2 and switch users without rebooting (it crashes most of the time).  It's just a lot easier if we keep everyone on the same profile so that we don't have to restart the computer constantly.  We do keep seperate neighborhoods so I'm not especially concerned, but I just know if I put in a tool that's too powerful she'll beg me to fix any problems she makes for herself.

AFAIK, the decimate option doesn't show up unless you're playing with testing cheats on, and then shift-click on the lot debugger.  So you're actually safe there.  There's really nothing in the lot debugger that would cause problems in its normal mode, and it fixes way more things that need fixing.

I could not play without the Lot Debugger.

Updated with switched support for ZOMGPets!!!1111oneoneone.

with the new dramafix in, I get an error each time the slapper come to slap my sim who spied on him with the telescope.
as soon as I removed this file, the slap interaction occurs without error.
Pioupiou

Should be fixed now.

   Per another thread http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5973.0.html 
   Both Ness and myself reported a problem with installing the most recent updates.   I started removing those hacks, and Dramafix is the problem.   I noticed a reset of all my lots after installing those hacks, both of us reporting inability/jumping when greeting walk-bys/dates at restrarants.
   Upon removing of Dramafix, my lots were once again re-set but now my sims are able to greet walk-bys.

Fixed, redownload.

Actually this does not work. I have a separate user identity from my children. And in my Downloads folder I have all my hacks and what-have-you's. I am "Mom" and my side is password protected... But on the "Kids" side of the computer I don't add anything at all.

I thought I was safe with my big-boobied girls and my whoo-hoo hacks, but my 6 year old is fascinated by the game and plays on the "Kids" side... and she has full access to every download I have on my side. So whichever has the hacks shares the hacks. That is why I don't have Casual Sex or naked Sims running around. I realized this when she asked me what "Spawn" means and what "Will I Woo-Hoo?" means. I kept InSIM, but I took out Casual Sex and thankfully I never downloaded the naked sims or the anti-blur -- not that I didn't want to, but I make myself think a few times before I download a new hack. Now, of course, I have to think "Is it suitable for 6-year olds?" before I download.

Since I have not explained how Sims get pregnant to her all of her families are made via adoption.   ::)

Just so you know... protect the little sister!! Don't rely on separate user IDs to keep her safe.

V

Are you sure you remembered to logout and switch users properly?

different user profiles do work, I had to share my other computer for awhile with my daughter and my CC didn't affect her game at all.


make sure you didn't put anything in the "Shared Documents" ea games/sims 2 folder and as JM said log out and switch users

I don't know how to do this in Windows, but in Linux or BSD it's absurdly easy to change permissions on your folders and files to prevent unwanted access.

Anyway, maybe this can help:

http://www.uwec.edu/help/WinXP/perm-types.htm

Wait, TS2 will look in "shared documents" EAGAME~1/THESIM~1/ also? So you can have something in multiple profiles without duplicating it? Sounds like you can put all the critical fixes there, then. :P

Uh. I don't think it will look into Shared Documents at all, unless you purposefully told the game to look there somehow, and I don't even know how that would be possible. Maybe it is possible to change this during the install setup? But I just assumed that the install setup only let's you choose where you install the game files...

I use WindowsXP and so does my sister. If you use the default settings for installing your game, then keeping separate accounts should work. I have a separate account from my sister on her computer where I use the no20khandout and expensive type hacks, which she doesn't want. So I am 100% sure it keeps them separate. I also was keeping a Legacy Challenge account, where I only keep critical fixes, and then a few odds and ends that "fix" annoying crap that I just can't bare to deal with. But I removed things that make the game alot easier, like macrotastics and all it's plugins. Again, this works perfectly on my own computer. I also keep a separate account for Hack Testing, which is pratically empty of hacks, except the specific ones that I am testing.

So... having separate accounts on WindowsXP should allow you to maintain different types of hacks on each account. If you are having problems with this, then I would make sure you are in fact logged in as a different user. That your two separate sets of hacks are in their respective Downloads folder under each separate user name account. I think I read once that someone noticed you can actually stick hacks in other folders, not just Downloads, and the game will manage to still read it in. So make sure all of your hacks are under:

C:\Documents and Settings\USER NAME\My Documents\EA Games\Downloads

AND it is NOT under any folder within the

C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 <whatever is your latest expansion>\

directory tree. If you have any hacks under any of those folders, maybe the game is reading them and making them "globally" active for all users on your computer.

I doubt that the game would actually be "smart" enough to check the Shared Documents folder. Reason being... whenever you create a new user... and  then launch the game, it creates a new EA Games folder under the current logged in user's My Documents directory tree. But it never creates an EA Games folder under Shared Documents. So I just don't think Maxis EA would have been that clever. Otherwise it definitely would be more convenient and cut down on maintenace of custom content across several accounts if the game actually did do that. That just seems far to functional and logical. ::)

Of course I'll be eatin crow when it turns out to be true. :P But anyhew, I find it hard to believe that having separate accounts doesn't work when it seems to for just about everyone else. The only type of hacks that I know work "globally" on a single computer affecting all accounts are ones that change the core files. Which makes sense, because those are typically under the Program Files directory tree, which is accessed by all accounts.

Also... I think for most general users, who buy their computers retail and get WinXP preloaded, it is mostly likely I think the Home version, which does not seem to provide any form of group or specific user type permissions. Although the article dizzy linked to shows how to set them, on my machine (unless it is just disabled and maybe you have to do something else to enable the Security tab stuff? ???) when I check the properties of a folder, there is no Security tab. There is a Sharing tab, which just lets you share folders completely or read only. But I see no way to specify a user or password for protection.

Ste

well I've never actually tried it, figured sharing usually means just that but of course this is windows and EA so...  :P

Silly Ste. Close your tags.

Just tried placing some non-Awesome objects in All Users\Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads, and they didn't show up in the Buy Mode catalogue. So no, TS2 does not appear to read the shared documents folder.

EDIT: The "EA GAMES\The Sims 2" folder was already created, but the Downloads folder wasn't.

Ste, your tag is open.  :D

Whoops! How embarassing! :-[ I got caught with me knickers down and me tag out. Heh. That's what I get for posting like 5 in the morning when I really should have been sleeping 5 hours before then. ::)

Venusy, that is odd, because I am fairly certain that my Shared Documents folder did not have an EA Games folder by default. Nor did my sister's computer. I could be wrong... but I thought the EA Games folder was created only when you actually run the game on the account you are logged in as. For example, if you create a new user, and just log on, they would have all the default folders that WindowsXP creates (My Music, My Pictures, etc.) but the EA Games folder shouldn't be there yet, no? Only after you start the game while logged into the new account, that the game creates that folder, the subfolders, and directories. Since all user accounts have access to the Shared Documents folder, I would imagine that it would try to create a folder, if it already didn't exist, in there each time you start the game on a new account. But I'm pretty sure it doesn't. I could be wrong. And even if it did... since it can't read cc from there, why would it create those folders? ???

If I'm not too lazy, maybe I'll attempt this sometime later. I am really curious if it does create those folders in the shared area, and whether or not it would actually have a purpose.

Ste

I just checked my Shared Documents folder on both PCs, and there is an EA Games/The Sims 2 folder.  I think I noticed that before, but I couldn't figure out why it was there and never really thought about it again.  I don't really use the Shared Documents folder much.

For some inane reason TS2 will create EA Games/The Sims 2 in Shared Docs when it runs. Probably just some bad coding by EAMaxis.

Hrm... that is really weird. I was pretty sure that I had to create the EA Games folder in my Shared Documents area myself. I was using it to store downloaded hacks and random stuff. I also use it as the area for my SimPE Includes, so that I can easily get to that area in one click (rather than drilling down thru Program Files). Hrm... maybe I just imagined it. Or maybe I deleted the folder a long time ago and then recreated it? I wonder if you delete the folder, does the game try to recreate it?

Ste

After reading your replies about this I went back and checked. She does have a Downloads folder in her game and it has all my downloads up to but not including the Pets updates.

But she does not have the InSIM in her Downloads folder anywhere. It is also nowhere to be found on the "Kids' Side" of my computer. The only place the computer can find anything with "InSIM*.*" in the file name is on my side in its proper subfolder.


Now, I can admit to the possibility that I may have forgotten about giving her a copy of my downloads folder at some point earlier this month … but I do know that her dogs have been peeing reproduction adjusters and she has recently asked me about some of the InSIM commands that show up in some of her pie menus.

So does anyone have any idea how her side is finding it on my side in a subfolder of my Downloads folder?


She usually starts playing her game after a full system reboot since her turn is right after my autistic son's turn and he uses a lot of background programs and plays recorded videos on several different video playing programs at the same time. Sims 2 doesn't run very well after all that without a reboot. So I am usually not logged in at all. If I give her a chance to play while I am logged in... well, there is only one way to get to the Kids side and that is to log off... switch users. At least that is the only way that I know of. But, as I mentioned, I am usually logged off completely and not even running in the background.

I also share a computer with a sister who plays Sims (I often regret showing her how to get started).  We have seperate logins and seperate games.  I couldn't play this game if I was constantly worried that she would get into my neighborhoods and mess up all my hard work.  Our computer runs Windows XP.

And I'd like to know more about the Shared Documents folders.  It would save me time if I could put the mods we both use into 1 location instead of 2 different folders. I got excited about the possibility of streamlining my updating and didn't even realize there was a second page to this post.  Please ignore.

I don't know how organized your Downloads folders are but is it possible that there is a copy of InSIM in her downloads that is named with a string of numbers - recently many people are finding out they do have copys they didn't know they had so I thought I would mention it.

Also, under properties when you right click on my docs/ea games/sims 2 folder, there is a sharing tab, under that there is an option to make that folder private, might be worth a try.

Hrm that is odd. What you could do then, if it is a renamed dupe with a hexstring, you could stick a copy of the insimenator in the kids folder. Then scan the folder with the pheverstool and then sort by MD5. If you have a dupe of the InSim, you will see one line that is pink. Then just delete both copies (that have the same MD5) from your kids folder. I hope that helps.

Ste

I will have to check out these possibilities when I get "my turn" again in a few hours. Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into it. I would like to have some hacks available to me and NOT her! So if I can be sure they won't "bleed over" or whatever then I will feel much better about having a more "grown-up" version on my side.

1 way to test would be to move your downloads folder to your desktop, log off and switch to her desktop, fire up her game and see if InSIM is there. If it is then you know for sure that it is somewhere in her my doc/ea games/sims 2 folder.


If for some reason it is reading your downloads folder then - You could always make subfolders for those items you wish to use (but don't want in her game) and pull those folders out when your done playing and move them back in before you play, bit of a pain but atleast then you wouldn't have to worry about it.

Did you install the multiple user accounts after installing the game? I remember last time I had a shared computer, granted it was windows 98, we had multiple accounts that we added in later. Everything created and downloaded prior to creating the user accounts showed up for all three. Maybe when you made her account it copied your My Documents folders for her for some reason?

No, I already had the system set up before I started installing programs. I am using XP and it has been at least three months since my last reformatting of my hard drive.

I notice that "All Users" and "Default User" folder groups each have an EA games folder, but those folders are all empty. I wonder if the computer auto sets up any subsequent users based on the original user's game... I mean,

1. I install the game, move my neighborhoods and not yet updated download folders into position
2. I launch the game for the first time and play
3. I exit and log off of my side.
4. My daughter logs into her side and launches the game
5. The game goes looking for the setup files and pulls everything in my EA folder for use on her side... except for neighborhoods and saved sims...?

That doesn't seem very sensible. She definitely does not have access to my neighborhoods. She has all new basic three neighborhoods, tutorial and the neighborhood that she created. But she also has the downloads folder that was last updated on 9/26/06.

My downloads folder was not terribly organized prior to the Pets update. I had everything in "downloads" because I did not know that I could use subfolders. In fact I thought that subfolders did not work. So before the update I had Insim in my downloads folder. Since the update I moved it to its own special folder so I could find it to remove it when they get their update done.

She did not have access to insim prior to the update, I am pretty sure. And I still have not found it, though I have not done the comprehensive search for the program that will help me identify which of those number strings equal Insim. I did use Sims2Pack Clean Installer to look for it on the Kids side and it claims that InSim is right there for anyone to see. It did not tell me which one of the files is actually the one I am looking for. (I have no idea if that makes any sense or not. Suffice it to say that I still don't see it written out plainly and I haven't given up looking for it.)


That is actually a very good idea and, yes a bit of a pain, but not so much a pain it wouldn't be feasible.

I still would like to solve the mystery, just for curiosity's sake, but there are certainly quite a few good workable ideas. Thanks!

Thanks for the drama fix JM. Don't know what I'd do without you. ;)
SimMoon

Just in case you weren't aware, by default, S2PCI scans the downloads folder of the account you re logged into. I only mention this, not because I think you don't know any better, but only because I myself have done stupid things like scanning a directory that I thought was another account only to find out later it wasn't. :P Heh.

Anyhew, while you are logged into the Kids account and you run S2PCI, and InSim actually shows up in the list. You won't have to know the actual hexstring filename, you can just right click on it and delete/remove it. Then, just to be sure, quit from S2PCI and then launch it and scan again. InSim shouldn't show up on the list anymore.

Ste

 ;)  I didn't know that for sure, but I suspected it, so I did use it from the kids side. Thanks for confirming.


This is good to know. I ended up putting all the files that were weirdly named into a new sub-folder of Downloads called "Unknown" and then put InSim in that folder also, on purpose (don't ask me why, it seemed like a good idea at midnight). When it showed up twice as "Insim" in S2PCI then I put my real Insim back where it belonged and deleted all those nonsense files since they were clearly things I did not want. I did not know that I could delete them from S2PCI so that will save me a step next time.

Thanks to everyone for your input regarding this issue. I still don't know why or how it happened, but it is fixed now and my 6 year old now believes that microwaves make you pregnant.... this should be a fun year for her, hee hee hee.

LOL, that's a new one...babies come from microwaves!  You just cook them for 30 seconds, and presto, a baby!  LOL