More Awesome Than You!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I know this. Really, I do. So I don't know what evil impulse caused me to install the Maxis NL patch. But I did it, and now none of my refrigerators work. Any action spontaneously cancels out, and I get a hen-scratch thought bubble. No errors show up in debug mode. Now what?

Did you replace the objects? It might be stuck as 'in use' from before the patch install.

Are new errors log files being created silently in the background? (..\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs)

Any new fridgery or food hacks installed?

There are several posts about buggy fridges.  I can't remember details, but use that search button and see what you find.  From what I remember .....  If you have any downloaded fridges or fridge recolours take them out - I thought it was OFB that messed up one particular fridge, but always worth a try.  You can always use the lot debugger and force and error on it.  If it's an interesting error, post about it.  good luck!

I did search, but didn't find anything germane. However, I always used "refrigerator" as a key word...I'll try using "fridge".

I used lot debugger (that's my first line defense against game screw ups) and replaced the fridges a couple of times (using different models to see if that made a difference) and clicked on all the different possible interactions and people in the house. No one could use it to even juggle bottles.

 I don't have many, but I'll pull my food related hacks and see if that helps. Thanks.

I was using smart serve, but even with that removed the problem persists. I don't have any other refrigerator related hacks, as far as I can tell. I'm not getting error messages, but the cuss-mumble things aren't working. *sigh*

Are your Sims in the same room with the fridge?
If not, it may be room-accessibility that is the problem.

Diagnol doors have been known to pose a problem also.

Actually, thinking there might have been some stuck tile issue, I moved it right in front of them. It still didn't work.

I said to heck with it and reinstalled my whole game (Sims 2, Uni, and NL). I haven't played or restored anything yet. I'd like to know what people think: is patching it a good or bad idea? Going back through the old threads the opinions seem pretty mixed.

Patching is a necessity. You don't want to run broken code.
Install the patch for each and every XP you own (not just the last one!).

Besides, hacks depend on you having the last version installed.

I have seen a lot of people say you should install the patch for every XP you have, but I wonder what that is based upon?  As I understand it, all fixes are incorporated into each successively released XP.  How else would Maxis get the fixes out to people who don't use the internet to obtain support and software?

For the record I completely reinstalled my game with all released XPs to date, and *no* downloadable patches.

It is based on Maxis comments (http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?threadID=cac89624d55a21a892f60585456a062b&directoryID=21&startRow=1&openItemID=item.21,root.1,item.61,item.104,item.41,item.23#cad7a5e6415554134637573aa8e81280):


And given that TS2 + expansions is layered, this makes sense. All XPs are essentially new game installs with their own code, which call back to earlier code whenever features from other XPs are needed (Stuff Packs are internally the last XP, so the same mostly applies).
An unpatched error in XP2 will propagate into XP3 and later until you patch it, or Maxis happens to change the game code in that later XP. You could probably skip Uni and NL patches as the game code was almost completely changed in OFB, but I wouldn't count on this. It doesn't hurt to install patches, so why not just do it?

As for every XP running only its own code, this is proven to be not the case. Remember the disappearing objects if only the FFS or only the OFB patch was installed?

This is probably a datafile-access related issue. If the patch messes with some object bits to make it vanish if you don't have a specific XP, the object will spontaneously disappear. That's how Uni/NL objects in OFB+ are "switched off" for those who lack the relevant expansions.

re patching - we do know that not everything from the NL2 patch made it into OFB, so I'd go with putting every patch in as you go. DK if the put the "lost" bits in the OFB patch.   With programming layered as described above, you need each layer to be the best it can be in case maxis call the bogged up bit.

That's because I think NLp2 was around the time of OFBp1. OFBp1 should be complete-NLp2. However, note that patching an old expansion is usually of no real benefit since the previous expansion is generally ignored, so all bad codes that were broken by OFB will remain broken even if you fix them in NL.

That's my take on it too, Pes.

But it won't hurt to patch either.

It can. Never install a patch newer than the expansion you're trying to install next. If you do, the expansion may try to patch that previous game and barf because it cannot recognize a patch that did not exist at the time it was made. This is particularly pertinent if you're a late-purchaser. If an NLp3 came along, you should not install that if you have yet to install OFB. Even if you aren't, if you ever have to reinstall OFB, it may barf when you attempt to install because of this. Which means you then have to reinstall NL...which may barf if you did that with Uni, which may barf if you did that to your original game.

I'd just like to point out that the only instance of "objects.package" the game loads is the latest one, not all of them.

Then it should (at least in theory) be harmless to delete the contents of the other XP's folders, right?
If no code from previous XPs is ever run.

If you don't plan on uninstalling anything, it should be okay (although I wouldn't actually do it). In fact, the only difference I've noticed between one "objects.package" and the "objects.package" in a subsequent EP/SP is that they tend to remove debug strings and such.

So does that mean that if you only have GLS you can get all objects and interactions from all XPs by editing objects.package and removing the checks for earlier XPs?

In theory, but you'd probably get errors pertaining to missing meshes. You'd have to also important the other object packages containing textures, meshes, and perhaps sound/animations.

The objects.package files from all previous installations you can delete or rename and still play normally.  I have tried it.