More Awesome Than You!

Anyone have this to share?

Not yet, but since all you need to do is register the game to get it, I should have mine in the next couple hours. Just waiting on UPS to fling my copy against the door.  ;)

Okay, Even zipped, the Karaoke Machine is too big to attach, so if anyone wants the downloads, PM me your email address.

So is life stories worth buying?

Good question. $40? That's pretty steep. Although it is on sale at Frye's for a mere $32.99. ::)

Yeah, I'd like to know that too. I had briefly considered buying it until I saw the retail price. Amazon is selling it for $36.99.

If I buy any of these standalone games, I'd be more interested (I think) in the Castaway edition but I would like to hear what people think of this first edition.

Forgive my ignorance, but Life Stories is coming with some items that can be used in the regular game?

Doesn't sound like it.  They're "giving" a kareoke machine as a purchase incentive.

I too would like to to try it before i buy it. I have checked on bit torrent but haven't found it yet. Also checked usenext still nothing viable.

Well, someone who gets it can see if it is affected by SimPE: If so, it will be potentially susceptible to ripping. There's no apparent reason why it would be grossly different outside of deliberate obfuscation.

Actually, the downloads aren't even purchase incentives this time, they're registration incentives.  Karaoke, drums, and that glowing colored block.

So far, it seems to me that LifeStories is what TS2 should have been in the first place. Kinda TS2 2.0.  :D I haven't gotten much into it, but I'm playing Riley's story right now. Although most of the items are identical to what we've gotten in TS2, there seems to be some new wallpaper, floors, and objects. I can't tell how many until I've gone to the FreePlay mode and/or unlocked everything. There are also some things missing at this point- not every chair, desk, bed, etc. that we got even in the base game is included, unless they all show up later. I love all the shortcut keys, and- a true miracle, when she invited someone over and they showed up, she automagically canceled out of the painting she was doing to greet him.  :o

At this point, the only cons, to me, are that the goals don't roll over fast enough- at first, it was one after another, but it's slowed WAY down now to what looks like 1 per day. And my Sim got the want to get a job before she unlocked the goal to get a job, so it didn't let her get a job as soon as I'd have liked- okay, it was only like a 3 Sim hour delay from when I tried, but it meant she couldn't go to work until the 3rd day I played her. I suspect there also may be a cap to how many relationship points you can earn, since she kept talking/flirting/hugging someone and HE was racking up points, but she didn't budge beyond a certain point. Whether that was a bug or "feature," I don't know.  ;)

Is it worth $40? Hmmmm. If you liked the idea of basic gameplay of the console versions, but like me, hated the controls of it, then yes. I like having the goals to reach and things to unlock. If you're not into that, then you have to decide if new hotkeys and some different objects and things are worth $40 plus not having all the downloads and cheats (yet, at least.) I don't know if I'll buy the Pets one, and I suspect EP5 will be a remade Vacation, so I'm not sure about Castaways either. But it's early on in the game, yet.  :) For someone who doesn't have TS2, I'd probably suggest it OVER TS2, though. Especially since it comes with the basic features of NL and some things thrown in from all the EPs except maybe Pets. Heck, it even has the gamer career from Seasons.

I just really want that one new TV that Riley can unlock.

Isn't Seasons EP 5? Do you mean EP 6 will be a redo on Vacation?

 :D Okay, I can't count so maybe no one should listen to me.  ;D But yes, I suspect that the Fall EP will be a redo on Vacation.  They finally admitted a couple months ago that they plan the Fall EPs to be something familiar and then the Spring one something new, and there has been some concentration on vacation destinations in the last few surveys I saw (not counting the recent Pets Console one) And Castaways is supposed to come out next winter. *shrug* Like I said, just a guess, but there are reasons for it.  :)

And is that the end for Sims 2? I heard buzzbuzz awhile ago about Sims 3. Or I wonder if they're going to spin off into these storyline ones.

The latest on Sims 3 is at (in Spanish, translation by Google) http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elmundo.es%2Fnavegante%2F2007%2F02%2F05%2Fjuegos%2F1170672407.html&langpair=es%7Cen&hl=en&safe=off&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools

It states that Sims 3 is a reality, but no planned release dates yet. It also says that there will be more EPs past Seasons.

I wasn't going to buy it - sounded like the consoles too much for me and they usually disappoint but....  I was bored waiting for seasons and so I dl'ed it from EALink.  I have to admit I am impressed with some of the features even though the "stories" are a bit tedious to get through. 

That I have noticed so far -
On the good side -

-It has a built-in Macrotastics that makes it soooo much easier to play - "G" greets guests, "H" makes them go find food, "K" makes them clean, etc.  Not nearly so much pointing and clicking. 

-The shrubs and flowers are "always perfect" (no more daily gardener and having to place them just right so they can be trimmed). 

-There seems to be a few new careers and items to check out.

-Whoever built the premade houses seems to have actually played the game before and they are set up reasonably well.

-They never did "What's this?"

On the bad side -

- The stories are obviously to teach newcomers the game and can't really be sped through just to unlock stuff and go to freeplay.  For example - relationships will get "froze" until a certain time that the next event happens regardless of what you do.

- Lots of stuff is missing (people who really get into decorating will be disappointed unless/until some cc comes out). 

I finished Riley's story and started Vincents but haven't really done freeplay to raise kids etc although I did have to go through one pregnancy (which took a lot of sim maintenance just like in Sims 2).  Overall, it looks like alot of the micromanagement/annoyances to keep the stupid sims alive is gone so you can focus more on making a story for them.  I am enjoying it but I really think I will tire of it fairly quickly.

Has anyone tried doing a serious tire kick on it? Is there an objects.package, for instance?

I did get a What's This, but only on one lot, and never when I added something new- just when I didn't have Riley busy enough when she went to the Boutique- she suddenly was obsessed with the flowers.  ::)

I'm glad I'm not the only one wondering why they bothered to have a tutorial, when the stories just lead you through everything. I think there could have been some improvement there- at least in the console versions, it's a little more complex. *shrug* But it's okay. I'm up to Riley's pregnancy now, I haven't tried Vincent yet.

I was impressed by Riley's house, too. Usually the Maxis houses are impossible to live in, but these are okay. I do wish that they'd added a grill or something to more of the community lots, though.

I couldn't tire kick it if I tried, but it does have an objects.package

I don't have the game yet, but I got the bonus items.

The downloaded files (.SimsLSPack) can be unpacked using CleanInstaller (at which point they become plain ol' .package files), and can be opened in SimPE. Nothing about them is unusual or different that I can see. SimPE could display everything, including previewing the mesh with the texture on it.

I guess I could try and see if I can make them show up in the game.

My guess is that it'd be a trivial OBJD flip. I'm not entirely keen on the hand-holding gameplay, though. It is obviously not for those of us who are awesome.

From what I've read, LS is basically Sims 2 Lite, intended for people using older computers or laptops. Definitely not for people who are Awesome.

They basically said that in the Podcast they released about it. Apparently, there are people out there who might want to play Sims but are "intimidated" by the open-endedness of it, so they put in a couple stories to give them something to follow.  I think it was a good idea, but as usual, the execution was weak. They type of gamer they are after doesn't want something they can basically "finish" in 2 days. That's also why they said there won't be an exchange and they're not encouraging CC- they will supply the additional downloads, no doubt by taking all the objects from TS2 they didn't already put into the game and doling them out over time.

Just like making it "laptop friendly" was a good idea, but as far as I can tell, the way they achieved that was by forcing the game down to what idiots with the average laptop or older computer should have been running at anyway- no more than 4 at a party and no larger than a 3x3 lot, and automatically in Windows mode.

It would be nice, though, if the hotkeys and improved AI would show up in Seasons or something.

Pes, someone at MTS2 said they checked it out and the files look functionally almost identical to TS2 stuff and can be opened and ID'd with Clean Installer...

Light? If it's so LIGHT, why does it demand a bigger system than TS2 did?

Anything cool in the game that TS2 doesn't already have?

Just the registration incentives that I know of so far, but IIRC he (Numenor?  I think?) said the game *does* appear to be susceptible to modding and custom content, contrary to previous reports.

Well, if it's a compatible rippable format, it's worth looking into. But frankly, there's no really good reason *WHY* you'd want to mod that specifically, since it's just a more primitive, stripped down version of the real deal that somehow manages to demand higher system requirements anyway. More like cannibalize it for anything that happens to be unique...

*sigh* It doesn't actually require higher system requirements- that's a misconception started when people compared the requirements for TS2 WITH a standalone video card to the specs of LS without one. The only thing that increased was the RAM on a laptop, and I consider that just  half honesty for a change.  I am puzzled why they think laptops need a faster processor than a desktop, since monitoring the battery shouldn't take up that much extra power, but even so, last I checked 1.8 GHz was still less than 2.0 GHz.  ;)

TS2:
If you have a non-T&L capable video card (an Intel Extreme Graphics or a Radeon 7000/VE Series) then you need at least:

    * 2.0 GHz processor or better
    * 256 MB RAM if Windows Vista, XP, Windows ME, Windows 98, or Windows 2000
    * At least 3.5 GB of hard drive space

LS:

    *  OS: Windows XP
    * CPU: 1.4 GHz (1.8 GHz laptop) or faster
    * RAM: 256 MB (512 MB for laptop) or more
    * Disc Drive: 8x or faster DVD-ROM drive
    * Hard Drive: 2.7 GB or more free space
    * Video: DirectX 9.0c compatible (see below) Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible

If you also take into consideration that it has most of the things from NL (not the annoying flashing lights, thank goodness) then it's even more of a difference, since NL requires a 2.4 GHz processor if you don't have a real video card.

I'm not saying it's still not a cut down version of TS2, or that it would be worth modding for, but it bugs me that everyone keeps saying the requirements are higher.  ;)

I'd be interested in someone ripping out some of the new furniture sets and the Plasma TV from LS for TS2.

Edit: I take back what I said earlier, I can do some very basic tire kicking.  ;) I tossed all floors, walls, clothes, and makeup from my TS2 downloads folder into LS. A package file is a package file.  :) (Yay, I don't have to have ugly Sim clothes!) I also put in one chair recolor since cashcraft makes her things identifiable by file name, and it showed up like it should have. The only challenge with objects would be, of course, that a lot of what I have are recolors of Maxis meshes that aren't in LS, and I don't feel like spending the weekend with Simpe trying to sort through them.

I've played for about three hours now.

The gameplay is virtually identical to Sims 2. The story is kind of amusing in its own way, but the goals are so freakishly stupid that the amusement comes from reading the text, not from actually playing. The graphics are extremely good considering you would think they should be worse (they're pretty much the same quality as TS2). The main thing though, is that it plays like a dream. All settings maxed, and no signs of any lag whatsoever.

I should, however, say that I'm playing on a desktop, not a laptop.

As far as objects, there are a few unique items, but not anything I would go to the trouble of extracting and making available for TS2.

And that was going to be my next question, about "harvestable" objects. I would imagine that anything unique is already available at MTS2 or something.

Ugh, why did they put out another game that's basically exactly the same game? If all they wanted were stories, they could easily do an addable engine like the TSR one. This is just something else to worry about being compatible and who is making what for what.

I've seen screenshots where someone put custom skins in and they work fine as well.

As far as I can tell, the only real difference is that it opens in windows mode :p And has some keyboard shortcuts it'd be nice if they bothered to put in the 'real' game. Oh and there's no in-game camera so if you wanna do stories you hafta use screenshots of whatever flavor.

Yay, They are pretty basic stories. Nothing really worth your time. Though I do love the Homes. I wonder if they could safely be moved to TS2? Also Life Stories does not have any cars.

Not to nitpick, but would you want to do storytelling with something so structured? Just curious.

Okay. Here are my findings so far.

About Life Stories Lot Binned Houses

The six houses located in the LotCatalog folder of Life Stories can be safely moved to the LotCatalog folder of The Sims 2. They will show up in the game and sims can be moved into them. However, I have not tested whether everything works okay, and I have tested them only with all EPs installed. I have determined that at minimum you must have Uni, NL, and OFB. Content such as wallpapers and floors will vanish, as will most furniture, but the houses themselves are intact.

Here is a picture showing the Singles moving into the Contempo Cottage. Debug mode was on and no errors were generated on load.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/contempocottage.jpg)

LotCatalog for Life Stories: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims™ Life Stories\LotCatalog

LotCatalog for The Sims 2: C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\LotCatalog

---

About Life Stories Neighborhoods, Houses, and Sims

I'm currently in the process of assessing whether the Life Stories neighborhoods and their houses can be made fully playable in Sims 2.

Here's my progress so far:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/1.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/2.jpg)

Getting to this point is trivial. You simply dump the three neighborhoods from Life Stories into the Neighborhoods folder of Sims 2, taking care not to include the Tutorial or the NeighborhoodsManager file, which would cause the game to crash when loading a neighborhood.

The houses crash on load. Yanking the families out is successful, but the empty houses still crash on load if they were occupied (others load okay). The sims themselves can be placed in empty lots with no problems.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/4.jpg)

However... this is how it works WITHOUT changing ANYTHING inside the files. Once a little editing is done, things get better.

When Version Number is deleted and Number ID's are replaced with Sims 2 versions (yanked from original Maxis 'hoods), the occupied houses load with no problems. However, only two houses were tested, so this is not for 100% sure. SEE INSTRUCTIONS AT END OF POST (it turned out to be not quite this simple).

Here's a shot of What's-his-face-Kincaid in his house, which loaded just fine.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/3.jpg)

---

The point of this whole post was... This game is so much like Sims 2, that you can even PLAY it in Sims 2. Sheesh, Maxis.

---

INSTRUCTIONS

Note: You have to complete the stories before you can do this. Otherwise some of the lots will continue crashing.

Note 2: Many (but not all) of the lots go into a loading loop (and never load). To solve this, you must load each lot (occupied or not) in Life Stories, make a small change, and save. Vincent and Riley's lots need to be loaded at least once more after they reload into free play mode after completing the story.

Note 3: Your Sims 2 game must have Uni, NL, and OFB in order to accept the neighborhoods. Otherwise either the neighborhoods or the lots will crash on load. Life Stories includes bits of all three EPs.

Step 1:  Go to C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\ and remove your Neighborhoods folder (to somewhere safe, of course).

Step 2: Go to C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims™ Life Stories\ and COPY the Neighborhoods folder over to C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\

Now your Life Stories neighborhoods are under C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\ Neighborhoods

Step 3: Open C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\ and delete the file called NeighborhoodManager.package and the folder called Tutorial.

Step 4: Open C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\ and you will see three folders called N001, N002, N003. Inside each one is a file called N00#_Neighborhood.package. Open these in SimPE.

Step 5: Delete Version Number. It will be an item on the very bottom of the list on the left-hand side. When you click on it, it will appear on the right-hand side. Then you right-click and choose Delete. Then save the file.

Step 6: I've made extracted ID Numbers available for download: http://www.box.net/public/75d090iaah After downloading this file, unzip it and you will have three folders called 1, 2, 3.

Step 7: Open one of the N00#_Neighborhood.package files and find ID Number on the left. Click on it and it will come up on the right. Right-click and select Replace. Browse to the folder called 1 (downloaded from me) and select either of the files inside. Save. Open the next file, and replace ID Number with the one from the folder called 2. Then do the third file.

So does "Life Stories" have anything new that is NOT in some version of TS2, and NOT a simple remesh/recolor of an existing functionality?

This should have been released before The Sims 2 really, sort of like a taster of what's to come. I can't see the point of it ???

Pescado: No, there's no new objects, just the usual remeshes. But the computer you get in Vincent's story is WAY cool. I'll be glad to see that extracted to plug into TS2.

SaraMK: What happens to the bushes? I see that they didn't disappear, so do they need trimmed, or are they like the plastic ones?

What about actions? Those are often technically objects also. Socials represent the possibility of an object.

Me? naw, I don't want the dang thing at all. I don't even want it to exist. But there is a completely 'free-play' mode, so if someone wanted to tell stories, they can without it being all structured.

Only 4 want slots, no Uni, no bills, plastic plants, no fear slots. It's 'lets make the game easier' time - doh, why? It's too easy now.

Apparently testing cheats works exactly the same and even comes up with the testing cheat options that make no sense (like the option to add someone to the secret society). I heard there are two new careers and career rewards - anything good to steal out there?

Highly pillageable.

There's also different music on the piano.

And some 'family goals' thing that sounds vaguely like a rolls-over-more-often lifetime want (ex. have family members max a skill, have family members get into private school). If there's new interesting code, could you steal that out? (and the ones for the shortcuts too? ('H' to fix a meal etc.)

The new free handout is now 40k instead of 20k. :p

Apparently there is a cameraman mode somewhere - just people are having trouble finding it.

I actually rather like it. My Sims games stopped being playable on my laptop after I installed Pets, and when I left for school I couldn't pack the desktop, so I left the full sims games with my sisters and bought this one. It's really great to still be able to play the sims even when my laptop couldn't handle the sims before.

Um, you never thought of reinstalling up to OFB and leaving Pets off your lap top?  That way your sisters could still play with the Pets cd and you'd have everything else...

To be fair, fear slots don't really do much anyway. It's all but impossible to fulfill them outside of intentional torture and abuse. We've actually TRIED to make a modification to make them more achievable, but after filtering as many implausible ones as we possibly can, fears remain all but impossible to fill.

Well you can hit them by accident and take a hit, but mostly it's pretty negligable (I didn't wanna change that diaper, wah, wah, wah) so ok I'll give you fears and raise you a 20K to 40K handout when you habitually remove even the littler one from your game (as I understand it, least I do from mine). Life stories is meant to be easier I think. Oh and by the by, limit of 4 people in a family too.

I figured the handout would be more, as all the Sims sitting in the Simbin had 50K or more. Which was convenient when I was plopping them into houses and giving them phones before going back to the lot I was playing. I hadn't run into the 4 people in a family bit yet, but it makes sense. Once again, it's forcing people down to limits they should have put on themselves if they were on a weaker computer.

I tried opening the cheat box in the usual way, and couldn't.  :-\ How do you do that? (Or should I just copy over my userstartup file) Not that I plan on playing it for terribly long. Once Seasons comes, I'll relegate it to the laptop, especially after all the content has been pillaged for use in TS2.  :D

The cheat box seems to only open in neighborhood view now, which is kind of annoying.  :(

Answers to random questions (too lazy to quote):

The bushes become regular bushes that come with the Sims 2 game, so they will function the same way as those.

The reason you can't open the cheat box is because you are in story mode (Riley or Vincent). Cheats are not allowed. If you go into the free play neighborhood, you can open the box in any house and use all cheats. It opens the same as in Sims 2: Ctrl-Shift-C. The reason you can't use cheats in story mode is that you might screw up the story and the whole thing will blow up. The same way, many socials are locked and not available, and relationship scores won't rise past a certain point in some cases (when trying to win Mickey back, you can't get past 71/51 with friends and crush... no best friend or love no matter what you do).

Pescado: The only new social I have seen so far is the gift giving, which is actually cool. Sims give your sim a prezzie and it gets placed into your inventory. The animations are new and well done. No new objects, just re-meshes.

Camera man mode: Hit the U key! :) It took me a few minutes to discover this. The right/left/up/down keys are different and the arrows don't work properly. When in the game, hit The ESC key and you get a list of all the keyboard shortcuts for movement.

I've played for a few hours today... I tried the story mode and got bored fast... bleh. 

Do i have to do the stories to unlock custom content...? objects?

I put in some skintones that use custom meshes and clothing that use the same meshes and those seem to work.

But i added in a few custom objects and none of it showed up.... I'm going to try some of the hacks and see which ones work and i'm definitely going to try ACR and see what happens...

I'll report back later...

I just did another quick experiment. CEP works (and death to all creators/modders who don't properly label their damn creations so you can tell what they are) as does putting in completely new meshes with their recolors. I don't know if you have to complete one of the stories to get at CC, since I didn't try until I'd finished with Riley's, but the main problem, as previously stated, is going to be that not all objects from TS2 are in LS, so anything based off those meshes aren't going to show up.

About camera controls: They've also changed what the Tab key does, to rotate the view up and down, you now need to hold Shift-S and Shift-W (or middle click and rotate, but I'm used to tab)

Is it just my imagination, or did one of the fansites talk about them adding gift giving to Seasons, finally?

You might have read that here:

http://www.thesimszone.co.uk/editorials/index.php?ID=59&Page=3

The censor remover package makes the sims flash purple...eewwww    ???

i copied the file "quaxi_pets_censor_v1.package" from sims2 config to sims life stories config and got flashing purple sims... is there another file i need to copy??

I'm not using that one, I use someone or other's plain censor.package. It goes into the downloads folder like anything else, and is working perfectly.

The clothing tool works, as well. I'd just forgotten how much of my custom clothes are based off meshes from Uni.  :-\ I need to go digging through my CD drawer and see if I had an old backup disk from before Uni. Or I need to download new clothes that either come with their own mesh or are for the base game only.

hhmm... i going to have to look for one i guess...

ACR works fine though... i'm using rc3a...

and lots of awesome hacks work too... just going to be a matter of going through them and getting rid of the pets hacks

The plain censor.package is by Simsky. I believe it can be found at sexysims.com.

thanks notveryawesome..... but the one for NL from simpe website seems to work...

But i can see it's definately going to take some time to go through all my game objects to see what works...

I thought i would just add my game objects dir to life stories to see what happens and game go "crash"... but it's great that so much other CC works

I had, but even then the game had slowed down too much. And since I was going to school abroad, I just left the game for my sisters to try and fiddle with because I knew SLS was going to be 'laptop friendly'. And it has been. It works really great. My only complaint is that I hate the ugly maxis clothes. But I can live with those because the game runs so smoothly.

Have you considered that the slowdown of TS2 was due to too much custom content, and the reason why LS runs so smoothly is because of the lack of custom content?

That was my impression also.

Even with a lot of my downloads in the game, it runs better than TS2. But again, this is because EA forces you to live on small lots with no more than 4 Sims and plants that are just decorative- they don't need watered or trimmed or sprout weeds. They also aren't weighing the game down with masses of their own objects. You can achieve most of this in TS2 on your own.

The engine is a lot better though, with the shortcut keys. I hope (but don't expect) EAMaxis rolls this into Seasons or XP-Next.

By the way, find me the name of the imbecile that decided to create YET ANOTHER FUCKING TOP-LEVEL FOLDER IN MY DOCUMENTS for this game. And arrange a ritual flaying.

Either keep your crap in Game\Save, or in My Documents\My Games (as per "Games for Windows"). Heck, even "Documents and Settings\Luser\(Local Settings\)Application Data\Your crap" is better than a top-level folder in My Docs.

I have the following folder now, none of which *I* created:
(folder - game(s) where not clear)
Activision - Gun
EA Games - The Sims 2
Egosoft - X3
Electronic Arts - Life Stories
GTA San Andreas User Files
GTA3 User Files
kudos
My Games - Fable, Pirates, Prey
NFS Carbon
NFS Most Wanted

That makes 12 games, 3 of which get it right. But EA gets the price here for creating two company top-level folders. I bet if I were to install another Activision game, it would go in the existing Activision one, not in in "Activision Games" or whatnot.</rant>

Aren't the two NFS games made by EA as well? So in reality, hasn't EA made 4 top level folders?

Probably, but it is beyond stupidity to make a COMPANY NAME folder and then not use it... and invent a new one for the next game. I would grudgingly accept it if it were My Docs\The Sims 2\ and My Docs\The Sims 2 Life Stories since that at least would be a little consistent. Still stupid, but consistent.
I can't wait for the next EA Sims game that drops its saves in My Docs\Electronic Arts Games\. And its sequel, which will use "My Docs\EA® Games™\", etc..

Hacks tested with Life Stories

nowhatsthis (JM Pescado)
dontwaveatme (JM Pescado)
clothingtool (but not globals) (JM Pescado)
asprechargetweak (JM Pescado)
manual-navigation (JM Pescado)
novelprogress (JM Pescado)
lesswhiny (JM Pescado)
noroutefail (JM Pescado)
nospoiledfood (Monique)
TeleporterShrub (Inge Jones / Jordi)
NoSpoiledPizzaSlices.package + PizzaBox.package (??)
backtocasual (Squinge)
MaintenanceFreeAquarium_XPTL297 (XPTL)
MQ_More_Fun_Reading (Monique)
RunHereNoActiveCheck (moreawesomethanyou.com Peasantry)
sleep_anytime (modthesims2.com)
breakfast_at_midnight (modthesims2.com)
Fast_skills (omniloth.net/sims/)
WriteNovelsFaster (Squinge)
djsautorecyclingnewspaper (the non-Pets version) (DJS)
InSIMenator (UV) v2.5 OBJ Edition - not fully tested but seems to work okay, allows pregnancy past the limit of 4 sims in family

Other items tested with Life Stories

Default replacement eyes
Default replacement skintones

Hacks found to be NOT COMPATIBLE

Triplets & Quads (TwoJeffs) - reset loop when sim attempts to give birth
Numenor_VincentsSimModder (Numenor) - does not show up in game
LotFullOfSims.package (Jordi) - error/reset when clicking on another sim while on bed

Can't you mark some of those folders with the "hidden" attribute? That way you don't have to look at it except whenever you really want to.

That's the thing, though. Right now, I'm sure Jordi is going back and forth a lot, like I am.  :)

Yes ... i can see the folder setup causing lots of probs...

How do i use cleaninstaller to install a lot into a life stories... or installing walls, floors, etc... by double clicking on a simspack?   ???

On a happy note..... Life stories doesn't have Pleasure Aspiration......YAY!!!!

Can i reinstall one of the Life stories?  I think i broke Vincent somehow..... and i can't attain his goal of kissing Samantha... and they have kissed over and over and over.... every way possible?

Sims2packs don't work for LS, they have their own SimsLSpacks You're better off with just the plain package files, so if nothing else, you can click a Sims2Pack file and then go into your TS2 downloads folder to retrieve it.

Personally, I prefer Pleasure Aspirations to Romance or Popularity. I never play them, if I can help it, and if I marry a townie with those aspirations, it gets changed.

There's probably a way to reset a story. I need to look into it myself, since I missed unlocking something at the end of Vincent's story because of the choice I made.  :D

Today, I am discovering that LS is bad for my TS2 game.  ;) I had to go out searching for clothes that are compatible with LS. And found way too many cute things that I didn't have so of course they will have to go into TS2 too. As if I didn't have enough downloads for TS2.  :D

Scratch, did you read the wording of the goal very carefully? Some of them are kind of badly worded and it turns out they're asking for something other than what you would think they were asking for if you just read the goal very quickly. Is the kiss you are talking about the very first goal you are asked to attain when you enter Vincent's story? In that case, you are being asked to Make Out, despite the fact that Vincent says something like "I should give her a PECK on the cheek," and the pop-up says to Kiss, and nothing about Making Out. Or at least that's what I remember.

Other examples of badly worded goals include the "build a nest" goal for Riley. It asks you to buy three toys, a crib, and a changing table. But you have to jam them into a teeny tiny room, which would make it impossible to actually use the items without the sims screaming about stuff being in their way. If you try to put one of the items outside the room, however, the goal doesn't get satisfied. I put the changing table in the bathroom and the game refused to recognize it. I guess in this case it helps to be a total noob and not know that jamming all those items into one room would be a bad idea. Oh, and let's not forget the Swingset of Love goal...  ::)

If there's no option to reset a Story, I guess you could always go to the My Documents directory, delete the neighborhood, then go to the Program Files directory and COPY the neighborhood from there. But I would think there should be a reset option somewhere within the game.

To install houses you would need to install them into TS2, run TS2 to get them to go from the Teleport folder to the LotCatalog folder, and then move them to Life Stories LotCatalog folder. I guess.

To install floors and walls, you could get the Multi Sims2Pack Installer instead. http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=37577

SaraMK... at first i wasn't looking at how the goal was supposed to be attained.... i just kept doing things until something worked but once i got stuck on Vincent's kiss i clicked on the goal and it said "Click on the sim and then choose makeout" or close to that... but that still isn't working... they've done every romantic interaction every way they could and it still isn't being fullfilled... I had them get married... they woohooed a few times... still not fullfiled... poor Vincent's broken

I got stuck on the swing thing too and the makeout in the park cuz it wasn't on the pie menu... but i kept working on the relationship until it popped up and then it was no prob to fill... so that what i was trying with Vincent... maybe i had to work on the relationship or maybe they needed to be married first.... nothing's worked.... I broke him

I did look for an option somewhere to reset the story but didn't see anything

and OMG does riley really want chilluns?? She may have an accident..hhmmm

I'm going to have to do a little organizing so i can install lots into TS2 for LS... sounds fun

and did anybody else notice that Riley is also in the Sim Bin?  Why?  ??? Vincent isn't there... seems like a VBT to me... guaranteed to start fireballs I think??

In the free play neighborhood, yes, Riley is supposed to be in the bin. The neighborhood is simply Riley's Story neighborhood as it was at the beginning of the story.

I'm pretty sure that having Vincent marry Samantha would WAY break the game.  :D

It does sound like it's broken. The game shouldn't have allowed some of those interractions at all. :-\

I think the whole game is broken somehow... I deleted N003 (Vincent) and copied the hood from the game dir to the My Docs folder and started Vincent again and i still can't get past that first kiss... did a peck first and then i did a makeout and then i did all the kisses and nothing... gonna try a bit longer but i'm getting picked at this game already   >:( 

You don't have any hacks installed or anything in a userStartup file, do you?

well.... of course... can't play a sims game without them....

but i'm just moving all of it out now and see if that makes a diff.... It didn't seem to matter with Riley... and the userstartup.cheat is almost the same as TS2... i guess i might take that out too

edit:    well i guess it was something in the downloads folder....
/me stomps and stomps and yells "crap crap crap" 
I need that stuff....   >:(

What am i going to do without ACR??  This game is going to get boring real fast...  Thanks for the help   ;)

ACR is probably what did it. It probably let you zoom straight past the relationship cue that the game was using to determine when to bring up the next pop-up.

Well... it's going to annoy me to have to move the downloads folder whenever i need to play the stories... maybe i'll get them over with quick so i can get the rewards...

gotta have ACR... just gotta...
/me stomps and yells "crap crap crap" again

You can reset the LS stories by removing the Neighborhood folder from My Docs and restarting the game (or by copying it over from the install base).
No in-game option to do this found thus far.

By the way, I now want a hack for normal TS2 that always enables the first kiss between two Sims if they have not kissed before. This seems to be how EAMaxis intended it to be, based on LS.

Have I mentioned yet how much I like (most parts of) LS?

:-) Me too. After playing it for a few days, I wouldn't quite say that it's Sims2 2.0 anymore, but it sure would be nice if a lot of these features would have been included in TS2. Maybe they'll add them to Seasons since they've changed the game engine so much anyway? *hope*hope* (okay, I'm not holding my breath, but it would be nice)

I want a hack like that too. Squinge has a hack that permanently enables First Kiss as an option, so I use that, but it's kind of annoying to have it be there all the time.

So I have now acquired it and it has immediately proceeded to A: Piss me off, and B: Become unplayable, in under 5 minutes of playing.

So my goal apparently is to Hit On what's his face. Problem: this option does not exist. Following the suggestion to increase relationship doesn't help, as no matter what I do, it seems to be locked so it cannot rise beyond 61, and naturally, even when maxed out, the option still not does not exist. It is now unprogressable. yay.

I'm not surprised it pisses you off.  :P

You don't need STR to go over 61. What you need is for LTR to go over 21. Once you have 61/22, Hit On appears. And it does take a long time to get to 22. You start with 15 (I think), and the two have no interests in common so you can forget Chat as an option. I chatted myself into something like -20 LTR before I realized there was anything wrong with my approach.

The one goal that confused me was the child birth. Riley was pregnant and then got the goal to throw a baby-house-warmer-shower party. I waited, and waited, and waited for the baby to be born--not realizing until much later the pregnancy was not progressing in real time,  but based on the goals. Once I threw a party everything progressed normally.

LS forces you to forget some of the rules of TS2 playing at points.

Back to the original topic a bit -- does anyone have the registration incentives available somewhere? I don't feel like creating another website account just to get them.

SaraMK - did you find the hack compatibility by trial and error, or is there a trick?

PM me your email address, and I'll send them. As I said wayyyy back, the karaoke machine makes them too large to attach in a post.

If anyone wants to give it a shot, I pulled the texture from the Riley's hot tub and made a package for Sims 2. I know it isn't exact, but at least it works. It shows up under the floor hot tub.


(http://img248.imageshack.us/img248/3962/snapshot6dae6a7312dcc28cy3.jpg)

Oh yeah. The party. It took me THREE TRIES to get that damn party to reach Good Time status. I can't recall the last time I ever had a party that wasn't a Roof Raiser in TS2, unless the point was to have a lousy one on purpose. And like you, I wasted about a day before realizing she wouldn't give birth. Ther is a trick to it. The game is vicious, actually. Mickey has a want to be friends with Sharon. He also has a relationship high enough to make her an excellent candidate for the party. Trouble is, their relationship is LOCKED. Inviting her is useless, because neither of them can get any relationship points off her (Riley's maxed).

Like I said earlier, some of those goals are a bit... not noob-friendly. If we, as seasoned TS2 players, have trouble with simple things like relationship building, I don't really see this as being "easier" for noobs. But you're right that some parts of the game just go against what we know from TS2. There are several things like that. Although honestly, the Swingset of Love is still the one that bugged me most. You wouldn't believe the acrobatics I went through trying to figure out how to get them both on the swings at the same time when townies were boggarting at least one seat and Mickey kept wondering off to mess with the coffee bar. And after all that...  ::)  >:(

There's also things missing from the game, and that tends to slow you down because you don't realize you can take advantage of the "easier" gameplay. For example, it was a while before I realized that there are no ill effects from using aspiration rewards regardless of your actual aspiration level, and that Riley will not get slapped for using the telescope during the day. I'm thinking that a noob would have an advantage because a noob would not have any thoughts about doing these things being potentially dangerous to the sim.

The tips section on the official site is actually helpful for some of the goals.


Trial and error. I mostly chose ones that I would immediately see working (or not working).

Sorry, double post, but the previous one was kind of long.

Do you know if anyone, anywhere, has started converting the walls and floors? It's a lot of work that I don't feel like doing if someone else has it covered.

EDIT: Someone PM'd me that they're working on it.  :)

Is there some special outfit Vincent is supposed to buy for Sacha....     ???

She tried on a dozen outfits and nothing happened... I finally sent Vincent home because all his motives were bottoming out... and almost everything was full except hygiene when he got to the mall...

Last night I noticed a link on a BBS post to this Life Stories guide- http://guides.gamepressure.com/thesimslifestories/guide.asp?ID=2205 Glancing at the different chapters it does look like it could be helpful. I don't know for sure since I don't have the game. Hopefully there's something in there to help you Scratch.

Are you sure that you're standing close enough to her? You have to keep him from wandering off and trying to do something. She'll try on outfits and a box will pop up asking what you think of them. After the 3rd one, she takes them and Vincent gets charged.

hahahahaha....   ;D  He did what any guy would do when going to the mall with a woman.... He wandered around and waited for her to finish.... I learned a long time ago not to be around when they want an opinion...

That's what i do....   ::)

Thanks for the tip Katenigma... oh.. and should it be a Maxis outfit or is CC ok? I'm going to try both and see what happens anyways...

Thanks for the link Cabelle... i looked around for some tips but the ones at the official site weren't much help.. couldn't find anything anywhere else

LOL I didn't do anything to control it at all- she picked the outfits on her own, I just made sure he stood there and answered her.  ;D

I finally got it to work that way... another hack got in the way i think... i took out all the CC clothing and any hacks that might have something to do with a community lot.. not sure which one got in the way this time...

This is definately a learning experience... especially for us control freaks... and like SaraMK kind of said... a little knowledge is a dangerous thing

I found that hacks get in the way of completing the stories even if they don't actually break or conflict with the way the story should work. A lot of Sims 2 annoyances are not in the game, so many of the hacks are not strictly necessary anyway.

Hmmm, interesting. To be honest though, I have no intention of putting any effort into making anything of mine "compatible" with this life stories thing. I'm already going to have to update garbage for Seasons, so I'm not going to bog myself down with more stuff.

Plus, I don't have life stories, nor any intention on buying it, so I'd have no way to test it. Though it sounds like most hacks aren't going to be needed anyhow, so I'll just leave it alone and put a note on my site that I don't expect anything to work with life stories and leave it at that.

I think the reason I didn't have any problems with the stories is that I didn't add in any hacks until I was done with both of them. It only took maybe 10 hours total to get through them both. I did put in make-up and clothes halfway through Vincent's story, but that was it. It wasn't too bad at all, since it was only for 2 days. And Sara's right, there's not really much that needs hacked in LS. The only thing I'm using right now is the clothing tool, just because I hate leaving the lot just to buy clothes and it takes too darn long once you're there with all the back and forth. Oh, and I'm using the testing cheat again- that's the one thing I REALLY missed during the stories, I'd almost forgotten how hard it is to get everything done in a day and keep their needs fulfilled. LOL But then I remembered the aspiration reward, and took care of it that way. Not as convenient as just sliding up the needs, but it worked.

I don't think anyone will be expecting creators to update stuff for LS. You guys already have to update for each EP, and that's more than enough annoyance.

I know I'm only interested in seeing LS stuff imported to TS2, not the other way around.

I noticed a whole directory in the TSData\ directory called "SimScript" that has a lot (as in hundreds) of testing scripts in it.
Many of the commands are familiar 'cheats', like boolprop, but some with parameters I hadn't yet seen anywhere.
Others are intriguing, like "setDialog" and "waitUntil".
Of course, the comments in the scripts are interesting, too.

Otherwise, the whole thing looks like Sims2 Lite to me.

<* Wes *>

Wes, I noticed that too. When I saw it, I had hoped it was the thing that made stories possible, but sadly it isn't. On MTS2 they're saying those texts might help creators, but it's way too technical for me to understand.

In other news...

I was wrong about the auto-recycling newspaper hack. It suddenly occurred to me that I had moved it from my Pets game, unlike all the other hacks, which I had either re-downloaded or moved from an NL-and-earlier game. The Pets version is not compatible, but the earlier version works perfectly. I'll update the list.

On the upside, Macrotastics works and doesn't booger up anything. I burned through the game in the space of 3 hours that way. Of course, now there's nothing left, since the two "stories", in their humorously sappy way, were the only things in the game. Everything else is just the same old TS2 we already have. But at least there's potential for pillaging.

Yay to pillaging!  :D To answer Sara's earlier question, I've looked around, and I haven't seen anyone who has pillaged anything yet.

The reason there's not much widespread pillaging of LS-items may partially be attributable to the potential legal issues of enabling people who haven't bought the game to have access to its content, which can result in these items being rejected for posting on sites, or people to simply not attempt it because they believe it will be rejected. Naturally, we here in Malaysia are not too concerned.

Yes, I definitely thought of that legal issue from the get-go. I also didn't think it would stop everyone, especially those in Malaysia.  ;)

Well, yes, but you're probably not going to see this sort of activity on MTS2 or any of the other major sites. They may or may not have stated a policy on the matter, but no one wants to put in the effort and have it rejected. :P

 :-\ meh, I'm not going to buy it but if castaways good then yeah.
By the way the hot tub is fugly

This all sounds a bit dull to me.  I take it they are intending to release more stories down the line.  Meh - I prefer my own.

Yay to pillaging - if there's anything worth having.

Pillaging this EP is not so easy because you have to find every needet resource by hand without CEP.
 I have done the Rewardtv, Crystalvase, Naomi Sculpture and the African Mask. But it was not easy.

 And there is a issue with the TV, repair animation is not proper working, it uses the animation of the moderate TV.
 Maybe somone awesome could make him nonbreakeable.

Maybe we would see some Items in Seasons also. The new toybox looks like they have made her for the countryset.


Next question is where should i put them up for download?

I thought those without LS might be interested to see what the fuss is about. Here's every object in the game.

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/beds.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/seating2.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/tables.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/seating1.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/dressertoybox.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rewards1.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rewards2.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rewards3.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rewards4.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/gift.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rew1.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rew2.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rew3.jpg)

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/rew4.jpg)


That being the big question. Personally I only like the sculpture and the vase. I'm not sure it's worth the effort.

The entertainment career, and the family wants are okay.
And I like the big rug.

 I saw LS on sale last night at Best Buy and picked up a copy (yay for income tax returns! :D) but I haven't installed or even opened it yet. I'm kind of having buyer's remorse actually. So before I make the product unreturnable by opening it, I was wondering, after you complete Riley/Vincent's stories, can you continue to play them and their neighborhood or is that The End?

No you could play them after the story endet as normal Sims in there home neighbourhood.

It becomes just a regular neighborhood after the story is finished, so you can do whatever you want.

Cool, thanks for letting me know. I think I might take the plunge and install it tonight when I get home from work.

Thanks for the pictures, Sara.  My question is why does a torch cost more than a PC or a pool table? ???

Crikey - that bed description must take the ESRB age thing up a whole level all by itself.

I haven't decided whether to get LS or not.  Has anyone started the game from more than just a single XP login?  The reason for my question is that I can play TS2 under my login, and my sister can play under her login and not mess up my neighborhoods.  Does LS give you the same ability to allow more than 1 person to play the game?

Yep.  :)

Sara, how did you get the Niomi in Stone statue? Do you get it if you don't save her? I did and though they now have a happy life in a tiny house, I couldn't get that statue.  :(

Sorry for the double post, but I thought this should be on it's own.
(http://img442.imageshack.us/img442/7061/bossanovatthfse6.jpg)
This one came out a lot better than the hot tub.  :D

Typo fixed.  :-[

Oooooh, cool Simsbaby, I was just thinking I kind of like the boom box.  :)  Also, the teddy bear, the end table with the fleur de lis on the front and the sculpture don't look bad.  I won't be buying the game, I think, but I'll be watching to see if those other things get pillaged.  XD

What's dtyling - some sort of arcane method of bathroom decoration?

I substituted the word "detailing" as it made the most sense. Dunno what they really meant...??

Thanks simsbaby...I didn't want to seem pushy and cheap and just start asking for stuff. I'll definitely keep an eye out now.

simsbaby: nice. Are you going to rip all the objects?

Tip for the anal retentive crowd: put these rips under TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins and they won't appear as custom content.

An odd thing happened here. I created a downloads folder and stuck some default replacement skins, a fence clone and something Crammyboy made called "textbox" which is a cube with some custom animations.

When I started LS up, it told me I had custom-content I had downloaded that I was allowed to use only with LS, and that I had custom-content disabled, and that if I changed that, it wouldn't appear until I ran the game again.

The testbox was not there, the fence and default skins were. After exiting and restarting the game, the textbox was there, and did work (it is base game compatible and was cloned from the flamingo).

I found the behavior puzzling. The fence clone has a catalog entry, of course the default skins do not. The only fundamental difference I see was that the testbox had it's own mesh in the package, while the other items use built-in meshes.

You've just seen the slightly-different worded LS custom content dialog, wes.
EAMaxis tries to scare people into thinking LS custom content is different than TS2 CC… which is a lie. The LS register incentives work perfectly well in TS2 vanilla (which I tested them in using Numenor's bgs, any later release has at least one of the three things in it).

Wes, go in and turn off that stupid dialog (and enable CC), just like you would in TS2 and then don't give it another thought.  ;)  You just won't want to add in any hacks until you've finished the stories, as they can mess you up, but everything else is fine.

The Designer Walkthrough is up for Seasons, and gift giving is one of the first things they show. I'll go back to watching and keep my eyes open for objects. I wouldn't be surprised if the regular furniture shows up in Seasons, but maybe not the unlockables.

(http://img260.imageshack.us/img260/4972/oldtoyboxhj6.jpg)
I tried the teddy bear, but I couldn't find the mesh for that.  :( I was able to get that toy box out though!  ;) Sorry, toys not included.
You will most likely need this (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=213506) if you don't have FFS or anything that came after it.


Maybe not all of them, but I will certainly try. Will that tip also work for the files Numenor pulled from the game?

Edit: Forgot the picture. :P

As far as I know it works for all custom objects that do not alter game code (hacks). It does not work for clothing, makeup, hair, or accessories.

Oh, and you can use subdirectories there. TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins\NumenorMaxisLost\Racecar has the racecar stuff unlocked by Numenor for example, TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins\Website has the website downloads like the Alienware PC (my edited version of course), SData\Res\Catalog\Bins\Preorders has the preorder things like the snowglobe etc..

Just don't put stuff in there you lack meshes for, or you face crashes or hangs on startup.

I put the LS registration incentives in LS's TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins\ so they show up as normal content, but LS refuses to load if I put stuff in there which relies on meshes LS seems to lack.

Woo-hoo, Simsbaby pwns!  Thanks doll.  :D

Actually, I thought I had it on. I think Jordi had the right answer, that is is just a stock dialog. I have seen the one that is in the game, staring with University, I think. Starting with Pets, it complains about my Moo Moo statue, which seems to work just fine in the game...

What had me puzzled was the item LS picked out as custom.

I actually hadn't played any of the stories yet, just the free play. Outside of the smaller textures and decreased mesh detail, LS seems to be the base game with some content makeovers from different EPs.

Here is the african mask.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Havelock/sculptureAfricanmask.jpg)

And the Crystalrose.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Havelock/Crystalrose.jpg)

The objects have the englisch catalog entry also it displays the german only in my game in the screenshots.

And the sculpture Naomi.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v257/Havelock/SculptureNaomi.jpg)

Oooh, thank you Havelock. Does anyone else think we should make a thread just for these in Peasantry? It might be a bit hard for people trying to find them the way it is now.

Also, where is the Doppelganger? I can't find it under Riley or Vincent's rewards panel.

 Yep, I like one stop shopping. ;D
Thanks guys (and gals)

Honestly, I like most of the Maxis items for the game (which is why I've not regretted buying the stuff packs), so I drooled on most of the pictures up there in the thread. I'd happily snag any that are pillaged. I've got no real interest in Life Stories itself, though. I think the idea is neat, but I'm not really part of the audience it's aimed at.

It's actually a career reward for one of the new careers.

You don't wanna try to pillage that. We already did that, and it was a real pain in the neck, too.

what does it look like?

I figured dtyling was styling with a typo...  the keys are adjacent after all!

Death to all Nesses.

Ack! I am very sorry, I replaced the file with a fixed, no typo one.  :-[

I tried to put the table-top hi-fi in my game and it crashed with the same "you loooser, you don't have pets installed" crash that I'm quite used to by now (there's a unique noise it makes when it's a pets crash - it's like the computer's saying 'isn't that special"

Anyway, thought someone might wanna know, in case there are other barbarians who haven't installed that EP. Didn't hurt me any and it sits nicely in the little 'waiting 'til later' folder.

Was it an official typo, or a Simsbaby typo, and if the latter...why are you typing in it anyway? Sounds like a bad clone job.

I suspect that may be an artifact of a shitty Simsbaby cloning job.

A simsbaby typo. The picture I posted didn't have it.

...that begs the obvious question of why Simsbaby is TYPING in the item descriptions. That's not how you clone them, so Simsbaby must have done it very, very, wrong.

Hey SaraMK, any chance that you'll post the LS families and houses once you get the wallpaper/floor issue resolved?

Well I stuck all of the extracted objects in my game last night and they havn't caused any crashes.
Mayhap, you need pets installed for some crazy reason

You know what I discovered from playing Life Stories, though? The one hack I absolutely, positively, cannot tolerate the game for longer than 23 seconds without...is Manual Navigation. 23 seconds and two dropped queues in, and I had to install that. :P Because let's face it, even frikken Starcrap let you tell a unit to MOVE THERE and then DO THAT. Without it, you may as well not have a command queue. Giving units only a single order at a time is simply obsolete.

I don't use that hack and I very rarely have dropped actions. I just have to build my own houses, because 1 staircase and narrow walkways won't cut it.

No, the actions ALWAYS drop. The moment you try to queue anything after it, your sim stops moving and stares stupidly instead of going there first.

Yup. That hack and no what's this immediately went in.

I actually never practically never encounter "what's this", perhaps because I rule with an iron fist, but apparently it's very annoying, undoubtedly because it grants no benefit to the sim doing it. And because it's stupid, and I generally disapprove of sims attempting to speak to me as if they were actual people. Because I hate actual people and become murderous when they do.

Manual Nav is the first hack I stuck in when I started testing hacks, too. :)


I'm actually in the process of uploading the houses to my simpage. But I will not fix the wall/floor problem, it's just way too much work since the walls/floors don't actually exist in Sims 2 and would need to be converted (although apparently someone is working on that). I just put some random walls and floors in all the houses.

Uploading families isn't safe (installing occupied houses will blow up the game, you know), but I might upload clones of some of the sims, since I've seen a couple of people ask for them. Don't know why anyone would want them, really, since they're just the usual ugly Maxis-made sims.

Update: GunMod's Lighting works in Life Stories. Use the one for base game. Do not use the one for NL (the horror! the horror!). It doesn't look quite the same though. Here's a sunset pic:

(http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c129/saramkirk/ls/gmlightingLS.jpg)

What I want to know is, is Gunmod's lighting mod going to work with Seasons?

thats what im wondering to maxon

There's probably going to be messy bits where he hasn't added the right code, but it should.

Can anyone who has this tell me....
Is there any way to do a facelift on the sims in story mode?  It looks interesting, but....yuck...default sims scare me very, very much

I don't think the Maxis-made sims are that ugly.  It's the Maxis townies that are so ugly, e.g., Goopy and Aaaabhijeet. :P

Sadly the code does not appear to be there. InSIM does not allow face lifts and there is no in-game way to do it (the Uni surgery machine is not included). So, I guess not. But you could use SimPE Surgery as usual. I've tried it and it works.


Well, I could clone and upload the sims. But I won't upload occupied houses that will mess up people's games.  :-\

That makes sense.  :)

Okay, thanks SaraMK...
I was thinking maybe Shaklin's dresser would work....but I bet there would be some important features missing and it might only partially work....
If Simpe can handle editing the game, then I guess I won't be stuck with the fuglys.

If it allows facelifts then it is probably based on Uni code, in which case it won't work just like InSIM does not work.

I went and got the game and paid the 40.00 .. its okay but just sims 2 with new people... it basically teaches you how to play sims in my opinion.. the graphics seem better and I do have to say it loads up alot faster..  so far I have worked the Riley story to its completion and all it does is drop out of the story line and you can continue to play it like it was an astablished neighborhood ... theres enough object to chose from but I miss having the buyable Career objects and I use the university clock all the time and im not sure if this game would take those two functions or not... is it worth the 40.oo ,, yeah i guess so but its really just sims 2 with a catchy new name. but its still sims and lets face it we are all sims crazy.. so we will buy it and its spin offs lolol and hope the hackers that make us the objects to help it be more fun make things for this one too... two to work on ..... something to change the life time wants and buyable career objects.  lololol 

The things I dont like about the game is .. it dont fill up a screen ;  and you have to use your key board to move back and forth and side to side and find myself pushing keys I shouldnt.  so it makes you pause just to move around the screen .. so little clue dont make your house too big in this one or your lost lololol....


I tried to register the game but it wouldn't take it so I didnt get the welcome package yet..but I will keep trying...

Have fun fellow simmers ..

Brenda

heh, I may love TS2 & its EPs & SPs but I won't buy Life Stories. It seems stupid to me to buy what is basicly sims 2 lite when I already have the real game  :P

/me already removed it from his computer.

Meh, since I can already have the objects in TS2 and I completed the stories, there is nothing that interests me in this game now. It also was annoying how the sims would seemingly at random loose their fingers or lighting would stop pouring in from the windows. The Intel 945GM in my laptop might be a major cause, but TS2 doesn't even do that with the crapload of custom content I have.  :(

Those hacks would most likely work in the game. Put them in and try. In any case, InSIM works, so you can change LTWs with that. What do you need the college clock for when THERE IS NO COLLEGE?


You can turn off windowed mode. It's under Options.

it won't work as the code isn't there so no facelift which means maxis/EA left out yet another feature

Edit: I hate EA for leaving the face lift feature out

Neither of these are true. You can go in and have it not play in windows mode (it's under game options) and within windows mode, to move the camera, you can hold right mouse button and  drag yourself around the screen by moving the mouse. To go back and forth, you scroll in and out. No keyboard required.

I think the people here are less fangirl/boy when it comes to the sims stuff. I'm not planning on buying this, I might at some point torrent it but that would be it.
I don't see the point in buying something I already have, just because it's got "new features".

That, and the fact that it's $90 here in Aus...  I believe I will be passing on this one!

Yay! I changed Riley's appearance.  The first thing I did when I installed the game was try out Shaklin's Universal Dresser.  This is going to sound weird, but it didn't work as far as being able to see her face while you were editing.  So what I did was picked the first default face, and then I went through and made all of the edits that I would initially make to this face structure to get it to look better.  Then usually I'll go and edit more to make the face unique.  But since I couldn't see what I was doing, I just did a few subtle changes.  I had to go back in a couple of time and "chance face from" Riley with the dresser, but it finally worked out!
The ability to change the face structure was there, but you couldn't see the changes you were making because, aside from the modifiers, everything else is completely black.
I've also used seomi's default eyes and a default skintone (which makes no difference unless the sim is naked. :)
Here's a pic.  Now, I'll have to figure out how to change the dna so her kids don't end up looking like the old Riley. :)
(http://img294.imageshack.us/img294/177/newriley1tp9.jpg)(http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/290/newriley2og6.jpg)

Here's what Shaklin's dresser shows for the modify screen...
(http://img149.imageshack.us/img149/5409/structuremodifiercs2.jpg)

For anyone who cares, I've stripped down the welcome package items to remove all the useless duplicate files and gave them group numbers so they'll play well in the Bins folder for Life Stories. All the textures, models, animations, etc. were already present in the Life Stories Objects0x.package files and it's just wasting memory to have them in your downloads folder. I also added the recolors for the drum set because the textures were already there too.

Extract to C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims Life Stories\TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins and they won't show up as custom content.

J.M. which  macrostatic is working with LS? I put one in but it didn't work. ???

OFB.

I pulled the Pets one from my TS2 folder, and it seemed to be working ok.  What doesn't work about it?  ???

It might be working fine.

The game appears to be running OFB code. It definitely does not have [a lot of?] Pets code because most Pets hacks are not compatible. Some NL hacks are also incompatible while the same hack that's updated for OFB will work. For this reason I tested mostly OFB hacks in my game.

The following hacks work regardless of whether they are Pets or OFB:

nowhatsthis
dontwaveatme
clothingtool (but not globals)
asprechargetweak
manual-navigation
novelprogress
lesswhiny
noroutefail

But I just assumed the reason was that there was little or no code update between OFB and Pets for these ones. They're all relatively simple hacks.

I would keep whatever macro you've got that you feel is working.

When you say "simpage" do you mean on the Exchange?  Or your website?

I'm one of those people who would like to have the families in my regular game.  Why?  I don't know, I'm just weird like that.  I have a Maxis neighborhood (thanks to you, since it's Pleasantview, Veronaville, and Strangetown all merged) and I'd like to add these families to that neighborhood.  Or, alternatively, if you were going to actually create a Sims2 neighborhood featuring the Life Stories families, I'd take that too. :)

Eh, did I forget to post a link?

I have about half the houses done and up: http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/uploads.php?user_id=360528

I have to finish two rather long research papers for my Monday night class this weekend, so I probably won't be doing any more work on this until next week. But I will consider making the entire neighborhoods, with sims, available.

oh that sucks
homework...the most unawesome thing on the planet

This one actually bothers me more than the stuffit packs everyone was up-in-arms about. They've come up with a way to sell the same game-engine again (full price for the same engine with a few days of story play and some new objects and neighborhoods - is there as much there as you even get with an EP? - and a couple of streamlined codes) and then if you want a new story, you can buy the same game yet again because they don't build on each other. Some people are going to pay $30-$50 for the same game 4 or 5 times. It's mind-boggling really.

If they'd give us a story-editor, that'd be worth something, but it's not going to happen. They'd have to fix the problems with importing sims into an existing neighborhood, and that doesn't look likely at all. To have a new story, you hafta have a new game, new neighborhood, or new subhood - so gee, let's just sell the game again then :p

bleh.

I'm waiting for everything to become available, then I plan to play through the stories using a walk through to tell me what the goals should be. Viola, LS, and free too.

I only wanted to be able to use the clock for changing the life time want .. see I dont do alot of hacks . I actually try to play the games as is ... so I dont know of other hacks beside the clock that does this for me....  I am not computer oriented and dont know how to pull things out and what to push to make things larger or better ... thats why I come here to get answers ,, I did however put in the career object into collections and it worked fine..
Thank you for your tips ... I really appreciate it....

Use Pescado's lot debugger to change LTWs. It turns out that the college clock and TJ's college adjustor don't work for that in Life Stories (LTW doesn't change when you select the option), and TJ's actually breaks the game.

Lot Debugger: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ofb/hacks/ffsdebugger.zip

I had this problem too.  I quit the community lot without going home and saving because his energy and hunger were in the orange.  I thought it might be Pescado's fasterbuyclothes hack, so I pulled it out, went back in and Vincent was just getting out of the cab at home.  I sent him right back because all his needs were green again, and this time it worked fine.  I didn't even have the choose outfit dialog come up, she chose them all by herself.  So that might be your problem too, or a similar hack.

Vincent's just supposed to wait while Sacha tries on the clothes. You get some story-based pop-ups. I sent Vinc to the back of the store and called over Sacha, and eventually she started putting them on.

LS Stories are best played with autonomy off.

I didn't get that the first time.  After I took out fasterbuyclothes, it worked the way it was supposed to.  I just had Vince sit on the sofa and the dialog boxes popped up like they should.  So I know in the first case it was a hack conflict.

Eh... would someone please email me the houses... I think you can find the email addy in my profile.  I'll put them up on my '4shared' account for folks to download so they don't keep going poof.