More Awesome Than You!

I just installed Celebrations Stuff Pack.  Instead of running the celebrations exe and using it's cd, like I expected, it's telling me to run Seasons.  The celebrations stuff is all there in the game.  Is the game running with Seasons objects.package or celebrations objects.package? Should celebrations be installed before pets and seasons for proper 100% functionality?

No. But force an error on something once it loads and let me know what it says. Doesn't matter what it is, just pick anything.

it's the second stuff pack that didn't need the cd to run. it's normal.

2 out of 4 not needing the CD doesn't exactly equal normal,  :D  especially since the other one was the first one. (and/or last one, since they are greedy SOB's who sold it to us twice)

I hadn't installed it yet partially because I also hadn't patched Seasons yet and expected it would use the Celebrity exe.  :) But OTOH,  if I had, and it asked for the Seaons CD, I'd have just considered it a lucky break, not gotten worried.  ;D

Sorry for being a noob in this area.  I've forced an error on two objects. A celebration chair, and a pre celebration chair.  Do you just need what it says in the error dialog that comes up? Or do you need the entire log text file for the object/s?  If you just need the info in the dialog... the error it gave was: Hit Break Point Primitive.   That was for both chairs.


Edit:  Here are the two error logs.

I'd assume he needs the whole log.

Anyway, this is good news.  This makes celebrations worth stealing. :D

Wait, but do you have bonus?

Sorry.





No I'm not.

so my understanding of the "Dress your bridesmaid!" thing is that you have to go round to each house, have the bridesmaid buy the dress and set it as formal for them to show up at the wedding matching?

Ayup.

Hmm, this is most puzzling. Celebration crap appears to use a higher bit than Seasons, yet still runs the Seasons executable...this would seem impossible, since it would mean all the celebrations-stuff crap ALREADY EXISTED in Seasons....does this thing introduce any new objects?

Well thats nothing new. It would be nice if you could change all their bridemaids dresses on the lot that the wedding is taking place without having to make each person kinda like making a uniform in OFB.

I installed it and it told me to run the pets cuz i haven't installed seasons yet.... and just did some building on a community lot and haven't seen any new objects yet...   :P

For the two logs I posted... ObjectError_N001_t15924.txt is a pre-celebration chair.  The other log ObjectError_N001_t16049.txt is a new balloon chair that comes with celebrations.  By "new objects" i'm guessing you mean with new interactions etc introduced to the game...It looks like all the objects are just new meshes for existing things.  New chairs, tables, lights, etc.   There are 3 new birthday cakes though, and in the catalog description for them, after the name of the cake, in brackets it says (Age++). I'm not sure what that means.

I think that Celebration Stuff somehow manages to activate a semi-frankenbuild (although how it patches into Seasons or Pets I'm not sure, all other Sims2 executables are stopped). I know for a fact that Seasons is reading from the Celebration directory (the music on the splash screen has changed to the Celebration music, but the rest of the UI hasn't changed) .

From a brief look over the directory structure, could it be something to do with the new StuffPack directory in TSData\Res? It would appear to be the only major difference between this and the other SPs, and there's a small file in there (SPObjects.package, attached to this post) which could act as a patch for the Seasons/Pets objects.package.

Age++ likely means "Makes your sim go up an age group", the standard birthday cake function  :P

So, does CSP have its own executable if you don't patch Seasons, or does it work like the HHS?

It forced me to patch Pets... :-\  It installed the patch right after installing the stuff. 

That's new, usually it just forces you to patch the base game.

For what the info may or may not be worth...

I have ALL the EPs and Stuff packs, and I've never patched a thing except what might have come on a previous EP or Stuff pack, though I'm pretty darn sure one has never come with a patch before.

I installed Celebration Stuff. It did the usual "We will now check to make sure your Sims installation is up to date." And then it returned up-to-date. THEN it demanded that I patch Pets, which I let it do...

After all that, it demanded I use the Seasons disk to run.

I haven't patched Seasons, and Celebration is requiring me to run the Seasons exe.


Same here.  After a half dozen tries I deleted the shortcut I'd made and went back to the Seasons one.  But then, not long after that I realized I needed to use the Seasons exe for the game, too.

Well that's just complete crap, because I 'aquired' a copy and it does exactly the same thing (runs from Seasons) in my game - and I definately haven't inflicted either the Pets or Seasons patches on my game.

Well, I was already doing that anyway for the big formal fluffy weddings.  What's supposed to be the difference?  Do they line up or something?

If somebody is running Celebration Crap with Seasons, buy a Celebrations-Crap item and force an error on it. Attach log.

Here ya go.

[attachment deleted by admin]

And here's one on the party balloon arch in my game in case it makes any difference.

[attachment deleted by admin]

I thought it was rather silly/strange that it put a Celebrations shortcut on my desktop, but then told me I was running the wrong version of the game when I tried to use that shortcut (it told me to run Seasons).

Following the story with interest ....

I just came across this info at the official bbs...

From the Celebrations Stuff manual, page 3.
'Playing the Game
Note: If you have installed The Sims 2 Pets or an expansion pack (EP) released after that, you will want to use the shortcut and disc related to that EP. If you try to launch The Sims Celebration Stuff shopping pack (SP) using the shortcuts created by the installer and you have The Sims 2 Pets or a more recent EP installed, a prompt will appear asking you to start the game using the most recently installed EP instead.'

Interesting.  Thank you :-)  I alwasy used to look over the manual to new expansions, but since I bought my Celebrations by digital download, I don't have the physical manual (though I do have the option to download a copy ... which I didn't .... guess they have some good stuff in there sometimes ....)

Over at the QA thread at the SimPe forum, Carrigon and Numenor have posted this about the Celebrations Stuff Pack...

Carrigon...

"Just to chime in on the Celeb Pack, the new objects are in a package located here:
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Celebration! Stuff\TSData\Res\StuffPack\Objects
It's called SPObjects.package  If you don't point SimPe to it, the new objects won't load in OW."

Numenor...

"Yes, at first I was confused by the fact that the Celebration folder *does* contain a standard TSData\Res\Objects\objects.package, but it is basically a copy of the latest objects package found in the system (excluding Pets and Seasons); I have all the EPs and SPs, and therefore that "fake" celebration objects.package is basically identical to the Glamour one (tested with HackDiff).

As for running the game, the Celebration pack doesn't count as an EP or SP; sure it comes with an exe of its own, but it is actually run only if neither Pets nor Seasons are installed; if Pets or Seasons are found, they "take the precedence", and the user is asked to run those games, instead of Celebration (putting in the CD drive the Pets/Seasons disc).

During installation, the Celebration installer updated the PETS objects.package, applying the first patch, released back in January (that in turn contains the patch to the BodyShop, released a bit earlier).

No modifications are applied to the Seasons objects.package (because the patch for Seasons, as well as the second patch for Pets, has been released after issuing Celebration).

As for SimPE, therefore, we have a situation that is similar to the two Christmas packs (2005 and 2006 versions): the objects are in a separate package that must be loaded separately; with the difference that the two Xmas packs simlìply installed an additional package into {BaseGame}\TSData\Res\Catalog\Bins, while Celebration installs its add-on package into a folder of its own (as reported by Carrigon).

Maxis really likes messing up things!  Don't they know the meaning of the word "consistency"?"



The way I understand all this is...  If you don't have Pets or Seasons installed, Celebrations runs like FFS/GLS and uses it's own exe/folder/cd to run.  If you have Pets or Seasons installed,  Celebrations runs like the Holiday Stuff pack. Its a single spobjects.package that Pets or Seasons reads in addition to it's own objects.package.

Edit:  Just a small correction.  If you are running Pets with no patches, then Celebrations will take priority and run with it's exe/folder/cd.  If you patch Pets with the newest patch, then Pets takes priority and Celebrations runs like the holiday pack and uses the single spobjects.package in addidion to it's own objects.package.

That sounds like a more intelligent way to do SPs: since they don't change anything about the way the game works, just add an extra objects.package with the additional objects.

Or one better: have it install to My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Downloads/Celebration Stuff  ;D

So for us modders CSP is basically another HHSP, only the new crap is less conveniently located.

Are there actually any "game engine" changes? i.e. any additional or "new" interactions or NPCs (like the HHSP)?

Or is it just crapstuff, like the other SPs (FFS, GLS)?

If it is just stuff... then would you only need that SPobject.package to effectively have all the things in CSP?

And if so... can you just dump that file in the Downloads folder?  I mean, if they're just objects, then theoretically you should be able to do just that, no?

Ste

I know what you mean, Ste. I'd like SOME of the new objects, but I'll be darned if I'm buying a buggy $20 stuff pack. It's not worth it.

I'd still like one or two Family Fun objects, like the swirly chair, but not enough to rip my hair out when it inevitably farks up my game.