More Awesome Than You!

...barring any unforeseen circumstances.  Hot off the presses:

Author:  MaxoidKane - Rank: Supreme Social Sim - View MySimPage Profile 
Date:  Oct-11-05 03:44 PM PDT
Subject:  Patch Release Information 
 
Hi Simmers,
I just got word that the patch is set to go out tomorrow afternoon. There will be a patch for EP1 and EP2. The complete list of fixes will be available tomorrow on the update pages. I'll update the site if anything changes.
Thanks,
MaxoidKane
 
Edited to add that you can read the original post at the top of the Uni section on the TS2 board.

I'll believe it when I see it....

No, I'm not that cynical. That's great news! Thanks!

Question from a dummy newbie:

I am assuming we have to go thru the same mod compatability checks once we install the patches?  :-\

Yes. Anything that the patch fixes will not work and anything the patch changes any code for won't work.

So hopefully none of the "critical fixes" will work at all anymore. (cough)

Thanks a million for this info.  I guess I will continue preparing my new neighborhood tonight.  Which have many ready to live in houses but no Sims in it yet lol.

I just hope we won't hear the patch will cause new problems,  argggg! (Remember how the 1st patch created the maid bug which put the expresso cup endlessly in the dishwasher... not a major bug but it was annoying and not there before the patch).

Oh well, now I must say to myself "think positive Missdoh, think positive..."  :P

Assuming it actually does get released tomorrow I'm going to check the fix list and take out any hacks that look like they'll no longer be needed before I run the game .

So, how many patches will we need to download in order to fix THIS patch?

yay! If it really happens and it fixes some of the annoying bugs I've had, then I am happy.

 ;D ;D ;D

well I am both happy and upset.    Happy because the patch should fix some of the mess but upstet because it means removing all downloads and hacks and starting all over from scratch,  trying to find out what still works and what does not.  ::)

I guess that is why the smart modders, like J.M.,  wait until ater the patch comes out to fix their hacks.    The ones that are already out by others will most likely have to be rewritten. 

I'm not removing squat except for maybe some hacks made redundant by the list of fixes in the patch. The way I see it, there's no need to go nuts before we've even tried the darned thing. The patch should work as long as the game exe has not been modified regardless of what's in the downloads folder and the worst that really could happen is the game crashes in which case then I'll try to remove everything and go from there, but it could very well work without problems so I'm going to try. If you're that scared, then back up your neighborhood files, but I say at least give it a shot first before you yank out all your stuff. Why make unnecessary work for yourself?

Ditto here! honestly I doubt the patch is going to have negative effects on the download file anyway in my game.I doubt the patch fixes the most annoying behaviors like" what's this " everytime you buy an item or toddler playing with toilets constantly without the fix. after all the Sims 2 patch did virtually nothing to fix the most annoying  behaviors. the only Improvement I saw was my sim babies and toddlers  quit being kidnapped with the sims2 patch. and I only had that happen twice.the chat jump bug was the only behavior I was glad to see permanently disappear.my maids are so lazy they dont clean up stuff anyway remember the sims 2 patch was supposed to fix the maid being able to clean up pizza boxes and baby bottles? the only maid that does that in my game is Remingtonfor the most part he is rendered useless by my nannie who clean up everything before he gets there. the baby or toddler suffer from the nanny but my sim houses are  clean LOL ;D

I just hope it doesn't cause the black and blue flashing tv screens like the first patch did.  That was quite annoying.

I just went to the BBS but couldn't find anything about it.  where exactly should I be looking?

What? You mean you couldn't find something on that very user friendly BBS?  ::) (that's heavy sarcasm btw ;) )

http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=&threadID=36a2806d16eb6d8c3fc1b81f56b79205&directoryID=62&startRow=1#27dddb4168e49f72d567c1dbac815292

Thanks, but what use is that?  Maxoid Kane says on the 11th that the patch will be out tomorrow!   Well, here at least it IS tomorrow, and has been for 17 hours!  so, WHERE IS THE PATCH!!!!!

(Or is Maxoid Kane Spanish, and the word is really Manana!)

Well, I'm on PST like they are and its only been today for 9 hours and 20 minutes, but I'm getting anxious too. :)

Here on the west coast of the US it's only 9:20 AM on the 12th. Give them time. ;)

Yeah, but here on the east coast it's 12:25 pm and I want my patch!  :D

Well, I suppose I forgot that - tend to remember the East Coast time difference since my niece lives in New York, but forget they're stilla couple of hours ahead of you in the west! :-[

You mean a couple of hours behind us :P. Dumb question, but maxis is headquartered out west, I presume?

I did a quick Google search and both EA and Maxis are coming up as having their main locations in California.

well, damn. Atlanta's nice this time of year...

Well here in London they've already missed their deadline and it's going on tomorrow

Hmm, they've taken down the old images on the "update" page, I wonder if this means the new patch will be up soon. ;)

http://thesims2.ea.com/update/

Looks like a sign to me, the images were there an hour or two ago.

They have added the patch graphics for Uni and NL now, but the links don't work yet.

edit:

The Sims 2 Nightlife CD Patch

Instructions: Save the file to disk and then run it to install the patch.

Please make sure you have your copy of The Sims 2 available during patch installation.

Download The Sims 2 Nightlife CD Patch
Note: This patch is compatible for all languages
        
Complete list of changes:

    * Includes The Sims 2 University bug fixes. See complete list.
    * Fixed an issue with cell phones being removed from Sims' inventories after installing Nightlife.
    * Purchasing specific dining tables introduced in Nightlife would not satisfying the "Buy a Table" want.
    * Fixed an obscure issue that occurred when attempting to place the same tombstone multiple times.
    * Fixed an issue where a Sim being embarrassed could force the Sim out of poker interactions.
    * Fixed a Nightlife installation issue that left the user in pause mode whenever they visited a community lot via a taxi.
    * Wants for specific electronic devices no longer roll in after a Sim owns that electronic device.
    * Diplomas that were in the career reward panel for University now properly appear in the inventory after installing Nightlife.
    * Sims that are seated in a car will no longer stand up inside the car to change clothes and remain standing for the drive to work.
    * Capped the amount of half walls allowed on a single lot in order to prevent graphical corruption that would occur when this limit was broken
    * The lot view options are now saved properly after exiting and restarting the game.
    * Pre-placed tombstones will now appear in build mode when transported to community lots.
    * Fixed an issue that, in certain regional versions of the game, caused the voice audio for the karaoke machine to be intermittent or non-existent.
    * Prevented diplomas from switching ownership if this update is installed after Nightlife but prior to loading University created lots containing diplomas.
    * The "maxmotives" cheat will no longer interfere with the availability of sleep related interactions involving beds, coffins, and sofas.
    * Fixed an improper "$jobTitle" string was being displayed when Sims were asked about their jobs in some regional versions of the game.
    * Fixed a rare bug that could cause a Sim drinking a potion to vanish from the game.

Link works for me I am downloading the NL patch now

The Sims 2 University CD Patch

Instructions: Save the file to disk and then run it to install the patch.

Please make sure you have your copy of The Sims 2 available during patch installation.

Download The Sims 2 University CD Patch
Note: This patch is compatible for all languages
        
Complete list of changes:

    * Fixed an issue where Angela Pleasant was not properly calling Dustin Broke to sneak out of the house.
    * Fixed a problem in University where Dustin Broke would bring Angela Pleasant home every day from school.
    * Fixed a bug where inventory items and all memories were being deleted after joining a Greek house.
    * Popular Sims' facial animation would cease to play when talking to other Sims.
    * Fixed an issue where hard-earned diplomas could be stolen or repossessed.
    * Prevented teens from receiving the "Win Young Entrepreneur's Award" Want when it is already satisfied.
    * Prevented an exploit with the Resurrect-O-Nomitron that allowed more than 8 Sims to live on a lot. (caused many other issues)
    * Fixed some animation problems that occurred when a young adult Sim prepared cereal on top of the mini fridge.
    * Eliminated a rare improper reset when canceling a cell phone call on community lots
    * Fixed an issue where the game would freeze if the user input frame for paintings or the camera appeared during a special event cinematic
    * Prevented improper animations from running if a teen Sim age transitioned while sitting down
    * Fixed a reset that would occur when hanging out with a Sim that is trying to leave for class
    * Fixed a rare instance of a reset that occurs when canceling sleep with a specific interaction next in queue
    * The Grim Reaper will no longer fail to leave a lot if multiple Sims die and the lot is left empty.
    * Squashed a rare scripting error that occurred when hanging up a cell phone.
    * Exercise machines introduced in University are now unbreakable.
    * Fixed a rare instance where the Mascot NPC would become stuck in place after pulling the sprinkler prank.
    * Fixed a problem where the Greek Letter Decorations were temporarily unelectable after placement.
    * Fixed an obscure looping reset that occurred when loading a lot during an active pledge scenario for a Sim who has moved to a different lot.
    * Eliminated a bad reset that prevented Sims from becoming enemies of one another.
    * The proper text notification is now displayed when a pledge is denied entrance to a Greek House due to relationship score.
    * Prevented a rare instance where dormies could become stuck in a semi-transparent, unelectable state.
    * Sims could not sit on a barstool at the Bachman Busbar (cheap bar)
    * Fixed a reset that happened when meeting professors in a well populated neighborhood
    * There was an issue with the game locking up when in cameraman mode while a pregnancy state transition occurred or a Sim burned to death.
    * There was the possibility that when using multiple nannies, one could become stuck on the lot indefinitely. Even after dismissal.
    * Prevented an issue where nannies would become stuck in their car attempting to exit the lot.
    * Sick Sims can no longer die of disease while on community lots.
    * The lifetime want to "Max Out 7 Skills" would not properly satisfy if the final skill point was gained via a SimVac aspiration reward object.
    * Chocolate puddles generated by the "Shokolade 890 Chocolate Manufacturing Facility" are now visible.
    * Fixed a reset that happened when NPCs walked by lots in well populated neighborhoods
    * A scripting error would occur if a Sim was influenced to clean up pizza boxes.
    * Asking too many Sims at once to freestyle would result in scripting errors.
    * The "Buy a Fountain Costing at least 600 Simoleons" Want has been removed from the game.
    * Placing "Myne Door" dorm doors diagonally no longer causes entire rooms to turn invisible.
    * Player controlled young adult Sims now properly retain their semester gauge level when being asked to move in to another lot.
    * Sims no longer play the extended browse animation when purchasing an item from the clothing rack.
    * Shortened the amount of time that children show their A+ report cards off to their parents
    * Fixed issues that occur when the same Sim dies on multiple lots.
    * Lowered frequency of Child Sims aborting queue actions in favor of greeting their parents as they returning from work.
    * Fixed a very rare instance where Sims age meters would not properly reset after age transitioning.
    * Fixed a problem where in very specific circumstances age transitions would fail.
    * Ringing cell phones no longer wake up napping Sims.
    * Text in the neighborhood lot information text box was not always being properly updated on University Lots.
    * Fixed a bug that prevented large groups of Sims from entering the helicopter carpool.
    * Sims who write great novels now receive the memory for "Wrote Great Novel" rather than the Sim who answered the royalty check phone call.
    * Fixed an issue that could cause the text notifications, reminding a player that their class or final was approaching, not to display.
    * Fixed a major issue where loading a lot with the remote control car in use would make all memory and job icons blank.
    * Pregnant Sims are now able to use handhelds in their inventory.
    * Fixed a problem that caused pianos that have been owned for a certain amount of time to cease providing fun.
    * Fixed a case where the baby bottle was teleported from a Sim's hand leaving the hand in a permanent grip state.
    * Level 6 Greek Houses can now accept pledges
    * Eliminated a problem where Greek Houses were not accepting the proper amount of pledges per level.
    * Sims can now Propose > Move In or Propose > Marriage towards non player young adult Sims that they became engaged to while in college.
    * Fixed an improper reset specific to Lucy Burb returning home from school with good grades.
    * Fixed an instance where the player was unable to exit or save the game if they cancelled an adoption related interaction with the social worker.
    * The "Cheer Up" interaction no longer causes crushes between Sims.
    * Zits are now removed from any Sim that enters university. (growing into a young adult)
    * Sims no longer get crushes from playing handhelds together.
    * Babies are no longer available in the pool of online chatters.
    * Fixed an issue where assignments were being lost within a few of the taller dining tables
    * Squashed a bug where toddlers were not able to learn to walk when being taught with smart milk and a thinking cap.
    * Fixed issues with Sims clipping through one another while sitting at bars
    * Fixed a conflict that occurred between a simultaneously visiting headmaster and grocery delivery person.
    * Fixed a specific problem that would occur while traveling in an well populated neighborhood.
    * Fixed an issue where Sims' thought bubbles would clip through heads of Sims.
    * The "Stay Home from Work" want can now be satisfied.
     # Fixed a reset that occurred after multiple generations of large families that prevented death from completing properly for Sims in large, multi-generational families. Symptoms included missing inheritance, tombstones, and a lower Sim population cap per lot.
# When being called for dinner, the headmaster will no longer decide to leave immediately after arriving on the lot.
# Fixed various resets with the nanny that would occasionally prevent the nanny from being dismissed
# Improved the cleanup of kicky bags (automatically cleans up any invisible kicky bags on lots)
# Prevented an issue where the headmaster could get stuck indefinitely in a hot tub under certain motive conditions.
# Reduced the possibility of non player characters becoming stuck in dormie's rooms due to door locking.
# Fixed a reset that occurred while multiple Sims watched TV on sectional sofas.
# Book cleanup has been improved to prevent the potential deletion of unintentional objects, such as vehicle portals.
# Sims can now feed smart milk to toddler Sims sitting in high chairs.
# During a joy buzzer social, the camera now only shakes if the selected Sim is involved in the interaction.
# Fixed a rare occurrence of a reset that would leave a user unable to save or quite after a Sim gave birth.
# User created paintings created prior to installing an expansion pack can now be sold or deleted.
# The player will no longer receive text notification messages that deceased Sims "are no longer friends. "
# Installing University on top of userdata that includes service NPC vehicles saved on lots no longer causes errors.
# Eating marshmallows now provides a slight hunger motive boost.
# Usability of custom content management has been improved by retaining the most recent page of content after deleting an object, wall, or floor.
# Fixed a rare issue that in various situations caused a pregnant Sim experiencing morning sickness to die. (aka Sudden Pregnancy Death Syndrome)

Thanks Striker, I'm off to download. *crosses fingers*

Just a note that a lot of those fixes in the Uni Patch are included in the base NL game, so it's not like the NL patch fixes ALL of that stuff place the NL stuff, a good bit of it was already fixed with NL.

Ok, am I just blind or did the final exam bug not get fixed?

Dang, I was hoping to see "Sims will no longer die of old age before they finish a meal at home."

It's a good thing I got that talk less, eat more hack!

So are we not supposed to download both then? I see MaxoidKane said to just download the NL patch if you have both.

And I find the sheeple on the BBS amusing - the ones which said Uni had no bugs - for a game without bugs, that is one fecking long fix list.

hmm it just gave me some error during update install and said I need to reinstall and backup my neighborhood.  ::)

I'm going to do it tomorrow when I'm not sleepy and you have all tested it ;)

Well, most of the things it is supposed to fix are things I never even noticed!  Apart, that is, from the nannies!

Yep, I didn't notice a lot of that crap either. And some BIG issues like terrain paints I saw no mention of. :p

Maybe the things we didn't notice were the things causing the other problems?

This may cover the final exam bug...

Fixed a reset that occurred after multiple generations of large famlies that prevented death from completing properly for Sims in large, multi-generational families. Symptoms included missing inheritance, tombstones, and a lower Sim population cap per lot.

That sounds to me like the problem fixed by Pescado's "death bug fix".  I don't think it's related to Uni, but I could be wrong....

Karen

Is that the root of the missing portal bug or just one instance?

Edited Uni post to include more fixes.

Started with the '#' sign

I take it this means Adult sims can propose marriage to a Young Adult sim.  When I first read it I thought it meant two Young Adults could marry.   :P

I'm about to try and install it. I've backed up my game but if it says I have to reinstall then it'll have to wait until tomorrow.

Any one else amused by the number of times they used the words "rare" and "obscure"?

The best I can remember, over-population was the cause of most of the game exploding bugs.  Up too and including corruted death (no inheritence) and the final exam bug.

Since it says they fixed the corrupt death, wouldn't this mean bye-bye to the final exam bug?

Even though I've personally never experience the final exam bug, I have been a victim of the "Its high time so-and-so go back to the real world" bug.

Has anyone had a successful patch install yet? I got the same error message as Motoki.

gynarchy: Did you by chance set your objects.package file to read only? I just now realized I did that and didn't bother to change it back before I patched and I noticed the patcher program messing with that file. I'll remove the read only setting and try again *crosses fingers*

*edit: I just checked and I guess the patcher can remove that setting on its own because it did update that file and it's no longer read only. I guess it's reinstall time for me. :p

*edit #2: It seems to hang for me at the Graphics Rules.sgr file and I think I remember modifying that file. I'll see if I can find a backup from the CD. What a pain in the ass.  >:(

That's what I thought of immediately after I got the error, but I checked the file and the "read-only" tag was already removed.

EDIT: Are we having fun yet?  ;)

EDIT AGAIN: My friend who has never modified a game file in any way says she gets the same error.

Just finished installing it. For the amount of bugs it fixed it didn't take long at all, 10 seconds at the most.

Gynarchy: When you try and patch and get the message, if you move the bar with the error message without hitting ok and closing it out, it should show you what file it's getting hung up on. If you have to, you can try and patch a second time. I did and it's still getting hung on the same file, Graphics Rules.sgr

*edit: Okay THANKFULLY when I messed with that file, I made a backup of it and so I moved the tinkered with version out of the way and restored the backup and tried to patch for a 3rd time and this time it worked *hugh sigh of relief*

I haven't tried yet, I can't see the point as I'm still waiting for NL (stupid me ordered it from Amazon on Sunday and forgot to update the expiry date on my Maestro card, so they had to contact me and now it'll take at least two more days!)  Since I'll have to mess with my files then and start backing up, moving around and what have you, I think I'll wait and do the whole lot at once.

Ten seconds for something that takes five minutes to download?  Wow!

ack - installed patch and now my game crashes on loading...

I just launched my game and when I went into a lot all the sims needs were maxed out. Other than that everything seems normal.

I did mess with that file, refresh my memory though - what folder is it in again?

EDIT: nm, found it. Thank goodness I'm a backup freak!

Sita, did you back up all your files and neighbourhoods first?

MaxoidHunter has said in one of Twain's threads that the final exam bug should be fixed.

Link.
 (http://bbs.thesims2.ea.com/community/bbs/messages.php?&openItemID=item.62,item.43,item.41,item.23&threadID=77bd17f5d52d8afb3a0c81bd96f92eb2&directoryID=62&startRow=1#dcc071230295afa6a1dcc91be24a3952)

well one good thing, I didn't see no smart milk stuckage and the exploitation cheat of canceling potty training queue in the list of fixes. Sadly I didn't see the homework/desk issue on the list though. I freaking hate that, what is the point of buying desks if only one can be used. Minor I know.

What is being changed in the graphicrules.sgr file?

*sigh* even replacing the Graphic Rules.sgr file with a clean one from the NL CD didn't work. I removed my downloads, stood on my head, did a jig, would have drank a fifth of whiskey if I weren't pregnant and I still can't install the patch. It's a shame about the whiskey too, it would have made this funny.

OmG they are saying the fixed Sudden Pregnancy Death Syndrome!

Along with a boatload of other annoying bugs.

Motoki,
You can just return the graphic config file by searching for "useshaders", changing it to false, and "vertexdata" back to true...
It worked for me...I had the same error.
:)
Hope that helps!
PS, I only had to edit the Nightlife version from EAGames/Sims2Nightlife/TsData/Res/Config....I left the other rules alone, so i guess it was only looking in the Nightlife folder...

Funny Ha Ha or Funny Peculiar?

Okay, my game runs okay now. Only weird thing I noticed is a sim who was bathing ran out of the tub naked and upstairs to stow a baby away, all the while still naked, the nanny got to her first and he's still standing around naked and didn't change lol. I have Pescado's baby eyeball thingy though so it may be that or just some wierd combination of things.

I didn't back up anything or take anything out, in fact I added a bunch more downloads I just got today, and the game seems to be running fine. However, I'm kind of ambivalent about this patch as none of the stuff on the lists (that wasn't already fixed with NL; ie the cheering, lvl 6 greek pledge etc) was ever any annoyance or issue for me and the one thing I wanted fixed above all else and considered very serious was that damned custom terrain paint lot crashing bug.  >:(

But anyway, I would just give the following advice: Don't remove anything from downloads but if it it will make you feel better, make a backup of your neighborhood. If you modified ANY files in the Program Files/EA Games/... etc folders in any way shape or form you'd better restore them to their original versions before you patch. Any files added or modified in the My Documents/EA Games/.. folders should be fine though.

how big is the dl?

It's around 17 mbs, nectere

Anyone know if the bug that caused your lot to become corrupted if you had Sims on the cell phone when you saved has been fixed or not?  Or was that something fixed with Nightlife?  I looked over the list, the only kind of similar thing I could see was "Squashed a rare scripting error that occurred when hanging up a cell phone," but I'm not sure if that's related or not...

It's over 20 MB!  (That's the Uni one, anyway.)

thank god I decided to read this thread. I have Sim PE creating backups to my custom neighborhoods  while I download the NL Patch. I dont play the maxis neighborhoods so nothing to back up there.I moved my DL folder to my desk top just to be safe.

I got it to install fine, no problems (I didn't modify any game files). Haven't tried the game yet. I'll be ticked if my YAs still can't have dates or visitors in dorms or community lots after this patch >:( I didn't see that listed, unless it was hidden in some programmerese I didn't recognize.

Jen

If anything I would remove any global mods, if you know what they are.  Since the patch has fixed a bunch of stuff, even hacks that Pescado have created, it's best to remove those as you don't know what will happen once you run with those hacks still in place.  I also agree to reverting any files in Program Files that were previously modified.

Isn't everything hilarious after having too much whiskey? :-P

Is it possible to just uninstall NL and reinstall it without having to start from the beginning? I'm not at all anxious to do it, but I'm running out of ideas.

Well I'm running the game patched without having removed anything and so far so good. I generally tend to remove stuff that patched or expansion packs fix and make redundant (chatbug fix, no cheering, greek level 6 fix etc) but I didn't see much in these patches that fixes something a hack already fixed except maybe the final exam bug fix, but I am keeping that one because I use an old version from Two Jeffs were they don't meet the professors. I can't stand how they always insist on being friends with them.  ::)

If anyone knows of any specific Pescado or TwoJeffs hacks that this patch makes redundant though, please let us know. Otherwise so far so good and I really am not going to go back to that taking everything out and putting them back in one by one stuff again.

Oh and I have no idea if the patch caused this or its just some odd coincidence, but I just had the cow mascot barge into a home in my regular neighborhood and I've never had that happen before. Could very well be some totally unrelated fluke, but if anyone else has this happen after patching please post and let me know.

fasterbuyclothes may not be necessary anymore, according to the Uni patch notes they have "Sims no longer play the extended browse animation when purchasing an item from the clothing rack" listed. I don't know how long the animation is now though.

Well, I've done it more than once with Uni, so I should think so.  You just need to put your Sims2 folder from the Documents/EA Games folder onto the desktop, then pick the uninstall option for Uni, then you can reinstall it.  I imagine it works the same for NL.  (I don't know if you actually need to remove the whole folder, but I always do it that way, it's less hassle than moving individual folders.)

It's happened to me before. Fluke.

Mine installed without a problem too, but I moved my downloads folder to my desktop before install.  It loaded fine, so I put back walls and floors- I'll try objects next. Then I'll have to go through my hacks folder and delete the ones I (hopefully) no longer need before I test to see if it broke the ones I still want.

But man, that list of fixes is long.  :o

Well, why not get your downloads back before you worry about the hacks, then play the game and see which hacks you still need - each time you get the original problem you put a hack in to solve, you can replace that hack and see if it still  works ok.

this wasnt rare I had it happen from the first game on through to nightlife.I cant fathom that maxis thinks this bug was rare ???

I never had it happen. But I heard enough about it to know that it is not "rare".

They used to say on the first patch that the grim reaper/UI problem was rare, but I got it all the time.  I think they are trying to say that not too many people have this bug, I haven't but I've heard about it ALOT, so makes me think it is not that rare, but then again, I have a lot of the bugs it seems.

it's just them trying to make themselves look good. If all these bugs were "common" it would make people wonder why they didnt get caught BEFORE the game was released :D.

Well, I'm going to leave the hack-fixes out, but some things Maxis considers a "feature", I consider an annoyance- like plants dying because the gardener can't take care of them all  once every 3 days. ;) So the daily gardener hack goes in right away.

Well, I suppose if they never play the game themselves, and only one or two people actually complained, they could kid themselves it was rare!  But quite honestly, if a bug was that rare, would modders like JM have spent so much time making fixes for it?



Well, since that isn't so much a patch as a hack, it shouldn't be affected by the official patch!

I'm grateful for the patch, but I cannot believe they didn't address the Custom Terrain Paint issue!  ???

For those that installed the patch, did you remove the CEP files before installing?

Well, I downloaded the two updates (Uni + NL), read the list of the fixes, and all I had to remove from my hacks folder was - pianofix, and handheld fix.

One big thanks to Maxis, for enabling pregnant females to play handheld - bug that annoyed me a lot, because all my pregnant females wanted to play handheld with their spouses, and were stucked on this wish during all their pregnancy.

Actually, I don't know.  After reading about the "rare" transparent unselectable dormies (or however they described it) my mind automatically added the word "rare" to every single item after it.

There's lots more I could say on the subject, but I have other posts to read. :)

Hook

Has anyone started to put together a redundant list of hacks/mods yet? Stuff that has been taken care of by the patch.

Linda

Hm, conspicuously absent is any mention of a fix for the grand vampire biting Mrs. Crumplebottom and causing corruption in the objects file. 

I can only assume that's been fixed but not mentioned in the fix list.  There are always a number of issues like that, so simply going by the fix list isn't valid.

My biggest worry at this point is that it took 7 months to get a fix for Uni, but only one month for a fix for Nightlife.  Given the policy of issuing only one patch for a game, this means there will be no more fixes for Nightlife until the next EP.

I don't know about anyone else, but I'm removing the entire downloads folder from my game before installing the patch.  I'll gladly wait for Boris or JMP to re-certify their mods for the patched version of the game.  Even my own hack, SemiPermaPlat will come out until I can verify that the code hasn't changed with the patch.

Hook

hi guys but silly me where do i find the objects package. I have not set it to read only how big is it suppose to be and where do I find it on the cd.

For what it's worth, I downloaded the NL patch without problems.  The only hacks I had were TJ's college adjuster and Mertorola (sp) mirror.  I didn't think to back up anything.  I played for an hour without unusal events occuring.

I'm VERY irritated at this. I have some old lots that I love that are useless, and some new lots that I'd like to share but I don't dare because I have custom terrains in my game. :(


Not me. I didn't remove anything. Nada. Zilch. Zip.

Left in all my hacks, custom clothes, hair, makeup, object recolors, object meshes etc etc.

So far it is smooth sailing. The only problem I had was having to replace the Graphics Rules.sgr file that I had previously modified, but I doubt most people would mess with that file so I don't think it will be a problem for too many.

I didnt remove any thing and installed the patch with no hastles exept it kept telling me that i need to put a cd and it would not regester in my head that it was cd 2 it wanted not cd 1. mind still fuzzy from tuesdays events that happened to me

I removed my entireDL file and neighborhood file after the NL patch installed without a hitch I put them back where they were and all My CC and hacks are working including those that use CEP.the only odd thing I had happen was when I restarted my game I went into a lot I had saved and exited just prior to the patch  and the family 2 kids,1 toddler and 2 adults  appeared at their front door  ??? when I saved and exited Mom and Dad were at work,the 2 kids were at school and the Nanny Karen Gast was in the kitchen the toddler was playing with his shape sorter. when I re entered the lot after the patch installed the family was on its front lawn except for the toddler who was still playing. I hurried up and had mom drive the kids to school she came back and I sent dad to work after quickly buying him a car I then tried to send Mom Poste haste to work she wouldnt go claiming she couldnt bear to leave the toddler alone ! :o the nanny was in the kitchen and Mom treated her like a visitor so I had my sim ask the nanny to leave and sent her to the phone to call a new nanny she did and who comes right back?? you guessed it Karen Gast!. Mom then went to work albeit 6 hours late but she got her promotion and her LTW to become captain hero fulfilled.

Yes that happens to me every time I install an ep or a patch

Patched fine on my system. I left in all my hacks (I have hundreds), and I had CEP installed at the time. Everything seems to be okay.

Whenever I install and EP or a patch, I take all my neighbourhoods out, so I don't think I have that problem, everything is just as it was before.

patched fine for me. Left in all my stuff. The only thing I did was remove the "read-only" setting on my objects. package file.

I was finally able to install the patch. Someone on the BBS suggested not overwriting the Graphics Rules.sgr (which is what I was doing) but to remove the old one and replace it with the original. It doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me why that would make a difference, but for whatever reason it worked.

I am downloading it now (I have dialup!  half an hour to go ::) ).  I can't see any mention of fixing crushes due to seemingly innocent "ask" and "buy coffee for" things, although crushes from handhelds and cheerups are mentioned.  Has anyone tried those things yet?

I was. I was very amused at the number of rare and obscure bugs I have seen firsthand. Maybe a just play the game, like, way more than anyone else. ;)

That's what I did. Well, I actually moved the modified file to another directory entirely and put the original one back in there by itself. I guess I should have mentioned that but I really didn't think it would make a difference. I got out-thunk by someone on the BBS! How humiliating. LOL

From what I understand, that hasn't been fixed.  >:(

I've been busy the past few days, plus my laptop harddrive crashed yet again, which really fuckin sucked cuz of course I didn't manage to back it up. I never fucking learn my lesson.  ::)

Anyways, so it looks like they didn't have time to include other stuff, like the whole NPC/Vampire thing? But at least they managed to get a huge list for Uni. Looks like theres stuff on there that I wasn't even aware of. :P And I really love how they say some of those bugs are "rare"  :D

It's been tough to keep track of all the bugs that have been mentioned already, numerous times, but are there any glaring bugs that stand out as still existing and haven't been addressed by either of these patches?

Of the NL related ones so far, probably the one where peeps mentioned that Vamps can bite Mrs. Crumplebottom? I vaguely recall something about that, and how it could lead to very bad things. There's also that issue with teen vamps and skins? I suppose shaklin's fix is still required then? And what about the Gypsy being all buggy and giving you crappy mismatches for dates despite how much you pay her? Please don't tell me that's by design.   ;D

What about Uni and Original issues that may have been overlooked by these patches? I can't remember al the major bugs. I vaguely recall MaxisTom saying something about how they would/will eventually have to release a second patch for NL, but considering how long it took for this one to be released, I doubt that we will see the next one anytime soon. :P Plus, since NL has only just been released, who knows what other bugs lie in wait for discovery. Oh much fun that's going to be.  ::) I still refuse to play right now since I'm still waiting for Pescado to get his EP and update his hacks. In particular, I'm really holding out for the romancemod, but that will probably take forever I'm sure, considering how much more complicated things will be with the chemistry and dating systems. I suppose I will have to either make do with nojealousy at all for now or just try and be real sneaky with my slutty sims. No more three or moresomes for them.  *sigh* :-\

Ste

The NL list didn't include everything (for some reason).  I believe we fixed a lot of these issues.

Vampires biting Mrs. Crumplebottom should no longer corrupt your objects.package file.  Teen vampire skin should be fixed as well (at least I brought it up).

I'm not sure about the Gypsy giving bad dates.  Perhaps you are not paying enough.  Or perhaps you just don't like what your sim got.

It's common for a lot of fixes not to get mentioned in the patch list.  The only way to know for sure what's been fixed is to test it out in the game... without hacks (hint hint, everyone).

I remember finding several things fixed in the original Sims 2 patch that weren't mentioned in the fix list.

Hook

Tell me about it  :( I love creating terrain paint..have made quite a few, and since I had to test them 'in game'..well..there went all the neighborhoods and families I had been playing when I found out about this issue. I reinstalled all new n'hoods and have started over since I couldn't remember where and which homes I tested the terrain on.



Thank you Motoki! :) and Thanks to all of you who answered this question after Motoki  ;D

I remember I did too, and unless you do that, you'll never know if one of the hacks you have in is preventing those things from working]

I checked the ask thing with two teens who were best friends  - went through the whole "ask" menu (excluding date) and no crush - so it was fixed. 

Dang it, while inviting visitors over to dorms is better (I'm at least able to interact with them for the most part), my Sim still lost the ability to interact with one of his visitors for a while. I did still have my hacks in, so maybe something was interfering. Next time I'm in a dorm I'll try it without any hacks.

ETA: They couldn't reproduce the exam bug?!? I get it just about every other semester!! :P I'm going to start taking screenshots every time it happens and send a big fat zip file to EA :P

Jen

Installed the patch with no problems last night and played for a while. Very pleased by most of the improvements. The thumbnails in memories and thought bubbles are no longer over sized and blurry and all of the other fixes previously mentioned. The only bummer that I had expected because Tom mentioned it before was that the wonderful potty training glitch is gone.  :'( We'll have to keep at it the long way, just like teaching to walk and talk. But all things considered I am very happy with the improvements. Thanks MaxoidTom and all of the other people at Maxis who worked so hard to make our games so much better. ;D

Yeah, so far so good, although I agree about the potty training glitch, I guess its back to training diapers AGAIN, ick :)

[
I'm not sure about the Gypsy giving bad dates.  Perhaps you are not paying enough.  Or perhaps you just don't like what your sim got.
[/quote]Ive paid maximum simoleons on several occasions and my YA's at Uni ended up with bad dates or worse yet Elderly dates  >:( My YA's are looking for fun and potential mates for their future .an elder is hardly suitable for a Family sim who wants kids.My Romance sims at Uni on the other hand if they end up with an elder courtesy of the Gypsy I just go with it as their fear is marriage and engagement neither of which is likely to occur as the Gypsy has sent some decent Romance elders to my Romance YA"s. theyv'e had fun with whoo hoo though with those elder Romance sims.I found paying just shy of maximum gets better results for my YA's that want mates and families in the future. my teens I dont set up with the gypsy they generally bring home friends from school that they can date. and My adults have usually come out of CAS already married or met someone on campus in their dorm or greekhouse. butthey Gypsy does send lots of awful dates  that hate my Sim even when I pay maximum!

The elder dates are kind of annoying I will grant you. It may help to give your sims grey hair as a turn off. I've been doing that and haven't gotten any elder dates since, but I've only done a few dates so it could be coincidence.

In general though, I think those blind dates are a waste of money unless your sim has tons of cash to burn. You have to pay the max amount to even hope for a chance at a good date and I've had matches that were just as good if not better just from scoping out a few community lots.

Uni sims only have to use the campus directory and they can phone any sim at uni they want anyway, whether or not they've met, and with the phone hack, they can be 100% friends on one phonecall,then they should find it easy enough to date them.

Now if only we could check sims out by phone. ;)

Actually, it would be nice if the chat online options were expanded it a bit so that the score actually went up enough that it would be worth chatting and they would actually chat for more than 30 seconds.  ::) Some online matchmaking stuff might be cool too. I feel like the whole computer aspect of the game is rather neglected considering it's a game that computer and internet-aholics tend to play. ;)

I agree, they could definitely have put in a computer dating aspect!  Aso, when chatting online to a friend, instead of always getting the "Do you want so and so to visit"  You could get, "do you want to invite so and so on a date".

I am pretty sure there is a "call anyone" mod over at MTS2, I dont know if it works with nightlife or not though.

Has anyone tested the love potion out since installing the patch? That was my biggest glitch and I havent tested it yet.

It works okay for me, but then again I'm probably not a good person to ask since I never had a problem with it in the first place.  :-\

Hmm, I just noticed the speakers keep reseting to stereo still every time I start the game even though I keep changing them every time to 5.1.  :P

Ooh, thanks MaxoidTom for takin the time to respond :D I was wondering where you were. Heheh. And it's good to hear that certain things have been fixed. I was wondering why the NL bug list was so sparse... and I've seen that some people have already mentioned that certain things haven't been fixed yet. I recall that you said there might be a need for a 2nd patch since a lot of the other bugs that were submitted probably wouldn't have made it in time for the 1st patch. Still... I'm a sort of  ::) patient man. I mean... if I can wait for Pescado to get his EP and update his hacks, then I suppose I could wait for another patch as well. That probably means I won't even really play NL until the next EP comes out. Hehe  ;D Or maybe by that time, the holiday add-on will have arrived. Hopefully there shouldn't be any significant code changes from that.

Anyhew... so I dug around and found this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=620.msg23932#msg23932). Ancient Sim's post about their (her/his?) experience with the matchmaker. I definately recall reading that they paid full price and still got a dud date. And I think they also mention that one of their sims got a decent date, and only paid a paltry sum of some sort, well at least definately less than the full price. I would have thought that paying full price was supposed to get you a better match. I am now wondering what exactly the search algorithm would be for finding this match. :P Is it soley based on personality, potential chemistry, does it only consider "zodiac sign" compatibility or are all factors (zodiac, aspiration, turn ons/offs) considered? I would have expected this to work somewhat like the resurrection bit, where the better you pay, the better the results.

Anyways, here is Ancient Sim's post:


This could very well be just a result of the search algorithm, and maybe these players have all just been unlucky (all of them? :P) Or... maybe this is by design and sims are actually getting suckered out of their hard-earned simoleons by the greedy, shifty, shady matchmaker? I mean... after all, she is a Gypsy...  ::) Perhaps this is some kind of sociocultural comment by Maxis? I mean... would you trust some crazy woman in a funky dress, just showing up at your front step out of no where, and loitering around trying to solicit a matchmaking service door-to-door. I don't know about you, but just how reliable and trustworthy would that seem? LOL.  :D

Ste

Please turn on testingCheatsEnabled, reproduce the bug, and when the error occurs, retrieve the appropriate object error text file in your My Docs\The Sims 2\Logs\ directory and submit it to the official bug form.

Please submit a bug on this.  I think we know about it, but just to be safe...

Tom, the teenage vamp girl skin was indeed fixed.

Excellent work, and thanks :-)


I can confirm the speaker setting bug. In my case I have to keep resetting them to 4.0

yes. same here, have to set the sound settings to 4.0 everytime. whats the difference of 4.0 and 5.1 and stereo anyway? i found out that 4.0 is better for me, but i don't know why.

What is the final exam bug? can someone tell me please?

-------------------------

the patch also did not fixed these:

Inventory:  Objects that have gone into the inventory will remain with the shadow problem.

The Mad Cientist missing the job on mondays.

The objects from university (Groovy Dresser and Grease Stands Alone juice bar) still don't allow us to select all of its recolors.

School students still clog the front door of the bus while they open their report card.
Adults that come home from work and do that "i'm home animation" will do it in front of the carpool door, not allowing others to unload from the carpool.
Uni students ruturning home from class and clogging the pedestrian portal.

Terrain Paints beeing forever attached to a lot once clicked.

Sims loosing marriage lines in family tree after the parter dies.

5.1 speakers are 4 speakers (2 front and 2 rear), a center channel speaker and a subwoofer. I believe 4.0 is just the 2 front and 2 rears with no center or subwoofer and stereo is just 2 speakers, a right and a left.

I do actually have a 5.1 speaker setup, and it's set that way in Windows too, but for some reason I guess the game didn't detect it and defaulted to stereo.

The basic difference between 4.0 and 5.1 is that 4.0 does not have a special channel for the centre (usually speech) and subwoofer.

If you use an option you do not have in hardware, your system will have to downsample it to what you do have. If I were to pick 5.1, that means all data for the centre and 'woofer would have to be backsampled to the other speakers.
This would not sound as good obviously.

Alas there is no standard way to detect speaker settings (DirectSound does not properly report this, I believe).


Also not fixed by the patch (if this is not WAD): alien abductee spawn does not have the Pollination Technician as a father.

i actually have 2 speakers conected to a central subwoofer. what sound setting should i use then?

crushes still happen with the new sitting interactions, like stealing bite throwing food

Son of a crap crap crap and more crap.


I can't find my disk.

I don't know if there's a different exam bug, but the one I'm referring to is that my students get exams at ridiculous hours of the night...midnight, 1 am, etc. I don't think any error is going to be generated, but I'll do that next time, Tom. I'm hardly an expert here but it seems it's more a case of not having the right checks in place to make sure the exams occur at a reasonable time. TwoJeffs has had a fix for it available for some time, but I don't think it's been verified as NL-compatible.

Jen

Probably stereo I suppose. Although if you notice a difference in sound with the other settings and the game runs okay for you then go for it.

I think this is happening because your students have lived in more than one place in the university or they have visited community lots. The semester is a fixed number of sim hours (I think 72). When you go to a community lot, the clock keeps running. When you return to the residential lot, it is the same time on the clock as when you left, but the semester clock would reflect the time spent at the community lot.

Example: semester starts at 8am - 72 more hours until final exam
At 10am - go to community lot and stay 8 hours
Return to residential lot - residential lot still shows time as 10am (when you left) but there are only 62 hours until the final exam: 8am-10am on residential lot + 8 hours at community lot. 
When the 62 hours is up, it might be the middle of the night on the residential lot.

Same thing if they move into another residence - it's 8am when they move in but the lot they moved out of it may have been 7pm at night.

Oh! I know it then.. but i hardly consider it a bug, i think this is "by design".
The only reason that your sims get exams in weird times is because when you visit community lots, they hours untill the final exam will still count, however when you go back home, the hour of the day wil lbe the same of when you left, pushing your exam to later hours.

like this: If it is 9 AM and it is 24 hours until your sim's final exam, then the final should happen at 9 AM the next day. however, if this sim visits a community lot at  10 AM (23 hours before the exam) and stays at the community lot for 7 hours, when he goes back home, it will sitll be 10 AM but it will be 15 hours untill the final exam, this means the final will now happen at 3 AM the next day, instead of 9 AM.
Then you just have to go to  community lot and stay there for 7 more hours, then the final will happen at 8 PM.

This can be a little annoying if you are not exactly fond of doing some math, however i think they did it this way, so you cant get some extra hours before the exam. i mean, if your exam was going to happen at mid night and it got rescheduled to 8 AM, then you get 8 more hours to study.

From what I remember TwoJeffs mentioned that if the exam bug is nixed for good (crossing fingers) he's planning on making a mod for having finals at normal daytime hours.

I'm having mixed results myself with the matchmaker. For some sims, I pay full price and get the perfect sim for them. Others, I pay the full fee and get someone I'd never have hooked them up with. Perhaps it's a difference in perception of who'd we'd marry our sims to and whom the matchmaker believes their "perfect" match is. I wonder if there would be better matches with more sims in the neighborhood. Maybe the elder that shows up on the blind date is the best match Zodiac, aspiration and personality-wise unless we fill up the "dating pool" so to speak. ;)

It is NL compatable, works in my game. Don't know about post patch though

Meh, I guess that makes sense in a way but it's still annoying...and it doesn't behave that way with regards to work in the regular neighborhood  :P

Jen

Hmmm guess I am going to give it a go now and install..I think I've found all the information I can on this thing for now

*crosses fingers and jumps into the land of no return*

*edit*

Hmm..that was oddly quick and painless..I'm almost scared now lol

So now what hacks I have should be obsolete...

I'm guessing if the patch works like it should, there should be no need for...

Portal fixes and monitors
vampires don't bite NPCs
move out bug fix
no corrupt death
death fix

can anybody confirm that?

Would the LTW variety fix would fine with this..leaving it out for now as I don't know if there were any changes that would make it make something not work correctly.

I'm using the LTW variety hack and have not noticed any problems.

Cool...thanks for sharing that tidbit..I'll stick it back in and take my chances.

*hmm that sounded kind of wrong*  :P

Yeah, I've always assumed the "finals at 2 am thing" was just kind of badly thought out design rather then a bug.  I've never used the fix, it doesn't really bug me enough to warrent fixing.

Well, if you have the University timer clock, that automatically resets late night exams to 8 am.

I installed the patch yesterday, and I've noticed a couple of oddities since then:

1.  When a social bunny showed up for one of my sims, it was still semi-visible when I had a different sim selected.  (the male sim in the background is the one who has the social bunny, the male sim in the foreground is selected)
(http://www.hamipiks.com/showPic.php/128913/sims2_2.JPG)

2.  I just had a sim acheive a lifetime want of being in love with 20 sims at once.  The memory seems to have a blank icon.  I've never managed this want before, so I don't know what would normally show up here.
(http://www.hamipiks.com/showPic.php/128913/sims2_1.JPG)

I don't have any hacks or downloads (well, expect for the Maxis made ones).

I've had that social bunny semi-transparency thing since I got the original game. I don't think that's related to the patch.

Odd, I've never seen it before now.  I'm sure all my social bunnies were properly invisible. ???

Mine too, and I've had to reinstall loads of times, and it's never happened!  Maybe it's a hack or an object that causes it?

I've never downloaded any hacks or non-Maxis made objects (and I've never downloaded any lots or sims, so I can't have acquired them accidentally).  So in my case at least, it can't be that.

I've also started getting the transparent social bunny thing since NL. I don't recall having it prior, but then again I almost never had him appear pre-NL. My sims just never had their social get that low. Since NL he practically lives in my sims houses. Is it just me or did they make the social drain faster? I suppose it could be that the sims in the main house I play are all very outgoing, but I've played outgoing sims in the past and never had this problem.

In fact, I think that outgoing, hig fun sims recover fast anyway if they live with other similar sims.  The social bunny then mostly only appears when aspirations get very low, and with popularity sims it's generally fairly easy to prevent this by having them meet someone new, etc.

Social bunny is supposed to look transparent, but only if there are two or more on the lot and you're looking at the one that doesn't belong to the sim you have selected.

Well, I've NEVER allowed two sims on one lot to get that low!

There was definitely only one social bunny on the lot - that family only consists of those two male sims, and the one in the foreground had a full social bar (he'd just spent the morning woohooing).  The female is a townie who'd just wandered by, so unless townies have started bringing invisible social bunnies with them, there was definitely only one bunny present. 

Well, if you have the Mind control Mirror, you could have had a look to see if there was a second one hiding!

Ah, but then I couldn't be smug and say it's not my fault, I don't have any hacks or downloads ;)

Can anyone confirm whether or not widowed sims should be able to remarry? I've not had a problem before now but have found that the 'propose...engagement/marriage' option is missing for a couple (Joe Carr and a CAS sim) where the CAS sim is widowed. And of course one of Joe's unrolling wants is to marry his girlfriend. ::) Is this a bug?

I believe so, but I don't have any widows or widowers so haven't experienced it yet.  I think one of JM's fixes solves the problem, but I don't know if it's compatible with NL.

Are you following me Zephyr?!  ;D
I realised immediately after posting my question that I thought I was in the NL bugs thread instead of this one. Sorry for the derailing!

I'm only following in so far as if I get a topic notification I tend to look and see what's been posted.  resumably everyone does the same, which is why we tend to follow each other around the board!

I did a sim experiment one day and had everyone in the household drop their social. I had 12 social bunnies hopping around, fighting, flirting, etc. Not the smartest thing for me to do, as I now have all those social bunny character files, but oh, well. Just a drop in the bucket in my hood. I could always see several transparent social bunnies no matter who I clicked on, as well as the non-transparent social bunny belonging to the selected sim.

I have an OT social bunny question that's been bugging me for ages: If you have several social bunnies on a lot, the sim is only aware of the one assigned to him. He makes that "screw loose" gesture if he sees another sim talking to his social bunny, because it looks like he's talking to himself. But when one social bunny gooses another social bunny, every sim in that room gets embarrassed. And if two bunnies are in a fight, all sims cheer them on.
(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/socialgoosebest.jpg)(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/socialfight2.jpg)

By the way, the water in those pics is from sprinkler pranks gone wild.

zz, we tend to follow each other around quite a bit!

I've had a nose round my downloads folder and I've got JMP's marriage-postmortum hack already (which has been cleared for NL use by Boris) which is why I can't understand why this has started happening again.

For what it's worth, I just had a widower in my game game who couldn't remarry until I forcably severed his marriage ties in SimPE. :p I could swear I've done it in the past in just the normal game without messing with SimPE so not sure if it's something new with NL or just general glitchiness. :p

I dont know the patch did nt work in my game I lost all my Custom neighborhoods. and the stuck Nanny reappeared .the patch even messed up my maxis made neighborhoods so I uninstalled and reinstalled night life but didnt patch night life this time I will see if problem is solved this way.

Wel,, I hope you posted a complaint at the BBS to that effect!  If the patch is causing more problems than it solves, they really do need to address this problem!

somebody I know on the BBS had a problem with the patch where they weren't getting walkbys and other sims at community lots and that sort of stuff.

Looks like Maxis will have to patch the patch.

How many months do you think THAT will take?

I dunno, but I wish they'd learn and try the darn thing themselves!!!!!!  they really ought to have two or three people just playing the game and pushing it to it's limits so they can get some kind of feedback!

Or just employ people like you and me to test things out for them!  I'd love to be paid for just playing my game!!!!!

Yeah, like I can't BELIEVE they didn't catch the "can't influence other sim to drink Vamprocillin-D" thing. That is why most companies will have somebody PLAYTEST a game before releasing it. Plainly they didn't do that or many many of the bugs we see would have never gotten through the testing process.

Hey wait a minute they are doing the best they can and Maxis is probably being pushed by EA to get it out faster than they should.

well I agree that EA games is problably partially to blame, but I don't think that completely absolves Maxis of all blame for their shoddy testing practices. It is at least partially their fault.

thats fair they are both to blame you know the big boys leaning on the little boys. and Maxis problaby dont have as much say as they once did.

From what I've gathered, the vast majority of the people are not having any problems with the patches.  However, the ones that are heard the most are those with problems.  Unfortunately others hear these concerns and assume that everyone else is having problems as well.

Whether you believe me or not, it's not for lack of trying.  We tested as thoroughly as we could in the amount of time we had, but it is impossible to catch everything.  It is also nearly impossible to verify that the patches are causing problems or incompatible third party modifications.  I'm not trying to place any blame here, but some of the mods may just not be compatible with the newer code in NL and in the patches.

I'm sorry to hear that some of you are having problems.  Please use the official bug form on the BBS to submit the bugs you have found.  If you could verify that they do indeed occur without 3rd party modifications, that would be great.  If you are having "jump" or "reset" bugs, you can turn on testingCheatsEnabled and get the error dump that results from that in your My Docs\The Sims 2\Logs directory.  That will be very helpful to us in tracking down any problems you may have.

MaxoidTom  Did the patch fix the problem that if someone got eaten by the cow plant and there was no memory of the deathtrought the hood.

To answer your question, I don't know, though I'm not sure I understand what the bug is, exactly.  Is it that the sim gets eaten and you expect that everyone has a memory of the death?  Or that everyone does have a memory of the death, but they shouldn't?

Unfortunately, I do not know all the bugs that were fixed by the patch(es).  The list we posted on the official BBS is rather large and there may be problems users have seen that have a common cause that we have fixed.

The bug is when a playable sim gets eaten by the cow plant no one in the hood remembers the death if the persons wife/husband is there she/he morns. When u enter the house of the person that has been eaten the other person has no memory of the death of spouse the spouse is often on the lot invisible. the spouce can not call the grim reaper to get their loved one back as the game seems to think they are still on the lot. the only way to get them back is to go to another lot raise them from death get the spouse to invite that person over and fall in love all over again.

If you would be so kind, would you write this up and submit it in the bug form on the official website?  It's 2am where I am right now and I am liable to forget.

ok I will submit and it is only 7 pm where I am.

Just shows, cowplants should be behind lockable doors!

Well, four toddlers, one bottle of smart milk each and all of them have an IQ of 300 as children. Guess I can say pretty conclusively that this particular bug has not been fixed. :)

This is a feature, not a bug.

Witch: SSSSSHHHHH!! I don't want them to fix that 'feature'. Yes, I'm saying it's a feature. That's my story and I'm sticking to it. ;)

I am playing without the patch and My game is fine. and when the error filled neighborhoods and missing sims  occurred with all mods disabled except the censor removal download. I even tried  playing with all CC disabled and only Maxix items in the game with the patch and the stuck nanny was there and missing sims and totally glitched neighborhoods. even my backups didnt work with the patch in place.I called EA tech support and lodged a complaint right away about the patch problems which ranged from funny to aggravating and werent fixable.I unistalled last night  and reinstalled .did not patch night life this time preferring to deal with glitches as they occur as none of my glitches were ever serious!the stuck nanny was the glitch I got occasionally and the sudden pregnancy death syndrome.which my sims hubby could deal with by resurrection or pleading with the grim Reaper if they were home.

Interesting that it took over twelve months to make a patch for Uni, but only a month to make one for Nightlife!

You are right to be upset about this.  Constructive criticism on the official bbis best for this, however, since most of the Maxoids read the posts there.  However, I think we've heard this particular complaint a lot now, so hopefully it won't happen again.

Sorry Tom, but A I find it a confusing place to find what I want and B I don't understand most of the gobbledegook of the posters!

That may be the case, but criticism on this forum will probably not be as visible to the designers, who visit the official bbs.  That's all I'm saying.  You could post once and then never come back--that way you never have to "find" anything or try to understand what all the others are saying.

your'e right about the gobbledgook from the various posters there .sheesh some of them post like they are all of 6 years old!my 3 year old granddaughter makes more sense than some of the posters there. which is why I probably dont make it past tongue tied tourist on the BBS and honestly I posted in the feedback thread started by a Poster named A Sim Wen and I was the only reply to the thread she asked those who had the patch or tried it anyway to post feedback about it on the thread.I seriously doubt the Maxoids will even read the thread let alone do anything about th chaos it caused in some peoples games. I even called Tech support and told them about my issues . the only thing that did me any good was to uninstall and re install nightlife.without the patch my game is fine.I post her because at least the advice I read here is usefule and easy to understand even for a novice like me .

I will say in defense of Maxis, when I and a lot of others started ranting and raving about the patch months ago, we did get a response.  It still took time and lots more ranting, but Maxis did respond and we did get the patch eventually.

I would also like to thank MaxoidTom for spending so much time here keeping us informed, I know I really appreciate it.  Him being here has helped lessen my anger/disapointment towards the Maxis and the game.

MAJOR EDIT:

The below is NOT true for Uni lots.  On my Uni lots, my Sims still aren't getting animations while talking on the phone.  How very disappointing this is!


One thing that I wanted to note about the patch for Uni:

It did fix the facial animations when the Sims are talking on the house phone.  

That had been my #1 eyesore since the game came out because that problem was one that none of the modders could fix.  

I can't tell you how much it bothered me.  *Ready to throw the game out the window* bother me level.

I did not test it with the cell phones yet,  since none of my Sims at the moment have cellphones.  Hopefully that was fixed as well.


Ivy

I agree with this completely. When I took the survey on the BBS a couple of days ago, I mentioned it. One of the few instances of Maxis actually effectively communicating with their customers.

They really need to take a more active role with the official BBS. Get some of that crap off of there. Clean it up so if you actually have a problem or need help, you can find it without having to sift thru 5000 posts of "where's Bella" and "I'll type out the Prima guide if you give me a bene".  >:(   Whenever I've had a problem, I haven't been able to find info there. I always find it here, MTS2 or SnootySims.

I tend to think that quite a number of the posters are actually below the age limit for the game anyway!

Personally, I'd be happy even if they've just used better board software. Compared to most other board types out there, it really is very primitive. An adults only forum might be nice too. Even if there isn't "adult" subject matter being discussed there, it would be nice to not have to babysit the 10 year olds and deal with their tantrums. Lastly, I think the whole benes, muting and rank stuff is a really REALLY bad idea. It encourages pointless competition and useless posts.

I will and have filed bug reports when there are forms up to do it, but I have no desire or intention to ever post on the BBS in its current incarnation.

I quite agree, Motoki - on the odd occasion when I've had a look at what's happening there, I a) haven't understood most of what was being said, and b) had difficulty in actually working out all the misspellings!  So I don't go there any more!  But like you when I've come up with a real problem I have reported it when I could.

The single easy change that would triple the readability of the official BBS would be to add the option to disable viewing of signatures.

I'd find it significantly easier to read if I could turn off seeing the pointless bunnies and excessive use of font tags. Not least of all because, as it is, it's often hard to tell where a post ends and the signature begins. Most other forums insert a separator line, and/or format the signature to be in much smaller text, so it's obvious.

I agree with that whole-heartedly. The few times I've gone to the bbs help section for, well, "help", I had to go through 300 bright pink "i luv ashton kutcher" signatures and bunnies. I don't understand that bunny thing, at all.

[I would also like to thank MaxoidTom for spending so much time here keeping us informed, I know I really appreciate it.  Him being here has helped lessen my anger/disapointment towards the Maxis and the game.


[/quote]I too would like to thank Maxoid Tom for taking his time here .I am not mad that the patch doesnt work for me.its  one of those things.after allMaxis did kind of rush to patch nightlife its hard to make a patch that is going to work for everyone when their in a hurry to get the patch out as I recall it took a few months for the base game patch to come out .I never had even a single glitch with the base game patch.perhaps the hurry that Maxis was in to get the NL patch out makes it not as smooth as the base game patch ??? frustration sums up how I felt when the issues occurred. often times no one ever tells  Maxis /EA when the patch doesnt work and creates problems that did not exist prior to patching. I called and  asked Tech support for help and they werent able to help :( perhaps because no one else had called them with my issues before .maybe if those that had serious patching problems like I did EA Tech support would know how to help the user correct the  issues. Thanks Maxoid Tom for reading and posting here at least we know were being heard .

I understand the bunny thing.  It was amusing for about a day.

Many forums I've been on have a limit of 4 lines for a signature.  But this was before the Internet.  Limiting signatures to two lines of 64 characters each and disabling larger fonts would go a long way toward alleviating the whole problem.  Or simply allowing users the option of disabling the display of signatures altogether.

Hook

Yeah well what about those of us with NO university and NO nightlife.  Some of these fixes go back to the basic game like headmaster bug.  That was a major problem to me for over a month (real time) til it went away of its own accord.  I don't want it back. We need an updated patch for the basic game too!  I guess this is in rant mode.  How about begging and pleading and yes, I did post on the main BBS.  I got 2 people explaining where to get the old patch - aaarrrghhh!

I mostly visit the old EA site where maxoid and beneseekers never go.  Nice friendly place though we field a lot of "will my PC run NL" posts.  We had 2 posts today from people with gameplay problems post patch.  One with a stuck gardener and the other still can't get his young adults back into real life.  I'm looking around for any similar problems post patch and any new solutions. but not much is posted yet  - I can read up on the old ones..... 

The simmer with the stuck gardener also had nannies running round in their underwear and a wedding crasher who died of starvation and I think they had a stuck grim reaper too.  that was all pre-patch and I'm not clear if this was all on the same lot and whether any problems disappeared, but my games are never that exciting!  If that portal diagnosis tool from MTS2 is OK post patch, I'll get them to try that.  First link has the gardener at the end.  The second is about the nannies.
http://thesims.ea.com/us/index.html?frame_src_content=%2Fbbs%2Fmessages.php%3F%26threadID%3D639bb08f1eb3631bde12a44b35bd6dc6%26directoryID%3D341
http://thesims.ea.com/us/index.html?frame_src_content=%2Fbbs%2Fmessages.php%3F%26threadID%3D639bb08f1eb3631bde12a44b35bd6dc6%26directoryID%3D341

The simmer with the young adults also isn't very specific.
After my sims graduated from college, I tried to play them and I couldn't!!! It is like you entering an empty lot!!! How do I fix this problem? I have NL, and I installed the patch for it & it still ain't working!!! Will somebody tell me what to do to fix this problem?"  later post " I moved them back to Pleasantview. The guy sim I moved him in with his children's mother and the other sim I moved her in her own home. I didn't throw a graduation party, because I didn't know that I had to! I did install the college clock and VK told me that it is not compatible in Night Life and I haven't installed it as of yet. I didn't think it would interfer with my game if I didn't use it. Could that be the culprit?"
http://thesims.ea.com/us/index.html?frame_src_content=%2Fbbs%2Fmessages.php%3F%26threadID%3D639bb08f1eb3631bde12a44b35bd6dc6%26directoryID%3D341

The Uni Patch is the one that fixes headmaster glitch,thankfully I never had the headmaster glitch.I had the adoption glitch though looking back that was useful in a way. I had sim call the adoption service .get approved and get the spiel about the new family member arriving the next day at 10. 10 the next sim day rolled aroun,then 11,then 12 etc and no social worker and my sim couldnt  call the adoption worker because the family member was allegedly on its way LOL. it made it good when I had changed my mind about that sim adopting. not so good when I still wanted my sim to adopt a child

Yes but I DON'T have University so I CAN'T use this patch!!!!

I understand that and I dont know there might be a fix here or at varioussimmers or modthesims2 for the base game.I would check and see if one of the known modders site has a fix for the base game

Surely visiting the bbs is above and beyond the call of duty.  :P

MaxoidTom, I also appreciate the increased communication with Maxis re the bugs and glitches. I can see real movement and change in the last couple of months, alleviating much of my irritation with game and company.

PS I don't go near the bbs either. As others have noted, a more efficient bulletin board, a grownups section for posts in complete sentences and the ability to turn signatures off would be a major start to making the bbs accessible to all.

[That may be the case, but criticism on this forum will probably not be as visible to the designers, who visit the official bbs.  That's all I'm saying.  You could post once and then never come back--that way you never have to "find" anything or try to understand what all the others are saying.
[/quote] I finally got my game to patch with no chaos ensuing. My custom hood is fine.word of advice  to those who are thinking about moving stuff out of the EA games sims2 folder- ie neighborhoods,Downloads  etc prior to installing the patch  DONT!!!!! leave the game in its present state the way it was when you saved and exited . the patch will install without problems as long as you havent messed with the objects file setting.start up game several times to be sure.  play a bit if it seems fine  then chaos shouldnt ensue from the patch

I moved my downloads folder to my desktop, downloaded and installed the patch, moved my downloads folder back in place, and my game works just fine.  Why shouldn't folks move their downloads folders? :-\

Edit*For clarity, I am not saying that because I didn't have a problem no one else should; I am just genuinely curious as to why folks shouldn't move things out of the folder before installing the patch.

I'm relieved that the patch finally worked for you!  It sounds like it was very frustrating and finicky for some reason.  Hopefully now you can enjoy the game without too many annoyances.

I didn't move mine (my downloads folder) because I didn't see a reason to. *shrug* I figured why bother if I don't even know there will be any problems and in my case other than having to restore a backup of the Graphics Rules.sgr file that I previously modified (and which wasn't in the downloads folder anyway) I didn't run into any problems.

The patch isn't going to change or mess with any files in that folder, but of course there's always the potential that the patch could change the game somewhere to the point where something in the downloads folder that previously didn't cause problems now does. But we won't know if we don't try. At some point we'll have to try our downloads out with the update anyhow so I didn't bother to move it. Of course it doesn't hurt to move it out either, but you'll just have to put it back and cross your fingers and give it a go.  ;D

There really isn't a wrong or right answer just do whatever you feel most comfortable with.

The ffslotdebugger has an option to Fix AWOL Headmaster. This will cure any headmaster glitches you have.  Give it a try and let us know.

Hook

my frriend with the game had the same issue and she walked me through the patch. she moved her neighborhood file and downloads file out patched the game moved her stuff back in and waa laa total chaos occured  as near as we can tell with some help from my brother in law who is a computer engineer  and builds  computer systems from scratch and installs games and software in systems he builds. and he says the problem with the patch and the neighborhoods  came about because the patch installed in what it percieved was a game devoid of neighborhoods and Sims he said as such when the neighborhoods were put back the patch didnt recognize them and the result was an over load of errors which the  game tried to recover from and a bad situation continued  to worsen. he had my friend uninstall her game  and reinstall then create a custom neighborhood with sims and put her downloads in prior  to the creation of the neighborhood and sims  and then patch her game .she said his advice was great and her game has been humming along ever since with the patch. she walked me through it and my game is humming along

I did a major edit on my earlier post.

I noticed tonight...my Sims on my Uni lots do NOT have their facial animations back when speaking on the telephone.

As well, I'm still getting the message that so-and-so are no longer best friends when one of the Sims is deceased.

I'm so majorly disappointed....

:( :( :(
Ivy

Thanks I have it, but the rtfm says tested on TSU.  Is it OK if you don't have University?  I guess it probably is, but since I don't actually have HM bug at the moment I thought I'd wait for an answer.  I asked on the thread about patches - didn't see a reply last time I checked, but will try later.

My main point is really on behalf of all those other simmers out there who don't have all JMs wonderful hacks.
Maxis should update the patch for the base game to include all the fixes they put into the Uni patch that apply. 
That isn't only HM bug by a long shot...  The patch already exists - might as well put everything in it not just half of it.

Thanks for this I'll pass it on. I know a good simmer who may have made this mistake

re whether these bugs are common or not....  come on guys... if you were writing the blurb for the patch what would you put on it... "to fix a really common and nasty problem..."????   ::)

Thankyou for listening MaxoidTom -  :)

Disclaimer:  I haven't looked at the code myself.

Fix AWOL Headmaster is one of those functions that *should* work ok with or without any EP's.  What it does it delete the headmaster scenario controller, which is probably created when you invite the headmaster and should go away when the scenario is over.  The reason the HM scenario is bugged has to do with the controller already existing, so you can't invite another HM.  Or you can invite him but he never shows up.

If you have a lot where your HM is glitched, simply try it.  Put the FFSLotDebugger on the lot, click on AWOL Headmaster, and see if your problem is fixed.  If everything works, you're probably good to go.  If stuff messes up, for goodness sake don't save the lot! :)  And delete the FFSLotDebugger before you save, if you do.  I'd recommend not trying to click on other options unless they pertain to the version of the game you're actually running.

Now, this is considerably more risky behavior than I'd normally advocate, but it's what I'd do in the same circumstance.  I'm not saying you can't possibly cause your computer to catch fire by doing this, just that it's very unlikely. :D  Just be prepared to exit without saving if things aren't working right.

Hook

Well, really you can try almost anything if you are prepared to exit without saving!  After all, if your game has something like a corrupted lot which you try to load, it crashes to the desktop which is a bit more violent than just exiting normally, but your PC doesn't normally end up in pieces!

Maybe this is the reason for our troubles with Maxis. Their brains have all been liquified by the BBS! Quick, MaxoidTom, save your coworkers! Direct them here, where they're safe!

??? I havent been to uni yet I have a sim in the  bin waiting .but post suceessful patch .I have noticed two new bugs one is annoying the other disappointing. the annoying one is multiple gardeners showing up.I had my sim Call for a gardener and one arrived immediately .she walked into the house. I didnt think any thing about it at first I thought she was headed to the back yard to take care of the plants. nope she sat down to eat instead,in comes another  and another  and so on all acting like visitors! I used the insimenator to delete them after ending the services of the gardeners. I sent sim to the phone had him hire a new gardener the bug thank fully didnt reproduce Leo the gardener showed up and said the plants were in wonderful condition and left as is normal no more gardeners showed up thank god! the second is my sims no longer have shadows like they did pre patch in the sunlight and Lamplight . and  I cant see my sims reflection in the mirror......Bummer :(

When/If HM bug comes back I will do just that unless I've heard for sure that it's really bad idea in the meantime.  HM code probably didn't chang between TS2 and TSU.....   

 I still want a proper Maxis patch though....   

You may want to check your settings in the game again, I think the patch resets them back to being off.

I had a variation on the headmaster problem last night: the headmaster arrived, my sim welcomed him, started chatting (while still standing outside on the footpath), and he froze.  When I tried to get my sim to interact with him, she'd stand round like she was waiting for him to finish doing something first, and then get bored and wander off.  After a while I deleted him, and rang to invite him again the next night.  Next night the same headmaster arrives, and exactly the same thing happened.  I thought maybe I'd been a bit quick deleting him the first time, so I just left him there.  Next morning he was still standing in exactly the same place.  Deleted him again, invited him again that night, and this time a different headmaster turned up.  I probably should have tried chatting straight away to see if the problem was associated with just that particular headmaster or was more general, but I was getting sick of having to clean the house every evening on the offchance he showed up so this time I got my sim to welcome him and then call him to dinner, and there were no problems.

I also discovered that the getting credit for writing a novel thing isn't totally fixed.  SimA completed a novel last night.  SimB answered the phone when it rang to say the novel had sold.  SimA had a want to write a bestselling novel, and that want was fulfilled even though he hadn't been the one to answer the phone.  However, SimB was the one who got the memory.

uhmm this is going to sound real stupid but how do I change the settings?and which file? Im a real novice at this stuff which is why I had so much frustration in the beginning with the patch

No worries, you can do everything within the game. :) When you're playing a house, click on the ... button on the bottom left hand corner and then click on the picture that looks like a monitor (the first one). From there you can turn on and off reflections, shadows, graphics details, etc. Once you've made your changes, click on the "Apply Changes" button. It may take a while for the changes to be made, but a window will pop up asking if you want to keep the changes you've made or not - click "yes". Depending on your system specs, setting everything to high may slow down your game considerably so play around with them and see what works for you. If you don't like any of the changes, you can click the circular arrow in the corner and reset the option to default. Hope that helps!

Thanks  this helps alot

Well now this is interesting...note: I do NOT have Nightlife.

Error messages galore in game now pertaining to the PleasureSeeker and Grilled Cheese Aspirations since installing the patch.

I only have base + Uni.

i.e. "ERROR Production: Want node in tree 0xce11bd96 has an illegal attribute key = PleasureSeeker.
.\source\TSWantTreeManager.cpp(582)
ERROR Production: Want node in tree 0xce11bd96 has an illegal attribute key = GrilledCheese.
.\source\TSWantTreeManager.cpp(582)"

And it keeps repeating, over and over and over...

Something definitely is wrong with the patch.  Of course I don't have PleasureSeeker or Grilled Cheese wants...I don't own NL!

I hear you about error messages galore . I keep getting error messages about Maxis made item that were shipped in the game ie object error TS\Source\Obj Bluephonebooth\duplicate.TS\Audio\error voicenotfound\ and the  list of errors goes on and on I either get that the item is a duplicate or an object error with Architecture or in game items such as fountains and trees. sice the patch I cant change max number of visitors either

Re: max # of visitors...I have that in my userstartup cheat file.  I just put it back in, so will go test it out and see if it works or not for me...

EDIT: Max # of visitors in my userstartup cheat file is working fine for me.

I hope you sort your issue out!


Ivy

There were two versions of the patch.  Are you sure you got the right one?  Because if you got the one for Nightlife and you only have Uni, it's no wonder you're getting Nightlife related errors.

Hook

Like I said Im such a novice I cant create a working user startupcheat or I would probably be Just Fine :-[

Have a look on MTS2 for user startup cheats - or here. Jordi created one he shared on a webpage and I'm pretty sure he had instructions on where to put it. If you haven't found anything in a day or so, PM me & I'll try to help. :)

Hook, I'm positive I installed the right one. 

Twice now actually...lol.

:) :) :)
Ivy

The only things in my userstartup cheat are for the tv volume and the max # of visiting sims.  I'd imagine it'd work in any version of the game.

If you can't get it sorted, PM me with your email addy and I'll email it to you.

:) :) :)
Ivy

Those "errors" are innocuous.  They should be just warnings (and they also shouldn't be shown in shipping versions of the game).

My file: http://members.chello.nl/b.kroonspecker/games/userstartup.cheat

Just place in config. Will be updated now and then whenever I change anything.

As you can see I don't change much, but do have aliases for all cheats I use.

Innocuous or not, they are still nevertheless showing when I don't have NL installed.  They shouldn't even be checking for NL stuff since I don't have NL...it clogs up LOTs of space that should be showing errors in my version only.  They don't just appear once, they appear 50+times when it happens...makes for a LOT of scrolling thru stuff to see what is REALLY an error...

I'll see what I can find out about why this data got put into the University patch.  However, there's probably nothing I can do at this point to make it better for you.

If you uninstall/reinstall Uni, that should at least remove the patch, and you can go back to your hacks until someone at Maxis fixes the patch.

Given how long it took for the first one and how serious the bugs were, I think that's a really bad idea.   Shed loads of error messages are better than real bugs.  Maxis only just put out this patch - they're going to want to wait a decent interval before fixing the patch!  doing that too soon would look really bad!

Climbing on hobby horse - Of course what we really need is an updated patch for the basic game with headmaster bug, plagiarism etc etc fixed.

I guess it depends on how well the patch is working for you.  If you're still getting loads of problems, then maybe you're better off without it.  I've only just installed NL and played for a couple of hours, and so far I haven't found anything going radically wrong, so until I do, I'll hold off with the patch.  I did put the Uni one in before I installed, though, just in case.

Well just make sure your objects.package is set to read only then, otherwise it can get corrupted by things like Mrs. Crumplebottom getting bitten by a vampire, which the patch does fix. The patch runs okay for me, but I'm trying to think if it fixed anything I really cared about and that I had trouble with and couldn't fix without a hack. To be honest, I can't think of anything. *shrug* But I'm kind of anal about having to have the latest updates, patches drivers etc and will gladly used beta stuff too. ;)

Well, I definitely already miss some of Pescado's stuff!  I'm going to have to check and see what can go back in!

But after running it through SimPE, at least the Flamingo of Contentment is working properly with no problems!

Haven't tried going downtown yet, only the community lots, so no Mrs. C. yet - but why so many more townies?  They seem to be just about everywhere and coming home on the school bus in droves!  Dustin's driving to school in a two seater so there's only room for him and the lodger's daughter!  And although I've no problem like LTW's not matching aspirations, they're all different from previous installations!  Which means Don isn't getting Brandi in this version!  Besides, it would be boring to play everything the same as before.

But if you don't think the patch is causing problems, then I might go ahead and put it in.

At least you have a list of what pretty much works and what doesn't. And there's a phonehack in testing the more or less works and does let you turn the ringer off. A lot of us early adopters didn't have that.  :(


I think it should be fine. It fixes among other things some weird bug where Dustin brings Angela home every day heh, or so I hear. I don't play Pleasantview. ;)

After you patch, set the objects.package in the NL subdirectory to read-only again (the patch resets it to writeable) and also make a backup copy and stash it somewhere. The patch modifies it so if it ever gets corrupt and you use the one off the CD it won't be the latest updated patch version with the fixes.

The only thing I noticed with the phonehack, is when sims are 'calling friends' the icon in their queue reads 'manage groups' I think, though I didn't report it as I saw a post someone had already made on it. I use 'call family' and 'call friends' and haven't had a problem yet.

Thanks both of you for the advice, I think I will go ahead with it.  Haven't had the angela problem (which actually began in Sims2 itself) as I motherloded and put the brokes in the big new Townhouse, with a lodger and his daughter down in the basement.  And of course, I've made sure that both he and Brandi are turned on by the same things!  And dustin is hitting it off really well with the daughter, so as long as I don't let Brandi get married until they've left home, it should work out fine!  (But I'll definitely leave that up to them!  I've always found Dustin is pretty good at making up his mind what and who he wants - once Angela is out of his life and he's quit his job, anyway!

I downloaded the phone hack and the ringer set option work very well in nightlife

This is probably teaching your grandmother to suck eggs, but  .........
I guess you're going to back up your 'hoods before you patch just in case...   AND take all the hacks out before you patch.  I think I'd back up before I put any back in as well once I'd had a quick trawl around the 'hood to make sure everything was OK.  You need to plan where you are going to go back to if you hit a problem with a hack or download conflict.  We haven't found all of them yet I'm sure!

I haven't found any need to take the hacks out. *shrug* Someone even claimed taking out their downloads caused them problems when they added them back later though I'm not quite sure why that would be.

Anyhow, I can report that having left them in when I patched caused me no problems before during or after the patch. It's not as big of a deal as an expansion and as far as I can tell no hacks have been broken because of the patch so the only ones I can see the real need to take out are any that have fix something the patch is supposed to fix.

I noticed this as well when I patched Uni.  However, when I installed Nightlife and patched that, the facial animations are fixed.  The difference is quite striking, actually.

Well, when I patched, I hadn't at that stage put anything back in, I took everything in my Sims 2 folder out before I installed NL and I've been playing with a new version of Pleasantview.  When I'm absolutely sure everything is working the way I want it to, I'll put my neighbourhoods back in, but I'm still in the process of restoring all my downloads, though I've found very few problems so far, apart from a few recolours not working, even though I've run everything through simPE first.