More Awesome Than You!

I am planning on getting Pets and OFB at some point in the next week - is there any preparation I should do to prevent bugs, so that my neighborhoods won't be burninated?

I plan to immediately delete all new houses, families, and prefab neighborhoods these expansions introduce because I hate that crap. This is probably not a bad idea, right?

[Note: I am not going to get Seasons. Probably ever.]

Jordi has an empty Pets template over at MTS2 which I use, so you don't get all the strays.  If you then use nostrayrespawn from Pescado, then you won't get an immediate replacement of them all.  Other than that, just check your system specs are up to the job, and patch both games as soon as you install them.

I'm sure other people can come up with some more useful advice.

Back up your downloads and neighborhoods before installation.  After you install but before you load your game, install the files found here to keep Maxis pre-mades out of your game (and make sure you follow the instructions): 
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.0.html
Then reinstall your neighborhoods and update your hacks.

But don't install both SaraMK's and Jordi's empty pets template.

They should do the same thing. Either should be fine.

I think I've actually used both, I just mentioned yours because it just happens to be the one I've got in my game at the moment - and it works beautifully.  As does SaraMK's too.

However, if you want more than one of each NPC and you're using JM's noredundancy mod, you'll need to use other methods to generate the others.

I'm kind of with lowbart here. I've been thinking lately of adding OFB because I recently trashed my long-played neighborhood and have just started again from scratch with SaraMK's templates. I've found play to be a little stale and maybe it's time. (I'm on Mac so I was behind to begin with)

Really stupid questions that nonetheless seem apropos to the thread: This Bluewater Village I hear tell of is another add-on like the Uni and downtown, right? So it comes with people? Townies, playables or both? There was a B001 in those templates. Does that override townies, playables or both (assuming BV adds new townies)? I've had issues in the Uni lots that were occupied in the non-template versions, meaning they refuse to load and I have to force-quit. Are these new playables on lots or in the bin?

I guess your recommendation would be to run a test in a default neighborhood to see what it does before adding my custom neighborhoods and beginning to add hacks back in.

So I guess I'm really interested in hearing more tips as well.

Some of the OFB playables are in lots in Bluewater Village, others are in the bin, and you can move them into anywhere except Uni.  I'd personally suggest you back up all your current elsewhere on your computer, then when you've installed OFB, make a new neighbourhood and play Bluewater Village in that (no empty template) and once you've played for a while you can decide whether you want to keep those sims or not.  If not, then you can just trash that neighbourhood, install the empty template and try out your normal game.  Whatever you then decide, you still have those back-ups and you can go back to those if you want.  Since you can't use SimPE with a Mac (yet) you are limited in what you can do to customise your character files as you would like them, so I think you have to choose between to have and not to have, whereas we PC users can choose the third option of to have some and not others.

Oh, I already suffer from such a bad case of SimPEnvy! Fine, rub it in!

Actually, I believe SimPE can be wrestled into running on Intel macs.

That'll please a lot of Mac-users!

Intel Mac User wants more information, but knows from lurking that from Pescado it will come in haikus or other undecipherable language. Should I just give it a try? Or do I need to download Fightclub to enable the wrestling?

I imagine it involves using Boot Camp (or whatever it's called) and dual booting into a Windows install.

My impression was that did not function properly for Mac native apps like Aspyr's Sims 2 + eps, unless that is L&P.

This is true. I decided to make myself a nice shiny WinMac™ via the Boot Camp software, because I already had numerous Windows-format games that I had spent lots of money on. If you only have Mac-format games, then Boot Camp will do you no good. I think there may be a way to acquire the SimPE files without the extractor, and simply place them in the appropriate directory (I've no idea what that might be). Ask Marhis. I think she runs SimPE on her Mac.

I don't own a Mac, so I don't have any details. However, if you do whatever it is that you do to make your Mac run Windoze things, then you can run SimPE. As the package files are compatible, you would then be able to edit, albeit awkwardly, your files.

Join the QA testers and you can get the pre-release trials and they come without an extractor, you just place them in your Program files.  

Ok, so I have installed OFB. Updated all hacks I considered essential. Two BIG problems:

1) I have a dorm of sims that I've been playtesting and it is now time for their end of sophomore year final. When they come back from their final, the game crashes to desktop. It happens in a vanilla game (I have tested this so many times I'm tearing my hair out!). My temporary fix will be to send them to finals individually because the first one comes back fine, the game crashes to desktop on the third student to return from the final. Sound familiar?

[Edited to add: tried sending one each hour, crashed to desktop (vanilla except for college clock). Now I'll try waiting until one is done before sending the next one. This is just completely broken in OFB. Great going Aspyr]

2) PHONE HACK! OFBp2 phone hack does not work. OFBp-1 does not work. Both crash to desktop when the sims call for transportation to a community lot. I will probably have to stop playing entirely if I don't have this hack. This hack is the most awesome of the awesome. I almost hesitated to write anything because I'm not at home (and don't know when I'll be back), can't hook my computer to the internet and can't test other versions (like NL or Pets)*. There is no patch for mac OFB. It is making me think all those shiny-looking OFB business hacks with p2 and p-1 versions are all going to not work. Are there any mac users who can advise me?

*I've often had problems getting hacks to work on my system, but I'm already seriously considering ditching OFB completely at this point.

Sorry about double posting.

Vanilla game (except college clock, but remember, it crashed too when college clock was gone). One student at a time. Crash to desktop every time. I will return my copy to the store, send a sternly worded message to aspyr (like that'll help, I've dealt with them before), and I am going back to NL only. No more expansion packs. I liked my game how it was.

How stupid is that, that it breaks Uni to add OFB?

Not a mac-user, I'm afraid, but the problem has still a ring of the familiar.  Have you tried this with any other Uni lots?  Have you tried Two Jeffs "Students Move Away From the Portal"?  Have you tried using Crammyboy's Portal Monitor?


I woouldn't give up just yet - we nearly all had problems with OFB!

I haven't tried other lots. I had TJs Kicky Bag fix which features a move away from the portal (uninstalled for latest test), but if he has an independant move-away-from-portal fix, I'm pretty sure he doesn't have it up at his new digs. I did a pretty thorough search for my newly semi-awesome hacks (he's just got things totally reorganized!). Cboy's portal moniter is downlowded, but not installed. I'll try it.

But there's nobody at the portal when it crashes. When I had vanilla game and everyone go to the final at the same time, it would CTD on the third student returning with the "would you like to change [sim's] aspiration] dialog. Now that I'm trying to send one at a time, the first one goes and crashes to desktop with no dialog at all. Unless the problem is *gasp* the college clock!

But I'll give Crammyboy's hack a try. I haven't uninstalled yet. I'm taking care of my mom who is recovering from surgery. I have to go back home to reinstall my old NL hacks (I used her last blank CD to try the OFBP-1 phonehack file). I erased the old NL hacks to avoid confusion *groan*.

Well, I think I would first find out whether this problem occurs on other lots.  If not, it could just be that the dorm is corrupted - I think a lot of EAxis-created dorms do have problems - and if so, you could try moving those students to a new lot and see if that solves the problem.  If it's a general problem, you could try uninstalling and then reinstalling OFB, after moving out your Neighbourhoods folder.

I hope your mom is better soon. :)

Yes, problem occurs on other lots. I had vanilla game + Cboys portal fix+ college clock+2Js kicky bag fix. I moved Alison to a different dorm. Crash to desktop at end of final exam. I moved Alison to a rental property. Crash to desktop at end of final exam.

[Edit: mom is so fine the problem is keeping her in bed! (she had knee surgery)]

After reading your last message, I'll try an empty lot.

[Edit: tried empty lot. Crash to desktop at end of final exam. This is end of sophomore year where you get the dialog, "would you like to change Alison's Aspiration?" Hacks installed: Pescados College clock, Cboy portal fix, Tj Kickybag fix]

BTW Lowbart, whose thread I have hijacked, is absent and I am curious if s/he is on a mac (being behind and all). If not on mac, I issue a sincere apology that I have hijacked your thread. If on mac, let me please know if these problems get fixed with pets.

And Alison went over to the college clock and said "What's this?" and I do believe I shed actual tears because it had been so very very long since any sim had done such a horrid thing in my game.

Well, I don't know what else to suggest, except, as I said, uninstall and reinstall OFB as you may just have a bad install.  I don't think there's been an EP yet where I haven't had to do this the first time I installed (except the two I d/l'd from the Link) and I put it down to the cd or dvd being so shiny and new! ;D

Maybe you should get hold of a laptop for your mum...... ;)

Did you say reinstall before? (I guess I shut that out). I'll try.

Mum has a very shiny iMac G5 that I bought her for Xmas a coupla years ago.  Charter cable is the reason I can't internet from her machine (AOL sucks bigtime, but I at least used to be able to hook up my machine to internet on her account). And I have a MacBook Pro, fully capable of handling all versions of the sims up to and including seasons. [Oh now that I read more carefully, you are assuming a laptop would keep mom in bed...., um, no, a crossword puzzle book, maybe, but a laptop, no...she doesn't quite understand the power of the internet. I forgive her because she's over 70. It's amazing she's figured out e-mail. Dad's worse at 93. Mom prints out all the e-mails and web pages she wants dad to read!]

If lowbart's on mac and pets bypasses any of these problems, I'd love to know. I didn't want to go to pets, but if I have to....

You don't need to uninstall/reinstall everything, just OFB.  Take everything you want to keep out of the game folders - downloads, neighbourhoods etc., as the uninstall will delete everything in MyDocuments/EAGames (or whatever the equivalent location is on a Mac), uninstall OFB, then defragment and generally clean up your hard drive and then reinstall OFB.  After that, you can delete the game folders you don't want and copy back your saves stuff, then load your game and see what happens.

I'll bet there are crossword puzzles out there on the net somewhere.....

Tried the reinstall (everything was already out of the main folder for this process, I was waiting for one week of bug-free play before restoring my old hoods.) No luck. It is that end of sophomore/beginning of junior year dialog that is crashing my game to desktop. All I have in my downloads folder are the aforementioned hacks. Even without those it crashed to desktop. That doesn't let you make error logs, right?

Plus, I know I'm frustrated, but I do want to say a big thank you ZZ.

You could use Two Jeffs College Adjuster and just move them up into Junior Year and see if that solves the crash problem.  And let Aspyria know so if they bring out a patch, there's a chance they'll address the issue as you may well not be alone in having this problem.

Well, since they have released Pets and Seasons and now all these stuff packs, I seriously doubt they would be sympathetic to my OFB problem.  I contacted them about an old base game issue. At the time I wasn't reading any fora such as this lovely place. They were insisting it was MY problem. From perusing lovely forums such as this one, I deduced that my problem was not mine, but the games'. But I guess I will let them know, for the sake of posterity. I figured I'd have more luck going into my local Apple store and shoving the box back in their face ;D

(and I'll try the college adjuster if my patience lasts that long. So far I have seen no reason to keep OFB at ALL. Better to go back to NL. And, lookie there, I just found my NL cd. I don't even have to wait until I get home!)

It may well be that the problem is fixed with Pets, of course.  But try the College Adjuster and see if moving your sims up to Junior and bypassing that exam solves the problem.

Maybe that's my big problem. I keep expecting the game to work as shipped. I keep expecting these hack-type-things to be improvements, not substitutions. If I have to run ever f-ing sim through the college adjuster (I send every f-ing sim to college)!!!!!! GRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!

I'm still thinking going backwards is the way to go forwards.

Well, the adjuster only takes a moment or to to use, and you only need do it as the sims on the lot are about to go for their exam, so you don't actually feel like you're cheating.  You know they've filled the bar (or haven't) so you just move them up to what they would be if they had taken the exam.  Of course, if they have the want to complete that year, they won't fill it, but if they have the want to make the dean's list, you can lock that until the next exam.  And, as I said, installing Pets may solve the problem.

Yeah, I've used the adjuster in the past, but I just have to wait until I stop taking care of my real-life elders and go home to install anything else on the computer. As of this moment, all I have is the OFB directors cut (that I believe is all P2--I still have these OFB p-1, p2 problems, but I really haven't played much of the businesses at this stage) and most of CB and 2J's stuff (except the College adjuster because it conflicts with Pescados clock). "Cheating" is not the issue, if this is the way it works from now on, then so it goes, but...

I know you have already addressed this, ZZ, but dagnabbit, these things should work in a vanilla game. Stupid aspyr. And there are no patches for this thing! Fie! I say Fie on you!

I totally agree with you - a vanilla install should work!  Sims1 had very few problems in comparison, and those they had were minor, most problems then were caused by custom content, not by the game itself!

I think the problems started because when EA took over, they were more interested in profit now than the reputation of the product!  So the staff at Maxis were under constant pressure to hurry up and get the next EP out, when most of us would have preferred a few weeks delay and a thoroughly tested product!

I dread to think how many problems there will be with Sims3!

I have both the college adjuster and the college clock in my game - the HCDU shows no conflicts, and since they are both lot specific objects, you just pick one of them for your lot.

Well that's good to know if I don't decide to go backwards. I feel like the installation of this EP has frakked up my game and was a mistake (as you have surely already guessed and I believe I have already said so). I see other people reading this topic, does no one have anything to add?

I think they have a Mac section at TSR's forum, so it might be worth nipping over and having a look to see if there's been any discussion about the problem there.

No discussion of the problem there. Various other problems. Tried all the solutions I could.

1) made games folder on hard drive to hold the sims2

2) repaired all disc permissions using utility program (none of the problem files involved the Sims anyway)

3) deleted all preference files relating to the sims (oh! the painful things that did to my graphics! it burns!)

4) deleted groups.cache (something I do periodically anyway)

I am truly an island. No one has ever had the problems I have been having. I guess I'll try Aspyr. From what I've experienced and from what I've read at TSR, they will not be helpful. At least this time I have a computer that can more than handle the game.

But I'm pretty convinced un-installing and demanding my money back is the best solution.

It would seem so, although it seems a pity, there are some good things come with OFB, but if you can't play your game the way you want, then I guess there's no alternative. 

Just one thought, have you tried playing it in an ordinary neighbourhood.  If the problem is just Uni, then I think there is a way you could run a Uni/NL installation and an NL/OFB installation on the same computer and I've a feeling there's a tutorial on how to do it over at MTS2.

Well the whole story is that I was happily zooming along with just NL, when I downloaded something that completely borked my game and I, in a fit of frustration, deleted my entire main neighborhood and everything I couldn't identify in my downloads folder. I couldn't figure out what the problem file was, because I was on a downloading rampage that day and we on mac don't have simPE (I resolve not to do that again, but NL on mac doesn't allow subfolders in the dl folder). So I tried starting from scratch. This lead to a problem Pescado was able to fix with one suggestion (sshack). But then Mom called and asked if I'd be able to come over and stay while she was recovering from surgery and it turned out I could.

So, I decided, maybe now is the time to upgrade to OFB, seeing as I'll have a couple of days off to fool around with things. I downloaded the OFB Directors cut and made sure I had the most up-to-date (OFB-wise) versions of Crammyboy and 2J's hacks as well as Ste's Risky Woohoo from MS2 before I left my house. Stopped by the Apple store on my way there and picked up OFB. I haven't played the new neighborhood long enough to be TOO attached. I feel like I've been testing the last couple of days. And it obviously hasn't gone well. Well, it was going just fine (with the exception of the phone hack) until I hit the soph/jun year threshold for the pioneers founding my new neighborhood. I didn't put in the whole DC, just the ones I had been using before.

But, as I said, I took everything out and tested vanilla and the game crashed. Stupid game.

[ETA: And I did register and start a new thread over at TSR to see if other people have had this. I'll update if there's any word]

Good for you - I can't see if it's a problem with OFB itself that you'll be the only one with the problem.  According to JM, it's possible to "persuade" SimPE to work on a Mac, so maybe someone soon will be releasing a Mac version, provided of course that Quaxi and his team are in agreement.  Next time you install a new EP , move your game folders out and let the game generate a new set, then play vanilla in the new set until your happy with how the game plays for you, then you can copy back your original game.  If you want to keep the new version too, and it's another version of PV or something like that, then there are programs around which will rename all your neighbourhood files for you, then you can keep them both.

Turns out one of my students was bugged. I kept testing her on other lots, but never went back to the original dorm. They had no trouble coming back from their final. I got her through to junior year with the lot debugger, but had my suspicions. I graduated her with the semester tester and she crashed to desktop when I tried to move her back to the main 'hood. I forsee an unfortunate demise for Ms. Alison. Tragic, really. ;) David will be so devastated.

Now if I can only decide which kind of misfortune will befall her!

Oh, and I did let the game generate a new set of files when I installed OFB. I'm so sick of the premade neighborhoods, I went ahead and made a clean new neighborhood to do my testing in. I wonder how Alison ended up so corrupted?

I would say she has a host of invisible tokens that need to be got rid of.  The latest version of the debugger has a "Clear Trash" option, which will get rid of a lot of these, but in your version you should have, I think, the "nuke attraction markers" option plus the option to clean up the memories.  I think it quite possible that, since you can't use SimPE to check your sims memories, that she is going to be the first of many.  Now, once you have Seasons, you should be able to clean up all these tokens with the debugger, so why not just hold off playing this particular hood until then, and play the new hood until then.  You could also use the teleporterplus from Simlogical to move her to a populated lot, use the move in option on the shrub so she becomes selectable, and use the debugger to clean up her memories.  You can then either leave her where she is or move her out into her own lot.  (This way, the family you move her in with temporarily will not gain financially from her temporary residence.)

This IS the new hood. I'll try clearing all that junk before I kill her and just wait and see if the rest of them get corrupted too. Yeah, I have clear trash, clear gossip and nuke attraction markers. If she's going to be a huge problem, I'd rather just eliminate her.

Maybe I'll test the old hood. I think I had a sim who was just about to go to college and one who was graduating soon.

Didn't realise the clear trash option had been added to earlier versions of the debugger - useful to know.  But you could still wait until her friend graduates, move him into the neighbourhood, then move her in with the teleporter plus - you never know, she may be fine then.

I remember having similar problems with a long ago Beau Broke, when he came back from Uni I had awful problems getting him back to the bin in PV.  When I checked him in SimPE, he had memories of having met himself, he had in fact become best friends with himself, and his file was double the size it should have been.  Once I was able to clean up the memories etc., he was playable again, though his file never got any smaller....so I'm pretty sure he was in it twice!

Make a poll!  ;D

Don't forget the Smite option.  :P

Unfortunately the poor dear has already died due to a mysterious disease. Then Grimmy went straight for the potty, reminding me to add antipeeobsession to the hacks folder.

Maybe you could try resurrecting her and see if she's still fubared - you can always exit without saving if she is.

I considered that. I've only ever resurrected one sim, Dina Goth. She married Angela and Dustin's son and I wanted to remarry him, he was still quite young when she died. After he inherited, I moved him to a bigger house and somehow Dina's grave moved with him. He couldn't get engaged to his new intended, so I resurrected Dina and immediately sent her to the cowplant and then he had no trouble marrying Sally Huffington.

If I resurrect her, do I have to do it while they are still at college? If David resurrects her as an adult in the main hood, will she become an adult? She already graduated, she just had her last hurrah days left (does anyone actually use those things?)

I don't know whether you can do it in OFB, you may have to wait until you install Pets - I know I could never resurrect any of the Pleasantview sims when OFB came out, I believe there was a problem with the resurrect-o-mitron or something, but as soon as I installed Pets my sims stopped getting the phone slammed down by Grimmie with the dire warnings.

I think if you resurrect her in the neighbourhood, she'll resurrect as an adult, but I'm not sure, however, if you did in fact try to send her back to the hood, she may have aged up already.  You can but try!

I remember when the youngest Broke (Keanu) was a romance sim in my game, (I always make him romance if he's born a nasty Leo) I kept him at college for the maximum time so he could add a few notches to his non-existent ykw.