More Awesome Than You!

The BV patch is now available (http://thesims2.ea.com/update/)  The list of changes is not very long:

"Note: Not all fixes will take effect on existing The Sims 2 Bon Voyage saved games. If you have an existing lot, Sim, object or neighborhood that does not seem to be improved by this patch, we recommend that you replace the affected object, or create either a new family, lot or neighborhood, depending on what is affected by the bug.

Sims will no longer have the option to call vacation service NPCs after acquiring the business perk "Head for Numbers" which was causing a crash.
Sims will no longer have the option to "Call Taxi" using their cell phones if they have driven to the community lot with an own-able vehicle which was causing a crash.
If the Sim misses the shuttle, it will no longer return to a vacation lot without the Sim at the end of the vacation. Sometimes, this caused the vacation lot to become unusable.
Game will no longer create new vacation NPCs each time a lot is visited which was causing many issues due to character file overload. Any existing extra NPCs will be unlinked and their character files greatly reduced in size.
Periodic Events Controller will no longer loop twice per hour through each neighbor which was causing extreme lag on certain machines.
Autonomous water-balloon and snowball fights have been tuned so the interaction will occur less frequently"

Personally, I think I'll wait to install this until others have had a chance to check it out.

Karen

Pescado! Is anyone of those fixes going to fix my Permanate Sunburn issue that you thought was secretly going to be fixed in the next patch?


Hell no am I installing this until somebody awesome confirms its not a crock of shit.
Furthermore, can someone point me in the right direction of instructions on how to patch while running a no-cd crack? I'm very new to all of this...

Well, since I had this happen just last night... GRRR. So I'll give it a shot. After I back up a little more.

What kills me is this part


So delete the family, since we can't fix it, and we can't fix the problem, so we've just disabled the trigger?  ::) WTG there Eaxis!

Thanks karen, not installing for the moment though. Like you, I am slightly wary of the stupid patches.



What the heck is that? ???

No mention of fixing the CAS jewelry or platinum pets...stupid EAxis.

They did say they'd be bringing out more than one patch...

Which for EA is a great idea.  Because then they can fuck up all the good work they did in the first patch with a borked second patch.

Like OFB.  Good times.

I have no idea why I still play this game :(

Anybody care to translate that into English?  What kind of "vacation service NPCs" can be called on the phone anyway?  Has anybody actually seen a crash like this?


And of course they'll advise deleting the problem family *in-game*, leaving all kinds of garbage behind....

Karen

Well,if you're on a vacation home lot, you can hire the same service NPC's.

Or.. maybe it's what's caused the weird room service bugs?

But no, I haven't seen any crashes like that. Of course,I haven't run a business in ages, either.

I'm going to back up my game and wait a bit on more comments. 

The big question is:  Would it hurt anything to keep the antiredundancy mod in place?  Mr. Pescado?

I've just backed up my folder, removed anitredundancy, counted my character files, and have fired up the game. Of course, I forgot to remove my hacks before patching (duh!) so I might need to reinstall if something goes haywire, before blaming the patch.  ::)

Stupid EAxis can't even spell. In the site news box this jumped out at me:


Spot the dumb mistake? This doesn't inspire confidence in their competency to fix my game..... :P

Antiredundancy will not be affected, as it covers other issues. Bigger sources of concern may involve this "unlinking" business, which sounds like a halfassed job that doesn't really clean up the mess and possibly makes a bigger mess if one didn't previously exist.

I think I'd rather trust Pescado's antiredundancy than a hack that promises to leave unlinked character files strewn about all over the place.

Antiredundancy was being used before BV, so I'm sure it will be safe to leave it there.  I certainly am!

Death to all Nesses.

Anything coming from the people who gave us SecuROM is suspect.  Plus, the Pets patches fiasco still too fresh in my memory to even bother with more "fixes" from EAxis.   I'll stick with Pescado's awesomeness, thank you.

Worth noting is that the patch will almost certainly break your noCD executables to some degree. Also, if someone has an objects.package to hackdiff, that would let us see the real list of changes.

Eh and now people are complaing that the patch is mucking things up for them,getting errors now and some people saying thier game is even more messed up than before.
I remember the whole Seasons Patch fiasco ahh good times good times lol
I don't think Eaxis will ever get thier crap straight.
Go take a peek at the BV thread too funny.

Yeah. Seasons + OFB. And, sort of, Pets. They haven't patched a game well since....
*draws blank*

I'd love a fix to the periodic events thing-a-ma-jig, but for the rest.....do not want.

 ??? So far, no problems for me, even with forgetting to remove my hacks before installation.  And I run with testing cheats on, so I'd see errors.  What kind of things are being reported?

This means that the Ninja, Tour Guides, and Charlatans could be called on the telephone, pre-patch, if your OFB sim had the Head for Numbers perk.  One of my sims did have this perk and I could see about 14 charlatans, 15 ninja, etc that I could call.  I never called them  though as I knew they were not real NPC's and thus could not be interacted with normally as a townie could be.  But apparently games crashed if you decided to go ahead and call one of these "vacation service NPC's".

Somebody knows which probable bugs that it came with patch? :-\

KatEnigma: Nothing of interest yet.  Apprently some people were having errors while either installing / downloading the patch.

Eletro DJ: What? Speaka da english.  Just out of interest is your name meant to be "Electro DJ"?

According to his profile, our friend is from Brazil.  According to Babelfish, "eletro" in Portuguese translates to "electro" in English.

Ahh my mistake.
I apologise.

Hmmm.... unless I've gone blind, the patch seems to have gone missing from the downloads page.  ::)

I think I'm going to sit this patch out for a bit. No need to screw up the game anymore  ;) I'm still trying to deal with this SecuROM garbage.

I received the notice that patch of the BV is causing some errors. I asked if somebody has knowledge of them.



PS. "EDJ" is as my friends call me.
Sorry for my poor english.

And now it's back. But I took the screenshot to prove I wasn't nuts when it went missing. LOL

EDJ - No I was rude, sorry.  I think there are error messages saying the game cannot load, please reinstall.  This has only been reported by a few people.

Thanks, Tigerlilley. ;)

I'm definitely going to pass on this one. I haven't had the misfortune of suffering from any of these bugs yet, and I've got a no-CD crack keeping SecuROM at bay.

No thank you mister patch.

Not unless it's blinking in and out, t's still there last I check, which was 1 second before attempting this post.

It is blinking in and out and it has been doing that since they uploaded. I had to clear my cache a few times to make it appear again on the page.

When I'd noted it, I didn't even have a cache to clear. I'd switched to another user account for something, one that had never had a browser launched, ever, yet. I think they are messing with something.

Correcting the spelling mistakes?  I think they got one, but they've still missed another.

The same thing just happened to me but I refresh the page and it appeared.  The site is probably overfload with request to download the patch.

ETA:  And considering the launcher will probably make a notice to all player a patch is out when they start their game, there are probably a lot of people trying to download it at the same time.

I think i'm going to wait a few days to see what they broke with the patch.  My game is working fine as it is, i got less chance of it exploding if i don't patch it.

There's a link to download the new patch on the launcher, yes.

Well the ones that are left probably think that it's going to solve their SecuRom issues. That seemed to be the general mind set of some of them, that EA was going to "Patch" Securom. Turns out that most of them can't even get it installed. Wouldn't it be hilarious if it turns out the SecuRom is causing that to?

Eesh, thank goodness I didn't choose to download the patch right away. I'm sticking with antiredundancy until it's rendered obsolete.

I saw a post on the BBS with someone asking how they install the patch, and does it matter where they download it too  :o

Dumb dumb dumb dumb. Yeah.

I patched, then promptly put my no-CD crack back in. Seems to be running fine, but it hasn't decreased the lag that I get on my business beach lot. I didn't expect it to be gone...it is a 3x5, beach, level 10 business, fairly small home. But it's at the level where it's annoying. I get none of that on the level 10 retail business with four employees, or on my other residentials (one of which is another beach lot).

Yes, I know someone already pointed it out, but as they say, screenshots or it didn't happen.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v224/Atom_Bunny/downlaod.jpg)

Hardly instils confidence, does it? I'm sitting this one out for now to see how it messes up other people's games first.

That's ALL they fixed? There's many more glitches they'll have to fix. I'm sitting this one out for a little bit.

And they should have just quickly released an anti-tour guide creation patch like a day after they realized it was a problem.

Pescado basically did it, why not the developers of the game?

Nope, still RTPatch according to Resource Hacker.

THE OFFICIAL RECOMMENDATION IS NOT TO INSTALL THE PATCH DUE TO MORE SECUROM SPYWARE!
This patch offers practically nothing of value except MORE SPYWARE. AVOID!

Game will no longer create new vacation NPCs each time a lot is visited which was causing many issues due to character file overload. Any existing extra NPCs will be unlinked and their character files greatly reduced in size.

How great the patch produces tons of unlinked Character Data Files how nice of EAxis. I think this if of value.

Other than that the Tour Guides will actually get HARDER to Deleted 2 that way, yeah.

Just why takes it so long for 6 thing to get ...well... fixed (or at least they claim it's fixed)? Did they forgot how they made it?
I'm not planning to install that patch for:
1) my hacks are fixing the bugs perfectly.
2) They can't even write the word 'download' (see screenshot by Atom_Bunny) and then they are supposed to be able to write complete code (without 'spelling'-mistakes) to fix the bugs? Why do I not believe that?

Indeed, and screw their usual bullshit about proper testing blah blah. If they just have to take months to patch after each EP's initial release, at least they should have decency to get it done right, not to break it MOAR.

Unlike other games, new NoCDs for patched Sims EPs don't seem to get released. I couldn't find NoCD for patched Pets and Seasons. Perhaps the Sceners don't feel the need to bother with the .exe which will surely be superceded by new EP after half a year anyway. I don't feel it's worth to inflict Securom spyware on my machine for handful of changes, and I won't install the next patch if I can't find updated NoCD either.

Part of the reason the "scene" doesn't notice Sims patches is because EAxis does nothing to make them apparent. Other games have patches with clear version numbers on them. The Sims doesn't. There's ONE patch, older patches are not available, and the information that the patch even exists is never publicized.

Which is perhaps the main reason for the patch, a way to re-force SecuROM on players who managed to get rid of it. Those half-assed attempts to "fix" a few issues are just camouflage IMHO.

Yeah, you gotta be amazed at the amount of effort involved in creating or changing a whopping 9 functions.

I guess they are too busy working on their next screw up :-\

I find this explanation simultaneously oddly compelling and utterly believable.

I've never seen such a dumb way of releasing patch in any other game. Other than the URL where the patch is located (like /ep6/1.10.0.122/ in BV) on their server, there is no clue whatsoever to version or build number in the official homepage. WTF, do they think such an information will scare the sheep away? I immediately change the filename to include the version and build number after download, in case I need to go back to previous patch.

So, I'm to pull the patch?  Hubby isn't too worried about SecuROM etc as I have empty files for that. I hope he knows what he's talking about.

I'm still rather irritated that the "stuttering music" and lot lag are still present. 

I believe that antiredundancy has broader implications than the "fix" in the patch, if I understand JM's posts in this thread.  Leave it in for now, even if you ultimately patch.  You will note that the patch is "officially not recommended" now by JM.

Having never had OFB loaded, the patch does nothing for me.  My game was not lagging much anyway, so I can live without EAxis attempts to fix that.  Turning useless tour guides into a bunch of unlinked tour guides sounded like a VBT.  I enjoyed the advice that if this patch does not fix things, I should trash my hood and start over.  Very amusing. 

Perhaps a patch that actually patches things would be an idea (and in keeping with the actual definition of the word), rather than a patch that simply shows off where the holes are (which I believe is called "a big yellow circle").

Well, I'm going to pull it. Reinstall BV and all that. I'm running a hybrid right now (patched but using the crack still) and noticed no lessening in the (albeit slight) lag I have. The Head for Numbers issue doesn't bug me as I never use that perk. I'm also not a dumb idiot who would try calling up a local chef. And the shrinking of the NPC character files actually makes me nervous and almost made me not patch in the first place.

Much as I despise SecuROM, I don't think you need to pull out the patch. It may be mostly useless, but I see it as mostly harmless. If you already removed SecuROM before, I doubt you'll have trouble removing it again.

What a waste. Why do they keep doing shit like this over there? Are they deliberately trying to tank the Maxis division? By the looks of the BBS the hysteria about the patch is going to start soon  ::)

Oddly enough, it sure looks that way, doesn't it. They can't be that arrogant, can they?

/me sternly admonishes herself re arrogance and points the LK fiasco out as a reminder

No patch for me. I only had to get as far as 'unlinked' and that did it. I don't trust them with fixing simple annoyances, let alone critical game issues.

Sure they can, they have done it before. Anyone remembers Origin Systems and the Ultima series?

Well I uninstalled BV and H&M this last weekend and my game has been running fine ever since. Until they address the Nvidia issue, I don't see reinstalling BV or H&M. Something is definitely screwy with either the stuff pack or the EP and I don't see that they have a"fix" in their patch list about Nvidia. You know, the card that is on their spec list. ::)

Well Kelly, that is clearly a user error. It must be your card/your hacks/your game play, because Eaxis would never make any mistake like this.

We strongly recommend that you uninstall - reinstall, in perpetuity.

Signed

Eaxis Technical Support


P.S.
We are currently investigating those issues that are clearly caused by user error. A patch will be availble for doanload shortly. Just don't hold your breath. Eaxis cannot be made liable for any user-death caused by breath holding, even if Eaxis knew about that beforehand.

It seems that their spec list is a joke period.  :-\

Too true, Lovesims. It is unfortunately an inside joke, because I don't see a whole lot of customers laughing.

Spelling check:  I think the correct spelling for this is daonload.

This fix appears to be like trying to repair a collapsing bookshelf by 1) suggesting that one replace the books, 2) ripping pages out of some of the books, and 3) installing a bigger lock on the door (because the old one was too small and was not damaging enough of the books or the shelf itself, and finally 4) suggesting that most of the problems were the fault of the customer because they bought the thing and are therefore responsible.

Hah. Thank you Jolrei, I stand corrected. Although it can't be my fault, it is most likely your eyes that are to blame. May I suggest an uninstall -reinstall.

Your bookshelf analogy sounds about right. I'm hearing bad things about the patch already from quite a few other forums. Just like the OfB and Seasons patch. It appears to have made some people's game run faster, but most can see no difference at all. The 'unlinked' thing and its aftermath is yet to be seen. I guess it is one of those issues that show up quite some time after install.

Déjà vu all over again (Yogi Berra, 1950something)

It's the unlinking and reducing of the character files that worries me most, actually. I took a hell of a lot of time to fix the sixty extra character files and attached crap that they put in by borking the spawn mechanism in the first place. I really don't trust them to have fixed it. Really. I almost didn't patch just because of that, but I backed up beforehand and decided that I'd take the chance. That plus the slight risk from running a frankenmesh of .exe and game files equals take it out. I really should be like ya'll and just forgo the patch and use Pescado's fixes exclusively. They work better than the patches, anyways. The coat mess with the Seasons patch, for example.

I didn't get SecuRom back, because I replaced with the no-CD before I played.

Yes, well, I don't trust the patches for that either.  I know a good modder (opthalmologist) who has provided a hack (glasses).  I'll wait for an update on that instead I think. :D

Is there a way to remove the patch once it's installed? I just installed it, but now I'm having second thoughts. Is it too late now? I haven't even played since installing the patch. Actually, I don't want to play period since I still have SecuROM since I can't follow those complicated instructions to get rid of it. Instead I've been spending my time playing my DS or PS2. Until there's a fix for the choppy music/sound effects, freezing and the sims returning to the vacation lot over and over again, my game won't be getting played.

I think the process is to uninstall BV and reinstall.  This may also have the effect of requiring reinstall of the game itself and other EPs (if I understand this correctly).  Make sure you have backups of your 'hoods, downloads, etc.

Dizzy just posted a new file that fixes most of what the patch does.

And the need for that expresses exactly how pathetic this entire situation is.

I like Dizzy. Dizzy needs his* own section.


*I'm assuming maleness. If the assumption is wrong, feel free to poke. I'm hopped up on pumpkin latte, so I won't notice it much.

I know, I know. It's just like fighting with my ex-husband, it's all my own fault. ;)

Well, there you see. Uninstalling clearly worked. Just take your time with the reinstall, and may we recommend a completely different game.

Do your research ahead of time.  Don't get one that installs all kinds of crap that messes with your drives or spies on all your other programs.

Are we pushing this metaphor too far? :P

Personally, if it weren't for the critical NON-game-specific issues spewing forth from this mess.... I'd say this is all quite amusing, really.

And extended metaphor is one of my favorite techniques in writing... keep it going!

I did?  ???

If I uninstall/reinstall my game, won't it automatically reinstall the patch anyway? Because after each EP and SP is installed, it does the whole "checking to make sure your game is up to date" thing. Isn't that installing the patches?

The sad part is that I found that even with years of research before installing, the actual program experience ended up being disappointing, frustrating and insanity inducing. After two different installations, I will not reinstall again.

That is so weird, I wonder if I dreamt it. In the thread this fix was posted, I said it was great and the poster after me said something like, 'and this one isn't 15MB to download either'. The OP - who I thought was Dizzy - said it was a file which fixed most of what the EAxis patch did. If the patch isn't 15MB then it must have been a really vivid dream. Plus, there's no new hack in my Dizzy folder. Spooky.

I don't trust it.
I've removed the securom folders and the registry entry, and added the no-cd hack
I installed  the patch then re added the no-cd patch.

Then on this site (from phyllisp) I heard about a securom file that I missed "Here's something I noticed.  When one hovers the mouse over the CmdLineExt.dll in c:\Windows\system32 folder, it says "Description: SecuROM context menu for Explorer. Company: Sony DADC Austria AG." and the version etc.  Maybe instead of outsourcing, they got that part from the Austrian branch?"

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9924.msg271245.html#msg271245


So I went and found the CmdLineExt.dll file, and noticed that the last time it was modified was today.  I downloaded and installed the patch today.  humm.  I thought of that as I read this post.

I have deleted that file (the CmdLineExt.dll file that is, I don't know about deleting the patch without reinstalling).
But I have told my firewall to deny thesims2 access to the web.

Heh.  No, I saw a file posted by Dizzy, but I didn't know what it was, there was not much of a explanation.

Well, you are obviously more trusting than a number of us here who have not installed the patch at all.  You need to read previous posts in this thread re: installing the patch and then running the no-cd crack.  Unless your no-cd download is for this patch, you may or may not end up with a BFBVFS due to the Unholy Hybrid of BV versions.  All the best.


@veilchen - I'm not sure whether we are being dissed here or not.  In case we are:
Azrael: Our pointy sticks - have we shown you them?  If you want to be amused, please do so without the backhanded commentary.  "Spewing", sheesh!
If, on the other hand, I have overreacted, which is possible on the amount of sleep I seem to be getting these days, please carry on as normal.


You can uninstall and then reinstall anything you have to (Base and all EPs with their patches up to BV).  Your original BV version does not know about the patch and believes strongly that it is already up to date. Considering everything, it's probably right.  You can reinstall that too.  Just don't reinstall the BV patch and you should be back to whatever normal is for your game.  Do remember to back up your hoods, downloads, etc. before you start this, or you will likely lose them.

Nah.. no dissing, here, although I apologize for coming off that way...

Perhaps I should have been more specific - what I find amusing is the irony of the (Third-party) patches being needed to fix the patch by Eaxis needed to fix the game that they STILL can't seem to design properly in the first place.. if you forget you're trapped inside this maddening circus sideshow and step back, the whole thing becomes just that - a circus sideshow, save the madness.

  Actually, it had just occurred to me that my post may have been taken offensively after reading Abbriella's post, and the ensuing flame (and so eloquently!)...

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9559.msg271283.html#msg271283 (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9559.msg271283.html#msg271283)

How ignorant...

..and to clarify, I myself really am not laughing.. (well, perhaps in a sardonic tone..) This obviously is no laughing matter, and I myself am a bit peeved, though I've suffered no ill effects from SecuRom yet...

There ya go. I shall put away my pointy stick, red alert canceled.

I'm a bit late, but I've been all over the place yet again to find out if there really is no...ah.... 3rd party patched game fix. Captain Kidd and assorted mates couldn't be that negligent, I thought - after all its the pride of the guild that's at stake here.

I haven't found anything specific yet, but there are some games that can be... well, acquired after patches from the game company. Now I'm going to bed, no need for everyone having to go without adequate sleep (sorry for the jab, Jolrei, I forgot I was still holding the pointy stick :D). However, I shall keep on hunting. The internet is a large place, really it is, and I've actually been having fun on my hunt. I just wish I wouldn't get side-tracked so much.

Ah, my bad... I meant, more or less, the NEED for a third-party patch for THEIR patch..

Silly me.  :)

Keep doing your thing, e-Artemis... (Or do you prefer iDiana?)  ;)  You do it well, from what I can tell.

Will pass.  In fact I forget the last time I even used a EAxis patch at all and my game has been fine & dandy with just my hacks.

I think they mean that those extra unneeded NPCs created before the patch anti-redundancy was installed will be unlinked.  There won't be any additional extras because the patch anti-redundancy has been installed, so there won't be any unlinkage spam.

I don't know why they bother releasing a 15 MB patch to fix nothing.  Most of the actual file is probably installer :P

This is more of a problem for those of us who only had 5 or 6 tour guides spawned before the antiredundancy update, and who never bothered to "Deleted 2" them.  In my game, for example, 4-6 additional character files are not a problem, whether they get used or not.  However, if I put the patch in and they then become unlinked, this would be a problem.  Hence, no patch for me so far.

@ athinamj:  if your game is working reasonably well with awesome hacks installed, you may well wish to avoid the patch for the moment.  JM has listed it as "not recommended".

10 tour guides and 5 charlatans here. The patch doesn't come anywhere near my game until I've had a crack at them with Deleted 2 first.

Also, it's been kind of restful watching the game load up without stuttering lag from the point I hit the neighbourhood chooser screen until after the neighbourhood finishes loading, and I don't miss my DVD player doing aircraft engine impersonations either. The no-cd crack seems much less intent on wearing out my PC's moving parts.

Yeah, I should have went with my first instinct and come here first.  But then I reasoned.  A patch fixes problems right.
Next time I'll be coming here first.

I had to re remove securom because of that patch.  I hope the no-cd crack + patch = unholy hybrid doesn't create that dreaded BFBVFS :-\

I haven't patched yet. I have had antiredundancy in since I've started playing with my real hoods, so I should have only one tour guide and one unsavory, IIRC. I am unusually anal about keeping my character files low and I am not thrilled about the idea of even two unlinked character files per hood. Of course if I decide to bother with the patch I can deleted 2 them before putting the patch in, but what a pain in the ass.

Most of the other stuff is already handled by FFS hacks but one issue remains. I've heard a lot of stories lately about the shuttle coming back after dropping the sims off at the end of the vacation and bringing you back to an empty hotel lot which I believe can result in both the hotel lot and the residential lot getting FUBARed. This hasn't happened to me, but I'm not eager to experience it. The patch claims to fix this, but Pes has put the patch on the not recommended list. So, will there be a comparable FFS release or will I just have to cross my fingers when I send families on vacation?

I patched, I started to see the first evidence of a memory leak since installing, so I unpatched. (Okay, did the uninstall/reinstall Roomba) No more patching for me until they take the time to fix the memory leak and maybe get rid of the perma-sunburn.

I've been following up this situation and I must say:

EAxis that was very unsmart move

I mean BBS is crazy right now but of course there's the kidos that kiss EAxis boots or ass and in other words say that you can trust EAxis.
But most haven't read that people who installed the patchie are having BSOD due to their graphic cards ( Nvidia ) and there's also more problems.

I haven't willingly installed an EA patch since Pets. And I just don't understand why people keep doing so. It's simple. Pescado and others work and we finally get our games semi-stable, then the patch comes along and all of a sudden there's new things broken and none of the third party fixes we already had continue to work. If we'd all just agree not to install EA patches modders would have a standard edition to work on for a longer amount of time and our games would all be so much more stable.

Pescado 'good', EA patches 'bad'
     (Baaa'd to the 'tune' of Four Legs good, Two Legs bad)

I'm going back and forth on installing this.  I know the official word from El Presidente is to not install this, and I really dislike the idea of getting the SecuROM shit back on my machine. But I'm really getting tired of the for-no-apparent-reason lags. I played for about 2 hours last night, and only in dorms (no one went on vacation), and I remember at least 8 times the game would just pause for a couple of minutes for no apparent reason. Nothing but the disk spinning -- the mouse, screen, and sometimes even music was frozen solid.

My PC is 2 years old, but no slouch -- 2.8Ghz processor, 2Gb RAM, ATI/VisionTek X1300 512Mb video card. The only time I ever saw lags like this pre-BV is when the game was rebuilding a catalog.  I may bite the bullet just to get rid of the lag, and hope that some expert out there puts out a patched version of the no-cd .exe.

 :-\ I didn't try it on a new hood, so that MIGHT have been the problem, but my lag got worse post-patch, not better.

Removing SecuRom and going with the hacked exe when I reinstalled BV to get rid of the patch? That made it faster.

<sigh>  Well, that's how I play it now (hacked exe), so I guess I'll wait after all. I'll just keep a book or magazine handy when I'm playing so I have something to do while it lags away....

For what its worth.

I do not use a no.cd patch so I did not care at all about the secuROM thingy and it does not even seems to be install on my computer after searching in all folder including hidden ones.

Anyhow, I install the patch and in my case, it runs better.  It is still freezing a bit upon starting it, when I choose the hood I wish to play, when I load my first lot but after that it is better.

I did not send a sim yet to vacation but will this evening and report again as if it is better or worst.  So far on residential lots, it is better.  I have yet to see one balloon fight or snowball fight, had none since I install the patch.

I'd love to see a patch made Pescado and then all the bbs noobs and Eaxis would come bow to him and shout : O great master of fixes xD

I trust more a person than a whole team

Fishing issue has definitely not been address yet.

My sims were still trying to fish threw the floors on the Jades Exclusive and Flaming Dragon Hotel which have ponds under the hotel construction.  This is making the game lag a lot and sims whining too with the typical "I cannot fish here so I will try to find another spot in hope there is one I can actually use,  but this lot is made by Eaxis so I should give up but I am a stupid sim so I will try over and over again" thought bubble. 

I totally removed those ponds until Pescado new shinny is out.

I put the season to summer to see if at least they did fix the balloon fighting obsession.

The Shiny is presently in the Undiscovered collection. Ask Fat Gwilly People.

Oh I am officially right now.  Please Gwill ask for this very necessary new shiny to be released so I have a bit of sanity left when I play.  :P

I say Pescado should just go work for EAxis so the dang thing works right the first time.

Then he would have to deal with all the EA bullshit and subordinates or superiors who would keep tripping him up. I could just imagine him straightening out the code, leaving someone to their work and come back to find it in another knot. Bleh, it would probably just be easier for him to be presented with the end mess and begin unraveling it from there, instead of having to do it over and over for stupid people and horrible coding programs.

You mean you didn't? - aw man.

Make sure you haven't made any of the main files like objects.package read-only. Pay close attention to the messages you get before it fails -- they usually point to the file it has a problem with.

I do not seem to have anything bad to say about the patch.

No more balloon fight obsession.  Less lag.  The maid is finally cleaning up plates in all the hotel rooms.  The tour guide and charlatan spawn is fix.

In geneal, I am happy about it.  I wished it would fix more things but hey, it is not a bad start.

But I am wondering if I am the only one that want Pescado new shinny to be out as soon as possible so the Witch hut lot which have a fishing pond will be fix.

Gwill, we need this new shinny to be release!

As a complete novice, or idiot (not quite sure which!!) can you tell me how to uninstall the patch, as unfortunately I installed it before I read this post and now the lag on any of the vacation lots is virtually unplayable. Its only in those lots though and not in the rest of the game! Any advice would be greatly appreciated  :(

The only way to uninstall a patch is to re-install the game.

Thanks jsalemi. The whole game or just BV?? If its just BV do i do that in 'Add/Remove programmes'? I did warn you I'm a novice/idiot!!  :)

BV is the only thing you need to reinstall, after you de-Screw-U-ROM, but you must also hide your EAGAME~1/THESIM~1 directory while uninstalling and put it back after you reinstall to avoid getting your files eaten.

Thank you so much for the advice, but I'm sorry I cant find the EAGAME~1/THESIM~1 directory

It is typically in C:\DOCUME~1\<USERNAME>\MYDOCU~1

Be sure you not looking for that exact folder. The "~1" is shorthand. Just keep the folder in My Documents safe while you uninstall.

Yes, stupid of me!! Thank you  :-[

I read this over at S2C:  EA says "Please make sure you have your game CD's available during patch installation."

What? The patch runs you through all, ALL your game discs, all EPs? Is that right?

If this is true, I am so glad I bypassed, and will bypass the next also! What a colossal pain in hinny for all of us with all EPs! It drives me nuts when I have to reinstall the game (every week... ::)) to 'insert disc 1, insert disc 2, reinsert disc 1, etc.' through all of them. Now through ALL of them with the patches?? Say it isn't so!

No, it only uses the main CD for the game it's patching.  That statement is correct but not correct enough. :)

Ah. Thank you.

It wasn't too hard to jump to the conclusion that EA in their 'no thieving' frenzy (Securom) would require ALL the CDs. Sorry for jumping there.

Looks like current version of YASU ceases to work for BV after patch.

http://www.daemon-tools.cc/dtcc/showpost.php?p=94631&postcount=9

Thanks Pescado, and everyone who helped me today. I uninstalled then reinstalled BV as instructed and now there is no lag in my game. Will steer clear of 'official' patches in future and make sure I keep checking on here first and get help from the experts!  ;D

The new SecuROM?!? Don't tell me the idiots took things a step further?

*Revs up chainsaw*
I hate them! I'm not buying another product from them again! (Or getting the ARRficial)
They are just so immature!

Thank God my gaming PC broke before I could install this patch. I think I'm gonna stick with hacks just now.

I read somewhere that they used SecuROM 7.33 with BV but they updated it to 7.34 with the patch. I could be wrong though...

Using ProtectionID, I can confirm that the orginal exe uses v7.33 and that the BV patch updates the exe to v7.34. This new version has indeed blacklisted YASU/DT/Alcohol. I prefer using images to run games and keeping the original dvd in a safe place so this new version of securom has screwed me, and lots of other gamers, over. Since I can't use an image, I have no choice but to insert the original dvd (or use the no cd exe). This segues nicely to a question I want to ask. I have read all the posts in this thread and a number of users have reported that they have been able to play the patched BV using the no cd exe. Have any of you more technical folks (Pescado, etc) tried decompiling the original exe and patched exe and comparing the two to see what changes have been made? If the patched exe only updates securom and nothing else, then the no cd exe should work just fine. But if there are other substantial changes, then running the no cd exe on a patched BV installation might cause the game to BFBVFS. I could do the decompiling myself but could save ALOT of time if someone else has already done it.

Peace...