OK, so I am having fun with this.  I only have one zombie in my newest neighbourhood, a dormie.  She's also in the Secret Society, so she gets a lot of opportunity to start fights.  So far, she hasn't won a single one.  She has very few body skill points and is only average fitness, whereas the majority of the other dormies are fully fit and maxed-out on body or near enough, due to me having a community-use punching bag on the roof of the dorm.  It's so funny to watch her try, because even with the Fight Mod in she doesn't last five minutes.  I doubt she will ever get to eat any brains unless I do some tweaking in SimPE.

Anyway, it was hilarious yesterday.  She somehow coaxed a dormie out of the hot-tub and started attacking her, at which point the dormie burst into flames, setting the zombie alight as well.  I got one of my payables to "extinghish", but he only managed to save the zombie, so he then had to plead with the Reaper for the dormie.  I was laughing so much I almost forgot to get him to do it.

I really like this mod, but I wish there was more 'randomness' in it.  It'd be great if they didn't always attack, just sometimes.  I mean, they even try to attack their best friends (not that she has many left now).  Would be sort of cool if they would act normally for a while, then without warning start attacking, on a random basis.  Yeah, that'd be good, don't you think?

It was through the computer, I always get them that way.  Not that I mind, the headstart was always way too high, just that starting right at the bottom, esp. with a relevant degree, makes no sense.  It's almost as if the game didn't recognise the fact that she had the degree.

This makes far more sense and I shall look forward to seeing which of the new careers needs a degree,  The only thing I'm a bit concerned about the dropping of two bonus levels.  For some reason, mine don't seem to get any boosts and haven't done for some time - I had a newly-graduated sim go into Culinary today with an associated degree (Art) and all she could get was dish-washer, which I believe is the very lowest level, and I haven't even installed this mod yet!  She was pregnant at the time she got the job (with a baby conceived at Uni), but I doubt that made any difference, unless it was the fact that I'd installed Pets & Seasons in between her graduating/going back to the main neighbourhood and applying for the job, although I can't see how that woud affect it, either. 

Maxian logic with these careers has always puzzled me.  I know the reason the Uni careers need degrees is because they pay more, but it never made sense that a doctor/scientist didn't need a degree and a film star or artist did.   Then when I checked-out the new careers, I was AMAZED to discover that a literature degree is of no benefit to a sim wanting to become a journalist.  It appears that a literature degree is of no benefit whatsoever to someone who wants to write for a living, but if they want to rob banks ... any chance you could add Literature to Journalism? 

Going back to the income side of it ... I suppose upping the financial rewards for the 'new' degree careers (such as medicine) and dropping them a bit for the previous ones (paranormal, etc.) wouldn't be possible?  It sort of seems a bit unfair that the graduates could end-up earning less than those with degrees ... then again, film stars do earn more than doctors, don't they!

I'd also like to see JM collaborate with you a bit on this in terms of his LTW mod.  A career like Paranormal, for instance, should be available to all aspirations, as it's something that appeals to a wide variety of people.  The same goes for culinary, art, etc.  As long as the interest in the topic is there, I think these careers should be open to all aspirations.  They may be already, but without testing I won't know.  JM's mod is rather restrictive with newly-created sims & ex-dormies and so on, esp. as I always reject the generic ones (such as grandchildren, etc.), either because they're basically impossible or because they can do those later, after they've achieved a career one.  I also reject 20 Best Friends because it's too damned easy.

Anyway, I am rambling.  Will test this out tomorrow as I have several students on the verge of graduating.

So did I, but I've seen mention of them changing in the rain.  Maybe that's the problem game and not mine then!  Still seems stupid that they walk around in the rain and don't bat an eyelid.  They even do it in thunderstorms.  I wonder if they can get struck by lightning, I think maybe they can.  I do hope so.

From a few things I've been reading, it seems that sims are supposed to change into outdoor clothes if they go outside in the rain?  Mine don't.  They don't react to it in any way either, no running to get out of it or anything, they just carry-on as they've always done.  If they're supposed to do either of these things, then clearly I have something stopping it, but I don't want to try to find out what if they're not supposed to do it anyway. 

Enemies accumulate was the problem with the relationship error, it needed updating.  As for the work problem, I watched and what is happening is that the sims are walking off the lot instead of getting into the carpool.  When it's their own car, they always go to the wrong side to get in, moan that they can't get in, then go to the right side.  As it's lot specific it isn't a huge problem, I can just move everybody around I suppose.  Or maybe just kill the whinging idiots.

Since installing Pets & Seasons, I am getting a constant error concerning relationship decay on every lot and an error with work on some lots.  The work one results in the sim who has gone to work getting an error, which I then have to reset, which means they appear back on the lot.  If they went in their own car, this does not return with them.  It appears to be lot specific, as I moved one couple in with one of their kids and they were able to go to work normally. 

I am attaching both error logs.  The relationship one in particular is a pain because it pops up all the time unless I delete it and I have no idea what I am deleting.  I've removed the vast majority of my non-awesome mods (incl. the Inteenimater), the only ones that are left have nothing to do with work or relationships and are mainly modded objects.

I've finally managed to get a copy of Pets and also Seasons from ... er ... somewhere (still haven't got my cd-drive fixed) but I've run into a problem.  Both of them crash once the music and the images finish and the screen changes to the blue boxes.  I may be wrong, but isn't the game meant to load neighbourhoods & stuff into the file in My Documents?  All I'm getting there under EA Games is Teleport & Logs.  Even when I put my entire EA Games folder back in, the same thing happened.  I reinstalled Pets on its own and still it wouldn't work. I didn't bother removing my folder this time as I had a back-up on my other partition, except the damn installer deleted them both.  I can't get my SimPE back-up in, because there are no neighbourhoods available in it.  All the data from pets is there, but I just can't get the game to load it.   I'm using Daemon Tools & I've tried SD4Hide and SD4Sucks, but neither of them work.  I'm at a loss to know what to do now.

HijackThis was one of the programs I ran during my clean-up campaign, but it didn't find anything.  So far so good, no sign of those pesky pop-ups anymore and everything seems to be working normally.  My new program alerts me whenever anythng tries to worm its way in and so far it's only picked-up on one thing.  I am keeping it running all the time now, to be on the safe side.  I had a tendency to turn my virus-checker off when I was playing the game, so it wasn't on when I got this virus, which is my own fault really, otherwise AVG would have stopped it.

Sigh.

Well, after several attempts with several different virus/spam removers, I finally got rid of two Trojans, a worm and a huge chunk of spyware & malware.  Finally, the messages have stopped.  I even got myself a year's free use of a rather cool virus/trojan/worm/malware monitor/remover thingy that you normally only get a month for, all because it told me I had already used-up the free trial when I'd never even heard of it until a few minutes previously.  It was actually my trustyold AVG freebie that got rid of the trojans & worm, they'd already gone when I finally got this other thing working.

Anyway, the good news is that I haven't had to reinstall Windows, which only takes about 5 mins on this pc as it's all stored on the secondary partition and I only need to press a button, but it'd mean having to download the entire game & all the expansions, which would be a pain.  The other good news is that I managed to find a copy of the UK OFB on bt and it's working perfectly.  Said at first it would take nearly a week to download, but luckily it took a lot less.  There were about 20 copies in the download for some reason, but the first one worked fine.  Also half-a-dozen or more reg. keys, but I used my own and it worked perfectly.

It wasn't just OFB in the end.  Quite a few other files with "Application" as the file type have got these DOS-type icons.  Whatever did it was quite powerful, because it kept stopping Grisoft from working, it would only work if it went straight into it after downloading, it wouldn't re-start once I'd closed it, nor could I use a couple of online virus-checkers I tried.  Couldn't get into Safe Mode either, so I couldn't remove anything that way.  I'll have to wait and see whether I can recover from it, if not I will have to reinstall because I have no System Restore points.  They weren't working anyway, but I had to close it down so I could run the virus-checkers properly, they kept finding viruses in there all the time.

Oh, and I only got the viruses this morning, so they're nothing to do with the cd-drive not working.  I got them from opeining something I downloaded from bt - the file was absolutely chock-a-block with the things.  Most stuff on there is OK I think, but obviously the odd fake is going to slip through and ya takes ya chances, I guess.

But, all's well that ends well, or sort of.  Still have the cd-drive problem, but at least I know I can get hold of the almost-here-but-presumably-still-non-existent furry expansion.  Probably just as well, that way I can test it out first because I'm very unsure about it.  I don't even play OFB anymore, it was just too boring and there were too many things about it that drove me crazy, like guests running off whenever there was a home business on the lot and that sort of thing.  All I really like about it is the lifts.

Well, after several attempts with several different virus/spam removers, I finally got rid of two Trojans, a worm and a huge chunk of spyware & malware.  Finally, the messages have stopped.  I even got myself a year's free use of a rather cool virus/trojan/worm/malware monitor/remover thingy that you normally only get a month for, all because it told me I had already used-up the free trial when I'd never even heard of it until a few minutes previously.  It was actually my trustyold AVG freebie that got rid of the trojans & worm, they'd already gone when I finally got this other thing working.

Anyway, the good news is that I haven't had to reinstall Windows, which only takes about 5 mins on this pc as it's all stored on the secondary partition and I only need to press a button, but it'd mean having to download the entire game & all the expansions, which would be a pain.  The other good news is that I managed to find a copy of the UK OFB on bt and it's working perfectly.  Said at first it would take nearly a week to download, but luckily it took a lot less.  There were about 20 copies in the download for some reason, but the first one worked fine.

It wasn't just OFB in the end.  Quite a few other files with "Application" as the file type have got these DOS-type icons.  Whatever did it was quite powerful, because it kept stopping Grisoft from working, it would only work if it went straight into it after downloading, it wouldn't re-start once I'd closed it, nor could I use a couple of online virus-checkers I tried.  Couldn't get into Safe Mode either, so I couldn't remove anything that way.  I'll have to wait and see whether I can recover from it, if not I will have to reinstall because I have no System Restore points.  They weren't working anyway, but I had to close it down so I could run the virus-checkers properly, they kept finding viruses in there all the time.

Oh, and I only got the viruses this morning, so they're nothing to do with the cd-drive not working.  I got them from opeining something I downloaded from bt - the file was absolutely chock-a-block with the things.  That'll teach me to not want to pay £1

So what exactly are they spying on?  I wouldn't have thought they'd have been allowed to do something like that, isn't there some law against it?  Sounds very odd to me.

HA-HA, very funny.  Anyway ... I just may have deleted it myself, on account of how I am running this program I ran before which is describing all 3 remaining Sims2 exe files as 'Heuristic Dialers', whatever they are.  It seems to think that maybe they are malware.  I did delete a Heuristic Dialer before, but it definitely wasn't the OFB exe file (I wouldn't have deleted that ... duh), but it may have been called something else with my using Daemon Tools. 

Anyway, I am downloading a new copy so presumably that will work?  If not, I am going to have to reformat and get the damn cd-drive fixed - one or the other or both.  The ridiculous thing is, apart from once I haven't played for nearly 2 weeks and this has to happen just as I feel like playing again.  Maybe I will download one of those utilities that gets deleted files back, that might be easier.  Onward and (possibly) upward ...

I can't reinstall can I, my cd-drive doesn't work!  That's why I had to use Daemon Tools in the first place.  But why the F**K would a virus delete the Sims2EP3.exe file and nothing else?  Well it hasn't deleted it, it's still there, it just doesn't have the right icon and it keeps trying to go through DOS or whatever it is. 

I can't back-up for the same reason, I have no cd-drive, although my game files are on the second partition so they may be OK as I think a reformat only touches the part of the drive with Windows on, not sure.

And I don't understand this first sentence.  Have you been eating too much Chow Mein, or what?

I have a really weird problem now.  Somehow I've managed to get some sort of spyware on my computer that just won't go away no matter what program I run.  It keeps trying to get me to download stuff to stop spyware (amongst other things - haha) and it's obviously disabled System Restore because it won't work, even in Safe Mode.

Anyway, since that happened, I can nio longer get into the game with either Daemon Tools or Game Jackal because my original exe file has totally disappeared off my computer.  It simply isn't there anymore.  It's gone from the EA Games folder and even the back-up has gone from the Game Jackal folder.  All the time I was playing the game this morning I was constantly sent back and forth to my desktop to go download one of these spam things, so maybe that's done it.  I can't get it back because as I reported before, my cd-drive isn't working.

The exe file is still in the file that Daemon Tools uses (the entire game I downloaded from BT), but it's got no icon, it's just one of those old-style DOS windows and brings up a DOS-type box when I click on it.  The uninstaller is the same.  Can I somehow get hold of just that file, or will I need to download the entire thing again and if so, will it work without the original exe file being in my EA Games folder?

The game loaded fine this morning, but now when I click on the shortcut it says the exe it refers to has been deleted or moved.  But I haven't deleted or moved it, so who or what has?  It's definitely not on the pc anywhere, I've done a check.  The only one that's there is the one with the funny icon (which is the right size and everything, it just won't work).

My Sims tend to wear the same clothes until they reach middle-age, then I put them into somethng a little more toned-down, although I don't always remember, which is why I once had a 64-year-old wandering around with a radio or whatever it is attached to his hip.  I keep thinking about changing them regularly, but never actually remember to do it.  If there was an option within the game to do so, I'm sure I'd take advantage of it.

The Sim Relationships panel in SimPE is absolutely chock-a-block with 0/0 relationships that do NOT have the "Known" box ticked.  This happens particularly when Sims go to community lots - everyone on that lot gets added to this list, even if your Sim never even acknowledges their existence.  I find it a pain in the proverbials and I hate the fact that they get added, because it makes it very hard to find the real relationships amongst all the non-existent ones.  Deleting them only works if you delete them from both sides and they will come back as soon as that Sim is in the same vicinity again.  Why they are there when they never appear in the relationship panel I have no idea, there seems no point to it.  The 0/0 relationships that do appear in the panel are ones that have the "Known" box ticked - i.e., your Sim has actually communicated with the other Sim at some point.  I tried Monique's remover but it was too laborious a process.  The relationship can be increased slowly if you use the Flamingo of Decay (it will go up 1 point per day for each flamingo placed).

Such as aftera bath or shower?!  Or at least after one of them.  I've always wanted something like this too, but in my case it also involves washing machines and similar items, otherwise they'd just be replacing dirty clothes with other dirty clothes.  Not that they seem to mind ...

I thought it was 4 days?  I'm pretty sure I had them get pregnant with 4 days to go before I started using autonomous TFB. 

So if you keep going down and down (via the red things), you will eventually encounter this Boss guy and something else will happen?  Trouble with mine is that after a while nothing happens, my creature just hovers there doing nothing for ages, so I get bored and start again.  I don't seem to be able to get to the bottom, wherever that is.  I will try again ...

I got as far as having three filled-in circles and two that weren't.  Sometimes there were little + signs and the screen flashed, but I don't know what was happening there.  As for the circles, what are we supposed to do with them?  The creature doesn't go into them and I couldn't get him to either, they weren't accessible, they just flashed on and off.  After a while, nothing happened at all, as I said, so how do we find this 'end Boss' creature? 

IIs there nowhere where there are more detailed instructions?  The ones on the site are extremely sparse, they don't really help at all and I don't really know what Jordi means about skipping levels, because she says not to eat the red & blue things, but she also says use them to skip levels, so I'm still confused!  Oh, and I tried the download version to see if it was any better, but there are three versions in it and they all seem a bit different, so does anyone know if I should I be playing Classic, Widescreen or Official?

Well, I tried it, but I found it somewhat confusing.  Took me a while to work out what the red & blue meant, I thought it was those circle things that keep appearing, but I think it's the creatures.  So what the circles are I have no idea.  Anyway, after I'd eaten a few I ended-up going round & round in circles with no more appearing, so it got a bit boring!  I suppose I was doing it wrong.

I mentioned this on another thread and JM suggested the enemiesaccumulate mod, which seems to have sorted it out.  Now the negative relationship stays, although the burglars now seem to be gaining in their feelings towards the Sims they robbed, whereas previously they stayed at 0/0.

I know it's working, because a burglar walked by a downtown lot where my controllable Sim just happened to be someone she'd robbed.  I got her to run outside and throw her drink over the burglar, which resulted in the burglar being furious with her and the relationship going right down into the negative.  The burglar is currently around 12/12 for the husband and son, though.  All my other Sims are almost 100/100 towards 'their' burglars now, though.

Just thought I'd let you know I'm good at taking hints and also very grateful for them ...

Still don't know how this hint would work with the forthcoming non-existent furry EP if I couldn't install it, though (well, short of downloading the entire thing, that is).  I suppose I'm going to have to get the drive fixed before it comes out, even if it means doing without the PC.  Incidentally, Game Jackal works again now as a result of that SD4 thing.  I had a feeling that's what the problem was, it wasn't hiding the virtual drive anymore (whatever that means).  This other one is much better though, Game Jackal has to go through all the times you've already used it before it will even start, unless you pay for it, which is a pain.  Will keep it though, best to have something to fall back on.