Or if you want the UAC protection, but hate the pop-ups, get TweakUAC and set it to silent mode.

And yes, I had to cave and put Vista on my laptop, since I need to learn it for work... <sigh>

No, you're right -- since you never run the IKEA .exe (so long as you have an EP newer than Pets), it never gets a chance to install SecuROM.

 IKEA has it, but if you have FT, you won't run from the IKEA .exe -- you'll still run from the FT .exe.

Oh, and I can confirm the problems with the lot debugger and phone hack -- IKEA borks both.  Haven't seen anything else it's bothered yet, though.

It could be -- I recall I couldn't get a sim living in the same house to macro/encourage his  child-age brother-in-law until their relationship got up to the friend level at least (if memory serves).

Probably because after the first smite he's gotten the command to 'run away!'   That's why you have to stack the commands before the first strike hits.

Perhaps adding later EPs did generate the earlier hoods.  But start up the game, and you should see all the hoods there when you leave.

Um, you don't put the empty templates in your My Docs directory -- you put them in the Program Files directories, under their respective game '...\TSDATA\Res\Neighborhoodtemplate' folders.  The game creates the default My Docs Neighborhoods stuff the first time you run it.

Yea, I do the same -- the gym locker type dresser looks fine sitting in a hallway in a dorm.

If you stack up 3 or 4 smites in a row, that's usually enough to kill a sim, too.  Only works if the sim is far away from the portal though, and doesn't have time to run away between smites.

You should be able to just bulldoze it now, though first I'd have her check on the phone to see if she can sell it and at least get the money back from it.

Did you exit and save the business lot after waving the wand?


Oh, and when Zazazu said 'move her in', she meant to an entirely unrelated lot -- not the business nor the business owner's home lot.  Go to some other playable's lot, and use the cat to summon the business owner there.  That some sometimes breaks the deadlock/limbo the owner is in.

And of course, the old standby:  the pianos will be borked again, and sims won't gain fun on them.

I don't believe that installing stuff through the downloader puts SecuROM on your machine, since SecuROM is designed to look for a particular digital key on a CD, and you don't HAVE a CD with downloaded EP/SPs.

OTOH, you will have to have an active internet connection if you launch the game with the EP/SP that you downloaded, so it can call home and verify you have a legitimate copy. This is of course not a problem if you're playing an EP/SP that's newer than the one you downloaded, since you'll be launching from the newer programs .EXE.

Hmm, well, that's where it would be -- you put the actual magic wand package in your Downloads directory, and the collection file in your collections directory.  If you're not seeing it, then you probably haven't installed it correctly.

The Magic Wand -- wave it on the business lot in build mode, and that should fix it so the owner either shows up there again, or is sent home.

Also, the latest version of TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller (a very handy mod) forces the sims to change into normal clothes when they get home from work. Due to requests, the next version will make that optional, so you could set it on a lot-by-lot basis.

Basic questions:

1) did you unzip the lot debugger and put the package file in your Downloads directory?
2) is your Downloads directory named with a capital and not a small 'D'?

Actually, they keep the same season # when a sim moves across sub-hoods, which may not necessarily be the same season.  I have a 'residential waterfront' sub-hood that doesn't have a winter (it's set summer-autumn-autumn-spring) so if a sim in the main hood in season 2 (winter) goes to the public beach, he'll be in autumn there.

Pesc,

Noticed a weirdness in the skillinator tonight.  When a sim is on macro/skillinator/cooking and they have the 'Tube in Wood Paneling' that came with FT, they keep turning the TV on and off, like they develop a sudden case of ADHD. Doesn't happen with any other TVs, as far as I can tell. Seems a rather inefficient way to skill, eh?

There you go -- now you're starting to have the knowledge you need.

You're missing the knowledge you need to do things at the DOS prompt, which means you probably shouldn't muck around with your computer until you gain that knowledge. You could seriously farkle your registry if you don't know what you're doing, to the point where you'd have to reinstall windows to get your machine operating again.

Oh, and no, you don't have to uninstall the game.

Simwardrobe also has a couple of Star Trek like phasers that kill, and some other deadly devices, like a vase that can set the target sim on fire, or the incendiary bomb that can get rid of a whole bunch of them at once.

That's what I do, too -- external drives are so cheap these days, it's worth it.  I have Retrospect do auto backups of my whole My Docs folder every couple of days, and I also use AllwaySync after every play session to back up my hood files.  I also burn a CD or DVD of important stuff, like videos, pictures, music files, and stuff like that.

Sounds more like it might be a problem with your DVD drive...

Perhaps you have an older version of TwoJeffs' Visitor Controller -- the VC by default zaps the Gypsy, but the latest version lets her deliver the lamp.  Check to make sure you have it.