The words "bang" and "mash" make me uncomfortable when used around my 3-year old craptop.     I've heard of this "groups cache" file corrupting and causing problems (the squiggly lines in text balloons?), what is this file, what does it do and will it regenerate if I delete it?

Define "sufficiently".  I'm not sure.  How hot is too hot?  I mean, I doubt I could fry an egg on it but I'm sure I could melt wax given a couple hours of playing.

However, it was off all day and I just turned it on less than 2 hours ago.  Or maybe it was on standby all day.  Hmm...okay, maybe I'll let it rest overnight and test it again.  Thanks for the suggestion! 

I wish I would remember the last thing that I was doing before this happens because this is the THIRD time this has happened to me, granted, over a period of almost a year.  However, I'll be playing the Sims, everything is fine and hunky dory and then the next time I start the game, it just doesn't run.  It gives it a try and then gives up.

At first I thought it was a CD problem but I don't use my CD anymore to play (nifty little program called Game Jackal) so I can't think of why this happens.  Has this happened to anyone else?

Reinstalling always fixes it but I figured I might as well poll the populous to see if I can find another solution.

Yeah, that's not an option for me.  Taking photos and placing them on every bare wall and flat surface available is like crack for me.  If I couldn't do it, I'd be clawing at my skin trying to get the imaginary spiders off. 

And I'm sure it's not the inTeen because it's only one of many hacks I have (though most are from here) but also, it has absolutely nothing to do with the cameras in the game (so far as I know) and I refuse to believe this "kitten killing" claim unless I get some hard statistics on any correlation between the rise in kitten deaths and release of the inTeen.

I haven't tried painting a portrait in a while so I have no clue if that's been affected too.  I'm just going to replace my Cameras folder with GunMod's default and hope it works.  Whenever I get around to doing that...

No, I'm too stupid to work a Mac.  I use a PC and my pictures have been fine before, it's just recently.  I've been searching my hacks folder to see if there is anything I could have downloaded to cause this but unless the inTeenimator has a new "mess up your screenshots" feature, I'm stumped.

Thanks for the link, DrBeast, I'll download it and see if it helps.

Maybe I'm the first to have this.  I've looked everywhere and can't find a similar problem. 

As of late I'm having a problem taking photos with the University reward camera in that I agonize for minutes putting everyone in the perfect place, looking in the same direction, making sure the scenery and camera angle is perfect and then when I take the picture and look at the finished product, it is way too far to the left and cuts off half of my perfect picture!

This has been happening with both photo formats (portrait and landscape) and in all categories (normal, letter box, etc... though I don't even know the different between them).  I don't know why this is happening all of a sudden but it's making me very mad/sad because I am a photo-taking junkie and this is effing with my artistic ability! 

If I remove my Camera folder from the My Documents/EA GAmes directory, will it regenerate and hopefully fix this problem?  Anyone else have any clue why this is happening? 

They don't pay for it with their own money.  It's all donations and ad revenue. 

The bandwidth excuse is bull when many of the creators at TSR, SimChic and other major sites are paid "salaries" for their work.  MTS2 is one of the largest sites around and is free and as far as I know, the owner doesn't pay a dime.  The only donation gift you get there is that icon next to your name.

If site owners wanted to, they could find alternative methods of hosting a site and/or uploading content without having to charge people for money.  In the end, they do it because they can and there are people out there, lots of them, who are willing to pay.  Most people, if given the chance to make money off something they enjoy doing would jump at the chance.

A perfect GPA will get you 9600 simoleons, 1200 per semester.  Plus scholarships, usually my Sims make over 10K on their own.  But my Sim kids are all rich brats and I have their parents send them money and then they get the 20K when they leave and often move in together.  They usually blow all of their scholarship and grant money on juice, clothes, bongs and dates.

Frankly, I find the 20K handout more realistic than not.  A college degree will get you far in life...

Same for me.  I've never seen them get it when I let them drink at their own leisurely pace.

Yeah, this was really annoying.  I had a Sim who opened up a gallery with all of her photos taken with the reward object and they were all priced at 1 simoleon.  I used the custom pricing to change it to 2000 simoleons per photograph.  Every day she takes 16 photos and goes to her gallery and sells them.  Her customer loyalty rating stinks but she's well on her way to becoming a millionaire.

I always assumed that the faceblends cheat resulted in a higher chance of ugly kids.  Is this true?  I've never used it before.

Cool, thanks.  I'll just copy and paste your list. 

I want to add a "maxNumOfVisitingSims 16" cheat to my game and was wondering how I go abouts making a startup cheat.

Hmm, interesting.  But what is to stop my own Sim from also dying of motive depletion while they are beating up the other Sim?

I'd be all for Sim Murder, as long as it a) wasn't autonomous and b) had some repercussions.  There just isn't something right about a Sim killing another Sim and getting away with it.  I don't know if I want to go as in-depth as Sim jail but maybe just a penalty like the Sim you kill will stay on your lot forever and haunt you and yours until you die.  You'll never be able to remove their tombstone.  The annoyance of that alone would deter me from killing many Sims, or at least force me to plan it out so I do it and then move my Sims to another house.

Frankly, I'd love to be able to beat other Sims to death.  Maybe a hack where a Sim that is attacked gets a huge drain in motives so if they are attacked repeatedly in succession, they could die.

Interesting, I noticed a similar problem with a S2 fit sim and I use crammyboy's penis mesh.  He was the only one I saw the problem with and though it wasn't as pronounced as yours is in the pictures, I could still notice some slight difference.  I wonder if this only occurs for this particular skintone as I've never seen it happen with any of my other Sims.  I use Enayala's skin defaults and Sim Cribblings.

Hmm, now I have to do more research because all I've ever heard was that nVidia is a graphics god and ATI sucks.  But ATI is better for Sims 2? 

I've heard terrible things about the ATI PCI-Es that comes with the Dell comps (not the XPS systems).

That would be great, pinhead.  Thanks. 

I know you can transfer from inventory to inventory but it doesn't have the benefit of the relationship boost.  Or the cute interaction.

From what I've read from other Sims 2 sites and gaming sites in general, graphics card isn't really all that important when it comes to the Sims 2.  Any moderate graphics card with 128mb can will deliver great display, it's your CPU and amount of ram you have that really enhance gameplay.  Is this true?

Whatever happened to this?  I just noticed but I don't have it as an option in my game anymore?  I don't have the no autonmous handheld hack, which I figured might be causing the problem, so I can't think of what it is.

Anyone have any clues? 

I know it's a relatively useless interaction but it's a nice boost in relationship points between kids and whoever gives them the handheld and the kids just look so darn cute and excited when they get it.  I liked it. 

Yah, I'd be all for that.  I especially like the idea of a "governor".  That would make my simming all the less annoying.

And aside from the Natural Science career, all the Uni careers are b.s.  Any idiot or scam artist could do them.  I'd also like to see University available to adults and elders.  They shouldn't have to go to the Uni campus but they should be allowed to get their degree in some way.

I agree!  I dont play RPGs, or any other game for that matter save for this one, but I'm always wanted more structure in the game.  The whole "Where's Bella?" saga, the rivalry in Veronaville and the Roswell-esque theme of Strangetown would actually had been interesting (and I probably wouldn't have deleted them) if they had actually done something with it.  I like that the Sims is open to individual interpretation but there's a difference between being open-ended and not being given enough to work with. 

I'm really looking forward the mystery idea, if it's chosen, which I hope it is.  It's an idea I've never thought of before and would add a whole new spin on playing the game and telling stories.  I think the Mystery ep was the most original idea out of all of them.  Will Wright had suggested something like this a while ago but it didn't get much positive feedback from the fans. 

I think by yearly calendar they just mean cyclical time.  I wouldn't take it too literally, they obviously can't go by our concept of years because they don't mean that long.  They're probabyl are just talking about implementing time in a cycle, which would incorporate seasons and holidays nicely.

I think it'd be a nice idea.  I was actually a fan of most the ideas on the survey, save for vacation and time travel. 

I don't think it has anything to do with the TS1 eps sucking or not.  For me, at least, and for Maxis, I would hope, it's about exploring new possibilities and avenues with the game that were never available in TS1.    If their not allowing people who select the old TS1 games is any indication of their trying to weed out any TS1 bias when choosing what ep people want in the survey, then I'm all for that. 

I didn't like all of the ideas they put out but at least they were, for the most part, breakaways from any of the original TS1 eps.