7 sobbing simmers

Looking at your album was like deja vu - I had identical problems with weird textures appearing on walls, floors, clothing, faces, etc, and the control panel breaking up (mine never developed teeth though! ).  I'd made sure I had the latest video card drivers as instructed, so I was convinced my game must be broken... until my partner (who's a lot more techy than me) suggested going back to an older driver, which completely fixed the problem.

I work full time and study part time, so my sims playing is pretty much restricted to weekends too.  Sometimes an hour or so in the evenings if I don't have any homework to catch up on.

I'm lucky - no kids, and two computers in the same room, so I can play the sims on one while my partner plays quake or halflife or something on the other, and we can actually have conversations with each other at the same time (although sometimes they do get a bit weird: "Yayy, they finally fell in love!" - "Die, scum!" )

I'm surprised anyone actually admits to being from Tauranga - aren't you scared people will start hitting you with big sticks and blaming you for Winston Peters?    (Although I suppose you can at least now say that you did your best to get rid of him!)

Actually, I don't really know Tauranga at all - I've only visited there once, as a child (more years ago than I care to remember!) on a family trip round the North Island.  I'm afraid it left a bad impression on me, mainly because we stayed the night with relatives who were very religious, and had one of those perfect houses where you're afraid to breathe, so all I remember of the visit was getting told off all the time for henious crimes like starting to eat before grace was said, and not washing my hands often enough.  Oh, and they took us to a park that had "keep off the grass" signs everywhere (which seemed like the ultimate in evil to a child wanting to run around and have fun after attempting to be on best behaviour at the relatives' house!).  But I'm sure it's really a lovely city!

I like Christchurch - it is just big enough to have a bit of "culcha", without having a big city feel.  I was born in Dunedin, and it still feels a bit like home to me, although I don't think I'd want to actually live there - it's just a bit too far from everything (and *way* too hilly!).

I don't know whether it's true, but when I encounter one when I'm on my bicycle it's certainly a comforting thought

Before the advent of the Pajero, we used to call similar oversized 4WDs "hedgehogs" ...because they're full of pricks.

Drifting off topic a bit - what part of NZ are you from, Witch? (if that's not classified information)  I'm in Christchurch.

The same as in real life:  much too long!

At the lowest graphics settings, most of the decorations don't show up.  I know the patch reset most people's graphics, so perhaps it reset yours lower than most?

I noticed that too - my sim had called the burglar to chat once, and then next time I happened to look at her relationship score with him, it was 100/80 - I thought that must be a negative score, but when I looked more closely, no, it was positive.  How to win friends and influence people: rob them!

The waitresses definitely notice what's going on while they're working.  I had a romance sim who was working his way through every downtownie he met in pursuit of the 20 loves at once goal, and made the mistake of taking his latest date out for dinner.  I discovered very quickly that not only do the same waitresses work in every downtown restaurant, but also that they seriously object to their lover walking in the door with his new date - slaps flying everywhere!

However, I also discovered a useful trick - if your sim gets caught cheating, as long as you can keep them from being slapped then it's only the cheatee who falls out of love, not the cheater (as soon as they get slapped though, they lose the hearts).  So you can acheive the 20 loves at once want even if half those loves now detest your sim...

Yeah, that sounds familiar - I remember reading something about encryption that's higher than a certain number of bits (8?) is classified as military grade 

The restriction might actually be at the US end.  I know Amazon.com won't ship software internationally, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that it was because of export restrictions - something to do with software being so sophisticated these days that it actually technically comes under the classification of "military use" (even if it's just a game!) so isn't allowed to be exported (although of course this may be just urban mythology - there's probably some much more prosaic explanation).  Obviously they have some way round this because American-made software does get distributed around the world, but I'd guess that whatever system they have for doing that doesn't work for individuals purchasing software.

I had a variation on the headmaster problem last night: the headmaster arrived, my sim welcomed him, started chatting (while still standing outside on the footpath), and he froze.  When I tried to get my sim to interact with him, she'd stand round like she was waiting for him to finish doing something first, and then get bored and wander off.  After a while I deleted him, and rang to invite him again the next night.  Next night the same headmaster arrives, and exactly the same thing happened.  I thought maybe I'd been a bit quick deleting him the first time, so I just left him there.  Next morning he was still standing in exactly the same place.  Deleted him again, invited him again that night, and this time a different headmaster turned up.  I probably should have tried chatting straight away to see if the problem was associated with just that particular headmaster or was more general, but I was getting sick of having to clean the house every evening on the offchance he showed up so this time I got my sim to welcome him and then call him to dinner, and there were no problems.

I also discovered that the getting credit for writing a novel thing isn't totally fixed.  SimA completed a novel last night.  SimB answered the phone when it rang to say the novel had sold.  SimA had a want to write a bestselling novel, and that want was fulfilled even though he hadn't been the one to answer the phone.  However, SimB was the one who got the memory.

Ah, but then I couldn't be smug and say it's not my fault, I don't have any hacks or downloads

There was definitely only one social bunny on the lot - that family only consists of those two male sims, and the one in the foreground had a full social bar (he'd just spent the morning woohooing).  The female is a townie who'd just wandered by, so unless townies have started bringing invisible social bunnies with them, there was definitely only one bunny present. 

I've never downloaded any hacks or non-Maxis made objects (and I've never downloaded any lots or sims, so I can't have acquired them accidentally).  So in my case at least, it can't be that.

Odd, I've never seen it before now.  I'm sure all my social bunnies were properly invisible.

I installed the patch yesterday, and I've noticed a couple of oddities since then:

1.  When a social bunny showed up for one of my sims, it was still semi-visible when I had a different sim selected.  (the male sim in the background is the one who has the social bunny, the male sim in the foreground is selected)


2.  I just had a sim acheive a lifetime want of being in love with 20 sims at once.  The memory seems to have a blank icon.  I've never managed this want before, so I don't know what would normally show up here.


I don't have any hacks or downloads (well, expect for the Maxis made ones).

I think that's the way it's supposed to work - there's a small chance each time you use the plastic surgery machine that the surgery will go wrong and your sim will come out incredibly ugly.

I'd much rather have it as a download.  Assuming they would even ship to New Zealand (and I notice at the moment they say they'll only ship to US and Canada), it can take up to 4 months for surface mail packages to reach here from the US.  Christmas would be well and truly over by the time any of us down here got it!

I think I'll wait and see exactly what's in it before I decide whether to waste my money, anyway.