Absolutely nuthin'!

(I got it, too.)

Make another sim active and then click on your passed-out sim. See if you get the "cool-off" interaction. I think the conscious sim will dump a glass of water on the unconscious one or something like that. It worked for me with a "warm-up" interaction when a sim froze from being too cold for too long. The second sim whiped out a hair dryer to thaw them out. I'm assuming there's a similar interaction with heat stroke.

TS2 is still my first love. I've played TS3 a few times, but I've been largely underwhelmed by the whole experience. A few things are more advanced, but many more seem to be a step backward.

I don't like many of the animations. For instance, in TS2 when the carpool arrived for a sim, it would walk out, open the door and get in. In TS3, the sim stops on the sidewalk and materializes in the car. And that's only one of many complaints. Basically, there are too many "cut corners" in this game.

I may still play TS3 on occasion, but the inability to easily customize gameplay puts me off.  Besides, I can't seem to make a decent looking "pudding" to save my life . . .

I don't think the site differentiates between laptop or desktop when it checks the system. It just runs an applet that checks CPU, RAM, OS, Video, Sound and Available Disk Space.

It merely seems strange to me that the graphics card on the new machine that isn't good enough to run the old game will supposedly run the new game. I would certainly think that the Sims 3 would be more graphics-intensive than the Sims 2.

Maybe I'm wrong. It's happened before.

This is not technically a technical problem, since I haven't acquired the Sims 3 yet, but I have noticed an anomaly when it comes to system requirements. I have a 6 year old desktop that runs The Sims 2 + plus all EP's and SP's with no problem. I went to that "Can You Run It?" site just to see if my rig was up to the new game. It failed . . . and I really wasn't too surprised.

I have a much newer laptop - only a couple of years old - and went to the same site. I tested Apartment Life and it failed, which I expected. I had already tried installing the Sims 2 on that machine, and the graphics card is not supported, which made the resulting gameplay less than impressive. However, when I tested my laptop for Sims 3, it passed with the CPU and Video Card just beyond the minimum requirement.

Does this strike anyone else as odd - that the newer machine can't run the older game, but it will run the newer (and supposedly more graphics-intensive) game? Just wondering.

Very interesting the way you put the closet racks on top of the Ikea dressers. Is it just for appearance's sake, or are both the racks and dressers still usable? So if I, for instance, decided to steal be inspired by your idea and put the racks on top of a something like those OFB cube-type shelves, would the rack still function as a dresser? Just curious.

Torment can be found under the "Fight" menu and is a Child/teen to Child/teen social. To quote the Prima Guide:

"If Sim B accepts, the Sims enjoy a ranging chase and back-and-forth tormenting, giving as good as they're getting. Both Sims gain Fun in addition to any Social and relationship increases and small Energy depletion.

"If Sim B rejects, however, they won't see anything good natured about it and the interaction ends here with lots of hurt feelings. The higher a Sims's Nice/Grouchy personality, the more likely they'll cry."

As nearly as I can figure, you have to apply the different castle wall pieces to existing walls instead of the usual wall coverings. One. Piece. At. A.Time. I haven't quite figured out exactly how to place the columns that make the round towers. Or what to do with the tower after I've made it. I'm sorely lacking in patience.

Sorry I couldn't give you a more complete answer, but you're welcome to the benefit of what little I've been able to discover.


It also doesn't give much light that I can tell . . . a lot of stuff from the Sims Store seems to exhibit similiar problems.

This pack has ceiling fans.

Thank you for fixing the K&B bathtub borked by the EA AL Patch. That was the first thing I noticed after I installed the patch. The first thing I thought was, "Awww, crap . . . what fresh hell is this?" The second thing I thought was, "Lord Darcy! Help!" You're a true gem.

That's comforting. I was afraid I was getting woefully unobservant in my old age.

It's just a thought, but if you have Freetime and if your Sims have a primary or secondary Fortune Aspiration, you can direct them to Give Financial Advice or Give Financial Consulting (can't remember the exact wording), and they'll sit at the computer until the proverbial cows come home. You could also direct them to write a novel.

Thank you both for the kind responses. That's pretty much what I was suspected, fway . . . that perhaps the Shopping Cart tab had to do with what Sims purchase at Sim-owned businesses, but I've never really played that aspect of the game enough to see it in action. (I only got OFB for some of the added features and functionality. My Sims don't seem to be ambitious or industrious enough to run their own businesses. A lot of layabouts, they are . . .)

I have noticed something in the game that has me puzzled, and I was hoping that some esteemed MATYians in their infinite wisdom and experience would deign to enlighten me.

On the UI Rewards panel there are four tabs: Inventory, Shopping Cart, Aspiration Rewards, and Career Rewards. The Shopping Cart icon is always grayed out, and I have never noticed an instance when it appearted to be used. It's always grayed out and unselectable. I have all the EP's and SP's, but obviously I've never played my game in such a way that this option is activated.  I was hoping against hope that someone could tell me precisely what the blinkin' thing is for and when it's actually used.  I'm hazarding a guess that it might have been introduced with OFB, and therefore might have something to do with play specific to that EP, but I was hoping someone could confirm or deny.

Thank you very much for your kind help and consideration. Going back to lurking, now.

Very interesting pictures and link, Nekonoai. I was aware of the practice of dressing infant and toddler boys in dresses. As a matter of fact, I am in possession of my great grandmother's photo album which contains pictures of a similar vintage to the ones you so kindly shared. It shows a veritable parade of my male ancestors dressed in positively frilly frocks. And the same people who put little boys in dresses would have had a coronary at the thought of putting a little girl in slacks. Horrors! That was in direct violation of Biblical injunction. They'd have sooner let a female child run around nekkid! (Southern word . . . as the inimitable Lewis Grizzard observed, "Naked means you ain't got no clothes on . . . Nekkid means you ain't got no clothes on and you're up to something!")

I always thought it was a little strange that the pink and blue toddler tuxedos were classified as everyday wear . . . and available for both male and female.

Lord Darcy, you are Most Awesome! Woopie! <claps excitedly> I can fill my Sims houses with knick-knacks, gee-gaws, what-nots and set-pretties! It's always irked me to fill up useable slots with purely decorative objects. Now my Sims' houses can be as cluttered as mine!

You're a true gem, and we are lucky to have the benfit of your talents.

Thank you, jolrei. That's sorted it out. You're a genius, and I am muchly appreciative. Since you're on a roll, maybe you can ferret out the cause of another annoyance I've noticed. When I create a family CAS, setting their relationships with that family tree dohickey (technical term), the spouses end up with three separate engagement and marriage memories. Any idea what's up with that? (Same culprit, possibly?)

Thank you, too, ElfPuddle for your input. I don't have LizzLoves bed in my game at this time, but I did have it in the past. I appreciate your taking the time to offer a suggestion.

Does anyone have a clue as to what might cause a problem with my CAS Sims being unable to woohoo in bed? They pop out whenever I choose the "woohoo" or try for baby menu options. It only seems to be a problem with CAS sims. Maxis-made sims don't have any problem. And a CAS Sim can woohoo with a Maxis-made character, but two CAS sims can't woohoo with each other. I'm sure it's an errant mod somwhere, but I just wondered if anyone had a clue as to where I should start my search.

Thanks much.

For what it's worth, my problem was exactly the opposite. I had started playing Strangetown for the first time, and I was playing the Specter family. Olive had gone on to her just (?!) reward. Johnny Smith moved in and married Ophelia, and they were starting a family.

I got the bright idea to turn the Specter Cemetery into a mausoleum . . . thinking it would take up less space, and hoping it would keep the legion of dead from scaring the bejabbers out of the living every night.

Oh! It was lovely! The rows of urns on the OFB shelves . . . Olive in the center surrounded by her husbands . . . her parents and Ophelia's parents together nearby with all the other denizens of Olive's garden. I used the glass shop windows for one wall so the urns were visible from outside.

So far so good until . . . I exited the lot and re-entered later. Surprise! All the urns were still on their shelves, but the yard was littered with tombstones. All the tombstones were duplicates of the urns in the mausoleum . . . including Olive's special platinum aspiration marker. The stones appeared in their same spots, and Olive's urn regenerated inside the house. Where the original graves were hidden by the mausoleum, the stones were on the curb by the mailbox.

I was afraid to delete the stones, thinking perhaps that deleting one would inadvertently delete both, so I remodeled the mausoleum to make room for everyone's twin. When I exited and re-entered the lot again . . . Surprise! Surprise!! Triplets! Now there were three of every marker . . . two in the mausoleum and one in the yard or out by the mailbox or in the house. At this rate, the dead were going to crowd the living right off the lot, so I started deleting. Deleting two copies didn't delete the original marker . . . until I got to Olive's. When I deleted her marker, both her urns went with it!

I've since reset the neighborhood to default and started over . . . leaving the tombstones in the yard . . . and trying to figure out some other way for the living to cope with the dead