The OP can consider itself let off lightly. FWIW. Base game torrentz are not easy to find. I've been trying, on and off for months without success. I either find one with so few seeds and poor download speed that completion is scheduled for another geological age, or else -- as happened over the last weekend -- I get one which downloads at blistering pace and arrives impossible to open/use with any program.

I've concluded that the base game is old hat and is low priority on the torrents market. Either that or my benighted ISP (Sir Dickie Branson's) -- which has already blocked access to TPB (as if I couldn't find my way there by stealth) -- is doing other stuffs to my connection I am helpless to counter.

heh heh ... already done that. Should've said, I suppose. I've found two or three promising ones, but none -- after several days -- has reached completion. But hope springs eternal.

eta ... I've also found way too many dodgy sites offering a "client free" download, which then send you a set up file for a "direct downloader". Even a Mirelly ain't that dim. <sigh>

Meh, that was way too helpful. My own woes are too embarrassing to show.

Ah shit. I cleaned out my PC and reinstalled Windoze. All went well until I came to reinstall TS3. The install kept hanging on the same file. I tried copying the disc hoping I could try an ISO mount; no luck. The copy failed too. I went to TPB and found lots of torrents, but none actually achieved more than a glacial trickle of loading speed; I guess the base game is just too old. After 48 hours it became obvious that there weren't enough hours left in this present universe to complete a download.

For a while, it was a liberating experience to be Sims-free.

However I do miss tormenting the mindless little buggers, and the story-telling opportunities which follow on from their hapless misadventures. Now I've discovered that dear old Richard Branson -- who owns my ISP -- has given in to the Euro-Lickers-Of-Hollywood-Ass and blocked access to TPB and -- as far as I've yet been able to determine -- to any URL remotely smacking of torrentz, so torrenting just got a lot harder!

This is an infringement of my civil liberties  In the meantime, is there a kind soul willing and capable of putting a zip/tar of the TS3 disc in a repository I can freely download it from?

OK, so I'm a silly, who does not object to paying for a game. But I refuse to pay for it twice!

There are certain names here whom I would consider giving FTP access to so they upload a file to one of the servers I have access to.

Meh. Maybe I should get a medal for inciting such a give-fest.


Seem? My standards: let me show their duplicity. Can you you continue to hide yours?

Afterthought rhetoric is rather passé, don't you think?

Tsun Tsu was obviously not on your reading list. My battle plan is a flexible beast, unlike that of my detractors, which -- so far -- is  merely to gainsay anything I say. Poo!

Whether you acknowledge it, or not, the Dome is nevertheless not a joke for anyone whose posts are subject to arbitrary transplantation. Coupled with the witch's generous bid, all evidence points to a conclusion that you do not need need my cash, as well as that you are content to allow the lunatics to run your asylum.

MOAR fight can only exist if fighting can occur. To permit (submit to) the existence of the Dome is a folly I did not previously imagine you would trip over. Cans I could accept. Pescado has expressed an opinion. The opinion of the "senate" and its sycophant wanna-be posse is nothing to me.


Meh. I'm tempted to bid $75. But what would be the point. How could I know that your bid is a genuine solitary bid (ie: not subsidised by a consortium of Mirelly haterz)? Nor could I be confident that you would actually pay the full amount.

I'll cough up -- like I did last year without condition -- only this year I want to keep my avatar and to stay out of the dome. Deal?

Far better than being on the archly malapropproiate "pins and needles", don'cha think? BTW, am I the only one who needs eye-bleach after every view of this thread's title's spelling error?

Crikey. I never thought I'd see someone actually liking Steam.

Yah. Not using the Launcher, I suppose I ought to follow the news on patches more keenly. Brain was still running on fumes when I was trying to fix the issue, but three cups of tea later, the camelliaceous goodness reached my dehydrated brain cells and I had a eureka moment.

Can this thread now be decently interred in RL where it belongs.  (Where we can argue the spelling of camelliaceous with MOAR fight.)

Sorry for the topic title, but words failed me in composing a concise precis of this issue.

So, before I reinstall ....

My AM required updating, so I updated. No other changes were made to the game which was working fine apart from the usual random occasional crash/lock-up.

First attempt to run game produced the EAxian warning of "unofficial content" which rang alarm bells but I forced and ignore to see what else occurred and got the entirely more helpful AM warning of a critical core mismatch. I then removed all my small amount of cc excepting AM and tried again. Same result.

The program files folders are unchanged, so I then deleted all the cache files and pulled out the saved games from the saves folder. Problem still there.

Anyone got any clever ideas to avoid a tedious reinstall?

Duh. RL or delete this topic please. I just discovered the new patch. Doh.

The launcher is for nitwits.

No doubt that TS3 went right back to pre TS1-alpha for a routing engine. What gets me is the way they still walk into each other; only now they both stop and stand around looking stupid, long enough for even a DNA-challenged amoeba to evolve sentience, before either of them decides to move again. Is it really that difficult to code, even a semi-intelligent, routing engine?

I was making basements, after WA escaped, but before getting WA. I had the latest patch in place which put the basement tool in the F3 menu, BTW.

I made basements the 'old fashioned' TS2 way, without constrainfloorelevation cheats.

The trick is to excavate a hole where you want the basement with three minimum flights of steps.

After deleting the steps, drag a room for the basement at the lowest level. The ground will auto level.

Finally drag foundation to the tops of the basement walls.

The WA basement facility is only useful for retro-fitting houses with basements where none was previously installed.

The working windows is a useful trick for split-level houses (houses on steep slopes), although I see no suitable plots for such adventurous design, although I suppose a basement lit with high mounted windows is a realistic option.

I just wondered if getting canned in less than 5 posts is a record? My day is froodier for the excellent lulz, though.

Luckily, there's only J. M. Pescado ... or is there?

I predict a BFBVFS see

Oh, yeah. Special sauce is, well, special.

I do have earlier saves, but I am simply not anal enough to go back and relive the past.

Ah well. It was good while it lasted. It has definitely been getting rather "quirky" of late, the more so since WA was bolted on. I have more or less given up on the idea of succeeding in getting that fambly into a double digit generation ... pretty much par for the course. Time to retire to a safe distance and watch the pyrotechnics ... I wonder what the Russians are charging for a trip to the ISS.

As this has now been bumped, may I ask if the F.O.J. will say if he has had a chance to peruse the save I provided?

This is not a bump but more of an addendum to my previous description. I did not create a new save after blitzing the small amount of non-awesome content I normally use and then restarting the game. The save I uploaded is therefore one that may well reference a small number of non-awesome content. Excuse me for stupidity if that confuses the situation.

Uploaded to my personal web space: [link snipped]

Please confirm when downloaded so I can delete it and recover the space. I don't pay for more than 100MB and this file is 130+, although my host info suggests I am only using 55% of my allocated space. Must be Irish maths ....

I play a nice simple game, controlling a single family. Now, raising generation six and since installing HELS, the entire family's tree button is entirely FUBRed, doing nothing at all except respond to a click with a sound, i.e.: no hang up or game pause. Zilch. This shit and buggeration continues in spite of applying all recent patches and a search has not flagged up any similar issues. Needless to say I have tried running the game with AM alone, so I am confident this not a tight pants issue.

Can't wait to see what title I get ....