Thanks a lot for the responses--the explanations fit what I'm seeing, and the solutions seem viable. (I'd been doing makeovers on them for a while, then started killing them, then just started getting annoyed). The door deletion is definitely something I'll consider, since I have a 9-apartment lot I want to use and I don't have 9 families I want to put in it--I'm sure that place is contributing to the problem.

I have notownieregen and anti-redundancy. It seems like the game will not stop spawning the "Elder steampunk" variety of AL roomie/townies. Is there another mod I need? (Have looked.) This was a 'clean' neighborhood and has no suburbs. I suppose it's possible it's just one wave of the little bastards that got spawned when I loaded the 'hood the first time with AL, and I just haven't killed them all yet. but I feel like I've killed Lilly Do and Jace Rusiwicz a few times now. They're screwing up my theme.

Have played it on an NVIDIA 8800 GTX OC, 9600 GT, and GTX 280. I'm not sure how RAM is going to make graphics looks better, but all machines have 4gb or above. Generally using a 1920X1200 widescreen. I've tried a variety of in-game and NVIDIA control panel settings. The game continues to look like ass, particularly the sims and their portraiture. As mentioned, though, personal taste is also involved.

I've made the mistake of loading up TS2 today after a few weeks of TS3. I say "mistake" because I think that might have spelled the end of me and TS3. The 'look and feel' in TS2 is so much better than TS3 it's ridiculous. I hadn't played TS2 in a couple of months, and I'd forgotten a lot of little details, like the fact that hair was actually animated. And that my Sims are able to look different from each other. And attractive.

I'm suddenly far more invested in completing a half-finished medieval TS2 'hood I'd started a couple of years ago than dealing with the TS3 crapfest any further. The only thing I'm going to miss (and have gone to reach for a few times) is, of course, Create-A-Style. I would have paid the damn fifty bucks for EA just to cram CAST into TS2 and call it a day.

NVIDIA users, what drivers are you using?

I'm getting some weird graphics issues on hairs (particularly Store female hairs) now, white pixellation lines. For example, 'high ponytail' looks like there are about six silver lines distributed through the hair, at first I thought there was some weird accessory built into the hair.

No other graphics issues, though.

This is the Win7 WHQLs (185.85 I think) on a ... what does this box have ... 9600GT. Default settings in game and NVIDIA control panel, 1920X1200 native rez.

Hum. Darker hair and brown eyes, and this is probably the closest to a self-sim I could make. "Flirty" replaced with "Dislikes Children", though.

YashaTard pudding rendered unnecessary.

I had Vista for a while, finally formatted it and reinstalled XP in a fit of whateverness (well, mostly retardation as it meant I was no longer utilizing all my RAM); I've probably managed to SecuRom myself on this XP install so I was planning on wiping it soon anyway. I'm glad to hear it is working well for you all.

Does it still have UAC?

Reposting because it got buried at the bottom of the last page:

I'd be in favor of not badgering the folks who may produce shinies for us. And an addendum:

If you don't like it, learn to do what they do, and then feel free to withhold that ability on your own terms.

Awesome, thanks for the replies.

I'm not completely convinced this is worthy of its own thread yet, but I don't think people are reading the longer/older threads as much; and it'll probably become more relevant over the next few months.

Anyone using the Windows 7 release candidate with Sims 3? If so how is it working?

I kind of need to install Win7 at home for work purposes, thinking about doing this soon, but don't want to bork TS3 any more than it is already borked.

If no responses occur, I'll probably give it a shot anyway and post my results.

Yeah, not sure if it is 100% accurate but you should be able to compare it against the actual game.

With April file dates?

I guess the answer to your question is 'no'.

I think what is happening is that "1.0.632" hasn't been officially rolled out yet, and those of us who have it only do so because of the leak (meaning the fact that EA had the patches up on their website in a place people were able to find). The launcher may not recognize the newer version # because we didn't actually patch via the launcher, we used standalone executables. It all depends on how the launcher determines what it thinks is the version #.

Just a theory, and I don't know what it all means in the long run. I suspect the 'riverview' problems are just typical EA pooch-screw, though.

I'm pretty sure that is incorrect.

I've been watching for a 'retail' rip ever since people starting reporting receiving early copies. Since there hasn't been any other release (well, looks like some kid ripped his copy and put it on demonoid?) I'm assuming that the warez scene at least considers the razor release close enough to be final not to bother putting out more.

How did people manage to post on the official forums without a legit serial key, I wonder?

I'd be in favor of not badgering the folks who may produce shinies for us.

I honestly have only superficial knowledge of the modding community, so I assume there has to be more here going on behind the scenes than I could possibly understand; if it's what it looks like from my standpoint of ignorance--that TSR just hijacked a bunch of well-known names without the owners' permission, to try to make 'their' project look more credible--that's some ballsy shit. There has to be more to it.

(Even if they're just trying to wedge their fat commercial asses into a seat at the freely-shared-info table, that's still some ballsy shit.)

Well, hell. I had no idea Rod Humble's background was MMO before I wrote my WoW-Sims diatribe a few pages back. (Weird, I played EQ and I don't remember that guy's name. Presumably wasn't one of the major players, at least not for EQ1.)

So yeah: Sims as RPG = fail.

Then again, if a lot of these people who buy the game have never actually played an RPG, they'll probably think that collecting rocks is the coolest thing since sliced bread. Whether they'll stay long enough to buy the next xpac remains to be seen.

Searched 'refrigerator' and 'fridge', didn't see this mentioned:

Fridge inventories seem to be really borked. Or implemented weirdly.

--If your family moves, the new fridge in the new house will have all the stuff that was in the old fridge. Which seems fine, till you consider:

--If you packed the old fridge, it still has all that food in it. Including leftovers.

--If you buy a new, additional fridge, it will have the same contents as The One Fridge. Food endlessly dupable.

--If you then try to delete everything from the additional fridge, you will discover everything is also now gone in The One Fridge

In short, all refrigerators owned by family share some kind of interdimensional portal to a single meta-fridge.

keirra, I think that link was posted upthread a few posts.

Inge, I should've been more specific: I'm referring more to the idea that *if* this alleged partnership existed, and if that 'authorized distributors' verbiage is accurate, then EA could be in essence saying that all freesites were 'unauthorized'. I was probably following the logic a few too many steps (not to mention there are a lot of 'ifs' that I don't necessarily believe) without explaining myself.

If so, once the details emerge it's going to be an absolute shitstorm.

Someone call Child Protective Services, stat.

I've also been doing the 'stop rereading that!' tango, various methods of separating read from unread aren't working for me. Sometimes when I know everyone in the house has read Where's Bella ten times I'll just delete the damn thing, but then more copies mysteriously spawn (and eff you, Adventures of Raymundo). I'm thinking about putting a bookcase in an unreachable room for storage of Read, but I'm sure that will result in loads of foot-stamping.