Aye, got that. Thanks!


Okay, well now I know why I missed it. I was only looking in Squinge's EP8 folder. Didn't check older ones, and I guess that option is out then.



I was considering that one before I posted, but I didn't want it to affect all gardens/plants, just community lots. Oy vey, guess I'll just have to settle. Thanks for the help!

Cool, thanks. I did DL the organizer from Delphy, but didn't see a conflict detector. Seems like in everything I read there, they also keep referring people to the HCDU, so I'll go with it.

Unable to locate that hack at DJS and Insim, and getting really bizarre search results through Google when I try looking for it that way. Mostly keeps taking me to articles about the garden club. I'll keep trying.

Thanks, DrNerd. That makes sense. I guess I didn't really think about it. I was getting hobby clutter, and refused to do it, because it's just an endless chain - they'll keep wanting to do it, which keeps their hobby score up, which makes them want to do it again... the only way I found around it was to go for a couple of Sim weeks without fulfilling a single want and avoiding hobby-related activities until the hobbies dropped below whatever score triggers wants. Of course, by that time they were also miserable, usually red in aspiration. But yesterday I downloaded that anti-hobby mod by XPTL that Arina pointed out, so I'll try that and see if it helps. It never occurred to me that I needed to perform other activities to get more reasonable wants, but like I said, now that you mention it does make sense. I know if I gain some skill point, the next time my wants re-roll, my Sim will usually want to get another point in it, and I know if I become friends with someone, pretty soon my Sim wants to be best friends. Thanks for spelling out what I should have realized already.

I finally got SimPE and will give it a try. For a reason that I can't immediately recall, I've been avoiding InSim for years. I'm pretty sure it's because I've downloaded lots of stuff that was explicitly incompatible with it. I have JM's DC hack pack, and I think there were things in there as well that were either incompatible or redundant. At least, that's why I think I didn't download it. I suppose I could be mistaken again and am thinking of something else. Not familiar with Sim Blender, so I'll read up on it. Thanks again!

EDIT: Okay, read twojeffs post and subsequently downloaded Sim Blender. Sounds great, and has a lot of options I need to make use of (such as fixing that family relationship brokenness I caused as mentioned earlier). But I do still intend to learn SimPE to make some other non-Sim related customizations, specifically I want to edit my careers, and I've come to understand that SimPE is the best way to do that. Unrelated, I've also heard Paladin's conflict detector is the best for the job it does - is that correct?

Thanks again for the tip, DrNerd. I could've used Sim Blender ages ago. I do have a question regarding it. I notice that some of the features are redundant with the FFS lot debugger. In a thread about hobbies from last year, Inge mentions "adjuster [mods] don't usually conflict" as they only "work at the moment you tell them to, and do nothing the rest of the time." So FFS lot debugger and SimBlender can both be installed since they aren't simultaneously "active" and thus can't conflict... right? Just making sure I understand.

EDIT #2: Thought of something else. Is there a hack that prevents shrubs/plants from needing to be trimmed - like twojeff's Perfect Plants but in a controller format (if that's the right word)? I would love an object I can place on community lots to prevent weeds and unsightly shrubs; the only alternative I have is to actually make my visiting Sims play groundskeeper, which obviously sucks to do work for someone for nothing. I have the static-energy statue that I use for community lots, particularly Sim-owned businesses; something along that line of functin for plants/shrubs would be awesome, if it exists.

I'll try that hack, thanks. At least it will get rid of the most annoying of the bunch. Thanks.


The blocking of portals only seems to occur on rental properties; it doesn't occur at my dorms, because there *are* plenty of tables for homework, but on rental properties, since I lock the doors and they can't get in, they sit on the portals (the correct term for what I called "exit tiles"?) and do their homework. Well, that is the cheerleaders always do their homework there, but the mascots like to sit on my porch and block the front door.


Well, damn. Okay, I guess it's a learning experience. Chain_Reaction suggested SimPE too, which I will try as soon as I can download it; I'm getting error messages from the official website's download links. I want to learn it anyway, since there are other things I'd like to change or edit; maybe even contribute some mods back to the community instead of just being a leech.


LOL. Well you are right, one had a high outgoing score in this case, but the more I play apartments, the more I realize it doesn't seem to matter. Although they are the only ones that seem to have started a romantic relationship autonomously (so far), all of my Sims build of friendships to max with people I don't want them to be friends with, but can't stop them while I'm playing another family. I use "no townie respawn," but either there are a lot more townies than I thought, or the game is still respawning them. *shrug*


Yeah, I am using that now and it works wonderfully.



I guess I'm stuck with her, since it won't let me delete the manager; I can delete other Sims, but not her.


Shit.


Okay, thanks. As I mentioned, having troubles getting SimPE, but when I do, I'll check out some tuts and give it a whirl. I really wanted/needed to learn it a long time ago.


Actually, that sounds exactly like what I could use. The phone calls are annoying, the memberships are pointless (not like there's anything you can actually do at these places you couldn't do at home), and the "rewards" are equally pointless. All that work for a freakin' plaque, an annoying sound, and a glow effect that ruins screenshots/video captures? Oh. yay.

EDIT: Just checked out that mod, and looks good, except it really does nuke *everything*. But considering how sick and tired I am of hobby-related wants cluttering my slots and preventing others, I think it's worthwhile. Thanks for the pointing that out to me! Interestingly, I tried using FFS debugger to re-roll my wants to try for non-hobby wants, but it has no effect - every time they roll up identical to what they were (also using JM's wfs and ltw variety). Am I misunderstanding the function/purpose of that as intended by the debugger? Should I post this question perform necromancy in the debugger thread?


Thanks all for the replies and suggestions.

Thanks for the link. After reading it, it's not the amount of trouble I'd have to go through that bothers me; it's that I would have to do it every single time I move a new family onto the lot according to Mootilda.


It's residential right now, because I didn't know how to change the lot zoning until I found the thread about it on MATY. However, I kept reading like a good boy and discovered that beach lots (which mine is) are still a problem. Since it's a beach lot with four separate units, designed to be 4 separate living quarters, it's kinda useless as a residential property unless I want to pretend it's an apartment and manually keep 4 families in check. But then I'm limited to 8 sims (without cheats at least, although then I'd be asking for intolerable lag). Looks like I'll just have to map out my design and rebuild it on a non-beach property. Doesn't make sense why they never fixed something they knew about in advance that apparently has a simple fix according to Mootilda... oh wait. Never mind.


It's really that big of a problem? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something you can do in the game, without cheats, would cause this much damage. Maybe that explains some of the otherwise inexplicable issues that have been popping up lately. Dammit. And I made a new neighborhood from scratch for the very reason my old neighborhood was getting too buggy. Grr.

EDIT: Can I salvage the buildings and the Sims by packaging them and then reinstalling them in a new neighborhood, or would they carry the errors with them? I moved the first family by moving the house to the lot bin (which it let me do), and then planting them down in the new neighborhood. It surprises me that something so simple to do could be so destructive, even for EAxis.


I don't use ACR, so can't be that. And yeah, it was romantic. I heard the falling-in-love sound, saw the hearts, and when I switched back to them, they had the hearts in their relationship panels. Bastards.


If it was a Sim I knew it wouldn't bother me so much, but it's somebody I've never met, with any of my sims. It has to be an NPC/townie because I didn't make her, and never see her around town, in shops, anywhere. It started with my first family right after I made the neighborhood, and it hasn't stopped. Same chick calls every household I create, and the phone will always start ringing within a few hours, wanting me to hang out with her at some spot she found downtown (interesting, since my downtown has 0 buildings; just a blank template). Maybe she's a psycho, like that craigslist killer. I've set all my phones to not accept incoming calls now because of her.

Yeah, I know. Call it syberspunkitis. Anyway, I thought this was better than multi-posting. Would probably get yelled at either way.


Part of the problem is they take a very long time to fade. For my most recent sim, hobby wants from teenage studies clogged it up during the full four years, and still hadn't faded by the time he graduated. Add to that, my major required the same skill that was contributing to the damn hobby, so that just increased it again. Leaving the lot, sleeping, even using FFS debugger doesn't help, except maybe until you fulfill one good want, at which point it brings up the hobby-related wants again. They seem to be given an inordinately high preference for rolling up.


And instead get a messload of bird-watching, cloud-gazing, bug-collecting, butterfly-murdering wants, hehe. Just trading one for the other. I guess what my problem is that these hobby wants should be just that... hobbies. Something you get to when you don't have anything else to do, but they actually show up first and seem to take priority over aspiration wants or even job wants. The sim above never had any wants to write his term paper, graduate, make the dean's list, go to class, or anything else college related the entire time. He wanted to do stupid hobby-related crap constantly. Another fortune sim I have could care less about his job, getting promoted, making money, or fulfilling his promotion needs. All he wants to do is fulfill hobby wants, or if I manage to get a non-hobby want, it's something stupid and not worth the ASP points, like go fishing, buy new clothes, or impossible, like buy a car worth $12,000 or more (even though he's living in an apartment and has no driveway).

Speaking of messed up wants, lately I've been getting things like: "unnamed wantable object category" as something my sim wants to buy. It's just a blank square, no picture of an item. Anyone else encountered this? I can write down the category numbers and post them if it would help.


I'll try the controller, thanks; just wish they could be disabled altogether.


I assume then that moving families across neighborhoods, while possible within the standard game, is still BFBVFS bad? Oops.


Ironically, it's deleting an NPC, and not moving families to a new neighborhood, that I presumed would elicit a . I'll give it a try. Thanks.


He did, in the same thread I linked to above. But I guess I didn't understand what he meant. He talked about burying them (not the inventory thing), and I wasn't sure what that meant or how to get my newspapers to come when I do need them. I understand now, thanks. Unfortunately, there's still the annoyance with papers at apartments, although on another recommendation I just downloaded jfade's newspaper recycler, so I'll give that one a try.


Well, that figures. Read the FAQ to make sure my post was okay, but never realized (nor thought to search for) a phrase like that in there. Still not sure I understand JM's protest of NPC 12s spawning for newspapers, unless he hates NPC teens in his game. Hehe.  I was thinking more technical I guess, like "NPC 12s" was a kind of error. I'm a git. Thanks.

Okay, I'm looking for (read: complaining about) a lot of stuff, but not knowing whether things exist or not, I wasn't sure whether to post it as requests, or in the "Where Can I Find...". Also, some of this stuff could relate to existing threads, such as my apartment problems being posted in apartment-related threads. So, to avoid necromancy, multi-posting, and putting things in naughty places, I decided to keep it all just in one (big) post. Likely, this will still be a no-no, but hopefully my beating will be far less severe. So on to what I'm looking for, if it exists.

I apologize for the length and volume of the content... well, no I don't. I blame EAxis, but it's my fault for being addicted to this crap.


1. Is there a way to change lot types without having to rebuild from scratch? Specifically, I would like to change a beach property I made into a non-beach property. After 2 full days of designing and building a property on the beach that I intended to be an apartment, I thought simply putting in the apartment doors would make it an apartment. Now that I've found the thread on MATY about changelotzoning, I also saw in the same thread that apartments and beaches don't mix. I dread having to rebuild the whole thing, so I was wondering if it was possible to do that through some sort of magical means. If not, guess I gotta suck it up.


2. I am one of those people that doesn't mind the tediousness of Uni, but after many many many hours of graduating many many many Sims, I am so SICK of those damn mascots, cheerleaders and other imbeciles that: 1) come to my property and then hang out doing homework for hours, finally to say in the middle of the night "Bye" or "You invited me to spend the night but didn't let me get any sleep" as if I had invited them or greeted them. I never even talk to them; and 2) perhaps even more annoying, these mascots/cheerleaders/other a-holes sit on the sidewalk doing their homework on the exit tile (if that's the technical term) where my Sims need to go to get to school or community lots. While they occupy it, my Sims cannot leave the lot and stop trying after a few seconds. Moving these intruders with moveobjects doesn't work, as the tile still remains flagged as occupied. The only option is to shoo them/ask them to leave, but then you have to wait for them to respond, stop doing their homework, and then turn to my Sim to receive the "get the F out of here" directive, and then to leave. I've been late to class and exams a few times due to this obnoxious behavior. Is there any way to resove this (i.e. any MATY awesomeness that addresses it)? I've just built a cemetary at the University, where several plots are now filled with ex-cheerleaders/mascots, but they just keep coming back, and the joy of killing them is succumbing to my bouts of anger. I'm convinced Mascots and cheerleaders are one of a hundred things someone at EAxis thought would be cute, but they didn't bother to consider how non-cute it might get after happening a few hundred times (like fire sprinkler pranks and endless school cheers). I have the "no townie respawn" hack, but apparently that doesn't apply to university NPCs. How can I be rid of them once and for all?


3. Speaking of annoyances, is there a way to prevent food fires from happening, other than by eating non-cooked foods? I am no expert at cooking, yet I've managed to never start a fire on the stove (it happens in real life I suppose, but it's pretty rare). Just like that stupid lightning-causing-fires-every-time-it-storms. I know it *CAN* happen, but it's also very rare, yet with Seasons, some tree or bush catches on fire almost every single time it storms, yet it has no effect (the tree doesn't burn down or catch anything else on fire) other than to make people in the vicinity run around like idiots, screaming and waving their arms and screwing up their motives. I would love hacks that drastically reduced and/or removed these two things. I have the firemod.package, but that seems to deal with just the Sims fire-handling ineptitudes. Another annoying thing: The plumbing breakages drives me up the wall (again, these problems should be fairly uncommon, but they happen excessively), so I have the plumbing-lessbreaking.package which works great. However, in the RTFM JM mentions the "Pescado Home Furnishing" set for exorbitantly-priced, bulletproof fixtures. Did this ever pass from jest to reality? I would give my right nut and half of the left one for it.


4. Is there a way to repair a family relationship connection? I moved a family from Pleasantview to a new 'hood I created, then moved their grown-up son and his family. After this, I discovered that the son no longer considers his parents to be, well, his parents. They no longer regard each other as family at all, just friends (after I rebuilt their friendship that is). I know you can manipulate relationship scores with testing cheats, but I can't find a way to artificially reconnect the two as family. Actually, I'd love to be able to do this anyway, since sometimes I later make a Sim that I want to be part of someone's family tree, like a sibling, or aunt/uncle, etc.


5. The excessive autonomy talked about for families in Sims 3 may be okay with some people, but I despise it and it is one of the reasons I won't be buying it (shouldn't be a global). I hate it when any of my Sims do anything that I don't have control over, especially when it comes to relationships. However, it seems that I can't avoid it just by avoiding Sims 3; this aspect actually debuted in Apartment Life as I discovered yesterday. While playing one family in an apartment building, another family (they were two friends, nothing more) started autonomously making out on the playground and immediately fell in love (same sex to boot, but they have never been romantically involved with anyone, so their sex preference should default to opposite sex I would have thought). They NEVER did this under my control; in fact, they never even attempted to do it while I was playing them. Are there any hacks that address the autonomy of other families in apartment buildings (apartment autonomy creates other problems as well; see #6)? Or is the only solution to never place more than one of my own created families in any given apartment building? Also, is there a way to break this unauthorized romantic relationship without cheating on them or fighting, which will end up fulfilling a fear and/or creating a bad memory?


6. Speaking of apartments, I've noticed a big problem with having a high relationship score with the apartment manager. Sometimes the manager will get stuck on the lot, wandering aimlessly for days around the lot, never doing anything, never leaving. The shrubs become overgrown, s/he never asks for rent on Mondays (but I still have to pay it), and s/he never throws those weekend parties (that part isn't so bad). S/he just roams the property aimlessly 24/7. One way I've managed to fix this problem (but it doesn't always work) is to influence him/her to do gardening. Sometimes after trimming the bushes, they will reset and eventually leave the property, but only after saying something like "You invited me to spend the night but didn't let me get any sleep." Reminds me of #2 above. The only way to avoid the problem I've found is to avoid talking to the manager after signing the lease, and thus avoiding building a relationship. However, that doesn't fix an existing problem and thanks to the new relationship system with BFFs and all, friendships never seem to diminish... ever, unlike the original base game where you had to call people continuously to maintain friendships. This sucks for other reasons, too. And for some reason, you can't argue with/irritate/insult apartment managers, so it is impossible to damage the friendship. Also, #5 becomes a problem here again. While playing one family, all the other families were going to those stupid weekend parties and building relationships; eventually everyone ended up being BFFs with the manager, leaving me with a perpetually buggy manager no matter which family I played.


7. Sorry, another apartment issue. I'm sure JM doesn't care since he hates newspapers, but your maids will not clean up newspapers that are rotting outside apartments, which means you end up with the three max and you get told you won't receive any more, not to mention the hit to environment scores. Granted, I wish I could cancel my subscription to the paper after I find a job, but it's annoying having three rotting papers outside that your maid overlooks. I have to stop my slave-driving routine to make my Sims clean them up, but that's why I hired a maid... Also, I cannot pick up the magic lamps when they are left outside the door of an apartment; I can only activate/use them, but not put them into my inventory for later use. Any fix for this? And by the way, what does "NPC 12" mean as JM mentions this in the newspaper-related threads I searched?


8. Gah. F'ing apartments. Is this a known issue, or am I having some kind of conflict? The closets (not dressers) that EAxis put in the apartments seem to be bugged. If I accidentally click on one, it clears the queue of my Sims and they'll jump up/out/off from whatever/wherever they are. If they were showering, they pop out; if they were sleeping, they pop up and stand next to the bed. If I keep clicking on the closet, they keep changing directions and their little portraits keeps getting updated as if some change occurred. Sorry for non-awesome lingo like "popping," but that's the best I can do to describe what is happening.


9. What the hell is up with the creepy stalker chick that calls all of my Sims all of the time asking them to go hangout downtown, even though I've never met her (not to mention I haven't even built my downtown yet)? It's worse than Rod Humble. Is there a way to disable her? I'm not even sure what expansion she appeared with, but because of her, I now have turned off all the phones in every household, but this solution sucks since I never receive any other calls either. Of coure, that means I don't get the damn telemarketing calls either. Speaking of which, is there a hack that stops the stupid magazine offers?


10. 5-Star Whiny: Are there any hacks that unlink hobbies from skilling? I emphatically detest the fact that I have no choice but to get into a hobby just because I needed certain skills for work. Just because I need to study up on mechanical for work doesn't mean that I love tinkering. Sometimes we have to do things we don't like, and we don't suddenly like everything we have to do. The cuisine hobby is the worst in my opinion; unless you want to go through life consuming only instant meals, pizza and chinese food, you are probably going to get several points in the cuisine hobby unavoidably. My biggest gripe with hobbies is that, like all preceding EPs, the new stuff takes precedence in Wants and constantly clogs it, instead of being equally distributed by chance. Thus, instead of getting useful Wants, my Sim wants to watch birds and collect bugs because I studied cleaning; they want to stare at the stars because I played some chess (wtf?); or they want to serve meals all damn day long just because I make them fix cereal every morning. In essence, I feel you have no choice about what hobby you actually pick; it's forced on you by other actions, and it takes such a ridiculous amount of time with extraordinary efforts to avoid hobby-inducing actions so that your undesired hobbies will decay to the point where it won't clutter your Wants. Heaven forbid you need to eat, ever, or need another skill for work, because then it'll just stay up there. There needs to be a way to choose if you are doing something for necessity versus hobby. Thanks to Free Time, I now avoid the television like the plague, and have to alternate cooking duties between family members, but this doesn't avoid the problem - it only delays the inevitable. And since when does writing in a diary make you an expert at discussing and blogging about Film & Literature.


Well, that's all. At least for now. Even I can only handle so much of my own whining at a time. And thanks in advance to anyone willing to wade through this crap. Whether assistance or insults (preferably both), I welcome it.

I'm having the same problem. I had to remove interactwogreet.package after narrowing my crashes down to that one. I am running all EPs and SPs except the holiday pack, and have had nary a problem with any of your other awesomeness. I have all the updated shininess from the AL directory (including the DC goodies).

Hey that's pretty good, that's 10-12 hours straight... no bathroom, lunch or jackoff breaks. They report to duty and then I send 'em home half a day later. Not bad in that light, methinks.

Ah okay. The only thing I could find pertaining to MOAR was "Mother Of All Retards." It seemed to fit in some cases, but not all.


Oh heck no. I hate doing that too. I usually stick with Average until I'm at 7 or 8 stars, then I bump it up to Above Average. I only use Expensive for 10 star businesses that are supposed to be posh. I've never used ridiculously expensive. However, I have a wide range of goods priced from around §100 to §30,000. I find that everyone can afford something. About three-quarters of my stock is priced at §5,000 and up. I've never really paid close attention to my daily profits, because I'm usually spending it as fast as I make it (house or business renovations mostly, or buying more real estate and fixing that up). I usually stay open for 10-12 hours. My employees are glowing red by that point, so I don't like to push it further. Or I'll send them home and let my Sims keep it going a bit longer (but they're pretty ragged by that point too).

It also depends on the type of business. My art gallery brings in about §50k per day when I play it, my car dealership gets close to that, and my club makes about §25k-ish a day. Of course, just like in real life, their are worse days and better days. I've broken §100k in one day with my car dealership (but my Sims were pretty exhausted at the end of that day). I find that the more items you have, the more you make. Not even taking restocking into consideration, the larger the number of items in my store, the more Sims tend to keep browsing and buying. If I only have a dozen items, half of the Sims that show up just end up chatting with each other, and most customers seem to buy only 1 item at a time. If I have 100 items to choose from, most of the customers that come buy something, and a large number of those will buy multiple items. I don't understand why it works that way, but that's what I've noticed.

Who wasn't paying attention? The bastards!

 

I don't really have many parties at all. I find they tend to be more of a pain to manage than they are worth in ASP points. I only throw parties for graduation now, just to get the little video and memory. I don't even throw birthday parties; getting the kids a cake and blowing out the candles is enough for me. I can get ASP way faster and easier than having to deal with pleasing my stupid guests for 5 real time minutes. Buh-lah.

And like Zazazu said, I really never have a problem with bathroom cloggage either. First of all, I manage everyone that goes in there; secondly, I use the door-locking mechanism like there's no tomorrow. Nobody goes into any part of the house that I don't want 'em. If you're a visitor and you wanna pee, go stand in the corner or go home.

DISCLAIMER: Fortunately, I am NOT like that in real life. I'll at least give you an empty bottle.



Oooh, undiscovered shinies? I like the sound of this one.


Okay, okay. I'll try it. Who am I to argue with the Most Awesome One?

On a side note: Will someone slightly more awesome than me explain MOAR to me - I see that acronym a lot. Slight flaming (and spanking) allowed, and maybe I might like it.


Well, I wasn't saying that I keep them there all day. Their motives do decay, and by the time I send them home for the day, their balls are glowing red (I mean the ones over their heads). Still, they never whine or complain or quit or wander off from their assigned tasks, as long as they are overpaid. My attention span for Sims is ridiculous, like in most things, and I'm so anal about it, I build every home and business in a way that I can keep an eye on everyone on the lot simultaneously. Nobody sneaks by with nothin' while I'm on duty. Little rat bastards.


I wasn't bothering with an extra hack because it really doesn't affect me to pay them through the roof to keep them happy. I still make so much money I don't know what to do with it all, other than buy more businesses. Or redecorate the one I'm at for the umpteenth time. I just think it's dumb the way Maxis calculated the wages. Badges should count big time, skills not so much. I mean, really, for the most part - other than Charisma - none of the skills really apply in meaningful ways to employees working at a player-made business.


Gay bars was one of the examples I used previously to point out why I wouldn't limit customers. When I first started going to the gay club in Ann Arbor, I was going with my best friend, a straight girl. She loved it there. And when I got there, there were plenty of girls, and a surprising number of straight couples (they like it because everyone there is pretty real; beats the trash at most of the other clubs and bars in our area).

That said, I do understand what you're saying about the customer limit thing. That does bother me a little, but I can't really think of any way that's affected me except the one time I converted my car dealership to deal exclusively with custom content cars that were priced in the tens of thousands. Suddenly, almost everyone got turned off from every Dazzle, even with the improved sales interactions business perk, and it eventually occurred to me that they were getting turned off because they couldn't afford what I was trying to sell them. So in that way, yes, the hack would help me, but I never really went back to that dealership because I found that it was just too hard to sell super-expensive stuff anyway.

Some businesses I have include: bar & grill with a stage and little shopping store; a dance club with an adult-themed store and upstairs entertainment with pinball, arcade, pool and bowling; a gay-themed art store with paintings and sculptures; a full-range car dealership covering from the cheap Maxis car to the ultra-expensive Wonkey's Ford GTO; and a video game store, small, with some toys and stuff too. Each store includes some sort of entertainment to entice the people to use the Bandatron, as well as small money makers like newspaper boxes, vending machines, the electronics kiosk, and whatnot. So I definitely don't want to rush people off my lot. I also include a full range of price ranges on items, so everyone from the poor people to the filthy rich have something to buy at my lot.

Now, I know Townies are typically the best people to have because they have bottomless pockets. However, it's still more realistic to try and sell something to someone even if they can't afford it. I've gone drool-shopping for computers in stores before and let the salesman give me his or her spiel even though I knew I couldn't afford it. I don't know, I guess that part just doesn't bother me (and it's pretty easy to reset your customer pool and get new ones to show up if you have to - close and reopen the business, takes two seconds).


Playables are the one group I *do* want to control when it comes to shopping, but right now I have a hack installed from SimsWardrobe that prevents playables from spending their own money, and they don't actually keep the items they buy. Essentially makes them a townie for the purpose of shopping, but they also don't have the clutter afterward. However, the one thing I don't like about that hack is it also includes as part of the package that customers leave immediately after purchasing something. That eliminates potential bandatron sales, and creates a bug with the reporter - he will never give you a best of the best award because he can't stick around after the sale is complete to rate you.


:not worthy:


:cough:


I grovel before you, Oh Great Fat Gwilly Person That Is Female. I am not worthy, but I ask you to take pity on this wretch. I await your almighty judgment, Oh Magnificent One.

Oops, yeah. That's what I did, but I carelessly forgot to denote that in my post. Thanks, Raene! Hope that didn't screw anyone else up. I doubt anyone paid attention though, because I'm still just an Asinine Airhead. Where's my damn promotion?


EDIT: LOL! Okay, I became a Blathering Buffoon with this post. Soon I'll be taking over the world, then the universe, and then MATY.

I can only suggest checking page 2 of this thread. Some users with Vista discussed using this method with success, although a couple of things seemed different, such as where registries are located, and possibly requires you to download a DLL that Vista no longer maintains by default. Wish I could be more help.

Yes, that's true. But that definitely sounds cool what you're doing. I'll gladly help test it out once it goes to beta, but I don't really have a test 'hood.

From what I've read, it's identified as a rootkit because it's behaviors are virtually identical to (and thus fit the definition of) rootkit. Such as the manner in which it installs itself, the manner in which it runs, the manner in which it attempts to mask both its presence and its functions, the location where it is installed, and the fact that it does provide administrative-level access (or the potential for other programs to have it) on systems (which was the original purpose of rootkits on Unix systems, I believe). The people screaming that SecuROM is malicious are not really on the right track. With the DRM fiasco, Sony's program was not malicious in and of itself; it was the fact that it allowed a nice hiding place for other malicious programs, which is what Sony got sued for. And according to FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras: "Installations of secret software that create security risks are intrusive and unlawful." Yet this is exactly what SecuROM is doing - it is a secret program (or attempts to be) that creates a security risk. It certainly was secret in the manner in which it was distributed to us.

And still EA hasn't answered this question: If they claim and truly believe that since SecuROM is a copy protection program - meaning they didn't feel it was necessary to disclose which CP they were using - then why can't it be uninstalled with the game, especially when they claim that SecuROM is integral to Bon Voyage? If it is going to leave the software on our computers even after the game is installed, then it is not integral; instead BV is dependent on it. There's a huge difference, especially since the latter requires not only EA to inform us of the install, but to inform us that SecuROM is part of the software's operational requirements. They were allowed to say that SecuROM was included, but they broke the law by hiding everything from us and allowing the installation of software the FTC labels as illegal. And that's another important point to get across to all the naysayers on the EA BBS claiming that SecuROM isn't damaging systems: Whether or not systems have been damaged because of SecuROM is not the point - EA broke the damn law! That's all that matters, and THAT affected everyone who purchased and installed any of the SecuROM-inclusive titles.

As for what you said, morriganrant, I agree with you mostly, except the higher ups weren't the ones programming the game. You'd think at some point someone in the company would've said, "Um, sir? Is this really a good idea?" You'd think someone that actually mattered in that company would've heard about SecuROM's previous woes. PR, legal, marketing, programming... someone. I dunno. I still think EA is more to blame than Sony. Sure, they made the product, but EA made the choice to give it to us without warning, and now is unwilling to make a sincere effort to apologize and help us fix this. They must have mighty big rugs in EA headquarters, that's all I can say.

Not to mention all the other trojans, malware, spyware and adware, and who knows what else, that also took advantage of Sony's free umbrella.


I wouldn't defend EA, in fact *because* of this they should be smacked silly. It's not like it was a secret, isolated little incident. It's all over the big news, music and gaming boards. Everyone knew what Sony had done, so EA was just plain stupid for getting involved (not to mention aligning yourself with a company that has been getting worse and worse PR lately, with statements such as the one declaring "copying a song from a CD you own is stealing.")

I think the real reason EA kept us in the dark about the new "copy protection" was not because they didn't feel like making a new EULA, but because they knew most informed customers would never have bought the affected games had they told us up front that SecuROM was on it - it's already got a bad track record, and there would have been warning posts put up on every major gaming and Sims-related website. Maybe that's a little conspiracy-theory-ish, but ...

So you've basically added more options, particularly with resizing? That sounds kinda cool, if I'm assuming correctly. I pretty much exclusively used the "small" setting on Crammy's, because it looked the most average. And I'm not much for the massive ones either. Beos makes some awesome stuff, but superhero-sized? LOL.

Okay, thanks for clearing that up for me on the woohoo want. And thanks for the link to that post; I'll read it now.


So I need WantsTrees, teenenabledadultwants, woohoo teens and adultsgosteady, it seems. Now I do have syberspunk's "teenenabledadultwantsrandomflirts" - I assume that counts to fulfill the requirements. I also have the NL+ version of adults go steady, and Jenflower's Woohoo Teens for OFB. Now as for the WantTrees.package... there are several on MTS2, but I assume, like everything else, I only want to get the one for my latest expansion, in this case OFB, correct? I right now have in my downloads folder:

adultsgosteady.package
WantTrees.package
WooHooTeens_6f_OFB.package
zteenenabledadultwantsrandomflirts.package

I renamed the last package since I wanted to keep JM's Wants & Fears Sanity, but syber said his had to load last. I hope I finally got this right. And thanks again, sloppyhousewife. You're at least semi-awesome in my book!

Thanks for the clarification, JM. That didn't occur to me, but I guess it's why I my problems have been so small and intermittent. I acquired EPs pretty soon after Deluxe, so I stopped using that disc.

muridae, I have pretty much the same bizarre happenings as you denote. I also use Nero and Sonic, and further my system (laptop) is an HP, which I heard someone say was also causing conflicts (although I've heard several reports about peope having problems even with Sony equipment). But I'm also hard on my computers. I usually end up replacing them every 18 months or so, sometimes more frequently. Not from abuse mind you (that's reserved for my separate keyboard and mouse). I just overuse the hell out of them and they are almost never shutdown, other than for the few seconds before restarting them. So I'm used to things acting up over time; but the computer was still pretty new when I had the burner issues. However, after seeing stories like yours and mine, where it's easy to see how we can *think* it's something else, I wonder, if you have hundreds of people that are thinking "nah, it's not SecuROM, it's something else," then there seems to be an uncomfortable pattern. Some are doing this just because they don't want to jump on the bandwagon out of ignorance and point the finger at EA, but how many of us are there going to be (people with SecuROM-type problems, but that are looking for other reasons) before we realize - there are way too many coincidences to ignore. That's a rhetorical question, lol, not directing it at you specifically. And what the point of that diatribe was, well... I'm still in the middle of my first cup of coffee?

Okay, following igottapi's post, and then seeing the pictures at the top of that page in Bloom's post, I'm confused. LOL. What's in the pre-alpha stage?

EDIT: Okay, I could swear there wasn't a picture in your post a second ago... LOL.

Is this a remake of Crammy's?

LOL! Ah I miss my old TI.

You know, I actually can't help but wonder if the CD burner problems I've been experiencing have really been related to this SecuROM crap. I wrote it off as normal misbehavior, but now I'm not so sure. It didn't give me too much trouble until about 4 or 5 months ago. I thought maybe I had just overused it. But it just so happens I installed The Sims 2 then. Before that, I was using my friend's copy, but when she took it back I had to buy my own. And guess what? I bought Deluxe, one of the SecuROM carriers. Unwittingly.

Now I also wondered, "If Deluxe had SecuROM, why is it only now becoming a problem?" That thought contributed to my suspicion that most of the people (not all) were misdiagnosing their problems. But then it occurred to me that not many people had bought Sims 2 Deluxe, but Bon Voyage, the first non-repeated EP to be released with SecuROM - the majority of the players grabbed that one. Thus, it suddenly seems to appear, even though it's technically been floating around for over a year.

And my writing this off as normal wear and tear makes me wonder something else. How many people out there are doing the same thing? Writing off SecuROM problems as something else? EA claims it can't be SecuROM based mostly on the fact they've received few actual complaints (they say 41 phone calls and around 1000 BBS posters, as of a few days ago). They call that few, but they also say they've sold 100,000 copies. That's a 1:100 problem ratio, which should be unacceptable to most companies -  sure would be in the car industry (however, I argue that the numbers their using are inaccurately evaluated; I think it's closer to 1:30 and that's probably too high as well).

The s/he version?

Yeah, I discovered if I try a bunch of different keyword strings, I can bring up a better selection of specific articles, but you have to know what the keywords are before you can really search. Kinda hard if you don't know anything about it initially. LOL.

Honestly, that's why I have yet to buy any of the stuff packs. I can't envision paying US$20 for a handful of new items, most of which I don't even care about, when I can pick and choose exactly what I want, for free, and frequently at much higher levels of quality from websites like this. Which brings up something else - the only reason MATY is even around is because JM is doing for free what Maxis should have paid its people to do the first time around. As much as I appreciate JM and the MATY crew, this shouldn't be necessary. I swear, I really think some of these companies are releasing games in the states that they are because they know somebody in their respective communities is going to fix it for them and it won't cost them a dime (actually we are *paying* for their borked crap and then fixing it for free; what's the definition of a sucker?). "Yeah, it's done enough, ship it out and let them fix it. Start the next EP!" I've never seen this in any other industry, at least not to this degree. What if Ford BMW made their cars half-ass and required customers to fix it at their own time and expense? Or what if you got an oil change, but they secretly slipped something else in there without permission or notification that could screw up other parts of the car? There'd be hell to pay. And we're not talking about simple fixes here, at least not for the layman. How many Sims players do you really think can grasp this SecuRom tutorial. I'm not trying to insult here, but a high computer literacy isn't required for most games - and it shouldn't be. Apparently EA doesn't agree with me.

Okay, I better stop. I just totally derailed this thread. Feel free to move my posts to a relevant whiny section if you like. Or burninate them. Or rip off my lips. Or both.


EDIT: Good God, this is beyond disgraceful. I hope I didn't belittle anyone and their problems with any of the previous statements. I just spent a while reading the BBS with Maxoid Sam (where I notice some MATY members have posted); I had no idea the problems were so extensive. But what I find odd is why this information isnt being better spread to the internet. This needs to get out there (even if only to boycott EA). My mind is made up - screw giving them any more of my hard earned money. I hope JM makes a real world burninator so we can turn EAxis into a BFFBVFFS (extra Fs added for dramatic effect and censored cussing).

EDIT #2: I just found this online. Sounds a little too easy, but it also makes sense logically. Posting it here to see what any of you might think.