I still see the Family Reunion memory spam on my Sims even after Clearing Trash, so the lot debugger's Clear Trash apparently doesn't touch them.

I'll look into which Sims have the spam... it might be my really "old" Sims that were alive pre-NL.  If so, then maybe the issue was fixed post-NL.  If so, then it's probably not as bad as I thought.  My estimate of 15,000 Family Reunion memories was based on what I saw on the first batch of Sims that I used Clear Trash on, and I specifically targetted my "oldest" Sims first, for maximum effect.  Some of them date back to pre-Uni days.

So far my record for "Clear Trash" is 442 objects cleared on one guy.  Awesome!  He is a Romance/party animal, spun off from a generation of my Legacy that had 11 children, who attended Uni, threw tons of parties, built the ultimate party palace, and is still partying at almost 90 years old... I hope he croaks in the hot tub with 3 colllege girls... that would be perfect.  Anyway...

Second place goes to my current Legacy heir, who had 380-something objects cleared.  She's popular, too.

I love this tool.  After clearing Gossip and a few thousand Trash, I played a business lot for ~2 hours without crashing.  So far, so good!

I've been going lot by lot, Clearing Trash.  It's slow going.  Killed maybe 10,000 objects so far (plus the 15,000 from Clearing Gossip).

Looking at my Sims' memories, I see another source of massive memory spam... Family Reunions.  Pages and pages of "Had a Family Reunion" on many of my Sims.  It's due to a tangled web of a few very large, multi-generational families in the neighborhood, combined with lots of House Parties.  As a result, seemingly every party is a "Family Reunion."

Comparing the number of "Met X Sim" memories to the number of "Had a Family Reunion" memories, I'd say there are probably 15,000+ Family Reunion memories in the whole neighborhood. 

Are those important for anything?  And, if not, is there any way to easily mass-delete them?  And is there a way to prevent new ones from being created?

Awesome.  I'll run that, too.  My neighborhood has many businesses and throws many large parties.  Some Sims have pages and pages of "Met X Sim" in their memories.  This should help a lot.  Thanks.

What does "Nuke Attraction Markers" do?

Clear Gossip from All killed 15,725 memories.  We'll see if that helps.

What does Clear Trash do?

This sounds very promising, and I'll definitely give it a try.  Gossip has been one of my favorite interactions, literally since the game came out.  I love it for the quick '++' (and it's funny sometimes, to see what they'll Gossip about).  I didn't realize it gunked the game up.  My entire Sim neighborhood has been Gossiping for years... there's probably an ungodly number of these gossip memories.  This could make a huge difference!  Thanks!

One question: What does nuke attraction markers do?

I've searched many forums and tried many different things but nothing has worked.  I'm out of ideas on this one, and I surrender to greater minds.  Please help.

For months now, (since shortly before BV) my game has been crashing sometimes while saving.  It got slightly worse after BV, and now is pretty bad with FT.  Here are the symptoms:

1) Does not crash during gameplay.  Only crashes while saving.
2) Crash occurs on all lots in my Neighborhood.  Lots range from big and complex to small and simple.  All crash eventually.
3) Neighborhood was fine before.  Been playing it since release, using only hacks from this website and keeping all hacks up to date.
4) Neighborhood is huge: 1437 Sims (including the game-generated NPCs), 432 lots, all expansions installed (none of the Stuff Packs) with their various expansion-hoods.
5) The crash usually only happens after I've been playing for a while (20 mins - 2 hours), with the probability of crashing increasing with the amount of time played.  For example, if I play for 10 mins and save, it will almost never crash.  Play for 10 mins after that and save, it probably won't crash.  Play for 15 more mins and save, it may crash.  Play for 15 more mins and save, it will likely crash, etc.
6) If I "keep it simple" (i.e., do not invite any Sims over and do not visit any community lots) then I can usually play longer.  Once I Throw a Party, go out on a Date, take a Vacation, etc... all bets are off.  This seems to raise the probably of a crash to over 50%.  It only crashes while saving, though. (after the party, date, etc.) Changing seasons also seems to hurt, but I can't tell for sure.
7) Oddly enough, it does not seem to crash during the auto-save that occurs when you visit a community lot.  It never crashes at the "Visiting Downtown" loading screen, for example.  Try to save after the Sims get home -- that's when it crashes.
8 ) The Saving Game box pops up and the Sims2 hourglass spins, like normal.  If it's going to crash, it crashes about a minute into saving.  Sometimes, Windows makes the default illegal operation "gong" sound to let me know the game crashed -- sometimes, it's just silent, and I don't realize it crashed.
9) Either way, Sims2 stays on the screen and sits there, with the Saving Game box still up and the hourglass still spinning (forever).  Sometimes (~20% of the time) the Windows dialog box pops up: "Sims 2 Freetime -- This application has crashed and will now terminate. -- OK"  (or maybe it's "This application has terminated and will now close"... something like that)  The rest of the time, I have to hit alt-tab or ctrl-alt-delete to get to the desktop.  Once at the desktop, that same dialog box will be visible.  Either way, I click OK, and the game closes.  It's frustrating because sometimes it makes no sound and the dialog box doesn't pop up, so I sit there waiting for it to save, not realizing that it crashed 5 minutes ago.  Very frustrating.
10) The crash appears to cause no permanent damage to the lot or neighborhood, but all progress since the last save is lost.

In my opinion, the problem seems to be related to the cumulative amount of graphics or info the game loaded before the save.  So if 15 different Sims visit a lot, the game seems to get overloaded.  It does not crash while playing, but it crashes while saving.  Even if I wait for the visitors to leave before saving, it still crashes.  As if... once the visitors are loaded, the damage is done.  This, to me, suggests very poor programming that contains a memory leak or somehow fails to clean up memory once it's used... combined with very poor programming that causes a crash while saving, if there's insufficient memory.  Of course, I could be way off.

This computer has 2Gig of RAM and an nVidia GeForce 6600GT.  150GB of free disk space.  Out of caution, I always shut down and restart the computer after each crash, before restarting the game.

In all my searching for a solution, I couldn't find anyone else with a problem quite like this one.  I'm actually curious to know if anyone else even has this problem.  If you have a solution, of course that'd be awesome... but this game is so buggy that I don't have high hopes.  Realistically, I'd just like to know how to reduce the probability of a crash to something bearable... like less than 10%.  I don't mind saving every 10 minutes, but I do mind restarting the whole computer every 30 mins and losing 10 mins of progress each time.

Thanks for any help!

Ahhh, thanks for that.  I don't have the buyable rewards, so all my Cow Plant experience is from lots that I play normally.  I assumed since my other Cows ate a few Nannies that they'd eat Freewill residents, too.  Good to know, thanks!

Yeah, my earlier post obviously isn't the final, official rules... it's just my thoughts on a scoring system.  To answer your questions:

As JMP put it, this is a screensaver.  You can't interfere at all, and you can't use Buy/Build Mode.  You build the lot, move in the family, hire NPCs (if you want), enable Freewill, hit triple-speed, let 'em loose, and take bets on who dies first.  It's a spectator sport!

To put it in perspective... This is fundamentally different from other challenges.  For one thing, this is a lot design challenge - not a gameplay challenge.  Second, you're deliberately designing a house of various deaths.  It's not about keeping your Sims alive and comfortable... it's about setting them up to die.  Depending on how "successful" you are, the challenge may end quickly.

For example... one of my favorite (and most "successful") testing lots, so far, has no chairs, couches, or beds on it.  But it has a couple telescopes.  In combination, this worked as an effective Death-by-Disease Trap.  In fact, too effective.

As Lorelei put it, the true challenge is preventing other lot resident idiots from dying the same way.  So, yes, you want to design a Death-by-Fire Trap, but you want to design it in such a way that it hopefully only snares & kills one Sim and then becomes "spent", so it can't kill anyone else.  Same goes for your Death-by-Drowning Trap.  It's a strange way to think about lot design.

The only easy one is the Cow Plant.  You can place a buyable Cow Plant during lot design.  That's basically a freebie, because it's guaranteed to kill 1 and only 1 Sim.  Every other death requires some thought (and luck) to limit the carnage to only 1 Sim.

(and no, you are not allowed to Lock doors... that makes it way too easy)

Oh yeah, I almost forgot... I also had a party guest starve while playing guitar.  He didn't leave when the party ended.  He stayed, kept jammin for hours, and died.  Probably a bug.

That makes 6 accidental deaths at parties.  Time for a FOX 5 Special Report!

It was a genuine accidental death that inspired me to start designing the Death-by-Freewill Challenge.  I had a huge house party going on, and lightning struck two guests in an outdoor hot tub (twice... I think).  The party was so hectic that I didn't even realise what happened till I saw one Sim wandering around with the black-and-burned outfit on.  Then I noticed Grimmy marching toward another black-and-burned Sim in the back yard.  Oops.  IIRC, the party was still a Roof Raiser.

I must be a neglectful player, because I've had several other accidental deaths.  One party host died of disease, because I didn't let him rest enough.  Another party guest died in an elevator.  And (before JMP's warmthfixes), two party guests died from catching on fire in hot tubs.

I guess I throw dangerous parties.

I voted for meh -- who cares.

Yeah, but not on Freewill alone.  There's only a few ways, that I know of, to have visitors (including NPCs) when running on Freewill alone.

Trying to snare & kill service NPCs is fun, though, so I would allow an exception to the rules to Hire a Maid, Gardener, and Nanny at the beginning of the challenge.  Only at the very beginning, though.  After that, it's hands-off.

(the Nanny is another issue... because you could only Hire her "Just For Now", and she'd leave within the first day... unless the rules also allowed you to get jobs for your Sims, in which case you could Hire her to "Track Schedule"... hmmm...)

Considering how hard (lucky?) it would be to pull off a Social Worker kill, I think players should get extra points for this one.  More than just +10 for killing a visitor.  There's something morbidly peotic about scoring a Freewill kill on the Repo Man, hence the extra +5.  I think the Social Worker deserves an extra +15 (for +25 total).  Great idea. 

The challenge ends when all 8 Sims are dead, which (given enough time) is inevitable regardless of Freewill.  So I don't see much point in rewarding something that will inevitably happen anyway.  Also, it's easy to make a single deathtrap snare and kill all 8 Sims within one day on Freewill.

The hard part (the essence of the challenge) is the balancing act of designing as many different Freewill deathtraps as possible without any single deathtrap being so attractive that it catches all 8 Sims.  But I recognize that things might not go according to plan and there may be a mass death "incident".  I'm wrestling with how to handle that, via the token +1 point for each Sim killed in a mass death, since players won't be getting +10 for extra Sims in the "incident".  I appreciate suggestions.

Very good!  I'm also hearing from some people that Death By Flies is still possible.  Overall, it looks like there are plenty of ways for Sims to autonomously kill themselves, especially if you deliberately design the lot as a deathtrap.  This is great for the challenge.

As you all know, it's trivially easy to design a lot to kill Sims fast.  The hard part is to design a lot to quickly kill 8 Sims in 8 different ways.  So the more ways there are for Freewill Sims to die (no matter how unlikely), the better!

Right now, the tentative unoffcial scoring system is as follows:

+10 Points for each unique death
0 Points for subsequent non-unique deaths
+10 Points for each dead visitor (Maid, Gardener, etc), regardless of how he dies (+10 more, if the death is unique, per the above rule) (you will be allowed to Hire NPCs, if you wish, at the beginning of the challenge)
+5 more Points if the dead visitor is the Repo Man
+5 Points if a Sim is Scared to Death by a Sim that was Scared to Death
+1 Point for each Sim that dies in a "mass death event" (2 or more Sims dying simultaneously from the same event, i.e., fire)
-1 Point per day, until all 8 starting Sims are dead

I'd like to add more bonuses like the scared-to-death-by-scared-to-death one.  We'll see what comes up in testing...

Okay, last question about hail:

Does death-by-hailstorm have its own color of ghost?

Wow.  That's stupid.  I would understand if they coded it to send Sims indoors at max priority (even though that would be annoying)... but to make them stand there and get pummelled... that's just dumb.

Does the hail actually inflict "damage" (to motives, I assume)?  Or is it a form of stun-lock, with motives decaying naturally till death?

Wow, I never heard of that one.  I assume it's a (small) random chance, if a Sim is outdoors in a hail storm?

Between lightning, spontaneous combustion, and hail, Seasons is the deadliest expansion pack yet!

I am testing and developing my own "Death By Freewill Challenge".  It is a variation of typical Freewill Challenges.  The object is to design a lot that will cause 8 Sims to autonomously die in 8 different ways.  Maximum points are awarded if every Sim dies in a different way (no repeat ghosts).

Now that death-by-lightning has been added with Seasons, I think there is finally enough different ways for Sims running purely on Freewill to autonomously kill themselves.  So my challenge is almost ready for release.

I just want to confirm some stuff with the Sims-savvy awesome crew here...

Correct me if I'm wrong... Are these are the only ways for Sims to autonomously die?
1) Old age
2) Elevator (OFB)
3) Lightning strike (Seasons)
4) Starvation
5) Flu/disease
6) Drowning
7) Scared to death
Fire
9) Cow plant (Uni)

The following deaths can never occur autonomously... correct?
1) Satellite (I've never seen a Sim autonomously Stargaze/Watch Clouds)
2) Flies (removed from the game circa Uni, right? ... haven't seen one since)
3) Electrocution while Repairing (Sims never autonomously repair)

What am I missing?  I never downloaded the Scissors.  Can Sims use them autonomously?  I also don't have any Vampires... but I assume they can autonomously die from exposure to sunlight?

Also, does anyone have any suggestions for dealing with the way the game makes in-game snapshots unavailable when everybody on a lot dies?  The .jpg files still exist, but the game won't access them because the lot code portion of the filename is no longer valid.  So far, my solution is renaming the files in a DOS window, en masse, to a valid lot code.  But something simpler would be nice.

Thanks for any help.  My testing suggests that this will be a fun challenge. 

Agreed, it was nearly a death-penalty offense.  The Nanny set the bar high for death-penalty offenses in my game, though... nothing really compares to Nannycrimes.  I'm thinking this Energizer-averse mother deserves a life sentence of some sort.  Zombification perhaps.  It would be especially apropos if her own son (now born) executes the punishment.  We'll see...

Thanks for this.  The Energizer code is truly stupid. 

Behold the horror:

Yesterday I sent a tired, slightly-hungry, pregnant Sim to energize.  She pulled the lever, stepped into the bucket, then immediately stepped out to cry "I'm Tired!!"  (no kidding, that's why I told you to use the Energizer, you @$#%^!)
I told her to step back in.  She pulled the lever, stepped into the bucket, then immediately stepped out to observe "It's Raining!!"
I told her to step back in.  She pulled the lever, stepped into the bucket, then immediately stepped out to cry "I'm Hungry!!"
(Repeat, ad naseum, until unconsciousness)

Fun.

I'd like a mod that prevents the "Influence to... Serve Meal" interaction from randomly trying to serve Fish meals that aren't in the fridge.

i.e., my Sims are busy, so I use Influence a lot.  Now, with Seasons, the "Influence to... Serve Meal" can fail because the indentured serv-... I mean, influenced Sim walks up to the fridge, opens the door, then a dialog box pops up saying something like "You can't serve such-and-such Fish dish, because that Fish isn't in your fridge." (or whatever... you get the idea)

The new Seasons dishes simply shouldn't be available for the "Influence to... Serve Meal" interaction.  Or there should be a sanity check against the fridge's contents before the Sim tries to serve.

can someone please confirm whether or not the coffeecuphack was updated and OK for OFB? i've searched this whole site (and this whole post) with no definite answer... i see a couple people are using it, but is it still considered dirty or not?
thanks in advance.

Among other appalling errors...
So far, in every wedding since installing OFB, the bride & groom do not dress for the occasion. (no wedding gown & tux, even w/ wedding party under the arch)

I understand there are hacks out there that do this intentionally.  I don't use them.  Never have.  Wedding gown & tux worked properly till OFB.

Anyone else notice this?

What a stupid, stupid, stupid feature, by Maxis.  Thanks for this patch.

At first, I assumed that playable Sims bought stuff the same way townies do... 1) pull money out of thin air, 2) make object disappear.  That's how it should be.  Of all the times to choose a "realistic" implementation of a feature, instead of a much more playable alternative that requires some suspension of disbelief... Maxis really blew it on this one.

Too bad the only solution is to prevent playable Sims from entering the lot.  If only you could code it so that their shopping transactions (as visitors) have no effect on their inventory or their cash... oh well...