Is there a list I'm not aware of that states which mods are/aren't compatible with BV?  I kept a bunch in the game and played BV for a bit, but took a few out when I ran into some strange behavior (my baby wouldn't grow up, I could leave some community lots, etc.).  Knowing which ones I can leave in for sure and which ones should probably be yanked would be awesome.

Thanks!

Thanks Yay.  The showheadlines will work for Nightlife... Inge's NoBalloons hack also has a plumbbob zapper in the same package, as you mentioned.  Thank you so much!

THe only thing I found was TwoJeff's movie maker tools, which allow you to remove the Zzz's, force thought balloons, and trigger nightmares.  I kinda like the zzz's myself... hehe.

I thought I saw this somewhere, but beats me where.  Anyone know where I can get a hack that gets rid of plumbbobs and thought balloons for story telling and movie making purposes?  Trying to angle the camera to avoid them is difficult at times and it never fails that a stupid thought balloon pops up in the middle of a scene and I have to start over.

Thanks in advance!

THanks for the list -- it's really kinda sad that JM and TwoJeffs fixed most of these problems a long time before Maxis got around to it.  At least they're finally fixing things, though.

Thanks!  Much better than my method.

I made a cute little cemetary in one of my NL neighborhoods and went to a family I've been playing for many generations (so there are about 10 tombstones on the lot).  After I moved the tombstones to my new cemetary, I thought that I could go into the cemetary lot in build mode and move the tombstones where I wanted.  I was wrong -- the tombstones are not there.  When I visit with a sim, the tombstones are there gathered around the pay phone / trash can.  The problem here is that I can't get into build or buy mode in order to move them.

Just for fun, I tried entering the "boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled false" cheat while my sim was visiting the cemetary.  It didn't enable build mode, but buy mode was enabled, and that was enough for me to be able to move the tombstones where I wanted.

Just thought I'd share this with folks in case you're having the same problem with cemetaries and tombstone placement.  Perhaps this will get fixed in the NL patch or someone will make a nice hack.

I did.  It still plays as the main theme when loading, so I just mute the sound until I'm in a neighborhood.   Yes... the sims chatted before, but it wasn't so involved that it took them hours to eat a meal together.

Just a few more gripes... nothing to do with food.  The music that came with Nightlife sucks, especially the one with a chorus of people singing "bah buh buh bah" over and over.  Also, I thought I read somewhere that if you had a car, you could take your kids to school.  Unless I'm missing something, you can't.  And only one sim can take the car to work?  They also said you get an extra hour if you have a car.  Job starts at 9 am, carpool arrived at 8 am.  With a car, instead of the carpool they get a notice saying they have to be at work in an hour, and they autonomously hop in the car and leave.  Where's my extra hour??

Ok, I just have to get this off my chest because it's been driving me crazy ever since Nightlife came out.

They seem to have added more conversation during meals involving more than one sim.  I understand this... if you are on a date you want the sims to actually talk.  The only problem is, when you have a family of four sitting down for a meal together, it shouldn't take 4-5 hours for everyone to get full!  They talk so friggin much that the hunger motive goes down only slightly less than it goes up.  It's so annoying that I've had to start staggering my sims so each one eats alone.

They should have disabled all the extra talking if you aren't on a community or downtown lot.  Hopefully someone will make a hack.

My theory?  This is a direct response to the recent claims that Sims 2 custom content allows people to turn it into "porn" and that Maxis supports, at least by tacit concent, these custom modifications and the mod community in general.  I think this was thrown together very quickly to give people (read: parents) an easier way to scan their custom content and remove anything they find personally objectionable.  This is why it takes a while to load (no time to optimize it), why it doesn't retain sorting options and such after an item is deleted, and why it is distributed in a ZIP file.  They obviously handed it to a small team of developers and told them to get it out ASAP.

Now Maxis can say that they've taken action to help keep custom content out of the game (by end-user choice) and thus retain their T rating.  It's a good solution -- putting responsibility squarely where it belongs.  If you ask me, I don't think they needed to do this.  The hot coffee problem was due to the content being unlocked -- it was already there, created by the developers.  Maxis hasn't put anything "naughty" in the game and shouldn't be held responsible for the content created and distributed by third parties.  But I'll stop there... I'm sure this particular issue has been beaten to death with a flaming flamingo by now.

Meh... I don't get the whole social oriented expansion packs.  If I'm playing a house of more than about 3 or 4 sims, keeping them in the green, getting them through school/work, etc., is hard and time consuming enough (if not tedious and repetitive after a while).  When am I supposed to find time to put them in cars and drive them all over the neighborhood going on dates?

I'm at least pleased that they understand everyone plays the game differently and tries to include new things that appeal to most players.  As long as the new construction tools and objects don't cause my game to explode in a fiery ball which can be seen from space, I'll be happy.  Vampires might be entertaining, too...

Thanks for the advice -- I'll be sure to try the moods / asp test when I play later.  In regards to the instrument playing on community lots, I think my game is bugged and it won't work well if I have more than one instrument... but that's another matter for another post.   Wait... a maxis game bugged?  NEVER

Just out of curiosity, how does the game determine how much a painting is sold for (ones that your Sims paint).  Obviously, it depends on the amount of creativity points the sim has, but beyond that, it seems somewhat random.  I have a sim who is a stay-at-home Dad and during his free time, he paints.  His creativity has long been maxed and most of his points are around 7 or 8 for the other skills.  About 1 in 4 paintings seem to sell above 500, earning him the "masterpiece" memory.  Otherwise, they are anywhere between 460 and 495.  Anyone know what the game uses to determine these sorta things?

Will this work for adopted children?  Would be nice if they remembered the tragic events prior to them being taken away.