Looks interesting. Interesting idea about the no jobs thing as well. I wonder if any of the available storymode mods can handle such a thing. I bet your island ends up to be another Easter Island within a week (ie. empty and dead but once full of life)

Yeah, I've had this issue with a few of HystericalParoxysm's hairs, but those are the only thing I've had a problem with so I just leave them as .package since there are only a few of them and I would rather not mess them. From what I can tell from the error message though, it's due to the fact that the packages are probably just slightly altered from each other and contain identical _KEY files. It may be safe to merge them anyways, but the difference in performance for the few files with that issue would be immeasurable.

EDIT: Since the experimental import to .dbc attempts to merge the _XML files (And fails every time I've tried it saying "manual merge of xml files required"), does that mean those files have been decided to be more then just necessary for the launcher?

If those files were tagged as type 0x73E93EEB(_XML.manifest) then they appear to be safe to delete since they are probably only used by the launcher. To be on the safe side all I did (For most of them, I did delete some and havn't noticed anything missing) was undelete them, go into "Details..." for that resource and edit it's instance number to be something like 0x0000000001, or 2, etc.(Just as long as the number is unique in that package). I've been slowly experimenting with the internals of the package file so I may eventually get around to writing a package merging app which checks for hash collisions and then tries to merge them or at least provide a difference file so the user can interactively merge them like with windiff or similar apps.

Yeah, on most hardware the difference between the game loading one package versus 10 packages is immeasurable, but you really want to keep the number down to as few as you can. Since you can't guarantee that packages made by other people are going to be 100% stable all the time (especially after EA releases a patch) it may not necessarily be a good idea to create a single package with everything in it as it would be difficult to debug, but less files will usually mean an increase in stability. I've still got about 60 package files and it runs just fine (I'm still not yet sure how best to merge some of them), but as I said in my last post you really want to keep it well below 100 as you'll definitely start noticing problems around that point on most hardware. Ideally 1 package should be more stable then even 10, but then if you have a lot of packages (>1GB worth) you start getting into problems with NTFS causing file fragmentation which will also reduce performance.

Assuming these xml files you refer to are the ones tagged 0x73E93EEB, I have also been removing them as according to http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Sims_3:PackedFileTypes they are just manifest files used by the launcher(at least as far as whoever posted that information can tell). I've been finding those resources in all manner of clothing packages, though I think they may all be ones that were created with TSR Workshop and later converted to a .package. In hair packages I've also been finding a lot of redundant resources which appear to reference bone structures for that hair which I have also been removing and havn't noticed any issues yet. Also, for those xml files it may be safer to, rather then deleting them completely, increment the instance value by one and keeping them as I did find some store packages which had multiple instances of those files with different data stored in them (Though again this may only be needed by the launcher).

I probably should have posted something on this ages ago since when the patch broke the launcher I extracted all my sims3packs with delphy's multi-installer and after finding the game suddenly unplayable with all those package files I had merged most of them together into a single storecontent.package file and had been using that for a while without problems. It's not really too surprising that Sims 3 isn't geared towards reading hundreds of small files efficiently since the best practice amongst game engines for some time now has been to create a virtual file system and read everything from a single file to reduce hard-drive access calls to the operating system (Which are very slow on windows).

Depending on your hardware Sims 3 should run without any noticable performance hit as long as you have no more then about 50-60 package files. If you've got a nice fast SCSI drive you may even be able to play without a performance hit without merging any packages and having a few hundred sitting on your drive, but it's always a good idea to reduce the amount of work the OS needs to do and have as few packages as possible. I can't really say what the limit is for Sims 3 as the performance hit may not even be related to the hardware limitations, but based on my own experience programming virtual file systems, trying to access more then 100 files (I definitely had more then 100 files after converting all the arr'd store content to .package) in a program is almost certainly going to produce a drop in performance, and while the hardware may be fast enough to access 45 or 50 files without a noticable hit you really want to try to get that number as close to 1 as possible as it also reduces fragmentation(depending on file size and hardware) and can make the entire game engine run smoother.

Here's a copy of my working_launcher folder. All you need to do to get it to work for you is edit the Resource.cfg file found within to point to your DCCache directory instead of mine.
working_launcher(42.9MB)

This is for WA if that actually matters(Only know of one store content object that specifically says it needs WA, and it may show up in base game if you use this to install it with anyways), and if it doesn't work then you've got problems, either with your computer, or with the thing sitting at your computer.

Based on output from a process monitor, Sims 3 looks for Resource.cfg files in pretty much every folder it opens, so putting the DCCache entry into the Resource.cfg file in Game/bin should work (At least it works for me)

I used the TS3E01 binary from my install disc and it worked fine for installing everything up to the most recent store content.

If anyone needs an unpatched copy of the game binary and they have the digital copy still on their computer (Downloaded the game through EA Download Manager and havn't deleted the install files) they can get the binary from those install files. In Vista or Windows 7 the files can be found somewhere like C:\ProgramData\Electronic Arts\EADM\cache\{ *bunch of random numbers }\sims3_ep01_sku7. Note that the ProgramData folder is hidden so you will have to make sure you have "Show Hidden Files" set in your folder view, and the sims3_* folder is likely to have a different name depending on if it's the base game, or the expansion, and what region. In that sims3 folder you will find the binary in Game\Bin\ and probably named either TS3EP01.ex_ or TS3.ex_. You can follow GnatGoSplats instructions from here on by copying the TS3.ex_ (TS3EP01.ex_) file to your desktop and renaming it to TS3EP01.exe (TS3.exe). I'm unsure where the cache files are for EADM on Windows XP but you may find a similar file tree in C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\EADM (or wherever EADM installs). This is of course only necessary on Vista or Win7 if you don't have a shadow copy (I apparently deleted my backups since the 1.8 patch).

Also if you own the discs for either Sims 3 or the expansion you'll find the binary at Game\Bin\ on your disc as well which you can just copy somewhere and rename to TS3.exe or TS3EP01.exe.

I'm pretty sure that one of the more recent updates to AM made it so that registeredsexoffender couldn't be dropped via droptrait. You can try "droptrait registeredsexoffender" and see what happens, but I don't think it will work. As for Pescado making specific interactions not count as "pedo," he's posted numerous times that he's not going to do anything like that (The game considers those actions flirty, regardless of whether you do or not, and that's all that matters for the pedophile trait). If you have two teens romantically involved and one of them ages up you don't automatically get the pedophile trait, but if you insist on having them still flirt with each other then the YA will get the pedophile trait. I seriously doubt Pescado will ever create "One time" options to remove the effects of people being stupid/overly-curious, so if droptrait doesn't work for you then you'll just have to kill off your sim, or better yet, use the bodysnatch console command to transfer his appearance to another sim and play that sim instead.

The motive decay with twallan's story driver was never enough to actually kill them, however it was enough to make them near impossible to interact with when you invite them over. This didn't happen all the time as some sims would manage their motives well enough, but there are obviously balance issues which may or may not be due to the WA upgrade of Twallan's driver since I didn't use it before WA.

I had completely forgotten about that feature. Many apologies for my misinformation.

In this case I think I'm just being picky, or possibly stupid. With Twallan's story driver all the options makes it feel like I'm controlling the 'hood more even though it's really not doing anything but giving me status updates, while with AMSD things just run, and for the most part quite well, but there just seems to be something missing. I can't really suggest any improvements on that part of AMSD as it really does it's job quite well, but I'm something of an AI enthusiast/hobbiest and the current state of AI in games still disappoints me quite a bit (Sims 3 has particularly lame AI, though it does get the job done even if the pathfinding makes me want to rewrite the whole thing myself).

1. I'm not 100% sure of this, but I think you need to leave story progression enabled. There's a good chance that Pescado has overridden this behavior since AwesomeMod completely replaces everything related to the EA story mode,  but it won't hurt anything to enable it in options.

2. Yes it is normal for sims to move to different lots, unless you set them as sacred, in which case they are supposed to be ignored by the story driver. If you're playing multiple families it's definitely recommended you set the ones you play as sacred unless you don't care what the story driver does to them after you leave them. Unfortunately there are no other control features for AwesomeMod story driver (It would definitely be awesome if the story driver had some sort of configuration menu like Twallan's driver. I know it's a bit harder to do with AM since with it the sims actually do things rather then just giving you popups saying they are doing things while in the mean time they are starving to death in their homes).

3. If you want storymode popups simply enable InformOnStoryAction in the settings. Don't expect anything fancy though as they are really just debug messages, however they will tell you what everyone is doing as they do it.

You'll find that AM story driver and Indie/Twallan's story drivers are completely different animals. With the ISM(and Twallan's story driver) you just got popups saying that some sim was doing something when in fact they just stayed at home and let their motives drop to nothing (very annoying when you want to interact with them and they are never in the mood), but with AM the game actually sends townies out for dates, and to go skilling, but aren't pushed to reach level 10 career as fast as possible. I actually prefer Twallan's story driver due to how configurable it is, but it's been pretty buggy since WA and it still gets annoying having a town full of near-dead people because they don't leave the house to boost their motives.

I never did understand why so many people on forums abuse ellipses. It's..like they all... want to... be... Captain... Kirk!

I agree with you completely. It would seem that my attempts at humor have once again fallen prey to the lack of a sarcasm tag, and, perhaps, my lack of humor  . My warnings in my previous post are quite serious however. Anyone who was stupid/ignorant enough to provide real details to TSR really does need to be careful as when a list like that is leaked out onto the internet, the first people to utilize it are always the spammers and phishers.

Hehe, I never suggested MATY was anything like an army, and it definitely wouldn't do anything I say. I was also not really recommending anyone to DDOS. REAL clever insult by the way  


If pixels weren't important people would not get so upset about what they read in forums.

It's quite amusing to me that THAT was even the part of my post which was focused on. Was it because the words hacker and DDOS were in the same post? DDOS isn't hacking. One thing that should get you worried though is that with your real name and an e-mail address (especially if it's one bound to your ISP) it's pretty easy, for someone who really wanted to, to completely ruin your lives. There's a great possibility that everyone on that list will get considerably more spam e-mails, and you should definitely start using another e-mail address for anything important (ie. banking) as phishing attacks are likely to become more common for those people (some phishing e-mails are incredibly hard to distinguish from the real ones). There really isn't any legal process in any country for dealing with this unless you've got a lot of money to throw at a good lawyer.

I thank you for reading yet another though process by ceftard

EDIT: Fixed tag snafu

Heh, more proof that anonymity is not only important for hackers. For the most part, anyone who got their real name or a non-free e-mail address on that list deserved it. Complaining about it definitely won't do any good (this is the internet after all, nobody cares what you think, and this goes for my post just now as well), but an extended DDOS siege would do well to show TSR the error of their ways (at least temporarily).

Edit: Pay no attention to the little man behind the curtain!

I've had no problems with the sliders from any of the updates, even when I first installed WA. You are looking in the area with the mouth sliders right?

Why do you need the facial sliders updated? AM already increases the slider range to whatever range you prefer, and that's all delphy's facial slider mod does. If your meaning the muscle and fat sliders, then updating it isn't going to do much good as even delphy says they aren't the right way to go about increasing the muscle and fat since core changes would need to be made just to keep the game from bouncing the values back to the built in range.

It's possible that that is one of those quests which doesn't brink up any of the gold interactions like when you have an option to go turn in a quest and instead you just have to do a specific social interaction with a number of sims. One of the quests I've done involves solving riddles and all you do is walk up to a sim and choose the option "Solve a riddle" which doesn't really show up as anything special except for the fact that you don't usually have that interaction, and then after you've talked to a certain number of sims with that interaction the quest just completes itself. Not sure if it's the same thing as you say there's no glaringly obvious option (I would consider a new interaction glaringly obvious), but perhaps your only looking for the highlighted quest buttons and just missed it?

At least a few of the quests send you off to enter some dungeon in either China or Egypt and the entrance is hidden in someones house or something like that. Most of those are still really easy as the switch is right next to where you can tell there are stairs, but there is one in China's forbidden city where I spent at least 30 minutes looking over every inch of the place because the switch was on the opposite side of the city hidden behind a building that was only visible from just the right camera angle.


It must be really difficult to actually get the cursed sarcophagus, because I've had a sim complete every quest in every world and all of the dungeons, but I've only found enough pieces to make 3 Sarcophagus of the Kings and all of them were the blessed ones. I'm thinking that's unusually bad luck though because for one of the quests it actually took me 4 days just to find a common relic for a quest as everywhere I went I just found tons and tons of coins.

Too bad you weren't paying much attention when you managed to create your mummy. I've recreated all three of the sarcophagi that I've (stone box, not-so-fancy one, and then the fancy gold one) and none of them gave me an option to create a mummy, and I even had a sim sleep in the gold one every night for a week without affect. Based on what's in the debugbuy menu there's another two sarcophagi that I've not yet found, and that one in your screenshot appears to be the blessed one I've not been able to find, and then I think the only one that can turn a sim into a mummy is the cursed one which looks that same as that but black with gold trim. That's one of the things that has been bugging me the most about WA. The documentation is non-existent, and many of the quests in the vacation hoods are very unhelpful as they point you to a lot and then you spend an hour looking for a hole hidden under a bush you can inspect which lets you finally enter the tomb/dungeon. Amusingly enough entering some of the dungeons are the only mildly difficult part to them and yet the powder you can buy from the special merchant which is supposed to reveal hidden doors and things in the tombs does nothing to point you to where the trigger to get into the tomb is if you really can't find it. WA is sort of a good idea, but as usual EA botched it.

Sorry about the rant

That 1.7/2.2 patch has actually corrupted my saves somehow as it no longer gives a thumbnail in the load game screen, though that could be a result of doing the save as.. thingy to save to another file. I can't wait for AM to be working again so it will kill some of this queue dropping nonsense. I had forgotten that vanilla Sims 3 drops queue actions after only a second or two of the pathing being blocked/invalid, which happens a lot, especially now in the new WA areas.

1.6.6 came out a few days ago, and now they have 1.7.4 which does nothing but attempt to fix the savegame borkedness. 1.6.6 has thoroughly broken most if not all the mods so it's pretty obvious that 1.7.4 is still doing the same and there are at least a dozen posts about 1.6.6 and AM not working. I'll be amazed if there are no rude remarks as response to your post due to this fact.

Has anyone else noticed that mods are loaded from both the base game mod directory and the WA mod directory if you set it up (as opposed to only loading from the WA mod directory). It also appears that certain items like cloths have to remain in the base game mod directory in order to be loaded, while tuning mods and the sliders have to be in the WA mod directory. The cloths and other things probably can load from the WA mod directory, but when I tested it I had mods broken up in folders based on types, and that doesn't seem to work anymore as even when I was using the same .cfg files I had to dump everything into the mod/packages/ folder. Tuning  and slider mods definitely require that they be in the WA mod/packages directory though as everyone that I tested only worked after moving them there.

The breast slider mod shouldn't cause this effect, though it is quite possible that the breast slider mod in combination with another incompatible mod caused it and removing the breast slider mod somehow made the other incompatible mod less problematic. The mods that I found caused this problem guaranteed (even when they were by themselves) was the old version of the supercomputer, and the teenpregnancy tuning mod, but there are probably plenty more since I don't use all that many mods besides AM. It's probably a good idea to play WA without any mods for a while just so you know what is meant to be there and what isn't, and then add mods a few (or one) at a time.

I've found that for some reason when using WA I can no longer put mods in folders deeper then the Mods/Packages/ folder even with the .cfg file set up for it, so it looks like even the mod framework will need a bit of tweaking for WA. Hopefully further expansions that will inevitably be released won't cause this much of a problem with mods after everything has been fixed to handle WA (it's like Sims 2 Pets all over again).