On the topic of Furry McBlinghorn; wtf is it going on about with these supposed crossed posts? Is it seriously patting itself on the back for posting to the same thread as people it admires? Is this now what the kids think crossposting means? Why hasn't it been rightly shunned as a firstie for this shit? So many questions!

Also: HAY GUIZ! I POSTED IN THE SAME THREAD AS U!

Wait, you've been on the internets since before we "kids" were born and you haven't figured out how to traverse a well organized directory tree? Are you assuming we're all infants, or are you just that slow on the uptake? Perhaps we are all still in the hospital nursery.

I'm not even going to bother with questioning your credentials, because it's a moot point. Instead, I will say this about resting on alleged IQ laurels: YOU HAVE TO FUCKING USE IT FOR IT TO MEAN ANYTHING.

Yes, sort of, using PlayOnLinux, a happy little tree python wrapper for wine. It has scripts for installing Sims 3 from basegame to Ambitions (bring your own iso).  All in all, it's painless, except for graphical glitches here and there, which are probably card related.  (Well, a combination of bad card and poor card support.)  To mitigate them, I have everything set to low, with reflections on.  Parts of the game look like muddy shit, but hey, it runs, and I don't get a CTD.  It's my understanding that quite a few people have gotten it to work without these issues, but I haven't done enough troubleshooting/research to verify.  I've been so giddy over just getting the damn thing to work after a slew of games refused to run on Linux, that I hadn't really given it the attention it warrants.

Yes, but I still damn near squealed like a 6 when I noticed the "toes".  I hadn't seen this lot until this thread, and felt like I just got a prezzie.  I know it's not possible, but I sort of wish it wandered around.  That would make my day, along with a modified social worker.

Coming down from the land of pure imagination, and thinking more directly about the challenge;  What I'd want to make would end up more along the lines of exacerbating the phail, rather than mitigating it.   Less accessible/moar baba!  Any witch/warlock worth their salt circle can teleport, after all.  Shame I'm such a shitty builder.  Er, either that or everyone could breathe a collective sigh of relief.  All together now!

Actually I've had the same problem as Count.  They've never been able to macro->eat unless there is prepared food available on the lot.  I think that if I time it so that an adult is already laying out food during their macro->eat, then the kid can nab it, but otherwise no inventory food for them.  I ran tests in the past to verify that the food itself was fine, but don't remember the details clearly at this point.  Well, beyond "Yep, they should be able to eat this," that is.  I'm unsure if it's a factor in context, but I don't have FEY yet.

New test with gelatin, as it's notoriously not filling.
1. Child with ~1/3 hunger bar.  Had an adult serve Gelatin. 
2. Put both the serving platter and a single plate into the child's inventory: no macro->eat.
3. Put plate on the floor: macro->eat became available.
4. Used it and the child ate the gelatin on the floor.  When done, the child's hunger bar was at ~2/3.

Conclusion: it doesn't seem to be an issue of overly filling food.

ATM, I just toss some food on the floor when I notice the kids getting hungry, and let them have at it with macro->eat.  It's a hassle, but it hadn't gotten to the point where I could focus on getting an answer rather than getting distracted by all the tutorials, fixes, and shinies.  Which, incidentally, was how I found this.


Huh, weird.  Perhaps the kid was just shy of full and there was a mostly finished plate somewhere?  That or the kid has a bizzaro!stomach.  "Me not hungry!  Me very not hungry! *keels over*"

*inscribes circles on the ground in blood*

Hokay, now that the necromancy is out of the way, I have a question.  I feel really silly for asking this, because I feel like the answer is in here, but I'm just paranoid enough to be hesitant.  Or hesitant enough to be paranoid.  Or both.

So, I'm up to the part where I'm supposed to load Old!SimPE and delete the SDSC.  Old!SimPE isn't cooperating, but I can find the SDSC resource for said sim in QA!SimPE, which I can delete, extract, etc.  Basically it has the same drop-down menu options as in the picture for this step, plus some others.  Is there a functional difference between the two?  If so, is the difference relevant in context, or would deleting that serve the same purpose?

I guess the meta question is: Are resources just files within the package, or is there a layer of abstraction here?

Not to state the obvious, but I see at least two variables there.  More depending on what the timeline actually was, and what preparations were made.  When testing, you want to minimize those as much as you can.  I'm not suggesting you set up a sterile lab environment, but there were some steps you could have taken that would have helped immensely.  Now, I don't know if you did take extra measures, and neglected to mention them.  Judging only on what I see, however, even if your conclusion is correct, I would call the data you used unreliable.

Question: Did you have a look at what your system thought it was doing around the times that your sims went stupid on you?  If so, was there anything of note?


Hrm...  I'm not sure I can agree. I bought my current computer sometime late last year.  It was cheap and initially couldn't even load Northrend.  More memory fixed that, but I still get happyfuntiemlag in Dalaran during WG.  ("Blah blah WoWcrack. Blah blah system on knees. Blah, mostly fix't!" to the unaddicted.)  This isn't a lean mean gaming machine.

That said, I haven't seen any performance issues from AM that weren't already there in the vanilla (unpatched) game.  In fact, I haven't run into the previous performance issues yet, but won't assume they're gone until I get much more playtime under my belt.  Not that I haven't run into problems, but the issues I've pinned down so far have been unrelated.

If it is a system spec issue, I'd suspect it's more complex than AM requiring a "super powerful PC". Wizard_merlin gets into this here:

To expand on that a bit, computers are not monolithic slabs of hardware, but interconnected modular bits of hardware.  Now I admit, I haven't recently been windowshopping, but my cynical experience is that on a typical premade computer, these bits are not of equal quality, and the salespeople are only too happy to wave the shiny bits in front of you while kicking the subpar components into the back room where THEY ARE NOT ALLOWED TO FRATERNIZE WITH THE CUSTOMERS OR ELSE THEY WILL GET THE HOSE AGAIN.  Assuming they even know which is which, natch.  I doubt this has changed.

Guh, I'm oversimplifying things a lot, and think I'm running the risk of either talking in circles or rambling uselessly.  I'll just end here.

Ah, see I'd thought those (the romantic entanglement ones) were based on some sort of flag set within the characters/their relationships.  I didn't consider that the memories would actually be those flags.  Now I'm curious as to whether or not BV mementos function the same way.  So... what happens if you Cast Spell->Tabula Rasa someone?  I've been gunshy what with how Maxis has provided game-breaking options with apparently little forethought on the far-reaching implications.  Or immediate implications, in the case of moving occupied lots.

Then again, I could just run some tests in my testhood.  Since, well, that's what it's there for. Don't mind me.

I'm curious about the 1%. Would they be painfully obvious, if my brain wasn't functioning like frosted flakes at the moment?

Ah, okay.  They're free so, no.


Ooh very nice.  I'd heard of it, but always assumed it was just for clothes.  I am now happily corrected, and have been playing with it -- although sometimes the content won't properly load.  I'll see if I can reproduce the effect, and investigate further.  In the meantime, I've also gotten off my ass and started poking at SimPE.  Seriously, I think this is becoming a hobby in and of itself.

Thanks again for your help.

I miss a few things, such as the different life-states, but no object sticks out in my mind nearly as much as that junker car you could restore.  Maybe it's hidden somewhere, but I haven't been able to find it.  What's the point of making redneck, genius, handy sims if I'm not going to have at least one trashed car on the lot for him/her to tinker with?

Sims 3 needs moar engine grease on my sims' hands.

Ah, yes.  Actually I had found this on my google hunt, and did that with gusto!  I just felt a little awkward going "Okay, got that now!"  It was starting to feel a little Monty Python "I'm not dead"-ish.  However, thanks all the same!    I should probably lay off the Red Bull.

Only slightly ot, but the mesh/hair in question was the s2s rasta hairsets in the booty page, which don't have their respective meshes included.  Nor do I see them in the mesh directory, but I could just be missing the obvious.  I did manage to nab them from tsr though.  Dunno if/where I should put them up.

I still want to see if I can fix the binning/linking issues in these.  Have tutorials in hand, just have to work up the guts/space.  I'd like to say that I'll also do a recolor of the fades, but let's not get ahead of myself.  I've only just begun organizing my downloads, after all. <_<

Apropos of little, but my Observant Rock Star has trouble with hers for a totally different reason.  She's too busy "OMG YAY/BOO!"-ing the fans' traits to actually move on to the next one.

Okay, the title pretty much says the problem, but here's the full skinny.  I got the selection of fades from JayUrban.  It all looked fine at first glance.  Which is to say I did a quick: "Yep, right number of new thumbnails," check and shrugged.  (I know better now.  Especially as it's not the right number for any haircolor other than black.)  Also, no such problems were mentioned in the comments I read, which must have lulled me into a false sense of security.

So here's where things get funky.  When I try to use the hair in any of the color bins, I get an open skullcap during the preview.  I don't have a screenie, but I think you know what I mean.  It doesn't show any hair at all. When I try to use any of the hairs, it loads up this one instead:

*irrelevant image is irrelevant*

Kind of funny as it was the fact that I wanted alternatives to this exact 'do that made me download those.

Anyway, when I loaded up the custom bin on a whim, I found them.  With the correct thumbnails and everything!  They even work in game.

Now my uneducated guess is that there's a binning issue somewhere in the mix, but that it's not the only problem.  (I have improperly binned hair that I'm planning on fixing, and it doesn't do all of this.)  I want to say that there's probably a texture problem too, but I wouldn't know.  Am I wrong?  Will just going through the binning tutorial -- which I'm planning on doing with the other hairs -- also completely fix this?

I intend to open these up and have a look at the innards, but I guess what I want to know is if I'm missing something obvious, or if there's a catch I should watch out for before I'm up to my elbows in CC guts.  Or maybe someone with a practiced eye can let me know if I'm on the completely wrong track.  This will be my first attempt at anything like this, so...  *runs screaming*

Oh hell.  The glitch was actually with another hair I'd also installed (w/o mesh apparently).   I'd assumed it was this one because short-haired thumbnail means short hair, obviously!  Even though it totally doesn't.  Now I must be off to find out if there's a way to correct the damn thumbnails.

Hmm, themewise I really like the enforced repoman visits.  It just fits this whole shitfuckedverse theme to have some guy come and ransack your house regularly.  Feels Madmaxian.

Also, I've been messing around with this myself, and yeah money hasn't been a big problem, or a problem at all actually.  The real problem was something along the lines of "Oops, broke that one, broke that one... *loud swearing and keyboard smash*->new family" with regards to the rules, but the printout should help.

<_< What?  I'm new to challlenges.

Actually, I feel like the rule breakage has given me more grief than it could possibly have been worth if one were to do it on purpose.  So I don't know if a hamfisted pseudofix would actually be a cop-out.  (I intend to play both through, with that one as an acknowledged FAIL.)  But again, I'm new to a lot of this.


Can I ask why?  I have it, and definitely plan to use it in college for the rev. 2. (Romance sim.  Go team skank!)  I've been weighing whether or not to deactivate it during the actual apocalypse scenario.  I certainly see how the default settings would be a big no-no.  If I were to keep it, it'd be with try for baby odds maxed, while making sure the pregnancy chance matches the default.  Thing is, I don't know if it'll all factor out right.  My thought being, from reading legacy challenges (and some of my own households) that "SURPRISE! BABY!" can throw a wrench into things like little else can, short of simdeath.  Though I might be mistaking enforced annoyance/irritation as difficulty.

The ezmode wooing interactions with lowered thresholds, is my other concern.  But if you modify autonomy settings, shouldn't you be able to avoid using those interactions on anyone you haven't already established a relationship with?  (That would be part two of my half-baked brilliant plan.)

I haven't really tested all the diff acr settings, and observed the effects, so, I'm not sure if this all works out in play rather than on paper.  (Incidentally I'm also new to mods.  Been using them for maybe a week.  It probably shows.)

I've seen that! It looks freaky.  Especially when it's one of the SV babysitters watching my poor vulnerable chil'rens!  But... for the record, I don't have awesomemod, any mod, cc, nor any patches, on my current install. <_<  (I'm getting there.  It took me about a year to consider Auctioneer, and even more for Carbonite.)  Though I wouldn't call it a vanilla copy.

Anyway, I normally go on a process killing spree when that happens.  Mixed results, and a few repeat offenders.  However, all of these alternate remedies and circumstances have me wondering, well, a few things actually.  Poorly summed up as: wtf do they all have in common, aside from running the sims 3?  Is it just that the system is on its knees at the moment, for various reasons?  Or is everyone just waving chicken bones to "fix" it?

Same.  I'd done something which caused their actions to get interrupted and went back into the town, with that same family.  Turns out, work/school not immune to the interrupt.  These guys were all hanging out outside of their respective rabbit holes!  Annoying, but a surprise that wasn't so surprising in retrospect.  I sent them all back, which was fine except that now my kid had to redo the day's homework.  I guess because they get new hw assigned on "leaving" school, no matter the circumstance, and it's due upon return.  Again, no matter the circumstance.  That was irritating.

In my experience, this is not necc for two reasons.

1.  With a lucky roll, I guess, I've had a sim get that opportunity after relatively shortly after befriending and romancing up a pre-dead ghost.  However, trying the other way has actually taken me forever and a half.  I have some saves I've given up on for just the same problem you mention.

2.  Curiousity got the better of me, so I put on my robe and wizard hat lab coat and ether goggles.  I was specifically testing if you can get the "manage the dead" masoleum option to grab the grave of a sim that died while living alone -- provided you load up the lot of someone s/he befriended.  After maxing CASsie's friendship with Leighton, I had her starve in the park.  (Three times, before I removed the unlucky trait.  Before then, I thought "lulz!pity" from the Grim Reaper was an occasional occurrence with that perk. Er... what are the actual stats?)  Loaded Leighton, and no option appeared.  Hrm.  Checked the park.  The grave was still there, and he could pick it up.  Whoohoo!

Then I got curious again.  This time, CASper died inside his trailer, with new bestest friends in the Bachelor house.  Again, no Manage The Dead.  New CASper moved in, and lo and behold.  Grave.  Not where I left it, but still in the house.  Killed him, and moved someone else in.  Got the burial ground event, and went with it, for fear of wiping the other graves along with the new ones.  Original graves still there, with collectable gems spawned on them like the others.

So it seems character death isn't really all that permanent.  With some patience, luck, and ambrosia, it might be possible to have them up and breathing again.  I think.  I haven't really tried yet.

... Which is completely irrelevant in and of itself to what you said, but here's the relevant part:

What appears to be the deciding factor is your relationship level with the ghost.  Since the graves aren't destroyed, even if they die alone at home, you can gain access to the ghost, and build up said relationship.  I'm not recommending planning it out that way, since it could be more trouble than it's worth, but it still allows for flexibility if this is something you want to push later on in your town.  Or, if your sim actually dies accidentally.  It happens, right?


It kind of bothers me how ineffectual they are in comparison to sims 2 ghosts, but they are purty.  Also, ghost babies/toddlers don't earn my hatred nearly as fast as their living, and gratingly louder, siblings.

I was disappointed to learn that they aged. Seriously?  I understand that it probably keeps the ghost babies from being forever so, but...  I feel like there's gotta be something else that can be checked against.

[Edit: alone, not along.  Though the idea of a die-along is kind of amusing.]
[Edit 2: Gah! Double post fixed.  Sorry.]

Ahh, that makes sense.  She was at the relatively boring and empty food&bookstore lot during the particularly notable incident.  (I scatter my larger households on various errands, and bring them back mostly en masse.)  Limited options = greater odds of nom nom nom?

Also, just remembered: does the option for sleeping at work occur with anyone other than the light/heavy sleepers?  I know students will have the option when tired, but I haven't gotten it with the adults unless they had that trait.  In which case, I'd call it a notable thingie.  Though it's not an efficient method of filling the sleep bar, it's proven handy occasionally when I had "Plans for them dammit!" right after work, and didn't want them complaining.  Though it probably helped in those cases that none of them were "breadwinners", so promotions where kind of an afterthought.

  I might actually be able to give some handy dandy input here. Woah.  (I've been combing this site for hours just sucking in data on sim 2 glitches, caveats, restores, etc.  This site is a goldmine  The possibility of actually contributing is awesome. Especially as I might have stupid questions in the future. <_<)

At the very least, I have some observations that I will run further tests on, now that I have a good & proper test town.  CAS up some sims with just one trait and see how they go a Ellatrue's suggestion.   Maybe some other kind/cruel soul would see if they can get the same results.  Yay for repeatability!

Evil:  One thing I didn't see mentioned, but possibly because it was seen as obvious: Just as Good sims can donate to charity, Evil sims can donate to undermine charities.  The result is the fiendishly delighted buff.  Also, they can "Troll on forums".  If they get a response, again, the same buff.  I know they aren't the only sims who can access that interaction (I think Mean-Spirited and Inappropriate also get it), but I haven't yet had the chance to reap rewards from a response to the others so I don't know what they are. Actually that interaction is kind of frustrating, if cute in the beginning, in that I often either check back too early, or forget to check back at all.

Insane: Just ran a check and the Talk To Self action also increases social as well as fun, as expected.  Also they get four friendly Insane social options with other sims right off the bat: "Catch Anything?", "Tell Ghost Story", "Talk About Conspiracy Theories", and "Speak Madness".  All of the above are generally well received.  Nice for padding the social queue.  You can also argue right off the bat.  (And they just might, on their own.  Good times.)

I have another observation, that is so anecdotal it's not even funny. I know I will have to run some tests to be sure about this, but my insane sim has this nasty habit of just randomly eating produce in her inventory.  Normal, if she was hungry, but not so normal when she's already Stuffed, just ate another head of lettuce after being Stuffed, and tried again though that time I was quick enough to cancel it.  And I was wondering why she kept getting phantom stuffed moodlets and where my produce was running off to.  I'm afraid that since then, I've made sure my insane sims don't hold produce so... yeah.  Again, I really need to run some tests.  I'll let people know my findings, but in the meantime, has anyone run into this issue with a sim who is not insane? I haven't.

Neurotic:  Checking sinks also gives a mood buff, which is great, because, along with freaking out, my neurotic sims do it autonomously all the time.  Though they do get the occasional anxious debuff, which is remedied by checking the appliance anyway.  Also they seem to be compatible with Insane sims, as IIRC the compatibility animation/action/thing gets triggered by the "Talk About Conspiracy Theories" with an Insane sim. 

Inappropriate: Spongebath interactions for the sinks.  Awesomely handy if applied right, but they shoo people out of the room.  Kind of disappointing, as I was hoping to shock a few house guests by using that in an open kitchen.  However, they don't seem to get embarrassed, evar.  Again, handy, particularly when getting ready for work/school in crowded households.  They also appear to have early access to some rude socials, and will use them autonomously.  Something to keep in mind.

Daredevil Okay another anecdotal thing.  Has anyone here tried killing a Daredevil by fire?  Have they succeeded?  I was making a ghost household, and decided I wanted my fire ghost to be a daredevil.  Ugh.  First off, he kept trying to put out the fire. Also, he was cheering it on.  Now, I had researched, and expected the extended timer for the "On Fire" moodlet.  What I didn't expect was that when it expired, he didn't.  Instead, he got Adrenaline Rush.  Seriously, I put at least a rl hour into it, clicking as fast as I could to cancel actions.  Maybe my click-fu is just insufficient, but even that is something someone may want to consider if they plan to make a poetically pyromaniacal fire ghost.  I mean, I'm not a Quake god, but I did my time in Karazhan...

Genius:  Completely hazy half-remembered thought.  Don't Genius sims have less fun depletion during homework/studying?  Do they complete it faster?  I thought I tested it, but as I recall, the test cases had multiple variables, so it doesn't really count.  Also they get the "Solve the Unsolveable" or somesuch interaction on the computer.  On top of potentially being a itty bitty source of extra income, the text revolving around the problems they solve can be kind of cute/funny, depending on what you get.

That's all I can think of atm.  I apologize if my grammar/spelling was off, or if I left dangling sentence fragments all over this post.  I do that sometimes, especially when I've been awake for far too long.