No, what I meant is that my homeless Sims were moving back in again - so that part is good.

And...  Oddly enough now so is the self interaction issue.  I loaded my game to double check some of the stuff you asked about, but it's suddenly working even before I tried anything.  Which is super weird because I've had that problem for months, the last time I loaded my game a couple of days ago it was definitely not working, and I kid you not I loaded it today after not messing with anything at all and it's working for no reason.  Maybe when I loaded the game vanilla once and then put the AM back in that fixed it somehow?  I mean, I'm pretty sure I checked again to see if it was still broken after I put the AM back in, but it's possible I'm remembering that wrong.

In any event, I even quit and reloaded to see if it was a fluke, and it doesn't seem to be.  So I'll shut up now unless the problem decides to reappear as mysteriously as it disappeared or something.

I have the most updated version of AM and used that for my testing, but I have had this problem since before that - I was just lazy about testing if it was a mod problem, and I didn't want to whine without testing.

I don't necessarily use self-interactions a lot so I'm not sure when the problem started exactly.  I don't mess with my mods that often, but I'm almost completely positive that I did not have this problem 2 months ago, when I resumed playing after about a year of not playing.  At that time I was using a version of AM that was probably a few years old - I got lazy about updating it not that long after it stopped requiring updates - but I ended up updating to the current version because my game was crashing frequently (attempts to track down the cause of the crashes via Google led me to people attributing that specific type of crash to AM, so I tried updating it and that fixed the crashing issue).

On the plus side, I can confirm that this very latest update seems to be working nicely.

I'm having a problem.  When I try to click on the currently selected Sim so that I can select self-interactions, nothing happens - there isn't an error, but no menu pops up.  I did some testing, and if I remove all of my mods except for AM I have the problem, but if I load the game entirely vanilla the problem goes away.  What's up with that?

Yeah I'm pretty sure that the fault is with Windows 10 not playing nicely with the older-than-dirt patching program and not with the PC hardware being too uber.

I actually have the Sims 2 as well, and have that working on this computer too.

That was actually harder to get to work than the original Sims - for that I just had to make it run in admin mode and windowed, but display at the maximum size it can (which is still much smaller than the screen size of a modern monitor), and you also need to Ctrl+Alt+Delete, then cancel, after it loads or all you can see is a black box even though the game loaded.

That was nothing compared to Sims 2, where the main difficulty is that I have each individual expansion instead of some sort of complete set combo.  That means that in order to install each expansion the previous expansion needs to be updated to the latest patches.  But though said patches are provided on the disc, they refuse to install.  So I ended up trying to overwrite my installation for each expansion with the files from my archived Sims 2 game from the pre-Sims 3 era, and that worked somehow.  I'm convinced that short of something like that or hackery beyond my skills, it's probably impossible to install Sims 2 on a modern PC unless you have the all-in-one combo set.

I got the Sims 4, but I didn't like it so I don't play it.  Instead I managed to get my copy of the original Sims working (which was hard because I have a modern gaming PC running Windows 10).

Finally got around to testing the Avalikia case again properly.  Sims who are already in a steady relationship or more can now romance in spite of becoming step-siblings.    I recommend allowing romance between step-siblings who are merely romantic interests as well, but I do recognize that since that isn't really a committed relationship one could argue that it's different.

My two cents:  I had two young adult Sims who got married.  Each of them had an elder parent and those two got married - which was allowed by the game with nothing but AM installed (and I assume that AM did nothing to alter whether or not that was allowed).  The instant that they got married, the original couple could no longer have romantic interactions with each other even though they were still married because they were then also considered to be step-siblings.  Once one of their parents died, they were then allowed to resume romantic interactions.

Therefore the current setup is indeed borked; no matter at which point you start claiming incest, either the game allows you to do things it shouldn't or isn't allowing you to do things it should.  Either the parents of two married Sims should not be considered romantic targets (as well as any other sort of in-law that could potentially have this problem), anyone not a blood relative should be an acceptable romantic target, or having any sort of pre-existing romantic relationship should trump any sort of family relationship.  Because what person tells their spouse: Ew, I can't touch you now, because now that our parents are married we're step-siblings.

I had this problem in my game, though at the time I was unable to figure out the solution to it and I no longer have that save.  I don't have Supernatural or Seasons, but I my game is fully patched and the only mod I use is AM.  Was the ability to send love letters included with the patch?  Because if so, I've never seen that option in my game.  And if not, I can verify that love letters are not the problem.

The AM has not yet been updated for the newest patch just yet, though it sounds like it will be very soon.  In the meantime, attempting to play your game with the unupdated AM is not advisable, even if it works.  Your best options currently are to play without the AM, or wait for the AM to be updated before playing.  In the future I advise to checking to make sure that the AM has been updated before patching so that you don't get yourself in this situation again.

Ah... I spent some time away from this forum, but it's nice to know that everyone here is just as mature, articulate, pleasant, and not full of random hate for absolutely no reason as ever.  It's like coming home!

Likely he's too busy updating the AM to bother to do anything as pointless as keeping us updated on his progress.

In case anyone cares, we finally decided to order a computer from Dell.  We were able to get a pretty good deal on it too, courtesy of the place my dad works at.  Here's some highlights of the specs:

- Windows 7
- Intel Core 2 Quad Q8300 (2.5GHz, 4MB)
- 4GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHZ- 2X2GB DIM M
- 640GB Serial ATA 2 Hard Drive 7200RPM
- Nvidia GeForce GTS 240
- 21.5 inch Full HD Widescreen Monitor
- 16X DVD+/-RW Drive

I still don't know what half of that really means, but it comes with all the other stuff (monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc.) and I believe it ended up being ~$900 after shipping and whatever.  Thanks for the advice, everyone (whether I took it or not).

@witch - The reason I'm asking here instead of a search engine is because I can presumably get advice on which computer parts to look up from people who are familiar with the Sims 3.  If I knew what I was looking for, I wouldn't have bothered to ask!

@Marq, Hegelian, and nanacake - I do have someone who is able to put together a computer, but he might want to just buy one.  So I guess that means that building is an option but buying is preferred.  I know that compter sites allow you to sort things by price and specs, but that's useless to me until I know what specs I want.  I know the specs to meet the minimum requrements for The Sims 3, but it's been my experience that just meeting the minimum requirements for a game in the Sims series means that it'll run, but not very well.  What I need is the specs for something that will run it very well, but not so top of the line that the price gets unreasonable.  Also, I have access to XP, but I don't know whether or not I hate Windows 7 yet or not because I haven't tried it.  I've heard the hype that it's an improvement, but they said the same thing about Vista and that was all L&P.

Okay, so my parents are finally thinking about getting a new computer because the ten year old one I've been using finally gave out.  Since I'm the only one in my family that wants more out of the computer than the ability to use the internet, they're leaving the specs up to me.  However, I don't know hardware.  At all.  Especially since I'm largely unaware of the advances in computing since we got the old one.

So, here's what I do know:
- My budget is ~$1,000.  This number is extremely flexible at this point.
- It will be a desktop, not a laptop.
- The most important thing is that I want it to run The Sims 3 very, very well.
- The second most important thing is that I want it to run The Sims 2.
- If it can do both of those, I know it'll probably be able to handle everything else I want it to do.

Here's what I don't know:
- I know I'll want a good processor.  What's a "good processor" nowadays?
- I know I'll want lots of RAM.  Same question as above.
- Is there anything else that I'll want to meet a certain standard?
- Since I'm skeptical at best about anything made by Microsoft (death to Vista!), I'm wary of Windows 7.  Is that feeling justified?
- Is there anything (features, brands, etc.) that I don't know that I want or that I should avoid?

Any advice is greatly appreciated (unless you're stupid), especially if anyone knows any links to good sources of information.

Or, since this challenge is specifically allowing plant sims, you simply make your founder a plant sim and have them make a plantbaby.  Plant sims don't have to eat and, if you have more than one, neither does anyone else on the lot.  If you have two adult plant sims use Spores of Happiness (avaliable whenever they're in a really good mood, which isn't hard to do thanks to their three simple needs) on eachother, the result is a net increase in mood unless the bar was already fuller than the automatic penalty applied when they're done spouting off spores.  If you have more than two it only enhances the effect.  Any non-plant sims simply need to stand around the same area while they're doing this to meet all their needs.  Therefore no food is actually required in this challenge aside from enough to last first sim until they turn into a plant sim and, therefore, this challenge cannot be challenging until plantsims are specifically not allowed.

Yes, I did check them out, mostly so that I could P&L.  Allowing them to have laughably unrealistic things just because they appear to be period defeats one of the main purposes of that neighborhood: to give me something hard enough to do that it's worth playing the Sims 2 at all.  Besides, outside of cartoons cavemen didn't have running water or enough clothes to require a dresser, and if they did I'd happily allow them to have modern-looking ones - this is about making them live like they're in the stone ages, not about making them look like they live in the stone ages.

In their free time they enjoy jumping rope, tossing footballs, making friends or enemies with the people who walk by, training the dogs they bred from wolves, stargazing, grooming eachother like monkeys, etc.  A few of them are shaman and they get to be witches and spend their time doing that (though they don't get a spellbook).  And I do make them fish and farm even though they don't need to - I plan to eventually recreate human history by changing the rules to make it more like the bronze age, then on from there until they reach modern times or the neighborhood implodes, whichever's first.  They'll probably want the extra food at some point.  They don't meditate much because, aside from a few move-ins that came with them, there's no way for them to get the three required logic points.  And they don't dream date much either because I find that whole process tedious and boring.

Pfft.  You call this a challenge?  My stone age style neighborhood is more restrictive than this including, but not limited to: no plumbing whatsoever, building restrictions, no reading material, no skilling items, no crafted items, no college, no sprinklers, no greenhouses, and so forth.  Aside from the only fridge on the first lot I purposely waste all the food points in a new fridge.  Granted, I allow sims to move in for marriage and all children and teens go to school.  Of course, the fact that everyone is full and accident free on weekends should be proof enough that I'm not using the latter as a crutch.  Did I mention that I've never had to actually use any of the food they've grown or fish they caught?  Or sold them?  Or that this neighborhood has over 75 playables and nobody's ever been close to dying prematurely?  And they have plenty of money?

No, this isn't challenging at all.

@floopyboo - I don't do stupid things like that, and if I did I wouldn't ask for help when things exploded.

@Pescado - Deleting her and reloading the lot solved the problem.  Other Sims can now harass her normally.

One of my Sims become borked somehow a few simdays ago, but I only just now realized the exact nature of the problem.  (Long story short: I was blaming the problem on her ex-NPC husband, but just figured out that her, not him, who is causing the problem.)  When other Sims try to initiate actions with her nothing appears in her queue and it quickly disappears from theirs; if she initiates the interaction everything proceeds normally.  This started happening around the same time she got married during a date at her home - I suspect that may be related but I could be wrong.

Let's see, other relevant info...  I've tried resetting her, there are no unusual options available on the batbox and I've tried all of the usual options that I thought might help.  There haven't been any error messages lately.  She's a born-in-game Sim who hasn't had anything odd happen with her before.  I haven't had any other odd happenings in this particular neighborhood, so I'm thinking that whatever is happening is strictly limited to this particular Sim.  I have all the expansions (patched), none of the stuff packs, a lot of awesomeware, and minimal tight pants.

Any ideas on why this happened and what I can do about it?

It would be pretty sweet if it's possible to make something like that.  Unfortunately I suspect removing permaplat due to aspiration fulfillment would be more complicated than that - wouldn't the Sim regain permaplat almost immeadiately because that meter is still full?  It's quite not the same simple yes/no switch applied to LTW fulfillment.  I suspect that a better method would be a hack that  alters how fast they gain aspiration satisfaction in the first place, since it's ridiculously easy to get it really high, really fast.  Even the born-in-game sims in my stone age neighborhood are consistantly becoming permaplat by at least early adulthood (often in conjuction with marriage/first woohoo/first child stuff, though sometimes before) despite the rather extreme handicaps I play by in that neighborhood.

I'd really like to test this, but I'm apparently having a problem finding the right version of SimPe.  I have 0.72.01 and that is the newest version I can find anywhere, and I literally looked all over the place.

Augh!  That is NOT how you do hybrids.  I dunno what the "right" way to do hybrids is (or if such a thing exists outside of the theoretical - after all, aren't furries already supposed to be hybrids?).  But that's definately not the way to do it.

Hmm, well whatever it is, it isn't tight pants.  I tested my game with my tight pants removed today and there was no change.  To add even more fun and suspense, I've noticed that one particular puppy out of a litter of three (these would be Soot's cousins, incidently) seems to be responding much less to "playful" and "calm" training than the other two - as he's still running around crazily, howling, barking, etc. while his littermates have pretty much given all of that up.  It's hard to say since puppies are so limited in their behavior patterns, but I may have problem dog #3 in the works.  I'll let you know once he's big enough to do more than bark at nothing.

Edit: Sorry I didn't get back very fast.  But during that time I've had plenty of opportunity to observe my dogs very closely.

I'm beginning to suspect that it could have everything to do with the adopted wolves - that something (probably Eaxian dumb-code) is pushing dogs to go after wolves.  However, I'm only guessing this because I noticed it's always the dog that's the aggressor and the victim is always a wolf.  But that isn't definative conclusion to reach because this neighborhood has a grand total of one lot with more than one adopted wolf on it and no lots where more than one adult wolf lives - the vast majority of my lots with dogs contain one adult dog and one adult wolf.  Obviously I've been trying to breed dogs that look like wolves but, since my sadorandom number generator doesn't seem to like making female wolves, my dogs are too related to breed to eachother so that makes dog/wolf pairings necessary.  And it's only some of these pairings that result in hostility - some of them are perfectly fine.

So the problem could have nothing to do with wolves vs. dogs since my sample size of anything else is so small, especially if it's a problem that the wolves are somehow immune to.  So, barring finding a Eaxian dumb-code, I've been thinking that the best way to conclusively say whether or not this is the case is to edit one of my victim wolves in SimPE so that the game no longer identifies it as a wolf instead of a dog and see if that solves the problem.  I'd have tried that already but I don't know exactly what I'd need to edit, despite my better-than-newbie SimPE skillz.  Or I could figure out how to get enough dogs on the same lot who like eachother enough that they shouldn't be fighting, but that would end up being a lot of work thanks to how I've got everything setup now.