Help with Custom TV Channels and Seasons/Celebration Stuff

[Beckett]

I hope someone here can help me, because I'm all out of ideas...I have two custom tv channels, but I recently noticed that when my sims are watching them, the screen is flashing blue. I checked all the usual folders and the Broadcast files, but nothing was overwritten and the movie files are all still there. I think that they might have been broken by Seasons, since the weather channel changes with the season, but I didn't notice the problem until after I'd installed Celebration Stuff, so that might be at fault, too. Does anyone know if the paths for television channels have been altered by the EP or SP? How do I fix it so the movies show up in the game? And if they aren't at fault, what else could be? I removed all downloads except the channels from the folder to check for confliction, but they still didn't work. I hate to delete the channels, because it is much easier to gain Mechanical skill points that way than by studying. Thanks in advance for any help or suggestions!

[Magicmoon]

Seasons DID change the channel lineup by adding 4 new channels, one for each Season's weather, although Sims actually only watch one of these at a time, depending on what season it is whenever they choose the weather channel.

First, you have to change the broadcast.ini in TWO places. First in the My Documents area in the config folder, and then again in the main program on your C: drive, in the Seasons directory. These must match.

Broadcast.ini should contain one line describing the channel, and then it must also contain the description and folder info for that channel. In addition, you must have a folder with each channel name in the movies/broadcast folder in My Docs.

I have included my modified broadcast.ini. You will not be able to use mine unless every channel is exactly the same. Since I no longer use the mechanical skill channel, I know that they are not duplicates.

You will notice that the first 11 stations are Maxis stations and already have corresponding folders in your Movies/Broadcast folder. Your broadcast.ini should look the same as mine up to this point. If it doesn't, you should change it. Also notice when you scroll down, you will find descriptions of each of these channels, letting the program know where the files are located. These should also be the same as mine.

Now you can start adding your downloaded channels. Make your first channel #12, where mine says MTV. Now you must also add the info about it. In this case it is:

[tvstation_mtv]
Folder=Broadcast/TvMTV
CommercialInterval=90
CommercialFolder=Broadcast/Commercials

Yours should say [channel name] instead of MTV. On the next line, you must tell it which folder contains that channel info. It should be in your Movies/Broadcast folder, then the next part would be the name of the folder. Your downloaded channel would be in that folder. The last 2 lines about the commercials should remain as they are.

Now make an entry for each new channel you added. In the top part of the Broadcast.ini you just add the next number in line for the next channel, and the bottom part should contain info where the channel is found.

After you get all done making changes, Broadcast.ini should be copied to BOTH your config folder in My Documents AND to C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\UserData\Config.

Also, if you are missing any of the EP's (I have all except stuff packs) then the file will be slightly different depending on which EP's are missing that came with extra channels.

If you are still confused, I will try to help further.

[Beckett]

Magicmoon, thanks for the help so far. I checked your broadcast.ini against mine, and everything is the same except for my custom channels, and that I have 12 Maxis channels instead of 11 (my number 8 is the Pets channel, which I think links up with the pets commercials). However, while I was testing the movie files in Maxis channel folders (they work there, so it isn't the movie files) I discovered that whenever I replace the broadcast.ini in the My Documents EA folder, then run the game, the game overwrites it with the default Maxis broadcast.ini. The replacement custom files in the Programs/EA folder remain custom, just the My Documents one is overwritten. I tested the channels on different lots in different neighborhoods, and it is replaced every time, so it must be occuring during the loading of the game. I have NO IDEA why this is, it's the first time it has ever happened, and I suspect the Seasons Patch or Celebration Stuff as the culprits, since you have all the EPs and have no problems. So, that's where I'm at now. Thanks.

[Magicmoon]

Yea, the Pets channel. That was weird and I wasn't sure what to do with it. It isn't actually a channel that the Sims could choose on the TV and there is no corresponding files for it, with the exception of 2 commercials. Also, while there was an entry at the beginning of broadcast.ini that showed it to be channel 8, there was no corresponding folder info for it at the bottom of the file. So I ended up just skipping it in the line-up. I figured that a Pets commercial would kick in eventually, but I really never noticed as I don't really watch what they are watching. I hear the "South Park theme song" start playing and I know what channel they are watching. I don't really pay attention to the commercials. So that is why I forgot about what I did with the Pets channel.

I can't understand why the broadcast.ini is being overwritten. Is it actually being overwritten, or is a new broadcast.ini being made and exisits along with the one you made? If it is the latter, then you mispelled broadcast.ini when you were making the file.

If it is actually being overwritten, I don't know why. It is only overwritten whenever a new EP is installed. Try write protecting the file. The confusing part is that if the broadcast.ini in Program files is remaining custom, then if it overwrites the one in MY Docs should pull it from that one.

Wait! You said something about having Celebrations. If that is considered the "Last" pack, then the broadcast.ini that you want to overwrite would be located in that folder. Do a search in the Celebrations folder for broadcast.ini and try overwriting that one.

[jrd]

Celebrations trumps Seasons for all files except its exe and objects.package, so you must edit the file in the Celeb install folder.
It is not necessary to change the one in My Docs, if the one in the install folder is a mismatch it will replace the My Docs one.

[Beckett]

Thanks, magicmoon and Jordi, for your help! Fixing the broadcast.ini in the Celebrations folder fixed the problem. I guess I assumed that the Seasons patch would trump the Celebrations install, since I have to use the Seasons disc to play. Now that it's fixed, my sims can start watching their favorite channels again!