WOW EA admits to a cock up

[Zazazu]

Well speaking of updating files erroneously - what about all the data files?  When you play one hood, *every* hood file is touched.  I bet they're all read and saved back, which is probably why the game takes so long to unload after you've finished playing.

Idk. That's why I only put one Neighborhood folder in at a time. The rest just hibernate in MyDocs.

I need to start doing that...I really only play one 'hood at the time, but I keep the last couple abandoned ones around because I feel guilty (dumb, I know). Should just back them up and delete.

[JerseyGirlOOOO]

Just seen on the official site under Freetime that EA have admitted to a cock up

If your sim has sewn the gold badge custom clothes it changes the skins file in game and the patch cannot install because of that and henceforth the message to uninstall and reinstall freetime when patching

Obviously they didnt test the patch installation but is this a first by them to admit fricking it up

I'm not shocked that the so-called "patch" fucked something up.  However, how many other things has that usless piece of crap screwed up?  (This is making me glad I didn't buy FreeTime).

Laura

[Purplepooki]

If you don't have the patch how does the gold sewing badge effect the game? I haven't downloaded it yet.  Will it bork my game if I have a sim with a gold badge make clothing without the patch?

[Jelenedra]

From what I gather, if you have sims that use the gold sewing to make custom clothes in-game, when you save it overwrites a system file. That's what borkenating the patch. It tries to install, sees that the file isn't the same it should've been and coughs out. That's why they're telling people to reinstall, to set the skins2.package back to what it should be.

[Mootilda]

That's why they're telling people to reinstall, to set the skins2.package back to what it should be.

Actually, they've removed the patch from their web site.  Does this mean that the patch was worse than the unpatched game?

[Purplepooki]

Thank you, Jelenedra I will keep my sims from getting a gold badge until there is a working fix. 

[IgnorantBliss]

Oddly, before the patch I had had  a sim sew both custom clothing and regular clothing, but I had no problems installing the patch. However, there was something weird going on with the custom clothing (pre-batch): At first it showed up fine on the toddler it was made for, but later on it reverted to a regular Maxis outfit. Maybe in this case the custom outfit was not saved and therefore the system file was not modified? That would explain the lack of problems with patch installation.

[J. M. Pescado]

You probably did the sensible thing and read-onlied your system files, so the game was not able to destroy them.

[IgnorantBliss]

This is a freshly installed game on a new computer, and I don't remember making the files read only. I guess it was read only by some default setting, if that's possible. Otherwise I can't explain it. In either case, I'm not complaining 

[buddha pest]

So we have to reinstall?

We can't just delete skins.package and replace it with a clean one someone might like to upload?

[bowrain]

You can retrieve it from your disk. No need to download it.

[Jelenedra]

So we have to reinstall?

We can't just delete skins.package and replace it with a clean one someone might like to upload?

Re-installation is what they were recommending the BBSers to do, since EA probably doesn't thing that they're intelligent enough to grab said files from their installation discs.

[Larxene]

So we have to reinstall?

We can't just delete skins.package and replace it with a clean one someone might like to upload?

Re-installation is what they were recommending the BBSers to do, since EA probably doesn't thing that they're intelligent enough to grab said files from their installation discs.

Maybe EA has finally figured some of us don't HAVE installation discs 

[Faizah]

Well, they're easy to lose when you don't want to use them... I once somehow lost my Pets discs for months, and I actually used them. Couldn't play at all until the next pack came out. This was obviously before I thought of using a NoCD exe. Why would I ever need one of those? Heh.

(Of course, I have the ARRRfficial version of FT, so...)

[FourCats]

Maybe EA has finally figured some of us don't HAVE installation discs 

You know, if it wasn't for securom.  I would have installation disks.  I was willing to pay for the games and paying for the  games till this securom thing happened.  I think it kind of backfired on them.  But I don't think that they are smart enough to realize that.

[nil]

It's really weird to allow system files over-written when it's not for updating.

To ask people to reinstall is to fool those who still don't know they can get copy files directly from the disc but not those who know.  Maxis must have known some players not having the discs for a long long time by now.  They do know that speech trickery won't fool all the people but at least those people who happen not to know or think of.
From an another viewpoint, some people really think it's complicated to copy such file back into their game system files, Maxis' suggestion will still work for those people.

The simpler the process and the fewer step, the more people will know what to do and hence the less work to respond to enquirers.



As for the over-writing and system files....

Guess what, even if certain files in the custom folder are made read-only, such files will still be over-written in the next time the game saves.  So, somehow the game can undo the read-only attribute during processes.

So, a complete back-up of the custom folder is what I'm doing... I've  made a template for varied usages like building, testing, playing... They're all separate, I also trim away unless neiughbourhood as well as useless data (especially the space-eater jpg preview files, they can occupy the file size from 15-70% in my cases, and I don't share them in EAxis site) in lots to save the space and the loading time.  The lot folder size plunges down to ~25-30 MB from 100Mb.  the more lots you have the more it matters.

The stupid tutorial folder is yet annoyance coz we can't delete it in-game for a safe delete.  Need we that crap all the times?  They should provide a safe way to delete it easily and maybe a new copy-back from the template in the system files just in case one needs it back.
Well, I've nullified some of those anyhow without destroying the files structure.  But, that shouldn't be my work on it!

So, I've kinda optimised the loading and closing processes with lots with only 1 full preview and 1 or 2 neighbourhoods in a running copy.


added:

Because of SecuROM, EAxis still owes me the price at the time of a DVD-RAM drive! N, worse of it is the loss of a gift from an already deceased person...

[Skadi]

I what I want to know is what happens now with custom clothes? Are they going to change where it saves, or remove the update to the skins.package?

In the mean time if I make that file read only, then I can't make custom clothes...

Either way the end user get fucked over.

[jsalemi]

They're either going to have to change the exe file so the game doesn't write to those files (writes instead to a new file somewhere in the The Sims 2 directory), or make future changes/updates to a new skins2.package or something.  That way, the custom clothes don't get destroyed while the new/patch stuff overrides the parts of skins.package that need fixing.

I hope for the former; I assume the later.

[nil]

I think they should also make an option for those who have made new custom clothings to extract them for later re-integration before patching

[cwykes]

Could they just set this patch to ignore the fact that the skin package has been modified?  That might be possible if they don't need to change that file at all. 

[adelegarland]

All I can say is thank God I didn't buy this EP.  I was waiting to see how fucked up it was and now I am glad I didn't do it!  I'm stopping at BV and EA be damned!

[buddha pest]

All I can say is thank God I didn't buy this EP.  I was waiting to see how fucked up it was and now I am glad I didn't do it!  I'm stopping at BV and EA be damned!

Honestly, it's a pretty damn annoying EP. EVERYONE RUB YOUR BELLY 'CAUSE YOU LOVE CUISINE! I probably would've never bought it if I'd known that this was what it was going to be like.

It's obnoxious that every action ever leads to phone calls, and invites, and obsessions, and the like. You can't even earn 2 cooking skill points without being harrassed.

You can kind of tell that this is the end, and the game/creators are running out of steam/just don't give a shit anymore.

[Kyna]

Actually, I'm finding I like FT more than I thought I would.  I'll like it even more when a fixed version of the patch is out and my sims can use the new items without running their needs into the ground.  The patch is also supposed to kill those "do you want to subscribe" phone calls.  In my opinion FT definitely beats BV, which I only have now for the ninja teleport, since the other features I installed BV for - walk to lot & new turn-ons/offs - are in FT.  And it certainly beats Pets, which I only keep installed for some of the objects (particularly those nifty floor dividers).

[buddha pest]

So what are they doing about the, "Join our cult!" and "We've given you a worthless, shitty plaque! Shake our hand!" stuff?

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe EA has finally figured some of us don't HAVE installation discs 

Codswallop. Pirates *ALWAYS* have the installation disks! It's those hapless schmucks who downloaded EAxislink Spyware Versions that don't. Sucks to be them.