Freetime Patch is out

[Andistyr]

This will be the 3rd day I've been playing with Freetime and the 3rd patch - I never installed it before because I was scared it would mess up my game considering all the bad issues I read about on the BBS on The Sims 2 site.  No problems I've noticed.  I have alot of fixes and hacks, and so far, everything is ok.

[Andistyr]

Inrez if you go to the Freetime patch page, scroll down to the bottom of the page and that's what they've fixed with the 3rd patch.  Which mainly they've fixed SecuRom issues people were having.

[Ambular]

third patch?

What is the difference between the second and third patch?  (And I am really pissed at having to now download another 80+ meg patch)

Can't be a hell of a lot of difference, other than the SecuRom crap.  I had downloaded the 2nd patch a while back and applied it and the no-CD crack today without realizing there was a third one, and when I went to get the third one and tried to apply it, it told me Free Time was already up to date.

[inrez]

Thank you Jaldeer and AmberDicelss,

I did miss the last two items on the list.

The differences between patch 2 and 3 (for anyone else wondering)

Patch 2
Item 84 - Resolved an issue where some players started their game through the launcher or clicked on the game executable, but never saw the game splash screen on monitor.

Patch 3

Item 84 - Updated SecuRom version to resolve an issue where some players started their game through the launcher or clicked on the game executable, but never saw the game splash screen on monitor and fixed emulation problems players were experiencing.

Item 85 - Added a new command line option "-blackfont" to make in-game fonts appear in black.

Item 86 - Updated game code in order for The SimsTM 2 FreeTime to be compatible with The SimsTM 2 Store Edition. For users who have The SimsTM 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack installed, this patch must be installed in order to run The SimsTM 2 Store Edition with The SimsTM 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack. This patch runs automatically if FreeTime is already on your computer and you install The SimsTM 2 Store Edition on top of it.


As I don't give a damn about the Sims 2 Store I am going to stick with patch 2 and try out the new fixed exe posted at GCW.

[Drakron]

In short, patch 3 says what exactly patch 2 DID to "resolved an issue where some players started their game through the launcher or clicked on the game executable, but never saw the game splash screen on monitor" plus a command line for black fonts and EA paysite support.

[Lord Darcy]

As I don't give a damn about the Sims 2 Store I am going to stick with patch 2 and try out the new fixed exe posted at GCW.

To use the new NoCD on GCW, you NEED to install patch 3. Otherwise, you're risking Unholy Hybrid, using incorrect version of NoCD.

[coltraz]

As I don't give a damn about the Sims 2 Store I am going to stick with patch 2 and try out the new fixed exe posted at GCW.

To use the new NoCD on GCW, you NEED to install patch 3. Otherwise, you're risking Unholy Hybrid, using incorrect version of NoCD.

Out of curiousity: What happens when you do that? I used to do that same thing, before I knew I had to get a new crack. Nothing ever seemed to happen, but I assume now that it used to just overwrite the changes the patch made...?

[imyourboy]

Well, I bit the bullet and installed the new patch.  I played for about 2 hours afterwards and everything seems just fine.  I still have all the awesome hacks in though and haven't took them out and it seems that everything works ok.

I do have a question though about Townies.  I moved a townie in with one of my families and when I went to get him a job it tells me you have some homework to do, even though he is an adult and it won't let me get him a job.  This has happened before.  I used the Lot Debugger to upgrade him from pre-uni but he still couldn't get a job.

I finally had to age him down to a teen and use a hack to give him an A+ and then grow him back up so he could get a job but I really don't like doing this as it really changes them.  Is there any fix for this, I thought the Lot Debugger should fix him when you upgrade him from pre-uni.

[J. M. Pescado]

[imyourboy]

Are you saying the kitten killer does this ?  Why would it do that?  Is there any fix besides removing it ?

[morriganrant]

Are you saying the kitten killer does this ?  Why would it do that?  Is there any fix besides removing it ?

Well, usually it is caused by certain Pes fixes when used with inteen. Petjobfixes for instance.

[moonluck]

Well, usually it is caused by certain Pes fixes when used with inteen. Petjobfixes for instance.

There's an inteen version that Jordi made on the inteen site. I run inteen and most of JM's hacks and with Jordi's hybrids the only problem I have is that my teens can't sneak out.

[morriganrant]

Well, usually it is caused by certain Pes fixes when used with inteen. Petjobfixes for instance.

There's an inteen version that Jordi made on the inteen site. I run inteen and most of JM's hacks and with Jordi's hybrids the only problem I have is that my teens can't sneak out.

That's because of the phone hack, in order for that to work you have to take out one of the phone hack files, but I am unsure which one.

[J. M. Pescado]

Teens can sneak out just fine under Phone Hack.

[lordrichter]

Well, I will confirm that this patch has significant performance improvements in it (probably introduced in Patch 2).   I went from no patches to Patch 3 directly and the current lot I am on has a 5-10 fps performance boost and improved camera movement.  The latter improvement startled me.  I did not notice any decrease in startup time.  I am running the official EXE since SecuROM is not a problem on this machine.

Because I don't see where it is posted, here are all the FT files that were updated on my system by Patch 3.  Looks like objects.package was changed since patch 2.

06/10/2008  02:02 AM           359,488 eauninstall.exe
06/10/2008  12:55 AM           289,856 Sims2EP7_Uninst.exe
06/10/2008  06:51 AM         3,868,364 PackageInstaller.exe
06/10/2008  06:51 AM         8,052,736 TS2BodyShop.exe
06/10/2008  06:58 AM        22,999,040 Sims2EP7.exe
06/10/2008  06:51 AM         1,850,432 Sims2Launcher.exe
06/10/2008  06:49 AM             6,707 ContentRegistry
06/10/2008  06:50 AM       111,140,452 objects.package
06/10/2008  06:51 AM                29 Version.sig

[morriganrant]

Teens can sneak out just fine under Phone Hack.

With inteen in though? Most of what I have found about it at inteen says that you must remove half of it. It shows up as a conflict, unless someone was just speculating that it wouldn't allow sneak out. Hell, inteen conflicts with itself to work.

[imyourboy]

I removed the petfix and sure enough it doesn't make me age them down to fix the homework problem!!  Yay thanks everyone.

[Ambular]

Looks like objects.package was changed since patch 2.

Well, that's just swell...so anybody who applied patch 2 is pretty much SOL.  :p

[lordrichter]

Patch 3 will not install over patch 2?  I guess I don't understand why anyone would be SOL by a change in objects.package in patch 3?

I have to make clear, I don't have patch 2 here so I have no way to compare the objects.package in patch 2 with the one in patch 3.  Of course, just because the date changes does not guarantee that the content changed.  I suppose they could have repackaged the Patch 2 one with the Patch 3 date.

[Ambular]

Patch 3 will not install over patch 2?  I guess I don't understand why anyone would be SOL by a change in objects.package in patch 3?

I have to make clear, I don't have patch 2 here so I have no way to compare the objects.package in patch 2 with the one in patch 3.  Of course, just because the date changes does not guarantee that the content changed.  I suppose they could have repackaged the Patch 2 one with the Patch 3 date.

Patch 3 would not install over patch 2 for me.  I just mean if they fixed anything important in objects.package between the two patches, anyone with patch 2 won't be able to get the fix.  (Unless EA just hates me and I'm the only one for whom it won't work.  :p)

[Mike]

Patch 3 would not install over patch 2 for me.  I just mean if they fixed anything important in objects.package between the two patches, anyone with patch 2 won't be able to get the fix.  (Unless EA just hates me and I'm the only one for whom it won't work.  :p)

Well I guess that would seem to be true, because I just applied patch #3 over #2. 

[imyourboy]

Just replace the exe with the original exe from the disk and it will apply right over it.  Doesn't matter what patch you have.

[Kazzandra]

Well, I uploaded this today for kutto, but if you need an original objects.package, download here. PM me, being that it's not helping anyone, I'm taking it off my space.

[Ambular]

Heh, I figured out my problem...error occurred between keyboard and chair.  It's all good now.  XD

[kutto]

Well, I uploaded this today for kutto, but if you need an original objects.package, download here.

Yes, you did upload that, and I thank you, but it didn't solve my problem. It seems even a pristine objects.package was not enough to fix my effed up patch.