Unofficial AL Patch - Assorted Fixes

[Soulstripper]

I found the problem...... somehow or another, there was some rogue replacement cell phone, one that replaced the default one, in a folder where it had no business being..... so I deleted that, restarted the game and everything is perfect..... 

Thanks for all the help.

[ScorpioMaurus]

Does that mean you accidentally had two cell phone replacements in different folders causing the problems? or that this is completely incompatible with cell phone replacements? I use the Moto K Razor by KyleBeans @ MTS2 I really love that phone and don't want to give it up.

[Soulstripper]

This was a Moto Razr V3i, the file name was and I couldn't tell you where it came from, it was in a folder where I have hair meshes from Rose Sims....... so what a phone was doing in there is beyond me. All I DO know is that it was a Moto Razr V3i, as I said and that the file was made in 2006, if that helps. I didn't have anymore but that one replacement default, and when I deleted it, this hack started working, allowing my Sims to keep their cell phones.

I did do some digging for you, I somehow picked it up from Modthesims2 (although I may have downloaded it with a lot at some point, who knows) and it was made by user mohd14 on June 16th, 2006 and updated in January of 2007..... it conflicted with this hack/patch so bad that the Sims were jumping like beans when trying to pull their phone out and then the phone would just vanish from their inventory.

I won't post the link here, as I don't know how cool that would be, but I think you can fnd it based on that info..... if you look it up in google as the name of the phone and sims 2, you will find it in the first link.

Anyway, my apologies for being such a pain, and I do thank you all for your help, even if it didn't work, it was a huge help.... got me going looking for other things. lol

[JediKnight]

It's good that J. M. Pesacdo is here to fix EA's failures.  Just two retardo questions:  Can the exsessive townie spawing be fixed, adn can the cylindrical NL n-hood deco building be restored?  The new small rectangular building seems to share the same in-game GUID.  Why do I feel like I'm paying money to beta-test a game?  They never test this crap with all EP's installed and those as the users that report all kinds of problems.  Plus, I'm VERY wary of downloading any patches, after today.  (I just lost my  "Knights of the Old Republic" games to the SeuROM that was hidden in the patches.)

[J. M. Pescado]

It's good that J. M. Pesacdo is here to fix EA's failures.  Just two retardo questions:  Can the exsessive townie spawing be fixed, adn can the cylindrical NL n-hood deco building be restored?  The new small rectangular building seems to share the same in-game GUID.

Yes, but I'm not presently certain this is desirable. The hack is already made, but I haven't installed it in my game yet. I haven't seen any wild, uncontrollable spawning, the only time new townies spawn is to populate apartment blocks.

[SJActress]

I haven't seen any wild, uncontrollable spawning, the only time new townies spawn is to populate apartment blocks.

You keep saying this, but people are complaining about hundreds of character files spawning in new hoods with no apartments, or in university neighborhoods.

I know you're not wrong (you're never wrong), but could you explain this for the non-awesome?  I mean, I'm personally curious, but I'm also getting weary of people ZOMG-ing over it.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm just saying after wandering several community lots and playing both apartments and non-apartments briefly, there were no signs of new faces other than those produced as apartment neighbors. And one witch.

[SJActress]

I'm just saying after wandering several community lots and playing both apartments and non-apartments briefly, there were no signs of new faces other than those produced as apartment neighbors. And one witch.

Do you mean actually seeing or looking at the amount of character files?  Because I haven't seen more than two or three different townies while playing SEVERAL houses, but the character files just keep on growing and growing and growing.

I promise to shut-up after your reply to this.

[J. M. Pescado]

Both. I scan for new entries on my personal hacked Ingelogical, as well as for outright new faces visible on screen.

[Solowren]

I know that, in my case, it can't be that they're only spawning to fill apartments simply because I don't have any apartment lots. After the initial 100 or so new character files, I've been getting about one new one on every lot load.

[Andistyr]

Just a little bit ago, I noticed that after Apartment Life is installed that the kids swing disappears from buy mode (it's called the Swing Kidz Deluxe).  My youngest daughter was playing Apartment Life on our other computer and I just at the time happened to be playing my game with just Freetime installed and I noticed that I still had that swing.  I was hoping that could be restored in J.M.'s awesome assorted fix patch.

Edit - Nevermid - KLGFCG explained on where the swing is located in the game now (I didn't know they moved it).

[KLGFCG]

Okay, I know, you've heard it. Not trying to annoy here, but for my $0.02, DO WANT the no-social group spawnage hack. Even if the spawning isn't out of control, I want to be in charge. If the game spawns a new social group townie, I have to find and make-over said townie. I'd rather just make my own and NPC gun them to what I want. I'd rather have an empty apartment than a fug townie to makeover (or kill when I'm sick of catch and release). I'll probably do what I do with dorms though - calculate how many townies I need to fill my apartments and make the correct number with a few extras to take over for those I make playable.

I wonder if the uber-spawnage some people are seeing is related to social groups and lot classes, however. The Prima Guide o' Lies seems to indicate that every lot has a "value" that will attract certain types of social groups. I wonder if the people seeing many spawns per game are going to many different class lots (apartments and community) so the game thinks it needs to make new townies to fit the lot ambiance even if that's over and above the apartment amount. If, for instance, all your apartments attract socialites, could the game be making gearheads to populate low class community lots but they'll never show up in your apartments? Then again, I'm probably talking out my ass here. Any insights on that, Pes... will the game move a gearhead into a nice, ritzy apartment if there aren't any socialites available or will a new socialite get spawned?

Fake Edit: Jaldeer - the swing is now under Hobbies > Recreation with the other playground equipment. Why they moved it, I do not know.

[Andistyr]

They did?  I didn't think about checking under hobbies/recreation.  Well, I wonder why they decided to move it - not much telling.  I stopped trying to figure out EA/Maxis along time ago.  So, I suppose my post about the swing can be ignored.

[Alex]

It's annoying as the Seasons wooden swingset is still under Misc/Misc. Now I need to find a recategoriser to fix that.

[Psysix]

Whether or not it plateaus as far as the townie spawning goes, I've been trying to actively monitor what it has been doing on my system.  First off, it seems to create a set value amount on load of a lot no matter what.  Residential zones (not counting apartments, I have not tested with that yet) creates one new character file, and a commercial lot creates 3.  Whether I ever actually see the newly created characters or not seems to be a gamble; sometimes they show up at some point, sometimes they don't.  Needless to say, if you go load a sim's house, go to two community lots, then go home; that's 8 townies spawned in that time.  If it actually stops this before hitting...oh 10,000 characters I guess it's not too terrible an issue for the average person (albeit a bit of a slowdown and a pain in the ass on going through the phone book), but do we know for certain that it's going to stop at some point or just endlessly generate upon lot load townies until the game explodes all over itself in townie guts?

[JediKnight]

Needless to say, if you go load a sim's house, go to two community lots, then go home; that's 8 townies spawned in that time.  If it actually stops this before hitting...oh 10,000 characters I guess it's not too terrible an issue for the average person (albeit a bit of a slowdown and a pain in the ass on going through the phone book), but do we know for certain that it's going to stop at some point or just endlessly generate upon lot load townies until the game explodes all over itself in townie guts?

That is my concern.  Is there a ceiling?  Is there any way to tell?  I'd really hate for my neigborhood to explode into a firey ball visible from space because EA's latest glitchfest didn't have a spawning limit.  As a side note, what about the deco building?  I really miss it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hmmm. Interesting. Apparently, I *DID* squash the mass-respawnage in No Townie Regen. At least, in the Director's Cut Edition, which has been up since 8/28. And that is why I'm not seeing THE SWARM, just the bare essentials to populate apartments. I will update standalone now.

[Zazazu]

Can't....not...thank...want...to...huggle...

Ack, sorry. The F in me is fighting to be heard.

I was still getting increases last night (I was in and out of the game a lot due to running around outside and flitting between accounts), but just at the 1-sim-per-load level. Still, that adds up. I'm eager to see if the DC version fixes even that. I've not yet decided what is going to happen with all these extra townies I never, ever wanted.

[J. M. Pescado]

Deleted 2: Electric Boogaloo?

[Psysix]

Can't....not...thank...want...to...huggle...

Ack, sorry. The F in me is fighting to be heard.

I was still getting increases last night (I was in and out of the game a lot due to running around outside and flitting between accounts), but just at the 1-sim-per-load level. Still, that adds up. I'm eager to see if the DC version fixes even that. I've not yet decided what is going to happen with all these extra townies I never, ever wanted.

Creative methods of community lot genocide could be fun...

That's awesome it's figured out though.  I just did a test of running a residential lot for one game day and it of course generated one new townie upon loading the lot and that was it.  The file was then also modified upon leaving the lot.  As far as I could tell, I never saw a new townie walk past the house.

[Zazazu]

Deleted 2: Electric Boogaloo?

Prolly. I do have QA SimPE, after all. I'll kill a few for live graves in my graveyard (it's using props right now), keep the ones my sims have interacted with, and Deleted 2 the rest. Back to under 30 townies in no time...

[Solowren]

I think it's about time I Deleted 2'd. I've been wanting to but never had a need.

[Owaiz]

when i got AL,i did a complete reinstall of my entire game and deleted all CC and families so the game was completely fresh and new.
i have 5 sims i made in my game.my game is continuosly getting slower and slower and today i read here about characters and i checked
The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\E001\Characters folder and i have 597 files there...what could be the problem? is it the npc generator problem?

[Psysix]

when i got AL,i did a complete reinstall of my entire game and deleted all CC and families so the game was completely fresh and new.
i have 5 sims i made in my game.my game is continuosly getting slower and slower and today i read here about characters and i checked
The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\E001\Characters folder and i have 597 files there...what could be the problem? is it the npc generator problem?

It seems a bit odd it'd already be slowing down due to that already, but this is the easiest way to check and see if you're being affected by this (you most likely are if you do not have notownieregen).

1: Open up your Characters folder for that neighborhood
2: If it is not there, right click on the bar that lists the list by categories (Name, Type, Size, etc) and add the 'Date Created' field (usually under 'More')
3: Click that newly made category to list everything in order by its creation date, so that the newest is first
4: Run Sims 2! (preferrably in windowed mode)
5: While playing, watch the folder.  If you are affected, the following will happen:
   A: One new file will be created on loading a family in a regular residence
   B: when you have a sim go to a community lot, on loading the lot it will generate approximately 3 new files.

If this is happening, get the notownieregen hack PRONTO!

[Jelenedra]

I wonder why I was thanked for this. I don't recall helping...