Second AL patch is out.

[Havelock]

Patch link

Complete list of changes:

 o Neighborhood decoration alleys no longer get inappropriately covered in snow.
 o The Sleek and Secure fence model now appears complete in all states
 o The Elegant Rails railing no longer clips through the post when placed diagonally.
 o The Butler no longer calls the fire department if there is a fire outside during a thunder storm.
 o A friend that was brought home from work after certain hobby chance cards will only be brought home once instead of every
   day.
 o Being friends with the iconic hobbyist corresponding to the Show Biz, Athletic, Natural Science or Gaming career now reduces
    the friend requirement for promotions by two instead of one.
 o Elders no longer receive Lifetime Wants to reach the top of any career.
 o Social Groups now generate significantly less NPCs
 o "Super Savory" Snack Machine by Chewie-Louie Factory and "Kooler Than Ice" Soda Machine by Freezer Time Industries both
    now have the ‘Show item' interaction to customers when they are marked for sale with The Sims 2 Open for Business installed.
 o Bills will now autonomously be brought into Sim's apartments.
 o Cats can now scratch Serenity by Kai Dai and Globulous Wonder by Anne Nuit sculptures.
 o Cats and dogs can now chew and scratch Industrious Divinity Dining Chair, Heavy Metal Chair by You Got Muscle and Eloquent
    Divinity Dining Chairs.
 o Pets can no longer destroy the following objects that are out of their reach: Vim's Ventilation Small Wall Vent, Vim's Ventilation
    Large Wall Vent, Transversal by Joi Structure, and Vim's Ventilation Wall Section with Elbow.
 o Error no longer occurs when a Plant Sim attempts to clean Olde Tyme Toilette and Little Footprint Toilet by Sleek Sensations.
 o Sims will now finish eating gyros.
 o SuperTower, Hey Hey It's the Monkey Bars and SlidenFraude (from Go Play!) can now be repossessed by the Repo man.
 o Single servings of salmon no longer display flashing blue textures.
 o Witches no longer have the option to use ‘Materialize' spell in other vacant or occupied hotel rooms.
 o The option to ‘greet' an invited Sim is now available before they ring the doorbell.
 o Rugs on foundations now disappear correctly when burnt
 o ‘Try for Baby' interaction is no longer available on walk-in closets when the household has reached the family member limit.
 o Neighbors are no longer cloned when resurrected while their old apartment is still vacant.
 o Neighborhood Nanny will no longer be considered a nanny if he/she joins the Sims' family.
 o The fire fighter no longer automatically arrives if there is a fire outside during a thunder storm
 o Pregnant Sims will now leave a neighbor's apartment before having a baby.
 o Genie lamp can now be picked up in Buy Mode on apartments.
 o Closet ‘Woohoo' animation will now fail properly if one partner is occupied with another activity such as reading a book
 o Child Sims' interactions are now available after joining another Sim on playground equipment.
 o ‘Study topics' no longer autonomously cancels unless Sims' hunger or bladder motives are low.
 o Dynasty Dresser 2 now has design modes available with The Sims 2 Apartment Life installed.
 o "You Got Feets Bathtub" value is now consistent with other tubs in its class.
 o ‘Write Restaurant Guide' option is now available on computers in apartment lots.
 o Neighborhood Decoration Building (Tall Circular version) thumbnail now matches the building being placed.
 o Various objects from previous Expansion and Stuff packs can now be placed on shelves with the Sims 2 Apartment Life installed:
 o ‘Dream Date' reward objects can now be picked up in Buy mode on Apartment lots.
 o Error no longer occurs when a Sim tries to ‘Get Mail' on an apartment mailbox with a Date Coupon inside.
 o Reward objects can now be picked up in Buy mode on Apartment lots.
 o Stepping stool is now visible when a child Sim ‘Stargazes' through a telescope.
 o The Butler will now remain in the apartment with a toddler until his/her parents return home.
 o Endless Winding Staircase no longer blocks other spiral stairs from being built directly above the first one placed.
 o Elder Sims now have the option to ‘watch' TV while lounging in a couch.
 o Cooking skill no longer goes down once a family is moved onto the same apartment lot as another Sim.

Fixed broken Link. Sorry

[jolrei]

Sims can eat gyros?  Must go look.

As to the patch, this looks semi-useful, but I'm waiting for someone more OCD than me about downloading new stuff to check it out and render a verdict.

[Tigerlilley]

Social Groups now generate significantly less NPCs

What on earth does that mean?  What is a social group?

[amysmom]

Tigerlily, the social groups are the techies, the jocks, and so on, there are 5 of them, and they have the different greetings, like High 5, kiss-kiss.

I'm on here, too, to see if there are problems with installing it;  haven't noticed half of that stuff, but HAVE had my game crash on vacation, when they walk to another lot...I even took all my hacks out, except for the unofficial patch found here.

[EsotericPolarBear]

Social Groups now generate significantly less NPCs

What on earth does that mean?  What is a social group?

Sims that dress alike and have a special greeting (that anyone can use at any time)...


In other words...No one knows.  They're pointless, they're practically invisible and you can't join one.

[jolrei]

And now, with the patch, after you've already got 400 of them, the game will kindly spawn "significantly less".

Siginficantly less: (EAxis phrase) "not as many as before, but still more than you ever wanted."

Tiger: if you don't know what a social group is, you likely have a clean template, antiredundancy, and notownieregen all installed.  Rejoice therefore. 

[Darby]

This is probably a silly question, but does the second patch include all the fixes from the first patch? 

One would assume, yet first patch fixes aren't in the "Complete list of changes".  Confuses my over-literal brain. 

[Tigerlilley]

No clean template sadly...

Ugh.  Ugh! What were they thinking! Are they all retarded? I am beyond understanding of what the shit goes through EA's head.  Do you think anyone there has actually played the game before?

[Zazazu]

Sure they play it! They pop the CD in, play for 10 minutes (enough to load the game, a 'hood, and a household and run it for a minute). Then they stamp "PASS" on it and move on to the next EP.

[Simsample]

They still haven't fixed the missing Neighbourhood deco building! They brought back the hexagonal one in P1, but the new building that came with AL is still AWOL.

[Jelenedra]

They play it enough to get us screen shots, trailers, and developers diaries.

During which they freeze the motives and take off free will so that the sims don't do anything stupid while they're showing someone build a car.

[tunaisafish]

Sims that dress alike and have a special greeting (that anyone can use at any time)...
In other words...No one knows.  They're pointless, they're practically invisible and you can't join one.

They dress alike?
Hadn't noticed that.  Was wondering how to recognise them.  Had been using a hack to display family number.
Dunno about pointless.
They do have jobs, and can offer you an entry higher up the career, or give you higher salery through their connections.
Get cheaper furniture / cheaper rent / instant date - are some of the things I've seen from these people.

Want to make an enemy of one to see if they screw you over too

[Marhis]

Want to make an enemy of one to see if they screw you over too

They do. I had a sim demoted just because he kicked the shit out of one of them twice.
Losers

[EsotericPolarBear]

Want to make an enemy of one to see if they screw you over too

They do. I had a sim demoted just because he kicked the shit out of one of them twice.
Losers

The problem being that you don't know who their connections are until after you've reached the friend/enemy point.  Typical EA backwardsness.  If I knew he was my boss's best friend, I'd probably be nice no matter how much of an ass he was.

Plus, let some asshole demote me for unrelated off work activities just because he knows a guy.  Hello lawsuit!

Where's our sim lawyers dammit!

[J. M. Pescado]

The thing is, there aren't actually any connections or boss. It's totally random. I had a sim claim to be the cousin of someone. The family tree firmly reveals that this is false, because the sim's parents and even their grandparents do not have siblings.

[jolrei]

The thing is, there aren't actually any connections or boss. It's totally random. I had a sim claim to be the cousin of someone. The family tree firmly reveals that this is false, because the sim's parents and even their grandparents do not have siblings.

Have him killed.  Clearly he's up to something.

[J. M. Pescado]

They do. I had a sim demoted just because he kicked the shit out of one of them twice.
Losers

The hilarious thing is that the last laugh is on you: If you are demoted despite being qualified, you will just immediately be repromoted again, likely on the same day, for immediately going back to work, and get paid nearly 4x for the same day's work: 1x for the lower pay of the new job, 3x again of your previous position for going back and getting promoted back to it. Suckers.

Call it your lawsuit bonus.

[keirra]

The thing is, there aren't actually any connections or boss. It's totally random. I had a sim claim to be the cousin of someone. The family tree firmly reveals that this is false, because the sim's parents and even their grandparents do not have siblings.

Have him killed.  Clearly he's up to something.

Lulz. You caught me off guard with that one! I choked on my carrot. 

[Gwill]

Lulz. You caught me off guard with that one! I choked on my carrot. 

How wonderfully Freudian.

[zoebme]

Random indeed! I also got a promotion from my neighbour because she claimed she was my bosses cousin. My sim was in the law enforcement career, while the neighbour was clearly in the criminal career by the way she dressed when she went to work. I thought that was pretty funny. Mafia anyone?

[Celestra]

You know its utter twaddle when

You get stalked by one of them who is the bosses cousin and can get you a promotion or pay rise , runs her own intelligence agency and wants you to join , is a designer for a tv AND computer company and wants you to test things AND also works for a furniture company and can get you a discount next time you shop NO MATTER what type of furniture or appliance you want .

And not only that the company who she wants you to test for can afford to give EVERY single sim in town a tv and computer to try so that NO one has to EVER buy one anyway or ever has to fill in a questionaire about if they are any good .

PS . Does anyone know a shop that would want to buy 20 unused TV's and 15 unused computers as my sim walks funny from carying them all around in her pocket along with the misc rakes , hedge trimmers , snapdragons , robots , fish  and other stuff she has

[jolrei]

Do not install until a reliable no-cd for ALp2 is released, unless you want securom back on your system.

[Magicmoon]

Bills will now autonomously be brought into Sim's apartments

Do we have a solution for apartment dwellers like we do with the hacked Mailbox cover for residential residents?

I've got demoted by townies before. But one day a Sim that my Sim had just met decided to ding him for already having a bad rep. All they had done is greet each other. He said his relative owned the catalog or something like that and I would have to pay top dollar from now on. Everything in the catalog went up in price! If I bought an item then changed my mind and sold it back right then, I would pay the high price but only be refunded the normal price. Several days later I was notified that my Sim was forgiven and the prices went back to normal. I thought it was kinda funny.

[Lord Darcy]

Anyone who installed the 2nd patch please send me updated Overrides.package. I may need it in case I have to update my SP Objects fix yet again.

ETA: Got the file. Thanks to people who helped me out!

[J. M. Pescado]

PS . Does anyone know a shop that would want to buy 20 unused TV's and 15 unused computers as my sim walks funny from carying them all around in her pocket along with the misc rakes , hedge trimmers , snapdragons , robots , fish  and other stuff she has

I suggest dumping the rakes randomly around Jelenedra's house. Hliarity will ensue.