Most worthwhile expansions and stuff packs?

[Lord Darcy]

The only stuff pack that I haven't arrquired yet is Glamour Life stuff and that's only because every single file I've found on TPB has been labelled as having a bloody virus. Is it worth getting or should I just not bother to keep looking fpor a clean one?

It was my favourite SP until IKEA and M&G came out. (The quartertile cheat alone made M&G my favourite SP ever.) I use GLS objects quite a lot. PJs and coats are nice too. Certainly not worth to pay for, but worth enough to acquire. There is still one available on MiniNova. No mention of virus in comments.

[notovny]

Of course, I now know that you can get someone to pay 800 simoleons an hour with a well-executed dazzling. Unfortunately, she does now, too, so it's very interesting to do such challenges now.

Heh. 800/hour?

At the times that I would run a backyard venue for the sole purpose of  gaining the money to b uy a community lot, I'd routinely charge $9,999/hr for admission to a bubble blower and a few snapdragons.

And the Reporter will pay any amount to enter a venue, and can sometimes be coaxed into showing up in the fearly days of the business.  The highest I ever charged on a business designed solely as reporter bait was $300,000/hr, but the reporter will pay  $999,999/hr, no questions asked if you let her.

Though prior to the Bon Voyage Patch, you could run a backyard massage parlor, and "Selll Massage To..." townies at $999,999 each with no sales badges required.

Venues can make insane money. Lately, though, I've been setting them to ridiculously cheap and/or ceasing to charge customers when the owner leaves.  Mostly the latter.  It takes too much time  to get a  date or casual group that contains non-resident Sims into the venue otherwise.

[PirateFaafy]

Of course, I now know that you can get someone to pay 800 simoleons an hour with a well-executed dazzling. Unfortunately, she does now, too, so it's very interesting to do such challenges now.

Heh. 800/hour?

At the times that I would run a backyard venue for the sole purpose of  gaining the money to b uy a community lot, I'd routinely charge $9,999/hr for admission to a bubble blower and a few snapdragons.

And the Reporter will pay any amount to enter a venue, and can sometimes be coaxed into showing up in the fearly days of the business.  The highest I ever charged on a business designed solely as reporter bait was $300,000/hr, but the reporter will pay  $999,999/hr, no questions asked if you let her.

Though prior to the Bon Voyage Patch, you could run a backyard massage parlor, and "Selll Massage To..." townies at $999,999 each with no sales badges required.

Venues can make insane money. Lately, though, I've been setting them to ridiculously cheap and/or ceasing to charge customers when the owner leaves.  Mostly the latter.  It takes too much time  to get a  date or casual group that contains non-resident Sims into the venue otherwise.

SHIT, SON

HOW DID YOU DO THIS

And how did you determine who was the reporter when they came? Is there a distinguishing characteristic, or did you somehow view their tokens? Or can one simply make them temporarily selectable and see an action in their queue that is indicative of a reporter visit? Perhaps the reporter NPC is reused? (In which case, I think I shall put mine in a slightly more descriptive outfit.)

[Lord Darcy]

And how did you determine who was the reporter when they came?

Although reporters don't have a special uniform, they're fairly easy to spot. Look for the customer who constantly takes notes.

Perhaps the reporter NPC is reused? (In which case, I think I shall put mine in a slightly more descriptive outfit.)

If you have antiredundancy, I believe that only one reporter is used for all businesses.

[PirateFaafy]

And how did you determine who was the reporter when they came?

Although reporters don't have a special uniform, they're fairly easy to spot. Look for the customer who constantly takes notes.

Perhaps the reporter NPC is reused? (In which case, I think I shall put mine in a slightly more descriptive outfit.)

If you have antiredundancy, I believe that only one reporter is used for all businesses.

Do they take notes before having paid at the ticket booth? Wait, that's stupid, it's always the same reporter! Dwahh. Thank you for the infos! Now to make my Gootentaugen-and-Hot-Tubs lounge a reality. Bwahahah.

[aussieone]

The only stuff pack that I haven't arrquired yet is Glamour Life stuff and that's only because every single file I've found on TPB has been labelled as having a bloody virus. Is it worth getting or should I just not bother to keep looking fpor a clean one?

It was my favourite SP until IKEA and M&G came out. (The quartertile cheat alone made M&G my favourite SP ever.) I use GLS objects quite a lot. PJs and coats are nice too. Certainly not worth to pay for, but worth enough to acquire. There is still one available on MiniNova. No mention of virus in comments.

I never gave mininova a thought. Much appreciated, arrquiring now.

[Zazazu]

FT allows you to age up three townies per Sim, but never had a chance to figure out how to do it.  Probably helps to have non-adult townie friends at the birthday party, which I never did.

I get the dialog inconsistently, and with different sims listed. Often there are townie sims the aging sim doesn't even know listed. I've only used it to age up the children to teen. My current 'hood has a high enough number of kids now that they always have several choices of relatives and neighbors to invite over after school.

No party needed. Just "Grow Up".

[MsMaria]

My advice is either buy cheap or don't buy at all.

To be honest though the only reasons I buy them (at ridiculously cheap) are that I'm a collector by nature & I participate in the house of fail comps.

While nothing is as free as arr'ing, if you are uncomfortable with that, Amazon did just drop Apartment Life down to $14.99.
[/quote]

Not so much unable or unwilling as completely useless at installing arred proggies that aren't pretty much point & click. That & the p2p proggies give me the willies. Am willing to provide blanks/replacement costs to anyone willing to ship me anything I don't have, however, I am the queen of bargain hunting & have recently purchased most for less than the price you quoted me. Plus I enjoy haggling. The listed price is rarely the price I pay for anything.

*Edited to fix typos with brief interlude to beat the shit out of the lappy for being such a dick about this spelling & punctuation shit.
[/quote]

I still have a 'never removed from the shipping box' copy of Seasons gathering mucho dust in a corner...I imagine most peeps have arr'd said EP, since I have no takers. It's FREE people! 
Well, if you live on Mt Kilimanjaro, maybe a small shipping fee..

[notovny]

SHIT, SON

HOW DID YOU DO THIS

And how did you determine who was the reporter when they came? Is there a distinguishing characteristic, or did you somehow view their tokens? Or can one simply make them temporarily selectable and see an action in their queue that is indicative of a reporter visit? Perhaps the reporter NPC is reused? (In which case, I think I shall put mine in a slightly more descriptive outfit.)

"Beverly, I want to talk to you about one of your recent evaluations, 'Joe's Backyard.'"
"Awful place. Just a park bench, nothing else. Wrote a scathing review, and the place closed its doors shortly afterwards. What's the problem?"
"The problem is the million-simolean admittance fee you charged on the expense account..."

Now, admittedly, I haven't done it recently, so I don't know if it's still the case, but one of the things I'd noticed  (And that a number of people complained about )  was that the Reporter would often be, if not /the first/ one of the first few Sims to visit a newly-opened business.

So it was just a matte of starting a home business, slapping down a Ticket Machine, setting it to  charge hundreds of thousands of simoleans, and ignoring it until the Reporter showed up, and paid the money.

No Loyalty is lost for failing to dazzle a Sim past the ticket machine. I suppose I could have made the effort to keep the  reporter on the lot more than an hour. Never seemed necessary, so I'd just get the huge amount of money, let the  Reporter wander around the empty backyard for a awhile,  wave cheerily at her when she gave a bad review, and shut down the business.

Since I didn;t have No redundancy in when I installed OFB,  my neighborhood contains  three reporters, but I've played enough businesses to recognize them all on sight by now. (Dolphin's Business Adjuster Hack can be set to throw up a dialog when a  reporter appears, or you can just set the Dress code of the lot to something other than  Everyday with Pescado's  Customer Selector, as Reporters seem to ignore lot dress codes)

[J. M. Pescado]

Venues can make insane money. Lately, though, I've been setting them to ridiculously cheap and/or ceasing to charge customers when the owner leaves.  Mostly the latter.  It takes too much time  to get a  date or casual group that contains non-resident Sims into the venue otherwise.

I'm looking into fixing that, actually.

[PirateFaafy]

"Beverly, I want to talk to you about one of your recent evaluations, 'Joe's Backyard.'"
"Awful place. Just a park bench, nothing else. Wrote a scathing review, and the place closed its doors shortly afterwards. What's the problem?"
"The problem is the million-simolean admittance fee you charged on the expense account..."

Ahahah, I lol'd. I just tried that out, and the look on the reporter's face when they gave the bad review just about fit that description perfectly! The reporter's name was Bev, too.

"Well, how was I supposed to review it without getting in?"
"It was just a pinball machine and eight pots of flowers!"
"Hey, the pinball machine shot fire and spat out money, okay?"
"Did you keep the money?"
"No, the owner did."

[ElviraGoth]

I wasn't really interested in all the expansion packs, but I got them because of some of the things they added that I really wanted.

UNI: New careers/aspiration rewards, extra want slots, which can be gained using the batbox.  I don't care about Greek houses or secret societies, but I just had a sim abducted into a secret society for the first time recently.  Ok one time, but - meh.  I send all my sims to UNI so they can meet other sims they might not normally meet for potential mates.  I also set up dorms with tj's buyable career rewards (when it still worked) so they can further their skill levels.  (On a new UNI I just added, I snarfed career rewards from a cow mascot and a professor after making them selectable and then unlocking all their career rewards.  Grab what I want, then send them on their merry way!) 

I send all my teens to UNI the day before their birthday to adult stage.  I used to send them earlier, but if a sim wants to max out all their skills as a LTW, they can spend more time at home finishing what they can there, then the extra time at UNI makes it easier for them to accomplish.  Most of them have their 7 skills maxed out by the time they graduate.  (I don't usually try to get them maxed out while they're a teen, but a few have!)  Then they can spend their time on other pusuits while an adult, like hobbies or crafting, from the other EPs.

NL:  Cars and inventory, which I think was carried over into another EP.  I didn't care about dates or the new places they could go.  It gave me the ability to move sims into a larger house/lot and keep their stuff.  The cars provided a means to send them to work/take kids to school on the day they moved (always starts out a new lot on Monday).

OFB:  Don't care about running a business, but it added elevators, which I really wanted.  Also added crafting benches which give my sims another way to gain income - you can sell items right from the bench at a profit, if the item wasn't screwed up.  Otherwise, I would have passed this one up.

Pets:  Meh.  It added some new build mode options, otherwise, pretty useless unless you like having your sims have a pet.  The bird and charisma building it gives to a family who doesn't have a golf putter or podium is about the only reason I keep it in.

Seasons:  Also some nice new build stuff, like the stage and greenhouse, which I sometimes use for a porch!  About the only thing I like about the actual change of seasons is the boost they give to various things - like friendships in summer and skilling in fall.  Also nice to be able to put leftovers in the fridge.  Really tired of the rain storms and lightning strikes, which happen way too often, but the weather machine can fix that.

BV: I passed on this one, and only just got it.  I have a neighborhood I had set up a year or so ago of pirates and island girls and I saw that this had the pirate ship, beaches, and a few other things that would make this hood more like I wanted.  I had already made my own hut bamboo & thatch walls, but it also added some new roofs that I like for some of my other hoods.  Also adds the pagoda roof styles and some nice kimonos.  And I may yet use the pyramid stuff on a pyramid house I started clear back in the early days of the game, but never finished beacuse I didn't have everything I wanted to make it realistic.  Will have that egyptian theme hood yet!

FT:  I wanted crafts.  Also like the ability to go to a different neighborhood from the lot without having to got to the neighborhood screen first.  Also added new careers, which I haven't fully explored yet.  I got FT just about the time we were looking for, bought, and moved into a house, so I didn't have the free time to play it!

AL:  Makin' Magic was my favorite EP from TS1.  Also wanted apartments to move my graduated sims into instead of back to the parent's house, since those families have way more simoleans than they could ever spend.  Also wanted spiral staircases.

M&G:  Don't have, may get just because they have ceiling fans!  Otherwise, I haven't seen a lot that this offers that interests me.

Stuff packs:  I only got FFS for the stuff for my pirate hood.  It has some good decorations, like crossed oars and a globe.  Also has some cute stuff, like pjs and beds, for kids.  Glamour life has a couple of things (mainly dresses) I can use for my eventual Egyptian theme hood.  It also has some cool pjs for adults and some nice furnishings.  These are the only two SPs I considered worthwhile for my purposes.  What you want to do determines if or which of the SPs are worth the memory usage.

So it depends on what things you really feel necessary, or just plain LIKE, that an EP/SP has to offer that will make it worth keeping and taking up memory space.  I bought a computer 3 years ago that I figured would be the ideal game machine, mainly for TS2, but also for some other games I play.  I was at that "unusable" stage on the computer I had prior to this one, so I know what you're going through.

I also have a hood I started just for monsters, like vampire and werewolf.  Haven't had either yet, and I got each EP as it came out, except for BV.

Also on the fence about TS3.  Dosn't look like it's going to offer a whole lot, but the ability to change sims bodies into more realistic builds and to be able to customize walls, furniture, etc. by color/pattern within the game might make it worth looking at.  Still undecided as to whether I think it's worth it, though.  I have a lot invested in this game, and I figure I'll keep playing it for a long time!

[PirateFaafy]

I wasn't really interested in all the expansion packs, but I got them because of some of the things they added that I really wanted.

UNI: New careers/aspiration rewards, extra want slots, which can be gained using the batbox.  I don't care about Greek houses or secret societies, but I just had a sim abducted into a secret society for the first time recently.  Ok one time, but - meh.  I send all my sims to UNI so they can meet other sims they might not normally meet for potential mates.  I also set up dorms with tj's buyable career rewards (when it still worked) so they can further their skill levels.  (On a new UNI I just added, I snarfed career rewards from a cow mascot and a professor after making them selectable and then unlocking all their career rewards.  Grab what I want, then send them on their merry way!) 

I send all my teens to UNI the day before their birthday to adult stage.  I used to send them earlier, but if a sim wants to max out all their skills as a LTW, they can spend more time at home finishing what they can there, then the extra time at UNI makes it easier for them to accomplish.  Most of them have their 7 skills maxed out by the time they graduate.  (I don't usually try to get them maxed out while they're a teen, but a few have!)  Then they can spend their time on other pusuits while an adult, like hobbies or crafting, from the other EPs.

NL:  Cars and inventory, which I think was carried over into another EP.  I didn't care about dates or the new places they could go.  It gave me the ability to move sims into a larger house/lot and keep their stuff.  The cars provided a means to send them to work/take kids to school on the day they moved (always starts out a new lot on Monday).

OFB:  Don't care about running a business, but it added elevators, which I really wanted.  Also added crafting benches which give my sims another way to gain income - you can sell items right from the bench at a profit, if the item wasn't screwed up.  Otherwise, I would have passed this one up.

Pets:  Meh.  It added some new build mode options, otherwise, pretty useless unless you like having your sims have a pet.  The bird and charisma building it gives to a family who doesn't have a golf putter or podium is about the only reason I keep it in.

Seasons:  Also some nice new build stuff, like the stage and greenhouse, which I sometimes use for a porch!  About the only thing I like about the actual change of seasons is the boost they give to various things - like friendships in summer and skilling in fall.  Also nice to be able to put leftovers in the fridge.  Really tired of the rain storms and lightning strikes, which happen way too often, but the weather machine can fix that.

BV: I passed on this one, and only just got it.  I have a neighborhood I had set up a year or so ago of pirates and island girls and I saw that this had the pirate ship, beaches, and a few other things that would make this hood more like I wanted.  I had already made my own hut bamboo & thatch walls, but it also added some new roofs that I like for some of my other hoods.  Also adds the pagoda roof styles and some nice kimonos.  And I may yet use the pyramid stuff on a pyramid house I started clear back in the early days of the game, but never finished beacuse I didn't have everything I wanted to make it realistic.  Will have that egyptian theme hood yet!

FT:  I wanted crafts.  Also like the ability to go to a different neighborhood from the lot without having to got to the neighborhood screen first.  Also added new careers, which I haven't fully explored yet.  I got FT just about the time we were looking for, bought, and moved into a house, so I didn't have the free time to play it!

AL:  Makin' Magic was my favorite EP from TS1.  Also wanted apartments to move my graduated sims into instead of back to the parent's house, since those families have way more simoleans than they could ever spend.  Also wanted spiral staircases.

M&G:  Don't have, may get just because they have ceiling fans!  Otherwise, I haven't seen a lot that this offers that interests me.

Stuff packs:  I only got FFS for the stuff for my pirate hood.  It has some good decorations, like crossed oars and a globe.  Also has some cute stuff, like pjs and beds, for kids.  Glamour life has a couple of things (mainly dresses) I can use for my eventual Egyptian theme hood.  It also has some cool pjs for adults and some nice furnishings.  These are the only two SPs I considered worthwhile for my purposes.  What you want to do determines if or which of the SPs are worth the memory usage.

So it depends on what things you really feel necessary, or just plain LIKE, that an EP/SP has to offer that will make it worth keeping and taking up memory space.  I bought a computer 3 years ago that I figured would be the ideal game machine, mainly for TS2, but also for some other games I play.  I was at that "unusable" stage on the computer I had prior to this one, so I know what you're going through.

I also have a hood I started just for monsters, like vampire and werewolf.  Haven't had either yet, and I got each EP as it came out, except for BV.

Also on the fence about TS3.  Dosn't look like it's going to offer a whole lot, but the ability to change sims bodies into more realistic builds and to be able to customize walls, furniture, etc. by color/pattern within the game might make it worth looking at.  Still undecided as to whether I think it's worth it, though.  I have a lot invested in this game, and I figure I'll keep playing it for a long time!

• Children can have maxed skills before becoming teenagers, making Uni skilling totally unnecessary
• Stages came with Open for Business
• Going onto the computer and getting the Lawyer/Politics career then quitting unlocks the reward
• Parrots build charisma at the same rate as the mirror does
• Apartment life has elevators as well

Other than that, though, it's accurate.

[ElviraGoth]

Children can have maxed skills before becoming teenagers, making Uni skilling totally unnecessary
Stages came with Open for Business
Going onto the computer and getting the Lawyer/Politics career then quitting unlocks the reward
Parrots build charisma at the same rate as the mirror does
Apartment life has elevators as well

Couldn't remember which one had the stages - thanks!

I only allow one career and its associated reward per adult/household.  Because of that, my sim children aren't usually maxed out in skills unless they're a third or more generation in a house.  And I don't always use the teacher/link skilling method, because I just don't think to use it.  And I kind of like playing the UNI part, for some sadistic reason.

Actually, I think JM's list of skill gaining rates lists the mirror at a higher skill gain than the parrot - mirror 200 and bird 150.  The only advantage to having a bird is that they talk to it autonomously once it has been taught to talk.

The list is by no means complete, I'm sure, this was just why I got them and why I keep them in my game.

[Telcara]

I have all the expansions and stuff packs. Im not really sure what I would consider the most worthwhile ones. I mainly stick with all the expansions and stuff packs as I like how the clothing, hair and objects fit the overall environment, which I for the most don't find CC doing. I also find that when downloading CC, I get a "more, more MORE" sickness so I try to keep with what I already have.

H&M Stuff is my favourite when it comes to clothing, however, it focuses mainly on female clothing. I really like Family Fun Stuff because of the beds and the pjs. Glamour life also has a nice set of furniture. Celebration stuff was the one I disliked the most, I rarely marry my sims under the arch so they never really wear formal clothes. Teen Stuff was fun, while Family Fun focused more on the kids, Teen Stuff has some nice items (and clothes) for your teen sims. IKEA was a HUGE disapointment for me, coming from Sweden and basically grown up with Billy bookcases and the like... I find all the items really ugly in the game. K&B made me drool - I really wanted those new stoves and fridges and I love the modern look. Haven't had M&G for long but so far, the only object I really like is the huge staircase which I will probably never use. There's also the Holiday stuff which I find quite worthless - unless you have Seasons and get Santa to drop by with some gifts every winter.

I rarely send my sims to Uni, because if I send one, they all want to go. And when they go, they want to almost max their skills - which I leave my sims to do when they're elders. I like NL - nice objects and clothes - even if I don't do the dating and the vampirestuff. OFB adds a new aspect to the game imo. It seems to me that it goes very well with Freetime. Kind of cute.. having stores where your sims have created everything themselves. Pets is as said by others only good if you really want pets for your sims. For the most part I find the pets annoying. Seasons added a nice touch - season activities and now actually those stuff from the holiday stuff pack came in use... BV doesn't change the game much but it does come with some nice objects, and it can be fun to have your sims go on vacation.

I haven't played BV and Freetime as much as I'd like, and I just got AL today.

I think in order to say which expansion packs are the most worthwhile, you need to ask worthwhile from which perspective. As I stated, I like the Maxis stuff. I'm not buidling much so I can't say which EP and SP are most worthline if you want more buildstuff. M&G I suppose is quite nice for that but most EP/SP add floors and walls not so many buidling options, none other than has already been mentioned that I know of at least.

Came to think of that AL has those spiral staircases.. but I found them somewhere else and had them before AL =]

[zherok]

Probably these stairs. The AL ones don't have a matching set that go the other way, Marvine's do, and have a whole lot more colors.

Not sure I care for vacations. I like getting new interactions, but how you get them is a pain in the ass. Tons of loading since every spot is pretty much good only for one thing. I'm not sure I've actually seen any locals, everyone I've met seems like a tourist in a kimono. I saw a ninja once but he promptly vanished. I did get the dragon tale out of the old man at least. Other than that, the vacation has pretty much been horrible. Arrived at night, next two days it rains. And pretty much any thing you can get bees out of, (tossing a coin, chance cards from tours) has caused my sims to be chased by bees.

[Liz]

Probably these stairs.I like getting new interactions, but how you get them is a pain in the ass. Tons of loading since every spot is pretty much good only for one thing... And pretty much any thing you can get bees out of, (tossing a coin, chance cards from tours) has caused my sims to be chased by bees.

They do enjoy tossing bees at your vacationing sims, don't they?

I've found that before sending a sim on vacation it's a good idea to head over to their intended destination yourself and edit the lots. Much like Magic Town or Studio Town in The Sims was originally set up to address only one or two points of interest per lot, each community lot in BV seems geared towards only one or two activities. To that end I've gone in and fleshed out most of the comm lots so that my sims can hit a few more highlights on each and hopefully avoid the lot-hopping that really slows things down.

For instance, in Takemizu I've added massage and mah jong tables to the Lucky Shrine Park (along with an espresso stand), as well placed a jewelry display in the little store so sims can buy local jewelry there along with a souvenir. I've also added mah jong & espresso to the Hot Springs lot and replaced one of those springs with the giant ninja statue; that way the ninja will appear in a predictable spot and not be hindered by the uneven terrain back behind the rear fence where he used to arrive. Hotels are given a tea room (as well as the rooms receiving a makeover) and some improved recreation facilities. The tiny "tea gazebo" lot gets a massage table in place of one of the bathrooms, and the lovely bamboo fountain is replaced by a wishing shrine.

As you observed, the ninja will hightail it very quickly after arriving, so it helps to know where on a lot he's going to appear. One of the reasons having the giant ninja statue on the Hot Springs lot helps is that I can send a sim running to that spot as soon as she arrives on the lot so that she's ready and waiting, and the second he starts to poof in, I pause the game and select 'Learn Teleport' immediately. Even then he's sometimes too quick; if the sim gets caught up in the ZOMGNinjaPoof!!1!one! animation, he'll probably slip away again. Still, I know where he's going to turn up again next time and don't need to chase him all over town just hoping to catch a glimpse of him. I may need to chase him a few times in order to get the question right, but at least I'll know the spots where he's likely to be.

[zherok]

Bees and things that made my sims itch. And all the chance cards that increased skills tended to target ones I already had maxed. I eventually gave up on learning anything there, both my characters could teleport via magic already, so it was somewhat redundant, and I suspect something is just wrong about the installation, I never once saw a local, unless they happen to resemble white people in kimonos and offer no different options than a tourist would. I did learn the Dragon Tale at least.

Outside of that though, there's some clear issues with my game. All the secret hobby lots from Free Time appear to have had their lots replaced with random asian vacation lots from Bon Voyage. I went to the secret gaming lot, and it looked suspiciously like a game free pagoda. When I went on vacation in game, I confirmed that it was EXACTLY like the secret lot from there, meaning something overwrote something it shouldn't have.

But with the next semester starting mid next month, I'm hoping to more or less replace this machine with a decent laptop, so it's too much of a hassle to fix it when I'll be able to start fresh without all the hardware issues. I opted to just try and give myself the interactions in SimPE in the meanwhile.

[J. M. Pescado]

Bees and things that made my sims itch. And all the chance cards that increased skills tended to target ones I already had maxed. I eventually gave up on learning anything there, both my characters could teleport via magic already, so it was somewhat redundant, and I suspect something is just wrong about the installation, I never once saw a local, unless they happen to resemble white people in kimonos and offer no different options than a tourist would. I did learn the Dragon Tale at least.

That's what locals are, yes. They're just like regular sims, except they start out knowing the local dances and perks.

Outside of that though, there's some clear issues with my game. All the secret hobby lots from Free Time appear to have had their lots replaced with random asian vacation lots from Bon Voyage. I went to the secret gaming lot, and it looked suspiciously like a game free pagoda. When I went on vacation in game, I confirmed that it was EXACTLY like the secret lot from there, meaning something overwrote something it shouldn't have.

BFBVFS!

[zherok]

I'll work a bit more interacting with those guys then when I reinstall the whole deal on another computer.

As for the lots, yeah, they're pretty borked. The Free Time special hobby lots are worthless entirely, as they're just vacation-townie free versions of the Asian vacation spots (some townies are there, but I didn't notice anything special about them, and the pagoda location is pretty damn worthless without the old man there...).

Additionally, no witches ever seem to spawn at the two magic locations. The evil warlock would show up at community lots, but I'm not sure a good witch or warlock ever spawned until I forced the game to. Either way, the magic lots are worthless as other than the evil warlock castle's serving NPCs, they're both completely empty.

No idea what went wrong during installation, but given the hassle it takes to remove and reinstall stuff, I'm just playing with the notion that this neighborhood is a loss, and I can just use it to test hacks and content out for a game on a more stable computer.