Comm lot borkage and a question...

[LordBanxter]

I've been having a problem lately with traveling to comm lots, if I have my sims drive themselves or take a cab, when I try to leave the lot, the screen gets that red outline around it with the pause symbol in the upper left corner and I lose all control, with no option other than to quit to neighborhood and lose all progress.  (sorry for the run-on sentence)  However, if I have them walk to lot, there seems to be no trouble at all.  This workaround seems to do the trick except in cases where I have them go on a date and "ask back to my place", which as far as I can tell requires a cab and causes the problem.  I've checked all my hacks and none are in conflict with each other, and it doesn't throw an error log when in debug mode either, so I thought I'd ask here if anyone else has/had this problem.

Now my separate question:  Can sims only learn to be a witch/warlock from the npcs, or is it possible to learn witchery from player witches?

Any info would be greatly appreciated, and thanks ahead of time.

[jolrei]

I know you've tested for hack conflicts, but it still sounds like "tight pants".  Might be an oldversioned hack or a rogue bit of CC.  You could try running a test with your Downloads folder removed to make sure.

You've been away for a while, LordB.  Thought you were "dead member" material there.

[LordBanxter]

Hmm, removing the download folder did in fact fix the problem, but due to my unwillingness to do a binary search through 4400 files (most uncategorized) it looks like my sims are going to just have to hoof it whenever they want to go anywhere.

And no, not dead, just MIA for a while due to losing internet access for most of last year because of this wonderful economy... YAY.

I'll eventually get everything sorted out in my download folder when I inevitably reinstall the game as I'm prone to do from time to time, until then, the little buggers can use the exercise.  I mostly only use the cars for adult purposes anyway, and the only time cabs are absolutely necessary is leaving college, and since I rarely actually send any of my sims to college in the first place, it's negligible.

In any case, thanks for helping me at least figure out what the problem was to start with.  Baaaa


Also, any information as to my previous witch question?  Not essential, but would still like to know.   

[Rudilyn]

Now my separate question:  Can sims only learn to be a witch/warlock from the npcs, or is it possible to learn witchery from player witches?

Yes.

[sloppyhousewife]

Yes.

How very helpful.

LordBanxter, if your playable witches/warlocks reach a certain magic level, they learn a spell to turn other sims into witches/warlocks as well.

[Rudilyn]

Yes.

How very helpful.

The question did not ask how, only if it was possible to learn witchery from other playables.  Your answer did not address the question accurately, as the OP wishes to know if a playable can learn from other playables, not be forced into becoming a witch by another playable casting a spell on them.

[sloppyhousewife]

The question did not ask how, only if it was possible to learn witchery from other playables.  Your answer did not address the question accurately, as the OP wishes to know if a playable can learn from other playables, not be forced into becoming a witch by another playable casting a spell on them.

Well, yeah, a simple "yes" addresses an "is it option A or is it option B" question much more accurate, that's true.

@ LordBanxter to clarify:
You can't ask playables to "Teach me the whatever way" like you can ask the head witches. But in case you just wanted to know if sims can become witches/warlocks without having to hunt down a head witch: Yes. At a certain level of witchery, playables learn the necessary spell to turn other sims into witches/warlocks.

ETA: LordBanxter's sig = LOL

[jolrei]

You can't ask playables to "Teach me the whatever way" like you can ask the head witches. But in case you just wanted to know if sims can become witches/warlocks without having to hunt down a head witch: Yes. At a certain level of witchery, playables learn the necessary spell to turn other sims into witches/warlocks.

The head witches/warlocks are NPCs and not controllable.  Therefore you have to have an interaction to get them to turn your playable into a witch.  It is the same process, however.  The NPC witch, upon being asked to "teach me the way", casts the be-a-witch spell.  For playable witches, this is unnecessary since you can control the playable witch and turn any other sim you like into a witch once the playable witch achieves the required learnings.

[Gwill]

Hmm, removing the download folder did in fact fix the problem, but due to my unwillingness to do a binary search through 4400 files (most uncategorized) it looks like my sims are going to just have to hoof it whenever they want to go anywhere.

Why is it that people seem ti grossly overestimate the hassle of doing a binary search?  Unsorted is not a problem, quite the opposite; it makes it easier to divide your downloads in halves even.
A binary search of 4400 files will require you to start the game no more than 13 times, and since your downloads folder will be exponentially smaller each time, loading time will also be greatly reduced by each reduction.

[seelindarun]

The greater problem is assuming that it's just one bad download.  Binary search is only efficient if you're sure that the problem is in just one file, or just one folder. 
Mind you, if you're in the habit of letting problems go uninvestigated, it's far more likely that you'll run into this wall sooner, rather than later.

*Psst, download folder is geometrically reduced each time, not exponentially.

[rufio]

As long as you test everything (and not just one half) you can deal with multiple problem hacks and hack conflicts.  It means more restarts, but thems the breaks.

1. Split CC into two groups, A and B.
2. Take out B and test group A.
3. Regardless of the result, take out group A and test group B.
4. If one group is clean and the other is not, save the clean group in a folder on the desktop marked "clean", and repeat from 1 with the other group.
5. If both groups are borken, save one on your desktop for testing at a later time.  Repeat from 1 with the other group; after it has been resolved, repeat from 1 with the group you saved.
6. If both groups are clean, it's a hack conflict.  Put one group into a special subfolder of your downloads and leave it there.  Repeat from 1 with the other group only, until you find the conflicting file(s) in that group.  Then put only that/those file(s) into your downloads, and repeat from 1 with the second group until you find the conflicting file(s) in that one.

[seelindarun]

Well yes, twice as many restarts is what makes it less efficient.

Because of its intrinsic efficiency, being completely ignorant of what the problem could be doesn't much matter, when you do a binary search.
The method you describe has much more to gain by putting some thought into making up the testing groups, and in fact there's no reason to limit yourself to just two groups to begin with, since you're going to have to test every group.  In other words, some guessing becomes a lot more advantageous when you're looking for a lot of bad files, which is the way most people in this situation commence searching.