Moar Whiny

[JCSpencer]

Okay, I'm looking for (read: complaining about) a lot of stuff, but not knowing whether things exist or not, I wasn't sure whether to post it as requests, or in the "Where Can I Find...". Also, some of this stuff could relate to existing threads, such as my apartment problems being posted in apartment-related threads. So, to avoid necromancy, multi-posting, and putting things in naughty places, I decided to keep it all just in one (big) post. Likely, this will still be a no-no, but hopefully my beating will be far less severe. So on to what I'm looking for, if it exists.

I apologize for the length and volume of the content... well, no I don't. I blame EAxis, but it's my fault for being addicted to this crap.

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1. Is there a way to change lot types without having to rebuild from scratch? Specifically, I would like to change a beach property I made into a non-beach property. After 2 full days of designing and building a property on the beach that I intended to be an apartment, I thought simply putting in the apartment doors would make it an apartment. Now that I've found the thread on MATY about changelotzoning, I also saw in the same thread that apartments and beaches don't mix. I dread having to rebuild the whole thing, so I was wondering if it was possible to do that through some sort of magical means. If not, guess I gotta suck it up.

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2. I am one of those people that doesn't mind the tediousness of Uni, but after many many many hours of graduating many many many Sims, I am so SICK of those damn mascots, cheerleaders and other imbeciles that: 1) come to my property and then hang out doing homework for hours, finally to say in the middle of the night "Bye" or "You invited me to spend the night but didn't let me get any sleep" as if I had invited them or greeted them. I never even talk to them; and 2) perhaps even more annoying, these mascots/cheerleaders/other a-holes sit on the sidewalk doing their homework on the exit tile (if that's the technical term) where my Sims need to go to get to school or community lots. While they occupy it, my Sims cannot leave the lot and stop trying after a few seconds. Moving these intruders with moveobjects doesn't work, as the tile still remains flagged as occupied. The only option is to shoo them/ask them to leave, but then you have to wait for them to respond, stop doing their homework, and then turn to my Sim to receive the "get the F out of here" directive, and then to leave. I've been late to class and exams a few times due to this obnoxious behavior. Is there any way to resove this (i.e. any MATY awesomeness that addresses it)? I've just built a cemetary at the University, where several plots are now filled with ex-cheerleaders/mascots, but they just keep coming back, and the joy of killing them is succumbing to my bouts of anger. I'm convinced Mascots and cheerleaders are one of a hundred things someone at EAxis thought would be cute, but they didn't bother to consider how non-cute it might get after happening a few hundred times (like fire sprinkler pranks and endless school cheers). I have the "no townie respawn" hack, but apparently that doesn't apply to university NPCs. How can I be rid of them once and for all?

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3. Speaking of annoyances, is there a way to prevent food fires from happening, other than by eating non-cooked foods? I am no expert at cooking, yet I've managed to never start a fire on the stove (it happens in real life I suppose, but it's pretty rare). Just like that stupid lightning-causing-fires-every-time-it-storms. I know it *CAN* happen, but it's also very rare, yet with Seasons, some tree or bush catches on fire almost every single time it storms, yet it has no effect (the tree doesn't burn down or catch anything else on fire) other than to make people in the vicinity run around like idiots, screaming and waving their arms and screwing up their motives. I would love hacks that drastically reduced and/or removed these two things. I have the firemod.package, but that seems to deal with just the Sims fire-handling ineptitudes. Another annoying thing: The plumbing breakages drives me up the wall (again, these problems should be fairly uncommon, but they happen excessively), so I have the plumbing-lessbreaking.package which works great. However, in the RTFM JM mentions the "Pescado Home Furnishing" set for exorbitantly-priced, bulletproof fixtures. Did this ever pass from jest to reality? I would give my right nut and half of the left one for it.

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4. Is there a way to repair a family relationship connection? I moved a family from Pleasantview to a new 'hood I created, then moved their grown-up son and his family. After this, I discovered that the son no longer considers his parents to be, well, his parents. They no longer regard each other as family at all, just friends (after I rebuilt their friendship that is). I know you can manipulate relationship scores with testing cheats, but I can't find a way to artificially reconnect the two as family. Actually, I'd love to be able to do this anyway, since sometimes I later make a Sim that I want to be part of someone's family tree, like a sibling, or aunt/uncle, etc.

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5. The excessive autonomy talked about for families in Sims 3 may be okay with some people, but I despise it and it is one of the reasons I won't be buying it (shouldn't be a global). I hate it when any of my Sims do anything that I don't have control over, especially when it comes to relationships. However, it seems that I can't avoid it just by avoiding Sims 3; this aspect actually debuted in Apartment Life as I discovered yesterday. While playing one family in an apartment building, another family (they were two friends, nothing more) started autonomously making out on the playground and immediately fell in love (same sex to boot, but they have never been romantically involved with anyone, so their sex preference should default to opposite sex I would have thought). They NEVER did this under my control; in fact, they never even attempted to do it while I was playing them. Are there any hacks that address the autonomy of other families in apartment buildings (apartment autonomy creates other problems as well; see #6)? Or is the only solution to never place more than one of my own created families in any given apartment building? Also, is there a way to break this unauthorized romantic relationship without cheating on them or fighting, which will end up fulfilling a fear and/or creating a bad memory?

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6. Speaking of apartments, I've noticed a big problem with having a high relationship score with the apartment manager. Sometimes the manager will get stuck on the lot, wandering aimlessly for days around the lot, never doing anything, never leaving. The shrubs become overgrown, s/he never asks for rent on Mondays (but I still have to pay it), and s/he never throws those weekend parties (that part isn't so bad). S/he just roams the property aimlessly 24/7. One way I've managed to fix this problem (but it doesn't always work) is to influence him/her to do gardening. Sometimes after trimming the bushes, they will reset and eventually leave the property, but only after saying something like "You invited me to spend the night but didn't let me get any sleep." Reminds me of #2 above. The only way to avoid the problem I've found is to avoid talking to the manager after signing the lease, and thus avoiding building a relationship. However, that doesn't fix an existing problem and thanks to the new relationship system with BFFs and all, friendships never seem to diminish... ever, unlike the original base game where you had to call people continuously to maintain friendships. This sucks for other reasons, too. And for some reason, you can't argue with/irritate/insult apartment managers, so it is impossible to damage the friendship. Also, #5 becomes a problem here again. While playing one family, all the other families were going to those stupid weekend parties and building relationships; eventually everyone ended up being BFFs with the manager, leaving me with a perpetually buggy manager no matter which family I played.

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7. Sorry, another apartment issue. I'm sure JM doesn't care since he hates newspapers, but your maids will not clean up newspapers that are rotting outside apartments, which means you end up with the three max and you get told you won't receive any more, not to mention the hit to environment scores. Granted, I wish I could cancel my subscription to the paper after I find a job, but it's annoying having three rotting papers outside that your maid overlooks. I have to stop my slave-driving routine to make my Sims clean them up, but that's why I hired a maid... Also, I cannot pick up the magic lamps when they are left outside the door of an apartment; I can only activate/use them, but not put them into my inventory for later use. Any fix for this? And by the way, what does "NPC 12" mean as JM mentions this in the newspaper-related threads I searched?

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8. Gah. F'ing apartments. Is this a known issue, or am I having some kind of conflict? The closets (not dressers) that EAxis put in the apartments seem to be bugged. If I accidentally click on one, it clears the queue of my Sims and they'll jump up/out/off from whatever/wherever they are. If they were showering, they pop out; if they were sleeping, they pop up and stand next to the bed. If I keep clicking on the closet, they keep changing directions and their little portraits keeps getting updated as if some change occurred. Sorry for non-awesome lingo like "popping," but that's the best I can do to describe what is happening.

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9. What the hell is up with the creepy stalker chick that calls all of my Sims all of the time asking them to go hangout downtown, even though I've never met her (not to mention I haven't even built my downtown yet)? It's worse than Rod Humble. Is there a way to disable her? I'm not even sure what expansion she appeared with, but because of her, I now have turned off all the phones in every household, but this solution sucks since I never receive any other calls either. Of coure, that means I don't get the damn telemarketing calls either. Speaking of which, is there a hack that stops the stupid magazine offers?

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10. 5-Star Whiny: Are there any hacks that unlink hobbies from skilling? I emphatically detest the fact that I have no choice but to get into a hobby just because I needed certain skills for work. Just because I need to study up on mechanical for work doesn't mean that I love tinkering. Sometimes we have to do things we don't like, and we don't suddenly like everything we have to do. The cuisine hobby is the worst in my opinion; unless you want to go through life consuming only instant meals, pizza and chinese food, you are probably going to get several points in the cuisine hobby unavoidably. My biggest gripe with hobbies is that, like all preceding EPs, the new stuff takes precedence in Wants and constantly clogs it, instead of being equally distributed by chance. Thus, instead of getting useful Wants, my Sim wants to watch birds and collect bugs because I studied cleaning; they want to stare at the stars because I played some chess (wtf?); or they want to serve meals all damn day long just because I make them fix cereal every morning. In essence, I feel you have no choice about what hobby you actually pick; it's forced on you by other actions, and it takes such a ridiculous amount of time with extraordinary efforts to avoid hobby-inducing actions so that your undesired hobbies will decay to the point where it won't clutter your Wants. Heaven forbid you need to eat, ever, or need another skill for work, because then it'll just stay up there. There needs to be a way to choose if you are doing something for necessity versus hobby. Thanks to Free Time, I now avoid the television like the plague, and have to alternate cooking duties between family members, but this doesn't avoid the problem - it only delays the inevitable. And since when does writing in a diary make you an expert at discussing and blogging about Film & Literature.

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Well, that's all. At least for now. Even I can only handle so much of my own whining at a time. And thanks in advance to anyone willing to wade through this crap. Whether assistance or insults (preferably both), I welcome it.

[rufio]

2. I am one of those people that doesn't mind the tediousness of Uni, but after many many many hours of graduating many many many Sims, I am so SICK of those damn mascots, cheerleaders and other imbeciles that: 1) come to my property and then hang out doing homework for hours, finally to say in the middle of the night "Bye" or "You invited me to spend the night but didn't let me get any sleep" as if I had invited them or greeted them. I never even talk to them; and 2) perhaps even more annoying, these mascots/cheerleaders/other a-holes sit on the sidewalk doing their homework on the exit tile (if that's the technical term) where my Sims need to go to get to school or community lots. While they occupy it, my Sims cannot leave the lot and stop trying after a few seconds. Moving these intruders with moveobjects doesn't work, as the tile still remains flagged as occupied. The only option is to shoo them/ask them to leave, but then you have to wait for them to respond, stop doing their homework, and then turn to my Sim to receive the "get the F out of here" directive, and then to leave. I've been late to class and exams a few times due to this obnoxious behavior. Is there any way to resove this (i.e. any MATY awesomeness that addresses it)? I've just built a cemetary at the University, where several plots are now filled with ex-cheerleaders/mascots, but they just keep coming back, and the joy of killing them is succumbing to my bouts of anger. I'm convinced Mascots and cheerleaders are one of a hundred things someone at EAxis thought would be cute, but they didn't bother to consider how non-cute it might get after happening a few hundred times (like fire sprinkler pranks and endless school cheers). I have the "no townie respawn" hack, but apparently that doesn't apply to university NPCs. How can I be rid of them once and for all?

You want TwoJeff's Visitor Controller.  Alternatively, stick the BRY object on the wall and use it to tell the mascots to Bugger Off as soon as you notice them.

I moved a family from Pleasantview to a new 'hood I created, then moved their grown-up son and his family.

Sometimes the manager will get stuck on the lot, wandering aimlessly for days around the lot, never doing anything, never leaving.

Delete with moveobjects?

Granted, I wish I could cancel my subscription to the paper after I find a job, but it's annoying having three rotting papers outside that your maid overlooks.

Put three non-rotted newspapers into a sim's inventory, and when you have all three bury them under the furniture with moveobjects.  No more newspapers.  I'm pretty sure Pescado explained this not to long ago.

And by the way, what does "NPC 12" mean as JM mentions this in the newspaper-related threads I searched?

12 means teenager.  RTFFAQ.

[MuertoElBarto]

Way too long, way too much requested for a single viewing.

#10)  I don't have your answer, but since hobby points fade, learn to ignore them.  If you don't like the want tree path, ignore it, get some sleep (or visit a community lot, go on a date, etc. - allow it to reset.)   Failing that, skill via the Edumacator's Bookcase, or garden a messload of eggplants - you'll likely max nature, but see only the occasional cuisine point.

[JCSpencer]

Way too long, way too much requested for a single viewing.

Yeah, I know. Call it syberspunkitis. Anyway, I thought this was better than multi-posting. Would probably get yelled at either way.

I don't have your answer, but since hobby points fade, learn to ignore them. If you don't like the want tree path, ignore it, get some sleep (or visit a community lot, go on a date, etc. - allow it to reset.

Part of the problem is they take a very long time to fade. For my most recent sim, hobby wants from teenage studies clogged it up during the full four years, and still hadn't faded by the time he graduated. Add to that, my major required the same skill that was contributing to the damn hobby, so that just increased it again. Leaving the lot, sleeping, even using FFS debugger doesn't help, except maybe until you fulfill one good want, at which point it brings up the hobby-related wants again. They seem to be given an inordinately high preference for rolling up.

...or garden a messload of eggplants - you'll likely max nature, but see only the occasional cuisine point.

And instead get a messload of bird-watching, cloud-gazing, bug-collecting, butterfly-murdering wants, hehe. Just trading one for the other. I guess what my problem is that these hobby wants should be just that... hobbies. Something you get to when you don't have anything else to do, but they actually show up first and seem to take priority over aspiration wants or even job wants. The sim above never had any wants to write his term paper, graduate, make the dean's list, go to class, or anything else college related the entire time. He wanted to do stupid hobby-related crap constantly. Another fortune sim I have could care less about his job, getting promoted, making money, or fulfilling his promotion needs. All he wants to do is fulfill hobby wants, or if I manage to get a non-hobby want, it's something stupid and not worth the ASP points, like go fishing, buy new clothes, or impossible, like buy a car worth $12,000 or more (even though he's living in an apartment and has no driveway).

Speaking of messed up wants, lately I've been getting things like: "unnamed wantable object category" as something my sim wants to buy. It's just a blank square, no picture of an item. Anyone else encountered this? I can write down the category numbers and post them if it would help.

You want TwoJeff's Visitor Controller.  Alternatively, stick the BRY object on the wall and use it to tell the mascots to Bugger Off as soon as you notice them.

I'll try the controller, thanks; just wish they could be disabled altogether.

I assume then that moving families across neighborhoods, while possible within the standard game, is still BFBVFS bad? Oops.

Delete with moveobjects?

Ironically, it's deleting an NPC, and not moving families to a new neighborhood, that I presumed would elicit a . I'll give it a try. Thanks.

Put three non-rotted newspapers into a sim's inventory, and when you have all three bury them under the furniture with moveobjects.  No more newspapers.  I'm pretty sure Pescado explained this not to long ago.

He did, in the same thread I linked to above. But I guess I didn't understand what he meant. He talked about burying them (not the inventory thing), and I wasn't sure what that meant or how to get my newspapers to come when I do need them. I understand now, thanks. Unfortunately, there's still the annoyance with papers at apartments, although on another recommendation I just downloaded jfade's newspaper recycler, so I'll give that one a try.

12 means teenager.  RTFFAQ.

Well, that figures. Read the FAQ to make sure my post was okay, but never realized (nor thought to search for) a phrase like that in there. Still not sure I understand JM's protest of NPC 12s spawning for newspapers, unless he hates NPC teens in his game. Hehe.  I was thinking more technical I guess, like "NPC 12s" was a kind of error. I'm a git. Thanks.

[Chain_Reaction]

1. Is there a way to change lot types without having to rebuild from scratch? Specifically, I would like to change a beach property I made into a non-beach property. After 2 full days of designing and building a property on the beach that I intended to be an apartment, I thought simply putting in the apartment doors would make it an apartment. Now that I've found the thread on MATY about changelotzoning, I also saw in the same thread that apartments and beaches don't mix. I dread having to rebuild the whole thing, so I was wondering if it was possible to do that through some sort of magical means. If not, guess I gotta suck it up.

There's a way to fix that and keep the apartment on a beach, if you want to go through the trouble: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=302405 If not, whats wrong with just going into the lot and changing the zoning back to residential and saving?

4. Is there a way to repair a family relationship connection? I moved a family from Pleasantview to a new 'hood I created, then moved their grown-up son and his family. After this, I discovered that the son no longer considers his parents to be, well, his parents. They no longer regard each other as family at all, just friends (after I rebuilt their friendship that is). I know you can manipulate relationship scores with testing cheats, but I can't find a way to artificially reconnect the two as family. Actually, I'd love to be able to do this anyway, since sometimes I later make a Sim that I want to be part of someone's family tree, like a sibling, or aunt/uncle, etc.

You aren't suppose to move families between neighborhoods. You've effectively ruined both neighborhoods by doing this. If you like to play with it till toddlers get wants to woohoo the mailman, you can fix their relations with SimPE.

5. The excessive autonomy talked about for families in Sims 3 may be okay with some people, but I despise it and it is one of the reasons I won't be buying it (shouldn't be a global). I hate it when any of my Sims do anything that I don't have control over, especially when it comes to relationships. However, it seems that I can't avoid it just by avoiding Sims 3; this aspect actually debuted in Apartment Life as I discovered yesterday. While playing one family in an apartment building, another family (they were two friends, nothing more) started autonomously making out on the playground and immediately fell in love (same sex to boot, but they have never been romantically involved with anyone, so their sex preference should default to opposite sex I would have thought). They NEVER did this under my control; in fact, they never even attempted to do it while I was playing them. Are there any hacks that address the autonomy of other families in apartment buildings (apartment autonomy creates other problems as well; see #6)? Or is the only solution to never place more than one of my own created families in any given apartment building? Also, is there a way to break this unauthorized romantic relationship without cheating on them or fighting, which will end up fulfilling a fear and/or creating a bad memory?

Are you certain the behavior you saw was not ACR created? I'm not sure if that works when they aren't the active family, I imagine so. Also there's a greeting or something introduced in AL that looks like making out (its creepy to say the least). I've noticed several of my sims doing this but it doesn't count as a romantic interaction.

8. Gah. F'ing apartments. Is this a known issue, or am I having some kind of conflict? The closets (not dressers) that EAxis put in the apartments seem to be bugged. If I accidentally click on one, it clears the queue of my Sims and they'll jump up/out/off from whatever/wherever they are. If they were showering, they pop out; if they were sleeping, they pop up and stand next to the bed. If I keep clicking on the closet, they keep changing directions and their little portraits keeps getting updated as if some change occurred. Sorry for non-awesome lingo like "popping," but that's the best I can do to describe what is happening.

I don't have this issue, sounds like tight pants.

9. What the hell is up with the creepy stalker chick that calls all of my Sims all of the time asking them to go hangout downtown, even though I've never met her (not to mention I haven't even built my downtown yet)? It's worse than Rod Humble. Is there a way to disable her? I'm not even sure what expansion she appeared with, but because of her, I now have turned off all the phones in every household, but this solution sucks since I never receive any other calls either. Of coure, that means I don't get the damn telemarketing calls either. Speaking of which, is there a hack that stops the stupid magazine offers?

For me, it's sims my sim has met that does this random downtown call. I wasn't aware they did it when you didn't have a downtown attached to the NH. Wonder what would result if you accepted that. It doesn't happen often at all in my game to annoy me.

[JCSpencer]

There's a way to fix that and keep the apartment on a beach, if you want to go through the trouble: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=302405

Thanks for the link. After reading it, it's not the amount of trouble I'd have to go through that bothers me; it's that I would have to do it every single time I move a new family onto the lot according to Mootilda.

If not, whats wrong with just going into the lot and changing the zoning back to residential and saving?

It's residential right now, because I didn't know how to change the lot zoning until I found the thread about it on MATY. However, I kept reading like a good boy and discovered that beach lots (which mine is) are still a problem. Since it's a beach lot with four separate units, designed to be 4 separate living quarters, it's kinda useless as a residential property unless I want to pretend it's an apartment and manually keep 4 families in check. But then I'm limited to 8 sims (without cheats at least, although then I'd be asking for intolerable lag). Looks like I'll just have to map out my design and rebuild it on a non-beach property. Doesn't make sense why they never fixed something they knew about in advance that apparently has a simple fix according to Mootilda... oh wait. Never mind.

You aren't suppose to move families between neighborhoods. You've effectively ruined both neighborhoods by doing this. If you like to play with it till toddlers get wants to woohoo the mailman, you can fix their relations with SimPE.

It's really that big of a problem? I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something you can do in the game, without cheats, would cause this much damage. Maybe that explains some of the otherwise inexplicable issues that have been popping up lately. Dammit. And I made a new neighborhood from scratch for the very reason my old neighborhood was getting too buggy. Grr.

EDIT: Can I salvage the buildings and the Sims by packaging them and then reinstalling them in a new neighborhood, or would they carry the errors with them? I moved the first family by moving the house to the lot bin (which it let me do), and then planting them down in the new neighborhood. It surprises me that something so simple to do could be so destructive, even for EAxis.

Are you certain the behavior you saw was not ACR created? I'm not sure if that works when they aren't the active family, I imagine so. Also there's a greeting or something introduced in AL that looks like making out (its creepy to say the least). I've noticed several of my sims doing this but it doesn't count as a romantic interaction.

I don't use ACR, so can't be that. And yeah, it was romantic. I heard the falling-in-love sound, saw the hearts, and when I switched back to them, they had the hearts in their relationship panels. Bastards.

For me, it's sims my sim has met that does this random downtown call. I wasn't aware they did it when you didn't have a downtown attached to the NH. Wonder what would result if you accepted that. It doesn't happen often at all in my game to annoy me.

If it was a Sim I knew it wouldn't bother me so much, but it's somebody I've never met, with any of my sims. It has to be an NPC/townie because I didn't make her, and never see her around town, in shops, anywhere. It started with my first family right after I made the neighborhood, and it hasn't stopped. Same chick calls every household I create, and the phone will always start ringing within a few hours, wanting me to hang out with her at some spot she found downtown (interesting, since my downtown has 0 buildings; just a blank template). Maybe she's a psycho, like that craigslist killer. I've set all my phones to not accept incoming calls now because of her.

[DrNerd]

#2: TwoJeffs has a hack that gets rid of the Cow Mascots, who are the most annoying, given their propensity for pranks and teasing.  It's a Cow Mascot Head Trophy, and when a Cow Mascot comes onto the lot, it will walk over to the trophy, then scream, and then one of two things will happen.  If all the resident Sims are occupied, it'll just run off the lot.  If a Sim is free, they'll pull out the Repo Man gun as the Cow Mascot begs for its life, and then the Sim shoots it and it runs away.  It does nothing for the Llama Mascot, Cheerleaders, or Streakers, but they are less of an irritant.

As far as doing homework on the lot portal, there are hacks that stop visitors from doing homework.  Alternatively, make sure you have a table and chairs available; I've never had anyone sit on the floor to do homework when there was a table nearby.

#3: To minimize food fires, install the ovenless fridge from Uni.  That way, Sims can't put something in the oven and then walk away to be stalky, or pee, or whatever.  Sims with high Cooking skill may never burn anything if they don't have an oven.

#4: You can repair family ties with SimPE, the InSimenator, or the Sim Blender, but as has already been pointed out, moving families between neighborhoods like that is a Very Bad Thing leading to Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space.  If you want to bin and package the Sims, save the Sims2Pack file to your desktop and install it using the Clean Installer from MTS2, which will remove the shredded bits of file that lead to BFBVFS.  Unless you're on a Mac, you can also use SimPE to clone the Sims you want, put them in CAS, and recreate the families from there--I've used this method to rebuild two neighborhoods, and it's worked well.

#5: You may have never initiated any actions with those two Sims to set gender preference, but if anyone else has done something as simple as a Check Sim Out when those Sims were around, that's enough to set gender preference.  The default gender preference is for none; various interactions set the gender preference.  I would also look at the two Sims' personalities--I'd bet one of them, if not both, is high Outgoing enough to be a finger-gunner, if not a naked hot-tubber.  Very Outgoing Sims, if they have even the slightest gender preference, will autonomously initiate romantic interactions if they are friends with another Sim.  This occurs in the absence of ACR.  Ask me how I know that.

#7: There's a hack at DJSSims that automatically deletes or composts day-old newspapers if they're still on the lot.  If you have a composter, they're composted.  If you don't have a composter, they just disappear from the lawn a few hours after the next issue is delivered.

[rufio]

Ironically, it's deleting an NPC, and not moving families to a new neighborhood, that I presumed would elicit a . I'll give it a try. Thanks.

Deleting sims with moveobjects does not actually delete the sim from the game, it just temporarily removes them from the lot.  Even if you delete a resident sim with moveobjects, they will be there the next time you load the lot.  I actually used to hear about this method as a way to fix things like stuck pregnancies.

[maxon]

Sometimes the manager will get stuck on the lot, wandering aimlessly for days around the lot, never doing anything, never leaving.

Delete with moveobjects?

I always worry, if they're sitting on the portal that doing this runs the risk of deleting the portal too.  Maybe that was more of a Sims 1 problem.  Anyway, I use the zap option on Inge's cat. 

Edit: oh sorry, wrong quote - I was referring to the students sitting on the portal doing their homework but it's good for hanging-around managers too.

You aren't suppose to move families between neighborhoods. You've effectively ruined both neighborhoods by doing this. If you like to play with it till toddlers get wants to woohoo the mailman, you can fix their relations with SimPE.

It's really that big of a problem?

Yes.

I guess I shouldn't be surprised that something you can do in the game, without cheats, would cause this much damage. Maybe that explains some of the otherwise inexplicable issues that have been popping up lately. Dammit. And I made a new neighborhood from scratch for the very reason my old neighborhood was getting too buggy. Grr.

EDIT: Can I salvage the buildings and the Sims by packaging them and then reinstalling them in a new neighborhood, or would they carry the errors with them?

No and yes - this does exactly the same thing as moving via the lot bin.  The only safe clean method to move sims from one neighbourhood to another is by cloning and recreating the sim with SimPE or, as someone else said, use Clean Installer.  BTW, you should really get to grips with SimPE's sim-editing functions.  It will help you fix problems like lost relationship connections between family members and removing unauthorised 'in love' status.

[Arina]

10: I'm using this anti-enthusiam hack to stop hobby annoyances once and for all. The sims can still do any hobby activity, but I decide (ie, not inside the game) if it's their "hobby" or not. It gets rid of everything, though, due to how it works: no hobby idiots ringing my sims all the time, no stupid memberships clogging up the memories, no "look at me I'm glowy and STUPID and making loud noises all the time because I danced all day yesterday at the party!"... I love it, but it might be more than what you're looking for.

[JCSpencer]

#2: TwoJeffs has a hack that gets rid of the Cow Mascots, who are the most annoying, given their propensity for pranks and teasing.  It's a Cow Mascot Head Trophy, and when a Cow Mascot comes onto the lot, it will walk over to the trophy, then scream, and then one of two things will happen.  If all the resident Sims are occupied, it'll just run off the lot.  If a Sim is free, they'll pull out the Repo Man gun as the Cow Mascot begs for its life, and then the Sim shoots it and it runs away.  It does nothing for the Llama Mascot, Cheerleaders, or Streakers, but they are less of an irritant.

I'll try that hack, thanks. At least it will get rid of the most annoying of the bunch. Thanks.

As far as doing homework on the lot portal, there are hacks that stop visitors from doing homework.  Alternatively, make sure you have a table and chairs available; I've never had anyone sit on the floor to do homework when there was a table nearby.

The blocking of portals only seems to occur on rental properties; it doesn't occur at my dorms, because there *are* plenty of tables for homework, but on rental properties, since I lock the doors and they can't get in, they sit on the portals (the correct term for what I called "exit tiles"?) and do their homework. Well, that is the cheerleaders always do their homework there, but the mascots like to sit on my porch and block the front door.

#4: You can repair family ties with SimPE, the InSimenator, or the Sim Blender, but as has already been pointed out, moving families between neighborhoods like that is a Very Bad Thing leading to Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space.  If you want to bin and package the Sims, save the Sims2Pack file to your desktop and install it using the Clean Installer from MTS2, which will remove the shredded bits of file that lead to BFBVFS.  Unless you're on a Mac, you can also use SimPE to clone the Sims you want, put them in CAS, and recreate the families from there--I've used this method to rebuild two neighborhoods, and it's worked well.

Well, damn. Okay, I guess it's a learning experience. Chain_Reaction suggested SimPE too, which I will try as soon as I can download it; I'm getting error messages from the official website's download links. I want to learn it anyway, since there are other things I'd like to change or edit; maybe even contribute some mods back to the community instead of just being a leech.

#5: You may have never initiated any actions with those two Sims to set gender preference, but if anyone else has done something as simple as a Check Sim Out when those Sims were around, that's enough to set gender preference.  The default gender preference is for none; various interactions set the gender preference.  I would also look at the two Sims' personalities--I'd bet one of them, if not both, is high Outgoing enough to be a finger-gunner, if not a naked hot-tubber.  Very Outgoing Sims, if they have even the slightest gender preference, will autonomously initiate romantic interactions if they are friends with another Sim.  This occurs in the absence of ACR.  Ask me how I know that.

LOL. Well you are right, one had a high outgoing score in this case, but the more I play apartments, the more I realize it doesn't seem to matter. Although they are the only ones that seem to have started a romantic relationship autonomously (so far), all of my Sims build of friendships to max with people I don't want them to be friends with, but can't stop them while I'm playing another family. I use "no townie respawn," but either there are a lot more townies than I thought, or the game is still respawning them. *shrug*

#7: There's a hack at DJSSims that automatically deletes or composts day-old newspapers if they're still on the lot.  If you have a composter, they're composted.  If you don't have a composter, they just disappear from the lawn a few hours after the next issue is delivered.

Yeah, I am using that now and it works wonderfully.

Deleting sims with moveobjects does not actually delete the sim from the game, it just temporarily removes them from the lot.  Even if you delete a resident sim with moveobjects, they will be there the next time you load the lot.  I actually used to hear about this method as a way to fix things like stuck pregnancies.

I guess I'm stuck with her, since it won't let me delete the manager; I can delete other Sims, but not her.

Yes.

Shit.

No and yes - this does exactly the same thing as moving via the lot bin.  The only safe clean method to move sims from one neighbourhood to another is by cloning and recreating the sim with SimPE or, as someone else said, use Clean Installer.  BTW, you should really get to grips with SimPE's sim-editing functions.  It will help you fix problems like lost relationship connections between family members and removing unauthorised 'in love' status.

Okay, thanks. As I mentioned, having troubles getting SimPE, but when I do, I'll check out some tuts and give it a whirl. I really wanted/needed to learn it a long time ago.

10: I'm using this anti-enthusiam hack to stop hobby annoyances once and for all. The sims can still do any hobby activity, but I decide (ie, not inside the game) if it's their "hobby" or not. It gets rid of everything, though, due to how it works: no hobby idiots ringing my sims all the time, no stupid memberships clogging up the memories, no "look at me I'm glowy and STUPID and making loud noises all the time because I danced all day yesterday at the party!"... I love it, but it might be more than what you're looking for.

Actually, that sounds exactly like what I could use. The phone calls are annoying, the memberships are pointless (not like there's anything you can actually do at these places you couldn't do at home), and the "rewards" are equally pointless. All that work for a freakin' plaque, an annoying sound, and a glow effect that ruins screenshots/video captures? Oh. yay.

EDIT: Just checked out that mod, and looks good, except it really does nuke *everything*. But considering how sick and tired I am of hobby-related wants cluttering my slots and preventing others, I think it's worthwhile. Thanks for the pointing that out to me! Interestingly, I tried using FFS debugger to re-roll my wants to try for non-hobby wants, but it has no effect - every time they roll up identical to what they were (also using JM's wfs and ltw variety). Am I misunderstanding the function/purpose of that as intended by the debugger? Should I post this question perform necromancy in the debugger thread?


Thanks all for the replies and suggestions.

[Exiled]

Twojeff's VC also comes with an option to zap the newspaper delivery.  I use it rather than put three papers in each lot.

EDIT: Superior DJSSims version hack supersedes this.  I will have to get that hack myself.

[DrNerd]

Yes, the technical term for the spot Sims use to materialize onto or dematerialize off of a lot is called the "portal."  Deleting lot portals is also a Very Bad Thing.

If you're running into a situation where you're using the Lot Debugger to re-roll Wants and getting the same Wants, you need to get the Sim to do some different activities that would encourage the Wants to re-roll to something else, if that makes sense.  Send the Sims on a date, or out to garden, or off to skill, or throw a party--anything that's going to set up the Sim for different Wants.  It's not an error with the Lot Debugger; it's just an issue with the game itself.

For rebuilding, I prefer InSim or the Sim Blender over SimPE, because both of those work from inside the game, and SimPE doesn't.  If you goof up with InSim, you can see it immediately, and correct it immediately, and there's very little you can do to make things go kerplooey (aside from using the Mutual Relations... Everyone Here options with the Quick Relations Sectional of InSim).  SimPE is still the only way to clone born-in-game Sims, though.

[JCSpencer]

Thanks, DrNerd. That makes sense. I guess I didn't really think about it. I was getting hobby clutter, and refused to do it, because it's just an endless chain - they'll keep wanting to do it, which keeps their hobby score up, which makes them want to do it again... the only way I found around it was to go for a couple of Sim weeks without fulfilling a single want and avoiding hobby-related activities until the hobbies dropped below whatever score triggers wants. Of course, by that time they were also miserable, usually red in aspiration. But yesterday I downloaded that anti-hobby mod by XPTL that Arina pointed out, so I'll try that and see if it helps. It never occurred to me that I needed to perform other activities to get more reasonable wants, but like I said, now that you mention it does make sense. I know if I gain some skill point, the next time my wants re-roll, my Sim will usually want to get another point in it, and I know if I become friends with someone, pretty soon my Sim wants to be best friends. Thanks for spelling out what I should have realized already.

I finally got SimPE and will give it a try. For a reason that I can't immediately recall, I've been avoiding InSim for years. I'm pretty sure it's because I've downloaded lots of stuff that was explicitly incompatible with it. I have JM's DC hack pack, and I think there were things in there as well that were either incompatible or redundant. At least, that's why I think I didn't download it. I suppose I could be mistaken again and am thinking of something else. Not familiar with Sim Blender, so I'll read up on it. Thanks again!

EDIT: Okay, read twojeffs post and subsequently downloaded Sim Blender. Sounds great, and has a lot of options I need to make use of (such as fixing that family relationship brokenness I caused as mentioned earlier). But I do still intend to learn SimPE to make some other non-Sim related customizations, specifically I want to edit my careers, and I've come to understand that SimPE is the best way to do that. Unrelated, I've also heard Paladin's conflict detector is the best for the job it does - is that correct?

Thanks again for the tip, DrNerd. I could've used Sim Blender ages ago. I do have a question regarding it. I notice that some of the features are redundant with the FFS lot debugger. In a thread about hobbies from last year, Inge mentions "adjuster [mods] don't usually conflict" as they only "work at the moment you tell them to, and do nothing the rest of the time." So FFS lot debugger and SimBlender can both be installed since they aren't simultaneously "active" and thus can't conflict... right? Just making sure I understand.

EDIT #2: Thought of something else. Is there a hack that prevents shrubs/plants from needing to be trimmed - like twojeff's Perfect Plants but in a controller format (if that's the right word)? I would love an object I can place on community lots to prevent weeds and unsightly shrubs; the only alternative I have is to actually make my visiting Sims play groundskeeper, which obviously sucks to do work for someone for nothing. I have the static-energy statue that I use for community lots, particularly Sim-owned businesses; something along that line of functin for plants/shrubs would be awesome, if it exists.

[DrNerd]

Paladin's Conflict Detector is a good tool for checking hack/mod compatibility, yes.  I wanna say there's also one by Delphy or Numenor over at Mod, but that might just be a couple of different mods getting jumbled together in my mind.

The Lot Debugger and the Sim Blender shouldn't conflict.  The Lot Debugger doesn't conflict with the InSimenator either, although I'm not sure about using InSimenator and Sim Blender together, although I'm not sure why you'd need to use them both.

I believe the No Community Lot Gardening hack I currently have in place is by Squinge at InSim.  So far, I've not noticed any conflicts with it, but my last EP is Seasons.  I'm almost positive it's a Squinge hack; if it's not, try DJS Sims for it.

[JCSpencer]

Cool, thanks. I did DL the organizer from Delphy, but didn't see a conflict detector. Seems like in everything I read there, they also keep referring people to the HCDU, so I'll go with it.

Unable to locate that hack at DJS and Insim, and getting really bizarre search results through Google when I try looking for it that way. Mostly keeps taking me to articles about the garden club. I'll keep trying.

[Exiled]

Auto Recycling Newspaper at DJS.

Squinge's no gardening on community lots - oddly it won't work with Seasons and higher, not sure why.

[DrNerd]

There is an updated version of the No Community Lot Gardening hack, but he appears to have only updated it through Seasons, which would be why I have it.

JCSpencer, try Twojeff's Perfect Gardens hack instead.

[JCSpencer]

Auto Recycling Newspaper at DJS.

Aye, got that. Thanks!

Squinge's no gardening on community lots - oddly it won't work with Seasons and higher, not sure why.

Okay, well now I know why I missed it. I was only looking in Squinge's EP8 folder. Didn't check older ones, and I guess that option is out then.

There is an updated version of the No Community Lot Gardening hack, but he appears to have only updated it through Seasons, which would be why I have it.

JCSpencer, try Twojeff's Perfect Gardens hack instead.

I was considering that one before I posted, but I didn't want it to affect all gardens/plants, just community lots. Oy vey, guess I'll just have to settle. Thanks for the help!