I need some major help with my game!

[rottenelle]

I played a mostly vanilla game until about 2 months ago. I had some custom hair, cars and one sim in my game. I bought the collections from the online store and downloaded lots with custom content also. So my game was getting boring with all the repetition i.e. studying skills for sim hours on end. I had never even used boolprop to fix stuck items. I would just move sims out of the lot and start over in another. So now I have gone download crazy with hacks and custom content. It's like a whole new game but I'm running into a lot of problems that are ruining it for me. The first one was items missing from my game. They are in the downloads folder and I have run Delphys organizer and a hack conflict program which says the conflicts are caused by the castle build items which I downloaded but haven't used yet. So that's issue number one. Now if I send a sim to a community lot when I click on the payphone to have them leave the game pauses with no way to start again so I have to exit without saving. I tried it on several lots and it does this on all of them. Is there a quicker way than going thru all 3 gigs of custom content one by one to find the problem? I just want to play my game not be a computer tech. I have all the eps and sps plus the store items I bought and downloaded from here. My pc is pretty decent and I upgraded my video card this past summer. I have run every program I can get my hands on and I still can't find what may be causing this. Could this also be the Suckurom issue because I know it's on my pc and I didn't know much about it until recently. One last question for now...is there a tutorial for noobs that will teach the basics of using SimPE? I decided to enhance my Sims 2 game instead of wasting time on Sims 3 which I knew I wouldn't like. Please be mean to me if you must for I would rather that than be completely ignored. Any attention is better than none.

[jolrei]

So now I have gone download crazy with hacks and custom content. It's like a whole new game but I'm running into a lot of problems that are ruining it for me.

Indiscriminate downloading and installing of hacks and CC will accomplish this, yes.

The first one was items missing from my game. They are in the downloads folder and I have run Delphys organizer and a hack conflict program which says the conflicts are caused by the castle build items which I downloaded but haven't used yet. So that's issue number one.

Tight pants.  Delete the item and test your game.  Some CC contains bad meshes or other code which conflicts.  You may just have to face the idea that you can't use everything.  If it borks your game, zorch it.

Now if I send a sim to a community lot when I click on the payphone to have them leave the game pauses with no way to start again so I have to exit without saving. I tried it on several lots and it does this on all of them. Is there a quicker way than going thru all 3 gigs of custom content one by one to find the problem?

Potentially faster method would be to remove all hacks and test your game.  If it works, you know it is a hack.  MATY generally recommends using Pescado's director's cut of hacks/mods as these do not conflict.  If your test indicates that the problem is a hack, remove all non-awesome hacks and test again.  Your problems with the payphones are likely also due to tight pants (conflicting hacks, old hacks not compatible with your latest EP, CC, or the work of the nonawesome).  Delete nonawesome hacks.  This may solve the problem and it is faster than doing a binary search.

Could this also be the Suckurom issue because I know it's on my pc and I didn't know much about it until recently.

Possibly.  See the "how to remove securom" thread in the Podium.  Follow the instructions.  PROFIT.  Even if this is not THE problem, there is no reason to have securom sitting around on your computer.

One last question for now...is there a tutorial for noobs that will teach the basics of using SimPE?

You may want to check the SimPE site and associated forums for this.

Any attention is better than none.

Be less 12.

[rottenelle]

I give permission to be mean and that's the best you can do? Sheesh I was looking for to a good flogging or verbal abuse about how non awesome I am. Anyway, I reinstalled everything and I'm testing all files which I have organized into folders. I'm suspecting that the offending file is in a downloaded lot. I am pretty careful about what mods and hacks I download but now I will also be downloading in a different way to protect my game further. Live and learn right?

Is there a way to scan packaged lots for such game-wrecking files? Clean Installer won't read the packaged lot files and I'm really hoping not to dump a lot of nice things since I'm too lazy to build them myself.

I did a 3 week intensive search for tutorials for beginning SimPE users and found nothing. That's the only reason I asked here. I've spent a lot of time reading the threads here before I made any posts asking for help so I'm aware of the disdain for Google-impaired noobs. I've found someone to do one-on-one instruction, so never mind on that question.