Holiday X-mas Pack - Is it worth it? Please report all bugs and "issues" here

[syberspunk]

So... I've ahem... acquired a copy of the Holiday X-mas pack and I'm debating on whether or not I should install it. I was wondering if anybody who has it installed can answer the following:

• 1) Does it overwrite the main executable?
• 2) Can it be uninstalled?
• 3) Are there any significant additional interactions or bhavs, npcs, and objects that you find enjoyable and add to your gameplay?
• 4) Are there any significant bugs? Whereby "bug" I mean it actually causes an error, either "jumping" or pops up a dialog box with an error log.
  i.e. The following may be considered bugs:
  
  - Errors regarding cooking and/or baking cookies.
  - Errors regarding "new?" formal wear for babies (I think this has to do with babies being to dress up for New Year's
  - Errors regarding fireworks and lighting (fire stays on longer than it should?)
  - Errors regarding sound/music from musical snowman (music does not turn off properly, stays on even after object is deleted?)
  
• 5) Are there any signfiicant "issues" with the additions? By "issue" I mean the interactions, npcs, or objects don't work like you think they should.
  
  i.e. The following are a couple of examples from reports that I personally might have an "issue" with the way these things have been "coded"
  
  - The Santa npc seems to only laugh and pee all day.
  - Xmas trees catch on fire far too often (I believe Carrigon has a hack to eliminate this completely).
  

If I forgot to mention something, feel free to add on to the list.

I know there are a couple of threads regarding the Xmas pack already, but I thought it might be helpful to have a separate thread that consolidates all such reports regarding "bugs" and "issues" because it's a pita to check those other threads which have gone off all tagenty anyways.

I have seen some reports regarding cooking or baking as a possible bug. However it also doesn't seem like enough people have the Xmas pack installed to either corroborate these bugs or issues. I figure it might also be helpful for the rest of us who don't have it yet, so we can either decide if it's worth acquiring and/or installing, or if we should save our money and just pass on it since it is either A) too buggy or B) pretty worthless.

I personally do like the idea of a Santa npc, fireworks, electrifying reindeer (more methods to kill your sims is always fun ), and musical snowmen (I'm a sucker for cutesy crap). But if it all doesn't work or "works" crappily, I'd rather pass or wait til it gets fixed. But as I am doubtful whether or not Pescado will acquire a copy of the Xmas pack, that also means that he probably won't get around to fixing any of these problems. And even if he does acquire a copy through legitimate means, that probably means another 6-8 weeks of waiting, and by then, the Holiday season will be almost halfway done.

I'd be cool if someone could rewrite the Santa npc bhav the way that Pescado has redone nannies. Maybe we need a santalobotomy hack, or "reverselobotomy" if that is the opposite process of adding brains. Or at least, maybe someone could write in that Santa sneaks a drink from a flask every now and then. Then he could be a hobo Santa, and all that peeing would actually make sense!

Ste

PS. Happy Turkey day to all of those who will be celebrating. 

[nectere]

I didnt have any problems in testing until I put my objects back in. With mods (hacks and for sim themselves i.e. hair makeup etc) it was fine, but with objects back in is when I starting getting weirdness. My daughter really likes it, and in a way I kind of like it too since its kinda inocent, instead of all the sexual related interactions actions in Uni and Nightlife.

meh. I guess that is one way of trimming my objects down. I still havent isolated which object yet however, with a gig of objects its a bit of a daunting task.

I havent noticed any other bugs than the ones you have mentioned. But the jury is still out.

[Motoki]

• 1) Does it overwrite the main executable?

Yes.

• 2) Can it be uninstalled?

Not as far as I know, no.

• 3) Are there any significant additional interactions or bhavs, npcs, and objects that you find enjoyable and add to your gameplay?

IMO? No. Not many new interactions. The mistletoe sounds like trouble and slaps and fights waiting to happen. Santa didin't impress me much. He's anorexic and left me coal.

• 4) Are there any significant bugs? Whereby "bug" I mean it actually causes an error, either "jumping" or pops up a dialog box with an error log.

I had an issue with baking cookies where they dissappeared. It's related to a download but not a custom food but which one is anyone's guess. I don't feel like taking them all out one by one to check and taking the foods out didn't fix it but taking them all out did.

• 5) Are there any signfiicant "issues" with the additions? By "issue" I mean the interactions, npcs, or objects don't work like you think they should.
  ).
  

Besides Santa being skinny? :p I dunno, I guess the fact that the cloned all the window meshes to make frosted windows rather than doing them as recolors annoyed me.

[syberspunk]

Since it overwrites the main executeable, does that mean it also updates/overwrites the objects.package?

IMO? No. Not many new interactions. The mistletoe sounds like trouble and slaps and fights waiting to happen. Santa didin't impress me much. He's anorexic and left me coal.

Do you mean that figuratively or literally? Lol. Can the Santa NPC actually leave you coal? Cuz that is somewhat funny to me.

I forgot about the mistletoe. I wonder, does it allow anybody to kiss? Or does it restrict it to non-family, and only if you are in crush/love/engaged/married. I personally think that it should be like a family kiss between family members, a platonic kiss between friends or best friends, and a romantic kiss if you are romantically involved. It should only be rejected if a) you hate the person, b) the person is a total stranger, or  c) you're in a bad mood.

I had an issue with baking cookies where they dissappeared. It's related to a download but not a custom food but which one is anyone's guess. I don't feel like taking them all out one by one to check and taking the foods out didn't fix it but taking them all out did.

By download, do you mean all of your downloads? Including game hacks/mods (i.e. hacks that modify bhavs)? Or do you mean only your object mods (i.e. hacks that either modify existing objects or add completely new objects that have their own GUID and custom bhavs such as mood adjusting paintings, etc.)?

If you only mean objects, and it isn't custom food that conflicts, I imagine it would have to be some kind of object that modifies kitchen related objects (the fridge, oven, etc.). But... if you mean that you had to take out your game mods as well, that's a bit crazy (not you of course, I mean Maxis ). My guess is that hopefully it would be a food related mod, like Serve Everyone or smartserve? I can't think of any other game mods that change the way food is prepared/served off the top of my head. 

Besides Santa being skinny? :p I dunno, I guess the fact that the cloned all the window meshes to make frosted windows rather than doing them as recolors annoyed me.

Hrm... about the windows, that is lame. I wonder if those were included in the object count of new items. It woulda made more sense to make them recolours so you can just change the "colour" rather than having to replace the entire window. Who's idiotic idea was that? I wonder if it adds more to loading time, loading an entire set of objects rather than just recolours.

As far as Santa being skinny is a bit annoying... couldn't you just take control and edit their body somehow? Maybe make their fitness realy low? It really irks me that there aren't a variety of body types/meshes in the game to begin with. I really like some of the body meshes out there, like beosoboxboy (sp?) and marvine's stuff is really hot and faeriegurl's fat body meshes as well are very cool. I wish there was a lot more variety in the game like there seemed to be in the original sims. It's a shame we only start with two choices in CAS/BS: skinny, and not so skinny.

Although these cool body meshes look awesome in game, if I understand it correctly, I don't think they would get inherited via genetics? I could be wrong. I  hope that Maxis might eventually someday release an EP that adds more variety to genetics, body shapes and types, skin tones, hair, etc. I think it would be great if they ever do a Superstar update, this could be included as part of the fashion aspect.

Ste

[Motoki]

I'm not sure his body shape would change even if you made him fat. Some of the special npc meshes don't change. If you use debug mode to get Mrs. Crumplebottom's outfit in the CAS, it doesn't change at all if you make the sim wearing it fat.

[nectere]

yes Santa leaves coal as a result of no cookies.

Regarding missing cookies: Its just objects for me, I am pretty anal about separating out anything that modifies globals, all of those are in a mods folder. What is left is pure objects, i.e. new appliances, furniture, fences and the like. Since everything worked just fine with mods and sim mods it must be an object, a new fridge or stove maybe? I dun know, but we are getting used to maxis default objects again. If I could ever figure out just the default recolors I have I will put those back in as well, but dummy me I lumped all recolors into one folder so I have no idea what is default and what is not.

I think I will try to locate all the new appliances tonight and take those out and then reload with whats left and see if that fixes it.

[JavaChild]

I used to think that I was loquacious... And Then I met SyberSpunk! 

Insert "No Malice" smilie... Just a friendly observation. Carry on as you were.

[Ancient Sim]

I haven't seen Santa yet, but all I've ever done is put a tree out and bake some cookies.  No way am I spending ages putting-up decorations just to take them down again.  Probably why I never put them up in real life either.  If I'd known you couldn't uninstall this I'd probably never have put it on, because I don't want all those endless streamers and things.  I do wish there was a way to remove Maxis stuff you don't want, I have so many things I will NEVER use wasting space on my hard drive, especially clothes and hairstyles.

[Motoki]

I used to think that I was loquacious... And Then I met SyberSpunk! 

Insert "No Malice" smilie... Just a friendly observation. Carry on as you were.

You aren't the first to make that observation.

I actually do like Syberspunk, I think he's an all-around cool guy, but sometimes my brain has a character limit and shuts off after a certain number of words. :O

We all have our quirks I suppose. Bagelnuts has quoting issues, I have a loud mouth, no tact and hideously ugly nanny avatars, Inge and Ancient Sim are Brittish.

Anyway, if I tease you guys it's because I like you. If I didn't, you'd know. 

[radiophonic]

My bug: Santa shows up in a polo shirt, some slacks and to top it off, he's faceless. I can't locate him in SimPE, but I'm assuming there is a guid collision happening here.

I also have the cookie issue.

[KellyQ]

I haven't seen Santa yet, but all I've ever done is put a tree out and bake some cookies.  No way am I spending ages putting-up decorations just to take them down again.  Probably why I never put them up in real life either.  If I'd known you couldn't uninstall this I'd probably never have put it on, because I don't want all those endless streamers and things.  I do wish there was a way to remove Maxis stuff you don't want, I have so many things I will NEVER use wasting space on my hard drive, especially clothes and hairstyles.

Same here; I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to uninstall it.

[Ancient Sim]

Well we could always remove the entire Sims stuff and start again, although I'm wondering whether it would automatically uninstall if NL was uninstalled, seeing as it went on after NL.  Probably not, but I'm not sure how these things work.  I did expect to see an Uninstall option, though.

[BlueSoup]

I actually did uninstall Nightlife only after I installed the holiday pack.  After I got the drive fixed (stupid computer), I reinstalled Nightlife, and then I thought the holiday pack wouldn't still be there, but when I attempted to reinstall it, it told me it was already installed).

[Bangelnuts]

I actually did uninstall Nightlife only after I installed the holiday pack.  After I got the drive fixed (stupid computer), I reinstalled Nightlife, and then I thought the holiday pack wouldn't still be there, but when I attempted to reinstall it, it told me it was already installed).

hmm interesting. my bug Santa Never ever shows up

[syberspunk]

I used to think that I was loquacious... And Then I met SyberSpunk! 

Insert "No Malice" smilie... Just a friendly observation. Carry on as you were.

You aren't the first to make that observation.

I actually do like Syberspunk, I think he's an all-around cool guy,

"You like me, you really, really like me?!?!" Hehe. 

I'm actually not one, as many of you I'm sure have noticed, to actually respond directly, well at least sometimes, and get a back and forth, side tangent going. That's actually a pet peeve of mine, mostly due to the fact that I generally prefer to "read" forums in flat form rather than threaded. Which obviously isn't an issue here since that is the default and I don't see a way to change it otherwise (to be honest I haven't bothered to look). So... I kinda find "side conversations" or off-topic tangential banter a tad distracting. But sometimes I'll give in because I quite enjoy being silly as well. I may not be the most socialable when it comes to chatting or posting, in fact, I actually don't post that often. But when I do chat or post, whatever I have to say I guess sort of builds up and comes out voluminously.

but sometimes my brain has a character limit and shuts off after a certain number of words. :O

See, I had a friend that is like that too. We had an, ahem, connection and we seemed to get along well in most aspects. He's one of those people that tends to send mass emails. I used to do that, but most people felt it was just so impersonal. Honestly, it was mostlly due to my laziness, because I didn't want to write individual emails to everyone, unless I considered you a fairly close friend to warrant spending a lot of thought and time. It was my way of trying to keep in touch with people, but that habit eventually died when my laziness overcame me. I still have a tendency to write really long emails to my close friends, but I've learned that with this particular friend, he really hates to read long emails, so I try my best to keep 'em as brief and succint as possible, while still being able to express my point.

We all have our quirks I suppose. Bagelnuts has quoting issues, I have a loud mouth, no tact and hideously ugly nanny avatars, Inge and Ancient Sim are Brittish.

Lol, I didn't know that being British qualifies as a quirk. I love Brits (and Aussies too). I love their different expressions and their accents are usually very sexy. I love how the online community has brought Americans and Brits together in common fandom regarding some of my favorite things, including Buffy and the Sims. Of course it's not just Brits alone, I love that we can connect with so many different types of people from all around the country and the world and have something as silly and strangely in common as the Sims. Incidentally, I watched that MTV special on the Sims life and it was kind of funny. It made me wonder if I might have run into any of those people online. It would have been funny if they could have interviewed people like Motoki, Pescado, TwoJeffs, Brynne, and all the other great, interesting "characters" you find here at MATY. Now that would have been pretty cool. 



Now to get sorta back on topic, I suspected that it would be uninstallable considering all that Holiday stuff is theoretically part of the base game. Since anyone who buys the Sims 2 will/should have the holiday stuff right out of the box. Which is unfortunate for many of us "early adopters" who may decide to forego installing the Holiday stuff altogether. But I wonder if the MATY modders and (other modders in general) will sorta be compelled to get the X-mas pack as well. I know that they all probably feel like they almost have to get each big EP. But what about these mini-EPs or these "Shopping packs" that Maxis seems so keen on. You would think that, theoretically, if these packs only contain objects, there shouldn't be any conflicts - assuming they are only clothes, hairstyles, etc. But if they start to package new objects, I can see a whole other set of issues cropping up with potential conflicts and bugs.

On the one hand, I'm all for new content. Part of the reason I purchased all the other EPs for the first Sims, even if I hardly ever used any of the new interactions from each EP, was so that I could get more clothes and more objects. But since the Sims 2 is a lot more complex, and the bugs are actually a lot more noticeable (I never experienced any serious bugs with the first Sims, and if I did experience any, I was completely oblivious to the fact and probably attributed it to just quirky, randomness), it seems that each additional set of objects can potentially bring its own set of bugs along with it.

Which is just plain fantastic considering Maxis doesn't seem to play or test their games and determine if there are any long term effects that are immediately observed in a clean or fresh install of the game. Right now, these "Shopping packs" just seem more like a gimmicky way for Maxis to rape our wallets. Many of us might feel compelled to get them just because the general community might make some neat stuff based on them. I think I'd prefer that they focus their time on putting out EPs with content that is bug free as possible to begin with, and that each EP should come with new objects, skins/clothes, hairstyles/genetics, etc. rather than releasing stand-alone "themed" packs. My other complaint about these stand-alone packs is that they might contain maybe 1/4 of cool stuff, and the rest of it might be fugly crap that you don't want to bog down your game. That's why I prefer custom content made by the community where I can easily and selectively pick and choose what I want in my game.

Well, I've actually strayed significantly away from the purpose of my topic to begin with, so I'll end my tangential rant here. lol. Sadly, it looks like I may not bother installing the Holiday stuff, at least not until people bother to patch it or its discovered what causes some of these bugs. I could install it on my sister's computer and use her game as a guinea pig. lol. I guess we'll have to see.

Ste

[Motoki]

Lol, I didn't know that being British qualifies as a quirk.

Oh they just can sometimes phrase things in a manner that comes off somewhat haughty to my sensibilities, but then I realize they aren't trying to be that way. Then again, I know I offend lots of other peoples' sensibilities. Virgali makes allowances for my Sicilian temper. 

[baratron]

I forgot about the mistletoe. I wonder, does it allow anybody to kiss? Or does it restrict it to non-family, and only if you are in crush/love/engaged/married. I personally think that it should be like a family kiss between family members, a platonic kiss between friends or best friends, and a romantic kiss if you are romantically involved. It should only be rejected if a) you hate the person, b) the person is a total stranger, or  c) you're in a bad mood.

Hairfish said it lets anyone kiss - and certainly not a friendly holiday kiss! Here's her post & screenshots.

P.S. I'm British, too! Where's my tea?

[witch]

I was born British, Richmond in Surrey is my birthplace.
Haughty, you say.

I like off-topic. I love being able to let a conversation conversate on this site. No anal retentive telling me I'm saying the wrong thing. Just a pathologically apathetic dictator to worry about. 

[baratron]

How long did you live in Richmond for? I'm from Kingston.

(Well, I'm not actually from Kingston - I was born in a crappy commuter town halfway down the M3. But I've lived here for nine years, so I think it counts.)

[syberspunk]

I forgot about the mistletoe. I wonder, does it allow anybody to kiss? Or does it restrict it to non-family, and only if you are in crush/love/engaged/married. I personally think that it should be like a family kiss between family members, a platonic kiss between friends or best friends, and a romantic kiss if you are romantically involved. It should only be rejected if a) you hate the person, b) the person is a total stranger, or  c) you're in a bad mood.

Hairfish said it lets anyone kiss - and certainly not a friendly holiday kiss! Here's her post & screenshots.

Ahh... thanks for posting that. I haven't checked that thread in the last few days. It started to get off-topicy and unweildly for me to follow. Oh well... that just about does it for me. I most likely won't be installing it, as much as I like the idea of all those things, the thought is nice but the follow through just isn't there. So... if you ask me, now that I think about it, us "early adopters" are actually lucky. Because apparently this Holiday stuff is just a buncha crap that's chock full 'o bugs.

On the one hand, I like the idea of more autonomy for sims, and sims "falling in love" with each other without my necessarily prodding them along. But if it's going to cause all sorts of chaos and not have any real checks and balances for how it should realistically work, forget it.  That's just plain shite. It would be cute if it weren't for the fact that autonomously using it would lead to pure random absolute chaos. It's one thing if sims had some sort of motivation or actually did things that they "wanted" to do, but despite having wants, it appears to me that sims pretty much just do stuff at random when left to their own autonomous devices. It's just pure chance of whatever object happens to be closet to them and advertising the most rather than sims actually doing stuff that really satisfies their needs or wants. *sighs*

If I were better at modding, I'd try and fix this myself, but I'm still quite the novice. I suppose I could install it and just not use the buggy crap, but it's the buggy crap that seems to make up like 90% of this pack. Is there anything good about it at all?

Ste

[witch]

How long did you live in Richmond for? I'm from Kingston.

Born there in 1957, left for Broadstairs when I was 5, emigrated to New Zealand at the age of 9. Cuban Missile Crisis prompted the move, my father thought New Zealand might be just far out enough to survive a nuclear winter. I would love to visit England again one day. 

PS I remember playing with a yacht in the lake in Richmond Park, it had a real little motor. 

PPS And playing with Spike Milligan in a toyshop. Mum said I couldn't take the trainset out of the box - so Spike, who happened to be in the toyshop, did. He set up a train layout all over the shop. In the end people were all watching through the shop windows. We played for several hours. I wish I could remember it.

Edit: and I'm really sorry syberspunk, I know you started this thread in frustration at diverted threads. I apologise & will stop now. I forgot where I was when I responded to baratron.

[Hairfish]

Is there anything good about it at all?

The musical snowman. I'm old, with not so much beard (give menopause a chance), so that may explain why sometimes I have my Sim turn it on just so I can listen to the music and watch the snowman wiggle his fat little butt. If my Sim gets the urge to dance, that's even better. It's Hallmark-quality Cuteness™.

Shoot me, but I LOVE the white string of lights. It's brighter and "glowier" than the colored lights, so sometimes I'll use it on top of the colored lights, for a pastel effect. We don't put lights up on our house, so these are welcome...and no one has to climb a ladder to hang them.

The fireworks & party poppers. Kids never seem to get much fun from playing with the toys in the toybox, but they love those sparklers and party poppers. We need more fun stuff for kids (that doesn't impale them or blow up the objects.package), so who cares if it would be dangerous stuff in RL? Sparklers in the house? Sure, why not? It's a rental.

That BEARD.

I also like: the big holiday candle (although I do wish it could be placed atop the dinky little useless table-top wreath), the gingerbread house, star-shaped wall decorations (I wish they were lights), big bows... I like just about all the purely decorative objects. But I don't decorate my own house any more, so again, it's nice to be able to decorate something.

Just don't pay $14.99 for the damn thing.

[miramis]

The fireworks, those lightable things that hang from the ceiling, and the reindeer pet interaction can be pretty amusing.  That thing that hangs from the ceiling that goes bang (what is that thing?) causes a pretty amusing moment when it goes wrong.  That look on a sims face is just classic  Otherwise the rest is umm... a bit er tame. 

The windows and doors should have been recolours as should the 'new' tables (they should have just been extra tablecloths for the nighlife square and rectangular table).  The lights should mostly have been lumped together as recolours instead of individual objects.  There are one or two very nice paintings, the gingerbread house is cute and the candles are nice.  The wreath for walls is quite nice, the wallpaper and flooring don't do anything for me, I mean who actually relays carpets and repapers or paints the walls just for christmas?  (Do people really do that?  You'd have to redecorate the second Christmas was over). 

I did like the way my teens stopped what they were doing and rushed to 'see Santa' when he appeared, but he should have been more interactable.  I missed Father Time and only saw the New Year Toddler, not sure if there is a special event movie for that since mine are disabled (I must remember to re-enable it to see any Nightlife movies - anyone know of any I should watch out for?). 

Sims leave money in their will for Toddler New Year, considering none of my sims actually got anywhere near him at the other end of that huge lot I'm a tad annoyed.  It's like he was some sort of invisible friend, also if you interact with Santa the best friend doodad (JFeds word?) appears suggesting he becomes another invisible friend in the sims relationships. 

I do like the nutcrackers, they can be used in a kids room as decoration.  The santa outfit is great, and I love the beards, my twin teens dressed up in the elf hats which are kind of cute theme-wise.

Overall though, I paid £9.99 but I'd say it was worth £4.99  I hope the next time they do this they stick more to one type of thing, maybe a CAS pack (hair, clothing) or Builders pack (windows, doors, plants, fencing etc..) or something, now that would catch my attention if it had enough to offer and it offered the right type of thing.  They tried too hard to put a little of everything in this in an attempt to please everybody and as a result it fell short.

[Hairfish]

...special event movie for that since mine are disabled (I must remember to re-enable it to see any Nightlife movies - anyone know of any I should watch out for?). 

There are no new ones in Nightlife. That irked me. (A lot irks me these days.  )

[cristalfiona]

Im also British, originally scottish, but moved to near Birmingham, at Uni in Manchester and currently on my year abroad in Berlin!

Slightly more on topic. If I had acquired this party pack from a certain thread on here (not that I would- its wrong), where would I have to download it to? I'Ve seen people say it goes into program files, but would it if I downloaded it?