Pre-Nightlife Houses

[Rascal]

I have read somewhere (where I can't find - I did search - truely!) that houses that were built before nightlife won't load once nightlife is installed.  Can someone confirm this for me?  Also, if this is a problem, does it affect the Maxis made characters that come with the game (eg the Capps and Monty's)?

I was given Uni for Christmas and have now purchased Nightlife and have decided to do a clean install for all three games, but I am trying to find out about this first.

Any help appreciated.

[BlueSoup]

I haven't had a problem with them; in fact, when I was doing testing on the Lot Sync Timer, I loaded every house in Pleasantview, which were previously unplayed by me, and I had no problems loading them whatsoever.

[Rascal]

Oh Goody! Thanks for the qucik reply BlueSoup.

[J. M. Pescado]

Houses built pre-Nightlife may barf if not opened and resaved prior to moving anyone in.

[BlueSoup]

I never had any problems whatsoever, and none of the houses were opened before Nightlife.

[Rascal]

JM, does this apply to those maxis houses that already have sims living in them?

[RainbowTigress]

If you move Sims who have graduated Uni or have been upgraded via the Lot Debugger with 6 want slots into a pre-uni or pre-NL house, you will get errors if you have debug mode enabled relating to CAS, and the sims will be missing want slots.  Even if you add them back with TJ's college adjuster or InSim, you'll still have problems with blank wants.  I tried this with a family, and even the teens who had not been to Uni yet kept getting all blank wants.  The way around this is as JM says, open the lot in build mode before moving any sims in and save it first.

[Rascal]

Thanks Rainbow.  I wish I'd paid more attention when I first read about this but at the time I had no intention of getting nightlife.  So, if I do a clean install and enter all the houses, go into build mode, then save - they should be fine?  I presume this would apply to houses in the lot bin also?  And the maxis sims would be okay since they haven't been to uni - yes?

[RainbowTigress]

I think it only affects houses that are empty, so empty houses in the lot bin would need to be saved in build mode before entering.  I have not had this problem with Maxis sims already living in houses, only if I move them out into an unoccupied house that was built before Uni.  This happened to me before I even got NL, and the sims had been upgraded using the Lot Debugger.  I have heard some people say they have problems like this with houses they built after NL, but I haven't experienced that myself.

[simmiecal]

I think it only affects houses that are empty, so empty houses in the lot bin would need to be saved in build mode before entering.  I have not had this problem with Maxis sims already living in houses, only if I move them out into an unoccupied house that was built before Uni.  This happened to me before I even got NL, and the sims had been upgraded using the Lot Debugger.  I have heard some people say they have problems like this with houses they built after NL, but I haven't experienced that myself.

I had it happen with a uni student that was moving back into his parents house. Had to move all of them out to the bin and bulldoze the house. That was the only house I had a problem with - and yes, I did try to move the student back home before I opened the lot after installing the expansion.

[Kyna]

I had this happen (again) yesterday. 

It was a house I'd built just the other day, definitely post-NL.  I'd furnished the lot and set it up with alarms, phone, skill objects, and the hack objects (lot debugger, toilet papers, lot sync timer, etc), then moved it to the lot bin before I moved any sims in, to be placed in my neighbourhoods as needed.

I placed the lot in Pleasantview yesterday and tried to move in Cassandra Goth and her downtownie husband, both of whom I'd previously upgraded from pre-uni sims via the lot debugger for the extra slots & lock. 

I got errors during the loading process.  When I got into the house she had 5 want slots and he had 4, and both had only one lock.  He also had 3 blank icons, but retained the locked in 'have a baby' want.  I added back in the want slots & lock via TJ's adjuster, and he then had 5 blank slots.  Fortunately, when his slots rerolled when he woke up the next simday he didn't have any blank slots.

This seems to happen with every house I have built post-NL.  I like NL's feature of keeping a copy of the lot in the lot bin - I now find the time spent building is worth it for me, since each house will be used many times in my neighbourhoods.  I have built a small range of houses that are already set up for my play style, and permanently in my lot bin.  It's just a shame I keep running into this missing slots and blank slots thing.

[C.S.]

I've cultivated the habit of entering a lot and saving right before move in (I'm that paranoid, and for good reason), no matter if I had just finished building/remodelling a few seconds ago.  Better to spend 5mins entering and saving than the next half hour trying to fix something. That has probably saved me from the hassle and frustration of trying to fix lots not loading and missing want slots on moving in.

There would be times when I visited an empty lot (that has been previously 'updated') to change something, decided not to and the game prompts me to save. All I did was edge-scroll, or pageup/down to look around, sometimes I exited right after entering, but the game still asks if I want to save changes. From then on, I started entering lots prior to move in because I'm suspicious as to why the game would think I had made changes when I didn't .

[Brynne]

Yes, I've been there many times. Blank wants, spinning wants, stuck clock...it's great fun.
Like was said above, enter the house in build mode first and you'll be fine. Otherwise, it's a pain in the ass to fix.

[BlueSoup]

Ok, well, I guess it's only me that didn't have problems.  Ignore my post then. 

[MokeyHokey]

I usually go in and drop a bright red-flowered shrub on the corners of the property, save and exit. I have gotten in the habit of checking for the shrub before I'll move a family in because I've screwed up so many promising families with pre-Uni house bullshit.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I had a problem with spinning want slots etc. with sims I'd upgraded with the debugger, and it wasn't until someone told me to enter the (new) lot and save changes first that I stopped getting the problem.  Before that, I think I had to move my sim family in and out and then in again at least once (after exiting by switching off the PV, which I hate doing, but I couldn't even alt-tab) so it really is the safest option.  And if I know I'm going to move a pre-uni family now, I don't bother to upgrade them until I've seen them safely installed in their new home.

[skandelouslala]

Ok, well, I guess it's only me that didn't have problems.  Ignore my post then. 

It's not just you.  I had no issues with it happening either.  Maybe we're the lucky ones hehe

[Sleepycat]

Ok, well, I guess it's only me that didn't have problems.  Ignore my post then. 

It's not just you.  I had no issues with it happening either.  Maybe we're the lucky ones hehe

same here, never had this problem *knocks on wood* I also never give CAS sims the extra want slots, maybe thats why?

[BlueSoup]

I've never given them free want slots either.  Hmmm...

[Rascal]

Thanks all.

 

I usually go in and drop a bright red-flowered shrub on the corners of the property, save and exit. I have gotten in the habit of checking for the shrub before I'll move a family in because I've screwed up so many promising families with pre-Uni house bullshit.

That's an excellent idea Mokey Hokey - I think I'll borrow that one.

[agcons]

One of my pre-NL houses did barf -- spectacularly -- when I moved a CAS sim in with the current residents.  There was so much chunkage the only solution was to delete all the sims and demolish the house.  Needless to say, I haven't done that again.  I like the red shrub idea, too.

[ZephyrZodiac]

If anyone's interested, I uploaded a house to SimFreaks Forum tonight.  It's been throughly tested in game, installed into a vanilla hood with clean installer, checked over and then tested again.  Only Maxis stuff in it, so it's only 1MB although it's quite a large house.

http://forum.simfreaks.com/index.php?s=55f8add0df904253372fe2b3f732038d&showtopic=4404&pid=42273&st=0&#entry42273

It's the part of the last post on the page.

[BlueSoup]

It's a really nice looking house, although I think it's too big for my computer to actually play.  Nice job. 

[Ellatrue]

I have nightlife but not uni, and in many cases the game actually runs smoother now that I have nightlife installed- some of my problems actually disappeared. I have only experienced the empty want slot thing since cheating to upgrade some of the sims to "uni status" with twojeffs college adjuster, and some occasional problems with former NPC's (like the paperboy)- but usually the blank want slot thing solves itself if I just fill one of the wants and cause it to reroll, and it doesn't happen often.

[vecki]

I've only had this issue with Academie La Tour (the whole uni neighbourhood went splat where not a single house could be opened), and only after playing for a while anyway.  Otherwise, not a single problem.