Don't they play their own game???

[ZiggyDoodle]

Quoting MaxoidKane from the BBS:

 Problem where some users are not able to leave owned community lots
We are looking into this for the upcoming patch. To prevent this from happening until the patch is released, do not travel to a community lot in a vehicle you own. Use a taxi until the patch has been released. If you have already encountered the bug:

1. Unfortunately, the game is in a state where you have to Ctrl+Alt+Del and kill the Sims2 task.

2. DO NOT bulldoze the offending community lot or the offending family lot.

3. Avoid playing the offending lots until the patch is released.

4. Install the patch when it is released.

5. Enter the community lot that hung, and resume play.

[simmiecal]

But - they are actually admitting that there is a bug. How many screaming posters did it take after uni came out for them to even admit there were bugs and not just "features"?

Edited to add:  I expect that games will have bugs in them. It's a business with a production deadline. What I look for is the communication from the company as the bugs are discovered and how they address (or don't address) the issue. I am pleasantly surprised with what I see as a change lately in the timeliness of communication from them regarding bugs.

[TaWanda]

 Doesn't know whether to laugh or cry at the sheer stupidity and/or audacity of putting out a game with such a major flaw    Shades of UNI?
 Methinks I'm gonna wait awhile before purchasing!

[Pegasys]

You know, I have a hard time reading posts like these about Maxis "stupidity". I'm not in bed with Maxis, but I appreciate their hard work. I wonder if people who actually DO software development for a living have the same response. As someone who has done a little bit of development of a different kind, on just my own, I am well aware of how painfully easy it is for bugs to creep in at the last minute. Even with loads of testing. Now I consider the team of Maxis developers, all having to coordinate with each other, the extreme complexity of the code, and the unknown last minute ripple effect of making changes, and I'm not surprised at all. Especially with the vast number of different systems and configurations.

I agree that it's concerning when bugs of this nature crop up, but at least they seem to be doing something about it pretty swiftly. I'm sorry I just can't chime in on the "Maxis Stupidity" chorus. If that makes me a sheep, so be it.

[angelyne]

I agree with you Pegasys.  There is also the fact that they are under a strict deadline.  The EP is coming out on the date they say, come hell or highwater.  So it's unvoidable that the game will be released with bugs, sometimes huge ones.  If the screaming about the bugs is bad, imagine what would happen if they delayed the EP?

PS thanks ziggy for that info!

[Scotty]

Oh please. We all know they work hard. But the fact is that EVERY SINGLE TIME that they release an EP, there are bugs in them. And most of the time, there is at lease one showstopper bug such as this. I havent encountered this problem yet, but I know people are probably upset by it. They will take their sweet time in getting the patch out. As usual.

[Motoki]

Obviously, they don't play their own game. The way the phone works is proof of that. No sane person who stand to play the game and have a phone in their house without using the phone hack.

[BlueSoup]

They got the first NL patch out fairly quickly.  Of course, they were probably already working on it when they released the game.  I'm not going to start bashing them, I'll wait for the patch.  I didn't have this problem last night when I sent my Sims to their community lot and back, thankfully.

[TaWanda]

Clarify: Marketing stupidity. Not the developers. My dad is a programmer from way way back so I know how tough it is, bugs do happen, but after the fiasco with uni I would have thought somebody at Maxis might have given a little more thought to more rigourous testing before releasing the product. More damage control on the front end as it were. And yeah, I really don't see how they could have missed this one.
 Companies have been known to push back release dates on new products. Just does not seem like a sound business judgement to keep releasing EP's with these errors that have a major impact on the way the game is meant to be played.

[ZiggyDoodle]

What I find incomprehensible is that given all the hoopla about the cars in NL, this rather major component of the previous EP was somehow overlooked in the testing process of OFB. 

What it boils down to is that we are paying $30+ to be beta testers.

Sigh.  Guess I'll have to keep the Porsche garaged and take dial-a-ride to the shopping center.  How boring.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Another issue is that if a ReNu You Senso Orb is on your lot, it won't load in your hood or Uni.

That essentially takes 90% of my families out of play. Maybe more. 

So far my "gamplay" tonight  has consisted of waiting for the game to load, waiting for a lot to load, alt-tabbing out when it doesn't load, shutting down w/task manager, then doing it all over again.

Boy, this EP sure is fun.   

[Li'l Brudder]

So far, no bugs incountered, just some very annoyingly retarded customers...yelling at my sims for somethign that somebody else did, really!

[Motoki]

Ever worked in customer service? Hell, that's not a bug, that's real life!

[PattyB]

Another issue is that if a ReNu You Senso Orb is on your lot, it won't load in your hood or Uni.

That essentially takes 90% of my families out of play. Maybe more. 

So far my "gamplay" tonight  has consisted of waiting for the game to load, waiting for a lot to load, alt-tabbing out when it doesn't load, shutting down w/task manager, then doing it all over again.

Boy, this EP sure is fun.   

If you open the lot in debug mode, you'll get the option to delete the Orb and then the lot loads fine after that. And if you put on back on your lot, it will open fine the next time.

[syberspunk]

Thanks for letting us know about that PattyB.

Btw, as a former "software developer" or "programmer" I also understand the difficulties of dealing with pressure, deadlines, and what not. Bugs are bound to happen when it comes to programming. And it's tough when you work in a field that is time-sensitive (financial or market/trade related) and you don't exactly have the time or man-power to do extensive Q/A testing. You pretty much have to be a programmer, tester, and user all at once in some cases.

Regardless of this experience, I still find it quite appalling that these EPs will be released where, as soon as the game is installed, a significant amount of the user base seems to report major probles such as these cropping up in what appears to be everyday, average, "normal" gameplay. What is frustrating is that it seems quite apparent that Maxis the company (not the programmers specifically) will put out a game that hasn't been tested to the point that "normal" gameplay does not cause problems.

Do they just start from scratch with clean installs every time they do their testing? Don't they bother to examine the effects of long term play? The "too many iterations" problem alone seemed to result from "normal" custom contentLESS (i.e. games WITHOUT hacks) play because of BASIC game Features. And by features, I mean REAL features and not "features" which are really bugs. Just like the whole jump bug being attributed to the normal progress of racking up tons of memories and building up the number of characters in a neighborhood. All of these things would have happened normally due to regular gameplay, and it's like they didn't even bother to think about potential repercussions. These are things that players would be expected to be able to do, and it's as if it wasn't even considered a possibility.

I think that is the root of many players' frustrations. And probably Maxis initial reaction, which from what I've read, seemed to lean towards ignoring players. *shrugs* I wasn't around then to notice this. It seems that they are more responsive now.

Anyways, I realize that there are deadlines and what not, but as a "customer" I would prefer that there be delays rather than bugs. I would gladly wait for a game that is playable and as bug free as possible, well at least free of these kind of major bugs, rather than have the game right away when I won't even really consider installing it. At least not until all my hacks are updated and new hacks have been made to fix the bugs before the patch even comes up.

Now I really don't want to install it yet.

Ste

[Dark Trepie]

Hmmm.  So, just to recap, because I'm getting OFB tommorow if at all possible.

1.  Don't use cars to go to community lots.  Use the taxi.  (Does this include all community lots?  Or just the new ones in the new sub-neighborhood?)

2.  Don't have Renyu-U-Senso orbs on your lot.  (Which won't be a problem because 99% of the time I delete them right after I use them.)

From the sound of it these are the biggest bugs yet to hit this game.  I wouldn't be surprised if this patch comes out really fast.

[Jysudo]

Its really open for buggness.. not open for business.
But luckily i have no problem leaving my lot too

[The~Simmer]

I've got a new bug and the only one yet in my game.
It's where a sim will sit down on the couch play a video game then they'll get up and the couch vanishes.     Has anyone had this happen to them yet? Or am I the only lucky one  .

BTW: I have since pulled out the video game system (in that house) and have had no vanishing acts with the couch. 

[MissDoh]

Ever worked in customer service? Hell, that's not a bug, that's real life!

I so agree with you, I do some customer service sometimes at my job.  Luckily not all customers get to the extreme.

Welcome back by the way, glad to see you again. 

[Pegasys]

Hmmm.  So, just to recap, because I'm getting OFB tommorow if at all possible.

1.  Don't use cars to go to community lots.  Use the taxi.  (Does this include all community lots?  Or just the new ones in the new sub-neighborhood?)

2.  Don't have Renyu-U-Senso orbs on your lot.  (Which won't be a problem because 99% of the time I delete them right after I use them.)

From the sound of it these are the biggest bugs yet to hit this game.  I wouldn't be surprised if this patch comes out really fast.

I don't know, the only bug I've had was the Renu-yu-senso-orb thingie, and it was an easy fix (boolprop testingcheatsenabled true, load lot, fixed).

I have used a car several times to go to a business community lot,  and I didn't have any problems, but it was in the Pleasantview base hood.

I've had one or two non-repeatable glitches as well. But so far my game has been running fine.

[ThyGuy]

A major bug I'm seeing is the customers come to the shop, but buy NOTHING! they just sit around talking to each other, and nothing is ever sold. I tried that mind control thing which makes them pay to come and shop, and they still wouldn't shop. wtf.

We are EA's bitches. They know we'll keep coming back for more, as long as our pimp treats us right after they beat us half to death.

[BlueSoup]

I had the same thing too, ThyGuy, but I figured it's just 'cause I don't know what I'm doing quite yet.

[Pegasys]

A major bug I'm seeing is the customers come to the shop, but buy NOTHING! they just sit around talking to each other, and nothing is ever sold. I tried that mind control thing which makes them pay to come and shop, and they still wouldn't shop. wtf.

We are EA's bitches. They know we'll keep coming back for more, as long as our pimp treats us right after they beat us half to death.

Do they have those shop bars that actually look like carrots dangling over their heads?

Have you set the items as sellable by using the wholesale thingie (sorry can't remember name of it now... you click the item to be sold and it turns bright yellow in buy mode)?

[Andygal]

Another issue is that if a ReNu You Senso Orb is on your lot, it won't load in your hood or Uni.

That essentially takes 90% of my families out of play. Maybe more.

So far my "gamplay" tonight  has consisted of waiting for the game to load, waiting for a lot to load, alt-tabbing out when it doesn't load, shutting down w/task manager, then doing it all over again.

SO that's what was causing my lots to refuse to load!

I was fixing it by moving the family out and back in again.

[MokeyHokey]

Problem where some users are not able to leave owned community lots

If this is the one I encountered where the "owners" get in their car and "leave" the lot but the game fails to transition back to their home lot and save/return to neighborhood is grayed out, the Debugger fixes this quite nicely. "Reenable controls" immediately sent it to the load screen and then to the home lot.

A major bug I'm seeing is the customers come to the shop, but buy NOTHING! they just sit around talking to each other, and nothing is ever sold. I tried that mind control thing which makes them pay to come and shop, and they still wouldn't shop. wtf.

Have you set the items as sellable by using the wholesale thingie (sorry can't remember name of it now... you click the item to be sold and it turns bright yellow in buy mode)?

Yeah, and it seems that you have to do this every time you add something to sell, unless you are just "restocking".