New SimPE w/gender pref

[baratron]

This is not good.  It appears that the latest rev of SimPE might corrupt character files.

I just did a test: I edited Meadow Thayer's number of semesters at college in the latest rev of SimPE.  It previously said "2" and I changed it to "8" with hopes of getting Meadow and her twins back to town right away so the kids could grow up.

As part of my storytelling, I went back to a backup from the end of July so that my graduate sims were still students. The last backup I had on the hard drive here had them in semester 7, and I thought that might not be enough time to finish all the photography I wanted to do with them. So I tried to use SimPE to put them back in semester 5.

The game loaded ok and ran, but when the students went to class, they wouldn't come back! They were unplayable and off the lot, with their needs all slowly draining to red. I couldn't X them out of class, or delete them with move_objects on (because they weren't on the lot to be deleted). Moving lot brought them back, but again they went to class and didn't return.

I don't know if this is a SimPE bug or something more fundamental (like you can't just change the semester number and expect the game to send the students to the right time slot classes), but going back to the unedited July backup cured the problem.

Is there an alternative to SimPE for people who just want to edit their sims or Neighbourhoods about a bit, rather than having access to the full object editing stuff? Like SimEnhancer for TS2?

[RainbowTigress]

Old versions back to 0.28 are available at sf.net -> http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=133134

If you get the newest one off sourceforge, you'll notice that the archive contains both "SimPe" and "SimPe Classic". I use Classic all the time, myself. Same old UI, but with newer functionality.

In lieu of a "thanks" button, Thanks for this useful post, Dizzy2.

[Brynne]

Baratron, there actually is a SimEnhancer for TS2, now. If you don't mind forking over 20 bucks for it. And I don't know how often he updates. I think only recently it was adjusted to work with Uni.

[veilchen]

I had that happen to me once too. I kept them alive with Merola's painting, and I finally got them back by using Inge's teleporter shrub. I still won't buy the 'Enhancer'. I distrust anything that has gotten such bad reviews about the owner not supporting the product, especially when I have to pay a whopping 20 dollars for it.

Baratron, you might be better off trying the older models of SimPe first. I have problems going onto the site where they are housed, but with the help of a friend, I was able to get the older model and it works fine. (Thanks again ZZ ).

[Zythe]

I was wondering what was going on when I used InSim's Personal Stats menu in the sims, and they were showing up the opposite of what I had set them to be.  For instance, I set General Buzz +1000 Woman and -1000 Man, and his sats show somewthing like -999 Woman and 995 Man!  So what others are saying about SimPE being backwards makes sense.  How annoying. 

And speaking of the new SimPE, while some things are easier, such as the Family ties editor where you can see the family trees, I don't like how the older relatives without character data now show up as Unknown with a Mr. Potato Head icon!  Someone asked about it over at SimPE's forum, and I posted that I was having similar problems, and quaxi has not responded yet.  It is rather frustrating.

Yes, they simply ignore us and pretend there's no problem. Nice to see you here as well, rainbow.

[RainbowTigress]

[Yes, they simply ignore us and pretend there's no problem. Nice to see you here as well, rainbow.

Hey, nice to see you here too.  I saw you posted again.  I posted too.  We'll wait and see what happens (as if we had a choice ).

[baratron]

I don't think "they" are ignoring us - EA maybe, but Quaxi responded to my email to tell me what he's going to do about the issues I raised. If he didn't respond to the forum, that might be an issue of time or difficulty in understanding colloquial English.

I'm happy to slag off EA for not fixing some of the show-stopping bugs in the various Sims games, because they're a supposedly-professional company whose business it is to provide functioning software. But I don't think it's right to slag off the various coders who write add-ons to the game. While large companies rush out improperly-tested software all the time (and should be criticised for it), very few home coders deliberately release buggy software. Sure, slag off the ones who do, they deserve it.

I don't know how many people are involved with maintaining SimPE, but if it really is just one person, it's a labour of love for him to keep doing so. SimPE is a complex program, and the more complexities you have, the more bugs you get - that's inevitable. Also, it is difficult for coders to get involved with something like SimPE because,
being a Windows application, it runs using the Microsoft .NET framework. This means that anyone who wants to help with the coding needs to spend $BIGNUM on a proprietary compiler, which puts it out of the range of a lot of people, unless they have free access to the compiler at college or work. (This is also, I guess, why the guy who writes SimEnhancer charges money for it - he has to make back the $799 US somehow).

I won't repost private email in public forums, but Quaxi reckons that the Unknown sim/Mr Potato Head is being fixed in the next release - it occurs if you click on the Sim Browser before the GUI has loaded the sim listing. Until then, the best thing to do if it bothers you, is use Classic mode SimPE.

[RainbowTigress]

I don't mean to "slag" Quaxi or anyone.  I know he is doing this without getting paid, and SimPE has helped a lot of people.  I was frustrated because of a lack of response to my problem, and I guess I've gotten used to guys like JM and TwoJeffs who are on the ball and respond rather quickly.  But when I realized it had been nearly a week and there had been no response, and I heard others saying they had not heard anything from him either, I became more frustrated and vented a little here.  I also heard some comments as though Quaxi did not care so much about those of us that use the program for other things besides modding, and I became worried.  Of course, that is probably not true at all.  Quaxi has done a great service for all of us in the Sims community that want to get under the hood and tinker with stuff that we wouldn't be able to otherwise.  It is just my hope that it will continue to keep up with the changes and be a relatively user-friendly program.  Of course, I am more technically minded than some, so the degree of user-friendliness is relative.  Having good tutorials helps too.

Ok I am done rambling here.  I just don't want anyone to think I am "dissing" Quaxi. 

[Zythe]

I would not like to diss Quaxi at all, especially since he's invented such an amazing program and doesn't have to answer us about anything unless it's out the goodness of his heart, which so far, it has been. It's also hard when English isn't your first language, and you have to understand problems with a foreign version, you know? I saw you on ambertation again, rain, and Quaxi did respond to say he hadn't investigated the problems yet

[Brynne]

Amen to the above. I hope I didn't give the impression that I was complaining about Quaxi, himself. I was only venting a bit about the forum, and I don't think he is the only one running that. Or at least that was the impression I got. I have nothing but respect for Quaxi, especially when you consider the fact that he was seriously injured yet still selflessly puts so much time into Simpe. Very few people would be so generous.

[Zythe]

Over at ambertation.de/simpeforum, I posted a BIG clear .png screenshot of the problem taken in version 0.45j which is "the next version", available for beta testing in QA. Hopefully pictures are a universal language

[vector]

I'm sticking to the one I have!

I wish I had, as well. Too many strange errors about .net stuff not being installed when it damn well is. Only reason I installed the new version was because the one I had pulled its' "oh god! There's something terribly wrong with me and I can't open! You'll have to reinstall me again" thing that it likes to do.

Off to sourceforge for an older version for me!

[veilchen]

I'm also still using the older version. I inadvertently (sort of) let SimPe install the newest version and I couldn't for the life of me get it going in sourceforge. Thanks to a friend for the boards I got the older version back, let me know if things work out for you.

I have to look around in the english forum, I'm using the german one (now there's a shocker)

[nectere]

This is why I keep a backup of the original dl SIMPE, after I install I put the dl in a folder used for backups, that why if I have to reload I dont have dl it again on dial up! (not that they are particularily huge or anything) I have also learned not to download any new versions of SIMPE until most of the kinks are worked out. I mean after all it is an ALPHA program not Beta, sometimes I just dont feel like testing, I just want to use. Also belonging to the QA section helps as well, seeing how the builds are progressing, known issues, what they are fixing in the next version...etc.

[Zythe]

The new QA version has fixed this - yay

[themaltesebippy]

Quaxi has said it was backwards.  Now it just hangs when I try to save.  Hear that Robin, HANGS!  Something YOU are not doing in those green panties!!

[witch]

Baratron, there actually is a SimEnhancer for TS2, now. If you don't mind forking over 20 bucks for it. And I don't know how often he updates. I think only recently it was adjusted to work with Uni.

I bought SimEnhancer for Sims1. I was totally disgusted to find that I had to go to the SimEnhancer site to get a new registration code every time I reloaded my machine - which I do up to 6 times a year approx. There was even a limit on how many codes per year could be obtained - three maybe? That's not a purchase, that's a frigging rental! I swore then I would never purchase software off this person again and have not, nor will.

I mostly use simpe for changing interests, personalities and the odd relationship. I have an older version, don't know what - I'm at work, but it works fine and I won't be updating till I know there are no bugs.

[Brynne]

I agree 100%, witch. I would not pay for that program.

[Zythe]

Especially since SimPE can do anything for free, and now is "prettier" too. Even DatGen owns SimEnhancer.