So what's been fixed in NL

[MaxoidTom]

Tom: The missing icon bug is caused by the objects.package from the University CD (not the one from the TS2 CD) getting corrupted somehow. Copying that file from the CD compressed.zip file on the CD to Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\Objects does fix the problem. I don't know if that file is supposed to be modified ever or not, but I noticed when it gets corrupted it does have a later modified date and different file size than the one on the CD.

Some people have connected this bug to the remote controlled car and I think the objects.package file references it so I suppose it's possible. Basically the symptoms are that your icons dissappear and end up blank without pictures and when the sims come home their promotions don't get registered and they don't seem to get their pay either. There's been a lot of discussion about it on MTS2, some here, and I would imagine on the BBS. Some people, like myself, have had this bug numerous times, others never have so it seems to be related to how people play the game, like perhaps some people use the remote controlled car and others don't.

Yes, we have fixed this in the Uni and Nightlife patches.  It is related to the rc car being in use on save/reload.

[HRH Posie]

I'm having someone look at the College want (it may have been fixed, but investigating).

Thanks very much.  

I do understand about the memories however I have been concerned as they count towards the overall character count.  It is good to know that you have increased the max iterations in Nightlife however I think I'll stick to keeping my families in one place

[nectere]

I have flat out lost my icons on numerous occasions, without playing with the remote control car.

I have two missing icon issues, the first baffling one is all the catalogue icons went missing, they were just gone, I couldn't buy anything at all. I ended up having to bulldoze the lot after the third or fourth issue (unrelated) arose. The second is the want icons go missing from time to time and I will have maybe one or two wants and the rest are blank. This occurs quite often.

Unrelated and other issues...
Lots sometimes just get corrupted, ghosts get stuck in chairs or whatnot, items are suddenly in use when they are not, areas of the house or lot become unusable or warped (evidenced by using the level tool).

Sometimes for whatever reason NPCs in play or townies cannot change their appearance and their offspring cause birth crashes. (I have only had this happen a couple of times thankfully) Meaning that when the mother goes into labor the game crashes, there is no way to salvage it short of aborted the pregnancy through simpe, but it wont stop additional pregnancies from crashing when related to the affected NPC or townie, its as if dna strings are missing or something. I have no idea.

[MaxoidTom]

I have flat out lost my icons on numerous occasions, without playing with the remote control car.

I have two missing icon issues, the first baffling one is all the catalogue icons went missing, they were just gone, I couldn't buy anything at all. I ended up having to bulldoze the lot after the third or fourth issue (unrelated) arose. The second is the want icons go missing from time to time and I will have maybe one or two wants and the rest are blank. This occurs quite often.

Do they come back if you restart the game?  I think we fixed some of the missing icons issues unrelated to the rc car in Nightlife (at least refactored some of the code to get around some of the issues).

Unrelated and other issues...
Lots sometimes just get corrupted, ghosts get stuck in chairs or whatnot, items are suddenly in use when they are not, areas of the house or lot become unusable or warped (evidenced by using the level tool).

Sometimes for whatever reason NPCs in play or townies cannot change their appearance and their offspring cause birth crashes. (I have only had this happen a couple of times thankfully) Meaning that when the mother goes into labor the game crashes, there is no way to salvage it short of aborted the pregnancy through simpe, but it wont stop additional pregnancies from crashing when related to the affected NPC or townie, its as if dna strings are missing or something. I have no idea.

The birth crash reported on MTS2 regarding missing DNA genes has been fixed in the Uni and Nightlife patches.

As for the corrupted lots, Nightlife has some fallback code to try to fix these up.  The car portal being deleted bug is still being looked into, but I believe one of our scriptors is going to try and replace it if it gets lots.

[nectere]

No restarting the game didnt fix the missing want icons, many times when I start the game the icons are missing. For me its not a game stopping issue, its just another one of those "bugs" that bug me. The catalogue icon issue just recently happened, I have since deleted the entire neighborhood since I was having other issues with it (of various types), I just figured for some reason the game didnt code the neighborhood correctly when it created it since there were various other problems in addition. (corrupted lots mainly)

Actually its kind of hard to tell when you have a good install, things will seem to work but then after a few gameplays you realise you must have a bad install because some major issues will start cropping up. At least that what I keep telling myself, because sometimes I have reinstalled and everything is fine for a while then all messed up, then I reinstall and things are really messed up, then sort of messed up and then fine again.

I think this last install took fairly well though, although I havent really been playing that much anymore.

[Gus Smedstad]

death tombstone and inheritence bug - i think this is a big neighborhood problem.  we increased the max iterations limit in Nightlife, but I'm not immediately aware of anything specific

I don't believe that's the problem, though Pescado could tell you more, since he as a patch here that fixes it.  On occasion when an elder dies, even if he generates a tombstone properly, he sticks around on the lot.  He isn't visible on the lot himself, but he is visible in the Neighborhood thumbnail, and you can move him when "Moving Out" with a Sim, or when you ask another Sim on the lot to "Move In."  He also takes up a slot, so you can only have 7 Sims on the lot if there's a not-quite-dead Elder.  Sometimes when you open a lot with an Elder in this state, he's a selectable ghost.

 - Gus

[knitro]

I believe the final exam bug is fixed, but I'm not sure what death bug you are talking about.  Can you elaborate?

I believe that's referring to the no inheritance/tombstone bug.

You are correct, and this in correlation with the no moving out thing, they seem linked.

[knitro]

death tombstone and inheritence bug - i think this is a big neighborhood problem.  we increased the max iterations limit in Nightlife, but I'm not immediately aware of anything specific

I don't believe that's the problem, though Pescado could tell you more, since he as a patch here that fixes it.  On occasion when an elder dies, even if he generates a tombstone properly, he sticks around on the lot.  He isn't visible on the lot himself, but he is visible in the Neighborhood thumbnail, and you can move him when "Moving Out" with a Sim, or when you ask another Sim on the lot to "Move In."  He also takes up a slot, so you can only have 7 Sims on the lot if there's a not-quite-dead Elder.  Sometimes when you open a lot with an Elder in this state, he's a selectable ghost.

 - Gus

yeah, I have the EXACT same issue, it showed up on my Pleasantview hood, about 1 generation in. I had only created 1 family of 3. and went from there. Pescado's fixed cured me after the work arounds of course

[MaxoidTom]

No restarting the game didnt fix the missing want icons, many times when I start the game the icons are missing. For me its not a game stopping issue, its just another one of those "bugs" that bug me. The catalogue icon issue just recently happened, I have since deleted the entire neighborhood since I was having other issues with it (of various types), I just figured for some reason the game didnt code the neighborhood correctly when it created it since there were various other problems in addition. (corrupted lots mainly)

Actually its kind of hard to tell when you have a good install, things will seem to work but then after a few gameplays you realise you must have a bad install because some major issues will start cropping up. At least that what I keep telling myself, because sometimes I have reinstalled and everything is fine for a while then all messed up, then I reinstall and things are really messed up, then sort of messed up and then fine again.

I think this last install took fairly well though, although I havent really been playing that much anymore.

Possible work-around for the missing catalog icons:
Catalog icons are stored in the Thumbnails directory under My Docs\EA Games\The Sims 2\.  If you delete that directory, the original files should be copied back up from the Program Files location--if you have University it will try to merge the two.

[Carmelita]

I don't have any bugs to add that haven't already been mentioned here.  I just want to thank HatedMaxoid for coming by and talking to us.  Actually finally hearing something from somebody who is working on the patch about things that will be addressed has made me feel much better about buying Nightlife in the future and about the entire situation in general.  Thanks for taking the time to listen to us. 

Edit:  I lied.  I just thought of a bug.  What about the Slowdown bug, where an NPC gets stuck in a portal and the game spawns half a million new NPCs to take their place who then also get stuck in the portal eventually slowing the game down to a maddening crawl?

[nectere]

Thanks for taking time to answer my issues, I am not sure about the missing icon workaround though since it wasnt just the catalogue content icons that were missing it was also the icons that you click on to get to the content. But I will certainly try it next time. I have had to update the catalogue icons before due to making meshes and testing them in game (flipped meshes etc). Its a shame though sometimes that I have to keep restarting the program to get the game to run properly. Either way I will give it a go the next time it happens.

[RainbowTigress]

Thanks from me too!  This is great to have someone personally concerned here.  My issues that I don't think have been specifically mentioned are:

Greek level 6 bug (almost a game stopper for me)
Catalog icons go missing sometimes (have to use eyedropper on an object to get them back)
Elders getting birthday party wants after aging
Unable to send Captain Hero to work after cancelling carpool icon (to use bathroom, for instance)
Nannies (too many bugs, I can't remember them all)
Adults and Elders getting unreasonable or unachievable lifetime wants
Crushes from using handheld games and scanner gun Law Enforcement career object
Piano stops being fun after a day
Maid gets stuck putting coffee and espresso cups in washing machine
Repairman cannot fix expensive stereo
Sims get stuck on the toasting set
Toddlers play in toilet ALL the time, even when mood is high
Only being able to serve 6 sims in a household of 8
That stupid young adult walk!  (maybe that isn't really a bug, but it's so annoying!)

That's all I can think of for now, other than what's already been mentioned.

[knitro]

thought of another, may be design, but who knows, none of the new careers show up as a LTW.

[HRH Posie]

Actually I have thought of another bug.  Marrying cheerleaders is quite problematic.  Firstly the cheerleader must be moved in to your house at College and therefore you need to graduate the sim or get her to drop out.  You cannot just move her in if the proposing sim is an adult like you can with townie young adults.  Secondly she never seems to totally lose her NPC status.  Whenever she visits other lots she will revert from her clothes into the llama suit.  Having to change her clothes each time you visit the lot is a bit of a pain.

Oops almost forgot, what about the headmaster?  He is one of the most problematic NPCs in the game.  Saving the game between calling the headmaster and him arriving causes him to reject your family on the spot.  I think JM has a thread so I'll be back in a minute   Here's a quote:

MYTH: The Headmaster instantly rejecting a family on arrival is caused by poor-quality yards, furniture, family funds, or other family state. Improving your yard, making your family richer, making the members like each other more, or improving their grades even when they are already above a C will make him more tractable.
STATUS: FALSE. The headmaster's snooty 1700 departure is caused by a bug relating to the saving of your game after calling the headmaster. Do not save your game after calling the headmaster. It is advised that you do not call the headmaster hours in advance. Call only shortly before or during hour 17 (5pm), and he will arrive immediately. Do not save after calling the headmaster until he leaves. If you do experience a snooty instant-departure, the headmaster will perform his proper ritual if called back immediately.

[Trubble]

JM said something about what causes that I think a little while ago, have a linky... however well done Posie You just reminded me of a bug I do currently have.

[MaxoidTom]

I don't have any bugs to add that haven't already been mentioned here.  I just want to thank HatedMaxoid for coming by and talking to us.  Actually finally hearing something from somebody who is working on the patch about things that will be addressed has made me feel much better about buying Nightlife in the future and about the entire situation in general.  Thanks for taking the time to listen to us. 

Edit:  I lied.  I just thought of a bug.  What about the Slowdown bug, where an NPC gets stuck in a portal and the game spawns half a million new NPCs to take their place who then also get stuck in the portal eventually slowing the game down to a maddening crawl?

For the car portal one we are working on to remedy (at least try to fix up any irregularities, the source of the problem has not been nailed down).  Do they pile up on any other portal?

[RainbowTigress]

I forgot the corrupted death memories, where sims get two memories of a death, and one is missing a subject, so they have those "catscratch" icons in their speech bubble when they talk about the dead sim and pass it from one sim to another.

[MaxoidTom]

Nanny - there have been several fixes put in for her in the Uni patch
Headmaster - there are a few fixes in there for the Uni patch, hopefully they solve most of the problems
Crushes for handheld game - this if fixed in the patch
Piano - as designed
Sims get stuck on the toasting set - stuck as frozen or stuck as they like it too much? the latter is as designed (unfortunately)
Toddlers & toilet - as designed...toys apparently help for this
Serving 6 sims in a household of 8 - sorry, it was designed this way (not sure why)
YA walk - as designed (and apparently loathed by some, tolerated by others)

[gynarchy]

Cheers for taking the time to address our concerns, HatedMaxoid. I have a few more issues I'm interested in hearing about, most being cosmetic compared to the big issues with Uni.

- Saving the game while a Sim is using a cell phone causes the lot to become corrupted
- "Appreciate... Cheer Up" is considered a romantic interaction
- When 2 Sims in love spoon while in bed, the fun and social motives on the spooner fall while the spoonee's remain static
- Pregnant Sims dying if they or anyone in their family visits a community lot on the first day of pregnancy
- Sims not getting proper credit for selling a novel if someone else answers the phone
- Maids don't empty the trash compactor
- Uncontrollable Sims sometimes can't be stopped from doing research
- Purchasing a fountain does not satisfy the corresponding want
- Dormies become transparent if they enter their rooms and exit immediately and are unclickable for several Sim hours

[Ivy]

My issue:

Sim's mouths and animations do not work while on the phone with Uni installed.  They stand there, and it's like they are frozen.  No facial expressions. This is the reason why I've stopped playing in zoomed in mode, and instead play zoomed all the way out.  It's *painful* watching them try and talk on the phone.  You can hear their voices, but no mouth movement/facial expression at all.

Ivy

[MaxoidTom]

Cheers for taking the time to address our concerns, HatedMaxoid. I have a few more issues I'm interested in hearing about, most being cosmetic compared to the big issues with Uni.

- Saving the game while a Sim is using a cell phone causes the lot to become corrupted
- "Appreciate... Cheer Up" is considered a romantic interaction
- When 2 Sims in love spoon while in bed, the fun and social motives on the spooner fall while the spoonee's remain static
- Pregnant Sims dying if they or anyone in their family visits a community lot on the first day of pregnancy
- Sims not getting proper credit for selling a novel if someone else answers the phone
- Maids don't empty the trash compactor
- Uncontrollable Sims sometimes can't be stopped from doing research
- Purchasing a fountain does not satisfy the corresponding want
- Dormies become transparent if they enter their rooms and exit immediately and are unclickable for several Sim hours

Corrupted lot & cellphone - does this always happen? we haven't been able to reproduce this, so perhaps there are better reproduction steps?  it may be related to the greek amnesia problem though, which has been fixed
Sims & credit & novel - this is fixed in the patch
Fountains & want - the want has been removed (it was left in)
Dormies - We've put some more bullet-proofing for this in the Uni patch

[MaxoidTom]

My issue:

Sim's mouths and animations do not work while on the phone with Uni installed.  They stand there, and it's like they are frozen.  No facial expressions. This is the reason why I've stopped playing in zoomed in mode, and instead play zoomed all the way out.  It's *painful* watching them try and talk on the phone.  You can hear their voices, but no mouth movement/facial expression at all.

Ivy

Fixed in the Uni patch.

[knitro]

Ok, so I have a dumb question ....is the stuff that you refer to as fixed per NL is that in the NL game or a futrue NL patch?

[MaxoidTom]

Ok, so I have a dumb question ....is the stuff that you refer to as fixed per NL is that in the NL game or a futrue NL patch?

I usually say Nightlife patch if it is in that one.  I believe we are trying for concurrent release with the University patch (you can see Tim's latest "TimMail") so that fixes for Uni are also in Nightlife.  The NL patch will also have some NL fixes that have been reported by the community (like the cellphone missing upon installation and other misc. things).

[Motoki]

Corrupted lot & cellphone - does this always happen? we haven't been able to reproduce this, so perhaps there are better reproduction steps?  it may be related to the greek amnesia problem though, which has been fixed

Pescado first reported that bug and I think he was the first person to find it and look into it. I haven't experienced it yet (thankfully) but I've seen other people who claim to have.