So what's been fixed in NL

[MutantBunny]

Just to get it established as a real fact: As a certified Maxiod Stalker (I follow him around and read all his posts everywhere) I know for a fact the Maxiod is online during all hours of the day and night, so he's not spending just his 'work hours' here. THAT"S dedication....and a bit crazy -- but really good for us

[sanmonroe]

You may want to read about what EA considers "normal work hours"

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/

The 9AM-10PM 6 days a week to prevent a crunch at the end is my favorite. (followed by changing it to 7 days a week when crunch time comes) With no compensation.

[MutantBunny]

Corporate BS at it's best.

I agree --that sucks. Which makes MaxiodToms efforts even more remarkable--he has often come online in the wee hours of the morning. His efforts may be an attempt to placate his horrible bosses, it may be that he worries about the financial plight of his family and it may be that he just wants us to be happy and shut the f#&^$& up and stop complainting about every little glitch (last option is my bet.)

I couldn't stand Sims2--the core game. And I screamed really loud about it too. It was simply unplayable until Pescado happened along and thank all Gods for him (I love Pescado, very funny smart guy.) Uni fixed that tho. I do feel that I paid for half a game with S2 and got the other half when I bought Uni. However, Uni has been fun for me. And NL is great fun so far.

My biggest complaint with the Sims 1 and 2 is : I hate when they take something away--they can add as much as they want but don't take stuff away, change stuff. 

I don't have a lot of the bugs other people have. Sometimes I feel almost cheated cuz I don't! Sometimes I wonder what the hell is wrong with my game that I don't have the bugs! (How sick is that??) And it may be that driving wonderment that makes me follow along behind him.

IMO, Corporations in general, not just in software, need to accept that people are HUMAN. Crporations obviously need to be forced into stopping the greed machine. Whatever it takes. I also think that EA needs to back off and give the Maxiods TIME.

I guess the moral to my tirade is:  I know he's online almost every night--sometimes twice a night. And it seems to me that whatver reason is driving him--he oughta get at least some appreciation for it.  So here I am trying to give what I can.
I know I really appreciate his efforts (and if I didn't, I'd hollar real loud about that too .) I know he's answered lots of questions people have had thereby making their game enjoyable again.

We probably need to get back on topic, what's been fixed, or Pescado will be tearing off our lips....

[J. M. Pescado]

You may want to read about what EA considers "normal work hours"

http://www.livejournal.com/users/ea_spouse/

The 9AM-10PM 6 days a week to prevent a crunch at the end is my favorite. (followed by changing it to 7 days a week when crunch time comes) With no compensation.

Pssh. Excuses. EA can clearly see their products are not performing up to spec, and so people must work harder. Thus, hours increase. It makes perfect sense to me. Now if they double them again, perhaps we will have far fewer bugs.

Of course, EA doesn't seem to have a good grasp on morale management. Morale thus suffers as a result. What they need is more motivational aids to boost morale. I recommend stationing a bevy of beggars outside the offices. This should provide the proper encouragement and frame of mind. If they can't enter or exit the office without stepping over a few beggars, morale should improve. A fat man with a whip wouldn't hurt, either.

[RabidAngel]

LOL!
Here, here, Pescado...

[DuckSpeak]

(I love Pescado, very funny smart guy.)

Everyone loves Pescado, and Pescado hates everyone. 

As for EA... it's nowhere as smart as WAR-MART with its ruthless efficiency.

[J. M. Pescado]

As for EA... it's nowhere as smart as WAR-MART with its ruthless efficiency.

I agree. The last time I was in a city and passed by a Wal-Mart, I was accosted by no less than 8 panhandlers. I'm sure there would have been more, but that was the maximum number of visitors allowed. Clearly, Wal-Mart knows how to inspire employee morale even as they pay them minimum wage.

[radiophonic]

If I go on a date with my husband, we talk about it when we come home. If I had a good time, I say so. We also (gasp) still give each other nice gifts, like flowers. He's even surprised me with flowers when there was no date or special occasion. Granted I see how a sim might place the flowers on a table inside if they life there, but I get my flowers by delivery guy, just like my man man didn't live here and just like I would have if we were dating.

Let me clarify: I meant that the interaction seemed awkward due to it having the same events occur when a sim takes a stranger out on a date.

*hands you some flowers*

[linolino]

Hey MaxoidTom, you gotta read this. That thread MaxoidKane posted at TS2 forum, about setting the audio option to the highest, has nothing to do with the Karoke lack of voice problem. Also any other combination of audio settings also does not work. (stero, 4.0, 5.1, adio quality low, medium and high) the karaoke is the same way, no voice, just background music. someone has already made a custom hack that fixes this, so maybe you could analyse it. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=662.msg24000#msg24000)

Oh, AND, together with the karaoke problem, there is other sounds that don't play: there is no sound of the bowling ball hitting the pins

Also theres a ridiculous bug about teenage vampire girls. their body skin is much more blue than their head skin. look at the picture here:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=558.msg24363#msg24363

[MaxisManiac]

MaxoidTom, I have a serious problem with Nightlife. Ya see, there's this one lot, and everytime I load it up, everything is normal. After a few seconds, however, the two adult Sims disappear from the Sim Selection menu, along with their characters themselves. They are still alive, just removed from play. The Toddler, however, stays. If I save, and load it back up, they respawn in front of the house, only to disappear again.

Before that house, I had another Sim go downtown with the adult male of that family. His wife was there as well, and when the date ended, I had my Sim go home. I was suspecting the game thought those two Sims were still at that community lot (?). I dunno. Any ideas?

[MaxoidTom]

MaxoidTom, I have a serious problem with Nightlife. Ya see, there's this one lot, and everytime I load it up, everything is normal. After a few seconds, however, the two adult Sims disappear from the Sim Selection menu, along with their characters themselves. They are still alive, just removed from play. The Toddler, however, stays. If I save, and load it back up, they respawn in front of the house, only to disappear again.

Before that house, I had another Sim go downtown with the adult male of that family. His wife was there as well, and when the date ended, I had my Sim go home. I was suspecting the game thought those two Sims were still at that community lot (?). I dunno. Any ideas?

Can you turn testingCheatsEnabled on and after they disappear?  Then look in your My Docs\EA Games\The Sims 2\Logs\OETreeDelete.xls and see what is deleting the sims?  You can also post the results here.

[MaxisManiac]

Alright, well, before I turned on testingCheatsEnabled true, I noticed in both adult's queues, they had abvout five things, all with the "Love Potion #8.5"'s icon in them. The man autonmously drank the love potion, and then went to ask his wife, Gina, about her turn-ons/offs. Anyway, I turned the cheat on, and then looked in that log file. (Right?)

I'm not sure what to look for, actually, but I found a bit at the end about the woman, Gina:

Object being deleted on tick   168471   :   Memory - EP2 - Attraction Marker   ID   385, in tree   Function - Main   ID   4097    on node   2    with object   Memory - EP2 - Attraction Marker   as me, and object   Memory - EP2 - Attraction Marker    as the tree owning object
Object being deleted on tick   168569   :   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   546, in tree   Interaction - Use Love Potion   ID   8230    on node   5    with object   N004_User00181 - Gina   as me, and object   N004_User00181 - Gina    as the tree owning object, stack object   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   546
Object being deleted on tick   168579   :   Emitter - Me So Sexy   ID   554, in tree   Function - Main - Track Sim - SG   ID   8196    on node   22    with object   Emitter - Me So Sexy   as me, and object   Emitter - Me So Sexy    as the tree owning object
Object being deleted on tick   169478   :   Social - What Turns You On/Off   ID   543, in tree   Function - Main - SG   ID   8193    on node   2    with object   Social - What Turns You On/Off   as me, and object   Social - What Turns You On/Off    as the tree owning object, stack object   Social - What Turns You On/Off   ID   543
Object being deleted on tick   169581   :   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   543, in tree   Interaction - Use Love Potion   ID   8230    on node   5    with object   N004_User00181 - Gina   as me, and object   N004_User00181 - Gina    as the tree owning object, stack object   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   543
Object being deleted on tick   169600   :   Emitter - Me So Sexy   ID   552, in tree   Function - Main - Track Sim - SG   ID   8196    on node   22    with object   Emitter - Me So Sexy   as me, and object   Emitter - Me So Sexy    as the tree owning object

[MaxoidTom]

Alright, well, before I turned on testingCheatsEnabled true, I noticed in both adult's queues, they had abvout five things, all with the "Love Potion #8.5"'s icon in them. The man autonmously drank the love potion, and then went to ask his wife, Gina, about her turn-ons/offs. Anyway, I turned the cheat on, and then looked in that log file. (Right?)

I'm not sure what to look for, actually, but I found a bit at the end about the woman, Gina:

Object being deleted on tick   168471   :   Memory - EP2 - Attraction Marker   ID   385, in tree   Function - Main   ID   4097    on node   2    with object   Memory - EP2 - Attraction Marker   as me, and object   Memory - EP2 - Attraction Marker    as the tree owning object
Object being deleted on tick   168569   :   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   546, in tree   Interaction - Use Love Potion   ID   8230    on node   5    with object   N004_User00181 - Gina   as me, and object   N004_User00181 - Gina    as the tree owning object, stack object   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   546
Object being deleted on tick   168579   :   Emitter - Me So Sexy   ID   554, in tree   Function - Main - Track Sim - SG   ID   8196    on node   22    with object   Emitter - Me So Sexy   as me, and object   Emitter - Me So Sexy    as the tree owning object
Object being deleted on tick   169478   :   Social - What Turns You On/Off   ID   543, in tree   Function - Main - SG   ID   8193    on node   2    with object   Social - What Turns You On/Off   as me, and object   Social - What Turns You On/Off    as the tree owning object, stack object   Social - What Turns You On/Off   ID   543
Object being deleted on tick   169581   :   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   543, in tree   Interaction - Use Love Potion   ID   8230    on node   5    with object   N004_User00181 - Gina   as me, and object   N004_User00181 - Gina    as the tree owning object, stack object   N004_User00181 - Gina   ID   543
Object being deleted on tick   169600   :   Emitter - Me So Sexy   ID   552, in tree   Function - Main - Track Sim - SG   ID   8196    on node   22    with object   Emitter - Me So Sexy   as me, and object   Emitter - Me So Sexy    as the tree owning object

Thank you, this has been very helpful.  I've got someone on it right now.

In the meantime, any potion may not be safe to use if you think your sim will complain about it using it (if pushing the interaction fails, the code will delete the sim erroneously).

[Ancient Sim]

The last time I was in a city and passed by a Wal-Mart, I was accosted by no less than 8 panhandlers. I'm sure there would have been more, but that was the maximum number of visitors allowed.

This is one of the funniest things I have read in ages.  Not because it relates to Wal-Mart (which we don't have here, unless you count Asda which has been taken over by the Wal-Mart people and as a result gone all weird and American already, y'all), but because it's so incredibly sarky, dry, and ... well, BRITISH.  I swear Pescado is alive & well and living in the middle of the Yorkshire Moors.

[Ancient Sim]

One thing I've just realised that hasn't been fixed is the extra graduation memory.  Since installing the expansion, I had a Sim move and it gave her a "Graduated Cum Laude" memory when she'd graduated "Summa Cum Laude" about 10 years previously.  I took it out in SimPE but the game insisted on putting it back in.  This is my 'self Sim', so there is no way I'm letting her have an inferior degree!!!  Another Sim who graduated "Magna" was given "Graduated" when she moved Downtown.  In both cases, these were the second moves since graduation, not the first.  It probably doesn't help that all the graduated Sims have lost their diplomas, together with their mobile phones.  On top of that, they don't even realise that they own phones, mp3 players and handhelds (esp. mp3 players) because they keep asking to buy them.  Several of mine have ended-up with two or three of them because I keep forgetting and give them one when they ask.

Incidentally, I thought there was going to be a patch in Nightlife but if there is, I received no notification that my game was being patched.  It said it was checking to see if my game was up-to-date and said it was immediately, there was definitely no patching occurring at that point.

Oops, just realised I've posted twice in succession in the same thread.  Might mean another set of lips going ...

[MaxisManiac]

Ancient Sim, I have that problem as well, and it gives all their relatives a memory too. I had one grandmother receive almost two pages of Graduation memories.

Another extremely annoying thing is the fact some memories are not being recorded. I had two furious Sims fight, and they became Enemies. Yet, the winner had no memory of ever becoming Enemies, but the loser did. (I'm sure this has been posted about before).

[Bane~Child]

Let me know which ones you are concerned about and I'll do some digging.

Well, there is the death of Sims interacting in play with Toddlers, specifically the Rabbit Head.  TwoJeffs became interested in our find and did some checking into this phenomenon.  He found that the game does not check for motive failure and so he came up with a fix to correct this.

Basically anything using the code for '0x85' (set to next Sim/Neighbor) that causes 'Too Many Sims Overflow'  - such as age transitions, final exams, going steady, Pollination Tech, corrupt death involving no tombstones or inheritence, birthday party wants, computer chatting, incorrect accounting for Secret Society friends causing no abductions, moving out bug.

Pregnant Sims unable to visit Community Lots without dropping dead.

Hopefully some of these have already been addressed with the upcoming release of the Stand Alone Patch, but you may wish to visit and compare notes with this thread at the official site (The Sims 2 BBS > Expansion Pack Discussions > University > "buglist version 7") where 135 bugs, glitches and the infamous critical overflows were identified.

[MaxoidTom]

Incidentally, I thought there was going to be a patch in Nightlife but if there is, I received no notification that my game was being patched.  It said it was checking to see if my game was up-to-date and said it was immediately, there was definitely no patching occurring at that point.

The game reads the latest objects.package and uses the latest executable.  There is no need to "back-patch" the old executable or the old scripts.  Code that was in Uni was brought forward and modified in NL.

[miclsimmer]

...  don't think has been mentioned yet. The ground cover or terrain paints used to  ...
...  dodgy there. If you even select the groundcover tool, without applying any to the  ...
...  up for me. That's how I first discovered the buggieness. I tried deleting the  ...
... , this usually corrupts the lot. These ground paints can not be removed even with the  ...
...  command to remove all groundcovers, the lot still saves with them. I  ...

As you can see this has been brought up before but I can not find anywhere where it is addressed as fixed, being fixed or live with it.

Terrain Paints or ground covers  when deleted or disabled are the cause of many game problems including  game crashes upon lot entry.

Please, if there is info on this I missed would someone point the way to it. Thanks

[ElviraGoth]

It's possible that simply saving the lot with a newly pregnant Sim and exiting, then immediately reentering will not cause problems.

Apparently the game thinks the Sim has had morning sickness for over 10 days, where death by disease normally occurs.  While normally morning sickness cannot last more than a day, something seems to be telling the game that it's been more than the normal period.

It may be that if you save the lot, then play other lots for a while, then go back to the lot with the newly pregnant Sim, the game thinks more time has passed for that Sim than just what you've played on that lot.  I tend to have lots where I'll play for a while, then quit and play another lot for a while, then eventually go back.  It's very likely that more than 10 days passed playing other lots.  I've only had the pregnancy death once, but after the first time I was very careful never to save between lullaby and the first bump.

I guess this is what I'm saying:  If you never save between lullaby and first bump, you'll never experience pregnancy death.  If you do save during this time, you *might* experience it.

Hook

Yes, it was my understanding that if the lot had been saved either by someone in the house going to a community lot or by saving and exiting the game that this happened IF the pregnant sim was between baby bells and first bump.  This is what I was trying to duplicate.  I have 12 families that I rotate play for 3 sim days at a time, and can usually only get through two, maybe three families each rl evening when I play.  So I might play the Red house on a rl Monday and not get back to them until rl Friday.  I may even see the pregnant but unbumped sim on a community lot or they might come home with another sim whose lot I'm playing.  I still have not been able to have a death occur from this.

But I have had sims that didn't get that first bump when I KNEW they were pg.  Couldn't get the "try for baby" option (even though they were still young enough to be able to), no bumps of any kind whatever.  Had to take them to another lot for the bump (and sometimes, the birth) to happen.  (Either move out or invite from another lot and make them selectable until a bump appears.)

So I wonder if this is the same thing but on a different level?  See, I don't have a pg death, but I occasionally have a pg no-show or no-birth.

[RainbowTigress]

Another bug that's been in the original game, in University, and still in Nightlife, is one where I believe it does matter if a Sim is outside or not (tested it at Maxis once, and it did matter). Have a two-story house (or more), and put Sim A on the ground floor, and Sim B on the first floor (or 1st and 2nd respectively, for you Americans, both Sims have to be inside). Select Sim A, it doesn't matter which floor the camera is at but it's probably most obvious if it's on the first floor. While keeping this sim selected, RIGHT-click the icon on the left of Sim B. This should make the camera follow the movement of Sim B, and so it SHOULD jump to the first floor, where Sim B is. However, the camera always seems to jump to the floor the selected Sim (Sim A) is on, the X/Y coordinates of the camera are correct (ie at Sim B's position). So after these steps, your camera will be at the X/Y position of Sim B, but at the floor (Z coordinate) of Sim A. This is WRONG.

I've submitted both bugs to Maxis through their bug submission form, but I thought I'd post it here as well. I've even talked to one of the programmers about the second bug personally during an event at Maxis in February 2005, but it still hasn't been fixed apparantly.

I've noticed this too, and it's annoying, especially when you have more than 2 stories.  Double clicking the sim's icon does not help.  I've also noticed it happening when a sim "bumps" up to the next trimester or gives birth.  The camera is supposed to automatically focus on her, but it doesn't always go to the right floor.  So I'll be playing, and all of a sudden my camera focus switches to a spot in the room directly underneath where she is, and I'm confused for a moment, until I realize that she is giving birth and switch floors real quick.

[witch]

I've noticed this too, and it's annoying, especially when you have more than 2 stories.  Double clicking the sim's icon does not help.  I've also noticed it happening when a sim "bumps" up to the next trimester or gives birth.  The camera is supposed to automatically focus on her, but it doesn't always go to the right floor.  So I'll be playing, and all of a sudden my camera focus switches to a spot in the room directly underneath where she is, and I'm confused for a moment, until I realize that she is giving birth and switch floors real quick.

Yup, I've always had this issue too.

Now the terrain paints and ground cover instability, resulting in corrupt & crashing lots has been mentioned again, I'd like to bump that up to MaxoidTom's notice and ask for a comment please.

[notovny]

The only bug I've had that hasn't been mentioned yet is that  the "Buy a Cell Phone" want is only fulfilled by having the Sim who has the want buy a cell phone.

I'd been using the inventory capabilities to shuttle one Sim in the house to community lots,  have her buy cell phones for all of her family members, then use the inventory capabilities to hand them out to her family when she got home. However the game doesn't recognize that her familiy has gotten Cell Phones in this fashion, and the want remains.

[cwykes]

Have any of the original maxis lots been updated to fix design errors? 

Some maxis lots have shrubs placed where the gardeners cannot trim them.  In the summerdream house and Consort Capp's mansion for example, gardeners spend the whole day stamping their feet because they cannot trim bushes or the hedge.  They leave having done almost nothing.  Have the actual default lots been fixed?  The shrubs must have been placed on slopes with moveobjects, the hedges are next to a slope the gardener cannot work on.   I remembered this one seeing the posts about the pleasantview flowers.  Another point - with their short working day, the gardeners can't actually get to everything in these elaborate gardens in one day anyway!   

I found a couple of other things in the original houses that weren't playable.  In the master bathroom in the monty ranch one of the objects isn't usable. One house also has a diagonal door you can't get through because there is a bed in the way.  that's in the summerdream house I think.  NB that summerdream house is a pain to play without a front door at the front - kids have to leave really early to catch the bus. 

Could you include some small community lots in the game for simmers with graphically challenged PCs?  We can't play the big lots without stamping our feet and shouting.  I guess that's a request not a fix, but thank you muchlovedmaxoid for listening

[cwykes]

re - "Headmaster - there are a few fixes in there for the Uni patch, hopefully they solve most of the problems"

I don't have Uni or NL!  will I be able to patch my game?  I have also seen a post from someone whose headmaster would never stay, who insists they didn't save after they called the headmaster.  He put a roof on his extension and the HM stayed.  (it's on MTS2, they only have 2 headmaster threads)"

re the stairs - - you lose the queue of actions as well.  If you tell simA to teach SimB something with a career object on a different floor, it will always fail, because the second sim can't get up or down the stairs.  aarrgh...

re the maid stuck putting cups in the dishwasher - I don't have Uni or NL, but I have the latest patch and it still happens.

I have seen posts from people with NL whose maid has moved in.  sounds like the old NPC slowdown bug to me reappearing in NL  they tell me they have no hacks...  could find links if required.

re - "As for the moving sims from one unrelated neighborhood to another, that's the way it was designed to keep the family tree intact, memories, etc.  Sorry.  The character files should be smaller, but I understand that they count towards the overall neighbor count--this has been fixed in the Uni patch as well as Nightlife."
Yes but what about me - I don't have either and my neigbourhood is large!
In case it matters, can I point out that the neigbourhoods often aren't unrelated exactly.  People move sims from one veronaville to another veronaville on a different PC.  They also download sims in lots from the Exchange created in the same neighbourhood they are playing.  I ended up with 2 identical sims with the same name after downloading from someone who'd moved a maxis townie in with her sim.  I think that adds to the confusion and memory problems.

disappearing sims is the worst NL bug I have read about on TS1 and TS2, though one simmer has a neighbourhood that is completely unplayable having installed NL