Rant: Hacks are ignored by Nightlife

[Zyrcona]

I received Nightlife early (Play.com) and am glad it's not shite like University. There are several nice objects and walls/floors (and the Grilled Cheese aspiration rocks), although the lack of and quality of hairstyles still stink. None of my hacks work any more -- not they conflict with the game, the game just ignores them regardless of whether Custom Content is set to on or off. So I'm back to square one with sims autonomously reading books, molesting babies, and no manual navigation. The only things that seem to work are recolours of objects and Bodyshop edited stuff. I think this is really disrespectful of Maxis, after good people like Pescado and TwoJeffs have spent time making hacks to fix the issues that they are too stupid and lazy to fix, to make an ep that negates all the hacks and means they have to remake them. That's just obnoxious and rude.

Also, the cars seem to be bugged. I got Loki Beaker to take his kids bowling, and he got into the driving seat and one of the kids got into the passenger seat, and then he got out and locked it and waved at her. The car was unselectable until I exited to the neighbourhood and came back, and then I managed to get him and the other child into the car and to drive off. At the community area the first child was missing, and upon return to the house was not recovered. The child was still missing after exiting and reloading (the thumbnail was still there but right clicking on it produced no result, and commands to interact with other objects dropped from the queue). I can only assume that the child has ceased to exist as a physical object and is stuck in limbo, where she will presumably starve to death if I continue to play this house. Okay, maybe this is what happens if you try to get three people in a sports car, but then the game shouldn't let you put three people in a sports car.

The new expansion pack also introduces several bugs that University introduced. Having removed University as a result of being sick of the enormous bloated turd of a bug it was (if this had ended up on my computer without me paying for it, I would have called it a virus) and the way it clogged up want slots with useless influence wants and wishes to buy gadgets and musical instruments in order to incessantly busk in their own houses, this is annoying. The problem with random stuff being added to the wardrobe on age transition has been reintroduced and that loathsome Prank interaction which no hacks seemed to be able to fix is back.

[KellyQ]

Having removed University as a result of being sick of the enormous bloated turd of a bug it was (if this had ended up on my computer without me paying for it, I would have called it a virus)

This caused me to laugh so violently that I think I have hurt myself. You will be hearing from my lawyers!

[Kitiara]

There have been reports on this site made by others who have NL already and claim that many of their hacks are working fine. I do not know what the problem is in your game (I don't have NL yet and could not begin to guess what happened).

As for the mmissing child, maybe you could try Merola's Mind Control Mirror to check to see if s/he is somewhere on the lot, or Inge's Teleporter Plus to summon him/her (assuming these work with NL, I don't know).

Good Luck.

[Inge]

Thomas Riordan says he's been using the teleporter plus without problems.

[FatedCircle]

If you can select the missing child, you could also try teleporting her to the mailbox using the testingcheats code.  That usually seems to solve "missing sim" problems, but only if you are able to select her as an active character.

Just shift click on the mailbox and choose "teleport here" after typing in the code.

[Carrigon]

I don't have NL yet, but I did read on one of the boards that if your hacks aren't working, take them out of the subfolders and put them directly into downloads and that should fix the ones that do work.  For some reason, hacks in subfolders aren't working for some people now with NL.

[MaxoidTom]

I don't have NL yet, but I did read on one of the boards that if your hacks aren't working, take them out of the subfolders and put them directly into downloads and that should fix the ones that do work.  For some reason, hacks in subfolders aren't working for some people now with NL.

Hacks in subfolders should work fine.  What's probably happening is the user is quitting the game, moving the files and restarting.  Restarting the game is what is doing it--if you change the option to enable/disable custom objects/hacks, you *need* to restart the game for it to take effect.

[gali]

Arghhhh, There I threw to the trash 60$! If the hacks don't work, I can't install NL, period.... But if Carrigon and  Inge say that their hacks work (but they are objects, not fixes as nohomework, or nocheering) - perhaps JMP and TJ will overcome the obstacles.

[Zeljka]

I saw a post in Merola's forum that his mirror and painting still works...

[Motoki]

I keep telling it to enable my custom content but it doesn't somehow, hmm I guess I have to read up on all this and what hacks I can and can't use (and I BETTER be able too use no cheering for those kids with A+ )

[LK]

Apparently, you have to "restart" the game.  To me, "restart" means that you already have the game running, quit, then start it back up again.  So when you disable/enable, do you have to have the game running?  It's a little unclear.

[LynnMar]

It's unclear to me also, I had some hacks that were working but when I started the game up again, it said  to disable the maxi made objects, the fru fru lion and the cherub statue, so then when I started the game again, the hacked objects were missing and I downloaded the car that I got with my code and it never did show up in any folder.

  I unistalled NL already, I can live without any hacks but JT's phone hack, that dam phone started ringing of the hook and I couldn't take it anymore.  I will reinstall it later, in a few weeks when everything is figured out.   

[vecki]

I keep telling it to enable my custom content but it doesn't somehow, hmm I guess I have to read up on all this and what hacks I can and can't use (and I BETTER be able too use no cheering for those kids with A+ )

I remember reading on a SM's webpage (I forget which) that the eternal A+ dance will be fixed in NL, which will negate the need for the hack.  Did this turn out to be true, people who already have NL?

I'm picking up my copy this afternoon so I'll start looking into it tonight

[schmoopee]

I keep telling it to enable my custom content but it doesn't somehow, hmm I guess I have to read up on all this and what hacks I can and can't use (and I BETTER be able too use no cheering for those kids with A+ )

Motoki, try quitting the game and re-loading - custom content seems to be not showing up for people the first time they run the game, even if it is in the right folder and enabled. Mine wasn't there when I first played, but I quit and loaded it back up and it was all there.

[MaxoidTom]

Motoki, try quitting the game and re-loading - custom content seems to be not showing up for people the first time they run the game, even if it is in the right folder and enabled. Mine wasn't there when I first played, but I quit and loaded it back up and it was all there.

Yes, it is disabled by default on the first run (the informational text should indicate this)--it has to be enabled at that point and the game restarted.

[LK]

So even if it is disabled by default, should we still physically remove all hacks before installing?  Or will merely disabling them work just as well?

[MaxoidTom]

So even if it is disabled by default, should we still physically remove all hacks before installing?  Or will merely disabling them work just as well?

It is a "safe mode" so that Nightlife runs the shipping code--the game will essentially run as if the files are not there.  I would recommend you remove the global/semiglobal hacks until there are Nightlife compatible ones.  Then you could re-enable custom content objects and have all your custom objects, compatible hacks, etc. back again.

[LK]

Cool--Thanks!

[Motoki]

Tom: Can you PLEASE request that a turn the ringer off feature be added to the home and cell phones in some patch? I'm really tired of having to ditch the phone hack every time a new episode comes out and listen to that phone ringing off the hook and the cell waking up sleeping sims until J.M. can update the phone hack.

[RainbowTigress]

Motoki:  I second that!!!

[gynarchy]

I agree 100% Motoki, I don't keep phones in the house now for that reason.

[MaxoidTom]

Tom: Can you PLEASE request that a turn the ringer off feature be added to the home and cell phones in some patch? I'm really tired of having to ditch the phone hack every time a new episode comes out and listen to that phone ringing off the hook and the cell waking up sleeping sims until J.M. can update the phone hack.

A sim's cellphone going off when they are sleeping should be fixed.  However, another sim's cellphone may go off.

As for the ringer bit, that sounds like an interesting idea.  I can mention it, but I don't think we have the text budget  (localization for all languages) for it in the patch.  It also sounds like something that could cause problems if the user forgets that it is on.  Anyhow, I can mention it.

[Zeljka]

I'm sure a 4th is redundant, but before the phone hack I would buy a phone if someone needed to make a call and delete it immediately afterwards.

Set ringer... call display (without a hack) would be an awesome addition too

[RainbowTigress]

That would be great.  Have an option to turn off the ringer, but still display a Caller ID screen for the user so you can choose to have your sim answer or not.  If the cell phone could automatically be silenced when s/he is asleep, that would be good.  When two sims are sleeping in a bed and one's cell phone ring, it wakes up both of them, from what I recall (before JM's phone hack fixed that).

[Motoki]

I'm sure a 4th is redundant, but before the phone hack I would buy a phone if someone needed to make a call and delete it immediately afterwards.

I'm finding now they can stash phones in their inventory too. A cellphone in a sim's inventory will still go off, but a wall or desk phone won't. And you can take a cellphone out of your inventory and stash it on the ground somewhere, so when they are sleeping you can stick it out in the backyard or something lol.

Not quite as handy as a ringer off switch, but it's another alternative to selling a rebuying, which doesn't do any good for cellphones anyhow because if you sell the wall phone the cell will still go off.