Pets patch released

[kuronue]

Do you need the puppy/kitten parentage fix with an unholy hybrid?

[BeckerCheez]

I don't really want to have to uninstall the patch, since I have vampires and whatnot, but could somebody make a fix where a toddler with a dormie black haired dad and a red/black haired 5th gen mother does NOT get red hair and black eyebrows?

That's a hardcoded problem. The vampires problem is already fixed in the vampirefixes here, so you won't have any problems with vampires even without the patch if you install that.

Huh I thought I had your fix installed and I still had problems.  I go and check and apparently I do not have it installed.  Funny considering I do remember downloading the darn thing...

Edit:  Apparently I may've had either an old version of it and it was deleted out of my folder, or I just never did stick it in the ol' dl folder *smacks head*

Ok...mainly I ask because I don't want to have to uninstall this patch.  Pain in the ass, IMHO. 

[notveryawesome]

I'm pathetically desparate enough to try that Unholy Hybrid method out.  I'm aiming to get rid of the toddler hair bug, while keeping the fix for the 'suggest outfit' bug.  This is the only solution I've seen anyone come up with so far *sigh*.

Well, I tried the unholy hybrid, and it caused my game to stop loading, yet when I removed the .exe file that I'd copied from the CD, changed the patched version back to its original name, and then went to restart my game, suddenly all of the core game files went missing from the Program Files, and I had to do a manual uninstall, which is a real PITA. Grrrrr. Stupid EA and stupid me. I'm fed up with all of this buggy crap!

[vilia]

Just in case you might have missed it, Maxoid Sam has posted on the BBS that EA is aware of the hair issue and they are looking into it now. Admitting you have a problem is the first step on the road to recovery so I for one am proud of EA's management team 

You can read it here but it is just a one liner.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, at least they've acknowledged the issue. They should really do that more often, it really does fend off the angry mob. In all likelyhood, the issue is likely to be squashed in the next expansion, but ignored in the patch as being noncritical, as users can avoid the bug rather trivially through the expedient of not installing the patch.

[vilia]

I agree about it probably being fixed in the next expansion but the way things stand at the moment, many people are still unaware of the issue and happily downloading the patch. It would be nice if they either removed the Pets patch from general distribution or put some sort of caveat notice next to the patch so more people don't unwittingly get affected.

[J. M. Pescado]

* J. M. Pescado shrugs.

Sucks to be them.

[jrd]

Playing devil's advocate here a bit -- the patch fixes some more critical issues, and only introduces a cosmetic bug (haircolour mismatch). Since the majority of players do not get the third-party bugfixes by Pesc and several others, this is their only chance to fix critical gameplay errors.
That group is probably better off with the patch, even if it does introduce new errors.

Of course if EAMaxis hired some QA people they might have caught this bug and not released a broken patch. I hope we will get a patch for the patch. We did get multiple patches for TS2 base, OFB, and FFS after all.

[witch]

Well, I tried the unholy hybrid, and it caused my game to stop loading...

Bummer! I did the same and it worked fine.  I've been playing all evening with no problems.

[J. M. Pescado]

Playing devil's advocate here a bit -- the patch fixes some more critical issues, and only introduces a cosmetic bug (haircolour mismatch). Since the majority of players do not get the third-party bugfixes by Pesc and several others, this is their only chance to fix critical gameplay errors.

Sucks to be them also.

[dizzy]

Isn't Pets supposed to be the relatively "stable" release? I seem to recall somewhere about them cycling between "stable" and "unstable" EPs. To put this in developer terms, basically the "Seasons" EP is the testing tree and Pets was the stable tree from the old OfB testing branch.

In short, they tried to backport features of a testing tree into a stable tree, and that's what this patch is.

[Havelock]

Maxoid Sam Made a sticky about the issue and a second patch in the pets tread.

Author:  MaxoidSam - Rank: Stammering Sim - View MySimPage Profile 
Date:  Feb-12-07 12:52 PM PST
Subject:  Pets Patch has created hair color inconsistencies 
 

We are aware of this issue and are looking into the cause. If another patch is required to fix the problem we will issue a 2nd patch. Our apologies for the error.
-sam

 
 

[J. M. Pescado]

Isn't Pets supposed to be the relatively "stable" release? I seem to recall somewhere about them cycling between "stable" and "unstable" EPs. To put this in developer terms, basically the "Seasons" EP is the testing tree and Pets was the stable tree from the old OfB testing branch.

This sounds like crazy talk to me. I'm pretty sure they just do these things by voodoo, hence why they undid things that they FIXED in OFB and randomly rearranged other things for no apparent reason other than to be contrary.

[Swiftgold]

Hmm, well, if you can't stand the suspense you could always grow them up to see what they'd be like? I've generally had them go from squooshed and ugly to not too bad, though...

As for that scalp problem, I've had that waaaay back since Uni at least. In my case, it came from binning certain hairstyles - I believe the really old ones, because the textures I recognized replacing the Sim's scalp came from hair that was made just by alpha edits of Maxis meshes, before there were new meshes available at all. At that time I used Datgen and then I just started binning by hand. It affected my custom skins at first, but now I am still getting that scalp problem with Maxis skins, so I have to wonder if it's the binning issue again, as I've binned everything and my downloading vice is hairstyles I can't tell which hair texture is causing it like I could with the other one, though (it had a big flower painted on the hair, so that gave it away right there). I'd definitely like to know what the real deal is with that stupid issue, though!

[BeckerCheez]

I played earlier today and two more babies transitioned to toddler.  Neither had hair problems, they came with the hair SimPE said they'd grow up with.  I guess that hair thing is a random glitch. 

As for the borked genetics, I have a ton of fugly Sims, and they're all pre-patch.  Do not breed Sims with Blake Lawson, for example.  He has a gigantic nose when he grows up.  I was unfortunate to have a Brittany Upsnott spawn marry him, and here's their decendent:



Also, the unfortunate Sim who grew up from teen to adult with the awful genetics, he reminds me of Alvin Curtin.  Do not breed a Sim with him either! Here's his kid, and oh lord, his nose! 

[KellyQ]

I played earlier today and two more babies transitioned to toddler.  Neither had hair problems, they came with the hair SimPE said they'd grow up with.  I guess that hair thing is a random glitch. 

As for the borked genetics, I have a ton of fugly Sims, and they're all pre-patch.  Do not breed Sims with Blake Lawson, for example.  He has a gigantic nose when he grows up.  I was unfortunate to have a Brittany Upsnott spawn marry him, and here's their decendent:

My kids would call this one the Adrien Brody of sims  . (Personally I think Adrien Brody is hot but the kids constantly make fun of his beak nose.)

[eevilcat]

Why is it that so many people are obsessed with breeding perfect sims? Ugly = variety and I'd rather have that than a 'Midwich Cuckoos' style neighbourhood of idealised conformity.

[maxon]

It's all in the eye of the beholder anyway - I, personally, can't tell the differences between Hollywood actors/actresses and models and all the rest (unless they are very distinctive).  I have a small problem with recognising faces.  They all look completely the same to me.  And dull - dull, dull, dull.

[dizzy]

I'm obsessed with all my sims being perfect because for me at least Sims is an escape from reality. If I want to look at something hideous, I can just look across the street or in the mirror. 

[J. M. Pescado]

Why is it that so many people are obsessed with breeding perfect sims? Ugly = variety and I'd rather have that than a 'Midwich Cuckoos' style neighbourhood of idealised conformity.

I would imagine it's because people don't want to look at ugly things on their screen. I don't think a distinctive nose necessarily makes a sim bad, though.

[Strangel]

I used to date a beak. I used to date an imperfectly formed guy and he was great. Never underestimate the package based on the beak bow.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Beaks Long noses are okay, but cheekbones that protrude past the nose are not so okay.  Makes putting on mascara a bit challenging.

[MistyBlue]

I can live with ugly features, but not the nose. IRL, the nose makes or breaks a face, in my opinion. I can't even bear to look at the hideous looking noses my sims sometimes get. Those sims become unplayable...

[KellyQ]

Personally I don't see a big nose being unattractive. A deformed nose however, (see Owen Wilson for example) is highly distracting to me. I spend a majority of time during movies featuring Owen Wilson wondering WTF happened to his nose, lol.

[Tigerlilley]

Hes deffinatly had it broken a few times... interesting that hes never had surgery to get it fixed though, especially being a hollywood actor