FFS "Batbox" Lot Debugger v2.0: NUCLEAR WAR EDITION

[Strangel]

Plus, if you need to un-plant a plantsim that desperately/suddenly, you can just use good ol' testingcheatsenabled. If I remember correctly, there's a "Make Human" type option in the sim-shift-click.

[cwykes]

I've having a problem toggling permaplat on and off.  It used to work with OFB, but it doesn't seem to stick now I've added seasons.  I've got other LTW problems and I suspect it's probably related to the lack of Uni again.  The non-career wants that didn't exist in OFB do exist in seasons, but the only one I've tried so far doesn't work (max 7 skills).  I tried to toggle that sim permaplat after she'd maxed all skills for the 3rd time and it didn't stick.  I'll update when I've tested out whether the option works on other sims.  (I tried without hacks and updated to the latest version of lotdebugger - still no joy)

UPDATE
DK wtf I was doing before yesterday, but I can make sims permaplat with the lotdebugger.  It would be nice if the debugger could provide a fix for the non-achieveable LTWs though.

[Sivany]

Whist I was playing one of my lots the debugger threw out an error message. It's probably nothing since the most spectacular thing happening on the lot at the time was a limo arriving to take my sim to her job (she's a professional party guest) but since I've never had the debugger produce an error before and since I've no idea what the logs are telling me I thought I'd better post it here.

Whilst I'm posting I just want to confirm something. Using the 'clear all' option to clear gossip memory tokens wipes them for the whole neighbourhood doesn't it? I used it and over 12,000 files were removed. However when I used it again on the same lot only 1 sim day later (after only 1 person had carried out the gossip interaction) it removed another 141 files! That seemed like an awful lot to build up in a short time. Was that normal?

[jolrei]

Whilst I'm posting I just want to confirm something. Using the 'clear all' option to clear gossip memory tokens wipes them for the whole neighbourhood doesn't it? I used it and over 12,000 files were removed. However when I used it again on the same lot only 1 sim day later (after only 1 person had carried out the gossip interaction) it removed another 141 files! That seemed like an awful lot to build up in a short time. Was that normal?

I get this too.  Gossip appears to accumulate even if you never use the "gossip" interaction yourself.  Other sims (townies etc.) also gossip about things they have heard, seen, etc.  They love to talk about other people (i.e. sim townie may have a "somesim had a great birthday" memory and will pass that on in conversation with another sim).  Can't seem to stop gossip from happening, only burninate it on an ongoing basis.  I suspect that you didn't initially use the gossip option 12,000 times either.  Most of that gossip is other sims auto-gossiping.

A few months back, one of the TSR guides suggested if a townie sim saw a playable flirting or woohooing with another sim, it could get back to the playable sim's spouse in the form of gossip.  Never had any relationship deteriorate because of that myself, but I have found instances of townie gossip in SimPE in which they do talk about "somesim had woohoo with someothersim". 

[J. M. Pescado]

Whist I was playing one of my lots the debugger threw out an error message.

According to the log, the error occurred because you shift-clicked on the debugger and forced an error, STUPID SIVANY.

Whilst I'm posting I just want to confirm something. Using the 'clear all' option to clear gossip memory tokens wipes them for the whole neighbourhood doesn't it? I used it and over 12,000 files were removed. However when I used it again on the same lot only 1 sim day later (after only 1 person had carried out the gossip interaction) it removed another 141 files! That seemed like an awful lot to build up in a short time. Was that normal?

Yes, this is normal. Gossip memory tokens accumulate as a result of normal conversation over phones, or anything else. They are individually harmless in and of themselves, but bulk accumulation of them can slow down your game, bloat your save files, and cause them to talk about stupid stuff.

[witch]

That makes logical sense anyway, in real life old gossip is mostly forgotten when the new hot gossip comes along, it just makes the game more realistic if we can get rid of the old redundant memories.

[J. M. Pescado]

Also, clearing them can save a fair amount of memories, as several megs can be devoted to storing this data, all of being loaded in RAM at any given time. And the information is COMPLETELY useless if the sim in question is DEAD, hence the seperate option to clear it only from dead sims.

[Sivany]

Whist I was playing one of my lots the debugger threw out an error message.

According to the log, the error occurred because you shift-clicked on the debugger and forced an error, STUPID SIVANY.

That's weird. I admit I had clicked on the debugger about half an hour previously and forced an error, but this error happened later on. There are two error files in my logs relating to the debugger object, I'm sure I posted the most recent one but perhaps I should have posted the other one, or maybe I am stupid and posted the wrong one anyway.

[Magicmoon]

While I appreciate the cutbacks on redundant memories, why aren't I getting second memories of events that should be important? For example, the elevator has crashed 5 times in my hood. Unfortunately, the same Sim has been in the elevator every time. Yet he only remembers the first time it crashed.

Also 'sold a masterpiece'. I'm only getting the first one. Or maybe I'm just getting the first one if the Sim isn't a Popularity Sim, not 100% sure.  The other day a Sim caught the stove on fire for the second time. Although she remembers burning the food both times, she only remembers the first house fire. Perhaps she burned 2 different types of foods. There are a few other things, but I can't remember them all. I think freezing was one of them too.

A long time ago I tried Squinge's "No duplicate memories" mod, but immediately removed it because it suppressed some duplicate memories that I felt were important to keep. I searched my entire folder for "mem" to make sure nothing was lurking, so unless someone tells me different, I assume that Maxis made some changes in this area. These memories are not being removed with 'delete trash'. They are not being created.

Also, I just recently started a new hood so I had CAS Sims that I updated using lot debugger's "Update Pre-Uni Sim". Whenever one of these families moves to a new lot for the first time, everyone in the family receives a memory for each of the parents of "~Parent~ graduated with Honors Cum Laude".  If I delete trash, it removes the memory of the move, but not of the non-existant graduation.

[J. M. Pescado]

While I appreciate the cutbacks on redundant memories, why aren't I getting second memories of events that should be important? For example, the elevator has crashed 5 times in my hood. Unfortunately, the same Sim has been in the elevator every time. Yet he only remembers the first time it crashed.

Some memories are forced by default Maxian behaviors to be "singular" for a given subject/owner combo, in that they will only appear once. These include, yes, the elevator memory, the masterpiece and novel memories, the A+ memory, the Burnt Food Memory, the Woohoo memories, Best Friend memory, and the Bladder Failure at a Party memory, and perhaps a bunch of others. Other memories only appear once, period, even if the subject changes, like, say, the Enemies memory. These are all Maxian behaviors that are not affected by garbage-cleanout using the Lot Debugger, as the garbage is not purged unless you manually order the purge (there are no autosuppression effects).

Also, I just recently started a new hood so I had CAS Sims that I updated using lot debugger's "Update Pre-Uni Sim". Whenever one of these families moves to a new lot for the first time, everyone in the family receives a memory for each of the parents of "~Parent~ graduated with Honors Cum Laude".  If I delete trash, it removes the memory of the move, but not of the non-existant graduation.

No one knows what causes this multi-graduation, but it's an existing Maxian bug that occurs independently of the Lot Debugger, and affects normal Uni-graduates as well. I've only seen it happen once and did a quick cleanup to purge it, and haven't had it recur again.

[Sivany]

Also, I just recently started a new hood so I had CAS Sims that I updated using lot debugger's "Update Pre-Uni Sim". Whenever one of these families moves to a new lot for the first time, everyone in the family receives a memory for each of the parents of "~Parent~ graduated with Honors Cum Laude".  If I delete trash, it removes the memory of the move, but not of the non-existant graduation.

No one knows what causes this multi-graduation, but it's an existing Maxian bug that occurs independently of the Lot Debugger, and affects normal Uni-graduates as well. I've only seen it happen once and did a quick cleanup to purge it, and haven't had it recur again.

I've noticed excess graduation memories on my uni graduates as well. I hadn't associated it with the move in/out though, now I know what causes it I'll have to try and leave my sims in the same house because I hate it when their memories go wrong. At the moment I've been deleting the excess memories in SimPE whenever I catch them. I assume this is ok? I don't know any other way to get rid of them.
 
I half wish the debugger didn't trash move in/out memories, I quite like them, after all when I move house in real life it's a big event that I remember! Then again my sims don't move that much, I suppose if I was moving them all the time I'd be getting a bit more annoyed about the memories.

[Magicmoon]

No one knows what causes this multi-graduation, but it's an existing Maxian bug that occurs independently of the Lot Debugger, and affects normal Uni-graduates as well. I've only seen it happen once and did a quick cleanup to purge it, and haven't had it recur again.

Its no big deal, just confusing because it is consistant in my game when I follow this pattern:

I make adults in CAS. Move them from the bin to a lot. Update with debugger. Let the family grow until it outgrows the house and/or can afford to move. Move to lot bin. As soon as this familiy is moved into their 2nd residence, the whole family receives the grad memories of the parents.

I can't remember whether the memories are; grad, grad, moved, or moved, grad, grad. And I can't check because I deleted all the moved memories.

[dotty]

Hi! I've just started playing with the lot debugger, partially because I wanted to use "Fuge Astrology" to give all twins the same star sign. I'm just wondering - with the NL attraction system in mind - if I change say a Libra to Gemini, will the game/other sims still treat him as a Libra, or will he now be an Gemini attraction-wise?

Hope that made sense...  I did do a search for this but I didn't find any answer...

[dizzy]

If you change a sim to Gemini, they will be a Gemini as far as attraction goes. I don't think the personality matters much for attraction.

[dotty]

Ok! I wasn't sure, since personality and astrology in the game usually go hand in hand, so to speak, and I didn't know if the change of sign was just cosmetic, like a change of picture or something. No idea how that stuff works... but thanks for letting me know!

[J. M. Pescado]

If you change a sim to Gemini, they will be a Gemini as far as attraction goes. I don't think the personality matters much for attraction.

He will function as a Gemini astrologically, but personality plays a minor role as well.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Hi all!  I finally decided to post here again, and I admit it was totally out of self-interest!

I have firstly one little gripe about the debugger - I LIKE that my sims know they've moved in!  But if I use the Clear Trash option, which is basically extremely useful, then this memory goes down the plughole with the rest of the unwanted garbage.  Pity.

Secondly, I have a request.  In my game, I notice that some families, when I load them, lag from the word go.  I check in SimPE, and they have token - sim - loaded in their memories.  I remove these tokens, and sometimes the problem is solved.  However, the family I am currently playing seems to get this problem every single time I go into their lot.  Some families/sims never get it, it's less common at Uni, but some get it all the time, and it's worse than furiosity or attraction for making the game lag.  Could this totally useless token be included in the trash?  (I say useless, because I assume that since not all sims get this token, there can't be any use for it!  At first I thought maybe it had something to do with when they return from work or school, but then I noticed that sims who never leave the lot sometimes get it too.  It's not a hack that causes it, because (a) it's appeared in a vanilla game and (b) if it were a hack, then none of my sims would be immune!)

JM, is there some way that this can be cleaned up?  I would be extremely grateful.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hi all!  I finally decided to post here again, and I admit it was totally out of self-interest!

Oh, yes, I seem to remember you flouncing off over something. Going to reclaim your top-poster spot? It shouldn't be too hard, the only one who passed you has failed us. Perhaps the ZZ slot will get named after you after all.

I have firstly one little gripe about the debugger - I LIKE that my sims know they've moved in!  But if I use the Clear Trash option, which is basically extremely useful, then this memory goes down the plughole with the rest of the unwanted garbage.  Pity.

The "Move In" message is regarded as trash because many lot-related issues are fixed by move in/moveout, which generates this trash memory. It is not presently possible to distinguish the two.

Secondly, I have a request.  In my game, I notice that some families, when I load them, lag from the word go.  I check in SimPE, and they have token - sim - loaded in their memories.  I remove these tokens, and sometimes the problem is solved.

Token - Sim - Loaded is harmless, and possibly does something important. It is not responsible for the problem.

However, the family I am currently playing seems to get this problem every single time I go into their lot.  Some families/sims never get it, it's less common at Uni, but some get it all the time, and it's worse than furiosity or attraction for making the game lag.  Could this totally useless token be included in the trash?  (I say useless, because I assume that since not all sims get this token, there can't be any use for it!  At first I thought maybe it had something to do with when they return from work or school, but then I noticed that sims who never leave the lot sometimes get it too.  It's not a hack that causes it, because (a) it's appeared in a vanilla game and (b) if it were a hack, then none of my sims would be immune!)

Lots of things can cause "lag". Can you be more specific as to what, and when, exactly, this "lag" occurs? For instance, clicking on any lot with a pet appears to cause a brief lag, with more pets causing more lag, because pet thumbnails appear not to be cached. Also, lot objects can produce lag, notorious offenders being sprinklers, fires, fire extinguishers, lady bug houses, infested seasons plants, and fightballs.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, this present lot has no pets apart from a guinea pig.  The family is as follows: fortune sim & knowledge sim couple, family sim sibling of fortune sim, family sim and child both children of the couple, all created in CAS.

I moved them in, and they were ok until the visitors arrived, but mostly this was caused by attraction reactions which were easily removed with the debugger.  I turned weather off, so the lag isn't caused by weather, also banned strays (even though there aren't any as I'm using Jordi's cleaned-up template) and all other critters apart from dogs and cats.  Townies are allowed since they are custom townies created after I deleted all characters and then cleaned up the mess in SimPE.) 

I closed the game as it was getting late and checked their files for inconsistencies etc., and at this point there was no token sim loaded for any of them.  Then, when I loaded my game again, they were almost unplayable.  I closed and checked their files, and the token sim loaded was the only thing that had appeared, they had no attraction markers left at all - sometimes some do get left, presumably because they have been fixed and are working properly.  So, since this is not something I only noticed today, but something I have noticed and checked on over a long time now, I have to say I really think there is something corrupt in token sim loaded.  I never get this lag problem on a lot where sims don't have it, only on lots where they do.  If I leave the tokens in and go back into the game and reload the lot, the problem is still there, but if I remove the tokens and the game doesn't generate new ones (which frequently it doesn't, it appears to be quite arbitrary) then the game plays perfectly.  I have 2 gigs of RAM and an adequate, though not top of the range NVIDIA graphics card. 

Anyhow, I have since tried twice to play this family, and the same thing happens each time.  I've never before had it recur so often, and as I said, it's very rare for it to happen when I'm playing sims at college, and some families (or maybe it's the lots themselves) never seem to get the problem.  My hacks are mostly yours, but I've checked for compatibility and the only two problems that the HCDU throws up are the ones that are known about by you and TJ and compensated for, anything else that showed I erred on the side of caution and removed one of the conflicting hacks.  But, since this has happened in a vanilla game without any hacks at all, I can't see that this is the cause.  This is a new install as I had to reinstall Windows and of course everything else, and it's just the same problem as I was having before. 

Interestingly, what you said about pets on lots, I had one lot where I moved in a sim with 4 dogs and 2 cats (I needed some pets for the adoption pool) and there were no problems at all while the pets were all on the lot.  I only put them up for adoption once they had learned something, so that they wouldn't all cost the same, so they were there for several sim days.  But pets don't normally seem to get the token sim loaded, just as it's rare for them to meet themselves when you install a new EP or patch (I get really fed up with clearing this kind of useless junk out with SimPE!)

JM, could you try giving a sim the token sim loaded and playing him/her and seeing whether you get the same problem as I get?  If you don't, then I guess I'll have to look for something else, but I just can't see where to begin!

[J. M. Pescado]

Inspecting my game files, I find many sims, including pets, with the sim-loaded token, none of which exhibit any problems. And again, you have failed to define what "unplayable" is. Describe the symptoms in EXACT detail. WHAT is the lag like? Does it affect the game, your mouse cursor, your ability to ALT-TAB, what? Merely telling me "there is lag", without saying WHEN the lag appears, whether it affects your ability to pause the game, enter build/buy, ALT-TAB, etc, tells me nothing.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I can enter Build/Buy with no problems, and also alt/tab no problems.  The lag is such that the sims instead of walking around normally, walk in jerky, slow movements.  Not as slow as trying to use the video option set too high, but slower than normal and extremely annoying to watch.  It's not like the lag when two sims decide to go and water-balloon fight, which once they get outside and start the fight there aren't any more problems, it's just constant jerkiness, and it can happen in a family of one, or as in the present lot, a family of five or more.  Mouse control is unaffected, and about the only thing that is odd is that sims running under instructions from the sleep clock or BUY are fine, so it is walking and not running that seems to be affected.

If the lag appears, it tends to be there from the moment I load the lot, it is rare for it to appear once the lot has been running ok for a while - and that is usually due to attraction markers (which stop as soon as I use the debugger to deal with them) or furious reverses owned by a visiting sim, and I'm usually well aware of which of my sims are furious!

Since I'm playing to a rotation, I don't normally try playing another lot to see if the problem is there too, though when I have done so, it doesn't necessarily occur on the new lot.  It can occur when there is no custom content on the lot, when there is no custom content apart from hacks, or when there is a lot of custom content.  Yet another lot with even more custom content is fine.  The lots themselves can be Maxis lots, downloaded lots, or my own lots, and all lots installed into the game are installed with the Clean Installer, and any duplicate custom content is removed.  I've checked for duplicates and I've checked for GUID conflicts, and the game seems clean.  And all my lots usually have exactly the same hacked objects put in before I move a family in.

I've tried moving families to a brand-new lot, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't.  Some families unaffected in their original house suddenly get affected when they move up the property ladder.  And it can't be a RAM problem as I upgraded to two gigs, and this hood at present is only using about 600 MB (including all the Windows use and my AV - which I have to leave running as I have the online version of Seasons.)

[Emma]

Would it be possible to add a 'cancel adoption' option to the Debugger? I had a stuck phone where the sim would pick up the handset and replace it without calling anyone (I was trying to get her to phone the repairman) I finally forced error on the phone ( I don't think that fixed anything) then deleted and replaced it with a new one. It was the only phone on lot, no cellphones. I then tried 'call>service' again and it immediately popped up 'your request to adopt has been approved, blah, blah.' I don't want this kid!

If you can't add a 'cancel adoption' option, then is there any way I can cancel the adoption without losing the other kid she has just given birth to?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Maybe you could just accept the adoption, then exit and open SimPE, and go to the Families section and move the kid into another family, or use the teleporterplus and get the kid to make him/herself a townie?  I remember having a similar problem with phones, but I can't remember what caused it, whether it was a custom phone, or maybe it was one of the newer phones from Pets conflicting with a hack.  I know I solved it by using a bogstandard Maxis base game phone.

[Emma]

I was using a bogstandard Maxis base game phone. Thanks though Zeph. I don't really want to mess about in SimPe if I can help it. Of course if I have no choice then I will have to....

[ZephyrZodiac]

I seem to spend nearly as much time in SimPE these days as I do playing my game!  But moving a sim from one family to another isn't hard.  However, you could definitely try the "Make me a townie" option in the teleporter, or there is an option to put the kid up for adoption which I'm pretty sure wouldn't affect the other kids in the house.