Request, nay Demand! for a new FAQ

[Kyna]

A while back I downloaded the gender reversed PV, and used SimPE to change all the first names of every character (e.g. Dustin became Dusty, Abhijeet became Abigail, etc).  This was before I knew that SimPE doesn't change the name everywhere.  I noticed that when I got errors in the game - which were unrelated - the error messages referred to the sim by the original name.

[akatonbo]

Gender-reversed PV? Where does one get that? (And are there any caveats not mentioned wherever you get it?)

[J. M. Pescado]

Saving the lot and exiting while a sim is on a cell phone corrupts the lot and you'll never be able to enter it again. (Has Maxis ever even tried  to fix this?)

I doubt they can. It doesn't happen consistently and it doesn't leave any traceable error log to examine. It just goes BOOM for no reason, and you're going to have to jump!

[Kyna]

The gender reversed PV is found right here in Peasantry, courtesy of Marhis.

[Hook]

Saving the lot and exiting while a sim is on a cell phone corrupts the lot and you'll never be able to enter it again. (Has Maxis ever even tried  to fix this?)

I doubt they can. It doesn't happen consistently and it doesn't leave any traceable error log to examine. It just goes BOOM for no reason, and you're going to have to jump!

Something I've noticed occasionally when I reenter a lot I haven't played in a long time is that there will be an extra Sim on the lot, usually in some odd place.  I remember once saving a lot when two Sims were talking to the same Sim on the phone at the same time and when I reentered the lot that Sim was on the lot instead of on the phone.  I suspect that a Sim who has been called on the phone will be teleported to the lot.  If the random teleport destination is invalid, I can see why this would crash the game.

It's been a long time since I saved a game when a Sim was talking on the phone.

Hook

[Insanity Prelude]

Oh, the cell phone. *whew!* Haven't done that.

As for the first names in SimPE thing... So it's not a game-breaker, just an annoying little thing?

[J. M. Pescado]

Something I've noticed occasionally when I reenter a lot I haven't played in a long time is that there will be an extra Sim on the lot, usually in some odd place.  I remember once saving a lot when two Sims were talking to the same Sim on the phone at the same time and when I reentered the lot that Sim was on the lot instead of on the phone.  I suspect that a Sim who has been called on the phone will be teleported to the lot.  If the random teleport destination is invalid, I can see why this would crash the game.

The reason this happens is because if you saved while a sim was "off lot", such as on the phone (cell or not), and something has caused a world or partial reset (such as a patch), everyone will be reset, and off-lot sims respawn in the middle of the lot when this happens.

[Hook]

One of us is confused.

If a lot gets reset while a Sim is off at work, for example, that Sim ends up back on the lot.

If a Sim is talking to someone on the phone, it's possible that the phoned Sim will show up on the lot.  It's been over 2 years ago so I can't confirm it, but I believe this was without a reset.  Whatever the problem was, I figured it wasn't such a good idea, so didn't save when Sims were on the phone after that, at least on purpose.

Hook

[kuronue]

The Ottomas brokenness, however, actually damages data integrity.

How? I still don't understand how that's different than a sim that has an affair so the parent is not the 2nd adult in the household? I dumped the Ottomas', they're ugly anyway, but I've got lots of simmies born on the wrong side of the blanket.

The thing is, the affair-spawn's fathers are at least human (or servo or alien); the ottomas babies can have pets, NPCs with incomplete DNA, or certain objects for fathers, and then the DNA is all borked with garbage data. I mean, it's one thing to have Momma cheating on Daddy with Mr. Handsome, it's another to have her have a kid with the Attackbot some random person built.

[Insanity Prelude]

Not that that wouldn't make for some pretty interesting, if disgusting, storylines. 

Which NPCs have incomplete DNA, anyway? (So I know which ones to avoid, as I don't know how to fix them.)

[Orikes]

3) Move half your hacks in the "My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2" folder to some other folder. This other folder should always be a new folder.

I would clarify in this step that the new folder must be in some other location than the 'My Documents/EA Games/Sims 2' folder. Having worked in tech support, I can see the clueless ones making a new folder right in the downloads folder and then wondering why it's not working.

[Lorelei]

Didn't a noob, just today, try to put a zip file into Downloads?

We shouldn't underestimate the lack of computer / Sims game smarts out there.

[kuronue]

Not that that wouldn't make for some pretty interesting, if disgusting, storylines. 

Which NPCs have incomplete DNA, anyway? (So I know which ones to avoid, as I don't know how to fix them.)

IIRC, the shrink and the social bunnies and Crumplebutt are all objects, not really NPCs, so their DNA is likely to be bad

[Insanity Prelude]

Alright, so basically the ones your Sims can't have romantic entanglements with anyway.
(Although... enough people seem to want to get their Sims pregnant by the Grim Reaper that I'm guessing it doesn't BFBVFS the game. Probably. Don't think I'll try it. XD)

[kuronue]

Alright, so basically the ones your Sims can't have romantic entanglements with anyway.
(Although... enough people seem to want to get their Sims pregnant by the Grim Reaper that I'm guessing it doesn't BFBVFS the game. Probably. Don't think I'll try it. XD)

Exactly, which is why random fathers can be bad- you're not SUPPOSED to have them fathering children.

(incidentally, one of the maxis-created playables is a spawn of the grim reaper, so he's intended to be safe, though, we all know how wll that works)

[Hook]

... one of the maxis-created playables is a spawn of the grim reaper...

Nervous Subject, in the Beaker house in Strangetown.

Hook

[akatonbo]

Question is, is Nervous the son of the actual Grim Reaper? There's no Grim on the family tree, he doesn't have the typical look of a child who had a parent with no DNA, there's the issue of there actually being two mostly identical character files for him, and he's Maxis-created and probably not game-born anyway.

[Orikes]

I think for Nervous it's just a matter of story, not genetics. I don't think they actually created him via getting Olive pregnant via Grim and having a baby. Beyond the fact that they probably didn't take the time, Grim is essentially Face One when he breeds, and Nervous is so not the child of a Face One sim.

[Hook]

There's no Grim on the family tree

Uh, then how would I have known Grimmy was his father?  Unless they've changed something since the base game, Grim showed up in the family tree as his father.

I agree that Nervous didn't get his face from the first archetype face.

Hook

[akatonbo]

There's no Grim on the family tree

Uh, then how would I have known Grimmy was his father?

Because Olive's memories have 'Did WooHoo with Grim Reaper' followed by 'Had Nervous Subject' with a couple of random NPC deaths in between? I don't remember Grim ever being in the family tree, though I suppose I could have a peek next time I open up the game. I thought the only way anyone knew was to look at Olive's memories.

[J. M. Pescado]

Basically NONE of the Maxian sims are "genetically" related even if it says they are on the family tree. All of their relations, photos, and memories, are all faked.

[kuronue]

My point was that you're intended to discover this and go "ooh, cool, I can have kids by the Grim Reaper!" and then mess around with cheats until you make it happen, thus it's intended to be "Safe", whether or not it actually is (considering that, unpatched, not even the phones are safe....)

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, while it's possible to pull something like that off and have your neighborhood survive the experience, depending on how you do it, nothing cool will happen. You will not get baby Skeletor.