Bon Voyage dissatisfaction

[skandelouslala]

How did you get your firewall to block it?

I disabled the launcher and I haven't had the game make any attempts to access the internet. However, if you want to use a firewall to prevent the game from accessing the net it is quite simple. I use Zone Alarm. Whenever a program tries to get online I get a little pop up that details which program is trying to use the internet and I can select "accept" or "deny". There is also a box to tick so that it will remember the selection and not ask you again (so I don't get a pop up every time my browser tries to use the internet). Zone Alarm has a very simple, user friendly interface. If you've managed to figure out how to get online you shouldn't have any problem figuring out how to use Zone Alarm, IMO.

Thanks I am going to try this, do you use the free one or the "free" one that you get if you sign up for one of their offers?

I am so disappointed by the lag I am getting.    And I have never had any troubles.  I seriously think it is the game trying to phone home b/c they'll be times when it seems to be up to speed and then like everything almost freezes.    And I'm bummed that it appears that bypassing the launcher doesn't work. 

From what little I have actually got to play.. the lots for the vacation hoods seemed really crowded with objects which could be something else causing some of my lag.  I really never play with so much stuff community lots but then again, I've been known to cram my residential lots insanely full and haven't had problems, so I really don't wish to blame all this lag on my computer yet.

[Keltobin]

Is it just me or is weather in hyperdrive on vacation (I haven't actually played any "normal" lots so it may be there, too)?

I noticed this also.  It seems as though the weather is much worse. I have almost constant hail on Twikki. 

I have had another interesting "feature."  Apparently, once you book a  honeymoon, you get it with every marriage.  After the traumatic death of his first wife, my sim remarried and immediately went off on the same Twikki honeymoon to the same hotel as he had with his first wife (I purposely hadn't booked one since the child was about to grow up the next night and I figured I would just take a vacation then).  Next thing you know he'll be trying to get his new bride to wear his dead wife's clothing.

I've had less lag since redirecting the game to bypass the launcher, so thanks for that tip.

[MutantBunny]

Just in case someone wants to look: I think the 'phonehome' is a rundll32.exe-  -if you look at your taskmanage.

I booted up with the launcher (by mistake --my first try at changing the shortcut pointer failed for some reason) and saw that pop up on my taskmanager. Then I switched the shortcut (again and then applied this time and then saved and then checked it) to the EP6.exe and no rundll popped up. Those suffering the lag, might want to take a quick look at their taskmanager.

[witch]

Well so much for that bright idea. I put BUY in all my hotel rooms. Works fine as long as witch is with a family on holiday and all the rooms are occupied by my playables, but as soon as she visits an hotel on her own, the BUY controller spazzes out* and spams the place with, 'you cannot use this if you haven't checked into the room' messages. It won't stop, even after the action to use the bathroom or BUY is cancelled.

So anyway, bathrooms aside, I decided to make witch a couple of nice young men to play with. She couldn't ring and invite them on holiday. So they bought a holiday home and went there. She can't ring them except to talk, she can't invite them over or on a date. (She can have dates but only with the locals). If she goes to a community lot it's chocka full with fugly Maxis sims, no sign of visiting spunks.

DISSATISFIED!

ETA: *Actually it won't be the BUY controller's problem, it'll be the townies occupying the rooms and making them unavailable. I'll try APO - maybe if I ban witch from all rooms except the one she chooses, the BUY will recognise this.

[Angie]

I played BV for the first time last night and used the launcher.  I noticed periodic lagginess; there was a tremendous lag when my first sim got a sun tan and the game regenerated her portrait.

I'll try bypassing the launcher, but for me lagginess is normal after installing a new EP.  I just figured the game was spawning new townies or something.

[Ruann]

rundll32.exe is typically a windows required process and is not likely to be the process you think is attempting to "phone home" from in the game.  It's literally a program that reads DLL files and places the libraries contained in them into memory so the computer can use them. 

Now, some viruses disguise themselves as rundll32, so make sure your defs are up to date anyway.

[skandelouslala]

Concerning the lag...I installed ZoneAlarm and also decided to bypass the launcher.  Apparently for me bypassing it did little anyways...by the time the game got to the loading screen it had attempted to contact the internet at least six times.  If not bypassing the launcher makes it do so even more...I hate to think...lawdy.

And guess what...my game loaded SO MUCH FASTER.  Gee, now I wonder why it loaded so slow before hmpph

[Aggie]

Does anyone know offhand if I can simply delete the launcher from the game files, or will that cause a BFBVFS?

[Zazazu]

First annoyance, then more data on the lag issue (not that I have much lag).
Annoyance: A houseguest doesn't appear on your UI control. Ok, no biggie. But the kid who invited the teen girl he met on vacation has the most awesome room ever (a virtual forest) and he and his guest were "camping" in his tent bed and talking. He left the tent. There is no way to prompt the girl to get out of the tent. Clicking on it only gives the option "Get In". It's been three hours, and she's sitting there in the dark tent by herself like a doofus. I found the only way to get her out was to pull out some leftovers and do "Call to Dinner...Guests".

Lag: Just an observation. I was playing with my firewall settings. I noticed that the Sims 2, each EP, Bodyshop, Homecrafter, and a couple Sims-related sub programs were set to always allow (no entry for EP6...just the launcher, which I'd blocked before and the game worked). Well, there's no reason that anything but EALink needed the 'net, right? So I blocked 'em all. Game wouldn't load. I just got a never-ending black screen. Putting all back to allow fixed it.

Now why would it not work unless one of the EPs or the basegame is trying to dial home and it's getting pissed at my firewall blocking it?

[MutantBunny]

Control your vacation friends with the pet cheats. Friends are pets you know....

[Zazazu]

Control your vacation friends with the pet cheats. Friends are pets you know....

The entire problem is that she's not on the UI. Otherwise I could use the petcheat. From what I'm reading, friends you take on vacation show up in the pet spot on the UI. Houseguests aren't.

[Invisigoth]

Thanks I am going to try this, do you use the free one or the "free" one that you get if you sign up for one of their offers?

I'm using the actually free one. I don't have money to burn spending 65 bucks at the gap to get a "free" firewall.

Lag: Just an observation. I was playing with my firewall settings. I noticed that the Sims 2, each EP, Bodyshop, Homecrafter, and a couple Sims-related sub programs were set to always allow (no entry for EP6...just the launcher, which I'd blocked before and the game worked). Well, there's no reason that anything but EALink needed the 'net, right? So I blocked 'em all. Game wouldn't load. I just got a never-ending black screen. Putting all back to allow fixed it.
Now why would it not work unless one of the EPs or the basegame is trying to dial home and it's getting pissed at my firewall blocking it?

Strange, mine isn't throwing a fit about being blocked.

Another note: Since I added most of my 1 gig of CC the lag has increased, but it's not too bad. Another thing to help with the lag is to go into your processes and set TS2ep6.exe to high priority. Don't do this for a ton of different programs or you might crash your computer, but one or two (depending on your RAM and how much RAM each program you set to high uses) at a time is safe. With 512 MB of RAM I only set TS2 to high priority.

[skandelouslala]

So can anyone tell me how many access attempts they normally get with this EP trying to access the net?  B/c umm...I have been playing for like an hour and a half...NOTHING else running that should be trying to connect.  And I have nearly 400 attempts.  You've got to be kidding me if this is all coming from the game.  Insanity.  But of course since it is blocked, my game seems to be running now at normal speed.  And at a home lot, it is almost running flawlessly like it does with almost no CC.

Right now, I can't say if I am thrilled or not with my purchase of this EP.  The whole "The Sims phone home" thing seriously has put a huge damper on the game for me. 

Of course I was expecting with this EP as well that there would be a lot of waiting while lots load, but it is a tad more annoying than I expected.  But I do enjoy all the things there are for sims to do, so that's a plus.

 I really adore the beach lots.  Hell that was almost worth the 30 bucks for me.  I have long been improvising in creating beach lots and now I don't have too. 

[Karen]

Sorry if this has been asked before, but....how exactly do you bypass the launcher?  I won't have the game for a couple more days and I would really like to not have to bother with the launcher from the beginning.

[dusty]

Karen: you just create a shortcut to the EP6.exe, and launch the game from there.

[Karen]

Well, that's easy enough    Thanks for the quick reply!

[sloppyhousewife]

The guide claims that Sims can now walk to any lot they could drive (or cab) to.  But they can't walk from home to, i.e. downtown or Bluewater. 

In my game, they can? When I click on a sim and choose "Walk to..." I get the same neighborhood/lot choices like when I call a cab or go by car.

[Ryslin]

skandelouslala-
Something about that doesn't sound right. Please check and see if your computer is attempting to do this connection even when not playing sims. (sitting idle might work)
400+ attempts at connection is more like viral activity, not unheard of with half assed attempts by companies to "phone home" but still , the shear amount is worrying.

[MutantBunny]

BBB over at InSim says theres a conflict with sound cards causing the lag. ?

Can anyone 'walk to lot' using the click on a lot function? I don't get that option...

[KLGFCG]

Uhg, here's some dissatisfaction... the stupid tourists. Why does Eaxis insist on mucking up my game with two "Goopys." I bet I'll go through my whole life without ever meeting a single person named Goopy, let alone running into two of the suckers on vacation. And, of course, they're both fugly. I'm all for meeting new and exciting people on vacation but I want to make them myself so they don't pollute my neighborhood with their ugliness and clashing clothes - at least the locals (while sometimes needing renaming) have a "uniform" so they aren't susceptible to poor fashion choices. Please say a notouristregen is in the works and if Inge happens to be floating around a "make me a tourist" update to her teleporter wouldn't be half bad either. I don't ask for much... baaaaaaaa.

[Scotty]

I think all the tourists and locals are ugly. I was hoping to have one of my single sims to have a whirlwind romance with a local while on vacation. I have one sim that was making the gagging noises whenever he meets a local or a tourist.

Another thing thats getting on my ever last nerve is that Sims are always wanting to build a sandcastle. They do it on their own, and when I need them to do something else and I cancel the sandcastle action, it takes forever for it to drop out of their queue.

And another thing, One of my sims ordered food in the dining room of his hotel. When the food arrived, one of the damn tourists stole it out from under his nose and ate it.  This has happened more than once. And don't even get me started on the bellhop that insisted on hanging out in my Sim's hotel room. He was just standing there. urg.

[ZiggyDoodle]

In my game, they can? When I click on a sim and choose "Walk to..." I get the same neighborhood/lot choices like when I call a cab or go by car.

You're right, sloppyhousewife; that paragraph was awkwardly written in the guide.  I believe they meant you can't walk to college towns or vacations (duh, for the latter) from your base hood, downtown or a shopping district.

BV is now starting to piss me off.  Close to $900 a night for a hotel room and the housekeeper never shows up?  Or an empty dining room and the Sim who is starving is told the dining room is full?   I swear EAxis must award a bonus to the programmer who can create the biggest annoyance.  And that damn Sea Chantey!  If my Sims do it one more time, they're getting fed to the cowplant!

MutantBunny, you have to click either your Sim, the phone booth, or a pedestrian sign to get the walk-to option.

The heavy duty lag I've had is gone now.  Don't know if that is because I dumped the launcher or not.   EP6 may go the way of the launcher if it keeps pissing me off.

[KatEnigma]

Scotty: Always keep your hotel room locked, otherwise the tourists flock in.

I had one hotel where the maid never came. But then I was never at the hotel when time came to trigger him/her, instead I was off on other lots.

[Zazazu]

I think all the tourists and locals are ugly. I was hoping to have one of my single sims to have a whirlwind romance with a local while on vacation. I have one sim that was making the gagging noises whenever he meets a local or a tourist.

I'm quite pissed that they don't generate from CAS templates/modified Live.package. My Goopy's days are numbered. And, the only halfway decent teen was a Renee. She became fast friends with the eldest boy of my test family and I was intending on setting them up...until my version of Hook's Random Stuff turned him into a fat Romance sim with a thing for mechanically-inclined zombies. Now she can't stand him, but he still wants to diddle her.

[Scotty]

Scotty: Always keep your hotel room locked, otherwise the tourists flock in.

I had one hotel where the maid never came. But then I was never at the hotel when time came to trigger him/her, instead I was off on other lots.

Yeah, I did unlock it once by accident. And everyone was hanging out in my Sim's room. I make sure it's locked now. But the stolen food happened in the dining room. And the bellhop for some reason is just standing in the hotel room, it's like he's at his desk, I've even seen him answer the phone by picking it up from nowhere. He just stands there. I know it isnt a hack, because I always get rid of all hacks before installing a new EP.

And the waiter likes to make my Sim's bed. The maid is completely useless IMHO. At least the waiter does something.