Stupid/random questions... (v3)

[omglo]

Buy the large telescope and as soon as it gets dark, have your sims stargaze for hours. It might take a few tries.

I have a couple of questions too. Is there a way to access a sim's inventory while they're on a community lot? I wanted to let my Sim fly a kite at the park. I'd also like to have a community garden. Is that possible?

[lazzybum]

omglo, heres a hack that enables buy mode & inventory on community lots.

http://modthesims.info/d/204467

Ive used it and it works, even with AL & MG. Also useful for transfering graves to a graveyard.


---
heres more of a sims community question but... anyone know where has mangaroo disappeared to? Being in TS2 community for years, I got use to seeing him as an active mod. Just hoping hes ok :O! (It feels like were all family here since I've been a part of this community for a long time xP)

[Peni Griffin]

MSD, I believe you would have to use the apartment door, yes, and the house would be subject to all the apartment restrictions, so you'd have to build with great care. I'm pretty sure it's Icad that does this. Look in the Housing and Landscaping thread in pictures, and you should find some examples.

[maybesomethingdunno]

Actually hihihi16 and omglo, a Sim can be abducted with the cheap telescope.

Thanks, Peni Griffin. :)

[KaiRuh]

It depends on which expansions you have.

If you don't have FreeTime, your Sims can only be abducted with the expensive telescope. If you do have FreeTime, all telescopes have the abduction chance.

[Ghost sdoj]

I miss Mangaroo as well, and I'm just as clueless as you are about what happened. :(

[DrowningFishy]

::raises a hand:: I have a question and it is certainly stupid it is a result of me trying to torture my sim... I mean change my sims lifestyle. I moved two unrelated teens into the same house (one of nervous' spawn non-the less) and offed the adult. The two teens fought a lot as I tried my hardest to try to get one fired and flunk out of school. (I have had a child keep minimum grades to keep the social worker away then never go to school ever in his teen life and never flunk out). Anyways, Elise Subject grew into an adult and Rebeka something-or-another ran away. I thought maybe like aliens they'll appear again one day. Well now Elise is married and has a child, expecting another and the bus and carpool keep showing up for Rebeka and no Rebeka. HOW do you get a run away teen to return? Or is this going to always be a blemish on the screen?


@hihihi16 XD Move in with a Subject, I added a teen to my family that one of Nervous' daughter was dating, poor guy gets abducted 78% of the time he looks into the telescope. I kind of fear what his adult life is going to be like... 10 babies with the aliens by the time his wife has a chance to have their first kid. :P

[omglo]

Thanks, lazzybum.
It depends on which expansions you have.

If you don't have FreeTime, your Sims can only be abducted with the expensive telescope. If you do have FreeTime, all telescopes have the abduction chance.Really? I just got Freetime and would prefer my sims not get abducted, so that's good to know.

[katya_stevens]

HOW do you get a run away teen to return? Or is this going to always be a blemish on the screen?

You can report a runaway teen missing via the phone, and they tend to be returned soon after by the police. If you don't report them, they should return just before they're due to transition to an adult, but I always report my runaways missing so I've never tested this.

Is Rebecca still a teen? You said that Elise is now an adult, so if Rebecca is still a teen she's still likely to return (and you can possibly report her missing via the phone), but if Rebecca should be an adult by now, I'd suspect something has gone wrong in your game.

[Rarr]

How do you get that penguin from seasons to appear? I have seasons, and i saw it in fast forward while my sim was asleep. I thought i was going insane becquse i didnt know it existed

[lazzybum]

Octavia, you probably need fish laying around or fish on a plaque for him to come interact with it or eat a fish on the floor. I think he also only comes in winter, or at least a better chance. I've had him visit a community lot during winter without any fish around though.

Edit: Ah yes, how could I forget about snowmen! xD

[dieKristina]

The penguin often comes during winter to talk to the snowman in my game :). It´s pretty cute. Perhaps the chance increases if a snowman is present on the lot?

[Peni Griffin]

I believe the penguin wanders by randomly, much like any other walk-by. He almost always seems to be drawn by snowmen, though. I've never left fish lying around, so though he may come for fish that's not the only reason.

[Bwinney43]

I'm pretty sure I read somewhere that having a snowman on the lot does increase the chances of a penguin visit.

Yup...here it is:
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Penguin

[birdyfly]

Okay, I have a really stupid/ random question.

I've been away from Sims 2 for a couple years and am trying to get back into it. I am wondering, is there an update site for Sims 2 CC? Sims 3 has Sims 3 Updates (http://www.sims3updates.net/) and My Sims 3 Blog (http://mysims3blog.blogspot.com/). Is there something similar for Sims 2? I am not a huge fan of the Sims Wiki because it doesn't seem to be updated consistently.

:duck:

[lazzybum]

Heres a few of my favorite places to look at updates:

http://www.blackpearlsims.com/forumdisplay.php?6-Sims-2-Updates
(requires registration I believe)

http://www.simscave.com/index.php?board=172.0

http://www.digitalperversion.net/gardenofshadows/index.php?topic=10950.msg586733;boardseen#new

http://www.spring4sims.com/
(I would use this more often if I knew how to only look at TS2 content in any category)

Alot of people put their CC on Livejournals & Dreamwidth, another way is to have your own and add creators and you'll have your own updates on them as well :)

Welcome back to TS2 community, and sorry if this list turns you into a TS2 CC addict :(

-----
Edit:
Eep! I have a question about the architecture category in build mode for apartments. (I think this category is from AL or M&G). Anyways, I'd like to put those pipeline, vent things in my apartment but it doesnt stay with rented unfurnished rooms and I just realized that category is grayed out for apartments >;o! Is there a way to work around this without moving everyone out, furnishing it, & debugging it so they buy it furnished? D:

[birdyfly]

Haha, thank you so much. I am already a huge CC addict, but have an external hard drive, so it's all good. ;)

I'm hoping I can find a no CD/ no loading screen for Sims 2, but seems like I haven't had any luck on that one yet.

[simsample]

I'm hoping I can find a no CD/ no loading screen for Sims 2, but seems like I haven't had any luck on that one yet.
Pssst, you won't get a NoCD link from here, it's against the rules. ;)

[birdyfly]

I know, that's why I never asked on the WCIF forums. :lol:

I wasn't sure if a no loading screen was against the rules or not, but I didn't want to risk getting banned by asking. It's not the biggest deal for me though. If it's against the rules to even talk about it though, I don't mind deleting my post.

[lg135]

You can report a runaway teen missing via the phone, and they tend to be returned soon after by the police. If you don't report them, they should return just before they're due to transition to an adult, but I always report my runaways missing so I've never tested this.

Is Rebecca still a teen? You said that Elise is now an adult, so if Rebecca is still a teen she's still likely to return (and you can possibly report her missing via the phone), but if Rebecca should be an adult by now, I'd suspect something has gone wrong in your game.

I think after the first 24 hours the chances of bringing them home decreases significantly. And if the cops don't find her, you'd have to wait until Rebecca was a day away from growing up. And yeah, if Rebecca is suppose to have grown up by now... you might wanna check behind a dumpster for her body :x (or your something's up with your game... but the former would be more interesting)

I know this isn't the right thread, but the topic at hand has got me curious and I'm hoping someone who plays both TS2 & TS3 can answer -- are they runaways in TS3?

[LittleFallenAngel]

Dumbest question known to man: Regarding flashdrives; can the sims be played on them or are they just like a backup storage device with tons of space?

[FemGamerPlayer]

In terms of getting a sim abducted by aliens, another cool thing that Freetime adds is "perks" for each of the aspiration (yes, that even includes the Grilled Cheese aspiration!). The "top tier" perk for Knowledge sims, so to speak (in otherwords, you have to unlock all the other knowledge perks before you can unlock that one) is "Summon Aliens". If you give a sim that perk, the option "Summon Aliens" will appear when you click on a telescope (whether it be the expensive one or the cheap one). If you choose that option, then the sim will turn the telescope into a beacon of sorts by attaching a flashlight to it, pointing it at the sky, and waving it about.

This results in an alien abuction at least 99 percent of the time, if not 100 percent of the time (thus far, all of my "summon alien" attempts have been succesful). Not only that, but the option is even available- and works!- during the day! :)

Another thing to be aware of (if you aren't already). If you get an adult male sim abducted by aliens, odds are he will return from the abduction pregnant with an alien baby (don't worry, you will know if this is the case. Just as it does in a "normal" pregnancy, the lullaby will sound if your male sim has been impregnated by aliens). So if you have an adult male that you don't want to have kids (or more kids), keep him away from the telescope!

[Bellasaurus]

I'm hoping I can find a no loading screen for Sims 2, but seems like I haven't had any luck on that one yet.

I have a vague memory of someone (here I think) going into the code and discovering all the 'excess' space taken up by the TS2 installation, ie all the language options etc, and I think he (or she? I really can't remember!) found a way to delete the 'movie' from the loading time, and in doing so sped up the loading time. But it was a complicated process, requiring at least a basic knowledge of how the code works. There were lots of bits of the game that aren't actually necessary to keep once you've chosen your language - I think this mystery simmer cleared up over a gig of space from their installation, and sped up their load time by about 5 minutes. When I get home from work I'll try and search out the thread - or you could try searching here or google for it.

[maybesomethingdunno]

If you want to get rid of the startup logo and movies, there is no need to understand code....just how to find and to delete files. Getting rid of the startup logo / movies (http://www.modthesims.info/article.php?t=92314). You may need to do this for every EP that you have installed. The game will then start with the loading screen that plays music and has the start-up strings like "Reticulating Splines", "Chlorinating Car Pools", and the like. I don't know if is anyway to skip straight to the neighborhood select screen if that is what you are wanting...

[Bellasaurus]

Thank you MSD! I knew there was a way but it's too hot today and my memory is not behaving :)

[omglo]

Do my downloaded (legally of course) expansions and base game need patches? I just got them all within the last few months from EA and assumed they came with patches, since they were digital, but I'm not sure that's true.

[LittleFallenAngel]

(I hope this doesn't count as double posting, but we are on a new page.)

repeating my question: Regarding flashdrives; can the sims be played on them or are they just like a backup storage device with tons of space?

and also, regarding building apartments. (Yes, I have read thoroughly the tutorial on wiki.) I have a lot with 3 houses on it. I am wanting to make a back fence to kind of show like a patio-grill area for each renter. My question is, if there is no door except for the apartment doors on each house, does the fence need to be enclosed completely or can I use like a half-fence. NOT half-wall. Like make an L-shape to create privacy but leave it basically open.

Would the sims stick to their own areas or would they treat the whole back area as one giant common even with the L-fencing?

[lazzybum]

Regarding flashdrives, I never tried. I've opened files and saved them there directly as if they are a harddrive, but never tried a game.

For the apartments, all sims would be able to walk in like a common area. It needs to be enclosed or on a foundation or something where a door is needed to get in if you dont want others to get in.

[SimMegaptera]

You could put hedges in place of fences. That's how it works in the rowhouse complex where I used to live. Each yard had a wall to divide it from the next yard, but ultimately it was the residents' responsibility to block it with plants if they wanted it blocked. Make the walls come out perpendicular to the line of houses, and then make a line of hedge parallel to the row of houses.

[Nissun]

Hey I have a couple of questions about apartments: Is it too bad if I don't furnish all apartments before playing? Somewhere in the tutorial says "your neighbors are gonna need funiture too!", but I don't think it's completely neccesary, right?

And second: why do my roommates never sleep in the rooms I save for them? There is a spare bed, but they always leave and have their needs replenished elsewhere.

[Peni Griffin]

If you don't furnish the apartment, when your tenant visits another one, he'll find a sim standing in an empty apartment.

I don't know why your roommates don't sleep at home. I only have one, but he hangs around using everything in the apartment during all the hours he's not at work. He sometimes goes to sleep in his roommate's bed, but so far hasn't gone so far as to crawl in with her.

[omglo]

Is it impossible to kill townies? I'm trying to rid my town of Kennedy Cox, because I'm sick of him attacking other Sims and kicking over their trash cans, but he Just. Won't. Die. I've tried starvation and drowning, but every time we get close to the joyous event occurring, the game increases his energy and hunger bar just enough to keep him from going to the great beyond. If it matters, I trapped him on a lot while he was trying to steal someone's paper.

[simsample]

omglo, they made townies invincible so you can't kill them any more. I think you'd need to give them a death token or use a mod to kill them now.

[omglo]

Thanks. I'm going to have to look into a mod, because he has to go.

[Peni Griffin]

Can't you make him into a playable by asking him to move in, and then kill him? Or is he on such terrible terms with everybody that that's way too much work?

[Clashfan]

omglo, they made townies invincible so you can't kill them any more. I think you'd need to give them a death token or use a mod to kill them now.

Really? When did that happen? I admit I play a fully custom hood so I don't have any of those regular townies but I certainly remember feeding a few of them including Goopy to the cowplant at one point.

Anyway if you need a death mod Paladin has some good ones at http://www.simwardrobe.com/.

[omglo]

Death token didn't work. :(

Peni, he's on bad terms with the only two playables he knows (I have no idea why he came to hate them). Good idea though. I'll try using the teleporter cat mod to make him part of the family and see if I can get rid of him that way. Edit: Nope. Apparently the game still considers him a townie even after that.

[simsample]

Really? When did that happen?
Hmmm, can't remember exactly- around the time of Seasons maybe? All of a sudden my Townie dungeon would not work. Someone with a better memory may be able to specify a more accurate time.

ETA: Just found a post on another forum from 2006 with the same problem, they suggested locking townies in a room with a cow plant! :lol:

[Clashfan]

Death token didn't work. :(

Peni, he's on bad terms with the only two playables he knows (I have no idea why he came to hate them). Good idea though. I'll try using the teleporter cat mod to make him part of the family and see if I can get rid of him that way. Edit: Nope. Apparently the game still considers him a townie even after that.

If the death token didn't work I'm wondering if you can kill them at all. How about aging him up to Elder then age him to death?

The only Sim I couldn't kill was a playable that got trapped in limbo when she missed the van to Twikki Island. The rest of her family was trapped on vacation and I successfully killed and then resurrected them but her I couldn't kill no matter how I tried. I also couldn't move her in with another family either which is why I couldn't age her. If you can move him in and make him a playable you should be able to kill him.

[omglo]

In case anyone is following this saga: I unlocked the career rewards and got a cowplant. Kennedy tried to grab the cake, but the plant pulled it back into it's mouth and sniffed him. Inge's cake aged him up to elder, but the option to blow out the candles again drops off his actions queue. Tomorrow, I'm going to try out a death mod from the link Clashfan gave. If that doesn't work, I give up.

[Julieryc]

In case anyone is following this saga: I unlocked the career rewards and got a cowplant. Kennedy tried to grab the cake, but the plant pulled it back into it's mouth and sniffed him. Inge's cake aged him up to elder, but the option to blow out the candles again drops off his actions queue. Tomorrow, I'm going to try out a death mod from the link Clashfan gave. If that doesn't work, I give up.

Couldn't you use a "move in all" or "move-in no relationship required" hack, move him into a house, and then kill him? Something like this: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6631.0.html

[maybesomethingdunno]

omglo, make sure the Sim isn't too smelly (low hygiene) or the CowPlant will not eat him.

[Clashfan]

In case anyone is following this saga: I unlocked the career rewards and got a cowplant. Kennedy tried to grab the cake, but the plant pulled it back into it's mouth and sniffed him. Inge's cake aged him up to elder, but the option to blow out the candles again drops off his actions queue. Tomorrow, I'm going to try out a death mod from the link Clashfan gave. If that doesn't work, I give up.

Wow he really doesn't want to die, does he? I don't know it's starting to sound more like something is corrupted to me. Other than the NPC's that aren't really Sims like Crumplebottom, Grim Reaper ect I've never heard of one not being able to to die.

Before you give up completely if you have the SimBlender from Simbology you can add him to a family, or you could adjust the relationships to being favorable and have your Sim ask him to move in.

In the latter case if you get a message that he can't move in, not just a refusal then I think he's in limbo somewhere. This sounds more and more like what I went through with my Sim that got lost in limbo. I just can't imagine how it happened to a townie.

[TUL]

This is kind of an odd question, but does anyone know if the know if the trailer park from Apartment Life was packaged wrong by EA? No matter what I do, that one lot gets corrupted. It's been that way in several different neighborhoods, at least five reinstalls, and two computers.

[KaiRuh]

I know this isn't the right thread, but the topic at hand has got me curious and I'm hoping someone who plays both TS2 & TS3 can answer -- are they runaways in TS3?

I don't think so. I've never had it happen or heard about it happening.

[Frokkel95]

I have no problem killing NPC's. I have a closed area in the backyard, with 'moveObjects on' I can pick up any annoying sim, put them in the enclosed area, have a speaker going 24/24 - so they cant sleep - and 3 days later the Grim Reaper arrives. Voila - dead. Only NPC's that belong to the Garden crew cannot be killed in my experience. I did kill off most of the male students in Uni (I play a female only game).

[katya_stevens]

This is kind of an odd question, but does anyone know if the know if the trailer park from Apartment Life was packaged wrong by EA? No matter what I do, that one lot gets corrupted. It's been that way in several different neighborhoods, at least five reinstalls, and two computers.

I've heard others experiencing problems with it, certainly -- Amairani did a remake of the mobile homes (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=368265) in which they state the problem was EA.

[TUL]

I've heard others experiencing problems with it, certainly -- Amairani did a remake of the mobile homes (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=368265) in which they state the problem was EA.

Now that's useful! I just wish I knew why the EA trailer park is buggy, but I guess the best answer is simply it was made by EA. :giggler: Thanks for directing me to the download!

[FemGamerPlayer]

I haven't had any success with killing townies, either. I tried to kill off a particularly annoying cow mascot (they're ALL annoying, of course, but this one had decided to hang out at a particular dorm practically 24/7!) once by surronding him with greenhouse walls (and, since it was winter, I left the structure without a roof thinking the exposure to the elements might kill him). But all that happened was that he started to stink from not being able to take a shower and fell asleep a few times. I kept waiting for him to wet himself, since I've heard stories of nannies doing so when people "lock" them up....but he never did (and I had him trapped for a LONG time!). In fact, he never even so much as did the "bladder desperation dance" (what I call the motion sims perform when their bladder need goes into the red)! Apparently, when a bathroom isn't accesible, cow mascots develope bladders of steel!

Making matters even funnier, when I finally released him, a pop-up appeared as he walked off the lot (presumably to go home and take a shower!), saying something like, "Thanks for inviting me, but it's getting late and I'd better go". I was like, "Uh, I never did invite you! You invited yourself!"

[gulhare]

Has anyone else had custom foods display as squiggly lines in the customers thoughtbubbles (at owned restaurant)?
I got really, really nervous at first and thought my neighbourhood had corrupted. Then I realised it was only in the restaurant that served non-maxis foods, and began to wonder. I changed the menue and no longer have squiggly bubbles. But I would like to change it back to the custom foods....

Do I need to worry?
Is this a known issue?
Does it break the neighbourhood if I use custom foods in restaurants?
Is there a fix?

[Ghost sdoj]

Townies still grab cake. (Although AL might have done away with that.) They do need to be clean, though. The cowplant doesn't like dirty sims.

You can send him to someone with a cowplant. (There's even a buyable one to download.)

squiggly lines in thought bubbles are when the game can't identify what the sim is thinking/talking about. If it's just custom food, you're probably ok. It's when it can't identify people that you've got a trashed neighborhood.

[omglo]

In case anyone is following this saga: I unlocked the career rewards and got a cowplant. Kennedy tried to grab the cake, but the plant pulled it back into it's mouth and sniffed him. Inge's cake aged him up to elder, but the option to blow out the candles again drops off his actions queue. Tomorrow, I'm going to try out a death mod from the link Clashfan gave. If that doesn't work, I give up.He's finally gone. Thanks for everyone who gave me advice. I'd already moved him in with the simlogical cat, but since that didn't help, I undid it, then took the advice a few of you offered and used the simblender to move him in this time. That appeared to be what it took to fully remove his townie invincibility. Kennedy blew out the candles on Inge's cake and the Grim Reaper took him away.


Making matters even funnier, when I finally released him, a pop-up appeared as he walked off the lot (presumably to go home and take a shower!), saying something like, "Thanks for inviting me, but it's getting late and I'd better go". I was like, "Uh, I never did invite you! You invited yourself!"When I first tried to kill Kennedy by trapping him he kept getting popups saying "you invited me to spend the night, but you didn't let me sleep. I'm going home" then stomping his feet when he couldn't leave. Like you I was thinking, "no one invited you here. You came to steal a paper."

[gulhare]

Ghost I hope it is as you say, since its in my BACC hood and Im very protective about that one. Its the only neighbourhood I havent destroyed at generation 3 because it wasnt "right". Im very proud of that fact and it would be sad if I destroyed it just because I wanted a family to have a café?
(Im not sure cafe is the right word for it, but cookies and cakes and such as a restaurant sort of)

[AlexandraSpears]

Apartment Life and Mansion and Garden come with belting and cornices in Build Mode.

I know this is a really, REALLY stupid question...but I am no architectural expert--but do beltings and cornices go in a room or on the outside of a building?

[Nissun]

I'm really curious about that myself. How exactly are we supposed to use those architectural elements? They look nice, but needlesly complicated and move_objects cheat-dependant.

[Croutonian]

but do beltings and cornices go in a room or on the outside of a building?

Cornices: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornice

Dunno about belting though :|

[Peni Griffin]

So I've got a sim who has extreme negative scores towards two sims she only knows slightly and has never had a negative interaction with that I can see. Both these sims are at neutral or slight positives toward her.

Normally, the fact that the two sims she hates have been active romancers would settle that question to my satisfaction, but Sally Ruben has never had any romantic interactions with either of them, and she doesn't even have any relatives old enough to have done so. She was created in CAS to marry Joshua Ruben, but has no family tokens with his brother Martin - and Martin wasn't one of Sadie's boyfriends, anyway. I thought perhaps the fact that Joshua dated Sadie in college and still carries a torch for her could explain why Sally's down on her; except there's no indication that her relationship with Joshua has ever suffered. Also, the other frat boy in a similar situation is married to one of Sadie's friends, who doesn't appear to notice.

And I can't for the life of me think why Sally hates Clovis, who rode along when she invited her only friend over one afternoon. Even if he flirted her autonomously at some point when I wasn't looking, the negative result of a rejected flirt wouldn't get her down to -80, would it? He doesn't normally pick fights, either (doesn't have to; his dates' relatives bring them to him). They've never lived in the same apartment complex or been at the same parties, where they might have come into conflict without coming to my attention. And I can't find any memories related to each other, either.

It's very puzzling.

[SusannaG]

I'm wondering why a sim I successfully asked to "move in" keeps trying to move out of her own accord (if I let her, she walks out of the house, off the lot, and disappears, although she is a playable).

Is this a sign of something borked? Or do I just move her out and then move her back in again?

[Julieryc]

So I've got a sim who has extreme negative scores towards two sims she only knows slightly and has never had a negative interaction with that I can see. Both these sims are at neutral or slight positives toward her.

It's very puzzling.

Can Sims do the "Bad Mouth" interaction autonomously? It would take a LOT of bad-mouthing to get a very low relationship score, but that will lower the relationship without needing the sims to directly interact.

Also, is the sim with very negative scores a Neat freak? Could they have seen the other sims make messes/puddles/etc.? I've seen Neat sims get furious witnessing slobby sims' actions.

[Peni Griffin]

Hmmm...None of Sally's scores is extreme that I recall, and neither Clovis nor Sadie is especially messy. They both have the Romance hygeine benefit, so you don't ever see them being stinky. There is exactly one other sim who is at negatives with both Clovis and Sadie; and Joshua brought her home from work on the same day that Sally's friend brought Clovis over. All was peaceful as far as I could see on that occasion, but perhaps they got together on a community lot later and Lora gave Sally an earful. And Clovis has, according to the memory panels, been in one fight that I never saw, which must have been on a community lot and may have been witnessed. If Sally objected to that, the two things might account for the low scores, especially if he flirted her, too...That's an awful lot of stuff to go on beneath my radar!

[Stormwench]

Do floor masks, such as used for spiral stairs work as walls and windows and cannot be added to?

[Glic2003]

I'm really curious about that myself. How exactly are we supposed to use those architectural elements? They look nice, but needlesly complicated and move_objects cheat-dependant.

I was just having that problem today. I'm under the impression that those are details for the exterior of a building.

However, is it not possible to make the belting fit diagonally? That would have really made it much more useful.

[SusannaG]

I'm trying to bypass the launcher and keep getting that the name and target specified in the target box aren't valid, and to make sure the path and file name are valid.

I'm using "EP9" as I have the Fun with Pets collection, which includes M&G. Should I be using something else? What am I doing wrong? EP8? I also have AL.

[frankokomando]

This is a really stupid question, but it's something that has always bothered, but why do none of my guy sims pee standing up? They can't be taking a dump all the time.

[maybesomethingdunno]

This is a really stupid question, but it's something that has always bothered, but why do none of my guy sims pee standing up? They can't be taking a dump all the time.

When the Bladder motive is above a certain level, male Sims will stand to urinate. If it is below that level (whatever it is), they will sit down because they are going #2 instead of #1. :)

[Mootilda]

Men can and do sit to urinate.

[SusannaG]

I guess I'm doomed to never being able to bypass the launcher.

Man that CD is sensitive! It's a good thing I have glasses cleaner.

[CowPlantsForHire]

Here's my stupid question! What's the maximum amount of money Sims can earn from selling masterpieces? The last time I played the game, my Sim was selling her paintings for over five grand.

[Peni Griffin]

All right, so, I caved and bought OFB and BV because they're only going to be harder to find and if I or anyone I know ever does want them in the future it'd be better to have bought them while they're cheap. And I was looking through the brochures and it clearly implies that sims can WOOHOO IN THE ELEVATOR?!? if this EP is installed.

Now, I've had elevators in Hans' Trapdoor Company since I added Downtown, and never once have they done anything but carry one person at a time up or down. Does woohoo really become an option with OFB? Because if so, that on top of crafting stations and dancing with kids will pretty much oblige me to load it, even though I still don't like the idea of running a business.

[aaries16]

Yep, they can woohoo in the elevator

[Peni Griffin]

I wonder if I just never clicked on the elevator when I had somebody on the lot that the active sim would woohoo with, or if it's one of those items that, though theoretically available without, are only fully operational if you have the EP that originated it as well as the later EPs. I didn't get the benefit of the Parenting skill till I added Freetime, either.

Oh, well, looks like these puppies are both going in. I may never take a vacation and probably will never open a business, but sunbathing, dancing with kids, woohooing in elevators, ethnic clothes, more hairstyles, theoretically swimming in the ocean (but Drama Acres has no coast!), building toys - it all adds up. Sometimes I wonder about the people who market these games. They never seem to emphasize the things that make EPs irresistible. Nowhere on the Apartment Life box does it say: "New animations that will make you squee so loud the neighbors hear you!"

[DrowningFishy]

First off can anyone tell me what i did to some how change the curved directional arrows to go the opposite way. Meaning the curved > arrow actually goes < and the curved < actually goes >. Would be fine but I discovered it makes me motion sick. As for mods, only really wall coverings and floors nothing earth shattering (or imploding) in my game.

Second question if a sister marries the son of the husband of her sister, and her husband's brother marries the great-grandaughter of their (the sisters) father; how does that make em all related?

[Glic2003]

First off can anyone tell me what i did to some how change the curved directional arrows to go the opposite way. Meaning the curved > arrow actually goes < and the curved < actually goes >. Would be fine but I discovered it makes me motion sick. As for mods, only really wall coverings and floors nothing earth shattering (or imploding) in my game.
...

In the Game Options menu, there's an option called "Camera Rotation". That will change the direction the camera rotates when you press the <> keys.

[Peni Griffin]

If a sister marries the son of her brother-in-law, it's a case of an aunt marrying a nephew; however, if the nephew is by another mother, there's only a relationship if the family and culture says there is; genetically, they're sound. In the other direction, she has a brother-in-law marrying a great-niece, who will be marrying the father of some second cousins, which would put him in the "uncle" category. As long as the uncleship is only by marriage, however, is shouldn't raise any legal problem.

[DrowningFishy]

If a sister marries the son of her brother-in-law, it's a case of an aunt marrying a nephew; however, if the nephew is by another mother, there's only a relationship if the family and culture says there is; genetically, they're sound. In the other direction, she has a brother-in-law marrying a great-niece, who will be marrying the father of some second cousins, which would put him in the "uncle" category. As long as the uncleship is only by marriage, however, is shouldn't raise any legal problem.

Hahaha Sim police will be knocking on my door for other relationships I created via loop-holes in the game. However I discovered these loophole after I realized the mess of a family I created. XD

And about the arrows, thank you, brain turned off never thought to look in options.

[SusannaG]

One of my sims is engaged to a townee, who A. has no phone, and B. I can't seem to teleport in (didn't see her portrait available under "teleport townees").

What happened to her, and how do I find her again?

[gulhare]

I dont know about the teleporting bit, but I had a problem where the matchmaker gave a vacation location maid as a date. She was not available anywhere. Is it something like that perhaps?

[Cyjon]

It sounds like she's not actually a townie. Townies, downtownies, and social groups always have phones. Is the game specifically saying she has no phone when you call? Because that means she'd have to be a playable. Or she might have gotten into the Default family, which is typically just for ghosts and such. If she's not in the phone book, then she's probably an NPC and you're playing whichever EP it was (FreeTime?) that borked the NPCs in the phone book.

If they are engaged they've had social contact before, so how did they get together in the past?

[SusannaG]

Previously I found her with the hacked gypsy's crystal ball.

She doesn't show up there, either.

And yes, I got the "You can't call someone who doesn't have a phone!" message.

Edited to add that I downloaded the patch for FT, just to make sure; I had already applied this patch, as well as the one for AL, my most recently acquired EP. I think I have a fully patched game.

[Fluffy Puff]

Is it safe to delete the tombstone of L and D? If you save your game with the tombstone on the lot and testing cheats are enabled, will it still be there when you restart your game? Does doing so cause problems?

[justdancerebecca]

This doesn't have to do with the gameplay, but how do I upload my sim on this website? It's a sim for Pierre Bouvier. I can't find where I can do it :(

[Cyjon]

@SusannaG - Yeah, it sounds like she's somehow gotten shuffled into some other family. Download the SimBlender from Simbology and use the teleport function to bring her to the lot. Look under the Default family first and, if she's not there, look in every other family.Once you've teleported her in, you can use the SimBlender to make her selectable, and then make her a townie again. However if she *is* in the Default family, that's a bit of a worry because sims shouldn't ever end up there on their own.

@Fluffy Puff - Yes, you can delete the tombstone of L&D safely, or leave it as you wish. It doesn't hurt anything just sitting there.

[Mootilda]

This doesn't have to do with the gameplay, but how do I upload my sim on this website? It's a sim for Pierre Bouvier. I can't find where I can do it :(Under the Create menu at the top of the page, select Creator Guidelines. This will help you to understand the minimal requirements for having your upload accepted. Then, you might want to consider posting in Creator Feedback, to get feedback on whether your sim is ready to be uploaded. Finally, select Upload Items to add your upload to the acceptance queue.

[gulhare]

SusannaG
Edited to add that I downloaded the patch for FT, just to make sure; I had already applied this patch, as well as the one for AL, my most recently acquired EP. I think I have a fully patched game.

The patches I think does not fix the NPC cant be contacted on the phone, but I may be wrong.
Although my patched game does not allow me to phone the NPCs, only email them or invite them to parties. I thought there was a modder that has fixed this, but in my game its not a very bothersome problem. I rarely need the NPCs as friends, and I can work around it if I have to.

[shoo_flee]

Hey, soo after about 3 years of not playing sims 2 i installed it on my shiny new laptop and brought a few of the expansions packs! I feel like a complete noob asking these but i just cant seem to figure it out!

- So when asking sims on a date, i will ring them on the phone to ask on date and then sim will be all like oh yer sure, so i then ring for a taxi because i want to go downtown, before the taxi even arrives i get a little pop up saying "thanks for standing me up!" What am i doing wrong here? Or when getting a date from the matchmaker i dont even have enough time to get downtown!?

- Also im a bit bummed out that the sims 2 site seems to be down as i think i need these patches i keep reading about? Im not completely sure what they are but i do have a few problems in my game where the floor keeps either going all black or the grass changes to hair :lol: will patches fix this? and if so where can i download them?

Thanks for any help, and hope this is in the right place, didnt wanna start a whole new thread for my silly questions lol.

[Chronicle]

- Also im a bit bummed out that the sims 2 site seems to be down as i think i need these patches i keep reading about? Im not completely sure what they are but i do have a few problems in my game where the floor keeps either going all black or the grass changes to hair :lol: will patches fix this? and if so where can i download them?

I'm not sure about your other questions, (actually I'm not even entirely sure about this one,) but my sims 2 game does that too! Since I also use a laptop to play, I just assumed that the graphics were glitching out because my laptop can't quite handle it. But then, I have other graphical glitches from time to time too, so the grass turning into hair hardly seemed unusual combined with everything else. :P
The floor/grass usually goes back to normal shortly. Going into Build/Buy mode usually seems to forcefully reset it, too, if I need it normal ASAP for a picture or something.

[Peni Griffin]

That sounds like you don't have a graphics card; which would be very bad news, as you can damage your computer that way. The computer salesman who told you the chip is as good as a card was lying, or more probably passing on misinformation because he was improperly trained. Go to the Help menu and find out how to check what your system has and compare it to what you need. Right now. It's important.

[SusannaG]

I downloaded SimBlender, and seem to have found her; luckily not in the default family!

Thanks very much indeed.

[shoo_flee]

That sounds like you don't have a graphics card; which would be very bad news, as you can damage your computer that way. The computer salesman who told you the chip is as good as a card was lying, or more probably passing on misinformation because he was improperly trained. Go to the Help menu and find out how to check what your system has and compare it to what you need. Right now. It's important.

My system meets all the requirements i triple checked before i installed Sims 2 as i didnt want the game to run badly. It automatically runs with the highest graphics all turnt on like shadows, texture etc, would turning these down help the problem? Or is there anyway to sort it out without buying a new graphics card as i really cant afford that right now?

Thanks for replying :)

[Mootilda]

Here's an excellent article on dealing with poor quality graphics cards:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Onboard_Graphics

[smorbie1]

Shoo Flee

So you are the one my sims keep calling for! :rofl:

[Amairani]

I can't understand Sims' behavior on community lots.

Why is that most of them head over to certain place immediately upon arriving, stand there motionlessly for few moments and only then go around socializing?

It happens in Maxis community lots, Downtown's nightclub comes to mind, and also in custom comm. lots - some Sims will go up to the highest floor, will it be 2nd or 3rd, to the farther room's side/corner possible, even if there's nothing there.

What prompts such behavior and if there's a way to stop it?

[Cyjon]

This arrival behavior is meant to keep sims from all clustering at the same entry point, and then standing around gabbing instead of using the objects on the lot. And yes, if you have a large, multi-floor lot it is even more annoying. I don't mind the behavior itself, but I wish the command had a lower priority, because if you try to interact with an arriving sim you end up following them until they stop. It's just never bugged me enough to do anything about it.

There may be a mod which tweaks the behavior but I don't know of one. Without a mod, the only way I know to stop it is to make the sim selectable and cancel the command, but that's tedious to do for every visitor.

[Amairani]

So that's why...
I wouldn't mind that behavior that much if only Sims, or game's code, wouldn't choose a truly ridiculous places for them to go with stubborn determination, like behind the counters where cashier works, or go to the farther place possible >_< And yes, they don't stop or get distracted even if my Sim wants to greet them. Annoying *sigh* but will deal with it, with patience :D

Given the chance, I'd like to thank you for your genius work, Cyjon. So many of your mods make the game a more pleasant pastime for me^^

[Peni Griffin]

The thing to remember about the "What's This?" interaction that governs that behavior is that they'll make a beeline for the last thing placed on the lot. If you go into your community neighborhoods and place a bench or a decoration or something on the sidewalk near, but not too near, the entry port, you'll find this much less annoying.

I found out that Mrs. Crumplebottom even scolds children for wearing bathing suits in public! What does she want them to do, skinny dip? Old bat...The kid looked scared, then as soon as her back was turned made the "Crazy" gesture.

I've decided that "Mrs. Crumplebottom" is actually an activist organization, the Crumplebottom Brigade, that runs around in disguise harrassing people for swimsuits and public woohoo (they don't seem to harrass make-out artists, interestingly), against which they have an obscure religious objection. The disguise is necessary because if people knew their civilian identities, they'd get bags of flaming dog poo on their doorsteps every night.

[Amairani]

Peni, what I observe doesn't have anything with What's This?
Sims don't go to last placed object, or any object in particular, they go to some random place on the lot, but it's always the farthest place, at least on custom community lots. I say it with confidence because I just finished decorating my comm. lots and I always finished with first floor. Sims insist going all up to 2nd/3rd floor, whichever is the last one, walk up to the blank wall, stand there for awhile and only then start moving around. I noticed that not all Sims do that, some of them immediately begin socializing.
Annoying, but can be dealt with :)

[Peni Griffin]

That's odd...I've always found what I stated to be true, custom or standard. I realized what was going on when I realized that the "What's This?" interaction was what appeared in the queue while they were doing it. I wonder why your game and mine work differently?

Come to that, I wonder if perhaps it will work differently once I build a lot under the influence of the two EPs I just added. The last custom community lot I built was after I installed FreeTime, and all my custom lots still work under this paradigm; but I added BV and OFB last week and haven't messed with them much. Possibly next time I build a community lot, I'll find that this principle I've been relying on doesn't work anymore, or still works on the old lots but not on the new one, or - some dang thing.

[Darby]

Sims are trainable, to some degree, and if you don't fulfill certain wants, they tend to roll them less.

[DrowningFishy]

Now I only have Apt., Base, and Nightlife on my work laptop. Out of the blue I notice this weirdo standing outside my door. Now in all my years playing sims I have never EVER had a witch doctor appear at my door. So my question is, is my game begining to evolve to the point it's now putting in completely random never before heard of NPS? Or is which doctors, (complete with a creepy looking mask) normal?

[Fluffy Puff]

Is it safe to delete community lots after your sims have visited them?

[Darby]

@FluffyPuff
As far as I know, yes. Never heard anything to indicate otherwise. (edit: With thanks to Extensa for the caveat about lots with tombstones on them!)

@DrowningFishy
No, seeing the witch doctor on ANY lot other than the secret BV lot on which he lives, is most definitely NOT normal. And truly baffling, in a game that doesn't even include BV. Is any part of what you do have installed from one of the compilation packs? Word is those things mix and match features of EPs in ways that don't line up with the original standalone EPs. One reason I don't trust them and never recommend them. (The combo packs.)

[smorbie1]

This may be a stupid question, but what does SimPE do? Is it an object that you place on lots, like Insim or is it global. Is it worth putting on my computer if I am not, and never will be, a cc creator? I downloaded it yesterday, but was scared off by the agreement I had to check stating that it could destroy not just my game but my computer system.

[Darby]

SimPE isn't any sort of hack or in-game thing. It's a program/tool that's used when the game is not running to alter sims and... a bunch of other stuff. (I've only really ever used it to "extract" sims from corrupted neighborhoods, so can't really say what all it does.)

Even though SimPE is not something I've ever had a lot of use for myself (although being able to extract sims is no small thing!), there are things the modding community would never be able to do without it. So it's a program for which I'm profoundly grateful!

[Mootilda]

Now I only have Apt., Base, and Nightlife on my work laptop. Out of the blue I notice this weirdo standing outside my door. Now in all my years playing sims I have never EVER had a witch doctor appear at my door. So my question is, is my game begining to evolve to the point it's now putting in completely random never before heard of NPS? Or is which doctors, (complete with a creepy looking mask) normal?Your neighborhood may be corrupt.

Check over this list of things that can corrupt your neighborhood (Post #211 has the most recent list):
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3614678#post3614678

[Peni Griffin]

was scared off by the agreement I had to check stating that it could destroy not just my game but my computer system.

That notice is indeed scary, but it's necessary because, in order to be useful to the widest number of people doing the widest desired numbers of chores, it had to give access to things that only knowledgeable coders should ever touch.

If you back up your game regularly, stay away from uses you don't understand (at least until you've taken steps to understand them), and don't use it under the influence of mind-altering substances, you'll do all right.

Think of programs like this, intended to render non-programmers less dependent on programmers, as toolchests. The same toolchest can be used by a sensible amateur mechanic to change sparkplugs, by a knowledgeable one to strip down and rebuild the car, and by a reckless, ignorant one to turn the car into a large, ugly lawn ornament.

[gummilutt]

I'm not entirely sure if this question is "allowed" here, but I'd rather not start a new thread over something so silly and I've tried to search both here and on google but I've found nothing, probably cause I'm not sure what to write.

Is there a way to "reset" which clothes a sim has bought? I have a lot of clothes in my sims wardrobe that I bought for her room mate, that I now moved elsewhere, and I'd really like to empty it and start over so that it only has stuff that fit this character. It may seem silly, but it's annoying to browse through endless pages of clothes I'll never use xD

I hope I'm not breaking the "rules" for this thread, if I did then my apologies. New to the forum, doing my best to find how things are done here =)

[DrowningFishy]

Your neighborhood may be corrupt.

Check over this list of things that can corrupt your neighborhood (Post #211 has the most recent list):
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3614678#post3614678

Read the top post; I have seven reasons why my neighborhood could be/is currupted. :faceslap: Oh wells, wonder how long till the game goes BOOM! I know some of these mistakes I will do again... Just won't do them on the other laptop. :rofl:

Thank you; again your wisdom Mootilda has helped me.

[MsScribble]

Heyas, what is the MACOSX folder I get with some downloads, and do I need to keep it?
:-)

[Peni Griffin]

So, I backed up my game, installed BV and OFB, attached vacation 'hoods and Bluewater Village, and played for a few days. Realizing that Bluewater Village had dumped yet more townies on my innocent neighborhood, so that playable kids were bringing home townies instead of other playables from school, and that I had no interest in playing the Bluewater Village families, I restored my backup and started up again with just the Vacation 'hoods (I had also played a three-day vacation in that time and decided I liked that a lot).

Now when I play my load time is further delayed by a pop-up window reminding me that I don't have a subhood associated with one of my EPs. I'm considering adding a blank terrain as a shopping district, to be used if and when I am ready to do so. Would this create yet more townies, respawn redundant Pleasantview townies, or sit there quietly empty until I chose to use it? If one of the first two, will the empty templates from MATY function as shopping districts without further modification if chosen from the correct screen?

[SleepycatDSL]

Now when I play my load time is further delayed by a pop-up window reminding me that I don't have a subhood associated with one of my EPs.

There is a mod to stop that stupid, annoying pop up. I've been using it for ages. It was made by "rez" and was available at Inge's forum. You can get it from this post at MATY.
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,20140.msg570793.html#msg570793

[gulhare]

Is there a way to "reset" which clothes a sim has bought?

I have absolutely no idea. But. A good place to ask is perhaps WCIF. Where can I find. Its located under "Help".

[pinimon162]

is there any way to hide the expansion pack buttons that show up at the top of the neighbourhood view screen?

[Peni Griffin]

Thank you, Sleepycat; I still wonder about the question, but I don't get the pop-up anymore and that's the main thing.

Now I am wondering if you can have two different families in the same vacation hotel. For instance, if I save the Casa family in the middle of their honeymoon, return to the main neighborhood, and send the Munny family on vacation to the same destination; will the Munnys be able to stay at the same hotel, or will they be forced to choose a different one? If the former, how does that work in play? Presumably if you have two families on vacation in the same subhood but not in the same building, they'll run into each other randomly on community lots just as playables appear among the townies in an ordinary hood.

Sometimes when I take pictures using the camera function during a game, one or more of them isn't available at the end of the session when I go through them to make the story. I figure that's Just One of Those Things, and it doesn't happen very often. However, last night I thought it had happened; but when I went in this morning to delete my caches and unused pictures, I found the picture I'd thought was missing; but it only existed as a snapshot, not as a thumbnail. That's just weird, Brain. Is there any way to generate a thumbnail for it so I can use it in the story?

I begin to wonder how I ever managed to play this game without this newsgroup to turn to with questions like this.

[AlexandraSpears]

Peni, there's a hack at MATY that prevents the Pleasantview townies from spawning in custom 'hoods. I can't remember the name of it (and yet I have it myself) offhand...but maybe if you poke around over there...I think it's called "no townie regen."

[Mootilda]

I believe that you are talking about empty templates. When you create a new neighborhood, the townies from Pleasantview are added to that hood. If the Pleasantview template has no sims, then no townies will be added to your new hood. However, they can still generate without the various no-regen hacks.

[Peni Griffin]

But if you use an empty template in a shopping hood, will it need and generate its own new townies, or just use the existing ones from your main hood? That's the main thing I'd like to know.

[Mootilda]

If you use an empty shopping template, then the game will continue to generate townies for the combined neighborhoods, just as it always did. If the subhood requires a special type of townie, like downtownies or vacationing sims, then the game will generate those as well. The only exception to this rule is if you use appropriate no-regen mods.

[AlexandraSpears]

You never want to delete the tombstone, it can bork your game. Just move it to another community lot.

[lazzybum]

I have some custom careers that I think I should delete. I know I should make sure my sims aren't working in any of them, but I was wondering if townies acquire a job in custom careers on their own? Or is it easy enough to just worry about my playables?

[katya_stevens]

lazzybum -- as far as I am aware townies will only get EAxis careers (and even then the regular townies/downtownies will only get base game careers unless you have a mod in, and social townies from AL will get all available EAxis careers). So long as all your playables have quit from the custom job, you should be fine.

[smorbie1]

Don't know for sure but I think so. They work on the Secret Society lots anyway.

[Julie-Kaye]

Does wearing outerwear actually make any difference in how quickly a sim freezes and their overall body temperature or is it purely cosmetic? My sims who insist on going outside in their undies don't seem to freeze any quicker than those in outerwear?

[Darby]

Does wearing outerwear actually make any difference in how quickly a sim freezes and their overall body temperature or is it purely cosmetic? My sims who insist on going outside in their undies don't seem to freeze any quicker than those in outerwear?

Purely cosmetic, unfortunately. :rolleyes:

[Aegagropilon]

Has anyone else noticed this: very outgoing sims can access the family interactions with a wider range of relatives than their shyer peers? (And this is without the Extended Family hack.)

Super-outgoing Lazlo Curious has the "family kiss" option for his child-aged step-grandchildren, while incredibly-shy Nervous Subject doesn't have the same option available for his child-aged step-granddaughter. And super-outgoing Siggeir Beaker has only family interactions available with his grandmother-in-law Olive (though the "flirt --> check sim out" option is there as well), while Siggeir's slightly-less-outgoing brother Surt has none of the family interactions available with his mother-in-law Crystal (though Surt's 10-points-outgoing wife Verity has only family interactions available with his aunt Erin).

[Cyjon]

Does wearing outerwear actually make any difference in how quickly a sim freezes and their overall body temperature or is it purely cosmetic? My sims who insist on going outside in their undies don't seem to freeze any quicker than those in outerwear?

Yes it makes a difference. Pescado made a study at http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7656.0.html back when Seasons first came out. However there are two things to note.

First, when personal temperature becomes very low or very high, the rate of temperature change slows and no longer depends on clothing.

Second, if a piece of clothing is tagged as, say, underwear AND outerwear, it will be treated as outerwear no matter how skimpy. While this won't affect Maxis clothing, many custom clothing makers have the irritating habit of putting clothing in every category.

[Darby]

I'd not seen that study before, but now I'm just confused. The table shows differences in heat loss/gain based on what's worn, but further down the thread, he says this:

Outfit worn has little to no real effect on temperature. As long as outdoor temperature doesn't drop or rise to +/- 70, temperature is nearly entirely ignorable as sims will not naturally decay beyond that point and cannot go beyond +/- 85 due to activities, regardless of what they do. It can be at -50 and snowing, and sims can frolic about in the snow naked without any real harm.

The impression I'm left with is that yeah, outerwear has some effect, but that it's so negligible as to not matter much, and that other types of clothing are a total crap shoot as to how/if they'll keep a sim warm or not. Am I reading that right? *head spins*

[Peni Griffin]

Aegeropilon, couldn't that be down to the Strangetown families being inconsistently flagged? There's a problem with that, right?

[lazzybum]

Thanks Katya

Another question ;o!
So I built a hotel for BV, but since I've tested it a few times, the only saved copy I have of it has a serving bowl of cereal in one of the rooms. I'd like to delete this since I want to reuse this lot in the future. What is the best way to delete the bowl? Moveobjects wont work for serving bowls :/

[JRD7]

Thanks Katya

Another question ;o!
So I built a hotel for BV, but since I've tested it a few times, the only saved copy I have of it has a serving bowl of cereal in one of the rooms. I'd like to delete this since I want to reuse this lot in the future. What is the best way to delete the bowl? Moveobjects wont work for serving bowls :/

Boolprop testingcheatsenabled true / shift click on the bowl / delete

Or

JMP has a nuke box, and that just wipes all items on any square you place the box on.

There is probably an option in the batbox, too.

[katalina522]

Question: Is it possible to use two age mods simultaneously if they affect different age groups?

[Darby]

Question: Is it possible to use two age mods simultaneously if they affect different age groups?

You'd have to read the docs on both mods, but my guess would be no.

[Cyjon]

The impression I'm left with is that yeah, outerwear has some effect, but that it's so negligible as to not matter much, and that other types of clothing are a total crap shoot as to how/if they'll keep a sim warm or not. Am I reading that right? *head spins*

Yeah, pretty much. If temperature change didn't slow down at the extremes, outerwear would matter more.

[Peni Griffin]

Yes; you can get rid of stuck dirty dishes with the batbox. I forget what the option was called, but somebody told me about that months ago when I was complaining about a dirty dish that I'd had to seal into a foundation - no one could pick it up, the maid couldn't clear it, and move_objects wouldn't delete it.

I did get some use out of it. I found I could put it underneath furniture, so I placed it under the coffee table, put the Mong vase on top where the stink cloud would envelope it, and had the disgruntled teen paint a Still Life of it, emblematic of his feelings about his suburban lifestyle. Stupid private school that his girlfriend doesn't go to, stupid uniforms, stupid late-life little brother...(he got over it).

[chatterboxM]

I assume you are not asking how to create a link for something you uploaded to download?

The formula for any link is {URL}Your url goes here and {'s become ['s{/URL}

Edit: be very careful how and where you use it.

actually i am looking for a download link to upload.

[Mootilda]

If you want to upload an item, go to the Create menu at the top of the page. First, read the Creator Guidelines. When you feel that your upload is good enough, you might want to post it in Creator Feedback. After handling the suggestions that you receive there, choose Upload items to add your upload to the acceptance queue.

[Fluffy Puff]

(More Tombstone of L and D questions. I just want to be careful.)

Does using the tombstone to rename a sim cause any issues?

In addition, what are secondary aspirations? How do you choose them?

[Peni Griffin]

Secondary aspirations come with FreeTime. If you don't have FreeTime, you don't have the option, so don't worry about it.

If you do have FreeTime, you choose their secondary aspiration by clicking on the inventory icon, choosing the icon for the aspiration rewards, and then clicking on the supersize icon that's next to the panel of rewards you can choose. This takes you to a pop up showing how many points your sim has to spend. There are four columns of four squares; clicking the bottom square spends a point, gets your sim the benefit named in the square, and makes the next one above it available. These columns are self-contained and cumulative: you have to start at the bottom and work your way up. If you want the third benefit in a column, you must take the first two. No column is dependent on any other column, however; you can choose all the benefits in one column and ignore the others if you want.

The two left-hand columns are always the same, Need Benefits and Work Benefits. I suggest you be cagey about assigning these till you get used to how the benefits work, as they can make play much easier and you could easily overdo it and find yourself bored playing your favorite sims. What is spent cannot be unspent. The third column has four Aspiration Benefits tailored to your sim's aspiration. The last column is where you choose your secondary aspiration, which can be any of the six standard aspirations except the one you already have, or Grilled Cheese. Once you spend a point to get the secondary aspiration, you may choose Aspiration Benefits for it, but you will only have three available. The top benefit for each aspiration is only available for sims with that aspiration as a primary.

You don't need to spend any points if you don't want the benefits. If all you do is choose a secondary, you will start rolling more wants related to that secondary. A Knowledge sim with a Pleasure secondary will suddenly be a lot more willing to date; a Family sim with a Romance secondary will probably be a woohoo monster as these are both pretty horny aspirations. Giving a Finance sim a Family secondary will not necessarily start him rolling have-a-baby wants at every turn, but it does render that want more likely than it was before. Certain behaviors specific to certain aspirations - the Romance swagger/sway, the Family honey-I'm-home display at the mailbox - will start to appear in sims with that aspiration as a secondary.

Secondary aspirations will not change your existing chemistry with other sims; however, some of the benefits (particularly of Popularity and Romance) can change how you relate to others.

[Bellasaurus]

What is spent cannot be unspent.

True, but you can reset the whole lot by using one of the Aspiration Rewards - the ReNuYu Senso Orb. But take care to only use it in Gold/Platinum or bad things can happen...

[Peni Griffin]

And if you choose a secondary aspiration as a teen, you can change it as well as your primary in your junior year at University; but any points you spent prior to that will remain spent. The secondary aspirations work in conjunction with and addition to pre-existing elements of the game. It does not replace any of them, though it does change how some of them (possibly only alien abduction?) work globally, not just for the sim who chooses the benefit related to that element.

[zauberlinda12]

Why won't Rover visit again? My sim spent some quality time with a neighborhood stray building a relationship score. It's been days and Rover has not returned. My sim keeps rolling "play with Rover" "give love to Rover".

He put a bowl of dog food and even a chew toy out on the front lawn. They attract other strays but not Rover why? :(

[gulhare]

It can take a while for a stray to come back.
Chances are bigger if the stray used the items (ate from the bowl seems to be important in my game) first time it was there.
The times the stray had food it returned almost daily, times it hasnt it could take weeks before the same stray came back.

Now I just ignore strays unless a sim want a pet, and then I try to build enough relationship in one go, so the sim can adopt at once.

[LadyGreenEyes649]

One of my sims wants to do this, and I have NO IDEA how. Know about the cooking ones. How do we do a gaming one, and are there any others that will come up?

[zauberlinda12]

It can take a while for a stray to come back.
Chances are bigger if the stray used the items (ate from the bowl seems to be important in my game) first time it was there.
The times the stray had food it returned almost daily, times it hasnt it could take weeks before the same stray came back.

Now I just ignore strays unless a sim want a pet, and then I try to build enough relationship in one go, so the sim can adopt at once.

Thanks.
I'll wait it out and see if he returns. I've never tried to adopt a stray in my game before and I thought I had a pretty good chance with Rover. I'll keep trying.

[omglo]

One of my sims wants to do this, and I have NO IDEA how. Know about the cooking ones. How do we do a gaming one, and are there any others that will come up?I think you need to be in a place where there's more than one computer. If you want playable sims to play against each other, have one start the competition, then have your other sim get on the other computer and join the competition. The option came up when my Sim was at the campus library too, so you can start one on a community lot as well.

There are also dance competitions. In order to do those, you have to be on a lot with the expensive orange DJ booth.

[Peni Griffin]

If you have a membership card to the hobby lots, you should be able to start the relevant competitions from those venues. Just click around the lot till you get the interaction "Start Whatever Competition." Make note of what you clicked so you know what item is the relevant one if you want to hold a competition other than on a hobby lot.

You probably will not be able to get this interaction unless several other people are on the lot to participate, and it may take some time for people to gather in the competition area, so don't be dismayed if you choose the interaction and he just stands there stupidly for awhile. When enough people are gathered, the competition will start.

[AlexandraSpears]

If your Sim have the more expensive DJ booth at home, they can hold competitions as well. I think there has to be 4 Sims competing.

[omglo]

Can you change the amount that it costs to rent a hotel room?

[LadyGreenEyes649]

Thanks! Makes sense, will have to try those ideas. Much obliged!

[SimMegaptera]

@Peni, thanks, I had no idea where those competitions came from.

[SusannaG]

Does everyone standing randomly around a house I just loaded, and a baby hanging in the air (he was in arms last time I played these sims), mean it's reset?

Also they refuse to interact with some items, such as the drums (at all), or piano (will "practice," won't "perform"). The icon shows up in the stream, and immediately disappears. (I believe the same thing occurs with some Entertain options as well, but I'm not entirely sure.)

Am I just going to have to go through my downloads folder, or is it potentially something worse?

[SimMegaptera]

@omglo, I'm also trying to figure out what controls hotel room prices. It may just be the amount and price of room furnishings. I built my own hotel with big lavish rooms, but because the furnishings are mostly CC and are cheap in the catalogues, the rooms are less expensive than the smaller Maxis-furnished rooms at the included hotels.

[Darby]

Does everyone standing randomly around a house I just loaded, and a baby hanging in the air (he was in arms last time I played these sims), mean it's reset?

Also they refuse to interact with some items, such as the drums (at all), or piano (will "practice," won't "perform"). The icon shows up in the stream, and immediately disappears. (I believe the same thing occurs with some Entertain options as well, but I'm not entirely sure.)

Am I just going to have to go through my downloads folder, or is it potentially something worse?

Sounds like the lot might be corrupt. If it were me, I'd use the Lot Debugger on it first - see what options come up in the Nuke and Fix options. If that didn't find and correct the problem(s), I'd move house.

If you're not having similar issues on other lots, I wouldn't think it's something in Downloads.

[Peni Griffin]

Before you move house, dump your caches if you haven't recently. It's amazing what that'll clear up sometimes. You should also rack your brains for clues to something that might have gone wrong while you were saving last - somebody was in the middleof some long automated process and didn't save properly, maybe. The second worst glitch I ever had was down to the game failing to save on exit, resulting in glitches shared between the lots of the two participants in the date.

And corrupt CC can disrupt things on only one lot, if it only exists on one lot.

Your probable most efficient sequence, if you can't detect signs of a bad save, therefore, would be:

Close game, unsaved. Presumably you did that.
Back up neighborhood.
Clear caches.
Reload game.
If problem still there, use lot debugger.
If problem still there, move house.
If problem goes away, add to newly-moved lot any and all CC you had in the old lot.
If problem recurs, you know the problem was CC, and with what downloads you need to start your triage.
If you like your old lot, you can then finish the process of finding and eliminating the bad CC, then restore your saved neighborhood and continue play as if the glitch never happened.

If the problem doesn't go away during these preliminary steps, of course, you'll have to go through the whole laborious process. But you can give it a chance to be simple.

[SusannaG]

Which option on the Lot Debugger (are we talking the batbox?)?

Never used it before.

[Darby]

Which option on the Lot Debugger (are we talking the batbox?)?

Never used it before.

Peni's absolutely right - cache files! I forgot. :jest:

Yes, the Lot Debugger is the "batbox". When you click on it, find the Fix button and see what comes up. Same with Nuke. There are a lot of things that show up just as a matter of course under Fix, whether there's a problem or not. Other things only show up when it's an actual issue. Doesn't matter - just click all of them that sound useful. Nuke has fewer things that are always there, but click them all too.

By the by, something the batbox is good for that may or may not have anything to do with the issue at hand is clearing trash memories and gossip files. In fact, this is probably the MOST important reason for having it in the first place! Every sim week or so, on whatever lot I'm playing at the time, I click Memory/Clear Trash on each member of the household, then click Memory/Clear Gossip Files/From All. The latter only requires one sim, and clears accumulated gossip files from the entire neighborhood.

Why do this? Because too many memories clogging a sim's memory panel can make them glitchy, so clearing the "trash" (such as "Met..." so-and so sim, or "Moved In" or "Got an A+!" in school a bazillion times) helps. Clearing gossip files is even more important. They build up amazingly fast, and can make a whole 'hood glitchy if left unchecked.

[SusannaG]

Update:

Deleted caches; still occuring.

Tried every option on batbox I could think of, problem still occuring.

Seems to be happening in lots in this neighborhood, generally. (Tried another household, has same problems.)

Is my neighborhood corrupted?

[SusannaG]

Another update:

Is affecting Maxis neighborhoods (which I never play - tested in Riverblossom Hills, not played in about a year and a half).

However, if I load it without the downloads file, the game does not have the problems. I am thinking that means the problem is in the Downloads folder?

[Peni Griffin]

Yep, that's diagnostic. Set aside a block of time and go through the steps in the Help FAQ. It's tedious, but if there were a better way, somebody here'd be tripping over himself to tell you about it.

Note that, despite what the FAQ says about clothes not being likely culprits, the only bad CC I've ever had to delete has been a blouse. Any file can get corrupted.

[SusannaG]

Seem to have found at least one corrupted global mod; but have a lot of CC to go through. Sometimes the slow, tedious method is the best one.

Thanks!

[SimMegaptera]

Random question time. It's possible to add new university neighbourhoods; I've seen entire campuses downloadable. Is it really not possible to do the same with vacation neighbourhoods? Can I not add a new hood as a subhood/vacation destination of, say, Belladonna?

ETA: Bah, never mind, I JUST figured it out!

[Mootilda]

Random question time. It's possible to add new university neighbourhoods; I've seen entire campuses downloadable. Is it really not possible to do the same with vacation neighbourhoods? Can I not add a new hood as a subhood/vacation destination of, say, Belladonna?

ETA: Bah, never mind, I JUST figured it out!Just for other people with the same question:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=420196

[SimMegaptera]

Thanks, Mootilda! Actually I figured out how to make one from scratch -- you do have to dig all the way through the menus, but after you've added Twikki, Takemizu, and Three Lakes you then have the option to add new ones and start from scratch with blank maps. I'm making a desert area on the Sedona map.

[MsScribble]

Hi - how long should a simmie tan last?

[zauberlinda12]

So I've noticed that some infants, immediately after birth, recognize their parents in a thought bubble and also the infant "thought bubble's" them every time the parent interacts with the infant (diaper change, bottle feed, etc) but it does not occur with all infants. Anyone know why or has this happened in your game?

[Peni Griffin]

Anybody know how to get a model pterydactyl off a former roommate's hand? Stuck FX on the batbox doesn't work.

For that matter, does anybody know where a model pterydactyl even comes from in the game? I've never looked hard, but I've never spotted it in the ornamental catalog.

[aaries16]

For that matter, does anybody know where a model pterydactyl even comes from in the game? I've never looked hard, but I've never spotted it in the ornamental catalog.

I think it's in the toychest

[Cyjon]

Anybody know how to get a model pterydactyl off a former roommate's hand? Stuck FX on the batbox doesn't work.

You can use moveobjects. You just have to zoom in really close to be sure you are grabbing the toy and not the sim.

[Peni Griffin]

Okay; I'll get back into that house and try moving objects. I didn't know you could use that cheat on something in the sim's hand. They didn't even have a toybox in that apartment - no kids. Oh, but the people next door had a little girl and this is one of those buildings where they were constantly back and forth in each other's faces and locking the door didn't help. Still, I didn't know adults could do anything with the toybox except tidy away toys that were left out. I have a tendency not to tell them to do that because a kid's room looks more like a kid's room with toys scattered everywhere. Maybe he'd started autonomously cleaning up when I saved a game or something.

[smorbie1]

the toy chest has a boat, a pony, and a car. There's no pterydactyl. But I'm pretty sure it's a little figurine to buy in decorations.

[Peni Griffin]

Any idea how much it costs? There's so much stuff in decorations to page through, it's not surprising if I miss something. But if it's a decoration, I wonder how on earth he came into contact with it; because I know I've never decorated anybody's house with a pterydactyl. I totally would if I found it - (though I'd rather have a mammoth) but the fact that all my houses aren't decorated with prehistoric animals is proof enough that I've never seen them available for purchase.

[VerDeTerre]

I thought I saw a pterydactyl! Just kidding - reliving a Sylvester/Tweetie Bird moment. Pterydactyl in the Sims 2? There's a small dragon/dinosaur on the first page of the statues catalog...could that be it?

[gulhare]

Hi - how long should a simmie tan last?

Depends on if it is stuck or normal. They can get stuck just as the sunburns can, but tans are less annoying. If its normal it will go away in a couple of sim days. If its stuck it wont.

[lg135]

Any idea how much it costs? There's so much stuff in decorations to page through, it's not surprising if I miss something. But if it's a decoration, I wonder how on earth he came into contact with it; because I know I've never decorated anybody's house with a pterydactyl. I totally would if I found it - (though I'd rather have a mammoth) but the fact that all my houses aren't decorated with prehistoric animals is proof enough that I've never seen them available for purchase.

I think it's just random. I've had the newspaper kid deliver the paper with a computer stuck in his chest and a playable sim with a decoration statue stuck in his hair. Moveobjects did the trick to remove them. I thought it might be CC related, but I have never touched or change anything from the newspaper kid; he's all maxis.

Just a really strange glitch I guess.

[Peni Griffin]

Move objects doesn't work. The hand tool doesn't recognize it - the cursor won't transform on it, only on him or whatever object is behind the pterydactyl. Ditto the sledgehammer. I can copy it with the eyedropper, but that strikes me as counterproductive.

I dump my caches religiously and that's never helped. It's never affected gameplay, it just looks funny. His roommates are about to move out of that apartment, so I suppose I should have just left him behind, but he's got a high relationship with her and for better or worse, he's in the story now, so it made more sense to move him in and have him go along with them. I hope this isn't a sign of armageddon to come, but there doesn't seem to be anything I can do about it, either way.

The pterydactyl costs $175, by the way. I was hoping I'd never noticed it because it was one of a series of interchangeable models with other prehistoric animals as alternates, but no luck. (Mammoths! I need mammoths!)

[Darby]

Not a sign of Armeggedon, I don't think.

Have you tried Force Error/Reset and/or deleting him with moveobjects?

[Peni Griffin]

Naw, I thought of Force Error but then I got distracted and now I've closed the game prepatory to getting out of the computer and going to the Sunday roleplaying session...I'll give it a shot later tonight or tomorrow. And I'm afraid to delete him with move objects; I know people say it doesn't hurt anything, but it seems like an entirely wrong thing to do to somebody who's active on the lot.

I keep hoping it'll go away like the dishes that used to get stuck to the dog in Sims1, which always wore off eventually, but he's had this since the day he arrived.

[AlexandraSpears]

Isn't it unusual to have a Fortune Sim that keeps rolling a want to Quit Job? (Even without any secondary aspiration.)

Typically this want gets rolled if they're in the Artist career, at least that's my experience.

Funny thing is, while this same Sim was on maternity leave...she rolled wants for Go To Work.

Stupid, silly Sim!

[DrowningFishy]

Is there any way to get the game out of [insert inappropriate language here] full screen mode. I tired alt enter and -w but nothing seems to work and you know having a screen on constant full screen is begining to irk me.

-scratch that it finially worked after I finially asked. ::throws up hands:: this belongs in what fustrates me abotu my sims game.

[Peni Griffin]

The only sims I've had roll wants to quit their jobs were ones who were having a hard time at work, generally after a bad chance card with a demotion, or their work performance was down due to aspiration issues/overwork with toddlers. I believe it's anchored to job satisfaction rather than to specific aspirations.

Fortune sims often like going to work for its own sake and get bored of staying home pregnant.

Re the roommates/bed problem earlier: I read on another site where this sort of thing is common if you have a hack or mod that assigns beds. Since the bed assignments are made while the sim is active, sims who can't be active like roommates can't be assigned beds. If you have such a hack, you need to be prepared to work around it or avoid roommates, and if you're doing an Asylum or ISBI challenge, you need to play the forbidden characters long enough to get them a bed assignment.

[omglo]

Are young adult sims usually bad parents? Brandi's third son Brendan and Melody Tinker took their toddler to college with them but they'd rather not interact with him at all and they never roll wants about him. Patrick is friends with Brandi, Stephen and Wanda, but not his own parents. Brendan, at least, likes toddlers; he autonomously plays with his toddler aged brothers whenever he's home from college. It occurred to me that Brendan and Melody could be ignoring Patrick because he's not technically supposed to exist. These are my first college aged parents so I was wondering if other people had noticed something similar or if these two are just lazy slackers when it comes to their kid.

[SimMegaptera]

@DrowningFishy: the -w has to be in the line marked Target, and it has to be outside the quotation marks around the destination link: "C:/sims 2/whatever" -w

Mine works, I play windowed all the time now.

[smorbie1]

What is the advantage of playing windowed? And how would one do that? I've always played full screen.

[Bwinney43]

Anybody know how to get a model pterydactyl off a former roommate's hand? Stuck FX on the batbox doesn't work.

For that matter, does anybody know where a model pterydactyl even comes from in the game? I've never looked hard, but I've never spotted it in the ornamental catalog.

The same thing happened in my friends game. A townie spawned on her lot with the pterodactyl coming out of his skull like some weird surgically attached dinosaur hat. It eventually just went away after he left the lot and spawned again another day.

[Peni Griffin]

So - he's a playable sim now. If I go into his lot, delete him with move objects, save the game, and close, when I go back to that lot, he'll return where I deleted him and possibly without the pterydactyl? Obviously I'll be backing up the game before I try this. Even the word "delete" makes me nervous.

I'm about to move this household - really can't have four adults and a baby in half the Dynamite Duplex - so is he likely to appear pterydactylless at the mailbox even without being deleted? Come to think of it (rummages through storytelling folder to be sure) - yeah, I have one good clear picture of him acting as a townie, with dinosaur-free hands clasped in front of him as my cougar charms the stuffing out of him - so that should mean the pterydactyl isn't attached to him in any fundamental way, only to the version of him that spawns on this lot. So just moving him should work as a cure. Shouldn't it?

[shoo_flee]

How do i make a neighbourhood graveyard? Is it as simple as creating a community lot, placing tombstones in a Sims inventory then taking it out once they are at said community lot?

And is this ok to do? I no there can be issues when deleting gravestones but is it ok to move them about like this?

[Bellasaurus]

What is the advantage of playing windowed? And how would one do that? I've always played full screen.

Playing something else whilst the game loads is my main reason for playing windowed. It's also handy for browsing whilst playing. Or doing anything else, writing notes etc.

You do it through the game shortcut -> properties -> add -w to the end of the Target box. In my Target box it looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff\TSBin\Sims2Launcher.exe" -w

[Peni Griffin]

In order to do it that way, it would have to be an owned community lot. An ordinary community lot doesn't save after playing, only at the end of a buy/build mode session, and your sim can't access his inventory there anyway.

To use an ordinary community lot as a graveyard, designate a particular lot and set it up however you'd like it - flowers, sad trees, wrought iron fence and gate, maybe a little chapel, whatever. When a sim dies - or after a ghost spawns, if you want a haunted graveyard - click on the urn or gravestone and select the "move tombstone" option. You'll get a menu as if your active sim were leaving the lot. Select your cemetery. You'll get a little animation of the ghost waving good-by, everybody mourns again (even if the ghost has been tormenting the life out of them), and the gravestone/urn is gone. After you finish your session, open the cemetery in build/buy mode and you'll find the gravestone sitting on the sidewalk by the phone booth. You can now place it as you would any object.

[shoo_flee]

Thank you! Will try this later on :up:

[DrowningFishy]

Playing something else whilst the game loads is my main reason for playing windowed. It's also handy for browsing whilst playing. Or doing anything else, writing notes etc.

You do it through the game shortcut -> properties -> add -w to the end of the Target box. In my Target box it looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Mansion and Garden Stuff\TSBin\Sims2Launcher.exe" -w

Well Bellasorus you figured out why exactly it's great to play windowed, yoru also free to text people as you play. Though XD don't surgest trying playing somehting on your DVD player while playing unless your computer is amazing and can handle that stuff... What I was curious :rofl:

[Darby]

So - he's a playable sim now. If I go into his lot, delete him with move objects, save the game, and close, when I go back to that lot, he'll return where I deleted him and possibly without the pterydactyl? Obviously I'll be backing up the game before I try this. Even the word "delete" makes me nervous.

I understand your nervousness, Peni Griffin. I remember the first time I did that, I was VERY nervous! I've done it many many times now, though, and never had any problems with it. It's just one of several ways to "reset" a sim. Force Error/Reset is the first thing I'll try, then deleting with moveobjects, then moving house.

So yes, if you're about to move the family anyway, and you'd be more comfortable seeing if that works first, it just might.

To backtrack a little, when you delete a sim with moveobjects, save, exit, then re-enter the lot, the deleted sim will not be standing in the same place they were when you deleted him. He'll be near the mailbox, same as if you'd moved him.

[aaries16]

In order to do it that way, it would have to be an owned community lot. An ordinary community lot doesn't save after playing, only at the end of a buy/build mode session, and your sim can't access his inventory there anyway.

You CAN place a tombstone from your inventory. I do it lots of times and I've posted about this before with proof: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?p=3217059#post3217059

[Smashed Cat]

Quick question; is Hidden Springs really even worth buying? It looks interesting to me, and I definitely am tired of the towns I have, but there are lots of towns I can download for free anyway.

[Mootilda]

Quick question; is Hidden Springs really even worth buying? It looks interesting to me, and I definitely am tired of the towns I have, but there are lots of towns I can download for free anyway.Why ask people who play Sims 2? You should ask in the Sims 3 forum.

[DrowningFishy]

how many sims would it take to screw in a light bulb?

[Peni Griffin]

Two. The others on the lot stand around and cheer. It works just like the photo booth.

Unless you've got a mod, of course.

[saskganesh]

How come male Captain Heroes fly to work, while female Captain Heroes take the car pool like everyone else?

[Cyjon]

How come male Captain Heroes fly to work, while female Captain Heroes take the car pool like everyone else?

??? I just checked in my game, and female Captain Heroes fly to work just like males.

Do you have another sim in the same house going to work at the same time? That might push the carpool command on Captain Hero.

[SusannaG]

Are any of these phenomena signs of a corrupted neighborhood? Or something worse?

A. Blue screen while trying to save.

B. Return of blue screen saving while in (paused) play mode.

C. Game can't decide if business is rank 1 or rank 8.

[Mootilda]

Blue screens are more likely to be a hardware or driver problem. However, a blue screen (or any improper shutdown) can definitely corrupt a neighborhood. If I were you, I would post in the Sims 2 Help forum and try to get your problem solved before you lose both your neighborhood and your computer.

What do you mean when you say that the game can't decide?

[SusannaG]

When I was playing this household earlier, they had a rank 7 business, and during the course of play (before the weird blue-screen saving), advanced in rank, which should have taken them to eight. The listing in the top right corner said "level eight" business. However, the want to "own level eight business" didn't fulfill, and the perk screen was as if no earlier ones had been earned - the only ones available were the opening levels.

[gulhare]

About the perks: Had you changed owner? The perks follow the owner and not the business I think. At least in my game the perks have to be "taught" if I want to leave a business with a younger generation and let an old sim retire and still keep the perks.

[SusannaG]

Same owner. Very strange.

[lazzybum]

Is there a way to update neighbors of apartments when neighbors move out? For example, lets say there are 2 households in an apartment lot, family A and family B. Family B moves out, but when I play family A, family B is still in the same apartment lot. So is there a way to update that, without moving family A back out and in?

[Darby]

Good question. In a recent first foray into using apartments, I had this very issue. Not only was the moved-out family (a married couple) still showing as residents, their apartment was visible as I was playing another family in the complex. The "ghost" couple suffered greatly, because I'd sold off all the furniture before moving them. At one point, the wife passed out, and the really disturbing thing was when I then went to the NEW lot I'd moved them to, she had a memory of it (having passed out).

So basically, after moving them from the apartment complex, they were two places at once for a time. I quickly moved all playables out of that complex and bulldozed it. I think apartments are going to remain an unused aspect of the game for me.

[Amairani]

lazzybum, if a previously moved out family is still shown as present when you play other family in the same apartment building, then it means something went wrong in the game. I had this happened before when I played the glitched trailer park homes in Belladonna Cove. Big mess... Unless you move out the remained family and move them back, that other "ghost" family will be present on the lot.

My question is so simple yet I can't figure it out: how to rotate windows when placing them on the walls?
There are windows with shutters and/or handles and need to be places accordingly, but I can't do that with every window. Windows get placed randomly, some correctly and some not, and I can't rotate them no matter how I try! It's like as if the game itself decides how to place each window, one with shutters on the outside, but another - facing the room. So frustrating.

[Peni Griffin]

The ghost families apartment glitch is not an apartment killer in the short-term, though for all I know it may be in the long term. Apartments are no place to spend a sim's entire life, anyway. All you have to do is pause your active family, go to the moved-out one, and delete the members one by one with move_objects. The apartment view will revert to normal, a townie apartment resident will move in, and play will continue normally with no harm to the moved-out family. If, however, you don't delete them promptly, they'll get the bad memories of starving, wetting themselves, passing out, etc., and their food will all go bad and draw roaches to the complex.

I have a similar problem with windows and it seems to be down to the mouse I'm using. You have to treat them like you're handling wet soap in the shower. Instead of grabbing them and pulling like you would furniture, relax your mouse and use subtle movements to shift the position relative to the wall, and they'll flip. It takes a lot of practice and I'm still not good at it - have to sit and fiddle with it for ages sometimes till it works, so I'm afraid I can't describe the process better than that - someone here may be able to express it better. It's possible you and I both need a different mouse for gaming. I'm given to understand that trackballs work better for this than the newer-style mice.

[Bellasaurus]

My question is so simple yet I can't figure it out: how to rotate windows when placing them on the walls?
There are windows with shutters and/or handles and need to be places accordingly, but I can't do that with every window. Windows get placed randomly, some correctly and some not, and I can't rotate them no matter how I try! It's like as if the game itself decides how to place each window, one with shutters on the outside, but another - facing the room. So frustrating.

When the window is in the wall, but you haven't actually clicked to set it, gently move your mouse from one side of the wall to the other, and the window should flip. Or hold down the left mouse button and move across the wall. Either of these usually work for me. It's easier to do this if the camera is looking along the wall rather than 'through' it. Keep in mind that this method does not work with moveobjects on. moveobjects has to be off or it will just set the window in mid air.

EDIT: Sorry Peni - I didn't read all of your post before replying to Amairani! I don't think I've explained it much better than you have :)

[Amairani]

Bellasaurus & Peni Griffin - this is what I've been doing for years but this method does not guarantee the correct placement :( I hoped there was some method or cheat that works.
Right now I spent 20 minutes before finally succeeding with placing one (!) window with its shutters out, and that was where my luck stopped. About 25 more windows to go.
This is insane, why can't EA make an easy way to place the darned windows if they even made some of those where there's a clear inside and outside parts.

[Mootilda]

I find that it often helps to rotate the lot. If you're having problems placing the windows from outside the room, turn it around and try placing them from inside. Note: I use a trackball and I rarely have problems getting windows rotated correctly.

[Darby]

Peni, thanks for the tip about how to deal with improperly lingering apartment dwellers. Still not sure I'll ever use apartments again (love the concept, but just haven't been able to get into them in general), I'll know what to do.

Amairani, I second Mootilda's suggestion about trying to place the window somewhere else. I don't usually have too much trouble with this, but did recently with the triangular OFB windows. I put the one that needed to be flipped on a different section of wall, then kind of slid it over to the section I wanted it to be on.

I use a trackball too, and usually all I need to do to flip a door or window is gently shift the trackball up or down very slightly.

[lazzybum]

lazzybum, if a previously moved out family is still shown as present when you play other family in the same apartment building, then it means something went wrong in the game.

So is this just a random glitch, or does this happen to all instances in apartments? I've only had this situation twice, and both times the moved out family stayed.

Also, thanks Peni, since I never thought about it adding more useless memory :faceslap: . I've been playing them for a while as is, since I didnt think there was any harm, but I guess I should fix that soon!

[Mootilda]

Did you move the family into a new house and play them, or did you just leave them in the bin?

[lazzybum]

They moved to a new home and were played. I only move out sims if they have a new place available xP

[lg135]

Re: Previous renters still hanging out at apartment complex

I think it's a common glitch.. I remember people bringing it up back when AL was still fresh. It happens to me all the time. I don't think its the bringer of sim apocalypse, it's just a glitch that was never fixed. My hood is still good, anyway, and I use apartments aaaallll the time.

Just delete the family and carry on playing. If you don't, it'll be like on community lots -- anything that causes a memory to form will be remembered, even if you're not actively playing them.

[smorbie1]

Two. The others on the lot stand around and cheer. It works just like the photo booth.

Unless you've got a mod, of course.

You're forgetting all the sims who will have to congratulate them afterwards

[lizziebee]

Does the lots and houses bin have a limit to the # of lots it can hold? I install a ton of lots and I don't want to overstuff it/break it.

[Mootilda]

Yes, there's a limit. The files are named cx_00000001.package to cx_99999999.package. Therefore, there is an absolute limit of 99999999 lots.

However, your computer is bound to bog down long before you reach that limit. You'll notice that it takes longer and longer to open your Lot and Houses Bin as you add lots. Eventually, you'll decide that it takes too long. That's your limit.

[vhanster]

Anyone knows how to edit/make-over NPCs? You know, like the social bunnies, hula zombies, therapist, etc

And deleting memories of adults... is it possible to do so?

[Mootilda]

Memories:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=228915

[DrowningFishy]

::kinda tips her head and looks at the screen:: Um, weird question, but uh-How do you tell the gender of your pet? I forgot and I want kittens.


"Yes, there's a limit. The files are named cx_00000001.package to cx_99999999.package. Therefore, there is an absolute limit of 99999999 lots."

@Mootilda Challenge accepted.

[Peni Griffin]

Well, on kittens, hold the tail straight up and check out the punctuation. A tom is a colon and a queen is a semicolon.

For sims pets, look in the relationship panel. Pets are marked with the male and female symbols.

[DrowningFishy]

Well, on kittens, hold the tail straight up and check out the punctuation. A tom is a colon and a queen is a semicolon.

For sims pets, look in the relationship panel. Pets are marked with the male and female symbols.

Hmm never noticed that and I was looking so hard for an symbol of gender today. Man I am going to feel stupid when I get home tomarrow start my game and there it is.
=^_^=

-Edit hours later-

::head desk:: Yup there it is... It's a boy. :faceslap:

:faceslap: NM I screwed up it's a girl, OUI poor Nervous is going to be the crazy cat man pretty soon.

[lizziebee]

Thank you Mootilda.

[Peni Griffin]

Where do you go to edit hobby lots? That berm in the middle of Peerless Park causes the non-actives to spend half the game complaining about routing problems.

[Mootilda]

Have you tried the LoadLot cheat?

[RowenaLupin]

I've got a very stupid question lol. How the heck do I stop a romance Sim who isn't even attracted to MY Sim from screwing up my Sim's relationship when they say goodbye? Every TIME this happens, the other sim says good bye by literally making out in front of my Sims mate. -.- I try to walk away but sometimes I forget.

[AlexandraSpears]

I'm wanting to purchase SimCity 4 so I can build new neighborhoods. Would I have to get any expansions such as Rush Hour, or just the regular SC4?

Just wanting to know for sure before I make a purchase.

[Mootilda]

You can use the base game SimCity 4 as long as you don't want to edit any existing neighborhood. Many people use Rush Hour to create their maps, though, so that will give you the most flexibility.

You'll probably have problems finding the base game by itself anyway. Most of what I see these days is SimCity 4 Deluxe, which is both the base game and the Rush Hour expansion pack in one package.

[Peni Griffin]

I have no idea how to do the Load Lot cheat and there's something about doing searches on information sites that I'm just not getting, as I haven't been able to find out anything about it. I know I've seen instructions on here on how to do it, somewhere, sometime when I was looking for something completely different; but I can't even remember what that was in order to reconstruct the process for how I got there.

[AlexandraSpears]

Cool, thanks, Mootilda. I've been poking through Amazon.com and I see the base game, and the deluxe version. I think I'll get the deluxe.

[Mootilda]

I have no idea how to do the Load Lot cheatIn the cheat window for the neighborhood view:
loadlot "lot name"

Replace "lot name" with the name of your lot. The quotes are not necessary unless your lot name has spaces or other special characters.

To get help on a cheat, open the cheat window and type:
help loadlot

However, it's not clear that loadlot will work on a hidden lot in a stealth neighborhood. This thread might help:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11323.0.html

Cool, thanks, Mootilda. I've been poking through Amazon.com and I see the base game, and the deluxe version. I think I'll get the deluxe.Good choice. You should be aware that SimCity 4 doesn't like multi-core machines, so you may need to add the -CPUCount parameter to avoid crashes:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=452434

[AlexandraSpears]

I'm running Windows 7 64-bit, but I don't think my processor is dual-core. Still, I'll have a look at that link.

Just looked up my system specs, I have an AMD Sempron 140 processor, 2.7 GHz.

[lazzybum]

Is there a way to edit the working hours of employee's of sim owned businesses? Its always 9am-5pm, but I'd like to change that, if its possible in SimPe. I know theres a hack here on MTS where you can choose different set hours by changing the level of the career, but they dont have the choice I want xD.

[omglo]

Sometimes a Sim will scratch their head or fold their arms when shown a new gesture, but other times they'll learn it and start using it. Does anyone know what determines whether a Sim will learn a local gesture or not?

[Darby]

Sometimes a Sim will scratch their head or fold their arms when shown a new gesture, but other times they'll learn it and start using it. Does anyone know what determines whether a Sim will learn a local gesture or not?

Learning the gesture is a function of exposure. Sims need to see it a number of times before they finally "get it". Before then, they do the headscratch thing. I think the number of times they need to see it varies. Something like 3-5 times.

[AlexandraSpears]

4 tries to get the gesture right. And once your Sim learns the gesture, they can teach it to anyone.

(Yeah...I want a whole bunch of Sims running around shrieking like Bigfoot. NOT. LOL)

[Liv Lukas]

Is there a way to edit the working hours of employee's of sim owned businesses? Its always 9am-5pm, but I'd like to change that, if its possible in SimPe. I know theres a hack here on MTS where you can choose different set hours by changing the level of the career, but they dont have the choice I want xD.

I don't know of a way - I think the easiest way is to open that career you can DL in SimPE and change one of the levels to the hours you want. It is really easy to do. You can change as many of the levels that you want so you have all the choices just as you'd like them.

[stickinmyarse]

this question is about mts2 how the heck do i upload a sim or creation?!? i searched but i cant find anything.please respond as soon as possible. Thanks :D :rofl:

[Mootilda]

this question is about mts2 how the heck do i upload a sim or creation?!? i searched but i cant find anything.please respond as soon as possible. Thanks :D :rofl:If you're in that much of a hurry, then you're in the wrong place.

First, read the Creator Guidelines, found under the Create menu. If you don't follow the Guidelines, then your creation won't be accepted.

When you're ready to go, create a thread under Creator Feedback, also under the Create menu. Then wait for feedback. Pay attention to people's constructive criticism; it will help you to have your upload accepted.

After dealing with any issues raised, then choose Upload Items, also under the Create menu. Then wait while people look at your upload and decide whether to accept it. Make any changes that are requested in a timely manner. Expect to wait a couple of days, possibly more.

[lg135]

Sometimes a Sim will scratch their head or fold their arms when shown a new gesture, but other times they'll learn it and start using it. Does anyone know what determines whether a Sim will learn a local gesture or not?

I find if a sim doesn't know how to do the gesture and then sees a sim who "kinda" knows it, the sim who didn't know it at will just keep scratching their head. If that sim sees the gesture done correctly, that's when they'll try to mimic (albeit poorly) the gesture instead of looking like, "huh??".

[lazzybum]

Is there a difference between the two DJ booths besides the colors? The Groovelayer 9000 and Groovelayer 10k.

[bettysteve]

like the dumb question thing.
mines a silly one too.
sims2
if l put targa waxed skins on kids (so they grow into them as adults, so, no, l don't need a visit from the pedobear), is this what is making my game crash now? annoying if this is so as then only sims made as adults will look like what l want *sulk* and when they die the game reverts to "default" skins.
but then, no-one can ever be "born" with not default skins can they?
(p.s. brand new GnOoB to the game on PC)

[smorbie1]

like the dumb question thing.
mines a silly one too.
sims2
if l put targa waxed skins on kids (so they grow into them as adults, so, no, l don't need a visit from the pedobear), is this what is making my game crash now? annoying if this is so as then only sims made as adults will look like what l want *sulk* and when they die the game reverts to "default" skins.
but then, no-one can ever be "born" with not default skins can they?
(p.s. brand new GnOoB to the game on PC)

Don't know whether that piece of cc is to blame. Try taking it out and starting the game again. If it still crashes, there may be other cc that's to blame.

[katya_stevens]

Is there a difference between the two DJ booths besides the colors? The Groovelayer 9000 and Groovelayer 10k.

If I remember rightly, one was introduced with NL and the other with FT. I believe the only difference between the two is that one of them (the Groovelayer 10k?) allows for dance competitions, while the other one doesn't.

[lazzybum]

Thanks katya, I forgot about the dance competition. I tested both today since I was testing my club a few times anyways. I noticed the FT one (Groovelayer 10k) seems bugged because sims dont dance infront of the speakers like the NL one. They dance off to the side and even behind the booth, making dance floors useless. I wonder if theres a fix for that somewhere.

[lg135]

Debating on whether to put this here or WCIF, but I figure it's more of a knowledge question than a specific want -- I've never had a camera mod before, but I was looking at the ones on here and was wondering -- can any of them here (or any, really) zoom into below ground level basements further than the maxis camera?

[smorbie1]

Debating on whether to put this here or WCIF, but I figure it's more of a knowledge question than a specific want -- I've never had a camera mod before, but I was looking at the ones on here and was wondering -- can any of them here (or any, really) zoom into below ground level basements further than the maxis camera?

Wow, that is a good question and one I never thought to ask. I just assumed I was too stupid to figure out a good way to look into basements.

[DrowningFishy]

Lets play WTF did she press!

I was doing some landscaping, or rather playing with the tool when I got distracted and dropped something on they keyboard. The grid is still there but the circle you see when spray painting on your terriane (sp) is no longer visable; even apon reloading. So what did I press to distort my game. You cannot blame CC cause this laptop (the game is contianed) hasn't seen the internet in months.

So what did I press?

[M.M.A.A.]

@DrowningFishy: try pressing every single button on the key board, thats how i learned what each key does. to avoid changing anything, just press the key again. also, you can move the mouse over a button and wait for the notification.

EDIT: i remembered, thanks to Bellasaurus that it also happens to me occasionally, although it has no effect on the spraying, it may depend on the distance if your in Top-down view mode, the further you go up the circle may start to disappear

[Bellasaurus]

Lets play WTF did she press!

I was doing some landscaping, or rather playing with the tool when I got distracted and dropped something on they keyboard. The grid is still there but the circle you see when spray painting on your terriane (sp) is no longer visable; even apon reloading. So what did I press to distort my game. You cannot blame CC cause this laptop (the game is contained) hasn't seen the internet in months.

So what did I press?

This happens to me on some lots sometimes, I've never worked out what causes it. For me it seems to be random, and not effected by keys - unless one of the building cheats changes it? I use moveobjects, quartertileplacement, snapobjectstogrid & allow45degreerotation. Maybe the ctrl+f with quartertileplacement has an effect?