PetsFreeWill cheat not working

[SakuraKonekoChan]

The boolprop PetsFreeWill false cheat isn't working for me. I have all EPs and SPs. I've tried it in my userstartup, and entering it with the console in various spellings, and entering it in neighborhood mode. I'm pretty sure it's a real cheat, it's in the cheats list on the wiki, and I've seen it listed on almost every fansite. Was it borked by a later EP?

[DJ.]

Not sure if it's borked with another EP/SP, but say, did you patch your games? ALL of them?

Also, did the problem occur recently (like, one day when you closed MTS, installed CC and found yourself in the position)? If so, try following the FAQ.

[Mordant17]

Are you trying to turn it on or off? I think you need to run boolprop PetsFreeWill true to turn free will on for pets.

If that's not it, then you should do the Game Problem FAQ like DJ suggested.

[SakuraKonekoChan]

Everything is patched, and this has been an issue since installation. I'm trying to turn it off.

[Josepina]

It doesn't work for me either.

[SakuraKonekoChan]

Oh good, I am not alone in this issue. I've already tried the remove all cc bit, and it still doesn't work, so from what I can gather it either never worked at all or a later EP broke it.

[DJ.]

Now this step is going to be quite long, as it is not "move the folder to the desktop and voila" one.

FIRST BACKUP YOUR GAME.

Then, download AnyGameStarter (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=250555).

An AnyGame will alter your system by the configuration you told to the installer. For example, let's say you have all the EPs, but you wish to experience gameplay with Seasons and Bon Voyage only, or with only base game! What you're going to do is configure AnyGame to alter your system so it only recognises Seasons and Bon Voyage expansion pack (or base game only (or the two configurations seperately!)). It's very useful when building lots, and it just so happens that it may be useful in this situation. ;)

Launch the "Setup_AnyGame.exe" and click on "Standard" installer. Set the configuration to be "Pets Only" (untick every box except for Pets EP). Create a Standard AnyGame, so the enviroment is the same as the one you have in your Full Game (the real expansion packs).

When you're done, open the AnyGame. Create a new neighborhood. Wait for the secret neighborhood Pets to load. Create a family (with a pet!) and move them in (yes, create a new lot... blah). Try entering your cheat.

Report back the results. ;)

~DJ.

[Mootilda]

Be very careful about the AnyGameStarter. It will destroy your game installation if you have any downloaded games, or if you have any of the later collection packs. Otherwise, it should be fine.

There's no way for us to tell whether you can safely install and run the AGS from the information on your profile page, so you'll have to be sure to read the warnings and make that determination yourself.

Alternatively, someone who already has the AGS and already has Pets can try to determine whether the cheat is real. If I understand correctly, if you turn off pet free will, then any pet on the lot should stand around doing nothing unless you guide it. Is that what you expect?

[Update:] That cheat definitely does not work as described above with Pets only.

What's more, I have searched the Pets game executable and the string PetsFreeWill does not appear, which means that the cheat doesn't exist. As a control, I verified that testingcheatsenabled and snapobjectstogrid both appear in the EXE.

Finally, I searched every Sims 2 game executable and the string PetsFreeWill does not appear in any of them, which means that this cheat was never valid.

When in doubt, always go to the source. If you want to know how to search an EXE for a particular string, take a look at the SysInternals String utility from Microsoft:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439.aspx

[SakuraKonekoChan]

Oh well. Guess I'll just have to play without it. Thanks for the help.

[Josepina]

[Update:] That cheat definitely does not work as described above with Pets only.

What's more, I have searched the Pets game executable and the string PetsFreeWill does not appear, which means that the cheat doesn't exist. As a control, I verified that testingcheatsenabled and snapobjectstogrid both appear in the EXE.

Finally, I searched every Sims 2 game executable and the string PetsFreeWill does not appear in any of them, which means that this cheat was never valid.

When in doubt, always go to the source. If you want to know how to search an EXE for a particular string, take a look at the SysInternals String utility from Microsoft:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897439.aspx

Thanks for doing that Mootilda. That's a nifty tool. It's a little beyond me though.