The Showtime speakers (the white, wall mounted ones, that are found under electronics, NOT the ones for bars/clubs from LN found in buydebug) mount to the wall and "wirelessly" (some version of Simtooth, I guess) connect to your stereo. That way, you have one stereo, but sound in multiple rooms, but only the rooms you place the speakers in, unlike the "upgrade wire whole house for music", where you end up with music in ALL the rooms. It beats the old upgrade method, as you don't have some gnome turning on the stereo at night and waking everyone up, so long as you skip placing the speakers in the bedrooms.

I tried to plop down the stereo + speakers, but it didn't work. Does it require me to upgrade first, or is it for certain stereos?

No, not that I know of. I've used the "expensive" stereo system, and a few custom systems as well, and never went through an upgrade. The speaker "additions" are the ones that came with SHT, white, mount on the wall, found in electronic/audio for ~150, I think. I just put them in whatever rooms I want music, switch them "on", turn on the main stereo, and whatever channel is playing on the main system comes out the satellites. You cannot change channels, or turn on or off the main stereo from any of the satellite speakers.

I think I should know this and it seems to me there is probably an obvious answer.
Ok, here it goes.
I understand that mods being up-to-date means they should not be on a lower patch-level than my game is. But what about mods I decide to include after they have been updated and I have not?

So far, I have stopped at patch level 1.29 because I plan not to buy any more expansions or update to new patch levels this year. If I however decide to add a mod, let's say a script mod during that time until updating will be necessary again, can I use a mod that is updated for, let's say 1.33 while I am on a lower patch level? I know that core mods HAVE to be on the same patch level but what about other ones?

It depends on what game code the mod modifies, and whether that data was changed between the patch level you're at and the patch level the mod was designed for.

So basically, you certainly can't ASSUME it will work as intended. I am not sure whether the game will throw up an error in that case... there's one way to find out though

This has probably been asked before - but how do you get a new world to quickly populate? I have Twallan's Story Progression, and I'm sure there's an option there, but I always find it quite confusing...

SP/General Options/Lots/Immigration Emigration. Look down the list for something like "Rapid Immigration" and set it to the number of families you would like to rapidly populate the world with. In that immigration submenu you can also set the probability for new sims to be either from your library, if you have many sims you like, or EA generated generic sims.

Thanks, Skrikandi. I should have known it's not quite that simple. Trial and error it is.

A quick stupid question - I haven't played my Sims 3 in a while and decided to start playing again a week or so ago. I can load the game and play, but the launcher always tells me I am unable to connect to Origin. I thought the site was just down for the day or something, but that is not the case and it happens every time I launch. I don't even know if I have the latest version for real or not because it always says it cannot connect to Origin. My version reads as: 10.0.96.014001. I recently bought the Hidden Springs expansion/content pack/whatever you call it. I did finally get that to load (it didn't work the first time I tried installing it), but I still get a message telling me "Error: Unable to connect to Origin."

Is there something going on with Origin, or is it just me?

Well about the version, I recommend The Sims 3 Patch Downloader, which is in the program utilities section here. It will tell you whether or not any expansions need updating, which is more than the launcher will do. From your post I couldn't tell whether you are trying to load Origin from the launcher? Try loading it by itself, that might give you more information about why it can't connect.

I'm just opening my game and it automatically opens the launcher first, which then tells me that Origin couldn't load. Like I said, my game still works, but I keep getting that message. I try to check to see if I need an update and it throws out that message again. Also, if I try to download anything, again, the same message.

I'll check out that Patch Downloader and see if it helps. Thanks for the advice.

I occassionally get an error that Origin failed to connect but it's quite rare in my case. I don't know what causes it, especially since to the best of my knowledge I don't actually have Origin installed on my machine!

I have never been able to figure out how to make a custom big show venue work properly. It always locks away the innards of the building. Right now it's just a Black box project

I don't know if spiral staircases are hideable or not, but I think I know a way to work different options. Use the computer shaped thing in buy debug. (And I'm having a serious brain fart, because I don't remember the name of it.) Have two or more hidden switches linked from the inscription so that reading the inscription will reveal the switches. One is active; the others are simply set to deactivate or hide the good one if they are used. (Or you can set it so that it hides the good one and arms a trap if you use the computer-thing for that.) The computer is designed to give you multiple options from a single thing, but you have to play around with the settings sometimes to get it doing what you want it to do.

Thank you Ghost! I *think* I know what you're saying. I'm familiar with the processor(?) but only in the sense that I know what it is, not at all how to make it work I guess it'll just be trial and error, then! Its REALLY too bad about the spiral stairs, though.. They seem so much more suited for a big mansion "tomb", and it just doesn't make sense that you can't hide them!

I've been using it by trial and error myself. When I find something that works, I try to remember to write down what I did so I can do it again.

Um, okay, new one... How do I garden on community lots? I'm specifically trying to plant a little patch of plasma fruits on the vampire lot, but of course they're not in buydebug *shakes fist!*. I'm sure there must be an easier way than to change the lot to res, move someone in (with plasma fruits), plant them, move the sims out, and change it back to comm I think I remember awesomemod enabling community gardening, but, blegh. I can't seem to find anything about it being included in any twallan mods. Is there another mod or work-around out there?

There is a mod here http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=450575 that makes plasma fruit and carrots available

THANK YOU TT__TT I was searching for a mod like that as well, but gave up when all I got were totally unrelated search results.

How do you change a sim's nude clothes?
I made a new sim and I had her go shower.. And she ended up in these jeans I have in accessories. She's not a hydrophobic so I don't understand why she'd be wearing clothes in the shower.

The jeans are categorized as valid for naked, so that is why she is wearing them. You have to find the jeans and either remove them from your game, or change the package file so that they are not valid for naked anymore. More information here: http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/custom-content-cc/bad-cc

Fffapfg

i can't find how to go on vacation
what is my sim too poor???
or can't she go because there aren't any rabbitholes?

Do you have WA installed? If so, click on an ingame computer and select travel. But, why are there no rabbitholes?

If I was to delete all my cc and then reinstall it all without loading the game, would everything revert to some random base game object or would it stay the same as it was?

for some reason i don't have that option???
a challenge

It would stay the same.



If you have the World Adventures Expansion pack (which you need to be able to travel), are you perhaps using Nraas Traveler mod? If so, then you will need to save your game first before traveling.

No idea what the problem is, I'm afraid, but it's not the lack of rabbitholes. I've played quite a few worlds without rabbitholes (for challenges, usually) and my sims have always been able to travel by using their cell phone or computer and choosing Travel.

pfft thanks apparently my brother added the traveler mod to our game without permission so thanks i am an idiot

You need City Hall, I had the same problem

How come I can only have 6 skin tones in CAS? I just downloaded some new ones and noticed all of my others were gone. Do I need a mod to allow more than 6 or..?

Skins should not disappear. Do you have a mouse with wheel? Rolling the wheel should bring the other skins to the selection window.

You can also use a mod that can be found http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=440794 by CmarNYC. It is called Skintone panel and it is the last file on the doenloads section.

This is probably a stupid question, but maybe someone won't mind helping me out with it. I know worldcache files, social (new one) and the other cache files in the main folder are deletable but I read somewhere that you can safely delete one or two others. Was it DCBackup or DCCache, or both? Trying to keep clutter down & I can't remember where I read that. Tried searching but I guess my search terms aren't the best. My last search got me here to this thread looking for DCBackup. Didn't quite see the answer I was looking for though.

I'd like to also backup some of what I've downloaded from the store (& others @ ea, which is only a few things) to a disc or zipped elsewhere and remove what I can remove from the launcher (not the game itself) so the launcher will load faster & I'll have less to filter since we can't "Sort" by name, date, etc. It holds "installed", "downloads", "uploads", etc. I know with uploads, I just remove what I have available to upload (videos, pics, sims, lots, etc) but the installed and downloads, not sure.

I already often remove my video files and put them elsewhere, same with pictures/screenshots. I'm sure there's more I can move/remove (not from game, just launcher) so the launcher will be "cleaner".

Everything in DCBackup can be removed, it's just a backup folder of what sims3pack-files you have installed in .package format, though what i have read/understood if build a house for example and use intalled cc for it game will use that folder to include item/s when you export it as sims3pack, this is one way unwanted/corrupted items can sneak into stuff.. so you have to make your own choice if you wanto delete stuff there or not.

Anyone remeber the creepy doll sometime ago..

If you backup your d/l'ed & installed sims3pack-files on another place, all sims3pack can be removed from downloads folder.

Thanks Belzader. So, if I build a house and it has cc (I take it cc includes store content, right?) and I've removed those files and placed them elsewhere for game-speed sake, something unwanted can wind up in the house I may export later? Maybe I'm just too exhausted to get it, or maybe I just can't grasp it naturally?! If there's nothing in there, the backup, what would it grab if it resources to that folder for objects? Wouldn't it just be missing things or replace them with "default" items? I'm so sorry if I'm making this more complicated than it is and I'm very thankful for you giving me a response. I just want to be sure I understand.

I remember the creepy doll but thankfully I never got it Maybe that's why I don't have a lot of understanding of that situation? I heard it was like a plague.

When you say that bit about backing up my dl'd & installed sims3pack files to a new location, all sims3pack files can be removed from downloads folder, will the items still work in game? I know I'd probably have to transfer them back to their original folders to uninstall items via launcher if I wanted to get rid of them for good, if I"m not mistaking but I do not want to exactly remove them from the game.

Know anything about DCCache? Is it safe to remove files from?

Thanks again!! I appreciate you.


EDIT: What I was talking about when I said how they offer store items in the game, I found the folder. It's called "Featured Items" and I have over 400 images in there. 12MB (not that it's a big deal I guess but it does irritate me that it's stored on my pc instead of the sims website. I guess it's just a peeve of mine.)

Thanks, since I didn't really see a scroll-bar on the side I thought it would only allow 6 skintones c:

Yes, it includes store items.
When people install the sims3pack to there game and they do not have the item game will try use something similar to replace it failing that item will be missing you will not have any problem as long item is not removed from your game.

Just removing the files from downloads folder will not unistall them, you have to use uninstall for that, so yes it's safe to remove them from there and no you do not need them there to unistall from game they will still be under installed content but since they're not in downloads folder launcher will not show them under downloads.

Oh... yea the doll was a plague, spreading it self like a virus, toke me painfully hours to get ride of it from my game, it was the sims3 version of Chuckie.
But hey, something come out of for me, i founds this place and other similar

DO NOT TOUCH DCCache, that folder holds all your installed cc including installed store items, removing files from there WILL remove stuff from game and cause issues, like if you have installed worlds other then from expansions, they will be listed ingame but you can't start them, learned that the hard way... (sry for caps but i wanto point out clearly)

I feel the same way.. they have no right to put stuff on my computer, you can though disable the ingame store under settings i think that will remove them, i've done that and i have nothing in that folder, if they're not removed when doing that, i belive you can safely remove them your self.

I have the Store disabled in my game but the Featured Content folder would always get filled when I connected my game to the internet no matter how many times I deleted the contents.
The only way to solve this for me was to make the folder Read Only. That way the game has no ability to copy new content there. Now I can still connect to the internet with my game and the folder no longer fills with images each time.
I'm not sure what effect this would have though if you DO have the Store enabled in your game. Maybe blank thumbnails for the featured items?

Thank you so much for taking the time to explain that in more detail! I appreciate the bold print there. It confirms the importance of your point & is appreciated. I wouldn't want to miss that! lol

The post after yours states that the folder refills (store/featured offers) so we both got an answer today! I think if we disable ingame store content showing, there should be no download what-so-ever of store content, or anything else we just don't want. It's like advertisements in our game. There should be a program by EA that cleans up the game for long time players as well, including files such as these. Don't you agree?

I'm glad you found your way to MTS, even if it was because of a crazy doll plague. Though, I'm sure you'd prefer it to be under better circumstances, at least you are here! Good to have you aboard!



Thanks for mentioning that! What a great tip! I am always connected to the internet nowadays. So, you've noticed no issues with it then? It must've bugged you as well. I'm glad I'm not alone! I prefer a little control, too. I appreciate you!

EDIT: If not blank thumbnails, I wonder if it'd try to create the folder again? Either way, I'm going with your solution! (and making sure it's disabled ingame.)

I just wish I could remember who told me the trick about making the Featured Items folder "read only". I didn't come up with it.
It is very helpful though. I've not noticed any issues at all.

lol you sound like me. You must look around and investigate/read a decent amount. (guessing because that's what I do)


Well, you paid it forward and I'll do the same. If by some chance I see another post about that method, I'll *try* to remember to come back and post the link. I sometimes search to exhaustion, like over the last few hours. You never know if I'll come acrossed it by some chance. Thanks again! ^.^

Oh, I've written it down in my "Sims 3" notepad I keep by my desk. It keeps all my tips/tricks/issues in it. I wrote down what both of you said..

EDIT: Menaceman44, you did say change it to "read only" right? I'm on windows 7 and the folder has it set that "files only" is already read-only. I may have to tinker around with it to make the folder itself read only. lol, I have a "hidden" option. Wonder if that would help?

You're right. I am on Windows 7 and did have to do a bit of tinkering.
Right-click on the FeaturedItems folder and select Properties. Then select the Security tab.
Next, select SYSTEM in the "Group or usernames:" box and then click the Edit button. In the bottom "Permissions for SYSTEM" box scroll to the bottom and tick the box marked Deny next to Write.
I did this for all of the other entries in the "Group or username:" box as well but just altering the SYSTEM settings may be enough.
You may also have to be logged on as an administrator to make these changes, I'm not sure.

I would assume it would take an administrator access to modify the permissions on a folder.

Security for ep06 is "everyone" and nothing else in there. Same for launcher.

I think it may work with just "system", going by the quote above. I'll try that. Thank you so much!!!!!!!

I am not sure I am administrator. Some things say "run as admin, with a popup" when I tag it under compatibility to "run as administrator" but I have only one log on. I think I am admin, but somehow still have to verify and okay some programs to perform. I run MalwareBytes as admin, for example.

Thanks you guys

It's easy to check if your account have administrator privliges, just click on your account pic on start menu that takes you to the account properties.
About you only have one account, since Vista your promted to make an account when installing windows, that makes the "real administrator" account a hidden one.

And if i'm not misteaken the popup you get that some programs need to run as administrator have nothing to do with the account it self, it's UAC (UserAccountControl) kicking in, a feature that have been there since Vista.
I have turned it of completly and never get popups like that.
I really really hate that feature...
Though for the "normal" computer user it's good feature to have on, as it can prevent unwanted stuff from running as admininstrator.

I'd forgotten it was that easy to check. Yes, I'm admin. Windows 7 is a tad bit different but I should've remembered that trick.

I recall something about uac kicking in and I prefer it that way actually, for safety reasons, not convenience. I'm technically not supposed to be logged in as admin, from what I remember, it's not as safe as being a 2ndary user. But as admin, there's no password typing when that does pop up! lol I like not having to always type a password every time!

Thanks for your help with that. You're doing a good job keeping me on my toes!

Yes. u're correct according to Mircosoft, one is suppoced to not to use an admin account, if i remeber right the account one makes when promted in a new install is by default a user one.
When you say that you have to type the password for the admin account when you get the popup, i suspect your admin account have a login password, so the need for typing the password is easy fixed for uac, just be logged in as admin and remove the password under account properties.
Be aware though if you have anything that auto login when starting windows thoose might loose the saved account info & password as they're tied to the account & it's password, it might also affect saved info for websites.
Damn M$ for making stuff so tied to each other..

So i leave it to you to decide what to do, i just provide the info

Wasn't there at some point a function where you could do 360 degree rotation with Alt + >? Or did they take that out with a patch/am imagining it?

For me the rotataion keys are "," & "." for left & right rotation, also if pressing the mouse wheel down then you can rotate in any direction with the mouse.

Yeah, I know the 45 degree rotation (one of the most useful things that came with the game IMO - putting the cheat in every time I launched TS2 without user startup cheats was such a pain), but I remember seeing somewhere that if you pressed Alt + the comma key, it'd do 360 degree, like in this picture:

It's only necessary to hold down alt while rotating an object and it'll be free rotate.

I think the alt+comma was (also?) used for being able to place for example half floor tiles but since game now adjust if you have diagnol walls by it self, they might have removed it.
Maybe it did before also i have idea.. seldom make walls that.

These two questions are stupid because I don't know where to ask them:
1. I just updated from 1.24 to 1.33 and checked some cc here to see that they haven't been updated to the new Pets rig thingy and I use quite a few of the shelves with many slots (Lisen's and cmomoney's). Can I update these myself by pushing them through the rig fix tools or is this more complicated?
2. Related to that: I remember reading that some official Store stuff has become incompatible, too, especially bathtubs from discontinued sets. Have these been fixed by EA by now and if not, am I right in assuming that fixing these is hardly possible because of their being encrypted?

Anyone know why the game eats so many resources? No other game has the ability to make my fan array go crazy like it does with TS3.

I used the rig fixer on both cmo and Lisen's shelves, and they seem to be working fine.

From what I understand, the issue with the bathtubs is that when cats play in the unfixed ones, they error out and teleport into the middle of the ocean somewhere and you have to reset them to get them back.
I think I saw instructions for fixing Store stuff somewhere, but I honestly don't remember. I haven't bothered with that, I just lock the cats out of any bathroom that uses a Store tub (I only ever use one, and that rarely, so I haven't bothered with fixing it. It doesn't seem to affect Sims, only cats)

1. I ran all of my CC through the rig fixer and it all came out fine.
2. As far as I am aware, which means I could be wrong, all Store content is okay now EXCEPT for bathtubs and some double beds. The bathtubs can be used okay by Sims but if a cat attempts to play in one they get teleported to the edge of the map and have to be reset to get them back.

No I think that's CTRL + F. But I tried the alt + comma and it doesn't work so I'm guessing I either imagined it or they took it out in a patch. Deep sigh.

Thanks, calisims and Menaceman44, I'll be trying the tool on the shelves now and curse EA for breaking my favourite bathtub.

Mine sounds like a helicopter is hovering above the house

Only thing i can say replace the cpu cooler/fan, even if computer is quite new, both AMD & Intel are horrible on making fans nowdays, i have a friend that recently bought a new cpu and the orginal fan sounds like yours, i have a computer that is several years old and my fan can top around 4500rpm when playing and i barely hear it.

Also, the game has no internal vsync, meaning the game runs a lot faster than 30 FPS. Go to MATY and get the FPS limiter.

Hm, mind doesn't sound quite that bad. It really sounds like my old computer from '08 trying to do its basic every day things, but usually this one is quiet as the grave. I'll give the FPS limiter a try.
No vsync, you say? Good work team. OTZ

A 3 fan graphics card? What's the GPU? I mean, granted, the game is a bit demanding, but Crysis 3 it's not.

Thanks for providing the info. I prefer to keep it to where when I log into windows I type in a password but not each time a program launches as admin (just click okay then). I, long ago, played with a program or two. I got onto a few people's pcs and the ones with no password, I'd leave a notepad note on their desktop telling them to use a password LOL and the ones who had a password that was easy to crack, the password cracker I had would bypass it and I'd tell them to create a stronger password. LMBO I was a crazy 20 something!

I never did anything malicious or hurt their pc in any way, though I would browse their pics sometimes **blush**. That was a LONG time ago though. I've not done that since. It was the "age of exploring computers". Think it was windows 95 era. I just wanted to see how it worked and when I saw it was easy, I felt those people should secure their computers so I tried to help them. I guess it's a little weird, huh? A "password robinhood" kind of thing.

EDIT: Remember when I said I"d try "system only" restricted on the featureditems file? Well, I have to try to restrict more, including my acct I guess. I found those files back in there again! *gasp*

I sooo remeber the era when still exploring computers and what one could do, that was fun times i also did some things like you, i still remeber when me & a friend decided we should explore the shared network in our house, well we found a computer that was wide open and we left a text-file on the desktop saying that should not have sharing function on or make it password protected, next day that computer was not visible on the network, so i guess person got our message

About the fueatured items folder, i belive you have to make it "read only" for your account not system, which is kinda difficult if you use explorer, i suggest using Total Commander it's free but popups a nag screen you have to click on.
One of it's features i really like is that when in situations like this you can make a folder and every thing in it read only easy.

@ Belzader, LOL You too?! I thought I was the only one who did that! One of the ones I left a notepad file on did the same thing, pretty much. They had a password I couldn't crack. hahaha I was glad actually. I felt I'd done what I'd set out to accomplish! To help! I used to (and still have some) keep viruses on those floppy discs when I'd get one. I'd save it to disc then clean my system. I don't even have a floppy disc drive now but I have the discs with the viruses on it. Why? I have no idea. Packrat I guess.

Concerning the featured folder. It's empty right now. Not sure if it'll be empty when I close my game but I've been in buy mode but it's empty! I re-enabled write restriction for system and removed it for administrator. I figured since I run as admin, that may work. I'm kind of testing it. So far, so empty. We'll see when I close my game or whatever.

It's already read only. It was read only when I got to it. I just did the thing with the security tab, permissions section. Right now though, it is ONLY restricted against me writing to it (admin). In case you wanted to know.

Not sure if just setting permisions for admin will work, might have to add the specific name of the admin account, windows can be very picky when it comes to editing security settings.
I can give you an example:
I like to be able to see what's in every folder (even ones that one shouldn't touch ), so to be able getting in some, which are set as system only, i have to add the name of account not just editing/adding administrator and give the account full permision.

It does have my name with it. It has my name/administrator I pretty much told it "do not let me write to this file!" and I run the game as admin so it won't let me/admin write to the featureditems file. It's still empty!!! Finally! If it finds a way to post them in there again, I'll try what you mentioned Though, I'm not logging in right in the game now. (to get online) It's slowwww & doesn't always connect. Not sure if it's related. I just installed Lunar Lakes and Barnacle Bay, along with a ?Fiesta Pack? that had a deep fryer and ice cream maker.

Then I had an update for the store content later, which really hung my game for a bit. I wouldn't have known there was an update had I not accidentally clicked on "open launcher" from ingame lol

So, not logging in could be ?? something else ?? I'll eventually figure it out. (?) I"m getting tired. I'm trying to help someone with a mod (testing it out, it seems a bit borked right now).... It's a DBC I believe, and I'm not familiar with those. Gotta do more research.

Take care! I'll let ya know if it writes to that file again lol

EDIT: Hahaha, remember what I said about running acrossed things? Looky at what I found http://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/1...f-pictures.html

Sorry, but I lol'd at this. The pc I just took down and replaced with this one did the same thing but the fans were ancient and cheap. It was LOUD! I just bought a cyberpowerpc from newegg and it is very quiet and runs half the resources though the case gets warm, the cpu doesn't get that warm at all. So opposite my old system.

My old fans, I smoke and used to in the house, they were beat to heck! They were running around 4500 rpm's constantly it seemed. I had to clean them every few months to just quieten them a tiny bit.

I could hear my pc from 2 rooms away! You could always tell when I was on it! I have empathy for you, I really do. I hope I didn't offend at laughing at your post. I can relate to it so much!

lol that was easily done.
I found another way remove the folder then making a text-file file, name it FeaturedItems NO .txt extension, make it read only, pretty sure though it will completly mess up the ingame shop, i always turn it off and never have or will use it so to me it doesn't matter.
The way described in the guide is proberly best way to get ride off this annoying feature.

It didn't take long, did it? *insert cheesy grin here* Crinrict, I think, is pretty darn smart! She knows her stuff! I follow her at sims 3 site, too. I was looking for information on Delphy's Dashboard (tutorial) when I found that bit there. I figure if it's still empty (that blasted folder), no sense in messing with it now Unless somehow those images get back in there!

More Power To The Player!

Yep, something i found on her site about bad cc, might maybe help me find where somethiing i got is hiding it iself, it's messing babies/toddler make them look horrible.
I know it's not in any cloth/skin .packages i have, it have been installed from a sims3pack..
For now i have blacklisted the items using the blacklist function in CAS but i do not want them back, if i decide to do a fresh install of game..
I have nothing against cc that comes with stuff but things like this make me so.. pissed, takes hours to find and get ride off things..

No kidding! I'd feel the same. Did you find it (the problem) in Dashboard or Custard? If they look like sticks, I read at a blog site it could be shoes by MYOS. ??That's all I've seen about toddlers looking funny aside from the situation if you remove hair, the head can turn black on a sim if they were wearing that hair.

My new stupid question: I'm trying to figure out where the heck my fullbuild0.package went.. Or at least where the darn mailbox object file is!! My games are installed in 2 places, programfiles/electronic arts and programfiles/origingames and it's irritating me that I forgot where the file is. I knew on my other pc. Any idea where it might be? lol

I've noticed my pets stretch out but I think that's EA lol (remember the toddlers doing that?)

EDIT: Nevermind, found it. lol I got to go. Been nice chatting with you! Good luck with your cc!

I have another stupid question. I'm sure this is stupid! If anyone is on, where exactly does the installer install a store item/object when it's inside of a world. For example, I'm trying to find the SciFi and Pirate Mailboxes. I didn't see it in my dbc in the DCCache folder, which is where I was told to look, if I understood them right. Is it possible I missed it in there? Where else would that sucker be? lol

It's definitely there, though if it's Store stuff it should be in an .ebc.

Haha not at all. As I said it's only temporary until I get my other card back. When I use that I can barely hear that it's on when I play.

My friend who owns this gfx card I use now, I HATED whenever we would have LANs and leave the computers on over night. As I always woke up with a headache next day from all the whooshing...

Dang, you guys are smart! lol

One more question? How would I open that to view the object's group id? I can't seem to with S3oc or S3pe. If I do not answer for a while, it's because I had to stop for a bit... Nothing personal. I've been at this a while trying to help someone else still. I thank you so much for your help.. Each of you that have answered my stupid questions! ^.^ You are appreciated!



LOL I wonder if my whirling sounds caused my headaches to some degree then instead of just a misaligned neck? hahaha You crack me up! Love your avatar and sense of humor!

I dunno. .ebc is the Store encrypted format, so in theory it should be similar to an extracted Store package, which means you might be able to get into it if you decrapified it (but I wouldn't suggest putting a decrapified .ebc back into DCCache). Alternatively you could try extracting the .packages from the original Store .sims3pack and decrapifying those.

If all else fails, HugeLunatic made the pirate mailbox buyable, so she might be able to tell you how she did it.

btw, please try to avoid posting multiple times in a row, unless the second post is days or weeks later.

Thanks for all that information and I do apologize. I realized I did that and should've merged it but left the pc to tend to something & you responded before I had a chance. I've done that twice now so I do catch myself, just usually too late. Again, I apologize & typically try to merge.

I have seen a few posts where it was explained how to do that. I would not put it back in the dccache. I just want to find the original group id for the mailboxes and I have already made a copy of the dbc, ebc, etc files and placed them far away from my originals I never mess with my originals. I work with files too many times in the half alert state, or distracted by interruptions. ^.^

Peace to you & have a good one. Thanks again!

You can still rotate objects through a full 360 degrees with the Alt key.
Select an object from the catalogue, press and hold the Alt key, and then click and drag with your mouse. The object should rotate in place turning to face your mouse cursor.
If you don't hold the mouse button down then the object will just be placed off-grid.

Speaking of store stuff, if I have a compilation s3pack but I don't want half of the stuff in it, is there a way to get rid of it? :/

If you've already installed it then you should be able to uninstall individual items through the launcher.

I'll try that then I normally avoid the launcher for everything but installing s3p's, haha.

Got it! I finally found a way to find the group id and the information in the mailbox's package file. It had been stored in DCBackup. It wasn't easy to figure out but, I am relieved I was & am able to help this MTS member more fully. They are waiting on their hard drive right now and can't do much with the files because they can't run the game. All they did was enable the buyabililty of the mailboxes ingame. If you don't have the world, you won't have the mailbox. Well, I have the worlds but can't get all of the mailboxes to show, only the french one and the colonial one. This is why I was helping them & this is why you were helping me. Thanks for your help. I tried to not bug you guys too much on "how exactly do I do that?" but did want to let you know how it was going, in case you were curious.

They thought maybe the group id didn't match. But it does. In Lunar Lakes, if I keep the SciFi mailbox in the mod, all of the other mailboxes are replaced with Colonial. If I remove the SciFi mailbox from the mod (and don't load a previously mod-used save-game), they are all as they are supposed to be. I'm not real familiar with objd files, nor modding sims 3 yet. Did okay with sims 2 though So this is a bit confusing to me right now. Since this isn't considered a stupid question probably, I won't ask any questions about it and just leave it at the fact I'm trying to help them until their hard drive comes in. Wish me luck & thanks again. You were a huge help! I'll quit shaking my computer now.

A stupid firefly question:
Showtime added fireflies and starfish, that much I know. I also read that these were merged into the existing spawners, so no separate ones. Now I haven't got Showtime but only the patches and noticed that at some point during the night most of the bug tags from the Collection Helper disappeared, I think that it's all butterflies that are suddenly gone. Is this the time when fireflies should spawn and does that mean that if I haven't got Showtime that I will be out of luck and have nothing to collect at night, or were fireflies also added to the patch and the Helper just doesn't show them?

I'm not sure about the fireflies but way before showtime I noticed that butterflies would disappear ("die off" maybe) and in the night there either would be nothing or moths in their place.

You need to have Showtime to have the Glowbugs (Firefly is just the word they placed in the STBL text to alter the name in-game), they are listed as EP6 items; the glowbugs appear at 8 pm and disappear at 6 am, if they are chosen to spawn instead of one of the butterflies. And the glowbugs are added into some of the standard butterfly spawners, yes. So I'm sure what you are seeing is that your non-Showtime game is choosing the glowbug on occasion through the XML on these spawners, the glowbugs cannot be shown in your game and the spawners are therefor empty, until the glowbug time runs out and another spawning chance is started.

Just another borkage from the devs, as obviously for those who do not have ShowT the glowbug spawning chance should be halted in some fashion.

Can cats eat turtles? I saw this cat licked a turtle, and then the turtle just disappeared o__o

I have no idea, but this made me laugh for some reason.... :-D Poor turtle though!

Yup, they can eat any small prey I think. Never done it myself, but I think there's a challenge where you have the cats totally live off what they can catch.

There is. You can play horses the same way.

If you hunt with a cat and they're hungry, they'll eat the prey automatically and it'll never go to their inventory. You'll get a message that says something like "Cat caught a ____ but was so hungry they ate it!"

What? Horses will live off of small animals, or off of eating cats?

No, they live off the things they dig up

Horses can graze, eat sims' gardens, or dig up vegetables.

Does anyone know at what moment during a pregnancy it will be determined whether a child between a normal Sim and a ghost will be a ghost, too, or not?

Edit: Tested it. It's at birth.

music2ologist, I think you're in th wrong thread. This is for Sims 3 related questions.

I downloaded some custom eyes but for some reason I can't find them under eyes in CAS. All other stuff I put on it work. So where are the eyes I downloaded? As well with some freckles downloaded.

Does the butler call the family to a meal?

As my butler does nothing but cook 24/7 and completely neglects everything else, every time she makes a meal my family flocks to eat. Even if they are full and even if they already have the stuffed moodlet.

Yes, all sims will go to eat whenever a meal is served. I downloaded a mod to make the butler only cook when someone's actually *hungry* (as opposed to the default behaviour, which is totally ridiculous and along the lines of "cook whenever someone's hunger bar is less than 2/3 full") - I think it's here on MTS.

This one by Rainbow Brite on MTS turns off cooking http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=436954 I don't know if it's working with 1.3x updates, although it should.

This one by Twooftmama on TFM allows you to tweak when the butler does cook (registration required, but lots of other good tuning mods as well) http://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php...ctober-24-2011/ and is 1.3x compatible.

Can dogs really sniff out dates for you?