I am unable to fish on my lots, I can't fish at all. My sims won't even fish autonomously. I click the pond and the pie menu flashes up briefly then it is gone like I cancelled it.

Have you checked for mod/hack conflicts? Sounds like it could be that.

Check your game for mods/hacks that have anything to do with ponds/fishing or similar (assuming you have your hacks/mods in a separate subfolder, which makes looking for issues a lot easier), and if you can't find anything, run the HCDU to see if that one finds something.

Turning on Testingcheats to see if the problem causes an error (and error log) can also be useful.

More detailed guide:
https://modthesims.info/wiki.php?ti..._Custom_Content

Useful tools:
https://www.picknmixmods.com/Sims2/...s/HcduPlus.html (HCDU)
https://www.picknmixmods.com/Sims2/...CausedThis.html (error log reader)

I figured it out: When I turned on testingcheatsenabled and went into a sim's home, I got an error related to BoilingOil's NoSimLoaded. I killed that token and my sims was able to cook and fish just fine. So it's a problem with No Sim Loaded. This means I need to take that hack out and allow my sims to generate loaded tokens. :/

There's nothing wrong with those tokens and there's no actual reason to remove them.

Could be a conflict (or outdated mod), and NoSimLoaded just happens to be the one showing up in the error. Error logs can be useful, but they ca also be misleading at times.

Would run the HCDU to see what actually is conflicting, as NoSimLoaded shouldn't be causing problems all on its own.

No Sim Loaded frequently causes problems all on its own, because it has a dependency on Smarter EP Check, which people inevitably don't install. That's the exact reason I don't reference that mod in any of mine.

It's not the mod's fault that people don't read the instructions lol.

You can say that all you want, but it's been shown over and over and over again that if you say that the mod requires some other mods that's posted in a different place, they will not install it. On the other hand, if you just make separate versions of the mod for different game configurations, evidence shows again and again and again that 95% of the time, people will follow those instructions correctly and install the right version of the mod. At what point do you have to acknowledge that it's bad design to make a mod in such a way that you know 80% of people will install it incorrectly, when you could instead make it in such a way that only 5% will?

But so many mods require Smarter EP Check (by Cyjon) that it really is a mod that every Sims 2 player should have. So many mods require it to work. It seems I've had it in my Downloads folder for twelve and a half years of the thirteen years I've been playing! I reckon it's nearly as essential as Numenor's CEP.

(Forgot about the Smarter EP check... Definitely check if you've got that one!)

The error log reader references the "Smarter EP check" mod (and some other known global support mods) if it detects particular errors often caused by not having put in these mods.

Missing a supporting mod isn't that much worse than a missing mesh (maybe not as easy to figure out, though). If the thing you downloaded causes trouble or isn't doing what you thought it was supposed to do, chances are you missed instructions, and there are tools to find the problem. Perhaps it takes a few tries for some people to realize this, but once they do, most of them tend to get better at reading instructions.

I do agree that people need to read about what they're downloading, but there could be several reasons why information gets lost - such as various language difficulties (for instance not being steady in English, or having dyslexia. Translators aren't always helpful, especially with unfamiliar words/phrases). New players are also more likely to be unaware of how mods/CC can conflict or cause issues, especially if Sims is their first modded game experience. Poorly written instructions, not linking to the needed items, or "hiding" important instructions in large text blobs isn't helpful, either.

Yes, there are a lot of poorly made mods that require it, but it's far from the only offender in this regard. And it doesn't matter that there are so many mods that require it, there are still huge numbers of people who don't install it, because again, people clearly are not able to follow this instruction, no matter how many times they read it.

And if the user doesn't follow clear, written instructions, that's the user's fault, not the mod's. Besides, "People don't follow written instructions" isn't really a counterargument for "Smarter EP Check should be a standard part of a mod installation"; if anything, it's an argument for "Some people shouldn't be allowed on the Internet unsupervised."

Are you saying that a mod is poorly made if it uses Smarter EP Check? Because some high reputation modders use it.

I dunno why people use NoSimLoaded anyway. We have discussed many times on Modthesims and other sites why it isn't necessary or safe.

Yes. Introducing Dependency Hell into Sims modding was a bad idea. I think a lot of modders don't see it that way because they work in software and in that context Dependency Hell is just a fact of life that you deal with, but the majority of people who are installing mods do not work in software and have no idea what it even is. I've also talked to people who think it's bad design to make any mod that has a load order requirement with any other mod, but I think people are generally able to figure that out.

And yes, NSL is not necessary and people need to stop telling others that it is.

Mainly because for many years every (or almost every) suggested list of "essential Sims 2 mods" included it. Myself I use the basic version which deletes Sim Loaded tokens and nothing else. I use it because people persuaded me that Sim Loaded tokens were a "bad thing". One of those people was BoilingOil himself, who once wrote a mod specially for me (no "met self" memories), with the inevitable result that I came to like and trust him and his mods. However the "full" version of No Sim Loaded removes some other things like attraction markers, which I rather like, as they help me to see who is attracted to whom.

Your post today is the first I've seen suggesting No Sim Loaded might be a "bad thing". Well, I've had it (the basic version) in my Hacks subfolder since January 2014 (very early 12 years ago) and my game, including 13-year-old Veronaville (where all my best friends live) is still playable, and extremely enjoyable, so I don't think it can be doing all that much harm.

As for Smart EP Check, I understand Cyjon wrote it to save him having to include the relevant code in every mod he wrote. His website really does make it very clear which mods require it. I use quite a few Cyjon mods, so of course I have the Smart EP Check. But then I play with only a few EPs, so I'm used to checking requirements when downloading a mod. Many newer mods simply assume that everyone has all the EPs. If the creator doesn't make it clear, then the only thing I can do is to try out the mod and see if it works for me. Fortunately my game is now pretty much playing just the way I want it, so I don't feel I need many more mods. Especially not big complicated mods that change lots of things.

[EDIT] I should perhaps admit that I used to work in software development, so the idea that some programs require other programs to work, is just normal to me. But then all Sims 2 mods (good, bad or indifferent) are dependant or the player having The Sims 2 installed on their computer!