Is Make/Make Many ever an autonomous action? I have a custom margarita that is showing up there and shouldn't be and it errors if you click on it, so I don't want my sims to be able to select the option themselves.

It is possible to make mixed shower but it depends on relationship .Married (or in love) couples can shower together, others not. They will shoo out all others.

It's not just the relationship. Outgoing sims are more likely to share showers and toilets than shy ones. The gendered thing isn't generally an issue. I have never noticed sims being shyer based on the gender of the other person in the room.

OK, I'm going to try some things at next play session. Thank you for the answers.

As far as anyone knows, quitting without saving several times on a community lot isn't going to make my hood hate me, correct? Something on my community college lot is causing trouble, and while I think I know what it could be now, I'm going to have to test further to confirm my suspicions. The first few times weren't exactly intentional. Weird stuff was happening, and I couldn't do much else. I've narrowed down the course of action to a few things now through lots of trial and error (I moved to a test hood after the first few problems), and hope I'm on the right track.

How does one go about changing a Sim's skintone in SimPE? I'm mildly adept in using the program, but I've never had to do this before. I forgot to take out some unwanted Maxis-Match custom skins that carried over on some packaged Sims that I installed a little while ago, and now a townie's spawned with one of those skins. I did a quick google search but everything that comes up is really old and I'm a tad bit confused...?

If I use SimSurgery, are the changes not genetic? That's what I understand from the old threads I found. If yes, then how does one go about changing the DNA manually?

Is there a way to find out which Sims are in the same career as your sim? I want to try and get outings and groups of townies and playables together that have the same career, which I think will make it easier to form rivals and competition. I really want to do this for the Political career particular, it will make some good storylines if my playable sim is trying to get the job that that particular sim has.

Thank you in advance.

You can look under the career tab in SimPE, but you can only do it one at a time.

The simplest is changing your sims to a different maxis skintone code and using default skins. So if you place in the skin code for sk2 your sims will change to your default sk2. If you want to use custom skins you will need to first find a sim in simpe that is already wearing it so you can grab the code off them.

You open the DNA tab and find the dominant skin.
The Maxis codes are as follows
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 (very light)
00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 (light)
00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 (tan)
00000004-0000-0000-0000-000000000000 (dark)
Replace the code the sim currently has for one of these or with the code you found on another sim. You may also need to change the recessive code as well.

When my Sim artist, Muse, wanted a hubby, I just used the Visitor Controller to set walkbys. The only people who strolled by were Arts & Crafts hobby people. Since you can also use it for jobs, you could plop a Visitor Controller at your City Hall community lot and set it for only Political career Sims to visit. That would probably help figure it out. (Just an idea!)

Thank you, Jo! You're always so helpful.

Let me know if it doesn't make sense, although once you have the right place in simpe it will become quite simple. Has to be if I can do it! Make sure to confirm and save of course. If you want the Maxis alien skin code I have that one saved someplace as well.

Yeah, I managed to fix it all up! Didn't get in-game to check on it, since friends distracted me with other video games, but I'll be sure to check tomorrow. Hopefully I did the thing!

I'll try and remember to nag you for the alien skin code if I ever need it. Thank you for your help!

I know from reading further down that you got this fixed to your satisfaction, but for others who might want more info... When I recently decided to get rid of a too-Maxis-match-for-me skin that a LOT of Sims had in my various neighborhoods, I asked and was pointed at this: http://www.lothere.com/verso/page/16 which is old, yes, but really straightforward.

Is it safe to turn someone into a townie if they have family relationships? I have a sim whose parents are raising her children, and I'd like her to be a townie so she could occationally pop up on community lots without telling anyone she was going to be in town. If I have to, I can just leave her in the family bin, but I'd rather have her a townie if possible. But if I have to remove her relationships with her family, there's not much point her being a townie...

That's fine. Townies end up with families all the time in unmodded games when people let their Sims have kids with them. Then, there's a Downtownie that Maxis gave about six kids

Deco ones? Sure.

As for the "real" ones...Well, I guess so long as they're never destroyed and a Sim with one in their inventory never died it'd be safe. I kind of doubt they can be set for sale, though.

Does anybody know why sims sometimes "look down" when they finish interacting with others sims? It's intentional by part of Maxis, or it's just a coincidence? Like 'im making this two sims flirt with each other and then the girl just stares straight at the guys... "down parts". Or viceversa, and its cracks me up everytime, but i'm curious as to what makes this happen.

Is there a way to know when a file has been compressorized?

So, this might belong in help section, but think it might have simple answer.

When I'm in neighbourhood view, the camera is stuck at a top down angle. I've tried using the tab button and it lets me move the camera around to a better angle, but when I press tab again to exit it, the camera reverts to top down view. It's very annoying.

Any suggestions?

This is with a camera mod or without one?

Has anyone ever released the the sc4. files for Sim State University, La Fiesta Tech, Academie Le Tour, or for Downtown?

Alright I'm wondering if I need to clear my hood again I was trying to generate dormies in an empty College subhood, but accidentally clicked generate downtownies, Then I noticed by mistake and then made it generate regular townies.

Basically did I just corrupt my hood on accident?

No, you've just got extra downtownies in that hood now.

Generating townies in a college subhood will generate dormies. It's possible that generating downtownies in a college subhood will generate dormies, too. Check with an editing tool and see if the new sims you generated first are Adult or YA.

about changing a character's skintone in SimPE; there are 2 ways:
-the character's respective Property Set (skintone line); that resource is in the respective character file.
-Sim Surgery (Skintone section).
Property Set changes only expressed settings. Sim Surgery changes both expressed and genetic settings; also character's icon (immediately).

about selling urns/tombstones; non-ghost ones would be safe. ghost ones; I take selling would create duplicates of the ghost.

some questions of mine own::
ownable lots.
from my understanding, Open For Business enables households to own any community lots. and from my understanding, Bon Voyage enables households to own additional residential lots; but only if the lots are in a vacation sub-neighborhood. are those right?
can any of the other lot types be owned?
if so, what would be the pack requirements? for sure the pack in which the lot type was added.

Is there anyway to read a novel's description after a Sim has finished writing and the book has been delivered? I just feel the need to laugh at the horribly cheesy and embarrassing novel summary for my Sim's second romance novel.

@conversesneaker
I don't believe I've ever seen SC4s for those terrains. Come to think of it, I don't think they're even available as terrains when you make a custom neighborhood/subhood. Wonder why that is...

@mdsb759
There are no other ownable kinds of lots in a vanilla game, although with mods you can get investment income from different kinds of lots by "owning" them...sort of.

@AliaD85
I don't believe there's any way to see a novel's description, no. Which is why I never make any.

My stupid question:
If you have a lot on which you've made a swimmable pond/lake, does swimming in said pond/lake fulfill "Go Swimming" wants? I'm hoping so, but I don't wanna go through the rigamarole of making one only to find out that it doesn't fulfill those wants. (In this neighborhood, swimming pools aren't allowed on either residential or community lots, but I will allow them to have a swimmin' hole so they can fill swimming wants. )

There is a diving board into mine and using that seems to fill the want.

Never sell urns or graves. I don't believe the game allows it anyway.

Quick question: I'm trying to create a simlogical school on a community lot. Everyone has been enrolled and it's going well, except that every time I start class for gradework, the teens and children work for a few seconds before standing and walking away. What am I doing wrong?

@AliaD85
Nothing IMO.
I read somewhere that the teacher has to be serious but I've also read elsewhere that the teacher has to have a full fun bar in order to the students to behave.
I often choose serious sims as teachers but after a while, students finally work.

Agree nothing, which is why I never use the school book at my school and only ever use the homework book and skilling. To me the 'real' schoolbook is simply annoying.

Thanks guys. I chopped the teacher's fun bar and things turned out much better. Everyone got an hour or so of work in before they all quit. At that point, I just let them have at it and left skilling items around for them to learn and play with. There was also lunch. Can't forget lunch!

Anyone have experience running a gym as a business? My sim's gym had a mix of exercise equipment with treadmills on one side of a room and I quickly noticed Sims were only using the treadmills. I decided to remove all the treadmills and also added an electrodance sphere and excercise bike just to do something different. After I noticed sims only went for the sphere. I removed the sphere and now the exercise room is completely unused.

So pretty much the only traditional equipment sims use autonomously on business lots is the treadmill. Has anyone else noticed this before or is this just my game? Also are there any mods to have sims use the other equipment if there is an issue?

Another thing with the gym is that sims will exercise and apart from going to the diner for food, they will immediately leave the lot even though there are sooo many other things to do on the lot and also many objects that quickly fulfill most needs. Any advice as to how I can make sims stay longer on the lot?

The dance sphere and the treadmill are the only things that advertise fun and the only things that will be used autonomously. It's possible to edit the bhavs for that, but I don't know of anyone who has.

One thing I've seen people do with gym lots is have a sim on site who can act as a personal trainer, but I don't know how well that works.

You don't have to edit the BHAVs at all, only the advertising, which is not part of the BHAV but part of the object's TTAB. As is, the exercise bikes are not set to be used autonomously by lot visitors, which is why visitors to gyms will never use them. Also the various weight machines do not advertise as strongly as the treadmills, either, which is why lot visitors at gyms always make a beeline for the treadmills. I've never looked at the dance sphere, but from observing how they're generally used by lot visitors, I imagine it advertises strongly and will trump pretty much everything in a gym setting. So, all of this is "normal game behavior," but it's kind of screwy because of the inconsistent way Maxis set up the properties of these objects and just because of the way advertising works in general.

Fortunately, all of this -- not just for gym equipment but for pretty much all objects, Maxis and custom -- is fairly easy to tweak to your own tastes, if you have SimPE. I wrote up a tutorial for doing it that should be easy to follow even if you've never used the program before. There is some trial and error involved to get the advertising where you want it to be relative to other objects, but it's not hard to do, just checking or unchecking boxes and screwing around with numbers. It's here: http://dramallamadingdang.tumblr.co...4/tutorial-time

I've also made the career-reward punching bag available for autonomous and lot-visitor use here: http://dramallamadingdang.tumblr.co...de-these-before If you have Sophie-David's buyable versions of the career rewards, you can place those in gyms as well and they will be used by lot visitors.

And now another one from me, Doesn't look like it was covered in the Ultimate Collection FAQ, so the question is did the Ultimate Collection EA gave away on Origin have all the patches installed? for example would any of the neighboorhoods you generated after you installed that version of the UC Have the fixed Crittur and Ottomas families?

The UC has all the official patches, yes, but they didn't fix anything beyond that. The UC just gives you a full game with all the official patches pre-applied. It still has all its nicely pre-corrupted neighborhoods and families and all the possible ways to corrupt your neighborhoods unless you properly guard against those things.

Yes, UC is completely patched

Thanks iCad. I'd guess they were not originally released because they were the early expansion packs and EAxis didn't really think of it until Bluewater Village. As to why nobody else has released them in the 10+ years since is another question. A third question is how/if I can get the SC4s myself without Sim City 4....Although I am tempted to buy Sim City 4 just for figuring out how to make hoods! I just really want a terrain that combines/attaches Strangetown with LFT.

SInce LFT's SC4 isn't in the "SC4Terrains" folder in the game's files, I'm not sure how you'd get to it. Perhaps it's possible to extract them somehow? I don't really know. But you COULD take a screenshot of LFT and then recreate the terrain in SimCity4, I suppose, if you acquire a copy of the game. I found a copy of the game at a thrift store for $1. (Score! ) But I still haven't gotten around to learning how to make terrains. I have a tutorial saved, though! In any case, that sounds like a cool and very logical project, especially if you use the mod where you can have YAs in main neighborhoods.

Could you use Hood Replacer to transfer one of those terrains to a custom hood?

Totally agree, There is whole discussion in Mootilda's Hood Replacer download comments, where Mootilda finally says that you cannot extract SC4 terrains from game.
The only way is to recreate it in SC4.

Steam's summer sale will probably include SC4, so anyone considering it could keep an eye on the sale and see if it pops up I got it last summer during the sale. It was at 78% discount, which came out to 2,49€.

If you'd have sim A visiting sim B, and then exit the lot with A still there, and play at sim A's household instead and sim A would die, what would then happen when you got back to sim B's household?

Sim A would not be there.

You would get a message that A had died on another lot, and would have no visitor.

Ta. (And I feel horrible for laughing... but just imagine th confusion for the other sim)

sort of a follow-up question:: how many owners can a lot have at a time?

Lots don't really have owners as such, although I guess every sim you move in is in a way an owner. Vanilla game doesn't let you have more than 8 same as the base game, with mods well, dozens I guess? My computer would crash so I would not risk it. 14 is the most sims I have had living on a lot.

If you mean vacation lots and community lots, only one, though the same sim can own multiple lots and other household members can visit the owned lot without him.

Would using visitor controller to ban mail delivery stop the bills? (specifically Cyjon's bigger bills) and would it break anything else aside from the occasional restaurant coupons you get after a date?

Yes it will-it won't break anything else because it bans the NPC that delivers the mail. I don't think it would break anything else because no mail would be delivered at all, so having coupons would not be possible anyway.

Thank you.

Another question: Does compressorizing CC increase or decrease loading time? I'd assume it increases it, because then the game would have to uncompress it, but perhaps I'm looking at this wrong?

Steam currently has SimCity 4 Deluxe on sale 75% off for a grand total of $4.99, if anyone else is interested! Summer deal ends July 4th. I think I am actually going to order a used disk off of Amazon. Who knows, maybe I'll start playing the game too!

People use it because its said to reduce loading times, however your millage may vary. Some people say they load faster and others have said it increased loading times, so...

WOW @iCad thank you SO MUCH for this immensely helpful reply! Really appreciate it!!
also much thanks to @PenniGriffin! I didn't even know sims could be personal trainers, I have to try that out!

Ah, once again, this forum is ah-mazing! You guys are awesome

https://docs.google.com/document/d/...dit?usp=sharing

This just happened. My game is doomed isn't it? It was fine 2 weeks ago, though my computer has been updated since, so could that be the reason for not being able to start the game?.
Should I just reinstall?

No, you just need to clear your cache files. They're in your Documents/EA GAmes/The Sims 2 folder and they end in the file extension .cache. Delete them and your game should start fine. If you have a lot of CC, you'll need to do that periodically. Some people have to do it before every game session.

@zeroboys008
You're welcome. But yeah, this community is awesome. I wouldn't know even a quarter of what I know without the people, past and present, who've posted here.

I did not know that, thanks! Yeah I have quite a bit

I have had more than a few occasions where I've compressed many files and have the entire batch be reduced by nearly 2/3rds of what it was before running it through the DDO. When you ask if it saves space, in this instance, yes..hundreds of mgbs are compressed, making the game run faster with all the extra stuff.

But it really helps to have a system of putting new files (and lots) into your game for this to really be useful. I do have a system that works very well for me, and I've used it almost every single time I've done any downloading. It involves running the compressorizor, DDO on the files, and then sorting them out for various folders.

The most important step, though, I believe is to remove all duplicates and 'false' files that have no mesh or base to work on. Tedious but it keeps the game running smoothly..and I won't forget one extra step every time I do close the game-Mootilda's Hoodchecker program. This is almost essential to keeping a good game, because it keeps the corruption to a minimum..and one extra step that is really tedious: renaming long named files to speed it all up.

But I digress. Short answer: compressing files will decrease the amount of work the computer has to do to read the files.

Thank you. Decided to grab it and give it a try - backing up first, of course. I'm glad there's a no-install version.

Is there a way to use an aging mod in one particular neighborhood? Or do I just need to make sure I pull the mod out when I'm playing a different neighborhood?

The mod affects all hoods in that game, to have another hood without it you need a separate sims 2 folder. Same way for defaults. It's not hard, I have a few separated sims 2 folders.

Just noticed this one. Is happened to me (though, oddly, not since I upgraded to 64-bit) - deleting cache files always fixes it for me. Try it.

No, just your game complaining about its cache files. You should also delete those made by Body Shop. Don't waste your time reinstalling. Most of us here delete them every few times we load up.

I'm currently sorting out my DL and I found some CC starting with FF which is the name of the creator. Does someone know what FF stand for?

Maybe it's FemmeFatale http://itsfemmefatale.blogspot.se/

Would it cause harm to just pull the aging mod in and out?

It will if you forget to put it back when you are going to play your other hood. Usually adding or deleting so complex mods will cause reset of sims, so you can see sleeping sims near bed and these who was at work or school back at home.

Not to mention any food left out will be spoiled, broken appliances will be usable but look broken and won't have a "repair" option, crap like that.

Thanks guys. I'll think over it. I have my two favorite neighborhoods in the same Sims 2 folder, but I want my sims in Sedona to have longer lives. It feels like they're aging too fast for me. However, I'm fine with the maxis aging in my Blue Point neighborhood. That hood is too big for longer lives.

If a neighborhood is downloaded like Mountainside Valley, if the creator of the lot has aging off will that prevent aging in the downloader's game? Sims on every other lot age, but the Sims in the Roomies Lot don't age. I have aging on, and don't have Inteen or mods that affect aging.

Have you tried typing in "aging on?"

I believe if the lot saves with aging off, it will still have aging off when you return to it. Your experience suggests that a reset (as when a BG neighborhood is added to a game with EPs) doesn't change that. You might want to pass this on to the HBG in the comments, make sure they see it.

If you do install an aging mod, it will only affect Sims born, added, or aged-up after the mod is installed. To apply the new lifespans to all the pre-existing playable Sims in a neighborhood, you have to individually age them down and then back up again. If you have a large population, that can be a pain in the butt, but it's doable. It can also cause double "grow up"-associated memories, but if they bug you, you can remove them in SimPE.

That said, when I decide to play one of my age-modded neighborhoods, I just put the age mod (and its associated ones that I use when using longer life stages, like a harder skilling mod and a modified ACR controller and such) into my Downloads folder before starting the game. They're all in one folder, kept on my desktop when not in use, so it's just an easy drag-and-drop before I start the game. However, I have to remember to do so. And I can't switch between an age-modded and non-age-modded hood without exiting the game. And I have to remember to take those mods out again before starting up the game to play a non-age-modded hood. But if you can handle that, it's not bad. It's not rocket science, after all. That said, putting in an age mod and taking it out does NOT cause a reset, so you don't have to worry about that.

Typing "aging on" did make everyone age the next day. I left a comment in the download thread for the Hood just now.

owned residentials in vacation sub-neighborhoods; is there any difference between them and main-neighborhood residentials?

Yes. Sims can only stay in them for a maximum of 7 days, as a vacation. They cannot live in them permanently. They also have to own (or rent) a property in the main neighborhood. All vacation homes are second homes, not primary residences.

I can't for the life of me find where to set the ideal family size for my sims. I have ACR and all that jazz, but i'm drawing a blank on where to find it? It's not under any of the sections i've checked.

First: It's only available in version 2. Assuming you have that, it's under Sim Settings --> Pregnancy when you click on the adjuster.

Is there a correlation between firstborn syndrome and baby gender? I seem to be getting a lot of boys, and I am not far enough into my families to where rolling the pacifier would be necessary (most of them are on their first child per pairing).

That is just the row of the dice AmandieLove for it is a 50/50 chance for each time.

Just save just before she goes into labor and you can quit without saving to hood view and go back in if you get the wrong gender if you so chose.

Pescado's dontshootfood prevents food from being ruined when a lot is reset.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/al/

It's in the Director's Cut (the big zip at the bottom of the list).

Mootilda seemed to think that the gender randomizer worked correctly, but that there was a bug in both the genetics and personality randomizers.
http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...504#post3897504

One option is to look at BO's Slow Aging Controller. You can set it so that sims age up 7, 3, 2, or 1 time(s) a week (or even never if you want a pause). You've got default settings (set in SimPE) and in-game individual settings -- so, for instance, NH1 uses the default settings which are 'age up every day' and you set up NH2 so that all sims there follow the 'age up twice a wee' option. It however doesn't work on babies so you may have to be a bit creative to stop them aging up so quickly.

which of the following are possible at vacation homes (without cheats/hacks/mods)?
-inviting other characters
-parties
-Headmaster scenario
-NPC arrival (hired or otherwise)
-bill/newspaper arrival
-job searching
-school/work (bus/carpool kind)
-home business (if Open For Business is also installed)

Pretty sure none of those is possible. (Maybe newspapers? I never noticed. There are no bills on vacation, though.) Sims can only visit their vacation home when they're on a vacation, and those vacations run the same way as when you send Sims to a hotel on a vacation. In other words, you can't do anything in a vacation home that you can't do when staying in a hotel on a vacation. For instance, you can call Sims in the main neighborhood, but you can't invite them over and you can't throw parties. Basically, vacation homes work much like hotels, only with no check-in/out and no room service and such. Time doesn't pass in them, so there is no school/work, and you can't own businesses in vacation neighborhoods.

Actually iCad, you can hire NPCs The game remembers it, so if you go back to the vacation home later the NPC will show up again. And you do get a newspaper, but not sure about mail. Never tried job searching, but it might be possible, even though they won't actually go to work.

I have invited locals to vacation home and they stayed like usual quests in main hood. Didn't try a party. And yes, newspaper is delivered starting from second day.

You can invite them to come along with you on the vacation; you can't phone them up and invite them over, even if they're in the same vacation hood.

You can, however, teleport them in; or meet them on community lots and bring them home in casual groups.

Gotta ask this one: are any of the NPC witches playable? Like as in moving them in?
Inquiring minds want to know because one of the female pixels has the hots for the good warlock. He returns the feeling, but I'm very wary of having him more than a friend on the phone.

They're fine if you don't mind cackling and so on. They're ordinary service NPCs, like the Master Vampires and the maids.

I have an adult male Family sim married to an elder female Family sim. 2 bolts, solid marriage. But he wanted babies so I moved in a female townie that I liked. They're friends only, but also have two bolts. Tonight, while she was still pregnant with their second child, I looked at his relationship panel. He has a pink crush heart for her. OK, I do have ACR, so maybe he got in a flirt with her when I wasn't looking. BUT, there's no memory of cheating whatsoever.

That shouldn't be possible, should it? They never met until I moved her in, and he was already married and in love with his wife. I did not touch the SimBlender menu that lets you add or remove relationship flags. This is not something I've seen happen before.

There are high flirts and there are low flirts and 2-3 of the low flirts will not trigger the cheating memory.




The most up to date list of NPC that can become playable and the list includes all the NPC that you should not touch. http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Game_gui...e_to_play_as%3F

So if a Sim, who lives alone on a lot, dies - what am I supposed to do with the gravestone?

You can just leave it there, if you want, so long as you remember never to bulldoze the house. If you eventually move someone else into the house, the deceased's ghost will generate and haunt the place.

Me, I temporarily move the neighborhood's gravekeeper into the house in order to collect the gravestone/urn. They will then move out again (using the stay-things shrub so that furniture stays there if I want it to), take the grave to their own lot, allow the ghost to generate, and then move the grave to the graveyard that they own.

Maybe I should have a gravekeeper. There is a knowledge Sim hanging around which may enjoy gravekeeping as a hobby

The gravestone or urn will be on the lot when the next resident moves in. Let him deal with it.

My gravekeeper is always an "NPC" that I make but never actually play. They're immortal, never age, never die, and aging is turned off on their lot. They have a prisoner tag in their inventory so they don't show up on community lots (where there is a very slim possibility that they could die with graves still in their inventory, which would be bad.) They "live" on an essentially empty lot that has few "adjusty" things on it because it's also a lot that I will temporarily move real playable Sims into and out of, if I need to adjust something about them before moving them into a "real" lot. It's also the lot where I do my periodic townie aging up and killing. When some are killed, I turn the lot on "ultra speed," turn motive decay off, and let all the ghosts generate so that they will also generate on the community-lot graveyard where they will eventually go. (Which sometimes takes a number of sim-days; some of those ghosts are very shy. ) And yeah, the gravekeeper owns the neighborhood's graveyard(s) so that they can go to them and place the graves they collect from the neighborhood's households and from townie culls and the lot will save because it's owned. But, yeah, I never actually play them.

But I suppose you could do this with an actual playable, too. You could even have the families of the deceased pay him/her for his/her services, if you have a mod that makes transferring money between households possible, so it could be what they do for their living, even. Maybe they can pass the "business" down to one of their offspring. You'd just have to guard against them dying with graves in their inventory.