Damn, I think my new neighborhood is doomed from the start >_<

Made some Sims to populate an island and what did I see? A toddler with a lifetime want (as seen on e.g. Pauline Aspir)
I aged that Sim down from adult in CAS without giving her an aspiration... i thought that would not be a problem? All other toddlers don't have a lifetime want, but i made them via creat a baby (don't know if that's the right translation)

So the question is: problematic or not? I would play that neighborhood anyway, but... well, maybe not long enough to build up a new civilisation... and that's my goal.

Did you delete any sims? You can't make an adult sim in CAS without an aspiration the game won't let you.

No, I didn't delete a sim. I know that would make my neighborhood went into a BFBVFS.

I created that sim in CAS and aged her down right there.

I don't know that I have a good answer for you, but since this is the stupid/random questions thread...I'll mention something that I did to stop premade toddler Pauline Aspir's possession of an LTW from bothering me (I play Tarlia's megahood). Please note that if anyone wants to jump in, I'd really like feedback on the overall effectiveness of this technique.

I went into SimPE and deleted just Pauline's SWAF (Sim Wants and Fears) record. This reset her aspiration to Grow Up in the game (it was already shown as Grow Up in SimPE). From what I read, it also had the effect of erasing her memory, not the memories you can see in the sim's Memories panel but the sort of hidden memories that make individual sims behave depending on how you've played them. But since she was only a toddler and hadn't been played, that part didn't seem as important to me.

Afterward, she sometimes had a blank want slot or two as a toddler. But I figured that was because I removed any "instincts" she should have had as a toddler when I deleted her SWAF then. And she behaved like any other toddler. She's now a child and hasn't had any further LTW or wants/fears strangeness; her slots are always full and are appropriate to people she knows and things a child would want.

Pretty sure this did not really fix any corruption that might have resulted in Pauline getting that LTW in the first place, unless, I guess, the only corruption was to her SWAF record. But I don't know enough about how the game works under the hood to make a remotely educated guess about whether that was/could be true.

So for what it's worth, the cosmetic issue of it can be fixed fairly quickly. What repercussions that has, I don't know. If I see down the road that she is the center of a Big Fiery Ball Visible from Space...well, that's why I backed up before I did it (and plenty since, though the pre-SWAF-removal backup is now clearly labeled "Unedited Pauline" so I can find it).

Only one want - I will not break my head about corruption yet (I don't know everything, but I do know that, when my one hood got corrupted, every single Sim, all ages, were having typical Fortune Sims wants).

I'm not an expert and I hope someone who is more knowledgeable about this stuff can confirm whether I'm right, but IF I remember correctly what others have posted elsewhere: It's apparently a common thing for toddlers to have a LTW if they were aged DOWN from a teen or older stage that started with a LTW (I'm guessing the game doesn't reset something properly?). The corruption symptom is when you have a toddler that aged UP from a baby and starts out with a LTW.

unanswered::

Hm! If that's true, it could certainly explain why my Pauline Aspir had an LTW when I first opened their house. Because who knows what Maxis did with her---maybe they had made her a teen in the first place, right? And of course I love the idea that her LTW wasn't a sign of corruption.

On the other hand, even if true, could it at all explain HA's issue with that toddler LTW? Because the thing is, I thought that CAS sims weren't initialized in the game until they were placed in the neighborhood, right, so why would it matter how that player operated CAS to get a toddler, whether aging down a sim they started in CAS as adult or rolling the CAS pacifier?

I wish I could remember whether I've created child or toddler sims that way in CAS---making them out of sims I first started making as adults. But I just don't. Does anyone else?

(I also am hoping that someone will come along who can verify that only in-game aging up to a toddler/child and showing an LTW that wasn't there before is a sign of corruption, yet not so when the aging's been done from a properly LTW-having stage. It sure does make intuitive sense, so it would be cool if it were true. BTW, I'm sorry, mdsb...I don't have any idea about your question. I hope someone else will.)

All hoods that come shipped with the game come already corrupted. Not sure what hood or sim that is since I don't play pre-mades but base game hoods are worse than later ones but even they are corrupted. So anything you see in them that seems odd probably is corruption. I noticed you bumped up the mega hood thread so if you are using cleaned up versions it may be okay. I hope you are playing the cleaned up mega hood since it's much better than the old Mega hood; or so I have read, I only play custom hoods.

Yes, no worries. I play Tarlia's, though it's her preconstructed one, which she acknowledged still had problems that she'd fixed in her even better templates (those ones that have to be manually stuck together to build a megahood). So you know, a (likely noteworthy) degree of cleanliness beyond the uberhood available here, but still not the cleanest available, especially in comparison to the empty and clean templates that Jawusa here has been working on .

I take corruption with a grain of salt, for the sake of my own sanity as a dedicated player. I know it's more likely than not. I do everything I can to prevent it, but I also accept that eventually it may happen anyway. Meanwhile, I backup often and use HoodChecker on every backup. And I no longer place any downloaded lot or even lot I'd previously built myself into a hood before stripping its sim references in a throwaway empty hood using Jawusa's method. I'm sure there's always even more one can do, but at some point one has to balance convenience and practicality against protectiveness.

That's the best attitude, be careful but don't get so worried you stop playing.

Also it's good to see a new 'face' posting on the sims 2 boards. Us old guard have been here so long we need some new blood er um posters!

How do you count the generations?

I've always started with the first ones as 1, with the first BIGs as gen 2 but from what I've noticed, some people start at 0 with the first BIGs as gen 1. *insert confused smilie here*

Some people count the first line of created sims as FOUNDERS. Then you'll have the first, second, and so on generations.

So, I want to have all the pre-made playable YA's (e.g. Heather Huffington, Roxie Sharpe, Francis Worthington etc.) from each of the three Universities, but I only want one Uni. I know I can do this by adding all three Unis, then deleting two of them, and the game will chuck them all into one Student Bin. But will this also give me three times the amount of Dormies, too? I really don't want 3x dormies....

I had problems a while back with toddlers and children from the sim bin having LTWs; some of the sim bin adults also had LTWs not consistent with the ones the wiki said they should have. I was using a mix of Tarlia's templates and empty templates. It was just as I started my current 'hood and I had a really hard time recreating the problem consistently in test hoods - I only got the problem to repeat once despite creating lots of test hoods. I think it may have had to do with the order I'd created sims in CAS and played, added subhoods, created more sims, and moved the sim bin families into my town, but I finally gave up testing it. Maybe the computer had just sneezed as the neighbourhoods were being created. Hoodchecker wasn't showing a problem, and aside from the LTW the children seemed normal and had normal toddler and child wants. When they aged to teen I still had the option to give them any aspiration, and I used simblender to reroll their LTW just in case it stayed stuck on the one they'd had as children. I decided to just play and enjoy my neighbourhood as it is, keep backups, and hope for the best. I've been playing that 'hood for months now, and my game is currently running well and hood checker is still not showing any problems.

Thanks, jo. I'm glad to have stopped lurking.



It does not in my UC game; I've added and deleted unis similarly a few times. But I also use nodormieregen by Pescado, and I don't know if that is making a difference there.

Side note: I also have been using TwoJeff's Dormie Gender Controller , which seems to work fine if it loads after nodormieregen. Mainly I'm using the DGC for one of its side functions: it forces the game to randomize among dormies instead of always adding the same ones to your dorm. However, I also like that loading it last means it overrides Pes' mod in the specific event that your dormie pool is completely booked (to other dorms or married to playables or whatever) yet you still have an unclaimed Myne door. TJ's mod allows just one dormie (for each unclaimed Myne door) to be created in that case.

That's a nice extra for someone like me, who doesn't love creating sims, especially not to just be townies. I mention it because I find it a nice compromise between having no new dormies ever, as Pes' mod makes it, and getting dormies made only on a case-by-case basis, when I really do need a new one or few.



Really appreciate you sharing, stitching! This is why I asked, in fact---I think the more we understand about corruption the better off we are, even though it's important not to let fears of it ruin our games. Very interesting that it was not a consistently reproducible glitch.

My experience, using Tarlia's preconstructed megahood, was the same as far as Hoodchecker: no problem shown despite the toddler LTW.

Glad to hear that the toddler LTW did not stop you from giving sims a teen aspiration or from rerolling the LTW at teen. A big part of why I deleted my Pauline Aspir's SWAF was because I didn't want to play her to the child-to-teen transition...and then find out that she glitched unplayably because of already having an LTW. Between thinking I might have to delete the SWAF at that later point (if I could still use her at all) and going ahead and deleting it while she was an unplayed toddler, I chose the latter so that she'd have more of a chance to get memories again. But it sounds like I could have just gone on without removing her SWAF at all, as long as her having an LTW too early did not bother me.

So all great to know. Thank you.

I do not know if it is dangerous - but deleting two unis should leave all the students in the bin.

Is it feasible to create two download folders? I want to do a medieval challenge without my download folder exploding.

Yes, but rather than two separate downloads folders, I'd recommend two separate copies of user files. Aside from the NPC-containing CC that cause corruption if removed, there's also the inconveniencing things like custom objects that store information and custom memories. For example visitor controller, monique's computer, the produce packing stations, and so on. In the past I used to take out my downloads folder when I wanted to troubleshoot something in my test hood, and occasionally I'd accidentally load my regular hood by reflex, and that meant all bank accounts were wiped and any packed produce lost. Very frustrating.

So now I have several The Sims 2 folders, that I rename when not using. Less hassle, and less room for mistakes.

Thank you. That makes sense so I'll start trying to think of the first ones as founders, instead of 1st gens.

Okay, so just to make sure I'm straight (I have slow days lol), just have two The Sims 2 folders? I think we can generate new ones.

Yes. Rename your current The Sims 2 folder to something else, for example The Sims 2 - Modern, and run the game. It will generate a new copy, that you can then use for your medieval things. You'll have to re-activate downloads in the new copy. Then when you want to use your old things, just rename the medieval one to The Sims 2 - Medieval or something like that

THANK YOU! My downloads folder (soon to be modern) just keeps growing. Why do people have so many wonderful mods and objects! Now if I can just get app.box to stop being a jerk.

Thanks. I guess I'll have to fix Vincent's pottery shop when I get back to the game. I have items on shelves so customers still can buy items there.

Can you tell by looking in Sim PE whether a particular item is animated or not? I'd love to put some animals in my game that I THINK aren't animated, but I have no idea if they are or not. The creator has long disappeared from the Sim community, and does not indicate the item is decorative, which is usually a giveaway.

My policy is that unless the creator states the item is not a custom NPC (Sunni does that, thankfully), unless I really, really want the item (which I do, sometimes), I don't take the chance.

My guess is that yes, you should be able to tell...

Depends on if they use already existing animations, or if they have custom ones. If they have custom ones, there should be animation files in the package. I think they are called ANIM but I'm not entirely sure. If it calls in-game ones it would probably just call them from a BHAV, rather than have them in the package.

gazania, who's the creator? Maybe one of us has used them before and knows, or someone who can run AGS wouldn't mind testing?

@natboopsie, THANK YOU for the heads-up about TJ's Dormie Gender Controller! Why have I not seen this before?! It's always driven me mad that the game just trots out the same old Dormies each time there's a spare room to fill. In the past I have resorted to using the Cowplant from time to time, but this is just what I need - thanks again!

@klapaucius, you are so welcome. I am thrilled that I could help someone this way. It's the primary reason I stopped lurking, actually. After I'd stumbled across so very many useful hacks, it seemed perhaps time that I shared the wealth!

Thanks right back for taking the time to let me know! I hope it works just as well for you; the randomization part seems to go quite smoothly in my game. And it should surely be much easier than cowplanting, lol.

Thanks to a thread here on MTS, I found this download of a japanese convenience store (7-11), here is the link http://strawberrikhunnie.tumblr.com...ience-store-set
but I realised that the dowload is 432 MB, plus other MB for some other things needed to run the lot. That lot sounds HUGE to me and I am afraid to fry my game with that or that the loading will take forever. Is it safe to install and play that lot? Thanks

I have that download-and while it is huge, the reason for it is because the creator did not compress any of the items, and thus made it far larger than it should be. There are hundreds of items, all of which need to be compressed. I gave up trying to do that...

I just took out the shelves for use in game, and found that they're actually just deco shelves, which require OMSP to use. Things look very badly placed without it.

@FranH, thanks for your reply and yes, there was also OMSP to download. I usually never dowload or use lots made by others, so I think I will try to select and use just the objects I am interested in on a lot created by me, deleting the rest. How can I compress the files I want to use? Thank you

The original link is gone.

You can try this link: https://www.facebook.com/notes/haze...146406065723702

One problem, though (at least in my case). The link is Mediafire. Mediafire has given me malware when I wasn't ultra-careful. It likes to load pop-ups and unders. There are ways to deal with Mediafire files, and others might be able to help out. Previously, I could get around it by using Firefox with No-Script, but today I'm finding that Mediafire won't even open unless I give permission for it to open a pop-up (and I've been burned a few times by Mediafire's nonsense, so quite bluntly, I don't need the downloads THAT badly to take a chance). It has managed to get around my pop-up blockers on Chrome, matter which ones I've tried. Mediafire is awful that way.

I've tried a couple of other tricks people have recommended in the past, and I think I might be getting more fuzzy as I get older ... I couldn't get the ones I tried to work. A forum search here might help you. Just because I'm having trouble doesn't mean you will be having trouble.

As for the help with my animals ... fortunately for me, my question was already answered. Thank you for offering to help!

For a sample of problems with Mediafire and what others have tried, here is a link: http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...hlight=Medafire

I should note that I have MalwareBytes Premium (there was a good deal going on at one point), Avast, AdBlock on both Chrome and Firefox, and again, NoScript on Firefox. I find Chrome's Poper Blocker works the best against most pop-ups on Chrome ... but it's extremely hit-or-miss with Mediafire. For a while, it didn't work. I cannot guarantee at all that it will keep the nasties away now, or for how long. I'm sure Mediafire works hard to counteract ANY pop-up blocker. Even if Poper Blocker does work for now, I'd still do a quick virus scan afterward. just in case. That's how despicable Mediafire is.

A better bet might be to see if someone could PM you the file, perhaps using Box. Dropbox, or SFS. I'm not on the computer that has a Sims game on it right now, though.

I tell ya, Sims File Share is one of the best things that came along as of late. Yes, I know people have issues with it, but stuff like this Mediafire crap and the disappearance of many file-sharing services reminds me why many of us wanted something better.

my last questions re-phrased::
"Downtown sort" and "Vacation sort" lines in Object Data; in which lot types do they appear?
do those catalogs have the same categories as Community lots?
the proper values for those lines, are they the same as the values for the "Community sort" line?

is the Build Mode catalog the same on each lot type Build Mode is available to?


slightly related:: noticed that some Object Data lines say "Unused". 3e, 50, 51, 5c, 5d, 69, 6a.
do any of those lines change with any pack/packs?


by the way, I do not yet have any pack.

I've been looking for a link to JFade's Compressorizer program, but I'm not having any luck..of course I have a copy of it, so you might want to pm me..and we can go from there.

For those of you who tried challenges about having X number of babies...I am about to try and was wondering, does it explode when all of the 7 babies age up the same freaking evening?
yeah I know, I should be worrying about so many other things...
Just one sim aging, waiting for everyone to come and see etc...What happen when they are 7?...and for all age stage.
How did you manage that?

Sorry, @elly87 and @FranH, I wasn't paying attention earlier to your discussion because it looked like you were having a sidebar. But I do know where JFade's Compressorizer can be downloaded; in fact, all his programs, if you like. I've posted a link over in Look at This Awesome Thing I Found.

I just read that pressing alt while building a foundation makes a foundation equal to one step in height, but when I try pressing alt my cursor becomes a set of arrows for moving around the lot. Nothing else happens. Any thoughts?

Nevermind, this was a Sims 3 page. D'oh.

Many years ago I posted a challenge on my SimPage on the old official Sims 2 site called "Snow White and the Seven Rugrats". Basically, you would start with a CAS family consisting of one adult and seven toddlers and try to survive as long as possible without anybody dying or being taken by the Social Worker. I think that I aged all the toddlers up to children at the same time and I don't remember my game exploding.

(I didn't get far past that point because 1) Seasons was released right after that and I didn't want to cheat them a house, but I also didn't want the kids to be taken by the social worker for freezing half to death and 2) I got distracted by something else and forgot all about it anyway. )

No they just age up.

How do we manage to play it?
Every now and then when I am feeling bored I play the toddler mania challenge so I have played it numerous times. My tips.
Make your one adult a nice pop sim with family secondary. Pop sims always roll a want to be friends and they have 7 potential friends right there, they also want to meet new person-hello handy paper person.

Grab that welcome wagon, they may help and one of them needs to become your sims friend.

That one sim you need as a friend so they will come over when asked and can give your sim a quick game of red hands because there fun will be rock bottom. They might also help. Then when you throw a party-because pop sims always want a party and a good one. Then for your great 'party' get a whole heap of aspiration points, so you can get some smart milk.

When potty training, put tot on potty and hit cancel, this lets your adult grab the next tot, not waste time. Don't cancel it on the tots queue, just the adults.

Ring for a nanny and a maid sooner rather than later.

Forget a bed, drink coffee on the go

Forget making food, jello is great.

Feed tots bottles only.

Keep the place small with thought to lay out, you do not want your sim walking distances.

The best I have done is all tots potty trained and two walking.

@natboopsie, thank you very much for the link in the other thread, I already downloaded the Compressorizer and the Collection maker!
I will try them soon.

7 shouldn't be a problem but it really depends on your computer. I find children aging to teens to be the hardest on my computer. When I'm making a new hood, I have breeding households with lots of sims on them, so I'm often aging up quite a few sims at a time. I would trust my computer to handle 7 aging up to teens but wouldn't want to try more (game has crashed on me trying to age too many more in the past), which is funny cause just the other day I aged 24 teens to adults in one shot. If you think your computer will have a problem with it, just set some of them to doing something shortly before, that will delay their age up until they are done and thus spread out the load on your computer.

Quick question while we're on the topic of the Compressorizer - I have it and love it and have gained a lot of satisfaction watching my files be smushed down to almost nothing - but I'm sure I read somewhere that once you've Compressorized, you won't be able to use the Wardrobe Wrangler. Is this true? Are there any Compressorizer-friendly alternatives?

I put Chris Hatch's pregnancy relationship adjustment hack into my game recently, as I wanted there to be some impact to infidelity and teen pregnancy in my game. I also have inteen and BoilingOil's alien experiments and multi-pt mod. A teen in my game just got pregnant by alien abduction, and when he popped his parents were furious with him - I was expecting that. What I wasn't expecting was for the teen and his parents to suddenly have the father (a pollination technician) in their relationship panels. I know the mod is supposed to make parents upset with the father too, but I hadn't thought about aliens when I checked the mod in my test hood. Is the fact that Peter Ottomas is furious with a pollination technician going to cause problems with my 'hood, or is this an ok side effect of the mod so long as my sims don't socialize further the alien parent?

elly87, you are very welcome!



I don't have confirmation that that's true, but it doesn't mean it isn't! I don't personally use the WW, just have read about it. What I can confirm is that the Wardrobe Wrangler itself compresses everything you use it on; that's documented.

If there is an incompatibility, I still don't know of any Compressorizer-friendly WW alternatives. Hopefully someone will come along who will.

Since we're mentioning caveats, though, it also has been said that it may cause trouble to edit a Compressorized .package file in SimPE, but others say you just have to recompress the file afterward. I've always gotten around that just by editing a .package in SimPE, before ever compressing. Which is why...

Especially for anyone Compressorizing their Downloads for the first time, it's highly recommended to BACK UP all your downloads first. And only do a few of your downloads at a time---in fact, when JFade's site was still up, he would routinely refuse to provide support to players who had Compressorized their whole Downloads folder at once, because he specifically said this should not be done.

I have personally experienced that some cc, depending on how it was made, will not work after being compressed. I deal with that just by compressing everything new that I download before I even try it in game, so if something doesn't work compressed, I just delete it. (If I never had it, I won't miss it...and if it doesn't compress, I don't need it. I'm hardcore that way.) I've had it happen maybe twice, with older clothing meshes; clothing and hair meshes are said to be the most likely for potential problems after Compressorizing, but I might also be cautious of things like careers (and again, if editing a custom career, best done before Compressorizing).

natboopsie, I will try to use Compressorize on the 7-11 lot I downloaded, since it is huge (143 MB), trying to select only the files I want to add to my game. Thank you for your advice, I am new to it and I hope I will not made a mess!

Good luck! Based on this thread , you should be OK using it on lot files, though honestly that concept is totally new to me! But as mentioned in that thread, there is also Mootilda's LotCompressor program, found here on MTS, if you need to try something else for that lot. Mootilda made the LC specifically for compressing lots.

Thank you for your help I hope I can do it.

My game did not exploded..all babies aged up just fine. lol But I would need a recurent nanny mod. She must be called everyday otherwise. But hey...I don't think I am enjoying this finally. ahahah

Does it change a child's astrological sign if the parents teach them to be clean/sloppy, lazy/active etc?

It does not. Unless deliberately and specifically changed with an editing tool, the star sign is for life. The genetic personality will also be retained (you can see it in SimPE) and whatever DNA recombination does with the personality points will be done with the genetic personality.

unanswered::

Question for SimPE boffins (Gummi you may know this). I've edited an object package and solely changed the object, but lots with the object already on them don't pick up the change even when deleting cache files. Is there a way to have them 'refresh' so you don't need to replace each one manually with the new version? To clarify this is the same package, not a clone.

Object creating is not my strong side, I'm afraid. I have not heard or read anything on how to make changes apply, other than re-placing the object, so that's the only method I know of. Try the object modding section, there are some very talented creators who read those that might be able to help (Create-button at the top of page -> Sims 2 Creating -> Object Creation)

Yeah or I may ask Frac at PBK. He's helped me before on object creation.

Can a married sim move out without being divorced?

I have two playables (Guy and Constant) who were dating the same townie (Marie-Ange) without me to notice. Later Guy married Marie-Ange but soon after her marriage Marie-Ange showed up at Constant's house. Constant and she now have an affair. When I played her household, her wants panel is full of wants for Constant so she'll leave her husband. I want her to leave him (her husband) without a word. They will sort things out later.

Yes. In Drama Acres, Trisha Traveller engineered a caught-cheating event with Julien Cooke and then moved out voluntarily. Later she had to invite Trent over in order to divorce him.

Thanks Peni.

Another one.
I have a sim who reach the top of the law enforcement career. Is it safe to use a default replacement career if a sim already is in this career?

If you go with the warning CC career creators add to their downloads, that you should make sure no sims is using that cc one before unistalling it...I'd say it is not safe to do. Or maybe I am mistaken sims3 with sims2...

You can uninstall it, just make sure the Sim is at home (or have him find another career before you do).

Hum, it seems I wasn't clear enough. In fact I want to install that default career in my game.

You were clear.
I was just thinking that if it is not advised to mess with carrers if sims are using them, ...replacing them with default might not be a good idea either. I would still wait until my sim quit it. Or when that sim is not at work like JustPetro said, at the very least.

Either back up your game and try, or do as Rosebine said and quit first. I'd use SimPE, that way it does not generate any memories, both removing and giving it back after

Sorry, @Essa, you were clear, I was half asleep I'd still go with being sure the Sim is at home, I think.

Thank you all.
The sim is currently at home. I'll make a back-up and see the result.

bringing home classmates/co-workers, can those be lot-specific and/or sim-specific? "lot-specific" meaning only certain lots getting classmates/co-workers, "sim-specific" meaning only certain sims bringing classmates/co-workers.

Can you sell individual bowls of grandma's comfort soup? What about individual glasses of juice?

The individual servings of soup, I don't know; for what it's worth, you can't normally sell the serving bowls of it---I have tried with the serving bowls, and you get the message that the object cannot be set for sale. (Striking out because gummilutt's post below indicates that perhaps I have some sort of glitch that causes this.)

(From what I have seen) the multiple-servings soup bowl is distinct from other prepared food platters in inventory, too, probably partly because of that.

The juice, I know you can't in the sense that there's no way to take a juice glass out of a sim's hand; they make it and drink it. With this mod suite , you can put trays of juice on sale (and that mod suite also fixes juice trays in some other cool ways; I use it and love it). And supposedly, this mod allows you to sell juice out of the juicer at an OFB or unowned business. At an OFB business, sounds like sims don't buy the juice autonomously, but you can always visit the lot (owned or unowned) and buy that way.

I have not tried cedrigo's mod, because it conflicts (as stated by cedrigo) with Jfade's juicer tweaks posted on MATY, which I use and prefer to a similar but less-solid version (by another modder) that can be found here on MTS.

You could try this mod. You'll get the chance to say yes or no at least.

Pretty sure you had some other problem going on nat. Comfort soup can be set for sale just as any other dish, both serving bowls and individual bowls.

Here they are, set on sale at my hood's takeout restaurant.

Oh my goodness, thank you so much, @gummilutt! Really appreciate the heads-up. It's true, I only ever tried it the one time. And, lol, now I've built an entire subset of my hood's economy around the premise that the soup cannot be sold in an owned business but must be bartered for privately...so that's not a bad thing, but I am delighted to know for the future. I appreciate the correction.

Editing to add: Edited my earlier post to point to your post as evidence that I was wrong about the matter.

Here's something I keep wondering about, now that I play the UC, and that I've never been able to get a good answer to.

Did one of the later expansion packs significantly change how attractive autonomous book reading is to sims? Because in my old game that had expansion packs through OFB, uni students who were Serious would regularly do it when they were low on fun. Some other sims too, but mostly I noticed it at Uni.

I've seen a sim maybe once autonomously read a book for fun in my UC game. This mod 's existence seems to imply that it was something done to books in Freetime. But of course it's sort of indirect evidence.

Can anyone say whether their later-expansion-pack games regularly feature sims who read for pleasure, autonomously? Or have you noticed too that they don't so much? Bonus points if you have noticed or remember anything similar (or in contrast) to what I remember, that my sims through EP3 did do it much more.

(Er, sorry, I guess I just double-posted. But since they're two very different topics, I'll leave it that way for now---someone please let me know if I should combine the two.)

Are you sure they that they weren't studying class research?

Oh, very, very sure. I'm steadily breaking myself of the habit of micromanaging my sims, but back then I was only taking baby steps. And one of them was that at uni, I would let them handle their own fun and social needs, directing them for everything else. I didn't actually allow any autonomous classwork---they had to have rolled a want. So if they went to get a book, I'd always look to see what they were doing with it and cancel the interaction if they were trying to study without a want. But they usually were pretty desperate for fun if I was giving them free rein like that, so it would have been surprising to me if they were trying to take care of any other need. Not impossible, just surprising.

More important, I also remember being a bit irked and often consciously staying my hand when they went to read for pleasure, because I knew that book reading would not raise their tanked Fun as fast as other alternatives. But since that was what they were choosing to do, I let them---so again, I have good reason to be sure that they were reading autonomously, because I had to deliberately remind myself to allow them this choice.

And look at this mod . Surely that would not be needed if they could not autonomously read, right?

I'm not trying to be argumentative. It really puzzles me, and I wish I could figure it out. Why do we have both mods to stop them doing it and mods to allow them to do it? Doesn't that seem strange?

Is there a cheat to stop trees from fading away when you zoom in? I cannot find anything about it...

I'm using UC and my several of my sims regularly autonomously read, even while their more playful housemates watch tv or play games. There is less reading for fun on lots that have plenty of other fun-advertising objects, or where the bookcases are out of the sim's way (back room of the house) - could the lots you are playing just have other things on them that are distracting your sims, things that weren't present in your earlier games?

Is there any way to have two walls, half-walls, or fences occupying the same edge of a tile? Obviously it wouldn't do anything if the walls were up, but it could be useful for "filling in" arches or creating more interesting colonnades if it was combined with arches or windows...

Thank you very much, stitching. Yes, that's true: in my old game, the dorms in particular were intentionally spartan, to encourage the sims to interact for fun. (They definitely did learn about Red Hands fairly fast, though pillow-fighting stayed popular.) And in my UC game, there is of course so much new stuff that is fun, especially FreeTime objects. And as would follow from your suggestion, I remember I saw that one sim in my UC game reading only recently, after I started to use the (very poorly documented, but very versatile and powerful) autonomy control mod from MATY to stop, for example, specific sims from autonomously using anything hobby-related in their household that did not relate to their OTH. (I'm probably going to restore their autonomy for some of those, but I did want to see what interactions they'd all do when less hobby-mesmerized).

So this is great---I have confirmation that someone else's UC sims do autonomously choose to read, even in the presence of TV (which my old game's dorms had too, so yes, my serious uni students used to sit and read while the person next to them watched TV, like what you describe yours do now).

That proves it is just a matter of what else is in their environment, and that's just what I wanted to know.

Much appreciated!

You can stack fences. if I can remember how... Put down fence one, build foundation against it then build fence two on top of foundation, remove foundation. I think, it's been awhile since I did that. But maybe that isn't what you are asking as I'm sure you would know that trick Zar.

Nope, this is the first I've heard of it! I'll have to fiddle with it a bit, see if anything comes of it!

I think that relates to the object hiding setting.
a number of settings seem to have a respective cheat (or set of cheats). I found several in the Graphics Rules file (Graphics Rules.sgr); had not searched for this one in that file.
full directory:: Program Files/EA Games/The Sims 2/TSData/Res/Config/
there is another version in the CSConfig folder; same extension.
can be opened with Wordpad/Notepad.

Ok, thank you. I'll go check that out when I'll shut my game

It's fun fiddling with fences, I did it here in this lot: https://www.modthesims.info/d/499887 I stacked a metal fence on top of a brick one.

Have we ever found out what was the deal with exploding toilet when we start our game on pause, then unpause it?
Just curious...

Does it make a difference to anything what you order for a fellow sim at a restaurant? I've always wondered. Do you not get as much relationship gain if you order something cheaper, or anything like that?

I don't know *if* it matters. But if it does, and you want the best relationship gain while still saving on the bill, you'd order the cheap meal for yourself, and the expensive one for your date
But as I said, I don't know if it actually *does* make a difference.

According to Prima Guide, if you can order your date's favorite food (it will appear on their thought bubble while ordering--a Sim's favorite food is permanent but different between NL and OFB podiums), you will get a (slight?) boost on date score. Ordering Chef's Choice automatically selects the favorite food for every Sim, but it doesn't add up score. Prima Guide doesn't mention about outing at all, so maybe it's pointless for outing after all (just order Chef's Choice). TBH, I never paid attention to the score while on a date. The score seems insignificant and I usually just flirt-flirt-kiss-WooHoo my date for certain dream date.

Sorry for double-posting, but I don't feel like asking and answering a question on the same post, so... I did this. I have 2 questions.

Has anybody ever successfully made a salon business? I feel like this business makes more expenses than income. It's very rare that a customer would browse the makeover chair if there are other stuff being marked for sale. But even if it's the only thing for sale, customers would usually just wander off anyway. Also, if I offer a non-free makeover to a customer, they won't browse it unlike regular items for sale. Anybody has workaround or mod to this? I want to make a boutique that can change people's appearance--makeover and clothes.

Second, has anybody had a gaming competition? Many years ago, I think when Sims start a gaming competition in a community lot, other Sims will join autonomously like other contests, but now not anymore. I have Computer Fixes mod from Simbology, but it says,

I don't use the no-autonomy version, but Sims never seem to join the competition.

I will ask you a rather silly question but..would you by any chance have a mod that stops unplayable/playable to use computers autonomously? I have one..otherwise, all they do is being at their computers all day....llike me.

Lily's House of Transformation in Drama Acres has always made money, though when I'm playing it as Lily no one ever gets a makeover because she's selling product and clothes too, and I've had a lot of trouble getting makeovers from her since her employee Ruby went to college - don't know what's up with that.

Though it hasn't been open long, Jessy PIlferson's Comb Up and See Me salon in Strangetown, which does not have anything for sale except the makeovers. She goes in with her housemate Sarah, who does the sales while Jessy does the makeovers. When someone else visits the place it's just Jessy and there's no problem getting a makeover.

It's hard to imagine what expenses you could have at a salon unless you have more employees than you need. All you need is a chair - there's no overhead on the makeover part at all.

I have a salon with bare settings. I don't sell anything else. I started with one makeover chair and two sofas. A makeover costs 50§ which isn't much money but my hairdresser is the second richest sim in town (old money). My salon is more a place where sims can meet and townies get makeovers. For clothes, I have a clothing shop.
I added a second chair since her son is supposed to take over the business when she'll retire. Since makeovers are the only thing for sale, customers browse and socialize while patiently waiting their term. Some customers don't browse though but I'm fine with that.

I played my salon yesterday and it was quite entertaining since Noah Marcotte only had a bronze badge.
Hope this help.


I had a gaming competition in an uni community lot yesterday. Sims join but I think it takes time to start. My sim won. FYI, I don't use the computer fixes mod.
I barely have gaming competition in my game.

Oh, I have LOTS of mods, and Computer Fixes.package is the only thing that was in my mind. I did check my mods, though it's possible that I might've missed any! I just want to make sure if anyone else finds this behavior not supposed to be like this. If not, then I'll have to dig through my mods again. Not a big deal, but I miss Sims competing on computers. I guess Essa confirmed it to me, so thanks!

On account to salon, the clothing racks made more profit in a business that was run by an employee and several family members. Customers seem to neglect the salon chair more. Peni and Essa pointed out it's possible to run a business with salon chair though. Maybe I'll just have to try harder with different strategy. Maybe I'm just bad at business after all. Thank you!

I have a salon, it's quite good. I have 3 hairdressers and I also stuck a massage table from Bon Voyage in there. You can offer a basic massage for $100, it takes about an hour to do but it's a trick that I used to increase profits quicker.
I think simlogical has an object that allows you to set employees as masseurs as well, but I can't access the site just now.

When I only had EPs through OFB, a makeover salon was one of the businesses that one of my sims used to complete the LTW where they need to have level 10 in 5 businesses. I did not find it hard to get up to level 10, but indeed, it is not as profitable, especially if only using one chair, as retail stores that sell any type of goods. And it seemed to be true that the makeover chair is set to advertise less strongly than racks holding sellable goods.



I think one thing that people seem to forget about running a makeover business is that you can do sales on someone browsing the chair, just like when they are browsing any other kind of display. Make sure you take advantage of this. I have heard of a problem where even when a customer's sales bar became filled, they would leave the salon premises without staying for the makeover---and IIRC that was some sort of hack conflict, because again, as with any other retail sales, a filled bar when browsing the makeover chair should mean the customer sits down for a makeover, or sits and waits if someone else has gotten in the chair in the meantime, and pays you too.

Because I really wasn't using business hacks and at the time had a computer that would only just handle the game I had, a couple other tricks I used to get more people on the salon lot were these. First, until the business had 2 or 3 stars, I had a hot tub in one corner; the wood-looking hot tub places nicely in corners. Along with the hot tub, I had a ticket machine on the lot. Because of course, customers give more stars the longer they stay at your "day spa," and depending on the price on your ticket machine, this can be a good source of profit too. Second, I would just have my sim call townies he knew to come over, and then they would either get in the hot tub or be sold a makeover. Or if I wanted to do a makeover on someone in the hot tub, no problem---click the chair and Offer Makeover to that sim. They would get out of the hot tub and then my sim could offer and then do Sales, Sales, Sales until they took it.

I removed my hot tub and ticket machine as soon as the business had enough stars to get a few more customers at a time.

Editing to address this...


It's Simwardrobe that has that hack, which you find under Business Facilitators. It's Employee Massage. (That site does not allow direct linking to individual pages. Ooh, it does too, and SciBirg did so below me!) Have not used Employee Massage myself, so I don't have any feedback about it.

I find it useful with salons to take the reputation business perk as soon as you earn one- this ensures that you have more interested customers sooner. Also I like to have a mod that makes sims leave as soon as they have purchased a makeover- this helps to ensure that you don't have socialising sims get in the way of the salon chair, which results in foot stamping and browsing drop-out. I just have a salon chair and a couple of sofas to start with, and no employees. The sim can perform Sales> Basic Sell on customers whilst waiting for a client, but don't forget to click on the salon chair quickly afterwards, so that the chair is manned for when the sale is accepted. This applies for offering the free makeover too- if there is no-one manning the salon chair then the offer of a free makeover will fail.

I have a salon too, with employees manning (womaning?) the salon chair and the register (they also sell cologne). I get autonomous customers to both the salon chair and the cologne, but more customers for the cologne.

I will definitely add the massage table. The mod for setting employees as masseuses is from simwardrobe, http://www.paladins-place.org/sims-...-controller.htm

Why does the cutscene for first time woohoo keep playing for couples who have woohooed before?

It is usually happening if you have mod conflict or outdated mod.

Did I install a hack that made regular woohoo (not ACR) risky? Because I was deliberately not trying to get Bianca the pregnant needs drain so soon on her honeymoon, and I really don't think the mouse slipped. Natural twins, the scanner says.

Does ACR work for anyone in hotels? My sims always pick a bed or sofa behind a door in another room, one they aren't checked into, to use, and I get the "You have to check in before you can use this" message.

Binaca's husband, Chester Geike, is apparently competing with the Curious-Smiths on the religion front. This quite surprised me, but he wanted a paranormal career, and followed that up by not rolling a kiss or first kiss want on his first date with Bianca, so those two together indicated that he's a young preacher called to Veronaville. They ended up sharing their first kiss under their wedding arch. As soon as Bianca feeds him up a bit they'll be three-bolters, so it wasn't any lack of attraction. It was just . . . his fate calling, I guess! He pretty clearly intends to focus on preaching brotherly (strictly and only!) love and affection between the feuding clans. Any names suggestions for his church?