For those who are having troubles due to overwritten game files, try making a habit of keeping the original files in the original location with a .off extension so they can be easily searched and swapped back.  It's simpler than trying to remember changes and hunt down original files later on.

Snagged! 

I haven't caught the building bug for TS3 yet, and don't like building with budgets anyway, so a cute, well-organized starter is much appreciated. 

A while back, I sent a couple upstairs for some fun and scrolled out to check the garden.  Suddenly I heard moaning and gasping of a most suspicious nature, and thought, no, it couldn't possibly be... and of course it wasn't.  Eventually I figured out the neighbor was in labor.  It was an odd moment.  

It takes a long time to find Hurkin, Utah, on a map, given that Hurkin is spelled "Hurricane."  The pronunciation isn't indicative of a local drawl; it's a one-name anomaly.  

My sims pick up extra copies of their books from other people's trash cans.  Some people have no appreciation for fine literature. 

My family museum and graveyard is working out well.  The only playable ghost in my game owns that lot, giving it a permanent caretaker.  Family members visit to get to know their ancestors by visiting the regular ghosts there, and once in a while I temporarily move in a YA to drop off grave markers and portraits on their way to their new house.  The last one, being insane, was oddly at home in great-grandmother's creepy haunted house, so she now lives in a tiny closet in the attic.

Try as you might, but my sims are still coming over to raid your gardens.

Anything lethal.

I found this TS2 guy dancing around with smoke coming from his hand and did a double-take.



Turns out the garage was too small to finish painting the car, and when the repair was interrupted the spray-paint animation continued.  For a second I thought I had a real rebel in the game, with his own supplier.   

My original sim is a ghost living alone in her original house, and the grandkids I'm playing pop in now and then for lunch.  The plan is to temporarily move in future generations to drop off family portraits and any new gravestones and throw family reunion parties.  It should be quite the kickin' place in a few generations.  

So far, so fun, though the occasional "your ghost isn't going to live forever" crying-wolf messages are going to add up over time.

Part of my job was once to make musical performances relevant for deaf students.  It's actually rather fascinating to pull apart all the facets of music other than the actual tonal experience and see that it's still an interesting subject.  We went into visual representations of rhythm, experiencing the effect of sound waves by holding a balloon, demonstrating the mathematical relationships between notes with vibrating rubber bands, etc.  I'm not quite sure the bureaucracy was as helpful... having to hire a sign-language interpreter for a 100% musical performance is just a fancy way to give the translator's arms a rest and create a ton of questions about why that person sitting on the edge of the stage never did anything.  

Have you tried restoring from the .bak file? 

Sinking pets had to do with bay windows, if I recall correctly.  The odd hybrids might not be tied to the same issue, but it's worth researching, or simply deleting any bay windows on the lot to test.

Patently untrue!  Everyone can diagnose pets.  Behold!



Sleepy!



Dopey!  Grumpy!



Chilly!



Also Chilly!



Not a Toomah



Not a Pet



Frickin' Lazorbeameyetis



Mane'g

The objects themselves aren't as big a deal for me as other things I miss.  I wish the influence system had been enhanced rather than dropped.  The only way to get other sims to interact with each other seems to be to invite one of them to join a conversation, which doesn't seem to function very well.  Arranging group activities doesn't do much - I switched households to follow a daughter's family, and even though Mom had just picked up a romantic interest, getting them in the same room never spurred any type of interaction whatsoever.

Playing one family through generations works for me, but what good are townspeople if you can't manipulate them and bend the entire town to your will?  Shouldn't the point of a seamless neighborhood be to affect what happens in the neighborhood?  If the game is going to be more goal-oriented, my goal is to start a neighborhood WOAR... with actual WOAR, plus WINNING.  

My sims also miss building shrines to themselves.  I used to purchase a community lot, bring all the family portraits there, and either pass it down to the next generation or create a family of Servo caretakers.  Everyone would "gift" their paintings, and every so often I'd switch to the caretaker household for setup.  Now, the paintings can still be passed on, but it's a pain to move them from house to house.  Maybe the designated heir has to move into the founder-ghost's place once a generation for an inventory transfer... hmm, that might work.

I also haven't figured out how to establish an underground with SEKRIT LEET training facilities like I had in Part Deux with a core group of sims enticed into back rooms for poker and counterfeiting, though admittedly that functionality was due to Inge's key set, not the game itself.  Setting up a household for the purpose might serve for training, but the membership aspect is still missing.

My excitable sim was having a pretty rotten day, and when she saw the repoman, she ran to the bathroom to vomit.  She wasn't pregnant, so I'm assuming it was nerves.   

Check the original house (and the kidnapper's lair) from the Edit Town screen to see if you can still evict/re-merge the missing sim.  If you have to evict an adult to go with the toddler, transfer inventory to someone else in the house first as you may lose it otherwise (not sure).  I posted this earlier as a suggestion for deleted sims, and it seems likely that it would work in this case, too.

Just in case anyone is wondering, resetSim doesn't work so well when you've accidentally placed a sim in its own family inventory.  So, uh, don't do that.

Try resetSim first, but even if the toddler's icon is gone, you may be able to evict it from the town edit screen and re-merge.  If you have to take an adult out with it, move their inventory to someone else in the house first. 

Jonesi made some half-wall shelving that works nicely to hide the batbox.  I usually leave the sides open, but I believe the shelving is click-through, so you can finish off the sides and still access the batbox functions.  Search for recolors - there are some stone textures out there somewhere that are very useful.

It would be great to have a recolorable (or repository) cover that was click-through to use over any testing box.  If someone had an end table that fit well, would it be possible just to make it click-through in SimPe?

Hear, hear!  It would be great to build a neighborhood with all CC in, and then play it without having to load the whole deal.  I do something like that with 4GB of Bodyshop CC - leave it in while using Bodyshop, and then take it out so installing packaged sims only adds what is actually in use to the game.  It would be nice to do the same with neighborhoods, and have building sessions vs. quick-loading play sessions.  It would also make it much easier to share a game, make a version of your 'hood for a less powerful computer, or set up themed AnyGames.

Make sure you turn screen savers off.  During a long game load, they can try to launch and complain about DirectX, and it's easy to mistake for a game issue.  There are other threads for real DirectX issues in the Podium, but that's something quick to try.

How to Fully Uninstall Sims 2

Maybe there was some leftover gunk on your system.

Look here for things to consider when reinstalling.