Well, the booty doesn't host store content, not that anybody on the BBS is necessarily intelligent enough to understand that. The idea of EA potentially pairing up with TSR is flat-out appalling. Not only would they be suppressing a huge amount of their community by saying "only the people we approve of are good enough to create custom content for your game!", but what about all the younger ages that play the Sims? There are plenty of 12s out there who certainly don't have money to go out and pay for new custom downloads, especially on top of the already fairly pricey game itself.

I certainly hope you're right about rumors gone wild. However, EA has grown increasingly money-grubbing recently, and every time I think they've hit rock bottom they find new lows to reach. 

Agreed. I'm also pretty skeptical of their projected sales for TS3, more so because of the specs than Securom. I know several of people who play TS2 that either just don't get what Securom is, or haven't run into problems with it on their system yet. Particularly for people who aren't particularly tech-savvy, they may not even *know* that their computer problems stem from Securom. On the other hand, none of my friends (including myself) are hardcore gamers, and buying/building a new computer just to the run TS3 is out of the question. Even for those who don't know/care what Securom is, if the demands for the game are too great, they'll just stick to what runs on their computer.

That would be me. And yes, as someone else pointed out, I deleted my reply because the download for the bench worked fine when I used the code, but then I realized that it appeared to contain the planter again. However, I didn't try installing it in the actual game.

Oddly enough, I've noticed this same problem as of late too. Move_objects on doesn't appear to do me any good-- I still get the same message. 

ETA: Okay, just in case anybody else has the same problem I did with move_objects not working (maybe I was just lucky?) exiting and reentering the lot, THEN entering the cheat did the trick for me. Not sure why it mattered, though.

Typical EA.  Let us know what they say.

My apologies, I misunderstood the problem.

This is intentional on EAxis' part. Whenever you play an apartment (even if the other neighbors are playable) you will only be able to see the family you are currently playing. If you want to visit them and have a decent enough relationship with that family, click on their door and choose "knock". You will then be able to see inside their apartment as long as you're visiting them.

Hmmm. I will have to try this and see if it works in some of the premade Maxis-family houses... I've noticed that since installing AL, I can't get some of the Pleasantview houses to show ceilings.

What's her job? I'm pretty sure there's a job available (the sports one, I think, though don't quote me on that) that has your Sim wear the llama outfit to work. I've noticed that sometimes Sims wander around community lots in their work outfits, which would explain the outfit change.

That's an understatement, yes. If you've read the Securom removal thread and don't feel comfortable getting it off your computer, I would strongly suggest you avoid putting it on there in the first place.

I followed this tutorial to make my own default replacements. Easy as pie, even with limited SimPE experience: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,8005.0.html.

Luckily, fanseelamb's got some default replacements up on MTS2. They're here if anybody else hates the EA originals as much as I did: http://sumomo.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=299307.

I don't know if you're interested or not, but I recently downloaded Spookymuffin's face templates (available here: http://www.insimenator.net/showthread.php?t=75472) and they solved this problem for me. They're diverse enough to be realistic, but aren't as drastic as the default ones. Of course, the downside is that only new Townies will be affected by them.

I'm running a dual core laptop with all EPs (minus BV because I didn't like it) and an ATI Radeon X1400 video card. I was surprised at how quickly the game loaded after installing AL; however, I upped my RAM to 2g over the summer and it may simply have been a result of that.

Invest in a cooling pad (I'm speaking from experience here) and make sure the air is circulating underneath-- sticky notes work wonderfully for this.Avoid setting your computer in your lap for long periods of time, and you definitely do not want to play Sims that way. Usually there are vents at the bottom of the laptop that keep it from overheating, and placing it in your lap blocks these vents-- it's one of the fastest ways I've found to cause a laptop to overheat. (For me personally, this resulted in lots of crashing.) Technically, laptops aren't supposed to run the Sims, but I play most of the EPs fairly smoothly and with next to no heating issues.

Additionally, I've found that disconnecting from the internet and disabling my antivirus when I play seems to help. In fact, disabling any non-necessary processes at all seems to help with the potential overheating problems.

I also had this same problem pre-AL, with the same house in Strangetown. I tried moving different families in and out several times,and never did manage to make that gap go away.

These are probably two obvious suggestions, but I'll add them anyway: always read the comments on a torrent before downloading. If there aren't any, I usually err on the side of caution and look for a different one. Also, you aren't able to register an ARRR'd game on the official site. I know this sounds so obvious it's redundant, but I've read threads on other websites where people seemed surprised at this. *shrug* The Pirate Bay seems to be a relatively safe site for torrents. I've downloaded a few games and television episodes from there and haven't gotten anything dangerous yet.

Also, I'm interested to hear about other people's experiences with Comodo. I tried the most recent version, and it kept asking me so many questions that I finally had to yank the thing off my laptop. I did like the version prior to that, though.

ETA: I forgot to mention Peer Guardian. I'm not exactly sure how much good it does, but I've been using it for awhile now and haven't run into any problems yet. Link is here: http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/.

What kinds of problems does this cause? Other than not being able to patch, I mean. I've definitely had a few Sims make custom clothes already. 

Fatkitty-- sorry to confuse you, I was looking at HP's hair download when I typed that. Glad you got it sorted out.

http://www.rarlab.com/download.htm

Opens fine with WinRar. Or was that not what you were asking?

That was the first hair to go after I had taken a look at them all. It would actually be a relatively attractive hairstyle, if EA had not felt the mysterious need to double our poor Sims' foreheads with it.

Thanks for uploading these, Simsbaby! You couldn't pay me to go near that EA store.

You know, that is a really good point. EA might be forcing themselves into giving real tech support, god forbid! 

Seriously, this is such a terrible idea that I can't even fathom why anyone would consider it. If Securom hadn't already pushed me into the ARRR-ing territory, this "limited installations" idea most definitely would.

Just add it to your user startup cheat file... you'll never have to enter the cheat again.

Directions here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4332.0.html

All right, I'm a little confused about this, so I figure this is a relevant thread to post it in: the patch DOES solve this, then? Why did EAxis pull it in the first place if it actually fixes something for once?

I have to second (third? fourth? how many times has this been suggested?) the Seasons idea. It's by far my favorite EP and, IIRC, the least buggy. Also, the gardening/fishing thing is a blast, and if you like keeping your Sims at home, it would probably appeal to you quite a bit. I lost interest in Pets pretty quickly and BV entertained me for about one vacation. After that, I was at a loss what to do with it.  FT, while it has a sort of nice idea, didn't seem to match up with what they *could* have done with it. (Especially since you don't get that many instruments, and would need University for full potential, I think.) Though if you enjoy keeping your Sims on their home lots, the ability to do hobbies might appeal to you.