No, I already had the system set up before I started installing programs. I am using XP and it has been at least three months since my last reformatting of my hard drive.

I notice that "All Users" and "Default User" folder groups each have an EA games folder, but those folders are all empty. I wonder if the computer auto sets up any subsequent users based on the original user's game... I mean,

1. I install the game, move my neighborhoods and not yet updated download folders into position
2. I launch the game for the first time and play
3. I exit and log off of my side.
4. My daughter logs into her side and launches the game
5. The game goes looking for the setup files and pulls everything in my EA folder for use on her side... except for neighborhoods and saved sims...?

That doesn't seem very sensible. She definitely does not have access to my neighborhoods. She has all new basic three neighborhoods, tutorial and the neighborhood that she created. But she also has the downloads folder that was last updated on 9/26/06.

My downloads folder was not terribly organized prior to the Pets update. I had everything in "downloads" because I did not know that I could use subfolders. In fact I thought that subfolders did not work. So before the update I had Insim in my downloads folder. Since the update I moved it to its own special folder so I could find it to remove it when they get their update done.

She did not have access to insim prior to the update, I am pretty sure. And I still have not found it, though I have not done the comprehensive search for the program that will help me identify which of those number strings equal Insim. I did use Sims2Pack Clean Installer to look for it on the Kids side and it claims that InSim is right there for anyone to see. It did not tell me which one of the files is actually the one I am looking for. (I have no idea if that makes any sense or not. Suffice it to say that I still don't see it written out plainly and I haven't given up looking for it.)


That is actually a very good idea and, yes a bit of a pain, but not so much a pain it wouldn't be feasible.

I still would like to solve the mystery, just for curiosity's sake, but there are certainly quite a few good workable ideas. Thanks!

I will have to check out these possibilities when I get "my turn" again in a few hours. Thanks for the suggestions. I will look into it. I would like to have some hacks available to me and NOT her! So if I can be sure they won't "bleed over" or whatever then I will feel much better about having a more "grown-up" version on my side.

After reading your replies about this I went back and checked. She does have a Downloads folder in her game and it has all my downloads up to but not including the Pets updates.

But she does not have the InSIM in her Downloads folder anywhere. It is also nowhere to be found on the "Kids' Side" of my computer. The only place the computer can find anything with "InSIM*.*" in the file name is on my side in its proper subfolder.


Now, I can admit to the possibility that I may have forgotten about giving her a copy of my downloads folder at some point earlier this month … but I do know that her dogs have been peeing reproduction adjusters and she has recently asked me about some of the InSIM commands that show up in some of her pie menus.

So does anyone have any idea how her side is finding it on my side in a subfolder of my Downloads folder?


She usually starts playing her game after a full system reboot since her turn is right after my autistic son's turn and he uses a lot of background programs and plays recorded videos on several different video playing programs at the same time. Sims 2 doesn't run very well after all that without a reboot. So I am usually not logged in at all. If I give her a chance to play while I am logged in... well, there is only one way to get to the Kids side and that is to log off... switch users. At least that is the only way that I know of. But, as I mentioned, I am usually logged off completely and not even running in the background.

Actually this does not work. I have a separate user identity from my children. And in my Downloads folder I have all my hacks and what-have-you's. I am "Mom" and my side is password protected... But on the "Kids" side of the computer I don't add anything at all.

I thought I was safe with my big-boobied girls and my whoo-hoo hacks, but my 6 year old is fascinated by the game and plays on the "Kids" side... and she has full access to every download I have on my side. So whichever has the hacks shares the hacks. That is why I don't have Casual Sex or naked Sims running around. I realized this when she asked me what "Spawn" means and what "Will I Woo-Hoo?" means. I kept InSIM, but I took out Casual Sex and thankfully I never downloaded the naked sims or the anti-blur -- not that I didn't want to, but I make myself think a few times before I download a new hack. Now, of course, I have to think "Is it suitable for 6-year olds?" before I download.

Since I have not explained how Sims get pregnant to her all of her families are made via adoption.   

Just so you know... protect the little sister!! Don't rely on separate user IDs to keep her safe.

V

One of my sims walked right over the new bowl and started filling it up. I don't know if the pet asked her to or not.

The bird does get thought bubbles about hunger.

Is the wormrat's bowl ever actually full? Everytime I click on the cage it suggests I add food, even if I just did.

The animations for playing with the wormrat are pretty cute, though. So far only Sandy Bruty has a wormrat and she has never gone to play with it autonomously - she can't leave the bird alone, though.

How is the bird opening the door? I put it in its own room so if she left the cage open when I wasn't looking then at least he wouldn't get out... but the door keeps opening everytime he gets near it.

Wow - it is a good thing I am in bed.... I might think nobody had a sense of humor here.

*pant* *pant* *pant*

Did you say remove??  .... *pant* *pant* *pant*


I can't breathe... I have to go lie down. I'll try to *pant* *pant* *pant* think about this later.

Oh Lord... Not the InSIMenator!!

    

I have to go lie down for a while... I am taking my InSIMenator with me.... I'll be back later...... probably....

Every time a pet pees anywhere except on a "walk" I get a brand new reproduction adjuster machine (in the shape of a microwave).

It took me a while to figure out when those things were showing up. I thought I was clicking something or otherwise causing it... but then I caught one of my dogs "producing" the reproduction machine.

Very odd.

Any ideas what is causing this? Is anyone else having odd things pop up when their pets pee? I still get the puddle, too, btw, so I am not saving anything by getting the machine.

   Bizarre!!

I can't imagine how I have never heard this... oh, I bet it is because I never stand around waiting for boys to finish in the bathroom!     I usually queue up using the bathroom followed by other greening activities and then go do something else with someone else until the peeing sim catches up with me!

 

Of course now I am going to have to hover around the little boy's room... that ought to win me reputation points of some kind or other!

 

Okay, I think this needs to be on the first page!!    Right after the log in there should be a general announcement, "Delete the groups.cache file and restart your game. If you are still having trouble then you may proceed."

I finally got Pets to run last night but I am afraid that might be only because I took out all but my most awesome hacks and created a new city from scratch and only used Maxi made lots and characters. I am hesitant to try to load any of my old cities because I don't want to sit for an hour hoping that "if I just give it a little more time....maybe it will work." (That was how I spent my day yesterday... once city after another. None of them ever worked.) I really don't want to lose all my sims from the past, though... and I am not looking forward to uninstalling and reinstalling hoping that I get it right this time.... blah blah blah... I have a new Sims 2 EP... blah blah blah

Anyway when I checked my groups.cache file it doesn't seem to be that big... certainly not big enough to be causing trouble. My accessory.cache is pretty huge, though. It is 6,243K as opposed to the miserable 176K in the groups file.

Can I delete the accessory.cache file? It was modified about 35 minutes before my groups.cache file. For any smart alecks that may be itching to reply-- I do know that I can delete the file... but is it a good idea if I want my game to actually work?

That is the same problem that I have had since I installed Glamour Life. I routinely package new lots or new families created in CAS after they have moved onto their new lots since I have no idea of any other way of saving CAS sim families.

After I installed Glamour Life I installed some of my old lots and they did not work and they shut down my city. After trying many different things I finally just uninstalled Glamour Life and then reinstalled it... but before I let the game launch the first time I went in and moved all my backed-up neighborhoods into the ea games\sims 2\neighborhoods folder (folder names are paraphrased here - and I followed the standard "moving files" protocol, etc). That solved my problem and the packaged lots that I had placed in my game worked fine at that point. It did not solve the problem of not being able to install packaged lots, though. For some reason they did not seem to be updated.

So I still have a problem. Maybe someone awesome could help me. I have not yet launched Pets after installing it because I don't want to have to uninstall and reinstall as soon as I want to use some of my packaged lots. So I moved all my packaged lots from all over my computer and have put them in the ea games\sims 2\packagedlots folder. Do I need to "install" them all before I start my game? or will they work simply by dint of being in that file? I mean are they auto updated along with my neighborhood files? And if I install them, should I first move them to a different folder from "packagedlots"? I seem to remember someone saying that.

I have been all over the internet since yesterday looking for the answer to this question. I don't remember having a problem like this way back when I installed OFB. But that was a while ago, so I may have forgotten.

Thanks for any help you can pass along. I am obviously confused, but I hope I explained myself well enough.

Most of the street performers I ever saw in my hometown of Jax, FL were displaced preachers on crates down in Hemming Plaza (downtown). They had some street performers in St. Augustine, but they were usually in costume and licensed by the city.

I think I would like to see more street performers. I agree that it would be a nice touch to any city. Here in Utah I think they lump them all under the "begging" category and the police shoo them away as soon as they get an audience. Mostly they are just traveling through and finding that this is not a good place to stop if you are homeless. I've been here 6 years (leaving soon, TG) and I've only seen one man with a guitar not far from the downtown area. When we stopped to listen to him play my husband got him into a conversation and we learned that he had been playing on a bench in the historic downtown area, but had been told to move along.

I am going to have to make a point of visiting a town in USA that does have street performers around. Does anybody know where that is?

I used the link above to get to the page where I found another link in the upper right hand corner that led to the rest of the conversation and then followed the link at the bottom of the page to get to the first page where I found the program.

Not complicated at all! 

Then I went back and tried to read the 11 pages of conversation and instead went back to the original link and just started from where Jase started and read from there. By the time they were all done talking about it there was a pretty awesome version to download. I don't use the nobabyharassment so I will give this a try.

I do wonder how they were able to get the baby to be selectable. That would be very useful since usually babies are total wildcards... no way to tell what they want (besides diaper changes) without the Sim Psychic Powers.

Oh no. We Americans believe in free speech very strongly. We would never do anything to stop someone from expressing an opinion about whatever they wish to express an opinion about.

How wonderful you know our country so well.

 

I checked that link but there wasn't any program attached on that page.

I don't know why anybody is complaining about the rudeness of breastfeeding in public. Since we are not supposed to be staring at people we don't know then it would follow that polite people have never seen anybody breastfeeding in public, no matter how obviously it was done.

Thank you so much for your help in this. If I were as clever as people IRL pretend to think I am I would have thought to look "buskers" up in the dictionary for myself some time ago. I thought it was some made up word specifically for Sims!

I downloaded the patch and had my sim start to chat with the busker who was already there when I closed the game. When my sim was all done talking to the visitor the visitor did NOT start playing again. Hallelujah.

I really appreciate your help. I had spent most of yesterday looking all through this site but I couldn't find the hack on my own.

Where do the dialogues about older hacks disappear to? I believe I read almost every board on this site and with following links for things to follow up on later I ended up with 10 IE windows open -- all from this site! lol

Thanks again to everyone for helping with this annoying little problem.

Thanks Venusy for reminding me. I remember now that I had rejected the noturnoffcomputers package because I liked them turning off their computers sometimes and it didn't bother me. But in this new household I can't leave the husband alone for a minute without him running into the den to turn off the computer while his wife is writing a novel.

I have also had the stomping and crying over ONE door rather than going to any number of other doors right there handy. But of course if the NPCs get too annoying I can always ask them to leave or lock them in a room until they go away. <grin> Mostly I just ask them to leave.

Vilia, I thought the link you sent was to the "less whiny" hack that I rejected because the paperwork said you have to be careful because they might not complain when they are really in need of something (like food). But when I went ahead and clicked the link I found Ancient Sim was describing the exact problem I have been having. My couple is a 3 bolt couple, they came that way right out of CAS (is that the in-game create a family?). Maybe that is why he can't stand it when she is working. I think I will try that hack as well and hopefully it will help too.

Thanks to everyone for helping me with this problem. I am off now to play my game.

Oh, thank you so much. That was helpful.

The only nobuskers download I have found refers to NL only. Do you know offhand if it is already ready for OfB?

THANK YOU!!!

Already you have helped tremendously just by giving me a point in the right direction.

Ah, but I didn't know what "buskers" meant so I never touched that one.

LOL.

I'll try reading it over again and see if I can understand it better.

Thanks!

P.S. If you want to go ahead and tell me what buskers means then that would save me some time! :-)

Whenever I have a sim who is writing a novel other sims in the house come over wanting to turn off the computer. Then when they can't reach the computer they stomp their foot and wave their arms and yell about it.

My novel-writing sim has a pretty high level of creativity so her books can't be THAT bad! 

What is up with this?

Has anyone else had this problem?

Is there a hack somewhere to stop Sims with no creativity skill from coming to my house and plopping out their tip jar and proceeding to assault everyone's ears with their terrible playing? They never leave and everyone else in the house wants to go give them money or spit raspberries at them.

Thanks SO much!

Well poopie darn. I don't have Uni. I had to choose between Nightlife & Uni and I chose Nightlife because I had heard that Uni had too many bugs and wasn't much fun to send kids off to college as one might think.

Thanks for the info

How do you get espresso machines on community lots? where are they hidden in the buy section? I would LOVE to be able to boost my sims' energy level when they were out gallavanting. I have often sent them out on a field trip only to realize too late that they are exhausted! (bad planning)

Oh Very Cool. Thank you. I was afraid to use it because I didn't want my nice Sim to start making harassing phone calls without provocation.

This is going to be very useful for my Popularity Sim who doesn't have any friends except his mom & brothers!

I have a menu "Call... Targets"

Targets for what? Love? Hate? Friendship? This Sim doesn't have any enemies and, as it turns out, only one friend who isn't a relative (he's young).

I totally LOVE this item. THANK YOU!!! I had to turn off aging for two days so that my former townies could catch up with all their friends, but now they can maintain their relationships in a relatively short period of time and I don't have to have one of them dedicate her life to answering the phone and hearing how sad it is they've all lost touch.



I have NL and it works great. The Call... friends is in the expected place. I haven't played a family with lots of outside family yet but when I do I expect it will work there also.

Hoorah!