I have the same card and my game slows to a crawl whenever it's raining or snowing. I am starting to think of making it perpetual summertime in my game, which sucks.

The only time I've ever had a non-old age death was when I first got the game. I had created a couple, moved them into a lot, shortly thereafter, the female sim became pregnant. I had no idea that the pregnancy state would be so unrealistic. It became a loop of the sim being too tired to eat, too hungry to sleep, rinse, lather, repeat. Then the grim reaper showed up and despite the frantic pleadings of her sim husband, she died anyway. I was horrified!
Anyway, I learned to keep a better eye on my pregnant sims but still use cheats sometimes (usually for energy) because their motives decay so rapidly and I find it highly unrealistic. Not that zombies, vampires or werewolves are realistic either but I don't play those, heh. I've been pregnant twice and not only could I continue to work, I never nearly starved to death, peed myself or passed out from exhaustion.

edited to correct typos

One can only hope.

I had a run of apparently "good" babies and hadn't experienced the fussy babies at all until last night. Brandi Broke gave birth to twins and the little buggers wouldn't quit crying no matter how much they were cuddled, played with or fed.

I did notice something amjoie had mentioned though, both babies were in need of a diaper change and there wasn't any option to do so. They didn't have a changing table and only after selling a few odds and ends to be able to afford one, did the option come up.

Another thing that was odd was that I had the nanny take care of the babies while Brandi was working and she bathed the babies in the kitchen sink; I don't recall ever seeing a nanny bathe an infant before. She also consistently left them on the floor in the kitchen rather then returning them to their cribs.

I can just picture a hand reaching out of the monitor screen and smacking one up alongside the head!

Maybe I should keep these visions to myself.

What kind of graphics card are you using, Gwill? I've got a Nvidia Geforce 5200....maybe it's another nvidia issue?

That gave me a giggle and I bet you're right.

I thought I had the latest version of CEP but I just MTS2 and see a new one was released on Friday; I will give that a shot.

Hmmm...interesting. That didn't work for me. My downloads file on my home computer got deleted due to my stupidity when I installed Seasons, so I had to start all over from scratch. I have downloaded only a couple of necklaces that use a mesh from Simchic but didn't bother tracking down any other accessories due to the flashiness issue.

This started happening for me after I installed Pets and has continued through installing Seasons. I haven't installed either patch for Pets yet. The flashing blue accessories happens upon first entering a lot, after my sims return home from work, after showering or when visiting a community lot. When they invite other sims over, the visiting sims have flashing blue accessories.

I don't have any vampires so I've never seen the flashing teeth thing.

Same here, it's still happening like crazy for me too. I've gotten to where I don't use earrings and/or necklaces anymore. I find it too annoying to have to send sims to the mirror every few minutes of gameplay to "change appearance" to make it stop flashing or to have use cheats to select visiting sims to do the same. I used to use the glasses category as a "turn on" quite a bit but not any more because I can't be fussed to mess with this all the time.

The few custom glasses I have seem to work fine but I could be wrong because I don't really use them that often. Also I don't have any problems with facial piercings of any kind. It seems to be just the earrings and necklaces, regardless of whose mesh they are based on. Simchic earings flash blue also so it's not just Dr.Pixel's mesh.

I wish someone could figure out what's causing this and make it STOP!

This is what I had envisioned as well. I didn't realize that Sims would stand and chat in the pouring rain, play chess in the rain, get the mail in the rain, etc., in other words, I didn't guess that it would have absolutely no effect on them at all. What's the point in having it rain then?

I think there is a difference between mentioning that something exists and "promoting" it. Get over yourself.

Fava beans and a nice chianti anyone?

Glad you got it worked out although I am slightly *green* with envy. My copy of Seasons isn't due to arrive until either Mar. 2nd or 5th according to Amazon.

You can use Sims2Pack Clean Installer from MTS2 to identify hacks. They should show up in red when you scan all of your files. The link to install it is here: http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/

Using JM's census tool it was divided by Playable sims and Non-playable sims. So the 105 "playable" sims I am assuming are my sims (including Maxis premades); the 376 are "nonplayable", I don't know how those are figured as townies/downtownies/service people (i.e. gardners/nannies/proffessors/etc.). I use TJ's AlwaysPerfectPlants hack, so I never hire gardners. I also use all of JM's norespawning hacks.

However, looking in the character file in Pleasantview, it totals 575 characters. Obviously 376 + 105 does not = 575. So there are even more characters then what the census tool is stating. Of course some of those characters could be ghosts but not all of them. The only ghosts I have had are the ones that came with the Goth lot because none of my sims have died yet (except Mortimer).

By the way I have all EPs and stuff packs.

That's what I was afraid you'd say. Thanks for letting me know.

I was so exicted to see I finally had some replies to my question..... .

Anyone? Anyone? Bueller?

I was playing Pleasantview the night before last and decided to play the Goth house which I haven't done in probably 2 months. (I'm lousy at lot synching.) The only residents living there were Dina and her toddler son, Bastian. I had sent her daughter, Mia, to college a few days previously using the University catalog tool. (I think that's what it's called. The one where you see what sims are eligible to go to Uni and send them that way rather then entering their lots.) Anyhow, I played their lot for a couple of sim days, growing Bastian from a toddler to a child, then saved and left the lot.

Since I didn't have any eligible bachelors for Dina to hook up with and I just installed TJ'S ACR for the first time, I went into CAS and created a new sim. I moved him into a lot, did the motherlode cheat, moved him back out and moved him into a swanky lot right next door to the Goth house. Dina was not part of the Welcome Wagon, so I teleported her using the simlogical teleporter. Three bolts, instant love. Dina and Robert (the CAS sim) visited for awhile then she left so my new sim could get some skill building done. Dina showed up the next day, they woohooed and she spent the night. I saved and exited his lot.

So last night I started up Pleasantview and was going to go into the Goth lot, except it was gone. Completey vanished. I went into Robert's lot and Dina was still there. I didn't save and exited the game. Went back in, the Goth lot is still missing and Dina is still at Robert's. I ended up having Robert ask Dina to move in, which she did, bringing her son with her.

I've never had a lot just disappear like that before. So is this a sign of an impending BFBVFS? I've been playing this version of Pleasantview off and on for probably close to a year. I just sent a whole slew of teens to Uni for the first time in this particular game, they're near graduation; I would really hate to lose all of that.  Checking the neighborhood census using JM's census tool, it showed that I have 105 playable characters and 376 NPCs. Is that normal? Or further signs that the Apocolypse is near?

This is what I'm kind of wondering also. I never did install the patch because I had read this thread and decided against it. Any issues that the patch supposedly fixed, JM and TJ already had hacks for.
Will Seasons force me to patch by the "checking to see if TS2 version is up to date" part of the installation?

This is a HUGE pet peeve of mine. Why in the world would I want the same formal gown to show up as everyday/formal/swimwear/pjs/undies/workout clothing? 

I can never decide if it's carelessness or vanity on the part of the creator.

I have only recently started doing this. Before I just saved when I was tired of playing or after a major event (age transition ususally). I was thinking the Simpe idea would probably be the easiest way of doing this (rather then having to go into each household and have sims with a custom career find a new job) until you mentioned that some sims might still be at work...and you know, you're right. I have no idea which households my sims might be at work instead of at home.
I suppose I could use Simpe to track down which sims have custom careers and then enter those households, make sure they are home and either have them change careers in game or go back into Simpe after verifying their work situation.
It sure does seem like this "game" is a lot of work sometimes. Damn it all! 

Okay so I'm trying to purge my downloads folders in preperation for the new EP (and crossing my fingers that Seasons will work with my less then fast CPU). I have gone through hair, clothes, skins, etc., etc.

I have downloaded some careers and while some of them are okay, others are just *blah* but I kept them because of the limited amount of careers within the game. Now that we will finally be getting some new career choices for our sims I'm thinking of getting rid of some the less then interesting ones that I have.

So, my question is, how horrible would it be if I just deleted the careers although some of my sims are employed using those careers? Is this a VBT causing a BFBVFS?

Ditto. This was my favorite part of the hack, that children were able to cook for themselves. More realistic then the way it's set up in the game. After all, most children can make themselves a sandwich/bowl of cereal/mac & cheese.