Not sure if you or anyone else has noticed yet or not.  But I'm getting a bunch of gibberish in the dialog box when someone brings a friend home from work.



I've got all the eps and stuff packs installed.  And pretty much all of Pescado's, Two Jeff's, and Crammyboy's hacks in the game.  Along with a few Peasantry hacks.

Playing families usually.  I really only build lots when I'm forced to.  However, there are occasions where I get a wild hair up my butt and go on a building spree.


Barely decorated most of the time.  Unless the family has an over abundance of funds.  Then I'll splurg a little and fancy the place up.


I have a short attention span in this game.  But I'm trying to change that because the constant restarts are annoying and making me bored with the starting families in the Maxian hoods.


I play Pleasantview and Strangetown mostly.  But lately I've been playing Strangetown more.


Little of both.  If a sim gets a promotion I put priority on skill/friend gaining while trying not to screw up their usual routine.  Then when they're done they go back to the usual mundane things until the next promotion.


Both.  My younger sims (teens and YA's) travel to community lots pretty frequently.  Older sims usually stay home unless they have a community lot business.


All of the above.  Some sims I prefer to live in a certain region.  Depending on things like personality, aspiration, or whatever goal I have for them.


Never had a themed hood before.  But have thought about building a futuristic hood full of aliens.


Sometimes.  They're usually more trouble than they're worth for me.


I think everyone knows I have an alien fetish by now.     I like vamps as well.  Servos are cool.  Haven't played around with werewolves too much yet.  I rarely if ever do zombies since they're kinda irreversible.  Not sure how I feel about a plant sim since they skip two whole age groups.


Not really to make it more simpler or harder, but to make it more sane.


Not too much.  Mostly hack.  Every once in a while I'll see some CC clothing or whatnot that'll catch my eye.


I usually upload the lots that I make every once in a blue moon.

The new Vista computer I have is a Dell Dimension E521 (one of the ones they're selling in Wal-Mart now).  I knew Dells can sometimes have screwed up PSUs that fit in such a way that you can't easily fit a regular ATX PSU in it.  So I went looking around on Google for a bit of info.

This was one of the first results and it caught my eye, so I read further.  The guy said that Dells need an adapter to connect a regular ATX PSU to the motherboard.  One of which he linked too.

Now I've taken a close look at the motherboard in this Dell (kinda had to to install the 4 gigs of RAM) and I can't see a little connector anywhere near the main plug in for the PSU like in the picture shown.  It looks like a regular old 24 pin ATX PSU plug.

Does anyone have enough experience with Dells to say that I could just plug any old ATX PSU in without having to fear breaking something?  Does anyone even know if Dell still uses proprietary PSU connectors?  I've thought about pluggin in the old PSU in the old computer in to see.  But like I said, I don't want to blow something up.

As the title says, I'm shopping for a new video card.  I've been leaning toward getting an ATI of some sort and moving away from Nvidia.  Not that I've ever had any problems with Nvidia before, but I've read enough horror stories here to make me weary of getting a new one.

Normally I wouldn't be asking this.  I know my way around most hardware.  But there's something different this time that makes me want to ask for some advice.

I'm running Vista now.

I know there are driver issues out there currently with some of the cards and Vista.  And I've read somewhere that those Omega drivers for ATI that everyone raves about isn't working in Vista yet.  (I read this in an old thread in RL, so that might have changed)

So I guess I'm basically asking people to suggest a card.  Or, if ATI's drivers are up to snuff, suggest a good one that's within the $200 - $250 range.  (or possibly $300)  I shall buy an PSU with the appropriate wattage to go along with it.

I've got a question that may or may not have been answered here.  If it has I've missed it.

Is it possible with the empty Uni templates to add all three Unis to a neighborhood and not have an overflow of professors and NPCs with the anti-redundancy hack?

Not that anyone would have any real reason to do so unless they were running out of Uni real estate.  Which is a problem I may be running into later since I just downloaded that big joined hood of yours.

I'm a couple of days late for the Building Contest of Awesomeness.  But I built this out of need for a functional house for a growing family that didn't have crap loads of money.  And just for the sake of it I followed most of the Awesome Spec Building Code Regulations.  So I figured I'd share anyway.

Trepie's Budget Awesomesauce.  Now yours for around $52k.



First Floor.



Color Codes:

White - Foyer.  Contains The One Desk.  Ample space for Cheat kickage and Noodlesoother hat stands.
Green - Living area.
Teal - Downstairs bathroom.
Black - Garage.
Blue - Dining area.
Red - Lockable Kitchen
Yellow - Lockable Stairwell.

Second Floor.



Teal - Bathroom one and two.
Blue and Pink - Snot nosed ankle bitter's rooms.
Red - Mom and Pop's room.
Black - Skilling area.
White - Big open space.  Area over Foyer can be covered up to provide more room should Mom and Pop procreate again.

Now, you might be asking, "This is all well and good Trepie.  But what makes this sauce so awesome?"  I'm glad you asked!



The now tried and true Anti-Critter Perimeter Defense System keeps annoying animals, both normal and supernatural, from entering your yard, destroying your foliage, harassing your pets, and eating you baby.



Trepie's Budget Awesomesauce also includes the Interior Defense System.  Keeping seemingly harmless visitors from plundering your food stock and wandering around upstairs.  Where they may rummage through the dressers in the bedrooms so they can sniff you're wife's panties.

As you can see, the reason why Trepie's Budget Awesomesauce is labeled as such is from the complete lack of anything from the Decrotive and Landscaping categories.  Trepie's Budget Awesomesauce was designed to grow with your family.  As your family grows in wealth, so will the opportunities to decorate Trepie's Budget Awesomesauce with aesthetic novelties.



Adequate yard space provides enough room for a future pond for those in your family who would like to try their hand at fishing.



The back yard is also spacious.  Is there a sim in your family with a green thumb?  This area would make a lovely garden for them.

Did I mention you get all of this on a 3x3 lot?  This provides more than enough space for you and yours without bringing your computer to its knees.  I guarantee it, or your money back!

So what are you waiting for?  Order Trepie's Budget Awesomesauce today!

I actually caused this to happen once when I sent a sim to work in the car.  I had her engaged to another sim living in the hood and got them married at his lot, forgeting that she was at work in the car on her lot.  opps.

When I went back to her original lot I got the notification that the car wanted to come back too.  And it did all by itself.  I half expected it to talk to the other sims with a slight British accent and have that little red light in the grill going back and forth.  XD

Or just regular old Def.

But in some cases, Def is usually the end result of adding Arm on top of Con.  But not all.

Hottubs and pools should also go inside the house (perhaps in or around the training center area?) or a greenhouse.  The constant fall of Thor's Hammer seems to have become an issue with most simmers as of late.  Outdoor businesses suffer the same.  Before seasons I could run a business in the backyard of those Maxis made houses in the default Downtown.  Now the customers or either running for cover or freezing to death.

Fortuantly, I had a backup of the hood I just made.  A little habit I got into whenever I'm ready to send large groups of teens off to uni.  Moved her three roommates in, waited till night, moved the vampire in, then synced them up with College Clock.

I had another un-explained death once too.  The newspaper npc came by the lot that morning at seven like usual and just died.  No animation or anything.  She just went "poof!".  And her tombstone appeared in front of the cowplant.  A fenced in and unreachable cowplant at that...

I've had maybe one accidental death.  That was when I was playing with nouniprotect and my sim got scared three times in a row.

I had a pregnant sim die once.  But I'm saying that was a glitch as she just sorta keeled over for no reason (most of her motives were yellow at worst).  And when the reaper came in he jumped and disappeared.  All the husband found there was an urn stone when he finally made it there.

I had a vampire die when I sent her to uni.  She was the fourth one out of the taxi and died instantly when she aged transition.

Oh yeah, I had a nanny grab the cowplant cake once too.  But that's just a nanny being a nanny.  (ie.  Dumb)

Actually, its been up on the official site forever it seems.  If I'm not mistaken, I've had an animated snowman in my game since Uni.

Its funny, I've only ever noticed sims trecking through the house to wash dishes in the bathroom when their significant other was in the bathroom at the time.  Any other time they would use the kitchen sink.

Needless to say it was damn annoying.  I'll be using this for now own.

There's a blurb in the Prima guide about how the non-human, or "Occult" as the guide called it, sims have different internal temperature Max/Min's from regular sims.  Since I trust a TS2 Prima Guide about as far as I can throw a 1 ton boulder I thought I'd post it here for clarification.

Quoted from the guide:

Alien:  Max Temp  80 / Min Temp  -100
PlantSim:  Max Temp  50 / Min Temp  -100
Servo:  Max Temp 0 / Min Temp 0
Vampire:  Max Temp 100 / Min Temp -80
Werewolf:  Max Temp 100 / Min Temp -50
Zombie:  Max Temp 0 / Min Temp 0

So basically the guide is saying Aliens and Plantsims can't overheat, but can freeze.  Vampires and Werewolves can overheat, but can't freeze.  And Servos and Zombies can't overheat or freeze.

Is there any truth to this?  And what about sims that are mixed?  Like an Alien/Vampire/Zombie?

Okay.  I've come into a bit of money and looking to build a whole new PC.  Because Season is just kicking this Sempron's ass.

I've been looking around on Newegg and found some combo deals with a case/motherboard + an Intel Core 2 Duo.

Here's the combos:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductCombos.aspx?Item=N82E16856110071&SubCategory=3&SortField=0&PageSize=10&page=1

I'm trying to make this as cheap as possible.  Would I see a big enough difference in performance between the 1.8GHz and 2.4GHz Core 2 Duos to justify the $100+ difference?

Keep in mind I still need a video card, ram, and hard drive.  I've pretty much settled on an ATI X1950XT, which is gonna run another $200.

I'm also looking for at least 2 gigs of RAM and at least a 150 gig hard drive.  But I haven't compared prices on those yet.

And don't worry about the 250 watt power supply that comes with the case.  I have a 450 watt power supply in the one I'm using now that'll be swapped out.

It applies to toddler training too.

I wonder if it works for badge skilling as well.  Or even dance and pool skilling.

I see it a lot too during general conversation.  I also see it a lot when I tell the kid to Macro/Kick Stuff.

Oh, sweet merciful crap.  Why am I laughing my ass off at those pics when I should be thoroughly disturbed by them?

I've never encountered this problem.  But all of my dates happen in Downtown mostly.  Never inside a dorm or on a uni community lot.

Which begs the question:  Why would you want to have a date in a smelly dorm or uni community lot?

I had the same idea once.  Mortimer would be Morticia, Don would be Donna, Brandi would be Brandon, blah blah blah.  Never got the urge to actually do it though.

I'm trying to get my current project off the ground at the moment anyway.  Which I've so cleverly dubbed "Genetic Pleasantview".  Here's hoping Alexander doesn't look nearly as hideous when he actually inherits some features from his momma.

I was playing around in CAP yesterday and noticed there was some green fur unlocked.  So I started getting ideas about making an appropriate pet for the Smith's.

Sadly, there doesn't seem to be any black alien eyes for pets.  Which, as you know, would be a key ingredient to making an alien pet.  Just wondering if anyone has seen any out there yet.  Or could perhaps make some.

That must be what I did a couple of weeks ago then.  Its been so long since I've seen that screen.  And it was so bizarre I took a shot of it.



I'm pretty certain this was post Petz too.

This is nothing new.  KISS has been doing this for years.

That, and the simple fact that YA's are no longer confined to the Uni campus when you want to go to a community lot.  I felt such a sense of freedom when I installed NL.  Back in the TS2 + Uni days the only real way for Adult sims to meet YA sims was to chat on a computer.  And that was hit or miss.  Now the YA's can just go to a downtown lot and hang out with the adult sims.  Or meet them through the Matchmaker NPC.

Of course, its not perfect.  Adult sims can't go and visit a Uni community lot unless invited by a YA. 

YA's don't rush off the class autonomously if Free Will is off.