http://www.sims2workshop.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=124

This one from Carrigon's site?

After playing EQ and Wow for years I vowed I would never pay for Sims subscriptions but I have to admit I have been sorely tempted here lately.  I just got a new computer that can actually handle the graphics and I have been download-happy seeing all the stuff I have been missing.  My favorite is hair and I found this one site that charged per item (I think it was $2.50 for this style that I REALLY, REALLY wanted) and I almost paid.  The only thing that stopped me was the fact that I lose my downloads sometimes and have to go back and get them (not terribly organized, plus it keeps the number down because I will leave out stuff I never used in the first place).  The only sites that I have been able to go back and get the stuff was here, MTS2 and Simlogical so I pretty much stick to those unless it is just decorative stuff like wallpapers and such.

Those bangs were so pretty though....

Would be great for large families with lots of owned cars.  Can get to be a traffic jam.

I don't have the heart to make anything bad happen to any of my sims (except the Nannys when they tick my kids off) but I love it when chance happens and spices things up.  Too many perfect families is just boring.

I think the best one was a legacy challenge I was working on - first generation, just married, new baby, almost empty house but a well-equipped kitchen.  She and hubby were at work, baby sleeping in crib in the dining room and Nanny catches the kitchen on fire the first hour.  I had just rebuilt and apparently removed the wall that held the fire alarm (oops).  I freaked out waiting for the social worker to come because Nanny is too incompetent to call the fire dept herself (I know I COULD have made her selectable but I did get some perverse enjoyment out of watching her burn  ).  The entire kitchen burned to the ground and the Nanny ran around in flames for 6 HOURS.  Daddy got home and since I wasn't worried about the social worker anymore I wanted to see that woman die for burning up my brand new kitchen but she just left AND charged me.  I was peeved until I found her tombstone at the portal the next day.  Apparently she couldn't die while she was on duty.  I felt much better after that 

Argh! 

I read a story somewhere about someone making a halfway house for their "bad" teens and decided to do that myself in a newly started Pleasantview.

Having Inge's teleporter I figured it would be relatively simple to transfer custody.  I have used it before when the parents lived separately due to divorce or risky woohoo and I wanted the dad to have the kid.  That worked out rather well although it is quite annoying that if the father is not at the house when the baby is born he has NO relationship with it whatsoever whereas one living at the house gets freebie relationship points even if he never even holds it.

But anyway - I get this huge house, create a CAS family Sim (Madie Poppins), and move her in to start the teleporting of her teens.  I did Meadow first because she was friends with Dustin and I knew he would get the want for her to go to college when he went anyways.  Teleport and move her in to find that she is in aspiration failure.  Before I can even interact with her she runs away.  I tried various things but couldn't figure out how to get her back or at least let her out of my selectable family.

I decided to take Lilith Pleasant next since I had already played the Pleasants and I knew she was platinum.  Teleport and move her in and she runs away too!!  I thought they wouldn't do that if they were platinum.

So now I am perplexed as to how I should proceed getting these teens.  Any ideas?

Just checked mine and all is ok.  I only have one alien child but she has the father's genes listed too according to the simDNA command, I don't use SimPE).  

The only strange thing I have happening is when I had a Sim marry the DJ.  I never noticed before that they all look the same but when I clicked on him to talk I got a different thumbnail so I guess that hair is just part of his "work" clothes.  However, marrying him into the family I couldn't change his hair color.  He shows up as blonde but when I go to the mirror the black is marked (which is his DNA anyway and what he looked like as a DJ).  Was kind of a bummer.  My hood is overrun with black hair already - guess it is dominant.

Well, after I deleted all downloads except from here, simlogical and Monique's computer I don't have any problems with the patch.  Electronics are still broke but then they have never worked right anyway.  I haven't sent anyone to college yet though but then again I never had a final exam bug before so...

I dunno.  If I actually kept my neighborhoods I may not load it but since I reload the 'hoods whenever I get bored I don't mind if something blows up.  Becomes a bit of a challenge 

And YES ZephyrZodiac - I HATE Angela Pleasant ever since she and Lil lived in Alex Goth's frat house one iteration and she was such a snot!  She always hunted Lil down and beat her up even when I had Lilith max her body skill.  I think Maxis cheated for her (I know they did genetically anyways).  But, what comes around goes around - Lil slept with every boyfriend Angie ever had during and after college so she would at least have a good reason to get beat up. 

Valentine's Day - lol.  Hubby asked me what I wanted and I told him take out the trash.  End of holiday.  Now he is playing WoW and I am Simmin'.  What more could a girl ask for than a quiet hubby, McDonalds for the kids and the trash at the curb?

Now St. Patrick's Day - THAT is another story cause it is my birthday 

I don't get surprised much anymore but for some reason I had never seen Sims jumping in the flowers until they destroyed them.  Daniel and Mary Sue simply won't let Dustin come over to see Angela anymore after that one.  The trash can kicking was bad enough but that went over the line!

Well, it is not Macrotastics (whew) and I am tired of messing around with it for awhile so I think I will disable every mod except my must-haves from Pescado, twojeffs, Inge , Monique's comp, and, and... oh hell.  Back to the drawing board...  It took awhile to wean myself off Insim - don't think I can take anymore withdrawals.

Hmm, I did dl a few lots from sims2 (cause my houses are AWFUL).  Wonder if I got something unknown there.  Come to think of it, I think I saw some pink empty packages in the clean installer... 

Next stop is looking for a teen pregnancy mod if I can find one (I know, just playing with fire and whining every time I get burned  ).  I will find a way to destroy Angie "priss" Pleasant's life yet though 

Well, an update on not being able to end my dates - went to Veronaville this time and it seems that it is not necessarily "end the date" but a random menu option gets taken over by "spawn" - "memory manager x 10 or so" (last time it was the slow dance option).  If I chose one of those (spawn- memory manager) each memory manager had a different social attached to it that went in my sims queue (mostly date socials that I could see like all those "ask about...").

At any rate the only thing I can think of that changes that social menu that I have is macrotastics so I am gonna try to disable it and see if either the patch or that easy bed I downloaded from Christianluv is causing some kind of conflict.

Grrr, maybe I should just reinstall and skip the patch and wait till OFB gives me grief.

Yep, electronics is still broke.  Bought one each (handheld, MP3, cell phone) as the Pleasant pain-in-the-rear teens got the wants and Angie ended up with two of everything and Lilith rerolled wanting one again.

Also noticed that the after work hug that I have a mod for seems to work but causes a jump like a reset.

Last but not least I have lost the option to end dates and just have to wait on the timer to expire  .  Not sure which one is causing that but I did decide to try out a few new ones from Christianluv that I would think are unrelated but we'll see.

Hmm, wonder if I'll finally get it all sorted out just in time for OFB 

Argh!  Well, I guess I should have been paying attention - I didn't see the new patch msg so that may explain it.  After I installed I automatically went to get the patch I knew was there but didn't even bother reading it.  Whoda thunk Maxis would make another patch with OFB coming out so soon??

Well, I can say that other than the romance mod and the Oldies that one time I am having no problems with any of my other downloads.  I have only played a few neighborhood days so far though so I guess I'll  just keep my eyes open.

Thanks for the hints on those expensive paintings and dart boards!  Worked like a charm. 

Also, I redownloaded the romance mod and got some weird results.  Everything worked fine for awhile but then I got a new computer with my tax refund *YAY* and completely reinstalled Sims so had brand-new neighborhoods.  I put my saved downloads folder back and restarted Pleasantview but now the romance mod seems to not be working for me anymore.

I started by combining the Oldies with the Pleasants then moved the Burbs close by.  The visitors to welcome them to the 'hood were both the Oldies and Darren.  The Oldies stood out in the yard and "fell out of love" so Coral got the shrink.  I didn't have any problems though till Herb came inside to eat but then stopped and started doing a jumpy thing like he was reseting and so did Coral who had walked inside.  I boolprop'ed, made Coral selectable and ended up just having to delete her cause she kept error'ing and I couldn't do anything with her.

When I exit'ed the game I checked the log files (not that I really know how to read them but I thought maybe a word would jump out at me ) and it looks like Coral was trying to serenade Herb but couldn't I guess.  I disabled the romance mod, went back to the house and made Coral selectable again to find that apparently their relationshp was not high enough for that social although she did get a few others available with Herb.  This time though they didn't jump or anything when I put her back unselectable (I guess she didn't try that again, dunno).

It is really strange that I had been playing in an established Pleasantview with no problems  prior to that so I find it hard to believe it is the mod but can't explain why it stopped when I took it out.
Maybe because their relationship was kinda iffy in the first place and I hadn't played them yet?
 

Thanks Rainbow!  Gonna try that mod for the aspiration.  I don't mind cheating as long as it makes things more realistic to me and the way aspiration works now I don't really get to "play" or have them display any personality because they are so busy running around doing silly stuff trying to stay platinum.

Thanks for the stairs hints too.  I didn't know that the connecting stairs allowed more than one sim at a time but on the downside I have a lot of problems placing those too

The homework suggestions were great too.  I usually cancel the school icon as they are getting off the bus so they drop it in the yard and it is easier to get two sims out there at once with nothing close by to distract them.  I am just annoyed that I can't queue stuff or they quit.  Most of my houses have several sims in them and if I don't queue and move on life can get pretty bad for my simlings

Great idea to put the DJ booth and bowling alley in inventory.  I hadn't thought of that because I don't like to use inventory usually.  It seems like some things get busted if they have been in inventory - beds, dressers...  When I take them out they won't place against a wall anymore unless I use moveobjects but even then my sims can't use them to woohoo anymore so I just end up selling and buying new anyways.

I used to have the romance mod and life was good so I think if it works NL I will be very happy.  I tend to be having lots of Romance sims these days, mostly just to add some excitement to my usual knowledge run.  Brandi's last boy Donny is just so cute and so good at it plus I want him to be one of my breeders so it will work out well.  I have a risky woohoo mod that spices things up nicely so most of my kids are from romance sims and I never "try for baby" (family sims just have to get a fertile wife or a few mistresses if they want to have five million kids).  Nina is on her 3rd unknown father kid with her 15th woohoo for now - unfortunately she and Don don't get to see each other much since they were always busting each other and staying furious but they make such nice kids I think they are gonna have to make up or change aspiration since he is perma plat anyways now and Nina will be soon

Yeah, the aspiration decay would take some of the challenge away but it seems like some of them are just ridiculous - particularly with family and pleasure sims.  Unless my family sims are hanging all over their spouse ALL day long they are just not happy doing anything else which is kinda tedious.  I mean - I love my hubby too but not THAT much! 

I think those types of things should still be their wants but not to the point that they go green or red if they are doing something else so long as they have spent some "quality" time.  My stay-at-home family sims can go green just waiting on their poor spouse to get home from work so they can cling and be happy again.  Too many times I just send a platinum sim to bed or to meditate until work which is just boring.

It also annoys me that all my sims end up with 5 gazillion aspiration points and there is nothing I want to get with them.  I only use the thinking cap, smart milk and sometimes the hot tub and the shades.  The elixir and the energizer just make everything WAY too easy and I already have a hard time getting sims to die of anything but old age without cheating.

Thanks, for some reason I was thinking that one didn't work with NL when I redownloaded recently after an install.  Gonna try it again

I was thinking of the things that really annoy me the most in TS2 and thought I would ask and see if there are any mods out there that anyone knows of to fix them -

Sim routing failure going up/down stairs - I always remodel all houses that have more than one floor to have two staircases because of this

Can't queue anything for parents helping with homework or they will stop immediately (and it is a real pain in the neck to get them nailed down to do it in the first place unless I turn free will off)

Jealousy that doesn't go by lot but by aspiration - for example I don't ever want my romance sims to get jealous (unless maybe they are married) but I don't want to stop my family sims on the same lot from getting ticked about cheating

Some kind of a slow down for aspiration decay.  For example - Alex Goth is a Pleasure Sim this time around and he is really high maintenance even tho he should NEVER go anywhere near depressed.  He'll come home from school, go on a date, invite a group over for an outing when he gets back and then spend the evening playing poker with his buddies and STILL manage to almost go green by the time he goes to bed.  To me, it seems like he should not lose aspiration status while he is doing something he wanted to do in the first place instead of me having to have him jump on the couch (cancel it), mix drinks (cancel), play pinball (cancel), take a bubble bath AGAIN (cancel) etc, etc.  Same thing with the other aspirations - Don Lothario can woohoo 5 times in one day (guess he has the weekender Viagra) and still manage to not get promoted the next day because he is not happy enough with his life??

last  - Does every Fortune Sim HAVE to have a bowling alley and a DJ booth at their house???  It used to be every instrument with UNI (thank you twojeffs that I don't get that anymore) but now my fortune Sims all have to either have a huge house with room for that or throw one in the yard (which looks really dumb)

NL made a  HUGE difference on my puter for some reason.  Pre-NL I didn't buy lighting or landscaping and slowed to a crawl if I tried to go to a community lot.  The Summerdream house was just about unplayable until I stripped it.

Now though, same 'puter (a really low end e-machine, default graphics card from Walmart) but I don't ever have to worry about how much lighting I have (except those flashy changing color ones that hang from the ceiling) and I haven't run into a problem with landscaping yet.

I do a few things though - leave all lights on all the time (not only does it help environment score even during the day but the worse slow down I would see was the turning on and off at dusk and dawn) and I have a tree hider.

I also just figured out that I don't have very many graphics goodies turned on.  When I installed I assumed the game would check out my system and set them for me but.... I recently changed the detail to high and something else to high and WOW, a whole new game to see and my 'puter seems to handle it just fine.

On items - the only thing I won't let my Sims buy is the dance sphere.  Even if someone is using it on the third floor I can tell while I am playing on the first.

I think the biggest problem is the number of Sims.  I always move the Oldies in with the Pleasants when I start a new Pleasantview and I am not sure if it is the rebuild of their house or the extra peeps but it slows down till they croak.  Ironically though, I can have many Sims in one house as long as they are not all teen+.  I guess the kids and toddlers don't cause the pathing lag so much.

The very worse problem I have is not anything to do with me but the fights.  UGH.  That little ball of scrapping really seems to hog the resources and in a big dorm I just have to sit it out.