I'll third it. That sound a nice, clean, neat solution that we can tailor to individual sim circumstances.

I use Opera so that's probably why I didn't come across any problems. Try this rapidshare link: http://rapidshare.com/files/125098138/190a_Sim_Lane.Sims2Pack.html


EDIT: added alternative link to the original post.

I'd add the basketball hoop to the list of FT objects/activities that produce OCD behaviour in sims. When testing my latest house a heavily pregnant Cweiberdink would attempt to play basketball at any and all opportunities, rather than eat, sleep, pee, wash, rest etc. More annoying still is that the cancel basketball action doesn't kick in until the sim has walked outside to the practice court.

Sorted, you should be able to download it now.

I love that fencing but, until now, haven't been able to find a use for it.

I thought I'd join in the fun and rework it in a modern still with added garage. Made with all EPs and GLS/FFS/H&M SPs. 2 Bedrooms/bathrooms upstairs with balcony/telescope for communing with aliens. Open plan dining/study area downstairs with separate kitchen, lounge and toilet. Outside are a swimming pool and basketball hoop for the athletically inclined and an orchard/greenhouse for those that like gardening. It should pretty well conform to awesome spec. Lemmiwinks and Cweiberdink (the latest lovely couple to join the MATY 'hood) have been playtesting it and it seems to work just fine.

Front:


Back:


Ground Floor:


Upper Floor:




Get it here: http://www.filecrunch.com/fileDownload.php?sub=8708c6b12b74d6fc6f3010821a761b38&fileId=155949

Alternative link for Furryfox users: http://rapidshare.com/files/125098138/190a_Sim_Lane.Sims2Pack.html

I had a quick look in SimPE and the increased chance of twins seems to be handled by the BHAV "FT - Family - More Twins" which is called when the pregnancy state updates. As far as I can make out it checks first if the mother has unlocked the twins 'superpower'. If she doesn't it then checks if the father has the twins 'superpower' unlocked. Either way as long as at least one parent has it, the game rolls a random percentage (0-100%) and checks if it is below a fixed percentage chance (50%). This would certainly fit in with the pattern of twin pregnancies I was getting which was roughly every other.

That's unfortunately what happens when your average bloke redesigns a game predominately played by women. It basically reverts to virtual willy-waving and cries of "Hey, look at mine! It's bigger, better and comes in more colours than yours." It's the lack of epeen that makes TS2 appeal outside the 'normal' gaming demographic.

If EAxis were to go down the paysite route then they might actually start enforcing the EULA as other paysites would then then be in direct competition with them. I think this is probably more of an indication of the direction that Sims3 is headed towards. They get to really milk the cash cow by dripfeeding new content but without the headache of added code functionality as they can contract artists to create themed sets of new content to sell on for large profits. There is one tiny plus point as I'd rather pay a couple of quid for the desirable items from a stuff pack without forking out for and having to install the whole thing.

I've been playing with FT installed and thought that I'd try out the super fertility lifetime aspiration benefit with a couple of family sims. I gave both of them the 'benefit' and played a few pregnancies out of curiosity and it looks like EAxis have implemented it in a slightly arse about face way. I've got ACR installed so I can track the progression of each pregnancy.

Pregnancy no1 - single conception, twins birth (WTF? At this point I started paying more attention to the pregnancy stats.)
Pregnancy no2 - single conception, single birth
Pregnancy no3 - single conception, single birth
Pregnancy no4 - single conception, twin birth (pregnancy switched from single to twins at second? stomach pop)
Pregnancy no5 - single conception, single birth
Pregnancy no6 - single conception, twins birth (pregnancy switched from single to twins at first stomach pop)

So it looks like EAxis are rerolling the twins odds at each stomach pop. My overall odds may be slightly higher due to twins and triplets being installed, but I'm going with the original chances which I believe are game default (not the mod overrides).

Is this consistent with others people's experiences so far?

Does this do much more than the previous pulled patch? I've already installed that plus the matching no CD executable.

I'm also wondering whether it is safe to run BodyShop, or will that sucker me with securom?

I've just started playing with Freetime installed and there seems to be a lot more fighting than before. I've been trying out the new 'hood that came with it as it was already filled with a selection of random sims to torture. Wherever my test sim went there seemed to be other sims fighting and as soon as she started spawning her kids started fights as well. Has something changed? Or is it just a random clashing of sim personalities?

I was pretty sure that I'd cleaned out all my neighbourhood templates prior to play but still seem to have ended up with a selection of townies in addition to the resident sims. Did I do something wrong? Or does the game insist on spawning some for the supplied 'hoods upon first installing?

Given the size of the objects.package file I can't see how EA could get samples of it to them any other way. The only info they'll get is your IP address. I also note that there is no mention that this is likely to be a long upload and should only be attempted by someone with a fast, always on (broadband) connection. If your're on dial-up, you'll probably still be trying to upload it next week.

Mr Eevilcat and I still collapse into fits of the giggles when we hear anyone mention a fanny pack. We also laugh lots at some of the product names in Ikea.

I have experienced both good and bad testing. When you have a proper dedicated test department with experienced testers it makes bugs much easier to track down. Of course that also assumes the team producing the code/content have provided detailed specs of expected behaviour for the QA team to test against. By this stage in the game EA will be far more interested in getting the product out the door than delivering something that is perfect; as time goes on the quality bar is lowered.

From what I remember any title deeds go to the sim with the highest relationship in the same household. I've only been bothered about this once or twice and made sure that the intended recipient was at 100/100 with the deed owner. You can also have the owner pass on business perks to the intended recipient, but you'll need a hack to make that happen in any sensible time frame.

I was hoping that this was something that had annoyed you sufficiently enough to fix it.

Is there a way of fixing the 'walks all the way around the house to get to the room next door' problem? It also seems to strike when checking for an open area for two sims to interact in e.g. to backrub. If sims are indoors I would have thought that outside would be initially excluded from any search and only looked at if there was nowhere suitable inside to carry out the interaction.

The cheeks on this one make me want to breed it with Fairlight. The mangling of the English language wouldn't be quite so bad if they were a child or teen, but apparently it's an adult.




Linky, just in case you want it.

I know sim routing is 'less than perfect' but have been noticing problems with swimming pools over the last few months. Specifically, if I direct a sim to do something e.g. like compost a newspaper and there is a pool with appropriately placed ladder(s)/diving board between them and the target, then the dumb sim will swim across the pool to reach the target rather than walk around it. This doubles the time it takes to do anything with the change into/out of swiimwear and the getting into/out of the pool. Is this normal behaviour? I'm sure it's a fairly recent (Seasons/BV) change.

The only packages I've got installed that seem to directly affect routing are Pescado's noroutefail, TJ's Students Move Away From The Portal and Squinge's MoveAwayFromFridge. Other mods such as ACR may invoke actions that involve routing.

I think it's fair to say that there has been a change in attitude with game publishers over recent years to 'design less in advance, release now and patch later'. DVD media is cheap so reworking old chunks of content isn't an issue as it doesn't take up valuable space on EP releases. Likewise, they assume that most people have access to a broadband connection to download patches, if not at home then at work, college or a library. While I appreciate you can't design a whole game + 7 EPs in advance down to code level you can at least create a system that better supports forward compatibility. Sometimes it seems that each EP is created in isolation then shoe-horned into the rest of the game.

I had another teen transition tonight and her eyes worked perfectly. It might be that the other teen transitioned before I put the hack in - I've been averaging 12 sims in that particular household so keeping track has been a little hit and miss.

I'm also amazed that this hasn't been addressed earlier as the bug has been there as long as there have been aliens in the game, though Eaxis might see fit to patch it now you've provided the correct fix.  It'll be nice to have the alien eyes appear on 'normal' skinned sims too.

I thought that elder looked a bit like Jack Nicholson in drag... Jack Nicholson in a strop in drag.

I've tried this with partial success. My teenage females with default replacement alien skin/eyes are using the alien eye texture if I do a 'change appearance' in the mirror with them. I'm fairly sure that the eye texture was missing on age transition as it was the usual washed out colour from the skintone texture. I've got a couple more sims that will age up this week so will check again carefully and get back to you.

Does this mean that teen males will need to be patched separately? If yes, would you mind supplying a fix for them too? Or detail the changes you made so that I can fix my own. I looked into this problem a while back and figured out how to workaround it in SimPE but this is a proper fix, so baaa! Thank ye. 

Wasn't there a bug where a townie from a different sub-hood moving in effectively lost everything? I seem to remember coming across something like this a long, long time ago when Malcolm Landgraab moved across to my Strangetown. It might be the same thing causing your problem.

OMG fetish knitwear that a demented granny might knit! If it had been a little leather or PVC number then yes, maybe, but a cable-knit jumper in grey? Seriously WTF???

My copy turned up today but I will probably wait until the weekend to install as the whole back-up/update process takes quite a long time and I prefer to get it right first time. A compatible version of SimPE is also on my requirement list and I note that one has appeared super quick so it will definitely be all systems go. If you don't want SecuROM then replace the official EXE with a no CD crack version before running the game and run it direct, don't use the launcher.