He doesn't blame EA totally, just the specific people who program TS2. I've tried to tell him he's wrong and that all EA games will have that program, but he doesn't believe me. And the funny thing is, he's the one who's really good with computers. He built my PC from scratch (I bought all the parts, but it was much cheaper than buying a new PC) as well as his and he's the one who installs any upgrades I get for my computer. He's always comparing TS2 to Guild Wars (he plays it all the time) and pointing out how the game had very little bugs when it came out and if a bug is found, it's fixed within a day. He sees the huge amount of bugs in TS2 and how long they take to fix them, and because of that, he thinks the Sims team is just really, really bad at programming. But I think since the games are completely different, you can't really compare them.

My brother wants Spore and says he won't worry about SecuROM even though my DVD burner died from it. He pretty much hates the Sims and thinks all the issues are from bad programming on EAxis's part and not from SecuROM. But I'll let him play the game normally, while I pirate it and we'll see who ends up with problems.

Thanks. I found it. Version 1.0 is for the un-patched game, right?

Does anyone know if this is the version they're including with Apartment Life? Because I don't see any way that the limited installs would work at all with TS2 because of how badly programmed and buggy the game is in general. Plus, there's the fact that EAxis is always telling people with problems to reinstall the game, so this could get really bad. I can just see all the angry people complaining because they can't play their game anymore.

Thanks. Care to point me in the direction of a working FT no CD crack? Also, does the no CD crack bypass the launcher? Sorry, I've never done this before, but I think it's needed since I don't want to lose another DVD burner or anything else. Oh, and I'm not planning on patching FT at all, so I don't know if that makes a difference in what version I'll need or not.

Ok, I have a question. I'm going to be replacing my motherboard and processor in a couple of weeks which means I'm going to have to reinstall Windows and all my programs including TS2. I'm installing Windows on a new hard drive that's bigger than my current one which is about filled up right now. Anyway, when I get my mobo/CPU swapped out and get XP installed, I'd really like to avoid installing SecuROM. So what I'm wondering is, is there a way of installing the game without also installing SecuROM that doesn't involve downloading the games or does it automatically install when the game is installed. Because the removal instructions are too complicated for me to understand and I don't want to be messing with the registry. I have all the EPs and SPs if that makes any difference. I thought I read that SecuROM doesn't install until you start the game, is that the case? If so, would I just need a no CD crack for Free Time?

Yeah, that sounds like it. It's happening a lot and it drives me nuts. Sometimes it happens with the mouth open like they're shocked and that's the one that sticks until I delete the sim with moveobjects on but they also do this thing where their mouth is shut, but one corner keeps going down like they're frowning. They tend to do it on and off all the time but it never sticks. I'll try to get a pic of that and the head tilted down problem tomorrow when I start my game up again.

I don't think it's a problem with my RAM (I have 2 GB) or my video card (Radeon x1900). But I do have issues with my processor since it's a dual core. Each core is only like 2.2 GHz and the first core tends to be all the way used up after playing my game for awhile until the game eventually crashes or runs so slow I can't play anymore.

I have some weird glitches in my game and I'm not sure when they started, but they're annoying. The first thing only happens in CAS. What happens is, when I pick a hairstyle or makeup or whatever for a sim, they'll look down, like their whole face will be angled downward so you can't see clearly what makeup or anything looks like on them. The only way to get their head back up is to go into clothing or something where it zooms out and go back to the hair or makeup. The second thing happens in CAS a lot, but it also happens in the game. Basically, the sims' mouths look strange. Like one side of their mouth will go down like they're frowning or something but not the other corner. It happens a lot and it's really bugging me since it ruins a lot of otherwise good pictures I take in the game. Anyone know about either problem like what could be causing it or any ways to fix it?

Thanks.

I got the updated cs_corefuncs and the water is coming up to the beach like normal now. The edge of the lot still looks strange, but I can live with that. Thanks for the help everyone.

So the water can't look like that in other neighborhoods? Even with the Twiikkii Island template?

Ok, I do have all the CS objects including cs_corefuncs. I'll try redownloading and see if that fixes the problem. Thanks.

Oh, and while I'm on the topic of beach lots, is there any way to make the water on residential beach hoods look like the water in Twikkii Island? The color of the water there is more of a turquoise color and it doesn't just blend in with the sky at night like normal nhood beach lots. Is there a hack or something that can change all the water to look like Twikkii's water?

I'm not entirely sure when this problem popped up, but I believe it started after Free Time. Anyway, all my beach lots look wrong. Like the moving water that's supposed to reach the sand doesn't even come close to the shore line and the edge of the water at the edge of the lot doesn't line up properly. Every beach lot I place does this. It doesn't seem to matter which size lot I use or which neighborhood I use. I've tried the templates for Twikkii Island, Bluewater Village and all the other lots that can be used for beach lots that came with BV as well as custom nhood templates. Anyone know what might be causing this or how I could fix it? As far as I know, I don't have any outdated hacks.

I tried the MTS2 Wiki method first just to see if it made any difference (since it's not permanent) and my game was slower than ever. The music sounded awful (like a scratched CD) and the game kept freezing up every few seconds. Doing the other method would make the same thing happen, wouldn't it?

Where are the instructions for bypassing the launcher? I hate the launcher anyway. I'd start it from the EP7.exe even with K&B Stuff installed, right?

My computer was built from scratch by my brother, so I'll be downloading those fixes I need. I just have one more question about it. Where is the boot.ini file? I see it mentioned, but not where to find it.

I saw that, but I thought it was just for laptops. It does look a bit confusing too. If I do that, does it make TS2 use both cores, or does it still just use one core? Because if it still does just use one core, I think I'd be better off with the new processor since each core is 3.2 where my current one is only 2.2GHz.

Also, I found this at MTS2: http://www.modthesims2.com/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Dual_Core_Issues#Dual_Core_Issues

What's the difference between doing that and the fix you mentioned? The MTS2 one sounds fairly simple, but does it do pretty much the same thing (performance-wise)? Or do those have completely different effects?

I'm getting ready to upgrade my PC again soon since TS2 runs really choppy on it. Right now, I have a dual core, which from what I understand is the reason it's running so slow. Before my dual core, I had a Pentium IV 3.00 GHz and it ran better then than it does now. I have an AMD Athlon 64 x2 3800+ at the moment. What I'm wondering is if I get a better processor (the one I'm looking at is an AMD Athlon 64 x2 6400+ Windsor 3.2GHz dual core) will it help? I would just go back to a single core, but with TS3 coming out next year, I want to have my computer ready for that, but in the meantime, I'd like to be able to play TS2 occasionally without the random slowness and occasional crashes.

One more thing. I'm also thinking about getting a new video card since my ATI Radeon x1900 is like 3 years old. My brother has a GeForce 8800 GS and I'm thinking of getting that one, but the reason I got my ATI card is because my previous card was a GeForce 6600 GT and I was getting BSOD crashes while playing the Sims 2 back before the compatibility issues were known about. Anyway, if I get the GeForce 8800, will the BSOD crashes come back, or does this only effect certain NVidia cards? And if there is going to be a problem, what is the ATI equivalent of the 8800? I know a new card won't improve anything for TS2, but I'm mainly looking to upgrade more for TS3 than for TS2.

I'm pretty sure you need the gold badge to make custom clothes (where you pick the colors or patterns for each part) and with only a silver badge you can only make the clothes (Maxis or downloaded) that you find in CAS and can buy for your sims. So instead of them buying clothes to add to the wardrobe, sims can just sew those same clothes for less money.

I couldn't figure out why the patch kept getting an error at skins.package, but it makes sense now since I have made lots of clothes on the sewing machine. Either way, I'm not deleting my skins.package since I'd lose all those clothes. It seems like they should have caught this error in the first place since they programed the game. I mean, they made it so clothes made on the sewing machine saved to the Skins.package and they knew the patch won't work if the file size of any of the files it needs to update is different than after a fresh install. So how'd they not know this would happen?

Seriously? I guess I'm not too surprised since the programmers at EAxis don't seem too bright. I have made clothes on the sewing machine after using the badge juicer to get the gold badge. So I guess that explains why some people have problems and some don't. If they haven't used the sewing machine to make clothes, then their skins.package would be the normal size. But I also saw lots of people say it errored on the objects.package, so I wonder what's going on with that?

If I copy the file from the disc and get the patch to install, will I still need to reinstall?

EDIT: I looked in compressed.zip and I couldn't find the Skins.package file.

I tried redownloading it and when the error comes up, if I move the error box, it says it's applying update to TSData/Res/Catalog/Skins/Skins.package. I checked that file and it's not read only and it opens ok in SimPe. I can live without the patch if it won't work, but I don't want to have to reinstall. But I'm afraid that if the patch partially installed that it might screw up my game if I try to play it now. Can you even uninstall/reinstall just one EP without it screwing up the game? Because I thought I saw someone say it's a bad idea to do that before. And I don't want to spend hours reinstalling every single EP and SP.

I have XP.

No, there's no pop-up or anything else. It seems like it works normal until the last file finishes updating, then there's a pause and the error comes up.

Nope. I have a legit copy of the game and I've always used the CDs to play and I haven't touched any of the files it updates. But I just checked and they're not read only, so that's not it. And I just popped into the official BBS (I try to avoid that place normally) but it seems lots of people are having either this problem or other problems after patching the game.

Ok, I downloaded the patch this morning and just now got around to installing it. Anyway, I clicked on the thing to install it, and at first it seemed to be installing fine, but when it was done, instead of saying my game was now updated or whatever it said "Error during update installation. You may need to uninstall and reinstall The Sims 2 FreeTime. Please make sure you backup your saved games first." If I try it again, the same thing happens. WTF? It's supposed to be fixing the game and instead it tells me to reinstall the game. Are they serious?  I don't want to reinstall again. Yes, I just made a new backup yesterday, but my Sims 2 folder is around 8 GB and it takes forever to copy so I usually tell it to copy before I go to bed and when I wake up, it's done. Is reinstalling really necessary, because it doesn't seem like the patch installed at all since when I try it again, it still tries to update all the same files and it doesn't say it's up to date.