Not really normal, no.

Does your system meet the minimum requirements for the number of EPs/SPs you have?

When I first arrr'd TS3, I played it nonstop for approximately 2 weeks.

I haven't touched it since, and it's been about 4 weeks now.

TS3 isn't nearly shiny enough for storyteller me.

You can also get Opportunities to write Biographies--one of my sims has written 2 of them already and she's a full-time novelist. Both times the Opportunity has been to write the memoirs of her one and only friend.

I play/document a legacy that has been ongoing for 2 years now and is currently on Generation 7. There are approximately 40 households at this point. Generation 7 has a population of 75 sims right now and at least three sims are still pregnant. My 'hood has only exploded once (due to my own stupidity and simPE) but I had a back-up.

Prior to generation 6, I recorded only some of the family lines--basically the immediate legacy family and the first circle of cousins. Each generation got a page in a notebook with some minimal statistics jotted down. Now, I use an index card system because I dislike tabbing in and out of the game to record everything electronically. Sims are filed alphabetically by first name and sorted by generation.

Line 1: First Name Last Name-Married Name (if applicable), Gender
Line 2: Personality, Sign / Aspiration-Secondary
Line 3: LTW / LTW 2 / LTW 3 / etc.
Line 4: Parents (or origin, if not born in game, i.e. bin sims from the various EPs)
Line 5: Spouse / Gender Preference
Line 6: Offspring
Line 7: Skintone DNA & Range
Line 8: Dominant eye color / Recessive
Line 9: Dominant hair color / Recessive

On the back of the card I record anything about them I especially need to remember. When they transition to Elder I enter their lifespan (check with SimPE).

I play with the "New" legacy rules but I do not score, although I follow a couple of the handicaps: the one about using no Elixir unless it's moo juice and the storytelling one. The handicaps only apply to the legacy household, however.

I document my legacy on the Exchange. The story does not follow the more distant relatives except when they make the odd cameo, and the writing style changes drastically around the middle of generation 3.

Link to Chapter 1; Warning: contains poor photography (which improved as I went on) and Pirate scum.

I've also written several pulp/noir/satire detective stories and posted them on my sim page. /shameless plug

A mutated furry, duh.

They work better on sims with long hair so you can't see the other ears, though. If you're into that sort of thing.

Aikea's animation hacks (or Squinge's Hula & More) will also let you trigger a specific animation. Whenever I have a sim falling in a picture I use the Superhero Take Off and Superhero Land animations and position the sim accordingly. Invisible floors, invisible columns, and invisible magi-splay trays are your friend as well.

Currently, Canada's laws regarding electronic copyright are extremely lenient. However, new legislation has been proposed in the form of Bill C-61 which would tighten up Canadian copyright law even more restrictively than the DMCA in the US. Fortunately, with a completely dysfunctional Parliament this bit of legislation has fallen by the wayside--for now.

You could always just stack invisible light recolours directly below the ones on the second story... search around; someone's bound to have them.

I fixed it for you.

Just to be clear: this is different from the normal sinking-into-ground behaviour pets exhibit when the lot gets reset? (I.e. after a patch, certain hacks, or new EP/SP install.) Normally I just have to wait about 3-4 seconds and they pop back up out of the ground on their own...

Teenagers don't choose a LTW until their wants reroll.

Toddlers having LTWs is a sign you've got some dangling character files lying around, which is a sign of potential future 'hood explosion. Generally happens after you've moved sims to the 'hood via the lot bin (or out of the 'hood the same way), or you've deleted a character or family from the sim bin.

Targa's backdrop has been borked since I think Seasons. It screws with autonomy on dates/outings. Any chance you've got it lurking in your TS2 folder?

Also: CEP. Make sure you've got the correct version--it futzes with objects and it's usually my first suspect if something's wrong with one.

I've never run into problems. I don't touch the facial DNA, though--the most I'll do is fix eye/skin/hair DNA. The first time I ever used it was with Seasons SimPE.

1) I would assume you could open the package file in SimPE, export the texture, colourize it using your image editing program of choice, and import the new .png file... not sure of the exact procedure, but you can probably find a tute. Or use trial and error. Just back up the .package first...

2) Changing skintones in SimPE is ridiculously easy. Just add the relevant .package files to your filetable, and the skintone option will show up in SimSurgery. You'll then have to open the sim's character file and update the SimDNA to make the change genetic. Again, back up your 'hood first...

Grab the newest version, then. It's been updated several times since AL came out, IIRC. Older versions do NOT stop social townies from respawning.

This cheat should help you:

boolProp aptSubLotSpecificToolsDisabled false

It lets you place and remove stuff outside your sim's apartment suite. But anything you place 'outside' won't be visible or even there if you play another household in the same building. It should allow you to retrieve lamps and date gifts, though.

I think you've just been bit by sado-randomness.

Each time a townie generates, there's a 50% chance it'll be male, 50% it'll be female.

You could always generate your own townies using the NPC/Townie maker and only accept the male ones...

This thread might help.

For me, the CEP is always the FIRST culprit if an object is misbehaving in some way, shape, or form. Plus, I think it was updated for AL recently--update & see if you still have an issue.

That makes sense. I had a sim heading to bed around 11 PM (in the middle of a party, no less) with her energy at ~40%. I'm not sure if I consider it a bug or a feature yet.

Come to think of it, I noticed this as well. At least, my sims were going to sleep after 'hoo with 80% still on their energy bars.

You did pull your CC/hacks, right?

You removed the CEP, right? It probably needs updating...

I have notebooks (way, way too many notebooks) for tracking individual branches of the family tree, as well as determining who is in each college 'class'. I also use my notebook to keep track of plot ideas and to write out scene-by-scene breakdowns of shots I need to get for my various plots.

I've started using index cards to track stats for individual sims. I track:
Name/Gender
Personality/Horoscope/1^o Aspiration/2^o Aspiration
Lifetime Want (and subsequent, if the first is fulfilled)
Parents
Spouse(or partner--not all of my sims get married)/Gender preference
Children (with a note whether they were adopted or if the father is other than their spouse/partner)
Skintone DNA
Eye DNA
Hair DNA

Any other pertinent notes go on the back of the card, and they're filed alphabetically by generation.