Actually, it may not be a hack at all.  I think the Greenman lot, in my game at least, is seriously buggy.  I saw the jump bug for the first time in at least a year the other night, right before Daisy popped up an error.  It happened repeatedly, and the only way to get rid of it finally was to delete the poor kid.

Maybe Maxis will fix whatever the problem is with the patch.  *snort*

Edited to attach error log (there's a bunch, but they're all identical)

Edit 2: While I'm at it... there's one error log from my main neighborhood that popped up the other night when my sim was trying to go to work.  I don't know what was up with that, but I figured I'd attach it as well and see if anyone knows what happened there.

Okay, so my medieval simmies look a bit odd frolicking in the snow in parkas and ski jackets lol.  I want to tweak some of my CC to show up as outerwear AND everyday.  Since SimPE's Folder Scanner doesn't have the Outerwear option on its clothing editor (and yes, idiot me opened the file scanner and waited 30 minutes to realize this), I had the bright idea of looking at the skins.package that came with Seasons to see what the category string is.  Eek... don't know what all those properties are OR why some are different on different outerwear skins.  Soooo... before I cause a BFBVFS by making my sims' outfits go 'splodey, I thought I would ask here.

What is the category string for enabling a skin as outerwear and also keeping it as everyday?  Are there other values under Property Set (or anywhere, actually) that I need to edit as well?  I know SOMEBODY has the answer, because both simsbaby here and fanseelamb over at MTS2 have released fixed versions of Maxis clothes.  I tried looking at those files as well as Skins.package, but alas - I am not awesome enough to figure out what I'm looking at. 

Help appreciated.

Huh... so I'm not the only one who experienced this.  My game froze and I had to shut it down from the task manager.  When I attempted the call the second time it only took a few minutes, but there were a grand total of two animals in the adoption pool (one large dog and one cat). 

I didn't think to check the RAM usage.  My hard drive was grinding away, though, now that I think about it.

lol!  I felt that way about a problem I was having with the memory leak in Civ IV.  The videos in that game sucked my poor system dry.

GAH!  I HATE Symantec!  I have Ghost on my computer, and it works... somehow... but it was only by dint of a miracle that it installed.  My dad couldn't get it to work on his computer at all.  When he contacted tech support (this was before they started charging for it) they told him (I swear to God I'm not making this up):

"The problem is that your drives aren't mounted."

... oooookay.....

Can't they at least give my dad a PLAUSIBLE lie about why their software is broken?

What about finding a way to cure the *toddler* of Plantsimism?  Someone more awesome than myself could create a hack allowing a "give [toddler name] Planticillin-C (or whatever it's called)" interaction.  It's more realistic than the way Maxis has it anyway - why wouldn't a parent be allowed to feed the cure to their toddler? 

Just a thought.

That's a good thought, Jordi, thanks.  But unfortunately, I just brought up my game and checked performance options - sim/object detail *is* set to high.   
I'm going to try a different set of default replacements and see if they work.  *These* are the ones I want in my game, though, even if they only affect the adult townies.
Updates posted as events warrant...

Yup. 

It isn't that the thumbnails are wrong.  They are correct, in fact - the faces themselves are the Maxis defaults.  When I click on the awful CAUS, my poor sim's face bloats up like a balloon!

These aren't showing up in my game for some reason.  I downloaded the full set vilia provided and deleted the CAS thumbnails file (though it isn't just the thumbnail that's not working, it's the whole template).  I tried taking them out of a subfolder and putting them directly in the downloads folder, but to no avail.  When I go into CAS, I still have the fugly maxis templates.  Anyone have any ideas?

Argh.  You're right, not what I wanted to hear lol.

But I went ahead and bought seasons, figuring that if it didn't run I could return it, and it actually runs great (it helps that I'm playing a medieval hood with only a fraction of my normal cc lol).  It slows down a lot when loading a neighborhood or lot, but once it comes up there are no problems.  And the graphics are spectacular!  I've seen some people complaining about not seeing the fish in the ponds, but they definitely show in my game. 

I know it doesn't make sense, because my card is so old, but everything in my computer was top of the line when I bought it and I guess they're still pretty good. *shrug* 

I'm probably approaching max capacity, though.  The next EP might be the last on this system. 

So I made like liegenschonheit and walked away for a while.  This afternoon I put all my custom content back in and attempted to run seasons.

It came right up and ran beautifully.

What the fuck. 

LOL.  Copy protection is actually encouraging pirating - it'll be tempting next time to avoid this problem altogether.

My custom templates aren't working, though.  The Maxis fuglies are still showing up in CAS.  Is this something that's been broken in Seasons?

Thanks so much for the swift update.  You can imagine my shock when I created a new neighborhood, checked the Characters folder - and saw a bunch of files in it!  Stupid EA.

Nope.  I moved my entire Downloads folder out of the Sims 2 directory.

Okay, so I installed seasons, clicked the "launch The Sims 2 Seasons" button at the end of the installation process, and everything came up beautifully.  After a while of playing with Riverblossom Hills I decided to start my new neighborhood, realized I hadn't put back my CAS template replacements, and quit the program.  When I attempted to restart the program, the compy thinks for a while, then asks me to please insert the correct disk into the drive and try again.  I took the CD out, cleaned it (pointlessly, since it's BRAND NEW and SPOTLESS), put it back in - no luck.  Deleted groups.cache and cigen - no luck.  Took it out of my DVD drive and put it in the CD-RW drive to see if the drive was borked - (luckily this time) it still didn't work.
All I can say now is...
AAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why is it suddenly not working?  Help!

*polonius reads several times*

*polonius screams*

*headdesk*

Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!1111one

...

Sigh.  Well, now I know.  *goes to download updated version*

Amazing that EA/Maxis got something right, isn't it?

That's good.  I couldn't think of a way for a GUID conflict to spark a BFBVFS, but I learned long ago not to doubt the self-destructive powers of TS2

Luckily, with my naming system, that will mean all the resi collections will show up.  That's a much smaller issue than the reverse, since I spend much more time on home lots.  I love how I managed to serendipitously avert a problem

Awesome, thanks Elfie 

So now I just have to worry about the potential VBT. 

So, I was inspired by JadeElliot and Loverat to undertake the frightening task of organizing my downloads, and am now up to my elbows in beautiful obesssive-compulsive goodness (see attached screenie for a partial view).  [Creepy aside] Jfade, I FRIGGIN' LOVE YOU. [/creepy aside]
I have two questions that have been raised in the process:
1.  You might notice in the screenie that I have two versions of each collection - R and C.  The way I've been making the community lot version is by saving the residential as, say, decorative-mirrorsR.package, then changing the settings to community and saving it as decorative-mirrorsC.package.  The "oh, shit" moment I had last night: I realized that the two versions have the same GUID because I'm not hitting the button to regenerate the numbers.  Is this going to cause a VBT in my game?  I don't want to start over, and I'm actually kind of afraid to start up my game and find out the hard way.

2.  I am thinking about starting up a new neighborhood with the All About the Simoleans challenge from jane81 (I think is her name) at TSR, which is a way of having a neighborhood with one very old and wealthy family, like the Crumplebottom/Goth family in Pleasantview.  My idea is to have the first generation in the medieval era, and gradually bump up the time period as the family grows older.  Thus, to make the game run faster, I want to take out all custom content except for my historical-themed stuff.  Now obviously the removed custom content won't display in the collections, but will the collection file itself be altered by doing this?  (In other words, when I put the rest of my CC back, will it still be sorted in the collections?)

Thanks so much for anyone that can answer either of these. 

~polonius
Part of my collections folder:

Okay, so I've started thinking seriously about upgrading my compy.  It's a Dell Dimension 8200, about five years old (dinosaur!), but it was top of the line when I bought it and is still not a bad computer (I run TS2 at almost all highest graphic quality settings with serious lag only occurring on community lots and when the game has been running for more than several hours).
Specs:
-Pentium 4 processor - 1.90 GHz
-1.00 gig RAM
-Two 120 gig hard drives (these are new; last year my original hard drive suffered a BFBVFS (it was tragic))
-NVIDIA GeForce3 (and I actually *haven't* had any major problems - am I like the only person to say that?)

I have the sinking suspicion that this won't be good enough anymore once I install Seasons.  I'm rather strapped for cash right now, so if I could isolate the biggest potential problem and focus on upgrading that, I would be a happy camper.  (This is why I'm not really considering buying a new computer)  I figured that the folks here are the best ones to go to for advice.

Also, I would like to educate myself more about computer hardware.  Does anyone have any advice in that regard? 

Any comments welcome - Thanks!

Interesting... I saw those tartan pants on TSR and skipped over them because they'd already been posted here.
So, who did the theft?  Or are the creators the same person?  *intrigued*

Okay, after about an hour of hunting... I need to puke.  Also, I have pictures (no, not of that!)
I... have a confession to make... and I'm ashamed to admit this... but I'm starting to think Carla Niven... isn't that bad.  *breaks down sobbing*  I KNOW it's wrong!  I KNOW!

I had some trouble narrowing down the pics I collected, but after much deliberation (aided by Pepto-Bismol) I came up with these four.

-all four are pay items
-all are preview pics taken from their respective sites

Two are in the poorly-made category, and two are in the OMG-MY-EYES!!!11 category.
Get your eye bleach ready:


Pic 1: chaz_designs 

Pic 2: STP Carly


Both from Glamour Sim. 
These pictures, by the way, are only scratching the tip of the tackiness iceberg (love mixing metaphors ) that is Glamour Sim.  I actually have a folder of pics of bad CC - glamour sim accounts for close to half of what's in there.  The folder is highly amusing and depressing at the same time - most are pay content 

AUGH! My sense of taste!  It's... it's going numb!  Help me! *curls into a ball under her desk*

*irony detector is malfunctioning*  I'm hoping you're not referring to me lol.  I may be a bitch with issues but I assure you that I am not self-righteous.   If you're not, I can't think of anyone currently on that forum that rubs me the wrong way worse than this chick.  The first few posts were biting and funny, until I realized that EVERYTHING out of her mouth was aggressive and condescending. 
OH! I TOTALLY know who you're talking about now!  Yeah, I absolutely HATE that person

IMHO it's actually gotten a little worse - before the last few weeks, when the handful of 12-ish people joined, the thread derailing was amusing and mostly friendly.  Now it's all ridiculous shitfights and each post attempting to be more verbose and pseudo-intellectual than the last.  Honestly, it's like watching a bunch of high-school dropouts trying to masquerade as college professors by using big words and criticizing each other's grammar and syntax.  I don't know whether the "I agree with everything that's been posted" (I swear to God that was a real post) and the "IM posters" were any worse.  I've only posted once or twice since Blue went nuclear - any desire to take part in the conversations going on there now is gone.  It's mostly because of one person (anyone that's watching the forum knows who I'm talking about) that apparently has so little self-esteem and such a shitty life that she has to take it out on random strangers online to feel like she matters.  (Sounds like some other dramawhores we know.)  If she gets banned I think PMBD will show some improvement.

I'm inclined to agree.  The one of the things I love about this site is simply the wealth of knowledge (including, but not limited to, actual technical discussion of the game mechanics instead of "...and this is called a "package" file.  You can identify "package" files by their filename, which ends in .package...")  I think the sheer number of polysyllabic words and acronyms would deter most of the prepubescents (and teenagers that ACT like prepubescents). -yes pescado, I know there is only 12 and 18 

Awesome, can't wait to try these out in game!  I'll post back with my thoughts tomorrow after I have a chance to look at them.

ooh, first post   thanks for this; it looks lovely.  Can't wait to download and check out!

woooooooooooHOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! 
I always get so excited when I see this thread has been updated
I was afraid (again lol) that you'd abandoned the project.  These are so much better and well-rounded than any set I've seen, let alone the Maxis fuglies.  These will totally be worth the wait, IMO.