In my game this has been happening since Pets and so far has been mostly harmless.

If I change the appearance of one of the sims on the lot a new loading picture is generated with the correct residents, but it doesn't seem to happen automatically if a sim dies or leaves. 

A similar thing is happening with the neighbourhood lot picture, it isn't always updated automatically when the last sim leaves it, but if I change something that's visible from the neighbourhood the view corrects itself.

It's not only nVidia cards that go black screen. 

I have an HP Pavilion media pc with dual processor 3.4mhz and x600 ATI graphics and it regularly black screens on me. I have tried everything I can think of and everything suggested above, even playing 800x600 with lowest graphics settings and no sound and it still crashes. As it's intermittent, I keep thinking I've fixed it until the next time it crashes.

My laptop doesn't look so pretty, but has never once crashed.

If you prefer sims to live inside and you can't afford walls, here are two ways to get free walls:

- Make a walk out basement above the ground, then you only have to pay for the foundation. You'll need one wall section if you want to add a door, but you could just leave a gap.

- Use a roof. A gable roof has walls on the gable ends for free.  Three tiles on either side will be unusuable because the roof is too low, so build it at least nine tiles wide to allow for a three tile wide usable space.

You could even combine the two methods and get a fairly normal looking house at a bargain price.  It won't make sims any happier to be indoors, but it looks better than living on the lawn.

In case it helps, my computer had the same graphics card from new, it happens on two different monitors - one a flat screen, one not, and I tried running the game of Harry Potter and the something of something else and got a black screen of death too.

It seems to me that it could be a problem with overheating, as there's no specific time limit.  It's very hard to fix, because it can do a very good impression of being fixed for several hours and suddenly I'm back in the dark again.

I have an ATI Radeon card that hates the sims.  It works fine for everything else, but when playing the sims it plays for a while, then I get a black screen and a message saying 'lost signal', and the only way to get out of it is to switch the power off.  I haven't worked out what the problem is yet, but it's aggravating that the sims works fine on my laptop and not on the computer I bought for playing games on!

Are the sims deleted from the sim bin not as dead as the ones killed in the game?  Surely the character files will be there either way?  I'd like to know as I've been playing my neighbourhood for well over a year, with a couple of hundred sims born in the game, and as it survived the jump bug and death bug and various other bugs and hasn't blown up yet, I don't particularly want it to start now.

Can't you move them all to the sim bin and press the delete key? It's quick and doesn't hurt at all. At least, it doesn't hurt me, which is the main thing. 

Otherwise I like the runs with scissors object, because it's very quick, and it's not my fault if they choose to play with it.

It seems reasonable for the sims community to reach a consensus on what 'theft' means in sims terms, since it's a global community and we are not all subject to the same laws.  If people don't like the rules at some sites, they'll visit others instead.

What annoys me is that a lot of 'creations' are based on, or copies of, commercial images and designs. I can't remember anyone ever giving a source for their textures, house plans, furnishing or clothing. The rule seems to be that if it's on the internet, it's free and you can copy, paste and let people assume you did all the work. However, copying from another sims player is a crime.  IMHO it's a bit of a cheek to insist that a copy can't be copied!

I like the gnome stealing, but I wish the gnome would turn up on the lot of whoever stole it.  It'd be fun to see it go round the neighourhood!

You can get any community items on a lot when you build it, using the changelotzoning to change it from residential to community and back.  It's better to start residential because then you don't have to find a mailbox and trashcan later on.

This residential lot has a restaurant and shops in it http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=373777. It's a little village, so I made it to work as a residential/community/home business/dorm, depending on how you change the lot zoning and where you put it.

The objects attract npcs, so you get a host a chef and waiters, and sims can eat there.  When the waiters aren't busy, they walk across to the house and clean up too. In dorm mode, you get a cafeteria worker as well as the pay food. A disadvantage is that normal visitors may go to eat as soon as you greet them, and I don't know of a way to distract them.  I don't know whether it'll give my computer a nervous breakdown, but I have eight sims in it, and it hasn't yet.

I've only just installed OFB. As I don't know how to run a restaurant as a business, I don't know if this one is working or not yet.

So I did.. I'll updated my post.

OK, I've had a go. It's base game Maxis only, 92k ish furnished for eight sims - grandparents, parents, four children from baby to teen.

Edit: Links removed

Oops yes, sorry, got that wrong. I always make the mistake of thinking the universe is indifferent to me. 

Good environment works even if your sim is nearly in aspiration failure, when noodlesoothers don't, and it works in the first few days when you have more money than aspiration points.


I usually am going to show it on a tour, otherwise I'd have to move him somewhere else before I start it.

Where do you spend your environment budget, if not at the front?

I'd like to know how JM is going to judge it - by playing or by looking? It'll make a difference.  It's a nice of him to volunteer.


If a sim is in a positive mood when they leave the work meter goes up, and they get promoted when it's high enough. It doesn't seem to change while they are at work, unless you know different. Even a miniscule improvement to mood could get them promoted if it tips the balance. I'm not sure how the noodlesoother helps, I don't use it.  If it keeps mood static it won't matter if the environment by the carpool is dire. The area by the carpool is also where the headmaster lands, where homework is dropped, and quite likely where sims are greeted, romanced or proposed to, so if I can't afford much landscaping that's where it goes.

The kitchen sink is in there to stand for all the objects I forget.  I often forget to have somewhere to wash dishes, also dressers, mirrors and somewhere to put the trash.  I don't need dressers, nor do the sims, but I'm building for players.

Functionality isn't a very visual thing - at least it's not for me.  If you understand how sims behave, you can control their behaviour indirectly through their environment.  From playing and building I have a long list of rules for where objects can go in relation to each other and which objects to avoid altogether. The challenge is to make that look natural.

The most important factor to me is what makes the player (i.e. me) happy, not looks or functionality on their own. There's no point building a lot that works efficiently for sims if I don't want to look at it, or if I can't see everything.

Everyone's list will be different but some of my rules are:

- build from one point of view to avoid scrolling
- houses are chosen by the exterior front view, but the inside back wall is the most important when playing
- real architects don't design houses for the neighbours to look through
- stairs, chimneys, columns, trees etc. at the back or side of your POV, so there's nothing behind them
- go easy on the shrubs and flowers
- if you don't want a sim to use a surface, put something on it
- kitchen units always face you, so you can see what's on the floor in front
- space by the main door must be completely flat, sims can't greet each other on slopes
- put the loo at the back of small bathrooms, to stop sims getting trapped at the back by a sim coming in
- swings, myshuno, and coffee machines are a waste of time
- sims don't need a tv
- check which side of the door the hinge is on, so sims don't have to walk round the opened door
- attics and basements are cheap to build and save you storing stuff on the lawn
- don't use modular stairs upstairs if you want to take pictures - the bottom of the stair will show on the floor below
- use cheap beds if you want sims to stay in bed longer
- if you're playing a lot for a long time, replace depreciated items
- have a good environment score near the carpool stop, night time as well
- put surfaces near skill builders for a thinking cap, or it'll go somewhere you don't want it
- don't forget the kitchen sink

That's all I can think of for now, but it's a long long list

My hope is that it won't be pets, it'll be farms.  I'd love the option to raise animals or grow crops for cash, or to eat, and if they can throw in horse-riding, weather and seasons too that would pretty much be a dream expansion for me.

Whatever the expansion pack is, it'll have a game element, so it won't be pets just so people can have pets. There will be something that makes pet ownership a challenge.

I've had some pretty ugly sims (so to speak), but nothing to match yours, yet, even though my sims are all descendents of townies.

I managed to create a freak toddler by making a normal sim-me in body shop and aging down, so I don't think it's necessarily genetics. I think if the adjustments go too far the system can't cope.

Were their mothers "barbie dolls"?  Barbie genes don't mix well with human genes, they are too far apart.

Alright, guess the only option is to start from scratch yet again, with townie regen, until someone sources out the crappy code.  Thanks

I suspect the fuss about 'cheats' is because the word is negative. People don't like to be accused of cheating.  If 'options' were entered in the 'options window' would anyone give it a second thought?  Why aren't free will and aging off considered cheats?

Some of the reaction is due to the way people write (or read).  If someone writes "You can mess up your game with boolprop" people tend to respond as if "you" refers to them specifically. They give examples of how they didn't mess up their own game using boolprop.  If the author had written "People can mess up their games with boolprop" I don't think there would be any argument.

Installed OFB, old saved neighbourhood had babies missing etc, so I started from scratch.

After playing for five days, and creating only six new CAS characters, I have 524 characters in my directory.  Every time I open a shop, I get two, three and four identical twins coming to shop, all with different names but otherwise identical.  I now have two Melody Tinkers.

I copied the neighbourhood and launched Sim PE (yes, I know the latest version isn't OFB ready but with the neighbourhood exploding I figured back up and risk it).  I had to Task Manager out of Sim PE, because of all the neverending:

The Sim with GUID 0x00000000 (inst=0x0000) exists more than once. This could result in  Problems during the Gameplay!

warnings.

I'm guilty of not noticing right away that the callover and coffeecup hacks should not have been moved over.  I suspect neither is the cause though.

You want to move everything from the base neighbourhood to downtown?  I haven't a clue if this is possible, but could you use the base neighbourhood folder to create a downtown template?  Then you could create an exact replica as a downtown, and delete the originals in the base neighbourhood. 

I'm only guessing, I don't know what makes a neighbourhood template work other than being in the right folder.

"boolprop" can mess up a game without actually breaking anything.

One way "boolprop" messes up a game is because it's easy to make instant irreversible changes.  When doing things the hard way people have plenty of time to think about what they are doing, change their minds, or stop half way if it isn't working out.  With boolprop it's click click oops!

It can also mess up a game because a lot of the fun is in the travel not the destination. Rushing through all possible objects and interactions and maximising everything leaves no surprises, no goals, and no challenges to be overcome.  What's left is playing with dolls.

I get sims to play red hands before 'help' interactions.  It's a good way to get them together in the right place and ensures they have enough fun to start.

Is it possible to use someone else's objects.package file rather than reinstall?