As for the day-glo pee, would that happen to sims unfortunate enough to live next to the nuclear power plant?  


I was finally able to get my tombstones to be visible in build/buy mode so I could set up my cemeteries. This is how I did it-

1. Created community lot for cemetery, named & described appropriately, save lot.
2. Go to residential lot with tombstones, choose "move grave" or "move all graves" (in the case of the Specter lot).
3. After ghosts wave "goodbye" and tombstone disappears, wait for "so and so's grave have been moved, please save etc."-save lot immediately and then go straight back to neighborhood view.
4. Go to community lot (from the neighborhood view in build/buy mode), tombstones are visible and can be moved. Set up cemetery as desired. Save when finished.

I didn't mess with putting the tombstone in the sim's inventory or move any of them to Gothier Green Lawns. I think I was messing the process up when I clicked on "move to X" by not saving immediately, sometimes I'd play the lot a few minutes longer. Not any more, that's for sure! Unfortuantely with all that messing around with the neighborhoods, such as resurrecting sims who maybe shouldn't have been (like Lyla Grunt, Creon & Willow Nigmos) I was concerned about neighborhood stability so I copied the backups I made of the neighborhood right before I'd installed Nightlife over my current neighborhood files. Lost two days play but I don't want to take any chances.

Thanks again MaxoidTom for helping us get all of this worked out. It's good to know that this will be taken care of in the patch but in the meantime hopefully what I've found will help others with the same problem.

I also appreciate this vast improvement in communication. Before this I was seriously going to wait before buying Nightlife (or any future ep), MaxoidTom's helpful communication with us has gone a long way in repairing my trust in Maxis. I sure hope it will continue.

Thanks Tom, it's good to get a better understanding of what's going on. Perhaps it's time for me to send the elder Nigmos & Lyla Grunt back to the "great beyond".

I'm still having a dickens of a time setting up a nice community cemetery. No problems sending the tombstones to the lot, either by "move to" or placing the tombstone in a sim's inventory and having them go to the lot and place them. It's screwed up for me after that. When I enter the community lot from the neighborhood view in build/buy mode the tombstones are apparently invisible. If I send any sim from the neighborhood (regular, university or downtown) to the lot, there sits the tombstone right next to the phone. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or if this is some sort of glitch (like a new incarnation of the "undead elder" bug  ). I'd love to be able to get it figured out. There's a bunch of us over on the BBS who are experiencing exactly the same problem and we're all stumped.

Thanks again for all your invaluable help. I don't think I could emphasize enough how much I appreciate it.  

I'm having the same issue with the maid & gardener leaving early before the work is done. Next chance I have to play I'm going to try the fire/rehire thing to see if it will correct it. This was happening with hacks disabled so I'm not sure if it's related to a hack conflict or simply a bug-like the bug we had with missing bills on some lots when we installed University.

I don't have the "pee yellow" hack. Someone else mentioned here a couple of days ago the glitch it causes with tombstones (like multiplying and showing up on community lots) and weird mucky puddles appearing on community lots. It doesn't make any sense that it would affect stuff like that but I know zip about code.

I used the college clock to get a couple of YA's through their last two years and graduated (high time they got married and added to the gene pool) and didn't experience any problems.

Thanks for the clarification Trubble.  I decided to treat myself to NL and although I'm having a total blast a few issues immediately popped up for me. So far it doesn't look as though I have the, "Look at the time, I've got to go" when you greet a visitor. But I do have teens and children who leave much earlier than before, and a few maids & gardeners have left before their jobs were done. Teens stay as long as a date lasts however, even past midnight. I've never used the maxMotives cheat but I do have Merola's Energizer and Multi painting enabled and they seem to work with no apparent problems. The only other hack I have enabled right now is Pescado's college clock. And the Maxis downloads, which I still don't understand why the game thinks they'll affect anything.

The biggest problem I'm having is what I was previously concerned about, namely the new cemetery feature. I've only been sucessful in moving the tombstones of Darleen Dreamer, Herb Oldie and Coral Oldie to Gothier Green Lawns. After I had the sim who was visiting the lot place the tombstones I expected that I'd have to go back into build & buy mode through the neighborhood view to permanently place the tombstones. It worked for them but ever since all my tombstones that I move to a community lot are visible when a sim is visiting the lot (right next to the payphone)  but invisible when I enter the lot in build and buy mode. So I can't set them up the way I'd like anymore, which is really frustrating. I can't make a nice cemetery. This happens regardless of the neighborhood I go to.

A related oddity is that now some of the sims in the Specter graveyard can be resurrected via the Grim Reaper phone. I don't know if I'd recommend it though. Willow & Creon Nigmos and Lyla Grunt came back totally bald. I was able to fix it with "change appearance" but I don't know if their files will fubar. Ichabod came back as a 159 year old elder.  And Willow & Creon come back as adults in elder skins and the only option to "change appearance" is for white hair. Even stranger, they all have complete personality files. I could have resurrected Olive's parents too if I wanted to. I wouldn't be suprised if Skip Broke could be resurrected too. I haven't tried him or any of the dead in Veronaville.

My teens won't dance with their parents either. It was previously a quick way for me to get the dancing scholarship, I guess now they have to dance with their agemates to obtain it?  Bummer.

I like to keep an eye on my logs and have noticed some strange new errors in it from the most recent gameplay-
WARNING Production: Lifetime goal 0x2daaaba6 does not exist
.\source\TSWantSimulator.cpp(2042)
ERROR Production: Person NPC - Unique - Grim Reaper doesn't have an aspiration.
.\source\TSWantSimulator.cpp(3252)
ERROR Production: Person NPC - Hula Dancer doesn't have an aspiration.
.\source\TSWantSimulator.cpp(3252)

I don't understand why it matters that the Grim Reaper & Hula Dancers don't have aspirations. I can't figure out which Lifetime goal doesn't apparently exist either. Can anyone else make sense of these error and should I worry about them or ignore them?

So besides all that and the fact that my graphics resetting to default too when I start the game I'm having a pretty good time. Thanks again MaxoidTom for taking the time to look into all of this for us and helping us get it sorted out.

I had no idea that guinea pigs growled.   Wow! You learn something new every day. Since I've never had a guinea pig I didn't realize they have so much personality. Though I've had people say the same thing to me about rats.

I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your furry friend Witch. She sounds like she was one of those special "kindred spirits" in a furry body that stays in your heart forever. I will never forget my rat Mollie from college. She loved to sit on my shoulder while I read or watched TV. She'd grind her teeth (a sign of contentment) and groom me by licking my ear or chin. It tickled like you wouldn't believe but both hubby & I tolerated it because it meant she considered us part of her family. I miss her still, it broke my heart when she died of old age at 3. Rats lives are way too short.

I didn't have a chance to respond last night (had to chase the kids back to bed again-mass chaos) but I enjoyed the Pinky quote. I mentioned a few of my favorites in a post in RL I'd found on a fan site. The writers came up with something different and funny each time. Ack! I've got to run the two youngest off to school. Then get in some morning chores so I'll have to be good and stay off the computer for a while.

Hubby & I (then fiances) had rats in college. Ours loved popcorn and ice cream. I love rats, they have such neat personalities but their lifespan is way too short. We also used to have a cocker spaniel (died of old age 5 years ago) that loved beer. 

Yep, that's the same one I'd read about but couldn't remember the correct name of the cheat. Thanks Trubble.  Like I said before, it makes me wonder if Merola's energizer and multi painting could lead to the same problem if the paintings increase the motives by using the maxMotives cheat. Athough my knowledge of code is nonexistant so I have no idea of what I'm talking about. Just wondering out loud and hoping that the paintings will be 100% ok because I rely on them a great deal.

I've been reading around on all the different sites (including the BBS before it went down) and have noticed other messages about the permanently missing gravestones. So far, no solutions have been posted. What's really odd is that the family & friends reportedly are still able to resurrect the "missing dead" if they call the Grim Reaper. Strange and frustrating because once I have NL I would like to be able to have nice cemeteries so the residents won't scare their relatives to death (Mortimer Goth nearly scared Alexander to death, very annoying). Admittedly I was concerned that the cemetery feature would prove to be troublesome. If I find anything I'll let you know.

I have seen some other posts too regarding the visitors leaving too early. Reportedly it has to do with the "motives up" cheat (or something like that, I haven't used it myself so I'm not familiar with the exact term). I've seen posts about it over at Mod the Sims2, The Sims Resource and Variousimmers.  I'm beginning to wonder if Merola's energizer painting or multi painting could be affected and inadvertenly causing this problem too because both have the option to increase the motives. Which would also make me anxious about installing NL because I have both paintings and rely on them heavily. 

I could be mistaken but I think you're right Zeljka. That sounds like what a hate letter would be like.

From everything I've been reading about this, I'm beginning to wonder if it has something to do with the new dating interaction. Apparently if you invite a sim over for a date at home, they stay as long as the date lasts. 
Strange but until a fix or patch comes about I'd recommend inviting the sim over for a date at home. Then he should stay as long as you'd like so you can get plenty of interactions in to boost the relationship (which will likely make it a "dream date"). I'm not sure if you'll be able to propose during a "date" that he moves in with your sim, you might have to wait and just invite him again the following morning.

Sure is one of the strangest glitches I keep hearing about. Seems like our sims have gone from being night owls to "early to bed, early to rise" sort of folks. Hope it will be modified soon.

As we've found out many times, the Prima Guide does have its fair share of errors.  I found toddlers playing in the toilet annoying too but it is actually similar to real life regardless of mood. Even with a full room of toys, my kids always made a beeline for the toilet if we ever left the latch undone (one of those baby proofing things you can buy). Annoying, but I can see how it can be considered a design feature. However, it would be nice if it only happened if the toddler is in a bad mood.

The one party bug I can think of off the top of my head is what I'd mentioned above-the spam of blank "family reunion" memories. In my personal experience I had an elder couple invite three grown children, two nieces, a brother and some friends to their anniversary party. Each of the adult children and the two nieces had 30 blank family reunion memories. Strangest thing I'd ever seen.

And I'm pretty sure gynarchy's right about the reference to the death bug. The elder dies, there's no inheritance/tombstone, the elder remains in the loading screen for the lot. The lot is screwed up in that you can't move anyone out, births crash if you've reached the 8 person max (including the not so dead sim), sims still call on the phone for the "dead" sim. I could be forgetting a few details, once it hit me I used the elaborate "workaround" to get the sim dead for good and then downloaded Pescado's fix.

BTW, thanks for letting us know everything you've been able to find. I really appreciate it. 

Same here, by far my biggest issues were with the overcrowding bugs- Dead elders showing up in the loading screen and causing all sorts of problems, college graduates who wouldn't go home, final exam screw ups and so on. A couple of other annoyances for me were stuck kicky bags that became invisible (making it impossible to delete the kicky bag), spam of blank "family reunion" memories when anyone had a party and invited family members, Greek house amnesia, and guests who would drop dead from starvation while playing with the rabbit head with a toddler.

I'd love to know what has been done to hopefully rectify these issues. 

Thanks for coming by and sharing the helpful info with us.  You're definitely not hated, we're just unimpressed with the behavior of your bosses. I'm more than happy to keep constructively pressing for a list of fixes and that all future support be provided in a timely manner.

I'm sure the top priority for most of us is fixes for the big things, the bugs that cause the huge fireball visable from outer space. We just want to be able to play without tearing our hair out. Reduction of daily stress is the reason why I want to play, so as you can imagine I don't want to do anything that adds to the stress level. 

Hope you'll come by more often if you are able. 

I could be wrong but I'm pretty sure the adult status of the uni townie depends on the sim asking them to move in. If the sim has graduated from college, the uni townie will have too. Your uni townie has the "dropped out" symbol because the sim asking her to move in never went to college, and therefor didn't graduate from college. I hope that makes sense.

Not to mention how even if there's a pizza already on the lot, some other "bright" Greek house roommate will attempt to wander off lot to bring home another one. How much pizza does one house with three guys need?

Sounds like your neighborhood will be quite a kick in the pants. I wonder if the former cow and cheerleader will still get into fights like they do in the University neighborhood. The drama is sure to make daytime soap operas look tame by comparison. I hope you'll keep us posted. 

Jill Smith & Buck Grunt seemed to go together like "peanut butter & jelly" in my game too. I've wondered if certain relationships are programmed in the game. When I moved in the Burbs one of the first things I did was to get Lucy in private school. The next time I played the Goth house Alexander brought Lucy home with him from school and within a couple of sim days they were best friends. I have seen private school kids bring home kids from regular school so I don't think that matters to the game though. Well as soon as they transitioned to teens (Lucy as Family & Alexander as Knowledge) a bit of flirting, hugging and a first kiss later they were head over heels and went steady. I changed Lucy's hair to black and she resembled a young Bella strangely enough. I had them marry as soon as they graduated from college, so far they have a handsome son named Brendan and a cute toddler daughter named Fiona. They'll probably have one more kid so that Lucy can satisfy her "three children graduate from college" LTW.

I've got some plans for extended family drama in Pleasantview. I had Cassandra dump Don when she caught him with Nina and marry Adam Prescott, "heir to the Prescott family fortune." Don & Nina's son Nick just brought Cassandra & Adam's daughter Lily home with him from school. Hmm, wouldn't that be a fascinating wedding? I wonder what kind of score a wedding party would get if the mother of the bride and the mother of the groom get into a catfight.

Alexander's kind of grown on me, with a makeover he reminds me a little of Egon from "Ghostbusters." Paired up with Lucy Burb they do actually make some cute looking kids.

I watched the History Channels documentary of "Isaac's Storm." You're right, it's quite the chilling story. The horror of it stayed with me for a long time.

I grew up in Tuolumne County in CA and lived through the forest fire dangers every year. One year my grandparents had to be evacuated and the fire came within a couple of acres of their home. I live in the Sacramento area now but I still get anxious every Aug-Oct, especially for extended family who lives in those areas. I still have nightmares about the firestorms. And in the Sacramento area we face levee failure for the Sacramento & American Rivers which has caused terrible flooding in the past and will likely happen again(luckily I live outside the flood area but it would still be an awful prospect). Some wise person once said that Mother Nature's a bitch and barely tolerates us. I think that person's right and we should never be complacent about the area where we live.

The blame game won't get people to safety, feed them and care for them. I hope what will be taken from this tragedy is better plans for future crisis situations. May no one ever have to suffer that sort of Hell again.

Reggikko, I'm glad to hear that most of your relatives are OK. I hope you'll hear good news from your best friend soon. I'm also glad to hear that your home & neighborhood are in pretty good shape. I love your beautiful city and still plan to visit there someday (I'm a big nut for historic homes).

I heard an alarming story late today about the levee break. Comedian Steve Harvey was there at the center in Baton Rouge to help and spoke to a resident who lived right near the levee. The resident said that he saw a couple of barges (perhaps blown into the lake during the hurricane) smash into the levee and cause the break. I'm not sure how much accuracy there is in that statement, we'll probably find out more later. My heart breaks for the resident though; he told Steve Harvey that along with losing his home, he lost his wife and children too. That's the sort of nightmare I don't think I could survive. Perhaps the engineers need to get in there and think of better ways to keep this from happening in the future. But since I'm no engineer I will leave that to those who are knowlegable enough to decide what to do.

I consider us all to be part of the same nation. We all help each other in all crisis situations (fire, flood, earthquake). Regardless of the mistakes any governmental official could make, helping each other is the right thing to do.

My daughters' school has collecting voluntary donations for the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. Besides all the loving kids who have emptied their piggy banks many of us parents have also donated as much as we can. Prior to the disaster our school had planned a blood drive for September 12, you can bet it's still on. Hubby & I will be there to give our pint and I am certain that many other residents of our area will be there too. There was also a telethon by our local news station yesterday and the amount pledged was encouraging news, about $1,600,000.

I was so discouraged by the slugishness in an appropriate response. My husband & I along with many other friends we spoke with felt so helpless seeing all of the suffering. I can't understand why it took so long to pull it together. I just hope that things will get better from here. All of the residents in New Orleans and the other Gulf areas will continue to be in my thoughts and I will do whatever I can to help them get their lives back.

I'm also relieved to hear that you are safe, reggikko and that your house is ok (as I'm sure many others here are too). I've been watching the news and I'm just heartsick at all of the devastation throughout entire the gulf area. I asked my daughters' vice principal today if we can set up a donation can for Red Cross in the office like we did for the victims of the tsunami. She needed to clear it with the principal first but was sure it wouldn't be a problem so it should be set to start tomorrow. And from what I hear on the local news you can count on as much help from Northern CA as we can muster. You will not weather this alone, I promise you. *hugs*

You'll continue to be in my thoughts and I hope you'll soon receive good news about your friends and family that you haven't been able to get in contact with yet.