More Awesome Than You!

I can't drive one block, it seems, without some lead-foot nearly rear-ending me on the street. They honk their horns and flash their lights as if I did something wrong by being in their way.  :P

So, it seems that with the Sims 2, I can't play my game unmolested with this "Tree Break" happening. What is a "Tree Break", you ask? Well, I'll tell you: If you're a C-coder, you'll probably recognize this right away (code-monkey's best friend and user's worst enemy) as the SimAntics equivalent to a dreaded "Assert Failure".

In other words, the game hits a break point that the coder put in for debugging purposes. But they hadn't yet finished debugging, is why this usually pops up.

In my case, it was on the maid's minivan. It kept nagging me until I deleted it, and the error would not go away, nor would the maid appear ever again (even if I put the sims in the sim bin and moved them back in). And not just the maid, but any NPC.

I investigated this and discovered that the fault was due to a missing Car Portal. I looked, and there is no code in the game anywhere that tries to Remove car portals, and (more importantly) no code that lets you replace them once they disappear. Solution: bulldoze the lot and play the family elsewhere in the neighborhood.

It is disturbing, however, to think that either some code somewhere in the game is deleting random objects or that the game itself is failing to load them for some mysterious reason. If anyone has a clue to "who dunnit", I would certainly like to know.

Have you tried reinstalling?

Hahahahahaha!  :D

Reinstalling is just Maxis' way of telling you to fuck off. It's for suckers who believe that that will do something beneficial.

If you screw up your game so bad that you actually *need* to reinstall, then merely reinstalling is only going exasperate the real problem (i.e. virii, bad hard drives, bad memory, bad video cards).

No, seriously. What exactly is deleting random objects every now and then? I'm just curious.

Actually, there are valid reasons to reinstall things, such as if the game buggers up files and it's simply too much effort to track down which ones and find replacements Most of the time, however, reinstalling is peddled as a panacea for everything, which it isn't.

Yes. Well, I keep a nifty inventory of all my files, so I know how, when, and to what degree files get bugged. If a file does get walked on, I can simply go back to the zip file on the CD and replace it myself. I don't need no stinkin' installer to do it for me.

Yes, but technical support won't know that, and people who call technical support tend not to be the people who have any problem-solving skills of their own.

I just don't see the point in spending x amount of time tracking down a problem if I can simply reinstall Uni in less than ten minutes, and in most cases, the problem has gone.

Except that the problem isn't really gone. All you've done is replaced the old game files with files that are identical to the old ones.

I suspect 90% of tech support calls are resolved when they ask them this vital question:

"Is the machine plugged in?"

Reinstalling has yet to be shown to have any beneficial effects (other than repairing a failed installation). The only vital file I've ever seen get walked on is the "objects.package", and it doesn't change in any way that I would consider harmful.

Well, I was only trying to help, but I don't think I'll bother again!

Sorry. I guess it is kind of a rhetorical question.  :-\

Well, I'll accept the apology, but having said that, I know that reinstalling usually works for me if nothing else does.

"Solution: bulldoze the lot and play the family elsewhere in the neighborhood.

It is disturbing, however, to think that either some code somewhere in the game is deleting random objects or that the game itself is failing to load them for some mysterious reason. If anyone has a clue to "who dunnit", I would certainly like to know." (dizzy-two)

Well, you've got the solution, as you wrote. (play elsewhere in the neighbourhood)

Who did it? You did it! - if the minivan stood on a portal, and you deleted it with moveobjects on - you deleted the portal too. This lot is already corrupted, and even buldozing it won't help.

I remember deleting by mistake the mail box in TS1, at Goth family - If you remember, they lived on a hill, and to make easier for them, I moved the mail box near the door. Then by mistake I deleted it. Nothing helped anymore until I moved the family to another lot - the Goth's lot  remained all the time without  a mail box.

In the future, I  would use Inge's teleporter to delete cars (mainly). When some car is nagging you, just "clear all visitors" - you won't have a maid this day, because she will vanish with the car - but she will come the next day as usual. I do it many times when the nanny doesn't leave. It's much more safer that moveobjects on.

I've had this tree error thing a few times.  The only thing that gets rid of it when the box pops-up is "delete", it just keeps coming back if I hit reset or cancel.  I went into a lot today oddly enough and got an error then about the maid's van which I think was one of these.  It was a lot I hadn't played since I reinstalled some time ago and as it was 10.30 the maid had obviously just arrived.  In the end I clicked delete (the car wasn't actually on the lot, but the maid was) and after wondering what was going on for a while, the maid walked off the lot without working. 

As for this:This reminds me of when I was first married and just moved into my first marital home.  My (then) husband had gone to work and I had the day off.  I spent ages trying to get the tv to work, but in the end had to walk for about 10 mins to the nearest phonebox to call him at work.  He said he would ring the tv repair people, so I went home to wait.  I then discovered the problem and legged it back to the phonebox.  When he came home from work he told me that the repair place was used to calls from idiots who didn't bother to check whether their tv was actually plugged into the wall socket before reporting it broken and apparently they were "all women".  HMPH.

The fact is, I only received this error because the portal was not there in the first place. The delete only resolved the issue of the car not appearing.

Actually, you may be partly correct. I may have accidentally deleted the portal at some point. As for bulldozing, that always works. Bulldozing has cured every single problem I've ever had with my lots.

Well, obviously it would, since you then have to put in a new, uncorrupted lot.

Thought you would like to know.  The portals are being deleted from badly written code in the book globals.

Fix here ->http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?p=698928

Thank you, cramm - you wrote it? Very useful fix...:).

I wish I could use that on the BBS.  ;D I know sometimes it's useful but that only accounts for no more than 5% of the time. As for the other 95%, "reinstall" is a code word for "I don't know how to help you, go away."

I would still argue, if nothing else has worked, and the problem has appeared after playing for some time, and especially if the problem appears in more than one neighbourhood, that reinstalling will at least buy you a renovated game and you won't have that problem again for a while, if at all.  No doubt you will get other problems........

Very true, you do have a point there.  :) It just rubs me the wrong way over at the BBS how they fanatically peddle reinstallation like the 19th century "doctors" pushing their quack medicines. It's not the magic pill for all problems, and like you said for some the problem eventually comes back. Reinstallation should be one possibility in a whole arsenal of options (including a comprehensive patch) to help us resolve all the buggy issues. But I should remember that EA wouldn't know good customer support if it crawled up their legs, attached itself to their nether regions and bit hard.  ;)

Awesome, CBoy! Hopefully, this is the one and only portal bandit.

I like the idea of installing this as a preventative measure, but there being another file for people who already have the problem!  In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, just stop it from happening in the first place!

If you're seeing debug breakpoints, it's because you have the testing cheat turned on. You should play with that turned off most of the time, so that such problems as yours mainfest themselves as jump bugs or missing objects, as god intended. Some interactions are so full of breaks as to be completely unusable when testing cheats is turned on.

Disappearing portals have been an annoyance since there was just the Sims, with no expansion packs. The solution given on that MTS2 thread is the usual one - put the portals back with hacked catalog items.

Well I for one never have testing cheats turned on, I've never been able to get it to work anyway!

Just to add my two cents, reinstalling only puts the problem off for an undetermined period of time.  In my case the npc/slowdown bug which gives a treebreak error when testingcheats is enabled, this can happen at any time.  There was one time when it occurred in a 2nd gen family only the day after a fresh installation - reinstalling does nothing to fix the problem, it will happen when it wants to no matter how fresh the installation.  Thanks to the topic starter for creating this thread, the link that crammerboy provided is the help I need to get rid of this frustrating bug hopefully. 

By installing that fix, not only will it prevent the slowdown bug happening, but in doing so will keep all those extra npc's generated by it from filling the neighbourhood character file - which as we know isn't a good thing.

Perhaps now I can actually enjoy playing again without fear of losing yet another lot to this stupid bug.

It doesn't stop the nannies, as I know to my cost!!!!  The Lotdebugger doesn't stop them, Clear OffWorld Loiterers (8 objects deleted) and there they are again!!!And again!!!! And again!!!!  Are the nannies really servants of the Pollination Technician?

I refuse to use Nannies, they are off-limits with mobile phones and the other Uni gadgets.  Learn to get along without them is my advice, it's easier then you think.

I don't use nannies any more, but I'm still suffering from residual ones!  Now I either use a new graduate or a single family member and get them to move in.  sometimes one of the sims asks them, sometimes I just combine households and get the extra 20grand!

Trouble with mobile phones is often outweighed by other things if you have a couple of Popularity or romance sims in a house who need to spend hours on the phone!  But I'm definitely going to cut down on their use, and mainly just use the house-phone for "Call Friends" and keep mobiles for answering personal calls and making calls to a selected sim.  And now I'm careful not to save while they're being used!

Asking someone to move in is a good idea, but I like a challenge sometimes.  Try having a single mother bringing up twins on her own - now that is fun *grin*.  I never thought about different sims being able to use their own phone at the same time, the moment I realised the mobile woke a sleeping sim I deleted it and never bought another.  Perhaps in the future I'll give them another try.

If you have JMP Phone-hack - you will never receive phone call at nights, and never will be let to phone others after midnight. You get a warning "phone is harrassment", and if you in spite of it call - the relationship points drop down.

Thanks Gali, I have the phone hack amongst many others from here and had forgotten about it.  Do you know if it prevents sims sleeping in the day from being woken by their mobiles too?

If you turn 'testingCheatsEnabled true' on while you're in a lot, you won't get it. You will need to exit and re-enter either the same lot or another lot.

If you remember to turn it on when you are in n'hood view, you will have it turned on when you enter a lot. You can see the version number in the top right hand corner of your monitor if it is turned on.

As to the mobile phone ringing in the night and waking your sim up, if you also install the AutoYakYak, it appears to cancel that out and phones ring all the time! At least, that's what I've found.

I have the autoyak too, haven't noticed housephones ringing non-stop though, does that only happen with mobiles?

Housephones too, but maybe it depends on whether there are any sims still up!  Trouble is, if it's for the sim who's in bed, then his rings too!

Is it because the relationships are dropping to a certain level maybe?  The sims I've played since getting those two hacks had between 80-90 friendship scores so perhaps thats why.  I'll keep an eye out from now on.

I think it may be specific to Keanu Broke and his family, I haven't noticed it on any other lots, but both he and his girlfriend work nights, so maybe that's why.

I have both hacks and have not noticed any problems of this sort with my sims.  Also, if your sim answers an incoming call whether on the house phone or his cell phone, no one else in that house can place an outgoing call until he hangs up.  But it doesn't matter how many sims place outgoing calls at once or if they are already on the phone when another sim answers an incoming call.  I have just about stopped answering all incoming calls since my sims use the Call/Friends feature to keep their friendships maxed out, and other than that, there is usually no reason to answer the phone.  If a sim misses work, you get the message and get paid anyway.  I have been using the yellow burglar alarm from Danny's site, and I love the caller ID.  So most of the time, my sims don't even answer the phone.  If it's someone they want to talk to, they will call them back.  Kind of like real life, LOL.

The caller ID sounds interesting, who is Danny?

Danny operates the DMA Sims 2 website at http://valdea.com.  It is part of his Workers NPCs Set.  I don't use the NPCs, but unfortunately you have to download the whole set to get the dmaTeleport (yellow burglar alarm).  It does a bunch of other stuff besides caller ID.  It has some cheats built in that you can access, and once I believe it called the fire department when I had a fire.  Download the starter kit, and it will install everything in your Downloads directory.  If you don't want the other stuff, you should be able to delete the other stuff from your downloads.  He has a full version that you have to pay for, but you don't need that just for the dmaTeleport box.

Thankyou Rainbow, I really like the idea of Caller ID.

Yeah, me too, just like in real life, it's hard to imagine how you ever lived without it!

Not true. Some features (such as movable motive bars) only work if you do that, but if you type the code right, most of the features take effect immediately. I have an item in my startup file specifically to turn testingcheats (and a few others, like move objects) on and off without typing the whole dang thing. Since you seem to be having problems turning them on and off, here's some lines to cut and paste into your userstartup.cheat file:


alias m+ "moveObjects on" "Enables the ability to move normally unmovable objects" ""
alias m- "moveObjects off" "Disables the ability to move normally unmovable objects" ""

alias s- "boolProp snapObjectsToGrid false" "Lets you move objects off the grid" ""
alias s+ "boolProp snapObjectsToGrid true" "Makes objects snap to the grid" ""

alias f+ "boolprop constrainFloorElevation false" "Enables the ability to change terrain under buildings" ""
alias f- "boolprop constrainFloorElevation true" "Disables the ability to change terrain under buildings" ""

alias t+ "boolprop testingCheatsEnabled true" "Enables a lot of hidden features" ""
alias t- "boolprop testingCheatsEnabled false" "Disables a lot of hidden features" ""

alias l+ "boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled false" "Allow all building tools in dorms" ""
alias l- "boolprop dormspecifictoolsdisabled true" "Disables some dorm building tools (default)" ""

alias r+ "boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true" "Allow 45 degree rotation" ""
alias r- "boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation false" "Disallow 45 degree rotation" ""

Rainbow, do you know if there are any conflicts with JMP's work and the DMATeleport?

No, I wouldn't think so since it's a separate object.  I haven't noticed any conflicts. 

I also like the Autogreet, so I can invite sims over without having my sim stand around to make sure to greet them before they run off.  They get greeted and come on in while my sim can be taking a shower or fixing dinner while they wait.  This can be disabled on a per-lot-basis if you don't like it.  Autogreet does not work for the Headmaster, which is good.

Quite true in fact. My testing cheats won't work by enabling them whilst in a lot, only if I enter a lot after I have turned them on. I'm referring specifically to the debug mode. MoveObjects and so on work fine without having to enter the lot again.

Thanks, I have a userstartup file full of alias's (plural for alias?!?), I can add quite a few extras to your list if you are interested.

That would be 'aliases'.  :)  Sorry, English was my favorite subject.

cheers rainbow. :)

I have the same problem with viruses for some reason.  :-\

Well, the general rule is that to make a word ending in 's' plural, you add 'es'.  An apostrophe 's' indicates possession.  :)

I love aliases!  They make it so much easier to turn moveobjects on and off.  I get so impatient sometimes.

Wouldn't be so bad havein to type it if it wasn't for the darned "_" which I frequently mis-type as "-"!!!

There is no reason to type move_objects on. moveobjects on works exactly the same.

I'll try that!  Thanks!!!!

In fact, if you type an 'm' and hit tab, it'll auto-fill-in the rest of the cheat.  Still have to type "on/off" and the rest, so aliases are still faster, but there you go.

Wow. Learn something new every day. Wait, did everyone else know this? :-X

I didn't, for one!  Perhaps it's in the guide, but I never bought it!

I didn't know that one either, it will come in handy..