I would like to add one thing that I look for before I download a house.  I always look at the creator uploaded photos. Better quality, larger photos and collages really float my boat.  It's the difference of having someone tell you about the new 2006 Mustang GT and test driving it.  I want to see footprints, close ups of main room anything eye catching that highlights the design.

Rarely will I download anything based on the Maxi's picture alone.  You have to admit they aren't that flattering.

I must say I am shocked by the poll results.  I've always assumed that most preferred unfurnished houses but in fact 35% want furnished and 40% do not care as long as the house is well designed.

I really appreciate everyone's input on this.  It confirmed some things I suspected and taught me things I didn't know.

Thanks everyone.  I really appreciate your input.  I'm in building mode with all of the new tools and options in NL. I haven't been inspired in a while, so I'm actually having fun building. I never upload terrains because I know they cause problems. I usually upload unfurnished lots because that seems to be the preference but really have a hard time doing it because I love decorating and think that even if all of my decor is deleted they may use the same layout or get the general idea of what I was going for, but another benefit to unfurnished is that they are very small files.

Small and medium lots do not seem like the most popular downloads but I like building on them because as cool as the huge lots can be I hate having a huge beautiful lot that's not any fun to play because it lags my PC.  

Trey I tend to stick to ranch style homes for playing as well as I hate sending them up and down stairs and flipping between the levels when I am trying to see what my silly Sims are up too.  I love a good ranch style home with a great floor plan.  But I usually build two story homes for uploads.  (They just tend to be not so blah.)

I am a horrible landscaper.  My yards tend to be pretty average.  Every now and then I get a cool idea, but the gardeners get on my nerves and I always forget to water the flowers and end up with dead dirt.  So I stick to trees, potted plants, ponds and pools for outdoor decoration.

Blue, question about custom terrains.  I didn't know about the terrains causing crashes when deleted like most simmers until after I had used a few.  If I manually go house to house and cover the custom terrains with Maxi's terrains, will that make it so that I can delete the custom stuff without making my lots unplayable?

Anywho, thanks again everyone.  Sorry to get so wordy, it's late, I have a huge headache and I think I'm getting delirious.  So without further ado. I'm going to ditch for the night before I end up nominated in RL.

Good night.  

I'm just curious as to what the preferences are when you are house shopping for your Sims on the internet.  If you have more preferences that aren't listed like hack free, medium sized lots, etc. please feel free to comment.

If the townhouse is built without a foundation just add an indoor pool.  If the townhouse is built on a foundation you can delete the center of the foundation and make a sunken area that you can add a pool to.  (Make sure you leave room for at least one set of stairs.) 

If the townhouse is small to begin with you can always extend the first level floor plan to accomodate the pool.  I know there is a great set of transparent walls and doors at MTS2 that you can make a sunroom with to accent the indoor pool.

I haven't had them get mad for silly reasons like that, and am not looking forward to that one.  But another good use of the furious Sims is to have a Sim fall out of love and/or lose a crush with the other Sim.  (I've had 0/0 relationship points because it was so long since an old Sim affair, but darn if they didn't still have the hearts.)  But with the furious actions the pink and red hearts disappear.  Also since the furious state only last through a certain time period, to me it's easy enough to get them furious at the other, lose the love relationship and then over time make up but keep it as friends.

I think the furious Sims make the game more interesting.  I agree that they can be a pain when you send your Sim downtown, especially if they are a Romance Sim.  My Don Lothario, who has woohooed every single Sim in Pleasantview, cannot go downtown without getting slapped around.  He definitely can't date in public either.  There's always another flame around when he does.

I had created a female Sim to check out the vamp teeth option in Body Shop and then imported her and started working on her house.  I decided I wanted her to be a vampire after all.  I invited Don over (he is my only playable vampire) after she had a bad date with JoeBlowSim.  (I'm trying so hard for the flaming poo.)

That night the bad date stole her newspaper and then showed a few hours later and kept playing ring and run.  With Metrola's Mind Control Mirror I selected Don to see if I could make him scare the date away.  When I clicked on the furious pranker there was an option to pay him off.  When you do he doesn't promise that he will leave her alone, just leave her alone for the time being.

The surprises keep coming with the furious ones.

I've used it twice.  The only thing I liked about it was the "campfire song and dance" which is silly but funny the first time you see it.  (turn up your speakers for full effect)

As far as I know the only way to stop the decay is send them to their coffins. 

You said that you used your mouse to zoom in and out.  That is normal for that application which means that you can do this next trick.  Click the wheel and while holding it down a crosshair will appear on the screen.  Still holding it down, move the mouse in the direction you want the screen to go.  (It will change as you do it so you can see the effect as you change the setting.)

I read about the same problem in one of the NL bugs posts.  The only thing similar I had happen was one of my sim's friends walked by, came into the house uninvited and when I clicked on her to do an interactions she did the "Look at the time, I've got to be going" and promptly left the lot. 

Also my maid left once with items left undone.  Neither one of those errors have re-occured though.

Yes, it's down again

Reggikko I am really glad to hear that you made it to safety. I could not fathom living through this scenario.   My thoughts are with you and your family.  I had a close friend that barely made it out and still does not know what has happened to family members that she was separated from.  My friends and I have her heading here for shelter. 

Morgan Freeman was talking about some relief effort he was setting up and said that you shouldn't sit and try to think of ways to help you should just stand up and do it.  I was sitting here watching the news crying and thought that that was exactly what I was doing, wanting to help but not really doing anything.  So I called one of my company owners (we have a distribution dept.) and asked that if I could raised finiacial aid, get water and get any other necessities donated would she donate a truck to take it down.  She's donating as many tractor trailers trucks as I can fill.  We currently have a fleet of 8.  She also promised to help me call radio stations and local wholesale businesses to solicit donations.  Also I am the artist for the Naval Aviation Monument here, so I called the Admiral and asked if he can get the local bases to donate any RMEs and maybe get in touch with someone at the national guard that can help my drivers distribute these items without causing riots.  He pledged his support and the support of the committee which includes retired master chiefs, other admirals and many high ranking retired Naval officers.

I hope that this blossoms into something huge and I can fill all those trucks and get them down there in time to help.  I just wanted to let you know that people do care and are truly heart broken over what has happened.  I really hope that something that I do here will benefit you and your family.

If you want to contact me personally, please send me a message through this forum or my GB on the BBS (themythchick1969) and I will respond to your email address or give you mine.

Sincerely,
Crista

The carpools will appear on the lot but not at the mailbox portal, they appear at the far edge of the right side of the lot. (near the "Leave World" portal)  The first time I noticed it the Sims got in the carpool but the carpool vanished before the third Sim could get in.  I didn't notice him until I got the call that he had missed work.  (By that time I had saved)

The next Sim was scheduled to leave the house at 1:00 so I watched him closely, he acknowledge that the carpool was there and was heading for the car and the car flashed and then disappeared.  At the same time the kid that was at school appeared out of thin air.  (His homework was missing too)

When the Sims that had left earlier arrived home from work they too appeared out of thin air, no pay, no promotions.

Of course this is in my Legacy house.  I've searched three forums and the BBS and have found bugs with maybe one thing in common with my problem but not close enough to use the fixes.  I found of course the Blank Memories fix (restoring the objects.package file) that is for missing pay and promotions, but my Sims have all of their memories.  I also found the memory fix from TwoJeffs and the car fix from modthesims2.  I haven't used any of them because they are either related to the Slowdown bug or the memory bug.  (Which this isn't either.)

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Edit:  One thing I did try was to move the next carpool that came to my lot up to the mailbox with moveobjects on.  As soon as I set it and went back into live mode it moved back to the far right of the lot.

Edit 2:  Nevermind, I ended up debugging it and finding the error.  The CarPool.fix by Erzengel at MTS2 repaired the problem.

What I do for the "perfect" painting is turn free will off.  Pose the Sim that I want to have the picture of somewhere away from the easel.  (Using the artist career reward camera is great for posing.)  Then I use the "Paint Still Life" option instead of "Paint Portrait".  As soon as I have my captured shot and the Sim is painting I turn the free will back on so the Sims can go about their business.  An extra tip is if you can't get the great shot because of walls or other obstructions go into build/buy mode before the Sim starts painting and use the moveobjects on cheat to move the Sim or any other objects around.