In Soviet Russia, red game plays you?


Seriously, using the EA Launcher to patch booty is not a particularly good idea. It's not such a great idea for legitimately purchased copies either, for that matter.

Or you could set your computer's clock back a few days, since that's what the AM expiration coding looks at.

Ignoring evolution is all part of being an extinct bird 

An ancient proverb -
"The Sheep seeks a simple answer, to be told what to do. The Cyberdodo seeks many answers, to find useful information within and to compare answers, to make an informed decision.  The Cyberdodo also points and laughs at those who are so self-important they must reach for tar and feathers whenever a question is asked."
- The Cyberdodo

That has been my intent all along - research. If you feel the need to be infuriated because I've done what you say I should do, well then go ahead and be infuriated to your heart's content.

So far, the responses have been an interesting mix. Some responses have been informative and helpful (Thanks!). Some responses have offered subjective opinions only (taken under advisement). Some responses have bickered over grammar I'm not resposible for. And some responses have been pointed and laughed at.


One request for clarification, though. So far I think only AmberDiceless has answered my sub-question about bugginess. Does that mean everyone is in agreement that Pescado and others have managed to tame even the worst code EAxis has to offer?

I didn't see any, thus why I asked. Maybe I just fail at searching. Now that this one is stickied, it shouldn't be a future problem.


Clearly you misunderstand. If I was seeking Fanboi Zen, the BBS would be the place to seek it. But I think my question would have upset them and disturbed their Oneness with the Fandom, by daring to suggest that any EAxis product could possibly contain bugs. 


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm busy hitting the 'Thanks' button for everyone.  "Baaa!"

I've recently started playing again after a long break, and I'm feeling rather behind.

I only have Uni, NL, and OFB, so I'm looking for some info and opinions on the more recent EPs, beyond the obvious EAxis sales pitches. What gameplay options are added or changed? Do new careers have new LTWs? Most importantly, how badly borked is each one (tolerable with appropriate application of Awesomeware, or too big a steaming pile of bork for anything to fix)?


Moderator edit: Thread name changed to Jolrei's lulzy suggestion, to make our new sticky thread's topic clearer.

I have a government building lot impostor I made some time ago for my own use, but I think it would be perfect for the MATY Senate Chambers 
(This was built on a Uni + Nightlife build, with no custom content.)

Here's a couple of neighborhood shots, from a temp neighborhood -




And the download -
http://www.minisquish.net/sims2/Wastewater_Treatment_Plant.Sims2Pack

I just want to mention I haven't forgotten about this, I've just been busy.

I'm still new at this too, so I don't have any real answers right now. I'll need to do some research. But don't be shy about attaching error logs. If nothing else, it helps me learn how to read the things

I'm having trouble making sense of that error log. It shows that the sim errored when cleaning up a can, apparently autonomously. But, the last 2 entries in the stack are routing functions to the vending machine. That makes it look like the sim was trying to dispose of the can into the vending machine, but that makes no sense...
  I'm going to need help from someone More Awesome Than Me to figure that out.

In the meantime, I'll start working on some better error handling. Something along the lines of making the sim put the can down if they fail to throw it away, instead of dumping with an error. I should look into preventing more than 1 sim from using the machine at a time too.

Another, unrelated little tidbit of info - I removed the machine and custom can from my downloads folder and entered my test lot, causing the machine to revert into an endtable and the cans sitting on the floor to revert into esspresso cups. Right away, the cleanbot cleaned up the cups. Really makes me wonder how the cleanbot determines what it can clean up.

I did mention above that sims would drop the can after buying it, but I guess I wasn't clear this is what I meant   Are the sims immediately cleaning up the can, before you can direct them to drink? If so, perhaps advertising on the Clean function is too high.  Anyway, seemed like a good idea at the time, but in retrospect it would be better if I tried again to find a good way to get the sim to chug it directly.

I'll take a closer look at the log tomorrow. Do you remember what the sim was trying to do? Going to the machine? Buying something? Was another sim using the machine at the time?

Anyway, thanks for testing 

Currently, I have the sims simply dropping the energy drink cans on the floor a few steps away from the machine after buying it. The can then has pie menu options of Drink and Clean Up. Also, I made Clean Up dispose of the can in the trash rather than wash it like a dish (makes more sense to me that way).

Trying to add energy to juice isn't something I'd recommend, as that would require a global mod. However, in my version I've gotten rid of the redundancy of separate functions for different age groups. The only thing preventing children from buying energy drinks now is the flag settings for it in Pie Menu Functions.

Literal 0x0019 is the hexedecimal value of 25.

The prices are set in the machine. In the BHAV for buying the object, look for the line
[global 0x0294] Budget - Make Transaction

The 1st literal is the price. That gets set by the second hex pair in the operand box.

I did a bit of tinkering on the chips/cookies/soda/energydrink vending machine. As I thought, it was just more of the same garbage code.

My fixed version now spawns the generic snack chips/cookies/juice instead of Paco's custom equivalents, at a cost of $1. The energy drink is still his custom drink, which now costs $10.  I cleaned up the energy drink object too, so it now increments and decrements needs, rather than setting them to hard literals. Specifically, it raises Hunger a little, raises Energy by about 1/4, lowers Comfort by about 1/4, and lowers Bladder by half.

The machine should have mild autonomy for purchace of chips, cookies, and juice. I made the energy drink selection non-autonomous.

There's still 2 outstanding problems that I have no idea how to fix. The mesh still overrides the mesh of the other vending machine, and cleanbots won't clean up the energy drink cans.

The .zip attached contains both my fixed version of the vending machine and my fixed version of the energy drink.

I've finished working on the older (soda only) vending machine, insofar as fixing it goes. I'll continue to tweak it though, probably.
I haven't been able to fix the mesh conflict with the newer chip/soda/energydrink vending machine. I tried exporting the mesh and reimporting it using a different name, but the newer machine still overrides the mesh. 

Anyway, I've attached my fixed version.

Yes, that's what you're looking for.

All BHAV commands, regardless of what else they do, produce a result of True or False, for determining what to do next.

In the BHAV "Interaction - Buy Coke", you will see the lines
A: [prim 0x006A] Animate Sim ("a-belch-medium")                       TRUE: B      FALSE: FFFC
B: [prim 0x0024] Dialog (Text Notification, yadda yadda)               TRUE: C      FALSE: FFFC
C: [prim 0x0002] Expression (My motive hunger := Literal 0x0028) TRUE: FFFD  FALSE: FFFC

Line A makes the sim burp. If the sim burped, the result is TRUE. Therefore, control goes to B. If the sim failed to burp, the result is FALSE. FFFC means error.
Line B will pass control to line C after it produces the spam box.

To bypass line B, make line A's TRUE result point to line C instead of line B.

To get rid of the spam boxes, bypass the BHAV command lines where you found the spam text, in each of the 'Interaction - Buy ..' BHAVs. The line will look like "[prim 0x0024] Dialog (Text Notification, Message yadda yadda)". To bypass, have the line that leads to the dialog command instead poit to the line the dialog command points to.

Magicmoon, your understanding of GUIDs is correct. But changing this item's GUID won't solve anything, because that's not the problem. It's the meshes that are conflicting, not the whole item. I posted in that thread shortly after his 3/7 "fix" to try to talk some sense into him. Don't know if he got it.

As I posted above, I've been working on fixing his old coke machine. I'm pretty sure that, despite his good idea and his effort, he knows even less about object editing than I do, but refuses to accept the possibility that he can improve his work.

Assuming he's repeated his old mistakes in his new vending machine (likely), then the problem with clean bots not recognizing the cans is because his cans are cloned from potions, not juice or instant meals. My solution was to make the machine spawn a juice instead, rather than fuss with all the coke can's problems.

On the subject of Autonomy, the 'Autonomy' setting for the pie menu is in hexadecimal, not decimal. And no, the value doesn't need to be a multiple of 8. The value 64 forces non-autonomy, while a value 32 or below allows autonomous use. For values between 32 and 64, I don't know what would happen. Maybe autonomous only during need despiration?
Also, for a sim to use an item autonomously, it has to advertise that it satisfies one or more needs. In the current version of SimPE,  there's 2 places where Motives can be set, but I don't know which one produces advertising. In the Pie Menu Functions editor, there's a tab for Motives, where I had put a value of 4 for Hunger.  The other place is in the Object Data editor, under the Raw Data tab. There too I put a value of 4 for 'ratingHunger'.

I haven't dealt yet with the coffee table obsession. That's next on my agenda. I did see a custom BHAV for putting down the can, which is undoubtedly the culprit.

Anyway, once I've at least tried to tackle the coffee table obsession, I'm willing to share 

Yes, you can fix it.

I've been working on fixing Paco's 1st vending machine, the soda only one.
http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=192803
Even though I'm a complete beginner at object editing, I've cleaned up this mess of an object quite a bit.

It used to set Fun to a literal value (why, I don't know), charge $50, and summon a custom item that sets Hunger to a literal value. Yeesh. That's on top of absolutely no advertising for autonomy.

Now, my version only charges $1 and summons a plain old ordinary snack juice. Also, it advertises Hunger, but at such a low level that sims only use it as a last resort to avoid starvation. Thus, no compulsiveness over it.

While I was at it, I retextured it too. I wanted a fictional soda brand on it

Actually, it's not Pescado who's done something about this, but rather a couple of members of this forum contributed this in the Peasantry section.
Nailati created replacement face templates - http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,3804.0.html, and Motoki wrote a tutorial on how to replace face templates - http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,1280.0.html

I'm not in last place! YAY!!

But grimy? Did you neglect to keep the bathrooms clean? 

Anyway, this is the 1st time I've had any of my lot work critiqued, so I'm happy the major problems are due to my piss-poor decorating skills rather than my construction work.

I was wondering, though, if you have any further insights concerning the cost effectiveness.  Even stripped of all furnature and plant life, the place did turn out more expensive than I anticipated.  Any ideas on why it costs as much as it does?

Edit: removed broken dancing banana

That's a hilarious story, rohina 

I wouldn't call attraction irrelevant, though.  Sure, you can overcome it if you want to, but my concern is the exact opposite. 

To illustrate, let's say your sim Amy is out in downtown, and innocently scopes the room.  "J.M. Pescado is HOT!"  Now Amy spends the rest of the evening obsessively farting hearts at Pescado.  Worse, you look away for only a moment, but in that time Amy runs up to J.M. and says "Hi, we've never met, but wanna make out?".  And Pes replys "Sure."  So there they go at it, because they have 3 bolt chemistry...

Anyway, I'll explain my larger-scope reason for wanting to control or lower attraction.  Why should Mrs. Crumplebottom do all the work tormenting other sims?  Sure, cloning the old bat would get her some help, but that would just be more of the same.  No, my idea is to attach the letcherous behavoir of the university drama professors to an utterly repellent sim, disgusting to all other sims, and set him loose as a townie. 

Interesting tip on the love potion.  I suppose I'll make my cast of "Neighborhood's Most Disgusting" playable rather than townies, so that I can easily refresh their double-shot potion guzzling as needed.

Either that, or give up on this particular means for tormenting sims...

Let's say, for example, you want to add a universally repulsive sim to your neighborhood, such as "Pete the Perv" http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=86033&c=1.  The problem is, no matter how gross you make him, it doesn't matter to the attraction/chemistry formula, and so you end up with at least some sims who think the slimeball is hot 

To get around this, I'm looking for something that can lower a sim's attractiveness, kind of like what the love potion does but in reverse, and preferably permanent.  Or maybe something that simply overrides attraction, forcing a 'puke black hearts at me' level of attraction.
I suspect this would need to be a global hack that interacts with a custom token or inventory item.