My children have been able to join dances with their teen siblings. It does drop out easily (or one or the other will turn the stereo off :p) but if I'm persistent they manage. I thought it maybe had to do with where they are on the skill levels, as the drop out seems rather like losing relationship when you have one sim that dances really well dance with another that doesn't - they stop quickly and lose points. And my teens invariably have a fair amount more in the dance skill. All but one of them got the scholarship. I haven't really tried the kids (or teens) with adults although a couple of adults have joined spontaneously and I have had whole families smustling together as I'm just nuts enough to think it's cute.

On the other hand, my sims can throw food at each without getting crushes since the patch, and I've heard others saying that isn't working for them... so maybe my game is just nutso.

Motoki, I forgot to say thanks for the info. I was too busy being mad at Maxis, sorry.

Thanks for the info! and for checking again on the bodyshop issue I feel slightly better now... but just a little. I'm still mad about the whole idea.

and sorry MTS2 but you are now a WAY over-moderated (primarily on the sister chat site). They won't even let people complain about the bonus pack idea and pull the threads when they do under the claim of "Maxis bashing"  When did that site become an official site satellite? They're getting a lot of misinformation because they're not allowing free exchange conversation.

Oh I definately *won't do*. I agree with Veilchen. I'm right on the verge of just saying forget it, I won't play the game anymore, or at least will just stick with what I've got. I'm planning on getting the movies around the holidays. I'll just see how addictive that one is.

My understanding from reading other (probably wrong, I admit) posts is that the toddler formal slot is in bodyshop. Dunno how you're supposed to change the kids, but I imagine they'll find some way if it's included. The Business EP sounds fun to me, but I dunno about including changes in toddler clothing in that - seems kinda odd. If they do, well I can wait til that comes out and see... but the shopping packs really need to not include base game changes, if they want to keep at least the me part of the customer base.

They'll have to go a far ways with something I actually want before I'd consider buying them and even then I'll think a lot about it. EPs didn't cost almost as much as the game when they first game out either. Halfway again as much for a shopping pack (which will slowly increase) is pushing it way far. The money spent : replay value ratio is getting skewed and I'm not made of money.

so they added a new slot for toddler clothes (formal) in this dang holiday pack bulls___t??

arghh...

is there some way to get that kind of base game change into my game without actually spending money on the stupid thing? (or going to a lot of trouble to find the whole pack available for download) *that* kind of thing is going to be a serious hassle for custom content. It was a big enough hassle that they added YA to an EP as it was. What will happen if I download custom clothes that the creator has tagged "formal"? Will they just not show up? Will they appear in the standard toddler slot?

For objects, if the creators clone them so they come up as custom content, they're downloadable... recolors will be missing the mesh of course, but I don't really want a recolored Christmas tree anyways :p

I HATE this shopping pack crap. I'm not spending $20 once a month on this game for a bunch of junk I don't want just so I can keep up with base game changes - and adding clothing slots IS a base game change. There's nothing listed in the pack that I want at all. It all sounds like a bunch of junk. but they're messing with THE most used custom content deal out there - clothing, and I download lots of clothes. In particular toddler clothes. I don't wanna not be able to use something cuz it's set-up requiring a damned "bonus" frigging pack.

<very annoyed>

yeah, me too but I was trying to say I believe the patch helped some of those issues (not saying it fixed it or anything - it is Maxis and all, but helps) so you're better off to install it. Also they'll probably assume you have it for further fixes and/or force the installation for expansion packs, so you might as well be current.

Try a wilted spinach salad. There's two compelling reasons for eating it - most important, the spinach is a vehicle for a wonderful flavor, definately tasty, and secondarily being leafy and dark green spinach counts as tops so it's possible to honestly tell people who think you should be eating good for you stuff you're doing so and keep them from bugging you

I think I would install it. The patch actually includes some things that aren't on the readme. I can't remember now, but it seemed like there were one or two fairly big issues that it fixed (most probably to do with generating too many people and/or losing portals - which might not be a problem for you right now, but could be in the future). Also it actually does change some gameplay things - the "ask" interactions (and throwing food) no longer count as romantic interactions. That was the biggest one for me, but I think there are a couple of smaller things as well.

I think the biggest NL issues are ones the patch doesn't address as they pushed it out too soon. I'm worried/paranoid about jump bug issues, but I don't think you'll escape them by not patching. The phone (especially cell phones) is still buggy, inventories are particularly buggy, cars a bit, and (imo) the biggest bug in the game is the matchmaker (stay away from potions - I'm not really sure if they got that fixed in the patch, but still...).

There are also a few known incompatability issues (the lights and some of the dt houses, daily gardener and some of the phone options, etc.) In any case, in my personal don't-know-anything opinion, the patch won't hurt your game and could make it better

<scuffle> I'm really sorry about misspelling your id. I got in too big a hurry. I'm not really supposed to play on the net while I'm at work (except at lunchtime, like now).

That sounds like it might work, Zephyr - to let the game generate the clone. I'm curious to know how it goes

I've yet to get bored with sims2 either. Sometimes I'll do other things (even cheating on my poor sims with another game ), but just because there are other things that are fun also - not because I'm bored. Well, except for when I got myself stuck in the University rut. I really don't like that EP.

Well, I don't think it's quite as bad as it sounds - what I did was ransack the other three colleges for buildings to put into my custom one. I took absolutely everything, all buildings - dorms, frat houses, classroom, community everything out and moved all the sims to the bin (whatever ones weren't already there), so there's nowhere to visit in the other three. If I try to send a sim there, it says something about not having any place to go. I do think it generated duplicates of a few of the sims tho - I've noticed some that are different sims but have the same name. Probably more sims than I need, but not as serious as if I'd just attached all 3 as working universities.


If I wanted to do it now, I'd use simPE's clone ability. It was a dumb thing to do as that was all I needed, but I didn't know that at the time I'm working on learning to clone for some of the sims I actually like in this neighborhood, so I can have them if I want them and it blows up. It's kinda getting phased out for my new custom one though, so I'm just glad it played as long as I needed it, but not too worried if it decides it's done all it can.


hm? I don't have all that many houses at all, and not very many sims in comparison to a lot of people. I've been using this neighborhood since before University was released and at the time I messed it up, there were only two families in it (two couples), one with one kid and one with two. And a few random ones my son stuck in and never played. I've got rather more now. You mean don't play that family? I haven't been - they're in the regular neighborhood and being ignored, while I was playing almost completely in downtown and university. But I'm pretty sure they are visiting lots - both the ones living in a house and the ones in the bin. I'm wondering if moving the ones in the bin into a house and making them townies would keep the problem from getting worse?


You mean the pollination tech? generates a 2nd set of NPCs in what circumstances?

Hi Bagel


Do you by any chance have a link to this? That's exactly what I most need I believe. And thanks for the encouragement

BFBVFS - Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space, I believe


lol @ "go walkabout" - I love that I'm pretty sure this is why my current neighborhood is on the verge of blowing up. I had a custom family I really liked and backed up a copy of them, with their house, in the bin and forgot about them (also before Uni and before I knew better). Well, that and attaching all 3 Uni's +a custom one, tho since I took all the buildings out, I'm not sure if they duplicated dormies or not. Anyway, the neighborhood only had a few people in it and wasn't played much - virtually ignored until NL came out and I started playing it, more or less to see how the EP worked and got involved. And now I notice it's got some issues...

Haven't looked with simPE tho. The interface intimidates me and I haven't quite figured out how to use it yet. Working on it tho.

Ya know, I think I'm over-complicating. People move their playable sims from downtown to the regular neighborhood without an issue (other than troubles with inventory and cars). It's not quite the same as moving from neighborhood to neighborhood. I think I'll attach the Maxis downtown, put the house in the bin (with the tombstones and the ones from the graveyard too), plop it down in the regular neighborhood and then create a custom downtown and delete the Maxis one (so it won't generate more townies than I want on me. If I do that before I've played any sims - so nobody's met anyone, it should work fine.

What do you mean it wouldn't let you create a custom DT? What happened when you tried. I clicked on the plus and chose a terrain and it put me right in and was in the chooser with no problem - tho I haven't actually made much of it yet (I'm still preparing). I just did it again a minute ago to check on what I was saying. Did it not work when you went to put buildings in?

Lots of other people are creating custom downtowns, that's what JadeElliot is doing in all those neat screenshots and some of the others (some of them were main neighborhood custom lots and some DTs), and I've seen others on MTS2 and around, so I'm sure it's working fine for some people (would figure it wouldn't for me tho - if there's a bug, I generally get it sooner or later.)

Deleting *all* the buildings in the Maxis DT (except House of Fallen Trees) so I could add my own would be a major pain and even then I couldn't use a terrain I wanted, nor name it what I wanted (Downtown is kinda unimaginative imo).

I've deleted the Uni's and used my own with no issues whatsoever, so I'm not overly concerned about deleting the DT sub-hood thing, tho dunno if I'll bother or that it matters or not. The point is that you don't *have* to have it and I don't think it'll associate itself without my ever choosing it (I'd like to think not, that'd be crazy). I don't care about the vampires, I've played them and am bored with them and for this particular neighborhood they aren't appropriate and I don't want them. Really I could do without Mrs. Crumplebottom altogether, but I believe she resides elsewhere and will show up anyway - if I understood other threads rightly. Perhaps not and I don't care.

I'm not asking you to take chances with your game - I'm wondering what will happen with the Tricous if I do mine the way I want to and/or wondering if it'll double up on the ghosts if I put the house with the headstones in the lot bin. Doubling characters would be taking more chances than I'd like, but creating my own DT is something not bothering me at all (although it's going to take forever at this rate ) as long as it works (I don't want to spend forever doing it just to discover it won't play.) I don't want anything from the original Maxis downtown except the Tricous (including the teens) and the House of Fallen Leaves and I'm just looking for the best way to accomplish that

Alright, I'm fuzzled (I'm easily fuzzled really )

As far as I can tell, Nightlife works exactly the way University does. It comes with a premade Downtown for me to use. If I don't wanna use that one (or want more than one) I can click the "plus" thing and create my own custom downtown.

There's nothing forcing me associate the Maxis Downtown with my neighborhood if I don't want to or even to associate *any* DT (tho if I don't associate any DT or Uni, the game will periodically remind me that I've got EPs that I'm not fully utilizing.) I can use the Maxis one, a custom one, or both or even more.

I can't delete the Maxis made downtown until I add a custom one (guess it would mess up the chooser to have nothing in it) but once I do that, I can delete the Maxis one altogether if I want to. So, either I'm missing something here, or I'm not understanding what you all are saying. If I delete it, I don't have the premade DT, correct?

Because they're cheap and don't want to pay a photographer, or even to get decent free source photos. And are too lazy to find out where the logos came from and get the company's provided vector/high res required for use ones.

They're too cheap to pay us too, or to pay anything for the work involved in making their not-so-great art work in large format. Customers are a pain Shame they're kinda the point of a business...

Yeah, I'll put the house in the bin - no need for packaging anymore

If the dead Tricou's are a fixture anyway, I'm not sure what harm it'd do to have their tombstones, or do you think they'll duplicate? I just want one set, not two, but I do want all of them, and I'd like to give them their house back.

I *could* just use the premade downtown and delete everything I don't want and remake it, but... seems like more work than necessary just to get that one house and family and the corresponding teens.

Ok, so if I make a custom downtown, I will get the dead Tricou's? I can just package the House of Fallen Leaves if I want it. What about the teens, will they generate in a custom downtown if I allow townie generation?

lol - pirates and highwaymen sound kind of sexy, but I hafta admit I think I'd rather live a dull life and seek my simulated thrills than have lived that way.

I thought you must be English (no offense, just the way you phrased some bits )

In the states, it seems most of our remaining attractions (there's still some boardwalks and piers around some places) have gone the way of the theme parks. Roller coasters are fun sometimes (I even play rollercoaster tycoon and try to build my own a bit) but in the quest for bigger, better, faster rides and huge money-making extravaganzas, I think we've lost some of the flavor.

he - sounds like you need to be making a boardwalk

Wonderful, fun ideas - starts taking notes and goes off on another tangent in this game... then, it's an old tangent with renewed interest so fair enough... maybe I can combine some of these.

Are you in Europe? I'm just wondering because it sounds like you've seen some very different kinds of things - but then, I'm in Kentucky and we don't have any beach, much less interesting attractions. We're too busy running through the woods with rifles or racing horses to have any cool stuff

hm, I've not seen one either, but I do have the Nightmare Before Christmas Jack Skellington recolor and when they "talk through" the dolls it looks rather like a puppet show... that could be set-up like a home business, just needs a building and doll recolors (or using those for the right themed ones) and they could charge to give little puppet shows. What a great idea! Thanks!!!

I'm anal - I admit it up front

That web encyclopedia definition is talking about a print media effect (I live in the print world) - pixilated or what are sometimes called "bitmappy" images. An easy way to see an example is to type some text into photoshop (or paintshop or whatever) in a 1" x 1" square, and save it as a 72 dpi jpg. Reopen the 72 dpi file and increase it to fit on the largest piece of paper you can print and print it. Don't add resolution - just insist it print 11x17 or whatever. The edges of the text will show up all jagged and nasty (look at the letters that are supposed to be round - "a's" and "o's"). Open the paint program again and increase the page size and font size to actually fit the largest paper you can print and this time save it at 300 dpi. Reopen the large file and print again. Assuming you actually ended up with a decent resolution, and your printer can print the font, now the edges of round letters will look right, or at least better.

I deal with the jaggies daily as people don't seem to understand you can't download a picture from the internet and print it for display on a 36" x 54" banner... customers are nuts I'll trade one buggy sim for vector text and another for at least 150 dpi *at full size* art.

I've modded a couple of different ezboards and can help you with what I know. My understanding (and it's been awhile) is that a private board can have any rules they want. You'll need to password it, but you'd want to do that anyway. Personally, I rather like them for the free stuff, tho you'll have to put up with ads. If I was going to pay money though, I'd set up my own site - ez doesn't do anything you couldn't do yourself with server space.

On topic, I'm still concerned about the passing the neighborhoods back and forth thing... and I'm not quite sure what that entails (even tho I did finally read the original thread)  - a base neighborhood file I could handle, but something with a lot of houses and people and stuff in it, I'd just never get it downloaded and to need to upload at regular intervals would probably be too much for me. but I'd like to just hang out and read what's going on even if I don't play - is that ok?

I'm stupid all the time, but certainly I'm jealous. I wanna be noticed being stupid! How does one accomplish this? Do I need to take out ads? I paid my bills, I'm sure I did, even got the one for the price of two great deal and the increase... isn't that enough? What more do these people want?

I don't really know... someone who really understands how the game works should answer. I also started deleting things that seemed like they'd cause a problem before you could check in simPE (but still wanted cool stuff) and that's one of the ways I decided, but I'd never heard before that Maxis items did it. I wouldn't have deleted the expensive telescope So maybe they're just a result of an overall overload, and it's not that particular item causing trouble. Even so, I'd say if you have lines, you probably want to cut down on the amount of stuff you have... (think that makes sense Motoki?

Do you mean just neighborhood objects?

There's a fair amount of patio/outdoor tables, umbrellas, sand toys (castle, shovel), wiki lights, coolers and stuff like that for the houses. A pretty nice little hotdog stand. There's also some trees that have been recolored (I've got a smaller palm tree and a couple of others of that nature - I could look up where the stuff came from this evening when I get home if you like. TSR did a beach theme so there's stuff there but most of it hasn't been in the free rotation yet - tho some has.) I dunno about neighborhood stuff tho.

I've been wanting to do a pier and boardwalk for ages and have been collecting. I even tried once or twice to get someone to make some stuff for me, but didn't get any interest. I think it would be possible to use existing animations to do more "games", like a penny toss and all and would be fun.