Thanks for the replies!

I am back playing that lot - about to grow Delman (the kid who combusted and was saved) up into a teenager...

Learned something new - had never had a child die before this...

So far no more fires so far, so guess deleting the fire errors solved the problem...although I should probably check, just to be sure...

I didn't think children could die in the game...but I must be mistaken.

I've been have a LOT of thunder storms and a lot of trees struck by lightning on my lots lately... so much so that I had to resort to a non-awesome hack (Paladin's weather controller) to just shut the weather off on lots during spring/summer.

But on one lot in particular I have had 4 cases of spontaneous combustion - one right after the other - one per day.

First the husband took a shower and spontaneously combusted immediately afterwards.  His wife beat the Grim Reaper at his game and was saved from death.

But the following day, when he returned from work, he got out of his car and immediately burst into flames.  No one old enough was home to save him that time, so he died.

I moved another male sim in with the family with the intention of replacing mister I burst into flames all the time...

Only upon returning from his first day at work, he too burst into flames in the very same spot where the previous sim died.

So now I've got two dead sims.

The following day, the son (now child aged) uses the toilet - in the same bathroom where the dad spontaneously combusted 3 days earlier.  He was NOT in the red temperature wise (only the first time was the male sim in the red - the other 2 times they were green temp wise) but he burst into flames nonetheless, immediately after flushing the toilet.  His mother again beat the Grim Reaper at his little game and was able to save the boy from death.

Well this was just too much of a coinkydink... turned on boolprop testing cheats... and low and behold I had TWO fire errors.  Deleted them.

So do y'all think this will take care of this?  Or is this a 'damaged' lot and I just need to move the family out and destroy it and start over?

Or maybe keep it and just move in sims that I don't like knowing that they'll likely succumb by spontaneous combustion?

And no I didn't think to take a snap when the kid was on fire...I was too busy trying to get his mother to extinguish him (which doesn't seem to work in cases of spontaneous combustion).

Oh yeah - it's not Paladin's hack causing this - installed that between losing the first sim the second time and the second sim bursting into flame.  And most of my hacks are awesome or cough cough, formerly awesome.

With my sims, it seems to be a tad different in presentation.

Sim A living on lot is directed to take a shower.  Sim B living on lot suddenly decides that they must take a shower.
Repeat for just about everything from cooking to playing a musical instrument.

It's so bad that most of the time in dorms I keep free will off.  It's easier to direct 6 to 8 sims constantly than it is to listen to them whine and stomp their feet because the shower's busy when there's a perfectly good unused one right next to it.

And I solved the dancing and autonomous stereo turning on, etc. I don't let them have stereos.  I'm so mean.

hubby did...he says it's something to do with the video cards.  He knows all that techno-speak.  Me?  I just use and abuse computers. He's talking about fixing that and also fixing the fan speed on these video cards - something about they don't run fast enough when you're playing high end games (I think this would be something with much higher refresh rates than sims2? or not?)

I was finally able to get all the way through having the computer 'touch' every stinking file in the downloads folder (only took 3 tries as it would go so far and crash). 

So about an hour ago, I restarted the computer and started the game and was able to play a family for an hour without the thing crashing.  I didn't let any of my minions watch TV and even with the birth of a baby, toddler growing into adulthood and the father getting a promotion, there was no crashing.  So Whew! I think I'm past the worst of it. May just have to have a TV FREE neighborhood.  sure wouldn't hurt my feelings.  If I hear that sports channel noise one more time...

is that this ccc.exe thing that keeps saying it can't shut properly when I shut the computer off or restart it?

all content in the downloads folder is the same on both my old computer and my new computer.

Old computer TV works just fine and I'm not having the issues with the change appearance (more on that in a minute).

New computer - tv is black.

Now as for the issues where the change appearance causes the crash.  I think I've figured that out.  The game is trying to touch every file in my downloads folder and for the very first time... so I restarted the game and in CAS I just paged through every hair, make-up, clothing item.  Yes it was tedious as all Hell.  BUT, after that the crashing when a sim goes to change appearance stopped.

For some reason though, this computer seems to have a touchier constitution and the game has crashed to the desktop over odd things - like sims making a phone call, etc.  Hoping that I can sort this all out soon...

My husband (that would be Santa) wants to look tonight and see if he can find updated drivers and is hoping that will solve the black tv/computer screen problem - I'm not holding out much hope, but truthfully, so long as THAT doesn't cause a crash, I can live with it - would be even happier if I didn't have to listen to it as well...

Got a new computer for Christmas (Santa was very nice to me this year).

It came with dual radeon 3850 video cards.

Finally got it to the point where I could install and op-check the game last night.

The game was crashing every time it tried to 'touch' the custom content files (such as when you're trying to change appearance in a mirror) and my tv and computer screens are black.

So I have a super duper fast high-end gaming computer that won't run this game properly...heavy sigh. At least it's great for my work...whee.

I don't think I play 'normally'...and most of the hacks I use are to decrease my frustration with the way the game was written...

short list of MATY hacks I can't live without (this might include some TwoJeffs and CrammyBoy stuff cuz I got it here):

antibagthrow
antivacationactins
antiweatherreaction
cBoyComputerMadnessFixOFB
LowFoodWarning
NoCongrats
StudentsMoveAwayFromThePortal
NoBabyToddlerSwarming
NoSmartMilkDrag
NoPlayInBathtub
NoBuskers (seriously-I won't play the game without this one - I consider it critical for my sanity)
NoEatCrap
NoLameHires
NoStrayReSpawn
NoTownieRegen
NoWhatsThis
ScannerGunHack
SchoolBus-BringFriendDialog
SelfExplodingBottles
SShack
ToddlerPottyFixes
VisitorSnackingFix
WarmthFixes

I left out TwoJeffs Visitor Controller and abduction higher odds as well as a handful of no-autonomous idiotic things sims want to do hacks from someone over at MTS2...and that's pretty much the extent of my hacks

nope...no official patch.  I looked last night when this family went FUBAR...

I realize they are only 1's and 0's on my hard drive, but it's getting mighty tiresome to make 'em, play 'em, and then lose 'em on account of Maxis negligence.

Do we know what's causing the bug where the van never leaves and the sims attempt to go on vacation again upon their return from vacation only to have them lost in limbo because the vacation lot (a vacation home in this case) loads with no playable characters?

I've just experienced this one for the first time - have only managed to successfully send one family on vacation.  Figured I'd try another one this evening.  Now family is fubared - lost all their career rewards, etc. At least the tombstone trick worked  - was able to retrieve them by using tombstone of L&D and moved them into a neighbor's lot.

This is the first time I think I can heartily say that I wish I had NOT purchased an EP...I see more dead Sims in my future.

back to report.

Played until 2 a.m. last night.  Toddler girls are all 'growing up' from infants with the Maxian banged bob - if that's the Marsha cut, then it's occureing in my game, too.

And another odd occurance - when my custom (but binned) haired female did her twirl to change into maternity from non-maternity every day clothing she also got a Maxian hair - the spiky bob that flips out just a little bit.

I was able to get her back into her custom hair by changing appearance so at least it wasn't a permanent pregnancy long thing, and it only happened with one sim (I had 7 sim families give birth last night - it was a looooong session).

The other thing I've noticed is that the 'random' sex generator is working really well - 7 births - 5 girls - 2 boys.  This neighborhood's second generation is going to have some same sex relationships...but random is random...I think.

with the advent of binned custom hair (swoon) I seldom have a child get a Maxis hair (of course this could be because I seldom use them now).

Unfortunately, I am in the process of starting a new neighborhood and the founding couples have yet to produce spawn.  However, I have made spawn in CAS and there was no problem with those children receiving custom binned hairs.

Truthfully, I don't know how you're playing with all those ugly haired characters... shudder.

I've been using familyfunds lately and agree - working fine in both neighborhood screen and in lots.

I still have crammyboys computer madness fix installed and last night I directed a sim to ply ssx and it dropped out of queue... but they will play the computer games autonomously.

Does that old hack need updating?

Okay, inpinkclover wins the award for the most downloads...

I can't even imagine playing with that many in game...I hated the wait times when I got just over 10,000 files, so I purged and have since managed to keep it to around 6,000 - much more manageable and load times aren't atrocious.

Anyhoo, back on topic...

EAxis has announced they are working to correct THREE bugs... that's it. Three. Thread's over at official BBS. 

I know it's only a game and world peace (or whirled peas for those who prefer) is not hanging by a thread waiting for fixes to the BV bugs, but honestly.

And, I have been reluctant to inform, but my neighborhood died...and not from the NPC regeneration thing, either.  Semi-self-induced when I attempted to locate a malfunctioning hack.

And lastly - has anyone else noticed that we are back to all talk and no eat again?  And yes, I have the NoEatCrap latest version installed.

At first I thought that the erect penis/angel chair was a definite WTF.  Then I realized that in sitting position sims would be, uh, 'anally probed' by that 'chair'...and I'm almost sure I've had several sims who have definitely needed that...especially some of the 'fire bugs'...

The boob art did however make my head cock to the side in disbelief...

Am I the only one who has been unable to successfully complete a vacation?  Every time I send sims on vacation, something goes horribly wrong!

1st time, another adult in the household showed up as a non-playable hotel guest, but then started acting oddly. Then when my playable sims returned from an outing, the adult is suddenly playable - and every last one of her bars is red red red.  No more vacation...hadn't monkeyed with the lot at that point so had no way to get her motives up fast enough to prevent her death.

Then I had a couple go on vacation with another couple from another household - these guests are like pets - you can't control their actions, but you can see their grayed out queue... The controllable female and the non-controllable female got stuck in the sauna (is there a problem with the sauna?) and the non-controllable male was stuck at the grand piano (playing for tips) - he wasn't even playing - he was just stuck motionless.  So the only sim I could actually control at that point was the male from the inviting couple - so the vacation ended right then and there.

I am afraid to try it again. What more can go wrong?

Yes, while they oobered up quite a few things, I have to admit that I damn near fell out of my chair at the site of THE GRAND PIANO!

Of course, I had a sim get stuck at it while playing yesterday, but there's A GRAND PIANO in the game at long last.

And the trees! So many new trees! Another welcome addition.

As usual they didn't match the new stairs with new railings (apparently no one at Maxis ever looks at real homes/buildings?), but at least we have another stair option...

And it's nice to have a few more options of things that Simmies can 'buy' - even if the jewelry is horked at the moment.

And must agree with ziggydoodle re the 'go someplace' menu - at last!

First evening I've had time to sit and play with BV installed.

So far, I'm noticing a couple odd things - I no longer get the 'tend many' 'spray many' 'harvest many' options with the orchard trees...have to click each one individually - a real pain on large orchard lots.

And I've had NO weather. Zip. not a raindrop.

Very few 'non-awesome' hacks installed (or are we now calling TwoJeff's hacks non-awesome?)...

There's an awful lot of queue dropping, too...

In any case, I've not had the guts to play a Maxis made hotel yet... I'm never thrilled with the way they build things.

I've had the parents catch them sneaking out and then also when the cops bring them back...sometimes that little 'chew out' scene is followed by the 'running away' scenario...which I dislike because they don't come back until the last possible day they can be moved to Uni...

And yes, I've had teens - girls and boys - abducted by aliens and then receive the scholarship.

Of course, this scars them for life - they either spend the rest of their lives wanting to meet aliens again or live in fear of meeting aliens again.

Sometimes I have 'assisted' in repeated alien abductions just because they do fear it - I am so mean to some simmies...

Since graduation from University is the game equivalent of a birthday, I don't believe there's a way for two or more sims to graduate simultaneously.

If there's a birthday hack out there where you can have multiple sim birthdays simultaneously, then maybe possible...but not something I'm aware of.

Also there's actually two separate occasions that happen when a sim 'graduates'.  Multiple sims can return from the 8th semester exam at the same time and technically, they have graduated simultaneously.

However, the act of moving them back to the neighborhood is where they morph into the full adult state and only one sim can do that at one time.

A second not to All About Style... definitely the place for 20's and 30's stuff. 

One of the EPs or SPs had some flapper-y stuff, too.  Might have been Glamour one... I can't remember... anyway, several people used the meshes from that and made some decent stuff at TSR - you'll have to search around for it, though.

I finally found a good use for nannies... forgot that one simmie had hired one (she was desperate to go to work)...and the nanny showed up last night and promptly went out in the back yard, ignored the locked gate and fence around the cowplant and grabbed the cake...

So now that household not only has a zombie (the father was equally stupid and was brought back as a zombie on purpose), but it has a lovely green ghost that loves to scare children half to death.

And of course, the next night, a new nanny showed up for work.  This one however, managed to ignore her cravings for birthday cake... darn.

I couldn't play my game without your college adjuster and a couple other lovely little things you wrote...

YOU are the reason I came here in the first place... so guess I'm goin' there if I want anything new from you... guess we gotta stretch our boundaries every now and then. 

Good luck where ever you go and whatever you do...

In spite of recent troubles, I still like 2-for-U ...I even have to admit I've got some of her more 'slutty' stuff in game... romance sims always need something racy to wear...

And previously mentioned - the always free and always topnotch work at All About Style... a must stop destination every Friday and Saturday (that's when Judy updates).

At the other end of the spectrum, I was looking at TSR today, and shudder - there is some gawdawful crap in amongst the good there.

And so that's why the current fashion trend is to let it all hang out?