Tizerist, I'm using the same card and have never experienced that error. You might be having an overheating issue, or else you've got a bad driver in there.

I would completely uninstall your NVIDIA driver--maybe even get a driver cleaner--restart whenever asked to, and when it's completely cleaned out install the latest NVIDIA driver.

If this is still being updated:

Scientist, level 10 (is this the top level? I thought there were branches...my criminal sim got offered a branch), $404/hr, M Tu F workweek.

I can say with 99% certainty that keygen'd serials will not work. It's pretty harmless to try, though. This is where people will really have to decide whether to plunk down that $50--if CC is limited to the exchange for a while, it could get tempting.

Ah, thanks.

Has anyone been able to get kids to garden? My outdoors kid had a wish to buy some produce and the text said something about gardening, but she cannot plant them, interact with the family garden, or read gardening vol. 1. Suck.

ToK was my first introduction to that kind of concept, yeah. We played a bit at launch, got sucked back into WoW because of stupid Lich King and blew a few more months there. I think I may be over MMOs but I do think WAR deserved more credit than it got.

And this is on-topic because...um...skill journal achievements! I need to go cook 6 perfect dishes.

ETA: I just did a search on 'gnome' and it came up with way fewer results than seems realistic, so I guess I'm asking: has anyone *seen* the evil gnomes move, or that part of their creepiness? Mine has definitely changed position several times since my sim kicked him and then picked him back up, but I never see him move. Reminds me of that Doctor Who episode "Blink".

I've heard anecdotal info that zooming in to ground level (i.e, making your system have to render as little as possible) will speed up the...speed.

I really have to give TSR credit. An impressive number of people seem to read the following sentence and come away with "EA is helping us".


It's not bad, I guess, assuming the reader has no ability whatsoever to see through textual bullshit.

I keep checking that link every time someone posts a "Why is EA helping TSR!?" message trying to figure what they're seeing that I'm not. If it's not this sentence, WTF is it? Genuinely curious.

OT: I kind of wish someone would start a thread like this for working cheat codes and extended info (for example, everything that is doable with testingcheats on). I just don't want to be the one to do it because I'm flaky and a shiny object will distract me from updating the top post properly.

I smell a faux noob.

Couple more things from the 'this has probably already been mentioned' file:

--There *are* bald hairstyles in the game...for toddlers.
--Speaking of which, part of the New Ugliness for toddlers is the horrible selection of female hairs for them.


With testing cheats on:

--Shift-clicking on another sim gives you "trigger age transition", avoiding cake rigamarole.
--Shift-clicking on self also gives "modify traits for active sim", which I assume is exactly what it sounds like.


Annoyances:

--Sims wake up sleeping toddlers to snuggle them. Leave that squalling brat alone.
--Hungry sims prepare meals and then walk away and do something else without eating them.

Overall, the more I play the more I think someone in a position of design authority spends all his or her free time playing World of Warcraft. A bit too much skilling & gathering, as has been often commented upon, plus the 'quality level' of items (purple = epix!), the skill journals (much like the achievement system in WoW, which to be fair is being used by a number of other games already too, such as Warhammer's Tome of Knowledge and Left 4 Dead's achievement unlocks), skill books, the questiness of opportunities, etc. I've got no doubt that the metal and gems will be used in a future xpac to make jewelry. Which I can already do in World of Warcraft.

Unfortunately it seems like this RPG emphasis came at the cost of of any depth in storytelling and relationships, which continue to fall horribly flat. No memories, no organic feeling to your friendships or extended families, and the horrible interaction trees. I've given up on the 'give X a massage' wish because damned if I can figure out which tree it's in, and I have limited patience for clicking random buttons to access an interaction that should be available at all times to a freaking married couple.

ETA: I loaded up TS2 earlier to test something, and it made me realize how much I miss my MATY-fied, lot-sync-timer'd hood full of houses that all have their own stories in my head, and genetics running around that go back many generations and a couple of years for me.

I've had no CTDs, just some system freezes that never recurred after I uninstalled RLD.

I can't remember (it's been a whole week or so since I was in this thread much, and I'm old), but I think crash-to-desktop was happening more commonly with ATI users?

Meanwhile, one of the following improved my camera-movement stutter significantly:

--restarting PC
--disabling Kaspersky
--deleting cache files

Scientific method rules.

Zaphod, I'm gonna crank up AA on my card and see if I can replicate your results.

MEANWHILE...

I'm not sure if this has been happening all along in my game and is just now getting to me, or if it's newish behavior: there is horrific stuttering/jerking when I rotate or pan the camera. I've tried quite a combo of low/high settings and it's still happening. Could someone with somewhere in the realm of an NVIDIA 8800 or 9600 let me know how it is on their system? Just hold down the rotate key (either pushing the menu button or using <> keys) and tell me if this occurs smoothly. Zoom should be about normal household-play level.

I'm not sure if you mean to say they didn't exist without third-party intervention, but I just tested on unmodded (except for censor blur) TS2 and naked pregnant sims look pregnant.

This is a reasonable explanation, but they HAVE to know by now that the censor blur is the first thing to go, and there were naked pregnant meshes in TS2. (Weren't there? Someone correct me if not.)

I guess if the new EA attitude is very anti-CC-unless-you-get-it-from-us, it could explain the shift: "if you get rid of the censor blur via third-party means and uncover our laziness, that's your own problem."

Bug? One of my Sims was in the automatic garden-tending mode when his work carpool showed up. He missed his ride, but then I noticed when he finished gardening (and was still home) he had the work activity anyway, as though he was there. "Work hard" etc. I ended up using the Go to work button, which queued up another work activity, which I ended up canceling. But it got him to actually *go* to work. I wonder what would have happened if I left him at home.

I've also had sims randomly decide to stop working and come home an hour or so into their shift, so I had to send them back.

ETA: Can't imagine this hasn't already been mentioned, but it looks like they didn't bother to make a pregnant mesh for naked females. Gonna take my preggers to the pool and see what she wears...ok, yes on pregnant swimsuit, just gets magically skinny when naked.

TashaFaun, I like the way you laid out your photos in quads, really nice shots too. Made me one step closer to starting the game up again.

Larva babies are larval. Hate. I don't like kids but but they eventually won me over in TS2, particularly once I stopped decorating and realized how cool the genetics were. Now I have crap genetics and larval babies, and toddlers went solidly back into the realm of non-cute for me. Bitch, moan, etc.

I can't believe I'm jumping into this one, but:

No, there is no way in a zillion years Blizzard will make a Sims MMO. It's a cute thought but has nothing to do with reality. They work within their own few extremely successful titles and this would make them a laughingstock. (I know a lot of males do play the Sims, but the few I know who do in real life have all sworn me to secrecy...with good reason or not it's still considered a girlie game. This is not my opinion, this is strictly observation. Do not jump on me.) To say nothing of associating themselves with the spectacular load of fail that was Sims Online. It's like saying "It would be awesome if they made Pirates of the Caribbean/Star Trek crossover movies!". Fun to think about, if you like fanfiction, but would never actually happen.

Yes, they are working on their next MMO, it's not just a rumor, but I think the person who said "WOW 2" was being glib. My guess would be a StarCraft MMO, but who knows.

As bored as I used to get of the 'special event' cutscenes, I now realize how much they brought to TS2, and I miss them. One of many reasons these Sims feel more robotic and way less organic.

Does anyone have a list of functional cheat codes going yet? I'm thinking about starting a thread but I don't want to push my luck. I see a bunch of Prima Guide cheats got posted on Snooty, but from what I hear they mostly don't work?

I do know about motherlode and testingcheatsenabled.

There was one, "edit in cas", that if actually functioned would have been nice for dealing with ugly townies.

The Creepy Doll Eyes problem has been discussed quite a bit in various threads.

One pet peeve of mine is the larval babies.

I just opened up one of my saved games--sad that there's kind of no point in calling it a 'hood anymore--where I had "Lolita Goth" break up the Goth marriage. So Lolita's been living in the Goth mansion for quite some time now. Today I load up and see an unusual looking ghost on the lot. I hover over her, and her name is Lolith Goth. I quickly check, the original Lolita is still alive. WTF? Why did the game decide that my living sim needed a ghost dupe? Granted it doesn't look exactly like her. I'm guessing, like many things, the explanation here will turn out to be 'just because'.

I've seen this mentioned several times, but no one seems to know exactly what, if anything, the implications are. Is this supposed to spell an end to third-party freesites?

I'm usually pretty neutral on whether or not EA is evil, mostly because I can't be arsed to think about it in depth, but the $275 Sims 3 Store price tag is almost sparking a little righteous consumer indignation in me. I'm fine with paying for add-on content and I've probably spent that much on Rock Band songs, but the Sims 3 Store price points seem pretty absurd ($19 for a set? can you imagine if a third-party paysite tried that pricing structure?). I think they lost sight of what micropayments are about.

Some people have reported (and photographed) finding the boxed copies put out too early in a few dept. stores--typical Walmart release date pooch-screw. So I'm guessing by the end of the weekend we will begin seeing new 'releases' that have been ripped from the physical retail box. I don't expect there to be a lot of real difference other than some more inscrutable version numbers, but I will likely still grab what I expect to be the final arr'd version for curiosity's sake. I've wavered on whether I'm going to hand EA my money on this (and EA has gotten plenty of money from me over the years), no final verdict.

Poked around the new exchange and community site a bit. Two less-than-exciting observations:

--You can register without a CD-key (for those like me who tend to skip the fine print). It's the first field in registration, but can still register, just not post.

--It looks like they finally decided their 1995-style BBS may be a little bit unwieldy, and dragged themselves kicking and screaming into 2001.

I don't know, on the original "OMG TSR haz a tool" thread it didn't sound like anyone was too convinced by TSR's insider info so far, which was why I was wondering if there was *new* information that brought this up again.