Merle, I've seen that and the forum posts, but I think the "EA assistance" is rumor, one that TSR is encouraging. That's why I asked for details--I've seen people rumbling about it but no one explaining *why* they're rumbling. If TSR and EA *actually* had a deal, wouldn't TSR be shouting this from the rooftops rather than coyly alluding to their 'time at EA Redwood' (as though they were the only ones there, on a special intimate date)?

From what I understand--and this is also hearsay--EA is trying to lock down all custom content anyway, via Store/Exchange. Or are we assuming they will make an exception for just one third-party site and expect it not to cause the biggest shitstorm the game has ever seen?

I feel like I must still be missing crucial pieces of this whole thing, so maybe no one really knows for sure.

While I suspect this thread will be nuked, I'm curious exactly why you think the above is true.

Can't even get the link to load all the way. Is their server already hammered? This should prove interesting if they are indeed expecting people to use the Store or Exchange for ALL their custom content, period.

Yes, I've commented on the ridiculously high clog chance, etc.

I think they can be upgraded to unbreakable with handiness, though. And not sure if cheaper plumbing = more break.

Really? Somehow I'd convinced myself they'd copy-pasted the baby animations from TS2, and they were all occurring under there somewhere; but that someone had decided that what the next installment of the series really needed was sandworm-like swaddling cloths for the babbies.

Ah well.

I just caught this. Merle, I don't know you, but I see you are beloved around here. I will join your cult--and I do not join them lightly--if you were somehow to remove or improve the Larval Babies. I do not understand why there are Larval Babies. Their inflexible cocoons confuse and enrage me.

There are so many things wrong with this I can't even pick one to start with.

Lorelai, would you mind mentioning whether you had any Edge Smoothing enabled?  I'm not sure if 'graphics on high' definitely implies that.

Hmm, I always run with testingcheatsenabled on. I have not had jumps or invisisims. Maybe it matters what you do with it? I pretty strictly use it for teleporting and dragging up motive bars, and I do both very frequently. Probably 18 hrs or so total gametime.

My husband just HAD to buy the enormous black guild-navigator-tank-from-Lynch's-Dune tower case with power and reset buttons on the top. The cat quickly demonstrated to him that they would need to be disconnected, stat.

Angelo, you make me realize that I'm not sure I ever turned edge smoothing back on post-RZR. I definitely had it on at various settings during my RLD crashes. Sigh. Back to the drawing board. RZR vs RLD will be academic soon, but still curious to see if edge smoothing = reproducible system freezes.

If someone wants to provide clearly-denoted links I'd be happy to update the top post.

I'm hesitant to make any unequivocal statement when I don't have the game in front of me, but I think directx is up to Shader Model 3.0, at least in some games. I think I saw a similar graphics rule file, but again, not at home. :\ I think the bottom line is that even if you can trick it into working, gameplay is going to be sluggish and miserable. I know 'upgrade your computer' is easier said than done, but if your system only takes PCI video cards, I'm not sure it's worth spending money on what will be another older-generation video card. In other words, I think you probably need a new box at this point.

Crashing: on the system specs below, which has a pretty fresh OS install with very damn little else installed on it and excellent cooling, I would get 'system freezes' requiring a hard reboot about every 1-3 hours of gameplay. These were usually when I was doing something in the game (rather than just watching), such as panning across the neighborhood at close zoom, grabbing an object in buy mode, or attempting to load Create a Style. The game would suddenly grind to a halt. If I left it alone, it would start to flash, and eventually I'd lose the video signal input. No combo of drivers, in-game settings, or NVIDIA control panel settings would forestall these. Since uninstalling Reloaded and installing Razor1911 (rather than patching one to the other), and applying 2 of the patches that were found, I have not experienced these system freezes.

Also, I've noticed that the game seems to run best if you actually let it use the settings it picks for you when it auto-detects your card.

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 5/28/2009, 07:34:31
       Machine name: INANNA
   Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 3 (2600.xpsp_sp3_gdr.090206-1234)
           Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
       System Model: System Product Name
               BIOS: Phoenix - AwardBIOS v6.00PG
          Processor: AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 6000+,  MMX,  3DNow (2 CPUs), ~3.0GHz
             Memory: 3582MB RAM
          Page File: 466MB used, 4992MB available
        Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
    DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
     DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.5512 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
        Card name: NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS
     Manufacturer: NVIDIA
        Chip type: GeForce 8800 GTS
         DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
       Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_10DE&DEV_0193&SUBSYS_040F19F1&REV_A2
   Display Memory: 320.0 MB
     Current Mode: 1920 x 1200 (32 bit) (60Hz)
          Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
  Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200
      Driver Name: nv4_disp.dll
   Driver Version: 6.14.0011.8585 (English)
      DDI Version: 9 (or higher)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
 Driver Date/Size: 4/30/2009 22:02:00, 5896320 bytes

Sagana, what video card or chipset do you have? If you're not sure, google "how to get a dxdiag".

They're referring to the EULA of their tool, not the TS3 EULA.

I am not a TSR apologist, but TSR/EA-Fusion-Apocalypse shit-stirring is not really necessary when there's no evidence.

If someone with more knowledge of the situation than me cares to jump in, that'd be great. I'm just going by what I read and I don't see the signs of the apocalypse yet. Maybe I missed them.

Not to downplay the TSR hate, but I read both links and I didn't see them make any claims of support from EA (though they carefully alluded to 'our time at EA Redwood' to add credibility--it's a newspaper trick), and they said the EULA will be flexible enough to 'allow distribution of content via any means, including free'. This is somewhat less juicy than I was expecting

I guess I'm just stating the obivous here, but it's hard not to imagine they've taken a cue from MMOs, and that it would be a good idea to hoard those 'mats' for future xpac 'recipe drops'.

I'm having a brief window where the forum has loaded, so I wanted to mention this in case it hasn't been:

I noticed in my save files there was Sunset Valley.sims3 and Sunset Valley.sims3.bak. So I think at any given time you may have one extra saved iteration backwards in case you really eff everything up. Haven't tried renaming one of the .bak files and testing this theory, 'cause, y'know, they don't let me play Sims 3 at work for some weird reason.

Car. In inventory. Why? I know many of the objects are unrealistic (80 fish, a telescope, or whatever), but a car? Why not have it show up in sim inventory as keys?

Edited my initial razor vs reloaded post to amend my 'there is no trojan!' pronouncements. Sorry! Didn't actually get mine via torrent.

Sorry, I was referring to "Ask to break up", meaning Sim A asks Sim B to break up with Sim C, so A and B can be together. Do we mean the same thing?

Re: Laptops. Video chipset is important. It seems it'll run on Intel integrated graphics chispets, but it's no fun at all playing a sluggish game with all the gfx on low. At least, that was my experience on an Intel GMA965. You will have much better luck with an ATI or NVIDIA mobile chipset intended for gaming.

Re: Resolution, I have been able to get my NVIDIA/Dell monitor config into 1900X1200 widescreen under both Reloaded and Razor.

Razor continues to not crash on me, whereas Reloaded would occasionally cause system freezes.

Hmm, see that is the opposite of what I'm going through. Through stubbornness mostly, I managed to get Gunther Goth to hook up with and impregnate my other-woman sim. At one point I had the 'ask to break up' option, but I did not take it, and now I cannot get it back even though she's borne his bastard child. I just checked on him (grr argh stupid family switching annoyance argh) and he does indeed still consider himself married to Cornelia. Although you give me an idea, I've been focusing on the romantic tree because I assumed that was where the 'break up' request was, I'll try friendly instead.

(Another annoyance, that they'll get in bed, cuddle, make out, but even though Woohoo appears they'll just...not...with no indication of the problem.)

ETA: Success! After repeating many of the Friendly interactions for many in-game hours, I finally clicked on one I hadn't used that much "Applaud Hard Work" (he's a workaholic), and the "Ask to break up with Cornelia" option finally appeared. Now I can continue with my evil scheme. But that's beside the point. Those interaction trees suck and make no sense. When something is relationshipally available, it should be available.

Also, while they were friendly-interacting, the game popped up a box saying that since they got along so well, should I have Gunther move in? Hells no, I'm going to move my homewrecker into the Goth mansion.

I'm off for the second day of Seeing If The Razor Version Crashes My Otherwise Stable Machine Like Reloaded Did. Will report back.

Can't get page 58 to load to save my life, so hopefully I'm not IMMEDIATELY repeating a prior topic--

Is the romantic interaction really as arbitrary as it seems? Between TS2's turnons/turnoffs and the ACR mod, I had no idea how good I had it till it was gone. In TS3, sims will hook up--or not. It all feels forced. When they won't hook up, I have no idea why, because there are no attraction or compatibility cues, and it's harder to find out what they need/want. I was determined to break up Gunther Goth's marriage with one of my female Sims, and it took forever to get him to hook up with my Sim. Why? Because he was married? Because they had no traits in common? Because he needed to pee? I HAVE NO IDEA. What finally changed? I HAVE NO IDEA. It was much more organic in TS2.

Also, once I got her pregnant (she needs the leverage to break up their marriage!), I no longer have the option to ask him to break up with Cornelia or whomever. Sigh.

I set up a couple that 'should' have gotten along well--similar traits, at least--and was eventually able to herd them into getting married and spawning. But once I stopped intervening, they have ZERO affectionate interaction of their own free will. Now, is this a thing where I have used ACR for too long, or was this also true in TS2?

Ouch, sounds like a hardware issue.

(I guess I'll go ahead and say it--I assume I'm not the only person who must try five or ten times each time to get the threads to load or to make a post?)