The errors exist for debugging.  Normal players will never see them because they don't turn on debug mode (OMG BOOLPROP AIEEEEEE).  We see them because we're willing to break things to make the game playable.     Since the only people who were likely to see that message were the people writing the code to begin with...

You know, it would have been amusing had it been done on purpose to sarcastically compare OFB to OBF, read as Out of Box Failure. 

But maybe only to me.  We get those all the time at my work. 

Is he paying for parts and legal copies of the OS and several application suites of which he will give you the boxes and discs and all CD keys and manuals for?  I suppose the cost of materials might push $1,000 at that point, but I typically only buy the hardware and the OS, provided I don't have a spare key lying around at home.  I have all the software I would want at home.  Yeah, my version of Photoshop is a bit out of date and I'm running Office 2000, but they're legit and it's not like I use them in any professional capacity or anything.

Yeah, I'm one of those weirdo's who wants a legit OS.  

Personally, I'd charge $100 to $200 for labor on building a PC for someone depending on if I knew them.  Of course, I'd also charge them if they broke it and I had to fix something later.  


In my time estimate above, I didn't look at it as "I'm building a machine for myself".  This is now a paying customer situation, which means everything gets installed and tested in the proper order.  Even if that test is as simple as "does the program load".  If I'm building a machine for myself, I don't sit around and wait for the boring stuff to finish.  I wander off while it reformats and then installs the OS and installs a bazillion security updates.  If I'm building it for someone else, I sit there and make sure nothing goes wonky, since I am getting paid for it.

I guess I didn't make myself clear, then, either.

If you're using the FFS debugger and NOT playing in debug mode, you're not the brightest bulb in the bunch.  (Unless, of course, you are going to force errors on everything.  Follow the documentation at that point and turn off debug mode.  Unless you WANT to watch it explode on you.)

Maybe that was too polite...


To be fair, I have had debug mode go batshit crazy on me exactly one time and make me force the game closed.  But that was when Don Lothario and Cassandra Goth decided to get it on in the bedroom (for their very first time) and Alexander Goth decided to pull a Linda Blair head trick at the same time.  Needless to say, error box popped up in the middle of the cinematic, and I couldn't click on shit.  Nor would the keys on the keyboard work to trigger the response options.  The Windows key worked to bring up the start menu, though.   

And if you're using the debugger regularly and not using debug mode, well, that's just all sorts of silliness right there.

I don't even use the additional functions enabled by debug mode 99% of the time, and I still play in debug mode constantly. 

Marry off is for 6 children, not 10.

They symbols exist for Power Wants for the UNI careers, but the only one that seems to be used is the Artist symbol, which somehow gets attached to Attraction token gossip.  The Wants themselves do not exist as far as I can tell.

I'm not sure what driver version I'm on at home, but I have the same video card on a lower end processor and I'm not having any problems at all.  It actually runs better on my home machine than it does on my laptop, which has a better CPU and more memory (same graphic chipset, but in the GO flavor).

That's a wee bit high on the price scale, but not in the danger zone.  A good tech is worth about $60 to $100/hour.  That's what I would charge, at least, if I did freelance work.  You're typically looking at a 2 hour minimum payment on such work as well.  If he has to obtain the parts himself, you're looking at another hour or two.  So it's not out of the realm of possibility, but it is at the high end of the scale.

In terms of just building a PC and installing the operating system and software (and making sure it runs) you are looking at 4 to 8 hours of work.  Unless something goes badly.

You don't need the physical diploma or the memories to get UNI careers.  The Lot Debugger enables it all on it's own.  Ultimately, the memories are only useful to Family Sims who need to get an LTW filled.

Sims will not browse a chair that has no stylist assigned to it, so doing a salon as a home business with no other employees is problematic at best.  There are ways around it.  Set your Sim to be the stylist.  Sims will then autonomously come up to the chair and browse.  You can then initiate sales socials on them. 

Alternately, set yourself to be the stylist, THEN offer the makeover.  While it will unassign you from the chair, the Sim may start browsing on their own at that point.  I typically offer a makeover, and then automatically set myself back to stylist.  This usually gets a prospective victi.... er... client browsing.

Totally different scenarios.  The point of not including the UNI careers as LTWs was because it would be literally impossible for existing adult sims to accomplish them.  They obviously weren't so concerned about Elders with the careers, though.  in reality, a base game install will contain a very small number of Elders anyway (Pleasantview has three playable Elders, Strangetown has one playable Elder, no clue about Veronaville, and Bluewater Village only adds one playable Elder).

The Family wants; Graduate 3 Children, Marry Off 6 Children, Have 6 Grandchildren, Have Golden Anniversary; could be met by any Sim, including elders.  Elders can still adopt, and those children count.  If they were already married when they are ported into UNI, they can have the Golden Anniversary party.

The Pleasure Sim wants and Grilled Cheese Sim want only show up if you have Nightlife, and only if you select those aspirations.  And they can't be aged out of.  Also, Nightlife added in it's own way to re-roll your LTW by way of the Renu-Yu Senso Orb.  It's a waste of uses, but it can be done.

She indicated on N99 that she wouldn't be here (MATY) as frequently.  She did say she wasn't leaving and never coming back.  She was just done modding.

Sims were never made to behave like normal people.  They behave like Sims.  Which is to say that they are very neurotic and have the worst case of ADD that you have ever seen.  I do like watching Sims wander about with free-will after I'm done telling them what I want them to do.

And, well, your post was WAY too long.  That alone is a reason most people won't read it.  And you didn't break up your paragraphs very well (two carriage returns will make a nice new paragraph break).  Plus it rambles a wee bit too much. 

I could have summed it up as "I'm getting a very 'blah' feeling about playing this game and hanging out with people who Mod for it.  I don't want to take away all my Sims freedom, but I don't want my game to break a bazillion ways from Sunday just because I breathed funny.  Maybe I should take a break from the game?"

That's the thing, though.  Sims shouldn't be talking about them at all.  It's not like they can't make non-chattable memory tokens.  They do it for the Secret Society members, after all.

Come on, the icon next to it gives it away!   

So, I've been playing a quasi-Legacy style neighborhood.  Everything has been running fine, but I've noticed an unfortunate trend in Sim-Conversations.

Sims will talk about memories they have or memory tokens that have been passed to them from other sims.  Unfortunately, this is now seeming to include Attraction Tokens. 



That is a picture of Melinda Founder with a memory token of her husband's Attraction towards a townie.  The amusing side effect is that when she talks about the memory token, she gets a picture of that townie in her speech bubble with stupid hearts farting out of it.  The downside is that her youngest Child caught the memory and was discussing it as well.   

This wasn't something that was passed on via a gossip conversation.  Dempsey actually talked about it in the hot tub with his Wife, Son, and Son-in-Law.  His son then started spouting the farty-hearts speech bubble about the Townie in question as well, which I'm sure was quite amusing to his husband sitting in the tub with them.  And another Sim picked one up on the phone last night from a friend he was talking to.  I actually only clued in because I saw that particular Icon briefly, followed immediately by a random Townie with farty-heart syndrom in the speech bubble.


Is there any way to keep Sims from talking about these kinds of memory tokens, or are we going to be stuck with having to delete these tokens in SimPE constantly?

The Romance Mod doesn't really stop autonomous flirting, though.  It just causes rejections from Sims in commited relationships who are not Romance Sims.  You can always direct a Sim to break their vows and you can Influence a Sim to break theirs as well (this seems to also bypass the auto-reject built in to non-Romance Sims as well).

The Romance Mod fixes more problems than it creates, in my mind.  It does, however, seem to give you warnings about bad behavior.  I had a Sim who kept getting out of bed when I directed him to woohoo.  When he finally did the deed, I realized why.  His fiance wasn't yet in love with his other lover (two Romance Sims) and they didn't have the required personality points to not care.

I've long since gotten over this.  I had a family of 8.  Three bathrooms.  Mornings are chaos.

So, one daughter learned to make snapdragons.  I just kill the bathroom queue-up now.     And breakfast, for that matter.  Skillinator before work/school!

Actually I think they do that on purpose.  They don't want you to have to buy a previous expansion to use a new one, and they don't want you to feel like you're being goaded into doing so for the extra perk.  The only thing they've really taken into account with NL and OFB from UNI is the LTW system.  Even that has only been relatively minor.  (Pleasure Sims have two native non-job wants, Grilled Cheese Sims have one LTW total, and OFB only added the 5 Rank 10 Businesses).

Everyone else has pretty much explained it.  Sims can hold a standard job, or work for another Sim-Business Owner and still run their own shops.  Considering most shops start out losing money, you almost need the free money from the stupidly easy standard jobs to keep yourself going in the meantime. 

Besides, if you were given the "Shop Owner" job upon getting your first Business, how are you going to run multiples?  It's not like the game is built to let you have more than one job at a time, after all.

I believe they also have to die of Old Age.

I've had reporters show up in my businesses, but they don't seem to stay long.  I even invited one back, but he didn't behave like a reporter when invited over (even though he got a couple Stars during his visit).

I don't think it's this hack, though.  I think it's just Reporters being fickle.

My recommendation would be to kill the barstools at the bar.  That'd keep them from being seated. 

Fairly certain that Islands don't count as tables, even though the Host will seat people at them.

I would think that those wants would roll up when your Sim goes to a lot to go shopping.  You can probably also see them if you make a shopper selectable, but who knows.

I do know that visiting playables can get aspirations fulfilled.  I tend to lock Dustin Broke's First Kiss want when I first load that lot and lock one or more (via Upgrade) of Brandi's child-skill teaching wants, flip to the Pleasant Lot, and let Dustin get his First Kiss (and Platinum Aspiration) there.  Flip back to the Broke lot and let Dustin go to school in Platinum.  Anal?  Oh yeah.  Helpful?  Big time.  Instant Smart Milk in the Broke house.

I haven't really played without the No Playable Shoppers hack in, so I don't know if the playables are getting actual Aspiration boosts while shopping.  And since nobody in my current neighborhood is rich enough to stick a money order in their inventory, it'll be a while before I find out.