I don't think this nanny problem of staying, eating and sleeping is to do with downloadable cars or any other hacks. I had this problem right from the beginning of sims2, before I even knew about hacks, before I downloaded any lots. I had three nannies living in one house, they just wouldn't go home. This was the first sims2 bug I encountered and one of the reasons I first went looking for a site like modthesims2 to find out how to get rid of the damned overstayers. I didnt know about testing cheats then either, nor the solution to get rid of the nannies, the 'moveobjects on', then 'delete' procedure.

I haven't had a nanny just stay without going home since the uni EP came out.

Do you have the uni expansion? My nannies used to be just like your description up to when I installed uni. I also use some of JM pescado's hacks, like lobonanny I think it's called. Maybe you could try that?

I'm just starting my third new n'hood in a month. I tried killing dormies with testing cheats, the game started behaving oddly. Then I tried burning townies en masse  - again the game didn't like it. So I'm about to start all over again - I've deleted all characters and am just keeping fingers crossed. Mind you I've written off the sims I had, better to start from scratch I think with the critical fixes firmly in place.

Just one more off-topic query... 

Will it affect my game in any way if I delete the Maxis default n'hoods before I start playing? I heard talk that the pollination tech was required for alien babies.

or two...

Does deleteAllCharacters include current NPCs?

or more...

When good n'hoods go bad, does it / can it affect core game files? I used to have several the sims 2 folders and renamed them as required. I had a clean one for lot building and so on. Since I got JM's critical fixes I've become lazy.

I'm aiming for a lean, mean, clean sims 2 game! 

So what happens when a new n'hood is created, all Maxian sims are deleted, no dormie or townies are regenerated because of a hack, what happens then? Does the game generate certain NPCs as it needs them?

I made a new n'hood, had a lot of fun killing dormies with boolprop cheats but noticed the game was starting to behave oddly so I trashed that experimental n'hood. Now I'm kidnapping townies as they walk by, trapping them in fences and burning them while my families sleep. I have seen odd things starting to happen in that n'hood now too. I have imported one lot with a couple of sims, my bad, but thought I could get away with just one. I have the noregen dormies or townies hacks. I'm getting oddities to do with incomplete processes, like a chance card that vanishes without clicking anywhere, or a sim growing up and not letting me choose an aspiration. I'm thinking of starting a clean n'hood - again.

So back to my original question, what's the cleanest way to start a new n'hood always keeping in mind, 'DO NOT IMPORT ANYTHING' except bodyshop sims!

This is the 'eye in the sky' baby controller? I have that but didn't realise it could be used for toddlers in extended ways, I'm assuming that's how I could find out IQ & smart milk stuck attributes. Otherwise is there another macro I'm missing?

My next comment belongs in the Retardo section...
I feel really mean making my little pixel people work all the time with no fun, no parties and no time out. As it is they only get a bonk about once a week, that's years in a simmie's life. :p

I wouldn't be keen to skill them with just using the energiser, I enjoy building the homes, in fact the no20khandout hack is brilliant for starting from scratch, but I think I'll try to be a bit more intensive early on. I mostly don't know what to do with the kids so that makes logical sense. There's no point in making kid friends either unless they are not Maxian sims, because the Maxian ones won't grow up anyway, then it all gets rather creepy.

I had no idea about chain skilling, that's news, I'll give it a try out of interest but suspect it would feel like cheating to do it all the time, though I'll take the smart milk shortcut if it presents.   So instructors make skilling faster also. I see I can be a lot more organised about this business instead of the almost random way I currently work it. I need a skillinator macro for ME!

On a side note, I sucessfully used 'update a pre uni sim' on my new CAS sims, though I don't know if the new careers open up as my sims cannot afford a computer yet and none of the new careers have turned up in the paper. These sims do not have a degree of course, just the six wants slots. I'm rapt with the upgrade, it seemed sad to let them live out their simmie lives as lesser beings.

I'm interested to know how other people play the game in regard to skill points. I often see comments in threads about sims that are maxed out by the time they are teens or even children. My sims are struggling to get to the half way point by adulthood. Or if they are CAS sims, I'll give them about 1/2 skill points in simpe as a starter. That LTW of 'max out 7 skills' is quite a challenge for me.

So I'm asking for comments on game tactics. For the people that have sims with early maxed out skills, do you just hammer them at skilling day and night? I kind of picture it like sims online, I installed the demo recently to have a look, just rooms of sims skilling while people chatted. Dead boring.

Maybe I'm really asking, "just how do you manage it"? My sims do skilling in between the relationship and maintenance stuff, I run the sims in the game much the same as real human lives, you know the cliche, 'all work and no play' etc. I would also get bored just watching sims do nothing else but skilling, then of course there's nothing more to do once everything's maxed out. I enjoy a mix of sim activity when playing.

Just out of interest, what are the criteria for a masterpiece? I've had sims with high creativity paint still lifes and portraits, then sold them,  but I've never had a want to 'paint a masterpiece' satisfied. Is this more buggieness or am I missing something?

Yeah, I do copy on long posts, I was only going for a scroll this time, hadn't finished typing. The tab close button in firefox is right on top of the scroll bar.

No, I'm in firefox & closed the tab. The page in history only gives me the blank reply form, no postdata. Hadn't done a preview yet. I did see data on other reply forms in the history, where I'd actually hit the post button.

Bugger, I typed a long list of games with commentary & accidentally clicked the little red cross at the top right hand side of the page when aiming for top of scroll bar. Page gone. Text gone. Not doing it again.

However I will still post this link to an educational sim I enjoyed. I see it's updated, might have another look. I find this sim relevant because I work in a tertiary institution. Virtual-u. I always thought I could do better than the CEO

I thought there were no greek houses in Academie Le Tour, that's why I play that n'hood, do you think that might be part of your problem?

When I was a child, our family had a couple of goats to eat the long grass & weeds in the section. My brother and I were standing on the back doorstep one day when our mother came running past, hotly pursued by Billy. (give you one guess at his gender :p )

'Help me' mum shouted. Well my brother and I just about wet ourselves, we were no help at all.

By the time mum came round for the 3rd or 4th time, with 'help me' dopplering out behind her, Billy still in hot pursuit, my brother and I were just helpless howling heaps on the step. Nearly forty years later the memory still makes us laugh. Thanks for reminding me.