A good thought...but I do already have the latest CEP installed.

I've been poking around these boards for some time and haven't yet found mention of a problem that just cropped up in my game.

My bathwater has gone radioactive and there are disco pillows on the beds.

That is to say, there are a couple of weird color problems that arise when sims use the bathtubs and beds on my lots. When they take baths, the bathwater glows green and greenish-yellow around the edges. When they get into bed, the pillows start shifting from one bright, disco-dance-floor-color to another: blue, then green, then a bright off-white, and so on.

The neighborhood is one I started in original TS2. I imported some nice Japanese-style lots, which seem to work without a hitch (though it looks kinda funny to put western beds and dining room sets and such into them). I also installed various interesting-looking sims that I found on MTS2, many of which did not work as advertised (new entries would usually show up in CAS, but with default clothes and/or hair and/or skin, or even identical default faces), even when they said that all accessories were included, and even when I tried to install all the accessories listed myself. [/whine]

Then, a short while later, I added UNI and NL. I started my Downloads folder from scratch when I did this, reinstalling everything that had come packaged with the custom lots and sims. (And now my Downloads folder is nicely organized, since I actually kept track of what files came from what package this time.) I also installed the NL version of the Director's Cut, and modded up with numerous other Awesome hacks I found around here (there's a few non-Awesome ones in there too, but none that have an obvious connection to how non-custom items appear in the game). Somewhere in the process of doing all this, the graphical glitches started.

Anyone have any insight into this?

I think I only included Pescado hacks in this list...but I suppose it would make sense to add other Awesome hacks to it if there are suggestions. (I know that hunting for and sifting through twojeffs and crammyboy and syberspunk hacks was an important, if time-consuming, part of configuring my new Expansioned-up setup yesterday.)

The portal fixes seem important enough to put in there as soon as I have the chance today...

Update: Done. I think I got the right versions of what is needed.

Okay, after perusing this thread and poking around in the...er...interestingly organized /ffs download folders, I put together the following collection of MATY classics for use with the original Sims 2:

---

MATY Hacks for Original Version (one Tasty Tourist's cut)

Pescado FFS hacks:

abortbedmaking
antibabylecture
asprechargetweak
bathroomusesyou
breakupfix
bringrealfriends
callover
captainhero
carpoolfix
chatbugfixv1
coffeecuphack
comm-skilling
computerchatfix
deathfix
doorbell-quieter
fasterbuyclothes
firemod
housepartyfix
hugginghack
interactwogreet
manual-navigation
marriage-postmortum (BTW, the spelling of this one is killing me; just had to get that off my chest)
noagediscrimination
noaplusspam
nocheeringhack
nocorruptdeath
nodroptiredbaby
noplagiarism
norabbitspin
norandomcrush
noreunionmemory
noroutefail
noshockforoutgoing
nosmartmilkdrag
notelepathy
notownieregen
novelprogress
nowhatsthis
outfitplanner
payatbox
phonehack
poolhack
romancemod
sleepclock
stereohack
stuckobjremover
weddingpartyfix

crammyboy hacks:

cboy_portalfix
CBOY_Portal_deletion_fix2
CBOY_portal_monitor

---

I relied on info I found here and there on the forums, and on the RTFMs, and also on the locations of each file in the /ffs directories, to choose hacks that were compatible with EP-less play. I gravitated towards older versions, and specifically sought them out in cases where it seemed necessary and was possible. There were a few candidates that I left off the list simply because I wasn't that interested in trying them; so this is hardly as complete a list as a Director's Cut might be. (Plus it doesn't come from the director at all!)

It all seemed to work okay. I didn't notice any serious bugs, much less experience a BFBVFS, with having this set plugged into my game for a few good long sessions of play. I'm still new around here, however, so I'm in no position to offer any decently-founded reassurances.

I'm taking the liberty of attaching a zip file to this post so that future interested users might be saved the time and effort it took me to root out this particular collection of acorns. (Such time and effort is of course extremely trivial compared to that put forward by el Presidente and his loyal minions in the first place; so don't even think of thanking me instead of them.)

If there's a serious problem with the roster of hacks or the particular versions I included, let me know and I can update the zip. Or, if I've somehow done something idiotic by putting it up at all, let me know that and I'll remove it.

I'm not going to initiate any changes to this hack pack myself, though, since the dream of sending a lovely sim-daughter off to college caused me to break down and Expansion-up last night. Hope she chooses her friends carefully and doesn't get into too much trouble...

Update 18 August: Added critical crammyboy portal hacks.

Wow. Some friendly and helpful responses already.

And all for only $39.95. I love that tingly feeling I get from money well-spent.

And now I'm off to try out the Stuck Object Remover on a stubborn un-cleanable, un-deletable, un-Force-Error-able bowl of cereal that I've got sitting out back of my lot, next to the tombstone of the nanny who spontaneously combusted in my dining room right before my sim-toddler's birthday party. (True story, all of it!). If it's successfully burninated I'll have to re-up for another two months in gratitude...

STUCK BOWL UPDATE: Little did I know that the Stuck Object Remover includes, as a special bonus, a mass spectrometer that analyzes items before they are burninated. (My, that Pescado is a clever devil!) The results from the lab are now in, and the verdict on the five-year-old food matter caked onto that stubborn, un-deletable bowl that has now been burninated out of its misery, is...

Chile Con Carne!

If you bet on Chile Con Carne, congratulations! Be sure to collect your Kewpie doll at the coat check on the way out. If you guessed Cereal, sorry, but thanks for playing, and better luck next time.

Warning: This is my first post here, so I've got too much to say. But resident experts, please bear with me and my questions.



Okay, I know I'm pushing the bounds of necromancy here (just under a month since last post), but wanted to ask questions based on these two statements.

Within the past week or so, I have given the base game another try after letting it collect dust for, oh, a year or so...and unlike my first go at it, I can feel myself getting hooked. (Maybe it's because I went straight to creating my own neighborhood this time, instead of playing quasi-tutorial characters and dealing with the annoying alien nonsense--IMHO--in Strangeville and such.)

This thread is a lifesaver in providing advice on hacks to install for the time being, so thanks. But it seems that el Presidente would advise that I add an expansion pack in the near future. That leaves me with some questions, that I haven't stumbled across definitive answers to while browsing the forums these last couple hours at the office someplace or other, definitely not the office:

1) Would the general MATY community's advice be to acquire all three in order (over some time, of course...I only have a couple simoleons left to rub together after taking my summer vacation); or could I jump straight to a later EP that I was more excited about? It sounds like cwykes went straight to OFB...

2) If I did decide to jump straight to NL or OFB, would the Director's Cut for NL/OFB still work fine?

3) Should I plan on starting a whole new neighborhood whenever I install an EP, just to be safe; or should I be able to keep playing/export sims/lots/neighborhoods without causing a whole bunch of weirdness down the road?

4) Does the answer to #3 change if I plan to delete everything and reinstall when I do get an EP? I've done enough playing around with downloaded sims and lots from MTS2, many of which aren't working or act weird, that I'd feel better with a clean install.

5) Am I right in guessing that el Presidente believes I made a serious error in trying to download custom sims at all--with related skins and meshes and clothing and whatnot--and plunking them in my new neighborhood as townies (courtesy of the magic shrub)?

6) There is no...question 6.

7) Have I asked enough questions at once to get scorned or trashcanned yet? (In case I haven't, I'll stop now.)

Thanks to all who have built this forum and made it much more awesome than me. So glad I stumbled across it.