I have to confess that I couldn't play some of the poorer families, like the Schmits (?), without Inge's $1000 mortgage bush.  When there are babies/toddlers that need a nanny and only one adult and maybe a teen with a job, there's just not enough money coming in early on for them to exist.  Plus I usually have them quit their minimum wage jobs at one of Jack's many businesses and get a better paying job.  Once the teens have progressed and acquired some skills, I'm going to add a university, probably using the Alpine dorms, e.g. http://www.pc-sims.com/smb/showthread.php?t=8508, from PC-Sims.  This site also has lots of army stuff at http://www.pc-sims.com/smb/forumdisplay.php?f=97&page=2&order=desc.

Yes, there's certainly a lot of opportunities for fishing in the families.  The Green boys are well on their way to gold.

I installed Meadow Lawns last night and visited a couple of families.  I love it!  You really put a lot of work into this.  And I like the back stories on the families.  My only problem is that I can't find the army base.  I assume it's at the edge where it's hard to get at.  I used to have the mod that let you see the whole map at once, but I seem to have lost it.

You asked for suggestions for future NPC sets.  How about Western/frontier/pioneer?  All About Style has some very nice pioneer and Victorian clothes. Also a sci-fi one would be good, and a Regency/Victorian.

So many community lots I've downloaded have a changing table in one of the restrooms.  I always wondered why.  Just to tease us, maybe.

I'd like to second this request, if that will help.  Or tell us where we can look using SimPE to find out for ourselves.  Please??

Some very nice lots in the MaryLouSims2 thread.  Wish I could read Italian.

Cwykes, you are amazing!     I had lots of fun with the aliens in Sedona, and with your Green, Foster and army families (all in my apocalypse neighborhood).  I'm in the middle of playing with the Riverblossom pre-mades, but it's awfully tempting to just add another neighborhood.  Especially with new businesses and houses, which I never make for myself.

Thanks for all the ideas on how to manage multiple babies.  I'll try them out when I get rested up.

I recently had triplets and both parents got maternity leave - and boy, did they need it.  I'm never doing that again.  Plus the mom got pregnant almost immediately after giving birth from ACR.  I had to put that one up for adoption, and the next time she got pregnant, I had her take the morning-after pill.  Thanks, TJ, for having that as part of the package.

Where in PMDB are the ducks and swans? 

So a 1x1 comm lot works because only the taxi or car ever stops there, and there's enough room for that one vehicle?

Got this from the SimWatch Yahoo group -

The following was posted by MaxoidSam at the official site
(http://tinyurl.com/yqdddg):

________________________________________

A number of you are having trouble installing the latest
patch, often being prompted to reinstall Seasons after the
install fails.

If you are being told to reinstall, the likely cause is that
you have modified (either knowingly or unknowingly) two
files that the patch is looking for specific versions of to
install correctly.

One of these file is the Graphics Rules.sgr file that is
located in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2
Seasons\TSData\Res\Config\Graphics Rules.sgr. You may have
modified this if you wanted to change your resolution
settings from the game default, or for other reasons.

The second, but less likely, file that may have changed is
the objects.package file, which is located at C:\Program
Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2
Seasons\TSData\Res\Objects\objects.package. This file is
often modified by hacks or mods or custom content that
players install. Not all CC will touch this file, but some
does.

A patch essentially overwrites files specific files on a
players hard drive with new versions of those files that
have bug fixes. And it's looking for the versions of those
files to overwrite that it knows in order to pick the right
files to copy over...the files that shipped with the
original Seasons game. If those files are modified from that
version, the install will fail because it does not know what
to patch.

SO...

The easiest (but most time consuming) way to restore those
files is to uninstall Seasons and then reinstall it.
Whenever you uninstall or reinstall a game, make a backup
copy of your The Sims 2 folder in your My Documents\EA GAMES
directory. Otherwise you'll lose all your saved games and
your custom content!

The quicker, more advanced way is to pull those 2 files from
your Seasons game discs and copy them manually to your hard
drive.

To find the original objects.package file:

1) Put Seasons Disc 1 in your CD/DVD drive while holding the
SHIFT key (to keep the game from auto-running).
2) Explore the CD using Windows Explorer
3) Open the file "compressed.zip" (requires a compression
program like WinZip to open).
4) Unzip the file "objects.file" to your hard drive.
5) Copy this file into C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2
Seasons\TSData\Res\Objects\ folder on your machine, unless
you chose a different directory to install your game when
you first installed it.

To find the original Graphics Rules.sgr file:

1) Put Seasons Disc 2 in your CD drive while holding the
SHIFT key (to keep the game from auto-running).
2) Explore the CD using Windows Explorer
3) Open the file "compressed.zip" (requires a compression
program like WinZip to open).
4) There are two Graphics Rules.sgr files in there with
identical names. If you use WinZip you can see the paths
that these 2 files are from. Grab the one that references
the TSData\Res\Config directory.
5 Unzip this file to your hard drive.
6) Copy this file into C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2
Seasons\TSData\Res\Config folder on your machine, unless you
chose a different directory to install your game when you
first installed it.

Once these two files are replaced, THEN install the patch.

NOTE FOR THOSE WHO HAVE THE DVD VERSION: Both files are
located in the compressed.zip file. Ignore the Disc 1 and
Disc 2 instructions.

The incorrect "H&M Stuff causing patch troubles" has likely
started by the prompt that tells you that the game is
installing the Seasons patch during the H&M install process.
This is because H&M shipped after the first Seasons patch
was completed.

BUT note that this is the FIRST Seasons patch. Yesterday's
patch was not included with H&M, so if you want that you
have to download that patch separately from our patch site.

Hopefully this clears things up and gets you patched and
ready to play! Let us know if not.

-sam

This might refer to a problem I and others have had where a Sim finishes the first semester of Freshman year, completes the final but doesn't get credit for it and has to repeat that whole semester.  I had it happen on the second semester of Freshman year also after I advanced them to the second semester via SimPE.

I was able to delete the extra downtown finally.  I had been looking for the trash can icon in the original "choose a downtown" screen you get when you start your play session.  Once I found the screen where you can add a new downtown, the icon was there.  Bad news - I deleted the wrong downtown.  Good news - I hadn't spent much time fixing it up, and no one owned a business there.

What would have happened if I had deleted a downtown with an owned business?  Not that I want to experiment.

I inadvertently added an extra downtown and I'd like to delete it.  But there doesn't seem to be an in-game button for this.  Can I safely just delete its subdirectory in the neighborhood directory?

Have her skip the final.  That's how I got Mickey Dosser from LFT kicked out.

Well, I'm glad to know I'm not the only one with this problem.  My first 2 Riverblossom YAs were Peter (?) Ottomas and Jules O'Mackey, and they progressed just fine.  The ones with the problems went later, the Martin boy and Roth girl.  I'll fix them in SimPE and see what happens when they hit their second final.

I sent 2 teens to Uni from Riverblossom, and when their grade bar filled up, I used the college clock to send them to finals.  But when they returned from finals, I didn't get notified that they passed with an A+, they didn't get any money, and they are back at the start of freshman year, even though their grade point average shows as 4.0.

I have sent other sims to finals with the clock before and since this episode with no problem.  I'm using one of Maxis' dorms.  I have all EPs and SPs and MATY hacks, with very few other hacks (no kitten/puppy killers).  Any idea how to fix this?  How would I use SimPE to credit them with the appropriate history?  I don't care about memories or the money, I just want them to be at the start of semester 2 of freshman year.

What would be the best way to prevent this behavior?  No bars at a restaurant?  A bar with no stools?

I like to use SimPE to back up neighborhoods.  It names the files using date and time, so you know which is the most recent.  You do have to do each neighborhood separately, though.

I'm installing Seasons this weekend (already have all the other EPs), and want to play Riverblossom Hills with all the Maxis-made sims, then attach your cleaned-up La Fiesta Tech and an empty downtown.  Is there any reason I should also attach a shopping district?  I think I can own and visit businesses in the main neighborhood and in downtown.  What would I be missing if I left out a shopping district?

And thanks so much for these templates.   

Will Macrotastics... Repair work on sprinklers?  I don't have Seasons yet, so can't test this.

This discussion reminds me of the book Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation .

Translation please.  What's CtfG?