LOL!!!  Isn't that true for real life, as well?  (Have a slew of Aires women in my family, including a red-headed aunt )

I saw the "French Quarter" on TV a little while ago, and it looked soggy and windy, but the buildings looked okay for the most part.  

I too wish I had the money to build an industructable bio-dome!  I'd never come out!  LOL

The government is using this to jack up the gasoline prices some more.  
Anyone else see this movie besides my Hubby?  
http://www.fxnetworks.com/shows/originals/oilstorm/main.html

More prayers and good thoughts for the people of the Gulf Coast.  Katrinia really is a nasty one!!  Hope you're okay, Reggie!

I've had it happen to me 3 times.  The 1st time it happened was only a few days after Uni came out, and so no one knew what caused it or how to fix it and I did a complete reinstall.  (being emotionally attatched to my Simmies, like they're my pets, I'm still not over it.  LOL) 

The second time, I was playing a Frat house and some idiot wandered off and brought one back.  Next thing I know. . . blank icons, sims keep wanting to "move".  I studied up and found out about the corupted object.package.file.  I now keep a clean copy of that on my desktop for RC Cars emergencies! 

Good thoughts and prayers with you, Reggi.     I know what you're going through:  The week after we moved to Eastern NC, Hurricane Floyd came by to welcome us properly!     Let us know you and the family are okay as soon as you can. 

It's meshes.  I've had this happen to me, too.  It does this when an outfit has a bad mash or no mesh.  Sometime's I've downloaded something with no mesh because the designer used someone's else's mesh and assumed I have it already.     Sometimes I just can't remember if I have already downloaded that dress from MTS2 or that hairstyle from WDS or whatever.  So, it happens. 

I had it happen with a hairstyle too.  I had downloaded a beautiful long hairstyle, and it said the original was created by Brianna at WDS.  It also said the mesh was with the file.  (Can't remember where I got it, not MTS2, not here, not VariousSimmers.  it was some other site I don't frequent.)  The hairstyle showed up in the custom content window as the straight-long-black hair, and my sim would be bald or have the default hair.  I went to WDS and got Brianna's original mesh and it works great, and her styles were prettier and moved more realisticly than the 1st ones I had downloaded.   So, maybe you can find the orginial mesh for those clothes that are not working, and see if that fixes the problem?

Also, when that happens to me, I can still scroll through the clothes and choose other outfits.  Is your game freezing up after your sim drops?  You said you can't choose other clothes.   

(sigh)  I preordered a couple of weeks ago.  I've never pre-ordered before, but everyone seems to get theirs quicker by pre-ordering than by waiting on it to come into the store.  With Uni, I had to work late that day, and then go back into work that evening, so it was a major pain in the rear to my local video game store.  But I managed.    And I stayed up playing and posting, "Why the he!! isn't this working!" on message boards until about 1:00 am.    

Days like that I wish I didn't have to work.  Why can't we just use our simming time as billable hours to EA Games.  My life would be so much easier!  

I had this happen to me once.  I re-downloaded the CEP enabler and had no more troubles. 

Thanks, JMP.  I just thought I'd do the polite thing and ask 1st. 

Okay, so this is possible?  I can create a new neighborhood and Uni campus, then use the deleteallcharecters cheat to get rid of the "undesireables."  Go into Uni, populate it with 15 male and 15 female of my own creation.  They will be the founding mothers and fathers.    But, the game will spawn repairmen, maids, gardeners, and other service NPC's when needed.  And I can choose to ignore them, of course. 

But, then again, when Nightlife comes out, I'll have my "virgin" neighborhood crawling with disco bunnies and lounge lizards and wanna-be Lestats, won't I?   

Again, I am impressed with the wisdom and the intelligence of the people here.    Thank you, thank you for that.   

I can see JMP's point that sometimes, some people do misuse lables, and even hide behind them or use them to their advantage.  I work in the human services field (am trying to get out:  anyone have a job in a nice museum or archive where I can bury myself in books and research files?    ) and I see those people every day.  "I can't work, I'm tryin' to get disability."  "What's your disability?"  "Ummmm, I am _________."  (enter in the disorder-of-the-month).  We also see a lot of those with "Anxiety" or "depression" that are really drug addicts.  They may have, once upon a time, actually had a problem and needed therapy.  They went to one of those HMO docs or medicaid clinic docs and instead of being given a mental health referral, they were given a prescription for valium or prozac or a whole "cocktail" of meds, and then asked to come back every month for monitoring.     They build up a tollerance for the drugs, they aren't really helped because what they need is therapy, not drugs, and then they get more and more drugs.  And they self-medicate with street drugs of alcohol.  This isn't a blanket assessment of everyone on those drugs, please do not get me wrong, because I know that medications can be helpful.  But in the instances I'm talking about, it's just adding a new problem to an old problem.  And, just like you said, veilchin, I think it's done for profit.  I've always said that our country is rulled by the Oil Barrons, Drug Companies, and Insurance Companies.  Insurance Companies even have the ablility to control life and death in some instances.  If someone is poor and needs a certain treatment, if the insurance company denies the treatment and they cannot find an alternative, then the person dies. 

Brynne:  That's great Jamie has a Speical Needs School.  We're in rural NC, so that is not available here.  But our school district has a wonderful lady in Al's elementary school who specializes in teaching kids with Autistic Spectrum Disorder.  She even traveled with Allen to middle school the 1st year and did a period of pull-out classes, and then worked with his teachers to help them understand Allen's needs and how to motivate him.  I've only been called to school twice for problem behaviors.  The 1st time he was in 1sr grade and he was picking his nose on the bus.  Some children started teasing him and he ended up smacking a kid, with his dirty fingers no less!     The second time, he was singing and laughing in class.  This was in 7th grade.  The school is great, they know me pretty well because I'm a fierce Momma Bear when it comes to any of my babies, and espeically my Allen.    I think they are afraid not to be.  I would have burnt down that A-hole's house, Brynne.  Or went home, got my husband's shotgun, and shot him!! 

I can compare Allen to certain charecters from TV and movies, and people "get it."  My favorite one is Adam Sandler's charector on "The Waterboy."  "Now, that's some premium H2O."  Yeah, that's definately AS Obsessive behavior.  LOL  (And yes, I do go around yelling, "Allen, girls are THE DEVIL!' LOL)  Another one is Data from Star Trek.  Data is always trying to tell jokes and never quite makes it.  Al's the same way.  He tells this absolutely silly, makes no sense, statement, and then when the "victim" is sitting there, speechless, binking, Al asks, "Did you think my joke was funny?"  My last one is Forrest Gump.  Allen has that sweet, sensitive, side of him, and that simplistic way of looking at things that other people miss because they were "overthinking."  A lot of people also know of Ausitm from the movie "Rain Man", and when Allen was 1st diagnosed, that was what I was told he would be like.  Thank God, with therapy and hard work (and lots of love, I'd like to think!) he's much better now. 

Brynne, I'd love to chat sometime about our boys.    I just finished up Middle School, so I know exactly what you're going through.  This December, Allen will be 15.  In NC, kids take driver's ed the semsester before they turn 15 and then get their learner's permit.  In a few weeks, my son will be driving!!

Ahhhh!!  I love this board, and I'm sorry I don't get a chance to visit with you fine people very often.  So, I'm answering this late, and with so many topics discussed, well, let me see, where to start:

1)  Artsy or Scientific?  I am more artsy, I think.  I love to write and love to talk to people and exchange ideas.  People also fascinate me, which is why I went into Social Services originally.  I discovered a love of history later in life.  I adore old houses and I study genealogy.  Genealogy is really the study of us:  who we are, how history shaped us.  We can't go back in time and meet our ancestors, so this is as good as it gets.  I like to read the facts and data, and then try to figure out the "why" in a family.  Why did this person migrate halfway across the country or leave the old world and come to the new?  Why does this census have an ancestor one race, and a later census have the ancestor in an entirely different race?  Gee, this branch of the family tree has lots of men dying in their 40's and 50's, and my Dad died at 48, so does that point to high blood pressure and diabetes being something that has taken the men in my family for generations?  Some sort of faulty DNA?  Who knows. 

2)  Aspergers Syndrome:  Jordi, I know you don't want it, but here's a hug anyway.  (((hug))).  My son has AS also.  He was non-verbal and showed some very destressing behaviors around the age of 2, and we had him evaluated.  At the time he was diagnosed with High Functioning Autism.  With intensive therapy and a lot of hard work, by the time he was 5 the diagnoses was changed to Asperger's Syndrome.  He's now 14.  He's the "weird" kid in school who wears red all the time, who doesn't really have any friends, who plays video games and draws elaborate storyboards and studies weather patterns but can barely read or spell.  He is a "nervous" child who paces back and forth and makes strange sounds when stressed.  Last year this behavior made him a moving target for evil little boys at the bus stop, and they threw rocks at him and blacked his eye.  He starts high school next week and I am terrified.  LOL  He plans on being a Video Game Programmer when he grows up.  The "geek" syndrome stereotype actually gives me some comfort, because when he was little a well-meaning psychologist told me that he would never have a "normal" life and that he would have a hard time finding and holding a job, probably never get married, and never live indepentently.  Obviously, that's not true of many who have AS, and so it gives me hope that with continued hard work, Al will be fine, too.   He really is a sweet, well-mannered, innocent kid.  His teachers love him because he is so well-behaved.  The kids. . . well, kids are cruel to kids who don't conform, we all know that, and I wish I could just treat those brats the way I treat Sim Townie Teenagers and feed them to a cowplant. 

3)  Literature:  I used to love reading.  It has been a while since I have picked up anything that wasn't non-fiction, though.(Damn TS2)    My favorite authors are Stephen King and Anne Rice, and my favorite book is "The Stand" by Steven King, with "It" being a close second.  Unfortunately, both my favorite books were made into cheesy mini-series, "It" being completely horrible!!!  I love fantasy and find ancient lore of witches and fairies and dragons compelling.  I met my husband while playing D&D.   

I have a family sim who's lifetime want is to graduate 3 children from Uni.  She died while her oldest was in Uni and the youngest 2 were babies.  I raised the youngest two and they are now in college, the oldest has graduated and had a child.  I also used the "Grimmy Phone" to resurect Momma.  I have to check when I play tongiht, but I don't think she has the memory of the youngest two going to uni.  So, I am wondering when they graduate if her want will be fulfilled??  Anyone have this situation come up?

This is really interesting!!  I have been playing around with this for the past couple of nights.  I have had problems with moving the lots with the hand tool, though.  When you move the out of water, the land comes up and forms a square island, so your lake/river/ocean is marred.  When you move them out of a hillside, the land caves in and is no longer useful for placing a lot on it. 

So I'm experimenting with making a terrain with SC4 that is comparable to my original terrain in levels, so my lots appear on the same level and do not have to be hauled out of a mountain or the water. 

JMP:  Can I link this thread to Worldsims? 

Thank you!!  That worked perfectly!!    Al (my son) said for me to tell you that he is in your debt. 

We use Windows XP on our family computer.  My son and I both have TS2 on our perspective accounts.  I play my game and have my downloads on my account, and he has his stuff on his.  He is not a frequent player, but he plays about once a week.  Last night he tried to use Create-A-Family to, well, create a family.  The load screen works fine.  The next screen, the one that says, "Enter Family Name" was a lovely shade of sky blue, but the menu works fine.  If you enter a name and click, the sky blue screen stays the same, but the menu changes to the CAS menu. 

I tried using a clean neighborhood and creating a family, but still got the blue screen.  I removed his downloads folder, and it still did not work.  I switched over to my account and booted up the game:  CAS works fine. 

My son doesn't have any special backgrounds downloaded for CAS.  You can't even see the Sim.  It's just the blue sky and the menu, which appears to work normally. 

I think he has a file corrupted, but not sure if that's the cause or not.  I can't figure out why his, played sparingly, has screwed up, while mine, played almost nightly, works fine.  I'm the one with the big downloads folder and all the hacks! 

So, any ideas on what caused this problem?  How can I fix it without doing the obvious:  Doing a clean reinstall.  (Which would delete my innocent Sims!  )

Nope, these that I'm referring to are sims that I created with Body Shop. 

3, usually, The game insists on a minimum of 3 of any type of NPC, including, of course, ones like the Social Worker, Repo Man, and Social Bunny. Even though these really aren't considered sociable and there's absolutely no reason why we need variety here....

Why, how many do you have?

Oh, about 6.  And 4 repo men.  And 5 social workers. . .

Okay, so my game is FUBAR'ed?     Why am I not surprised. 

Hey, JMP, I'm currently working on a Newbie's guide to TS2 for Worldsims.  Can I include a link to this thread in it?  Because this is good stuff and answers a lot of the questions we get asked over and over?

If these figures are completely out of line, you may have some oddities in your neighborhood, and may want to check the Sim Browser in SimPE to see if you've got duplicate entries. You HAVE avoided all known problem behaviors, like downloading inhabited lots or lotbinning anything, right?

Righ.  I have not done any of that, because you told me it was bad.   
Some of my Sims do not even show in in SimsPE.  I can't find them in the browser, and when I look into a related sims's relationships, it just says, "Unknown Sim."  I do have many sims that are repeated.  Just how many social bunnies do we need?

Family trees, yes. Be fruitful....I'd avoid that. Although the damage to your sanity will probably set in long before the damage to your neighborhood will. I'll run the math for you the fast way: Let's say you actually *DO* let your sims have their 10 children. In 3 generations, you'll have a population of over 1000 sims. This is clearly madness, which is why you need a sustainable growth policy.


Exactly, just like you were telling me over at WorldSims.  I have never done the ten-children aspiration, though I have let a few parents have five or more.  But all these children are counted in the nearly-80 number.  And the neighborhood was created when Uni came out back in March, so it's 4 months old.

Okay, so I am still confused.  Please feel free to point and laugh at me.

For example:  I have 498 sims in my little neighborhood of Simsville.  78 of these are my currently active, Body-shop or born in game, sims.  The rest are all townies???  I have the "No townie" and "No Dormie" regnen. hacks.  So, it will still do me no good to feed them all to the cowplant?  Or, what about packaging and moving ALL my sims, creating a new neighborhood, using the "delete all charectors" before I move in my sims?  Then, will I just have my 78?  Or will I just have a FUBAR game? 

I thought the object of this game was to create family trees and allow your sims to "be fruitful and multiply".     Now you're telling me that if I do that, then I will screw up my game?  This sucks!!   

ROTFLMAO!!!  (wearing flame-retardant clothing and holding securely onto my lips.)

Hey Inge, JMP likes the gray because it matches his bunker walls.  I just can't picutre Mr. Macrotasic with much color in his life.  It would be like breeding Martha Stewart to Osama Bin Laden.

   Great job getting the site up so fast!  Life just wouldn't be the same without your fishy fins in our games. 

Hummm.  I used to be a Tomb Raider Freak, but then I bought a real computer and Hubby bought me this cute little game, "The Sims Deluxe" for Christmas a few years ago and I forgot what Lara Croft looks like.  (And no, it is not Angelina Jolie).  Though I did make Lara as a sim, once.