New Patches for OFB and FFS

[Emma]

I mean, I tried to delete a fence next to a gnome, and I got the message "wall too close to sim

That's because the gnomes are little sims. Read my legacy story, and you will see.

*giggles*

I strongly advise you to read right from the first episode-rohina's legacy is hilarious!

[Ambular]

Soo...it keeps giving me an error and telling me uninstall/reinstall.                 
...

I'm having this same problem and I'm not sure I want to do the reinstall thing. I don't think I have any core game file hacks.
BlueSoup and AmberDiceless: What have you done to avoid it? Could you please explain it to me?

draranha, if you watch the progress dialog box as it's trying to install and before you get the error, it will tell you which game files it's checking (objects.package, uitext.package, etc.)  The last one it names before it halts is the one that's causing it to choke.  If you don't have a hacked version, something else may have buggered up one of your files.  You could possibly try getting a clean copy from someone else?

[jsalemi]

I hit the same problem with a core file that was altered in OFB, though I know I never changed it.  The file is:

C:/Program Files/EA GAMES/The Sims 2 Open For Business/TSData/Res/Catalog/Bins/globalcatbin.bundle.package

You can pull the original off the original OFB directory -- all the files are in a 'compressedfiles.zip' (or something to that effect) in the root of the CD.  Just drill down to that directory, and copy the original file to your hard drive.

And BlueSoups modified UIText will also bugger up the install, as noted elsewhere. You have to put the original back for the patch install to work.  Once it's patched, you can put the modified UIText back.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Before I installed the patch, I did go and make the objects.package file writeable, I don't know if that's why I never had any problems.

[Nova]

My ofb patch stops when it gets to this:  TSData\Res\Text\eCAS.package

What the heck is that and is there a way to fix it?

[ZephyrZodiac]

If you search the program files for OFB for CAS.package you should see three files, 2 called CAS.package and one called eCAS.package.  The files in my game were last modified as follows:

06.02.2006
24.04.2006
24.04.2006

I imagine the second and third are the install date or something like that, but apparently they should be identical.  If one is different, it would seem to me that something has happened to it, since none of these files is read only.  If you then open your CD files by clicking on the CD icon in My Computer, you should get a list of the files and you will find these three files in TSData/res/text

You can then copy them and overwrite the files in your game.

[PlayLives]

Bag of Poo will no longer break after installing The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff.

Haha..that's classic!  
...the "stuff" pack even broke the bag of poo.    

[Nova]

My eCAS file was last modified on 3/13/06.  Perhaps when I added FFS?  As for copying the files over from the OFB cd, when I go into TSData there is only one folder called Control.    I think I'm screwed.  I realize I don't need the OFB patch since I have the FFS patch, but it's aggravating to think something is corrupt.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Here you go.

It's from the CD so it hasn't been modified - it's the same date as the first one.  Let me know when you've downloaded it and I can remove the file.

By the way, I think you can save yourself having to reinstall if something goes radically wrong, if you make a copy of your program folder for the game somewhere.

[Nova]

Thanks so much for the file..got it !

[ZephyrZodiac]

Great.  Hope it works!

[PlayLives]

Since it is a good idea to take out all hacks, what happens to your sims that are employeed using custom careers, if you start the game with those downloads removed? I have the ones from djsims.

I see they still didn't fix the podium obession on restaurants.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Basically, don't enter any lots where sims have custom objects or careers etc.  If you feel the need to test the patch in a clean install, you could simply enter a house to check up on your sims, exit the game without saving, then close your game, put back all your CC, and return all the hacks and hacked objects that don't specifically deal with OFB and see what happens.  If things are very screwy, take the hacks out again (again without saving your game) and check for any updates.  The only problem I noticed with the hacks I returned was my sims can't do the call contacts thing, but I imagine JM has fixed that in the new version out an hour or so ago, and when I close my game I'll just copy that in.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Didn't one of the Maxoids say there were supposed to be some Expansion announcements happening around the time the patches were going to come out?

Trepie, the following is quoted from MaxoidDon (whoever that is):

We are quickly approaching the announcement of the next expansion pack, so we just need you to hold out a little while longer. The official announcement is slated to happen in several weeks, and when we go public with the theme, we also expect to provide details on all the cool new features. You will have plenty of information to chew on before the product hits the shelves.

Since it sounds like it will contain creatures which have four legs, tails, slobber, and bad breath, I can hold out forever.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Be nice if they have the farming elements of Unleashed, though, and some of the atmosphere from the furniture and build sets.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Be nice if they have the farming elements of Unleashed,

I admit the gardening was fun.  But I hated the mice and those damn gophers!

Maybe they'll introduce a weeding-bot.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, no doubt someone awesome will do something about them!  But really, every EP is going to have elements that some people aren't crazy about - I don't care for the vampires etc in NL.  I don't object to a fantasy element, or an SF element, but I've never really been much of a fan of horror movies.  However, to others, the horror element is the bit they enjoy the most.  Horses for courses.

[skandelouslala]

I mean, I tried to delete a fence next to a gnome, and I got the message "wall too close to sim

That's because the gnomes are little sims. Read my legacy story, and you will see.

OT here but I started reading your legacy story...it's a fun read...I've been quite literally "LOL" hehe

[Jysudo]

Just wondering: does anyone still have the old FFS patch before the new one come out? Thanks.

[PlayLives]

It looks like the fix with the date ticket machine makes it so that your date doesn't pay at all, even after the date is over they remain on the lot free of charge.
I had a sim take a date to a lot with a ticket machine and the date browsed. I waited for a while to see what would happen. The date's buy bar remained pretty low for a while but when my sim bought a ticket his buy bar "popped" but he did not take a ticket. I stayed on the lot for a bit with the date then I ended it. The date ended fine but he continued to stay on the lot without being charged.

[draranha]

Thanks a lot AmberDiceless and jsalemi! My game is now properly patched.
I had the same problem as you, jsalemi, with the same file.
It's better to replace a single file than the whole EP, isn't it? 

[IgnorantBliss]

Not sure what went wrong with mine, but I got an error message upon installing the patch, saying there was a problem and that I would have the uninstall OFB. (I had removed the Downloads folder before patching.) I uninstalled the EP and then reinstalled it, and after that the patch installed just fine. Wonder what that was about.

[ZephyrZodiac]

There appear to be certain files (not the same for everyone) that are causing a problem.  I was lucky, it worked fine - but I didn't have the first patch installed, so maybe that altered things in some way.  People have checked where the patch install stopped, then copied the file it baulked at from the cd and that's worked.   One file in particular is the eCAS.package file, which has a february date on the CD and is about 15kb, but in your game files it will have the install date and be enormous.  Seems it's a bit like replacing groups.cache but has something to do with custom CAS stuff.

By the way, I got your curtains a little while ago, and they're great - I have had Windkeeper's loft curtains for a while, but they don't satisfy the want for fortune sims, and yours do, and it's great to have curtains that match the beds!

[AllenABQ]

Since it is a good idea to take out all hacks, what happens to your sims that are employeed using custom careers, if you start the game with those downloads removed? I have the ones from djsims.

I believe that custom careers are ones that you don't have to remove.  I play with several and have never had to take them out with any of the expansion packs except University when they added new careers to the official pool.  True, OFB is about careers but not the same kind.  I didn't have any problems leaving mine in when I added OFB.

[ZephyrZodiac]

However, if someone has already taken everything out and patched their game, I think I'm right in what I said, that if you just want to check that everything is ok before putting stuff back, as long as you don't save anything, there shoudln't be a problem with the careers.