Sunday, December 9, 2012

Leod McGreggor Got Hitched!

He married Cleo Shibiku, and both kept their last names. I have plans, you see... plans for getting Leod either plantsimmed or probeded... or both. He'd have a really cute baby from the probing, though I might just use the simblender to get him pregnant. Leod looks so cute when pregnant, though it is funny to watch non-knowledge sim men cry from being abducted.

Leod and Cleo had their honeymoon on Twikki Island, and I made sure to keep them from spending too much. Despite lack of spending, they had a great vacation. They even learned to hula, thanks to me building a lot with just a building with the necessities like windows and doors and stuff, and some trees and rugs for decoration. They had a baby, a girl named Suzie, and I'd really like to see Leod have an alien kid because he does have cute babies.

Before Suzie was born though, I expanded their house a little at the sides rather than the top, though I may add a third floor later on. I just don't want anyone missing the school bus or carpool due to the long commute downstairs.

They have a couple computers - a special laptop for studying skills and talent badges, and a ZX-Spectrum, both of which they can use to rack up skills and earn money. Leod also has a very high relationship with the Head Good Witch, so next time she appeared on one of the community lots(where Leod went to buy a couple cellphones), I had him talk with her, and then ask her to teach him the ways of the light.

Since I have hacked the want trees so only Popularity sims have an aversion to non-zombie supernaturals, he and Cleo should have no problem with his recent lifestyle change. Both are Fortune sims, and Fortune and Grilled Cheese sims are neutral to all supernaturals except for zombies.

I also had them buy some chickens with a special mod that I downloaded from AffinitySims, I believe. Those chickens seem to be controlled by invisible NPCs, so I won't be having them or any other invisible NPC-controlled objects on a lot where Grand Vampires reside.

But anyway, yes, I do plan on turning Cleo into a witch as well, and possibly a plantsim. I bet she would make pretty plantbabies.

Saturday, December 8, 2012

Inteenimater And Junk-Townie Syndrome

If you use Inteenimater, then you should spawn the biological clock for every playable sim teen and older, especially in the pre-created base-game neighbourhoods. The reason is, many of the pre-created sims have some problems with their character data, which is difficult if not impossible to fix completely. This junk-data will generally not do anything unless a mod like Inteenimater is used.

Inteenimater not only allows teens and College students to have babies, but it also attempts to fix any junk-data that it finds. This has the side-effect of making the game recognize the affected sims as teenagers. The sims will still be adults, until they become pregnant. The game will start announcing that the affected pregnant sims will be growing up in a few days, even if they have quite a few days before they transition. After the affected sims give birth, they will start talking and behaving like teens.

Sims with this problem include Loki and Circe Beaker, Vidcund Curious, the Smiths, possibly everyone in the Singles household, the Grunts, Olive Specter and Ophelia Nigmos, and pretty much everyone in Veronaville. There may even be some townies with missing DNA data in those two neighbourhoods.

The problems Inteenimater causes for these sims include:

  • The obvious - they turn into teens with adult bodies after giving birth
  • Some, like Jenny and PT#9 Smith, might be recognized as children, which will make Johnny unable to go to College
  • If Johnny and Ophelia go to College, the school bus will still show up for them, even on their campus lots, and their highschool grades will drop, even if their College grades are fine
  • College graduates may be unable to get jobs because the game recognizes them as teenagers with F-grades, and teens with an F in school cannot get jobs, or will be fired from their current ones
  • Loki and Circe Beaker, and other affected adults might be unable to get new jobs because the game is confused, recognizing them as teens, even if they still behave like adults
To prevent this, spawn the biological clocks for all playable sims. Click on the sim you are playing and on the pie-menu, find the 'Inteenimater' option(clicking 'more...' if needed) and then select 'My Biological Clock'. An alarm clock should appear by the sim. Click on the clock and select 'Put Away'. For elder sims like PT#9, you will have to regress them to teens. Olive Specter will probably only be recognized as a teen, so she can still look after children if you have working sims with children living on her property(it happened with me - Nervous Subject became a plantsim while spraying a garden).

The biological clock will force the game to recognize these sims as their correct ages, and prevent a lot of unexpected weirdness, so use it.

Thursday, December 6, 2012

Brandi Broke Is No Longer 'Broke'!

When I played the Broke household, I gave Brandi all the Freetime milestones using the Lot Debugger's options to upgrade her pre-Uni and Pre-Freetime. She's Family/Romance, and I had her check out a few sims, including a Romance townie she seemed to like a lot. Then along came Komei Tellerman. He's sort of 'ugly-cute' but anyways, they hit it off pretty well, especially after I made Brandi a redhead(one of his turn-ons, since one of his turn-offs was her natural black hair). After a couple dates, they got engaged, then since she(or Dustin) found a treasure chest, I was able to book a honeymoon. When Komei came back and rang the bell, I had her greet him, and then I bought a wedding arch and had them get married. I upgraded Komei, and turned him into a Fortune/Romance sim to boost their attractiveness toward each other, and then they were off to their destination: Three Lakes.

Since I modded the want trees(not recommended for those new to the game), Brandi wanted to meet Bigfoot while Komei feared it. Linus Bigfoot was friendly enough, despite his meager three nice points, and after a couple days, Brandi invited him to move in. Komei was the one who found the map to Bigfoot's lot, so he had to come along with Brandi.

I had them do some sightseeing, buying some souvenirs and eating local cuisine, and of course doing the axe-throwing and log-rolling for mementos. During the final couple days of their vacation, I had them do some dating in order to keep their aspirations high. Brandi got pregnant, and I don't know how many kids she's expecting - thanks to her Family perks, she had twins from her previous pregnancy.

Another thing I did was give Brandi a new hairstyle, so she wouldn't look so much like a trailerite. She even got some new clothes. She changed her name as well, even though I generally don't change names of pre-made sims. Basically, it was a symbol of Brandi escaping her previous life. I plan on changing the names of all the children with the Broke surname.

Brandi and Komei are going to go back to Pleasantview soon, but with lots of memories and a few temporary perks. I love sending my sims on vacation - they end up bringing so many neat things(and friends) back home.

List of Sims 2 Very Bad Things

On Mod The Sims and More Awesome Than You, there are lists of things NOT to do when playing Sims 2. Some of these Very Bad Things will simply corrupt one neighbourhood. Others will corrupt the installation.

First, the neighbourhood corrupters:

  • Deleting sims from the Family Bin
    • Deleting sims doesn't completely delete them from the game and other sims will have memories of sims that no longer exist, and there will be orphaned(or unlinked) wants and fears files
  • Moving inhabited lots to the Lots and Houses Bin, and moving those lots to another Neighbourhood
    • Does almost the same thing as deleting sims from the neighbourhood via the Family Bin
    • Moving the household to a new neighbourhood will cause the game to create copies of sims they have memories of meeting
  • Saving while a sim is on the phone and then installing a new Expansion Pack or Stuff Pack
    • Creates offworld loiterers if the lot is reset by installation of a new EP/SP
    • Can also happen when installing some mods
    • To remedy this, use the Lot Debugger from More Awesome Than You and select 'Nuke...' -> 'Offworld Loiterers'
  • Deleting custom foods without deleting memories of eating them using SimPE
    • Corrupts want trees
  • Letting the initial pregnancies of Samantha Ottomas or Sarah Crittur come to term in an unpatched game
    • The pregnancies of the pre-made pregnant Family Bin sims can have corrupt father data, and the fathers of the babies could be any random sim residing in that neighbourhood, or even another neighbourhood
    • The patch only works if it is applied before the Family Bin sims are created with the Weather or Pets stealth neighbourhoods
  • Making certain NPCs playable(they have incomplete or no character data):
    • Social Worker
    • Repo Man
    • Carpool/taxi drivers
    • Unsavory Charlatan(may cause game corruption as well, so don't do it!)
    • Wise Man
    • Witch Doctor
    • Certain dead pre-made sims like Lyla Grunt, most of the other dead sims in  Olive Specter's graveyard
  • Deleting tombstonse or urns(unless you have nounlinkondelete from More Awesome Than You)
Now for the Game Corruptors:

  • Deleting any textures or other objects that came with the base game or EPs/SPs
  • Making Universal NPCs playable:
    • Grim Reaper
    • Hula Zombies(hula dancers that appear with the Grim Reaper when a sim dies of old age in gold or above aspiration)
    • Mrs. Crumplebottom
    • Bigfoot Bigfoot(he's a template for the playable Bigfoots)
    • Therapist(the funny doctor that appears whenever a sim goes into aspiration failure)
    • Santa Claus(he visits a sim's house when a tree and santa cookies are present)
    • Robot NPCs(they make the rover and hover bots move)
    • Remote control toy NPCs(they make the RC cars and other remote control toys move)
    • Stinky Skunk(again, a universal NPC)
    • Father Time(and Toddler New Year) - they only appear on the lot during a New Years Bash party
    • Tour guides
    • Local chefs(from Vacation food stands)
    • Ideal Plantsim
    • Pollination Technician(he knocks the males up when they get abducted)
  • Letting a vampire bite any of the Universal NPCs
  • Turning any of the Universal NPCs into different creatures, including zombies, witches, plantsims or werewolves
    • This changes their character files and I don't completely understand what happens, but doing this to them might create a different instance so the next time they are called to appear, it causes an error.
  • Killing the Universal NPCs
There is a glitch in Nightlife where once a Grand Vampire bites a sim, the vamp will then bite any other townies or NPCs that he or she knows, including the Universal NPCs. There is a mod at More Awesome Than You, creaturefixes, that curbs the random biting.

Another step to take at preventing accidental game corruption is to find the objects.package file in the folder for your current expansion pack. It's usually C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\[Current EP]\Res\Objects

Right-click on the Objects.package file, then select 'Properties'. Once the Properties window opens, go down to the 'Attributes' section of the first tab and check the box to the left of 'Read Only'. Press 'Apply' and then 'Close'. Your Objects file is now protected. That doesn't mean you should then feel free to experiment with the Universal NPCs all you want, but rather it is just a protection in case something happens to one of them by accident. You can never be too careful when playing Sims 2, because it is quite buggy.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Cassandra Goth - Dumb As A Stump

In one of Gavin Newson's businesses, Don Lothario, Cassandra Goth and Dina Caliente were all customers. Trouble brewing? Oh yes. Dina flirted with Don, and he accepted, then got a nice hand-print across his face. But I wanted them to have somewhat of an okay relationship, instead of tipping each others' trashcans for now. So I had both apologise through Dolphin's sim controller, which I found on modthesims.info. Then I had Don 'smooth talk' Cassandra. Bear in mind, I have ACR and the override to the Maxis defaults installed, so Dina was quite indifferent. It worked too well. Cassandra has a 100/100 relationship with Don now, while his relationship with her is in the 80's. Cassandra is dumb as a stump, that's for sure. Gonna do some extensive playing and elixir-drinking on Don's lot, and save up some money to get him a wedding arch, then have him invite Cassandra over when their relationship is low enough. I want Cassandra to leave Don at the altar, you see. She doesn't deserve to be left at the altar by that flirt.

Of course I'm also planning on getting Don probeded. You know me, right? I just love it when my men get abducted and come back with a little 'surprise'.


With the Newsons, I got Ginger to find a boyfriend. She's now going steady with Randy London, and so far had two dates with him. I haven't found the perfect girl for Gavin just yet, but he might like either Sophie Miguel or Jade Smith. Both have Fortune as their aspiration, and he finds both to be quite attractive. I may have Ginger set up her first business soon, so she can get some much-needed lifetime aspiration points.

I'm also planning on playing the Ottomas family. It will sure be interesting to play it, with my Family sims now being okay with certain life states. Plus, Peter being a plantsim would indirectly benefit Dora, since she is his mother and Peter growing a plantbaby would help fulfill Dora's six grandkids LTW.

Monday, December 3, 2012

Teen Olive Specter

Olive Specter starts out as an elder in the game, but if Freetime is installed and you have a special "wish for youth" mod from modthesims.info, you can give her a second chance at life and possibly having a family. Play her lot for awhile, and maybe send Ophelia to College to avoid the hassle of angry Family ghosts. If you have Nightlife, or any other expansion pack with the inventory feature, put the gravestones into Olive's inventory and send her to a community lot. Place the graves there and you won't have to deal with angry ghosts ever again - on a public lot, most of the anger triggers are gone(unless the ghosts died from starvation). Olive can visit that graveyard any time to scratch her 'see ghost' itch.

Play her lot and maybe send her on some dates(if you have Nightlife), or if Freetime is installed, give her all the Knowledge perks, and have her summon aliens. Pretty soon, they will abduct her, and she will start rolling wants to meet them again and again. Collect those aspiration points, as each abduction brings her 8,000 points closer to getting an Elixir of Life reward. Have her drink from it, and extend her life, repeating as needed while saving some points for an energizer(elders' needs decay more quickly than those of adults), and have her build enthusiasm in a hobby, like science for instance, until she gets to be in the zone. If you have the lotdebugger, upgrade her pre-Freetime(but not Pre-Uni... there's a reason). Once the Gypsy delivers the lamp, save the game, then rub the lamp and wish for youth. If Olive dies instead, quit without saving. Re-enter the lot and try again. I've never lost a sim to wish-failure, but it pays to take precautions. It's a good idea to move someone onto that lot in case you don't have any way of banking online.

After Olive becomes a teen, her grade will be set at F due to some really weird coding, and her school tab won't have the proper icon. If you have Inteenimater installed, have Olive spawn her biological clock. It's a good idea to have Inge's school changer and the college adjuster, so you can change her grade to C and switch her to private school, then possibly to public school later on. You may have to send her to a few community lots, and maybe exit her lot and re-enter it. Whatever you do, it will take awhile for her school tab to show up properly, as the youth mod is not perfect.

Olive will no longer be retired, and will start rolling teen-related wants, such as buying a cellphone or other electronic gadget. She will be able to get the orphaned sims assistance fund, as well as the Extraterrestrial Reparations grant, if you had her get abducted. She may also get some other scholarships if her skills are high enough, and if she gets high grades, Olive will get the Scholar's Grant.

Olive's character data is a little messed-up, which is the case for several other Strangetown sims, including Vidcund Curious, General Buzz Grunt, Tank and Ripp Grunt, and Jenny and P.T.#9 Smith. If you have Inteenimater, this can make the game think they are teens. To fix this, spawn their biological clocks and then put them away. For P.T.#9, you will have to age him down to adult, as I did in my Naughty Nerds hood. If you don't, and one of them gets pregnant, the game will start treating them as teens, and they will start talking like teens after giving birth.

Anyway, I have given other elders youth in different neighbourhoods. I've done it for the Goodies, as well as for a former Head Good Witch. All have been successful. I'm planning on doing the same in this one for all the playable, and perhaps even the townie/NPC elders. I want them to spread their genes and have a chance at College and the Hawaii death.

Tank Grunt + Jules O'Macky

I was thinking of having the two get together, but I was having a hard time getting Tank Grunt to find an eligible girl. He did have a date, but since I have Inteen, it was with an elder professor. It was kind of funny, Tank being a cake-eater(his dad may be the same, since he did have a dream date with an elder Fortune sim. But in this world, love knows no age, it seems... kinda reminds me of CLAMP's usual fare.

Anyhoo, while I was blogging and running Gavin's Island Treats business, Tank and Jules happened to meet each other. Awesome. Now I will try to get her to chat Tank up once I get to playing her. I want them to date, and I want Tank to finally get his first kiss. I mean, Ripp's had his already, and poor Tank is feeling a little left-out. I may even have Tank open his own business sometime soon, so he can get some more Lifetime Aspiration points, though I may wait until he goes to College.

As for Ripp, I might have him tomcat around a little, or have him and Delenn Curious go steady. Usually I have my male sims take the surnames of their wives, but I might make an exception if General Buzz doesn't get married or have any baby girls.

But Tank and Jules just seem to be the perfect couple. He might be just what the doctor ordered for Jules' broken heart.