Phone Issues in Pets...

[primavera227]

Hi, I'm new here

Whenever I try to get my Sims to call a service, they dialing goes through and they "talk" to someone, but the conformation bubble never pops up.  It's weird, because it works for some services but not all.  The few I've been having issues with are the Maid, the Gardener, the Adoption Service, Exterminator, and the Repairman.  The Pet Adoption Services and the Nanny both work fine.  After they call, they like jump away from the phone at an idle stance.  Has anyone had this problem and know how to fix it?  I have CC installed but no mods/hacks that I know of.  Thanks!

[Sleepycat]

try removing all your custom content and then seeing if you still have the problem

[primavera227]

I tried that...no luck still Anyone think this issue could get resolved with a new patch EA might release?

[ancienthighway]

It certainly sounds like an isolated case for you.  I don't recall ever hearing of problems with the phone on a clean install.  

In removing custom content as Sleepcat suggested, did you move the Downloads folder out to the desktop, or just hacks/mods that you know about? If you didn't move all of the Downloads folder out, then try that.  Chances are your phones will work.  If they do it's just a matter of tracking down what's causing the problem.

[Ghen]

Did you use the 'Delete All Characters' function?

[Tomkat]

...Deleting all characters results in all kinds of hassles...you shouldn't use it.  

Check this thread about that if that is what you did:
http://www.insimenator.org/showthread.php?t=26638&highlight=strike

[Rogue777]

Not sure why this thread was closed, since the original problem doesn't seem to be resolved. I'm reopening it.

[primavera227]

Yes, I did use the 'Deleteallcharacters' cheat.  Do you think that caused it?

[ancienthighway]

Set testingcheatsenabled to true and try calling a service NPC.  If you get the "wrong species" error, it is in fact the deleteallcharacters cheat that caused the problem.  Since the NPC you're trying to employee doesn't exist, the game tries to create a new one, which then causes the wrong species error.  

You can verify this by going to a new neighborhood , not using the cheat and calling for an NPC.

[primavera227]

How do I set testingcheatsenabled?  And if 'deleteallcharacters' is the reason the phone isn't working, how do I fix it?

[ancienthighway]

Open a cheat window with ctrl-shift-c, then type "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true".  After you get done testing, set if back to false if you'd like.

If you backed up your game data before installing Pets, you can put the backup back into the game.

If it's one of the default neighborhoods packaged with the game, you can copy the neighborhood from C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods to My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods.  All that you've done in that neighborhood would be lost, so Any houses or sims you want to save should be packaged before copying.

If it's a custom neighborhood you will need to delete the hood and start it all over again, although you can still package houses and sims to put them back into the game.

[primavera227]

Problem solved.  Thanks!