There's a solution but it requires an ulcer .  Actually it's just about boycotting companies that create products that are half assed.  THousands of parents should be outside of Mattel's company protesting as well as boycotting their toys.  Mattel released a statement claiming they're going to be good now, but the toys have had lead in them for nearly 20 years.  And you know whats sad?  I mean what got lead in the toys and mercury in the fish and drugs in the cows.  Then we wonder why there's been a hike in children born with autism.  If we had a government that worked, Mattel would have been shut down.  

But boycotting works, love em or hate em.. Peta has got companies to comply on a lot of things because of boycotting as well as protesting.  If Peta cared about kids, they'd have had Mattel shut down by now.  But Mattel isn't the only one to blame on the issue with your kids toys.  Walmart  continues to deal with China and you have to understand that China is a hell hole.  They're hybrid of capitalism and communism, so you got one half of the country in total poverty and another half livin' the 90210 lifestyle.  So I doubt they really care about barbie being laced with lead.  

As for Maxis.. I get the impression EA pushes them to meet specific dates regardless if the software is totally tested.  I just don't understand how they made so many coding mistakes though and why they tried to use alternative coding for woohoos on different things when the same code would have worked.  So yeah, these mistakes won't always show up on the users end right away.  But seriously, those of you without problems.. be cautious of the memory leak.

The lag I'm going through is at times is gone now because of the steps I posted on another thread.  However, I'm still getting random crashes and random black screens of death.  Not fun.. especially if I haven't saved in awhile.  But sometimes there's a warning, when the sim goes to do something the game will go to a blue screen and the hourglass will roll around.. then the game will come back.  That means "save and quit".. because a crash is on the way.  That's due to the memory leak, pretty sure at least.  I hope they release a patch.. sniff..

First off, I never said the base game was coded poorly.  The base game was about as flacid as a republican prior to the cool custom content, but it worked pretty damn well.  When I said the game was coded poorly, I meant Bon Voyage.  And how would I know if Bon Voyage had all these issues unless I installed it first?  And how am I supposed to install it without buying it first?

See here's the problem with your wallet statement..

You see a game.. it looks good.. you have to buy it to play it.  If you don't like it.. tough.  They don't allow you to return it for a cash refund.  Sure, you can sell it on Ebay and lose 60% of what you paid for it, but that's illogical.  So you realize you're stuck with this poorly coded piece of software.. so do you take it up the ass like a choirboy or do you speak your mind and tell others how poorly made the product is?

Secondly, "shoot things or pass levels"?  If you mean first person shooters, you must really love Maxis.  Most of first person shooters have a far more advanced AI than the Sims, not only a more advanced AI but superior in every other way as well, from graphics to audio.  But that's two different genres of games so it really isn't fair to compare the two.  

If Maxis releases a patch for this within the week and it fixes the issues.. I'll take back what I said about them being amateurs.  If it takes longer than a month though.. that'll show just how much they care about the consumers .

Third, how many here do you think actually do buy the games and don't just pirate them?  That would make an interesting poll if people were honest.

Ain't that the truth..

But this board generally has a pretty good balance of both.  And even when it doesn't, I usually see all sorts of random bugs.  This is the first time I can remember one of the expansions causing things to bog down this much.  Now sure, some have 20 gigs of custom content, so they're really bogged down.  

I still don't know how one can do 20 gigs.. I mean dayum..

Of course there will be those who run this expansion fine.  I mean first off there's Vista and XP to contend with.  So Maxis can't just worry about testing things properly on XP, they have to also test things on Vista.  Then there's a buttload of new graphic cards out now.  And there's AGP and PCI Express, which shouldn't be that much different but PCI Express does help with the speed.  So I realize there's a lot of shit a developer has to test things on.  But every expansion pack they've released has had a patch released for it judging by the update window I'm looking at right now..

I mean an expansion just works off the base game.. It's not like they're having to build a whole new graphic engine each time they release an expansion pack.  I dunno.. just seems a bit shoddy..

Nothing to get an ulcer about.. but these kids here aren't bitching for the thrills.. they're doing so to get help.

I saw this when I was looking for new drivers..

http://www.nvidia.com/Download/Scan.aspx?lang=en-us

Useless to use unless you're using a nvidia card..

Basically in the past you had to manually select your card and os then search for a new drivers.  This just does it all for you and checks to see if you have the current drivers.  If you don't, I imagine it brings up an install screen.

That's an odd resolution you have things set at..

1360x768?

Desktop right?

You also don't have the drivers installed for your monitor.. not a big deal tho..

I don't even think the Sims supports 1360x768, I'd have to re-check.

But you should set your desktop to 1280x1024 or 1280x960..

If you're using a 14 inch monitor then set it to about 1024x768...

Refresh rate is fine..

When you bought that new card and installed it.  Did you install the drivers from the cd or from the website?  You always want to make you get them from the website.

I have that issue once in awhile.  I also have it in reverse where they'll learn the greet, it'll show up in the vacation memories but then they'll forget it hah.  There's a hack for those things to show up in specific areas and not others but I don't use that hack, so it's just yet another bug.

Bug.. bug.. bug..

The thread where people are posting without any problems pales in comparison to the threads not only here but on gamespot, ign, the official sims site, gamershell, and countless others.

There are countless different configurations a pc can have as far as hardware and software goes.  Now a developer can't test on every possible configuration, so you'll get a few with problems.  I mean Honda Civics are great cars, great reliability but every so often a bum one will make it out onto the lot.  It's human to error every now and again.

However, Bon Voyage is more like a Chrysler than a Honda.  

When people pay money for a product that doesn't work, they have every right to "whine", "pitch a bitch", "vent", what have you.  It isn't like Maxis is giving this stuff out for free.

Consumers should come first, unless they buy stuff at the dollar store.  Then you kind of deserve what you get heh.

If a company can't realize that.. they don't deserve to be in business..  Now I'm not saying Maxis is corrupt, there are far worse out there.  I'm just saying that by going by the threads on these sims boards over the years, their expansion packs aren't fully tested prior to the street date.  And sure, some issues are more of a problem between the keyboard and desk.. But only in regards to those who haven't taken out insim or inteen.

A consumers rights are important, they're the ones who keep things going.  The record industry is learning this the hard way.. the pc game industry is starting to take a hit to.  This is why most people stick with consoles rather than the pc in regards to games.  People want the shit to work out of the box, and it should.

The weather seems like a hack issue, but I'm not sure what custom content you're using, if any.  The video and audio clipping may be causing that, could also be due to the memory leak.

I tested the memory leak yesterday, it is pretty bad.

So to really help with lag.. I recommend a soft boot at least daily depending on what else you use your computer for during the day.  Besides, a soft boot is so much better than having the game crash the system which forces you to hit the reset button.

If a programming team knows their sh*t, this kind of thing does not happen.  I mean we're not talking tiny bugs here, we're talking hard crashes, horrible audio clipping, and a huge memory leak.  This is amatuerish at best.  I've tested for up and coming developers and those developers have put out beta software that's more stable than this.  

This is a result of rushing a product in order to pull in profit as quickly as possible.  If they cared more about quality rather than profit, these expansions wouldn't be as buggy.  This is the same bullsh*t that caused pets in the US to be poisoned and toys to be coated in led. Every one is thinking about money rather than quality so we get crap from China that's put together as cheaply as possible to make more profit and we get games that are half assed in order to pull in revenue during the right quarter and we get bands releasing total filler because the bigger labels care about producing hit singles than hit albums.

It's a shame to...

So I say.. rant.. rage... let em know how you feel.  Don't be passive and just say "I expect this".. you shouldn't expect inferior products.. ever.  You pay your hard earned money on these things.. expect them to put hard time into creating something that works.. and if they drop the ball.. hit em hard.

Just my two bits..

I wonder if Maxis will take advantage of all the new graphic technology when it comes ot the Sims 3.  Some of these next gen games have facial textures that are just totally trippy.  Maxis could so easily take the sims in a much more realistic direction because of the next gen video cards.  But then again, maybe it's best if they don't.  I can just see it now, they release Sims 3 and try to do the race thing right.. then a few groups lash out at them claiming the game stereotypes asians or blacks or romanians or what have you.

Then again.. I don't even want to think of Sims 3.  

I'm quite content with 2..

I'd imagine they would be pretty common.  The hardware it seems to be buggy with is very popular hardware.  

Any of you try my tips with Vista?  For the first time since Windows 3.1, I haven't updated my operating system right away when something new has come out.  I mean I hopped to windows 95 right away.. I hopped to 98 right away.. I got Windows Millenium right away.. tried 2000.. went to XP.  But I won't touch vista.  I've heard it's buggier than Bon Voyage.. so I was curious how the Sims 2 works under it..

My bad, I forgot list one of the things that helps with the lag somewhat.  Someone had already mentioned it so I didn't put it in my list.. so I'll do the list of tricks again..

1. Go into My Computer > C drive > program files > EA Games > The Sims 2 Bon Voyage >  TSBin

You'll see a few pretty icons.. One of them is called "Sims2EP6".  Right click on that icon, click on create shortcut.  Now you'll have something called "shortcut to sims2ep6".  Drag it out of that window and put it on your desktop.  Once it is on your desktop delete the shortcut to Bon Voyage that you had prior to the one you just made.  What that does is it bypasses the stupid launcher that BV has. This helps with the lag a bit if you have a dozen other processes running such as virus programs and what have you.

But you're not done yet..

Now what you want to do is you want to right click on the new shortcut that's on your desktop.  Left click on properties.. then you'll see the "compatibility" tab.  Click on it.  Put click on the box that says "Run this program in compatibility mode for".. then use the drop down box to pick Windows 2000.. click apply.. click ok.. you're done.  This trick helped me with the lag a little bit, the audio still clips but not as bad.  

2. Run the game..

3. Once in the game go to options, go to audio.. lower the audio quality as far as it goes. Remember.. the audio quality not the music volume.

4. Go to graphics options.. set shadows to medium or disable them.. your choice.  Make sure your refresh rate in that window is the same you use on your desktop.  Most likely you're using 60.. that's the norm.  Disable reflections as well.. helps quite a bit.. especially if you're using a lot of custom content.  And like I said before, do you really need to see your sims reflection in a mirror?  I mean I know there are some objects with reflection for clubs and such that people like but.. it's not worth the lag.

5. Keep your family sizes down.  I keep it down to 4 per lot.  Not much you can do about vacation spots since they tend to have a lot of visitors.  I generally buy lots on vacation spots therefore the sims can visit their own lot and this is better than staying at a hotel since there's less sims and less lag.

Now these steps help with the lag somewhat.. but you may still experience the out of sync error which causes your monitor to shut off or will give a blue screen of death error.  This might might be due to a video error or a memory drain issue.  The game does have a memory leak.  This causes your pf usage to go to high which at times can make the operating system unstable.

As for patches..

Unless I'm reading this wrong..

Sims Seasons came out on Febuary the 23rd..

The first patch came out on April the 2nd.. it took them over a month to solve the first batch of issues?  That's bullshit..

The second patch, which supposedly fixed the really big issues came out in June.  That's Microsoft like.. and totally unacceptable.  I mean the guys at Winamp fix things faster and winamp is freeware.. well the basic version is.

Bon Voyage is the oddest expansion yet.

I ran it today and it was lag free.. I'm still using 1024x768 though.  I didn't try it using my native resolution like I need to.  The game looks like ass on 1024x768, and i'm used to 1280x1024.

Here's the weird thing.. I tossed in the werewolf/vampire fix from MATY prior to playing.  

But before this post comes off like that hack fixed things..

I quit the game.. went out for a bit.. came back.. played again..

The lag was still less but it was back somewhat.  Of course it crashed haha.  

Some have said the game causes their computer to shut down.  That's not what's happening though, or maybe for them it is but I'm pretty sure it isn't.

The game is popping out of sync.  Therefore this shuts the video signal to the monitor off which causes the monitor to shut down.  Therefore it appears the operating system is crashed but chances are it is still operational.. there's just no getting the display back which requires a reboot.  Now on some computers this very well may be causing the computer to go into suspend mode or reboot.  The Sims is by far not the first game to do this, I've had this issue with a handful of games.  I prefer the blue screen of death, at least it tells me something.  

In short, BV has an audio glitch, a video glitch and a few spawning issues.  The audio glitch and video glitch will not affect everyone.  Some are using hardware accelerated cards, some are using software accelerated ones.  Some are using creative's chipset.. some are using nvidia's.. at least I think Nvidia has an onboard audio chipset.  So again, this expansion just was not properly tested.  I think EA just throws out expansion packs with their fingers crossed on one hand.. while the other hand goes for your wallet.  

I'm still wondering what they were thinking when they released that new Harry Potter game.  It isn't bug happy like BV but damn its lame..

That's one of the few things I dislike about the Sims 2.  I personally think the questions that pop up during careers, the ninja, tours, etc.. should be legit questions with fact based answers.  It would give the game a trivia like edge but since the answers change on whim.. it doesn't make any sense.  

Still a fun game though.. I mean usually I uninstall a game right off if it has issues.  But I'm trying to work through the BV ones, which makes me feel like an addict but whatever.  

So now the Sims has..

Vampires, werewolves, zombies, plant people, bigfoot, and ninjas and a witch doctor.

I'd have preferred actual witches but they'd probably go with the stereotype and upset a shitload of wiccans.

A hack is any custom content that changes the way the default game behaves.  For example, woohoo for teens is a hack because it changes the actions of the default game.  Sometimes these hacks interefere with new actions that expansion packs install.  Bon Voyage adds a lot of new interactions such as teleporting, tai chai, and voodoo.  Some of the older hacks may or may not interefere with those.  Teleport hacks for example should be totally removed if using BV.

Of course the teleport in Bon Voyage has to be learned from the Ninja, which can be a bitch because when you do see the ninja on a vacation spot, he teleports out of the lot to fast sometimes.  

But there's a trick to do it right away..

Enter the cheat command boolprop testingcheatsenabled true..

Shift - left click on the mail box.. go to spawn npc or create npc.. ninja is in there.  He won't come right away.. may take a few minutes.  When he does run to him right away.. he'll ask a question.. "what came first.. the ninja or the sword".  The answer is ninja.. I don't think this changes each time..

Then bingo.. teleport..

There are quite a few little secrets in BV.. There's still the ghost pirate I haven't found yet.. and I can't spawn him.  When I Try to spawn him I get an error.  I think I have to be at the vacation spot where he resides.. the other npc's can be spawned from town.