Eeek.. I always have about 700 megs worth in that folder and I thought I had too much.  But I don't have a lot of skins which tend to be the larger files in regards to the mods.  Like all of those different bodyshapes like Rio, largeo, and all that.  I don't like huge boobs in real life so I don't need em in a game.  



Their websites forum is horribly chaotic.  And judging by all of the posts, BV is bug happy.  

But you don't need upgrade..

There are people on their board, gamespot, IGN, etc.. etc.. all claiming to have the lag and freezes.. and they're all using dual core systems with the best GPU's out there.  This issue comes down to the fact that EA didn't optimize this expansion properly with every chipset out there.  Which is why when I disable my soundcard the game seems to run a lot faster.. and with no hangs.  I still get 30-60 load times between towns tho which blows ass.  I can live with that tho.. it's in game playing that I hate lag.

You know what doesn't help.. those who post to the threads saying..

"I can run the game totally fine.."

I mean I'm uh.. happy for them but it's like why are they posting to a bug thread if they don't have a bug?  Unless they know the fix they shouldn't get involved in the conversation because it just makes EA assume it's a problem between the keyboard and chair.  But to be fair.. it is a problem between the keyboard and chair.. but it's their designers with that issue.. not those here.

Ok.. that's excessive..

Did you try the other things I suggested such as turning down the audio quality?  I used to run the game at 1280x1024 with everything on high and reflections off.  Reflections only tend to hurt lag wise when I have a big downloads folder, otherwise they work fine.  Besides, reflections to me are kind of pointless since I can see the sim, I don't need to see its reflection as well.

1280x800?  Are you using a laptop?  

Try this..

Try setting the game at 1024x768, lower the audio quality via the sims ingame menu.. and have your desktop set at 1024x768.. then quit the game and see if it still takes as long.

I'm starting to feel as if quite a few of you have little faith in EA patching things properly.  Are they bad at supporting their products?

If you're using a high resolution, drop it down to 1024x768.

Then get into the game, go to the audio options.. there will be an option for the quality of audio, lower it all the way.  Then go into graphics options, disable reflections.

That should help with the extreme lag and leave you with a few minor hangs.

You can also try what I did, right click on your shortcut icon, go to compatibility, pick windows 2000, apply.. ok.  

I did all of the above and although I still have the audio clipping and freezes, the actual game time lag went away pretty much.

I'm using quite a few hacks, they don't affect things at all.. which is a first.

No Inteen or Insim tho.. I heard they're just to expansion pack specific.. besides.. the lil baby sim mod thingee I can spawn with boolprop.. does everything I need..

Ok first off..

The long quit time is normal, the game is saving at that time usually.  It takes about an additional 15 seconds with BV installed though and even longer if you're using a resolution in the game that doesn't match the resolution on your desktop.  I had to switch to a lower resoltion to play BV because of the sound bugs, it limits the audio clipping somewhat.  I still get the 5 second hangs though.  

As for Big Foot..

When you dig for treasure there's a map to be found.  I found the map on the cheapest lot on the vaction spot.  I can't remember name of the camp grounds area, twills?  But if you dig for treasure in front of the home, you'll find a map.  Once you find the map and then pick "walk to lot", the hidden locaiton will show up and you can pick it.  The same goes for the witch doctor, you have to find the map in order for his lot to show up.  

The witch doctor so far is the best hidden area.  He gives you the voodoo doll which allow you to cast spells that sometimes back fire.  However, you can spawn the voodoo doll using cheats, so if you're an impatient type you can go that route.  

Almost everything learned on vaction such as hula, massage, fire dance, and voodoo can be done on the normal lots.  Sunbathing appears to be the only thing that can only be done on beach property.  

Fun expansion.. just wish they'd have tested it better.. but I have faith in a patch..

I found bigfoot..

Bigfoot can move in...

But this is where one of the hacks may cause trouble.  Mister Foot went to go take a shower, he lost his furryness except for his head in the shower.. and he doesn't change back.  He can't use the dresser.. so I had to do a force error to re-load him.  Kinda odd, they gave mister foot most of the same interactions as the other sims, they just removed the romance ones and removed the option of allowing him to use the dresser.

I wouldn't put this on Creative entirely, the only thing I give them shit for is flooding the market in regards to audio cards.  But it's the same card I used with all of the other expansion packs as well as other games that push dx9 to the limit.  EA just didn't optimize things properly, most likely they rushed the release.  I even noticed at times their jewelry gets the blue flash, which is amusing to say the least.  Slightly differnet fix this time though because the face also flashes blue.  So the eyeliner has to be re-picked and then everything comes back.

I ran a few weird tests..

I set the compatibility mode to Windows 2000, this seemed to help quite a bit.  It didn't help with the load time between towns and lots but I was able to play vacation lots with far less lag.  Now my sim knows how to hula dance, fire dance and do massages..

I also noticed that sims can sun bathe and tan this time out.. pretty cool.

So they put in some fun new things.. but will they bother to try to patch what a good chunk of their fanbase is whining about on their board..

Are these issues happening with Vista?  Or is this isolated to XP?

Good call there Beos...

I went ahead and went into the device manager..

Disabled the Audigy 4..

Tossed a few hacks into the downloads folder..

Opened the game..

Now without music it's hard to tell if the music was cutting off.  However, no freezes.. I scrolled up and down the mod list to make sure it wouldn't hang.. it didn't.  I then ok'd that and got to the town selection.  Now the freeze usually caused the little animated pictures to well.. freeze.  They did not freeze.. so I picked a town and entered..

Now this is where I can't if there's an issue..

The loading screen stayed up for quite awhile.. maybe 2 minutes..  Then the town loaded and I picked a house and loaded that.. that loaded at the normal speed it always does.  The sims were having a balloon fight.. seemed to be stable.. they weren't freezing up at all.  The only time I got a little hesitation is when the nanny came and when the carpool came.  This is normal for me however, I always get hesitation any time a car enters the lot or the sun comes up.  

I did not try a vacation lot.  

So the freezes are occuring because EA screwed up and didn't test things properly.  It isn't that much of a task, Creative hardly ever updates their drivers.  They've had the same ones up for 12 months and the other expansions had no issue with them.

But this explains why some are having a blast with BV.

There is one other bug.. unless I'm going nuts.

When I click on the door to exit the game, the sims always brings up the yes or no question.  Ever since I installed BV, that prompt comes up but sometimes exits before I click on yes or no.. heh.

They really should have tested this expansion better..

I'm bypassing the launcher and still getting the lag.  I just did a clean install of all of the packs, didn't help.  But I did find something odd in my task manager, an instance of iexplore which shouldn't have been there. But it was only using 234k, that wouldn't cause any kind of lag.  I also verified my drivers, latest nvidia drivers though.  Oddest thing.  I'm gonna try a few more things though.. not done yet.

I get the hang or lag at the content screen and the town selection screen.  If I remove my mods, I just get it at the town selection screen and the vacation lots.  

I also noticed the hang up does not happen when I play from a normal house, the real bad hang happens when they sims visit a vacation spot.  I mean it gets bad.  I disabled reflections, set shadows to medium, makes things better for a minute but then gets bad again.  I'm far and above the minimum requirements and I'm slightly above the recomended requirements, so I don't know what the story is with this expansion.

I know the vacation lots have a bit too much content and a few to many sims on the lots.  But I think this expansion is screaming for a patch already.

One good thing.. Bon Voyage adds jewelry.  Which is a good because I noticed after I installed Seaons the custom jewelry would flash blue quite often, but now I don't have to use that custom junk.  Not that I can even play the game right now, the lag is to annoying.

Damn.. pretty much dead on.. good job.

Well I know the curse doesn't link into the genetics with the human sims.. I wonder if it does with the leader of the pack.

First.. teens got their hormones snipped by Maxis..

Then all male sims had to start sitting down to pee..

Now the poor pregnant werewolf sims cant savage other sims..

Shame on Maxis..

I guess maxis thinks if a pregnant werewolf starts fighting it'll hurt the lil sim fetus.  

haha.. they're funny..

I'll check those books out..

I finally took a screenshot of my teen hyrbid vampire/werewolf...



I haven't tried it with adults yet but I assume its the same thing..

The walking animation is a mix of the vampire walk as well as the knuckle dragging walk.. and the options are all there.. you can call the wolves.. turn into a bat and fly and stalk..

Well.. the howl option vanished.. but that may not be an actual bug..

The interesting thing about the change is the icon of the hyrbid.  She has her arms stretched out.. which I've never seen prior to the mixing.

After being a pc tech for a number of years, I've managed to be able to understand broken english, somewhat.  I believe the person is asking for a mod that makes it impossible for the werewolf thing to happen in their game.  I'm assuming this person has a phobia in regards to the supernatural, if that's the case I would love to hear the reasoning behind it.  I've never encountered anyone who had an issue with the supernatural in a fictional game before.  Oh and I'm not being sarcastic, I'd really like to know the reasoning behind it.

Then again I like to know what makes people tick.  Its kinda why I like live journal and myspace .

Btw.. Nukapei.. I've seen some of your skins, they're cool.  Do you ever make clothes meshes?  I'm trying to find someone who could make a certain bodybuilder clothing mesh for one of my custom sims .

Well since I'm a nice guy.. and I'm hoping for baked goods in return for my good deed....

Werewolf fix

I'm not sure who created it though.. so if they want props it'll have to be added in later...