Only the first one is really a problem, but I figured one post is better than three.

1. Just reinstalled the game. Installed all of the expansions, all of the stuff packs I have, and THEN installed my old custom content. I've been replaying my old families, and have not had many problems, but for two.

1.a) My Sims don't seem to be able to get pregnant. I have the latest (I think) version of Insimenator, and the option for pregnancy/twins is there, but I don't hear the sound. I've never used this program to try and get a pregnancy I don't believe, so maybe there is no sound/confirmation? But the first family I tried it on, I waited about 24 ingame hours, and the wife doesn't seem to be showing or anything. Both families I've tried this with have three individuals in their households, though one does also have a cat, and both of the couples are married Adults, though they are 'close' to becoming Elders (4 days at the closest, but I changed the other family to be 6 days from elder, and it still doesn't seem to work).

1.b) Amongst these same two families (the only one's I've noticed it in so far), sometimes their Wants don't refresh. They'll spin like a roulette wheel, but will end on the same Wants over and over. This is still true when using the Insimenator's 'refresh wants' feature. I have not tried changing their Aspiration yet, but was not sure if this sounded familiar to anyone.

In response to these problems I ran the hack conflict detecting tool from Paladin's Place, and cleaned moved the conflicting mods, but all of the conflicts were instances of multiple copies of the same mod in different subfolders. I have NOT use EasyInstaller to check for other hacks, but again I'd use some advice if anyone knows a likely culprit.

2. Could someone explain for me again, or show me a link, that explains EXACTLY how showerproof skins work? I've got two Sims who I downloaded from either this site or InSim, and at first they changed into 'mesh-appropriate' versions of their work outfit, or naked 'skin', but they no longer do that. Is there an easy way to change them back?

3. I did briefly play the game without my LATEST save games, but with some from last December. I wanted to check out Belladonna Cove just to see how it was, and noticed the Sim Bin was filled with a bunch of new families (the only ones I remember are the Orphans). When I reinstalled all of my more recent saves, they disappeared. I normally play in PLeasentview, but I double checked in Belladonna, and they are gone there as well. Is there any easy way to get them back?


Sorry for the harried nature of this post, but it's almost 5 AM, and my boyfriend is going to be pissed if he realizes how late I stayed up playing.

Thanks for any help that might forthcome.
-KEvin

Some info: All expansions and all stuff packs, EXCEPT for Family Fun.

Hacks: Definitely some in there, mostly SimLogical, Paladin's, and some MATY. I have Inteenimater and InSiminator, but neither are currently installed until they are updated.

The problem: Tonight I loaded up the Burb's, and the Caliente family. Neither has been played (at least no more than a Sim day) since I installed the game last (several years now). I was switching Lucy Burb's hair, when the game simply stopped responding. My mouse moves, num lock can be turned on and off, but it simply sits there 'reading' what the next page of hair is. Specifically, it's about my fourth brown hair page. I only noticed it tonight, but I do not remember the last time I went through the female brown hairs.

The attempted solutions: First up, I moved my cache files to another hard drive so the game would make new ones. I also rebooted. I had recently gotten Delphy's Organizer, and moved a bunch of Orphans and Duplicates to another drive. I put the duplicates back in Downloads. I also went through about ten pages of Female Red hair with Nina Caliente, and did not immediatelly crash, so I tried brown. Same problem.

I know I am reaching here, but I'm trying to find the most hassle free method of tracking down my problem. The game crashes before I see the offending page, so I cannot just hunt down the bad files. I know Body Shop loads faster, but I assume it wil create the same problem. I could move file by file, but the game already takes fifteen minutes to load each time as it is.

Will the Clean Pack Installer help at all? I remember the original Sims having a program that cleaned up 'bad' content, but I figured the Clean Pack installer only looked for 'hacks'.  And of course I cannot find exactly what I most recently added to the game since the date on the file is not necessarily the date I downloaded the items.

Argh, it's late and I'm just frustrating myself. If anyone has any ideas, I'm all ears.

-KEvin

Now I'm pretty convinced my computer is actually eating files (I lose an MP3 or two once a month), but that is not really the point. I have scads of items in CC (hair, and clothing mostly) that is simply shown as being one of the default base game items. I assume for most of these instances I'm simply missing the mesh for the items in question, and if found everything would be copacetic. I of course never did a good job of writing down where everything came from or anything easy like that.

So my question is, is there a program that will show me which files will not work in game, but do so outside of the game so I don't have to wait for it to load before deleting them or trying to find the missing items? I know there is that one program that shows you duplicate files and what hacks you have in your download folders, so something similar to that would be rockin.

-KEvin

1.) Hopefully I am not the only one who took advantage of OFB's capabilities to run a restaurant. I used Malcolm Landgraab to purchase Londoste, which I believe is a standard Downtown location. I hired two of my created Sims and two townies. My two personal Sims who work there (other than Malcolm) have full body, and full cooking and one works as a server, and one a chef, respectively. So far everything is fine, except for when I promoted one of the townies to Manager. Now, whether I have autonomy turned on or not, the manager is ALWAYS trying to assign them jobs. She never does it to the other townie (also full body, server), and the two she is trying to reassign don't have any other skills/talents that high. So it is not like they could just as easily do one another jobs. As such, I have to set Malcolm to be the host the entire time, and manually control the manager so that I do not lose track of her.

Malcolm still runs the Eletronics Store in Bluewater and I have another townie as a manager there as well. But he never stops doing what he is assigned to do (run register). The only other difference is that it is not a restaurant, and I do not have any player made Sims working in that establishment. So I am not sure why she (the restaurant manager) is always doing this. I have downloaded one or two hacks from Sim Wardrobe, but until just last night I was not using any of them actively in that lot (but this problem has been going on for awhile).

I know I should probably just fire her and either rehire her, or someone else, but I suspect that will lead to some relationship fallout, and I don't know how easy it will be to get her back onto a lot to rehire her. So if there was any other method of 'fixing' this, I'd love to hear it.

2.) And on a somewhat related note, is it really that difficult to make money with a player run restaurant? I know in real life it's difficult, but I didn't think the game took things that seriously. I know my service is alright, since my servers always get tipped, and like I said, my cook has topnotch cooking skill, and before last night, the menu was pretty low skill fare. I've added most of the costly items now, and bumped prices to Expensive, but this just seems to make people clog my foyer more than anything. Any other suggestions?

I've always assumed everyone else has this problem, but I wanted to double check. Everytime I add or remove any global hacks, and I believe also when I patch the game, the next time I load a lot, all of the characters are standing around usually grouped together, no matter the time of day. If they'd been asleep, or been at work, they are now home and everyone's mood meters are set to a fixed amount (almost everything is full, except for bladder and Hunger I believe). Mostly this is fine, except when it comes to Sims with jobs. If they'd been at their job when I loaded the game, they are now sitting at home like nothing happened. If I have a spare car they can take that and just be late. If I do not, they are stuck however. Furthermore, if any of the Sims had driven themselves to work, that car is now missing. I have only had one instance of a Sim driving his car back but in most instances I have to buy them new ones.

Does anyone else have this problem, and is it correctable in any way that anyone knows of? It's mostly an annoyance, but a few characters have been demoted because of it.