Hot Chocolate Is Undrinkable, and other concerns

[RitoruBushi]

I'm not sure why, but I can't get my Sims to drink the hot chocolate they make. They make it, and hold the mug for about a second then it vanishes and their hand goes down to their side again. I've tried this on residential lots, community lots, and even a dorm. Still they cannot drink hot coco. I've read a few threads in various places on other sites/forums, but they've only been met with others saying they have the same problem or the moderators telling the people with the problem to do some long winded process that would eat up enough time to do something constructive, like rebuild the twin towers and have enough time left over to order a pizza. I've looked over their "solutions" but who honestly has the time to remove everything from several folders (including Downloads), start the game up, quit the game, place one file/folder back in, start up the game again, quit again (if that didn't show the problem), rinse repeat, and then move on to placing back in each and every bit of custom content one at a time (when you have say roughly around 15,000 items in there) just to see which file it is? I don't know about anyone else, and I really don't know about the moderators that wrote that thread, I also don't know how seriously outdated that "solution" has become, but I don't have the time to waste doing that. I'd like to enjoy things such as life. Does anyone have any helpful ideas on how to fix this so that my sims will drink the hot chocolate they make?

On to the "other concerns"....

Does anyone know what all of the new career rewards do? Especially the one for Journalism. It's nice looking and all, but what's it do??? Does it do anything other then take up a slot on a surface? Does it have a Comfort number, and if so what is it? I never see the Comfort rating for any of the custom content, but it's twice as annoying when Maxis doesn't show any information on their own items at all.

Is there any way to plant anything other then tomatoes when using the gardening soil? My Sim is just starting out with the whole gardening thing, so I am wondering if that is the reason that the tomatoes are the only option.

When will my Sims be able to actually gather the fruits/veggies they plant/grow? Just wondering since it's about the equivalent of a month in real time for the full life cycle of a Sim, so why does it take so long to harvest plants?

The Composter (or whatever it's called). I only get one primary interaction which is to check the level of compost, and when there is trash/garbage/whatever on the floor I get the option to Gather compostable materials. Does it do anything else and if so, what does it do and how do I make it do "it"?

The lightening rod and the weather vane. Do those things do anything, or are they just there for decoration and nothing more?

How do you get the wishing well? I read in an faq that you get one whenever you join the gardening club and an additional one every time you get re-evaluated. My Sim is a member, but I see no wishing well either on the lot (residential) nor in the inventory. How else can I get one?

I'd also like to direct a little attention here because this is also an issue with me (my Sim's daughter went to college AWAY FROM THE FAMILY DOG and all of her wants and fears are nothing but ones that relate to the family dog). It's extremely annoying.

That's pretty much all that I can think of/remember that I've been wanting to ask around about. I'm sure that the next time I play with my main family again I'll find more things that I wanted to bring up, and when/if that happens I'll update the list. As real solutions are presented/found by you/myself I'll also make the appropriate editings.

Note to moderators: If this isn't in the right place, please move it where it belongs, but do not delete this thread. Thank you.

[ancienthighway]

I'm not sure why, but I can't get my Sims to drink the hot chocolate they make. They make it, and hold the mug for about a second then it vanishes and their hand goes down to their side again. I've tried this on residential lots, community lots, and even a dorm. Still they cannot drink hot coco. I've read a few threads in various places on other sites/forums, but they've only been met with others saying they have the same problem or the moderators telling the people with the problem to do some long winded process that would eat up enough time to do something constructive, like rebuild the twin towers and have enough time left over to order a pizza. I've looked over their "solutions" but who honestly has the time to remove everything from several folders (including Downloads), start the game up, quit the game, place one file/folder back in, start up the game again, quit again (if that didn't show the problem), rinse repeat, and then move on to placing back in each and every bit of custom content one at a time (when you have say roughly around 15,000 items in there) just to see which file it is? I don't know about anyone else, and I really don't know about the moderators that wrote that thread, I also don't know how seriously outdated that "solution" has become, but I don't have the time to waste doing that. I'd like to enjoy things such as life. Does anyone have any helpful ideas on how to fix this so that my sims will drink the hot chocolate they make?

You've got a "jump bug" going on.  Open the cheat window (ctrl-shift-c) and enter "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true" and get some hot chocolate.  You'll probably see an error window pop up with a reference to a file just created in the Logs folder.  Examine that file and see if you can figure out what mod/hack caused the problem.  Attach it to a post here if you can't.

Is there any way to plant anything other then tomatoes when using the gardening soil? My Sim is just starting out with the whole gardening thing, so I am wondering if that is the reason that the tomatoes are the only option.

Just starting out, tomatoes is all you can grow.  As you gain badges in gardening, you'll be able to plant more.

When will my Sims be able to actually gather the fruits/veggies they plant/grow? Just wondering since it's about the equivalent of a month in real time for the full life cycle of a Sim, so why does it take so long to harvest plants?

Once the plants are ready for harvest, you'll have the option to harvest for food or to sell.

The Composter (or whatever it's called). I only get one primary interaction which is to check the level of compost, and when there is trash/garbage/whatever on the floor I get the option to Gather compostable materials. Does it do anything else and if so, what does it do and how do I make it do "it"?

As in real life, you put garbage into the compost bin and let it sit until it's usable as compost.  Before you plant you have the option to fertilize your garden plot with bagged fertilizer or compost.  If you use compost, the level of the compost goes down.

The lightening rod and the weather vane. Do those things do anything, or are they just there for decoration and nothing more?

The weather vane is pretty much decor I believe.  I would hope the lightning rod attracts the lightning to protect the house, but since I haven't had a lightning strike on the house or vane yet, I can't say for sure.

How do you get the wishing well? I read in an faq that you get one whenever you join the gardening club and an additional one every time you get re-evaluated. My Sim is a member, but I see no wishing well either on the lot (residential) nor in the inventory. How else can I get one?

I thought the wishing well was more of a reward for a well kept garden, but I could be mistaken.

I'd also like to direct a little attention here because this is also an issue with me (my Sim's daughter went to college AWAY FROM THE FAMILY DOG and all of her wants and fears are nothing but ones that relate to the family dog). It's extremely annoying.

 No clue, Pets and I didn't get along and I won.

[RitoruBushi]

Wow! Thank you very much, ancienthighway! I honestly didn't expect any responses so soon, let alone to nearly everything I'd brought up. I'll try out the suggestion with the hot chocolate as soon as things here at the house start to clear up (my dog's been ill lately, and I've been spending the last week or so taking care of him making sure he's going to be alright). Will I have to input that cheat every time I want to have a Sim drink hot coco, or just once to find and eliminate the problem? Also, where  will I find this Logs folder? Program Files or My Documents? Or some place else?

Thank you once again. It's nice to see a potential solution for a problem that doesn't involve kissing my life bye-bye so I can make time to spend the remainder of my years trying to fix a tiny worthless problem for the remainder of my years.

Also, thank you for the info on the other stuff. I noticed that you didn't have any feedback on the new career rewards, though. Any reason for that?

.....I have somewhat personal reasons for wanting to get Pets, and I'm glad that I've not once experienced any issues related to the expansion pack. It likes me, and I like it. hehehehe

[RitoruBushi]

ancienthighway,

     I got the error log file and looked over it, but all I'm seeing is coding gibberish. A bunch of numbers, values, and other stuff that makes little sense to me since I know nothing about the subject. What, specifically, should I be looking for/at? There's a lot on the page and I've no clue what any of it means.

[RitoruBushi]

I guess ancienthighway is M.I.A. Anyone else have any useful information on this problem?

[PrincessJen]

Have you tried the sims 2 hack conflict detection utility? to check for a possible mod conflict
If it doesn't find a conflict then what you are left with is removing all your downloads. I move them to a file named "testing" on my desk top and move them in a few at a time and test. Then on to the next group, If I find a conflict I move that group into a "conflict" file and keep going. Then I test the ones in the "conflict file" a few at a time until I find the problem.
 
In the future Please Edit your Previous Post Rather than Double and triple posting, It's more Polite.

[RitoruBushi]

15,391 files in my Downloads folder. It takes a bare minimum of 10 minutes for my game to be ready to do anything starting at the time the program actually starts (and is recognized on my Task manager) and ending at the time I enter the neighborhood and can actually interact with anything. That's going to take roughly about a few days, bordering on a week, to do your method. I don't spend that much time on my computer anymore. I'm old and I have things here at my house that are more important that require my time. Like.... dinner.... and... um.... showering. Long story short, I need a method that isn't going to eat up so much of my time that I'm going to piss off the people in my life that matter to me the most. But I'll try that program you mentioned and see how that goes.

[Tenshii~Akari]

Doesn't necessarily have to be ALL of your files.  Just remove your hacks/mods/replacements and test them out by gradually adding them back, one at a time, to the game.  I'd suggest using either Sim2Pack Clean Installer, or Delphy's Download Organizer, whichever is your choice of sorting through files.  :angel:

[RitoruBushi]

I just installed Sim2Pack Clean Installer and it doesn't seem to do anything other then list off a majority (though not all) of the files/custom content in my Downloads folder in the order the program wants me to see them, and allow me to check/uncheck them so that they won't work in the game. It doesn't do me much good if I can't list them by type so that I can look at the hacks/mods/whatever else they're called and start with them. As I said before, I have well over 15,000 files in there, and it's actually not listing a good chunk of them, and going through that huge list is a pain, especially when the program actually lags while I am scrolling down. I also read up on that Download Organizer and it doesn't look like it'd be much different.

Any other suggestions that won't require me installing a new program?

edit: I just uninstalled that Sim2Pack Clean Installer and for some reason it crashed my explorer. Not Internet Explorer, but explorer, the thing that helps Windows to actually run properly. Just for uninstalling that thing. Seems to me that it's not all people say it is.

[sims2ismydrug]

In the Clean Installer, hacks show up as red, whilst duplicate files show up as pink. Personally, I sort by MD5, which shows duplicate GUIDs (and thus allows me to see duplicate hacks, as well). If you do end up having to remove and then re-add your files, use what's called the binary method. To do this, separate your files into roughly halves. Put one half in. If that half causes no problems, you'll know that you can safely use those files. If you do have a problem, put half of that half in, and see if anything conflicts. Keep going in this way until you've found the problem file. Do the same with the second half you originally set aside. Keep halving the remaining halves until you've narrowed down any problems. This really doesn't take long, and it's worth it to get your game running properly. Also, it's good to keep all hacks/mods in their own separate subfolder within Downloads. That way, if you have a conflict, it's much easier to narrow down the problem.

I would highly recommend the Hack Conflict Detection Utility that somebody mentioned in an earlier post. It will show you exactly which hacks conflict with each other so you can remove one or the other of the reported conflicting hacks.

[Mihura]

RitoruBushi, I haven't experienced any explorer crash with the Sims 2 Pack Clean Installer :roll: but this program allow you (too ) to detect all your hacks and mods who can be conflicting with the game or with them. They are lighted in red. Place them in a special folder or even remove them. It's more secure because these files can give a mess sometimes.

[Sleepycat]

what it all comes down to is - we can not find the file for you but if you 'attach' the error log someone might be able to help you more.

otherwise, deal with it or get rid of all your cc since you don't want to go through it to find the problem file(s) yourself.

[Rogue777]

Why do people drag up old posts like this?  Obviously, if RitoruBushi still needed help, I'm sure he would have bumped his post at some point since May.

I know we all have to deal with a lot of help questions every time a new EP comes out, but please take a minute to look at the date of a post before you respond.  Thanks!