Yet ANOTHER Sims 2 EP?????

[Zirconia Wolf]

http://snootysims.com/newsimg/simsapartment.jpg

There has been some (rather heated) debates on the BBS about the fabled 8th EP, to which I can only shake my head & ask "Why, oh why out of all the cool NEW things that could have been added to this wonderful game would they want to re-hash the University EP??"

*sigh*

-ZW

(Good luck finding any updated mods for it! By September I can't imagine many of our long-time modders will still be around. They've been dropping like flies lately!)

[Sita]

/me sings "Money makes the world go round, the world go round...."

Of COURSE they want to squeeze every last cent out of us fans. The know a lot of us are suckers and will buy whatever comes out with the name SIMS on it....

[Miros1]

Doesn't it look suspiciously like Inge Jones' hack?

It probably keeps separate money for each apartment, that's probably the only difference...

Well, I won't be buying it. It's probably contaminated with SecuROM.

[Zirconia Wolf]

Actually, the most fascinating part of this whole "8th EP" thing (to me, anyway) has been the knock-down-drag-out brawling on the BBS as to whether or not the EP is even real or not! It's kind of like all the rambling I've seen about Sims 3 being "lies & propaganda". How, pray tell, can one call something a lie when it has yet to be even released yet??

I wish I could say SecuROM would be the definitive "deal breaker" for me, but with no-cd fixed exe files so easy to get, I pretty much consider the whole SecuROM scandal to be over...at least for me. (Life's to short for so much drama. I swear, some of the poster's on the BBS are just this side of heart failure over the whole thing!)

For me it's going to STRONGLY depend on what else the EP brings to the table. If it really is just a glorified University tweak, then I'm not so sure I'll bite this time. University is only tolerable for me with a particular selection of hacks installed, & given the way Sims 2 modders have been vanishing of late I can't image that finding those mods in "Apartment" compatible form will be easy...or even possible.

Of course, maybe the conspiracy theory people are right & it really IS just an elaborate hoax by Maxis. (Anything to keep from patching their games, I guess...)

-ZW

[Greg]

Gee whillikers! I'm still wondering what I'm missing because I haven't installed Pets or Seasons or Holiday or Free Time!

[Hokieman]

Greg, to me, Seasons is the best of the expansion packs since Nightlife as far as game play goes. You're really missing something by not installing that one. The weather and changing seasons really do add a lot to the game. The rest of them though, there are some build features that I would miss, but not much else. Although I haven't installed Free Time yet.

[Sita]

so wonder no more! Move into the 21st century, the atomic age or whatever it is! :P

be bold, be brave and install....

[Miros1]

Greg, seriously... Seasons and Pets are now safe.

BV and Free Time are contaminated.

[Zirconia Wolf]

Yes Greg. Join us. Don't be afraid. Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated. (I just couldn't resist...)

THIS JUST IN: It turns out that game development companies (even EA/Maxis) actually have better things to do with their time than circulate images of fake game fliers. In other words, there is an official acknowledgment of the Apartments EP now up on the Official Site. I think I'll stay away from the BBS for a bit, until the dust settles down a tad!

-ZW

(Oh & Miros is right. SecuROM didn't appear until BV. So Pets & Seasons are just fine.)

[Greg]

Hmm... I just might install Seaons and Pests. The trouble is, the animations and stuff that I really want are in Bon Voyage. I don't know beans about Free Time.

[Kaylyn]

Greg:

Brand new computer + install of all current EPs and SPs + a nocd crack used from the very first launch of the game = absolutely no evidence of SecureROM on my system.

I have BV and FT (which is actually AWESOME btw) and yes, no securerom. NoCD cracks are legal if you own the disc, I always hate swapping discs around anyway so I normally use them anyway.

[Miros1]

Kaylyn!

Do a file search on Program Files\EA Games for *.package. Change all files found to Read Only. We have a thread on the subject around here somewhere...

Zirconia reports that Free Time changes the files in a Bad Way, and the patch won't install.

[Zirconia Wolf]

Yes, heed Miros's warning & change your core files NOW!!!!!

(Those are the ones under the Program Files\etc... setting, not your My Documents ones...though I actually change my Downloads folder to be Read Only too, just 'cause I'm strange that way.)

For reasons nobody has determined, there is a major "glitch" in Free Time where if you ever have a Sim use the Sewing Machine to create a Custom Outfit, the game will "re-write" the skins file (under your Program Files heading) which was the reason so many people couldn't get the Official Patch to install; the Patch "thought" the game had been tampered with! (This is actually the reason Maxis pulled the Patch down.)

The Patch will install fine if you run it before using the "Custom Clothing" feature, but the game will still screw with the "core" skins package the moment you do use that feature. (Which is actually one of the features I am most looking forward to!)

Miros has a lovely "Read Only" converting tutorial in the Help section.

Run, do not walk there & protect your poor game from the stupidity of it's creators!

-ZW

[Greg]

What is creating a custom outfit all about?

[Miros1]

It's part of the new badges in Free Time. When you get a silver badge in Sewing, your Sim can sew any outfit in your Downloads folder. A gold badge, your Sim can make a "custom outfit."

Since FreeTime is contaminated, I'm not sure exactly what this entails, but I do know there are meshes that can only be accessed this way, unless you know a clever hacker who doesn't mind messing up this part of the game.

[Zirconia Wolf]

Yeah, the "Custom Outfit" thing is exactly that: the ability to create never before seen & 100% original outfits that can be worn and/or sold.You can customize the fabric in 3 different areas & create you're very own Every Day outfit. The exact base pattern (dress, vest/slack combo, etc) depends on the gender/age of the pattern you chose.

Next to the whole "Secondary Aspiration" thing, it's the feature I am most excited about! (Which probably explains why both the Sewing Machine & the Secondary Aspiration are buggy. Thank the game-gods for 3rd party fixes!)

-ZW

[Greg]

It sounds like Free Time comes with some alpha meshes that you can choose textures for without leaving the game.

[Zirconia Wolf]

Yep.

Why it wants to overwrite it's self is still a mystery!

Looks like there may/may not be (depending on what you believe) a problem with FT & some nVidia cards if you have Norton running.

According to Norton, the problem lies with Maxis.

According to Maxis, they could never re-create the problem until they actually ordered a Dell computer that was identical to the one a particularly frustrated user had. Once they had that PC, they (finally) discovered that somehow Norton kept using up an ever-increasing amount of RAM until *poof*, the game would finally hit "critical mass" & crash out.

So Maxis says the game will run fine if you just shut Norton off while you play.

Some players claim to still be having crash-outs though, so I figure I'll find out for myself when I finally get FT installed as I not only have a nVidia card (it's the only brand I will ever use) but also Norton & Avast.

Then again, I can't help but notice how most of the complainers are less than forthcoming about whether or not they have any custom content installed. I still stand by my opinion that many of the "unexplained" problems with EPs is people stubbornly refusing to keep better track of how out-of-date their downloaded content is! I actually have separate folders on my PC to dived out my hacks/tweaks as per the EP(s) they can safely work with.

This does NOT excuse the blatant Maxis Bugs, but does explain why I see an awful lot of "doomsday" posts that warn about things that never happen in my game.

Again, it goes back to some people needed to create more stress in their lives!

-ZW

[Greg]

I have Norton running and sometimes I have game crashes; there might be a relationship there. But I'm not on a Dell computer and I don't have an nVidia card in this machine.

[Zirconia Wolf]

That's kind of the strange part about this whole thing.

I actually do believe that the Maxis folks have tracked down some kind of Norton problem, but whether it's also a Dell issue I don't think anyone has looked into yet.

I always get a little jumpy with game companies being so casual about telling users to turn off their anti-virus programs as a "cure all" for most problems. That just never seems quite right to me!

-ZW