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Be sure you are
ready for
a New Expansion Pack
This info includes
some tips for getting your game prepared for University, Night Life, Open for Business, Family Fun Stuff,
Glamour Life, Pets, or Seasons.
However, if you've already installed an expansion pack and have problems,
read this instead.
I received this
info from
Dr. Pixel at TSR and thought it was important to share it
with you all .... thanks Dr. Pixel!
"The
things that traditionally WILL cause problems with new EP's are:
-
User-Made Careers - take any Sims out of those careers
first, then move the career files out of your game.
-
Global Hacks - meaning ones that change the overall
behavior of the game, such as the one that changes the way the
Young Adults walk, not something like a single object that was
hacked so it won't disappear when the wall goes down type of
hacks. Since the new EP will have a different transportation
system I would especially suspect any hacks that have to do with
the Taxi and/or the phones.
Not that all of
these will cause a problem, but some of them may - so it's best
to remove all of them before installing the EP, then slowly put
them back afterwards only after you are sure everything is
working correctly without them.
Or, safer, just
leave them all out and watch those lists on various sites where
people report what things did/did not cause problems with the
new EP.
Things
that will definitely NOT cause a problem:
-
Anything created
with a Maxis supplied tool (skins, hair, makeup, skintones,
walls, floors, etc.)
-
Object recolors
(people from Maxis actually worked together with Quaxi to make
sure there will be no problems like the flashing blue fiasco we
had when University came out)
Things
that are not likely to cause any problems at all:
Note that if a
user-made object was "hacked" in some global way it possibly
won't work right, but it won't "break" your whole game, so it is
safe to leave these in until you see a problem happen with them.
What I mean here is that maybe the object won't do the expected
action anymore when you click on it or things like that."
IF YOU'VE ALREADY INSTALLED THE EXPANSION PACK:
Many people are reporting
that they've installed University, Night Life, Open for
Business, Family Fun Stuff, or Seasons and are having problems seeing the
stuff they've downloaded, or even seeing recolors of objects that they
did themselves. So, here's some info that might help you:
1. When you first install
the game, BE SURE to put a check in the box that says "Enable Custom
Content", or none of your recolors or new meshes for objects, clothing,
hair, or ANYTHING will show. If you checked this box during
installation and you go into the game and recolors or new meshes are not
showing, flashing blue, or reverting to Maxis' originals, close the game
and restart it. This fixes this problem for *most* people.
Also, when you check this box, note the list of custom items: at the top
of the list, Maxis puts yellow exclamation point markers beside any
object that hacks the game globally. If anything doesn't work when
you run the game, close the game, remove the objects you noted, then
start the game again. If anything is going to cause problems, it
would be these (but not all do). For example, I had a hack that
allowed me to "select" any sim on a lot and control him/her - this hack
caused me not to have the "Management" option in Open for Business.
Removing it fixed my problem.
2. If objects are
still missing or flashing blue, some people have reported that reinstalling the Color
Enabling Package (CEP) files fixes it.
3. In most cases,
the two steps above should fix most of your objects. However, if
you still have some that are flashing blue or have reverted back to
Maxis colors, you will have to go into Buy
Mode and click on the Design Tool, then click the item and usually you
can just cancel the design box by clicking the X and the object's color
will be there. Sometimes you will have to reassign the object's
color from there and sometimes you will have to delete the object and
buy it again. Bottom line is, if you go into Buy Mode and the
correct object and its color are showing there, you WILL be able to fix
it. If they are NOT there, you should contact the artist who
created it and let them know, so they can fix it.
4. There are some
objects that are not working with this expansion package becuz they were
hacked in some way and that hack will need to be updated in order for
the object to work. I recommend, if you find any object that no
longer works, that you contact the creator and let them know. I
can see, in various forums, that many creators are fixing stuff
already...but they need to hear from people who are having problems so
they are aware of the issues.
5. Also, remember that
some objects' behaviors are changed by Maxis when they create an
expansion pack. For example, the bookcases got new pie menu
options in University and the refrigerators have new actions in
Open for Business. These objects should still work with the
EPs installed; however they will not include the new options. You should
check back with the sites that created them and see if they have been
updated for these EPs. The creators, however, may choose NOT to
update them because they would then require the EP in order for people
to have them in their game.
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