I just love how this game inspires such different playstyles. For me, if sims have to run, it's because the lot is far too big for me. My lots are small, my hoods appear walkable, aging is off, and autonomy is king.

I haven't actually been able to play since the beginning of June, and I'm missing my Simmie friends very much. Since my real life house move at the end of June my computer desk has been inaccessible because of boxes piled in front of it, and my mouse, keyboard, monitor, and external DVD drive have been in some of the boxes. Since early July, I've had an internet connection, so I've been able to post here, but my computer is a little netbook and I really need the external peripherals to play. I really don't think I could play The Sims 2 on my PC's native resolution of 1024x600 and, even if I could, I need the DVD drive to put the disc in to start the game.

Well, yesterday I cleared away the boxes that were blocking my desk, and today I got the monitor out of one of the boxes and put it on the computer desk. I also opened another box with computer stuff in it. So hopefully the DVD drive will be at the bottom of that box, and I can already see my keyboard.

So hopefully I'll be able to play again in the next day or two! I know where I'll be going when I do get the game loaded. -- Never mind where I should be in my (admittedly very loose) rotation. I'll be going straight to 19 Chorus Court and be hanging out for a long time with Andrew and Gloria. I've been missing them so much!

When you know things are going too well and your gut is telling you to backup, but you ignore it and play on and then suddenly - CRASH.

Slight rant ahead..

Yeah, just happened to me. Had to move the Greenman's out of their house and into a new one because I couldn't get back in, kept crashing on me. The crashes I'm experiencing mostly happen when the playable kid(s) take the Community Bus home from the children's only park.... I had to make a difficult decision. Bulldoze the park & remove all the Bus Stops & Community Bus mod or deal with the crashing and potential loss of houses etc. I chose to bulldoze the park & remove all the Bus Stops & Community Bus mod.. Am I happy? Nope.

Sims are so cute when they're excited (or even angry, lol). I love the little "Ah, yeeb!" that a female teen/Uni Sim exclaims when "Appreciate... Admire" is accepted. Or the way a Sim turns and happily nods at the camera when about to do something they enjoy (I notice this a lot on neat Sims and cleaning).

I never usually play the sims with sound on, I’m not a huge fan of the music, plus I’m playing medieval right now and it doesn’t fit. But I’ve added all medieval music to neighbourhood, build-buy and CAS, and wow it’s made a difference!

Nice! Which pieces did you use?

I don't use the in game music usually either. But I've recently started to use classical music on a harp (cloned from a stereo) in my fantasy/medieval hood. Particularly in Valinor (which is basically heaven) where the elves and gods live. It adds a certain class. Particularly in combination with the magic sunshine effects (which I've downloaded as a buyable object). Combined with constant perfect summer temperature, it really is paradise now. ^^

Ooooo, can you show some pics of Valinor with elves and gods? That sounds awesome.

I actually uploaded a video

I have a lot, a LOT more material, but I haven't bothered to edit anything together yet. I've been planning to. XD
I also made a thread that's in my signature, but sadly, tinypic closed down so all of the pictures are gone. >.< I probably won't upload all of them again but I may reupload some... later ...

Though here is a rather nice picture from the latest wedding in Valinor

I think that the guy on the left gatecrashed from somewhere down south lol.

Where did you get the robe that the man in the front is wearing?

LOL! Yeah, thankfully there's peace in Valinor, otherwise water and fire don't usually mix well.

Here it is http://mirkwood-sims.de/elrond.html

The DVD drive wasn't in that box. I can't find the mains lead for the monitor, or the little USB hub that I use to connect all my peripherals either.) So I still can't play. I think I've looked in all the boxes in the house and no sign of the things I need. So I guess they must be in one of the boxes still unopened in the shed. But there's nearly a hundred of them. GRRRR!!

I'm thinking we moved into our new house on 28th June. So now I've been here all of July and August (31 days each), and September (30 days). Plus two days in June and one in October, making 95 days in all. For a Sim in an unmodded game that's a lifetime. I've achieved almost nothing in that time. Not even got enough unpacked to play the Sims. I do hope the Grim Reaper doesn't come for me at 6 o'clock tomorrow night!

@ AndrewGloria

I hope that you find the missing DVD Drive and the other stuff you need to play soon.

I like to play with the Sound on, and I frequently have a stereo in the game playing. I have added my own music, in several stations, so I can listen to Nine Inch Nails or Beach Boys or The Rolling Stones or Black Sabbath, along with a lot of other artists, depending on my mood.

I play with sound on except Build and Buy music, I've gotten so sick of those particular songs. Really have to figure out how to add songs to it again.

@Sims2Christain
You can have custom Build and Custom Buy Music if you want, I have my own Build and Buy Music.

Within the Music folder you should have a build folder, a buy folder and a cas folder, you can put your own .mp3 files in each of them and then in the settings you disable the default build, buy and cas music and then you will only have your custom music play.

Thanks I'll do that when I can. Its been a while since I added any music into the game.

Rolling chance cards was a good idea until 4 Sims got fired in one rotation.

When something like that happens you can justify it with your neighbourhood going through some sort of recession which results in multiple Sims losing their job.

It should be a legal requirement that whenever someone records a song, they have to record it in simlish as well - I need to download them to translate my music taste!

I’m reeling over the fact that Na Na Na by MCR was in TS3...so I’m absolutely downloading that. Plus amazing songs like Little Talks and Safe And Sound... *sighs happily*

I saw this interesting idea on greatcheesecakepersona's tumblr;

and that's kind of a good idea? now that SimPE's website is down (though the SimPE preservation project is taking place) it would be very useful to actually have a program like that. Would be awesome if it was possible!

I just use maternity defaults and the dress I linked to above - much, much easier

SimPE can already find GUID conflicts though?

@sushigal007 What really? Like, scanning through your downloads folder and then showing: these and these conflicts/have the same guid? If so, please enlighten me! :-D

Yep! Click on Tools, then Scan Folders, then on the Scanner Settings tab, tick GUID Scanner and untick everything else. If you have subfolders, make sure you check Recursive, then Scan. It'll check your downloads and the game files. Once the results come in, click on the Duplicate GUID heading and all conflicts will be there in red. Not all of them need changing, some will probably be mods that alter game items, but then you can go ahead and fix the others.
ETA: Included a screenshot of the scanner page. As you can see, I have some conflicts, but these are all ones I want to keep.

Ohmy??? That's totally awesome! Thank you for showing me I wonder why this isn't very well known? Everytime I stumble across a post talking about GUIDs that conflict, all they talk about is the 50/50 method. This is so much easier!