“Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn't.” ~Mark Twain

I get an extreme FPS count drop when it's raining, hailing or snowing outside. The framerate would improve significantly if I lowered the camera enough so that the effects would disappear because the game would think the camera's positioned inside a building. As soon as I'd scroll outside, it was down to 15-ish.

I couldn't exactly pin-point the exact graphics settings combination required to have the FPS drop obliterated, so I lowered everything down to low, including bone weights. Raising bone weights alone brought back the FPS drop, but lowering just the bone weights while keeping everything else high didn't fix the problem.

So far, I'm really having no issues with the graphics, as it's not as horrible as I originally thought. I kept Snow on Ground on, so I could see hail pieces and snow on the ground, and I'm trying to get used to playing sims from a bit more distant and non-privacy-intrusive angles anyway. I'm not sure if I'm ready to completely uninstall radiance lighting, though, hmm...

That horrible moment when you go to play the Gavigans and . . . OMG! Where are David and Judith? Please tell me the game isn't eating Sims again! But why is Mary pregnant? Is that David she's expecting? Did something rewind after I used Hoodchecker?

And then the huge relief of realizing . . . Wrong hood! This Mary Gavigan is supposed to be expecting her second child. David and Judith are in a parallel universe.

Phew!

This kinda made me think: what if some sims from different universes (playthroughs) met with their equivalents from others?
What would happen if the Lilith who went to college, started a cult, and ended her edgy phase met with the Lilith who got teenage pregnant and went to live with the Dreamers?
Or if the Cassandra who married Don met the Cassandra who was left by Don and married Darren?
Imagine the Brandi who had three kids complaining about how hard raising them is to the Brandi who had six! Or Nina wondering why Alternate Nina has short hair and alien eyes. Or all the Dinas wondering why one of them is a witch.
And even with others' sims: one of my friends had Don marry Kaylynn. Imagine any other Don's reaction to getting married! (Well, maybe not the "Married Cassandra and had 4 kids (with her)" Don)

Sitting in front of my game, watching it, I realized something right now.

It's actually a relief to go into a universe where there is no rampant death and dying, no suffering or pain.

Where politicians are silent and people aren't stupid to the point of extinction.

And for a little while one can suspend all the world outside.

I loaded up the Pleasant family today and let them do what they would with free will.
The entire family just surrounded Lilith and took turns poking her.
This family is just a whole new level of disturbing. Like. It's horrible to even watch.
I don't even care how the relationships deteriorated to this point, this is just terrible. Poor Lilith.

I had that too which is why I had Lilith run away and move in Dirk.

After removing a mod that denied autonomous kicky bag, I noticed this particular behavior resurface and I don't know how or why it happens. Whenever there are two Sims involved in this little game, I'll rarely catch another Sim in the same room complain about my current playable Sim. Doesn't seem to matter what she's doing either. Especially in the case of the screenshot I'll upload, all that my Sim did was swim around the swimming pool, with her bathing suit on, no less. Sometimes, these Sims who complain will also stare right at me afterward if I'm close enough.

I'll definitely have to start relying more on print screen or OBS when getting screenshots from the game. Those images from in-game sure look crummy.

This gentleman obviously has played our game before.
He's making a valid point, and I think he's right to do so.

And who says the game isn't useful?
Attorney Dresses As ‘Grim Reaper’ To Protest Opening Of Florida Beaches

Well, most people aren't away. Some are. This is a universe where a chair or a plant in the wrong place can stump a person for hours and where going to sleep before eating something if you're starving is actually sound medical advice. But at least they usually have the good sense not to complain when others try to save them.

The Sims world makes more sense than the real world.

This is not complaining about your sim. Red "X" means that sim is currently inaccessible and that's all. Sometimes they only think about it, sometimes they want to interact but can't.

@kamoodle5 how come your Sim's motives are white/platinum?

I find it bizarre that the game is soooo pc with toddlers and children, who can't even be scolded no matter what they do, and at the same time allows babies to be yelled at for filling their diaper (one of the first mods I downloaded was to prevent that), and allows such levels of abuse towards teens who, until the introduction of University Life, were too young to leave home. Lilith and Ripp have always been my favourites just because I felt they needed to be somebody's favourite.

It's called the "Sims 2 HD UI". Now motive bars will either be white when full or black when empty.

http://modthesims.info/d/599097/1-1...ms-2-hd-ui.html

Mrs. Gavigan, you are either hard-coded to cheat on your husband, or Ty Bubbler, recent graduate and beneficiary of a head-to-toe makeover, is far hotter than I realize.
No, seriously.
I had just moved him into a made-over townhouse (the most expensive one from Nightlife, I think? Has a driveway, garage, three usable floors, tiny yard). The poor guy didn't even have time to bring in the newspaper! She was the first walk by, farted hearts all over the place, and ACR flirted with him from the get go. I left them alone for a few minutes to check on Kevin, Ty's roomie, and next thing I know, she jumped into Ty's arms.
Really curious what's gonna happen when her next baby is born in a few days, lol.

Omg! I had Mary-Sue, the finder of the map to Pagoda in the Shadows, take Lilith and Angela along to the lot, and now that I've had them go home, they're not showing up, and the walk-to-lot sign is throwing empty pop-up notifications! What do I do!!!

Me to me, twelve minutes later: you installed the community lot time project thing, you idiot.

@topp - I assume you're using Crammyboy's old Community Time mod. Delete it and replace it with Chris Hatch's version which will not conflict with University or Bon Voyage.
http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...297#post5563297

I used the old version for some years and played BV and didn't have any issues, but it's possible CLT is clashing with something else in your folder, rather than blaming CLT by itself. That said, I would suggest you switch to the new version by Chris Hatch.

Whoa, didn't know the mod was updated. Thanks so much!

I assume I have to take out both files of the old mod? There's a main package and a token package. Should I take both of these out before adding Chris's?

Jo: actually, I had no problems; my point was that I freaked out over the actual feature that I willingly put in my game. I just forgot about it!

Yes, remove both of Crammyboy's files before adding Chris Hatch's mod.

Crammyboy's Community Time conflicts with both University and Bon Voyage because both of these EPs have their own non-standard timers (Chris Hatch explained this and I'm trying to remember what he said about the problem). I never noticed this problem myself, but if I remember other people's reports correctly, with University there's a possibility of campus community time adding up so that when the sim moves back to a lot in the main 'hood, there can be a considerable delay before the sim actually appears in the main 'hood lot.

With Bon Voyage, when sims leave their hotels and then return later, the controller that populates the hotels with tourists gets confused and can lock up or crash. Tourists weren't checking in and out of the hotel properly and every time the game tried to add one, it would throw an error. If I planned to send sims to a vacation 'hood, I had to remember to exit the game, remove the mod, and go back into the game to play Bon Voyage.

EDIT: For more details, just read the rest of that thread I linked to in my previous post. A lot of questions about compatibility, etc. were asked and answered. Very helpful stuff.

I was reading someone's post about Belladonna Cove in the "Which pre-made 'hood would you choose to live in?" thread.

I had a weird flashback to middle school when I was new to the Sims 2 and I would spread out getting expansion packs over a few months so I could savor them. I remember getting Apartment Life and opening Belladonna Cove and I was in awe with the apartments and all of the types of lots that could be built with them. I felt like apartments changed the game completely. I loved the vibe of Belladonna Cove and I also loved how it had a Bella statue- I was so intrigued with that storyline. I still haven't figured out what happened to Bella.

So here I am - two essays due at 5 pm, two final exams tomorrow... thinking about how fun it will be to build apartment lots in my custom hood and move families into them and feeling excited about it like I was when I was in middle school.

A friend from college posted last night that she was thinking of buying either Sims 3 or Sims 4, and what did her friends recommend and why?

Me: Sims 2! And guess what's loading while I'm perusing facebook?

I just fixed an ancient upload of mine which has been niggling at me for about a decade (!). Back in 2007, I made a poverty community lot with basegame, then when Seasons came out it stopped working properly. I could never figure out what the problem was, and I gave up in the end.

Fast forward many years, and I have better skillz and tools at my disposal. Found the problem - outdated CC. Removed that CC from the sims2pack; now the lot installs and loads without issue in my UC game. Hope that means it will work for anyone else who wants to play a poverty challenge! It seems a bit more important because it was one of the few lots officially approved for that challenge. Shame for people not to be able to use one of the options.

I still like the way I built that lot, so incidentally, I rebuilt it today for UC, with improvements to the construction and no need for custom content, since there's enough with all the EPs to make a decent poverty lot. Feeling quite accomplished with that.

While I'm sure posting this will jinx it somehow, I love when I come up with new ideas for lots that are quick to put together...