Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 1st Apr 2014 at 1:13 PM
Default Why I appreciate mods more and more
Since I finished Castaway Stories in story mode and moved onto the freeplay section I have discovered a ton of bugs/annoyances. They haven't made me quit yet, but they have made me appreciate how much mods have added to the regular Sims 2.

Stuck objects. Want to remove the stupid lean-tos from the Shady Lagoon? Tough luck, they're permanently fixed. So is the random rock down on the beach in your village residence.

Placing a trash pit or peeable bush actually tanks the environment score more than if you left trash lying around and peed on the floor. For some reason the environment goes fully in the red whenever you're near one of these.

You don't have to invite people over in order for them to come in your house. Random villagers you've never met before will come in and make themselves at home putting trash on your table and clogging up your toilet (good luck calling a repairman too; there isn't one). Placing a fence and locked gate results in them standing outside all day and night bitching about not being able to get in (this is why they made the Staff of Tuzu non functional, isn't it. If the smiting option had been functional then my sims would have been climbing over mountains of corpses on their way to work each morning. I lie, my sims would be amongst them since the last time they performed synchronised whining about the bad environment score at the bush).

Pittman's grave is seriously bugged. No matter what I do with it, it vanishes as soon as it's placed.

Orangutans can't make friends with each other or even acknowledge other orangutans as beings that they have met. They don't show up in the relationship panel and the only interaction available, 'groom', makes the orangutan groom itself instead. *facepalm* They also get no toys and even if you buy them a monkey tree they prefer sleeping on the ground. I haven't managed to adopt a hyena yet, but I'm prepared to be disappointed.

No adoption, so same sex couples are screwed.

So many routing failures (and accompanying tantrums) when there is nothing in the fricking way except sand!

When you ask a sim to clean up a banana peel/coconut they won't use the bin standing two feet away. No, they'll take it all the way down to the trash pit so they can have a whine about the environment score once they're done. DX

No building new lots (or neighbourhoods). Where do they think any new sims you create are going to live?

Don't get me wrong. There are things I like about the game, like the swimmable lakes, the scenery, the island/castaway themed stuff, the ability to sleep on community lots, the ability to miss work without getting fired lol, etc. I just needed to vent!
Advertisement
Site Helper
#2 Old 1st Apr 2014 at 5:00 PM
The real shame is that EA didn't incorporate some of the ideas into the normal Sims 2 game. I love the free-style beach lots in Castaway... much better than the "beach" lots in BV.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#3 Old 2nd Apr 2014 at 4:43 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
The real shame is that EA didn't incorporate some of the ideas into the normal Sims 2 game. I love the free-style beach lots in Castaway... much better than the "beach" lots in BV.


Yeah, definitely! And the swimmable lakes!
Theorist
#4 Old 4th Apr 2014 at 11:36 PM
Quote:
Stuck objects.
EA locked many of the objects because you get buy mode enabled after a few goals once the story'd begun. You could easily use the buy mode to sell every single object on the castaway beach lot, which would give you plenty of resources. Thus, some of the objects are not available from the catalog (example would be the shady lagoon waterfall).
But I do agree that they should've unlocked all the objects from residental lots, at least. It's nearly impossible to re-shape the village residence lot.

Quote:
Placing a trash pit or peeable bush actually tanks the environment score more than if you left trash lying around and peed on the floor.
Well, do you like to stick around a trash pit or a bush that everyone poops in IRL? Probably not. That's why you should place those two objects far away from the regular pathways of a lot, instead of treating the trash pit as a trash can. Also don't mix the peeable bush with regular flora. (Burning a lot of trash smells REALLY bad. Someone's poop also smells REALLY bad.)

Quote:
Random villagers you've never met before will come in and make themselves at home putting trash on your table and clogging up your toilet
You could buy the terrifying totem (or something like that), found probably under decorations. The chief (Manave household) has that in front of their house, and it keeps visitors away. An alternative is Carrigon's mod.

Quote:
Pittman's grave is seriously bugged.
The game is probably configured to shred his character data once that part of the story is over. You should just deal with it, or use batbox to completely delete Bart once the story is over. (You'll need to edit the batbox in SimPE so that the Prep Sim For Delete pie menu is accessible through normal (and not debug) menu.) Or you could use Carrigon's mod to rescue him from dying (but you should do that before he dies... for which I'm thinking is too late at the moment).

Quote:
Orangutans can't make friends with each other or even acknowledge other orangutans as beings that they have met.
I really don't like playing orangutans. EA made them by cloning the human female template (every single orangutan is treated as an adult female human in SimPE, thus they have their portraiture like female Sims if you look at it). Their head is most probably just a mask put on (they don't blink on the pie menu)... and they're extremely boring. They've been fun to play for that single chapter when the castaway got them, and got really boring after trying out all (five) the interactions.
EA is lazy.

Quote:
No adoption, so same sex couples are screwed.
I look at it as a different culture. None of the children is put up for adoption. If a parent dies, the other parent can marry to a same-sex Sim and then the other Sim becomes a parent of the child. There are a lot of same-sex couples with children in my game, it's just they haven't adopted their child, but found an alternative way to become a parent to that child..... (Just be creative! You'll find a way around it!)

Quote:
When you ask a sim to clean up a banana peel/coconut they won't use the bin standing two feet away.
Sims try to find an object inside the current room to put the trash in. If they're outside, the entire outside space is considered as a single room, so they'll go for the trash pit. If they stand inside (whether it be only half a foot away from the outside), they'll pick the trash bin.

Quote:
Where do they think any new sims you create are going to live?
I tend to have a lot of Sims in one household, and having multiple huts per lot. It kind of gives a nice 'live neighborhood' feel (of course, free will is essential here) and saves up on loading times between households. (Again, creativity!)

And my final words, I hate how they made the game "laptop-friendly" by making all of the textures in game appear really bad, yet making the beaches appear so beautiful.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 4th Apr 2014 at 11:53 PM
Quote:
Stuck objects.
Stuck object remover. http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=1609.0

Quote:
Pittman's grave is seriously bugged.

Teleport him to your lot and move him in before the story is over. http://www.drealm.info/simlogical/s...Teleporters.htm

Quote:
Where do they think any new sims you create are going to live?

I use SimPE and change most of the community lots to residential lots, I only leave the 2 main villages as community.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#6 Old 6th Apr 2014 at 3:18 AM
Quote: Originally posted by DJ.
EA locked many of the objects because you get buy mode enabled after a few goals once the story'd begun. You could easily use the buy mode to sell every single object on the castaway beach lot, which would give you plenty of resources. Thus, some of the objects are not available from the catalog (example would be the shady lagoon waterfall).
But I do agree that they should've unlocked all the objects from residental lots, at least. It's nearly impossible to re-shape the village residence lot.


Yeah, unlock them when the story mode ends. I don't care if they're locked in story mode.

Quote: Originally posted by DJ.
Well, do you like to stick around a trash pit or a bush that everyone poops in IRL? Probably not. That's why you should place those two objects far away from the regular pathways of a lot, instead of treating the trash pit as a trash can. Also don't mix the peeable bush with regular flora. (Burning a lot of trash smells REALLY bad. Someone's poop also smells REALLY bad.)


The problem is that the village residence doesn't have any away from regular pathways spots. But I stopped putting the two together and at least the environment score improved enough so that my sims quit bitching about it. But still, you don't even get an option to clean the bush to improve environment.

Quote: Originally posted by DJ.
You could buy the terrifying totem (or something like that), found probably under decorations. The chief (Manave household) has that in front of their house, and it keeps visitors away. An alternative is Carrigon's mod.


Missed that. That also explains why I watched Timoti Fekitoa wander around the crossroads going 'ahhh' and cringing all the time. It must have been all the totem poles that were scaring him lol.

Quote: Originally posted by DJ.
Sims try to find an object inside the current room to put the trash in. If they're outside, the entire outside space is considered as a single room, so they'll go for the trash pit. If they stand inside (whether it be only half a foot away from the outside), they'll pick the trash bin.


Archways must not count as doors then, because my sim was inside next to a trash can and still made the trek to the pit. It must be a bug regarding stuff on tables, actually. Pick the coconut up from the table and they go straight to the pit. Pick it up from the floor and they use the trash can.

I'll try the stuck object remover, thanks. I did make a backup of the game before Pittman died in case I ever want to save him in the future. This time, though, I put his grave in my inventory, but as soon as I took it out and placed it, it vanished. Does the changelotzoning cheat work in CS? There are a few community lots that aren't doing much and could stand to be changed to residential.
Theorist
#7 Old 6th Apr 2014 at 2:42 PM
I don't think the cheat works in Castaway Stories. But it's fairly simple to change the lot zoning in SimPE.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#8 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 11:24 AM
Checked and no, changelotzoning doesn't work. Thanks for the SimPE guide.

Figured out my trash problem too lol. Technically, the dining table is outside because it's on the balcony. So, sim logic doesn't care that you have to walk through the house and past a trash can to get to the trash pit; it only cares that the trash pit is outside.

Have you played Rhinehart as a toddler? At the moment his want slots all go blank and I can't fix it. Even rerolling with the batbox doesn't make it stick. Is there any way to fix him?
Theorist
#9 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 7:35 PM
I reckon I experienced that with one of my Sims. But it happened when I aged them directly from teen to elder. I can't precisely remember what I did to fix them, though.

First thing you should check is whether Rhinehart has the grow up aspiration. Since EA is known to be lazy, it wouldn't surprise me if they left out the aspiration change from the script. However, if it is grow up aspiration, there are a few things that you could try out and see how it goes.

You could try using Carrigon's person hack to temporarily change the toddler's aspiration to something else. Once the toddler (tried to) roll the wants, switch the aspiration back to grow up.

If it doesn't bring luck, wait for four days until you can age them up using the birthday cake. The birthday cake trick usually fixes some of those age-related errors. (I'm referring to this as an age-related glitch because the game forced Rhinehart to age from adult to toddler, skipping a lot of age groups in between.)
Mad Poster
#10 Old 7th Apr 2014 at 7:52 PM
You can also use the SimBlender to do this with. http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=20.0

Yes the SimBlender works in Castaway Stories.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#11 Old 8th Apr 2014 at 12:42 PM
I managed to get some wants fixed but he remained glitchy until he became a child. Thanks for the help.

Also managed to get a balcony trashcan working, so no more treks to the pit. XD I think I'm getting to the point where I can actually play rather than poke at glitches lol.

Not a glitch, but I noticed that in the Neighbourhood folder there is one subhood template. Any idea what that is; it doesn't seem to be visitable?
Theorist
#12 Old 9th Apr 2014 at 11:54 AM
It is the Weather subhood from the regular Sims2 game. "It is very stupid."

Basically, it contains hidden shredded characters that are joined to your neighborhood. Characters are Ramaswamis, Ottomai, garden club staff etc. You can see those Sims in SimPE. (They even have the 'traditional' outfits from TS2!)

There's no known way of making the game stop assigning that hood to Felicity or Wanmami Island, because those neighborhoods already ship with the stealth Weather subhood (instead of having the subhood be associated to the neighborhood upon first load).

To elaborate, this is how files from an unloaded, freshly created neighborhood would look like:When you first load the neighborhood, you get the "Creating ..." screen (weather, pets, exotic destinations, magic, hobbies). Those are the names of stealth subhoods. A stealth subhood, in game files, looks like this (found under TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate):As you can see, it contains characters (mostly townies) and for newer EPs it also contains lots.

However, in TSCS, a freshly created unloaded neighborhood looks like this:That's why you don't see "Creating Weather" when you first load the islands. Cons, on the other hand, are that you're stuck with those characters that are unplayable and unlinked.

I made fixed versions of both Felicity and Wanmami Island, which don't contain those characters (and don't contain any unlinked characters at all). I deleted those Sims using the batbox and Theo's plugin, using Mootilda's tutorial. You can find those neighborhoods here. However, they are standalone neighborhoods, so you'll have to copy your Sims over to the new neighborhood if you'd like to keep playing the 'non-infected' hood. A tutorial on that can be found here.
Mad Poster
#13 Old 9th Apr 2014 at 6:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
Have you played Rhinehart as a toddler? At the moment his want slots all go blank and I can't fix it. Even rerolling with the batbox doesn't make it stick. Is there any way to fix him?


If I remember right all toddlers in CS don't have wants and are blank until they age up to child or that is the way it is in my game.

All my Beginning Hoods here at MTS. http://www.modthesims.info/member.php?u=7749491
All my Beginning Hoods as Shopping Districts plus Old Town. http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=523417
MooVille, a tribute to Mootilda and her fabulous lots http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=534158
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#14 Old 10th Apr 2014 at 11:03 AM
Thanks! I'll definitely use that template for Wanmami Island. We'll see how much bugginess gets me in SaS. I don't really want to lose my story stuff.

Quote: Originally posted by marka93
If I remember right all toddlers in CS don't have wants and are blank until they age up to child or that is the way it is in my game.


No, it's just Rhinehart. I tested it by impregnating another sim and speeding up pregnancy + infanthood and the toddler aged up with a full set of wants. I suspect that the game is trying to give Rhinehart adult wants, failing, then getting confused and giving him nothing.
Theorist
#15 Old 11th Apr 2014 at 8:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by marka93
If I remember right all toddlers in CS don't have wants and are blank until they age up to child or that is the way it is in my game.
That is not correct. All of the toddlers in my game have normal, working wants.
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
We'll see how much bugginess gets me in SaS. I don't really want to lose my story stuff.
You should know that corruption doesn't spread at constant speed for every neighborhood. For example, I've been playing my Felicity Island ever since spring 2013, and I haven't had any issues with it (sure, sometimes it hiccups by inviting the Local Chief over, but last time that happened to me was at the very end of the storyline only). I have a relatively strong machine, so my loading times aren't as bad, either.

My suggestion would be not to immediately start over. Simply play the game, and make backups alongside. Who knows, maybe you'll have luck and won't experience any weirdness for a long time.
Test Subject
#16 Old 20th May 2015 at 4:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by DJ.
It is the Weather subhood from the regular Sims2 game. "It is very stupid."

Basically, it contains hidden shredded characters that are joined to your neighborhood. Characters are Ramaswamis, Ottomai, garden club staff etc. You can see those Sims in SimPE. (They even have the 'traditional' outfits from TS2!)

There's no known way of making the game stop assigning that hood to Felicity or Wanmami Island, because those neighborhoods already ship with the stealth Weather subhood (instead of having the subhood be associated to the neighborhood upon first load).

To elaborate, this is how files from an unloaded, freshly created neighborhood would look like:When you first load the neighborhood, you get the "Creating ..." screen (weather, pets, exotic destinations, magic, hobbies). Those are the names of stealth subhoods. A stealth subhood, in game files, looks like this (found under TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate):As you can see, it contains characters (mostly townies) and for newer EPs it also contains lots.

However, in TSCS, a freshly created unloaded neighborhood looks like this:That's why you don't see "Creating Weather" when you first load the islands. Cons, on the other hand, are that you're stuck with those characters that are unplayable and unlinked.

I made fixed versions of both Felicity and Wanmami Island, which don't contain those characters (and don't contain any unlinked characters at all). I deleted those Sims using the batbox and Theo's plugin, using Mootilda's tutorial. You can find those neighborhoods here. However, they are standalone neighborhoods, so you'll have to copy your Sims over to the new neighborhood if you'd like to keep playing the 'non-infected' hood. A tutorial on that can be found here.




Thanks so much for this! I just started playing CS again for a nostalgia fix. I had no idea about all this stuff. Great to know, I would have never found this obscure info!
Back to top