Lazlo Curious' Certified Simp

Bei | they/them | 30+ | Simmer since 2001 | actively Playing TS1 and TS2, occasionally TS3 and TS4 | maxis match and 4t2 | not taking myself too seriously | sideblog for GoblinAlchemist

[beikonsims]

In light of the recent re-release of The Sims 2 and a flood of new players lurking around the community, I'd like to take a moment to remind about my CC Finds blog which you can find right here.

Majority of the custom content in my game you can also find there. Feel free to lurk around there, though I cannot guarantee everything works properly in the Legacy Collection.

I'm also a WCIF-friendly Simblr and have a tag with answered asks over here, in case there's a piece of cc I might've not shared on the CC Finds blog.

Anyway, have fun with the game~

[beikonsims]

Paralives is an experience, alright...

I guess in a way it's charming to see the same exact bugs Sims 4 (and Sims in general) players have been dealing with for years. Feels like home.

Tho random townies walking into your house to die in your hallway, making you trip over their bodies for the next week with no way of removing it, was not on my bingo card.

[spockthewok]

Sims 2 Object Limit Fix

Soooo... I didn't intend for two highly requested fixes for The Sims 2 to drop within the space of a week and a half, buuuut...

Here's where you can download an experimental patch to fix the so-called 'object limit'!

https://github.com/spockthewok/TS2ObjectLimitFix

(Ultimate Collection only at the moment, I'm afraid).

The good news is:

Both @lordcrumps and @teaaddictyt have tested it with stupidly large CC folders and report that it works.

There isn't a dissertation the length of Tolstoy's 'War and Peace' you need to read through to understand wtf is going on.

The crashing wasn't caused by some hardcoded object limit at all! (That I know of).

An explanation of the issue for programmers:

And for everyone else:

The code for the Build/Buy menu was missing basic checks to confirm that the data it was trying to do things with was actually valid. No, I'm not joking.

Basically, it appears that all of the objects you can buy in the game are stored in something you can think of as being like a big, long list, which grows in size with the more custom objects you have.

The only purpose of the code that this plugin patches is to sort the items in the list into some kind of order. This is done by assessing if the value of the previous item in the list is larger than that of the item currently being looked at, and swapping their position if this is true (also known as an insertion sort).

In short, the game wasn't asserting that the data it was about to compare for sorting was valid before accessing it, and then promptly blowing up when it tried to do so and discovered it wasn't.

I imagine that the odds of the game making an oopsie and dumping some funky data into the list increases with the number of objects it is having to process - this might be why this issue only presents itself to those using multiple GB of Build/Buy CC. It was much easier to patch the code encountering the bad data within the list than to try and hunt down the mysterious culprit putting the data in there to begin with, so this is all the information I have at the moment unfortunately.

Either way, one of the first things you're taught when learning to code is to ALWAYS check that the data you're operating on has been initialised (i.e. it holds some kind of value). I guess someone at Maxis must have skipped that lecture :D

Is the 255 objects per subcategory limit theory true?

The Downloads folder I was using for testing had ~672 objects in the Deco/Misc subcategory (Maxis objects included). With the patch, I can freely navigate throughout the entire subcategory with zero crashes, so I guess not?

What about the whole OBJD limit thing?

People have varying beliefs of what the limit on OBJDs might be, but HCDU reports my Downloads folder had an OBJD count of 20,787. Again, without the patch the game would crash when switching categories in the Build/Buy catalogue, with the patch, no crashing.

If you want to hear my opinion on whether such a limit exists, watch this video.

Do I even need this patch if I don't use much CC?

As it adds some fairly important crash-prevention checks to part of the Build/Buy menu's functionality, I'd probably recommend using it anyway, just to be safe - we all know how much this game loves to crash!

Aaaah! I'm still getting crashes with the patch!

I'm aware that a few of you CC addicts out there have Downloads folders larger than the total size of everything ever uploaded to the internet, so if you still experience crashing in Build/Buy mode with this patch, please take a look at the mod's GitHub page and send me over the information requested there. Fingers crossed that shouldn't happen, but if it does, I'll try my best to investigate :)

Anyway...

Will

(I wish I had looked at this for my dissertation, as it was literally only a day's work).

[beikonsims]

this is what i do when i'm taking a break from sims 2

[beikonsims]

can't even look at this shit. my boy's wiki page was so pristine, now this slop is popping up first when you open it.

who the fuck is this impostor? get the hell out of here.

[beikonsims]

just popping in to say if EAxis dares to say that ugly ass ginger Capp patriarch in their newest slop pack is Tybalt Capp and make him heterosexual, i'm physically manifesting in EA office and shoving both of my boots up andy wilson's ass.

[beikonsims]

A quick little update, just to say I'm still alive-

I admit I've been disconnected from the Sims in general. A lot's been going on irl and in the other fandoms I'm involved with.

I've managed to make the Uberhood work somewhat, but at this point it feels more like tiptoe'ing around it potentially crashing and burning, so I don't play it much for now. It gives me more stress than enjoyment, so I wait for when I'll have more time to do smth with it. Believe me, I'd love to bring the Uberhood back. I genuinely miss it and hope I can continue with the next generations there. But after playing it for the last 2-3 years continuously, I definitely needed a break to unwind, focus a bit on touching grass and doing other projects.

And then there's the whole bullshit with EA's acquisition, which honestly kills any joy to even touch their games rn. I will not stop playing The Sims 2 in private using RPC Launcher and I'm not a content creator advertising EA's current slop or their company whatsoever. But things were definitely easier when they ignored The Sims 1 and 2. When we could pretend they're not associated with our beloved games whatsoever.

Either way, I'm more than happy to boycott the company. Pirate their games, play them in private if you must. But if you advertise them and support spending money on their slop, I have less than zero respect for you. Idgaf if The Sims 4 is your "comfort game" or if you're one of the EA creators using this as your main source of income. It's your decision to show your whole ass over what you prioritize.

[beikonsims]

Just wanted to say I'm sorry for not posting much lately, but once again I'm stuck dealing with the constant crashes and pink soup galore. I've managed to make it work somewhat well before after doing the dreaded 50/50 method, but now after adding a single new cc object to the buy/build mode it causes issues. I even started wondering if for some reason the thumbnail generation in the catalogue messed up, but honestly no idea.

I'd love to go back to the Uberhood soon, but don't have the time to sit down and sort through the Downloads folder in hopes of finding the culprit. Especially since it started completely at random.

Anyway, if I won't figure anything constructive out, I might have to cave in and make a fresh install of the game, but that's my absolute last resort.

[beikonsims]

After Erin's unfortunate encounter with Olive's ghost, the next morning turned out to be much happier. Lola's daughter showed up with their beloved missing cat and Erin gave her a hefty tip for helping them find their friend.

Seeing Grim alive and well filled Erin with so much joy, she almost forgot about all her problems. There was just something soothing about him and in a way he connected her to Olive.

[beikonsims]

Later, Olive actually showed up to lurk around the house. She was pleased to not see anyone already taking her place in the bedroom - as silly as it would be so soon.

She also jumpscared her wife and told her about passing her dark magic onto Knut to carry on her legacy. Erin wasn't sure if she was more terrified of the apparition or the revelation about her son being a dangerous witch now.

She was upset about seeing Olive like that and finding out she didn't even discuss this with her. She didn't feel like arguing with a ghost and wanted to respect the dead's wishes, but wasn't happy about it.

[beikonsims]

Knut was too excited about the powers to be cautious and rushed to find out more from the old tome. He didn't expect his mom following him into the workshop room and discovering him messing with Olive's book.

At first Erin didn't connect the dots of her son being able to even read the book in the first place and just strongly scolded him for messing with his dead mother's dangerous stuff.

[beikonsims]

Knut was really curious about the spells he learned from his mother's book and couldn't stop himself from trying them out. It's not like Erin would see, since she had her nose stuck in a book.

He ended up summoning a terrible thunderstorm and a bunch of cockroaches around the garden, but was too excited about his newly discovered ability to be bothered.

Alarmed by the loud thunders, Erin rushed outside to discover a sudden thunderstorm. She didn't suspect Knut, but called him back inside to not get struck by lightning.

Erin: Is this Olive from beyond the grave...? There was no storm in the weather forecast.

[beikonsims]

After the small funeral, Erin invited the two for dinner to make sure they still see her as a part of the family. She knew Ophelia wasn't interested in her late aunt's "fortune", but Blake still didn't entirely like her and could try kicking her out of the house now that Olive was gone.

The three of them agreed Olive wouldn't want a big party "celebrating" her death, so they had a toast in her honor and Erin was left alone to grieve (and clean up).

She tried to keep herself busy by studying logic in hopes of improving her work performance even further. She needed those promotions and better wages now more than ever.

[beikonsims]

To nobody's surprise, only Blake and Ophelia showed up to mourn Olive's death. They didn't take their spouses or kids along, since Olive was not a particularly social person. Blake couldn't help feeling a little sour about Erin forgetting to even call him after his mother's death. If it wasn't for Knut, who knows when he'd find out.

Olive was buried at her favourite spot on their family cemetery. Ophelia was definitely the least sad one of the three. She grew to like her aunt in the end, but not enough to bawl her eyes out over her grave. She mostly felt bad for the others, who were left without a wife or mother all of a sudden.

[beikonsims]

She might've been grieving her wife's death, but Erin still managed to perform well enough at work to earn herself a promotion. Higher income is always welcome in a difficult situation.

Knut really missed Olive's help with his assignments. She was like a walking encyclopedia and he always felt like he could ask her anything. He didn't feel so confident with Erin and also didn't want to bother her at the time.

[beikonsims]

Erin felt especially bad about leaving Knut alone now while going to work. With Olive and even their cat gone, the house felt particularly unsettling to her.

Knut was doing better than Erin expected, though. Maybe it was the exposure to Olive's magic or just the way he matured in this house, but he was able to handle himself pretty well.

He even made sure to call his brother and let him know about their mother's passing. In all the chaos Erin completely forgot to notify the rest of the family.

[beikonsims]

First night alone in bed was a nightmare for Erin, but she pushed through somehow. For the first time since moving in she was actually afraid of sleeping alone as if some vengeful spirits would haunt her now without Olive's protection.

She found her wife's leftover elixir and even though she didn't really need it yet, she had a sip just to see how it feels. She wasn't planning on getting addicted to it like Olive was, but it wouldn't hurt to stay in this world a little longer just to make sure Knut is growing well.