Bugs and solutions Here is an updated list about certain bugs taken from The Sims Zone, an affiliation of Urban Online Entertainment and World Sims. New additions, August 20th, 2005: The game constantly reports that your Sim is no longer best friends with a Sim who's been dead for some time. Similar "its not too late to repair this relationship" messages also appear. A bug exists in University - the transition between two semesters can get screwed up. So when you enter the next one, the game thinks you're still in the previous semester's final exam but one minute into the new semester it then thinks you didn't go at all so drops your GPA and grade. Taxis can get stuck on campus lots. In severe cases you may have no alternative but to bulldoze it. Many NPCs occasionally decide to stay for longer than they should. Particular culprits: The nanny, the maid and the gardener. The maid's van has been known to drive itself away. It will usually turn up again later of its own accord after the maid leaves the lot manually. Previously on this page: BODY SHOP: Create something with the first version of this utility in a software rendered video card, it will be blurry in the 3D environment of the game. Solution: Get rid of it and use the version of Body Shop installed with Sims 2. A Usenet poster reports that if your female Sim gives birth while your groceries are delivered (and you then ignore the delivery person), you are unable to accept the delivery or do anything with the delivery guy. May also slow the game down beyond playability. Solution: move_objects cheat. Long-term solution: evict the family and bulldoze the lot. If you move into a house next to something (say, a big house on the corner), it won't show up when you pan around in lot view. However if you fiddle with the terrain modeling tools and then go to a neighboring lot, your mods should appear. Bowls of food given to toddlers: They may not be cleaned up autonomously - ie, the maid and the nanny won't have anything to do with them. Solution: Direct a Sim to clean them up manually. Coffee cups: If you buy the coffee maker and then sell it while there are cups floating about, they never get put away. Solution: Buy a coffee table. Affairs: If a Sim is cheating and another Sim is in the house at the same time, he runs to the bedroom and slaps and shouts at the cheating Sim. But then the double bed begins to think it's a couch and bed specific options such as Make Bed are unavailable, as is the bed. Solution: move_objects cheat. Also happened with the dart board. Teddy bear: Buggy. Reports on Usenet that it costs careers, aspirations rewards and money. Also noted to start floating in midair when used. Solution: Get rid of the bear. (fixed in the Sims 2 patch and with University) Windows don't work at all in rooms for some floors, while they work in the rooms of other floors. Happens with the basement (for obvious reasons) but also on other levels too. Solution: none yet. According to Usenet, the issue of "disappearing portals" may still be an issue - same symptoms as deleting the mailbox/trash in the original game. Lot has loads of "traffic noise" like it's next to a busy highway. Solution: Leave the lot and go back, or wait for another car to arrive. According to Maxis, it's tied to the gardener's van initially. Newborn babies can chat on the computer. One computer per family means everybody can be on at the same time, including seven babies and the mum. The dart board appears to attract so-called "invisible guests" which block a visible Sim from using it. They have been seen to wait next to the board as they do when waiting for somebody else to throw. Inheritance: Either doesn't give anything, too much, or doesn't occur full stop. (less of a concern with University) When the social worker arrives to take your kids away, build and buy mode are both disabled and you can't save, return to neighborhood or quit. However if she can't get away first time, the game gets stuck in this mode and the only way out is through Task Manager. Also affects the Grim Reaper. (fixed in the Sims 2 patch and with University) The headmaster has been known to just disappear into thin air. Stairs: In the original game if two Sims wanted to go up/down a flight of stairs, one would go and the other would wait patiently. In Sims2, the first sim uses the stairs but the second refuses to wait and whatever was queued up on the other level is abandoned. Toddlers cannot wear anything other than the default clothing they appear in. (fixed in the Sims 2 patch and with University) A situation can occur when the school bus doesn't pull up to the mailbox and Sim kids/teens can't board it. It has been sighted to happen during Sneak Out but doesn't make itself known until the next school day. The repair person often refuses to mend the trash compactor/dishwasher even when it's blindingly obvious that it needs mending. If somebody is told to "grow up" and somebody else gives birth, the one who was due to grow up may never do so as their age is reset. Apparently if you get too far down the line in a family in terms of generation and who don't shift out, strange things happen such as not enough money, not able to save/build/buy and general game slowness. The music stops playing if you change from build/buy to buy/build mode at the right moment, just when one tune finishes. Nothing more will play when in the first mode. (fixed with University) If you were close to maximizing cooking and you receive a bonus that puts you over the maximum of 10 points (i.e. you get a 3 point bonus when you have 8 points in Cooking) you will no longer be able to use your Cooking skill. This is a known issue and Maxis are working to resolve it. Doors get stuck in an open position if ceiling lights are directly next to them either side. "Help with Birthday" still doesn't work properly with babies, regardless of whether you have the original game, original game + patch or University installed. Babies just get picked up, stared at and dumped back in the crib. Use the birthday cake instead. The children's oven is rendered a permanent part of the lot if there's an item in it and all children have grown into teens. Toddlers can accumulate memories that put them as giving birth to other Sims in other houses. Calling the nanny on a cellphone/mobile results in erratic behavior. (University only) If you try to influence non-lovers in the bathroom, there's a bug where they can get stuck. (University only) If you have more than one sprinkler in a room, instead of them both going off, it seems the wrong one can go off.... and the fire can start on the floor somewhere else far away, and then people standing in the same room can catch fire... Sims can be unable to interact with objects in different rooms if the doorway to the room is on a diagonal. In fact Sims just don't like doors on diagonals full stop. (revised August 20th 2005) An empty fridge blocks the "Yes" option when ordering groceries. Solution: Go to the store on the community lot, otherwise ensure that you "fill up" the meter - by default it is empty so the button is disabled. Sims won't cook anything other than Toaster Pastries and Instant Meals, even though they're now both at cooking level X. Solution: Buy a food processor. Alien babies: if an adult Sim uses the a Telescope between 7 pm and 2 am to stargaze, there's a 5 percent chance of being abducted by aliens. Assuming your Sim is an adult male, he will come back pregnant. Are nearly all Sim kids born with the same haircut? The boys get the semi-buzz cut and the girls get the short hair-across the face look... It is possible to hire multiple nannies. It is also possible for toddlers to break out of the crib. Sim babies/toddlers/children who get taken by the social worker can come back to the house they left when you choose to adopt. Sims get a kick out of watching a police/burglar fight. The keyboard controls for the camera are counter intuitive. That is, pressing < rotates right and vice verse. This seems to be a trend in Maxis games, not just an abnormality in Sims 2 when used in Sims 1 camera mode. Oddly enough, you can't use the fancy chairs with the computer; you have to stick a dining chair there instead. Wall phones are useless when there's something in front of the object. Unlike Sims 1, they won't lean over the object to get to the phone. Alien toddlers have been known to play the the theme from Close Encounters Of The Third Kind. A cheat to help get kids into Private School is to basically befriend the headmaster outside of the normal scenario situation. This ups the schmooze score for when you next run the private school scenario. Also, the headmaster seems obsessed with the swing set should you have one. He will also socialize with the Social Bunny. Strangely enough, he has no skills if you manage to move him in as a regular Sim, and has been known to basically harass other Sims. The move_objects cheat allows you to place objects in places where you wouldn't normally be able to put them. Uses for this: wall objects that float in mid air and, for the creative, you can also make a high diving board for your outdoor pool! (details at the Snooty Sims site) The elder Sim in the Specter family in Strangeville has an unusual memory: Whoo Hoo with the Grim Reaper. Also the reaper has apparently been sighted wandering around a house and using the toilet. It is alleged that he is the father of Nervous Subject, a family member also in Strange ville. Sims can have family reunion memories. Occurs when you split a family up and move them all back in together again. Buy a bookcase. Get a book out. Stop a Sim putting the book back in the case. Sell the bookcase. Book now works as cooking, mechanical and cleaning. Saves money. The case of the disappearing homework: When a child/teen Sim comes home from school, cancel the celebration they start doing when they have good grades. The homework is gone but the grade is unaffected. The value of the items that the Repo Man takes rarely, if ever, matches up to the value of the outstanding bills. The smart milk can be stored in the fridge. Sims can crank-call. This is personality-based. Loki Beaker and Nervous Subject, in Strange town, are both capable of this 'feat'. It appears that the same Sims who kick the trash can over can make crank calls - ie the not very nice ones. Sometimes the crank call victim comes over and yells at the crank caller. The mail person is apparently immortal, but some of the NPCs have high skills (anything up to six points across the seven categories) and may be better off in the career market than a random townie. Incest may be caused when you package a family and move them around. Case example: Sim's spouse dies, he suddenly fancies his sister and can go "all the way". The family tree remains the same however, the Sims just don't remember that they're related. If you move somebody out of the house and opt to move a toddler out as well, then assuming he can get to the pavement (toddlers can't use stairs), then the toddler will literally crawl/walk down the street while the adult/elder goes in a taxi, otherwise the kid will just disappear into thin air. If you talk to a child on the telephone after 8pm (SimTime curfew) the parent of the kid in question may come over and help themselves to whatever is available. He won't go until you tell him to. Since you get a lot of phone calls if you make acquaintance with a number of Sims, you can frequently have this happen if a child is one of the Sims with whom your Sim made acquaintance. The child calls up, your Sim gabs, and the parent shows up and starts helping himself.
