Build/Buy mode and sim aging not working! I've been playing the Sims 2 for ages. I preordered a copy from Amazon.com when it was first released. Recently I've discovered the 'boolprop testingcheatsenabled true' command. I used it on Don Lothario's lot in Pleasantview to 'Force Create New Townies' and NPCs. Since then the buy and build mode on Don's lot have been greyed out. I had to move him to a new lot. I hadn't realized there was a correlation between the cheat and the greying out of buy mode until I went to Veronaville and used it on Juliette's lot. Since then, only my elder sims age. The babies, toddlers, children, teens, and adults do not age at all. I even made sure that the aging cheat was 'on'. Also when I type random junk into the cheat box, I do not get the message telling me the cheat is invalid. I think the entire system may be broken. There are no NPCs at all on the lots with no buy and build mode access. I would reinstall the game except that the first disk of my CD is scratched and gives an error message part way through the installation. Does anyone have a possible solution to this issue that doesn't involve a reinstall?
Try polishing out the scratch very carefully with a little ordinary toothpaste (not the abrasive stain removing sorts). This is a very commonly recommended method for treating CD scratches, but I have never had to use it myself. Therefore I have no idea what you use to apply the toothpaste. I wouldn't use anything clumsy. Try doing it with a clean finger tip, using light strokes across the scratch for a few seconds before rinsing and wiping off and re-examining the disc in good light to see if the scratch is still visible. If all else fails try copying the disc to your hard drive using these instructions: For the CD edition: Make sure to follow the steps below exactly as they read, or else the install may not work. Double-click the My Computer icon. Right-click the C: drive and select Open. Right-click inside the window (EXCEPT on a file) and select New, then Folder. Name the new folder Disk Images. (It is important that the name has a space in it.) Double-click the new Disk Images folder. Right-click inside the window (EXCEPT on a file) and select New, and then Folder. Name the new folder Disk1. Repeat steps 6 and 7 while substituting Disk1 for Disk2 and so on until there are four 'Disk' folders followed by a number 1 through 4. it is important to note there must not be a space between "Disk" and the number. Insert Disk 1 of The Sims 2 into your CD-ROM drive. (If the autoplay starts, cancel it immediately.) Double-click the My Computer icon. Right-click your CD-ROM drive and select Open. When you see the contents of the disk in the window, click Edit at the top of the window and choose Select All. (All the contents of the disk should now be highlighted.) Click Edit at the top of the window again and select Copy. Open the Disk1 folder you created under C:\Disk Images. Cick Edit at the top of the window and choose Paste. (This will copy the contents of the CD into the Disk1 folder.) Repeat steps 9 through 14 for the remaining disks until you have copied each disk into its appropriate folder. Once all the disks have been copied, remove ALL CDs from any drives. Open the Disk1 folder under Disk Images. Double-click the autorun.exe file to start the installation. To save disk space, you can delete the Disk Images folders after the installation has completed.
Mirelly, I have tried to copy the files over manually, and everything works fine until I get to a certain section of the copy process and then the file copy shuts down. I feel like those are the same files that cause the installation to error out when I try to install off the CD and they may somehow be corrupted. I am not sure how realistic this is, considering I had previously installed off the CD at least three times. That's the main reason I'd love a solution to my in-game problems that don't require reinstall. I think I'd have to buy a whole new Sims 2 game. :(
Well don't do that until you try the toothpaste polishing trick ... PS If you don't mind losing all your sims and starting over why not just reset the base neighboorhoods. To that just delete the folder called: My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2
