Technical Difficulties, Please Stand By Not sure if this belongs in troubleshooting because with Mirelly's help I've already solved this, but here's what happened to me ... I installed Seasons, but it didn't patch my game! Told me it was already patched. (It wasn't. I was told it would be patched when I installed Seasons so I didn't bother. I've got dialup, yadda yadda.) Well, OK. Kind of stinky. I have blue dots floating around anyone who wears a necklace or glasses, and other patch-related minor irritations. Soooo ... I get a kind soul at work to burn me a CD of the patch (how you know you're a true addict, LOL). I install it, go to play a lot, and ... Their home business disappeared. It worked fine after installing Seasons, now it's not there. The stuff is there, just not the menu or the ranking (7! ). I was able to start a new home business, but they lost every perk. Still not a big deal, but made me start to worry ... what else is FUBAR? (I also had to delete Stephen Tinker from the lot because he wouldn't leave, for example, and I thought ... oh, heck.) So after discussing with Mirelly I decided to reinstall Seasons. Haven't had time to do that yet. But thank goodness I did a complete backup just before Seasons and just before the Pets patch. I should be able to restore it without losing anything. Sometimes it pays to be paranoid.
Fingers and toes are crossed here, me duck. And thank goodness for back ups. Reinstalls are a PITA (the A stands for arse which isn't rude, except in england, but we don't care ) but not as big a pain as losing evvryfink
So, I went through all that and they still lost their business. The game insists it's patched, but sims keep teleporting into my home after I hang up the phone after speaking with them. I may have to do a reinstall of the entire game at some point. :( But for now I think I'm going to plow forward. The good part is, I did get a clean, working version of the game after I installed Seasons. At that point their business was still there. But that version is now old, and I'd lose a couple of babies ... I don't know if I want to do that. I'm going to play and see just how buggy it is. It could be hack related. I have a couple, not many, but a couple. I'm going to try removing them and see what happens.
Many hacks are misbehaving since Seasons. Some modders have been quicker and better than others, at responding to the challenges. Hope you get a fix on this because PDL is probably the longest running sim-soap there is ... suggestion, if you have to do a reinstall and run from a dated back up you could go for the Bobby Ewing in the shower scenario (I hope that doesn't come across as flip ... it's not meant to. I really do empathise, having lost and started over more times than I have EPs I know it hurts but having a story with such a rich legacy as PDL's would make the misery much worse.) Fingers still crossed for you.
Just a follow up: The patch didn't take. I uninstalled Seasons and tried to reinstall the patch and it told me the game was already patched. It's not. I still have blue pixels floating around my sims who wear glasses, which stinks because I just downloaded Mirelly's awesome specs. I need to do a full reinstall at some point, something I'm not really looking forward to. In the meantime I'm backing up my game religiously. I remember vaguely doing this once before and all was fine afterwards. One question: Although it didn't happen with Seasons (grrr) may I assume that if I do that reinstall my game will be fully patched as I go? Or do I need to make sure I have all the patches? I think I only kept a couple ... I've got OFB for sure, and Pets, but not sure I kept the earlier ones ...
I wouldn't worry about patching until you get to OFB and Pets. OFB should contain the patches for the base game and uni and I suspect it has the patch for NL as well. If not it ought to be present on Pets (it took long enough before Pets was released ... or is that just a false impression? )
Thank you! I just so happen to have the OFB and Pets patches. I'm reinstalling today. Last night I had a lot with 7 kids and two pets have twin boys. Yikes. I sent the teenager off to college to avoid the big fiery thingy. Plus people keep popping off of couches and my businesses are acting funny. :(
Are you accusing me of being a sims addict? Guilty as charged, I'm afraid. Anyway, reinstall went just peachy and the Pets patch "took." My bigger lots still keep crashing but that's OK ... I get sick of them after a while anyway. I made a really nice house for Alec and Jordan today. I'll try to post pictures soon.
