Re-Enableing Controlls On Lots?

Zirconia Wolf · 09-12-2007, 12:31 PM

Does anyone know of another object/? that you can place on a lot (residential and community) that will allow you to re-enable the controlls that can get "blacked out" (most importantly the option to exit to the neighborhood) during some instances?

I say "another object" becasue while it is true that the Lot DeBugger (the "Batman" box) will do this, it doesn't exactly look right as a permanent fixture on most lots since it's...well...a freaking Batman box! (The same goes for the big old InSiminator machine! I like it, but a permanent feature it is NOT!)

Also, I know that both the SIM & DEST versions of InSim can re-enable controlls with a mere click on the ground or a Sim, but I now prefer the OBJ version as it 1) is far less likey to eat my game opon installing a new EP, & 2) doesn't add the "teleport" feature (& other stuff) to Sims destiniation options without them needing to earn that privalige! (I'm strange that way...)

Thanks!

FYI the 2 near-disasters that triggerd my querry were A) a real bad issue of timeing when Leod McGreggor had just climbed into his waiting taxi at the presice moment his carpool arrived, & B) my sister's recent freaky expirance with Brandi Broke showing up as a member of a Casual Group along with Dustin, Beau & her infant twins the later 2 of which she dropped in front of the taxi. (She took some great pictures, but still...)

Miros1 · 09-12-2007, 03:51 PM

For commercial lots, they're called Buy/Build Mode Enablers.

I agree, it's just stupid that they disable stuff on residential lots. Would it really be so horrible if someone bought a fire alarm during a fire or deleted the Social Worker?

To deal with Brandi's weird mothering (and every other Sim's), use "move_objects on" and delete the babies. That will teleport them back home!

Greg · 09-12-2007, 05:49 PM

I suspect that disabling Buy mode during a fire is an attempt at creating a game play scenario where you're supposed to learn that you should have bought a fire alarm already. Most of the really annoying "features" of The Sims and The Sims 2 are lame attempts at programming some excitement into a game.

Seriously, folks, the sooner EA realizes that they are publishing a toy and that they lack the ability to make The Sims 2 a playable game, the better off we all will be.

As for to do about it: If you have the Insimenator (erm, the DEST version, I think) or Merola's Mind Control Mirror installed and the "social worker" shows up, make her selectable, use the Testing Cheats to spawn Rodney's Death Creator, and kill her.

I'm not familiar with the symptoms of the car-vs-carpool bug so I don't have any suggestions there. What would you do if you have full Buy and Build controls?

Zirconia Wolf · 09-13-2007, 02:23 PM

Actually, what I (mainly) want is the Options menu available and working, as that will let me get out of the lot & back to the hood without saving...or having to cntrl+alt+delete my way back to my desktop as I had to in the case of Leod McGreggor v.s. the carpool. (If the Return To Neighborhood option hadn't been greyed out, it would have been nicer! )

I think I may have stumbled onto something that might do the trick over on MTS2. It's a little (descrete) remote control called the Antidisata & claims it will automatically dectect the lack of a working Options menu & re-enable it on it's own. We shall see if it works...though I'm not planning on deliberately triggering it!

On the subject of Maxis proraming, I'm gonna have to play devil's advicate (or whatever) for a moment to ponder the follwing: If the game really sucks as bad as people are always crying about, why are they all still playing it? Seriously; life is way too short to get all upset about what is- after all- just a computer game. If the game is that awfull & Maxis is sooooo rotten, don't buy/play it! They wouldn't be working on a Sims 3 if nobody played Sims 1 or 2.

Sorry, but that's been building in me for a long time now. I've just grown wearry of the constant Maxis/EA bashing on other boards & needed to vent a little! (Anyway, what would all those modders do for fun without the "creative programing" of the Maxis troop! )

Miros1 · 09-13-2007, 02:53 PM

On the subject of Maxis programming:
1) I'm a software engineer. I'd be embarassed to work on, much less release, something that works as badly as the game.
2) Over on InTeen, Jase is speculating that the "first string" programmers are already working on Sims 3, the "second string" is working on the console game versions of Sims 2, and the "third string" is working on expansion packs. Sadly, that makes sense... since the Fun Stuff packs seem to have been made by interns.
3) The modders would actually be making new fun mods instead of patching a malfunctioning game and repairing their old hacks to work with things that were changed and really didn't need changing.
4) I don't buy the EPs until all the hacks are updated. I may not buy BV, no matter how much I want vacation homes, partially due to what Jase has said about the quality of the code, partially due to the problems other people are having, partially due to the general increasing "pigginess" of each expansion pack. If Greg could convince his wife that she shouldn't buy them for him, he wouldn't buy them for a freaking year! 'Nuff said?

On the carpool vs. taxi problem... I'm not sure why that would hang your game. The carpool only adds a "go to work" item to the Sim's queue, unless that event somehow happened "during" the leave lot save, which doesn't make sense. If you hit ctrl-alt-del in the middle of a save, that lot may be toast. Leod should have gone in the taxi normally and returned about an hour later, able to drive himself to work (if he has a car) since the carpool would probably be gone.

Greg · 09-14-2007, 07:33 AM

I'm intensely curious to learn how that Antidisata thingie works out.

Zirconia Wolf · 09-14-2007, 02:43 PM

Actually I think I had the "Leod" thing backwards: I belive he was in the carpool when the taxi arrived, but cued to get in the taxi. In any event, I know that whatever happened it caused not only my Buy/Build modes to grey out but it also greyed out my option to get back to my Neighborhood, hence the need to cntrl+alt+delete my way out of the problem.

I'm not sure if it screwed the lot up or not, as it happened in an "old save" of Riverblossom Hills that I never played long on. (I did a total clean install of the game shortly thereafter for reasons that escape me at the moment...though I think it was to fix a problem with rampant black-want-slot-syndrom I caused by getting too exited too soon with my global mods.)

This little expiriance did do something good though; it made be become incredibley detailed/consistant about makeing periodic backups of my hoods (complete with detailed "what's-happened-so-far" Notepad files) that get tucked away safely on my backup drive. I also have a very strict "formula" for introducing mods back into a recently upgraded game.

As for Maxis, it was just an opinion (I don't yet know enough about coding to make an expert desicion) & I'm not going to "go MATY" on the subject or anything like that, but I still say we (or our well meaning spouses) all are spending an awfull lot of $$$ for the game that we all still seem to be playing, so they must be doing something right!! (Or maybe I'm the only person on this planet who actually enjoys playing the game? I really hope not...)

On the "Antidisata" subject, I won't really know if it's working right untill I run into a situation where the game would normally blank out my ability to get back to the hood. Hmmm...actually, this would include things like a Thief/Firefighter/Social Worker arriving, so maybe I can trying triggering one of those events & see if it does anything.

Miros1 · 09-14-2007, 04:44 PM

I still don't buy them the second they come out. In case you don't realise this... movies, music, games, etc. use the first week/weekend's sales to predict how popular something is going to be. Whether or not this is true, it's definitely a measure of how good their publicity machine did its job! This means:

If you think something is iffy, wait to buy it!

Yes, I enjoy playing the game. I enjoy it more because I have a large collection of mods that avoid or minimize stupidity and tedium and ugliness. I'm also attempting to send EA/Maxis a message... I'm not going to buy blindly!

BTW, if I keep hearing more bad stuff about BV, I'm not buying it.

Zirconia Wolf · 09-14-2007, 06:53 PM

Yikes! Yelp!

Again, it was just an opinion!! I had just read yet another long rambeling post about how it's all the fault of Maxis that each new EP makes a 3rd party mod out of date, & personlly feel that yelling at the designers over crap like that is part of the reason it can take so long for an Offical Patch (that fixes the legitamate bugs) to get released. Yes, I know how marketing hype works. I also know that if the game only sold in the first week & never again, there certainly wouldn't be a Sims 3 in the works no matter which team is working on it.

I have always really enjoyed installing each EP/SP as soon as I deem it feasable (which of course includes keeping an eye on the Offical Patch release & my favorite mods) and would hate to think that not wanting to wait for years to upgrade something I'm enjoying has made me an idiot in the eyes of other Sims 2 players. (Heck, they all thought I was stupid when I waited for years to install Sims 2 in the first place! I guess I just don't understand the "correct" way to time these things. )

Getting back on the subject of "stuff that lets you get out of dodge in the event of a disaster", I haven't yet been able to test the Antidisata remote but truely hope it does what it claims! It only re-enables the "go back to the hood" option, but that's really all I need. It's also alot easier to hide on a community lot that a big black box! (Although that box doesn't look half bad on a toy store lot... )

I am not using any Buy/Build mode enablers at this time (I've been trying to streamline my global overrides) but considering how handy they where in Sims 1, I may consider adding them...if they don't conflict with the Antidisata remote.

Side querry: what's the difference between HDCU & Hackdiff as far as finding potential mod incompatability goes? HDCU seems- to me- easier to use, so I was just curious...

homerette · 09-14-2007, 07:07 PM

I can certainly see both sides of the issue, and I agree that putting off buying and installing an EP for any game until some player experiences are put forth is probably a very prudent idea. Also, using consumer power to send a message to the purveyors of inadequacy is important as well.

But, I also agree that the major bones of the game are good enough to keep us all coming back for more and I don't particularly want to wait indefinitely to experience a measure of variety in my gameplay.

The most important thing to consider is probably that everyone's idea of ideal game performance and play is different. What annoys me, may not annoy you; we all play our game differently and want the experience to match our expectations. Both miros1 and Zirconia Wolf have excellent points about the way things are and the way they should be.

Zirconia Wolf · 09-14-2007, 07:38 PM

(Tosses homerette a rat-snack & thanks her for reminding us all that this isn't MATY. )

Yes, I see both sides too. I've always figured one of the main reasons the Sims series has been so popular, prolific & profitable (well, for Maxis anyway) has been it's incredible versatility when it comes to how you play it. There aren't many ganes out there that can touch it's "customisabiliy". (The great thing about being dyslexic is you get to make up all kinda of new words! )

Right now I'm just hopefull that an Offical BV Patch is already underway (that actually fixes the bugs it needs to without causing more) & that all my favorite modders have figured out ways to update their mods in the nearish future...a.k.a by the time I'm ready to install BV!

I'm also hopefull that the Antidisata remote will do what I want it to, as I am gearing up to test it soon. (First, I have to do some hood re-doing! )

Once I manage a test, I'll post my findings here.

Miros1 · 09-14-2007, 08:37 PM

I waited a year to buy the base Sims2 game because my old puter couldn't run it!

Of course, I then installed right up to OFB (I think), so I have no clue what it was like to play with just Uni or just NL.

Zirconia Wolf · 09-14-2007, 10:36 PM

Same story for me too...except in my case, I started with everything up to Pets! I always feel kind of bad when someone posts with just the base game (or Uni/NL) and asks an "is this normal" question, cause I have no freaking idea what a "Pre-Pets" game is supposed to be like!

Will most likely be the same story with Sims 3. Even assuming it meets my list of "Sims 3 demands", there is only so often I want to upgrade my PC! (It's always a pain-in-the-rear to get everything set up "right" again...)

Greg · 09-16-2007, 09:04 PM

Aw, no worries. There are enough of us still Petless to be able to answer most of those "is this normal" questions. I only get annoyed when people give authoritative-sounding answers based on pure speculation.

I think that's a very important point about the versatility of the game, but it's almost entirely due to fan efforts. I try to imagine The Sims 2 without SimPE, and always end up suspecting that I would have grown bored with it long ago.

09-12-2007, 12:31 PM	#1
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Re-Enableing Controlls On Lots? Does anyone know of another object/? that you can place on a lot (residential and community) that will allow you to re-enable the controlls that can get "blacked out" (most importantly the option to exit to the neighborhood) during some instances? I say "another object" becasue while it is true that the Lot DeBugger (the "Batman" box) will do this, it doesn't exactly look right as a permanent fixture on most lots since it's...well...a freaking Batman box! (The same goes for the big old InSiminator machine! I like it, but a permanent feature it is NOT!) Also, I know that both the SIM & DEST versions of InSim can re-enable controlls with a mere click on the ground or a Sim, but I now prefer the OBJ version as it 1) is far less likey to eat my game opon installing a new EP, & 2) doesn't add the "teleport" feature (& other stuff) to Sims destiniation options without them needing to earn that privalige! (I'm strange that way...) Thanks! FYI the 2 near-disasters that triggerd my querry were A) a real bad issue of timeing when Leod McGreggor had just climbed into his waiting taxi at the presice moment his carpool arrived, & B) my sister's recent freaky expirance with Brandi Broke showing up as a member of a Casual Group along with Dustin, Beau & her infant twins the later 2 of which she dropped in front of the taxi. (She took some great pictures, but still...) __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

09-12-2007, 05:49 PM	#3
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	I suspect that disabling Buy mode during a fire is an attempt at creating a game play scenario where you're supposed to learn that you should have bought a fire alarm already. Most of the really annoying "features" of The Sims and The Sims 2 are lame attempts at programming some excitement into a game. Seriously, folks, the sooner EA realizes that they are publishing a toy and that they lack the ability to make The Sims 2 a playable game, the better off we all will be. As for to do about it: If you have the Insimenator (erm, the DEST version, I think) or Merola's Mind Control Mirror installed and the "social worker" shows up, make her selectable, use the Testing Cheats to spawn Rodney's Death Creator, and kill her. I'm not familiar with the symptoms of the car-vs-carpool bug so I don't have any suggestions there. What would you do if you have full Buy and Build controls? __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-13-2007, 02:23 PM	#4
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Actually, what I (mainly) want is the Options menu available and working, as that will let me get out of the lot & back to the hood without saving...or having to cntrl+alt+delete my way back to my desktop as I had to in the case of Leod McGreggor v.s. the carpool. (If the Return To Neighborhood option hadn't been greyed out, it would have been nicer! ) I think I may have stumbled onto something that might do the trick over on MTS2. It's a little (descrete) remote control called the Antidisata & claims it will automatically dectect the lack of a working Options menu & re-enable it on it's own. We shall see if it works...though I'm not planning on deliberately triggering it! On the subject of Maxis proraming, I'm gonna have to play devil's advicate (or whatever) for a moment to ponder the follwing: If the game really sucks as bad as people are always crying about, why are they all still playing it? Seriously; life is way too short to get all upset about what is- after all- just a computer game. If the game is that awfull & Maxis is sooooo rotten, don't buy/play it! They wouldn't be working on a Sims 3 if nobody played Sims 1 or 2. Sorry, but that's been building in me for a long time now. I've just grown wearry of the constant Maxis/EA bashing on other boards & needed to vent a little! (Anyway, what would all those modders do for fun without the "creative programing" of the Maxis troop! ) __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

09-13-2007, 02:53 PM	#5
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	On the subject of Maxis programming: 1) I'm a software engineer. I'd be embarassed to work on, much less release, something that works as badly as the game. 2) Over on InTeen, Jase is speculating that the "first string" programmers are already working on Sims 3, the "second string" is working on the console game versions of Sims 2, and the "third string" is working on expansion packs. Sadly, that makes sense... since the Fun Stuff packs seem to have been made by interns. 3) The modders would actually be making new fun mods instead of patching a malfunctioning game and repairing their old hacks to work with things that were changed and really didn't need changing. 4) I don't buy the EPs until all the hacks are updated. I may not buy BV, no matter how much I want vacation homes, partially due to what Jase has said about the quality of the code, partially due to the problems other people are having, partially due to the general increasing "pigginess" of each expansion pack. If Greg could convince his wife that she shouldn't buy them for him, he wouldn't buy them for a freaking year! 'Nuff said? On the carpool vs. taxi problem... I'm not sure why that would hang your game. The carpool only adds a "go to work" item to the Sim's queue, unless that event somehow happened "during" the leave lot save, which doesn't make sense. If you hit ctrl-alt-del in the middle of a save, that lot may be toast. Leod should have gone in the taxi normally and returned about an hour later, able to drive himself to work (if he has a car) since the carpool would probably be gone. Last edited by Miros1 : 09-13-2007 at 03:00 PM.

09-14-2007, 07:33 AM	#6
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	I'm intensely curious to learn how that Antidisata thingie works out. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?

09-12-2007, 03:51 PM	#2
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	For commercial lots, they're called Buy/Build Mode Enablers. I agree, it's just stupid that they disable stuff on residential lots. Would it really be so horrible if someone bought a fire alarm during a fire or deleted the Social Worker? To deal with Brandi's weird mothering (and every other Sim's), use "move_objects on" and delete the babies. That will teleport them back home!

09-14-2007, 02:43 PM	#7
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Actually I think I had the "Leod" thing backwards: I belive he was in the carpool when the taxi arrived, but cued to get in the taxi. In any event, I know that whatever happened it caused not only my Buy/Build modes to grey out but it also greyed out my option to get back to my Neighborhood, hence the need to cntrl+alt+delete my way out of the problem. I'm not sure if it screwed the lot up or not, as it happened in an "old save" of Riverblossom Hills that I never played long on. (I did a total clean install of the game shortly thereafter for reasons that escape me at the moment...though I think it was to fix a problem with rampant black-want-slot-syndrom I caused by getting too exited too soon with my global mods.) This little expiriance did do something good though; it made be become incredibley detailed/consistant about makeing periodic backups of my hoods (complete with detailed "what's-happened-so-far" Notepad files) that get tucked away safely on my backup drive. I also have a very strict "formula" for introducing mods back into a recently upgraded game. As for Maxis, it was just an opinion (I don't yet know enough about coding to make an expert desicion) & I'm not going to "go MATY" on the subject or anything like that, but I still say we (or our well meaning spouses) all are spending an awfull lot of $$$ for the game that we all still seem to be playing, so they must be doing something right!! (Or maybe I'm the only person on this planet who actually enjoys playing the game? I really hope not...) On the "Antidisata" subject, I won't really know if it's working right untill I run into a situation where the game would normally blank out my ability to get back to the hood. Hmmm...actually, this would include things like a Thief/Firefighter/Social Worker arriving, so maybe I can trying triggering one of those events & see if it does anything. __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution! Last edited by Zirconia Wolf : 09-14-2007 at 02:56 PM.

09-14-2007, 04:44 PM	#8
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	I still don't buy them the second they come out. In case you don't realise this... movies, music, games, etc. use the first week/weekend's sales to predict how popular something is going to be. Whether or not this is true, it's definitely a measure of how good their publicity machine did its job! This means: If you think something is iffy, wait to buy it! Yes, I enjoy playing the game. I enjoy it more because I have a large collection of mods that avoid or minimize stupidity and tedium and ugliness. I'm also attempting to send EA/Maxis a message... I'm not going to buy blindly! BTW, if I keep hearing more bad stuff about BV, I'm not buying it. Last edited by Miros1 : 09-14-2007 at 08:46 PM.

09-14-2007, 06:53 PM	#9
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Yikes! Yelp! Again, it was just an opinion!! I had just read yet another long rambeling post about how it's all the fault of Maxis that each new EP makes a 3rd party mod out of date, & personlly feel that yelling at the designers over crap like that is part of the reason it can take so long for an Offical Patch (that fixes the legitamate bugs) to get released. Yes, I know how marketing hype works. I also know that if the game only sold in the first week & never again, there certainly wouldn't be a Sims 3 in the works no matter which team is working on it. I have always really enjoyed installing each EP/SP as soon as I deem it feasable (which of course includes keeping an eye on the Offical Patch release & my favorite mods) and would hate to think that not wanting to wait for years to upgrade something I'm enjoying has made me an idiot in the eyes of other Sims 2 players. (Heck, they all thought I was stupid when I waited for years to install Sims 2 in the first place! I guess I just don't understand the "correct" way to time these things. ) Getting back on the subject of "stuff that lets you get out of dodge in the event of a disaster", I haven't yet been able to test the Antidisata remote but truely hope it does what it claims! It only re-enables the "go back to the hood" option, but that's really all I need. It's also alot easier to hide on a community lot that a big black box! (Although that box doesn't look half bad on a toy store lot... ) I am not using any Buy/Build mode enablers at this time (I've been trying to streamline my global overrides) but considering how handy they where in Sims 1, I may consider adding them...if they don't conflict with the Antidisata remote. Side querry: what's the difference between HDCU & Hackdiff as far as finding potential mod incompatability goes? HDCU seems- to me- easier to use, so I was just curious... __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

09-14-2007, 07:07 PM	#10
homerette Day late & a dollar short Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: central VA Posts: 206	I can certainly see both sides of the issue, and I agree that putting off buying and installing an EP for any game until some player experiences are put forth is probably a very prudent idea. Also, using consumer power to send a message to the purveyors of inadequacy is important as well. But, I also agree that the major bones of the game are good enough to keep us all coming back for more and I don't particularly want to wait indefinitely to experience a measure of variety in my gameplay. The most important thing to consider is probably that everyone's idea of ideal game performance and play is different. What annoys me, may not annoy you; we all play our game differently and want the experience to match our expectations. Both miros1 and Zirconia Wolf have excellent points about the way things are and the way they should be. __________________ May the roof above us never fall in, and may we friends gathered below never fall out.

09-14-2007, 07:38 PM	#11
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	(Tosses homerette a rat-snack & thanks her for reminding us all that this isn't MATY. ) Yes, I see both sides too. I've always figured one of the main reasons the Sims series has been so popular, prolific & profitable (well, for Maxis anyway) has been it's incredible versatility when it comes to how you play it. There aren't many ganes out there that can touch it's "customisabiliy". (The great thing about being dyslexic is you get to make up all kinda of new words! ) Right now I'm just hopefull that an Offical BV Patch is already underway (that actually fixes the bugs it needs to without causing more) & that all my favorite modders have figured out ways to update their mods in the nearish future...a.k.a by the time I'm ready to install BV! I'm also hopefull that the Antidisata remote will do what I want it to, as I am gearing up to test it soon. (First, I have to do some hood re-doing! ) Once I manage a test, I'll post my findings here. __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

09-14-2007, 08:37 PM	#12
Miros1 Goddess for Life Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: NY State Posts: 3,303	I waited a year to buy the base Sims2 game because my old puter couldn't run it! Of course, I then installed right up to OFB (I think), so I have no clue what it was like to play with just Uni or just NL.

09-14-2007, 10:36 PM	#13
Zirconia Wolf Reticulated MoonBat Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: My trusty computer in Issaquah WA, USA. Posts: 848	Same story for me too...except in my case, I started with everything up to Pets! I always feel kind of bad when someone posts with just the base game (or Uni/NL) and asks an "is this normal" question, cause I have no freaking idea what a "Pre-Pets" game is supposed to be like! Will most likely be the same story with Sims 3. Even assuming it meets my list of "Sims 3 demands", there is only so often I want to upgrade my PC! (It's always a pain-in-the-rear to get everything set up "right" again...) __________________ Long Live All Wild Canines! Leader Of The Moon-Bat Revolution!

09-16-2007, 09:04 PM	#14
Greg Da Guy Wut Owns Dis Joint Join Date: Mar 2007 Location: Texas Posts: 3,566	Aw, no worries. There are enough of us still Petless to be able to answer most of those "is this normal" questions. I only get annoyed when people give authoritative-sounding answers based on pure speculation. I think that's a very important point about the versatility of the game, but it's almost entirely due to fan efforts. I try to imagine The Sims 2 without SimPE, and always end up suspecting that I would have grown bored with it long ago. __________________ Who are all these people and what do they know?