Neighborly Sims--TS2--Instructions--How to Defeat the Service Calls Phone Glitch in Pets

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HOW TO DEFEAT THE SERVICE CALLS PHONE GLITCH IN PETS

There is a glitch in the game that happens after Pets has been installed, that only occurs in certain circumstances. When it does, your Sims can't use the phone to call for Services. You won't be able to hire a maid, a nanny, an exterminator, or any other service. The causes, effects, and solutions are outlined below. I suggest you PRINT THIS PAGE before you begin on the steps in the solution, so you can refer to it as you work.

Symptoms

Service Calls cannot be made. The first time a Sim tries, he will "jump back" from the phone after dialing. The phone will revert to it's usual position, and the Sim is standing away from it slightly, with no service call interactions happening. The second time he tries, this may happen again. By the third time, the Sim will probably not even be able to use the phone. Sometimes this takes several more tries. Ultimately, though, the phone system won't work at all for your poor Sims.

Cause of the Problem

This will ONLY happen to your Sims if they are existing in a neighborhood that has had all the NPCs removed. This will NOT, then, apply to the three Maxis neighborhoods, UNLESS you have previously removed all the characters. The problem would generally be restricted to new neighborhoods--ones you have created in the game, using any existing SC4 Terrain Files as the base, or ones you have downloaded from fansites and installed. ALL the neighborhoods at Neighborly Sims are this way, initially.

New Neighborhoods with NO Problems

If you simply created a new neighborhood and did NOT subsequently remove all characters, you have no problem. The problem only exists when all characters (or at least all NPCs) have been removed AFTER the neighborhood was created.

New Neighborhoods WITH Problems

If, however, you have created a new neighborhood, and then (for one reason or another) HAVE removed all characters (or at least all the NPCs), you WILL have a problem with the phone system, AFTER Pets is installed. The problem comes ONLY after Pets is installed.

Some Solutions

Don't despair, and don't just uninstall and reinstall your game. You don't even have to force the game to create new game files, or anything like that. In fact, those methods won't help, in this case, because once you move your old neighborhoods back in, the problem with the no-longer-existing NPCs is still there. You have some options. The Pets patch didn't do anything about this problem, so you will want to do something.

NOTE: I've discovered that the first Solution (Step 1, Step 2a, and Step 2b) seems to work sporadically. Sometimes the fix works 100% and there's never another problem. Sometimes, though, it doesn't work for SOME of the phones in question, and sometimes it just doesn't stick. It will work at first, but then suddenly the phones don't work correctly again. Your best solution, then, is the Alternate one--download and place J.M. Pescado's mod (see link below) in your Downloads folder. It's totally harmless, and only does what it's supposed to do--fix the Service Call problem. It works 100%, without worry.

Solution--Step 1

If your new neighborhood is missing its NPCs as noted above, you WILL need to create all those NPCs for the Pets EP to be able to recognize the service calls when they're made by a Sim. This first step is necessary, UNLESS you use Solution--Alternate shown below.

In the neighborhood in question, create a new, empty RESIDENTIAL lot (any size). Move in a Sim (create one if you have to). It's essential that you move a Sim into a new lot, for this procedure, in this case, because the phone system in all the occupied lots has already been glitched. If you have never USED the phone to make service calls in ANY of the occupied lots, you could just use one of them, but if ANY of your Sims in the neighborhood have tried to make service calls, you will need a NEW lot and a newly-moved-in Sim.

After moving in the Sim, you will need to turn the testing cheats on. Open the cheat box (Ctrl/Shift/C). Type into the resulting box:

boolprop testingcheatsenabled true

Then hit the enter key, and the cheat box will close.

While in LIVE MODE, hold down the Shift key, click on the mailbox, and choose the ""Neighborhood..." option. That will bring up multiple choices. Choose "DBG - FORCE create all NPCs." You will be asked a couple of questions, to which you should answer YES. After you do, the NPCs will start being produced--one by one (three of each service person). Once the final Repo Man has been produced, a note will pop up saying that all NPCs have been created. Click OK.

Now bring up the cheat box again, and type:

boolprop testingcheatsenabled false

Hit the enter key, and the cheat box will close.

TEST: Put a desk and a phone (or a wall and a phone) on the lot. Have the Sim go to the phone and call a service. If it works as usual, the neighborhood problem is solved. I haven't had it NOT work at this point.

Now SAVE the lot, then exit to the neighborhood (or go to the neighborhood and save as you go, but don't forget to say yes to the save question). If you don't SAVE, your neighborhood will revert back to the way it was before you used the testing cheats, so don't forget this step!

Solution--Step 2a
(if there are no other occupied lots in the neighborhood, or if none of have them have called for services before)

That's it. You don't have to do anything else, if no service calls have ever been made before in this neighborhood.

Solution--Step 2b
(if service calls HAVE been made before)

You can TRY just going into an occupied lot, but there's a good chance those lots may not load. They may get almost done loading, and then the game will crash, forcing your computer to restart! You can try, but in the end, you may just want to do the following:

Take each occupied lot and move it to the Lots Bin. I realize that your relationships will be removed, etc. Unfortunately, with THIS solution there is no way around this. It's part of the solution. Once the lot is in the Bin, you can replace it where it was. The lot should load without a problem. This clears the phone, and will allow your Sim to call for services once again.

Solution--Alternate
(if you don't want to lose your relationships, etc., and if you don't mind having a mod in your game)

Go to the following link:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=213284

Even if you're not an MTS2 member, you should be able to read this thread and then follow the links in the thread. You may need to join MTS2, but it's free. Once you're in the thread, close to the beginning question, you'll find a link to get J.M. Pescado's fix for this problem. Use THAT link, and NOT the link further down in the thread that makes you join the other forum to get the fix. Clicking on the first link brings up a download box, and you can choose where to SAVE the fix (do NOT just Open it).

Once you have saved the file, unzip it, then place the file in your Downloads folder (in its own subfolder, so you can remove it later).

This file will solve all the problems without even having to do Solution--Step 1 above. REMEMBER, though. When the next EP comes out, you will want to make sure the mod is OUT of your Downloads folder, because I would think this problem will already be fixed by that point...I hope.

Well...there you have it. I hope this helps someone. If you have any questions, please e-mail me.