Mansions & Garden Stuff Alert!

[Tina ☺]

Beware that once you install Mansions & Garden Stuff that you will be using it's disc/exe. to run the game. Therefore it acts as an expansion instead of a crap pack which means hacks, etc will have to be updated! I'm so glad I haven't installed it yet because it also has bugs. Poor Crissy lost the ability to do the give gift interaction that came with Seasons. It happened without hacks so it's an EA bug. There is a bug thread at the BBS and several folks complaining of problems as usual. Way to go EA! Sure doesn't surprise me though.

Several other annoyances occurred like not being able to walk to a community lot. That was caused by an incompatible hack though. I never figured out which one because she decided to uninstall it and wait for hacks to be updated before playing.

Bummer I went through all that mess to install it for her only to find out it would have been better to wait. I would never have installed it if I'd known it ran from its own executable. Ah well I'm glad I didn't try it on my game.

[Sarie]

Wow, that sucks!

EA is really stupid sometimes. Why is it like an expansion pack I wonder?

[Tina ☺]

I don't know Sarie.. I guess since it's the last ep/sp, they wanted everyone to have to use its exe. when they get it.

[joandsarah]

I watched a trailer for M & G tonight and thought maybe I should ask dh to get it for me for Christmas if it was out here.....maybe I don't want it after all now! Stupid EA and there stupid poorly put together games!

[Tina ☺]

Well it does have some nice features, like being able to change roof angles without using the cheat, etc, but it's not worth it to me unless they fix things. EA is always breaking features from previous expansions when they put together a new one. I don't know why they don't run testing with ALL the games installed to make sure that doesn't happen! Or at least by doing that, they'd catch most of the screwups.

[Sarie]

Seriously, where's my EA comic?

[Tina ☺]

[jillyson]

Incredible! So you have to play from the M&E disc once you install, not the AL disc anymore? WTF??? For some plants & windows? At least Holiday Fun gave you the Santa interaction & was still considered an SP - what's in this one that makes it need to be run from the disc?

[Tina ☺]

Probably secUrom. They want to give everyone a dose of it on the way out!

Actually there is an autonomous slide down the bannister interaction that has been added. I don't if that's the only one but it was an excuse to use its executuable I guess. Sevral of those stuff pack can actually be run from the disc if your latest expansion isn't high enough though.

[leapsbarnes]

That really sucks I asked for it for Christmas but I guess I'm going to have to do some lurking at MATY to see what they can do with it. I just really want that roof option! *sigh* I'm beginning to think EA hates us

[Tina ☺]

Hey, there is already a no cd crack out for it. It's what I used to let my daughter play because NO WAY was I going to let secUrom in!

[jillyson]

Awesome!!! But if I already have suckyrom on there, I guess it won't matter for me, but I'm glad for everyone else! When I get around to Sims 3, I'll be using the no cd crack method!

[Sarie]

What's the "No CD rack Method"?

[jillyson]

I'm going to let Tina field the "no Crack CD" question, because I don't know a darn thing about it. I wish I had known about them before I unknowingly loaded suckyrom on my laptop. It's a way to play your sims 2 games by going around the suckyrom & never getting it on your computer.
I got M&G for Christmas, and I really want to install it. I went trolling around the bbs to see if a patch was coming, and here's what I found. Apparently, the latest "update" to the suckyrom, included on this game, either causes crashes, won't let you play at all, or gives an "emulation software error" that closes your game. A wonderful simmer found a replacement .exe that suckyrom provides themselves, since this is a known problem their evil program causes. Here's a copy of the post:


Author: simvasion - Rank: Supreme Social Sim - View MySimPage Profile
Date: Dec-06-08 11:46 AM PST
Subject: Re: "Conflict with Emulation Software"


Forget emailing for help. Their customer service sucks.
In the Technical Help section someone else has posted a link to a fixed version of the file available from the SecuROM website, because this may be a SecuROM issue.
www.securom.com/support/customers/sims2sp9mansiongarden/Sims2SP9MansionGarden_t0303/Sims2EP9.zip

Everyone who used it seemed to get their game working. Use it to replace the original:
C:/Program Files/EA GAMES/The Sims 2 Mansion and GardenStuff/TSBin/sims2ep9.exe


Story:The Dreamers II
Darren dreamer sells more works of art and a wedding calls for celebration!
thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=250500

I haven't tried this yet, but there were several posters who thanked this simmer for getting their game up and running again. Is this some ridiculous stuff, or WHAT???

[Tina ☺]

Hey Jilly... I haven't looked at your links yet because I've been having a bit of a problem of my own that has nothing to do with my game and I'm quite worked up right now...lol I need to wait until I get myself calmer before tackling something new, I think. *heavy sigh*

I don't have suckUrom because I've never used the game's exe. to start my game. That's why I go the no cd crack route. I have purchased ALL my games and therefore it's actually legal to use one even though EA would like to make us believe differently.

I don't know what your links say, but I'm pretty sure that as long as SucUrom is on your puter, it likely won't even let a no cd crack work. SucUrom has to be removed first and the easiest way to do that for a non-advanced user is to reformat and start over. Then if you NEVER use the game's orginal exe. to start your game, sucUrom is never installed and then there's no problem.

I have no knowledge whatsoever of suckyrom's replacement exe. I'd say try it at your own risk, but make sure to back up your game before installing in case you need to uninstall the pack again. It IS a load of ridiculous crap!