Problem with my lots

[joandsarah]

It has come to my attention that my game developed the Maxis Social “Super Duper Hug” from a badly made extended family mod found on MATY. This action has been uploaded invisibly in some of my lots. I am currently taking down all my links here and on MTS until I have cleaned my game of this annoying action. This may take me quite awhile to clean

Comments

[scribal_goddess]

Okay, I don't have any lots of yours in current neighborhoods, so it should probably be fine if I enter one of my crapped-out backup neighborhoods, slightly alter, and repackage/redownload your lots for my own use, right?

Yeah, that's a bad hack, but I don't have the extended family hack (or any vampire hacks whatsoever) so I should be good. (Is this a hack for second cousins or for larger families? It seems useful, I'm gonna have second cousins out the wazoo soonish... assuming it's not borked.)

Okay, this is why puting in "control this sim" and subsequently removing it works:

"Update 2006-03-23: Fixed a problem with the fallback GUID. This problem would cause an instance of the Maxis Social Download Test example to replace my plugin in the event you uninstall this hack's package file. Unfortunately, this caused undesirable behaviour: A couple debug menu options appeared, including one about a "super duper hug". Sims would also autonomously do the "super duper hug" thing. The latest version of this hack doesn't have this problem, and will nuke any Maxis Social Download Test objects it finds, as these should never exist in the game. See post #44 for more details"

Basically, what I gather is that installing control this sim overwrote the code of the maxis dummy interaction that the original hack was cloned from, but since this mod was made properly, it does not activate it on removal and neatly erases itself from existence. Seems safe. :) Your problem could be that you pulled another bad social hack once all the fixers were in place, and they didn't get to overwrite it. I'd uninstall/reinstall one of the fixers so that it can overwrite the relevant code.

[joandsarah]

I have extended family partial and inlaws fix. This is the mod I believe caused the Hug:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=14218.0 The user picture doesn't exactly inspire confident that they knew what they were doing does it? -_- Although there are no reports on the thread about this problem, Esme said it caused the hug in her game when she pulled it. The mod itself works wonderfully. I'm kind of hoping Boiling Oil sees my post over on leefish and offers to fix it or show me how to fix it as I love the mod. From reading Dolphin's thread where she discusses it she seems to indicate it's just a matter of changing some numbers in the fall back guide. I have no idea just what that is, but I've certainly changed numbers in simpe before.

Edit: See this is why it's so confusing. I have all 3 fixes in place. I put Dolphin's in 2 years ago and didn't see this hug until I pulled my Download folder the other day. I pulled it in response to a PM over on MTS that i had given someone the hug. See why none of it makes any sense? I didn't see the hug in my game, but I was still giving it to people. darn I like hugs, but not this kind.

[scribal_goddess]

My best guess: the interaction test object was "on" one of your lots, but it got packaged into it without the rest of the hack, creating the broken code that gave downloaders the hug bug, due to the instance not reverting properly when placed into a hack-free game. Did you playtest any of the lots that are reported bugged prior to packaging/uploading? (By this I mean: did you move sims in to check, move them out with stayobjects on, and then go? Because Stayobjects could have stayed the "object" associated with this behavior, which I think might be a better explanation for how it got packaged in there in the first place than "it's a malicious hitchkiker with it's own agenda.)

If I could get beyond geneticizing things in SimPE I'd fix it for you, Jo. :( In theory, I see what to do, it's getting there without screwing something else up that would be my problem. I've never hacked anything myself beyond the Callista Age Span mod, and that's pretty much a DIY dream. Lemme know whether or not you find a fix, because I think that I might be able to find a tutorial for that sort of thing somewhere on Simbology.

Editing again: Looked over the mod. It's most likely the newly available instances of family kiss or fight/torment that are causing the hug, unless I don't actually know how this works and disabling the romantic actions can cause this kind of bug. Either way, this seems to be one sneaky sucker and it probably rides your sims around from lot to lot like the vampire one with the explanatory thread would. (At least, I'm assuming from the ubiquity of playtesting on MTS lots and the stay shrub that it comes off them rather than randomly being plucked out of your game code when packaging a never-inhabited lot.)

Other fix: you may be able to use the dolphin fix's seek-and-destroy function to check lots over for the interaction object and remove them before packaging.

[joandsarah]

I only play test copies of my lots because there had been talk about not uploading lots that sims have been in before as they leave something behind in the objects they use. So no sims had been in those lots.
When I built the lots I had the fixes in, the lots would have been saved two or three times over the course of building because I am not a fast builder apart from the council housing. I messed up using the lot adjuster when I first built those those so I quickly remade those on 2 by 2 lots before shrinking. I know they have the hug as that was the set Dominie over on leefish tested.

Sneaky sucker it most definitely is.

[scribal_goddess]

Yep, I got the all 3 fixes thing. But, my understanding of the problem being fixed by installing a correct behavior mod is that it only does it if the correct mod is installed after you pull a bad mod, which is why the rewriting would happen, fixing the bug. (The dolphin one lets you search-and-destroy on a lot by lot basis, which I believe is just forcing it to update the code so that it will be overwritten.)

Okay, so it's a sneaky hijacker with ulterior motives. :)

I don't know if it's moving onto the lots via lot adjuster, but I do think it's probable that the hug bug people are getting from you is the result of part of the mod hitching a ride on the lots and that brokenness activating the maxian hidden code for the super hug, which we should all have floating around. If I wasn't staging right now I'd pop in your beach house right now and check that for you: as it is, I'll let you know later.

[joandsarah]

Thanks Scribbles, any help is appreciated. I'll try pulling and adding a fix back in and upload a test lot and see what that does.

[scribal_goddess]

I've failed to find a hug on your beach house, but wall coverings, fences, and floors didn't come through due to me not having all the SP's. If you want, I'll fix that with generic Base Game stuff and repackage it for you, as my game does not contain a hug. :D

[joandsarah]

Ohw thanks Scribbles. Good to know at least one is clean!

[scribal_goddess]

I'll just put in the quick fixes and pack it back up for you then when I get back to my simming computer. :) I re-read the post on the Dolphin mod, and since my game is clean, search & destroy should make absolutely certain it isn't hiding in the lot when I put it down, so it will be just fine coming out of my game.

(The stuff that's gone is Ikea or Teen Style stuff if I remember correctly, mostly in all the same rooms, so I'm just gonna de-furnish those rooms and put in generic base-game floor and wall coverings.)

[joandsarah]

Thanks. :D I realized after going through my posts on here that I never made a post on that lot. Did I package it with a heap of CC? I made that before I started to think about things like that.

I've got Any Game base game to run and uploaded a clean test lot, so I am going to make a mac compatible slot and later a M&G slot and use that to upload new lots from. That doesn't help the infected lots but at least I'll be able to build again.

They are saying on the thread that deadly neck bite or no sim loaded might be a better fix.

[scribal_goddess]

Protection-wise, or managing the infection wise?

[joandsarah]

Both, although it may depend if there are two forms of this hug or not. Some people have had better luck with one over another. There seems to be discrepancies between tests and results. It might even be peoples game set ups having an effect.

Since this hug doesn't seem to be cut and dried I'd have all the fixes. Some might work in different ways, but so does this hug.

[scribal_goddess]

Well, one way to be sure!

To be fair, I think it's the Base Game BHAV that we are supposed to clone, but it is possible that people's EP's and whether or not they have things such as ACR may affect it. (If I remember correctly, you don't have ACR, do you?)

[joandsarah]

No, I've never had ACR. I think it may also affect your game differently if you pick it up from a mod or from a lot. And this mod is based on BHAV's rather then an object, so it's different again from the original kiss check hack which was the known hack for causing it. I just think with all the unknown variables that all fixes is the safest. I like having all bases covered.

[scribal_goddess]

Yup. Time for nitpicky work!