Creating Hotels – Can’t Click on Door to Reserve Room

I tried creating my first hotel today in Takemizu Village. I first started by creating a residential lot, then used the cheat ‘changelotzoning hotel’ to change it to a hotel. After creating the hotel, saving and re-entering it, I could not change any of the structure (doors, windows, etc) of the hotel, but I could add other items. I sent an elderly couple off to vacation there, and they could not click on either of the room doors to reserve them. So there must be a special hotel door you must use. I did remember to add the check-in desk, but it’s useless without reservable rooms. Also I didn’t add the phone booth outside, but luckily I added a regular phone on the inside, so they could call to change accommodations. If I’m not able to change the doors in build mode, how will I make my hotel usable??? I’ll have to change the lot zoning back to community first to change the doors I think. I guess you set the price of the room when you use the special hotel room doors, because I never set the price yet.

Invite as Houseguest: Sim doesn’t show up

I tried out the new ‘Invite as Houseguest (3 days)’ option I kept seeing since I installed Bon Voyage. I invited a child ‘Townie’ and he didn’t show up until 10 am the next day. I did some searching, and found that this option appears for the Sims you’ve met on vacation or maybe who live in a different neighborhood. Since they live far away, theoretically it wouldn’t be possible for those Sims to come over for just a short stay, so the option ‘Invite over’ is replaced with the 3-day House guest option. The child sim did not become controllable when he came over, but stayed for the whole day, even when my Sim went to class (this was on a University lot). At the end of the day though, an adult townie came and got him with the usual ‘way past bedtime’ message.

Limo doesn’t show up after Wedding party

I’ve had a few wedding parties recently where the limousine does not show up afterwards. I’m starting to wonder what the requirements are. I thought just getting married using the wedding arch would allow the limo to come when the party ends, but that hasn’t happened. Maybe it has to be a great party first, but I thought one of my parties was pretty good. Maybe since I have Bon Voyage, no limo comes unless I book a honeymoon in advance. That is what the answer at http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20071016092607AABE3BC says. Some people have had problems with endless wedding parties before their scheduled honeymoon, so I don’t think I’ll try that right now (see http://community.livejournal.com/thesims2/4447464.html)  Let me know your experiences.

Bon Voyage Expansion – Issues (choppy gameplay)

I got pretty frustrated with the new Bon Voyage expansion pack the other day. The first couple I sent to Twikkii island did all right, but there were some major performance issues with the next couple. Suddenly the gameplay became very choppy and jerky -all actions would go step-by-step instead of a nice fluid motion. Now, this couple had a lot of memories and friends, I have all 6 expansion packs, and I believe there was the maximum of 8 sims on the lot, so maybe that put a toll on the rendering. I have a 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 1.5 GB RAM, NVidia GForce 6800 GS/XT with 256 MB memory. I updated the video card driver, and it seems much better now. Unfortunately I’m afraid to try to increase the graphic settings in the game to a higher level; they are currently at the lowest setting.

Sims 2 Bon Voyage Expansion – initial review

I got the Sims 2 Bon Voyage Expansion pack Friday (EP6). I never really liked Vacation for The Sims 1, so I wasn’t sure if this expansion would be worth the money. But it is! Your Sims can learn new “gestures”, dig for treasure and find bonus items, explore hidden lots, collect souvenirs, and collect 45 different ‘mementos’ from their travels. There’s plenty of things to explore in the 3 different cultures or themes (the game starts out with one neighborhood per culture, but I assume you can create your own mix when you create your own vacation spots). I’ve found a few issues so far, but overall, it is a great new expansion pack!