so i had this idea earlier its been quite a while since i've actively enjoyed the sims 2 and was greeted with a few things that could be fixed in the game so here i present you my ideas to improve the sims 2 ultimate collection


a registry edit for the window title, apparently theres an issue with some pc's/os/language settings or something that you need to edit the registry to remove the "TM" from the folder by changing the file "DisplayName"
for 64 bit users located at
"HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\EA GAMES\The Sims 2"
so why not a script that fixes the registry


next is changing the window Title most likely by doing a hex edit on the exe to change the title from saying
"The Sims 2 tm Mansion and Garden stuff"
to
"The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection"

remove pop ups about each expansion pack on start of each town its rather annoying

remove custom content browser button from neighborhood view or archive those pages on http://www.ravecrocker.com/sims2
along with the rest of the sims 2 site i'm reviving before i eventually buy a domain similar to thesims2.com
(something that you all know has bugged me for a long time.)

remove more information about appartment life,freetime,pets buttons from neighborhood view
(these are so pointless and clutter the action menu at the top left of neighborhood menu)

finish power outage scenario
Big Boss scenario (maybe a reskin of headmaster scenario but your boss )
(cut features from the sims 2 before the fire)


quit game text needs to say the sims 2 ultimate collection instead of mansion and garden stuff (again maybe a hex edit i'll look into this later)

Good luck on finding the source code for these ideas.
Only EA has it, and they're not releasing any of it.
By the way, they also own the copyrights to all the Sims games, so they'd be the ones to change any of this.
It doesn't look promising.
PS-don't ever touch the registry entries for any program. It'll cause your compute to have a massive meltdown. That gets expensive..

this is the most ignorant thing i've read all morning but since you don't know how it works i'll cut you some slack ^_^

You were proposing to do these 'changes' yourself?
Good luck on that.

yes i'm looking into a few of them others im not sure about yet

Title window may be possible (there are already some UI replacements, among them some title screens)

For the rest? I have no clue. Someone already tried enabling the Big Boss (Doesn't look like they were successful) and there's an old mod with the powerout (probably no longer compatible since it was pre-Seasons).

Someone has a power outage mod in testing in the creator feedback section.

You change the 'in-game' name of the EP in the UIText.package found in Res/Text. Text list Instance 0x00000001, named EP Titles.
The Boss Visit, Engagement, Grandchild and Power Outage Scenarios have been enabled in A&N and quite frankly they're not worth playing, there's a good reason they were dropped.

That's only assuming of course EA still has the source code. For all we know EA may have deleted it, and newer and current employees very likely have no knowledge of this 14+ year old code and how it works.


It won't. As long as you know what you're doing, altering registry keys can actually be beneficial by unlocking/enabling hidden features in your OS.

What is the source code anyway and why can't we find it in the game files?

Very good informative stuff. Thanks

I'm quite sure I was able to delete the button for Pets once (although it was greyed out) but I don't know if it was because of bad installation/mess up with the ame files or because I completely erased the stealth hood.

One of the things that I've wished for ever since the UC came out is the option to pick and choose which expansion/stuff packs you want to use. I don't use the UC because there are a few expansion packs that I don't like to have in my game.

there's anygamestarter for that;even though the UC version has to have mansion and gardens on it.

[QUOTE=HarVee]That's only assuming of course EA still has the source code. For all we know EA may have deleted it, and newer and current employees very likely have no knowledge of this 14+ year old code and how it works.

No, they still have it. It was such as successful game, they won't let it go.

Just ignore them. I don't usually have my sims go on vacation or open business. Just because you can do it, doesn't mean you ever have to.


Oh, crap! I double posted. I'm so sorry

Lol was that sarcasm or a genuine question charity?

Source code cannot be found in the game's files. The game is a "compiled" or better said, "translated" program ready for the PC to run it (since its a machine and can read only 1 and 0). Since it's translated, and only the versions that are ready to be run are available to us, we can only kinda deduce how it is supposed to work and make some programs to modify it or actual modifications themselves (mods). Some files are readable from FullBuilds (meshes, textures, characters and other stuff), but those are not nearly enough to give editing flexibility that will enable fundamental changes to the game...

For instance, going around the issue of corruption.

So long as you know what you're doing, you'll be fine. I've been doing it for years without one meltdown.

What you don't want to do is use registry cleaners. My mother ran one on her computer and it rendered the machine unbootable. That was not fun to fix.

They don't really do anything anyways. While older versions of Windows tended to balk at too many registry keys, from XP on it's far more robust and won't slow down your computer or anything like that.

CCleaner cleans registry alright, and you can fiddle with registry entries for any program, but if you know what you are doing specifficaly. Don't just randomly edit values that you dont know what they serve for, and dont even edit those that you might know what they are doing.

CCleaner's is fairly conservative so far as registry cleaners go. Really, though, even if it cleans a couple thousand registry keys, there's millions of keys. Won't make much of a difference.

I do use Geek Uninstaller to clear out any registry keys following an uninstallation, though. Mostly because if I decide to reinstall later on I'll have a fresh configuration to start out from.

I think probably the best advice is only use a registry cleaner or tamper with the registry if you are comfortable enough with computers to know what you are doing. As Ihate said, it's probably not fun to fix something like that. Heaven knows I'd have to throw the thing away and buy a new one. Gauge carefully your ability to fix anything that might become FUBAR'd (can I say that?) when you're working on it. Happy to see you back, Ihate

I agree with you, but you can still get the source code. Its a difficult process called Reverse engineering .
First's versions of OpenTTD was created in that way.

Some articles about this process:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disassembler
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decompiler

WOWZERS! REALLY? Yo, braintrust! Can anyone figure that out?

Depends. If the devs obfuscated the source code, you might not be able to do much.

Not sarcasm. I genuinely thought that the source code was encrypted somewhere deep in the game files and no one could unencrypt it.



Back when I first got the UC I had to repair the game every time I used the registry cleaner in CCleaner, because it deleted the startup files. Fortunately an update fixed it.