I had been using Mootilda's LotAdjuster to make my dirt roads. It worked fine until I installed Seasons and Bon Voyage. I have asked her for help. She first told me I should search other forums for help. Which I did and found nothing that will do what LotAdjuster does. Yesterday I spent all day tracking down the fact that the program does not do everything it should in SSN and BV. I uploaded pictures and neighborhoods so maybe she could help figure it out. Her response was that I should post my question elsewhere. I doubt that anyone else would have more knowledge than she does about a program she wrote.

Below is a copy of the post along with the files and pictures. Any help would be much appreciated.

Quote

Hi Mootilda,

I have been trying to figure out how to do a dirt road with LotAdjuster. I thought I had it. I entered the lot and placed a tree on it. I then ran LotAdjuster to expand the lot over the road. I went back to the lot, removed the tree, removed the road tiles, and did a terrain paint where the road used to be. Below is a screenshot. After installing Seasons and Bon Voyage it no longer works. See second screenshot. To track down the problem I used Numenor's Base Game Starter Pro and followed the above formula for each expansion pack individually. The formula works for Base Game, NL, and OFB. I Numenor's Any Game Starter to test BG, NL, and OFB together. That also works. It does not work with SS or BV. I packaged each of the test lots. After I did all that I discovered the upgraded LotAdjuster 1.1 so I downloaded it to see if it fix the problem. It did not. I have included all the packaged lots in the hope they will help you figure out how to fix it. It just dawned on me as I was writing this that you might need the neighborhoods too. I have attached the one for BG, NL, OFB from AGS. I have also attached the individual mini-game ones for SS and BV from BGS. I hope this information is all useful. I would rather give you too much than not enough.

Thank you for your time,

Winterhart

end quote

Any help will be much appreciated

Thank you for your time,

Winterhart

I'm moving this conversation over from the LotAdjuster thread, since this technique is only peripherally related to the program. This technique happens to use a feature of the LotAdjuster to work around some behavior in the game, and the game has now changed so that the workaround is no longer sufficient.

For the original post that I'm quoting, please see:
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthre...447#post1979447

Thank you for saying that. However, I believe that you are communicating very well.

First, let me congratulate you on finding a way to do something which no one else has managed to do before.

Secondly, let me say that I understand your frustration. It's really annoying when EA changes "undefined behavior" in the game, expecially when you were used to exploiting that behavior. I know that this has affected me on several occasions. I've also seen hacks which specifically restore behavior from a previous EP, which means that other people were frustrated enough to go to a lot of effort to "fix" things by writing hacks.

In general, though, it is a very bad idea to insult people when you want their help. I will not tolerate these insults any longer, either in these forums or via PM. You must get your frustration under control and stop sniping at me, especially if you want me to help you with your problem.

Let me be clear: the LotAdjuster has never and will never change the way that the game displays the lot imposter in the neighborhood view. I'm sorry that the game has changed the way that it works, but this isn't the LotAdjuster's fault.

OK, this is good information. I believe that I might have an explanation for why this step is necessary:

It sounds like the game has always displayed the default neighborhood road texture when a neighborhood road overlaps the road on the lot.

To work around this behavior in the game, you expand the lot "over the road". Expanding over the road changes the apparent location of the road on the lot, so that it is not the actual location of the road on the lot. (As far as the game is concerned, the road is always at the edge of the lot.) Since the neighborhood and lot roads are now in different locations, there is a conflict which needs to be resolved: which texture should be displayed: the lot texture or the default neighborhood road texture? Earlier EPs display the lot texture, and newer EPs display the neighborhood road texture.

If my guess is correct, you could achieve the same result by removing the road from the lot, rather than expanding over the road. This would also overlay the neighborhood road with a non-road section of the lot. Earlier EPs will resolve this conflict by displaying the lot texture, while later EPs resolve the conflict by displaying the road texture.

If removing the road works, it might lead us to a new solution for your problem - one which might work with later EPs.

Since the game no longer "correctly" resolves the conflict between the lot and neighborhood textures, perhaps the solution is to avoid creating that conflict in the first place. IE, remove the road from the lot and move the lot so that it no longer overlaps a road. With any luck, the game will then display the dirt pseudo-road in the neighborhood view.

This relies on the game displaying the lot texture in the neighborhood view, as long as that texture doesn't overlap a neighborhood road. Note that I have no idea whether the game actually does this, or whether this behavior has changed in recent EPs.

Luckily, the LotAdjuster supports both removing roads from lots and moving lots away from the road. You can also do these things by modding the neighborhood package directly, if you prefer.

[QUOTE=Mootilda]
In general, though, it is a very bad idea to insult people when you want their help. I will not tolerate these insults any longer, either in these forums or via PM. You must get your frustration under control and stop sniping at me, especially if you want me to help you with your problem.

I'm sorry that the game has changed the way that it works, but this isn't the LotAdjuster's fault.
end Quote

First, I want to apologize for my inexcusable behavior, and thank you for your patients. Second, I truly do understand that it is not LotAdjuster's fault.

I just skimmed through your post and will read it thoroughly before I post anything more.

Again, thank you for your time and patience.

http://www.modthesims2.com/showpost...4&postcount=174

PS:
BTW, FYI, this is now categorised not a TS2 tool question but rather a modding question.
May ask a moderator to move the thread to the modding forum.


Links
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=286308
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=292381

Update:

download added.

Winterhart, if you *do* manage to get multiple road types working again, it would be wonderful if you could write a step-by-step tutorial, so that other people can benefit from your work.

It really *is* an achievement to find a way to do something which no one has ever done before. I'm sure that there are other people who could benefit from your hard work.

Thank you Mootilda. I would be happy to do a tutorial. I can at least do one for the early EP's.

If you'd like, I can add a link to your tutorial to the LotAdjuster thread, to help people find it. Just give me the link when the tutorial has been posted.