Has anyone used, or does anyone know how to use, the "AllMenus" cheat, as described here? It looks extremely cool, but it seems like it's hard to turn on (or else it requires OFB or something else that I don't have). I tried to turn it on my just turning on testingCheats in the neighborhood screen and then doing "allmenus on" once in a lot, but "allmenus" (and "allMenus" and some other variants) weren't recognized. The instructions on the page are much more complicated, and perhaps imply that testingCheats has to be turned on very early and very globally, via this magical XML file.

But once it's turned on in whatever way, it looks like it lets you do all sorts of interesting things...

Looks interesting! I'm gonna give it a shot...will get back to you! (Of course, I'm running with NL and OFB, but I'll let you know if I even got it to work...)

OOH! Did you see these?

Quote:

simOutfit [sim in on lot first name [casual | casual2 | casual3 | swim | sleep | formal | underwear | naked | maternity | gym | tryon | nakedOverlay]] - displays info about meshes, textures etc. (Check out the screenshot) SimDNA [sim's name] displays DNA info ::screenshot::

Got it to work! What you have to do is find the C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\Config folder. If you don't have OFB you use the folder of the latest expansion pack you have. I also did it in my core Sims 2 folder because it didn't work the first time. In that folder right-click on the globalProps XML file, click Edit, and add <AnyBoolean key="testingCheatsEnabled" type="0xcba908e1">true</AnyBoolean> somewhere in that list of AnyBoolean lines. That makes your game automatically start with testingcheats active and the game in debug mode. (I also manually turned on testingcheats when I got to my neighborhood screen, just to be extra safe) Then open the cheat window and type in allmenus true. Also type in debugsocial on if you want to be able to force a sim to accept or reject an action. Played around with it and it's pretty neat! Will come in VERY handy for story purposes!

Cool! Do you know if it's possible to turn debug mode and/or testingCheats (are they the same?) while playing, if it's started up like that? It makes me nervous to play with cheat modes turned on; I'm afraid I'll do something dangerous by accident...

It doesn't seem to work for me. However, I managed to skip installing the Uni/NL patch when I reinstalled, so it might be that too. Silly me assumed OFB had the patch built in. Nope, can't change a toddler's outfit...

Rose/Miros

dmchess wrote:

Cool! Do you know if it's possible to turn debug mode and/or testingCheats (are they the same?) while playing, if it's started up like that? It makes me nervous to play with cheat modes turned on; I'm afraid I'll do something dangerous by accident...

Yes, "debug mode" and "testing cheats on" are the same thing.

I always run with the testing cheats turn on. All I needed to do was to put this line...

boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true

...in My Documents\The Sims 2\config\userStartup.cheat.

I've never run into problems where I accidentally did dumb things. The only object I've had difficulty with is the testing cheats programmed on the mailbox so I never shift-click on the mailbox.

The drawback to having the Testing Cheats turned on is that the temptation is always there to just use a cheat to clean up a mess. However the same is true of having cheat objects in the house, and I have lots of those around, so for me that's not an impact.

Here's what my whole userStartup.cheats file looks like:

intprop censorgridsize 0
sethighestallowedlevel 10
boolprop useShaders true
boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true

I suspect that the first line is moot because Maxis programmed around that one to make it more difficult to look at nekkid sims.

Having testingcheats on seems to conflict with the Macro->Skillinator option. But I can always turn them OFF when I need to auto-skill!

miros1 wrote:

Having testingcheats on seems to conflict with the Macro->Skillinator option. But I can always turn them OFF when I need to auto-skill!

Aha! I've never run into that because I don't use JM's skillinator. I think I tried it once, couldn't figure it out, and decided that it was important to the way I play the game.

If it finds problems, like routing problems to the desired object, object in use, helmet in use, Sim already in terrible mood, etc., it just seems to cut out completely... a little dialog there to tell you what went wrong would be a big help instead of the Sim putting on the helmet and immediately putting it back on the table.

When it works right, it keeps them working the specified skill til the cows come home or they get into a terrible mood. I had a Sim turn into a virus making machine yesterday!

miros1 wrote:

... I had a Sim turn into a virus making machine yesterday!

*Blink* I'm guessing that this was a clever turn of a phrase but in The Sims you can never know for sure!

What is a "virus making machine"?

I think she means she used Skillinator and then stuck the Sim on the science career reward object for hours on end...but yeah, you never know for sure!

Greg wrote:

I always run with the testing cheats turn on. All I needed to do was to put this line... boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true ...in My Documents\The Sims 2\config\userStartup.cheat.

And can you use the allmenus cheat? I found that I couldn't after turning on testingCheats in the normal cheat-window way, and since the instructions on the web talk about altering the globalProps XML file, I wondered if maybe there's something special about getting into debug mode that way that's different from using the cheat window or (maybe) the userStartup.cheat file. Or something... *8)

Try turning it on in neighborhood view, not house view. I'm writing up a story piece right now so I don't want to turn on the game and risk getting absorbed in it. I don't know if that will work, but supposedly when it's in proper debug mode you'll see the version number in the top right-hand corner of the screen. If it doesn't work this way then there must be something special about editing the .xml file that does something that just typing the cheat in doesn't do.

In my limited experimenting, I did turn on the testingCheats via the cheat window in a neighborhood view, and then went into a lot and typed "allmenus on" (and various variations on spelling and capitalization) to no avail (error messages about not knowing what "allmenus" means in all cases). But I may have been doing something wrong, or it might not work in my exact version of NL-and-no-OFB, or I might have dreamed the whole thing or... *8)