News about the Super Duper Hug…

dramallamadingdang:

I figured I’d share this here, since it’s a subject that seems to be discussed rather often…

I think most people know about what the Hug is by now. You’ll suddenly see new menu options called “DEBUG – Super Duper Hug” and your Sims will start obsessively giving friendly hugs to everyone. It is, in reality, not a “bug” at all. It’s actually dormant Maxis testing code that becomes activated by removing mods that affect social interactions. The code can also be activated by downloading a lot made by a user in whose game the code has been activated. The latter is how it propagates through the community. The only way to “cure” it once you have it is to abandon all your neighborhoods and reinstall your game (because this restores the code to dormant rather than active status), BUT there are also several mods available that will completely suppress the behavior, both the menu options and the hugging behavior, which is a far easier solution.

One of those mods is BoilingOil’s “No Sim Loaded” mod. It had been widely reported that if you install that mod prior to being infected, it will prevent the code from becoming active. However, that is apparently not the case. That post is straight from BoilingOil, and the reality is that installing BO’s mod prior to “infection” means that you will simply never see the effects of the code. “No Sim Loaded” does NOT prevent infection, as has been widely believed. 

The good news is that the bug is not a serious thing at all. As I said, it is not actually a bug but Maxis code that actually exists in everyone’s game but is not normally used. It is not something malicious. Having the code active will not damage your game or neighborhoods and, so long as you have BO’s mod (or one of the others that also suppress its effects), you will never know you have it. The bad news is that, if you do have the Hug and you share lots, you will pass your “infection” around to anyone who isn’t infected and you (and they) will not be able to get rid of it without completely reinstalling your game. So, that’s the deal.

To be honest, I don’t think that having the hug active should prevent you from sharing; rather I think that the idea of having one of the mods that suppress the code ought to be advocated because there could be thousands of lots already out there that are “infected.” So, that’s what I’m doing here. Install a little mod and never worry about the issue again. Play, build, share lots, and go on with your life. 🙂

“No Sim Loaded” can be found here. It is the newest mod of those that suppress the code once activated, and, IMO, everyone ought to have it, especially if you download lots. That way, if you get the Hug, you will never know it and, as I said, having it will not damage your game/neighborhoods. No need to freak out; you simply need to suppress it and move on with your playing.