BI-SWILS

 B oddler- I nduced S ocial W orker I nfinite L oop S yndrome, or BI-SWILS, is a TNFL condition that occurs in The Sims 2 when a Social Worker NPC cannot haul a character off of a lot due to the improper alignment of character age data with character geometry, which leads to a failure of the animation scripts upon which the game depends to function properly.

The common error message produced by the game in debug mode is:

"Animaton Error: IK Target Animation cannot find bone on other object..."

Infection

 * Unlike an occurrence of CT-BILS, which cannot be saved, instances of a Boddler can be saved before BI-SWILS is in full motion, making the lot unplayable in the instance of all future attempts to play.
 * Attempting to play this lot directly will result in BI-SWILS occurring immediately after loading, and in some cases, may even lead to CLL-FILS (see below).
 * If this unplayable lot is uploaded to a file, the file becomes a virus which will infect any game wherein which the file was downloaded, making others' games unplayable as well.

There are several ways to create a Boddler instance, and several reasons one may be generated on its own:

Involuntary Instances
These can happen if the game acts up, or if some other prior condition is met which causes the character age behavior data and the skeletal data to become maligned.

Obsolete Hacks
If using an outdated version of a hack from TwoJeffs or JM Pescado of More Awesome Than You, such as the No Townie Respawn and No Dormie Regeneration hacks, then this can render the game's townie generation engine unstable rather than simply disabling it.

With SimPE, it is possible to see exactly what happens. The hack confuses the townie respawn engine right at its ability to commit to memory the age data for the character. By default, any character with unknown age data is treated like an infant by the game. This leads to several instances of Baults, as shown in the picture.

SimPE Belches
An error when using SimPE can cause a corruption of character file data.

InSimenator Belches
Improper loading of the InSimenator, especially old versions, can cause bad character data.

Expansion Pack Belches
Installation errors of University can make the game particularly prone to bad character data.

Bad Character Inception
Character data in the Original and in University is particularly prone to bad character data. The Nightlife expansion corrects many of these problems.

Hardware failure
Playing the game on a hard drive that is more than five years old can be a recipe for trouble, especially if you play it on a faulty year 2000 motherboard with only 384 MB of RAM and an unsupported video card such as NVidia Riva TNT2 Pro.

Voluntary Instances
Careless or deliberate abuse of 3rd-party software, patches, hacks, and even the game's built-in cheat functions will almost invariably increase the likelihood of Boddlers. In an 11:30 PM chat discussion on January 13th, 2007, well-renowned hacker JM Pescado of More Awesome Than You could only imagine that misusing game cheats was the cause of BI-SWILS.

Trash Can Abuse
It is possible to enable the deleting of Sims on a lot and then using a debug option on the trash can to bring them back. However, the behavior quirk of the game, according to JM Pescado, is that it will always return them to their last-saved state, not their state before deletion.

This has been the nature of the game since the original game The Sims hit store shelves in 2000. If a baby ages to a toddler, save the game before you delete the toddler. Also, if you delete the toddler before saving, then exit without saving.

DO NOT bring the Toddler back and then save! If you bring the toddler back and then save, the toddler will retain its toddler skeleton but revert to infant behavior. Saved, this becomes a basic-class Boddler. This creature is useless and can lock-up the game. It will make your lot unplayable and unsafe for uploading.

InSim/InTeen Abuse
While this is a little trickier, abusing the InSimenator and/or the InTeenimator will increase the likelihood of out-of-sync age behaviors.

Cursed University NPC's
Moving unpatched University NPC's into residential homes will increase the likelihood of problems.

Deliberate SimPE Tinkering
This is the absolute easiest way to add these illnesses to the game. Players should never misuse SimPE.

Corrupt Character Teleportation
This is asking for trouble. If a character has bad data and you are aware of it, fix them in SimPE before using the InSimenator's Summoner object to haul them around amongst lots.

Prevention
It is entirely possible to avoid ever having to worry about Boddlers. The following steps should help:


 * Never abuse the cheat system.
 * Keep a copy of the latest version of SimPE handy at all times just in case.
 * Never abuse SimPE.
 * Never abuse the Trash Can's "Reset Age Duration" feature.
 * Make sure your hardware is fairly recent and can handle the game before installing it.
 * Never play University unpatched. Preferably, get at least Nightlife to assist in patching it.
 * Don't move University NPC's into residential homes.
 * Use all hacks with caution and read the documentation provided by the authors.

Treatment
If you are infected with a Boddler in any of its classes or sub-classes, then there are easy ways to fix the problem:

In-Game, Boddlers Forged
The answer to this goes as follows:

Pre-InSimenator
If you don't have the InSimenator or some other way to manipulate aging, then you have approximately two Sim hours or so (normal real-time of two minutes) to solve the problem. You must immediately delete the Boddler. After this, save the game and exit to the neighborhood. Do nothing else on that lot.

After you have done this, find another lot or create one. Move in an unrelated group of Sims. Now, use the Tombstone of Life and Death to force-move everyone but the Boddler to live on the lot. The Boddler will exist in a bubble and will not bother any other files that way. Once your family is safe, you must decide the fate of the isolated Boddler.

To decide the fate of the Boddler, close the game. If you are willing to download the InSimenator and use the Temporal Adjustor, then skip to the step where the InSimenator has already been installed. Otherwise, follow these substeps...

Without InSimenator
If you've decided you will not use the InSimenator, then you can only save the character by editing his/her data in SimPE. Otherwise, you'll have to delete the character in-game.


 * 1) To do this, enter the neighborhood. It is recommendable to move child and house to the lot bay and then delete everything. If you wish to keep the house, move the Boddler out into the Sim holding by.
 * 2) Then, delete the Sim.
 * 3) Have the house name bearer of your original family move out of the benefactor's house. You can then move him back into his rightful house, and use the Tombstone of Life and Death to move the rest of his family back in with him.

BI-SWILS mechanics
Note: If you don't do these above, but try to play the lot, then one of two things will happen:

Either the lot won't load at all, leading to CLL-FILS, or it will load only to have the Social Worker arrive, which will be BI-SWILS.

If either condition occurs, then you and your game are in trouble. Under BI-SWILS, the game becomes particularly picky, especially if there are no Adults on the lot. The Social Worker will not leave until she gets the Baby.

She never will. The character age data was first forged in a C++ compiler, and the skeletal code was assembled with Maya. If ever these two age distinctions become maligned, then animations will try to execute on non-existent skeletal bones.

The Social Worker will eternally search in vain for a non-existent infant bone on a Toddler's skeleton. According to JM Pescado, the answer is to delete the Social Worker. This will only work temporarily, and only assuming the correct tools for doing so are active.

With regards to the Social Worker NPC, the game is extremely picky. She will arrive very quickly, and not leave until she gets what she wants, which she will never have in this case. The game locks up. Deleting the game only unlocks the exit button temporarily. If not exploited quickly, however, the game will re-lock the exit and generate a new Social Worker. Each time, the Social Worker will respawn a little faster.

Therefore, the best option when this happens to your game is the same as what one should do when CLL-FILS or CT-BILS occurs: type Ctrl+Alt+Delete in Windows and use the Windows Task Manager to escape your game. Simsky's Antidisasta Remote may or may not be an adequate substitute for task management, depending on the cause of the problem and your game's specific configuration.

With InSimenator
The easiest way to fix the forged Boddler without escapes, deletes, or SimPE is with the InSimenator Object Edition.


 * 1) After purchasing an InSimenator, make the Boddler selectable.
 * 2) Next, tell the Boddler to use the Temporal Adjustment settings on the machine, or to spawn the Temporal Adjustor hourglass and do the same.
 * 3) From there, use the Select Age menu appropriate to your version. This will allow you to force-age your Boddler into an Adult.
 * 4) Once the game has made them an adult, you can then revert-age them back into Toddlers. Do this, and then save the game.

With SimPE
The way outside the game to fix them is to simply select them in SimPE and make sure that their age assignment data matches their in-game skeleton. When you are certain that it does, commit any change you make and save. Close. You more than likely will find them restored to their senses. You can then move them wherever you please.

Corrupted Character Mysterious Move-Ins
This is very common when you have University and no other expansion, especially if you are fooling around with NPCs. The steps to treat them are the same as above for treating Trash Can Boddlers.

Adults Acting Like Teens
This specific example is of the Boddler Class of Boddler and the sub-class of Tendault. A Tendault is any Adult that somehow obeys Teen behavior in spite having an Adult skeleton.

Without woohoo hacks, this means that the resulting Adult will be sterile. In any other respect though, it means that they will behave more or less like they should. They might have teen needs and education/jobs.

The solution to a Tendault is simple: Use the Tombstone of Life and Death to Age Transition them. They will keep their Adult skeleton but will change their default everyday outfit. They will now, however, properly behave like Adults.

Classifications
The most broad definition of a "boddler" in any game environment is:

"...any object with multiple layers of code language and logic, in which the stability of the object depends on a synchronization of the logic in the layers, but in which those layers have lost synchronization and become maligned, leading to a useless object that could endanger the stability of the entire game..."

Not all boddlers are inherently dangerous to all games. Some can be created deliberately and are exploited for humorous purposes.

In Medal of Honor: Frontline, one could argue that the game has deliberate "boddlers."

The "Men With Hats" cheat, for example, makes Nazis wear french fries, entire trains, weapons, and various other random objects as hats. This would therefore be a deliberate instance of a boddler, done for comedic purposes.

Since the term "boddler" originates with The Sims 2, however, the following describes the "boddler" with more distinction:


 * The term "boddler" with a small "b" defines any object with maligned code.
 * The term "Boddler" with a capital "B" defines the confusion of "Baby" and "Toddler" by the game's aging simulator.

Main article: Boddler Sub-Classes

The Boddler Type of Boddler can be brought about by almost any of the above-listed causes. The Endault Type, or Inverse Boddler, is almost always the result of cheat/SimPE/hack abuse.