Hi again,
OK. I need to report that after 2 sim days of nothing spawning in my neighborhood, the spawners started again after I shut the game down and restarted it (just after I posted the above comment).
I find that a lot of the issues reported in this bug thread (not just this one), like sims not washing dishes and inexplicable poor environment score are solved when I shut the game down and start it again. I can even save from the point things go wrong and not lose any progress, but the issue is resolved when I get back. I have the downloaded game (not disc). Anyway, this doesn't solve the bug, but does allow the player to move on (temporarily). Having said that, some days I have to shut the game down several times a night - so not ideal.
I started a new game with auto-aging enabled from the beginning. After a couple sim weeks the spawners start to disappear again. I agree that restarting the game will refresh the spawners around the home lot, but it doesn't seem to do any good in other neighborhoods.
I'd like to know if EA acknowledges this as a bug slated for fixing - or not.
