Everything's Gone! *cry*

[Madison-Simple-As-That]

I was wondering how I could get Pleasantview and Strangetown back? They just disapeared and I'd like them back, please!

Thanks!

P.S. I googled it and checked the MTS2 sthread and it's no help. Grrrreth! I miss ole Donny and the stupid Pleasantview twins and the slutty Caliente sisters and all of them aliens! *sniff*

EDIT: Problem fixed, but I lost all of my custom neighborhoods that I've spent months and years on. It's all gone, and I can't get it back.

[saowens]

You can copy them from the original sims2 base game cd into your game. I think the path to them on the cd is \TSData\Neighborhoods and I know Pleasantview is N001 but I don't remember what Strangetown is. (I'm not at home to look right now.)

 Just copy the N001 and Strangetown folders (I think it is N002) from the sims2 cd to c:\Program Files > EA Games > The Sims 2 > TSData > Res > UserData > Neighborhoods. Then start the game. That should regenerate them in \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\neighborhoods folder on your pc also. This is the path on WindowsXP. I'm not sure what it is for Vista. If it doesn't recreate them in the my documents folder path you can copy them into their also.

I would recommend that you make a backup copy of your sims2 folder under my documents before you start though just in case you need to undo this.

Edit: Strangetown is N002

[Engram]

DO NOT put anything into your Program Files folder tree. If I could make that sparkle and blink, I would.

The easiest way to generate all the Maxis hoods in their unplayed form is to take out the Neighbourhoods folder from My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\. Put it somewhere safe, like the desktop. Fire up the game. It will take a bit longer than usual to start and once it does, you will have all your Maxis hoods back. Keep what you want, remove what you don't. Exit the game.

N001 = Pleasantview
N002 = Strangetown
N003 = Veronaville
G001 = Riverblossom Hills
F001 = Desiderata valley
E001 = Belladonna Cove

This is all assuming you have all the expansion packs. Keep in mind that since Pets, neighborhood numbering is a bit different. In a pre-Pets game, all custom hoods will be names N004 and above. Since Pets, any new hood will take the next available neighborhood number provided the new hood is created in a new gaming session. Say you fire up the game and delete Veronaville. If you create a custom hood right away, it will be named N004. But if you exit the game then fire it up again, then create a new hood, the hood will be assigned N003, because that is the next lowest available number. Does that make sense? So don't assume that your N003 is Veronaville because if you have Pets or above and have deleted VV and then made a new hood, N003 may be a different hood altogether.

Now it is time to put back the hoods from the backup you made to the desktop. If you find that you already have N001, N002 or N003 in your backup (see above for why this may be) but you want to keep the Maxis hood, you will need to do the following:

1. Rename the folder N004 or above. Take note of what it is called.

2. Using a mass renaming utility (I use CKRename but there are other utilities that are just as good) you now need to rename each and every file in each and every subfolder of your newly renamed folder. The files all need to start with the same N00x (where x is the number you gave to the hood) as the folder. Not all files will start with N00x. Don't worry about those, the game will know how to find them. It's the ones that start with N00x that you need to worry about.

Once you have renamed all the files to match the folder name, you can restore the backup.

It is very important that you pay extreme attention to your folder and file names. Do not, under any circumstances, say "I have a pre-played Veronaville so I'll just overwrite the newly generated unplayed one". This will cause all sorts of problems. If you want to keep your old Veronaville and don't want the new one - delete the new one then put the old one in. DO NOT overwrite.

[Madison-Simple-As-That]

I'm a little confused. I was wondering if I could just delete the neighborhoods folder, go in game, delete VeronaVille, and that's all I want, I don't want anything else but Pleasantview and Strangetown. Would that be okay? I don't want my old ones back anyways, they're messed up.

[Engram]

Yep, that would be fine. I was just giving instructions for if you wanted to restore your other hoods. If you want to get rid of everything and just play P'view ans S'town - go for it Those are my favourite Maxis hoods, too.

[Madison-Simple-As-That]

Ah, okay. Thanks!

[Madison-Simple-As-That]

Sorry for the double post, but it didn't work. I deleted the neighborhoodmanager, and went in game, the other neighborhoods were not there. Turned it off, then back on, and they still weren't there, but it did regenerate the neighborhoodmanager.

Help?

[Engram]

Not neighbourhood manager - the entire Neighbourhoods folder needs to be deleted. If you delete just the contents of the folder, that won't do anything. I'm sure I said Neighbourhoods folder not neighbourhood manager file.

[Madison-Simple-As-That]

Wow. *Shakes head* I keep doing that!

Sorry, I must've been all mixed up. The WHOLE neighborhood folder? Goshiwow. I'll try that right now, Thanks Engram. 

I'll come back and edit my post and let you know if it worked well. I'm sure it will since Engram is a genious.

EDIT: Okay I deleted it, now I'm going to load up the game.

EDIT 2: It worked, but it deleted my custom neighborhood I've been working on for MONTHS! All of my familys were in like 4th generation and I didn't save any! I lost them all! *weep*
I'm so lost right now. I'll have to start making sims all over. I killed all of the ugly townies after tons of hard work and didn't save any of my houses or sims or lots or anything! Everything's gone... 
Is there any way to get it back, or is it just gone forever?

[Engram]

Did you clear your computer's trash bin? You can try to get the Neighbourhoods folder back from there. If you read through my instructions, I said that you need to create a backup first, then gave instructions on how to restore the backup so you didn't lose anything.

[Madison-Simple-As-That]

I did, the Neighborhood folder is still there, but now it's useless, I cannot put my custom folder back in, there's another neighborhood already with the name, and when I tried changing it it still didn't show up. It's gone.

I have no clue how to make a back-up, and I've read instructions but I'm still confused.

 

[caffeinated.joy]

Select the file you want to back up. Right click and choose "Copy". Paste the file somowhere else.

And you have a backup.