Is this common?

[invaderzim]

I'm having a bit of a problem, and its got me scratching my head.
I found a site today that I'd never seen, and they have some great sets that I wanted to use to create a new shopping district. For some reason, every single item causes my game to crash on startup. I thought maybe it was a compatibility issue (I have base, UNI, NL, OFB).
That wasn't the problem though, because its even happening with sets and items that only need the base game. I've tried the full set in a folder, and then went so far as to try each item individually.
Its very odd, but every one of them crash my game when its about halfway loaded. It happened ONLY with the items from this particular site.
Has anyone had this happen, or heard of such a thing?

[ladymiriam]

Never heard of that myself, I'd like to know what site you were at, though, just so I know not to get anything if I do come across it.  At least you can easily get rid of them if they are all borked.  Sorry, I can't be any more help.

[rwills]

Strictly a random thought, but are you sure it is a Sims 2 site and not a Sims3 site?

[Engram]

What site is it and what sets did you download from there? There are certain items known to crash the game (eg. Tiki side table from TSR), but we need to know what you downloaded in order to take a look at it and try to find out what the problem may be.

[gazania]

I had that happen with a bunch of Sims 2 stuff by this particular creator on TSR. (Can't remember the name .... sorry.) EVERY item from this creator crashed big-time. And these were Seasons items, and I had Seasons. They were obviously based off Maxis Seasons items. That was the last time I ever downloaded anything from anyone at TSR.

It's also happened to me with a bunch of furniture from another site. Once again, I don't remember the name. It wasn't a well-known one ... I do know that. It wasn't ModtheSims, Insim, Tarox, etc.

So while no, I don't think it's common, it does happen from time to time.  Good thing you could find the items quickly and get rid of them!

[MaryH]

Oh, it does happen-but usually it's because the creator did not do the meshing of the objects very well, and somehow corrupted them.
I've had it happen in my game, as well-but the creator redid the entire set and now it works-btw, that was Adele's Chinese furniture set, and it works like a charm now. I guess she had to re-mesh the entire set to work with the base game; it was crashing a few others' games, as well.
If only all creators were as responsive to their "customers". It shows that the creator is very lazy if they don't even reply about an object crashing in the game, let alone fix it.

[invaderzim]

Sorry I didn't mention the site before. I didn't want it to seem that I was bashing the site, because the problem could have been on my end.
Anyway, the site is Sims Connection.
They have a lot of things I like, but like I said before, literally every single item I tried from that site crashed my game.
Its really strange....

[ladymiriam]

Hmmmmm, I've got a few of their commercial sets in my game and it loads fine and plays ok, but haven't used their items yet in game.  I didn't get most from the site itself though, you know you can pay there or get the same files free from the booty-I hope you didn't pay for anything.

[invaderzim]

I've tried the commercial sets as well. Fortunately I haven't paid to be a member. I grabbed a couple free sets off the site, and a couple more from the booty. It didn't matter either way, still crashes. I just tried another tonight, and the same thing.

[ladymiriam]

That's really odd, I've got the French Bakery Set, History Set, Country Market, a garden set, Gothic Study, Gothic Carnival, Medieval Tavern, Pirate Tavern, Cheese and Wine Set and the Wizard's Set.  I may have more, the odd free thing from the site itself, but my game is fine, sorry to rub it in.  I may check them in game properly today, though and see if there's anything untoward.  I think I 've used the wizard set and country market briefly and those were ok.    Sorry I can't be of any more help.

edit:  I refurbished the A1 clothing store, or something, in Belladonna with stuff from the above list of sets, not all deco objects but the ones I know may have been problematic, food bins for example-I've had bother with them before.  I had testing cheats enabled when I sent one of the Cordial women to visit.  No errors and all interactions seem to be taking place as normal.  That's all I can do for you, I'm afraid.  Good luck with it anyway.   

[baileybop]

I had that same problem with that particular site. They don't respond to any e-mails either. I just gave up and got rid of everything from them.

[Paden]

One thing I do religiously when I add new custom content is to delete the cache files. I'll assume that you've already done this though and these sets are just the ebil. And no, Sims Connection isn't totally free and they've had some borked objects before. It's been a long time since I've had that problem with anything, though. I hope you get it sorted out because there's nothing more a pain in the butt than a game that bloody crashes because of content...

[invaderzim]

Probably a really silly question, but what and where are cache files?
I'll give that a shot next....
Thanks for the input everyone.

[MaryH]

In your active game folder, there is a "groups cache" listing under all the other folders with the file listing of "CACHE".
This is what you delete.  It will clear out all the accumulated debris caused by loading the game.