Promotion related problems causing serious difficulties with LTW

[killertomatoes]

First I want to acknowledge the fact that I got such swift, constructive and abundant help from the wonderful moderators here and especially the one and only MissDoh that I decided to post my evergrowing problem about my sims not having any memories of being promoted plus rotating promotion icon no longer appears over their head on their return from work on the day they got a promotion. As you can assume this blows the chance of practically 3/4ths of sims in my neighborhood to achieve their ltws. I digged Simpe's forums yet couldn't come across a similar case. Guess this happened either while I was on a roll of deleting some clutter of memories or when I was struggling to find the missing sims (once I got errors in Simpe about 11 missing sims; I managed to clear 10 of them however (leading us to my second problem:)  within the process I managed to lose grim reaper and Mrs.Crumplebottom: now only scythe of the first and  purse of the latter are visible in the game, hence since Grim reaper cannot be ticked,  sims are no longer able to plead for love ones (LESSON FOR NEWBIES: NEVER PLAY AROUND WITH SYSTEM FILES UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING).
I tried to assign new LTW to some (i.e. 50 dream dates instead of becoming celebrity chef) this worked but I cannot assign the same ltw to everyone. Furthermore I tried to insert memory of being promoted and becoming celebrity chef on the day that the sim actually reached top of his career: yeah sim has the memory yet ltw is still not reached because it is done manually. So I am lost :sad1:and in desperate need for your valuable suggestions.
Thank you

[MissDoh]

Killer tomato, I am sorry to say you played too much with simPe and there is no way to make it work.  By deleting the grim reaper and mrs. crumblebottom, you probably modified your objects.package file too, yikes!

If you have a back-up of it before you deleted all those memories use it, if not, you will have to delete that hood and start a new one.  You can extract the sims you want to keep with SimPe prior to deleting it.  But one thing you will need to do is uninstall and reinstall Seasons so you get a normal objects.package file back.

Squinge have many mods stopping some memories from happening like "no met subject" and "no mystery sims".  You can also clear unuseful memories using the FFS debugger.

[killertomatoes]

Doesn't sound grim just catastrophic. Well I can't say I miss Mrs. Crumplebottom however grim Reaper I do. It may not have happened while delving into memories but through my blindfolded expedition of sorting missing sims by ID numbers shown in the error mssg box. I tried yet could'nt achieve at the time but still let me ask you: is it possible to retrieve the image of grim reaper from objects package of the original sims 2 and somehow replace the scythe with the full image cos other than being reduced to scythe he functions thoroughly(ehhm). Still now that I have hacked painting and Insimenator I am rather hoping that I will not be honored by his presence (wishful thinking? or no).
Well my more urgent problem is actually relevant to promotions.  I did not delete promotion memories. I just don't know what happened cos for instance dreamdate icon is missing as well, instead there is a green blank box that when pointed w cursor, reads "I had a dream date with so and so". Also when sims congratulate one another about having a dream date, a colorful scratch is visible in dialogue balloon instead of the relevant icon. I managed to destroy many other icons at the time however replaced icon file with that of original sims 2 so recovered those relevant to the original game (Now I don't even remember which file I copied and pasted over which cos I did all of this last year and apparently I am only able to retain recent memories_ I am a sad sad cupcake). By the way, I only have Nightlife ep. Well I'm not bothered anymore about the missing icons. However no automatic memory of being promoted sucks; how am I supposed to realise majority of my sims ltws now*sighs* Uninstalling and reinstalling will cause all mods and patches to be re-installed right? AGGRHH No No I rather throw my computer out of the window. So I'am going to live with it cos a lot has changed since last simpe backup I simply cannot go through that again. Isn't there a way of just copying objects file in the Nightlife installation game cd  and replacing the corrupted one  with that???. So you reckon I messed up the promotion mechanism while I nuked the icons. Snff* Sniff I think I'm going to cry now for a day or so" Thank you MissDoh as always you're a star.

[MissDoh]

You could always try to get the original objects.package file from the cd and put in back in c:/programfiles/eagames/thesims2nightlife/tsdata/res/objects folder.

The memory lacking problem is related to that file being modified.

Thing is by placing the original one, I am not sure you will be able to patch the game again and have the new objects.package file coming with the patch therefore the reason I told you to uninstall and reinstall the latest ep you have.

Once you copy that objects.package file, make it a read-only one.  It will help having problems in the future and be very careful of what you do in SimPe.

You will have to use a back-up you made prior to changing the memories still because the problem will happen again if you do not do so.

The scartching bubbles is a sign of an unhealthy hood that is about to explode and being unplayed.  There is a fix for that though I think since you only have nightlife at the MATY site made by Pescado but it cannot repair what is already broken.  That problem is related with missing memories and it is almost impossible to found which one.

I am sorry but I think you are in a dead end right now.  Let's hope before you started to play with SimPe you kept a copy of your hood.

One last request, could you do more paragraph when you write about your problems, it is a bit hard to read.  Thanks.

[miros1]

Since it looks like she's accidentally deleted stuff from objects.package, I'm thinking that needs repaired first...

1) Backup your hood as it is now.  
2) Reinstall NL.  I've forgotten the exact procedure.
3) See how much of your problems are fixed.

[killertomatoes]

Last Simpe backup is dated 03-08-2006. Half of my sims in the current neighborhood have not been even born then!!

So what was the procedure in akin to uninstall/re-install again ? Since I'm soooo talented in messing up, I thought I should jot down what I know so that you can correct me if I'm on the wrong track again!
 
First, I have to move my downloads folder somewhere else first and rename it(to be patched over the original downloads folder once installation is complete).
 
Then uninstall and re-install the game. (I dont even remember which patches I 'am using and where are they saved in the computer!!! Brrr!!). If I can locate exact files of current patches then I can save them under desktop or something , so that I don't have to search for them once again.

So after re-installing the game , I'll replace the downloads file with the current one (after renaming that file "downloads" again) and copy/paste patches I saved under desktop to whichever folder they were originally located. And you think this way I'll be able to fix the problem? Would censor removal and other nude patches still work like they're now? I mean what exactly I will lose within the process? ??

Or as miros1 indicated, should I backup hood as it is w Simpe, delete the old backup and then uninstall and reinstall the game ? Would I be able to fix the problem and have everything in tact as in its current state ??

Am I making any sense at all

Or since I've been playing the game on and off for about a year now in its current corrupted state with no other problems other than the aforementionned  should I keep on playing the way it is  and forget about realising ltws of many sims? I mean would playing the game with such messed up objects file blow up in my face in future ?(would it get any worse than it already is?  

Am I still making sense

Thank you for all your patience and support.

P.S. MissDoh , thank you for pointing out the lousy format of my posts. You're absolutely right. My writing looks like scribbling of a madman. I'll try to maintain my sanity in writing from now on:sad3::sad3::sad3:

[MissDoh]

If you make a back-up of your already corrupted hood with Sim-Pe and use it after you reinstall the game it won't solve your problem. The missing memories you deleted already won't magically re-appear and you will be at the exact same place you are now.

By using an old back-up with which you did not change anything, the memories are as they were (ok some sims won't be in it but it is the price to pay)

So move your downloads folder, uninstall and then reinstall Nightlife.  Install the patch that you can get here:  The Sims 2 Nightlife CD Patch Start the game and enable cc in your game right away even if you did not have put your downloads folder back yet, it will save you from quitting it later.

Go in this folder c:/programfiles/eagames/thesims2nightlife/tsdata/res/objects folder and make the objects.package file a read-only type of file.

Quit the game, place back your downloads folder and your back-up in place.  Start the game and it should be back as it was before you played with Sim-Pe.

Now use the ffs debugger and other tools you have in game to delete unuseful memories.  I suggest again you install a few of Squinge mods like "no met subject" it works very good.  It is safter to do this with those in-game tools then with sim-pe if you are not familiar with it.

May I asked what was the memories you wanted so much to delete in the first place?

[killertomatoes]

I'm grateful for your comprehensive instructions. Thanks soooo much.

May I asked what was the memories you wanted so much to delete in the first place?

You see that's what I've been trying to explain: I only deleted vermin, some of fire, some of burned food, i.e some met Victor (townie), became best friends with Victor sort of memories.

(I deleted some NPCs by finding out their ID no from their respective character folder and deleting that file from downloads (by the way, is it customary to keep all sims plus npcs files  under My Documents/EA Games/Sims 2/Sims 2 Nightlife/Downloads folder?))

Since 2005 is ancient history for those who has major memory capacity issues like me, I can only guess. Possibly I must have deleted met i.e. Victor, became best friends with Victor memories cos I deleted that NPC. I must have reasoned that if I delete the sim I should delete others memories about him as well.  NPCs I deleted were mostly dead relatives of Maxi's families like Goths.
I DID NOT DELETE GRIM REAPER OR MRS. CRUMPLEBOTTOM THAT I'M SURE.
 
Plus I deleted some of the family reunion memories. Oh! and in one case a family's twin babies got stuck in their crib and whomever tries to hold them were getting stuck and eventually dying. I couldn't figure out why at the time so I got their parents in hottub in a seperate room and removed the door of the room, so that they will not be able to rush to hold and feed their babies and let the social worker come and collect them. This was such a terrorising experience for them. So I decided to remove those babies from family tree and delete parents' memories of having them and social worker taking them away. Thats really it.

Since that time I made similar modifications on memories of many other sims  and no additional problems occurred.

See thats the thing: I DO NOT THINK I CORRUPTED OBJECTS FILE WHILE DELETING SIM MEMORIES. I THINK I CORRUPTED OBJECTS FILE WHILE I WAS TRYING TO LOCATE MISSING SIMS AND IN COURSE OF MY ATTEMPTS OF FIXING THAT ERROR. You must know what I'm talking about right?

You open SIMPE and load neighborhood that you wish to modify. Once loaded in my case at the time 11 error windows popped up stating that there are 11 missing sims. So I consulted the Simpe's forum. I don't recall clearly so I really can't say but obviously I thought I was doing the right thing to fix those errors. Its all bleak to me now.


However on a separate note, in your earlier post you said:

Thing is by placing the original one, I am not sure you will be able to patch the game again and have the new objects.package file coming with the patch

 

Now, I read the list of fixes of Nightlife patch from the link you given and I don't think I have patch cos my sims still experience some of the bugs listed there (i.e. memory of making out with themselves). Then I remember faintly about reading this list at the time I purchased and installed NL and reasoning that since majority of the bugs listed there were UNi related and as I do not have and don't intend to get Uni, I would get the patch if I needed in future.

So in order to make sure, I have to know under which folder will the patch be normally located.


In other words if I don't have the patch installed then I could copy objects file from installation cd right ?

If your answer is Yes ,

Then on a further note, granted that I could copy and replace the corrupted file with the original from installation cd,  last month I  deleted N001 and N002(pleasentville and strangetown) neighborhoods, would this cause a problem??

Never at ease in peace, I guess that's me!

I'M sooo slow and thick in the head that it is fretfully embarrassing to exploit my mental incapabilities like this

Thank you for bearing with me.

[MissDoh]

Of course you can try at first to simply copy the objects.package from the cd and see what will happen.  It might help but I doubt it will fix all your problems.  The memories are corrupted for good and it would take a lot of patience to fix them all if at all possible. The objects.package might have got corrupted if a vampire bite Mrs. Crumplebottom for example.  By making the objects.package file a read-only one it cannot be changed and for the game Mrs Crumplebottom is an object not a character file like the sims you make or townies and some of the NPC.  The patch does prevent Mrs. Crumplebottom from getting bitten but I still suggest you make the objects.package file a read-only one after you install the patch out of precaution.

The patch is not located in a folder in perticular, what it does is replace many files (including the objects.package one) for new ones so you cannot locate it.  If your game is not patch after all, I strongly suggest you do patch it.  You will know if you patch it or not when you try to install it.  If it tells you your game is already patch, then you will be using the wrong objects.package file going with the rest of the update and you will need to reinstall.

Normally characters files should appear under the characters folder in each hood.  For example, the characters for neighborhood N001 should be in C;/mydocuments/eagames/thesims2/neighborhood/N001/characters folder.  So I am truly puzzled of how come they are now in your download folder. :shock:  It does not belong there at all.

I doubt the fact you deleted any of the original neighborhood caused that mess but I did read it was safer to at least leave the N001 (Pleasantview) in.  What I am thinking is in the process of deleting NPC and their memories, you forgot to delete the memories of all the sims that met those NPC and/or townies wich cause the lines in the bubble problem.  Deleting best friends memories can result in your sims having problems reaching some ltw like the 20 best friends for example.  

You can use Squinge mod to at least prevent sims from having "met subject" memories.  It can be found here:  no more met subject memories  He also have a hack paint permitting you to delete many memories though you can already do this with the ffs debugger to whicch I gave you a link too earlier.  That last tool is a great debugging tool and there are many ingame problems that can be fix using it.

Maybe it is simply time to think of a fresh start and having your sims have new adventure.  I know it sounds awful but it can be fun too to reset the game and start over again.

Sorry for the many edits, I kept thinking of new stuff to add. :tongue:

[ancienthighway]

Maybe it is simply time to think of a fresh start and having your sims have new adventure. I know it sounds awful but it can be fun too to reset the game and start over again.

For what it's worth, I have to agree with this statement.  While I haven't added anything in either this discussion or the first one you posted, I have been following them.  I believe your game, not just the neighborhood, is borked beyond repair.  You may be at the point that making one repair adds 3 more errors.  You'd spend so much time trying to fix everything that if you ever did get the game back to a playable condition, you'd have lost track of what it is you wanted to do in the game.

Start fresh with a complete uninstall/reinstall.  Having learned what you've learned in your current game will make the next iteration that much better.

[MissDoh]

I have to agree with you ancient, your hood sound beyond repair to me but at least we tried.  And a fresh install should be uninstall everything and reinstall everything and then you patch the game and make the objects.package file a read-only one.

If your game is slow and you have many downloads it can explain why it is slow, maybe memories had nothing to do with that fact.  Having many cc stuff can result in slowing the game a lot.  I also have an old pc but have a good videocard, mods preventing unuseful memories to appear (among the other I have) and I have 1 gig of memory if I remember well.

The only cc stuff I have are mods/hacks, default Maxis replacement, make-up and clothes using Maxis meshes and my game runs fine.  I do not use cc hair because most needs meshes which can slow a game a lot on an old pc if you have many, same with cc clothes or objects if they all need meshes.

[ancienthighway]

That reminds me.  If you do decide to uninstall, make sure you save your Downloads and SavedSims folder to your desktop or someplace else outside of the game's folders.  Uninstall will just delete everything whether the installation put it there or not.

[killertomatoes]

THANKS EVER SO MUCH GUYS(MISSDOH AND ANCIENTHIGHWAY) FOR THE NEVERENDING ENERGY, PATIENCE AND PURE GOODNESS YOU EXERTED IN HELPING ME.

Dear MissDoh you said...

Normally characters files should appear under the characters folder in each hood. For example, the characters for neighborhood N001 should be in C;/mydocuments/eagames/thesims2/neighborhood/N001/characters folder. So I am truly puzzled of how come they are now in your download folder.  It does not belong there at all.

I must have manually copied character files to Downloads  while following someone's advice at the time. I don't remember what the problem was that lead me to do it. I have exact files under C;/mydocuments/eagames/thesims2/neighborhood/N003/characters folder as well. Here you go... yet another line of duplicates!!!
I mean I could always delete 'em from downloads folder. That'll be great !!! I'll have more room for items I wanted but hesitated to download.  

If your game is slow and you have many downloads it can explain why it is slow, maybe memories had nothing to do with that fact. Having many cc stuff can result in slowing the game a lot.

Yes I have zillion cc files. No my game is NOT slow due to my strict monitoring of files in my downloads. When I decide to dl a hefty file I make sure that I delete a less used/sacrificable one first so that I won't clutter the DL folder beyond 450MB. RATHER IT IS ME WHO IS SLOW.
 
By the way, for whatevers worth let me emphasize the fact that "got a promotion" icon is still in tact among list of memories and some of my sims retained  memories of being promoted in their memory range dating back to the time prior to the mess I've made.

Unfortunately I cannot say when exactly this promotion related problems began cos since most of my favourite sims have already reached top of their careers (some even twice in different professions) and their ltws were not career-oriented. They're quite well off naturally from being played for so long thus they've taken time off work. Its only when I played a supporting  character that I realised the problem with promotions. So I don't have a clue when it all started.

Incidentally now that you mentionned MissDoh,  I doublechecked  and yes no one in my neighborhood has an ltw of having 20 best friends. Not even those with popularity aspiration. I actually wouldn't care less cos while playing Sims 2, one of my main characters had popularity aspiration and I was exhausted to keep his relationships at best friend state while ensuring that he would still spare time for insatiable romance needs of his partner to keep her from sleeping with the entire male population in the neighborhood.

You see I should have dealt with these stated problems back then when I first encountered them. At least I would've had a better notion of what I'm talking about.

However, not only I didn't know about this great site but I did not get much conclusive feedback to my questions posted in Simpe's forum as well. (Moreover, I was too busy with my work that I had to give a long break . A year later whenever I had time and interest to play sims again, I picked up from where I left off.) So I played the game in such messed up state on and off for the last 6 months and had almost forgotten about these problems (cos my favorite characters have already achieved their ltws anyway and I only worry about those of secondary importance though I do not play them very often as they're merely supporting actors/actresses in the plot).

I didn't worry about these problems until I decided to give it a shot and post it here.  Good job I did. Guess its better late to fix then never.

Now that I'm going to have to uninstall and reinstall the game...(I'm addressing following questions to both of you wonderful people: MissDoh and Ancienthighway...):

1) Ancienthighway...
In one of my earlier posts I inquired:

First, I have to move my downloads folder somewhere else first and rename it(to be patched over the original downloads folder once installation is complete).

Then uninstall and re-install the game. (I dont even remember which patches I 'am using and where are they saved in the computer!!! Brrr!!). If I can locate exact files of current patches then I can save them under desktop or something , so that I don't have to search for them once again.

So after re-installing the game , I'll replace the downloads file with the current one (after renaming that file "downloads" again) and copy/paste patches I saved under desktop to whichever folder they were originally located. And you think this way I'll be able to fix the problem? Would censor removal and other nude patches still work like they're now? I mean what exactly I will lose within the process? ??

And in reply you so kindly advised...

make sure you save your Downloads and SavedSims folder to your desktop or someplace else outside of the game's folders

Here it goes...
1) After copying downloads and SavedSims folders to my desktop I have to rename them so that they would'nt be confused with those that come with fresh installation. AND after installation is complete I have to rename them back to original and replace the original respective folders with these Right ?

2) Correct me if I'm wrong, so when I replace them with original ones after I reinstalled the game, I would have both my created sims and those born out of their relationships be still in tact? with present memories? OR not with present memories but with fresh memory? So what happens to those that are born in course. If created sims will have fresh memory then how do they will now about their kids and vice versa??? I could'nt figure out.

3) AND what about the lots. I spent excruciating hrs to decorate them. Can I move them to my desktop and replace the original folder with that after installation. Or no..I have to create them from scratch??? See I can't foresee possible consequences at all.

4) ALSO were would censor removal and nudemod hacks be saved other than downloads? I 'm asking this cos apparently I have plenty of nude mods enabling nudity in many aspects and they're all working brilliantly so far. I wouldn't wanna start shopping for new ones since I' have no recollection of which file (cluless about filename/creator/version) I got from where (site address) anymore.


ONCE AGAIN THANK YOU FOR EXTENDING YOUR HELPING HAND TO THIS POOR SOUL CRAWLING IN THE GALLOWS.:smile::smile::smile:

[ancienthighway]

1.  No need to rename the Downloads or SavedSims files after copying them to your Desktop.  The uninstall process and game itself only recognize folders and content in the folder The Sims 2.  After the reinstall you will have neither of those folders in The Sims 2, so just copy them there.

2.  No current sims in your game will be saved.  As you aren't copying the Neighborhoods, which are beyond repair, you won't have any of the bad sims or lots.  You will be starting in fresh neighborhoods with PV, ST, and Verona set up as you originally saw them.

3.  If you want to try to save some of the lots, from the neighborhood view export them.  This will create a Sims2Pack file that you will need to install after your game has be reinstalled.  To be sure you don't pick up any problems, make sure you move any families living in them out.  Also remove all mods/hacks from the game before you pack the houses just to be safe.  CC used for decorating can be left in game so it'll be packaged with the lot.

4.  They should all be in the Downloads folder.  

Of the three neighborhoods that come with the game, Pleasantview has the fewest problems with incomplete data in the townie sims.  If you are interested in playing in the Pleasantview, Veronaville or Strangetown neighborhoods go to http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com.  In the Peasantry section of the forum are some clean versions of all three of these neighborhoods, both with lots and no sims and with lots and fixed sims.  The sims in these have the memory problems in the townies and default playables fixed already.  Then with the no memory mods and FFS Debugger that MissDoh suggested, you can keep your sims memories under control.

[killertomatoes]

Thanks for quick reply and your clear and straightforward explanations.

I have few more questions which I hope would be last on the subject for I feel I have taken so much of your valuable time and energy already.

Since I have no other alternative but to uninstall and reinstall only EP NL (Sims 2 remains in tact), do you think it will be a good idea to load the last Simpe backup I made (dated 03-08-06) first to see whether objects package file was still in tact then or not? Cos I don't remember.

If yes then...
Do I still have to uninstall/reinstall NL? Can't I just replace all files other than downloads and savedsims files with those saved under Simpe backup ?   Would it work?

AND MORE IMPORTANTLY, even if I reinstall the game and start fresh, I still would like to get rid of a long list of townies plus N001 and N002 before I start playing or even replacing downloads and saved sims folders. It is a cumbersome and excruciating process plus it takes days. However I'm patient when it comes to things that I'm certain I don't want. I want to know if there is a safer method of removing unwanted townies (dead and alive)?

In regard, thanks for your suggestions...

Of the three neighborhoods that come with the game, Pleasantview has the fewest problems with incomplete data in the townie sims. If you are interested in playing in the Pleasantview, Veronaville or Strangetown neighborhoods go to http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com. In the Peasantry section of the forum are some clean versions of all three of these neighborhoods, both with lots and no sims and with lots and fixed sims

I' ll check 'em from MATY right away.

ALSO, you advised  the following to save some of my lots

If you want to try to save some of the lots, from the neighborhood view export them. This will create a Sims2Pack file that you will need to install after your game has be reinstalled. To be sure you don't pick up any problems, make sure you move any families living in them out. Also remove all mods/hacks from the game before you pack the houses just to be safe

By the same token, can I export some of my sims after say deleting their entire memory up to the starting point and make 'em sims 2package file. I will never be able to create the exact looks of those sims again. And they are the very reason that keeps me playing sims 2 in the first place.
 
THANX A BILLION