Changing appearances and crashing issues

[CynaraBlade]

Hi all,

I have a serious problem which has only been occurring in the past couple of days - the game crashes whenever I attempt to change any sim's appearance at all. At first I assumed it was due to a corrupt file in either Bodyshop or my Saved Sims folder, so I removed both the Downloads and Saved Sims folders from my games folder - as it transpired, it made no difference. Neither did deleting all the cache files or thumbnail files.

Quite frankly, I'm at a total loss. This still happens even when I play in an untouched Maxis household in a game with no downloads or CC whatsoever, and quite frankly I'm starting to think the only sane course of action would be to reinstall everything altogether.

BTW, I should mention I have all EPs and SPs installed. I don't know if this is an EP-specific problem, but please, any opinions or assistance you could offer would be greatly appreciated. Before I make a drastic move and reinstall everything, of course.

[BeosBoxBoy]

this sounds like a Bon Voyage bug - try deleting your thumbnails - it may be one of the thumbnail packages is out of synch with the new categories for accessories.

[Missaldith]

I have a question. What are the thumbsnails for??

[CynaraBlade]

Actually, I did try deleting the thumbnail files before firing up the game, and it still crashed regardless.

[BeosBoxBoy]

Missaldith - the thumbnails are used in the preview you see in the game catalogue when you are decorating a house or dressing a sim.  there are links inside the thumbnail packages that help your game locate and identify the various items in your downloads folder; sometimes these items get out of synch because of changes we make to the Downloads by adding or subtracting files - this makes it necessary to delete the thumbnail packages (it is safe to do, the game makes new thumbnail packages when needed).

Cynara - it's possible that the object.package in one or more of the game components has become corrupted (a regularly occuring menace in this game).  Try extracting extracting the objects.package for BV from the giant ZIP on the instalation media:

compressed.zip

inside that file you should find a rudimentary directory structure:

Step 1.

Open the TSDATA folder in the ZIP file

Step 2.

Open the RES folder in the ZIP file

Step 3.

Open the OBJECTS folder in the ZIP file

Step 4.

Extract the OBJECTS.PACKAGE from the ZIP file

Extract the file and replace the file with the same name here:

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\Objects

Hopefully this will resolve the issue, if not - it may be easier to just re-install everything

[CynaraBlade]

Thanks Beos, I'll try it and let you know how everything goes.

***EDIT*** Still crashed. Oh well, looks like I'm going to have to reinstall after all.

[Missaldith]

Thanks for the information Beosboxboy

[CynaraBlade]

Oh yeah - a bit of an update:

I was actually using Numenor's BaseGameStarter pro and AnyGameStarter alongside the program itself, and the crashing only stopped after I uninstalled both of these programs. So, maybe reinstalling was a bit of a futile move for me after all...*slaps head*

[lewisb40]

Step 4.

Extract the OBJECTS.PACKAGE from the ZIP file

Extract the file and replace the file with the same name here:

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\Objects

Hopefully this will resolve the issue, if not - it may be easier to just re-install everything

Sorry, but I don't understand this part above. When you say extract the file are you saying delete it?  What exactly do I replace it with?
I am having problems with my sims not being able to interact with another, I get jump bug any time they try.  If a non-affected sim try to interact with the infected one, they get an error " sim is trying to do social with a non-person".  What makes me think the infected sims are objects, if I delete the sim from the lot, the remaining sims run to the area "look for missing object". I don't know what to do. I really want to exhaust all avenues before re-installing the game.  I have all EP's up to Bon Voyage and stuff packs, Happy Holidays, Glamour Life.

[BeosBoxBoy]

/extract/ means to pull out a copy (non-desctructive, don't delete it) -- and in ths case over-write (which is sort of desctructive) the potentially bad copy of the file in the specified folder.  This is a harmless process since this is exactly the same file as you are over-writing, only it is a "known good" copy... such as it is.

any attempt to delete the file would be futile since the installation media is a CD-ROM or DVD-ROM and not an editable format

[lewisb40]

Okay, thanks very much!