Simply İrresistable ...Such amazing details and finesse. Thank you. Hope you'll get well soon

I MUST SAY THAT I'M TRULY BLOWN AWAY BY YOUR SINCERE CONCERN AND IMPRESSIVE EFFORT IN GETTING A MORON LIKE ME TO UNDERSTAND THE BASICS INVOLVED. HOW CAN I THANK YOU ENOUGH??

MISSDOH... I'M SO GRATEFUL FOR ALL THE LINKS YOU PROVIDED AND  FOR YOUR THOROUGH  EXPLANATIONS.

AND ANCIENTHIGHWAY... I'M INDEBTED TO YOU FOR ALL THE USEFUL INFORMATION YOU FURNISHED AND MANY THANX FOR YOUR POSITIVE MOTIVATION.

YOU CLEARED AWAY THE BLACK CLOUDS OVERSHADOWING MY REASONING.
IF A MORON LIKE ME CAN UNDERSTAND ANYONE CAN.

AND WHATS MORE....BILLION THANKS AND *HUGS* FOR YOUR PATIENCE AND GENEROSITY

WITH ALL OF THIS VALUABLE INFORMATION IN HAND, FOLLOWING YOUR INSTRUCTIONS TO THE PERIOD, I'LL START WORKING ON IT RIGHT AWAY. I'LL KEEP YOU POSTED ABOUT THE RESULT.

May Goddess of Destiny shower you with unique opportunities...

:happy7::happy7::happy7::happy7::happy7::happy7:

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...



I' ll check 'em from MATY right away.

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



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

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...



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.  



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:


And in reply you so kindly advised...


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:

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



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:
 

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.

W'relessguy! your tutorial works like magic. Even idiots like me managed a surgery which I've been yearning to do yet chickening out for I couldn't fully grasp tutorials given here and there about simsurgery.

Thanks a million nah make it billion. Now that I got the gist of it, let me ask you: Is it safe to make concurrent sim surgeries on the same sim long as I follow your guide? Meaning say I changed sims's skin now but by next month I found a better skin and I wanna change same sims's skin with the new one. Would multiple surgeries on same sim corrupt the sim or the game?

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:

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.

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

I wonder how I was coping with the game before having you save me from depths of my misery MissDoh. Donno how to thank you and the creators of the wondorous tool of Insimenator. I decremented 2 skill pts by Skill Adjustor and voila! the problem is solved.:clapp::clapp:

You're heaven sent I swear. Thanks sooooo much for your advice and suggestions. You already helped me so many times and saved my game. Long as I don't mess up, I am fine with my system folders for now. However I have one tiny issue of which I wish to consult in your wisdom. I don't know where should I seek for help and since you got such an addictive flair , I hope you wouldn't mind me for asking. You see, the problem is one of my sims can't get food out of a fridge. This happened quite recently. When I select her and tick fridge, only juggle bottles and check food supply options are available. Now I don't think this problem has anything to do with me playing around with her motives via Insim nor maxing hunger/bladder etc. via hacked painting. Because I do the same for her husband and he is OK. My guess is it has to do with the advent calender (xxxsims2) . I don't know whether you are familiar with the object. It is a calender looking like a jigsaw puzzle. Each flapped segment is numbered and named as a door. Sims get really excited opening a flap/door for they receive a surprise gift of chocolate/money/skill/etc. It boosts their fun. Now my sim already have excelled in cooking and the other day she received two extra cooking skill points bonus  via calender. She accepted gift (I never guessed that would do harm) and afterwards this problem occured. Now if someone places materials on counter she can cook but she cannot get 'em out of the fridge. I will keep on having other sims assist her or have her serve food from buffet  or simply max her hunger via Insim constantly, but if you have known anyone coming across similar problem I would appreciate if you would let me know. Thank you for lightening up my way with your priceless guidance:cheers:

Thanks for your amazing support once again. I copied files and deleted duplicate subfolders in Lot Catalogue and teleport and run the game so far soooo goood. However since I was so hasty in testing, did not read your reply till now so I have already run the game without deleting groups cache, I hope its not too late. Should I delete groups.cache file every time I moderate the game system files? Should I clear it liberally? Also since I have deleted N0001 and N0002 neighbourhoods, can I delete ALL teleport files that have N0001 and N0002 sims2 tmp package extention?  I  just don't want to get carried away  and delete essential files in this spree of cleaning.
May the redundancy and boredom  never cross your way:

Well this truly is perfect task to be added to a sinful earthling's daily agenda in hell. I checked contents of duplicate lot catalogue and on a closer look , realised that there are different files along with the common; so I won't touch that. Then I made the fatal mistake of checking the teleport duplicate folder (fatal in the sense of ruining my newly born day) and there are zillion files named the same yet differ only a single day in modification. Since I am persistent in displaying mental cupcake behaviour, I decided to jot down endless names of few and compare. I deleted some bulky ones and while doing so I realised that these are files pertinent to neighbourhoods. Now I already have deleted Pleasantville and Strangetown neighbourhoods so here comes the question of the day: Should I delete all teleport files that end with 0001 and 0002 that would really save space for me or no?
I am awfully sorry for taking your precious time with such oddities but  as you know by now that I am an idiot and there is no cure for the likes of me.

Thanks a bundle  MissDoh for your suggestions.
The thing is game is not confused nor acting strangely just little slow on loading and saving. Yesterday I removed a duplicate collection file named trendy (which I created ages ago while playing the original Sims 2  in attempt to create a folder for community. Then when I started the game on the custom content window disable custom content was ticked (why?) I enabled it however none of custom content appeared in lots so quitted, scanned folders w Simpe. All seemed fine. Restored the duplicate folder that was in the bin and restarted the game and everything was back to normal. None of this make any sense to me at all. Now I don't think that folder was the reason for disabling custom content but then again what do I know really!!!So I guess the question here is that what would disable custom content? May be I'll make a bold move and remove say... duplicate lot catalogue under lot catalogue folder  and test it. Wish there was a programme that would clear duplicate useless folders or at least indicate them like clean installer does for downloads folder. But then again don't think there are many Idiots like me.

During these vee hrs of the day  I decided to do some cleaning and noticed that I have duplicate folders: under Projects folder another folder also named Projects likewise with Lot catalogue and Teleport folders. From the looks of them, they appear to be identical. Last year my system crashed thrice and during which I tried to backup whatever I can find and thats why I get so confused now with 4 backup copies of the game (and since date function of the PC is somewhat distorted I cannot figure out which is the latest with the original Sims2's copies being there as well) Since those days are so foggy to me now, I cannot recall whether its my mental doing or is it normal to have these duplicate folders? ( I am referring to folders under the main Sims 2 Nightlife game folder under My Documents).Also I have duplicate of  Music folder under Collections as well. Game will appreciate some space to breathe thus I'll truly welcome any suggestions in this respect. Should I delete duplicates? or...
Thanx