Insimenator.org

hi there,

The scenario is single sim walks to unowned community lot.  On arrival the game is on triple speed and can't be changed but can be paused; she is in the red entirely except for environment and no other sims show up.  I used testingcheatsenabled and the only error was

Controller-CLP-
Community Lot-Populator #68
Error: Stack number out of range
The stack trace is saved in blah blah

I looked at the error report but obviously don't know what it means.  It's also very long so don't want to copy and paste but I don't know how to post it either.  I know-I'm rubbish.  When the testingcheats was on, the game could then be slowed down to the correct time but still no other sims showed up.  I don't know what that means either, I am not at all familiar with this cheat and still very scared of it.

So, any help in deciphering an error log would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks in advance.

edit: I think I'm able to post the log, here goes

ok, trying again

Maybe if you attach the error log.

yay, log now added

Did you delete all the townies and not regenerate new ones to replace them?  There was an option on the home mailbox to delete everyone that was broken for several EPs.  One of the errors it cause was with the CLP.  The CLP doesn't find enough townies/NPCs to put on the lot and for some reason wouldn't create them.  Pescado's notownieregen complicates the problem.

Yes, I deleted all characters when I started my new neighbourhood.  I also have most of Pescado's DC, which as you know has the no townie regen in there.  I gave no thought as to how that might interfere with the running of the community lots, or anything else for that matter-just wanted rid of those damn townies [couldn't be bothered having to change all their clothes to fit in with my Terry Pratchett inspired neighbourhood].  I've only created 3 townies myself and only 1 or 2 npcs have been generated so far.  As I say, this is a new neighbourhood and I'm not that far into it but I do have 6 families or something living in the hood, should they have shown up at the community lot? 

I had heard that deleting all characters was not the best way to go about things but I looked at empty templates and felt the procedure looked a bit complicated for the likes of me.

Assuming the above is the reason for my problem, I'm wondering about how to fix that now.  I don't mind scrapping the hood and starting again if I have to but I'm hoping making a huge batch of townies myself, using Inge's teleporter, will rectify the problem.  Would that work and how many would I need?  I take it they'd need to be a mix of teen, adult and elder?  If not please give me your suggestions and thank you for helping me, it's very much appreciated.

Generating the townies now should solve the problem.

You have two options.  One is to use the NPC and Townie Maker to mass generate your townies.  But with your neighborhood, you'd have to change all the clothes, and in some cases hairs.  Christianlove's clothing rack can help with that.  IIRC, it even provides you money to reclothe them so it doesn't cost your sim anything.

The other option would be to make them yourself and use Inge's teleporter as you mentioned.  You get to select clothes, hair, etc without having to track the all down.  But, you have to select aspirations, turn ons and turn offs, and names.  You need a mix of something like 5 children, 5 teens, 5 elders, and 15 adults or so.

When I generate my townies, I use the NPC and Townie Maker.  It all depends on how much control you want.

Oh, it's fixable, that's good news.  I'll away and google the townie maker you speak of, I've never heard of that I don't think. 

Thanks for the advice, I WILL get this neighbourhood off the ground, by hook or by crook.

Google won't help you.  It's in the testing cheat spawns.

Open the cheat box.
Enter "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true".
Shift click on a sim.
In the menu that pops up, select "Spawn...".
You should now see a number of testing objects that can be spawned.  NPC and Townie Maker is usually on the second page (More...) of the objects.

Oh right, I did google it though and it's a DL at MTS2, ha ha.  I just read the first couple of comments, with DLs being down and all, and decided against it, someone there mentioned that the teleporter is a safe way to do things so I think I'll stick with that.  I may try the cheat thing though,just to see. 
Thanks for your time ancienthighway, you're a star.

The downloadable/buyable one is the same as the in-game cheat one. It's an extracted object. You wouldn't be getting anything different if you got the download.

Another option is to activate debug mode and shift click the mailbox. That, too, will generate townies and downtownies for you. However, if your computer is not uber powerful the townie making process may actually be incomplete and you could end up with townies and downtownies without LTWs. This is what happened to me and it killed my hood because it caused a LOT of errors. So I now use the Townie and NPC Maker and that makes complete townies. And my PC hasn't changed since the mailbox generated townies debacle.

Keep in mind that if you use the mailbox or the Townie and NPC maker, it will generate townies based on your current face templates. If you got rid of townies to get rid of Maxis faces and if you do not have replacement face templates, all new townies you generate will have the Maxis faces and you end up no better off than you started. If you don't have replacement face templates you probably should make your own townies. Or get face template replacements. I use a mix of Katu's and Selzi's templates (total of 4 different sets in the mix - you can use 1 face per template, so I just did face 1 = katu set 1, face 2 = katu set 2, face 3 = selzi set 1, face 4 = selzi set 2, face 5 = katu set 1, etc). Most face template creators have lists of other templates in their download posts so check MTS2 for Selzi's set and that should lead you to a bunch of others. Pooklet's set on GOS is rather nice, too.

Thanks for the info there,
I deleted my townies mainly because their clothes don't fit with my theme.  I tried changing them with Christianlov's boutique rack but it was just so time consuming, there's millions of them. I don't like the idea of killing them off, weak I know, so I deleted them.  I have face templates from MTS, any template seems to look better than the maxis ones, and default replacements for eyes and skin, so my townies are much more pleasing to the eye than they were before. 
One question though, I'm in the process of creating my townies using the teleporter.  With first few I had an active sim summon them from the family bin, made them selectable then used the make me a townie option on the teleport.  I forgot to move them in before I made them townies, the way I believe it's meant to be done.  Will that cause problems for my hood?  As I've said before I don't mind starting again with this, often that's the easiest option for me. Thanks again

Sounds like what you are doing it fine.

Engram, while there is a buyable NPC and Townie maker out there, unless it's been updated for a new version with each new EP, it will be missing every new option from the new EPs.  As far as shift clicking the mailbox, since EA broke the Delete All Characters on it and failed to fix or remove that option, I wasn't so sure that the options to generate new townies and NPCs would work.  In fact it looks like it only covers NPCs and townies up to EP2.

I've been creating my townie pool, periodically popping to a community lot to check on the progress.  Now I've got loads of townies, more than was advised above, and had to throw all my premade families into the townie pool because I'm getting a bit sick of the CAS process.  Yet things are about the same I think.  I'll attach the log, I think it's the latest one, thanks in advance, ancienthighway.
On the plus side I did manage to get my sim to the carnival yesterday in single time, no townies/playables arrived and she was again entirely in the red [could that be to do with loading time? That lot takes about 15 mins to load, phenominally long but I put it down to the problem I'm having] but she did meet a warlok and got her purse stolen, success of some kind. 

edit: I'm scared to ask this but do I also need to create a whole bunch of socialites and jocks etc.?  I'm not awfully sure about the distinctions between sims, I thought they were just townies.

Preplace the lot debugger on a community lot.  Then send a playable and Force Error on all with it.

What should it do?  The first time I tried it, I think maybe I clicked on something and everyone, my sim and the hairdressers and masseuse disappeared, and the lot went into buy/build mode with no option to save.  I just had to go back into the hood.  I've tried again twice still with no joy.  Mmmmm...do I scrap it now and just put up with reclothing everyone?  

Oh well, I suppose I'll just have to delete the hood and try and find a better way of achieving my goal.  Thank you for your time ancienthighway, much appreciated.