Disappearing Babies!! Hey all, I don't know if anyone else has had this problem. I did a search for it, and came up with nada, so I'm going to go ahead and present this. I'm sure it has to do with some kind of hack, and possibly someone knows which one is causing it, but the only hacks I have in my game are Pescado's and those I would imagine are pretty safe. Here's the issue: My family will have a baby, I'll go through the whole pregnancy, etc, and when I exit the game and come back in, the baby is GONE. Gone from the list of Sims in the household, and not on the lot. The Sims still remember their babies but they are now called "$Subject" and everything is as it was when I left, just no baby. This is very sad, since it's one of my families that I don't cheat with. Anyone know what may be causing this? Thanks in advance for any help!
Oh my bad! Have you checked your installed Pescado hacks against Dr. Boris' list of "NL safe" ones? If so you may have found a previously undiscovered conflict.
Thanks Mirelly, I'm checking the list now! (Does anyone know where I can find a more detailed list that will tell me what these hacks do?) =) Pescado's site isn't very informative, as helpful as the hacks are. I've also gone to a different family - had a kid and torpedo'd through the first 2 stages of life thanks to the new nightlife cheats (lockaspiration and motivedecay)... We'll see if it sticks after childhood. I did a search on the official forums and turned up a post from pre-university that people were having this same problem. Two of them had NO hacks or downloads installed, so the problem might be bigger? I'll keep ya'll posted in case someone else has this happen.
Update: The list didn't work. =( I don't have anything in my game on the bad list, only the good list. Also - the kid is gone too, so getting through to childhood doesn't matter. *sigh*
The good news is that if this happened pre-university for some people, it doesn't sound like a problem that's running rampant. Let's all knock on wood... I spent a little time rechecking my pescado hacks yesterday, too, because a number from the "good list" aren't working for me. The major ones seem to work fine but some of the little irritation removers aren't doing their thing. The "nowhat'sthis" isn't working. It's been ages since I've had to put up with that annoyance. All of my sims are once again adament about keeping those computers turned OFF. I'd love to know what dinky thing I have installed is negating these.
J, is this happening to just this family? Or is it happening to all your families? I am wondering if the lot itself is bugged. And my other possibility is that your neighborhood is overcrowded. When the neighborhood gets near to or exceeds 800 files (this includes active, deceased, NPC, Townies, Dormies, and Service Sims) then very horrible things happen, and it is time to start a new neighborhood. Either way, I hope that these are not issues for you.
Thanks for the reply Kristal, yes it's happening in every family. I can't imagine that I've hit 800 Sims. That seems like such a large number! I suppose I could just take my favorite families and move them to a new neighborhood... Ugh. Thanks for the tip!
Oh dear. Don't try to move sims from one neighborhood to another. The relationships will break and ... oh it's just too ghastly to consider.
I tried moving my favorite sims to a new neighborhood and the neighborhood soon crashed upon itself after about a month of play, so that's not a good idea. Count the number of files in your neighborhood's character folder. You can just right-click on the folder and then click on "Properties" and it will tell you how many files you have there. This includes NPCs, live and dead sims, Grimmy, the Repo Man, the Social Bunny, etc. If you are over 800, this is probably your problem. I had this happen to me because I kept fooling around with SimsPE and my neighborhood terrain, and it caused the game to generate 2 of every sim. I went from 400 to over 1,000 files pretty quickly. Sometimes I could get the game to load and play, but the sims would not have any memories or family ties. Other times, I could try to load the game, and it would crash, or not load completely, or whatever.
Well, I checked out the folder and it's only at 547! =( So, I haven't a clue why this is happening. I tried to move my "Legacy" family (I use that term lightly, because I haven't really done that challenge, but call my no-cheating family my "Legacy" family) to a new neighborhood, but everytime I try to move them into the Lots & Houses bin, the whole game crashes. So... Guess I'll just start over from complete scratch in a new neighborhood... *sigh*
You can't move people from one neighborhood to another. It just doesn't work. See Pescado's many rants on the subject. Starting over is all you can do.
I wouldn't go so far as to say you can't. It's actually something the original game's user guide describes, meaning Maxis intended for it to be possible, they just didn't design the game to handle it very well. It creates duplicate characters for everyone the moved sims know, and if you do it a lot or have highly populated neighborhoods it will cause the "fiery ball visible from space" Pescado speaks of. However, I have moved two families to different neighborhoods, and this was over a year ago when I first got the game... and have not seen any ill effects from it, other than those sims losing any prior relationships, which was not a big deal to me for these two families anyway.
I had never even tried moving a family from one neighborhood to another before, simply because I only play in one neighborhood. I don't like to have too many things going on at once, so I just make my own neighborhood and stick to it. Anyhow, I started a new neighborhood, and I'll probably enjoy this one better anyhow. It's on the beach, and has a great little jetty for a lighthouse I plan to build. =) With starting over, at least it's a fresh slate, and maybe I won't make the same mistakes that I did in my first neighborhood.
The real problem of moving families is that each member of the family generates a character for every sim in his relationship tab -- including enemies .... So if every member of the family has Goopy in their relationship bin there will that many new Goopys added to the neighborhood. Kit's moves, early on were perhaps less problematic because the families were either not very large or had few other sims in their relationship memories ... or both.
Hmm, starting a whole new neighborhood with only one CAS Sim didn't help this issue... I hadn't even selected a Downtown or University neighborhood, so there shouldn't have been any Young Adult or Downtownie NPC's created. When I went back to play today, my CAS sim was gone and Melisa the NPC that I had moved in was still there... I've removed my entire hack folder and restarted the game, we'll see if it's a bad hack. UPDATE: This is getting REALLY old. I've taken everything out of my downloads folder, so I know it's not a conflict with anything I've downloaded. This is a Maxis caused bug - and it has now completely stopped any progress of my neighborhood, since I can't create any new Sims... Just lovely. =( Grrr... What is my next step? A re-install? UPDATE 2: Okay, I completely took out my Sims 2 folder from "My Documents" - basically starting from scratch. I started up a new neighborhood, created a Cas sim, moved him into an empty lot - quit the game and restarted. When I went back in - he was gone. This is with NO 3rd party software at all in the game... What is going on??
I would definitely suggest your next step is to consider a repair. I recall KatAnubis describing a repair but I cannot find the reference so I don't know if it's applicable. I guess that a clean reinstall is probably the most ideal. The main question for you is do you have back ups of your saved games? More tellingly do you have a back up of the game at a time when it was performing properly (ie before you installed NL?) becasue that is the one that you'll need to restore to the game before you try again to install NL. When (if) you do all this please remember that if Pescado says don't do something then under no circumstances should you you even attempt it. Unlike the apocryphal Simon, Pescado's advice is sagacious and trustworthy ... except -- arguably -- in the matter of real-life domesticity.
Well, I've completely reinstalled the game - so I'm all fresh, and have no downloads except for the Maxis ones. I guess I'll just be a bit more wary of the downloads I am putting in. I don't recall going against anything Pescado has said so far, so I'm not sure where I went wrong. Sometimes starting from a blank slate can be nice, though. I do still have most of my houses that I made since I can download them off my simpage... I found other people on the official BBS that had this same thing happen to them, one of which had no EP's and never downloaded a thing... So it's very odd... Thanks for all your help! Now, if only I know which hacks are safe, as it will be hard to play without some of them!!
I'm sorry you had to start all over. I know the feeling, all too well. I am the poster child for not listening to JMP and screwing up my game, so I will never, ever take his advice lightly again.
Wait!!!! WAIT!!!Don't delete the neighborhood! Try this first (I do this when sims get kidnapped/disappear for no aparent reason) In neighborhood screen (although doing this in the house works fine for this purpose.) open up the cheat box (CTRL+SHIFT+C), and type in "boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true". Then, SHIFT+click active sim, and spawn the "Tombstone of L&D". Click on this and choose "Add to family..." or "Get New Family Member" (the 1st one is a musch shorter list, and your poor baby's name is most likely on this. The baby should appear, safe and sound. Good luck (I just hope you didn't get rid of the neighborhood or do something too dirastic!) Edit: Ooooch. Well, if this happens again, or happens to any1 else, try this first! Sorry I didn't respond earlier!
Thank you for the reply, I didn't actually delete the neighborhood, I have a backup that I can use with another ID on my computer, so I can try your theory, though I have a feeling the problem is a lot worse than that. I'll let you know how it goes! =)
