Question About Lots & Neighborhood Files
 

The Initial Problem: Despite my best efforts at preventing the pre-made Maxis Sims from populating all my Hoods, I am still finding a lot of blank/junk Character Files in my Hoods.

The Reason: In cases like the F002 folder- which contains the Secret Hobby Lots- I opted to leave the Lot folder alone & zip everything else...but I forgot that the Neighborhood package file also needed to be "clean" too! So the various Sim DNA/Relationships/etc are still "there", but with no "real" Charcter files to connect to. This is a mess.

The Solution: I have found a set of "cleaned out" files that only have the needed Secret Lots (Hobby, Magic, Vacation) in them. So things are okay, but...

My Dilemma: ...I still need to have Cyd, Porthos, Danny & Sarah available in all my Hoods. (Don't ask. I'm strange.) They "live" in the infamous P001 Folder, along with a zillion other Charters I don't want (like the 57 pre-made Maxian pets). This folder also contains the Family/Relations/etc files for the populated lots of the Katt & Kim Families. So if I use a cleaned P001 Neighborhood file, they will no longer be available.

I can "fix" the Katt/Kim thing fine: I just packaged their Lots & can install them later.

The problem is what to do about keeping Cyd, Porthos, Danny & Sarah.

If I throw them all together on a lot & package them (I can use different teleporting tricks to get Danny & Sarah into the families I actually want them with) I will have to re-install the Lot before creating every single Base Hood as Occupied Lots can only be installed once. While this is "do-able", it's gonna be rrrreeeeaaalllyyy tedious.

I am wondering, A) if there is anyway to make a semi-clean P001 Neighborhood package, which still has the Sims I want in it or B) is there another way to get Cyd & the gang to show up in all my Hoods?

So....any ideas?

Hm, this requires thought... and I haven't had a chance to try giving a "home phone" to the Social Groupies!

I thought Occupied Lots could be installed once per 'hood, not just once. I'll test that tonight too.

My experience with Occupied Lots (Katt, Kim & Lycos) is that they disappear from all Bins after they are placed.

Plus, I have to deal with all the "hang char" files & other crap that inter-hood moving seems to generate with lots packaged in the game.

I may have come up with an "Unholy Hy-bred" solution to my insane desire to keep keep Cyd & the Critters around without messing about with installing lots/etc. I am testing it today.

Don't mind me- I'm mostly just "venting" here! I think your "cell phone" project is a definite priority over my bizarre Cyd obsession!:p

Well, my "Unholy Hybred" solution (which was to make my own modified P001 Neighborhood package) seems to have worked, at least as far as it hasn't blown up my computer & it seems to be doing what I want it to be doing! Of course now I see were you said (on the other thread) something about not deleting some of the SDNA files- which is pretty much what I did (via Theo's Sim Deleter) as I hadn't seen your "warning" yet- but from the looks of things, all systems are still go. (I think my computer thrives on "impossible" challenges!)

Basically I erased any "evidence" of anybody (NPC's included) in the P001 folder, except Cyd, Porthos, Danny, Sarah & the 6 phone-pool puppies/kittens. (I decided to "tweak" my Cyd/Critter storyline & the phone-pool "babies" fit the bill perfectly...)

I am also using a self-modified version of Dick Hurt's "Pet Modification" mod that I set to allow for some random stray puppies/kittens to be generated as I don't have the patience to create my own & export them to other Hoods, and that worked slick too (a lil kitten named Emmit wandered by my test lot) so I think I'm pretty much set now.

Interestingly enough, my test Hood shows 16 Sims that have no "icon" in SimPE. Also interesting is that these same Sims showed no "icons" (i.e. a Mr. Potato Head) when I looked at them via SimPE in their original package files. They are all "locals" from the different BV destinations.

Weird. :asking06:

I plan on nuking the BV Hoods anyway (cleaned templates devoid of locals) so I don't really care about them...it's just strange!

So now I am wondering how your "cell phone" project is going? Any success yet?

Actually, I'm thinking the real damage with the SDNA resources is done if you reset the Sim Creation Index (or whatever it's called). Remember the source of the advice concerning both operations.

Mixed results from my testing:
Good: Occupied Lots are only removed from the Sim Bin of the 'hood where they're placed (obviously, you don't want duplicates). You can switch to another 'hood and they'll be there to play again (thank God, I've screwed up the TSR intro challenge twice).
Bad: Simply checking the "has phone" check box on the Tenant families doesn't give them a phone.

Clarification!!!!!

Occupied Lots which have been packaged and installed may be installed once in each 'hood.

Occupied Lots which have been moved to the Lot Bin may be installed only once. However, you may move it back to the Lot Bin and install it again in the same or a different 'hood.

The "Kitten House" has made the rounds of most of my 'hoods accumulating kittens as it went!

Okay, that explains the Katt/Kim/Lycos thing: They're Maxis made houses, so of course they have a "one shot" limit!

I love the image of a mystical, magical house that flies through all your hoods collecting kittens along the way. Sounds like a funky folk song...

(Sucks about the cell phones...)

***EDITED TO ADD***

Got a question for you:

After I install a lot (unoccupied in this case) via Clean Installer, where does it go after being teleported into the game? The lot is showing up fine in my Lots Bin, but I can't find out where it's living on my computer! It's not in Downloads, Teleport, LotsCatalog, PackageLots, Collections or any other folder.

This is annoying, as I want to use the re-numbering trick to organize my Lot Bin, but I can't renumer a lot file if it's not in the bin!

That's a toughie... lemme install the packaged Kitten House and its 7 kittens (and their keeper, Blanche Placeholder).

There seems to be a problem with using Clean Installer's "Save As" feature creating empty packages.

Thing is, I don't understand the "instructions" to fix it at all.

The annoying part of this is that I have never had this problem before....but can't remember exactly what I did "right" back then!

P.S. What exactly do you do when installing Lots via Clean Installer? Do you go with the "default" options or what?

***UPDATE***

I may have had a "brain spark" as to what's going on regarding the lot in my game. The lot in question is a tweaked version of a Maxis made house, & I am wondering if that's why it's showing in the game but not in the LotCatalog folder.

The other (Maxis) lots I had packaged before were of things not already in the Lot Bin, which may explain why they did show up in my LotCatalog folder.

*duh*!

:p

****EDITED TO ADD****

Well I had the same "problem" with my from-scratch lot...

...until I just remembered that I have already installed the Kat & Kim lots, ergo there are two "holes" in my LotCatalog number sequence, ergo Clean Installer is dutifully installing said lots in one of the "holes".

If you'll excuse me, am going to apply for a course in 1st Grade mathematics...

When you save as, you have to type a slightly different file name (like MyHouse-clean.sims2pack). If you try to "save over" your existing file, you end up with an empty file.

I just uncheck anything I think is wonky (or an object), then let Clean Installer stuff the house and occupants in the Teleport folder, which is its heart's desire anyhow.

For houses with objects, I then swap the checks around so that only the objects (if any) are checked, and select ... for the folder so I can put them in a subfolder of Downloads.