More Awesome Than You!

What 'no repawn hacks' are available and are they all compatable with OFB? Is preventing the spawning of townies, downtownies, etc. the best way to prevent the BFBVFS? Thanks

JMP has no-respawn hacks for townies (which includes downtownies), dormies, and secret society members.  But the BFBVFS isn't usually caused by too many character files these days -- since at least NL, the maximum number of character files has gone up to some very high number, greater than most of us will probably ever reach. Townies/Downtownies/dormies only re-spawn when one is either killed or made playable, so the odds are your hood will grow faster just by normal births in the game than through respawning townies.  The main reason to use the no-respawn hacks is if you're planning on making your own townies/downtownies/dormies, and don't want to game to make anymore of its fugly ones.

The most common BFBVFS causes these days seem to be things like deleting character files without cleaning up the memories and wants/fears in SimPE; adding occupied lots to the neighborhood; and deleting sims from the sim bin.

Thanks for the explanation jsalemi. I have one more question if you or someone could answer for me please. What causes 'squiggly lines' in speech bubbles?

quote author=Braveheart link=topic=5664.msg162806#msg162806 date=1158595633]
Thanks for the explanation jsalemi. I have one more question if you or someone could answer for me please. What causes 'squiggly lines' in speech bubbles?
[/quote]

That I'm not as sure about, but I believe it has something to do with corrupted gossip memories.  If so, the new 'gossip memory cleanup' in the FFS Lot Debugger should fix them.

However, I suggest you do a search on 'squiggly lines' or 'gossip' (or some variation of those terms) here -- I recall a discussion on this issue/problem sometime in the last 9 months.

I created 2 Sims and moved them in, had second thoughts, and then moved them out and deleted them before they met anybody. They show up as dead in SimPE. Is there still a danger of BFBVFS?

Maybe, though it may not happen for a while.  I take it you deleted them from the sim bin?  Do a search on SWFs (or SWAFs) here, and you'll come up with a bunch of discussion threads on cleaning up the 'Sim Wants and Fears' of deleted caracters. Those are what usually cause the problems.

IIRC, the moment you move a sim onto a lot, you should never eber delete them with through the sim bin. Even if they never met anyone, they still leave behind their SWAF info and the next sim you make will be corrupted because they'll share the same sim id number and whatnot and their brand new SWAFs get goobly gucked because of this.

(This is how you get toddlers and children with adult Wants and Fears, they are using a previously deleted sim's character number and so they get their SWAFs.)

The invisible gossip squiggling lines are fixed with No Corrupted Death Memory (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,2368.0.html). But I've experienced recently the squigly lines before (after moveobjects sims playing a game of snooker for compulsive structure renovation - oops :)) so the cause is not always critical to the game's longevity.

A good safety tip is to set the objects.package in your <TS2 Game Path>\TSData\Res\Objects folder as 'Read Only' under Properties.
This can help protect against being overwritten, deleted or removed accidentally.

Replace <TS2GamePath> with the location to your installed expansion packs.
For example: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\ or C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Open For Business\
I recommend setting the read-only attribute on each expansion pack and stuff pack objects package.
You may have to remove and reapply the check box when updating through support patch or installing newer packs.

I find that to successfully create a BFBVFS with my hoods it takes considerable hard work with awesome hacks installed (get the DC (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,8.0.html)!) - literally a Simpocalypse with instant and intense fire, muawah.

Deleting Sims in the bin does not remove the character files or neighborhood references, IIRC. There may be a posted guide on the forums already for removing Sims with SimPE (typically you need to take note of the instance number and remove each resource associated) but Sims Wants & Fears (SWAF), Sim DNA (SDNA), Global Warming and Neighborhood Memories are common threats to future generations.

normal townie regeneration appears to be broken in OFB... silly Maxis, breaking their own game...  ::) *isn't surprised*

The *EASY* method of sim-deletion is currently much simpler: Use the Lot Debugger's "prep for deletion" option to purge all memories of the sim, then go into SimPE and delete his SDSC and corresponding file. The SWAF will already have been purged.

Awesome. :)

SDSC?

(asking for clarification) Is still learning SimPe.

SDSC is a sim description, you see it marked so in SimPE.

Can we "Prep for delete" ghosts???  If I can select ghosts in debug mode (not really sure, haven't tried it yet) or with a hack, is it advisable to do this with ghosts and thereby reducing my population count?

You don't need to select a sim to PFD. Any other sim may nominate a sim for deletion. You can delete ghosts, and even old "unlinked" sims you may have improperly purged before, provided they have no family ties. Purging someone's grandfather is a bad plan. Don't do that.

If, however, you previously slaughtered some townies and now simply wish to be rid of their files entirely, you can purge them. Coming up soon, the complete guide to neighborhood bulimia: Binging and purging.

Fantastic!  I shall wait for the new and shiny Binging & Purging manual and/or tool.

If you're having problems with jagged line gossip, just nuke the neighborhood gossip. That gets rid of it just fine.

Yes, directly from Sim bin. Since they show up as dead (blue icon background) in SimPE do I still have to delete the SWAF/DNA/SDSC files or are these resources still 'connected' to the two characters? Erm, also they were brother and sister (ie family ties do exist). Is my entire neighborhood destined for the great Sim bin in the sky?

Actually, I think this might be the cause of John Burb's telepathy. Mary-Sue also started getting strange memories involving Dustin Broke and Skip becoming a zombie, and Lothario wants to kiss himself.

Is it just me, or does Don wanting to kiss himself sound perfectly reasonable?

Yea, that sounds like the symptoms of the SWAF problem. You might try using the gossip nuker in the new Lot Debugger first, and see if that cleans it up.  Or just wait until Pescado completes his 'binge and purge' hack to clean up character files, and hope your neighborhood doesn't turn into a BFBVFS first.

For future reference, the best way to get rid of sims you don't want to play is to either just not play them anymore (you could banish them to a sub-hood called 'Hades' or something :) ), leave them in the sim bin and ignore them, turn them into townies (which is what I usually do), or kill them off so things don't get munged up.  Deleting them from the sim bin is pretty much a VBT.