More Awesome Than You!

After creating a new Sims 2 folder, I loaded up all of the premade neighborhoods.  I discovered that in each of the hoods the neighborhood story was missing.  The story box does pop up, but there are no photos or story blurbs in there.  This little problem is driving my ocd into overdrive.  My game MUST be perfect!  

Anyhoo, I would much appreciate any advice about what may have caused this, and how to fix it.

They should be in Documents\ EA Games\ The Sims 2\ Storytelling. If they aren't then try deleting this folder, and the game will copy a fresh set over. If they still aren't there then they likely aren't in your gamedata files. They should be in Program Files\ EA Games\ The Sims 2\ TSData\ Res\ Userdata\ Storytelling. Fetch them off the install disc if they are gone. The later EP stories are in the corresponding gamedata files- for example Belladonna is in Program Files\ EA Games\ The Sims 2 Apartment Life\ TSData\ Res\ Userdata\ Neighborhoods\ E001\ Storytelling and so on. You can copy those manually to your storytelling folder to make them show up.

I'm at a complete loss.  I tried all of your suggestions, and my neighborhood stories are still not appearing.  Any additional advice?  Perhaps throwing my computer out the window is the solution.

 :D Don't do that, you may regret it later!
Do you have some files called 'webentry_xxxxx.xml' in there too? (There should be several, with varying numbrs in the names.) Which hoods have you created? Basegame or EP, or both?

This is probably a stupid question but...
Are you using default replacements?

Yes, I do have the webentry files.  I have base game and all expansion packs installed.  I'm also not using any replacements.  It's a hack free, cc free game.  It's just such a strange problem.  Losing hope...cry.

If you've loaded up the hoods ingame already, you have to copy the xml files and pictures into the separate neighbourhoods' storytelling folders. See, in base game only there was only one storytelling folder, but with the EPs came the separate storytelling folders. The first time you load up the hoods with an EP installed, the game would move the pictures to the right folder, but since you've already loaded yours without the pictures in place, it won't happen automatically - so you have to do it manually. This is a bit of work since the three base hoods' files are all together in one folder, but it can be done simply by looking at the pictures to see which neighbourhood they belong to, and then open the xml files to see which pictures are being refered to to find out where those belong.

So, to recap, copy the files from your Program Files folders, into each neighbourhood's separate folder in Documents (N001\Storytelling, etc). And it should be fine. :)

Tried your suggestion, Tarlia, but it didn't work.  When I load the game the neighborhood stories are still blank. 

I used empty templates when I first loaded the hoods, but I can't see how that would effect the story pics.  Or could it?

Yup. If it's empty (free of sims), there would be no point in having a story.

I meant to say I used the templates for the ep hidden hoods.  I used regular game generated copies for the main hoods.

Hm, it's possible that the webentry files won't work unless the game alters them for the new storytelling folders. I'm not sure. The pictures should be available, though, so you can add them yourself if you want. The text for the first picture is always the text for the 'hood, and the texts for the rest of the pictures are identical to the descriptions of the households they belong to.

Also, do you have this problem with just the basegame neighbourhoods, or the EP ones as well?

If you haven't started playing the neighbourhoods yet, I'd recommend just trying to generate them all again. Backup downloads if you have any and any other hoods you might want to keep, and delete your entire Documents Sims 2 folder. Run the game and let it regenerate everything. Before you enter any of the premade hoods, make sure the pictures are in the main Storytelling folder. If they are not, copy over the folder from Program Files\...\UserData\Storytelling, restart the game and enter the hoods.

Where is the text exactly?  Is it supposed to be in a file in the storytelling folder? 

I have the same thing happening to all the hoods, base and eps.

I have played the hoods, which is why I'm trying to keep them.  Hard to let go, ya know?  As for regenerating the game, I did that and the new folder contained the storytelling and the neighborhood stories.  So frustrating!

No, in the game. You know when you select a neighbourhood, and there's an introductory text there? "What's going on in Strangetown? etc etc" That's the text for the first picture in the neighbourhood story. You can add the picture yourself, and copy and paste in the text. Then do the same for the other pictures, getting the text from the family descriptions. They may not end up in the same order exactly as with the original, but at least they'll be there. I've done this myself a couple of times.

Okay, I'm understanding what you are saying, but when I open the neighborhood story after loading a hood there is nothing at all inside of it.  No pictures and no text.  How would I go about adding pictures in the neighborhood story box?

If you've copied the pictures from the original storytelling folder into your neighbourhood's storytelling folder, they will be available in the "general" tab in the storytelling editor. Open the neighbourhood story, clilck the little edit button that looks like a book and a pen, click the rightmost tab in the main view on the left, and you should have a bunch of pictures available to you. Add the ones that belong to the story - there should be between 4 and 7 for each hood, you can probably recognise them. Then add the text to each picture. It works just like the storytelling mode for a family.

Somewhere along the line, the pictures did end up showing in the edit mode.  I'm so freaking jazzed right now.  Now I'll go in and recreate the story and add the text.  Much thanks for being so patient and helpful during my sims crisis.