Everyone in my neighborhood disappeared

[songsmith]

I apologize for the long explanation, but I hope more details might shed light on the problem. My main questions are "can this be fixed?" "How?" and "Why did this happen so I don't do this again?"

1. Original neighborhood for a legacy family.
2. Legacy lot bugged. Varying weirdnesses, but cowplants no longer allowed the milk option even after dining on Sims.
3. Decided to move the family to a new lot. Put beds and tombstones in inventory.
4. Had everything at new lot. Put tombstones on new lot. Everything dandy.
5. Ghosts first recognized their beds, then didn't and were angry.
6. Decided to bring back dead sims, let them sleep in their beds, then kill them again via bone phone and tombstone L&D or insiminator.
7. Everything worked fine.
8. Noticed one of the dead Sims stopped appearing on the bone phone list. When I looked, his tombstone had disappeared.

9. This is where things went really bad.

10. I searched everywhere and finally found a good post on the SimPe site on how to make a dead Sim reappear with no tombstone. I followed those instructions explicitly. Here: http://ambertation.de/simpeforum/sims2/Simplest-way-to-extract-ghostsim-from-backup (I apologize if I'm not supposed to link. Thought this was the best way for you to see the procedure.

11. Everything seemed to work fine. The dead sim was gray again. All memories intact. I closed Simpe and opened Sims2.
12. When I clicked on the legacy lot, the only "owning" person was the formerly dead Sim. I had read somewhere that the thumbnails would be messed up, so I discounted this.
13. Thumbnail showed the old family minus the dead sim. Again, I thought this would be fixed once I played the lot.
14. Entered the lot. No sim was there at all!
15. I was in the buy mode screen. The family screen was greyed out. All of the family's things were in the house, but no sims were there.
16. Exited lot without saving.
17. Really looked at the neighborhood. Plumbbob was over the empty house.
18. All other plumbbobs were gone from the lots around the neighborhood. There are some other playable families living there. Or at least there were.
19. Closed game. Opened SimPe.

20. Only sims in that neighborhood now are the resurrected dead sim and the NPCs like Grimmy, Polination Tech. I think 5 Sims in total. No NPCs are there. No townies. No playable sims. (note--all of these were there before I opened the game).

21. Checked the My Documents/EaGames/Sims2/Neighborhoods/N009/Characters folder. It's full of apparent characters. All of them have about 300 to 400 kb of info and show last played date as 4/14 for most of them.

22. Oh, when I went to bring back the dead Sim, it was a no go. I copied his character file from a SimPe backup and put it into the current character folder. I left all the others alone.

Phew! Help? Or am I screwed? And what the heck happened?

[Process Denied]

I really can't help but I had a Sim disappear with no apparant reason at all.  I'll keep an eye on this, hopefully someone will have some possible reasons for a sim(or a household to disappear).  It really sucks that it was a legacy family,mine, I was able to put him back in and had him catch up with his Uni brothers.  Was the Tombstone that disappeared a romance stone?? Cause They do have a problem disappearing.  They have a hack for that.  I beleive it is JM's--don't hold me to it cause I download all willy nilly and can't remember where I get things sometimes.

[maxon]

I really can't help but I had a Sim disappear with no apparant reason at all.  I'll keep an eye on this, hopefully someone will have some possible reasons for a sim(or a household to disappear).  It really sucks that it was a legacy family,mine, I was able to put him back in and had him catch up with his Uni brothers.  Was the Tombstone that disappeared a romance stone?? Cause They do have a problem disappearing.  They have a hack for that.  I beleive it is JM's--don't hold me to it cause I download all willy nilly and can't remember where I get things sometimes.

It was JM's and you'll find it here from the hack list (OFB) - I can't find the thread

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.net/ffs/ofb/hacks/

This might also be useful

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.net/smf/index.php?topic=2083.0

though only in the sense that it'll help prevent problems in future.

[songsmith]

One sim was bad enough. But an entire neighborhood? The only people left are the one I brought back (and I can't find him), Grimmy, Polination Technician, Mrs. Crumplebutt, hula zombies--all of the special NPCs. This is what shows in SimPe.

The actual characters folder is still full of characters, but they dont' show up in game play or in SimPe now. It's very weird!

Thanks for the suggestions. Colby was a finance Sim.

At least I have a SimPe backup from about 3 weeks ago. I haven't lost everything. I just can't imagine why none of the Sims show up in that neighborhood when they're in the folder. 

[maxon]

One sim was bad enough. But an entire neighborhood? The only people left are the one I brought back (and I can't find him), Grimmy, Polination Technician, Mrs. Crumplebutt, hula zombies--all of the special NPCs. This is what shows in SimPe.

The actual characters folder is still full of characters, but they dont' show up in game play or in SimPe now. It's very weird!

Thanks for the suggestions. Colby was a finance Sim.

At least I have a SimPe backup from about 3 weeks ago. I haven't lost everything. I just can't imagine why none of the Sims show up in that neighborhood when they're in the folder. 

Yeah - something's got turned off somewhere in your characters' files.  I tried to help someone with a similar problem, except she copied a whole pile of character files over from a back up.  She decided to give up before we got anywhere.  The NPCs will still be present because their files are stored somewhere else.  There should be 10 of them in you have all EPs and the Xmas pack (I don't think OFB added another standard NPC).  Can you open one of the character files in SimPE?

BTW, I would guess a better way to reanimate a sim with a missing gravestone would be to use JMP's Lot Debugger which will regenerate the tombstone which is the way I've done it before and it's worked without problems.

[songsmith]

I have a lot debugger (yellow box) but I didn't see an option on it that said regenerate tombstone. I was afraid to do anything since I didn't have information that explained what was what. At that time, this forum was down. I guess I jumped the gun.

I can open the character files by using the "Open" function rather than neighborhood browser, but I have no idea what to look for/what I'm doing.

The NPCs that show up in the SimBrowser are Grimmy, Hula Zombie, Therapist & Polination Tech.

[maxon]

I have a lot debugger (yellow box) but I didn't see an option on it that said regenerate tombstone. I was afraid to do anything since I didn't have information that explained what was what. At that time, this forum was down. I guess I jumped the gun.

I can open the character files by using the "Open" function rather than neighborhood browser, but I have no idea what to look for/what I'm doing.

The NPCs that show up in the SimBrowser are Grimmy, Hula Zombie, Therapist & Polination Tech.

The option only shows on the lot debugger if you have the sim on the lot - this is best achieved (if it's possible) by summoning them with something like Inge's Summoning Bush, have the game paused, and then taking control of them via the Tombstone of Life and Death.  You can then control them in order to click on the lot debugger and regenerate the tombstone.  It sounds a fiddle but it's less bothersome than the method described on that thread.

You mean you've opened a file in the characters folder by double-clicking on it?  Or do you mean you can see them in SimPE and can look at the files via the sim browser?  Either way you could have a look around and see if they are classified as dead, have a death token in their inventories or have some weird classification (like being unconnected).  It might you a clue as to what's happened.

BTW - yes, those are the standard NPCs - as I say their file information isn't held in the Characters Folder but elsewhere in the game files.  So whatever happened to your Characters folder wouldn't affect them.  Basically those characters are the same in all neighbourhoods so there is no reason to duplicate the files in every neighbourhood folder.

[songsmith]

Okay, you mentioned 10 NPCs so I was afraid I was missing some more. I know that Crumplebutt and the social workers and repo men and drivers and such aren't really interactable. Not that they're in the Sim Browser, either.

I can open the character files by double clicking on them while in SimPe (not in Neighborhood browser) like I'd open up any other file.

All the character files are in the character folders in that neighborhood. They just don't show up in the Sim Browser or in the neighborhood during play. I don't know how to view them the way I'm used to. I"ve only ever looked at a Sim via the Sim Browser before. If you tell me what to look at, I will see if they're classified as dead.

Oh, I did look at neighborhood memories, families, etc. I found mentions of families of playable Sims. I also had a lot of Mr. Potatohead unknowns. Not sure if they've always been there.

Despite that, the only sims I can see via Sim Browser are the Sim I "rescued" from death and the 4 standard NPCs. There are no townies or interactable NPCs or any of my other sims.

As for the ghost (which I don't even care about now and I wish I'd never tried to bring him back!  ) I couldn't summon him using the insiminator summoner or the teleporter. That's when I tried to find another solution. *sighs*

It's my own fault. I thought I had a more recent backup than I did.

Have I told you how much I appreciate your taking the time to help me figure this out?

[maxon]

Okay, you mentioned 10 NPCs so I was afraid I was missing some more. I know that Crumplebutt and the social workers and repo men and drivers and such aren't really interactable. Not that they're in the Sim Browser, either.

Yeah well, they - the social workers, drivers etc., in fact, ARE in your characters folder and will, I guess, have been affected like everyone else.  The 9 (sorry, yes, 9 not 10) universal NPCs are: Santa Klaus, Father Time, New Year Toddler, Therapist, Grim Reaper, Hula Zombie, Pollination Technician, Mrs Crumplebottom, Mr Unknown (of all those first kisses I think).  Obviously, you will only have these if you have all the EPs and the Xmas pack.

I can open the character files by double clicking on them while in SimPe (not in Neighborhood browser) like I'd open up any other file.

All the character files are in the character folders in that neighborhood. They just don't show up in the Sim Browser or in the neighborhood during play. I don't know how to view them the way I'm used to. I"ve only ever looked at a Sim via the Sim Browser before. If you tell me what to look at, I will see if they're classified as dead.

OK - well, that's just another way of doing the same thing I suppose.  What I meant was, you can open the individual files in the Characters folder by double-clicking on them.  Just opening the individual files might give you a clue as to what has happened with them though you'll probably have a long search to find the information.

Oh, I did look at neighborhood memories, families, etc. I found mentions of families of playable Sims. I also had a lot of Mr. Potatohead unknowns. Not sure if they've always been there.

Yeah, they seem to get generated when you delete connected sims or something.  You should only have one per neighbourhood.  I'd guess these are an artefact of whatever happened to your neighbourhood.

I wondered whether when you open the neighbourhood in SimPE, you can see any families in there.  Open SimPE, Open the neighbourhood with the neighbourhood browser, click on Family Information in the Resource Tree and see if the families pop up in the right hand panel.

[songsmith]

Yes, families are there. I checked that yesterday. I also see all the character names load at the bottom of the screen when I open the Neighborhood Browser for that neighborhood.

I remembered last night that when I first started messing with trying to get Colby (my lone playable Sim now according to Sim Browser) back that I clicked on something called "link." There was a warning message saying about using it. I X'd out of it because, not being computer savvy, the darned warning scared me. I didn't want to mess up my game!    . Joke's on me! Please tell me that X-ing out instead of clicking "no" or "cancel" or whatever it was didn't do this. Shouldn't X-ing out mean that I didn't want to perform that function?

I don't know where in the character file to find the information when I open it via double clicking rather than using sim browser. With Sim browser, I get the nice little view in the plug-in. I don't see anything called Sim description when I open the file the same way I would any other package. Hang on, let me open SimPe so I can use the proper name of the functions and you can tell me where to look.

Okay, here are the items in the Resource Tree when I open up a Sim file:

* A number like 0x0F9F0C21 (UNK) 1
* 3D ID Referencing File
* Age Data
* Behavior Function
* Catalog Description
* Director of Compressed Files
* Facial Structure
* Geometric Data Container
* Geometric Node
* Global Data

Etc., etc. 

In Neighborhood Browser, under the Resource Tree, Family Information shows 55 families, and their names show in the plug-in view. Family Information shows 1 file. Family Unknown shows 28.

Clicking on the Family Ties file gives me this error:

Message:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

SimPE Version:
Default (0.56.2262.8311).

Exception Stack:
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.FamilyTieGraph.UpdateGraph(SDesc sdsc, ExtFamilyTies famt)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.FamilyTiesForm.pool_SelectedSimChanged(Object sender, Image thumb, SDesc sdesc)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateSimList(String household)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.cbhousehold_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.set_SelectedIndex(Int32 value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateContent()
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.set_Package(IPackageFile value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.ExtFamilyTies.UpdateGUI(IFileWrapper wrapper)
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.RefreshUI()
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.LoadUI()
  at SimPe.ResourceLoader.Present(IScenegraphFileIndexItem fii, IFileWrapper wrapper, Boolean overload)

Source:
simpe.sims

Execution Stack:
at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.FamilyTieGraph.UpdateGraph(SDesc sdsc, ExtFamilyTies famt)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.FamilyTiesForm.pool_SelectedSimChanged(Object sender, Image thumb, SDesc sdesc)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateSimList(String household)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.cbhousehold_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.set_SelectedIndex(Int32 value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateContent()
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.set_Package(IPackageFile value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.ExtFamilyTies.UpdateGUI(IFileWrapper wrapper)
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.RefreshUI()
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.LoadUI()
  at SimPe.ResourceLoader.Present(IScenegraphFileIndexItem fii, IFileWrapper wrapper, Boolean overload)

Does this help?
 

[Mike]

  *Mike has no idea what any of that means*

[maxon]

Yes, families are there. I checked that yesterday. I also see all the character names load at the bottom of the screen when I open the Neighborhood Browser for that neighborhood.

I remembered last night that when I first started messing with trying to get Colby (my lone playable Sim now according to Sim Browser) back that I clicked on something called "link." There was a warning message saying about using it. I X'd out of it because, not being computer savvy, the darned warning scared me. I didn't want to mess up my game!    . Joke's on me! Please tell me that X-ing out instead of clicking "no" or "cancel" or whatever it was didn't do this. Shouldn't X-ing out mean that I didn't want to perform that function?

This shouldn't be a problem - link just means create a link, I think.

In Neighborhood Browser, under the Resource Tree, Family Information shows 55 families, and their names show in the plug-in view. Family Information shows 1 file. Family Unknown shows 28.

Clicking on the Family Ties file gives me this error:

Message:
Object reference not set to an instance of an object.

SimPE Version:
Default (0.56.2262.8311).

Exception Stack:
System.NullReferenceException: Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.FamilyTieGraph.UpdateGraph(SDesc sdsc, ExtFamilyTies famt)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.FamilyTiesForm.pool_SelectedSimChanged(Object sender, Image thumb, SDesc sdesc)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateSimList(String household)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.cbhousehold_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.set_SelectedIndex(Int32 value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateContent()
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.set_Package(IPackageFile value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.ExtFamilyTies.UpdateGUI(IFileWrapper wrapper)
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.RefreshUI()
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.LoadUI()
  at SimPe.ResourceLoader.Present(IScenegraphFileIndexItem fii, IFileWrapper wrapper, Boolean overload)

Source:
simpe.sims

Execution Stack:
at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.FamilyTieGraph.UpdateGraph(SDesc sdsc, ExtFamilyTies famt)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.FamilyTiesForm.pool_SelectedSimChanged(Object sender, Image thumb, SDesc sdesc)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateSimList(String household)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.cbhousehold_SelectedIndexChanged(Object sender, EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.OnSelectedIndexChanged(EventArgs e)
  at System.Windows.Forms.ComboBox.set_SelectedIndex(Int32 value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.UpdateContent()
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.Wrapper.SimPoolControl.set_Package(IPackageFile value)
  at SimPe.PackedFiles.UserInterface.ExtFamilyTies.UpdateGUI(IFileWrapper wrapper)
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.RefreshUI()
  at SimPe.Interfaces.Plugin.AbstractWrapper.LoadUI()
  at SimPe.ResourceLoader.Present(IScenegraphFileIndexItem fii, IFileWrapper wrapper, Boolean overload)

ooo - that looks possible.  To be honest (and I'm not trying to fob you off here), I think you might be better taking that to the SimPE site.  From what you've been saying, you have the characters' files and you have the families and that error report looks like it's saying they are no longer linked in the family ties (which you kind of knew anyway but it does seem to indicate that the game thinks there should be something there).  I suspect this is because the sims are marked as somehow unavailable because they are not appearing as options in your Sim Broswer for that neighbourhood.