#3
9th Feb 2011 at 11:45 PM
Last edited by Mootilda : 10th Feb 2011 at
2:47 AM.
Safely removing extra sims packaged with a lot
I just found a group of people who are recommending a particular use of the
Clean Installer to clean extra sims off of a packaged lot which has not been properly cleaned (per
Game_Help:Moving_Simswiki). They insist that it creates a cleaner safer neighborhood, so I'm doing research to determine whether this method works and, if not, where it fails.
From
http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ad.php?tid=780:
Quote: Originally posted by pattyheart
Every so often some one will express concern about downloading and using occupied homes. [...] Before installing a downloaded or saved to file lot the Clean Installer allows a player to remove any and all unwanted items - including any connections to other Sims.
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From
http://www.flyingacres.com/Neighbor...ad.php?tid=868:
Quote: Originally posted by lindawing
Now, using Clean Installer, open the family-with-house that you saved-to-file. [...] Also do NOT click any FRIENDS who might happen to be showing in CI...those are just memories, and those are the things that can mess up entire hoods, if too many of them are installed.
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[Emphasis in the above quotes is mine, not the author's.]
When you uncheck a sim, you are telling the
Clean Installer not to install that sim into your neighborhood. However, I can verify that the
Clean Installer does
not remove connections to that sim; specifically, it does not remove memories, family ties, relationships, wants and fears, etc. The concern is that removing these sims will leave dangling connections (to invalid sims) which will eventually corrupt your neighborhood. LindaWing insists that all of these connections are safely removed by the game.
Related discussions:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=228915
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...opic,158.0.html
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...pic,2566.0.html
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...ic,19966.0.html
First test:
1) Package the Mole family from Desiderata Valley using all EPs and SPs. This lot has (see attached):
One playable sim:
- John Mole
Four additional sims in Family Tree, all dead:
- Lucy and James Mole (parents)
- Becky and Alastair Provocateur (maternal grandparents)
A dozen or more additional sims who have Relationships with John; none are family.
Memories of many of the sims in both the Family Tree and Relationships panels.
2) The
Clean Installer is run on this lot and only the family, lot and John are installed. This "cleaned" lot is then installed into a brand new neighborhood, using all EPs and SPs. Initial tests indicate the following:
3)
Sims:
3.A) SimPE: The neighborhood package has five "unknown" sims with little data in the neighborhood package and no character file. The Sim IDs for these sims are not the IDs mentioned in the characterSegmentForUpload by the Clean Installer.
Question: Is this an artifact of the installed lot, or do these sims exist in a completely clean neighborhood?
Conclusion: No conclusion possible without further testing.
4)
Sim Relationships:
4.A) TS2: No relationships are displayed.
4.B) SimPE: There is only one relationship: from John to himself.
4.C) HoodChecker: There is only one relationship: from John to himself.
Question: Does John have a relationship with himself in the original neighborhood?
Question: Is a relationship with oneself safe or unsafe?
Conclusion: The game seems to cleanly remove the relationships with the non-existent sims.
5)
Family Ties:
5.A) TS2: The Family Tree is empty except for John.
5.B) SimPE: There are no family ties.
5.C) HoodChecker: There are no family ties.
Conclusion: The game seems to cleanly remove the family ties with non-existent sims.
6)
Memories:
6.A) TS2: All memories which used to mention a real sim now mention $Subject.
6.B) SimPE: All memories which used to mention a real sim now have invalid Sim IDs. The Sim IDs are the IDs mentioned by the
Clean Installer with the characterSegmentForUpload.
6.C) HoodChecker: The HoodChecker does not verify memories at this time.
Note: Unfortunately, I do not know of any way to check memories which are not associated with a specific sim. For example, NPCs are associated with the lot, rather than with a specific sim. Ref:
NGBHwiki
Note: Many of these corrupted memories could be removed with the Lot Debugger from MATY, including Clear Gossip and Clear Trash. Removing unnecessary memories before packaging the lot would be the most logical approach, since it limits the number of extra sims packaged, as well as the number of memories which can be corrupted.
Conclusion: The game does not clean memories at all. This is a potential source of corruption.
Still to be tested:
- Pregnancy tokens, furious tokens, etc.
- NPCs associated with a lot. Other non-sim specific memories.
- Wants and fears which mention specific sims.
- Other configurations of EPs and SPs.