Holy necro, I first saw who started this thread without looking at the date and thought "wow, Poston is back?" A blast from the past!

Person did the right thing though rather than making a whole new thread.

Edifice sounds like a good name for a building hood. The game shouldn't save when quitting unless you ask it to.



Not by Pinhead, but it seemed ridiculous to me that someone wouldn't have done it. https://dreadpirate.tumblr.com/post...is-a-collection



WTF! XD

My Game always saves the current neighbourhood when quitting. I just tested it by opening Veronaville and immediate quitting the game, without doing anything else. It not only saved the neighbourhood files for Veronaville and its three sub-hoods, but it also saved 213 of the 663 Character files -- nearly a third of them. What worries me is messing up one or more of the character files if it crashes while trying to save them.

For comparison I tried my usual way of quitting. Again I started the game, and opened Veronaville. Then, without doing anything at all in Veronaville, I switched Aedicia, my Simless building 'hood. The game saved the main Veronaville 'hood file (N003_Neighborhood.package) but not the sub-hood files. It also saved 209 character files. (That's 209 of the 213 files it had saved the first time.) Then, after about ten minutes, with Aedicia still loaded, but nothing done there, I quit the game. It saved all my neighbourhood files for all neighbourhoods including all the sub-hoods. It even saved Teston Woods, my test 'hood which I haven't opened in about ten years. But it didn't save any character files. No doubt it would have saved any it could find in Aedicia, but Aedicia is Sim-free, so there aren't any character files there to save.

Experience has taught me that the game is more likely to crash when quitting, than when switching to another neighbourhood. So by switching to Aedicia before quitting, I feel I'm keeping my Sims a little bit safer.


Sorry, Charity. I completely missed this when you posted it. I can therefore understand if you were a little peeved when I profusely thanked Phantomknight a few days for posting much the same a few days later. Sorry again!

It saves the neighborhood, but doesn't save progress for playable sims (relationships, etc.). Not sure what it saves for twnies/NPCs, though.
I've done my "story mode" playing where I save changes I want (or don't make any changes and don't save), then go full-on ballistic on the lot, leaving all sorts of things I'd otherwise have to clean up after myself, and then either go out of the lot or quit without saving. Upon returning, everything (lot, relationships, etc.) is exactly the way it was at the point of the last save.

I'd think it saves the neighborhood itself, because there is no other way to save the neighborhood. Whether you did any changes seems to be irrelevant. I'd think even opening up (and closing) the hood is considered a save point. It might consider visiting lots, clicking on lots or even just opening the hood as "changes" done to the file. How else would it save name changes, descriptions, the state of the lot info view, or changes to NH deco?

It does save a bunch of character files, but it seems most of those files are townies (+ sims played in that session).
In my current game I compared the Pleasantview hood that has a full set of townies to a modified one without townies (after installed no-townie presets). The original hood had a lot of modified sim files, but most were townies/NPCs/etc. in addition to the last played households. The only saved sims in the townie-free hood were the last played households, the rest were untouched. Why it saves townies, and what it saves? No idea.

When I save, I always save first, then quit. I don't use the save+quit option, as it seems to be a bit unstable...

Yeah, I don't use the save while quitting option either, for the same reason. But if I enter a house to test something, then quit to the neighbourhood or quit the game without saving, it doesn't change anything in the family I was playing and that's what I was talking about when I said that it shouldn't save without you telling it to.

I've never paid attention to when the neighbourhood is saved. Never had any problems from it either.

FRom a little bit of digging, it looks like the neighborhood saves whatever/whenever it pleases. The date on the last hood save is from a few hours after the last save of the bunch of townies, so the hood itself (and all subhoods, which I didn't even access) were saved when quitting the game.

In my modded hood, two sims from a different lot were saved at a later point than the main family after I spawned them in, (did some photos), and then quit without saving.

It's possible the files save information temporarily, and either keeps it or removes it from the files depending on whether you save the game. Would be interesting to know. Might do a bit of testing later.

EDIT:

Loaded in my N001 Pleasantview (the one with townies).
The townie character files changed date when I loaded the hood (162 files - I haven't checked all, but the ones I checked were townies, possibly also including the loaded sims). They also changed date when I loaded in a family. For some reason, suburb 2, 4 and 5 also changed date, but not 1, 3 and "N001_Neighborhood" (only loaded the main hood). When I loaded a lot, the "N001_Neighborhood" file changed date. Lot files stayed the same. The sims on the lot seemingly don't have relations to any of the saved townies, only to playables.

I saved the lot, and the same bunch of townies were saved again (+ I assume the sims on the lot). Only the current lot file was changed.

Townies were saved again when exiting the lot to the hood (nothing else).

All the hood files in N001 (and all the other neighborhood files in the other folders too) + the lot file I'd visited + all 162 townie files in N001 were saved when exiting the game.

No idea what's happening and why it's saving/changing dates. Can check if there are differences in the files before and after the next time, though I don't think any changes would be big enough to notice when there hasn't been a single change to the sims as far as I'm aware of.

Seems the townie saving happens at every point, hood saving at entering/exiting + at exit, and lot files only save when you save on the lot.