What... how? Is this from the clean subhood template I got, or because I have Strangetown as my main neighborhood, because otherwise.... What am I looking at?

In the clean subhood template Bella Goth gets renamed by the game. You can rename her with SimPE or something like Sim Manipulator.

I have strangetown Bella. Will having two sims with the same name cause problems? I ask cuz years ago when I was toying with the ingame tester objects I had two sims named Baby Boy. One was an adult and one was a baby, and when I reset the adult one he acted like a baby.. So it seems to me part of how the game identifies Sims is in fact by name.

Huh, I hadn't thought about resetting a sim. I know I have Strangetown as my main hood too but apparently I choose (I couldn't remember) the clean one with no Bella Goth so I only have 1 (that was originally named Demi something before I renamed her) but there is a townie Jill Smith and the Jill Smith that's the daughter of PT#9....is there another way to reset a sim? Maybe boolprop testingcheatsenabled true then shift click on the particular sim and choose "force error"? I don't know if that's a thing or not. Hopefully someone else will know. Other than the resetting thing I don't think it's a problem (again if i'm wrong i'm sure someone will say so).

That sounds like corruption. Names are purely cosmetic - the game identifies them by ID No., not by name.

Good to know. I was doing a lot of crazy stuff in that save for the sake of curiosity.

I was thinking there was a "resetsim insert-name-here" cheat but when I google how to reset a sim in sims 2 all I get is the boolprop testingcheatsenabled true cheat on then shift click the sim then force error on them...so their name shouldn't matter. Is there a "reset sim name-here" cheat? If so i'd guess that could be the issue and just go the boolprop way...

Edit: I might have gotten it confused with Sims 3. In Sims 3 there is a "reset sim insert name here" cheat. In the sims 2 it sounds like that adult acting like a baby with the same name is just corruption like Peni said. Sorry I got Sims 2 and 3 confused (I love both).

Which subhood template did you use? I just ask because that random renaming can be prevented, so I'd like to take a look at it. It's fine to rename, though, as the others are saying.

https://meetme2theriver.livejournal.com/63030.html
This one I'm pretty sure.

In the clean templates, Bella has been removed from Strangetown and comes with Pleasantview instead, so that the family ties are correct. She is a townie, and if you don't have Pleasantview as your main hood, she gets renamed to a random name, just like any other townie that came with a subhood.

There is a newer one. https://meetmetotheriver.tumblr.com...rerelease-fixed

I know these templates. If I wanted to use the PV as a subhood, but didn't want her (or anyone) renamed, I would put them in new FAMIs before attaching the subhood. After attaching, they can be made into townies again and they will keep their names.

I have meetmetotheriver/tarlia's original Pleasantview and Strangetown (not the new revised versions). Bella Goth came as a townie in both of them. In Pleasantview I got her back together with Mortimer. I'm leaving her as a townie in Strangetown; I consider her as the real Bella before she found her way back to Pleasantview. At the very beginning of me playing Pleasantview she spotted Alexander in a shop, and recognised him as her child. She wanted to give him a family kiss; blood is truly thicker than water.

That's not true. That's an option, but I still have Strangetown Bella.

Also, @Sunraider. Thanks but there isn't a sliver of a chance of me restarting this neighborhood without it being seriously corrupted. I have done so much work on making all neighborhoods nice and adding gameplay... Also, I can't recreate Shady Gary's house, and it's perfect!

I didn't mean that you would. No, I wouldn't either. I was responding to/adding to the information that attaching subhoods causes name randomization, in case that info would be useful to any readers. For a game like yours, I would just change her name, no big deal. Btw, though, you can always package a lot to recreate it elsewhere. That is a great lot.

I was more making a point of the effort I've put into this neighborhood, cuz it isn't just lots, but sims, hood deco, etc. I just chose Shady Gary's house because it looks rediculous, and so I thought it might be a bit funny.

But fair enough. And thanks

If you installed the version of Strangetown that has Bella in it, then you just get an extra Bella with no family ties. The presence of Strangetown Bella doesn't cause Pleasantview Bella to not exist, they're two different sims who are not related to each other at all.

I was simply replying to the idea they removed her from Strangetown. Strangetown Bella never had family ties. In fact she doesn't even use the same face as Pleasantview Bella. Strangetown Bella was the one you could see in normal gameplay, but they have both always been there. Just Pleasantview Bella was coded to be partially dead, so she'd never show up, but would still appear alive on the family tree.

I would suggest a better thread title, perhaps, Bella Goth's name is randomized in Tarlia's clean template Pleasantview. "Umm... Excuse me?" is not at all creative, not even in terms of clickbaiting!