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Fixed Maxis Strangetown

by Dorsal Axe Posted 7th May 2020 at 8:59 PM - Updated 29th Jan 2024 at 2:37 PM by Dorsal Axe : New version with minor fixes
 
80 Comments / Replies (Who?) - 55 Feedback Posts, 24 Thanks Posts
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Test Subject
#26 Old 10th May 2020 at 1:29 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Dorsal Axe
Ah, I haven't explained it very well. I'll rewrite the instructions to make them clearer. Basically you should temporarily move or rename your saved game folder (usually under \Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2), this will cause the game to generate a new folder and copy over the template neighborhoods from the installation directory (usually under \Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2). Then you can move the new Strangetown to your old save folder, swapping it over with the old Strangetown, then delete the new save folder and restore your old one.


That did it, thank you. By now I should have known renaming the folder would be the answer, since I do that to get clean hoods

Quote: Originally posted by Dorsal Axe
Regarding the other thing, my guess is that it's because those memories are pointing to invalid targets. There is a duplicate of Michael Bachelor and one of Darleen Dreamer, who are not properly linked, so that's possibly why that error is being thrown.


Didn't know there was also a duplicated Bachelor. Maxis really messed things up with those duplicated dead spouses. Funny how this issue didn't also occur with the Skip Broke double.
Thankfully, the batbox did fix the Pleasantview incorrect subjects, but they remain in the subhoods. Guess I'll just have to fix those manually, after all =/

---
Thank you again for your help, as well as for the great work with Strangetown. It's good to have a fixed version of the same exact hood from my childhood.
Field Researcher
#27 Old 10th May 2020 at 2:01 AM
This seems to be implying that this specific Strangetown is the cleanest Strangetown out there. If so, what's wrong with Meetme's templates? Yes she may have deleted all the townies, but whether to keep the townies is a player-to-player basis. Are you suggesting there's some hidden borkiness in her rereleased templates that your hood doesn't? If so, elaborate.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#28 Old 10th May 2020 at 5:09 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Dorsal Axe
Ah, I haven't explained it very well. I'll rewrite the instructions to make them clearer. Basically you should temporarily move or rename your saved game folder (usually under \Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2), this will cause the game to generate a new folder and copy over the template neighborhoods from the installation directory (usually under \Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2). Then you can move the new Strangetown to your old save folder, swapping it over with the old Strangetown, then delete the new save folder and restore your old one.

In my testing I found that directly swapping the old N002 out for the new one would wipe my stories in all hoods, but following this more cumbersome process didn't for some reason. I couldn't tell you why

Regarding the other thing, my guess is that it's because those memories are pointing to invalid targets. There is a duplicate of Michael Bachelor and one of Darleen Dreamer, who are not properly linked, so that's possibly why that error is being thrown. I haven't really looked at Pleasantview much yet, so I can't say for certain. I'm also not sure about the Tricous. Issues with memory subjects can easily be fixed in SimPE though.


More a thing for people who play the Maxis pre-made hoods or use the Maxis story album. If someone (like me) has long ago deleted all Maxis hoods and never uses the Maxis story album I think dropping it in directly should be safe.

Could also be because you didn't also delete the Neighbourhood manager file?

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Lab Assistant
#29 Old 10th May 2020 at 9:06 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Dorsal Axe
Pretty much what's in the description and changelog.

Main points: This hood hasn't been initialized, whereas it seems Tarlia's has been loaded to make certain modifications. There's certain changes to appearances and portraits. Most townies and ancestors are absent. The fixed appearances only work if you take those Sims to a mirror, which is a non-starter for dead Sims. Most of the issues in the changelog aren't resolved with her hood


First of all, I commend your work here, you've clearly gone to great lengths to make this as clean and close to Maxis' version as possible, and I know first-hand how much work that is. Replacing the character data for all of the ancestors is also impressive, that's tedious work.

However, I wish you didn't feel the need to advertise your work as "better" or "the most clean", or by stating vague untruths about my template.

Almost everything in your changelog was also fixed in mine, such as DNA (including recessive DNA, I'm not sure your changelog said anything about that?), relationships, and memories.

In the most recent version (available through my tumblr account) the ghosts no longer have to be sent to a mirror to see their fixed appearances either. The portrait/appearance changes are only in the ghosts, and the appearances were only changed on the sims who had broken faces and thus no true original to go by. Portrait changes are cosmetic only anyway, and the game will constantly regenerate those once you start playing, also for ghosts.

It's also untrue that my Strangetown template has been loaded/initialized ingame. It has not. All fixes were made in SimPE.

Mine does not include all the ancestors and it doesn't include most of the townies/NPCs, this much is true. This was a choice made in order to save space/the number of character files, since I made my templates specifically for building a megahood/uberhood/combined hood. There's also a few minor changes to a couple of sims' ages, etc. If I was going to start over now, I'd make these changes/deletions optional instead. So it's nice to have this option of a clean/fixed Strangetown with all of that intact now.

But please don't confuse people by implying my template is less clean or more unsafe to play than yours. More close to the Maxis original, yes. Has more/different cosmetic fixes? It seems so, although I haven't gone through and compared the actual templates. But the only real main difference is the ancestors and townies, it seems to me.

Quote: Originally posted by Dorsal Axe
Not to knock Tarlia, she did a good job. It's just that the tools and our general understanding of the game have come a long way since then.


Just would like to know what these general understandings and especially tools are? SimPE is OLD and is what I used as well, and the HoodChecker? I also used that, even though I'd done most of that cleaning manually before it was made. In fact I helped Mootilda with suggestions and testing it back when she made it.

I also know the technical reason the photo albums (may) disappear when you put the template directly into the Documents/Neighborhoods folder, but not when it's added through the game folders, so maybe we could share information instead of being vaguely competitive about it? I didn't know that PT9 originally was retired, or how to fix the curtains in Olive's lot through using SimPE, so that's interesting information.
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#30 Old 10th May 2020 at 12:02 PM Last edited by Dorsal Axe : 10th May 2020 at 12:25 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Tarlia
First of all, I commend your work here, you've clearly gone to great lengths to make this as clean and close to Maxis' version as possible, and I know first-hand how much work that is. Replacing the character data for all of the ancestors is also impressive, that's tedious work.

However, I wish you didn't feel the need to advertise your work as "better" or "the most clean", or by stating vague untruths about my template.

Almost everything in your changelog was also fixed in mine, such as DNA (including recessive DNA, I'm not sure your changelog said anything about that?), relationships, and memories.

In the most recent version (available through my tumblr account) the ghosts no longer have to be sent to a mirror to see their fixed appearances either. The portrait/appearance changes are only in the ghosts, and the appearances were only changed on the sims who had broken faces and thus no true original to go by. Portrait changes are cosmetic only anyway, and the game will constantly regenerate those once you start playing, also for ghosts.

In fairness, this project was started some years ago now. I did actually go through your template at the time and also play tested it, and found some unresolved things back then. I was not aware you had updated it since, that's genuinely awesome. I've edited the post above to remove my comments and indicate it was based on outdated information. I do respect your work very much, but I stand by that there were some unresolved things found at the time. Otherwise I would have saved myself all the trouble and just added the missing Sims to your template.

Quote:
It's also untrue that my Strangetown template has been loaded/initialized ingame. It has not. All fixes were made in SimPE.

Now I am sorry for that, as I'm probably confusing yours with the mark93 version. There was one I had encountered which had been loaded in-game, and it was likely that one (and I do remember the mark93 one was definitely corrupt since it consistently crashed on even a clean game). I had dug through some different versions that I had found online at the time, just to get an idea of what I would be undertaking.

Quote:
But please don't confuse people by implying my template is less clean or more unsafe to play than yours. More close to the Maxis original, yes. Has more/different cosmetic fixes? It seems so, although I haven't gone through and compared the actual templates. But the only real main difference is the ancestors and townies, it seems to me.

In the spirit of good faith, I've modified the download description, though I have to say the original one was collectively referring to multiple projects.
Alchemist
#31 Old 10th May 2020 at 12:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Tarlia
I also know the technical reason the photo albums (may) disappear when you put the template directly into the Documents/Neighborhoods folder, but not when it's added through the game folders


Could you share this, please? I'd like to understand what's going on because I want to figure out how/if the issue will affect the conversion to subhood if I can't load it through the game first.
Lab Assistant
#32 Old 11th May 2020 at 1:43 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Dorsal Axe
I wondered if the expanded want slots were conflicting with the scripted scenario (since that forces certain wants on Sims IIRC), but I'm afraid I haven't been able to replicate this at all that on a clean game. Therefore, I can only assume it's due to a mod conflict.


Thank you, there was indeed a mod conflict. The mod that allows to name a different Sim as a father was messing with Pascal specifically giving him sim relations with every sim in Strangetown. I removed the majority of my game mods just in case and left the ones that generating unnecessary NPCs. Everything runs fine now.
Test Subject
#33 Old 11th May 2020 at 8:12 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
More a thing for people who play the Maxis pre-made hoods or use the Maxis story album. If someone (like me) has long ago deleted all Maxis hoods and never uses the Maxis story album I think dropping it in directly should be safe.

Could also be because you didn't also delete the Neighbourhood manager file?


do you know how to actually get the story album to transfer too? does it have to do with neighborhood manager? a few of us, like me and Mr sunrader asked questions on it and wed appreciate it if you knew and let us know. thanks
Test Subject
#34 Old 14th May 2020 at 7:14 AM Last edited by Pdaddy57P : 14th May 2020 at 8:44 AM.
Can someone please share the complete path for the "saved game" folder? I know that it is somewhere in C: -->Users--> *user*-->Documents-->EA Games-->The Sims 2--> ?-->? *(Please complete this path to the end--not sure for the exact name of the saved game folder )
It looks awesome, Dorsal Axe I just want to be sure I know how to set it up right

*I do know where to find the template one though.

**Update: I found out what I needed to do. The following folders are all needed for your saved games: Neighborhoods, Downloads (mods--if you have any), Storytelling, Packaged Lots, Saved Sims, and Movies (if you want them). I have it working now Thanks so much, Dorsal Axe
Test Subject
THANKS POST
#35 Old 15th May 2020 at 3:43 AM
I love these clean hoods, thanks for your take on it, but sometimes the neighborhood story book is deleted when you put this directly into your documents pathway, are you familiar with how to fix this Dorsal? if anyone else knows i would be thankful
Field Researcher
#36 Old 15th May 2020 at 7:36 AM
@Dorsal Axe just to be honest, it seems extremely superficial of you to only change it once Tarlia / Meetme actually called you out saying that advertising your Strangetown as the "most clean one" isn't true. You had all this time in the upload queue to change it, but once you get confronted THEN you change it? I'm sorry man, this just irked me and I had to be honest about it.
Alchemist
#37 Old 16th May 2020 at 5:46 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Orpheus49
I love these clean hoods, thanks for your take on it, but sometimes the neighborhood story book is deleted when you put this directly into your documents pathway, are you familiar with how to fix this Dorsal? if anyone else knows i would be thankful


DA suggested putting it in the installation files instead of the Neighborhoods folder for this reason. You could do that. I wonder if you couldn't just put that file back in, though. Did you try?
Test Subject
#38 Old 17th May 2020 at 1:53 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Sunrader
DA suggested putting it in the installation files instead of the Neighborhoods folder for this reason. You could do that. I wonder if you couldn't just put that file back in, though. Did you try?

I put it directly into my documents and sometimes the neighborhood photos dont transfer. i believe it works for subhoods fine because you add them in via in game from, the program files, but im not sure. I do know that putting them in the documents does not work however
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#39 Old 17th May 2020 at 5:29 PM
think
Quote: Originally posted by redandvidya
@Dorsal Axe just to be honest, it seems extremely superficial of you to only change it once Tarlia / Meetme actually called you out saying that advertising your Strangetown as the "most clean one" isn't true. You had all this time in the upload queue to change it, but once you get confronted THEN you change it? I'm sorry man, this just irked me and I had to be honest about it.

I've already explained the situation, and I'm not sure how I'm supposed to do something before I'm even aware about it. If you have a grievance with me, it would be more appropriate to take it up with me in a PM rather than here.

Quote: Originally posted by Orpheus49
I love these clean hoods, thanks for your take on it, but sometimes the neighborhood story book is deleted when you put this directly into your documents pathway, are you familiar with how to fix this Dorsal? if anyone else knows i would be thankful

I believe it's possibly to do with a change one of the EPs made to how screenshots are handled. In the base game they were in a single Storytelling folder shared between all neighborhoods, but an EP changed it so that they get sorted into separate versions of this folder for each neighborhood. There's a far more detailed explanation about this change here, along with a potential (and kind of cumbersome) workaround if you're affected: http://modthesims.info/showthread.p...684#post5064684

The simplest thing to do though is follow the installation instructions (I've rewritten them to make it easier to follow) and generate a clean save folder, as this will allow the game to convert the albums properly and avoid the issue. From there you can move the newly generated hood over to your existing save directory.
Lab Assistant
#40 Old 21st May 2020 at 4:51 AM
Hey DA, I've decided to bug-test Sunrader's subhood version, and they're likely also included the main version as well. So I've decided to report them to you too.

Quote: Originally posted by EduPie
This is what I could conclude:
https://imgur.com/gallery/t5Hp77Q

Neighborhood mode storytelling seems normal, all pictures with their respective captions.
However, family-mode storytelling seems incomplete. Pictures are there, but their description is blank.

As said in the comments section, seems like a problem with the main hood itself. But honestly? I don't ever touch storytelling either, lol.

Another weird thing is there was no comment pop-up when I first played the Grunt house. You know, that yellow chatter box that gave you some lore on the house, and suggestions on how to play them?

Tested it in a CC-free environment, only with CEP and Mootilda's subhood selection fix.
Thank you once again for your work!


About the comment thingies, Sunrader suggested on how it might have happened because I played Strangetown out of order, is that so? Haven't tested it again. Thank you for your DL!
Test Subject
#41 Old 21st May 2020 at 5:17 AM
This this was very much needed
Test Subject
#42 Old 28th May 2020 at 2:58 PM
Are the installation instructions different if we've never played Strangetown and thus have no saved games of it?
Test Subject
THANKS POST
#43 Old 5th Jun 2020 at 8:07 AM
Curiosly, i cant seem to find bella goth in this version of the hood, shes a townie correct? did you delete her? Id like to know thanks
Alchemist
#44 Old 27th Jun 2020 at 12:08 AM Last edited by Sunrader : 27th Jun 2020 at 12:22 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by Orpheus49
Curiously, i cant seem to find bella goth in this version of the hood, shes a townie correct? did you delete her? Id like to know thanks


Hmmm, I was surprised by this question, so I checked my version, and Bella is there, but she's in the default family. I checked the original in the install folders and it is the same there, as Dorsal Axe has, true to form, kept to the original.

I was under the impression Bella had a townie FAMI (family instance) in Strangetown, but I guess not. I guess we could move her to the townie family, but in the subhood that would mean her name would be randomized, right? Probably best to do it after the subhood is already attached. Or, now that you know she's there, you can summon her and turn into a townie or whatever you want her to be.

Meanwhile, I've uploaded a link to the subhood on my Simblr now in case anyone wants it.
Trainee Moderator
staff: trainee moderator THANKS POST
#45 Old 18th Jul 2020 at 12:09 PM
Hi there!
First of all, I appreciate your work! I really like this fixed version with all the townies/NPCs intact... though, I have a question: aren't the Curious brothers and Lola and Chloe supposed to be siblings? They don't know each other and in the family tree, they aren't connected as well.
Test Subject
THANKS POST
#46 Old 21st Jul 2020 at 7:40 PM
Thank you I was looking for a fixed version of Strangetown with all the townies. I was about to do all of it myself and I found yours, you saved me from a lot of trouble. Thanks!
Test Subject
THANKS POST
#47 Old 25th Jul 2020 at 12:29 AM
Hi! Loving this hood so far, but I just wanted to say that Johnny and Jill were not properly related to the Curious brothers (Pascal started to gain chemistry with Johnny XD) I appreciate your time and work put into this though, good work!
Test Subject
THANKS POST
#48 Old 31st Jul 2020 at 5:16 PM Last edited by LastHaven : 31st Jul 2020 at 7:01 PM.
Hi, uh, I got a dumb question and I really need some help--each time I try to generate a new save folder by moving the folder, nothing happens. Do I have to start up the game to force it to generate a new one or is there another way to do it?

EDIT: Nevermind, just went ahead and booted it up and it worked. I'm going to leave this comment here, just for anyone else like me who needs little details spelled out for them.
Test Subject
#49 Old 19th Oct 2020 at 12:11 AM
Hi, I see that you haven't logged in since May but I'm gonna comment anyway in the hopes that you'll see it-- I'm having trouble. I'm really dense (thanks adhd) and I'm having a hard time visualizing your instructions. Is there anyway you could provide like, a video of you going through the process? If not, it's okay!
Test Subject
#50 Old 27th Oct 2020 at 2:31 PM
Quote: Originally posted by embo1999
Hi, I see that you haven't logged in since May but I'm gonna comment anyway in the hopes that you'll see it-- I'm having trouble. I'm really dense (thanks adhd) and I'm having a hard time visualizing your instructions. Is there anyway you could provide like, a video of you going through the process? If not, it's okay!


what are you struggling with? installing the neighbourhood to you game?
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