Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 28th Nov 2020 at 3:28 AM
Default I foolishly deleted 2 families from the family bin. Is my neighborhood doomed?
I didn't realize deleting sims from the family bin can corrupt your other sims and neighborhood. The families I deleted were unused. So far my game is working alright. Is there a way to completely remove the deleted families from SimPE before the corruption begins? Is it possible to go into SimPE and erase the left over data of a deleted sim?

What happens if I try to"undelete" them from SimPE (if it's possible)?
Advertisement
Mad Poster
#2 Old 28th Nov 2020 at 4:01 AM
The easiest thing would be to just reload to a backup made before you deleted the families. It might be possible to clean up the neighborhood IF the sims never interacted with any other sims, but it's not guaranteed.
Mad Poster
#3 Old 28th Nov 2020 at 6:11 AM
I deleted a family I'd just created in CAS back in 2013. I'm still playing the 'hood. (In two days time it will be eight years old!) Whatever you do, don't try to delete the "stub" files for the deleted Sims. Those files provide instance numbers for the deleted Sims, so relationships to them will still be valid. If I understood him correctly, @Chris Hatch has suggested that deleting families from the bin is not as bad a thing as most of us believe.

I'm not going to recommend deleting families from the bin, and I certainly don't intend to ever do it again. Restoring from a recent backup is still the safest thing to do, but, if you don't have a recent backup, don't abandon a beloved neighbourhood because of the mistake you've made. Use the HoodChecker, and (as the Sims Fire Brigade tells you) be more careful in future.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Forum Resident
#4 Old 28th Nov 2020 at 3:15 PM
As Andrew has stated, deleting sims is not safe to do, but doesn't necessarily entail an immediate end to your neighbourhood.

Even though the sims deleted were freshly out of Create a Family, they still have references in regards to their Lifetime Wish, any children they had, memories, and even gossip about these memories. These are floating around now.

From my experience of deleting sims in a hood that I'm deliberately trying to corrupt, sims can keep their ID and things, and can even pop up in memories and family trees when relevant. It doesn't mean it's safe though, as they've lost some data and have now left junk data floating around the hood.

If you have a backup, load from that and keep corruption avoidance in mind.

If you don't have a backup, my advice would be to keep playing anyway. Use the HoodChecker to clean out the minor bits that could become major later on, install nounlinkondelete and nocorruptdeath, and read the guide Avoiding Corruption on The Sims Wiki.

Corrupted hoods, if looked after, can last years. If you're like me, and others on this sight, just play the hood until it becomes unplayable. If you get attached to particular sims, make note of their personality and extract their appearances in SimPE and clone them in BodyShop. That's what I do in Crystal River.

When a game is predictable, it's boring.
That goes for any medium that isn't life.
That's why The Sims 2 is my favourite sims game.
It has elements of unpredictability and everything feels more involved.
The Sims 4 is another story altogether...
Field Researcher
#5 Old 28th Nov 2020 at 3:21 PM
Your neighborhood is not doomed. Sims' relationships were probably deleted (which is a good thing), and they still have enough data left to function as Sims. If you are worried, it is possible to restore those Sims, but since they were unused, it's not a big deal.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 29th Nov 2020 at 1:46 AM
If you don't have a recent backup, or don't have a backup at all, but have sims and lots and such you want to save in case of emergencies, now is probably a good time to do a backup of that hood, so you have a place to go back to and extract sims and various other things from, in case the neighborhood is corrupted and ends up with a heap of problems further down the line. Saving stuff from an ongoing "forest fire" can be difficult if you suddenly have corrupted sims, lots or other data to deal with, but now there's still a possibility for getting everything out safe and sound (at least do the backup, you don't have to do the actual extraction work until need be). Make sure you extract sims and lots the correct ways, though. There are several ways to do it, but some can potentially cause corruption if you put the files in your game. Both extracted sims and lots need to be (cloned and) cleaned properly before they're safe to use.
Scholar
#7 Old 29th Nov 2020 at 1:51 PM
You can't actually delete sims in game, Maxis made it so they become what SimPE calls unlinked instead (an unfortunate term because they do remain linked). They can't be undeleted because their character file has been stripped of everything that makes them a real sim. Just enough is kept to keep them linked, retain their GUID, name and thumbnail to prevent problems with relationships, wants & fears or memories. Having unlinked sims is messy but attempting to remove them completely in SimPE, unless done properly will likely lead to some weird things ranging from some sims having strange wants up to your neighbourhood becoming unplayable.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#8 Old 29th Nov 2020 at 10:24 PM
The best thing you can do, apart from restoring to a backup, is run Hood Checker and let it remove what it can.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#9 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 12:07 AM
I used to delete bin families if soemthing broke them trying to move a couple in and they feel out of love before adding hacks to my game to disable that issue because it meant my town was ruined before it even got started.I would advise making sure to get Mods to stop the bad interactions from breaking a new couple up on moving in.
Instructor
#10 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 1:34 AM
Quote:
.I would advise making sure to get Mods to stop the bad interactions from breaking a new couple up on moving in.


Just out of curiousity, does this happen a lot? I don't think I've ever seen it happen in my game, but I probably haven't paid close enough attention at all times. And if it happens a lot is that really a bad sign?
Scholar
#11 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 3:27 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AnMal
Just out of curiousity, does this happen a lot? I don't think I've ever seen it happen in my game, but I probably haven't paid close enough attention at all times. And if it happens a lot is that really a bad sign?


It happens a lot, or did in my game before I got mods, but as far as I know it's not a bad sign, just really annoying. For some reason, Maxis thought it would be frightfully funny to have one Sim tell their spouse a dirty joke, and the spouse be so disgusted by it that they fell out of love on the spot. Some Maxis couples seem to be set up for this to happen the moment you move them in, but it happens with CAS Sims and with new relationships formed in-game, too. There are various mods to reduce either the number of dirty jokes told, or the negative reactions to them, which stops this happening. Alternatively, you can let it happen and just spend a lot of time getting the Sims back together again, but I like to play Happy Families; drama isn't really my thing.
Instructor
#12 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 6:15 AM
Thanks, BlueAlien! It doesn't sound like something I'd be bothered by and I'm glad it's not a bad sign.
Field Researcher
#13 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 9:28 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Chris Hatch
You can't actually delete sims in game, Maxis made it so they become what SimPE calls unlinked instead (an unfortunate term because they do remain linked). They can't be undeleted because their character file has been stripped of everything that makes them a real sim. Just enough is kept to keep them linked, retain their GUID, name and thumbnail to prevent problems with relationships, wants & fears or memories. Having unlinked sims is messy but attempting to remove them completely in SimPE, unless done properly will likely lead to some weird things ranging from some sims having strange wants up to your neighbourhood becoming unplayable.

Would adding missing data in their character file, from a clone Sim, successfully restore them?
Scholar
#14 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 12:31 PM
It can be done, make sure to change the Object Type in the Object Data (OBJD) back to Person (0x0002) from UnlinkedSim (0x0011) though.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 2:18 PM
Quote: Originally posted by BlueAlien
It happens a lot, or did in my game before I got mods, but as far as I know it's not a bad sign, just really annoying. For some reason, Maxis thought it would be frightfully funny to have one Sim tell their spouse a dirty joke, and the spouse be so disgusted by it that they fell out of love on the spot. Some Maxis couples seem to be set up for this to happen the moment you move them in, but it happens with CAS Sims and with new relationships formed in-game, too. There are various mods to reduce either the number of dirty jokes told, or the negative reactions to them, which stops this happening. Alternatively, you can let it happen and just spend a lot of time getting the Sims back together again, but I like to play Happy Families; drama isn't really my thing.


The threshhold for being in love is 70/70. If they fall below that while being in love, they will fall out of love, it's not scripted for any couple as far as I know, but a lot of Maxis couples start with weirdly low relationships for people who are supposed to be married. Just build their relationship for a bit before trying risky interactions like dirty joke, especially with sims with low charisma.
Field Researcher
#16 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 3:20 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Chris Hatch
It can be done, make sure to change the Object Type in the Object Data (OBJD) back to Person (0x0002) from UnlinkedSim (0x0011) though.

I did it a few times before, and it seems to have worked, but I didn't know if anything else (aside from relationships) had been deleted, so I was wary about possible side effects. Thank you for confirming, though; maybe this will reassure players to attempt to repair their hoods in case of deleted Sims, instead of abandoning them.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 30th Nov 2020 at 4:28 PM
@Kestrellyn -I've had cases where the couples moving in would do the risky actions long before I got any control over them and it would ruin the family before I even got started with playing them so I had to go with Modding that mess out of my game.I had couples just fall out of love just from reacting badly to dirty jokes before I was even given control over them.It led to moving them out to delete them and remake them to try again.I got annoyed with that even before finding out it could corrupt the town.
Back to top