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Moving Sims
How do you move sims from one neighborhood to another? There's a couple options for the right way... and some VERY wrong ways.
The Right Ways
These are the proper methods to move sims from one neighborhood to another. Anything else will mess up your game.
The Easy Way
Use SimPE to extract the appearances of your sims. This will allow you to access them in Create a Sim so you can remake them anew. Supernatural species like plant sims and werewolves will have to be remade - you can only create basic sims, no supernatural species in Create a Sim. Any relationships you cannot make in Create a Sim (like a teen and adult as siblings) you can fix once you get them moved in to a lot using the InSIMenator.
This will not retain any relationships (besides those you set up in Create a Sim), nor will it keep skills, job levels, aspiration points, etc. Again, some of that can be adjusted after they're moved in using the InSIMenator.
This is, by far, the easiest way to move sims from one 'hood to another. For instructions on how to extract your sims' appearances so you can remake them in this way, see: Game Help:Extract In-Game Sim.
If you would like to transfer all Sims from one neighborhood to another, follow this tutorial: How to safely move all characters to a new neighborhood. While the steps described in the tutorial do provide you with a much faster method of transferring Sims (without having to extract their appearances or remake them in CAS), they don't allow you to skip certain households while moving them over - all of the Sims will be transferred.
The Hard Way
If you would like to retain skills, job levels, relationships, etc. and move your sims as they are without remaking them, that is a heck of a lot harder than the easy way. This will require the use of SimPE, Clean Installer, and quite a bit of time and effort. This is not recommended unless you are extremely comfortable using SimPE.
Here's how it's done:
1. First, back up your game! You need to make a copy of both the neighborhood your sims are currently in, and the one you're going to move them into, just in case something goes wrong. You can easily corrupt both neighborhoods doing this, so make sure you do this step!
2. Then, use SimPE to remove all memories of meeting any sims that do not live on the lot. Any other memories, too, like gossip about other sims that don't live on the lot need to be removed as well. When you're done, your sims should only have memories involving other sims that are living on the lot with them. See [Memories Tutorial] for more details.
3. Check in SimPE that they do not have any relationships with any sims that do not live on the lot. If they do, remove any of them.
4. Load the game, and load the lot with the family you just cleaned. Check their relationships and memories to make sure you removed everything. If you have blank or corrupt icons, or if the lot won't load, you messed up. Restore your backup and start over.
5. Load the game, and package the lot with the sims you wish to move to a sims2pack file. This will pack up the sims and the lot they live on.
- If you wish to only move the sims themselves, move them out of their house and into the family bin. Then create a new, blank lot and move them into the blank lot and package it.
- If you wish to move the house and family both, but separate from one another, you'll need to get the Staythings Shrub from Simlogical and place it on the lot before moving the family out, so the furnishings stay on the lot and are not sold. Once the family is moved out you can package their old house separately from the family on an empty lot.
6. Close the game.
7. Open the sims2pack file with your packaged family in Clean Installer. Uncheck any sim files for sims that do not live on the lot with your sims and save the sims2pack with a new filename.
8. Open the new sims2pack and install the sims2pack to your game.
9. Load the game, and load the neighborhood you wish to move that family into.
10. You'll find their inhabited lot in the sim bin. Place it in the neighborhood.
11. Load the lot, and play a while to make sure they're okay. If you notice they start talking to other sims and the icons in their thought bubbles are corrupt, you messed up somewhere - restore your backed up neighborhoods and start over.
The Wrong Ways
Moving Just the Family
The game will allow you to move a family out of their house and place them in the family bin. This will not sever any relationships or remove any memories. Moving the family this way will create duplicate sim files which will clog up the neighborhood you move them into, contributing to neighborhood overcrowding, which can eventually completely ruin the neighborhood you're moving them into. Do not move a family into the family bin and then directly into a new neighborhood without cleaning them properly as detailed above under "The Hard Way".
Moving the Family and Lot
The game will allow you to place an inhabited lot into the lot bin, and then move that lot into a new neighborhood. This will sever relationships and remove memories, but it will NOT prevent your game from creating duplicate sim files the same way as if you moved the family alone. Do not move an inhabited lot into the lot bin - clean it properly as detailed above under "The Hard Way."
If You've Already Done the Wrong Way
If the family was completely brand new and knew nobody outside of their family (nobody that lived outside of the lot) then you might be safe. But if they knew other sims, any other sims, you've created duplicates of those sim files in the neighborhood you've moved them into. How serious this is depends on how many sims they know - if it's just a handful you may able to continue playing without too much issue. But if you've moved a family that knows a lot of sims, or an old Legacy family, you've likely corrupted the neighborhood you've moved them into, creating tons of extra sim files. This is Very Bad for your game.
The only thing you can do at that point is delete the neighborhood you moved them into and start it over.