Well, people, it seems I have the classic "SimPE can't read Nightlife character information" bug. I've seen references to this in several places. One person posted on the SimPE Forum itself that they had had the bug and fixed it - but they didn't bother to explain how! (Drat!)

The situation is this: no matter which Sim I try to work with, and no matter what I try for a fix, the SimPE Nightlife character tab remains stubbornly blank. Same deal with SimPE 73 and 75 - neither one can read the info. Have Windows 7 and Ultimate Collection, have an installed Downtown, and went through the whole circus of setting the paths (do you have to do something out of the ordinary for Nightlife to get it recognized?). That didn't help.

I used to have a working installation - until my laptop got fried. But I have no way of knowing why that one could read Nightlife and this one does not.

Did you try with the SimPE 0.75f version? It's somewhere in the same topic.

I had UC path issues with the 0.75b version, but not with the f version. Haven't tried to look at neighborhoods, though.

Here's the latest version of SimPE:

http://www.modthesims.info/showpost...19&postcount=83

I checked and my installed SimPE is 0.75f. So that's not the problem. I also tried actually taking a Sim Downtown to see if that would solve the problem - it didn't.

All paths are SUPPOSEDLY set correctly per standard instructions for Ultimate Collection - except of course that there is no "sims.exe" starter, and the SimsEP9.exe starter is in Fun With Pets\EP9. "Fixing" this breaks the game, so I have no idea what EAxis was playing at.

EDIT: Have tried fixes recommended in several threads, and absolutely nothing has made the slightest bit of difference. Downtown is developing other problems, too, which may require another thread.

========================================

Update: After a lot of hassle and an enforced re-virginization of my Sims2 game, I finally got rid of the bug.

Here's what you have to do:

1. Before you begin, make sure that your game files are NOT Read-Only! (This may be the most essential step.)
2. Download and install SimPE 0.75f, but also download 0.73_44 (you will need to copy a file from it).
3. Start your Sims2 game and play it a little, then quit. Make sure you install a Downtown, preferably in N001 (Pleasantview).
4. Copy "pjse.coder.plugin" from the Plugins folder of Simpe0.73_44 to that of 0.75.
5. Download and install ExpansionsXREG_UpdatedFor UC (save the old xreg with an extension such as .bak or .old, just in case).
6. Start up SimPE, go to Extra / Preferences, and finish setting the correct paths - the update will get you started, but you have to finish the job manually.
7. Save Preferences.
8. Close SimPE and restart it. If all goes well, you should now be able to view the information in the Nightlife tab.

I knew there had to have been something I overlooked, and something as obscure as step 4 - well!!!