It's definitely better to use clean templates. I did this, thinking as well I would be safe since the 'hood was brand new and the very first thing I did was get rid of the binned families before they had the time to spread anywhere. It was ok for quite some time, then suddenly I started getting those "squiggly lines" speech/thought bubbles, and that was my first clue that something was wrong. Then, when I sent a family on vacation, they would constantly jump back from the foodstands, and I know this wasn't a hack conflict because I tested with 0 custom content plus the stands worked fine in other 'hoods. At that point I restarted, and since then my bin families stay where they are, at least until I get around to updating my clean templates.

I use Upgrade.../Pre-Uni on Sims who have the Went to University *memory* without the Went to University *advantages*. I [typically? only? always?] see the memory without the perks only on Sims that existed before I installed University and haven`t done Delete Trash on. Even then, they are all former Townies who were NPCs when I installed University. My stable of Sims who were player-characters at the time never got the spurious memory, and I do not know if replacement Townies get the memory [though I have reason to suspect that they do], but former Townies who were recruited after installing University and NOT mem-wiped seem to all have it.

Oh, and FWIW, I`m running with a hack that makes former Townies NOT get amnesia when they move in.

Edit: Just to clarify --and I should have mentioned this in an earlier post-- I was talking about memories of former Townies who were recruited after installing University, not of Sims that were [already] player characters when I installed University.

Yup. It's NEVER safe to delete Bin Families. Way to go EAxis. Better to go for clean templates (here) and make your own townies. It's a lot more work but also far more stable.

As a note, ALL Maxis hoods come pre-broken by bin deletion. I don't know if this is the case for custom hoods built without clean templates but I wouldn't be surprised.

As for the townies with Uni memories, I've never seen this. I even went so far as to create a new 'hood, batch created townies, then look at them in SimPE. No memories on them whatsoever. I can only assume the problem lies either with the replacement townies, or with the "no amnesia" hack.

Is it safe to delete CC from bodyshop?

Mostly yes.
Minor nuisance: deleting a recolor will leave the mesh behind. This is usually a good thing, since you don't want to lose the mesh if you have three recolors of the same mesh and are only deleting one. But the game doesn't know when you're deleting the only recolor of a mesh, so orphaned meshes will be left behind.

I'm not sure it's either, I also use the same no amnesia hack and create custom Townies too, they still don't come with Uni memories.

(possibly this should move to its own thread though, it's veering a lot from the original topic)

I was reading "replacement" as different from "custom". I thought it meant he replaced the Pleasantview template with a different one, that contained different townies, so those townies would spawn in new 'hoods instead of the Pleasantview crowd. It's different from using clean templates because all parts of the characters are already established the second the 'hood in made, rather than generated afterwards.

My logic was that the mysterious college memories would be on those premade townies in the template, and thus be the source of the problem. If that's not the case, chalk it up to some sort of hack issue.

I don`t use custom templates, cleaned or otherwise. Made my `hood before discovering MTS2, nevermind MATY. My "replacement townies" are game-generated replacements for former Townies who have become player-characters, and the memories in question are in Sims who were Townies at the time I installed University, though they *may* be in the new Townies as well.

Trying *desperately* to revert to topic, um, ah, ah-ha, got one: DO NOT play Apartment Life without J. M. Pescado`s Critical Fixes hack. EA left some really STUPID errors in AL that even the *patches* don`t fix! Also badly broken in AL is anything to do with reading; NEVER let a sloppy AL Sim read a book unless you want the Sim to reset when attempting to place the book on the floor. As M&GS seems to use the AL engine, this stuff is malformed there, too.

Thanks for telling me about this. I just got AL a few weeks ago and had no idea.

Um, what is all this talk about tokens? What is a death token, a gossip token, or whatever?

That is a bit of data in the Neighborhood Memory that is attached to a particular sim, but doesn't show as a memory. A death token means the sim is dead. A gossip token shows up in conversation when a sim is gossiping. Badges and inventory are also tokens.

You`re welcome, shadowfan360.

I've done it every time I've made a brand new neighborhood- before creating a single sim or lot- and have never had a problem.

You never saw the problems that happened by you doing that because they start small and spread out slowly, as it's been said before. This is not a urban myth made to scare little children, it's a known and documented issue within the TS2 engine. Because you never saw problems happening, doesn't mean it's ok to do it - but you'll see it for yourself eventually, since you've done it in all your neighborhoods and apparently intend to keep doing it.

So, if you have a custom skin that shows up on sims randomly- and you delete it- they will always have wierd skin? or is it just a chance? And if they do end up like that can you fix it with one of those skin-changer hacks?

And if you delete the skin then you fix the sim with the skin-changer hack, and then the sim reproduces, will its kids have white skin with numbers, or will they just get the other parents skin?

Query: Is it a bad thing to bin lots that have urnstones on them (but are otherwise unoccupied)?

I did not know about the AL thing....

Well Aparently it's not safe do delete sims from family bin( oh well, my Verona will get f**ked down the line XD) and also smashing urns. I gotta go kill the sim off.

I don't get how if sim never left family bin thus never met any one, why is not safe to delete them? I did that with one family, I pretty much instantly deleted them, because I only had to take screen shots. did not save any progress on the lot either.

There's a hack that makes deleting/smashing urnstones safe, simply by not unlinking the character file. You can get it here.

As for deleting unplayed families, even playing another lot with them in the sim bin can create relationships. I've had sims bring Samantha Ottomas home from work CONSTANTLY. But even if that doesn't happen, bin deletion will still leave behind hanging files relating to the deleted sim in the NXXX_Neighborhood.package, which without a character file to rely on, can become corrupted. And corruption is contagious.

Also, All maxis neighborhoods come pre-broken this way. I don't know about the subhoods (colleges, downtown, Bluewater, vacation destinations) but all the main hoods are broken like this. Your Veronaville was already on its way to corruption this way, all you did was increase the potential of it happening sooner.

Ok, I have a little question here: what if expansion packs are not installed in order? I don't have every expansion, but always installed the ones I got in chronological order. The last one I got is FreeTime. What if, for example, I want to buy Nightlife and install it?

Might sound like a stupid question, but I heard a lot of horror stories where you HAVE TO uninstall all the previous expansions you had and put them in order again. Just wanted to know if it's true ^^

I've not done this (I got DD, then Pets, then Seasons), but my gf installed hers randomly and has had no problems. However, she has very little CC. Backing up your hoods is always a good idea before installing a new EP.

Yes. The urn contains a character file, and you essentially rip that file out of the neighborhood. It is the exact same thing as moving an occupied lot.



The lot gets saved either way. By just moving the family in, you've permanently linked them to that hood.

gonna be making grave stones with my filler sims from now on XD

Good to know, so =) thanks!

Sorry if this has already been mentioned:
-Moving out (L&H Bin) houses that have been previously lived in (without objects)?
-Moving out apartments that have been previously lived in?
Are these okay?



I've never had problems (besides corrupting my own neighborhood, but that was all me) and I got them DD, AL, Uni, Teen SS, Seasons, etc... so completely out of order, and buying all EP's.

I didn't have any problems installing out of order. I went base game, BV, Uni, Pets then Seasons. I did not have any CC until after I had installed what I have.

Make a back up and remove your downloads folder first, you should be OK. The only other thing I can think of is if you have mods that are located in the EP files instead of the main file. I've got a lighting mod that has files that have to be in the correct ep lighting file and that would cause problems.