Why would my game blow up with an organized downloads folder?

[PattyB]

So, after a week of organizing I was finally able to play.

I get to the neighborhood view of Pleasantview fine, but when I click on a house it never completely loads. I have to give the three-finger salute to quit out of the game.

I've tried different houses. One time I actually got into a lot, but time was frozen. The Sims were frozen.

I deleted the Groups.cache and it didn't make a difference.

In order to play, I had to move my backup copy of my unorganized downloads folder back and everything loads up fine.

Ideas anyone? Maybe I have a bad download. Gosh, the thought of moving one subfolder at a time back is giving me a headache. Maybe I need some of the Massacre day alcohol

edited to add - I've run CleanInstaller to check for duplicates and removed all duplicate files. It didn't help.

[BlueSoup]

If it seems to be coming from your Downloads folder, I don't see an easier way but to try one subfolder at a time, except you may be able to narrow it down if you know what's in that house.

[Brynne]

Have you tried starting the game in debug mode?

[akatonbo]

Why not, y'know, do the same as with an unorganized downloads folder -- take out approximately half, etc. etc.? (I can give the lengthy explanation if you have no idea what I'm talking about, but it's always awkward and tedious to describe.) No need to do it one at a time instead of in sections just because you've now got folders instead of individual files.

[PattyB]

Have you tried starting the game in debug mode?

Now for a totally stupid question - how do you start in debug mode?

[angelyne]

Did you remove any terrain files?  They are notoriously cranky.

[syberspunk]

Now for a totally stupid question - how do you start in debug mode?

Debug mode is another name for turning on the "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true" mode.

Ste

[Ambular]

Have you got a lot of hacks installed?  Some hacks are rather fussy about loading order and have to be loaded after other hacks in order to co-exist.  Since everything loads in alphabetical order by folder and then file name (this is apparently why some creators stick a "z" at the beginning of the filename,) putting stuff in separate folders could trip you up by causing, say, a file in a folder named "Bug Fixes" to load before one in a folder named "Global Hacks" when it should have loaded after.  I had to rearrange some of my subfolders for this reason.  Just a thought.

[Database]

The game really should have a "loading order" button. Hell, it sould allow you to organise downloads IN-GAME and sub-folder sims2packs without having to use Clean Installer.

[PattyB]

Have you got a lot of hacks installed?  Some hacks are rather fussy about loading order and have to be loaded after other hacks in order to co-exist.  Since everything loads in alphabetical order by folder and then file name (this is apparently why some creators stick a "z" at the beginning of the filename,) putting stuff in separate folders could trip you up by causing, say, a file in a folder named "Bug Fixes" to load before one in a folder named "Global Hacks" when it should have loaded after.  I had to rearrange some of my subfolders for this reason.  Just a thought.

All of my hacks are lumped together in a "Hacks" folder. That is probably the only folder that didn't change.

Edited to add: I'm leaving work shortly (yippee!!) and will give the ideas here a try. At risk of my lips, I'm going to say I love it here 

[Brynne]

If you want to try debug mode, type "boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true" in the neighborhood cheat window before trying to enter a lot. No quotation marks.

[J. M. Pescado]

The usual reason time is frozen on a lot is because some object is chain-erroring endlessly everytime it resets. In order to break the cycle, the offending object must be located and either DELETED or fixed. Otherwise time cannot pass because the game will respond to the erroring object by autoresetting it, which simply causes an immediate error 0 seconds later, thus rendering it impossible to advance time because the game will be locked in a cycle of resetting the broken object.

[radiophonic]

If you want to try debug mode, type "boolProp testingCheatsEnabled true" in the neighborhood cheat window before trying to enter a lot. No quotation marks.

And don't forget to write down the error message so that you have (some) clue as to what is causing the loop.
If it turns out to be an object, click the delete button when and if the error pops up, if it's a sim, try reset.

I usually only run into the enless loop problem after "upgrading" a pre-uni sim to have 6 want slots, I still don't know why.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I usually only run into the enless loop problem after "upgrading" a pre-uni sim to have 6 want slots, I still don't know why

Do you  have this problem whenever you try to load the house - or is it when you try to move the sim?


Patty B, I was just wondering if you have NL?  If not, and you have put all your skins into folders, that might be the problem.

[PattyB]

I have all the expansions plus the stupid Holiday pack (and I have pre-ordered OFB too).

I loaded the game last night with the organized downloads folder. Turned on Debug mode and loaded "my" house, which is one that would just hang and never open.

I got an error with the Sports job, which was weird because there was nobody in that house who is in that line of work. I reset the error and the house opened. I was missing carpet and the kitchen table and chairs reverted back to defaults. The girls bedding changed back to defaults too.

I turned debug mode off and played for an hour or so with no issues. Saved and exited to the neighborhood.

Then I tried to open up a different house and it hung and wouldn't open. Guess I shouldn't have turned debug mode off  Had to force shut down the game.

Then, I went into my logs folder and there were a BUNCH of logs created last night. Something with lighting, audio and even an Excel spreadsheet.

[ZephyrZodiac]

This is really wierd!  When the load screen comes up where you can enable/disable custom content, I presume you enabled it?  If so, it might be worth loading your game. disabling everything, then rebooting and loading your game and enabling custom content again, after which you would need to close your game and restart for the content to show. 

It might be that, if custom content has always been enabled, the game has simply got itself confused as to where it it!

[PattyB]

I tried Disabling/quitting/enabling/quitting/entering neighborhood.

Each and every lot I try to access (even in build mode!) get a JobData-Adult-Athletics #677/#312/#235/#223 Error: Invalid Constant. I had to "Delete" in order for the houses/lots to load. Once in, the game plays fine.

I'm at the point of either doing the folder shuffle or removing my downloads and reinstalling.

One other thing I haven't tried - I only play in Pleasantview. Maybe I should try Strangetown and see if the errors happen there too.

[BlueSoup]

I'm no expert when it comes to FUBARed games, but do you possibly have any custom careers that you may have downloaded, either knowingly or not?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Since the error is referring to a career, that sounds like a very good idea, Bluesoup!  I believe that careers written for the base game can cause problems in Uni and NL.

[angelyne]

I know that the original careers written for the base game prevented TS2 to load after university was installed.  Can you locate and zap the career ?

[anelca]

a custom career is usually the culprit in the case of lots loading endlessly
best way is to delete them all or move them to desktop and see if the lots load ok then
if you really want the career then test each one seperately till you find which one is the problem and delete it

[ZephyrZodiac]

And be prepared for a lot of unemployed sims!

[PattyB]

I found it!

I figured it had to have been in one of my Misc folders. Sure enough, there was an Education career hiding in my Misc from Installed Houses folder. Definately not on purpose.

Thanks BlueSoup, Zephyr, Angel & Anelca for pointing me in the direction.

And I thought I was so careful when reloading my downloads too. 

[BlueSoup]

I'm glad you found it.  Now that you have removed it, is everything going like it should?

[Ellatrue]

three finger salute?

man, ctrl-alt-delete is not the first thing that came to my mind...