More Awesome Than You!

I'm having a small problem with my game that has become a major frustration. Since since installing Ambitions, whenever adult females (possibly elders as well, but I have not played any; teen and child girls have no problem) showered or bathed, their bodies were invisible. They had a head, hands and feet but everything else was gone. I finally decided to try and fix it tonight, and have had no luck. Instead, things have gotten even weirder.
Here (http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/emeirii/sims3/Screenshot-29.jpg) is an example of how my game has been. At first, I thought maybe something was wrong with my default replacement skins, so I re-downloaded and re-installed them, with no change (I deleted the caches every time). Then I removed my packages folder, except for Awesomemod, deleted caches, reloaded the game, and had the same problem (see here, still missing the body, but with EA skin and makeup (http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/emeirii/sims3/Screenshot-30.jpg)).

After this, I thought maybe it was Awesomemod's censor remover that was making things screwy, so I disabled the M and F censors and downloaded the No Mosaic mod linked from the Pudding Factory, put my packages back in, deleted caches and restarted. Here is where things got really weird- my females now had bodies, they were just covered up top with a shirt. I made a new, clean Test neighborhood and made a female sim take a bath (result here (http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/emeirii/sims3/Screenshot-31.jpg)). I don't even know what that shirt is. I looked through my launcher-installed stuff, and my clothing packages, but I have nothing that matches that shirt. I tried removing my default replacement skins, removing clothing packages, but nothing changed it, so finally I removed everything but the Mosaic remover mod, deleted caches, and chose another never played household to test (see here (http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b7/emeirii/sims3/Screenshot-32.jpg)). As you can see, she's naked on the bottom, but has the same shirt (in different colors, even) on as Agnes Crumplebottom "wore" when naked.

I honestly don't know what to do at this point, other than to live with the mosaic. Does anyone have any suggestions?

I had to laugh at that last picture of that sim Porky Piggin it (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Porky%20Piggin%27%20It).

Anyhow, did you try temporarily yanking out the My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\DCCache and My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\DCBackup folders? That's where all the launcher installed crap goes. Some of those borked Sims3packs can do some truly weird shit like making sims invisible or stretching babies out to big sticks. Also, you don't have to have downloaded those borked items directly as they can stow away in other sims3pack files ala the evil doll.

There's some info here (http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/234888.page) at the Exchange about corrupt improperly created custom content from sims3packs that causes problems. In particular, apparently some people create their custom clothing and mark it internally as 'nude' causing sims to bath with clothes on.

If everything was fine before installing Ambitions, it sounds like something hasn't been updated.  Just because you re-downloaded the default replacements doesn't mean they will automatically work, if they hadn't been updated for AMB then you will have problems.  Check that everything has been updated for AMB and try again.

Have you tried simply removing the replacement skins and seeing if everything works right?

Yanking those folders changed nothing, Agnes Crumplebottom and Erin Kennedy still showered/bathed in shirts. However, I discovered something interesting- CAS females show up while bathing with the missing body, while EA/Maxis sims that came with the neighborhood shower in the shirts with the visible nude bottom. I tested this by plunking a fresh copy of CAS female out of my library into the same Test neighborhood as Agnes and Erin, and the CAS sim showered with an invisible body. Of course, I have no idea what this means, but it's extra weird.

wizard_merlin: yes, as I said in my first post, I tried every combination of removing things I could think of, so I tried it repeatedly with and without the skins. The invisible body/shirt thing happened with no mods at all (other than awesomemod one time, and the mosaic the other), so I don't think it's the skins causing it.

If you are getting it even with starting a new game it's probably something you downloaded (or stowed away in something you downloaded).

So if you yank out the whole My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ folder out, and yank out all package files if you have them installed the old way under Program Files, and start a new game do you still get it? If you don't get it then, try putting back only your save files and nothing else. If you're still not getting it it's got to be something you downloaded.

Selectively yanking out things is fine but I think I would try yanking out everything first.

The other possibility is that perhaps you have some old no mosaic mod or some other mod that messes with one of the game files like an ini or some such. Maybe you got it for an earlier patch and forgot? Anyway, if you yanked everything out and still get the issue then I'd just reinstall the game and all the expansion packs, patch, then add back in your custom content. If you back up the My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ folder and then just copy it back that should do it.

I don't have anything installed the old way- I got a new computer before Ambitions, and just did a fresh install of everything when Ambitions came out, as I hadn't played in some time. I downloaded and installed everything new for this install, so I shouldn't have any old packages or sim3packs stored away, but I'll try yanking everything anyway.

Yanked, let it generate a new Sims 3 folder: new test neighborhood, body appeared normal while showering. Added my save files, tested again in the clean, new neighborhood: worked fine. Loaded up my original test neighborhood where the EA-default ladies were showering in shirts: Erin Kennedy is still showering in a shirt.

Damn. I suppose this means all my save files are damaged, which is a bummer. I suppose I will have to reinstall, but could I even add back all my installs and package files without this happening again if I don't know what is causing it? Are my save files all losses? Could the CAS families I made that are saved to the library be spared?

I lost bodies just recently through something I did myself. I downloaded some clothing that showed up in area's I didn't want it to (like a bra for everyday tops). So I got a program to fix it and I unticked that clothings availability for everyday tops.

What I ended up with was a everyday tops that was invisible. I could pick it from CAS and everything.

I don't know if you did it to yourself but it definately sounds like a clothing problem.

Yeah, you have to be careful when you download CC clothing, because a lot of creators are lazy/retarded and enable clothing for "All".  Sometimes they even mention it in the download description like it's a goddamn feature, rather than ineptitude.  Rose is particularly guilty of this, minus the "warning you" part.

Normally saved families are fine and don't bring over borkedness since you're really just saving copies of them and unlike Sims 2, it doesn't bring over a bunch of other crap from the save file when you import them. If they are referencing bad clothing though I'm not sure if they'll port over okay.  :-\ I suppose it's worth a try though. Perhaps you could plan their outfits to all default EA stuff (if they aren't already) before you save the family just in case.

I'd be wary of throwing all the custom content back in due to getting whatever is causing it again. It's got to be something that was downloaded and ended up somewhere underneath My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ so if you dump that all back in again you'll probably get the bad item(s) too.

As much as it sucks, you'll probably have to start over with cc, though mods should be okay. Just be really selective about your cc in the future and download a few at a time, test the game for a bit, then get more. If you go on a huge mass downloading spree and something goes horribly wrong with the game it gets hard to pin down what the problem item is.

Argh, this is just so frustrating, because I'm pretty careful about what CC I install. I've never downloaded anything from the Exchange, or TSR. Well, I guess I wasn't careful enough.

Honestly, it's not that big of a deal, and I don't know if I even want to bother saving my families, getting all new CC, etc. Maybe I'll just live with it.

There are programs to let you edit CC and fix the categorization flubs. If it still bugs you enough, you could just go in and make sure nothing is categorized for "nude"

Thanks, but I ended up finding the offending CC and removing it. Sadly, the families in my library were a loss, as even when the CC was removed, they were placed into a clean game, and changed into default clothing, they were still "infected", but that's a small price to pay to get bodies back.

Awesomemod has a bodysnatch command which I think will just snatch their facial structure without the other garbage onto any other sim of your choice and then shred the original sim. Worth a shot maybe.

Out of curiosity, what ended up being the offending item that caused all this borkedness?

I forgot about bodysnatch! I'll have to give that a try.

It ended up being some incredibly old "nude" tops and bottoms for women (as in, from when the game first came out old) I had completely forgotten I had installed. They hadn't given me any problems in WA, but Ambitions must have changed something. I rarely used them anyway, so I just yanked and trashed them.

Edit: Bodysnatching worked like a charm, thank you everyone for your help.