More Awesome Than You!

I'm at a complete loss and much hair has been pulled from my head.  I made a new copy of the original hoods by taking out the Sims 2 folder and letting a new one spawn.  Everything loaded fine and dandy, but when I load up a neighborhood, the Traveller family is missing from the sim bin.  The family files do not show up in SimPE, however it does show that the game is creating tourists and vacation locals normally. 

I've tried everything I can think of to figure out what has happened to them.  No files have been messed with, fresh game install, all original templates, no empty or cleaned versions are being used.  I made several attempts at creating a new Sims 2 folder, and had the same results.  I downloaded a copy of the original V001, replaced it, failed.  I extracted the V001 file from the BV disc, tried it, failed.  Craziness ensued, and I uninstalled BV, installed it again, loaded the game...and guess what?  That's right.  They're still missing.  Every other stinking bin family is there, but apparently Trent, Tina, and Trisha are too good for my game now.  This makes absolutely no sense to me at all, and I'm frustrated beyond belief.

I'm throwing all this information out there in the hope that somebody has an idea or suggestion for me to try.  Yes, they are ugly Maxis sims, but I want them dammit!  Also, I'm a bit afraid my game is somehow corrupted.  If I need to install yet again, I'd like to know now so I can mourn and move on.   

 ;D
I had to reinstall my whole game for some reason, and when I got done, I saw that no neighborhood past Seasons shows up.  I still have access to everything from all the XP's and SP's, the game just doesn't run the last few 'hoods.  This is a win in my book.  However, in the interest of possibly helping you, you could use SimPe.  Open the neighborhood browser, then the Sim browser and search for your sim there.

No idea what has happened to them but it would be possible for someone to pack them up for you (unplayed) and send them over, I guess.

Yup, somebody sent me the file.  Now I just need to figure out why they aren't showing up at all.  Strange thing is that I allowed the game to generate a new Sims 2 folder on my other computer and the same thing happened.   ???  It's very baffling.  If this is happening on two different installations, it would seem it must be happening to others too.  Perhaps I just have some odd curse me.

Try opening the V001 template in SimPE and see if they're in there?

Yup, they are showing up in SimPE.

Well, problem has been solved.  It had something to do with Vista's lovely compatibility files.  I Came across them whilst digging in the folders, and started poking and hoping.  Apparently I did something right because the Travellers have returned to my game.