More Awesome Than You!

I moved a newly graduated couple into a house back in pleasantview - one of the maxis ones that was originally in the unoccupied lots bin.  The game initially crashed, and when I reentered it, they have both regressed to having only 4 want slots and only one want lock.  Lot debugger can't upgrade them (I guess because they're not pre-uni sims).  Does anyone know if this is fixable?  ???

Nope. This is the infamous "Bomb That Destroyed Happy Valley". If you use a pre-Uni lot, you run the risk of blowing your neighborhood to smithereens, especially if you move into it before modifying it in build mode.

Oh dear.  So are my other families also screwed now?

I had a similar problem.  I had to move this family out because of a bug with the school bus.  She did not have the option to get on the bus at all, altho her sister did.  So I moved them to the family bin.  I bulldozed their house, and imported the same house from another copy of Pleasantview.  This was an empty house except I packaged it with Inge's moveout objects stayer so not all the objects were sold.  No sims though, and this was after I installed Uni.  When I moved the family back in, I received an error (with debug mode enabled) about CAS or something, I am not sure.  Daniel Pleasant had only 5 want slots, and Mary-Sue only had 4.  They each had one want lock.  The teens had 4 each but they were blank except for the ones I had locked before they moved out.  I used the Aspiration adjuster from the Insimenator to add the want slots and locks back, and I used it to refresh their wants several times.  I was concerned at first, but eventually they got straightened out.  With the girls, I couldn't get their blank wants to roll over, but the locked want was to reach charisma level one.  So I sent them to do that, which didn't take very long, but when they did, all their wants came back as normal.  Everything seems to be progressing normally now, and the one that had problems with the bus is now able to go to school normally.

I am sooo going to delete every single house in the lotbin, just to make sure I neverever run into this thing. And, I am going to never ever use the premade hoods, and just play with my own.

Man, reading these forums can really make me paranoid. :o

you are not paranoid it there is someone out to get you.
and in this case it seems the game is out to get us.

Where can I find out more about this bug? I seem to have escaped problems with the first few graduates, but will I need to move them out Gaza Strip stylee or can they stay put? 

Have you tried de-ageing them back to teens and sending them to Uni again?  As long as you move them into a regular lot (not the one they were in before), they should be OK.  You can use TwoJeffs mod to speed them through so they can graduate straightaway.  You'd need to do some tinkering in SimPE to remove all traces of their previous Uni stuff though (memories, diploma, etc.), but I would imagine it could be done.  I've actually thought of sending my zombie again and letting her get a second degree, as if she's doing a Masters (without removing her previous Uni stuff).  Not sure if it would work, though.

What is the solution for this? For any Pre-Uni lots, either unoccupied in the neighborhood or sitting in your lot bin, how can we fix these? You mention something about modifying in build mode. What do we have to modify?

Can we simply just go into each and every unoccupied house, modify something and save, and hopefully this fixes the problem?

Ste

Enter the lot in build mode, save. Do this for every single lot before occupying it. Apparently something in the lots can break Sims.

Oh, man. Okay, this possibly explains more mystery problems I just had. I moved a family into a lot and got an error message, probably the same one you did, Rainbow, about CAS and "import lot" or something. My elder sim's wants would not stop rolling, and my toddler's wants were blank. I have since moved them out, and now the toddler has "no character data", dammit. Trying to figure out how to get him back, now. May try posting again in my "no character data" thread.

I moved a new family I just created into another house, had one of my Uni sims visit as well as his teen-age brother (I was setting them up for possible romances with members of the new family), and I was treated with the message that "Joel has class in one hour" (Joel is the teen), and that Justin-just-missed-his-final-exam-better-not-make-a-habit-of-it-oops-that-last-semester-didn't-go-too-well-for-Justin and now he's on academic probation. Okay, firstly, this was in Pleasantville on a residential lot, not in the University neighborhood, and, secondly, Justin had a 4.0 gpa.
 
Argh, I can't take anymore!
 

Brynne, if you have a back-up of the neighborhood where the child still has character data, you can do the following:

Go into the back-up characters folder and copy the kid's file
go back to the newer folder where the child has no data and paste the older file over the newer one. The child should now have the character data back.

Hopefully you have a back-up that isn't too old, the child should be around the same age in both folders. I did it this way with a PC-adult and it worked. I asked TJ whether I now FUBAR'd my game, but he said it's alright to do it this way.

I'll thank you here, too. ;) Just read the other thread. Luckily my backups are very recent, so I didn't lose anything important. It's gotten to the point that I need to backup after each successful game session. Which reminds me of something I need to do... 

You're welcome here too :D. It always seems to happen to my favorite pixel people. I don't want to lose anyone out of my village, they are all pixelated versions of real people. I call this village my "home-sickness cure". It's not the same as being there, but it helps. The village is a replica of my home, by the way.

I'm having a hard time typing, I'm in at a party, using my brand-new labtop. My son bought it for me, I'm still in shock.

You are so lucky, veilchen!

Thank you Rainbow. However, I hope that this is not something to soften some kind of blow :D

But my children are really good kids. I do consider myself very lucky in that regard.

I am SO glad I never finish what I start!  I have yet to graduate a Uni kid...I just get bored after a semester and leave them for a week (real time).
Now I know all the problems to prevent.  Thanks guys!

Just got a new "labtop" myself. Sorry, had to pick on you a little...The keyboard is smaller than my old one, so I find myself constantly retyping things. Widescreen, small keyboard. Go figure.
Your advice to replace the character file worked like a charm, btw. Had to do it again this morning, but at least I don't panic when I see "no character data" anymore! You're a lifesaver. My pixel-people are my friends. :P

:D, if you meant me, pick away Val, no need to apologize. And boy are you right, this labtop is fun, but I too need to backspace and re-type a lot. I'm used to stretching my fingers a lot to reach the numbers and symbols, now I'm constantly landing on the 'F' keys (no pun intended ;D)

Anyone working as hard as you do on the game deserves all the breaks they can get.

P.S. I heard Columbia doubled their coffee production; that wouldn't have anything to do with you, would it?