More Awesome Than You!

Hey. I recently noticed a batch of "jagged line" memoires going around my sims, and I want to clean up the hood a bit. I've also found a fair share of Unknown sims in my hood, so they have to go too, most of them. But, alas, I am somewhat unsure about which way to tackle this problem.

I know I shouldnt delete any unknown sims, without checking the memories of all my sims, to see if they show up there.

Other than that, which memories can I safely delete? And which ones are the ones that makes the jagged line memories? I have pescados fix in place, but it is still popping up now and then.

/edit: Typoes, as usual.

Delete NO UNKNOWN SIMS unless you are using the old GUI, or 0.45l or 0.46 or SimPE and can make sure they aren't Grimmy, Hula or Therapist or important in another way. You can pretty much delete any memory as long as it's not a token memory like "Token - Sim Initialised" or "Token - Family Aspiration" or "Token - Foods Cooked Well" etc.

Well, I know I have more unknown sims, than the reaper and the hula girls, and the psychiatrist etc.. I reloaded the game when my last sim surprisingly had twins when it should have been a single birth (happened after I used the lot debugger) and two of the unknown sims files are the twins that never were.
Some unknown sims are people i created to get rid of the first 16 or so cas created "random" sims, when i prepare for child birth in the game. And some are just plain screwey. I have just counted the unknown sims, and there is a total of 76 unknown files in my neighbourhood. With the grim reaper, the hula girls, the psychiatrist etc, I still cant figure out where the other 66 came from... A lot of them also have the family instance of 0x0000

The thing I am most worried about, is still the memory deletion though.

I don't have an answer, I'm posting just to let you know that you are not alone in waiting for an absolute answer to your question, Cyper. So in the name of "memory deletion for dummies":

Bump.

Thank you. It is nice to know that I am not alone.

Now, this is how I think it works, by all means, correct me:

I am allowed to delete every memory that says : Invisible.
Except when it says invisible: Token.

And this should get rid of the jagged line memories?

Add me to the club. I have only recently started seeing jagged lines (rarely, but they're there) and I had been going through memories for the past several weeks. I also have the corrupt death fix. I must have left out something important. Or deleted the wrong thing.

<-- Raises hand.

I'm very familiar with SimPE when it comes to object retexturing, and then modifying the related files, but I don't even know what part of the program to use to delete memories; I never edit my Sims except in-game, with Merola's objects. I have fewer jagged line bubbles than before installing JMP's fixes, but they still pop up now and then, and I'm concerned that those are spreading.

That makes 4 of us then.

I have assembled a few specific questions about memory editing, which I am hoping somebody out there knows the definitive dummies answer for:

1: Can I delete every [invisible] memory from a sim with the exception of the - token- memories?
2: If 1 is a yes, does that even include the memories that does not have an owner. Usually a memory is like this: [invisble] Sim A got a promotion(owned by Sim B)   Only some memories are missing that (owned by) bit.
3: Still assuming that tokens should not be deleted, is it ok if i set another owner on them? On a lot of my sims, the tokens for toddler skill, or college grants are owned by either a townie, or an Unknown Sim.
4: How do I know which unknown sims are the band known as "Grim Reaper and The Hula Girls" ? What are their family instance, and if that is not specific, then how do I find them?
5: If I find and delete every reference to an unknown sim, both in relationships and memories, can I then safely proceed to deleting that unknowns file?


/edited for specific questions, and to keep my lips.

Firstly in order to get to the memories you need to start SimPE and if you are using the latest version, select Neighborhood then Neighborhood Browser from the Tools tab.  Next select the required neighbourhood and click open.  Now select Neighborhood/Memory from the Resource Tree on the left hand side then select the file in the Packed Files window.  At the bottom of the screen is the "Experimental Memory Editor" and clicking on a sim will show you their memories.

Now memory deleting is quite simple.  Most corrupted memories actually appear to be death memories.  When you scroll though each individual's memories you will see that they look like this (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/PosieFlump/Skip%20Broke/Skip_Broke-06.jpg).  When you click on a memory the right side should look like this (http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y291/PosieFlump/Skip%20Broke/Skip_Broke-07.jpg).

Corrupted memories do not have an "Event Owner" or "Subject".  The exceptions to this are the invisible tokens such as the "I am Dead" token or the "Controller - Pregnancy".  I would start by looking for memories which list unknown died instead of the name of a sim.  Click on the memory then click the delete button in the bottom right hand corner.  After deleting a memory click on "commit" to commit the changes.  Clicking commit is very important!  Finally save the file and quit SimPE.  Just incase something goes wrong always keep a backup of the file.  Pleasantview for example is the N001_Neighborhood.package file found in \My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N001 :)

Thanks for answering Posie, I knew you wouldn't let us down :D

How about unknown sims then?

The Grim Reaper and The Hula Girls are normally the first few characters in the list.  However with the new version of SimPE all sims without character data are listed as unknown.  It would be wise not to delete them as these unknown characters are Maxis created character for the memories of Skip, Brandi etc.  Unknown sims appearing at places further down the list than Skip Broke are safe to delete providing you know who they were to begin to with.  Remember if an unknown sim was a parent and you delete them, it will also remove them from the family tree.

yeah well, this is a custom neighbourhood, and I have deleted the 3 that came with the game, so Skip should pretty much be skipped then... ::)

The unknown sims are the long-dead sims. It's a SimPE bug updated in "QA 0.45l" and will be updated publically in 0.46.

Well, long dead sims don't exist in my neighbourhood. I have the gravemarkers on all the townies i cow-planted, and, as for playable sims, I have a total of 6 dead, all with graves, and all in place in the char files.

What is really eating my shorts is, I had over 110 unknown sims in my game, out of a grand total of around 380.
Now, after spending what feels like a month on sifting through memories, clearing those, and sifting through relationships, and finally building a complete list of every sim in the game, including which char file they have, i coould delete 49 of those unknown sims. Yay, go me. But that was unknown sims, that actually had a N0004_user0000000014.package file. I have at the moment no less than

72

unknown sims in my game, that does not have a character file in my game, yet shows up as an unknown sim in SimPE. And that is excluding the hula girl, the grim reaper, the psychiatrist, and the polination technician.

Granted, I'll allow for another 8 to be part of the expanded polination package, and I'll give another 1 for the woohoo girls. But that still leaves over 60 unknown identities in my game, out of a total of now 300. ???

Wait for the new SimPE, it will recognise them.

Plossie, thank you for the information.  I am still a little timid about messing with my neighborhoods with SimsPE, but since my favorite neighborhood became unplayable I am getting bolder.  LOL.  If I'm just going to have to delete it eventually, anyway, why not attempt to clean it up 1st, right? 

CyberAngel, I'm also having the same problem with Unknown Sims!  Unfortunatly, some of them are NOT Maxis sims.  At least two of them are my main sims!!  One of them is my favorite romance Sim, and the other one is his hillbilly wife.  Needless to say, they have lots of children together, and and apart.  LOL  Anyway, with SimsPE they will not show up in the Sims Browser.  Their children will.  When I check their relationship listing, they used to show a relationship with "unknown."  Since the latest update it will show a grayed-out icon of the sim and it says "unknown" is their name.  Even odder, these unknown sims show up on the Sims Surgery Browser! 

I think that when I had to do a clean reinstall last spring, I had tried to use my backed up neighborhood SimsPE data.  It didn't work, I have no idea why.  But the sims that were in that old neighborhood and then recreated in the new neighborhood (I still had their original bodies in CAS) are some of the ones that are showing up unknown. 

I followed this, but the only sims that show up are the dead ones. Any advice? Thanks.

I guess I should add that I resurected Skip Broke and I want to delete the memory of his death from Brandi and Dustin, but I can't find either of them. Also, how do I remove the "I am dead" token? Thank you.

go into neighborhood memory and find the I am dead token in Skips memories highlight click delete and commit but maker sure in the sim browser that he isnt marked as a ghost in the other category or he will keep dying if the  ghost is ticked untick it and commit be sure when the box pops up asking if you want save changes say yes before exiting SimPE

Thanks for the reply, but nothing is showing up under memories.

Okay, send me to RL. The version of SimPE that I had did not support NL. All better now. Thanks.

I hope my info helped you

I've been wrestling with this too.  These two threads helped me a lot  - DK if there's anything new for you guys..  I'd really like a complete how to in the war room or somewhere
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=158.0
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=45.0

my current questions are unanswered on
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2249.0

Here's a few others I looked at about memories -
info about the amazing amount of invisible memories in a hood - the driver knows ALL...
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=779.0
adding memories to a sim including some stuff about skip broke
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=1485.0

If you search on memory or memorie, I expect it will throw up a few more.

You helped me to realize it was me and not something wrong with a program (which is usually the case anyway!). Thank you for your help.
One more question, though. I now have 2 Skip Broke's showing up in SimPE. Is it safe to delete the one I'm not using?

your'e welcome

Banglenuts, I think we were posting at the same time. At the risk of being forever burned, could you possibly help me one more time? (See edit in my last post.) Thanks again.

I have  two Skip Brokes and two Darleen Dreamers in Pleasant view if you take a close look at both these "character files" in  Sim Pe you will notice that one of the files is Skip Broke the dead husband of Brandi Broke,the same with the Darleen Dreamer Files in both these instances one character file has the memories and familial ties to their children and the I am dead token in neighborhood memories. the dummy file is a blank file lacking memories or familial ties.so in effect after resurrecting the real Skip Broke  the other file is a ghost file and needs to be left intact. dont delete ghost files ever they are vital to the game and are miniscule in size so they dont effect the neighborhood  as far as bogging it down. the reason for not Deleting is twofold one its a safe bet maxis intends to use those files at some point in a EP along the way and you dont want future installations putting those same files back in your game a third time which would clog your neighborhood and  the second reason being that as files that are ghost files and pegged that way in game they need to stay intact. hope this makes sense

Don't forget Michael Bacherlor ;). I've been wondering if the 'extras' could be deleted too, as I've read about someone doing it. Decided in the end I should just leave it as it is.

I left both michael bachelors in as well

Once again, thank you for your help.

you are quite welcome and Happy simming

Going way back up the thread and actually trying to help rather than posting links...  Just remember I'm not into reading the code, just posts and I'm in the same boat as you guys.......

Hear hear!!! - how about starting a poll requesting a war room article on how to clean up your hood?  I've already requested more war room stuff in forum business, but a poll might be amusing.......

I believe so.  They'll start getting them back when they talk to another sim though.

Definitely delete the memories that don't have an owner.  these are the ones that cause trouble.

never seen that but I don't have Uni - I can sort of see the grants coming from some random source, but toddler skills doesn't sound right.  I thought all tokens were owned by the sim themselves - oh dear...

their pics show up in SimPE in some menus so you can get ID numbers I guess.  I haven't managed to work out what numbers are what yet.  Are you saying there are unknown versions of the grim reaper that you have to keep?

Sounds like it to me.  I haven't got started trying to do that in simPE.  I deleted grey sims with Simenhancer (except the ancestors) in a one day free trial and cleaned up from there.  I'll get to unknown sims left in SimPE next I suppose.

So would I.  I have at least two hoods that I've done stuff to because I didn't know it would hurt things when I did it.

Memory deletion for dummies is currently a work in progress on the Lot Debugger.

quote author=J. M. Pescado link=topic=402.msg80449#msg80449 date=1138074396]
Memory deletion for dummies is currently a work in progress on the Lot Debugger.
[/quote]

Yay!

Thank you, this will be great. ;D

I sat down to clean up memories in my one and only if-I-lost-it-I'd-die 'hood a couple of weeks back and couldn't bring myself to start pushing buttons.  Not awesome enough, I closed SimPE, opened a bottle of wine and my game, and proceeded to smustle instead.

Awesomeness in memory deletion is much appreciated. 

NEVER change any data associated with a token! Tokens are not memories, they don't have owners. SIMPE wrongly reports token data the same way as memories, so it will point to a sim based on the data in the first property field.  This data could mean anything and changing it may cause undesirable effects in the game.

Now, normally necromancy is bad M'kay?, but in this case, I'll throw in a big thank you for that last tidbit ( and an even larger one for JMP's comment) and offer my lips to the mighty ones.


Now, where is that darn Thank You button?   (runs away and hides)

well while people are waiting for JMs "memory deletion for dummies" version of the Lot Debugger

I will mention that the "Memories editor enhancements for SimPe" plugin that is in Peasantry, works great!  :D

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2590.0


this feature in particular is very handy for us memory editing dummies

**Experimental** - backup your neighborhood before use!
The function "Fix Memories" will scan the neighborhood's memories and delete all memories
that don't have a valid owner or subject instance (the corrupt death memories are included in this category).
It will try to synchronize the subject instance with the memory's Sim ID.
Moreover, this will remove multiple consecutive 'spam' memories, such as "Had a family reunion", "Vermin!",
leaving only the first memory in a connected set.