More Awesome Than You!

My main neighbourhood is missing from the loading screen, yet it is still in the same folder as they others where it's always been.  I installed BV yesterday and did nothing more complicated than paste the entire EA Games folder back into My Documents where it came from.

In TS2 Enhancer, the other 3 neighbourhoods show the version as being BV - 1.10.0.11, but for the missing neighbourhood it's shown as version Seasons 1.7.0.145, so clearly this neighbourhood doesn't want to work in BV, but I have no idea why.  I've tried deleting the neighbourhood package file, but it didn't make any difference.  The only reason I can think of is that this is a custom neighbourhood and the others are the Maxis defaults.

Sounds like your neighborhood didn't upgrade along with the game, or did you paste before upgrading? That isn't really clear from your post.

Well I pasted them back in afterwards, otherwise they'd have been deleted!  That's why I took them out in the first place.  I took out the entire EA Games folder and simply put it back where it had come from after I'd installed BV.

They wouldn't have been deleted.  That only happens when you uninstall.

You need to make a backup of your EA Games folder in case you decided to uninstall BV at some point, but you also need to leave a copy in your My Documents so the neighborhoods will get upgraded.

In any case - try deleting the NeighbourhoodManager.package and resarting the game.

That is kind-of correct. You should back up your files in case of any errors during installation that would indeed, delete or screw over, your files. My user files were deleted during an install once when the game decided, at the patching previous expansion screen, that it wasn't going to install. Another reason would be, in case you decide that the expansion wasn't really worth it, or your computer decides that the game is too much for it to handle.

Basically, when installing a new expansion, make a copy of your folders to keep safe somewhere, but leave a copy there. Remove any hacks or hack type things before running the game, when in doubt, remove the downloads and teleport folders as well. You can add them back later after you have seen how the game is supposed to run.

Am I to understand that you all leave your DL folders in while you install a new EP?   :o

That can't be right.  But if I install without the CC, and yet leave the custom 'hoods where they are, surely any token-based hacks like the lot sync timer will get spoiled.  ???

I don't have BV, but when I installed Seasons, I removed both DL and 'hood folders, just as Ancient Sim did for BV.  After I was done looking around, I made up a new folder of EP-compatible DLs and put my 'hoods back.  The game had no trouble finding and updating my old 'hood with new seasons and NPCs.

If BV doesn't permit this, do you just have to live with setting all your token-based hacks again?

No, I leave user files in. The downloads come out. I leave a copy of the neighborhoods file in, and make a copy to keep safe elsewhere in case of any difficulties.

Really not trying to be obtuse here, but if you did have difficulties, wouldn't your backup N'hood folder be out of sync with BV just like the OP's?
So, essentially that backup could only be useful if you were going to roll back to Seasons or whatever previous EP you had.

In any case, it seems that updating a hood with many tokens is going to be a major ordeal.
Eh, I think I can wait a while longer for BV.

Not necessarily.  The difficulties could be something like an incomplete installation, or files getting corrupted during installation, or somesuch.  You just never know what's going to happen, so it's good to have a backup before installing.

I have very little custom content -- a few items of clothing, and a few awesome hacks.  I always make a backup of my entire EA Games folder and leave the original in place, but I usually forget to take out the downloads folder before installing the new EP.  I generally wait a bit before installing, though, to give Pescado time to update things and just in general to see what kind of problems people are having, and then I go and get the updated hacks and put them in before I start the new EP for the first time.  That's probably why I've never had any custom content-related problems.  And it probably has something to do with the hacks I use -- I don't even know what a token-based hack is  :D

No, the backup is still fine, and if you restore it after making sure you have CC active in BV (or any new EP), then the next time the game runs it'll update the hoods without wiping out the tokens.  The process is really simple:

1) backup your neighborhoods folder
2) Install new EP/SP
3) Run new EP/SP, and activate all your CC permanently (and fix any graphics options that may have changed)
4) Quit the game
5) Restore all your neighborhoods from the backup, making sure to completely wipe out the ones in your The Sims 2 folder first
6) Fire up  the game.  When you load a hood, the game will again make all required updates, but since you have CC enabled from the start, it won't wipe out any custom content or tokens.
7) Play! :)