Thank you for that second link, I had figured out the problem was the file limit, but had not been able to find a way to permanently adjust the limit in Yosemite.  Felt pretty foolish once I realized it was this old issue -- I somehow never ran into it back in the day, when think I had much bigger neighborhoods and more downloaded junk.  Maybe the Super Collection is just extra poorly organized.

EDIT: As usual, I think I found the answer right after giving up and asking.  I suspect it's related to the game choking on the file limit.

Short version: Mac Super Collection deleting character files all over (and not in a clean way).  What the eff is doing this?  Theories?  Happened to anyone else?

More importantly, how can I keep it from happening again?  

(The Mac Super collection only includes EPs through BV, plus the Holiday, Family Fun and Glamour Life Stuff packs)

Long version:

Got the Mac SC version of TS2 about a week ago.  Playing in a cleaned (not empty) version of Pleasantview.

A few days ago the game crashed to desktop while loading the neighborhood.  When I restarted, I found that an infant had disappeared from the house I was playing.  It was not summonable by any means and the family's memories of infant were screwed up - her name was gone and replaced with "$Subject".  

Figured something had gone horribly wrong.  Wiped that neighborhood and restarted, this time careful to have *empty* templates of the stealth 'hoods / Downtown, etc installed so the families from later EPs weren't in my Sim Bin and I wouldn't accidentally add a bunch of Downtownies somehow.  

Started playing Pleasantview again.  Today I had another crash during loading the neighborhood.  Restarted and found EVERYONE had disappeared except Alexander Goth (and his bagful of corrupt memories).  Previously occupied houses were all vacant.  Checked the Characters folder and sure enough, there's only one file in there (N001_User00000.package).  

I had a lot of TS2 bugs back in the day, but this is the nastiest, and the one I've done the least to warrant (I barely played!).  

If you mean being able to select, in CAS, from multiple default skin sets you have in your Mods/Downloads folder, I doubt it's possible.  The game is not loading more than one set at any time, and there is no place for any such menu to exist.

To clarify just a bit, it doesn't matter whether your files are .dbc or .package; what matters is the NUMBER of files that you have.  Search will provide a tutorial for combining files. 

That sounds like the EA Games I know.  They probably wouldn't even notice your missing verb. 

You might check the power supply, too.  If it's loose or being bumped or jiggled that could be causing the computer to turn off (assuming a desktop). 

That doesn't even make sense, and has nothing to do with custom content that I can see.  The game is necessary for running the game?  Well, yeah.  Patching is mandatory for running the game?  Meh, annoying maybe, but patches pretty much become mandatory anyway if you want to install EPs or updated mods. 

But it doesn't automatically follow that if having TS3 and patching it are necessary to run TS3, then all supplemental content must be bought from EA.  Unless this person means the patch that broke Sims3pack files has somehow disabled all non-EA content, which it obviously has not.

Mess up the game?  I did not notice this happen.  I thought all that happened was the game stopped reading Sims3packs, so some previously installed content disappeared. 

This would be the obvious solution if I didn't care about the aesthetics, but as it stands I'd rather not have the Animal Friends bookcase in the study section and the library-style bookcases in the kids'.  :\

Another one of EA's "jokes," or just a stupid, I wonder?

Thanks anyway, all who replied.  I'll try the "stock with genre," and move the skillbooks by hand if I have to.  All those adults in the kiddy section is starting to look like a pedofair.

My library has different "sections," like a kids' area, a study area, and a general reading area.  However, the bookcases are giving me trouble.  The only skillbooks are in the kids' section, the novels are in the study area, etc.  Is there any way to stock the bookcases the way I want them?  How does the game determine what appears in library bookcases?

When I tried using this, I got a weird graphical glitch where every so often my screen would take on a cyan tint during play.  Other than that it worked great, but the blue was a little distracting.  This wasn't the kind of glitch you got, was it, Marhis?

Edit: Actually, it looks like this is just my old CRT in its death throes.  In which case the bypass has no problems for me (retail + patches through 1.4 or so).

At what point does the game fail?  Does it crash during startup, or not load your saved game, or what?

Do you have Supreme Commander enabled?  The AwesomeMod page indicates that if you play a neighborhood with SC, it may not work if you remove the mod.

You said you tried removing all custom content, but those look like non-Maxis default skins.  Sure it isn't a default skins issue?

I was able (retail version) to patch the game via the launcher as stated.  It appeared to install both updates at at the same time. 

The problem I'm having now, however, is that I cannot run the game without bringing up the goddamn launcher.  Before updating I was able to run straight from The Sims 3.app -> Contents -> MacOS -> cider, but now clicking this brings up the launcher too.  Anybody know if the patch causes this, or something else I futzed?

No.  Awesomemod only affects the Sims 3 game.  TS3 may manage to fuck up the computer, or Awesomemod might manage to fuck up TS3, but Awesomemod will not fuck up the computer.

I am deeply disappointed that this is not titled "PuddInge".

I have yet to see FMG.  The creepiest thing is that my Mortimer is a new sim created as an adult in CAS in an empty neighborhood.  He never even was the child that appears in his portrait, nor does that sim live anywhere in the neighborhood.  I don't know where it's coming from.

I was going to create a new thread, but this seems related.  I created a new, empty hood with the Pleasantville sims form TS2, and Mortimer Goth's portrait keeps defaulting to his TS3 child portrait.  It's creepy as all hell.  Is this the same issue?

That certainly had an effect, but not the desired one.    ALL thumbnails are now blank.  The game seems to be attempting to regenerate them (it lags briefly while loading catalog pages) but it has lost the ability.

I'm running BV on a fairly new install.  Today, mysteriously, my game lost the ability to generate object thumbnails or sim portraits.  Precisely what's missing are:

- custom content object thumbnails (the Maxis objects show up correctly in the catalog, but any custom items show a blank square)
- inventory/leftover thumbnails
- houses in neighborhood view -- I can see floating stairs, but everything else is invisible.
- family portraits, both in the preview when you click on the house in neighborhood view, and on the family loading screen
- sim portraits -- the game retains the old ones fine, but when it has to regenerate a new one it throws a blank.  Both the sim thumbnail at the left of the screen and the "selected sim" portrait at the bottom of the screen are blank.  So are any wants related to that sim and that sim's face in the relationship panel.  It's creepy.

Messing with my graphics options/screen resolution has no effect; neither did removing all custom content or deleting groups.cache.  Any idea what the hell is going on?

Authorized Personnel Only.  Available with the other hacks.

Ask rather when has EAxis given us the option to do anything (move sims between neighborhoods, turn Crumplebottom into a vampire, get the Social Worker as your blind date) that WAS safe?

I am making a wild guess, but can Clean Installer install things this way (in pieces, rather than "put together")??  I use a Mac and don't have Clean Installer so I don't know for sure.

Does the Sim show up in one piece if you install it using the regular Sims2PackInstaller?

Do you mean you can't delete ANY eyes, skintones, or makeup?  That is odd.  If it is just some files, is it possible they are set to read-only?  Also, if they are default replacements, you will not be able to delete them in-game.

I don't know if it will help, but could you provide a picture of what the dog looks like with the "partial" purple coat?

My first thought is that it might be a problem with the wrong "layer" of coat being selected, or the opacity, but it's hard to say without seeing it.

You mean the bin in CAS, or in the neighborhood screen where families show up after you create them?  Installed sims should show up in the first, but not the second.

As I understand, with Clean Installer, you can choose which parts of a custom content package to install.  Are you sure you installed the "sim" part and not just the stuff the sim is wearing?  Just covering the bases.

Where can see your installed sims -- somewhere in game, in bodyshop, or just as files in your downloads folder?

I'm not sure what you mean about the purple either -- some parts of the dog are purple, but not the whole dog?  or some dogs will show purple, but others will not? 

Oh, Aspyr.  At least I've gotten lucky so far....

Long ago, I had the old Gunmod lighting hack installed when I added a new expansion, and the result was that everything turned blinding red with the occasional black patch.  Removing the lighting mod fixed it, but now I wish I'd taken pictures for this thread.

Jesus!  What video card have you got, anyway?  My old desktop had a pretty awful NVidia card, but I never saw anything like that.  Of course, I never tried running beyond Pets on it....