Beau Broke has a split personality, I think!

[ZephyrZodiac]

While I was scrolling thorugh the character files in N0001, I noticed that file 00010 was twice the size of any other file (over 1200kb) and when I looked it up in Simenhancer I found that this was Beau Broke, and in his relationships Beau Broke appears as one of his friends!  This explains why I'd noticed on one or two occasions that Beau wanted to talk to Beau, or play with Beau!

Seems like this file is irreversibly corrupted, although I have backups which apparently aren't!  However, I'm loth to replace him as he's doing well in his political career, has tons of friends, and has just got married!

I think he must have multiple personality syndrome!

[Oddysey]

Does he have a handhelp game? That can cause MPD in sims.

[Ancient Sim]

Loads of my Sims have this, they get it as soon as they play on the handhelds.  I did have the fix but took it out, I think because it also stopped them getting crushes from it and I like that aspect of the game too much to want to lose it.  I've had Sims want to see their own ghosts and all sorts. 

[J. M. Pescado]

The handheld game is not supposed to cause random crushes all over the place, you know. That's completely a bug.

[ZephyrZodiac]

He did have a handheld, but gave it to his little sister.  I can't think why he should have this problem, the youngest Broke brother has moved house numerous times, but mostly lives in a Greek house with three other male Romance sims, is in love with all three of them, is engaged to another male sim, has been in love with Lilith Pleasant since they were teens, and generally has an extremly complicated life, but has shown none of the problems I've been getting with Beau!  It's extremely odd, and although I have backups, I think swopping files would cause all kinds of new thing to go wrong, besides, he's forget he was now a married sim!

I suppose, if I knew something about the workings of files, I could copy it, open up the copy and have a look to see what's gone wrong, but I have no understanding at all about what goes on inside files!  But if I get a rash of sims with files twice the size they should be, my game is going to lag like hell!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I'm reopening this thread because, would you believe, it has happened to the youngest Broke!  He now has a memory of meeting himself and his file is also over 1MB! 

Does anyone know why this happens and what can be done about it - is it just that they have an enormous number of memories and invisible memories?

[Ancient Sim]

In my game, Beau's file icurrently stands at 809KB, although there is also a bak file there from last December which is 1.04MB, so his file has actually got smaller even though he's been played more.  The third Broke son in my game has a 1.04MB file.  There are several larger files - Alexander Goth's is 1.08MB, for instance.  By far the largest though is Bella Goth's.  A lot of people have commented that she starts the game with a much larger file than anyone else's (over 1MB) and in my game now hers is 2.19MB, more than 5 times the size of Mortimer's.  There is no reason for this, she started play as an adult and lived a pretty uneventful life, she also has fewer memories than the majority of my Sims.  Does make me wonder (as it has made other people wonder) whether something is hidden in Bella's file, perhaps for use in a further expansion ... (something along the lines of The Sims 2: Return of the Bella, that sort of thing).

[ZephyrZodiac]

At least my Beau and Keanu are not alone, then!  Funny, though, none of my CAS sims displays this wierdness, and one couple at least have had just as many hours play as the Brokes!

(I'm glad we're still talking, by the way!  I really did try to PM you, twice, but each time I had the message refused.)

[gali]

It happens that just now I am playing the Broke family. Beau's file is 1.09 MB, but I don't see any weird memories about playing with himself, or meeting himself.

If you used the Enhanser, and saw that he is a known sim and best friend with himself - you have to UNCHECK all the checked rectangles: Beau likes himself 100/100, but all the rectangles, including "known sim", MUST BE  empty (unchecked).

I think the handheld play, before you used the handheld fix, caused the self-relation. I play Beau AFTER the handheld fix was installed, and see nothing unusual.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks, Gali.  Actually, I used SimPE 0.36, although I do have SiEnhancer as well.  I don't exactly understand which files I can uncheck - or delete - as the case may be. 
However, since so many people are reporting that their files of Beau and his brother are equally large, I guess I'm worrying about nothing!  And Keanu doesn't have a handheld now, as he gave it to Dustin's son Justin - but I keep getting the want to play handheld, not to buy one!  I guess some part of the game isn't aware that he no longer owns a handheld!

[gali]

I have the Enhanser too, and I use it only to max relationships fast, while I can't do it with the SimPe (pity). JMP hates this software....

In the Enhanser you see a line of the chosen character, relating other sims; when you reach the line "how much Beau  Broke likes Beau Broke" (it appears twice) - you have to see all the rectangles at the right EMPTY, i.e. unchecked. If they are checked - that's the cause for the "split personality", and now you can get a memory of meeting yourself, and be best friend of yourself. You don't have to delete any file - just uncheck the small rectangles at the right side of Beau-to-Beau relationship.

Sometimes I see x-to-x relationship 0/0, not 100/100 - why is that, I don't know. But I remember that I saw in the Enhanser that the relationship Rip Grunt-to-Ripp Grunt was -100/-100; when I changed his aspiration to knowledge - the self-relationship changed to 0/0. Why Ripp hated himself? God knows....

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks Gali! 

By the way, 0/0 just means they don't have any relationship, -100/100 would mean he hated himself!  Either of which is rather wierd!

I'll definitely use the enhancer to uncheck those boxes.  Thanks again.

Well, I've got Beau's file open now, and none of the boxes are checked, but his relationship with himself is 100/100.  But he definitely has a memory in SimPE of meeting himself!  When I start my game again, I'll have to check whether he has that memory in game!

Now, I've just checked Brandi's file, which is a normal size, and she has a 0/0 relationship with herself and no checked boxes.   So it seems to me that, since the only two double size files are Beau's and Keanu's, that it's because the liking of themselves is maxed that they have this problem!  But until I've checked a load of other files to see if 100/100 is abnormal, I won't know whether it's safe to return them fo 0/0.

Just looked at Keanu Broke's file, and his is the same!!

Now, I've been through the following files and found this:

Cassandra Durham (Goth) 100/100
Lilith Pleasant 00/100  Plus all boxes were checked.

Dustin Broke, Brandi Lothario, Don Lothario, Daniel Pleasant, Mary-Sue Pleasant, Angela Pleasant all 0/0.

Could it be, therefore, some faulty programming in these Maxis files that has been there all along?  (Cassandra doesn't own a mobile phone, a handheld or a music player.)

[gali]

ZZ, you "rub in it" too much - are you already bored to play, and wait for the next EP?....

I don't change any self-relation from 0/0 to 100/100 and vise versa - just care that the game runs smoothly, and I don't see any schysophrenic actions....

I think the memory of Beau meeting himself is an old one, before you installed the handheld fix - and you certainly can delete that memory, and other memories of playing with himself, etc. It won't hurt the game.

My 3 Broke brothers are at the college now, Brandi is married to a CAS sim, named Bobi Newbie (I wanted her to get her previous family name), and has a girl named Betty... (Newbie). Thus I "returned to life" Bob and Betty of TS1.
The interesting thing was, that when Brandi gave a birth to Betty, I named the baby, gave her to cuddle her only once, and pass her to Bobi and Beau, who was waiting for the birth, to be able to go to college (I didn't want to accompany him by the pregnant mom, and accidently cause her death). And from one cuddle, Brandi liked Betty 59/48! - hilarious....

The same reaction I had at the Goths. Cassandra got married to a CAS sim (I hate the lazy Darren), giving him the Goth name,  and had a girl, which I named Bella.
You should see the old Mortie: from the first sight he liked little Bella 70/68 (!!!), and each 5 minutes took her to the bath.... He didn't give anyone to touch her - she was "his" Bella....

I didn't know that sims react so strong to dead relatives names - but they do.... It's nice they are programmed that way....
 

[ZephyrZodiac]

That's amazing!  I know Mortimer is a possessive grandparent, when in one game I had Beau married to Cassandra, they had to move out because Mortimer was just taking over, and after all, the baby was theirs, not his!  But I don't remember after all this time how high his relationship with the baby was!

So, presumably these "playing with themselves" memories are when there's no-one else to play handheld with?  (By the way, here in the UK that term has a very different connotation!  I think even "play handheld with myself" would be considered rather rude!  But we do delight in double entendre here!)

[dizzy]

Given that most of the data in the character file is either Geometric Data Containers and the Facial Structure, I would just assume that this growth is due to custom clothing and/or make-up.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I see, so that would explain why the original characters have larger files than my CAS sims.  since I created them and was satisfied with their clothing and hairstyles etc. before putting them in the game, I've since had no need to change them, whereas all the original Maxis sims have undergone quite extensive makeovers!

It's nice to know it isn't anything wierd going on.  Thank you.