my sims now have no memories at all

[cwykes]

Sims I have been playing a year now have no memories. We're not talking blank icons we're talking no icons at all for all the sims before the past couple of days play.  does anyone recognise this or have a clue what is messed up?  Is it fixable?

I had some blank want icons for townies moved into lots which seemed to have sorted themselves out and the missing memories happened about the same time.   I was thinking blank icon bug, but I don't have TSU (or NL),  so there are no radio controlled cars loose in dorms.  I have one in a lot I haven't played in ages and know not to save it it's in use.  I think maybe the wants were just blank 'cos they hadn't rerolled and were unachievable.  As I don't have TSU or NL, there is also no version of the recent patch for my game.  I've been into SimPE - maybe I did something stupid there, but that's where I realised the extent of the problem.   I cleared duplicate sim files out with simenhancer as recommended by Motoki and Zephyrzodiac, but it didn't have any effect on the missing memories (no surprise there - it needed doing months back).

I have found a back up from mid September that I can reload, but I have done a lot of things since then!   Including a very  timeconsuming addition of 20 or so vacant starter homes with water and willows in a nice arrangement.  I'd like to get that back in even if I lose a bit of gameplay.   Next question - is it going to happen again?

[Zeljka]

Not sure if you're talking memories, wants or both. I have a few buggered Sims with no wants as well (toddlers) and can't seem to figure out how to get them back. I do know (from experience) that they will get wants at their next transition, but not if I reset them as toddlers.

I would suggest going into the neighbourhood to grab your lots, then restore from backup.
If the lots are vacant, you could just add them to the lot bin which you could then backup.(LotCatalog), though packaging is probably better as you can use them as often as you want.

[cwykes]

I'm talking about the total lack of any memory icons, blank or otherwise, but initially I had blank want icons for ex-townies who I'd put into lots a while back but not played. They also had some weird wants at first.  I played them, wondered about blank icon bug and the wants eventually rolled themselves and the sims looked pretty normal.  I then played some new CAS sims in my own starter lots.  The only problem I noticed there was visitors standing around instead of eating or using the bathroom and then going home complaining of needs failure.  Didn't sound related to me.  After than I played some lots I'd being playing for a long time and discovere NOTHING where memories should be.  This is every single "old" lot i've been too!  sometime during this I had a look at memories in SimPE and found none.  Maybe the whole 'hood is imploding

I have all the empty lots packaged already, so your suggestion is what I will have to do if it's not fixable - it'll probably turn out better the second time.  BUT If the whole 'hood is going to implode again within weeks of doing all that work - maybe I won't bother! I'd really like to get a handle on what happened, so it doesn't happen again!  I really wish the latest patch had been issued for the base game.  It may be called the Uni patch, but a lot of issues were in the original game.

PS - I'm told that if you have boolprop testingcheatsenabled true, you can control click on a want and get it to re-roll.  This is according to a kind simmer on MTS2  who also said from heartfelt experience that it's NOT shift click.  I learned this after the wants rolled for me, but maybe it will help you with your toddlers.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Do you mean that the basic Sims2 patch is not available, or that you couldn't find it?  I can't see that they would just take it off the site, as thre are still plenty of people without the EPs who may not have patched, or may need to reinstall and redownload the patch.  I'll have a hunt sround on my PC, and if i can find the original sims2pack somewhere, I'll get back to you.

http://thesims2.ea.com/update/

All the patches are available at the above link.

[cwykes]

Zephyr - thanks, but I have all the existing patches.  I mean that the latest patch for the base game is months old.  the 2 new patches are for Uni and NL, but not everything in the uni patch is a Uni issue.  There should have been a third patch in the set fixing headmaster bug, portal bug, blank icon bug etc etc in the base game.  They didn't bother to do one.  A pet gripe!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, I see what you mean, now.  perhaps they're holding fire at the moment because of trying to market the Holiday edition.   (One would hope that that is fixed, though.)  But maybe they think if they offer a new patch for the base game just now it would put people off buying the new edition.

[cwykes]

that's why they should have had a set of 3 in the first place.  But really, they could sneak it out as a late addition to the last set if they wanted.

Do you have any idea what has happened to my 'hood? 
Pleasantview and Strangetown are OK, so I figure it must be the 'hood not the program files. 
The September backup is OK, so I think something is screwed since then 
I've put all the current downloads, hacks etc in with the Sep back up and it's still OK so I don't think it's a conflict. 
It affects all the lots, so it must be something global not something in every single character file.

Are the memories in the character files or in that neighbourhood.package file or where? Is there a "sim memories 101" anywhere I can read?

Thanks for replying - it's obsessing me even more that my sims don't work than when I play them!

[ZephyrZodiac]

I had something wierd happen to one of my hoods once, and yet the others were fine.  In the end I had to save all the Sims2 folder and do a complete uninstall/reinstall and also delete a lot of duplicate files which had appeared.  My problem was that whole families just disappeared from houses, and in one case when I went in in build mode, Remingot was there totally frozen halfway through making a bed, the shower room still had puddles on the floor and there were dirty breakfast dishes on the table - the sims equivalent of the Marie Celeste!  Anyway, after the reinstall I tried the problem whood (now cleaned up of the extra files) and it worked fine and the missing families were back in their homes!  So, strange though it may seem, you can have one hood going wrong and not the others, and it no doubt depends on the size of the hood itself and the number of character files.  (Oh, and it was only the newer famiies that were affected, those that had been in the neighbourhood for a while were fine!)  so, if all else fails, try saving everything and doing what I did.

[gali]

ZZ, are the duplicated files with "(invisible)" in them? When I looked at Skip's memories, he married Brandi at least 4 times - one visible, and 4 invisibles.
Can I delete them without causing troubles?

[cwykes]

ZZ - so maybe something n the program files connected to that hood gets screwed?  Similar to the object.package problem.  Re-install huh.  Never done it 'cos I've helped simmers whose reinstall went totally wrong -  who got the stopped at x% problem when they didn't have it the first time, etc etc...  Probably should try that before I go to the back up.  I always assumed that if the problem was in the 'hood the solution must be in the 'hood files.

If nobody recognises the problem as in "the whole memory has overflowed and gone round the clock again" or "Oh thats x bug" or "I know what ths silly cow must have done....",  then that's the way to go.

GALI - I read everything on memories I could find a while back, mostly written by these guys, but I only know what they happened to put in print!    The duplicated files aren't normally linked to any other sims in any way which is what makes them safe to delete.  If Brandi's grey clones have friends and stuff, then it's not safe.  I'm not sure this is what you mean though.  There are also corrupt memories spread around the 'hood.  He might have 1 real memory and 3 passed back to him corrupt by other people.  Is Skip really linked to 4 different Brandi's by a married memory?  or has he got 4 memories of marrying the same Brandi?  Who is the event owner?  If he is not the event owner then it's probably one memory of his plus 3 gossip and you can take out the gossip.  If he's the owner, I think you are supposed to track everyone else in the hood and delete their memories first.  I say might and probably because normally the corrupt memory is about someone else.

[Andygal]

well I had that happen after I decided to attempt to be clever and mess with memory tokens in SimPE. I deleted the hood.

[cwykes]

Yup, my trip into SimPE could have done it...  I couldn't make the new version do what I was used to doing and I could have done something really stupid.  thing is... I had problems before I tried that.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I'd agree  there, most of what one does in SimPE is an attempt to correct something that has gone badly wrong.  Mostly otherwise, when one messes with things like memories, it's fairly early on in the game before the gossip has gone far.

Gali, I think mainly you need to check on every one that knew Skip and Brandi and check that they just have the memory Skip married Brandi and Brandi married Skip.  Any other memories of the event passed from another sim, you would need to check that sim first before you delete anything.  Basically, you need to check every memory of the event in the hood that isn't a first-hand memory owned by the sim whose memories it is in.  In other words, you go round the hood and delete all the gossip.  Then it should be safe to delete the extra memories in Skip's file.  (Says she with fingers crossed and touching wood!)

[gali]

Actually, when I revived Skip, he was almost "card blank" - had only the "I am dead" token, and another, not important. He was "unlinked" too.

I married them when Dustin and Beau were at home, and they have the memory of the wedding. So does Brandy, who didn't have many friends when she married, in fact she and Skip have the same friends, because first I moved Brandi and kids to a new house, and only then I resurrected  Skip. So, when the "welcome wagon" came (some visitors), I befriend all the family with them (i.e. Skip, Brandi, and Dustin - Beau was still a toddler).

I looked again, and the memory of marrying Brandi is [invisible] ...by somebody else. It make sense.

I didn't revive Skip with the SimPe at all!

I teleported him when he was dead - he appeared, and vanished leaving a message that he died some other place.

Then I used the O-Nomitron (TJ collections), asked Brandi to call the Grim Reaper, and when she did, the tumbnail of Skip appeared.
It was normal resurrecting - not reviving with the SimPe.

But, I couldn't do it with Bella - she appeared, and stayed, in spite of her tokens  "I am dead" and "is a ghost", and the memories of Mortie and Cassie of her abduction. Here I didn't have a choise, and used the SimPe, to delete the "bad tokens" from Mortie, Cassie, and Bella. I also "linked" her, as rainbow advised me.
So far, she doesn't have duplicate memories.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I think it may be because the other Bella (the Strangetown one) isn't in Pleasantview any more.  I imagine they got two Bellas, a linked and an unlinked, then changed the file number from N001 to N002 and just moved her into that hood.  For some reason, mostly the resurrectable sims in Pleasantview have two files (Darleen, Skip, Michael Bachelor) so thre must be some reason for this.  I also noticed that, whereas Mortimer, and the rest of the Goths, have similar characters to their Sims1 originals, Michael Bachelor is completely different!

There must also be some reason why Michael's ghost appears at the goth house as well as the Caliente one.