My Giltchy Invisible Sims are back!

[DrNerd]

So, back in March, my Legacy 'hood went BFBVFS.  I'd made a backup, but five Sims (four of whom were indispensable) were glitchy and invisible and nothing could un-glitch them and bring them back.  I was forced to rebuild 4 generations of my Legacy from scratch.

Now it's happening again.  I have all EPs through Seasons, and H&M, and I'm all patched up.  The 'hood in question is thankfully NOT my main neighborhood this time, but rather a dummy 'hood I created where I could dump extracted Legacy Sims and Legacy lots (binned unoccupied) where they could remain for all time, unplayed and unglitched and ready to be extracted should anything horrible happen to my main 'hood again.  I haven't done DAC or anything, or even played any of the lots beyond opening them to take shots of former Sims and spouses to re-create Legacy portraits.

This is what I'm dealing with:


There are seven Sims living on this lot.  The entire lot is visible.  The Sims... eh, not so much.  And this is AFTER using the Lot Debugger to Force Error On All.  The thumbnails are all there, I can change which Sim is active (not that it matters one bit).  The plumbbob flashes in and out.  Any actions I attempt to have the Sims do immediately fades from the queue.  Their motives don't decay, so they won't die and I can't resurrect them.  Because they can't interact with anything, I can't kill them, and if I summon another Sim to the lot, make them selectable, and try to have them kill the invisible Sims, the invisibles don't show up on a pie menu option at all.  If I save and exit, the lot shows up as unoccupied, and they will disappear from the neighborhood in SimPE.

If I Summon them to another lot or attempt to Add Neighbor To Family, nothing happens.  If I move them out of the lot from Neighborhood View and into that lot or any other, it's just as empty as this one.

I don't care about this neighborhood at all; it's a dummy 'hood, and I can easily trash it and extract the Sims from the main 'hood and create another dummy 'hood for them to live in.  I would just really, really like to know why this keeps happening and what I can do to bring these Sims back in case it DOES happen in my main 'hood again.  This glitch killed my Legacy once and if it's happening in a neighborhood I never play, that does not give me happy feelings about the odds of it happening in a 'hood I DO play.  And, let's face it--Second Total Legacy Rebuild: DO NOT WANT.

Error Logs attached.

Any and all help much appreciated.

[Simsample]

Do you have a skin controller in game, or maybe clothing controller? The game cannot set the skin for the sims.

[DrNerd]

Nope, skins are all EAxis.  Problem still occurs with hacks and downloads removed, so it's not a conflict there, and none of those Sims are/were decked out with CC, at any rate.  I also don't have a skin or clothing controller.

The hacks I have are either Awesome or Awesome-via-TwoJeffs, aside from InSim.

[leaths]

I'm just basically pulling this out of thin air, but do you think that since this keeps occurring that you might have some curruption in one of your game files? If it's erroring on setting skins, maybe comparing the size of the skins.package file on your pc to the one on the game disk might be helpful.

[J. M. Pescado]

Nothing we have here can cause this error. Once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

[DrNerd]

I don't think it's an issue with the skins.  I've never seen a skin problem cause invisible Sims before, and if it WERE a skin issue, other lots should be showing the same problems, and they're not.  The other three lots full of extracted Legacy Sims are fine, as are every household I've checked in my Legacy 'hood, Strangetown (where I've been playing an Asylum), and my custom 'hood.  In the backup of my Alpha 'hood, I think the problem stemmed from one Sim who also glitched badly in the Alpha 'hood--somehow he got corrupted and that spread to several Sims he knew, but at the time, that was the LEAST of my worries before I reverted to the glitchy backup.  It seems like a character file corruption that's spreading, and since I've never played those lots, they don't know anyone but their roommates.  But I don't know how I could have gotten a corrupted file in a Sim I've never played, on a lot I've never played, in a neighborhood I rarely open!

As far as tight pants is concerned, the entire contents of my hack folder:
antipeeobsession
antiweatherreaction
autoyak
coffeecuphack
dramafix
hugginghack
noautopetbuy
nobabyharassment
noeatcrap
norabbitspin
noshockforoutgoing
nounlinkondelete
novanishindorms
nowhatsthis
phonehack
smartercashier
thefightclub
vampwerefixes
wfsanity
Caged Pet Fixes
Same Sex Marriage

I also have TJ's Crystal Ball, Squinge's Hula and More, Decorgal's Pose and Animation Hacks, CEP, and the InSimenator (NOT the kitten-killer, TYVM), and the Lot Debugger, obviously.  I discovered the problem while I was playing my Asylum, so a good portion of those hacks had been pulled, and a lot of them weren't in place in my Alpha 'hood backup at all, when this issue first hit.  I can't think of any reason why that collection of hacks and mods would cause this problem, but if that's the cause of it, I'd love to know.

[Diala]

Have you tried uninstalling everything completely (keeping a backup of the neighborhoods, downloads, lots, and everything else of importance, of course), then reinstalling from scratch? I have a feeling it may be due to an important game file corrupting, possibly during installation/patching.

I know it is the EAxian solution to everything, but it is the only thing I can think of that may resolve this.

[Simsample]

Nope, skins are all EAxis.  Problem still occurs with hacks and downloads removed, so it's not a conflict there, and none of those Sims are/were decked out with CC, at any rate.  I also don't have a skin or clothing controller.

The hacks I have are either Awesome or Awesome-via-TwoJeffs, aside from InSim.

Could be character file corruption caused by something you have had in your user data files; therefore pulling your custom content may not help. If it's only confined to the one neighbourhood then this looks likely. If it were game data problems (objects.package or skins files damaged) I'd expect to see it in all hoods.

[DrNerd]

If it's only confined to the one neighbourhood then this looks likely. If it were game data problems (objects.package or skins files damaged) I'd expect to see it in all hoods.

That's my thinking as well--if it were a corruption in the game files, I'd see the problem in all of my neighborhoods, and certainly in more than just one lot, or at the very least, with Sims who had no relationship to each other.  The fact that this has happened in what is essentially a virgin neighborhood, on one lot, to Sims who ONLY know their roommates, make me think it's some sort of glitch at the level of a character, but I'm at a loss as to how a Sim I've never played on a lot I've rarely opened, in a neighborhood I rarely open, could have gotten glitched!

A way to restore them would be ideal, in case this DOES happen in a 'hood I need.  I've tried everything I can think of to get them back, and I've run out of ideas.