Deleting Characters Properly

[Selesen]

Okay. I'm going to try and make this as succinct and clear as possible, but, uh, it's quite a tale. I'm only asking one question, but it kind of requires some background info. I'm not sure if it should go in here or the I borked it forum, but I guess I'll let someone else decide.

First, I'm on an intel iMac running Tiger (10.4), with Basegame up to Seasons, excluding Pets, with the latest patches as far as I know. I have a custom neighborhood, made using SaraMK's clean templates for the main neighborhood and all subhoods. (I only made a uni subhood, though.) I made some custom townies individually with testing cheats (spawned, not made in CAS) and a few families. Everything was going fine.
However, I have this re-occurring problem with corrupt files in my downloads that make my game crash when loading the neighborhood. When it crashes, character files are deleted. (If anyone has any advice about this problem, I would love to hear it.) But I have backups of my neighborhood, so I did some 50/50 testing, replacing the neighborhood files every time character files were deleted. Until I was really dumb, and, while testing, accidently forgot to copy the back-up folder rather than move it, and so my back-up got borked too, and I had no way to recover the character files.
(I currently have about 2000 potential corrupt files out of my game, btw. It runs fine without them, but every time I try to do a 50/50 test, it crashes with each half. I think it's something else that's conflicting.)
So since I now had 9 out of my previous 36 characters, I decided to just use DAC, delete the remaining character files, and begin re-populating the neighborhood, since I did a lot of work arranging lots in my hood and didn't want to start completely over in that regard.
However, I now am hearing that DAC leaving dangling SWAFs etc. and that this is a bad thing. So is there a way to delete all my characters correctly... without SimPE, and without just starting a new neighborhood?

...I think I did a bad job of being succinct.

(ETA expansion pack info, just in case.)

[J. M. Pescado]

Under Mac, you can still use the command line dzutils and dbpfrc to rip out SDSC/SDNAs/SWAF/SCOR/SRELs.

Simply dzext your neighborhood package, then:

Code:

rm -f \
????????-E86B1EEF-????????-????????.dat \
????????-AACE2EFB-????????-????????.dat \
????????-EBFEE33F-????????-????????.dat \
????????-CC364C2A-????????-????????.dat \
????????-CD95548E-????????-????????.dat \ 
????????-3053CF74-????????-????????.dat

You must then hex the SCID file

Code:

????????-CC2A6A34-????????-????????.dat

in your hex editor of choice and replace the last two bytes with "01 00", then repack the file with dzcre and dzapp, recompress with dbpfrc (optional) and replace your original.

[Theo]

And make sure the Characters folder is empty, or the game might pick up old garbage.

[seelindarun]

However, I have this re-occurring problem with corrupt files in my downloads that make my game crash when loading the neighborhood. When it crashes, character files are deleted. (If anyone has any advice about this problem, I would love to hear it.)

Nope.  You did the only thing which can be done, you kept backups.  I'd suggest maybe keeping some in another place though, like once a week rip it to CD or something. 

Also, it's a good idea to hunt down bad downloads promptly -- definitely before adding anything more.  As you discovered, once you have two or more corrupt files, binary search is no longer as efficient.  TS3 could very well be released before you find the corrupt files.

[Selesen]

Thanks for those directions, Pescado, but, uh, I don't really understand how to use the things you linked. I never mess with the command line. Any chance someone could give me a more thorough, dumbed-down walk-through?

Also, it's a good idea to hunt down bad downloads promptly -- definitely before adding anything more.  As you discovered, once you have two or more corrupt files, binary search is no longer as efficient.  TS3 could very well be released before you find the corrupt files.

Yeah, I know. That's the problem with being addicted to downloads... *sigh* But I'll manage.

[seelindarun]

Umm... no, at least not from me.  I can barely get the gist of what he means, and I like the command line!   If you're allergic, I'm afraid there are no other options without SimPE.  I think you're going to have to abandon that 'hood, or just play on borrowed time.

[Marhis]

Thanks for those directions, Pescado, but, uh, I don't really understand how to use the things you linked. I never mess with the command line. Any chance someone could give me a more thorough, dumbed-down walk-through?

If I understood that correctly, in Mac you should first compile the sources (dz-utils-src...) and then run them in terminal, since Mac can't handle .exe binaries. I don't remember a lot of C and C++, but those source files seem to include libraries and functions regularly available and functional under unix, therefore it should compile with no issue.
Problem is, you have to know how to compile; I could give it a try, but it's a lot of time I didn't compile something, and I also never was a real programmer since the beginning; so please don't hold your breath in the meantime.

[Selesen]

Okay. Well, since messing with the command doesn't seem like a good option for me, I'm gonna ask a possibly really dumb question. What I really want is to keep all the lots in this hood, decorated and placed as they are, that's all I care about. So if I were to make a new hood, with the same terrain, and then copy the Lots folder from the old hood to the new hood (and rename all the files with the right number, which I can do fairly easily)... would that do what I want it to? Or would it be a really bad idea?

[seelindarun]

If I understood that correctly, in Mac you should first compile the sources (dz-utils-src...) and then run them in terminal, since Mac can't handle .exe binaries. I don't remember a lot of C and C++, but those source files seem to include libraries and functions regularly available and functional under unix, therefore it should compile with no issue.
Problem is, you have to know how to compile; I could give it a try, but it's a lot of time I didn't compile something, and I also never was a real programmer since the beginning; so please don't hold your breath in the meantime.

I can handle the compiling, and the last part about re-packing and compressing.  I started to sweat at the instructions to edit bits in hex.

What I really want is to keep all the lots in this hood, decorated and placed as they are, that's all I care about. So if I were to make a new hood, with the same terrain, and then copy the Lots folder from the old hood to the new hood (and rename all the files with the right number, which I can do fairly easily)... would that do what I want it to? Or would it be a really bad idea?

I don't think the houses will show up properly in a new 'hood with that method.  The NXXX_Neighborhood.package has to be updated for all those lots.  You can at least keep the lots furnished after you move out the families this way:

1.  In your userstartup.cheat file, add this line:
boolprop ShowLotPackageFilename true

2.  For the family you about to evict, note the lot catalog number and name of their house.  Move the sims out as instructed.
3.  Load the empty shell of a house, save and exit to the neighbourhood.
4.  Repeat for as many houses as you wish to save.

5.  Quit the game, and now copy over the backup files for just those lots on your list above.
6.  Launch the game. 
7.  Enter evicted house again, see it in its formerly furnished glory.  Save and exit.
8.  In 'hood view, package lots as usual.

[Mootilda]

What I really want is to keep all the lots in this hood, decorated and placed as they are, that's all I care about. So if I were to make a new hood, with the same terrain, and then copy the Lots folder from the old hood to the new hood (and rename all the files with the right number, which I can do fairly easily)... would that do what I want it to? Or would it be a really bad idea?

I don't think the houses will show up properly in a new 'hood with that method.  The NXXX_Neighborhood.package has to be updated for all those lots.  You can at least keep the lots furnished after you move out the families this way: [...]

The only thing missing with this method is the location of each house in the neighborhood.

Could you extract the Lot Descriptions from your old neighborhood package and copy them to your new neighborhood package using dz utils?  If so, then you should just be able to move / copy the Lots subdirectory and have all the freshly-evicted and restored lots appear in their correct locations.

[Update:]

The good thing about this is that it removes the need to edit the SCID.  The bad thing is that it still requires you to recompile dizzy's utilities, assuming you can't use the .EXEs included with the utilities.

OK.  Here's my suggestion: Find a friend who runs Windows.  Give them your neighborhood package.  Have them remove and edit the records suggested by Pes, using either SimPE or dzutils, and give you back the modified neighborhood file.  Then, put the package back into your neighborhood and remove all the files from the Characters subdirectory.

[Selesen]

What I really want is to keep all the lots in this hood, decorated and placed as they are, that's all I care about. So if I were to make a new hood, with the same terrain, and then copy the Lots folder from the old hood to the new hood (and rename all the files with the right number, which I can do fairly easily)... would that do what I want it to? Or would it be a really bad idea?

I don't think the houses will show up properly in a new 'hood with that method.  The NXXX_Neighborhood.package has to be updated for all those lots.  You can at least keep the lots furnished after you move out the families this way: [...]

The only thing missing with this method is the location of each house in the neighborhood.

Could you extract the Lot Descriptions from your old neighborhood package and copy them to your new neighborhood package using dz utils?  If so, then you should just be able to move / copy the Lots subdirectory and have all the freshly-evicted and restored lots appear in their correct locations.

[Update:]

The good thing about this is that it removes the need to edit the SCID.  The bad thing is that it still requires you to recompile dizzy's utilities, assuming you can't use the .EXEs included with the utilities.

OK.  Here's my suggestion: Find a friend who runs Windows.  Give them your neighborhood package.  Have them remove and edit the records suggested by Pes, using either SimPE or dzutils, and give you back the modified neighborhood file.  Then, put the package back into your neighborhood and remove all the files from the Characters subdirectory.

Thanks for those directions, Seelindarun, that helps a lot.

Mootilda, that sounds like a good suggestion, other than my lacking that particular friend who runs Windows. Uh, unless one of you nice people would like to try. I guess I can just use Seelindarun's method and re-place all the lots manually.

Also, I was playing yesterday (I know I probably shouldn't be playing in a hood that is set for destruction of all characters, but I figure as long as I don't care about saving the progress I make...) and one of my sims was giving birth... but when it got to the "please wait for stork etc. etc." window, the window disappeared and the sim started the screaming animation again. It continued to loop like that. When I turned testingcheats on, it came up with an error message about the sim giving birth, and clicking reset just started the loop over again. I had to hide the game and force quit. Was this related to my character file issues or was a new VBT I should be worried about?

[Mootilda]

Mootilda, that sounds like a good suggestion, other than my lacking that particular friend who runs Windows. Uh, unless one of you nice people would like to try. I guess I can just use Seelindarun's method and re-place all the lots manually.

I'd be happy to help.  I've never cleaned a neighborhood of sims, but it sounds pretty straightforward.  Just give me a link to your neighborhood package and I'll try folllowing Pes's instructions.

[seelindarun]

Though I've compiled the dizzy tools, I've never had to use them.  I compiled them sort of on principle because -- uhh, well they're mac tools.  I don't come across mac tools too often.   I don't mind mucking around my own 'hoods, but I think it would be best if Mootilda fixed your 'hood for you, Selesen.  She's More Awesome than I.

As for your borked birth, the most obvious issue would probably be the corrupted state of your neighbourhood, if you are confident that you cleaned out your downloads.  You should play with testingcheats enabled as a general practice, so that you can be alerted to CC that's causing errors.  If you're still getting them in your fixed 'hood, you'll know that you still have some bad apples in the dl folder.

[Selesen]

Okay, Mootilda, I've sent you a PM with the link. Thank you so much for doing this!

And Seelindarum, I'm going to try just removing all my CC and playing the birth again, just to make sure, but I think it's probably the character file issue. I was having the same problems with CC last time I had a birth, and it went fine.

[Mootilda]

OK, I've removed the SDSC/SDNA/SWAF/SCOR/SREL records and reset the SCID to 1.

Does anyone know whether this same procedure needs to be done for the subneighborhoods, such as university and downtown?

I was also wondering about the following record types:
FAMI 0x46414D49 (Family Information)
FAMT 0x8C870743 (Family Ties)
FAMH 0x46414D68
NGBH 0x4E474248 (Neighborhood Memory)

Is it OK to leave the family and memory info in the neighborhood package?

[Update:]

Since there was no answer to my questions while I was gone, I decided to try to answer the question about subneighborhoods myself.  I added a university to pleasantview and the university package does contain SDSC/SDNA/SWAF/SREL records.

Selesen, I think that it would be wise to remove the sims info from your subneighborhood packages as well.

[Selesen]

Okay, here's the file. I only have a university subhood, so unless the N004_Suburb001.package has something as well, that should be it. Thanks again.

Oh, and the pregnancy problem was caused by bad CC. *sigh* Back to sorting...

[Mootilda]

Your university package seems OK as is... no character information at all.

[Selesen]

Oh, excellent! I thought I'd put some sims in college, but I must be remembering wrong. Thank you so much for your help, Mootilda, and everyone else who replied.

[J. M. Pescado]

That's not how it works. Characters are not supposed to normaly be in subhood files: Any files inside a subhood file are debris from the cloning process and can be deleted to massively reduce space wasteage. All character entries are in the mainhood file.

[Selesen]

Ah, okay. That makes more sense.
*backs up clean hood file multiple times*