Elder dies and goes to college (BFB incoming?)

[spambi]

I loaded a house today with two elders and their three children. I notice that the female elder is no longer an elder but an adult. Hm. I exit without saving and try again. I confirm that on the loading screen she is an elder. In game, I immediately zoom to her and her age line says that she's in her junior year in college (though she looks like an elder.) I unpause and she does an age transition to adult hood. I take her to the bathroom mirror to change her appearance and the hair color choices she has are black, brown, blonde and grey. I exit without saving and try a couple more times. Same result.

I enabled testing cheats to see if there were any bug messages (there weren't.) I do remember, though, that the last time I played the house there was a weird incident with hula girls. The girls appears at the corner of the lot and I got the zoom window you get for important events. They disappeared quickly, though, so I ignored them, which I probably shouldn't have. They were probably Death's hula girls, though I didn't see Death himself. I can't remember if my sim was old enough to die. I don't think she was, but I use the age duration hack, so it's hard to tell.

So, my questions --

Is there anything I can do now to fix this sim?

If I can't fix her, should I just age her back up to an elder using the tombstone of L&D and hope for no other signs of the BFB?


It's like a bad Rodney Dangerfield movie.

[professorbutters]

I don't have an answer, but I would be interested to know, as I had a similar glitch recently.  The sim went from adult to YA, not elder to YA, but close.  I had another who seems to have just graduated college, even though he has been out for a while.  I am crossing my fingers, but I am also backing up like crazy, trying to figure out when the last unglitched backup is, and making careful notes of the whole neighborhood.  Because while I try to be optimistic, I am prepared for the idea that it is going to blow.

(I had no bug messages either, and no error logs.)

[talysman]

I can't remember if my sim was old enough to die. I don't think she was, but I use the age duration hack, so it's hard to tell.

At least you know what's causing it, then.

Is there anything I can do now to fix this sim?

If I can't fix her, should I just age her back up to an elder using the tombstone of L&D and hope for no other signs of the BFB?

I'm guessing she's pretty corrupt and you should remove the offending hack and restore the hood from backup, but if you want to check in SimPE, why not? Look at the age, it's probably looped around or something. Check age category, too. I bet neither one of those will look even close to the other elder sim.

[Zazazu]

I've used TJ's Age Duration Hack for at least the last three EP. This isn't a known bug of the hack. It's always hard to tell exactly how many days an elder has left.

[spaceface]

This happened to a sim of mine and I have never used the Age Duration Hack.

He was married to a legacy spare so I just aged him to adult with the Tombstone. He was a bit glitchy after that and would jump and drop his queue when I clicked on him to direct him to Makro - do something. I had stopped playing my spares, I just plopped them all down into a retirement home. If my legacy hood turns into a BFBVFS then so be it.

[spambi]

I can't remember if my sim was old enough to die. I don't think she was, but I use the age duration hack, so it's hard to tell.

At least you know what's causing it, then.

Not necessarily. I've been using TJ's age duration hack for a long time without problems.

Thinking back on the last time I played these sims, the problem may be caused by death by satellite and an over-crowded party. I remember this sim and her husband (who is also messed up, it seems) cuddling under the stars. They did this autonomously, which I didn't know could happen. They did this on the porch of their house, which I also didn't know was possible but I don't use the cuddle under stars action much. During this time there was also a party going on. I have the hack that lets you invite as many sims as you want and the party was very crowded.

So, my theory is that they were hit by a satellite while cuddling under the stars. Because there was a party going on, and lots of sims were on the porch, Death couldn't get to my sims to escort them to the great beyond. So my sims are partly dead and partly alive. I think the game may have crashed, too, at some point.

Then again, it could be something random like what ProfessorButters is experiencing.

Is there anything I can do now to fix this sim?

If I can't fix her, should I just age her back up to an elder using the tombstone of L&D and hope for no other signs of the BFB?

I'm guessing she's pretty corrupt and you should remove the offending hack and restore the hood from backup, but if you want to check in SimPE, why not? Look at the age, it's probably looped around or something. Check age category, too. I bet neither one of those will look even close to the other elder sim.

I have a backup, but I'm trying to avoid using it, unless there's a way to restore just one house and not the whole neighborhood.

I have attempted to fix her in Simpe but she's still pretty messed up. I fixed her age, but she has no aspiration or LTW. I should have asked a more specific question. I'll continue trying to fix her and if there are specific issues I need help with, I'll ask about those.

[professorbutters]

I don't have Sim PE; I can only do minor fixes using InSim.  Some of this comes from moving, I'm sure of it.  Aubrey, my Sim who aged down to YA, moved from one house to another and got the known glitch of a second memory of graduation.  Why he later bounced down to YA, I don't know, but I do know that when you age Sims forward with InSim, it seems to change their Aspiration to Family.  I fixed this and fixed his permaplat status, although he went permaplat in college and has the token.  Since he had "just graduated," he was also unemployed, which was awkward, because he is the manager of one of the family businesses.  Fired him, re-hired him, made him manager.

DG didn't have any of these problems. All that happened to him was that he got reset to his last birthday and the Grow Up Memory.  He too was unemployed, but he might have been before.  He was the same Aspiration as before (Popularity.)  I fixed his permaplat status, just in case, though he too went permaplat and has the token in his memory.

Both their marriages appear to be intact, with no relationship damage.

The last backup before DG ages unnecessarily is 12/31.  That is when I bought a new Mac and transferred my files from one running Tiger to one running Leopard.  I had noticed that many of my Sims "reset," as though I had just installed a new EP; motives reset, standing beside their beds or whatever.  DG is the only one whose age reset too.  As for Aubrey, the one whose age went down to YA--who knows what his deal is. 

I am going to keep using the hood.  It might or might now be on the path to destruction, but I only have to get through one more generation and my legacy will be done.

PB

[Mootilda]

I have a backup, but I'm trying to avoid using it, unless there's a way to restore just one house and not the whole neighborhood.

Unfortunately, there isn't a way to restore just one (occupied) house (and the corresponding family).  The neighborhood package contains almost all of the information for all of the sims in the neighborhood and sim bin, and there's no way to separate them out easily.

Edited for clarification.

[J. M. Pescado]

It actually IS possible to restore just one house, by specifically splicing in the NXXX_LotXXXXX for that specific house. However, your problem is on a neighborhood level, so this will not help. Restoring a house in this manner only covers instance-related stuff, and not the actual information pertaining to the characters themselves. It's complex. It's not going to solve your problem.

[spambi]

I didn't manage to fix my sim, so I killed her with the tombstone. She managed to die without any fuss. Yay! Her husband is less buggy now that she's not around. I'm going to keep playing things the way they are and hope for the best. At this point, if a BFB hits my neighborhood, I'll just let it burn until Sims 3.