Clean and fixed Uber-Megahood! OUTDATED!

[Chaavik]

I just downloaded all three parts from here first and used Izarc to extract them. The extraction failed on Part 2 with the corruption of Lot 24.

So, I deleted all three parts I downloaded from here and went to your site to download the other set of three parts and encountered the same problem with Lot 24. It is just that lot that's become corrupted.

I've tried several times with no success. The Part 2 file is corrupted.

I can only hazard a guess that they had no problems because they already have all three parts from before this set was uploaded in the post a few posts above and not in the OP.

Thank you and Tamha (and others involved) for doing this fantastic job with the project. Really appreciate the time, patience and effort put into this idea similar to HP's. I only hope that the Lot 24 issue can be resolved if somebody is able to. I am not sure what Lot 24 is exactly.

[Catbat]

I downloaded the Megahood this evening and installed it.  The extraction seemed to work fine and I was able to load the neighborhood and attach the UNIs, downtown and vacation districts just fine. 

I did notice that Jessica Peterson and her trailer park (from BDC) lot was placed behind the Goth house in the Pleasantview neighborhood and behind the lot was a light blue square.  I attempted to add the lot back to the Bin and the game hung.  Was Jessica placed there for a reason and I should have left her there?  I reviewed the thread and didn't see any mention of her.

Here's a picture of the lot and the blue square, if it helps.



Thank you for doing this.  I sure it was/has been a lot of work for you.

[Mixreality]

Woow, and here I was thinking everything is working smoothly!

So, I deleted all three parts I downloaded from here and went to your site to download the other set of three parts and encountered the same problem with Lot 24. It is just that lot that's become corrupted.

I can only hazard a guess that they had no problems because they already have all three parts from before this set was uploaded in the post a few posts above and not in the OP.

It's the same three parts, same links. The finished version only comes in those same three parts linked both here and on my LJ (previous versions were in a single big fat file). So it's not that, I haven't updated the three-part file, ever. When Tansi reported a problem today, I downloaded part2 to check it out. Hood installed without problem (with WinRar).

Anyway, because there are multiple reports of the same mess, I'll reupload the part2, but not untill this time tomorrow 'cause I'm in a bit of a rush. You might try extracting with WinRar to see if it works.

Also, Tansi reported Lot124 is corrupted, and you that it's Lot24. Could either of you check it out again (maybe someone made a typo, maybe it's the same lot).

I did notice that Jessica Peterson and her trailer park (from BDC) lot was placed behind the Goth house in the Pleasantview neighborhood and behind the lot was a light blue square.  I attempted to add the lot back to the Bin and the game hung.  Was Jessica placed there for a reason and I should have left her there?  I reviewed the thread and didn't see any mention of her.

Now, that's really worrying! I didn't move any lots, so the trailer park should not be there, with or without the blue square, heh. Again, it'll have to wait a bit, currently I have no idea how could that happen. Only thing that comes to mind is that lot numbers got mixed up upon adding colleges and such (which of course, shouldn't happen). Or it's the dreaded lot 24/124...

Is it possible that the part2 file got corrupted after the uploading and after being fine online for some time? Do these things happen? If so, a simple reupload will do, but if not... there'll be more of me asking for some awesome help.

[Catbat]

Only thing that comes to mind is that lot numbers got mixed up upon adding colleges and such (which of course, shouldn't happen). Or it's the dreaded lot 24/124...

If you mean when I added the other districts, then no...the lot was there when I first loaded the neighborhood up and before I added anything.  I hope that makes sense and/or is helpful for you.

[Mixreality]

Yes, that's what I meant. Well, that's good, I suppose. Of course, I still have no idea what the problem is, but adding other subhoods is ruled out. Thanks!

Also, the trailer park is NOT Lot24 or Lot124. So, that's ruled out too 

ETA - I loaded the game (with the hood freshly installed earlier today, with the freshly downloaded part2) and there's nothing behind the Goth's house, and the trailer park is where it should be. So I can't reproduce the problem. I haven't check all the subhoods for missplaced lots, though (tomorrow...).

I don't even know what additional info should I ask for, really. There's a massive LotAdjuster related thread on MTS2 regarding Lot placement and such, so I'll be heading over there, but it will have to wait, I *really* should be studying right now. Or sleeping. But this is so much fun! *sigh*

By the way, Lot24 is a Pleasantview lot that looks like Calliente and Lothario's house*, and Lot124 is a Riverblossom lot, so it's definitely unrelated.

*those houses are in front of Goth house, not behind it.

[Chaavik]

Izarc reported Lot 24 as corrupted and gave me the option to exit the procedure to extract the file.

That's no problem waiting until Part 2 is re-uploaded because I think it is worth the wait to get this gem.

Looking at that picture, looks like 2 or three lots were squashed together behind the Goths' house AND facing the wrong direction with the mailbox and garbage can away from the street, and I thought the Goths' house (if left intact and not moved elsewhere in PV) was sitting in the middle of a large block in PV with no streets on either side.

[Tansi]

Winzip actually. I know, I know.. it's just I've had it since it first came out many years back

I'll make sure all traces are gone and try it with WinRAR then. The first one did install fine, it seems to be just the second. Thanks!

[Catbat]

ChaavikYes, I believe the Goth house sits in a large block without streets on the sides of the house.  There is normally only one other Maxis premade house next door to the Goth's and that is it.

I will delete the Megahood and redownload and check out the Calliente and Lothario lots, Riverblossom, and the Peterson trailor.  I will post what I find tonight.

[Mixreality]

(Good point Chaavik - the trailer park in Catbat's pic does face the wrong direction which I suspect is extremely Bad. The Goth house seems to be correctly placed as far as I remember, though).

Just a quickie solution for Catbat and anyone else having missplaced lots (God, I hope it's not a common problem). Apparently something very similar happened to HP's first merged hood (prior to AL) - a community lot in Desiderata (Gustav's Grocery) was missing (the actual structure was missing but the description was there) and there was a blue square involved. The solution was buldozing the lot and replacing it with a copy of original Gustav's Grocery.

In this particular case:
- Evict Jessica Peterson
- Buldoze the damned trailer park in Pleasantview
- The trailer park is already located in the lot bin (as are all AL apartment lots) so just put it where it's supposed to be (crappy part of Belladonna - those crappy lots and deco around it are tightly placed so I guess there's only one possible place where the trailer park can fit, I'll provide pics if needed).
- Move Jessica in (pink trailer at the back, facing the street). Use 'rent furnished' option, either with the cheat or Pescado's hack.

That should cover it. If you already deleted Maxis-made lots from the lot bin, move entire LotCatalog folder from My Documents\Ea Games\The Sims 2 to desktop. Load the game and those lots will regenerate. Once you've done with placing the trailer park, delete the newly generated LotCatalog folder and move your LotCatalog folder back in.

Or, just try reinstalling the hood? If you haven't played much, that is. I'm very curious if something perhaps went wrong with the installation. Does anyone else have problems with missplaced lots?

Oh and part2 is not reuploaded yet.

-----

ETA:

The first one did install fine, it seems to be just the second. Thanks!

Just to get this out of the way. You only extract part1.rar - stuff from all 3 parts will be automatically extracted then. And I suppose all 3 parts should be in same location while extracting (like, your desktop).

[BattyCoda]

The first one did install fine, it seems to be just the second. Thanks!

Just to get this out of the way. You only extract part1.rar - stuff from all 3 parts will be automatically extracted then. And I suppose all 3 parts should be in same location while extracting (like, your desktop).

Just poking my nose in to say I think this may be their problem. I didn't realize that I only had to extract part1 at first and tried to
extract all three. You end up with multiple copies of stuff. I always extract to some alternate location before I place things into
my game, and when I looked at what had been extracted, I knew I had done it wrong. I deleted those extracted files and extracted
part1 only. Everything extracted fine then and I just moved the neighborhood into my game.

ETA: Oh, and it works really well, btw. I have been enjoying playing this with clean templates installed. I made several of the simbin and
Maxis families into townies

[Mixreality]

Oh I sincerelly hope it's just that. It could also be that archiving utilities other than WinRar don't handle files split with WinRar very well. I downloaded part2 yesterday, used part1 and part3 from my hard drive to install the hood. It worked. Today I downloaded part1 and used part2 and part3f from my hard drive. It worked again.

[toad]

I also don't have their problems, but I use WinRAR.  There was no problem with Lot 24/124 being extracted, and Jessica Peterson's trailer is exactly where it should be, in BellaDonna Cove, and not behind the Goth House.

Unhelpful I know, but at least it works for some people...

[BlueSoup]

The hood worked perfectly for me - though I didn't keep all the sub-hoods, I never had a problem before I got rid of them.

[Mixreality]

Actually theangelofdarkness, it's really helpful, both your reply and BattyCoda's and BlueSoups! This is starting to look more and more like an archiving utility problem to me.

Question time:

BattyCoda:

You end up with multiple copies of stuff. I always extract to some alternate location before I place things into
my game, and when I looked at what had been extracted, I knew I had done it wrong.

What's your extracting utility of choice? I couldn't even replicate the same thing with WinRar. I tried installing all 3 parts at once (with WinRar, again) and everything was fine again - no errors, no missplaced lots.

Catbat:

Perhaps your problem too could be due to extraction utility. What were you using to extract the files?

- - - - -

I didn't test other extracting programs, as I'd like to avoid installing more software. If there are some that run straight from .exe file, feel free to suggest and I'll give it a try.

If the problem's really what I think it is, then reuploading part2 wouldn't do any good for non-WinRar users. I could use something else to split the file, and upload the new set of parts, but what should I use exactly? Or you guys could get WinRar, it's a good thing (especially compared to WinZip, and I must admit I never heard of Izarc).

[Catbat]

I used WinRAR to extract the files.

I redownloaded the Megahood this afternoon, extracted it without issue, and found the same Peterson lot broken.  So, I evicted Jessica (which was successful) and then attempted to bulldoze the lot.  The game hung and I exited the game.  I then removed all neighborhoods, except for the Megahood out of my neighborhoods folder, including the Maxis EP 'hoods.  I then loaded the Megahood and the trailer park and blue square were gone.  I then went to BDC and saw that the trailer park was there, but it was unoccupied.  So, I moved that lot to the Bin and attempted to place the occupied lot and found this:



This seems to be the only problem that I've found, so far.  Could this lot just be deleted and Jessica written off as a loss?

ETA:

Nevermind...I am blind.

[Tamha]

I suggest trying to load the neighborhood with all other neighborhoods removed to start with, so that there isn't any potential conflict with the real Belladonna Cove or other pre-made EAxis hoods.

I'll go load mine up, I used 7zip without errors, but I got on a different project and haven't loaded it up yet.

[Mixreality]

Yeah, that might be it. In the process of making this hood there were no maxis hoods in my game, so if there are some conflicts with the originals (btw, how could there be?, except with renamed Pleasantview) I'm not aware of any.

[Catbat]

Tamha, yeah I suck.  I was only thinking of other Megahoods, not the individual ones.  I own that stupidity.

Anyway, evicted Jessica, bulldozed and put the lot and Jessica back in and it seems to work just fine so far.

[Tamha]

I was just guessing that if the neighborhoods weren't there during the creation process, they may conflict. Besides, CU-MH is so big that I can't imagine wanting to even look at another 'hood while you're playing it!

But what is to tell the game to not use GUID x if the premade hood it's already used in isn't there when it's made?

Mine loaded up fine, nothing misplaced, even all the stories are intact!

ETA: even before I read about the problems with cloning I took to only loading one hood in my game at a time, so it's a habit I'm already in. Still have them all renamed to different numbers so I can store them all in the same folder when I'm not playing them.

[Mixreality]

Tamha, yeah I suck.  I was only thinking of other Megahoods, not the individual ones.  I own that stupidity.

Anyway, evicted Jessica, bulldozed and put the lot and Jessica back in and it seems to work just fine so far.

It's not a stupidity actually, and if it is, I own that same stupidity. Megahood shouldn't conflict with other original hoods as long as they are subhoods of a megahood. My sentences suck. Real Belladonna shouldn't conflict with Megahood Belladonna, because Megahood Belladonna is just a subhood. A fake one, but still a subhood. But Megahood itself (a Pleasantview with bunch of subhoods really) WILL conflict with original Pleasantview, even if either of the two Pleasantviews is renamed (which is why I renamed it back to N001 and not a higher number). That's my understanding of that neighborhood cloning thread linked in the OP, but I'm still a noob after all. You (Catbat) didn't do anything stupid, 'cause there's nothing in the OP about removing original hoods prior to installing.

Glad you got it sorted out (again, thank you Tamha! ) So, the conclusion is, this hood might not work well with any original hood. I shall update the OP with that piece of info.

[Catbat]

You are so sweet, Mixreality.  You have way too much patience.

Thank you for all you work in this Megahood and to everyone else who posted help and suggestions.

Can't wait to see how this plays tonight.

[Chaavik]

Okay, I downloaded and installed WinRAR to try extracting all 3 Parts. I messed around with the functions and realized it was the wizard tool that automatically installed all three into the same folder. So far, with WinRAR, no errors popped up during the extraction.

Izarc doesn't have a wizard tool that would do what WinRAR does with the wizard tool. I always install manually, so that may be what happened when I attempted to do with all 3 Parts.

I will post anything if the neighborhood looks fine later tonight.

[Mixreality]

Shit, I was uploading part2 (just in case) to a subfolder on my Mediafire and only when it finished (after like couple of hours) it reported that the file already exists on my account and removed the new part2. I didn't want to remove the old part2.rar because I'm convinced it's not corrupted, and that there's a greater possibility that it'll get corrupt on my questionable hard drive than online. If the file does need to be reuploaded, it will be tomorrow, again 

You are so sweet, Mixreality.  You have way too much patience.

Hee, thanks! I wouldn't call it patience though, but rather taking every opportunity to leave my studying aside. It's horribly boring.

Chaavik, wonderful! I hope everything goes well. Btw, I never actually used the Wizard, just opening the archive (part1.rar in this case) and clicking 'Extract to'. There's also a simple right-click > 'extract to' (or something) but I removed the context menus so I'm not sure of the exact wording of the function. Attempting to extract all 3 at once with WinRar still works. Even extracting all 3 one by one works too (it just prompts you to overwrite the files).

[Chaavik]

In my case, when I extracted Part 1, it was just Part 1. The other two Parts weren't automatically extracted. But the Wizard does solve that problem by extracting all 3 Parts and putting them into the same folder almost like what was described in your post with the files and information about installing them. There was some overwriting, but not a lot.

At least, it works for me now using WinRAR.

I'm backing up my Neighborhoods folder as we speak.

Once again, many thanks to you and others for doing this project.

[Catbat]

I played with Lothario and Caliente for a while and there were no issues.  I did notice after taking Lothario to a community lot in Belladonna Cove (the art museum)  there was a gravestone next to the pay phone.  The name the grave gave was Olivia Reilly.  I can't remember a family with this person, but I haven't played BDC much.