Most bizarre problem of the day?

[Talismana]

I know this isn't good, and I know I've heard of it happening before, but for the life of me, I can not recall what calamity this symptom is related to--My game has been crashing on and off. No, that's not so strange...BUT, a lot just loaded and what do I see??? 50 or so NPCs in neat, double rows all scattered about the lot. *blinks* Quite creepy.

Anyone?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Do you have the nonpcspam hack in your game?  since the problem was corrected in NL with the patch, if you have the hack in still, maybe it's causing a surfeit of NPCs?

[Talismana]

Zeph, I apologize, I should have mentioned but I was probably in shock lol...I have neither of the EPs nor do I have the nonpcspam hack. Another thing...recently, I thought I eliminated another problem I was having by narrowing down and removing a hack but perhaps I haven't cured it after all. What the game was doing before, and prior to the crashes, was in all of my lots whenever I entered a house in which Sims were asleep I'd find the entire family still sleeping, only in the air just to the side of their beds

[MissDoh]

That can happen after you either install an expansion pack or a patch.  Did you recently added the patch in your game?  It happened to me after I installed the patch in Sims 2

[ZephyrZodiac]

In my case my sims would all be outside, or else they'd be in the shower and forget to get dressed!

But the thousands of NPCs around on lots is something else!  I'd definitely use SimPE to check on whether they are actually duplicated, and if so I'd make a note of all the file numbers and delete them from the character folder at once, before they start infiltrating everywhere!  If they aren't showing up in SimPE, then I think if you move a lot in, and NPCs show up in drives, then you can just  delete them all, save and exit, then reload - since they don't belong on that lot they shouldn't reappear ( says she with fingers and toes crossed and touching wood!)

[radiophonic]

  I remember seeing the army of NPCs as well. The only way for me to fix it was to move the sims into a new lot and bulldoze the old one.

I thought maybe it was the daily gardener since my sim died on another lot (cow plants, gotta love 'em). I resurrected her and dropped her back into her house after a while. Maybe I'm wrong, but I never had the problem again after I removed the hack.

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[Inge]

This is actually quite a well-known bug.   It's not due to hacks as far as anyone could tell.  You can sort it temporarily using one of my teleporters to "clear off" non residents.   But the only permanent way to fix it is to move out of the lot and bulldoze it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I know I had to do that when Brandi got Nanniespam, but only after I saved and quite without realising that someone was on a mobile phone!  And it was a beautiful house, one of the best I ever made, and I just couldn't face trying to duplicate it!

[radiophonic]

This is actually quite a well-known bug.   It's not due to hacks as far as anyone could tell.  You can sort it temporarily using one of my teleporters to "clear off" non residents.   But the only permanent way to fix it is to move out of the lot and bulldoze it.

Yes, that's what I had to do. Unfortunately, when there are 50+ sims on the lot and your P4 is choking, there isn't much else you can do but destroy the lot.

[ZephyrZodiac]

At least with NL you can keep a copy of any lots you make and particularly like.

[MissDoh]

This is actually quite a well-known bug.   It's not due to hacks as far as anyone could tell.  You can sort it temporarily using one of my teleporters to "clear off" non residents.   But the only permanent way to fix it is to move out of the lot and bulldoze it.

Inge would you be kind enough to give me a link to where I can get your great stuff please.

[ZephyrZodiac]

This is actually quite a well-known bug.   It's not due to hacks as far as anyone could tell.  You can sort it temporarily using one of my teleporters to "clear off" non residents.   But the only permanent way to fix it is to move out of the lot and bulldoze it.

Inge would you be kind enough to give me a link to where I can get your great stuff please.

http://www.simlogical.com/

Just in case Inge doesn't see this straight away, here's the URL.

[Inge]

Ah yes, I couldn't have put it better myself lol 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Werll, I thought the matter required urgent attention!   (I mean, not knowing your URL is definitely a serious problem.)

[MissDoh]

Lol, hey I am new to this hack/mod things, be nice 

[Talismana]

Hmmm...the strangeness multiplies:-\  Before I returned to read this thread I headed out to whittle away at my hacks and custom careers to uncover what I thought might be the likely culprit, and in preparation for removing my the careers I systematically checked each of my lots to ensure that no Sim was left in the limbo of a removed custom career...this is what I found...

A) all the invading NPCs (all grocery delivery people btw) remained at the original house, despite the removal of all DLs, in light of what you've all told me, that's not so surprising, however...

B)...during my tour of the neighborhood I noticed that at one other lot Another delivery person lurked in the shadows ...and at a third lot Two Additional lurkers

...also...

C) as I entered another, unrelated lot the game crashed yet again but allowed me to load just afterward.

MissDoh, I did install the patch when all this strangeness began, the Sims hovering beside their beds silliness, but it was in response to the game acting up.

Zeph, I would dearly Love to do as you say but, although I have SimpE, I've never worked up the courage to actually make use of it. I'm only Just beginning to get a handle on this game as I was fairly computer illiterate when I purchased it. I'm sure the process is too complicated for me to ask you to outline it? Do you think I'd be safe simply teleporting the vermin off the lot? Or should I attempt a clean up even though I've not the first clue what I'm about?

Radio, you may have something there. This lot Does have the daily gardener and it did seem to begin to go wonky not long after DLing that hack....but come to think of it my NPC's aren't gardener's sooo, I dunno...heh, TY for the pic though, and the smile:)

TY Inge, I'll drop by for the teleporter and get to zapping:)

So, the general consensus seems to be that I must bulldoze the lot regardless. That's truly a shame, it's one of my nicest houses...ah well. One last question, and this goes out to 'Anyone' also--do you think all the recent crashes are related to this...or shoudl I be worried?

I do appreciate everyone taking the time out of their day to help me out. Thank you all:)

[Andygal]

sounds like you have a broken portal. Somebody made something to fix the problem and Crammyboy made a hack to stop it from happening again. You can get both at MTS2.  Crammyboy's fix isn't here because the problem was fixed by Maxis with NL but since you don't have NL you will have to go and find it.

[Talismana]

Thank you for the road map Andygal! Very much appreciated as has been everyone's aid. You all must be careful else you'll soon earn JM's home the rep of a warm, fuzzy place;)

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thank you for the road map Andygal! Very much appreciated as has been everyone's aid. You all must be careful else you'll soon earn JM's home the rep of a warm, fuzzy place;)

I thought it already was!  Apart from the lip-ripping, that is!

The portal fix may be the solution to your problems, but be very careful to read all the instructions first, as I believe you only have one shot at it.

Lol, hey I am new to this hack/mod things, be nice 

I thought I was, I was sincerly concerned about you!  If it hadn't been for MokeyHokey, who first opened my eyes to hacks and mods, I'd still be where you are now!

[MissDoh]

Of course you are nice Zephyr and a precious helper 

[skandelouslala]

sounds like you have a broken portal. Somebody made something to fix the problem and Crammyboy made a hack to stop it from happening again. You can get both at MTS2.  Crammyboy's fix isn't here because the problem was fixed by Maxis with NL but since you don't have NL you will have to go and find it.

Yup second that.  Crammyboys fix for it works great!

[Zeljka]

Yes, I had a similar problem (except they were invisible) I used Inge's shrub to delete them, 'boolprop testingcheatsenabled true' to find which portal was missing - and crammyboy's portal replacement to fix it.
I know it's wrong, but I just best guessed it, so the vehicles show up a bit on the lawn, but it fixed the problem without losing the lot so I really didn't care.


Dismissed them, waited for them to leave and saved.
Now all is well.

[ZephyrZodiac]

You could always cheat a bit on your lot by putting a pavement (sidewalk) on the lawn and putting some more tarmac down where the cars go!

[baratron]

Late though I am - you have a missing portal, and need Crammyboy's Portal Fix.

I know someone who was writing a Legacy over at the TSR Forum had this problem (she had 300 gardeners, iirc) and it helped her.

What happens is that there's a bug in the original game where replacing a book in the bookshelf, rather than just deleting the book object, actually deletes the portal where NPCs leave from. So they come into the lot and can't leave, so the game thinks they're not there, and makes another. Etc. Until your game is so over-run by gardeners or delivery people that it grinds to a halt.

[Rascal]

I very recently had something similar to this happen to me.  In my case it happened when the game crashed and at first I was so focussed on that being the problem that I didn't think of anything else.  I ended up with countless repairmen, most of whom were invisiable.  Thanks to Myth I managed to get the problem largely sorted - read this thread -http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?PHPSESSID=caa812d0efc0497690765dbfac607bb2;topic=1249.0 for all Myth's great advice.  I installed crammyboys portalfix and also tried to replace the missing portal but for some reason I don't seem to have one.  No error log is generated in the lot.  I still have to get rid of excess repairmen occasionally and I am currently experimenting with another hack from MTS2 that may let me re-generate my ghosts on a new lot.  If I can get that to work I think I will buldoze my original lot after all.  For what its worth the best solution may be to trash the lot and start again.  Oh - and put in crammyboys fix as hopefully it will stop it happening again.