Sim Spam: "Unknown" and professors

[aqualectrix]

I've been having these problems for a few weeks and left it in the hope that it would disappear as mysteriously as it appeared, but no such luck.  Here we go, then.

I'm running NLp2.

Problem #1: Every time I play the game and come back out again, 2-8 (usually "Unknown" Sim Descriptions appear in SimPE.  They have new instance numbers, so I don't *think* they're artifacts of previously deleted sims, but it's possible.
Normally they do not create relationship, memory, DNA, or Wants&Fears entries.

I have been doing neighborhood cleanup in SimPE for quite a while now, deleting townies and Sims I messed up with before I knew which actions would lead to firey balls visable from space.  (Fortunately I'd never lotbinned anything occupied...)  I'm using the method discussed in the SimPE forums and elsewhere (which means I have to periodically re-correct recessive DNA, but that's an entirely different problem).

Problem #2: I think this is unrelated, but it presents similarly.  Any time I play a Uni dorm (all my students are in dorms, so I never play other lots at Uni), two new professors are created.  It's not two professors per dorm, though; it's two professors per play session including any visit to Uni.  They are complete with DNA and Wants&Fears, have no relations, and have only the [invisible] Token - Sim - Initialized "memory".

I suspect this dates to long before my Unknown spam started, since I see pairs of professors unconnected to the Uni install all through the subsequent Sim Descriptions.

I have Twojeffs' "No Meeting Professors", which I suppose may be connected.  However, even short visits to a dorm to re-outfit a newly-arrived student (which don't include anyone going to class or finals) produce this spam, so I'm doubtful.

Has anyone else got any similar issues?  Has anyone got any clue as to what is causing this?  It's not a huge deal as the spam takes perhaps 5 minutes to clean up in SimPE every time I exit the game, but I'd very much like to know.

[C.S.]

No idea about problem #1, but I do have a 2nd 'Unknown' after I installed OFB. I've tried deleting the 1st one before a long time ago, and it's always comes back and has the instance 0x0000003. I don't know why it's there and what's it for. I have the norespawn hack installed and I've gotten rid of a lot of sims, but I've never had the problem you described.

As for problem #2, if you had deleted any professors, no matter if it's just one, the game will spawn a new set, 2 for each major including Undeclared IIRC, so there'll be a total of 24 professors. Maybe this is what your game is doing?

[jrd]

Ditto, since getting OFB I have a second unknown. And I did manually clean my 'hood of all memories, relations, and wants for unknowns.

[maxon]

I've wondered if the Unknown is the Unknown sim of all the first kisses, etc.  Anyway, one always gets generated when you start a new neighbourhood.

[Mike]

I've wondered if the Unknown is the Unknown sim of all the first kisses, etc.  Anyway, one always gets generated when you start a new neighbourhood.

I think that is the unknown sim that appears in first kiss memories.

[maxon]

Ditto, since getting OFB I have a second unknown. And I did manually clean my 'hood of all memories, relations, and wants for unknowns.

Goddammit you're right - my main hood, Little Carping, has an extra unknown in it.  And you can't see them in SimBrowser to see if they're unlinked or not.  Gah, my fingers are just itching to delete him.

I'm going to have to do the numbers experiment again to see if you always get two or whether this is just a naaasty extra glitch with OFB.

[aqualectrix]

Thanks for the ideas, guys.

CuriousSpurious, your idea about the game regenerating professors seemed like a good one, as it's certainly possible I'd deleted one at some point.  However, I've just gone and counted the professors in the original-Uni-spawn ID range, and there are 24, 2 per major including undeclared.

All the professors that I'm spammed with have "Unknown" majors, which may be an extra clue... to something.  Who knows what.


I've only got 459 SimDescription entries at the moment, have probably created ~700 Sims in this neighborhood including ones later deleted, but the constant Unknown Sim spam means my instance numbers are up to 0x417 (decimal 1047!)  It's crazy stuff.

[C.S.]

All the professors that I'm spammed with have "Unknown" majors, which may be an extra clue...

I wasn't too clear before , but that's what could happen if you delete a professor. A new set is spawned, so if you didn't delete all of them, the actual total will be over 24, and not all of them will have a major appointed, or will have more than 2 to one major. At least that's what I remembered seeing. But then you said you counted the "original-Uni-spawn ID range" and they are all there, I don't know what's up with that either.