So what is an overpopulated neighborhood anyway?

[geekily]

If you have a downtown, Uni, shopping district and then the regular townies and NPC's, you could very well have that many.  In my recent Strangetown/Pleasantview neighbourhood, I've only added one playable Sim on top of the Sims I already had (and only 5 townies/NPC's from the original neighbourhoods made it in before I did a DAC) and I have something like 500 files.  For those two towns alone there is 38 graves before any of my own Sims will die.

Yeah, I have all the EPs, so I guess that explains all the extra files. I just don't want my game to explode from having too many!

[BlueSoup]

Nah.  The amount of files you can have has been raised with OFB so if you only have 500 you're good for a while.

[Ambular]

Nah.  The amount of files you can have has been raised with OFB so if you only have 500 you're good for a while.

If you wish added security, it probably wouldn't hurt to download Pescado's Director's Cut, which should include any Critical Fixes that the Great One currently deems necessary to prevent a BFBVFOS (although one should of course always RTFM, and avoid installing anything in there that has effects you consider undesirable.)

Edit:  Whoops!  I forgot, TwoJeffs also has some critical fixes in his section.

[BlueSoup]

Ahem.

crammyboy does too. 

[Ambular]

Ahem.

crammyboy does too. 

Does he really?  *Toodles off to see*

[geekily]

If you wish added security, it probably wouldn't hurt to download Pescado's Director's Cut, which should include any Critical Fixes that the Great One currently deems necessary to prevent a BFBVFOS (although one should of course always RTFM, and avoid installing anything in there that has effects you consider undesirable.)

Edit:  Whoops!  I forgot, TwoJeffs also has some critical fixes in his section.

Thanks so much! The documentation link at the director's cut doesn't seem to be working, though, so I searched through the rest of the site to find descriptions for each individual hack. I couldn't find them all, though, so I'm not sure what they all do.

Edit: Thank you, too, BlueSoup!

[jsalemi]

Read through the Directors Cut and hack directory threads in The Archives -- the vast majority of the 'undocumented' hacks in the director's cut are identified in there somewhere.  If not, just ask there and someone will give you a description.

[lauraglenn]

Umm...  need a little help here please.  I've been playing Pleasantview since University and have only had 2 sims die.  After reading this thread, I checked my folder and I have 580 character files.  Yikes!  I need to change my playing style, and employ population control as JM states.  I'd like to restart the neighborhood without deleting all of my other hoods that are at 300 or so files.  How do I have the game regenerate Pleasantview?  Do I just delete the contents of the N001 folder?  Thanks...

[BlueSoup]

Just copy the folder found at Program Files/EA GAMES/The Sims 2/TSData/Res/UserData/Neighborhoods and then N001 and paste it over the N001 folder in the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Neighborhoods/N001 folder.

But at 580 you're not doing really that bad.  I wouldn't worry about it, and you probably have a lot invested into it.

[RainbowTigress]

I found this information a long time ago on the official BBS. *gasp!*  Yes, I found some useful information there, and I tried it myself.  It works very well.  I saved it in text file, which I pasted below:

Author:      AquariaJade - Rank: Overmodest Orator - View MySimPage      Profile
Date:     Oct-03-04 02:42 PM PST
Subject:     
Re: Resetting Pleasantview?

This is from NP99 forums:

By the way, if you want to play a neighborhood, but you don't want to mess up one of the original three, you CAN make a copy of a neighborhood.

To make a copy of Pleasantview, for example, copy everything in "My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N001" to "My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N004". (first unused neighborhood)

The files in a neighborhood directory have the neighborhood number in the filename so a rename the files will be necessary.

Open a command prompt window and change directory to "My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N004". The main N004 directory and all subdirectories (Characters, Thumbnails, and Lots) run the following DOS command from the command line to change the filenames.

ren N001* N004*

(Don't forget the asterisks or it won't work. Also, I am using XP/2000 so if you have Windows ME,98,95,3.1,3.0 or earlier, your mileage may vary because I can't remember whether the rename command works this way in those versions)

Start up the game. You will be able to click on the arrow to go to a second page of neighborhoods and your new neighborhood will be there and it will be called Pleasantview. Click on the name of the Neighborhood and enter a new name. Press ENTER to save the name. I had to go back to the original Pleasantview because the game does not allow duplicate names and rename it from Pleasantview0 to Pleasantview.

All your Sims will be intact, including relationships and family, they will not have their ages damaged or mucked with, and the new neighborhood will be indistinguishable from the original (until you play it). The sims are distinct and different, like with neighborhoods in Sims 1.

You can make as many copies of a neighborhood as you desire and never spoil the original one.

The "master copy" of the neighborhoods are stored in this directory:

Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

N001 = Pleasantview
N002 = Strangetown
N003 = Veronaville

If you delete the corresponding directory from your My Documents directory and copy the one from the Program Files directory, you should restore the original neighborhood.

[lauraglenn]

But at 580 you're not doing really that bad.  I wouldn't worry about it, and you probably have a lot invested into it.

Thanks for getting back to me so quickly, BlueSoup.  I do have quite a bit invested but I think it would be good to start fresh.  In that 580, I must have at least 3 pregnant sims and several families I haven't played in months.

I found the folder you pointed me to with just 170 little character files.  Would it work for me to just replace the character folder and keep all of my houses?

[BlueSoup]

Umm...I don't think so.  Not totally sure though.

If you want to save your lots, you can go into each lot and place a Stay things shrub (found at www.nectere.net/smf and in the Simlogical Sims 2 section), then do a DeleteAllCharacters.  Everything will stay (including furnishings) and you'll have the same neighbourhood with no Sims.

If you do want the Pleasantview original Sims, you can do the above, and instead package the lots for reinstallation after you reset the neighbourhood using the method listed above.

[jrd]

Be sure you do not have owned businesses before doing a DAC though…

[RainbowTigress]

Simply replacing the characters files wouldn't work and would probably fubar the neighborhood because all the character references are kept in the Neighborhood file.  This file is like a database with information about all the sims in the neighborhood, including family ties, DNA, wants and fears, and memories.  You would be better off starting fresh or using one of the methods described above by Blue or myself.

[lauraglenn]

Sorry.  I realize that I wasn't clear.  In anticipation of loading OBF and FFS, we moved all of our sims out into the Sim Bin.  Reloaded all of the houses to be sure that they were empty.  Saved the empty homes.  And dumped lots of unnecessary downloads.  Now ALL of my current Sims (over 23 active families) are in the sim bin, unattached to houses.

I think I will need to replace the entire folder.  I will go into the game and move the houses I want into the house bin and replace the entire N001 folder.  Thanks for all of the help, BlueSoup.

And thanks rainbow.  I will replace the entire folder.

Lauraglenn

[trancejeremy]

if you have families in the sim bin, make sure they don't have any memories of any other sims. Otherwise you can make your problem worse, because they bring along a copy of the sim they have a memory about (albeit a hidden sim).

[Lythdan]

No, the sim bin is fine. The lot bin is the one with the problems.

[Marvin Kosh]

I guess it's going to become a cliché to say 'Why do it this way when they could have done it differently?' but why did Maxis even bother making occupied lots packagable if they knew that these sorts of problems would result?  Why not build in functionality to safely move Sims from one hood to another from the get-go?

I'm guessing that the answer starts with an E and ends with an A, which explains a lot.  Still, if the time and the money were available, what's the list of pitfalls in having neighbourhoods which are not effectively on different planets?

[RainbowTigress]

I'm guessing that it goes back to the fact that they didn't extensively play-test the game, so they didn't know these types of side-effects would occur or even cause problems.  They didn't know that players would have a problem with having too many memories when the "chat bug" was discovered.  They first blamed it on the player, saying it was caused by "extensive use of the aging-off cheat or elixir of life."  HELLO?  I thought those were put in the game to be used!  There was no limit to how many times you can use elixir or how long you can play with aging-off.  They didn't have a warning anywhere saying that using these too much could cause problems in your game!  Sure, aging off is a cheat, but Maxis encourages the use of cheats as "features."  Besides, the elixir of life is not a cheat, but it accomplishes the same result.  I think the chat-bug fix was the first one of JM's fixes I ever used.  And their "work around" solution to the problem?  To package your sims into the lot bin and move them to a new neighborhood, then move them back!  Can you say, "compounding the problem?" 

[Kristalrose]

I started a neighborhood from scratch after having my two previous neighborhoods become BOFVFS.  I used the delete all characters cheat and installed all of JMP's no regen hacks.  At the time I only had UNI, this was before NL was released.  I created 30 sims in CAS and only 1/ of these became playable sims.  The rest became townies.  I followed a strict population growth limit.  When NL and later OFB were added, they became the only outsiders in my hood.  Some of them married my CAS sims and have produced some beautiful children, giving the gene pool a greater variety.

Fast forward to today.  It has been almost a year now.  I only have 341 files in this neighborhood.  I have recently celebrated the birth of my 4th generation.  In fact, to keep the population down, I pared it back by killing off many sims with disease.  Yes, my sims suffered the plague.  Most great civilizations do.     I don't delete any of my playable sims's tombstones after they die, though I might start the practice as the neighborhood continues to age.

Anyway, I couldn't be happier with my neighborhood and it's population.    Thanks JMP.

[Marvin Kosh]

I get that it's memories that are the problem.  As far as I remember from discussion here, they're flat-filed which means when you want to go check if Sim X has memory Y, it's easy to clock up a lot of iterations doing so.  Or something like that.

Anyway if there was a means of moving a Sim from one neighbourhood to another without ill-effects, you and I could avoid the negative consequences of this shoebox filing system.  Or, EA could hire someone who actually has a clue how to code a database, rip out the existing system, and start over.

Either way you look at it, it's a feature I want to see more than pets