Split character files?

[Roux]

I was browsing my characters folder to take headcount and noticed that I had a couple oddly-numbered files.  This is what I found:

N001_User00373.1.package (292 KB)
N001_User00373.package (1KB)

N001_User00390.1.package (280 KB)
N001_User00390.package (1 KB)

I opened the character files in SimPE and found that the packages with the extra .1 in the filename are server NPCs.  The packages without the extra .1 in the filename only contain one BHAV: NPC - Server - Job Main.  This BHAV also appears in the packages with the extra .1 in the filename, and I'm no expert, but those packages appear to be complete and contain all the other character data.

Is this a pending BFBVFS?  Or would I be safe to delete these character files as long as I check for dangling SWAFs, relations, DNA and memories?  Any help is appreciated.

[dizzy]

That's due to Pescado's lobonanny. It's normal.

[Roux]

Wow - you're quick!  Thanks, I was really worried there for a minute!

[SaraMK]

I have the same thing, and they don't seem to be doing any harm. I figured it was due to the waiter fix, because all the characters that are "split" are waiters in restaurants.

However, while on this topic, is there any danger in moving in or marrying a waiter who now has a split file due to this hack? Not that I ever marry or move in NPCs... just curious.

[Roux]

Ah, yes, I have the waiter fix as well, which would support your finding.  (Yes, I work at a company in which one of the "values" is to "Be Science-Based".  Stupid corporate America.)

[J. M. Pescado]

I have never encountered these "split" files before in my game, but nobody has reported any harmful side effects from having or not having them. Since they appear to be easily noticed, I wouldn't worry about them unless you notice anything odd about those characters. Treat them no differently than you would otherwise (not that moving in NPCs is generally a good idea anyway), and let me know if anything odd happens as a result.

[SaraMK]

I have never encountered these "split" files before in my game, but nobody has reported any harmful side effects from having or not having them. Since they appear to be easily noticed, I wouldn't worry about them unless you notice anything odd about those characters. Treat them no differently than you would otherwise (not that moving in NPCs is generally a good idea anyway), and let me know if anything odd happens as a result.

I have about five or six of them in one of my neighborhoods. I could make a copy and try moving them in/marrying them and see what blows up.

They have been acting perfectly normally. I wouldn't have noticed anything if I hadn't gone into my Characters folder to see how many sims I had in the neighborhood.

[Ancient Sim]

Oh, is that what they are?  I noticed that my nannies had these and I wondered why.  I deleted them in my other neighbourhood, which is probably why my nannies were such a pain.

Talking of lobonannies, how come they're not potty-training the toddlers?  They were doing that after OFB, before I lobotomised them, now they're not.  Had one poor kid today on the verge of peeing all over the stupid nanny - luckily his dad got home from work in time and I didn't have to boolProp his bladder (which can be very painful for toddlers).  I'm not really sure what the difference is with the lobonannies really.  Mine still act the same, they just don't clean up.

[J. M. Pescado]

If you lobotomize the nanny, it won't do much of anything baby-related, only at the direction of the baby controller. I will investigate if nannies are disabled from attempting to housebreak toddlers, perhaps because it's trying to save the credit for the actual parents, or because if it's because nannies can't.

[SaraMK]

Moved them in, married them, and had them die. Nothing blew up.

[Roux]

Works for me.    I'll just leave my character files as they are and keep an eye out for any signs of impending doom in my game.

*Clicks thanks button!

[Ancient Sim]

I am seriously wondering if my lobonanny function is back-to-front, maybe because of the extra file or something.  When it's on, the nannies behave stupidly like they used to do, but when I turn it off, they behave very well indeed.  So, now I have it off (well not literally ... not anymore, anyway.  Not that I wouldn't be interested, but he'd have to be rich.  No more marrying for love, had enough of that.  Rich, extremely intelligent, with infinite patience & a penchant for extremely peculiar females ... any takers?  Thought not.  Was worth a try.  Desperate measures and all that.  Sigh).

[Regina]

Okay--don't anyone go accusing me of Necromancy because what I wanted to post really belongs in this thread and not in a new one.

I'm running into this same problem in one of my neighborhoods.  It's with a former food server and I'm not totally convinced it's safe to play with him.  Ingame he appears normal, but in SimPE he doesn't.

Here's the story.  One of my sims met this guy at the local establishment.  They got along really well and I figured she could invite him to her house for dinner.  Once he got there I decided I didn't like the hair he had generated in so decided to change his appearance using the Mind Control Mirror.  I grabbed ahold of him and had him go to the bathroom mirror to get a new hairstyle.  Everything looked fine at first, then after his hair was changed I noticed that in his thumbnail, his entire face was missing, like he was invisible.  I zoomed in for a closer look at him and he had a completely different face!  It was a much handsomer face, I'll admit, but something was definitely wrong.

I went ahead and let him move into the household, at which time his face returned to normal.  Even stranger, though, is that not only does he have a character file with a .1 in it, but in SimPE his thumbnail shows up as a Mr. Potatohead.

I won't blame this problem on him being a food server.  I have food servers in almost all my neighborhoods and none has the problem he does.  In fact, my sims have married them and they've never shown any signs of trouble at all (other than the fact they enter everyone's houses without being greeted).

There's also another sim in this neighborhood with one of these odd files.  In SimPE her character file is showing without the .1 but in the character files there's an extra .1 file.  In this case, she's a teen clerk at the local store.

Also, this can't be a lobonanny problem because that mod has never been in my game.

[jrd]

Since OFB I am getting them for /some/ (not all) nannies and servers. Even without lobonanny.
In most cases the .package only has one or two of the NPC BHAVs, the .1.package has the rest of the Sim data.

[miros]

For your guy with the missing thumbnail, you can use the Lot Debugger->Regenerate Portrait to fix it.

[Regina]

I will try that Miros--thank you!  His thumbnail is showing in the game fine, just not in SimPE.  When I saw that I nearly panicked--reminded of what happened to my original game after installing Unleashed.  People were losing sims right and left because of corrupted files.  In those cases, the thumbnails in the game went bad with pictures of upside-down witches and such.

Jordi, I went through all my neighborhoods' character files today and every food server that spawned AFTER Pets has the weird file names.  Before Pets they don't.  I hadn't yet checked all of them--which is why I didn't want to blame the whole thing on them being food servers.

I just have no idea if the weird face thing was related to him being a server or not.

[SimDebster]

Okay everyone, I am re-opening this thread (in spite of the scary picture staring at me right now) and everyone saying that necromancy is bad, blah, blah, blah. 

I just started having this problem with the *.1.package files. This started with the second 2nd patch from Maxis for Seasons.  In my case, it is not NPCs, it is any new character that I create or is born in game.  It is also not caused by Pescado's lobonanny hack because I just tried it out in a squeaky clean game and it still happened.  It is a big problem for me because after playing and exiting the game, and then upon re-entering the game the sims disappear.  This first happened in my main 5 generation game.  The babies disappeared when I opened the game up to play, so I figured that it was a fluke and installed my last backup game and tried again.  Same thing happened, so I figured my neighborhood was corrupt which left me without much enthusiasm to continue playing the sims, so I gave up and started playing Caesar IV.  I just got the urge to play the sims again, so I figured that I would start from scratch.  All my created character's files have the .1.package files.  I exited the game, restarted it and sure enough, those sims were no longer there.

Has anyone else experienced this?  And if you have what did you do to fix the problem?  If nobody knows then I guess I will file a report to Maxis (which will probably be filed in the circular file).  Other than that, I can try to uninstall then reinstall Seasons and the H&M stuff, then only patch up to the first 2nd patch (or even no patches at all since I never experienced what they claimed they fixed).  The only problem with this is that when the next EP or SP comes out they will make me patch again.  It is looking like my Sims 2 days are numbered.  No sense in getting more EPs if I cannot play the game.  I am very frustrated.

[dizzy]

My guess is the objects.package file got corrupted. If you can find that in the "compressed.zip" on one of the Seasons EP discs, you can just replace the one in you have in:

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\Objects\

Or thereabouts.

[SimDebster]

Thanks Dizzy.  That would certainly be better than reinstalling.  I will try it tonight.  I sure hope that it works.

[SimDebster]

Well, that did not work. 

I first replaced objects.package for Seasons, then H&M Stuff, and then finally the base game.  None of these worked.  I just finished uninstalling and reinstalling Seasons and H&M Stuff.  This has not fixed it either.  Although, the Seasons install did an auto patch even though I had the internet shut down through my firewall.  I even uninstalled just H&M Stuff, thinking that it might be the culprit, but that was a no go as well.  I do not know what else to do other than uninstall everything and start over.  I really do not feel like doing this.  Is it possible that my hard drive is fighting for space?  It shows that I have 38.4 GB free.  Does anyone know how much XP Professional takes up?  I am grasping at straws here, because it seems that this problem right now is only affecting me.  There has to be something that has happened since June 18, which was the last date that I had created a Sim without this problem.

[J. M. Pescado]

What do the contents of each file look like? Which one is bigger?

[SimDebster]

The .1.package is the larger of the two.  I have attached screenshots of files opened in SimPE.

Edited:  Removed attachment since it is no longer relevant

[SimDebster]

I believe that I have discovered the problem after poking around the game directories.  On June 30, I had made a copy of the Objects.package file because I wanted to open it in SimPE and did not want SimPE to possibly corrupt it.  I must have been distracted because I left it in The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\Objects directory instead of deleting it.  I am not usually that sloppy, but...  Anyway, if someone has this problem in the future, check that you do not have two Objects.package files in the directory (regardless of what they are named because apparently the game reads all files found there).  Otherwise, if you are sure that you do not have more than one file, then replace the file with a fresh version from the CD/DVD in case it was corrupted.

I am glad that it is working now (and that my main game is not corrupt like I had at first thought).  And I just want to say thanks to Dizzy and  J. M. Pescado for replying and wanting to help me in this.