Safely bringing in a preplayed family...

[Avalikia]

My cousin (who is a definate sheep-type person) wants me to put this family she has on her game into my game so that when she visits me this Thanksgiving she can play with them.  I said that I'd think about it, but I'd kind of like to comply with her request since she asked so nicely.  However, I know that putting preplayed families into my game is a VBT that leads to a BFBVFS.  My first thought was to temporarilly create a new neighborhood so that any damage could be safely contained and deleted later, but she showed me the family and the kids are adorable so I may want to use them for breeding experiments.  I was wondering what I might do to take out any nasty bits from a standard teleported family so that it would be safe to incorporate into one of my regular neighborhoods.  I know my way around editing characters in SimPe pretty well and wouldn't mind putting a little work into this, but I don't know what I'd need to do.

[dizzy]

... so I may want to use them for breeding experiments.

Can't you just extract their sim DNA and use that in your own sims?

[miros]

I'd let her play in a new hood, then when the new SimPE comes out, extract the kids and make new Sims for your 'hood...

Here's instructions on using "SimSurgery" to get a sim from your cousin's hood into BodyShop so they can go safely into your 'hoods... http://www.hullabaloo.simshost.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7331

[V]

What is wrong with simply packaging the lot and then installing it later? I have never had any trouble with that as long as my packaged lot was the same version as the game I am playing now. They remember everything that happened to them up, but they get a "Moved In" memory when I put them into a new neighborhood.

[Oddysey]

The problem with moving families between games is that they bring a garbage character file for every sim any family member has ever met with them and dump it in your character file. This is a problem because you can only have so many character files in your neighborhood before it goes "Boom!"

[miros]

Actually, where you get in trouble is
1) package them, install them elsewhere, play them, package them, and try to reinstall them on the original hood.
2) package two or more lots from the original hood, install them both in the same hood.

[J. M. Pescado]

Why don't you tell her to just RAR her neighborhood folder and bring the entire mess along?

[V]

Actually, where you get in trouble is
1) package them, install them elsewhere, play them, package them, and try to reinstall them on the original hood.
2) package two or more lots from the original hood, install them both in the same hood.

Oh, well that seems obvious. Why would anybody do that?

Why don't you tell her to just RAR her neighborhood folder and bring the entire mess along?

Then she could RAR it again and put it back on her own computer when she got home.

[Gwill]

Do NOT put a lot used by a sheep in a neigbourhood you're attached to!

[miros]

Actually, where you get in trouble is
1) package them, install them elsewhere, play them, package them, and try to reinstall them on the original hood.
2) package two or more lots from the original hood, install them both in the same hood.

Oh, well that seems obvious. Why would anybody do that?

Because they don't know any better and have never heard of Fiery Blasts Visible From Space.

[Soylent Sim]

To safely move an external house in, you need to sever all their outside connections in simpe.  I think the only places to find these artifacts are in the family connections and sim memories, but for any properly established family that can take quite a while combing through sim memories for everything, including gossips and markers, that points to someone outside the family.  And of course, all this is best done in a throwaway 'hood to avoid polluting your real 'hood with all the extra character files.  (Once the lot is clean, it can be binned and moved to a real 'hood at your leisure.)

Of course, the most important thing when loading someone else's lots is clean pack installer, and do be aware that certain mods your cousin is fond of might render her sims unplayable in a game that doesn't have such mods attached.  (I've had friends send me lots with anti-awesome mods attached; not just unawesome, but actively bloated and intrusive.  When I stripped these things out, all I was really left with was an empty house.  If your cousin is fond of such things, I'm afraid you'll have to use the "my computer choked on them" excuse unless you can extract the DNA on your own.)

[Avalikia]

I could do the cloning method, but what I like about my more established neighborhoods is that the Sims have a past history.  It actually seems better to me to put them in a throwaway neighborhood and edit out the memories, gossip, etc. concerning sims not in the family, and that's just the sort of anal thing I'd do.  If I do this, can I be assured that the resulting cleaned-up family would be safe?  Or would I have to do the same with files besides the Sim Memories?

CPI is a given, of course.

[syberspunk]

I am under the impression that, if you do a thorough clean up job, and remove all ties, refrerences, memories, relationships, etc. to other sims, and the only ones left are to the sims in the same household you are going to package, this is theoretically safe to install. It should be the same as creating a family in CAS, moving that family onto a new lot, and packaging that family before they have any contact with any other outside sim.

So, if you clean that household all up, after putting it into a separate, throwaway 'hood, theoretically you should be able to package it, and install it into your own game.

To test this, I would install the original lot into a new custom throwaway hood, clean it up, package it, and install into a 2nd new custom throwaway hood. Then you can check whether the memories and relationships stay in tact as well as determine whether it accidentally adds any duped files or dangling references to external characters.

Ste

[Marhis]

Hmmm... I've played the same neighborhood for about two years, before it goes BFBVFS; I tried to save the most of my sims and stories, but after many attempts, the only reasonably safe way I found out was cloning them and reconstruct manually every single bit of their personality, ties and story from scratch. It took me less time than editing and cleaning the original sims themselves.

For example, I packaged one of these sims in an empty lot: it took 1 hour and 40 minutes (not joking), and the resulting package spreaded about 24000 files, once installed. Ok, it was a sim about 2 (real) years old, but it was only ONE, single, CAS sim, with no parents and no offspring ever, dammit!

[J. M. Pescado]

Woo. Drop 24000 people into your neighborhood and it will instantly go SKOOOOOOOOOOOM!

[Sleepycat]

Actually, where you get in trouble is
1) package them, install them elsewhere, play them, package them, and try to reinstall them on the original hood.
2) package two or more lots from the original hood, install them both in the same hood.

actually your #1 ruins two hoods - the hood you moved them to and the hood you moved them back to, BOTH moves are BAD! (unless they are correctly cleaned up)

[Jack Rudd]

For example, I packaged one of these sims in an empty lot: it took 1 hour and 40 minutes (not joking), and the resulting package spreaded about 24000 files, once installed. Ok, it was a sim about 2 (real) years old, but it was only ONE, single, CAS sim, with no parents and no offspring ever, dammit!

Woo. Drop 24000 people into your neighborhood and it will instantly go SKOOOOOOOOOOOM!

I think we've just found the ultimate strategy for the Scorched Earth Challenge. 

[cwykes]

I am under the impression that, if you do a thorough clean up job, and remove all ties, refrerences, memories, relationships, etc. to other sims, and the only ones left are to the sims in the same household you are going to package, this is theoretically safe to install. It should be the same as creating a family in CAS, moving that family onto a new lot, and packaging that family before they have any contact with any other outside sim.
........
Ste

That's what I thought too.  I delete all the character files other than the family in clean installer and Save As another file name before I install them.  That way the extra character files never get into the new hood at all.  I'd probably make an exception if any of the extra sims were ancestors and safely dead. Then the SimPE clean up is restricted to relationships and memories where you are looking for linkts to "unknown" sims.   I have linked the odd memory to "Mystery sim" where I didn't want it totally wiped out.  I'd give it a check over afterwards of the Sim Description file and look at family ties just in case.

Mind you I've only put sims into test hoods using this method so far!  I'm thinking about making another shopping hood using cleaned up sims from elsewhere in my game, so I'd like to know if this is NOT safe!

[travellersside]

If your friend brings a family over with her in order to play, you'll need to clean it in order to safely install it. Since she cares about the family so much, she'll probably play it on your computer, then want to take the new, more recent family back with her. To do that, it'll need to be cleaned again. Installing this family into her neighbourhood will then be unpleasant, since the family will have no connections to anybody. I'm not sure, but I suspect that there'll be problems since due to one-sided relationships that her other sims have linking to her wandering family.
On the whole, it sounds a very bad idea. The 'best' thing to do, from her point of view, is to bring the entire neighbourhood with her, although, since she'll have different CC, there'll be more problems. So she'd need to pretty much bring her entire install over and simply replace yours for the duration. Still not good.
Is she willing to play with her family, then delete it? I'd be surprised.
Just let her play with a new family that you set up for her. Give them some nice goodies and tell her that she's forgotten what it's like to play with other sims.

[Nepheris]

Just zip the 'hood and copy it to the neighbourhoods folder, then go vice versa when she gets back home again? Seems to me much less time than having to clean out stuffs with SimPE.

Or maybe I'm just st00pid and overlooking something here.

[V]

If she takes the one neighborhood folder that includes the dearly loved family, changes all of her neighborhood numbers from say N005 to, say N025 then she should be able to pop it in your Sims neighborhood folder and then take it back out again with impunity... as long as you both have the same exact version of the game. She could also copy her downloads folder and use that on your computer as long as you move your download folder to a safe place (out of reach of the game) before she sits down.

I would double check with someone way more awesome than I am, but it seems that the neighborhood renaming and plopping and unplopping should have no affect on either of your games. (The more awesome person you check with will probably have the more technical terms for the plopping & unplopping of neighborhoods)

[miros]

Instead of doing all the file plopping, you can just make another XP user ID for her and put her 'hood and downloads in there.

[cwykes]

... I delete all the character files other than the family in clean installer and Save As another file name before I install them.  That way the extra character files never get into the new hood at all.  I'd probably make an exception if any of the extra sims were ancestors and safely dead. Then the SimPE clean up is restricted to relationships and memories where you are looking for linkts to "unknown" sims.   I have linked the odd memory to "Mystery sim" where I didn't want it totally wiped out.  I'd give it a check over afterwards of the Sim Description file and look at family ties just in case.

This clean up of one packaged lot doesn't actually take very long at all - well maybe the first time, but not the 20th!  maybe 15 mins and half of that is the game loading time!  I find now that what takes the time is the other problems I notice while I'm in SimPE.  that's what I'd do especially if the family is really cute!

[Dea]

Instead of doing all the file plopping, you can just make another XP user ID for her and put her 'hood and downloads in there.

Or name the EAGames folder something like EAGamesMine to spawn a new one that she can play with.

[V]

Instead of doing all the file plopping, you can just make another XP user ID for her and put her 'hood and downloads in there.

Just the "more awesomeness" that I was talking about!