A little victory!

I just posted this on Tumblr as well, so apologies if you're seeing this again. 

Everything seems to have gone wrong for me with my TS2 hood rebuild but I did get a little victory today and am hoping it's the first of many. 

I was having an issue where when I tried to adopt, the pop-up box asking me if I wanted a baby, toddler or child would just disappear after I clicked on it. I've been able to work around that by filling the adoption pool with custom babies, toddlers and kids. Successful adoptions - yeah! I was worried adoption in general was broken but that seems to not be the case, so I'm happy. :)

My next task is decorating Troy and Josie's house (with no CC - ugh!) and then I can actually play! I am hoping to get an update out for you guys around about new year's, maybe? That's what I'm aiming for. Keep your fingers crossed that everything goes smoothly!

The state of Sullivan

I just thought it was about time I updated you all on this whole hood rebuilding process. The quick method of  transferring my houses ended up not really working for me. The houses showed up just fine but seeing one of the four I transferred crashed when I tried to enter it (with no sim), I got too nervous about maybe there being sim data of some type left in the house or something, so I abandoned that plan.

My next step was to move every single lot in my game into the bin, families and all. That's done. The step I'm in the middle of now (and the step I'm not sure I'm going to continue) is placing all these lots in a throwaway hood, placing Inge's Stay Things Shrub on each lot and then moving the sims out. After that, packaging up the houses and putting them in a fresh hood and then moving in fresh copies of my sims.

I got about six of my unoccupied houses packaged and then the seventh one crashed when I tried to enter it. Sigh. Yesterday, I managed to package up 13 more and get into the crashing one. Turns out it's not one I'd use anyway, so I bulldozed it.

Today, I loaded up, placed the next house in my catalog, opened it and got the dreaded pink flashing. This is in a hood with no other lots in it and no sims at all.

So I don't know. I'm feeling very discouraged about this process. Every time I think I have things figured out, something else happens and I'm back at square one. I don't know if I should continue to try to save the lots or just forget about them and start afresh.

I have the sims - they're safe. I don't want to give up on Sullivan. Not at all. I'm just not positive what my next step will be. Honestly, I'm leaning towards starting again from scratch. Removing all custom content and adding it back slowly, as I need it. But I don't even know if that will work. The pink flashing is sort of a hard issue to narrow down. I don't even know if there was honestly no issue with the uberhood and that's why I didn't get any pink flashing or if I was just lucky. It doesn't necessarily happen every time I load, so it's really difficult to get to a point where I can say "yep, it's fixed now".

Anyway, I wish I had better news to update you all with. When I left off with Sullivan, I was really excited about some things I had coming up for the blog and it's really frustrating that I'm not at a point where I can share any of it with you. :(

Anonymous commenting is off

Hey all,

I've had to turn anonymous commenting off. I just received four spam comments within two minutes and that's pretty much the last straw for me. I have been getting multiple notifications a day about spam comments, all anonymous, and it's just got to be too much. Blogger is very good at identifying them as spam, so they never get published but the constant email notifications are tiresome.

So. From now on, if you want to comment, you will no longer be able to do so anonymously. I'm sorry to the legitimate commenters this will affect but I hope you won't let it stop you from leaving a comment if you'd like to. It doesn't take long to sign up for a Blogger or Wordpress account (these are probably the two easiest ways of commenting) and there's no reason you actually have to use the blog for anything. I have a Wordpress blog I only ever use for commenting. :)

Once again though, I'm sorry for any inconvenience this might cause. Blame the spammers. ;)

Clean templates in...the rebuild begins!

Because I can be a bit of a moron, it took me a few days to get my clean templates installed properly. Pro tip: it really helps if you follow all the instructions!

I really didn't discover anything especially exciting during this process but just in the interest of keeping you all up to date, I'll share what I did find out along the way, through my own fiddling around and with the help of some of the people at N99 and on Twitter. I'm not going to go through the instructions here as they're quite simple. Any advice I give below assumes you've already read the instructions and have at least a vague idea of what you're doing.

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Crashing update

This is going to be sort of half update, half tutorial. :)

After playing with the uberhood for several days and not seeing any of the issues I had with Sullivan, I'm even more convinced that it's the hood, not my CC or my drivers, or anything else.

So I've decided to rebuild Sullivan. I'll be posting updates about where I'm up to here, in the hope that it might help others or maybe even help me. If I'm going down the wrong track, I'm hopeful someone will pull me up and say "hey, there's a better way of doing this".

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Crashing problems once again!

I've been suffering from some crashing problems again, which is the reason there hasn't been an update. I've also been getting some pink flashing objects/sims, which I suspect may be related to the crashing.

The pink flashing is very odd. I'll go into a house and a sim or object will be flashing pink, or even several sims/objects. I'll exit out to the hood screen and go back in and everything will appear normal again. Or I'll go into my options and adjust the anti-aliasing up or down. Sometimes that fixes it, sometimes it makes it worse and sometimes it crashes the game. It's a bit of a mystery.

The crashing is also a bit enigmatic. It can happen on any lot, residential or community. Sometimes it happens just as I enter the lot, sometimes it'll be after a good while. Sometimes it happens on the first lot I load, immediately and sometimes it takes a few hours. Sometimes I can successfully go back and forth from a community lot with no crashing and no pink flashing but just often, I can't. If I was crashing consistently on a certain lot or after a certain interaction, this would be a lot easier to solve!

So I'm trying to figure all this out now. Currently, I'm testing out my theory that it might be a hood corruption issue. Even though I started Sullivan in 2008, I still made some mistakes along the way which really aren't great for the health of a hood. So corruption is definitely a possibility. Everything is backed up but if I end up having to rebuild, that's still going to be a big job. Just the process of transferring everything over and cheating everyone up to where they were will be an enormous task and that's assuming it all goes smoothly.

I'm playing the Uberhood with all my CC in and seeing if I get any of the issues I get when I try to play Sullivan. It might take a while though, because I have to be sure that the game isn't crashing and that I'm not just going through a lucky patch. So far though, I haven't crashed or seen any pink flashing.

Honestly, this game is just ridiculously finicky though, isn't it? So many things can go wrong with it and you really don't get too much of a clue about what it might be without going through a hell of a lot of trial and error! It's very frustrating.

But anyway, please bear with me while I try to get this fixed! I hope to be back playing Sullivan and sharing it with you all as soon as I can. :)

Lot tour: Sullivan High School, Part 1

I was going to save this lot tour until I was completely finished with the high school but have
decided instead to post it in three (possibly four) parts. I took 25 pictures of the first storey alone, so if I do it all as one tour, I might end up with over 100 pics in the one post. So watch out for more of the school, hopefully soon!

I haven't really done landscaping yet but this should show you the basic shell of the school.

Layout of the first floor.

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Intervention

  

Round 34: October 2039 (Spring)

Nathan's last update/Rebecca's last update/next update

Rebecca Kirby is 30 and Nathan Collins is 29. 

(Trent is 69, Emil and Megan are 67, Anna is 61, Aaron and Calvin are 36, Dominic and Susannah are 29 and Julia is 28)

Narrated by Rebecca Kirby

When Nathan and I first started house hunting, we considered a bigger places than this one. Occasionally, I wish we had more space.

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2039 Elections: polls are open!

It's election time again in Sullivan. It's about a year late but better late than never, right?

The first candidate is current governor, Zaria Royce-Nihill. She is married to chef and restaurateur, Max Nihill and has one adult son, Josh and a daughter, Jessica, who attends Suffolk University.

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You say it's your birthday, October 2039

Zane and Chloe are just weeks away from meeting their first child! Baby Hamilton is due in January 2040.

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Quiet

Round 34: September 2039 (Spring)

last update/next update

Kit Royce is 79, Max Nihill is 52 and Zaria Royce-Nihill is 51.
(Kendal is 63, Tatiana is 56, Asha is 42, Josh and Elspeth are 25, Mitchell is 20, Jessica is 19, Declan is 18, Ruby is 12, Marcus is 10 and Felix is 8)

Narrated by Zaria Royce-Nihill

During my campaign, I promised to put in place a grant to offer financial assistance for college and with the help of Tatiana, the hood council’s Education rep, we achieved that.

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Zurich is stained

Round 34: September 2039 (Spring)

last update/next update

Adam Gottlieb is 84, Athena is 79, Amelia is 50, Wade is 49 and Michael is 8.
(Sophie is 26, Oliver is 23, Noah is 21 and Emma is 19)

Narrated by Amelia Gottlieb

This year, Wade took up a sudden interest in fitness. I don’t know if he’d exercised a day in his life before this year but he’s been working out every day lately.

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The past and pending

Round 34: August 2039 (Winter)

Sam's last update/Julia's last update/next update

Sam Whitney is 29 and Julia Gray is 28.
(Malcolm and Susannah are 29, Hope is 28 and Zac is 5)

Narrated by Sam Whitney

For a while now, Zac has been asking if he can stay for a longer time at our place and Susannah and I finally organised it.

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Lot tour: Charlie and Camilla's house

I've been working on Camilla and Charlie's house for a little while now and it's finally finished. I promised a lot tour on Tumblr, so here it is. :)

I didn't build it. The house is by Maratanah and you can download it here.

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Teenage riot, July 2039

Round 34: July 2039 (Winter)

Principal: Kendal Draper is 63.
Teachers: Julia Gray is 28 and Veronica Moretti is 22.
Students: Brendan Lachance and Caitlin Romilly are 16, Annabel and Georgina Nott are 15, Matthew and Simon Lane are 14, Sylvia Draper, Alice Jacobson and Aurora and Bianca Moretti are 13 and Ramona Nihill, Ruby Lane and Gabriel Nott are 12.

Narrated by Caitlin Romilly

I’m in Grade 11 this year and I’ve promised Dad that I will really knuckle down and work hard. I still don’t know what I want to do when I’m older but I know I’ll have more options available if I go to college.

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Mercy

Round 34: July 2039 (Winter)

last update/next update

Malcolm Novak is 29 and Hope Collins is 28.
(Emil is 67, Anna is 61 and Julia is 28)

Narrated by Hope Collins

Ever since Malcolm and I got settled in this house, we’ve been planning our wedding. Or at least, we’ve been trying to.

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Sim personalities and birth control

I haven't played out my next update yet, so instead you're getting another nerdy gameplay post from me.

Anyone who uses ACR in their games will be aware of the havoc it can wreak on your hood's population. Fortunately, ACR also includes a birth control option, which tempers that quite a bit!

For a long time in my game, I've allowed any sim with five or more neat points to use birth control. I snagged that idea from Laura, though I think her sims needed seven neat points. The thinking is that if a sim is neat, they would be organised enough to keep track of their birth control and remember to use it. However, ever since reading this post at Riverdale, I've been pondering how I could use the other personality traits to help me decide who would and wouldn't use birth control.

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You say it's your birthday, July 2039

Not long to go now for Nick and Sarah Moretti, who are expecting their fourth child! The nursery has been ready for months and all they’re missing now is a baby to live in it. Baby Moretti is due in October 2039.

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Come to love

Round 34: June 2039 (Winter)

last update/next update

Susannah Carmody is 29 and Zac Whitney is 5.
(Kimberly is 68, Rebecca is 30, Sam is 29, Julia is 28, Audrey is 27 and Camilla is 26)

Narrated by Susannah Carmody

My friend Camilla recently moved out of our building and I’ve really missed having her around.

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Time will save the day

Round 34: June 2039 (Winter)

last update/next update

Amar Hamilton is 38, Adrienne Novak is 32 and Beau is 1.
(Naomi is 64, Zane and Chloe are 28)

Narrated by Amar Hamilton

A few weeks ago, my brother Zane told me that he and his wife Chloe are expecting a baby in January. Beau was born in January, so I can confirm that January babies are pretty great.

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I'm a wheel

Round 34: May 2039 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Maia Novak is 37, Ethan is 33, Willow is 4 and River is 2.
(Jace is 82, Magdalena is 75, James is 64, Madelyn is 59, Evan is 50, Miles is 36 and Matilda is 33)

Narrated by Ethan Novak

After several years as a detective, I finally made it to Lieutenant this year. It’s involved a lot of hard work on my part but it’s all paying off now.

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The world is big

Round 34: May 2039 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Dominic Lachance is 29 and Leslie is 28.
(Jonas is 61, Tatiana is 56, Rebecca is 30, Nathan is 29, Chloe and Zane are 28 and Audrey and Jack are 27)

Narrated by Dominic Lachance

Lately, Leslie has been talking about getting her Master’s degree in education sometime in the future.

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Quick note about my older posts

Yesterday, I received a comment telling me a lot of my pictures in my older posts were not showing up. I was glad to get that comment, honestly, because I really didn't know!

It was a simple but tedious fix and I believe I went through my first 10 rounds and got them all. As far as I clicked through, there didn't seem to be any more missing pics after that. But if any of you happen to come across a post with a picture which is not showing up and the problem is not fixed by doing a hard refresh (normally CTRL + F5), could you please leave a comment and let me know? I get notifications on any comment left in any post, so I'll definitely see your comment and be able to fix the picture(s).

Thanks!

Crack code

Round 34: April 2039 (Autumn)

last update/Lila's next update/next update

Lila Sitko and Sophie Gottlieb are 26 and Elspeth Romilly is 25.
(Camilla is 26, Josh is 25, Oliver is 23, Emma is 19 and Grace and Everett are 9)

Narrated by Sophie Gottlieb

My sister Emma dropped by last week, just so we could catch up a little. She’s been having problems with her girlfriend and she wanted someone else to talk it over with.

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Lucky now

Round 34: April 2039 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Aaron and Calvin Clarke are 36, Amy is 4 and Natalie is 2.
(James is 64, Madelyn is 59, Abigail is 56, Maia is 37, Ethan is 33 and Willow is 4)

Narrated by Aaron Clarke

Calvin and I really love watching Amy play with Natalie. We were a tiny bit worried that we’d get tantrums once she wasn’t the centre of attention any more but Amy has been great with her little sister.

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You say it's your birthday, April 2039

Round 34: April 2039 (Autumn)

With the terrible morning sickness she was suffering, Sarah Moretti wasn't able to hide her pregnancy from her mother for too long. Sarah has just started her second trimester now and Kimberly is very excited about meeting her new grandchild!

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1st things 1st

Round 34: March 2039 (Autumn)

last update/Lauren's last update/next update

Jessica Royce-Nihill, Emma Gottlieb and Louisa Gentry are 19 and Lauren Carmody is 18.
(Eddie is 19 and Justin and Declan are 18)

Narrated by Jessica Royce-Nihill

Louisa was placed on academic probation last year after earning some pretty crappy grades and she’s been trying to get back on track ever since.

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Quiet storm king

Round 34: March 2039 (Autumn)

last update/next update

Mitchell Carmody is 20 and Tim Lane and Eddie Gentry are 19.
(Max is 52 and Lauren is 18)

Narrated by Mitchell Carmody

Tim is “out” to everyone now, including his parents, and I think he’s happier for it.

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Electricityscape

Round 34: March 2039 (Autumn)

Declan's last update/Justin and Xavier's last update/next update

Declan Romilly and Justin and Xavier Moretti are 18.
(Mitchell is 20, Jessica, Louisa and Eddie are 19 and Austin is 18)

Narrated by Xavier Moretti

Declan, Justin and I have been here in the dorms for a couple of months now and we’re all loving it.

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Rattled by the rush

Round 34: February 2039 (Summer)

last update/next update

James Novak is 64 and Madelyn is 59.
(Maia is 37, Aaron and Calvin are 36, Ethan is 33, Connor is 26, Willow and Amy are 4 and River and Natalie are 2)

Narrated by James Novak

Lately, I’ve cut back the time I spend at NKL to devote more of my energies to Novak Motors.

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Unknown legend

Round 34: February 2039 (Summer)

Audrey's last update/Jack's last update/next update

Audrey Lachance and Jack Benton are 27.
(Tate is 69, Malcolm is 29, Hope is 28, Charlie is 27 and Camilla is 26)

Narrated by Jack Benton

Receiving so much money with my trust fund a couple of years ago was overwhelming but I think I’ve spent it wisely. After buying the house and moving in, we still have a nice little nest egg of almost $25,000.

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Lot tour: Carmody-Moretti house

I haven't done a lot tour in a while and I did promise one, so here it is! You saw glimpses of Nick and Sarah's new house in the last update but this will give you a nice close look at just about every nook and cranny. ;)

The house, as I mentioned in the last update, was built by Tanja for the April project at N99. I asked for a six bedroom house for Sarah and Nick and Tanja's was one of the options I was offered.

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Don't think twice, it's alright

Round 34: January 2039 (Summer)

last update/next update

Kimberly Carmody is 68, Nick Moretti is 36, Sarah is 34, Thomas is 8, Ryan is 7 and Catherine is 5.
(Maia is 37, Troy is 36, Ethan is 33, Jude is 7 and Willow is 4)

Narrated by Nick Moretti

Once Sarah and I decided to move house, we were lucky enough that the process was fairly quick from there on out.

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Progress (and a possible solution!)

If you read the Notes in my last update, you'll know I was having some fairly frequent crashing problems with Sullivan. I have been pulling things out and testing the game since last Thursday morning. Not exactly how I wanted to spend my break from work!

It's been complicated by the fact that the crashes I was getting seemed a bit random, so instead of just loading a particular house or lot, seeing if it worked and then adding back more of my CC, I had to load several lots. My process was this (I crashed while doing all of these things at least once before I started testing):

1. Load Carmody-Moretti house.

2. Send Kimberly to Town Square and back again. Back out to the hood screen.

3. Load Nott House.

4. Send Lia to the library in her car and back again. Back out to the hood screen.

5. Load Moretti 2 house.

6. Send Aurora to my new teen hangout lot and then to Sullivan Mall and then back home again. Back out to the hood screen.

And that was each and every time I loaded the game. I've probably loaded the game somewhere around 40 times over the last few days. I'm pretty over it!

The folders that I crashed with were my Plate Replacements, Walls and Floors and my Sweet Down Low painting replacements. If I'm correct and I've solved the issue, the problem with the last two folders was that I had duplicates of some of the files in other folders (this is a fantastic, easy-to-use program if you want to check for dupes in your own game). I also redownloaded the Sweet Down low paintings just in case. With the plate replacement, I don't know. I guess it just corrupted on its own? How fun that files can do that for no apparent reason, right?!

Anyway, I'm too cautious to say I've fixed the problem but I did just manage to go through that whole checklist with all my downloads in (minus the plate), without any crashes or glitches. Tomorrow, I'm going to try to play for real. I have a couple of other things I'd like to try if this doesn't work, but they're all quite annoying. So keep your fingers crossed for me!

Refugee

Round 34: January 2039 (Summer)

last update/next update

Evan Moretti is 50, Ione is 43, Aurora and Bianca are 13 and Francesca is 5.
(Olivia and Lia are 42, Justin and Xavier are 18, Matthew is 14, Ramona is 12 and Catherine is 5)

Narrated by Ione Moretti

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You say it's your birthday, January 2039

Round 34: January 2039 (Summer)

Beau Hamilton is a whole year old this January!

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Round 33 Summary

Phew! Round 33 took forever. And I realised I forgot to play Zelda and Tate. They somehow didn't end up on my schedule, which is weird. Oh well...I definitely have them scheduled for next round!

Births: 4 (Peter Nott, River Novak, Phoebe Jacobson, Beau Hamilton)

Deaths: 1 (Liam Weaver)

Engagements: 2 (Malcolm Novak and Hope Collins, Nathan Collins and Rebecca Kirby)

Marriages: 1 (Charlie and Camilla Benton)

Break-ups: 3 (Noah Gottlieb and Jessica Royce-Nihill, Josh Royce-Nihill and Veronica Moretti, Brendan Lachance and Caitlin Romilly)

Graduations: Anthony Moretti, Veronica Moretti

New residents: 3 (Natalie Clarke, Julia Gray, Lucy Gray)

Total population: 139 (68 males, 71 females)

Babies: 1
Toddlers: 9
Children: 22
Teens: 14
Adults: 72
Elders: 21

Every day should be a holiday, 2038

Round 33: December 2038 (Summer)

last update/next update

David Sitko is 56 and Kirstin is 54.

(Charlie is 26, Camilla, Lila and Connor are 25, Sebastian is 22, Adelaide is 20 and Grace and Everett are 8)

Narrated by Kirstin Sitko

Sometime last year, David and I decided that two people living in a five bedroom house was more than a little ridiculous. So we sold it and we bought this house instead.

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There's no other way

Round 33: November 2038 (Spring)

last update/next update

Connor Novak is 25 and Josh Royce-Nihill is 24.
(Charlie is 26, Sophie and Lila are 25, Elspeth is 24 and Oliver is 22)

Narrated by Connor Novak

This year, Josh was finally promoted at the newspaper, meaning he has a slightly less lowly position than before.

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