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. :(
Wednesday, 28 November 2012
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I hate that your game is playing with you like this!
ReplyDeleteAnd I hate it that that flashing pink is such a random thing! It makes it so hard to try to fix it.
After running hoodchecker and allowing it to remove things, it seemed like the problem was solved for me. But after that I had the problem 1 more time, and I didn't do anything but change households to make it disappear.
I haven't played a lot since, but so far no problems.
I'm really not good with computers and fixing those kind of things, so I'm not much of a help here.
I really do miss Sullivan and your updates, but I think you miss it just as much of not more.
I really hope some one can tell you what to do that fixes your problem, or that you game starts working like it's supposed to!
The pink flashing is very confusing indeed. I'm at the end of my rope with it!
DeleteI appreciate the support, Tanja, even without technical advice. It actually does help, so thank you. :)
Oh dear! That must be so frustrating. To avoid such things happening is precisely why I decided years ago not to use any custom content anymore.
ReplyDeleteGood job all your Sims are safe - after all, they are what makes Sullivan great!
Thanks. :) CC can cause problems but for me, it's a choice between tracking down the problems and dealing with them or not playing at all! The idea of a game without CC does not appeal to me in the slightest.
DeleteBummer. Good thing you have the important stuff, which are your simmies. Let me know if you want me to build you some non CC lots if the replacement and transferring of lots gets too hectic, I liked your idea from N99 about bringing over just enough for your next update and working like that. That way you can play a little during the rebuild process. I'm not familiar with the pink flashing issue, this is the first time I heard of it, but I'm always a fan of starting from scratch, you can make things even better and fix the nagging issues that annoyed you before. Maybe exporting the houses, then using clean installer to reimport them can identify if you have any lingering hacks clinging to the homes.
ReplyDeleteThanks for that offer, Starr - really sweet of you! Exporting the lots and then cleaning them with Clean Installer is actually what I was trying to do. The packaging up was actually going fine - it was when I tried to enter the houses that I ran into problems! I'm going to think about it over the weekend and see what I want to do.
DeleteI'm sorry to hear the hood is still giving you problems, but I am glad to hear that your Simmies are safe. My heart really goes out to you. I know how much you enjoy playing Sullivan, not to mention all the time you have put into it. I hope you are able to get to a playable state soon. Take care!
ReplyDeleteThanks. :) I really do miss my sims. It feels like there's so much to do to get a playable hood going again and it's sometimes hard to get the motivation to work on it. I'll keep plugging away though! It's the only way I'm going to get to play again.
DeleteBoo, Carla! I am so sorry this is happening to you AGAIN! :( I wish there was some awesome, magical fix. It sucks to lose a hood, to lose your sims, and all your hard work. I'm glad you're not giving up, but I wish I had some helpful advice to offer... :(
ReplyDeleteI only had the pink flashing thing happen to me once and it was so long ago, I can't even remember what had caused it. I think it was a faulty mesh.
Thanks, Mao. An awesome, magical fix sounds really great right about now! I have the sims saved in Body Shop form but that's not much use at the moment with the pink flashing still going on!
DeleteI'm actually grateful for any scrap of information about the pink flashing! At first glance, it looks like a graphics card/drivers issue but I did read of someone at MTS that had it happen when she had an outdated hack in her game. So bad CC is a possibility. I'm leaning towards the theory that the pink flashing and the crashing were not necessarily related.
Carla, I've been thinking this for a while but have been hesitant to suggest it because I know how attached you are to your sims. Why don't you make a copy of your neighborhood and have someone test it out for you?
ReplyDeleteFirst the person would have different CC, so that would eliminate CC being the problem. Second, since the other person would probably be using a different computer, it would probably give you a hint if the cause is your computer. Third, it'll rush the process of rebuilding. It's just a suggestion but think about it.
Thanks for the suggestion. I have plenty of people who I would actually trust to send the hood along to, so the attachment I have to Sullivan wouldn't be an issue in this case. What would be an issue is the mere size of it. Sullivan is 1.32GB and I just have no way to transfer a file that large to someone. :\ Good idea but it's probably not going to be workable for me!
DeleteI did, however, send one of my crashing houses to Pru at N99. It didn't crash for her (though there were times it didn't crash for me also, just like all my lots). So I started to think then that CC is definitely a possibility. Perhaps a combination of CC...some kind of conflict or something.
This weekend, I'm planning on making an empty hood, adding a couple of my families (ones I need for the next update) and very minimal CC. I'll try to play through a session for an update and see how I go. Fingers crossed.
Wow, 1.32GB is huge. What about the four folders inside the neighborhood folder? It would work if you zipped them individually, rather than the whole neighborhood folder. I'm really picking at it, aren't I? Sorry, I'm just getting impatient.
DeleteJust go at your own pace, and we'll wait. In the mean time, I'll refresh my memory since I can't recall most of the events in Sullivan.
Don't be sorry! I'm glad people are interested enough in my little old hood to be so invested in me getting it working again. :)
DeleteTo answer your question though, the folders inside the hood folders are all pretty huge too. Lots was the biggest and is almost 800MB! So zipping them up individually is unfortunately not a great option either. Thanks for trying to help though!
That's an interesting option, I never thought about that. Perhaps uploading them to dropbox or mediafire or something like that instead of emailing it?
DeletePossibly Dropbox would work (Mediafire has a 200MB limit on individual files). It's not an option I'm considering at the moment but it's something to keep in mind.
DeleteCrossing my fingers for you! I hope that going slowly, and playing with minimal CC, you will be able to find the culprit, and start updating again! I want to meet Leslie's twins! And see what is happening next in your sims' life! It's been such a withdrawal for me, that I can only imagine how hard it must be for you!
ReplyDeleteThanks Maisie. :) Yep, I want to do all that too and share it with you all - it's just taking me much longer than expected, lol! I'm hoping this does the trick but I guess we'll see.
DeleteWell, here's another one who waits for Sullivan's comeback! I always check during my lunch break if there's an update, and I really miss them.
ReplyDeleteA few days ago, a real-life-Declan passed me on the street, he really looked so similar to your Declan. I guess that was a good sign. :-)
I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and all Sullivan Sims!
Regards from Austria
Astrid
Thanks, Astrid. You know, I've never seen a real-life person who looked like one of my sims but people have told me they have, like you with your Declan! That's fun!
DeleteAnyway, I'm currently trying to figure out another problem which has cropped up. I don't think it's quite as big an issue as the crashing or the pink flashing but I do need to sort it out before I do the next update. So keep those fingers crossed for me!
I attempted to respond but I wasn't logged into the correct account earlier. XD Hopefully this one goes through.
ReplyDeleteI just wanted to say that I'm sorry you are still having issues with your game. I hope that the newest issue is fixed easily and a resolution to your crashing and pink flashing problems magically appears.
Thanks Caitria. I probably won't get a chance to work any more on this until after Christmas - I just don't have the time or energy right now! But this new issue is one that I am fairly hopeful about finding a resolution for, so that's something. :)
Delete