Duplicate sims, will corrupt neighborhood?

[ceribolone]

So I played Belladona Cove for a while, playing existing sims, having children etc. The game crashed, simply stuck when loading one of family. I learned that my neighborhood got corrupted as I didn't do it right (deleting characters, tombstones etc).

So I started new neighborhood, uber neighborhood from meetme2theriver.livejournal.com. I want to do it right this time. I imported one family I care about from old Belladona cove contains:
- Carlos Contender
- Geoff and Samantha Rutherford (was Samantha Cordial)
- Angelina (Rutherford's child)

I did every step, removing memories with SimPE etc, deleting The Sims 2 from My Documents so the game generate new fresh one. Delete all neighborhoods and put uber megahhood there.

It was clean I'm sure but I realized that Belladona Cove now have 2 Samanthas, 2 Carloses and 2 Geoffs. I open Simpe, they have different Sim ID and different Family Instance (I don't know what else to look). Looks safe but the problem is, Angelina already have "original" Samantha Cordial and Geof Rutherford in her phone contact which is weird since she's "new" in town and never met them.

Is it OK? Or there is something else I should do?
Thanks in advance.

[Mootilda]

Did you move these sims as one occupied lot, or as multiple occupied lots? If multiple lots, that's your problem. To maintain relationships, all of your sims must be on the same lot.

Did you thoroughly test your occupied lot(s) before placing them into your new neighborhood? Are you aware that the "hard way" is intrinsically unsafe, because SimPE may not actually display everything which needs to be removed? That this means that there may be no way for you to sufficiently clean the lot? This is why the most important part of the "hard way" is to test the lot thoroughly before placing it into a neighborhood that you care about. You should also be prepared to backup your neighborhood before placing occupied lots, and to be willing to lose all of your gameplay from that point on if you see signs on corruption.

[Willow's Tara]

I have done that before, with Nina and Dina and they were both fine. However the Summerbottom's mother, who's name I forgot but the Elf one, when I extracted her my game would crash (In the CAS, it seems to be her because when I took her out it was fine)

[Mootilda]

Those duplicate sims are a sign that you've corrupted your neighborhood.

[Amairani]

I got so excited when saw the thread's title, thinking it's about the issue I have, but no, it's the other way around in my game - duplicate Young Adult Sims in game, but one Character File in SimPe.

One set of duplicate Sims happened when my playable Sim called and asked a student out on date on a community lot. They arrived together by taxi, the Sim girl was dressed in casual outfit and right after that the same Sim girl entered the lot, dressed in Secret Society outfit.

Second set of duplicates was in the dorm I was playing. She was one of the dormies and I'd been playing that dorm for a long time, but one day, I didn't notice when and how exactly, there were two of them! If one went to sleep in their room, the other couldn't enter (the room had Stop sign on the door). In the end I felt adventurous and deleted the one in the room with Moveobjects cheat, nothing bad happened as far I can tell, the game continued just fine, but who knows..

[maxon]

I got so excited when saw the thread's title, thinking it's about the issue I have, but no, it's the other way around in my game - duplicate Young Adult Sims in game, but one Character File in SimPe.
Did the duplicates they have the same name? I ask this because University and playing on university lots can create duplicates in two ways - both of which seem to be not a problem. I think the way most people see them is that the game seems to call up two instances of the SAME sim file. It's done this since university was released and I'm not sure whether it's ever been investigated either by modders or EAxis themselves. OTOH, it stopped happening in my game at some point which might indicate that it was fixed in a patch. Anyway, it's the same sim and seems to not be a problem (though I'd be happy to be corrected on that). Moveobject deleting one of them should be fine.

[ceribolone]

Having duplicate sims is cool actually, like using time machine to visit the Belladona Cove in the past :) But not cool though if there is hidden time bomb waiting.

I didn't realize that the "hard way" wasn't safe, you mean there is no safe way? OMG. I moved one lot only, occupied by those three sims. Nothing else. And the game created diferent character files for them. Nothing bad happens so far, only that phone contact glitch but i didn't find it anywhere in SimPE. But knowing that it wasn't safe, I now consider using the "easy way". Since they are already there (with Angelina as exception), the task would be simpler. If I create Angelina from CAS and using SimPE to make her as Rutherfords' biological child, will it be ok?

Another question:
How to make dormies from adults? I have 2 families with 8 adults each. I packed it since day 0 (right after creating them from CAS so i presumed it would be safe to put them anywhere). I planned to use them as townies but since the neighborhood is populated, I want to make them dormies. I just sent Angelina to college but she's alone in the dorm (I have clean templates with notownieregen, nodormieregen etc). I have shrub to make dormies from young adults created from uni CAS but I want to know if it is possible to convert existing adults to dormies.

[LaurellKH]

I only get duplicates when playing with apartments after I put in game mod apthack (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13471.0.html,).

[Amairani]

Did the duplicates they have the same name? I ask this because University and playing on university lots can create duplicates in two ways - both of which seem to be not a problem. I think the way most people see them is that the game seems to call up two instances of the SAME sim file. It's done this since university was released and I'm not sure whether it's ever been investigated either by modders or EAxis themselves. OTOH, it stopped happening in my game at some point which might indicate that it was fixed in a patch. Anyway, it's the same sim and seems to not be a problem (though I'd be happy to be corrected on that). Moveobject deleting one of them should be fine.

Yes, it was the same Sim in both cases, but present in two bodies, so to speak. Your explanation makes perfect sense and I'm glad to know deleting one of them with Moveobject wasn't harmful.
Funny how I never had this happening in all years of playing the game.

[Darby]

I had a lot of duplicates on community lots in Uni once, but I determined that it was because there simply weren't enough dormies for the game to draw from. I was using an empty template with nodormieregen installed, and I guess the 30 or so dormies I created to populate it weren't enough. I had the game generate some more, and the duplications stopped.

[maxon]

I had a lot of duplicates on community lots in Uni once, but I determined that it was because there simply weren't enough dormies for the game to draw from. I was using an empty template with nodormieregen installed, and I guess the 30 or so dormies I created to populate it weren't enough. I had the game generate some more, and the duplications stopped.
I don't think that can be right. When I first created the new version of Little Carping (in 2007) based on empty templates and with the no regen hacks, I didn't create any townies for ages. It was because my lots were so *empty* all the time that I created townies as 'living' scenery, so to speak. Even now, I only have about 20 dormies. I don't see duplicates ever: dorm lots, community lots, home lots, anywhere. I did see duplicates when University was first released but that was long before I redid Little Carping. Unless it's an issue with the pre-made neighbourhoods?

[Mootilda]

I didn't realize that the "hard way" wasn't safe, you mean there is no safe way?"The Hard Way" may be safe. Unfortunately, SimPE just doesn't display everything which may need to be removed. The only way to know for sure is to test the occupied lot thoroughly before placing it into a neighborhood that you care about. Testing is a part of the process (step #11).

[gazania]

I didn't realize that the "hard way" wasn't safe, you mean there is no safe way? OMG. I moved one lot only, occupied by those three sims. Nothing else. And the game created diferent character files for them.

Let me just get this straight. You saved the lot with the three Sims still on it before you reset?

I read that even with playing around in Sim PE, etc. that could cause trouble. Yup. Memory problems.

But perhaps I'm reading that wrong. According to the guides I read for safely resetting a neighborhood, you are supposed to re-create your Sim in Body Shop and use those files, NOT the originals. You get rid of those. Your original Sims, unfortunately, would then be toast when you reset, but you can always claim amnesia and using a cheat or two, build up certain aspects. And never, never package a lot with Sims still on it.

Or am I mistaken again?

[Darby]

I don't think that can be right.

I recognize that the evidence is slim. All I know is that when I created more dormies, the issue stopped, so I made a basic assumption. I have no trouble with the concept that there was something else going on. I just have no idea what. :turtle:

[Mootilda]

According to the guides I read for safely resetting a neighborhood, you are supposed to re-create your Sim in Body Shop and use those files, NOT the originals. You get rid of those. Your original Sims, unfortunately, would then be toast when you reset, but you can always claim amnesia and using a cheat or two, build up certain aspects. And never, never package a lot with Sims still on it.

Or am I mistaken again?There are two ways to move sims: the "Easy Way" (extract and clone) and the "Hard Way" (occupied lots):
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Moving_Sims

The "Easy Way" is completely safe, but you lose everything that makes your sim unique (personality, relationships, family ties, wants and fears, memories, etc.). You can recreate some of these things, but not everything (especially the Sim Wants and Fears tree).

The "Hard Way" requires extensive testing because there is no way to know whether SimPE has shown everything that needs to be modified. It's definitely the riskier way to go.

[Simonut]

I have a question please ( just a bit confuse here ) let say you created a Sims in Body shop or downloaded a Sims from Mts or maybe another site, Once you use the Clean installer to place them into your game, we know they will be found in CAS as well as Body shop.

Now my question is if you want to use that same Sims and then "Duplicate" him or her again In CAS for two different neighborhood ( with different names ) would not that be safe ? Since the Game in Cas offer duplicate of Sims that we may download or make it seem it would make sense that you can use them in other Neighborhood. Not talking about the Sims that already came with the game, just the one you may have download or create yourself. Is it not cool?

[maxon]

Now my question is if you want to use that same Sims and then "Duplicate" him or her again In CAS for two different neighborhood ( with different names ) would not that be safe ? Since the Game in Cas offer duplicate of Sims that we may download or make it seem it would make sense that you can use them in other Neighborhood. Not talking about the Sims that already came with the game, just the one you may have download or create yourself. Is it not cool?
Yes, of course it's safe - sims in CAS/BS are not full sims - they have no character data at that stage, just an appearance. It's when you put the sim in the hood that the sim file gets created permanently.

[Simonut]

Yes, of course it's safe - sims in CAS/BS are not full sims - they have no character data at that stage, just an appearance. It's when you put the sim in the hood that the sim file gets created permanently.


@> Maxon > thank you for your reply, I was thinking it would be safe ( was not sure ) Since in CAS the Sims are duplicated over just like when we have houses in the bin you take one out and the game produce more of the same as in Cas with Sims.

Sometime I may use the Cas Sims, mostly the ones I create or download in a different Neigborhood with a completely different name mate or career I will only add them to a second neigborhood or like a custom. Again thanks :)

[ceribolone]

Let me just get this straight. You saved the lot with the three Sims still on it before you reset?

I read that even with playing around in Sim PE, etc. that could cause trouble. Yup. Memory problems.

But perhaps I'm reading that wrong. According to the guides I read for safely resetting a neighborhood, you are supposed to re-create your Sim in Body Shop and use those files, NOT the originals. You get rid of those. Your original Sims, unfortunately, would then be toast when you reset, but you can always claim amnesia and using a cheat or two, build up certain aspects. And never, never package a lot with Sims still on it.

Or am I mistaken again?
I did follow the "hard way" tutorial, packaged the lot with 3 sims on it as that's the only way to transport sims between neighbors. I didn't move them to different neighborhood though, but to a fresh Bella Dona with same characters in it (I played existing families), that's how I got duplicate sims.

Ok then, I will just modify existing characters, give them skill and relationships they deserved. And that's a good idea about amnesia. They will definitely get brain surgery! :D

[maxon]

I did follow the "hard way" tutorial, packaged the lot with 3 sims on it as that's the only way to transport sims between neighbors. I didn't move them to different neighborhood though, but to a fresh Bella Dona with same characters in it (I played existing families), that's how I got duplicate sims.
Yes but that *IS* a different neighbourhood. It doesn't matter that it is a copy of the original, it's still a new separate set of files.