My neighborhoods have vanished!

[FreezerBunny]

Hello! So, um, my neighborhoods have outright disappeared in TS2. What happened is long and confusing. I have 2.7gb of RAM, I'm on a Windows 7 Home Premium HP, I have about 190gb of hard drive space, and TS3 (and all it's expansions, plus Master Suite and High-End Loft), TS2 (I will explain my expansion and stuff packs in a second). I don't have any CC, mods, or anything not made by EA/Maxis in my game. This is because it won't let me extract files, which is a different problem. Other then that, the only program that I have installed (that didn't come with my computer) is iTunes.

Okay, so here we go. My entire TS2 history. So it all started when I bought The Sims 2 Double Deluxe (hard copy) a few months ago. I installed it, it worked fine. A week or two after that, I bought and installed Seasons on Orgin. After it installed, I tried to launch the game from Origin. It crashed on the loading screen. I tried to launch it from my desktop. It crashed on loading screen. Then I put my Double Deluxe disk in and went in from the Double Deluxe icon on my screen. It worked fine, all the Seasons stuff was there, except for the fact that I still had the same "The Sims 2 Double Deluxe" loading screen. About a month after that, I bought Apartment Life (hard copy) and installed it. I had the Apartment Life disk in, and I went to the Apartment Life launcher and clicked play. It told me to put the original The Sims 2 Double Deluxe disk in. I did, and went to the Sims 2 Double Deluxe launcher. I clicked play, and it worked fine except for the fact that it had the "The Sims 2 Double Deluxe" loading screen again. No biggie.

Then I bought The Sims 2 Freetime and The Sims 2 University Life Collection on Origin. I installed University Life Collection and then Freetime. Before it installed them, it told me to backup my saves before continuing, because if I uninstall those expansions it will mess up my saves. I just clicked continue because I had no idea how to backup my saves. So yeah, they installed. I had my Double Deluxe disk in and went from the Double Deluxe launcher, but it told me to put my Apartment Life disk in. So I did, used the Apartment Life disk, and went in from the Apartment Life launcher. All was well and good, until it was the neighboorhood choosing screen. I found that all my towns were done except for the Freetime one. I had Maxis towns from the expansions I have, but no custom ones. So yeah. They are all gone. Boohoo for me. So I just connected SimState uni to the freetime town and started playing, thinkingI would just resolve it later.

So theres my story. And I checked, the nighborhood files are still in the neighboorhood folder. What happened and what do I do???

(NOTE: Please, please, please explain it in a "For Dummies" manner because I'm not very good with computers)

[Josepina]

This is what I would try. To be completely safe, copy the neighbourhoods folder (right click on folder - copy) and save it somewhere else before changing anything.

- Go to the neighbourhoods folder and make a note of all the folder numbers. Find the custom neighbourhood folders (look in the storytelling folders to see which ones have pictures of your sims). Mark these as custom on your note. Double check.

- Move your customhoods out of the neighbourhoods folder to another folder. Keep them safe out of the way somewhere.

- Then make some new hoods in the game. Close the game go back to the neighbourhoods folder. Make sure the new neighbourhood folder names match your custom hood folders on your list. Delete the ones you just created. Make sure everything above is double checked before deleting.

- Then move the custom hoods back.

Hope that is not too difficult to follow. It's all very confusing using computers.

[Emily926]

This is what I would try. To be completely safe, copy the neighbourhoods folder (right click on folder - copy) and save it somewhere else before changing anything.

- Go to the neighbourhoods folder and make a note of all the folder numbers. Find the custom neighbourhood folders (look in the storytelling folders to see which ones have pictures of your sims). Mark these as custom on your note. Double check.

- Move your customhoods out of the neighbourhoods folder to another folder. Keep them safe out of the way somewhere.

- Then make some new hoods in the game. Close the game go back to the neighbourhoods folder. Make sure the new neighbourhood folder names match your custom hood folders on your list. Delete the ones you just created. Make sure everything above is double checked before deleting.

- Then move the custom hoods back.

Hope that is not too difficult to follow. It's all very confusing using computers.

That makes perfect sense. But the thing is, I don't have any custom worlds, I prefer EA ones. Most likely because I'm lazy, lol. What happened is my EA ones disappeared from my game, but they still have files. All I'm trying to do is get my EA 'hoods back, I'm not worried about any of the changes I made to them.

[Emily926]

I have another problem to that is somewhat related I suppose. This was yesterday, I was playing in SimState university connected to the Freetime town. I played for an hour or two, and I clicked save, and then quit. After I clicked quit I left the room for about 10 minutes, and when I came back the screen was still black. I had to use Control + Alt + Delete in the end, and it was fine. But does anybody know what could have caused this?

[Josepina]

Oh I see. Unless there is stuff you've added to the Sims 2 folder like custom content, music etc. Just delete everything in your sims 2 folder and start the game.

Also delete the new neighbourhoods folders and replace with the old ones, if you want them back.

[Mootilda]

Before you do anything else, I would like to suggest that you learn how to backup your save game. If you can't backup, then you will always be at risk. Here's a guide:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Back_Ups

I wonder whether your problem is related to the Store Edition? If you haven't installed the Store Edition, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

Both Double Deluxe and University Life Collection include a version of the Store Edition; I doubt that either Store Edition was updated for Apartment Life, although we'd have to check that. This is why you must use the Apartment Life DVD.

Do you have the ability to install the Store Edition directly from Origin? If so, I would suggest that you do so. This should be the version which is compatible with Mansion and Garden, which should make it compatible with your save games.

The alternative is to install the University Life Collection last, which should ensure that you are using the Store Edition game engine.

[Emily926]

Oh I see. Unless there is stuff you've added to the Sims 2 folder like custom content, music etc. Just delete everything in your sims 2 folder and start the game.

Also delete the new neighbourhoods folders and replace with the old ones, if you want them back.

Okay, but should I delete the whole The Sims 2 folder, or just everything in it? Should I also delete the folders called "The Sims 2 Double Deluxe" and "The Sims 2 Store Edition"?

[Emily926]

Before you do anything else, I would like to suggest that you learn how to backup your save game. If you can't backup, then you will always be at risk. Here's a guide:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Back_Ups

I wonder whether your problem is related to the Store Edition? If you haven't installed the Store Edition, then you can ignore the rest of this post.

Both Double Deluxe and University Life Collection include a version of the Store Edition; I doubt that either Store Edition was updated for Apartment Life, although we'd have to check that. This is why you must use the Apartment Life DVD.

Do you have the ability to install the Store Edition directly from Origin? If so, I would suggest that you do so. This should be the version which is compatible with Mansion and Garden, which should make it compatible with your save games.

The alternative is to install the University Life Collection last, which should ensure that you are using the Store Edition game engine.

My save games don't matter to me, I would be completely fine with starting fresh. Should I still backup?

There is a store edition icon on my desktop that appeared when I installed Double Deluxe. Another thing I should note is that when I installed University Life Collection and Freetime, no icons appeared on my desktop but I could access them from the start menu.

No, I don't have the option to install store edition from Origin. I didn't register the games I have hardcopies for on Origin. The games I have for download on Orgin are: University Life Collection, Seasons, FreeTime.

[Emily926]

I would be completely willing to start over by replacing my userfiles, but would that solve my problem? If not, I might have to bring my computer into Bestbuy and pay them to uninstall it for me:rofl:

[Mootilda]

If you don't care at all, delete all of your save games and run the game; everything should regenerate.

[FreezerBunny]

If you don't care at all, delete all of your save games and run the game; everything should regenerate.

What do you mean by "delete all your save games"? Like, what are the exact files I'm suppost to delete? Tech noob here :help:

[Mootilda]

My guess is anything related to TS2 under your Documents\EA Games. Any TS2 folders under Documents should regenerate. So, I would guess that you should delete The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, and The Sims 2 Store Edition.

However, I don't have Double Deluxe or Store Edition or any of the other later products which create additional (unnecessary?) folders. So, you might want to wait until you get an answer from someone with multiple folders under their Documents\EA Games.

You want to avoid deleting your installation files, which are normally under Program Files\EA Games.

[php3vv7th11]

My base game installation was a DVD copy of Double Deluxe initially. When I installed my first EP that I downloaded through Origin (University Life Collection) and started the game, I thought I had lost all of my saved games and any progress. What had happened was that the DVD had created a EA Games\The Sims 2 directory in the My Documents folder, but the EP installed via Origin didn't recognize it and created a EA Games\The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe folder in the my docs directory. All I had to do was copy the content of the "The Sims 2" folder into the "The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe" folder and allow it to overwrite any duplicate filenames. That fixed the problem for me. I am wondering if maybe your problem is similar...

[Mootilda]

php3vv7th11, if you want your save game to regenerate, which folder(s) do you delete?

[FreezerBunny]

My guess is anything related to TS2 under your Documents\EA Games. Any TS2 folders under Documents should regenerate. So, I would guess that you should delete The Sims 2, The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, and The Sims 2 Store Edition.

However, I don't have Double Deluxe or Store Edition or any of the other later products which create additional (unnecessary?) folders. So, you might want to wait until you get an answer from someone with multiple folders under their Documents\EA Games.

You want to avoid deleting your installation files, which are normally under Program Files\EA Games.

Okay, so I think I understand what your telling me to do. This is what I think, correct me if I'm wrong:

1. So I'm going to go to Documents>EA Games and copy the folders there (The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, The Sims 2, and The Sims 2 Store Edition. Then I will paste them on my desktop for safekeeping in case something goes wrong.

2. Then I will delete the above mentioned folders, and start up my game. It will regenerate, right?



So um yeah. Just wanted to run it by you first. Do you think that will work?

[Mootilda]

Yes, that's correct.

[php3vv7th11]

Mootilda, after installing an EP through Origin and copying the saved game data to th The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe directory, I deleted my The Sims 2 folder in the My Documents directory since it was no longer needed. The only need I would have for it would be if I needed to run Paladin's HDCU, as you recommended in a reply to an earlier post of mine. Then I would just place a copy of the downloads folder in it and nothing else. So if I needed to regenerate the saved games, I guess I would have to delete the entire The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe folder, right? I'm not sure though, I thought that I had read somewhere that only the Neighborhood, SavedSims, and Downloads subdirectories were necessary to delete, along with cigen.package and groups.cache.

I'm still pretty new to the game though, so I am not sure. Unlike FreezerBunny though, I never had a The Sims 2 Store Edition folder in the EA Games directory, so I am totally clueless on whether his game accesses any data from there or whether it is a useless archive, as I suspect his The Sims 2 folder is (as in my case), having been superseded by The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe that Origin created through his digital download installation.

ETA: We'll hopefully know soon after he backs up and deletes those three folders. :)

[FreezerBunny]

Yes, that's correct.

Just wanted to check. Okay, I'm super stressed out ATM (and tired) so I would probably mess up if I did it now. I'll be doing it tomorrow morning. Wish me luck! :)

[FreezerBunny]

Mootilda, after installing an EP through Origin and copying the saved game data to th The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe directory, I deleted my The Sims 2 folder in the My Documents directory since it was no longer needed. The only need I would have for it would be if I needed to run Paladin's HDCU, as you recommended in a reply to an earlier post of mine. Then I would just place a copy of the downloads folder in it and nothing else. So if I needed to regenerate the saved games, I guess I would have to delete the entire The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe folder, right? I'm not sure though, I thought that I had read somewhere that only the Neighborhood, SavedSims, and Downloads subdirectories were necessary to delete, along with cigen.package and groups.cache.

I'm still pretty new to the game though, so I am not sure. Unlike FreezerBunny though, I never had a The Sims 2 Store Edition folder in the EA Games directory, so I am totally clueless on whether his game accesses any data from there or whether it is a useless archive, as I suspect his The Sims 2 folder is (as in my case), having been superseded by The Sims™ 2 Double Deluxe that Origin created through his digital download installation.

ETA: We'll hopefully know soon after he backs up and deletes those three folders. :)

The only part I understood is the "ETA", lol.

And I'm female, btw :lol:

[Mootilda]

Sorry that you're so stressed. I was really hoping that someone with both Double Deluxe and the Store Edition would be able to answer your question definitively. However, I am reasonably sure that this is a safe thing to do, and that the game will regenerate any folders under My Documents\EA Games which are required.