Wierd saving problem. Sims going missing?

[DoomFire]

I have this really weird and annoying problem with sims in this game. lets say I just created a brand new family and move them into a brand new house. I then save the game. When I come back, the house is still there, but the family is gone! There not in the family bin, or anywhere.

I havent been able to create any new sims because there always getting deleted. Any existing sims before the problem started occuring are still there, but when I save, no changes to the sim is actually made(like if he aged or died or something).

I tried reinstalling the game,twice, and I havent DL'ed anything except for careers. Any idea what the problem is?

[crinrict]

Are those 'old' careers or did you redownload new ones after the EP was released ? If you have old ones, you should remove them.

[DoomFire]

I redownloaded the ones after the EP was released, but I have the problem with the original Sims 2 and its been occurring before the EP was released.

BTW, I think I may also have SimPE, but I dont think I messed with it to do anything harmful....

[athene]

I would try removing careers while you troubleshoot. They may not be the issue, but since they are a known problem, remove them from the equation for now. You can try using InSIMenator and see if its restore family option works.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=41152

[DoomFire]

unfortunately, the insiminator doesnt do anything :(

[athene]

Sorry InSim didn't work. Well, since people tend to lose sims after messing with SimPE incorrectly....I am now wondering about that since you mentioned it. Are sims only going missing from the neghborhood package files you messed with in SimPE? Load a neighborhood you haven't messed with SimPE on and see if the problem exists there. What were you doing with SimPE?

[DoomFire]

Sorry InSim didn't work. Well, since people tend to lose sims after messing with SimPE incorrectly....I am now wondering about that since you mentioned it. Are sims only going missing from the neghborhood package files you messed with in SimPE? Load a neighborhood you haven't messed with SimPE on and see if the problem exists there. What were you doing with SimPE?


I only used SimPE once, and that time I was only exploring all the options and stuff, so I dont think I did anything terribly wrong, but I wouldnt be suprised if that was the problem. But when I reinstalled(twice), I thought that would solve anything done by SimPE?

Also, it happens in all the neighborhoods. Its like I cant save my sims, but everything else is saved, the houses i built, objects in the houses, decorations, just not the sims themselves! :(

Also, I just removed the careers from the downloads file and nothing :(

[athene]

Well, I am really hesitant to suggest this since I think your previous experiment with SimPE caused the problem...but I fear you are going to have to resort to it again.

****BACK UP EVERYTHING FIRST****

Try running your game with your downloads COMPLETELY empty, just to totally eliminate that factor. You can't have your \Downloads anywhere under The Sims 2, I would stick it on my desktop. You MUST eliminat the possibilty of hacks or custom content causing this problem.

Next, go read the SimPE tutorials. You need to get familiar with Lot IDs and Family Info. Read in SimPE about seeing what lot characters and families are assigned to. You are going to be looking at your sims and your houses and making sure they are all properly referring to each other. I am not going to go into more detail because it is VITAL you read yourself and understand what you are doing. If you screw up, delete and restore your back up. ALWAYS keep a back up. If you had a backup to begin with, you wouldn't be talking to me. ;) Good luck!