I'm not sure of the exact time this started happening but im pretty certain it didnt happen before I installed Chris hatch's unofficial SP.

I am trying to build a prison and incorporate inge's simlogical prison mod. However, every time I try and bring up the objects, the tokens appear as normal in the miscellaneous part of the catalogue. From what I understand, the controllers are a slave of maxis' burglar alarm but the game doesn't recognise this and so shows the controllers as recolors of the alarm.

If anyone can help me fix this I will greatly appreciate it

Thanks.

Are you sure the items are not also in the catalogue? The CEP works like this sometimes (or stuff made causes the CEP to show cloned objects as recolours of the original) but the original thing is still there. IYSWIM. I'd have to check but I think they also show as recolours for me - I don't have Chris Hatch's fan-made EP. Tell you what, I'll fire up the game and check.

Edit:
Yes, as I thought. The objects themselves are, in my game anyway, cataloged under Miscellaneous* but looking in Electronics, you can see the textures she used for the controllers also show as recolours for the burglar alarm. This is going to be to do with the way Inge originally cloned them. She did the school and prison mods early on in the game's cycle and I should think it is likely that, as we gained more knowledge about how recolours and clones worked, that had she made them later on, this would not have happened. As it is, Inge rarely went back over things she'd already made and, as they were (and still are) perfectly functional, she wouldn't have made the correction. See pictures. Is this what you're seeing?

* NB - I might have recatalogued them. I do that a fair bit so your versions may not be under Misc>Misc.

Hey thanks for your help.

Yes I am seeing what's in the second picture but you see how the controllers are also showing separately in both the miscellaneous and small electronics, that isn't happening in my game, they just show as the recolors under the burglar alarm.

I've tried putting them in the override files of chris's ep and mansion and garden and the addon folder but they still show up as recolors.

Did you try changing the names so they load last? Just put an x or z at the front of the name (the game loads alphabetically). I wonder what the hell Chris did that is clashing (because it sounds like a clash). You could try the HCDU and see if you can work out what it is.

ahh that's an idea. Let me try that. thanks

nope, it didn't work. I don't understand, it must be compatible if the rest of the objects are appearing in the game as they should. Do you think its something to do with the objects not recognising chris's EP? Would it then mean having to edit the file in simpe?

Did you try and HDCU? That should give you a clue as to where the problem is.

Nope I cant, it stopped working when I installed chris's EP.

I have to say then, I think the problem is Chris Hatch's EP. I'd guess it's going to be a case of what do you want more? The problem with the EP is that it is a big, big mod and it does interfere with a lot of other things. I decided against it for various reasons the main one being it interferes with Inteen (another big mod) and I like Inteen more than I am attracted to features of the EP - well, that and the tackiness put me off. Your problem provides useful information about that in that I also really like Inge's school and prison hacks and wouldn't want to stop playing with those either so Chris's EP is definitely, definitely out for me and anyone else who values those mods. The only thing I can suggest is going over to Chris's site and seeing if anyone else had a similar problem (a lot of the people over there like playing with mods - obviously) and see if they came up with a solution or workaround.

Edit: it does occur to me that a workaround might be to build a lot using AGS and then pack it up and install it in your main game. The reason I think this might work is that you can build in AGS without Chris's EP in effect and thus find the controllers in the catalogue properly. It will depend on how Chris's coding is effecting the prison mod. If it's just effecting the catalogue display, you might find the game calls up the controllers properly in game even when you are playing with the EP installed. The idea is, then, that you install a lot with the controllers already in place. I hope I don't have to remind you not to use a lot that has sims in it. You'd need to create and move those in once you had the lot in game.

Silly me. Like you said, the objects were there all along but for some reason in the party section, I only realised when I went into SimPE and changed their location as a test (I actually didn't know what I was doing so I could of blown up my computer for all I know) anyhoo they're finally located but thanks for your help.

Oh good - I'm pleased to hear that. I wonder if I did change the catalogue location of the ones in my game. It's not at all unlikely.