Problem: When I load up the Supercollection, there seems to be a random chance that some or most of my sims have disappeared. When I look in the neighborhood folder, the character files themselves have disappeared. They seem to disappear in order from youngest to oldest. So sometimes the kids will be gone, but everyone else is still there. The only people who never disappear are the Maxis characters (including used-to-be Townies).

Specs: Macbook Pro 2010ish, Yosemite 10.10, 2.66 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3, Intel HD Graphics 288 MB.

Thoughts on Cause: I *think* it may have to do with when I add any CC, and characters disappear based on how much I add. Like maybe I've hit a limit that to add more CC, the game starts deleting other things? I thought for a while it happened when I loaded a sub-hood before the main neighborhood, but I just loaded it up and went straight to Pleasantview, and everyone was there except one baby.

Solutions so Far: I've been removing new CC and loading from a backup. I recently added a bunch of shower curtain recolors, and no characters were deleted. When I added in a single mesh of girl's clothing this time, the baby disappeared. It is not the traditional maxfile limit, since I actually managed to work around that (although Body Shop is still black and unusable). But it might be related to a new, in-game limit?

Is anyone else having similar issues? I will send a report to Aspyr, but since it might be CC related, I don't know if they can help me. I was so excited to transfer my sims to the SC, but now it just seems like it is more trouble than its worth.

Is this happening in all your neighborhoods or just Pleasantview? How much hard drive space do you have left?

I know this is less a concern for Macs, but some Windows users have reported this problem being caused by overzealous anti-virus not allowing TS2 to create new files.

Aspyr probably won't give you the time of day, but it's worth a shot just in case. However, it's more likely to be either your antivirus, the file limit, or a cc conflict. What antivirus do you use? What method did you use to get around the file limit built into Macs? How many files do you have in your downloads folder? What were the results when you tried a 50-50?

So some more info: Although my Pleasantview seems corrupted, I just brought my Strangetown in to the SC, and it seems fine. The file limit is not the issue (I think), because before I fixed that the game wouldn't even load. So once I did that (with a Launch Daemon), the game was loadable. Antivirus is ClamXav, should I try turning that off whenever I load up the game?

Maybe it was a thing of CC that I put in (and then took out) that permanently bugged it out. Because I can create new files, its just spontaneously deleting old characters (from new to old). I am going to put in some new stuff now and load up Strangetown to see if that gets borked out too. It just seems weirdly related to either the amount, or the type of CC I put in. Unless something else corrupted Pleasantview.

I have about 5 GB of CC, which is a lot, but it's nowhere near the file limit. About 350 GB space left.

Okay (I'll keep adding my tests):
- Added in buy mode things only, Strangetown is fine, borked Pleasantview is actually not loading at all now (it's been 15 min).
- Added in Body shop items, 2 meshes from Eltanin, PV still not loading. Strangetown seems fine still. So I think it's just PV.
- Aannndd now I added in clothes from Eir, hair from Rented Space, and some new glasses mesh. And the game loads, but now Strangetown isn't loading either. Does that mean I've hit a limit, or is something in that set of downloads corrupted (and corrupting?).
- Took out only the glasses, now Strangetown loads, and no characters are missing. PV now loads... but there's NOTHING in it! Just empty lots. And River Blossom Hills is now a mesh of the landscape (in its icon), and when loaded there's also nothing there. So why is Strangetown okay? I'm so sad, everything is borked. Except Strangetown.


Aggghhhhhhh.

The mesh of the landscape is definitely related to the number/size of your cc. I had that when I hit the file limit. So my first question is: how many cc files do you have?

I have never heard of a Launch Daemon; could you please link me to more details? The only way I've ever heard of for getting around the file limit involved changing the root kit, but maybe this program does it for you.

For the antivirus, please test the following and let us know the results. (BACK UP FIRST!)
1. With everything normal, go into a lot and have a sim have a baby. Save, quit, and go back in. Is the baby still there?
2. Turn your antivirus off completely. Go into a lot and have a sim have a baby. Save, quit, and go back in. Is the baby still there?

Also, are you sure that all your cc is Mac compatible? Anything that requires an EP or SP that never made it over to Macland will not work for you and might damage something.

EDIT: Also, you have an integrated graphics chip, not a real graphics card. That will probably cause problems for you later on. Keep your play sessions short to minimize overheating and back up frequently - once a week minim.

Thanks so much for your suggestions esmeiolanthe. I will give you what I know then go test out some baby making.

1. CC folder contains 13,566 items
2. I've been careful with what I'm downloading so I believe everything is compatible, since most of it comes with extra meshes.
3. So for increasing the maxfiles, originally I did it with a launchd file under the etc folder when I had Snow Leopard. But this method was removed as a possibility with Yosemite. So after a huge amount of time searching, I eventually wrote a couple XML plists to stick in my LaunchDaemon folder (in Library), along with a ulimit in my etc/bashrc (using the root user). I upped it to 65,536. The instructions in this site, followed to a T, made it work: http://docs.basho.com/riak/latest/o...limit/#Mac-OS-X

Before I used that method for increasing maxfiles, the game would not even load. That being said, with this method, I am still unable to use Body Shop, so maybe it didn't do quite what it was supposed to. But when I check the maxfile limit on terminal, it seems to reflect the changes I made. If you have a different method that seems to work perfectly for you (on Yosemite) please let me know! It could be related to that issue, and maybe manifesting in a different way than before, but opening the downloads and in doing so, deleting character and lot files?

I will go check out the antivirus stuff now. And thanks for the graphics card warning, I was not aware of that.

EDIT: The only help Aspyr gave me was to repair permissions on my HD and then remove a certain plist. But I think that's their general suggestion for a bug fix. I will do that, but probably not until I revert to an earlier backup that isn't so corrupted.

Results of further testing:

1. This time when I loaded the game, the only neighborhood with people remaining was Strangetown, and people were missing, mostly children.
2. With the Antivirus still going, I played a couple to have a baby. Their previous (nonexistent) children, exist in their memories as $Subject! (indicating a removed character file?).
3. During the testing in borked Strangetown, strange things happened. The TV screen was white with a big red X through it. Time didn't move correctly at all. It was super slow, and when I put it on full speed, the full speed was as fast as no-speed in normal functioning. The sims still moved as if things were correct for the different speeds, but the time and their motives acted like everything was super slow. So... 3 days is going to take a very long time.
4. Luckily, Jill had a baby in just over 1 day due to weird time things. I quit and upon return, the baby was still there. So.. not the antivirus.

Likely CC limit is being reached even though I increased the limit. So either I need to up the value more, or the method I'm using is not working (for the Sims only?)

** I do use a bunch of global mods, from cyjon, boiling oil, twojeffs and the like. I will double check those to make sure that I have the correct version for a max of Bon Voyage.

I'm in the airport at the moment, so I can't do an in-depth look at the method you used to increase the file limit just now, but I will when I get to a real computer. However, if you know your way around Terminal and successfully increased the limit on Snow Leopard, I think that might be less of a factor than I thought.

I do not have a reliable method for increasing the file limit under Yosemite. I got my new computer when Mountain Lion was the latest OS and maybe 4 months before the SC came out, so I went over to the Dark Side with Boot Camp. But we can probably work it out so you don't have to. 😊

$Subject memories are definite and indictable (on a Mac) signs of corruption. Any hood with those in it is toast and won't last much longer. You almost certainly do not need to reinstall, though - just remove the Sims 2 folder (the one where you go to place your downloads) and the game will make a new one with all the premade neighborhoods and no corruption. Once you've done that, I think we can do better tests. Here's what I'd check when you've regenerated your game:

1. Make sure every single hack and piece of cc is correct and compatible
2. Run a 50/50 with only your known compatible cc to see if the problem shows up (I once had some tights crash my game with the grid instead of a hood picture even though I was not near the file limit at that time)
3. Test several pregnancies as described above

Right now it's a bit hard to distinguish the effect of corruption from the effects of whatever's corruption in the first place.

We'll get this!👍

Thank you so much for your patience and help! I've been trying so long to figure this out on my own, and I just wasn't getting anywhere anymore.

Yeah, so Yosemite really cracked down on letting people mod launch files, and they even removed the capability to set maxfiles with launchctl from terminal at all. It took many hours of scouring the internet and contacting gurus to find the one I did. So it could still be that issue. Perhaps the maxfiles were increased, but somehow not applicable to certain applications. The telling thing for me is that Body Shop will still not work with this new method. Although like I said, before I did it the game itself wouldn't load at all. Alternatively, perhaps 65,536 is too low a file limit for opening all the files associated with the game, and I could simply raise it? I might try that out too, although it seemed a safe number. I did have it set to 300,000 before.

I will continue to run tests, as you've described, and update you. For right now, I won't bother moving my saved games over to SC, and I'll just work on the fresh neighborhoods.

Thanks again!

EDIT: Aha! The version of Squinge's Mod for pregnant sims was NOT compatible with Seasons! Could this be it? Maybe not, but it's a good start.

* I also fixed the bad link in my previous post.

Results of testing:

- No CC, made a baby. Body Shop and Game work.
- Only CC objects, made a baby. Body Shop and Game work.
- Added Half Body Shop items (under traditional limit), made a baby. Body Shop and Game work.
- Added second half Body Shop items (over traditional file limit) - now Body Shop does not work, so I'm guessing at least part of my issue is related to the file limit. Before loading the game I'm going to see if increasing this file limit from 65,536 to 300,000 (my previous value) will work on body shop.

- Increased file limit, double checked permissions. Body Shop still does not work, as it did before the number of files exceeded the traditional limit. I even tried opening Body Shop through the bash shell, with no luck. It's like even though the computer is telling me there's a new limit, the game is not registering this fact. I admit I am stumped.

Well, it sounds like you've done all the things needed to figure out what the problem is, and it sounds like the problem is indeed the file limit. However, bear in mind that disappearing babies can sometimes be related to the antivirus, so if you are under the file limit but you still get babies disappearing, try switching antivirus programs. I used Sophos when I was on the Mac OS.

For right now, I would recommend being ruthless with your cc so that it stays below the limit that causes corruption. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about programming to be able to help you figure out how to increase the limit so that it works correctly. I'd suggest finding a Mac forum to ask about increasing the limit. Alas, I can't refer you one. I'm sorry I couldn't be more help.

Thank you for all your help anyway! If I ever figure out the solution to the Yosemite file limit, I will make it known.

An interesting development for people to make note of. Body Shop seems to have a file limit of about 8,400, which is lower than the system open file limit. Which means either the game imposes its own limit, or just Body Shop does. I will contact Aspyr to inquire.

That's useful to know, thanks. And it may well be something worth reporting to Aspyr. They've pushed out a bug fix update for the Super Collection already, so if it's something that the rules for the Mac App Store don't prevent them from doing, they might be able to tweak the file limits. Especially for Body Shop, which is a separate download from their site.