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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 2nd Feb 2012 at 11:25 PM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 2, University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time, Apartment Life
Default I can't go to a "hobby lot" in my custom neighborhood.
Hello all, I hope you are all well.

As the title of my thread says, I can't access the secret hobby lots in my custom neighborhood. The game informs me that they are no lots in the hobby neighborhood and my Sim has been invited to it.

I do have "Blank" templates and other Mods installed to create "Clean" neighborhoods.

Am I missing something or is something up with the neighborhood?

Thanks,

(I'm sorry if something is wrong with the thread, It is a little confusing to know exactly what to do.)

~ Hiro Osric ~
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#2 Old 2nd Feb 2012 at 11:31 PM
I don't know what mods you are using, but it might be possible that they interfered with the complete creation of the hobby area. If you have an invitation to a hobby lot it should be there.

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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#3 Old 2nd Feb 2012 at 11:47 PM
I have the anti-reduncy mod and blank black pets/seasons/templates in order to create empty hoods. I would be suprised if that affects Lot generation. Is there a way to force the game to create the lots? I'm guessing not.

~ Hiro Osric ~
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#4 Old 2nd Feb 2012 at 11:55 PM
We'll need to know what you are using for the Hobbies subhood template F002, which is the FreeTime stealth neighborhood. If you have a link to the clean or empty template that you used, that would be helpful.

First, do you have a neighborhood template named F002? Look in your FreeTime installation location, normally C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime, under TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate. Is there a folder labelled F002? Does it have a file named F002_Neighborhood.package?

If so, find your C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\F002\Lots subfolder. Are there package files in that subfolder? How many?

Let us know and we'll try to figure out what happened and how to resolve your problem.

No, there is no way to force the game to generate the lots. Instead, you'll probably need to add the lots to the Hobbies subhood manually using SimPE.

The only exception is if your neighborhood has no subhoods attached at all. In that case, you may be able to force the lots to be added by moving your neighborhood to an installation folder and allowing the neighborhood to regenerate with all of the subhoods attached.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#5 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 12:01 AM
@Mootilda, both files are present in the location and they are 10 .package files in the folder.

I don't think I installed a blank template for freetime as my backups are not there and I would have created them.

~ Hiro Osric ~
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#6 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 12:19 AM
The next step is to try to find the lots in your save game.

Are you familiar with SimPE? If so, try opening the Hobbies subhood associated with your neighborhood save game. Choose Lot Description (LTXT) in the left pane and look in the right pane for the names of the lots.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#7 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 12:31 AM
@Mootilda, I am not 100% familar with SimPE but I have checked and I do believe they are in my neighborhood.

I have attached a screenshot to show what I see.

And yeah, my name is there. Forgot to erase it. :p
Screenshots

~ Hiro Osric ~
Site Helper
#8 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 1:15 AM Last edited by Mootilda : 3rd Feb 2012 at 3:05 AM.
That certainly looks correct to me.

Click on each lot in the right pane of SimPE and then look at the Plugin View at the bottom of the screen. Does each lot have a Lot Type of HobbyHidden? Can you verify that the Lot Instance in the Plugin View matches the Instance number of the lot in the right pane?

Can you also verify that the lots exist in your neighborhoods Lots subfolder? You'll need the decimal version of each lot's Instance, which you'll find in parenthesis at the end of the line in the right pane. For example, My Muse is lot #10. Look for a lot with that number in your Lots subfolder. From your screenshot, the hobby lots should be N001_Lot1.package to N001_Lot10.package inclusive.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#9 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 1:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
Does each lot have a Lot Type of HobbyHidden?


Yes Indeed they all do.

Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
Can you verify that the Lot Instance in the Plugin View matches the Instance number of the lot in the right pane?


Yep.

Quote: Originally posted by Mootilda
Can you also verify that the lots exist in your neighborhoods Lots subfolder?


Lost me slightly here. But If I understand correctly. I am missing a few of them but not all of them. I do have a lot number 2, 3, 4, 8, 9 & 10. but I could be looking for the wrong thing's as I'm not sure. I am looking at "Instance" at a number in brackets and comparing it to my neighborhood's "lots" folder.

Another screenshot If it helps. Sorry for the late reply, I needed sleep.
Screenshots

~ Hiro Osric ~
Site Helper
#10 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 4:22 PM
That's exactly right. Looks like you may have found the problem; you are missing some of the actual lot packages. I can't imagine why this occurred, but it looks like it may be fairly easy to fix.

But before we start, you might just want to verify that the lot that you are having problems with is one of the lots that is missing. You'll also want to backup your neighborhood, just in case something goes wrong.

What you need to do is to make a list of all of the missing lots. Then, find the missing lots in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\F002\Lots. Copy the lots from the neighborhood template into your save game's N001\Lots subfolder, then rename the lots to have the correct names for your neighborhood.

Let me give you an example:

You are missing the lot package for lot #1, which is Sue's (Secret) Kitchen.

When I open my FreeTime F002 neighborhood template by double clicking on F002_Neighborhood.package, I can see that Sue's (Secret) Kitchen is lot #11 in the neighborhood template.

So, I would copy F002_Lot11.package from:
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\F002\Lots
to:
C:\Documents and Settings\<my userid>\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N001\Lots

Now the lot package is in the correct place, but it has the wrong name. So, we need to rename F002_Lot11.package to N001_Lot1.package.

Do the same thing for lots 5, 6, and 7: determine exactly which lot is missing, find the lot in the neighborhood template, copy the lot and rename it.

Be sure not to run the game until you get all of the missing lots copied and renamed; the game may delete extraneous lot packages.

I hope that this helps. Remember to backup before you start, so that you can restore from backup if something goes wrong.
Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#11 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 7:01 PM
This appears to have fixed the problem. I can now visit "Will's Garage" as intended. Thank you Mootilda, you have been very helpful and you have saved my custom hood from the bin.

Also, you mention you have no idea what could have caused this, would it have anything to do with the blank/clean templates and/or prebuilt (but empty) neighborhood?

~ Hiro Osric ~
Site Helper
#12 Old 3rd Feb 2012 at 7:27 PM
I've heard of something similar occurring twice before, when adding a custom subhood to a neighborhood. I suspect that there's just a bug in the game somewhere and you were unlucky enough to stumble on it. It's definitely rare; I don't believe that it was anything that you did.
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