I have several reports of missing almost half the lots in my new hood, Black Mesa, and descriptions are showing in the lot name area. I've attached the image one of the downloaders posted showing the missing lots.

How I Made the hood
*I used AGS and an empty, base game hood.
*I used several different terrains while building the lots. All lots were binned before trying a new terrain, and then placed.
*I did change lot names when placing in different terrains, and even moved them around and renamed before settling on the final locations they currently are in.
*I used SimPE to change one or two lots from residential to community. Nothing else was touched.
*I used sunnyside lots to build alot of smaller lots.

I used Mootilda's Lot Compressor on all of the lots. I used Lot Adjuster on a couple of lots. This hood works fine, all lots show up in any game I put it in. From a couple different AGS setups to all of my EPs.

Mootilda took a quick peek at my hood and there are a few issues spotted right away.

For community lots, the Text List (STR#) for each lot has the lot description in line 0x0000 and line 0x0001 is blank. It should have the lot name in line 0x0000 and the description in line 0x0001. The Lot Description (LTXT) is showing the community lots correctly in regards to name/description.

Looking at residential lots, the lot names are 1 Lakeside Road with no description for the Text List (STR#). The Lot Description (LTXT) shows the correct name for each lot, but the description is 1 Lakeside Road. I noticed a few residential lots have blank Text List (STR#) and have a blank description in Lot Description (LTXT).

Fixing
I think to fix it, I have to manually edit each Text List (STR#) to match the name/description in the Lot Description (LTXT). And then delete any Text List (STR#) that does not have a matching Lot Description (LTXT).

ie: Lot Description (LTXT) instance 8002 = Text List (STR#) instance 0002.

Questions
I have one Text List (STR#) that says Default in the name and an instance of 0000. What to do with that one?

In the Lot Description (LTXT) for each residential lot the description is the same (1 Lakeside Road). Do I leave that, match the actual lot name, or make it blank? And then leave 0x0001 blank in the matching Text List (STR#)? Looking at some lots where I used an in game blank lot, the Text List (STR#) should be blank for both lines. It is a bit weird though, because the 3x2 lots show the description as 1 Lakeside Road even though those were new, empty lots in game.

And one more, I am supposed to edit the N299_Neighborhood.package right? I'm not actually editing anything in the lots folder?

My primary concern with this issue is how your LTXT and STR# could have gotten so out-of-sync. I must admit that I've never seen that problem before, although it's easy to create the problem when using SimPE. I wonder whether this is a bug in the base game which was fixed with later EPs? Is your base game patched?

Yes, I am hoping that this will fix your problem.

Note that I have not reproduced your problem, and therefore have not been able to determine whether this will fix it. However, I believe that some EPs may use the information in the LTXT and some use the information in the STR#. If the STR# does not have reasonable data, the game may end up barfing on that lot. This would also explain why some people are seeing the lot description as the lot name, and some people are not.

Have you been able to determine which lots are missing from your hood? Are they all lots which all have the same data in the STR#? The game is not able to handle two lots with exactly the same name. It is also unlikely to be able to handle a lot with a blank name.

It would also be interesting to know which EPs that are installed for people who are having the problem, and whether their games are patched. It's possible that this problem only occurs for one version of one EP.

If you have additional STR# with instances > 0x8000, I believe that they may be associated with lots which were deleted. As far as I know, they are not going to harm anything, but personally I would remove them since they may cause a conflict when a new lot is added to the neighborhood. If the new lot happens to get a number which already has an associated STR#, then the game may not change the existing STR# to match the new LTXT.

Leave it. The only STR# which have an affect on lots will have an instance number of the lot instance + 0x8000. IIRC, STR# below 0x8000 are usually associated with the corresponding FAMI record. Do you have a Default family?

I do not believe that the lot description is used for residential lots. I often see an arbitrary lot name as the description, but I don't believe that the value matters.

The main thing is that the LTXT and STR# should match. If you decide to keep the "1 Lakeside Road" lot description, then you should have that in the STR# as text 1. If you decide to make the lot description blank, then make STR# text 1 blank as well.

IIRC, you must name a lot as soon as you place it. Therefore, there should never be an STR# which has two blank lines.

It's possible that the 3x2 lot template has a lot description of "1 Lakeside Road", which is just transferred intact when you place a new 3x2 lot. Something which needs research.

Yes, you should just edit the neighborhood package and nothing else. Each lot also has a lot name and description in the LOT record, but those fields are ignored except when then lot is packaged or in the Lot Bin.

If my initial suggestion doesn't solve the problem, I will look into the LOT records.

Hi. I've been tsting the Black Mesa neighborhood for HL, and it was requested that I post what EPs/SPs I have.
Here are the EPs/SPs that I own:
EPs: Uni, NL, OFB, Pets, Seasons, BV, FT, AL
SPs: FFS, GLS, Celebration!, H&M, TSS, KBIDS, Ikea, M&G
Additionally the Holiday 05 and Holiday 06 packs.
Basically I have everything EXCEPT Store Edition.
As far as I know I have installed every available patch.

When testing with an AnyGameStarter I use an AnyGame with all EPs/SPs and no custom content except for _EnableColorOptionsGMND.package (which I'm sure is part of the CEP and was put there automatically).

Do you have any of the collection packs, or is everything a standalone EP?

I have all standalone games, and all are patched.

Now, weirdness begins.

I changed the LTXT and STR# so they matched, but as soon as I open the hood in game, it goes back to the way it was!

I changed the LTXT so the Lot name is correct and House name is blank, then in the corresponding STR# I made line 0 match the Lot name and line 1 empty. For community lots, I also matched name/descriptions between LTXT and STR#. once I ran the game the description for community lots is now in line 0 and 1, and for residential lots the STR# is back to 1 Lakeside Road in line 0 and blank for line 2.

I am currently uploading the fixed one, but unopened in game one, so you can see the fixed version. I'd be curious if it also has the same issue if InsamePsychoRabbit opens this one.

Only thing I don't have as a standalone is NL (I have Sims 2 Deluxe which comes with the base game and NL together).

ETA: Just plunked into my AnyGameStarter the most recent version (last modified today at 11:53 AM Eastern) and I can see all the lots, and they all have the correct names. Hooray! :D

It really sounds like there is something odd about your game HugeLunatic. Could you check and see whether any of your installation files may have been changed (look for a modified date later than the rest of the files).

Hello. I have been testing Black Mesa for HL. I have all expansions and stuff packs and all are standalone except OFB which was in the Business Collection (OFB, KB Stuff and H&M Stuff). Everything is patched.

I just put the updated 'hood in a clean game and all lots are showing and have the correct names. I'm going to put the CC and old user files back in and try it. If there are issues, I'll check in again. So far, it seems to be working as it should!

Thank you both for testing, and reporting back!

I've looked and so far haven't found any game files that are not dated 2004/2005, except some script/txt files for modular stairs, lights, etc, and config files.

More testing however has shown that the base game setup with AGS is at fault for changing the LTXT and STR names. The clean hood in my full game setup doesn't change any values in those two resources. Using an AGS with UNI, NL + IKEA keeps the community lot names/descriptions as they should be and only adds the 1 Lakeside Road back into the description on some residential lots.

I'm going to uninstall AGS and reinstall, but if there are any files you are interested in from that first Mootilda just let me know.

At least we understand the problem. Hopefully, it's documented well enough that anyone who has this problem in the future will be able to solve it. It would also be pretty easy for me to write a program which would fix the STR# records (and remove unnecessary ones).

My base game is from the Deluxe collection, which may explain why I haven't seen this issue.

There can be no harm in zipping up your AnyGameStarter\AppFiles folder before reinstalling your base game AnyGame. That way, I can take a look at your old AnyGame if we determine that your new base game AnyGame doesn't have the problem.

[Update:]

I decided to do a survey of existing base game neighborhoods, to see whether any of them have this problem. Some do, which implies that this is a bug in (at least some versions of) the base game, and that the requirement that LTXT and STR# match is probably not universal (or we would have seen a lot more complaints). So, I'm going to run some tests to see which EPs have the requirement.

Base game neighborhood with correct STR#:
Port White Water (Qbaliki)

Base game neighborhood with incorrect STR#:
Middleground (plasticbox)

Base game neighborhood with no STR#:
Monopoly Game Town (d_dgjdhh)

Not surprisingly, some people have had problems with missing lots in Middleground.

I doubt that the missing STR# in Monopoly are a base-game bug. My guess is that d_dgjdhh decided to clean the neighborhood in SimPE without understanding the purpose of the STR# records, since the default family STR# is missing as well. However, it gives us another data point for testing how well various EPs deal with these incorrect STR# records.

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I created a new neighborhood with all four situations:
1) Several lots where the LTXT and STR# match and are unique for each lot.
2) Several lots where the lot name (text 0) in the STR# is replaced by the lot description. In these cases, all of these lots have the exact same STR#.
3) Several lots where the STR# contains blank text. In these cases, all of these lots have the exact same STR#.
4) Several lots where the STR# is missing. In these cases, all of these lots have the exact same STR#.

Results of testing:
All lots stay in neighborhood except as described below. It looks like every EP behaves exactly the same; didn't test SPs, but I imagine that they are the same. Note that my base game and Nightlife are from the Deluxe collection.
- Only one of the lots from 2) stays in the neighborhood. The rest from 2) disappear.

So, the game seems able to handle blank or missing STR#, but not multiple lots with the same non-empty strings in STR# text 0.

I found a weird quirk. If I create a base AGS using US English, then the LTXT and STR remain as they should. If I choose the default language of Original (UK English), then this is where the LTXT and STR become corrupt. I'm guessing this is because my OS is US English?

I'm also having trouble getting any other AGS to install correctly to test. :/ Looking at the AnyGame.bat files and AnyGameLog files it appears the short path is not correct. I manually changed a NL AGS short paths, and was rewarded with no LTXT or STR corruption after loading and saving. I was attempting to find a game that stopped corrupting, but now I wonder if it was the language all along and I had accidentally used UK English in my setup of AGS initially.

Do you know whether plasticbox uses UK English?

I only know that plasticbox is from Austria.