Missing character data?

Submitted by maruutsu on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 08:53.

SimPe tells me that three of my characters are missing character data, and when I open their files, they have a red background.

The hell?

It doesn't seem to affect them in-game, but I'm worried about it. Plus I think they are the characters whose family trees I modified using InSim... ARGH. Please tell me my game will not crash.

General Discussion

This JUST started happening

Submitted by Lothere on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 12:18.

This JUST started happening to me too. Not the red background, but characters' images are gone, replaced with Mr. Potato Head. And if I open the character file, there is no entry for the thumbnail image. But they seem to work fine in the game. (And have face thumbnails intact.)

It worries me too. I haven't ever modified family trees in SimPE, and I haven't done anything lately that I haven't done before. I'm kind of hoping that it's related to the black scalp bug and that it will go away now that it's fixed. But if I notice anything else (or any patterns to be aware of) I will let you know.

I can't NOT have SimPE. But I admit, to this day I still get nervous when I muck around with my Sims in that program. :-/

Ach. I didn't alter the

Submitted by maruutsu on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 15:16.

Ach. I didn't alter the family ties via SimPe, I used InSim, but that doesn't seem to be the problem. I have other sims in different neighborhoods who have the same problem despite the fact that I didn't alter their family trees

Anyway, Ann and I were talking about this on the chat today, and she found this thread:

http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/forum/viewpost/16330#16330

So far the most helpful answer seems to be to use a previous backup, but there's also this:

Had you edited the sim recently with Simpe? If so, look in the neighborhood folder, is there a file with the sims number with a .bak extension? If there is, you might be able to revert back to the point the sim was at prior to your last edit of it.

Trouble is, we have no idea how that's done. Ann said she'd try, but I haven't "seen" her since. (Should we call the police? )

There's also this:

http://boolprop.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=73&t=35912&start=0

It's when the character shows up as Mr. Potato Head with a red background and no character data that you have to worry. That means the file's shredded and the character's gone.

To restore a Sim from backup

Submitted by Lothere on Sat, 11/14/2009 - 16:01.

To restore a Sim from backup you should rename the .bak file to .package. Namely:

Quit the game.

Figure out which N001_Character_0024.bak (can't remember the exact file name format for character files) is the correct back up for the character in question. You can use SimPE to get the name/number of the file, but you have to rename using Windows Explorer.

Rename the existing (broken) N001_Character_0024.package to something like N001_Character_0024.old so you have a "backup" of your existing file. The game will ignore any file that is not .package so it's OK to call it .old.

Then rename (or copy) N001_Character_0024.bak (the SimPE-generated backup) to N001_Character_0024.package

Then load up SimPE and see if the character now appears OK.

Every time you modify & save a character in SimPE, it creates a new backup file, overwriting the existing backup file for that character (if any). So if it's a character you've never modified in SimPE you are out of luck, because there won't be a backup file at all. Or, if it's a character you haven't modified in SimPE for weeks, you may find yourself with a toddler on your hands or something.

Worse, if you have edited and saved the "broken" character in SimPE after he got broken, then his backup will be broken too.

Oh, and if you have used the "neighborhood manager" or whatever it's called to create backups of your whole neighborhood, you can try getting the character back that way.

Going from memory, if your game directories are at

C:/Documents and Settings/Jenny/Documents/EA Games/The Sims

then the backups should be at

C:/Documents and Settings/Jenny/Documents/EA Games/SimPE/Backups

or something like that.

In that case you would want to rename your current N001_Character_0024.package to N001_Character_0024.old; COPY (don't move) the file N001_Character_0024.package from the backup neighborhood into your real neighborhood, and start SimPE and see what happens.

That explanation seems kind of garbled since I don't have Windows at hand. Hope that helps though.

Very sorry, maruutsu! My

Submitted by Ann on Sun, 11/15/2009 - 03:04.

Very sorry, maruutsu! My internet time ran out. Happens all the time. ^^ ( Maybe I surf too much... )

Good news is: I saved my sims! I did, what Lothere said. (Had just found a thread explaining that when my internet went *zipp*...) Now, they are all back to their comforting gray backgrounds and so far fine ingame. Only bad thing: One of my teen girls was back to toddler age. Fixed that with the Temporal Adjustor. Hope I didn't screw anything else up, with that... But at least the sims have faces again. ^^

So, I hope that the saying "Third time is the charm" holds true and there won't be another problem materializing, now that this one is cleared up.

Edit: Okay, correction. I saved SOME of my sims. All but four. I have no idea what is wrong with this family, but they just showed up red AGAIN (actually the father wasn't red before...). What the HELL?
And I don't even have another .bak I can use... Are they doomed now??? *don't want*

I am too lazy to try it out

Submitted by maruutsu on Tue, 11/17/2009 - 09:50.

I am too lazy to try it out yet, but I'll get to it when I'm in the mood. Thanks, Lothere! I wouldn't have figured it out on my own.

And don't worry, Ann. I figured your massive download spree would have caused something like that

Edit: Yeah, it didn't work. My backup files are too recent, unfortunately. But I don't have that many characters, so I'll just clone them and start over in a new neighbourhood. I feel safer that way.

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