(MAC USER) One of my neighbourhoods dissapeared.

[MoonageDaydream]

I have been playing the Riverblossom Hills neighbourhood for quite some time now with my own characters. Basically here's what happened: I saved the game and quit because me and my brother had to turn off the house power (we were fixing new downlights). The game hadn't fully quit (it saved though, it was a black screen with the sims style cursor) when the power went off, I played the game a few days later and found that Riverblossom Hills has dissapeared from the neighbourhoods menu. The files in the folders are still there as far as I can see. Is there any way to recover the neighbourhood!?!? I've had so many problems with this game over the years and if I can't get the neighbourhood back I can't be bothered starting from scratch once again. Ah jeez.

[plasticbox]

See this thread: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=180053

Power-out while saving is something the game can't handle (my own game can't even handle being interrupted while saving, if it's any consolation). Most probably, that neighbourhood is wiped out now.

I'd try opening the neighbourhood.package in SimPE to see whether there's anything left .. but if it's like with my own neighbourhoods, that package is probably "4kb" now and empty.

[plasticbox]

Argh I told my brother to just wait a few more moments
Uh-oh. I'm just glad I'm not your brother, right now .. =P

[MoonageDaydream]

Yeah I thought the neighbourhood was probably gone for good. Argh I told my brother to just wait a few more moments, but no, he had to cut the power there and then.

I'll check it out anyway to see if there is anything i can do. It's just annoying since my families were all about 4 generations in :(

[MoonageDaydream]

Actually, I just thought about it... if I make copies of my characters and lots, etc. files, re-install and paste them back onto the defaults, is it possible to save my characters and houses? Or it's not that simple?

Basically what I mean is to try and re-install the neighbourhood, giving it a new neighbourhood package but place the characters and lots files back to the new neighbourhood folder? It's the neighbourhood package which is the problem is it not?

[plasticbox]

No, it's not that simple. I don't know much about sims (only that they're more complicated than that), but even lots need a corresponding entry in the neighbourhood.package for the nhood to know where they are, what size they have etc.

But what you can try, if you want to rescue the lots:

1. open the /Lots folder of the broken neighbourhood
2. copy all lots to your LotCatalog folder
3. rename them to cx_000000XX.package, where XX starts with the fist unused number in LotCatalog.

They should show up in the lot bin then, so that you can place them in a different neighbourhood.

[MoonageDaydream]

Oh okay, but i wouldn't have my sims back? there's not much point then, since most of the houses were defaults anyway. Not to worry. I have spent more time trying to fix the sims 2 than i have actually played it, I'm sure most people are in that same boat. The sims 3 would probably make my computer explode