Houselots Stuck in Menu

[mrbisonm]

With the many years of downloading came some "problems" here and there, most of them that I was able to take care of. Thanks to all those Uploaders that don't specify or simply forget to mention all the EP's that are needed.
I only have the Basegame of TS2 and have downloaded only stuff that was indicated to be so, but like I said, sometimes other stuff gets into the game and then the problems start.
This problem I couldn't figure out at all and I have not found anything that talks about it, so I need some help with it.

In the neighborhood view, under Lots and Houses (where we find the ones that we downloaded) I have 6 lots accumulated with the years that crash my game to the desktop everytime I clock on them to choose. I don't use them therefore, but now came a seventh one and I think it is time to do something and to get rid of them all. The thing is when I click on them to delete them, the game crashes. So... there doesn't seem to be another way to delete them. I searched for the files by name in every folder of the TS2 files to manually delete them, but I couldn't find them.
Now, does someone know what to do to get rid of them once and for all? 3 of them I have since 3 or 4 years. Help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks


mrb

I included a picture to show the problem..... :|

http://img526.imageshack.us/img526/4461/4535v.jpg

[Ghost sdoj]

You didn't find them in the Teleport folder? (Although they might be using odd names...)

I don't know if Mootilda's Hood Checker will help there or not, as the lots crash before you get them into the game. But there is obviously something invalid about them. I suppose it would be worth running it and see if it mentions anything invalid regarding a set of lots... It's here http://www.modthesims.info/d/456523 Even if it doesn't find the lots for you, it will locate any neighborhood corruption before it gets out of hand.

Do you have SimPE? You may have to resort to manually tracking them down in SimPE and removing them.

[Mootilda]

The HoodChecker cannot help with this problem. I do not recommend that you bother with it at this time.

Although SimPE will help you to identify the files, I would recommend the Clean Installer.

Exit the game. Install and run the Clean Installer and then Browse to your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\LotCatalog folder. It will show you all of the houses in your Lot Bin.

If you can't identify the lots by name, then you can click on a lot and it will show you a description of the lot with pictures, which may help. Clicking on a lot will also show you the game engine version... that is, the latest EP used to create the lot. Anything which does not say "The Sims 2" will not work in your game.

Once you have decided which lot you want to remove, right click on the lot name and select either "Disable package" or "Remove package". Remove will just remove the lot; Disable will rename the lot so that the game won't be able to see it. Disable is safer because, if you make a mistake, you will not lose the lot and can re-enable it later. Once you are sure that you have disabled the correct lots, you can move or remove all of the files with the .OFF file extension.

If the Clean Installer does not display the lots, then there is a possibility that the lots were never moved from your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Teleport folder, as Ghost sdoj suggests. You should be able to remove all files in that folder, as long as you haven't installed any new lots since the last time that you viewed your neighborhood.

In the future, be sure to check the game engine version, using the Clean Installer, before installing lots.

[mrbisonm]

Thanks to both of you, much appreciated.

Ghost sdoj, there's nothing at all in my Teleportfolder, it is totally empty. Yes, I do have SimPe, but I never used it before. ;) It is there ever since its existance. Thanks for having reminded me that it could be useful. I will surely have a look at it tonight and see what it can be usefull for. Thanks.

Mootilda, thanks to you the problem is solved. I opened the Lotcatalog and there were 7 files, exactly the number of my corrupt lots in the menu, but these had names like "cx_00000019", not really identifying them precisely. So, as you proposed, I opened them with the Clean Installer and what do you know, all the exact names popped up on these 7 files. Without hesitation, I took them out of that folder and kept them on the desktop, just in case....I opened the game and voila, it worked without these seven lots that I had stuck in the menu for several years and they did NOT show up in the menu anymore. I then re-opened them with the Clean Installer and found out that all of them needed extensions as Nightlife and others.
I just do not understand that these were mentioned as Basegame usable in the uploads. Is this normal or is it just some folks that forgot to mention or didn't bother with this matter?
I will now use the Clean Installer for future downloads.
Thank You very much for your help and your excellent and useful explanation.

While I have your attention, may I ask for two other matters, please? Now that I found out that I can use the Clean Installer for other things than just install files. I had a look at my 4.79 Gb Download folder, which took some time to load and I found two things as the picture below shows. Red and Pink lined files. What do these colours mean? The pink also say that these are "empty packages" ??? Are they corrupt files or simply not useful? Could I just delete them all?

Then on the second picture below is a home that I downloaded, but I found out that the price is excentric and NEVER will I have a sim to be able to get that amount and to enter this lot. Is there a way to change the price on this already plopped lot?

Thanks in advance.

mrb

http://img515.imageshack.us/img515/8730/4537.jpg

http://img19.imageshack.us/img19/9559/4538c.jpg

[Whiterider]

In most cases, the creators forget to mention an EP. Nowadays we can check for this during moderation on MTS, and do; but lots from a few years ago may be incorrectly marked simply because there was no way for moderators to tell, at the time, that the lots need EPs.

[Mootilda]

For an explanation of Red, Pink and Empty files, try reading the Clean Installer FAQ:
http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/index.php?page=5

If that doesn't answer your questions, let me know what you find confusing and I'll try to explain it better.

The lot price is calculated based on the actual items on the lot, so there's no way to set an arbitrary price. You can reduce the lot price by removing some of the more expensive items and replacing them with cheaper alternatives. For example, beds, showers, counters and other items can vary wildly in price. Using the cheapest item in the catalog can significantly reduce the cost of the lot.

I just do not understand that these were mentioned as Basegame usable in the uploads. Is this normal or is it just some folks that forgot to mention or didn't bother with this matter?Unfortunately, many people do not understand about game engine versions and assume that a lot is base-game compatible when it isn't. For example, I've seen people who believe that lots made with only SPs (no EPs) are base-game compatible, or that lots with only base-game items are base-game compatible.

If you remember where you downloaded the lot, be sure to let the creator know that it is not base-game compatible. You can also show them a screenshot of the lot in the Clean Installer, with the game engine version displayed; it might help to convince them that there's a problem.

[mrbisonm]

whiterider , glad that nowadays the uploads are more controlled, avoing more of this confusion. Thanks for the answer.

Mootilda
Thanks again for your explanations and thanks for the link, which did the job of explaining the red and pink files in the Clean Installer.
I did what you said about emptying the lot of the prices, but it only descended the price for a few thousand of §. Way not enough to let a sim be able to ever play this lot. The price was surely modified and exagerated, because there isn't that much stuff in there to be costing this. So, if there's a way to increase the price in this file, there should be a way to decrease it, right?

Thanks everyone for helping me out to understand this game even better.

mrb

[Mootilda]

I seem to remember that there was a bug involving exorbitant lot prices... something about using University lots in a base game environment, perhaps? Let me see whether I can find anything. Is your game patched? If not, you should consider patching.

If someone else remembers this bug, perhaps they could provide a link to a description of the bug and a solution?

If you had EPs, you could use the Magic Wand from MATY to reduce the lot price. It basically sets the depreciation on all items to maximum. However, I don't believe that it is base-game compatible; you need Nightlife or later.

You could always cheat your sim enough money to move in.

[mrbisonm]

I seem to remember that there was a bug involving exorbitant lot prices... something about using University lots in a base game environment, perhaps? Let me see whether I can find anything. Is your game patched? If not, you should consider patching.

If someone else remembers this bug, perhaps they could provide a link to a description of the bug and a solution?

If you had EPs, you could use the Magic Wand from MATY to reduce the lot price. It basically sets the depreciation on all items to maximum. However, I don't believe that it is base-game compatible; you need Nightlife or later.

You could always cheat your sim enough money to move in.

Yes, my game is officially patched and I don't think this is the problem. I can enter the lot and modify everything, except the price. You really think that it is a bug? Why this one, while I have more than 100 lots in my neighborhood?
I don't have EP's and I don't want them.
One more question: Is there a way to give enough cheatmoney to a Sim to be able to buy that lot? I mean Billions and not with the "motherlode" cheat.

Thanks again. ;)

mrb

[Mootilda]

There's the FamilyFunds cheat, but that also requires Nightlife or later.

You could open the neighborhood package in SimPE, select the Family Information (FAMI) record for the family, and edit the family funds in the plugin view.

[mrbisonm]

There's the FamilyFunds cheat, but that also requires Nightlife or later.

You could open the neighborhood package in SimPE, select the Family Information (FAMI) record for the family, and edit the family funds in the plugin view.

Is there a tutorial on how to do this, because yet I haven't been able to find any info how to manage the SimPe yet, not to mention how to do anything with it.....lol...seems complicated even to just open it. ;)


EDIT: Just found a PDF file to download with all the info I need to modify the neighborhood files in SimPe. Thanks for your time and help, all was much appreciated. Now let's do some learning on how to use this program..........oh boy, the night's gonna be long....lol ;)

Thanks for the help
mrb