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Peni Griffin
8th Apr 2012, 02:32 PM
After recovery from a hard-drive crash as discussed elsewhere, I have restored the most recent backup of my custom hood. Before loading the game, since a previous attempt at restoration after running the neighborhood through the hoodchecker went bad, I looked in SimPE and confirmed that everything appeared normal.

On loading the game and the neighborhood, however, the same problem recurred, to whit: All of my CAS sims have been randomly renamed, mostly with a name for the wrong gender.

For example, the Aerius household should consist of Greg Aerius, Ben Aerius, John Amos Aerius, and their cat Eartha, all built in CAS. However, Greg is now named JoAnne Wong, Ben is now named Dagmar Buckingham, John Amos is Margaret Taylor, and Eartha is Alabama.

All born in-game and premade sims retain their proper names.

I'm trying to look on the bright side and say that at least the hood checker isn't to blame; but as bright sides go that isn't looking very bright.

Drama Acres consists of a custom hood, the vacation subhoods, a university, and a downtown. I have successfully restored from backups before with no such issues. The custom content was added prior to loading the game, for obvious reasons, and removing it would seem to be the next step; but of course that's going to mean restoring the hood again, which is a several-hours-long process. At least this can be the last time, as I can restore to my backup location and then copy that file repeatedly; but this one will have to go. And it takes over twelve hours to recover the thing. :faceslap:

Given that there'll be a considerable lapse of time before I can do any testing on this at all (since presumably the names are just changed now and this copy of the game is broken), I'm hoping somebody can make a suggestion that will make things go faster.

I have some older backups, but the most recent is about a month old. Obviously I want the one that's only missing one day of play, not an entire rotation, if I can get it. But I will be checking those, too.

Anyone who can help me fix this is my hero and will get a baby named after him/her.

:cry:

ETA: Curiouser and curiouser! By way of more info-gathering, I went back into SimPE before deleting the neighborhood, and the Aerius family still looks fine there!

Also, forgot to mention that I had added Mansion & Garden before restoring the neighborhood. Testing whether that's the problem is problematic, as Deluxe won't let me uninstall single EPs - I'd have to do another full uninstall-reinstall, which should not be my first resort. If I downloaded Any Game Starter, would that allow me to reliably test this?

M.M.A.A.
8th Apr 2012, 03:34 PM
Sims having their names changed is caused by the installation of a new EP (or SP), so did you back up your neighborhood after installing a new EP? which is unlikely (according to your story-lines).

So dont do the whole uninstall and reinstall thing, just try replacing your neighborhood (again) with a back-up after you have completely installed whatever EPs and SPs you have.

simsample
8th Apr 2012, 03:48 PM
Have you changed your language from English US to English UK by any chance? I remember someone having a similar issue caused by that.

Mootilda
8th Apr 2012, 04:08 PM
Do you have a back-up that you didnt use the hood checker on yet? If so, try replacing it.She's already done that, after I explained that the HoodChecker wasn't likely the cause.

Peni Griffin
8th Apr 2012, 04:19 PM
Aha. I have not consciously chosen to change to UK English, but looking at the back of my Mansion and Garden, it appears that the vendor I bought it from shipped me a UK version.

I don't see any obvious place to change the language (I'll run off and check the FAQs as soon as I post this); will restoring US English fix the problem in an existing game, if this is indeed the problem, or will I have to restore the backup again?

I checked and it does the same thing in my Strangetown, so I can use that as a testing hood for this purpose; should take a lot less time.

ETA: YEEEEEESSSS! I made the changes according to the FAQ, reloaded the game, went into Strangetown, and the single lonely CAS sim in that neighborhood has the correct name! I opened Drama Acres, and all is well! Drama Acres (and with it, our complete computer installation, this being the last borked component) is reborn on Easter Sunday!!!!!! :D :report:

Let this be a lesson to us all: Just because you didn't find it the first time you looked in the FAQ, doesn't mean it isn't there. It might be under something that looks unrelated, or you might have been panicking and missed it.

So, Simsample, :gjob: Do I give Naenae Newson's upcoming baby a fairly silly-sounding name, or do you have some other handle or real-life moniker I can use? It was supposed to be a boy named Ernie, but Ernest and Gavin will understand.

Mootilda
8th Apr 2012, 04:38 PM
I believe that restoring US English will fix your existing neighborhood. No need to restore from backup. As you've noticed, your sim's names still appear correctly under US English in SimPE. The problem is that the game is looking at a different set of strings. When you change back to US English, it will look in the right place.

Thanks simsample, for finding a possible solution. I was really stumped on this one.

M.M.A.A.
8th Apr 2012, 05:56 PM
OMG! Congratulations Peni!!! Finally! We now can enjoy your stories again.

simsample
8th Apr 2012, 06:47 PM
Ooh, I actually helped? Well, it seems that my memory isn't all that bad after all! :)

If you want me to name the baby, I think Ernie is a great name anyway, but other choices would be Noobu for a boy (the name of one of my favourite sims) or Random for a girl (the name of Sim Sample's daughter, get it- Random Sample). A double name would be cool, like Ernie Noobu Newson. :lol:

Aren't I cruel?