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#1 Old 29th Jun 2014 at 11:25 PM
Default Fixing Isla Paradiso?
Hi everyone,

I've downloaded a fixed version of Isla Paradiso and was quite happy with it but the family ties are still broken.
I know that there's a XML data within Isla Paradiso and I know that Maxis use those files to import skills, relationships, lifetime wishes, traits,... to sims.

Anyway, I've fixed the family ties in-game using MasterController.
But now, I want to extract the XML file of my save game and import it into the fixed IslaParadiso.world file.

Is there an option for extracting XML files from save games?

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#2 Old 1st Jul 2014 at 6:46 PM
Is the family ties the only thing fixed/touched?
Then what comes to mind is to use the world/package compare tool on 2 separate versions of the save game. One where you just save immediately when loading the world with nothing done during gameplay, and the other save with your fixes, preferably with nothing else touched or gametime lapsed either. The compare tool (I believe both Peter and Twallan created a compare tool, so you can try their respective sites) would pick up any resources that has changed. This is what I do when I need to identify what resources to extract for the world fixes when I'm ready to share and publish them. This is to also compare if the MasterController edits are add-ons that override the XML resource in the .world file, or pure replacement that we can just import into a .world file.

Or you can go hardcore and use a generic compare tool like Beyond Compare, or other tools of that ilk. But it won't be as direct as the tools offered @Simlogical or @NRaas.

If you want, I can incorporate this directly into my IP fix download thread(s). With credit to you, of course...once you have the correct resources identified and extracted, and tested to work on brand new games.

This is one of the reasons why I want to post up my WIP files to Github or a Public revision control system of some kind. So that you guys can contribute all sorts of fixes and it can all be consolidated, and not just depend entirely on one person but the whole Sims Community. See http://t.co/nArBcUtbN7
If I get approval or rather, most likely a no-response, I might just go ahead and do that anyways. So, you guys better prepare some bail money, in case things go south.
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#3 Old 1st Jul 2014 at 10:11 PM
I've done the first step.
But I can't find a compare tool by Peter/Twallan.
Could you give me a download link for the compare tool?

That would be really kind of you.

By the way, I've uploaded 2 Isla Paradiso save games (one fixed and one not fixed)
Attached files:
File Type: rar  Saves.rar (32.62 MB, 10 downloads) - View custom content

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#4 Old 2nd Jul 2014 at 4:30 PM
Here you go...
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=simlogical+compare
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nraas+.package+compare

Quote: Originally posted by ellacharmed
...once you have the correct resources identified and extracted, and tested to work on brand new games...

Oh no! I meant I would incorporate the resource once you have identified them, as stated above. I don't have the time to do the research and testing for you at this time, sorry. I can answer your questions if I know the answers, but I can't dig into stuff at the moment...
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#5 Old 3rd Jul 2014 at 3:55 PM
I've tested it.
The "edited" resources didn't fix the family tree issue.

I've deleted the save games and restored from back-up (IslaParadiso.world)

I had a look into the CharacterImport.xml and edited it.
I've fixed the family tree issues except one..
The Alto family tree don't want to be fixed.

Lopita and Alfonso Alto just don't want to be married.
I've tried several times but they stay friends.
Their relationship don't want to change to spouse.

But I was able to fix the (not meant to be) patchwork families by editing the .xml file.

Anyway, I've uploaded the edited .xml file...
Can you have a look into it and tell me where the problem is?
Attached files:
File Type: rar  fixedXML.rar (12.5 KB, 8 downloads) - View custom content

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#6 Old 5th Jul 2014 at 6:27 PM
Can do me a favor?
- take image during the day
- zoom out a little bit and give me more landmarks to see the relative location. Which tree is that under or nearest to?
- can you look at this same position in CAW, is there a spawner there?

I don't see this bottle in my game, but maybe it need to run a tad longer to spawn...
Screenshots
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#7 Old 6th Jul 2014 at 11:49 AM
Yes, there's a spawner.
I think it's for bottles and for seashells.

Anyway, I was looking around and found a spawner which is partly covered with sims non-routable paint (blue).
The game might spawn there something...but I really don't know.

As for the XML file, have you found something which prevents Alfonso and Lopita Alto to be married?
Screenshots

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
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Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
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#8 Old 6th Jul 2014 at 1:47 PM
Thanks for more screenshots! I didn't realize I replied to you on the wrong thread...

Sorry, haven't look into the xml, I'll schedule it in for sometime this week...
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#9 Old 6th Jul 2014 at 3:11 PM
Thank you very much for taking your time to look into it.
I hope you'll find that issue which prevents the Altos to be married.

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Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
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#10 Old 7th Jul 2014 at 8:16 AM
What is a good base line xml data to compare to? Which Household in Isla Paradiso has relationships set right and working correctly?

How about Households in Sunset Valley; good & working relationship-wise? I can't find an _xml resource (type: 0x0333406C) in Sunset Valley.world. Where might I find Sunset Valley Residents' Household and relationship information? I've looked in .world, FullBuild And Gameplay and couple other .package files - nada, zilch.

I know I extracted out the information back in 2012 as I have a wiki page and Windows Explorer Folder that told me I did it (see image), but for the life of me I'm blanking out on how I did it. And my personal wiki pages has no notes on this. I have to hunt down my physical paper-based notebooks of that year to know for sure.

So, what all this means is that as I had predicted, this is going to take a longer time to research. My preliminary study of just the xml file left me scratching my head on how it relates to gameplay, and I simply don't have the time right now to play a long-form game in order to dig into this and research more...without knowing the basics on how all this relates into gameplay and what tweaks affect what gameplay settings, I have no idea on what to tell you to try next.

But if you're willing to muddle through and dig yourself, I can keep you company and point things out or muddle along with you. I'll dig more to help when the urge strikes, or when I get curious enough to juggle everything else to the backburner for a couple hours here and there. But I simply have too many projects on my plate right now, so I truly cannot promise anything. Sims Projects always have lower priority than the Life projects and Work projects.

So, for starters, those first questions might help...if I know the answers.
Screenshots
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#11 Old 8th Jul 2014 at 2:37 PM
As far as I know, XML Character Import came with World Adventures.
Sunset Valley and Riverview don't have it.

The WA exploring worlds (China, Egypt, France) were the first worlds by EA with XML Character Import.
And then, they continued using them until now.

The sims will lose all relationships outside the household and skills (maybe even traits and lifetime wishes) and won't have a description text and so on if we would just delete the .xml file of Isla Paradiso.

EA made some mistakes regarding family trees and I've fixed them all - except the Alto family tree.
I've tried it. I deleted the XML file.
As said, the sims lose many relationships except inside households.
In that case Alfonso and Lopita WERE married without the xml file but they don't had any skills, jobs, relationships outside the household.

Anyway, I never heard of .ged files or some of those which can be seen in the picture.
Do you have a link to that page (seen in the picture)?

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#12 Old 8th Jul 2014 at 5:30 PM
If removal of the XML restored the Altos relationship, but removed everyone else's, means there's another source you need to hunt down. It might need a scripting fix.

Now I remember why I abandon this project, it's because of EA's inconsistencies! And what the showstopper was in the whole "See what make Relationships tick and fix broken ones" project.

No, the page is still on my local machine. It is very messy and incomplete. I got sidetracked trying to learn XML Schemas and Stylesheets (XSLT) and scripting.

You don't use search engines a lot, I guess? Search for "what are .ged files" and that would answer your question on what it is. I managed to extract the Household data into this format from Twallan's export demographics data in one of his mods. My intention at that time was to display the relationships in a graphical manner to see where the broken links are. One where I can just pop in the XML file and the software (yEd Graph Editor, Google it) would pop out a graph for me. But alas, I got stuck, as you can see.
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#13 Old 9th Jul 2014 at 12:00 AM
I meant that relationships within households remain but other relationships outside the household don't remain.

By the way, I'm sorry that I annoyed because of that.

I'm going to create a new game in Isla Paradiso and export that.
I know a Twallan mod which has that feature (Master Controller) but I never tested it before.

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
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#14 Old 9th Jul 2014 at 4:19 PM
Which demographic data need I to export?
How did you do that?
Anyway, I've used the cheat "worldbuilderoutput" and it made two CharcterImport files.
One for visible sims and one for invisible sims but I don't think that those two files are necessary...

But Twallan's DebugEnabler unlocks that cheat.

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
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#15 Old 16th Jul 2014 at 8:06 AM
The .ged output? I believe it's the Genealogy export one. It's an FAQ on the MC FAQ page, if I'm not mistaken.

Exporting this data won't be of much help to you though. It won't help in the relationship fixing itself. Because if the data is not in the CharacterImport.xml, it won't be in the Geneology data, I'm guessing. Since, I don't know where MC is pulling this data from without digging into the MasterController mod's source code. The devs @NRAAS may be able to help with that.

Unless you want to export the Genealogy data in order to compare it to the CharacterImport.xml data. Where if there are any discrepancies, we may have some idea on where to start digging next. Like where the MC mod is pulling the Genealogy data from when it exports the .ged file. Which would at least tells us what area(s) of the code need to be looked into, in order for the broken relationships to get fixed. And not just for Isla Paradiso.

Because, the below statements tells me that there are separate sources where the relationships data are stored. And that the CharacterImport.xml has a lower priority if the other source is overriding the fixes done in that xml file.
Quote: Originally posted by Jawusa
As said, the sims lose many relationships except inside households.
In that case Alfonso and Lopita WERE married without the xml file but they don't had any skills, jobs, relationships outside the household.

Quote: Originally posted by Jawusa
I meant that relationships within households remain but other relationships outside the household don't remain..
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#16 Old 21st Aug 2014 at 11:55 AM
I'm not a programmer so I don't know much about source codes and so on.
But as you said Alfonso and Lopitas reference could be inside the XML file.

Catalogue of Custom Neighborhoods for TS2
All Hood Building Group neighborhoods are available here
Want to get rid of EA's sims in neighborhoods? Check out my Clean and Empty Steatlh Hoods and Clean and Empty Neighborhood Templates
My Simblr
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