Many of you may not realize this, but The Sims 2 was a poorly coded game in some aspects. It is easy to corrupt the pre-corrupted neighborhoods in The Sims 2 by using some of the game options. The tips below will help you avoid further corruption in your game.
Note: I am not including corruption that can occur with mods, custom content, or the editing of game files.
There are two types of corruption that can affect your game. The first type of corruption is game corruption. This type of corruption is neighborhood corruption. Neighborhood corruption affects the current neighborhoods you are playing while game corruption affects the entire game.
Neighborhood Corruption
Neighborhood corruption already occurs in the default neighborhoods because of they way the game is coded but players can prevent further corruption and make the neighborhoods last longer. ALL Maxis hoods come pre-broken by bin deletion. Below are a few things EA enabled that can cause neighborhood corruption.
The most common causes to corruption is corrupt character data. Preforming the following actions below will cause corrupt character data:
- Delete a household in the family bin. The in-game delete button doesn't delete the Sim entirely. It shreds off a portion of the Sim's character file and their Sim Description (which is located in the Neighborhoods.package file), unlinks the character file, and leaves a 1KB character file in the "Characters" folder. The game does not properly clean out all references to the Sim, which means that memories, gossip, relationships, Sim Wants And Fears, etc. that involve the deleted Sim are now corrupted, as they point to non-existent data. Even if a Sim was created fresh out of Create-A-Sim, it doesn't mean that they are safe to delete via this method.
- Move an occupied lot or an owned community lot to the lot bin. The game transfers character data from the neighborhood to the lot bin, but does not completely erase all traces of the Sims from the neighborhood. Sims in the neighborhood may gossip about the missing Sims, spreading the corruption around the hood. Also, moving the lot back into the neighborhood will create new character files, instead of overwriting the existing ones. Moving the lot into another neighborhood will introduce the corruption to the hood it is moved into.
- Move a previously occupied/owned lot to the lot bin. Lots that can be lived in or owned by Sims will carry references and tokens that are connected to the Sims that live on/own the lot. If you move the lot into the lot bin, those references go along with it, and will corrupt any neighborhood you place the lot in.
- Install an occupied lot, including downloaded lots that ship with families. If the Sims had any relationships with any Sims not living on the same lot in their original neighborhood, placing the lot in your neighborhood will create partial character files of all the Sims that the lot's residents used to know. This will cause errors in the long run. You may find some occupied lots available for download which the creator has 'cleaned' to make them safe; the cleaning process is not 100% reliable, so you should exercise extreme caution and back up your neighborhoods before installing. The two occupied lots, Kat and Kim, that ship with Pets, are 100% safe.
- Delete or Smash Tombstones/Urns. Tombstones and urns are treated as Sims by the game. Deleting a tombstone/urn is the same as deleting a Sim using the in-game delete button - the character file is damaged, the Sim unlinks, and the memories, gossip, and references left behind to corrupt the neighborhood. If you wish to remove the urns/stones because of the annoying ghosts, create a community lot designated as a cemetery lot, and move the graves over there. Graves there will appear by the pay phone. Graves in apartment lots are extremely unstable. If the last Sim in an apartment slot dies, the grave will be moved to a random community lot, but it may also be deleted or moved to a non-existent lot. Bulldozing lots with graves will also cause this type of corruption.
- Move Tombstones/Urns using the "Give Gift" option. The SAFEST way to move a tombstone is to transfer it via the Inventory to a community lot. This preserves all of its death-related data. It is acceptable to move a tombstone via the "move to community lot" and "move home" features, but doing this results in the loss of the death type. This data can be restored by shift-clicking, but only if you remember what it is.
- Move lots that have graves to the lot bin. Exactly like moving occupied lots in the lot bin. Graves are treated as Sims by the game, and moving them to the lot bin will leave corrupted references behind. Moving them back into the neighborhood or into another neighborhood will simply cause more corruption.
- Allow a Sim to die with graves in their inventory. When a Sim dies, all items in their inventory are deleted. Deleting graves, as mentioned previously, will damage the dead Sim's character data, and corruption will spread around the neighborhood.
- Resurrect pre-made dead Sims created before University. These Sims include Skip Broke, Darleen Dreamer, Sims in Olive's graveyard, etc. Most of these Sims have incomplete character data, and will cause corruption if resurrected.
- Put tombstones or urns on any of the Open for Business display cabinets or shelves. When a tombstone or urn is placed on an OFB shelf, it will be duplicated. The duplicate tombstone will still be connected to the sim. This will corrupt the Sim.
- Have too many Sims in your neighborhood. The game actually has a character file limit. The limit is around 32767 files. Once a neighborhood has reached the limit, any new Sims created will immediately be lost, and other symptoms of corruption may present themselves.
- Save with ghosts active on the lot. If you load a lot with ghosts active, the game may delete all the graves on the lot.
- Move lots to the lot bin with off-world loiterers on them. As previously mentioned, it is unsafe to move occupied lots into the lot bin. It is also unsafe to move a family out while one of its members are on the phone. The off-world loiterer is then left behind, and will remain even when another family moves in. Moving the lot to the lot bin will carry that Sim along with it, and will cause problems over time.
- Marry close relatives or siblings. Doing this will cause the family trees and family ties of Sims to become corrupted. This includes members of the Curious-Smith family in The Sims 2's neighborhood Strangetown.
- Delete dorms that have been occupied by premades. The key will still be present for the dorm in the premade's file. If you delete the dorm the premades will not be able to move into a new dorm. The game will have to generate new premades and this can lead to corruption from having too many Sims in your neighborhoods.
- Not properly shutting down businesses. Before moving Sims to a new lot that own a home business, fire all the employees and make sure the home business is shut down. Before adding a community lot or residential lot to the bin that is owned, fire the employees and shut down the business. If it is residential, move the Sims out first before adding the lot the the bin.
Cheat Related Corruption
- Tampering with non-selectable NPCs (Tombstone of Life & Death). There are some Sims that do not have a complete character file. Tampering with them in any way or form outside of the in-game designated purposes may corrupt the neighborhood they are in. These Sims include:
- Grim Reaper
- Social Bunny
- Social Worker - may be spawned as a blind date through the Gypsy Matchmaker. Do NOT attempt to interact with her if she does - delete her using the move objects cheat immediately.
- Mrs. Crumplebottom
- Psychiatrist
- Drivers (carpool, bus, etc.)
- Witch Doctor
- Pollination Technicians (expect for Polli Tech #9 Smith, living in Strangetown)
- Ideal Plantsim
- Rod Humble
- Food Stand Chef
- Ghost Captain
- Hair Stylist
- Ninja
- Tour Guide
- Villain (Unsavory Charlatan)
- Santa Claus
- Skunk
- Skunk Skin
- Spectral Assistant
- TemplateDog
- Therapist (Shrink)
- Toddler New Year
- Witch Doctor (Shaman)
- Bigfoot Bigfoot (NPC) - This does not apply to the Bigfoot character found on the secret mountain vacation lot, as they are cloned from this object template. The clone is an active Sim with playable character data.
- Bird
- Father Time
- Food Table Judge
- Genie
- Good Witch Cat
- Grim Reaper
- Hula Zombie
- Ideal Plantsim
- Penguin
- Remote Control Car
- Robot
- Big Boss
- Social Bunny
- Use rezone a lot cheat (boolprop changelot_zoning <lottype>) with Sims living or staying on it. The game has different rules for different types of lots. Some lot types do not allow the lot to be saved, others could make the lot disappear from the neighborhood. Only perform such a task on empty, preferably new and unused lot.
- Use the DeleteAllCharacters cheat. This cheat, like the family bin delete button, will destroy part of all the character files in the neighborhood and leaves lots of junk, orphaned information. New Sims created may acquire this corrupted data.
Sources:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Avoiding_Hood_Corruption
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Issues_Regarding_NPCs
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=394352&c=1&ht=&page=1&pp=25#startcomments
Last edited: Jul 22, 2014
