Author Topic: Duplicate Sims in Neighborhood (Read 21401 times)

Flynn Arrowstarr · « **on:** March 17, 2011, 11:36:22 PM »

Mrs. Flynn and I noticed an interesting issue with Sims 3 after installing Late Night. Our Sim ended up knowing four versions of the same Sim. All four had the same traits, looks, outfits, etc. However, one was Paparazzi, one was a Celebrity and the other two were "normal". We'd installed some of the bars from Bridgeport and built an apartment before noticing the problem the first time. We deleted the saved game and haven't had too many problems since. But, recently we had another duplicate Sim in one of my games, and another duplicate Sim in Mrs. Flynn's game (the duplicate was a copy of the Sim she's playing). Has anyone else noticed this?

Flynn

Saltypaws · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2011, 11:40:26 PM »

I remember a similar issue some time back and I was trying to find the thread on it. It has happened to a number of our members and it has only happened to me once, but not for some time. I don't think I have heard of four of the same sim. Not sure if there is really anything to do about it, but at least you know your not the only one.

MrsFlynn · « **Reply #2 on:** March 17, 2011, 11:50:16 PM »

I'd like to add - At least in my game, the duplicate sim person shows up in the game only. They are not in Create a Sim, household or packaged houses libraries. So I'm not sure where they came from.

MrsFlynn

Flynn Arrowstarr · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2011, 11:58:32 PM »

Kind of wondering if the game is running out of stock Sims and randomly nabbing pre-existing Sims to fill in "new" Sim needs. Though why it would do that when Story Progression is turned off is beyond me. Mrs. Flynn plays with SP off all the time.

Flynn

MrsFlynn · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2011, 11:58:53 PM »

Game Note: We play with a somewhat tweaked version of Sunset Valley = No apartments and none of the bigger Late Night stuff = Bars and such. As the apartments seem to have been causing some of the problem of duplicate sim people. We think. As we took out the apartments, and the duplicate sims went away... at least till now. It's very strange and frusterating.

MrsFlynn

MrsFlynn · « **Reply #5 on:** March 18, 2011, 12:07:37 AM »

Thank you, Saltypaws. If you happen to find that thread, please let us know?!

MrsFlynn

pallyndrome · « **Reply #6 on:** March 18, 2011, 02:27:54 AM »

I play with SP off too, and I don't have that problem, so I wouldn't say the SP is a problem. I don't use apartments (I find them not worth the hassle), however I do use LN clubs. It's cool to discover another SP off player, I thought I might be the only one

Hosfac · « **Reply #7 on:** March 18, 2011, 03:26:40 AM »

Each town has it's own group of "homeless NPC's" that it uses to fill jobs like the Tattoo Artist, paparazzi, and to flesh out rosters at rabbit hole careers. They're called homeless, because when you start playing, they don't actually live in the town. It's not uncommon that these sims move into a house through story progression eventually. And I'm not totally sure how the LN bars work in the towns outside Bridgeport but if you put them in these towns, I suppose it's reasonable to believe that that if the game runs out of people to fill roles like bouncer and mixologist at these establishments, that some of these sims could be "recycled" in a sense.

I've played Sunset Valley a whole lot more than I have any other town, and I'm much more familiar with the homeless NPC's there than I am anywhere esle. If you remember this sim's name, I can probably identify them as such. Also, what were these sims doing when you encountered them?

I have heard of people having problems when playing with story progression disabled. However, this was not one of those problems lol. The biggest issue is that everyone in the town dies of old age, and the active sims are virtually the only ones left in town. For this reason, if you play with story progression off, it's not a bad idea to play with aging off as well.

MrsFlynn · « **Reply #8 on:** March 18, 2011, 04:36:45 AM »

I play with Sunset Valley, aging off and story progression off make everyone happy and static needs. The current duplicate sim person is a sim person that Hubby made in Create a Sim a few days ago.

In my earlier saved game, I'm playing Vanessa who is an architect. She's the one with the duplicate. I found Vanessa's duplicate in the consignment shop talking with some other sim person. Moused over her and saw that she was a paparazzi.

I tried a test game. I was trying to hunt the duplicate down in a new game and delete her from the game a little bit ago. But couldn't find where she lives. It seems like she's homeless or something? How I tested to see if she was there is I picked a household with 2 people in it. Made one of them know everyone and be friends with everyone. While the other didn't know anyone or was friends with anymore. Had her come over for a visit. When the person is known, they have an orange icon over where they live. So I went looking over the town for that and wasn't able to find it. So that's why I'm assuming she's homeless.

I figure if there's going to be duplicate sim people they'd either come from the household library or the Sim Bin. I re-checked my household library as well as the Sim Bin in Create a Style. And the duplicate person is not there.

Wonder if it's a cache file of some sort that has her info in it? And if it is, would it be deleteable without messing up the game?

Thank you for your help

MrsFlynn

Pam · « **Reply #9 on:** March 18, 2011, 06:26:54 AM »

Does the duplicate have the same name as the original? During my Dreamweaver Immortal Dynasty, I had some of my Sims come back into the game under different names. For example, long after Oliver Dreamweaver died of old age, his "body" came back as an elderly paparazzi and then as a young adult around town. Both new Olivers had completely different names and no connection to my family. It happened with (Christopher Steel) Dreamweaver and Antone Dreamweaver, too. It was very strange, but apparently the game grabbed random Sims from its memory or something.

MrsFlynn · « **Reply #10 on:** March 18, 2011, 11:34:37 AM »

Hi Pam,

Yep, same name, and personality. Except the duplicate is a Paparazzi. And the Vanessa I play is an architect.

MrsFlynn

Hosfac · « **Reply #11 on:** March 18, 2011, 11:45:52 AM »

I"ve read that sims can be taken from the CAS library (the button with the 6 shadowy faces on it), but I've never actually had that happen. Likewise, it doesn't even sound like that's what's going on. Very odd...

I've also never had duplicate sims pop up in my game.

Flynn Arrowstarr · « **Reply #12 on:** March 18, 2011, 10:49:39 PM »

Played around a bit tonight with our blank Sunset Valley (no custom Sims, no houses, only the businesses). I placed one house with two Sims and ran the game for a bit with Story Progression on and with it off. I didn't get any duplicate Sims. Had one Sim know everyone (testingcheatsenabled true, Shift + Click on the mailbox) and ran her to several businesses and parks. A few homeless Sims showed up with Paparazzi or Tattoo Artist (for example), but no Sims were duplicated on her Friends list, and no Sims from our Library or Bin showed up in the town either.

For some reason, this only seems to happen with our Sunset Valley that we've added pretty much all of our Sims to. Since we'd rearranged the houses and Sims several times during the course of making this town, I'm wondering if there is something that got corrupted in its files somewhere. We still have the base blank town we started with (the one I tested with), so we're going to try and re-create the custom town and see what happens.

Thanks for everyone's suggestions.

Flynn

Flynn Arrowstarr · « **Reply #13 on:** March 20, 2011, 08:55:31 PM »

A couple more things:

We played through several more Sim days in our updated Sunset Valley. Both with Story Progression on and off. Other than some of the homeless Sims that we've saved off and use as playable Sims, there have been no duplicates in town. No extra Sims from the Sim Bin or Library either.

When we built the original version, we had swapped several versions of our Sims in and out of the neighborhood. I'm thinking that some of the files remained cached somewhere in the town file and that's where the duplicates came from. In this version of the town, we only placed one version of a Sim in the town.

Mrs. Flynn replaced one of our custom Sims with a version she's been playing. If I'm right, she could potentially see the Sim as a duplicate later on, if the file was cached. Not sure what to do if that happens.

Flynn

MrsFlynn · « **Reply #14 on:** March 26, 2011, 02:54:45 AM »

I wanted to post an update to our duplicate Sim problem. So far so good!! I played Vanessa for about an in-game week. (Aging and Story progression off) Had her know everyone and found there's no duplicates!! Just what I was hoping for.

What I think may of happened is something ended up getting corrupted in the last Sunset Valley that we tweeked. By tweeked I mean we moved some of the businesses around, deleted some of the houes and made room for the salon, consignment shop, fire station and junk yard. Placed some of our custom Sims and previously townie Sims into the town and saved it.

What I've learned from this is if you've got duplicate Sims. Depending on what your situation is, it might be best to package up the sim person/family and start in a new game.

Thank you, everyone for your help!!

MrsFlynn

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