Game Help:Moving Sims
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Moving Sims
How do you move sims from one neighborhood to another? There's a couple options for the right way... and some VERY wrong ways.
The Right Ways
These are the proper methods to move sims from one neighborhood to another. Anything else will mess up your game.
The Easy Way
Use SimPE to extract the appearances of your sims. This will allow you to access them in Create a Sim so you can remake them anew. Supernatural species like plant sims and werewolves will have to be remade - you can only create basic sims, no supernatural species in Create a Sim. Any relationships you cannot make in Create a Sim (like a teen and adult as siblings) you can fix once you get them moved in to a lot using the InSIMenator.
This will not retain any relationships (besides those you set up in Create a Sim), nor will it keep skills, job levels, aspiration points, etc. Again, some of that can be adjusted after they're moved in using the InSIMenator.
This is, by far, the easiest way to move sims from one 'hood to another. For instructions on how to extract your sims' appearances so you can remake them in this way, see: Game Help:Extract In-Game Sim.
The Hard Way
If you would like to retain skills, job levels, relationships, etc. and move your sims as they are without remaking them, that is a heck of a lot harder than the easy way. This will require the use of SimPE, Clean Installer, and quite a bit of time and effort. This is not recommended unless you are extremely comfortable using SimPE.
Here's how it's done:
1. First, back up your game! You need to make a copy of both the neighborhood your sims are currently in, and the one you're going to move them into, just in case something goes wrong. You can easily corrupt both neighborhoods doing this, so make sure you do this step!
2. Then, use SimPE to remove all memories of meeting any sims that do not live on the lot.
3. Use SimPE to remove all relationships with any sims that do not live on the lot.
4. Load the game, and load the lot with the family you just cleaned. Check their relationships and memories to make sure you removed everything. If you have blank or corrupt icons, or if the lot won't load, you messed up. Restore your backup and start over.
5. Load the game, and package the lot with the sims you wish to move to a sims2pack file. This will pack up the sims and the lot they live on.
- If you wish to only move the sims themselves, move them out of their house and into the family bin. Then create a new, blank lot and move them into the blank lot and package it.
- If you wish to move the house and family both, but separate from one another, you'll need to get the Staythings Shrub from [1] and place it on the lot before moving the family out, so the furnishings stay on the lot and are not sold. Once the family is moved out you can package their old house separately from the family on an empty lot.
6. Close the game.
7. Open the sims2pack file with your packaged family in Clean Installer. Uncheck any sim files for sims that do not live on the lot with your sims and save the sims2pack with a new filename.
8. Open the new sims2pack and install the sims2pack to your game.
9. Load the game, and load the neighborhood you wish to move that family into.
10. You'll find their inhabited lot in the sim bin. Place it in the neighborhood.
11. Load the lot, and play a while to make sure they're okay. If you notice they start talking to other sims and the icons in their thought bubbles are corrupt, you messed up somewhere - restore your backed up neighborhoods and start over.
