Forum Discussion

rostsit's avatar
rostsit
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago

Restore "culled" sims

After all the patches it seems we are able to control culling.

Still, many players have their game was ruined by culling and carefully built genealogy trees are filled with question marks. Of course now this problem is less annoying, the question marks will no longer be created even if sim is culled (and we can prevent this altogether). But they are still there for those who were culled earlier

But wouldn't it be actually technically POSSIBLE to restore what was ruined? Back then restoring any sim was possible in Sims 2 with Sim PE. It shouldn't be technically impossible in Sims 4, too - at least in those cases, when all needed data is actually here - the sim that need to be restored is saved to the gallery from the older save-file.

I was actually even able to make a work-around with one sim by using an old save-file, a gallery, and MCCC mod's relationships tool for adding relationships with family members. Worked pretty well, but it is not always possible and in most cases it will just add another sim to family tree leaving that damned question mark. Relationships tool also lacks some additional features like clones relationships.

I believe having some in-game tools or cheats with all needed functionality is necessary. What do you think? Is it me, or are there more folks that wish to restore some of their long-missed sims?

5 Replies

  • @rostsit Rolling back to previous saves can be done in certain limitations - only to what is still available. Please reference this link about this: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/save-games/

    If you have saved old backups you can try loading them and seeing if what you are looking for is there, and perhaps whether they have some saves that can be rolled back to as above also.

  • rostsit's avatar
    rostsit
    Seasoned Ace
    7 years ago

    @SheriGR I am not talking about previous saves. I am talking about restoring sims in my CURRENT save that is MONTHS away from the old one. Who would sacrifice their own HOURS of gameplay just to restore several sims??? Don't you understand that by restoring them this way you will destroy everything else??

  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    7 years ago

    @rostsit Yes, I do understand. I am trying to look into a few ideas and will let you now if I find any alternatives that may help recover some of what you lost. Sorry for your frustration. You're certainly welcome to look around on Mod the Sims or similar to see if anyone has anything you can try.

  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    7 years ago

    @rostsit It may be possible to get a bit creative by saving a backup of your current save ("The Sims 4" folder) to your desktop and trying to roll back (if you kept backups) to your old "The Sims 4" folder....

    Please note: only family relationships are saved within the household(s) that you save to the gallery. Also, remember that if you bring in any sim this way and replace a current sim with them the progress and recent experiences of the more recent sim will be lost. You may be able to extract the culled sims from an older save, if you have one. However, it's not possible to recover the relationships between your active sims and the culled ones, unless you use cheats...

    ...Add the desired sims into household groups with those you want to preserve relationships with (this would keep them from having those particular relationships severed - relationships stay intact within the household they are saved with into the library &/or community gallery), then drop your current save back in (overwrite that old "The Sims 4" folder) and download those other households from the gallery. This may get you at least a few things back that you wanted. You can also create relationships that may be missing via cheating, as mentioned. An imperfect and spotty solution, but it is something to try if you want to.

    Dealing with save games & backups: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/save-games/

    Merging, splitting, creating and uploading households: https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/news/splitting-and-merging
    Relationship cheat (toward bottom of article): https://simsvip.com/sims-4-cheats-codes/

  • rostsit's avatar
    rostsit
    Seasoned Ace
    7 years ago

    @SheriGRThanks for your input and effort. This solution will actually work in some cases, no doubt. They still have some major flaws:

    1. Saving household will preserve major relationships within said household, but, as you've mentioned, it will destroy all progress of current sims. In most cases, the sims that need to be restored are/were a part of some bigger major player's family - that's the main reason WHY players want to restore them. Sacrificing other family members progress is not an option..

    2. Creating relationships through cheats or mods is the same workaround I've described in my OP. It works, but again, it has its flaws. In most cases, it will not restore family tree properly, leaving all the question marks in it.

    So, just as you've said, an imperfect and spotty solution. But the sole existence of said solutions proves it's doable, even if third party mods should be involved (like SimPE in Sims 2). As mod developers explained to me, at the moment it is beyond their capabilities to create something that would fully restore a culled sim. Only the game developers can expand on this.