When (S)he's Pregnant, Except Not Really: How To Fix A Glitched Pregnancy (Sims 2)
Cross-posted here from thesims2 because I know I'll forget it. And in case anyone really feels the need to fix some pregnancy glitches. :P Also edited a couple times to match tweaks I made to the community post.
I thought I should share this as a reference, because I never found anything about this problem that I had before, and I'm hoping it will be useful in future situations. If you feel like you may need this later on, I would recommend bookmarking/favouriting it. At least, that's what I usually do when I find something about glitches that I think will come in handy. This solution does not only apply to my problem, and can be used to solve multiple pregnancy-related glitches and issues.
A while ago my female sim, Fury, was pregnant with a baby girl. During her pregnancy she gained some weight, though I'm not certain how that's particularly relevant. Now, when she was in her second or third trimester, I installed OFB and Freetime onto my computer. When the time came for her to give birth, everything went smoothly - except after popping out her new baby daughter, she still appeared to be pregnant. She didn't slim down at all, and it was almost like she was pregnant without a child in her. A "phantom pregnancy", in a way.
Here's a breakdown of her symptoms:
- Other sims could interact with her as though she had a child in her stomach. This included "Talk to Belly" and "Rub Belly".
- She could not participate in activities that the game flags as "strenuous" - interactions and actions that are normally disabled for pregnant sims, such as "Leap into Arms".
- She walked like a pregnant sim would, waddling everywhere she went.
- When performing actions such as relaxing on a bed, her hands would not clip through her belly - she (and the game) acknowledged the size of her stomach and her actions corresponded with this.
- I have dizzy's Pregnancy Wear Anything hack, and so all clothes in the catalogue with a pregnancy morph displayed with her expanded stomach.
- There was no "Try for Baby" option when she was on a bed, in a hot tub, etc. with her husband.
- She never "popped" and appeared to still be in her second or third trimester. Because she is/was overweight, it was difficult to tell which.
It's your call, really:
The only thing I honestly could not confirm, however, was whether or not her motives decayed more rapidly than a non-pregnant sim's motives would, seeing as her husband was knocked up with alien spawn and so I didn't have a non-pregnant sim in the house to compare her to.
I tried lots of methods to fix this, and surprisingly, none of them worked. However, if you feel like these may work for you, I would recommend trying a few, if not all, of them first.
Do The Following:
1. First and foremost, Force Error using the cheat "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true", without the quotations. For those who are beginners at the game and/or community, to do that you should press Ctrl + Shift + C; a white text box will pop up at the top of your screen. Type in the cheat and then shift + left click on the selected sim. Look through the pie menu (hit "More..." and this will bring you to additional options) until you see Force Error. Click on this, and a box will pop up saying that the sim has reached a breaking point, and gives three methods of action. Not to worry, just click on Reset and (hopefully) the sim should either go into labour or lose her belly. If it doesn't work after you've tried it multiple times, try some of the other things below.
2. Have them work out. (This is dependant on the weight of the sim.) I had thought that maybe it was just due to her weight and would resolve itself if she gained a little muscle. This could possibly work for you, though it didn't in my case. At any rate, I had her exercise until she got up to the average, default weight, but when she finished, she didn't buff up at all. She was still registered as overweight, as happens among sims who are actually pregnant. This may not be the result you obtain; I'm not even certain myself whether or not it would work, but hey, it's worth a shot, especially if you want to avoid having to download hacks. But again, it's sort of "optional".
3. Delete your cache files. These can be found under My Documents > EA Games > The Sims 2, or whatever directory you saved it in. This may be different for Mac users, I wouldn't know. The files you should delete are called "Accessory.cache" and "Groups.cache". Don't fret over deleting these, as they'll regenerate the next time you start up your game. Getting rid of these files and allowing them to regenerate can fix many glitches, so I would recommend deleting them periodically or whenever you encounter something wonky in your game.
4. Use Pescado's FFS Lot Debugger to force error, again multiple times. If this results in a great load of nothing, then continue on.
5. Move the sim out and then back in. This can either include other members of the household, or just having the falsely pregnant sim "Find Their Own Place" and then promptly merge them with the household. If you have the base game, you'll need to move them into a different lot and then invite the affected sim over to their original house, where a sim should ask them to "Move In". If you have later EP's, you should just be able to add the affected sim's household to the rest of their family's lot. Most pregnancy-related issues are solved in this way. That is, unless Force Error fails. If the lot they were originally in is acting buggy or glitchy, you should most definitely try this method. If that's the case, I would recommend using the Stay Things Shrub (if you follow that link, scroll down near the middle of the page) so that if you choose to move them back into that certain lot, you won't have to redecorate as their belongings will stay in their original places.
6. Try TwoJeff's SimBlender to either attempt to 1. accelerate the pregnancy or 2. abort the pregnancy. When I tried this, all I got out of that was the Blender informing me that the game didn't register her as pregnant, and so I could do neither of those options. If this is the case with your sim, abandon the Blender. However, if those options are available then choose whether you'd like the baby or not, and pick the option that corresponds with this decision.
7. Do the same thing as above, except with the Tombstone of Life & Death. To get this, you need to type in the testingcheats cheat mentioned above. Do the same as before, except instead of choosing "Force Error" in the pie menu, click on "Spawn...". This will create another pie menu. Look around at the options until you find "Tombstone of L & D", and click on it. A tombstone should pop up next to the selected sim. Click on this (do not press shift while doing so), and look at the pie menu. If there is no option available to speed up the pregnancy, continue to the next step. If there is, click on it and sit back and wait for a kid to pop out.
8. Attempt to knock him/her up again and then abort the pregnancy, using first the Tombstone, and then the SimBlender. In my case, I could click on the option of "Have Baby With...", but it did absolutely nothing, and there was still no speed up pregnancy option enabled, for either method. If the option of "Have Baby With..." works for you using either of these things (you'll know if you hear the baby bells), congratulations! You should try to either speed up the pregnancy, using either method, or abort it using the Blender. This may or may not work, depending. If you use the Tombstone, depending on EPs, this option may be replaced by "Simulate Genetic Merger..." - click on that option instead. If attempting to re-impregnate the sim doesn't work in the first place, keep on truckin'.
9. Age him/her up to elder or down to teen. This can be acheived using either the Sim Modder, or using the SimBlender. The Sim Modder is found under the "Spawn..." pie menu when testingcheats is enabled. Once your sim has grown up (or down), set their age back to Adult. For me, this did not work; she just aged back down with a big fat ole belly. If your sim's got a smooth tummy by the end of it, awesome. If not, then you need to try the very last thing that I tried, which is below.
Important: This may be a custom content issue, or a mod/hack confliction. If you think it is either, try removing your downloads folder and see if the problem persists. If it does, then it is not a downloads issue. If it does not, then you need to weed through your downloads until you find the corrupt CC or conflicting hack/mod that is the culprit. For future problems and glitches that you think may be caused by custom content/hacks, I would definitely recommend keeping your downloads folder organized, and you might want to consider filing it by date, though I just use multiple sub-folders myself. Also, this way you can keep your hacks all in one place and then you'll be able to easily remove them all in one fell swoop should it come to that.
There is one other important thing regarding mods and hacks: In my case the only hack that I had during the installation of both new EP's was Squinge's Wear Anything While Pregnant Hack, and I forgot to take it out of my downloads folder before installing these EPs. My game started bugging up, of course, because it wasn't compatible with FreeTime, and I deleted it immediately after realizing the problem. I replaced it with dizzy's hack. So my guess is that not taking out the hack might have caused this whole dilemma? If you did something similar, then heed my advice and take out all hacks before installing any new EPs, even if you think they may be compatible with that new EP.
There is also another action that could be the reason behind it. If you save and exit a lot that a pregnant sim is visiting at the time, that could possibly cause this glitch. You should use TwoJeff's Visitor Controller to stop a pregnant sim from visiting other lots. That way, you may be able to avoid dealing with this or any other pregnancy-related glitches.
And now, finally here's the solution that I came up with, and one that might fix your own similar problems.
What You Should Do:
Download the InSIMenator! Despite having less features than the SimBlender, this is actually the correct way to go. I hesitated at first in installing it because 1. it's considered unsupported, and 2. I figured if the SimBlender didn't work, Insim wouldn't either. I was wrong. Just goes to show you should never make assumptions. Be SURE to read the documentation for the InSIMenator, otherwise you won't know what the heck you're doing. If you already have it, awesome. I myself use the OBJ version of this hack, which makes the hack into various parts/objects which can be found in the Electronics > All section of the Buy Mode catalogue. The object to use for pregnancy is a hacked clone of the BioTech Station, the reward for the Science career. Click around the middle/center of it, and:
1. Speed up the pregnancy, if the option is there.
or
2. Abort the pregnancy, if the option is there.
or
3. Knock him/her up again and then do either step one or two.
You'll know if they're pregnant again from option 3 if you hear baby bells (the lullaby sound) and his/her stomach is suddenly back to normal. And if none of these things worked... I don't know what to tell you. In that case, you should investigate a bit more and see what you can dig up. Ask around, if you'd like.
If this is found useless and/or unnecessary, I apologize. I just figured I should share what I discovered regarding this problem for those who have a similar problem to mine and are at wit's end. If you feel the need, you may hang me by my toes for an extended period of time and beat me with raw steaks. Or just indulge in a little fish-slapping dance. That would be preferable.
I thought I should share this as a reference, because I never found anything about this problem that I had before, and I'm hoping it will be useful in future situations. If you feel like you may need this later on, I would recommend bookmarking/favouriting it. At least, that's what I usually do when I find something about glitches that I think will come in handy. This solution does not only apply to my problem, and can be used to solve multiple pregnancy-related glitches and issues.
A while ago my female sim, Fury, was pregnant with a baby girl. During her pregnancy she gained some weight, though I'm not certain how that's particularly relevant. Now, when she was in her second or third trimester, I installed OFB and Freetime onto my computer. When the time came for her to give birth, everything went smoothly - except after popping out her new baby daughter, she still appeared to be pregnant. She didn't slim down at all, and it was almost like she was pregnant without a child in her. A "phantom pregnancy", in a way.
Here's a breakdown of her symptoms:
- Other sims could interact with her as though she had a child in her stomach. This included "Talk to Belly" and "Rub Belly".
- She could not participate in activities that the game flags as "strenuous" - interactions and actions that are normally disabled for pregnant sims, such as "Leap into Arms".
- She walked like a pregnant sim would, waddling everywhere she went.
- When performing actions such as relaxing on a bed, her hands would not clip through her belly - she (and the game) acknowledged the size of her stomach and her actions corresponded with this.
- I have dizzy's Pregnancy Wear Anything hack, and so all clothes in the catalogue with a pregnancy morph displayed with her expanded stomach.
- There was no "Try for Baby" option when she was on a bed, in a hot tub, etc. with her husband.
- She never "popped" and appeared to still be in her second or third trimester. Because she is/was overweight, it was difficult to tell which.
It's your call, really:
The only thing I honestly could not confirm, however, was whether or not her motives decayed more rapidly than a non-pregnant sim's motives would, seeing as her husband was knocked up with alien spawn and so I didn't have a non-pregnant sim in the house to compare her to.
I tried lots of methods to fix this, and surprisingly, none of them worked. However, if you feel like these may work for you, I would recommend trying a few, if not all, of them first.
Do The Following:
1. First and foremost, Force Error using the cheat "boolprop testingcheatsenabled true", without the quotations. For those who are beginners at the game and/or community, to do that you should press Ctrl + Shift + C; a white text box will pop up at the top of your screen. Type in the cheat and then shift + left click on the selected sim. Look through the pie menu (hit "More..." and this will bring you to additional options) until you see Force Error. Click on this, and a box will pop up saying that the sim has reached a breaking point, and gives three methods of action. Not to worry, just click on Reset and (hopefully) the sim should either go into labour or lose her belly. If it doesn't work after you've tried it multiple times, try some of the other things below.
2. Have them work out. (This is dependant on the weight of the sim.) I had thought that maybe it was just due to her weight and would resolve itself if she gained a little muscle. This could possibly work for you, though it didn't in my case. At any rate, I had her exercise until she got up to the average, default weight, but when she finished, she didn't buff up at all. She was still registered as overweight, as happens among sims who are actually pregnant. This may not be the result you obtain; I'm not even certain myself whether or not it would work, but hey, it's worth a shot, especially if you want to avoid having to download hacks. But again, it's sort of "optional".
3. Delete your cache files. These can be found under My Documents > EA Games > The Sims 2, or whatever directory you saved it in. This may be different for Mac users, I wouldn't know. The files you should delete are called "Accessory.cache" and "Groups.cache". Don't fret over deleting these, as they'll regenerate the next time you start up your game. Getting rid of these files and allowing them to regenerate can fix many glitches, so I would recommend deleting them periodically or whenever you encounter something wonky in your game.
4. Use Pescado's FFS Lot Debugger to force error, again multiple times. If this results in a great load of nothing, then continue on.
5. Move the sim out and then back in. This can either include other members of the household, or just having the falsely pregnant sim "Find Their Own Place" and then promptly merge them with the household. If you have the base game, you'll need to move them into a different lot and then invite the affected sim over to their original house, where a sim should ask them to "Move In". If you have later EP's, you should just be able to add the affected sim's household to the rest of their family's lot. Most pregnancy-related issues are solved in this way. That is, unless Force Error fails. If the lot they were originally in is acting buggy or glitchy, you should most definitely try this method. If that's the case, I would recommend using the Stay Things Shrub (if you follow that link, scroll down near the middle of the page) so that if you choose to move them back into that certain lot, you won't have to redecorate as their belongings will stay in their original places.
6. Try TwoJeff's SimBlender to either attempt to 1. accelerate the pregnancy or 2. abort the pregnancy. When I tried this, all I got out of that was the Blender informing me that the game didn't register her as pregnant, and so I could do neither of those options. If this is the case with your sim, abandon the Blender. However, if those options are available then choose whether you'd like the baby or not, and pick the option that corresponds with this decision.
7. Do the same thing as above, except with the Tombstone of Life & Death. To get this, you need to type in the testingcheats cheat mentioned above. Do the same as before, except instead of choosing "Force Error" in the pie menu, click on "Spawn...". This will create another pie menu. Look around at the options until you find "Tombstone of L & D", and click on it. A tombstone should pop up next to the selected sim. Click on this (do not press shift while doing so), and look at the pie menu. If there is no option available to speed up the pregnancy, continue to the next step. If there is, click on it and sit back and wait for a kid to pop out.
8. Attempt to knock him/her up again and then abort the pregnancy, using first the Tombstone, and then the SimBlender. In my case, I could click on the option of "Have Baby With...", but it did absolutely nothing, and there was still no speed up pregnancy option enabled, for either method. If the option of "Have Baby With..." works for you using either of these things (you'll know if you hear the baby bells), congratulations! You should try to either speed up the pregnancy, using either method, or abort it using the Blender. This may or may not work, depending. If you use the Tombstone, depending on EPs, this option may be replaced by "Simulate Genetic Merger..." - click on that option instead. If attempting to re-impregnate the sim doesn't work in the first place, keep on truckin'.
9. Age him/her up to elder or down to teen. This can be acheived using either the Sim Modder, or using the SimBlender. The Sim Modder is found under the "Spawn..." pie menu when testingcheats is enabled. Once your sim has grown up (or down), set their age back to Adult. For me, this did not work; she just aged back down with a big fat ole belly. If your sim's got a smooth tummy by the end of it, awesome. If not, then you need to try the very last thing that I tried, which is below.
Important: This may be a custom content issue, or a mod/hack confliction. If you think it is either, try removing your downloads folder and see if the problem persists. If it does, then it is not a downloads issue. If it does not, then you need to weed through your downloads until you find the corrupt CC or conflicting hack/mod that is the culprit. For future problems and glitches that you think may be caused by custom content/hacks, I would definitely recommend keeping your downloads folder organized, and you might want to consider filing it by date, though I just use multiple sub-folders myself. Also, this way you can keep your hacks all in one place and then you'll be able to easily remove them all in one fell swoop should it come to that.
There is one other important thing regarding mods and hacks: In my case the only hack that I had during the installation of both new EP's was Squinge's Wear Anything While Pregnant Hack, and I forgot to take it out of my downloads folder before installing these EPs. My game started bugging up, of course, because it wasn't compatible with FreeTime, and I deleted it immediately after realizing the problem. I replaced it with dizzy's hack. So my guess is that not taking out the hack might have caused this whole dilemma? If you did something similar, then heed my advice and take out all hacks before installing any new EPs, even if you think they may be compatible with that new EP.
There is also another action that could be the reason behind it. If you save and exit a lot that a pregnant sim is visiting at the time, that could possibly cause this glitch. You should use TwoJeff's Visitor Controller to stop a pregnant sim from visiting other lots. That way, you may be able to avoid dealing with this or any other pregnancy-related glitches.
And now, finally here's the solution that I came up with, and one that might fix your own similar problems.
What You Should Do:
Download the InSIMenator! Despite having less features than the SimBlender, this is actually the correct way to go. I hesitated at first in installing it because 1. it's considered unsupported, and 2. I figured if the SimBlender didn't work, Insim wouldn't either. I was wrong. Just goes to show you should never make assumptions. Be SURE to read the documentation for the InSIMenator, otherwise you won't know what the heck you're doing. If you already have it, awesome. I myself use the OBJ version of this hack, which makes the hack into various parts/objects which can be found in the Electronics > All section of the Buy Mode catalogue. The object to use for pregnancy is a hacked clone of the BioTech Station, the reward for the Science career. Click around the middle/center of it, and:
1. Speed up the pregnancy, if the option is there.
or
2. Abort the pregnancy, if the option is there.
or
3. Knock him/her up again and then do either step one or two.
You'll know if they're pregnant again from option 3 if you hear baby bells (the lullaby sound) and his/her stomach is suddenly back to normal. And if none of these things worked... I don't know what to tell you. In that case, you should investigate a bit more and see what you can dig up. Ask around, if you'd like.
If this is found useless and/or unnecessary, I apologize. I just figured I should share what I discovered regarding this problem for those who have a similar problem to mine and are at wit's end. If you feel the need, you may hang me by my toes for an extended period of time and beat me with raw steaks. Or just indulge in a little fish-slapping dance. That would be preferable.