Okay, I know this is a common problem. Well, I know now because I've been searching the forums desperately for a solution. I didn't know when I decided to delete all the yucky junk terrains I didn't like, while situated on a lot I've been working on for many days.

Apparently just selecting them is enough to cause havoc (make the game think you're using those terrains), because when I went back in, all the ground was flashing blue. The same has happened on a few of my other lots.

I've read the suggestions in old posts. Nothing works. Nothing. Maxis terrain paint + control/erase doesn't work; tiling and untiling doesn't work; using the Clean Installer doesn't work (only shows the terrains I actually did use); I'm out of ideas. Lotterrainpaints false does work, but I really, really want to be able to paint these lots.

So this is my question. If the only way to fix it is to track down and re-download all of the terrains I deleted, I will do that. But I didn't write down/can't remember what they were, and they aren't in my recycle bin because the game deletes them instantly, apparently.

So, super-computer-savvy people, is there any way I can find out what they were? File names, anything? Perhaps a script I can review somewhere on the computer?

I'll do anything! The nature of my building methods is that I will spend literally months, several hours a day, on a single smallish lot, and I can't bear to think that all that work is ruined now.

Did you download from mts2? If so check your downloaded items and just follow the links to download again.

Also have you seen this post?

Hey guys! Painting it over didn't work for me. But I got rid of it by placing flooring over all the flashing parts (there are even some grass and dirt floor tiles you can use). It was a little tricky - I had to tilt it and do it when it was between flashes, and I think I used Moveobjects to floor the area on the other side of the street (I don't remember exactly).

Also, when I build a lot, I log on as a different user and only put in the terrain paints I'm using for the specific lot. It's a clean installation that only contains building materials I can upload to MTS2.

My regular game that I actually play has all the terrain paints, and I've found that if I try to strip any off a lot with CI, I'll get the flashing.

or this?

I found that when I had this problem that there was some custom content confliction problem and that when I removed my downloads folder and then re-introduced CC gradually a bit at a time that the problem dissapeared.

this?

boolprop lotTerrainPaints (True/False)
Set to false to remove terrain paints from a lot, often even if you've deleted the terrain paint manually it will still 'stick' to the lot, if you want to share it without the terrain paint file attached but want the lot to work properly without any nasty flashing blue areas use this to un-stick any terrain paints. It will remove ALL terrain paints on a lot so its not suitable for just removing one of several paints.

The tiling doesn't fix the terrain paint, though, it just covers it up.

And the boolprop cheat works, but same problem - you can't use any terrain paints at all after that.

I actually did get the paint/unpaint trick to work (after about forty times), but to my dismay, it's exactly the same situation. If I try to use any terrain paints, the blue flashing returns.

I think the only solution will be to track down all my paints, and so... thank you for reminding me about download history! But one problem: for me, it only goes back to the beginning of this year, which doesn't help much. Can I somehow extend the view?

Thank you thank you! After hours of blue ground, messing with CEP, Custom Content Manager, etc. I found the above post. I don't even care if I can't use any terrain paints now. Green is a heck of a lot better than blue, and is just fine with me.