Game crashes after splash screen

[lah7]

Using the base game as a test, when the new ui.package is placed in C:\Program Files (x86)\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UI\Fonts\FontStyle.ini, the game:

• Destroys the file (if it has write access) with 96 bytes of an empty DBPF header.
• Crashes after the splash screen with a generic "the application must now terminate"

From what I can see, the DBPF is structurally correct, and SimPE opens it fine with the same group/instance IDs. The only thing that is absent is the "compressed directory listing". Does the game expect this? Maybe it'll work after implementing #2 or a placeholder listing?

[lah7]

It turns out:

• seek() didn't write the index version properly.
• The wrong index version was being written to file.
  • I looked at the header of the blank DBPF the game spit out.

But, the DBPF package loads in the game, so it does work!! 🎉 🥳