Neighborhood Templates with Playables?
sloppyhousewife:
Quote from: Mootilda on 2011 April 26, 16:17:38
Exactly how are you trying to use the neighborhood template? Are you deleting the Neighborhoods subfolder for your save game and allowing the game to regenerate all of the neighborhoods? Or, are you creating a brand new neighborhood from a terrain? I assumed the former and sim-bin sims work in that situation. However, if you are using the latter technique, sim-bin sims will not work; you will definitely want a stealth subhood for that to work.
Yes, I'm using the latter method, or let's say, I'm trying to. Looks like I have to go with the stealth subhoods, then.
Quote
Here's my best guess as to how to create a stealth neighborhood (note that this isn't tested at all):
1) Create your neighborhood
2) Extract the IDNO record from an existing stealth neighborhood and replace your IDNO with that one.
3) Modify the UID and (parent) name in the IDNO. The UID should be unique and the (parent) name should match your neighborhood folder name.
4) Move your neighborhood into C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 <EP>\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate for any EP from Pets on.
It doesn't matter if this method isn't tested yet, I'll try and see if it works.
Quote
I'm not sure whether it happens for all EPs, but I've seen a lot of people who have "lost" neighborhoods that they restored from backup. This happened because the IDNO was not changed when they copied the neighborhood in, and it conflicted with an existing neighborhood. When I had them remove the conflicting neighborhoods, their restored neighborhood "magically" appeared again:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=180053
I've never had problems with "lost" restored neighborhoods, because after replacing an Nxxx folder, I've always deleted the neighborhoodmanager.package, too. It gets regenerated when the game is started, and all neighborhoods are there as expected. Don't ask me, why it works, but it does.
Mootilda:
Quote from: Mootilda on 2011 April 26, 16:17:38
Here's my best guess as to how to create a stealth neighborhood (note that this isn't tested at all):
1) Create your neighborhood
2) Extract the IDNO record from an existing stealth neighborhood and replace your IDNO with that one.
3) Modify the UID and (parent) name in the IDNO. The UID should be unique and the (parent) name should match your neighborhood folder name.
4) Move your neighborhood into C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 <EP>\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate for any EP from Pets on.
Verified that this technique works. I used the IDNO from the Pets stealth subhood, with a new UID and (parent) name, and the sim-bin sims appeared in my neighborhood.
Just be careful not to change the Neighborhood Type in the Plugin View, since SimPE has a bug which will add extra characters into the record, corrupting it. If you want to change the Neighborhood Type, you'll need to make the change in the Hex View.
I also verified that the subhood was added to my neighborhood when I entered it, rather than when the neighborhood was created.
sloppyhousewife:
It's working! Thanks so much for all the help! *happydance*
I did it a little bit different, though:
I made a Pets stealth subhood using an empty P001 template as base.
1) Create your neighborhood
2) Extract the IDNO from the Pets subhood template and replace your IDNO with that one
3) Don't change anything in the IDNO record*
4) Rename all character files and the NH file from Nxxx_[whatever].package to P001_[whatever].package**
5) Go to ...\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\P001, replace the P001_Neighborhood.package and move/copy your character files to the P001\Characters folder
*The values are adjusted accordingly when a new NH is created. The template (parent) name is P001, the UID 4; in my test NH, the newly generated subhood's (parent) name is N001, the UID 2.
**I didn't try with lots, but I guess it's the same procedure.
Fun fact: I called my neighborhood "Playable Townies". Now, while the new neighborhood is generated, I get the message "Creating Playable Townies" instead of "Creating Pets" :D.
Mootilda:
Quote from: sloppyhousewife on 2011 April 26, 22:02:32
3) Don't change anything in the IDNO record*
*The values are adjusted accordingly when a new NH is created. The template (parent) name is P001, the UID 4; in my test NH, the newly generated subhood's (parent) name is N001, the UID 2.
When a subhood is added to a neighborhood, the game will move the subhood's (parent) name to the subname field and replace the (parent) name with the name of the primary neighborhood. The UID is adjusted to be unique for the current set of neighborhoods and subhoods.
It's this process which SimPE attempts (and fails) to mimic when you change the Neighborhood Type. Instead of moving the (parent) name to the subname field, it adds a 4-character long string into the record, but sets the length of the string to 0, thus corrupting the remainder of the record.
Problems occur if the UID and (parent) name of a subhood template match an existing neighborhood or subhood. The game will confuse the two folders and will actually change your template to try to keep it in sync with your playable hood.
Since you decided to replace the Pets stealth subhood, you already had a unique UID and (parent) name. However, your method is very specific and replaces an existing subhood; mine is more general and allows people to maintain the existing subhoods. Otherwise, they're the same basic procedure.
Quote from: sloppyhousewife on 2011 April 26, 22:02:32
4) Rename all character files and the NH file from Nxxx_[whatever].package to P001_[whatever].package**
**I didn't try with lots, but I guess it's the same procedure.
This is the standard procedure for renaming a neighborhood or subhood folder. You need to do it for all files in the folder, including all characters and lots.
sloppyhousewife:
Quote from: Mootilda on 2011 April 27, 19:22:15
However, your method is very specific and replaces an existing subhood;
Yes, that was my intension. I should add that I play with empty templates (except for the one with my 16 townies/now playables). The method is definitively *not* recommended for people who want to keep the kazillion sims forced on them by the original 'hood templates though.
Quote from: Mootilda on 2011 April 27, 19:22:15
Quote from: sloppyhousewife on 2011 April 26, 22:02:32
4) Rename all character files and the NH file from Nxxx_[whatever].package to P001_[whatever].package**
**I didn't try with lots, but I guess it's the same procedure.
This is the standard procedure for renaming a neighborhood or subhood folder. You need to do it for all files in the folder, including all characters and lots.
I know. I was wondering if you could handle the lots like you could the character files, that's all. Actually, my footnote was a brainfart :P. Forget about the lots - the P001 template doesn't even *have* a Lot folder.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[*] Previous page