substituting default pets with my own creations
maxon:
Quote from: amjoie on 2007 March 15, 13:03:11
In a way, it is a good thing, because things have changed a little. Since Seasons, it will not be possible to have only custom pets in the game UNLESS you use the empty templates for the Seasons expansion. If the empty templates are not used, *every single new neighborhood you make* will automatically put the same ugly MaxisEA default pets into the new hood. The ugly pets are all black, or gray, or black and white. No variety, no color, no beauty. They are not coming from the Breeds folder. They are hardwired into the game, so you don't even get variety within the ugly MaxisEa breeds -- you just get the identical ugly pets each time. And you also get the same buggy Sim families from Seasons in every hood. There is no way around this except to use the empty template for the Seasons expansion.
Actually, it's not a change. When you made a new neighbourhood with the Pets version of the game, the Pets template hood (with all the same pets) would get copied and the same set of pet files would be dumped in the hood - so you would always have the same set of Maxian pets/strays/whatever (with the same names too). It works the same way (or I guess it does) as the Pleasantview townies - you get them in every new hood the same because the game just copies the files from its pristine copies in your game files. It would always be a pre-requisite to have the clean templates for this to work as you want with custom pets generated. I should have mentioned when I did a little testing for you, that my game was set up that way at that point.
amjoie:
Not exactly, in my experience, anyway. It worked that way in the default MaxisEA created hoods, but not in custom hoods. In my Pets game, the breeds were randomly generated for each new custom hood, using the files in the Breeds folder. Even before I used the "empty pets template" I was able to get a whole new batch of ugly MaxisEA pets in each new custom hood. So, at least there was some variety. The names were always the same, but the animals differed from hood to hood. That was why it was possible to put your own breeds in the Breeds folder and get the game to randomly generate only pets you personally chose for your game, in each new custom hood, once the MaxisEA breeds were removed.
Now, since Seasons, you have no control over the automatically installed sims that infiltrate each new custom hood. Before I could opt out of adding a subhood with its attendant critters; but I could not opt out of the Season's "undercover subhood critters." And the pets/sims for each new hood are exactly the same. They are not generated, but are instead from some templates hidden away in the game's innards, where they are difficult to find and/or change. It was like MaxisEA was *forcing* you to have identical black, gray, or black and white ugly pets -- no matter what neighborhood you used. No color, no variety. The only way around it was to create pets in CAS and join them to a family. So adoption was not even a possibility, if you wanted a nice pet.
But, with the fix for Seasons (still works like an empty hood, but is a bit different in how it does it), you not only rid yourself of the templated ugly and colorless pets, but you also remove some very serious problems with the identical families that recreated themselves in each new custom hood.
I don't view the empty hood for Seasons as a choice, like the previous expansions. I think it is a necessary critical type "fix" due to the problems with the potentially hood-breaking pregnancy/parenthood issues of the characters that spread from new custom hood to custom hood like a virus.
But, regardless, the point is moot. I will be stating in the upcoming tutorial that I cannot guarantee the method works unless empty templates are used for all expansions. That will likely cover upcoming expansions, as well. People who want control over the generation of pets would probably want control over the generation of townies, also. I can't imagine it would be too much of a imposition to require the empty templates.
maxon:
Quote from: amjoie on 2007 March 17, 14:25:48
Not exactly, in my experience, anyway. It worked that way in the default MaxisEA created hoods, but not in custom hoods. In my Pets game, the breeds were randomly generated for each new custom hood, using the files in the Breeds folder. Even before I used the "empty pets template" I was able to get a whole new batch of ugly MaxisEA pets in each new custom hood. So, at least there was some variety. The names were always the same, but the animals differed from hood to hood. That was why it was possible to put your own breeds in the Breeds folder and get the game to randomly generate only pets you personally chose for your game, in each new custom hood, once the MaxisEA breeds were removed.
Well, ask Jordi about it - AFAIK that's how it works and if you got different it might be because of something in your game. The names are drawn from a separate file.
Ambular:
Hmmm. Using the empty hood templates won't prevent the game from making wolves, will it? O_o
Joshre:
I tried going on the link but the website won't work what happened? :( ??? :-\ :'( :-[ >:(
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