More Awesome Than You!

First, a BIG thank you to all the following people:
•   Jordi, for the Seasons version of this walkthrough (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5861.0.html), which I mostly just copy-and-pasted, then edited from there. Most of these words are Jordi's!
•   SaraMK, for the empty templates for Uni through Seasons. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.0.html)
•   Argon, for the empty template for BV (buried in Sara's thread) (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg264144.html#msg264144) and for the NPC generator [Make Vacation Sim (Local)] fix. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9684.0.html)
•   JM Pescado, for the no respawn, no regen, and antiredundancy hacks. Without these, this process would be mostly useless! Pescado is also the owner of the site.
•   Everyone who offered suggestions to make this tutorial better.
•   Anyone else I may have forgotten (for which I deeply apologize - point out the omission, so I can add you to the list).
   
Creating a clean custom neighbourhood
Index:
0.   Mods
1.   Preparing
2.   Creating a new neighborhood
3.   Subneighborhoods
4.   Populating the ‘hood
   a.   Batch-creating townies, downtownies, and locals
   b.   Creating custom townies, downtownies, and locals
   c.   Dormies
   d.   Pets
5.   NPCs

This tutorial will explain how to create a custom neighborhood with unique townies and NPCs, rather than the default Maxis ones. To make sure these new Sims are as unique as possible with skintones, clothes, hair, eyes etc.., you can follow the links/tutorial by Zarkan. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6174.0.html)

0: Mods
I recommend the following mods to prevent extra character files from cluttering up your game:
•   Anti redundancy
•   No townie regen
•   No stray respawn
•   No SS respawn* [You can get these 4 hacks from the FFS Hack Directory]
•   No dormie regen* [You can only get this one from the DC]
A teleporter [look in Peasantry or MTS2] is also handy.
In addition, you need the Make Vacation Sim (Local) fix (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9684.0.html) to make Vacation Locals correctly.
(* You only need these if you have Uni, of course.)

1: Preparing - cleaning out templates
Go to where you have installed The Sims 2. This will be C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\ by default.
Browse to the UserData Neighbourhoods folder: The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods
Rename the "N001" folder (to anything, such as "N001-bak"). This prevents the default townies from being created in new neighborhoods.

If you have Pets, go to your Pets folder (C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Pets\ or wherever you installed it). Browse to the Neighbourhood template folder \Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\P001 and do the following:
•   Back it up. I just zipped the entire folder so I can restore it if the Pets patch comes around, or if I ever want it back.
•   Do further cleaning: delete now-unneeded the \Character, \Storytelling, and \Thumbnails subfolders
•   Replace P001_Neighborhood.package with an empty version. This prevents the standard Pets and Pet NPCs from being added to every 'hood. It also prevents the two families from magically appearing in your new 'hood's family bin.

If you have Seasons, go to your Seasons folder (C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Seasons\ or wherever you installed it). Browse to the Neighbourhood template folder \Seasons\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ and do the following:
•   Back G002 up. I just zipped the entire folder so I can restore it if a Seasons patch comes around, or if I ever want it back.
•   Do further cleaning: delete the now-unneeded G002\Character, G002\Storytelling, and G002\Thumbnails subfolders
•   Replace G002_Neighborhood.package with an empty version. This prevents the standard townies and Seasons NPCs from being added to every 'hood. It also prevents the two families from magically appearing in every new 'hood's family bin.

If you have BV, go to your Bon Voyage folder (C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\ or wherever you installed it). Browse to the Neighbourhood template folder \Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ and do the following:
•   Back V001 up. I just zipped the entire folder so I can restore it if a BV patch comes around, or if I ever want it back.
•   Do further cleaning: delete the now-unneeded V001\Character, V001\Storytelling, and V001\Thumbnails subfolders
•   Replace V001_Neighborhood.package with an empty version. This prevents the default NPCs, tourists, and locals from being added to every 'hood. It also prevents the Traveler family from magically appearing in every new 'hood's family bin.

If you plan to use any of the premade subneighbourhoods for your new 'hood, now is a good time to clean them out as well. If you are going to use an empty terrain file for the subneighborhoods, you can skip this step. (You can use premade sub neighborhoods for some sectors and empty terrain files for others, of course.)

Download: http://www.box.net/public/rhnaxge14b This has what you need for Uni, NL, and OFB. Note that box.net requires cookies enabled.
For the Downtown:
•   Open C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\
•   Make a backup of the D001 folder
•   Open the D001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file D001_Neighborhood.package
•   Unzip the downloaded file, which is D001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the D001 folder.
For the Universities:
•   Open C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\
•   Make a backup of the U001, U002, and U003 folders.
•   Open the U001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file U001_Neighborhood.package
•   Unzip the downloaded file, which is U001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the U001 folder.
•   Repeat steps 3 and 4 for U002 and U003
For Bluewater Village:
•   Open C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\
•   Make a backup of the B001 folder
•   Open the B001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file B001_Neighborhood.package
•   Unzip the downloaded file, which is B001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the B001 folder.

For the Vacation Destinations, you have to download the file from this post. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg264144.html#msg264144)
•   Open C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\
•   Make a backup of the A001, T001, and M001 folders.
•   Open the A001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete A001_Neighborhood.package
•   Place the downloaded A001_Neighborhood.package into the A001 folder.
•   Repeat steps 3 and 4 with T001 and M001.

2: Creating a new neighborhood
Open The Sims 2 and start a brand new neigbourhood in the normal way. Do not create any Sims in CAS yet!
After creating this 'hood, alt-tab or exit to Windows and check your new neighbourhood character folder (If this is your first custom neighbourhood, this will be My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N004\Characters\). This folder should be empty. If it is not, you have not done step 1 right. You should probably start over at this point.
DO NOT USE THE DELETEALLCHARACTERS CHEAT! This corrupts the neighborhood.

3: Subneighborhoods
Adding a default subneighbourhood (universities U001-U003, downtown D001, shopping district/bluewater B001, or vacation destination T001, M001, or A001) will add a great number of default townies and NPCs, as well as some playable Sims. You can prevent this by replacing them with empty versions (follow the instructions above, in step 1), or by starting from an empty terrain file.
If you use the cleaned out templates, make sure you have also deleted the templates' character subfolders.

4: Populating the ‘hood
First, decide if you want to create all townies yourself in CAS, or if you want to batch-create them. Batch creation will lead to a balanced neighbourhood setup, but your townies will not have any custom clothes or make-up, unless you "de-customize" them. Theo explains the process here. (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5681.msg163660.html#msg163660) They will use the default facial templates (or overrides, if any) and default name list. You can change the name list with Jordi's mod from MTS2. (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=207539) The thread there explains how to change the name list yourself.
The CAS method requires you to create townies yourself, and later edit them in SimPE.
There is not yet an easy way to make custom Pets into strays, aside from using SimPE.

4a: Batch-creating townies and downtownies
Create a Sim or family in CAS and move him in a lot. Immediately pause the game. Note: unless you had Pescado's No Townie Regen in place at this time the game will automatically create one townie.
Important: If you also want to fully customize your NPCs, buy the FFS Lot Sync Timer and use the Time Warp feature at this time to set the hour to 05:00 to prevent the paper delivery NPC from coming by while you're busy. If the clock approaches 08:00, reset it to 05:00 again with the Time Warp.
Enable the testing cheats in the console: boolprop testingcheatsenabled true. There are two ways to batch-create townies: the NPC and Townie maker ("Townie tree") or the mailbox. Both methods will work.
If you want to use the Townie tree, click on your Sim, and in the Spawn menu select the NPC and Townie maker. This looks like a dead willow tree before Seasons or like the Repoman's gun post-Seasons. Choose "Create townies", and select "townies" again.
If you want to use the mailbox, shift-click the mailbox and select *DBG - FORCE Create Townies, and select "townies" again.
Townies will now begin spawning. At first the thumbnails will show NPC portraits, ignore this. It will report when it is ready.
Save the game and check the character folder when it is done, you should now have 32 Sims: your CAS Sim, the initial townie (unless notownieregen is in place), and the ~30 created townies.
This number seems to be increased post-Pets: I ended up with almost 50 townies by batch-spawning them.
Downtownies can only be created using the Townie tree. First, select Switch to make downtownies (not needed in Pets), then "Create Townies" again - select "Downtownies" this time. Downtownies will begin spawning, without portraits in the upper right. Again, the game will report when it is ready.
From the mailbox: *DBG - FORCE Create Townies - "Downtownies"
Save the game/lot now.

4b: Creating custom townies and downtownies
In CAS create as many townies as you like, of whatever ages, genders, and using any content you like.
No need to bother with names at this time. I simply named them 1 to 8 for each group.
My own setup is the following:
Group 1: males -- create 8 adult male Sims
Group 2: females -- create 8 adult female Sims
Group 3: Miscellania 1 -- create 2 elder males, 2 adult females, 2 teen males, 2 teen females. Set the teens as children to any adult female.
Group 4: Miscellania 2 -- create 2 adult males, 2 elder females, 2 child males, 2 child females. Set the children as kids of any adult male.
This leads to 32 townies: 10 male adults, 10 female adults, and 2 of each gender of the other age groups. This leads to an average spread of ages and genders. But you are of course free to chose anything you like.
Move group 1 in a lot, and pause the game. If you also want to make your own NPCs, refer to the note above about the Sync Timer in 4a.
Buy the Ingelogical Teleporter Shrub or Painting (or another teleporter such as the inSIMenator module). I use the Teleporter Shrub in this example.
Select Sim 1, and make them a townie using the teleporter. Repeat this for Sims 2 to 8.
Using the teleporter, summon the Sims from the other groups you created, and move them in using the shrub. Then make them into townies.
You should have no playable Sim left on the lot after you're done. Save and quit the game, and check the character folder. You should now have 32 Sims: all your custom townies.
Now open SimPE, and select all Sim Relationships you see. Delete them if you don't want your townies to have family relationships with each other.
Start naming your townies anything you like. If you like, also give them skills, jobs, and gender preferences. Note that if you do not give them a job they will get a random one the first time they're loaded, and their skills will be randomized accordingly.
Save the 'hood file, and you're done.
Make downtownies the same way you did townies, only select Make me a.../Downtownie for them. I created just 8 downtownies in my game: 3 adults and a teen for each gender.

To make vacation Locals and tourists, you need to make the Sim into a townie first, then select "Make Into Vacation Sim>(type)>Sim Name" from the townie-making nerf gun. Note that that menu doesn't give the Sims' last names, so make sure you differentiate your Vacation Sims' first names in CAS from your regular townies. (Such as A1 - Asian 1 - instead of 1.)

4c: Dormies
*Please correct me if I'm wrong about method (a).

You can make dormies the same way you make townies. Using method (a)*, you have to be on a University residential lot when you batch-create the townies. A residential lot, not a dorm. Under method (b), you have to create the Sims in the Uni CAS (duh), then move them in to a residential lot and use the teleporter or townie tree/gun as illustrated above. Again, it can't be a dorm.

4d: Pets
You can create strays one-by-one with the tree, or you can create custom pets in CAS. Use SimPE to put CAS-made pets into the Strays family.

5: NPCs
Note: NPC creation using the tree may not work correctly in OFB, FFS, and GLS. This was fixed in Pets/Seasons.
If you don't care about customized NPCs, don't bother creating them. The game will make them as needed.
You can use the Townie tree to customize your NPCs.
Make sure the townie/downtownie switch is set correctly (townies for base, EP1, and EP3 NPCs and downtownies for EP2; the switch is not needed in Pets), and set your desired age, skintone, and gender settings. Then create NPCs one-by-one. Select 'keep' once one is created. Do not chose invalid combinations: nannies must always be elder females, headmasters are always male, etc..
As of Pets you can create individual NPCs again, and Grand Vampires (Count/Contessa) are now under the NPCs menu.
If you want to spawn the "special townies" Vampires, Slobs, Diva/Mr Big, set the switch to downtownies (not needed in Pets), and spawn the special townies using their menu. 'Keep' them once done.
You cannot spawn the (OFB) reporter "special townie" (one reporter will be spawned whenever the game needs one). The special NPCs Death, Mrs. Crumplebottom, etc. cannot be spawned as these are unique: the game creates them the first time a 'hood is loaded.

At the risk of being burned at the stake, I have all mods that are suggested except for No dormie regen.  I've searched FFS mulitple times and can't find it. Either I'm blind or it's hidden somewhere else? 

Nodormieregen is only available in director's cut.

Thanks

Berney- Just a suggestion. You may want to change the location of where Nodormieregen can be found.

But you can change your default name list using Jordi's Live.package found here (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=207539). Also you can use the directions to put new names in there, if you have some that you want to have used. All the instructions for that are in his thread, iirc.

It would be nice if you would plug the link for Sara's thread (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.0.html) into the first post. She has all the same clean templates you have listed, but she also has the Cleaned & Fixed templates in that thread. Of course one has to really want them to go through 14 pages to find them, but they are findable. 8)




*V is considering slogging through and putting them all in one place but hasn't done that yet

Another important note is that box.net requires cookies enabled.

That is misleading. The DEFAULT behavior is that your batch generated townies will not use custom content (other than default replacements of course) but you can decustomize custom content to make it townie available. My batch created townies use custom eyes, clothes, and even accessories. Theo explains how to do this here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5681.msg163660.html#msg163660). He explains this process for skintones, but I've tried it with other types of CC and it works just fine. It's sort of funny because it doesn't actually work quite right with skin, actually. It will roll up in CAS as a random selection, and game spawned NPCs or gun spawned NPCs will use these skins, but regular townies don't seem to be able to use anything other than the 4 regular options (or default replacements if you have them, obviously). When I first tried this I had never used SimPE before and I figured it out with no problems because it is incredibly easy (although annoying and incredibly time consuming). I'm not sure, but Jfade's Wardrobe Wrangler might have an automated way of doing this, but I can't really remember if I just made that up or if it's true.

Of course, they still won't have makeup (even Maxis makeup) but it's easy enough to give them makeovers yourself. You can use Dizzy's change-appearance-anyone (available in his brain dump thread in Peasantry) to give a visitor a makeover. If I want a townie to have makeup I just click the mirror while that sim is on the lot, put the make up on, and then let it go on its merry way.

Thanks, everyone! I've edited the first post with all of your suggestions.

I am probably blind but I don't find the "create townies" option. I see "generate townies" which only allows me to create one Sims at the time.

I tried with the mailbox but it seems that only townies are created even if I choose downtownies instead of townies. At least that is what the game reports (done making townies, 30 of them).

Thank you for any help.

edit : I have all EPs

Wow this seems fantastic thank you.   :)  But I am a bit overwhelmed at the job of it.  Scary!!! I hope this doesnt sound stupid - but can I ask a few questions.

1.  What happens to the sims that are already in the first 4 neighbourhoods?  (G001, N001, N002 & N003)

2.  When creating a townie, do they end up as ugly as the ones the game makes originally, or do we get to choose a look for each sim?

3.  What about the university mascots and the greek houses and sororities?  When we add the UNI neighbourhood, will that have deleted those sims?

Thanks, sorry if I sound blonde, I am not.  Although the colour does suit me.   ;D

1 - Sims in pre-existing neighborhoods are not affected by this process. There are clean versions of the default neighborhoods with just the Maxis-made playable Sims (no Townies, NPCs, etc.) available in the "Empty and Cleaned-Up Templates" thread, if you wanted to keep the playables but make new NPCs and Townies.

2 - Unless you use replacement facial templates, the townies you spawn with method 4a will use the grotesque Maxis facial structures. There are several sets of replacements available, such Nailati's here or there are a couple at MTS2. If you use 4b and create your own Townies, they will keep the facial structures and clothing that you give them in CAS.

3 - If you use the empty templates and no respawn hacks, your new neighborhood should start with no Sims in it. The game will generate NPCs as they are needed unless you create them yourself as explained.

ETA: The NPC Creator is the Repo Man gun in BV (? Not entirely sure when it changed) and a tree in previous EPs.

Can I do this with only one sub-hood? I am playing Pleasantville. I want the generic OfB neighbourhood, since I've  never played that expansion before, NO downtown at all, and a custom university. Can I just follow the instruction for Uni and have it work?

You have to replace each subhood template with a clean/empty version so you can pick and choose which ones you'd like to empty, which ones you'd like to keep the Maxis playables, and which one you'd like to keep as the default. There is a cleaned Bluewater Village template with just the playable Sims in SaraMK's thread if you want to play the characters Maxis shipped with the EP but don't want to worry about adding extraneous Townies and NPCs. For a custom Uni subhood I don't believe you have to use an empty template; the directions in the OP are if you want to attach an empty version of one of the pre-made Unis to your neighborhood. The game will still generate the professors and other NPCs it needs but if you want, you can spawn them yourself ahead of time using the Townie/NPC creator tool. As long as you don't add a Downtown area, the game will not create the Downtownies and related NPCs for that subhood so you can skip that step.


Unrelated note - one thing missing in the OP is that if you create your Townies/Downtownies/NPCs one by one and you create a Sim you do not want to keep, instead of selecting "Kill" on the tree/gun you are better off exiting the lot without saving. If you choose "Kill", the game will still generate an unlinked character file even though you will never see that Sim in your neighborhood.

Normally the game creates three of each NPC type, presumable for variety's sake but there isn't much need for three Headmasters, three Evil Mascots, etc. With antiredundancy, the game only spawns one per NPC type and uses that one until that Sim is removed from the NPC pool in some fashion. Then another single NPC is created to take its place. If you care about the number of Sims in your neighborhood, antiredundancy is one of the hacks (along with the norespawns) that you will want to keep.

No - hacks (in layman's terms) revise/replace code that tells the game how certain aspects of the game are to behave.  As such, they become integral to the running of the game.  They are usually not "extra" objects.  As such, they essentially become the game, and generally do not cause lag or slowdowns in and of themselves. 

Hack conflicts (using old versions, competing hacks, etc.) may cause any number of problems, including game crashes.  If you think you are having problems because of hacks, you may want to ensure that you are running the latest versions for your latest EP.  If you use only Awesome hacks (TM), you should not experience problems.

It depends on how hacks are coded and what they affect. For example, Pescado has a few hacks that actually speed up your game in certain situations.

I have a shrub hack that will max the CPU for about a half a second minimum any time you mouse over it. (Not my code, per se, but really the menu generator in the game engine.)

I went with 4b to set up my hood, and created 40 sims in CAS to turn into townies... but when I checked the Characters folder after I was done, I had 16 extra files and no idea where they came from. After checking the extra files in SimPE, (I think) they were all listed as Unknown, with no pictures (well, the potatohead figure, but...). I'm a bit baffled as to where they came from - I've got the anti-redundancy, no townie regen, no SS regen and no dormie regen hacks in place, but not the no stray respawn one, as I don't really mind strays... could these extra files belong to strays, or is there something else I'm missing?

I created 6 sims in CAS that were converted into townies and now I have 5 "Mystery Sims". The Witch Doctor comes up as a Mr.Potatohead icon with a black background, while the others have a red background with a title of "Unknown".  I found them by clicking on households in Sim PE.

I have all of DC installed & Insim.

Each EP has added a couple of unknowns.  They are there to hold the gossip memories of various non-sims.

E.g. since OFB, one of those unknowns holds all the gossip memories of every non-servo robot in the game.  If you have sentrybots in the front yard to zap paper thieves, one of the unknowns will hold gossip memories of all the "got promoted/demoted/A+" events that happened when sims return home from work or school on the lots with sentrybots, as well as all the other events that happened near sentrybots. 

Another of the unknowns (from the base game) holds the gossip memories of events that happened near the remote controlled car (if you allow your sims to have one).

One of the Seasons-added unknowns holds the gossip memories of plants that have been talked to.

Just ignore those "unknown" character files.  They don't do any harm as they are.  The most I ever do with those unknowns is clear out their gossip memories - I used to do this using Theo's memories plugin for SimPE, before the option to clear gossip was added to the lot debugger.

Thanks for clearing that up. I started going through memories after I posted and was wondering what was going on and why.  I'll just delete the clear the gossip as you've mentioned and not give them anymore thought.

You are in the C:\...(My) Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 directory. The folders and files you are looking for are in the C:\Program Files\EA Games directory. Make backups of everything before you go deleting and renaming things. You might even want to print out the instructions so you can cross off the steps as you do them.

Kyna, thanks for clearing that up!

I'm having trouble making dormies for my uni hood.  I moved three characters into a residential lot, not a dorm, as was suggested.  But after batch creating them I noticed portraits of npcs coming up (I realise now that the tutorial told me to ignore this, but it worried me at the time).  Anyway, I used the ffs census tool to check the number of young adult sims in my neighborhoods, and it said two males and two females.  Three of which were my own sims I made in CAS, and another that was a barista in this lot I visited.  No dormies will visit lots (and from the census tool I gather they don't even exist.).  Although the npcs have no trouble showing their faces.  So it seems like something is off for the way dormies should be created.

Since I can't batch create dormies, what do I need to get to make them through CAS method (which seems like my only option at this point)?  I looked for an option to turn characters into townies on the townie gun but couldn't find it.

In the absence of a better idea from someone else, I would suggest removing the nodormieregen, go into the hood and let some dormies get created. Then exit and put the nodormieregen back where it goes.

But hopefully someone else will have a better idea.

Have you tried creating YAs and then shift-click each dormie and choose "Make Unselectable"? I don't know, but that might work too. Good luck.

I just thought of something... if I have more than one University 'hood, will I have to go to each of them to generate dormies for that University, or will dormies generated at one University magically show up at another University?

I create all of my own dormies, so I can definitely walk you through this process. You will need one of Inge's teleporters (http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2Pages/Sims2_Teleporters.htm) or another similar hacked object by the creator of your choice.

1. Create a group of YA sims in UniCAS just like you normally would. Give them the names you want them to keep.
2. Plop a residential lot down and move your CAS created dormies into the lot.
3. Select one sim and click on the teleporter object. Find and select the "make me a townie" option. Repeat this process with each sim on the lot.
4. When you are finished select "clear all non-residents off lot" and then save and exit.

Usually I give some of the dormies majors before turning them into dormies, the ones I do not change will be undecided. I generally make 16 to start out with, but you can make as many or as few as you have the patience to do. I must admit that this process is incredibly time consuming, but I really enjoy it. You might also want something like Hook's randomizer (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,8253.0.html) to help you think of names, set aspirations, astrological signs, and turn ons/turn offs. The program is incredibly easy to modify for your own needs, so I set it to also select their face template and hair color because that makes it a bit more interesting for me.

I also use Hook's randomizer when I make townies, downtownies, dormies, BV locals and tourists.  Like InivisGoth, I randomise face template and hair colour.  I also randomise to see whether the sim is wearing a hat, jewelry, makeup/beard, and/or full face makeup (for full face makeup I usually use relatively unobtrusive CC such as contact lenses, rather than the weird face paints provided by EAxis).  This way they will appeal to different playables depending on the playable sim's randomised turn-ons and turn-offs.  Yes, I do use my townies as marriage fodder, and I use a decent set of face replacements so that I don't get fugly townies.

Thank you for this tutorial, I hate seeing those butt-ugly BV characters in my game. I have a question about the locals though. Will the game generate the firedancer in Twikkii island or do I have to create him somehow? Is he an NPC or a townie/local?

The game will generate a Fire Dancer if you didn't create one ahead of time. He's an NPC and there is an option to make him on the NPC/Townie gun.

Thanks Invisigoth, but that didn't really answer my question... Do I need to do it for each of the Universities I add to my neighbourhood, or will dormies created at one University magically appear at the other Universities? Somehow I think the answer to this is painfully obvious, but I'm gonna go ahead and pretend to be a complete moron. D:

That randomizer is gonna come in handy, though. *goes to fiddle with the settings* Gonna be so much easier with this rather than using dice. Both my cats think I'm playing some odd game with them when I'm rolling, and try to take the dice from me...

Thanks gynarchy

If all the universities are attached to the same main hood, then they just become a big pool of dormies that can appear in any of the individual unis. If the unis are attached to different main hoods, then no, they're restricted to only the uni(s) attached to that hood, and won't appear in unis attached to other hoods.

Thank you, jsalemi! : D

Shift-click vs. click is an obvious possibility.  Another one is to use the cheat from the startup.cheat or neighborhood window.  Make sure you are SHIFT-clicking on the objects/sims, though.

Twikii Island is the only one where you have to make the NPC with the local dance, correct? Takemizu and Three Lakes locals automagically all know right?

Which reminds me, I need to get fitness skill for dancing hack... It's stupid that sims doing tai chi don't get body points.

Stupid question of the day. ???   Does it work better to associate sub-hoods to your main neighbourhood and load them up, before you install the blank templates, or afterwards?

The last time I did a clean install I'm sure that I used all three empty Uni templates, but months later when I actually added a Uni hood to my main hood, I got spammed with dozens of professors (I was using anti-reduncany and the 3 no respawn hacks).

Even with empty templates and anti-redundancy, you will still get 24 professors.  More if you have custom majors.  The game creates a male & female professor for every major, including "undeclared".

It's best to have the clean templates installed before you add the sub-hoods.  Switching to clean templates after you've added the subhood will be too late as the townies/dormies and Maxis-made playables will already be added to your neighbourhood.

I wish I had known that tidbit.  I installed a crap-load of majors the last time that I sent a bunch of kids through Uni (I save them up because it's so boring). 

*makes sheep noises in your general direction*

And how did my browser spell-check miss anti-reduncany? My only excuse is a new keyboard.  ::)

Im currently in the process of doing this now. as i want to build a brand new custom hood, with only my own stuff etc...
Question (and from what i can see and read, mind you im sick in bed with a flu, I cannot see it...)

Has any one created the clean tempates for BV?

What im looking for is the subhoods, with the lots and comlots etc, with out, townies,to many npcs etc?

These would also be good for the other ones to, I have noticed there is 'Cleaned" templates, which still have the playable famailes etc.

But im just after the subhoods with all lots intact, with no sims in site, to make my own etc.

Any help would be good, will not add any vaction subs for a while.

Cheers.

EDIT:... Just looking at the A001 dir now... if i delete the charater files, but leave the lots, and repleace it with the A001_Neighborhood.package from the argon_BV-ocd.zip will this give me what im looking for?

And likewise with the Downtown (D001) etc? (im not a big fan of building so much, so wanna keep all the orginal stuff. (at this stage))

to save editing the top post... i did this... and left the LOT files in... and it seems to have worked...
but is this the right way?

i also edited the FT hood package files. and copied from what the empty Pets one or anything one looked like, and got rid of the sims from that. i will not know if it has worked properly until i test it to see if things can still be done. but yeah. miono... ill call this hood a 'test' for now. until everything gets fixed. i just hated playing the pre-packed hoods.

If you are using nodormieregen then no, dormies will not be created. You may also want to use nossrespawn if you add your Sims to the Secret Society (via testing cheats or a mod) so the game doesn't generate a plethora of fugly members.

mind you, providing u have all the necessary items, sims when they generator will look fine.
if u download a default skin replacement,
and the CAS face replacements,
and delete the thumbnails then they wont be made with suck big mouths and faces etc.
(this more so for when u create them in the CAS, so it will regen according to the package)
i think there is some tuts on this, and other things u can do.

but it is also good to stop the regen of the sims, because some times it can be come to much. etc.

I am using the cleaned templates with the original hoods.

Can I make the custom BV townies?  (the blond and redheaded asians/islanders are mind boggling)  Do I still need to use SimPE to delete their relationships?  Or is there a way to generate them will on the lot, wearing the custom skins and clothes with the gun?

I was thinking it might be better to create them in a custom hood with nothing in it, then take the hood file and the character files and switch the files for those vacation hoods to my cleaned original neighborhoods.

Nuking existing Vacation Locals with the Lot Debugger should work.

If you use the empty templates for the vacation neighborhoods, you can make your own vacation locals without having to delete any of the ugly ones. Is what I do. :P

But can I make custom ones using the gun?  Can I pick their clothing, skin, hair and such?  I tried to make a custom sim that way, but it wouldn't let me pick the clothes or hair, just skintone.  I don't know what I did wrong  ::)  or if I need another hack to customize them from gun/tree creation.

I did use the clean template for BV, but don't know if I created my BV sims as a family first, then move to the lot per instructions if I still had to use Sim PE to remove their memories from the hood.  I am glad that I can use the lot debugger, but need clarification on what I am doing.

With the debugger do I just clean the lot or clean each sim?  (This is my first time using the debugger heeheh, this is my first clean hood, got tired of hood corruption)  Do I clean each sim before I townify them or after?

If you want to choose the hairstyles, faces, and clothing of your locals, you'll need to create them in CAS and then add them to the correct locale. Make your locals in CAS, move them into a lot, use the lot debugger to remove the Mystery Sim and their trash memories, then you can use Argon's Townie Brick (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11060.0.html) to add them to the correct locale. Exit the game and use SimPE to remove their relationships and any family ties they may have. You can also change their last names in SimPE at this point if you want. It's been a while since I created my locals but if I missed something I'm sure someone will jump in and poke me with a stick.

If you have FT I'm not sure if the brick will still work. It was throwing out all sorts of errors for me so you may have to wait for an update or find out if Argon's older makelocal (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9684.0.html) fix is compatible and follow the instructions in that thread to move your Sims to the correct vacation destination.

Mm, do you HAVE to remove the mystery sim memories? I thought that stuff gets burninated automagically when they become lobotomized-townies?

No, I don't think it's necessary to remove them especially because they get replaced the first time they spawn in their respective vacation subhoods. I generally go back at a later time and delete them through SimPE because I don't like that the "Went to College" memory was added to the list of generic memories, but that's just a personal preference. You may want to burninate the "Met So-and-So" memories of everyone you spawned them with if you delete their relationships just to be consistent, but again I don't think it's entirely necessary.

They are attached to this post (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg264144.html#msg264144).

I have a question, and I really hope it does not make me look stupid. And I apologize if I am not "smart" enough to instantly understand parts of the tutorial, okay? Peachy-Keen.

For the purpose of a new legacy challenge, I downloaded modified names for NPC/Townies and replacement CAS faces, so that my townies wouldn't be funky. The threads directed me here, so that I could start a nice clean neighborhood.

I just completed the process and I hope I didn't mess anything up.

1. Say I've gone through the whole thing, and my townies/NPC are generated. When a townie is taken out of the townie/NPC pool will another one spawn? I do want townies to spawn if one dies, gets married, etc. So will this still happen?

2. On the subject of FT, does anyone know the number of characters that will be created since we don't have clean templates yet? I checked my characters folder and there were files in there. But, I am assuming they are from FT because I followed the tutorial carefully.

I appreciate kind and tolerant people.  :)

There is an empty FT template here: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg317272.html#msg317272 (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg317272.html#msg317272)
I think if you want townies to respawn, you will have to make sure you haven't put in the notownieregen hack.  NPCs will respawn if you take one out of the pool on their own, as far as I can tell.

I was wondering...does anyone have or know of a tutorial that guides you through the process of creating your own townies, downtownies, dormies, NPCs, and BV Locals? I really would like to customize my own but the whole thing is a bit overwhelming. I just don't want to mess up my computer or corrupt the game for good.  :o

I really hate to be a bother but if anyone could help, I'd be most appreciative.  :)

If you read the OP in this thread, it walks you through all of this I believe; unless I'm misunderstanding your question.

Edit because my spelling was off.

It does...but in a very vague manner. And believe me I have read that first post countless times to try to understand it more.

Mostly, I was just hoping for some more detailed help, especially with NPCs and BV Locals. But on that subject, NPCs and BV locals are two entirely separate issues. The latter of which makes me worried that I'll mess something up.

All in all, I was hoping for a little more of an explanation on how to create these custom NPCs and BV Locals. What I really would like is a numbered list of sorts telling me the steps in which to create custom townies, etc. Hopefully this could be concise yet detailed enough to keep me from asking more stupid questions.

Perhaps, I am asking too much. But if somebody has successfully created custom townies, NPCs, BV Locals, etc., I would appreciate a nice concise list of instructions or guidance.

No one here is going to give you better guidance than the first post in this very thread.  This is not the sort of place that generates a lot of instructional posts, especially for those things which have already been explained.  A better approach would be:

1. Read this thread and learn from the other questions that people have asked.
2. Back up your game.
3. Back up your game again.
4. Attempt to execute the instructions in the first post.  If you screw up your game, you have a back up right?  If you still feel timid, make another backup.
5. If you really have not understood and cannot get your game running, return here with a concise list of what you did and what's wrong.

You are far more likely to get responses for individual problems you actually encounter, than an exhaustive list of how to avoid everything you're afraid of.

Akshully, I was just wondering if someone wouldn't mind coming round to my house and doing it for me? 

Is airfare included? I could use a vacation!  ;)

You're a trouble starter, aren't ya?

I get it; I shall make a grand attempt at it. But expect questions because, unfortunately, I am obviously not worthy of instantly understanding all things greater than I.

I just hope that when I do have particular questions that they will be answered, and that I shall not be ridiculed simply because I am not omniscient.

In fact, I have the most burning questions. I would simply like to know if there is a particular amount of locals needed at each vacation destination, so that the game does not freak out. I am also wondering if I need to create tourists or not. Is it necessary for the game to have them? Or are they simply townies appearing as tourists?

And just to cover my ass, I did read the entire thread about the  Make Vacation Sim (Local) Fix (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9684.0.html). Yet, it does not answer the above questions. And since necromancy is bad, I didn't know if that was one of those cases in which you could post there. So, if I should post this question there, I apologize for my ignorance.

Shit-stirring we call it here.  ;D

I had a go at this a while back, and got it wrong the first time! What I did in the end was print out the instructions, then do each one bit by bit. I backed up each of the original files before I replace them. I crossed out each instruction when I'd done it.

Just be clear where you are going, read, don't assume. It's worth taking the time and having the patience, it's so lovely to have hoods without the EAxis sims.

Good luck.

*sigh*

Alright, I'm having a problem with creating custom NPCs. Let me get a few things straight:

1. Do use the name process as creating a townie, then just make the sim an NPC?
2. Or am I supposed to generate an NPC with the NPC creator?

If the latter, how do I "set your desired age, skintone, and gender settings?"
1. Is the NPC creator used to do this or is it simPE or something else?

Also, why exactly do we need to use the Lot Sync Timer to keep the paperboy away?

Thanks.

The Lot Sync Timer keeps the time early enough that the paperboy/girl is not generated before you have a chance to create one yourself. This is the first NPC I usually create in a new neighborhood because I often start thinking about other things and forget to set the clock back. The options for skintone, age, and gender are on the Townie & NPC Maker itself - perhaps this post (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg205277.html#msg205277) may help answer some of your questions.

ETA: Sara's post deals specifically with spawning a Grand Vampyre but the steps are basically the same for creating all NPCs. I don't think it's mentioned in that post but if you spawn a Sim you do not want, DO NOT SELECT KILL. This creates an unlinked, crap character file that does nothing but take up space. Instead, exit the lot without saving and re-enter to try again.

To make an NPC, I would use the townie & NPC generator (the townie tree in earlier EPs, and the townie gun in later EPs).  The only exception to this is if you want your BV locals to look like they come from their region - in that case make them in CAS and then use Argon's fixed townie maker to turn them into the appropriate NPCs.

You can set the age, skintone & gender on the townie maker before you make the NPCs.  Save after creating each NPC that you like.  Don't use the *kill* option if you don't like the NPC's appearance or name, as that will create a useless dead character file.  Instead, if you don't like the NPC created, simply exit the lot without saving.

Resetting the time via the lot sync timer stops the game generating a paperboy.  If you want to make all your own NPCs and approve of them first, then you don't want the game generating one.  I recommend setting the time to 11am or later - that way you also won't get a mailman created by the game.

For names, if you don't like the standard EAxis generated names, there are mods that will replace the name list that the game uses.  I use this one (http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=110889) by Jordi.  This mod doesn't change the name of any NPC or townie that already exists, it only affects the names of game-generated NPCs or townies that are created (including via the townie maker) after adding this mod to your downloads folder.

So, unlike townies/downtownies, etc., you cannot add any makeup, different hair, etc?
Thus, essentially all you can really do with the NPCs is pick their skin color, gender, age, and facial structure, correct?

Then ultimately, it would be a bad idea to create an NPC via CAS and then try to make it an NPC via the townie maker? If this is true, then I could come to the conclusion that NPCs must maintain quite a bit of genericalness?

Therefore, unless I want to micro-manage the facial structure of my NPCs, I should just let the game create them?

You can't pick their facial structure, and some NPCs need to be a particular age and/or gender (e.g. nannies are always elder females, headmasters are always male, paper deliverers are always teens).  You can choose not to save a particular NPC if you don't like their facial structure, but that's not the same as picking a facial structure yourself.


The problem with creating an NPC in CAS is that you need to somehow add the required NPC code to their character file, so that the NPC then behaves as it should.  While the townie gun will do this for you for BV tourists & locals (if you have Argon's fixed version), I don't think it has the ability to turn CAS sims into other NPC types.

If you don't create any NPCs at all the game will generate them as you need, so I usually don't bother with this step.  If I need them to wear a different costume for some themed 'hood, I customise them cosmetically as I encounter them.

As a general rule, you really shouldn't make NPCs playable since that forces the generation of another one.  Make pretty townies in CAS if you like, and use them for genetic fodder instead. :)


You did not cover your ass enough, the answer to your question is in this thread:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.0.html

However, that thread is unwieldy.  I think the minimum number of locals is one for each BV 'hood, 'cause if I use the clean templates, anti-redundancy + notownieregen, that's what I get.  If Pescado thinks one vacation local is enough, who am I to argue?  The locals are not quite NPCs but they know the local gestures so that's why you have to have at least one of them in each BV destination.

You are on the money about BV tourists. (See? You can deduce more than you realise!)  They are just townies living in a different 'hood.  You don't need any if you don't want.

The spasmodic twitching my brain is almost gone! Thank you guys for all the help you've given me!

The only thing I'm worried about is using Argon's Townie Brick, for making BV locals. I heard that it has some errors with FT and Argon has not responded to his thread in about 2 weeks. Should I use his old fix...or...? I am going to be making those locals soon.

You can use the brick to make your townies/npcs etc, but I advise you to take it out as soon as you have finished and before you start playing.

I have a few questions on generating/making tourists.

1.  What is the best way to generate tourists?  The gun or CAS.

2.  The Townie brick does go absolutely crazy when in game, if I create these tourists in CAS and use the brick, to make them into the various townies eg, Asia etc... will they automatically know he local gestures?  If not how do I make them know it?

3.  Which face template is suitable for Asian townies, if I made them in CAS?

I would suggest using the teleport shrub plus (jordi's?), if you're afraid of the brick. It's what I used to make my townies. I kept it on my "townie lot" (it's nothing but a shrub, townie gun, and the Lot Debugger)

Tourists or locals, btw? I didn't bother making tourists for my game. I just made the locals. Made them in CAS, plunked them on my townie lot. Zapped them with the shrub to make them townies then used the gun to zap them into vacation locals. Then used the shrub again to banish them all to their vacation hood.

There is a nice Asian replacement template in Peasantry (I helped make it. =P ) I always use it for my Asian townies. It's a replacement for the 6 or 7th template I think.

Editted to add: Link to asian template replacement

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5370.0.html

My suggestion: (this is what I prefer to do) Make two distinctive looking sims for the vacation hoods. Then in CAS use the "add a baby" thingy. Switch the option from child to adult. Hit the random button until you have an adult sim you like and fiddle with them from there. That way all the locals look similiar (if that is what you want of course).

Thank you for yout quick response, I shall certainly do the add a baby one, cause it will be much quicker to do, I generally do that If I want a large family of siblings.  I take a brother and sister and then make 6 adults and connect them as siblings.

You don't have to connect them as family, I dunno what that would do. Making CA sims into townies usually fries their relationships and whatnot.

Do I need to add the 3 Neighbourhoods for Bon Voyage first before creating them?
I downloaded a clean template(s), but I still get the Bellboy, etc... Is that meant to happen?
How do I access the clothes for the Far East, are they in CAS?
When making them a local / tourist - do they automatically know the gestures etc?

Sorry if I sound blonde, but I did it and it messed up, and now I can either delete my whole hood or start again.

BTW, if I wanted to give a permanent makeover/surgery to the tourists, could I copy the NPC's into Bodyshop and then replace them with SIMPE Sim Surgery.  And if that was possible, what files would I copy? And where to?

A little common sense goes a long way.  You can make the townies in CAS without attaching the vacation 'hoods, but obviously when you actually apply the brick or the gun, they have to have a sub-hood to be sent to, don't they?


Both of these questions stem from confusion about townies vs. NPCs.  This is a very basic distinction which you need to clarify in order to use clean templates.  Read more.  I answered the question of locals, tourists and gestures above.


This is plain laziness.  Look for yourself and ask questions when you are actually stuck.


You do not sound blonde.  You sound lazy.  If you skimp on research before starting something new, you can expect mistakes.  Nothing wrong with that, but you then have to be prepared to start over and try again.  Read some more.  If you learn, then your next 'hood will be more successful.

The confusion over local v. tourists should be a give away. There is no need for tourist families. All they do is get in the way of your playables trying to interact with locals. I don't have tourists in my game, so the vacation hoods are empty of everyone except for the locals, the NPCs, and the vacationing families.

I agree with you. :) That little tidbit should have been included in the very first post of this thread.  Because none of the other 'hoods have locals, it's not clear what you're supposed to do with them.  However, I responded to the same question from another poster just 10 posts above. 

I only learned how to use the clean templates a couple of months ago.  It was confusing.  I made mistakes and had to start over.  Several times.  I didn't get discouraged or make excuses for myself, because I expected to mess up.  It's what happens whenever you learn to do something new.  You fall down a lot.  I kept notes; I became very friendly with Advanced Search, :D and I figured it out in the end.  It's not as hard as some people make it sound.

Thanks, there is something wrong with my game, my CAS is not showing the clothes from the Bon Voyage, I think I may need to reinstall that, I thought it should be in but it wasnt.

I copy and past every bit of information and print it out and follow all insructions, although it can be confusing.  I managed to do everything with other hoods, just Bon Voyage is the one that can be tricky.  I just wish I could do it in onme step, like the other hoods.

What I mean by Tourists, I think I meant to say Locals (those are the ones with the gestures), but the clean template still added the NPC's for Bon Voyage.

I was quite tired when I wrote the other post, so I was forgetting what I was typing.

Many thanks for your help.

I started a themed neighborhood using empty templates.  And I wanted to make custom NPC's.  So, I made a bunch in CAS and moved them into a lot.  After Boolproping, the mailbox had links to turn some into the NPC I wanted them to be, Paper Carrier and Mail Carrier.  But not others like Cop, Fireman or Maid.  Is there a way to make them into Cops, Firemen, Maids, etc.  or do I have to use these sims for other Proffessions?  The townie gun has options to turn them into Garden Club Members/Iconic Hobbyists.  Is turning them into GCM/IH going to wreck the neighborhood?

I don't know about that but when I make custom townies I let the game generate the sims and then use Theo's Sims Surgery (SimPE) to 'paste' features, personalities and clothing on them from Sims extracted out of a dummy neighbourhood.