More Awesome Than You!

Creating Custom Servos

*This tutorial is to make servos look like regular sims or keep their custom NOT SERVO-SHAPED servo skins, nothing more.*

First, you need to make sure you have an active ("living") servo.

Second, you need a sim to clone from. There are two ways to do this:
   1. Use an existing elder, and when they are cloned, pick new clothes with Pescado's Clothing Tool.
   2. OR create one in CAS or Body Shop then CAS. The sim never needs to go beyond the Sim Bin to be cloned, so        
           they are easier to get rid of if you don't want them in your neighborhood. Follow the Deleted II tutorial (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6205.0.html).

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/CASelder.jpg)

I recommend using an elder clothing mesh that isn't old looking, unless you want that for some reason. I also recommend custom skins without elder wrinkles, and custom hair/eyebrows that aren't grey.

Exit your game.

Open the neighborhood in SimPE.

Go to Tools>Neighborhood>Sims Surgery

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/SimPE1.jpg)

Select your servo for the Patient Sim. Select your elder for the Archetype Sim. Select "Surgery."

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/SimPE2.jpg)

After the servo is cloned, SimPE will open its character file. Save the neighborhood and exit SimPE.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/SimPE3.jpg)

Now you have your custom servo next time you open your neighborhood. As you see, servo is an adult and does not hunch over like the elder it was cloned from.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/Cloned.jpg)

Notes:

IF, for any reason, your sim reverts back (highly unlikely), simply have the servo change to formal and back.

If anyone is interested in learning how to make existing custom servos (such as Bender and the HK models at MTS2) that will stick, I will add that here, too. Added.

Update: Added the tutorial for fixing existing servo meshes in THIS POST (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13658.msg388538.html#msg388538).

I'd love it if you could show us that Bender trick!

Creating Custom Servos from existing meshes:

For Bender (http://linna.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=150944), HK-47 (http://linna.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=291840), and HK-50 (http://linna.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=292827), see files linked at the bottom of this post. I have already modified them. Make sure you grab the HK-47 mesh file that goes with the HK models.


Install your custom servo following these directions. In the case of Bender and the HK models, I will attach the modified files.

1. Open the Sims2pack with Clean Installer. Do NOT install the lot or family.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/servo3.jpg)

2. UNcheck Default Installation, select the Downloads folder, or create a specific folder and browse to it.
3. UNcheck Generate Sims2 Import File, change file extension to package.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/servo6.jpg)

4. Install.
5. Open SimPE, and navigate to Tools>Scan Folders

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/servo7.jpg)

6. UNcheck everything except Caption and Clothing Scanner. Do not check Recursive.
7. Navigate to the correct folder, and scan.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/servo2.jpg)

8. Go to the Operations tab, scroll down to Set Ages, and select the appropriate outfit.
9. To be safe, I select Set Ages, select elder and deselect the rest, Set Ages again. Make sure the Formal and Everyday categories only are selected as well. Otherwise you will clutter up your catalog.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/servo1.jpg)

10. Close Sim PE.
11. Now, open your game. In CAS, select the headless skin, no hair at all, and the invisible eyes (http://linna.modthesims2.com/download.php?t=86687) that B13nky made. Remove eyebrows. Make the sim an elder, and put him/her in the Bender outfit (or servo outfit of your choice) for Everyday and Formal.
Save the sim, and follow the directions above (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13658.0.html) for cloning.

(http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y249/necrobabe/Servo%20Tutorial/servo4.jpg)

If you want your servos to slouch and act like elders, simply change their age to elder in SimPE in the Sim Description.

Bender (http://www.4shared.com/file/71622434/d091c728/DynamicDuo_BenderServo_SimFeatures.html?dirPwdVerified=b1c981e)
HK-47/50 MESH (http://www.4shared.com/file/71622430/d7fc0331/MESH_HK47.html?dirPwdVerified=b1c981e)
HK-47 (http://www.4shared.com/file/71622425/be8dc6ff/5f101f42_cr0307_HK-47.html?dirPwdVerified=b1c981e)
HK-50 (http://www.4shared.com/file/71622441/efbaa560/5fafafe5_cr0907_HK-50.html?dirPwdVerified=b1c981e)

If I clone from an existing sim, is it possible to change skintone of the servo, in case I want a more servo-like skintone, or do the sim I clone from have to have the skintone I want on my servo?

You can change the skintone in SimPE under DNA, but not to a servo skin unless it is a normal skin with servo coloring. Otherwise, you just make the sim with the skintone you want before cloning.

Doesn't this only work for S1-4? If you're talking about a custom skintone, you can just perform a second simsurgery using someone with said custom skintone as the archetype and check the "skintone only" option.

Ah, thanks for the heads up. Yes, I meant a custom skintone, a more robotic one. Guess that means I have to make a specific sim in CAS after all, which I was trying to avoid.

Yes, this tutorial is to make servos look like regular sims or keep their custom NOT SERVO-SHAPED servo skins, nothing more.

Custom skin is what I'm after, not a custom mesh.