More Awesome Than You!

Hi all,
I've been considering for a while replacing the CAS defaults.  I know theres a tutorial and replacements somewhere here (i'll search later) and also one at MTS2.  I've decided to do this now, before i get Bon Voyage because I'm totally not keen on the new expansion spawning a whole lot more of ugly townies.

This will be one of the biggest changes I've made to my game, and since my neighbourhood is around 2 years old, I'm a little protective of it.  I'm not stupid enough to do anything like this without backing up, but thought I'd ask you lovely people for some advice first.

What are the chances of my neighbourhood going splodie?  Are there any known issues when replacing CAS defaults? Anything else I need to know?

Zero chance of neighbourhood damage, since these templates are only ever used for Sim spawning. Existing Sims will not change*.

Known issues: incomplete sets may result in weird results if you change the age of a Sim while still in CAS. AFAIK no incomplete sets exist anymore, though.

What else: you can mix and match! As long as you keep only one of each template, you can use Modder A's version of templates 1, 2, 3; and Modder B's version of templates 4, 5, 6; etc..

*Caveat: if you have face blending on (the default), Sim toddlers may grow up into slightly different kid faces after changing template sets, as the game attempts to normalize faces to templates.

Thanks Jordi.

So if i dont have any toddlers in the neighbourhood at the time of replacement, the face blending shouldn't happen right?

I sometimes use Sarakadie's default replacements from MTS2, and they work well, all separate named files so it there are any you don't want, you can easily select the relevant files and removed them.

Gah! Someone must finish Natalie's face templates before the Lies and Propaganda hit me!

Face blending can only be turned off with the cheat faceBlendLimits off

All it does is make sure faces are not too far apart from the templates (within limits -- Marduk the Destroyer spawn will still look hideous).

I use AmberDiceless' faces, except templates 21 and 25, which are by TerraKosmos. And of course the new Argon template.

I switch out sets at will. I generate townies from mine, then downtownies from bruna00000  (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=239790)(love them), then NPCs from a mix of Sarakadie and Natalie's. Or somesuch. I'll probably throw Starlit's new set  (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=246917)in next time I feel like hitting the generator.

Template for what?  And where may this be found?

Somewhere in a post by Argon on facial templates here. He had uploaded it to show you could indeed add new facial archetypes.

it's argon_arch.rar here:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9028.msg247957.html#msg247957

I just used my self Sim's face to prove that it worked lol.

Thanks -- not sure how I missed that...

Senility, probably. :P

Oh yea, that's probably... wait, what was I talking about?  Oh look, a butterfly!

 ;D