Tutorial: Clean custom neighborhoods and Townie creation (Updated for BV)

[Berney]

First, a BIG thank you to all the following people:
•   Jordi, for the Seasons version of this walkthrough, 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.
•   Argon, for the empty template for BV (buried in Sara's thread) and for the NPC generator [Make Vacation Sim (Local)] fix.
•   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.

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 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.
•   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. 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. 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.

[Zilla]

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? 

[Lord Darcy]

Nodormieregen is only available in director's cut.

[Zilla]

Thanks

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

[V]

Batch creation will lead to a balanced neighbourhood setup, but your townies will not have any custom clothes or make-up. They will use the default facial templates (or overrides, if any) and default name list.

But you can change your default name list using Jordi's Live.package found here. 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 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.




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

[dizzy]

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

[Invisigoth]

Batch creation will lead to a balanced neighbourhood setup, but your townies will not have any custom clothes or make-up. They will use the default facial templates (or overrides, if any) and default name list.

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. 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.

[Berney]

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

[Azureale]

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" is loaded.

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

[missaaliyah]

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.   

[gynarchy]

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.

[croiduire]

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?

[gynarchy]

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.

[gynarchy]

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.

[jolrei]

By the way, not to be off topic or anything, but speaking about hacks, do hacks slow down your game like custom content downloads do when you have many of them?  Just wondered because I found many useful hacks on here that I like.  Thanks! 

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.

[dizzy]

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.)

[strangerous]

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?

[Zilla]

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.

[Kyna]

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.

[Zilla]

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.

[gynarchy]

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.

[strangerous]

Kyna, thanks for clearing that up!

[Nooneofgreatimportance]

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.

[V]

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.

[strangerous]

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?