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

[Invisigoth]

I create all of my own dormies, so I can definitely walk you through this process. You will need one of Inge's teleporters 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 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.

[Kyna]

You might also want something like Hook's randomizer 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.

[Sarimar]

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?

[gynarchy]

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.

[strangerous]

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...

[Sarimar]

Thanks gynarchy

[jsalemi]

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:

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.

[strangerous]

Thank you, jsalemi! : D

[mitchellcjs]

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.

[Jelenedra]

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.

[Aeval]

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).

[Kyna]

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.

[Aeval]

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. 

[Simgoose]

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))

[Simgoose]

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.

[gynarchy]

Just a question though, if you don't bother to spawn dormies in your uni n'hoods will the game automagically create some when I send my sims to uni?

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.

[Simgoose]

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.

[Simgoose]

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

[Cynarra]

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.

[J. M. Pescado]

Nuking existing Vacation Locals with the Lot Debugger should work.

[Jelenedra]

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.

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.

[Cynarra]

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?

[gynarchy]

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 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 fix is compatible and follow the instructions in that thread to move your Sims to the correct vacation destination.

[Jelenedra]

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

[gynarchy]

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.