This is specifically for OFB, but it can be used for non OFB users as well.
This is
PRE OFB PATCH ONLY until further notice.
Deleting, Creating, and Generating Townies INDEX:1.) Getting rid of all characters
2.)Making new townies
a.)To Make Maxis townies
b.)To Make Custom Townies
3.)Adding a Downtown
4.)Adding A University
5.)NPCs
The
BIG no no:
DO NOT do this in a Maxis made neighborhood! Meaning
Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville. Doing so may blow your game
up beyond repair. I cannot stress this enough.If you really want to get
rid of the sims in these neighborhoods, kill them off individually in
game. If it is simply the houses you want, Package each one you want to
a file and install them after you have completed your new neighborhood.
If you are using clean installer (I hope you are) select
LOT FILE ONLY.
This is important. Failing to do this will potentially blow your game
up.
Or you can be really patient and wait until I finish the empty, bug-free version of some neighborhoods, as well as custom townies with no custom content. This will be a while, so don't hold your breath - you will probably turn blue and die if you do.
DO NOT use the deleteallcharacters cheat more than once per
neighborhood. You will get an error during townie creation. If you
screw up the first time, start over. If you accidentally forgot to
delete all the characters before generating townies (meaning you have
two full sets of townies in your neighborhood), deleteallcharacters
will give you an error when you try to generate them again. Add all
your lots and houses AFTER making your townies/downtownies.
NOTE: If you have tried this in a clean neighborhood and you are still getting errors: First, exit and delete the NeighborhoodManager.package from your Neighborhoods folder. If that doesn't work, make sure you have no hacks that prevent townie/dormie regeneration, etc. If that doesn't work, then remove your hacks and try again. If that doesn't work, then I'd say you are SOL. Sorry!
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1.) Getting rid of all characters:Start in a brand new neighborhood, do not make any sims. Do NOT make a
downtown or University. You may make a new Shopping District, but an empty one - NOT Bluewater Village.
Besides that one exception, NO SUBHOODS ALLOWED! The reason for this exception is that an empty
Shopping District does not create any new characters.
Adding any others before you delete the characters will make your game blow
up. I will explain how to add Subhoods later in this tutorial, so be
patient!
There are two ways to go about this.
One is while in neighborhood view, hit Ctrl+Shift+c to open the cheat
console. Type in
deleteallcharacters, at which point you will be
prompted as to whether or not you really want to do this. Of course you
do, so select yes. At this point the neighborhood will reload and there
will be no one there.
The second one, is to exit the game and delete all the files in the
character folder. (C:\My Documents\EA Games|The Sims
2\Neighborhoods\<insert your neighborhood folder here>\Character Files)
There should be 87 files there. Make sure you pick the correct
neighborhood folder. Once you have navigated to this folder it is wise
to leave it open and Alt+Tab to access it in-game and keep track of
things as you are going through this process.
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2.)Making new townies:First, get either Inge's Teleporter Plus shrub found HERE :
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.net/smf/index.php?topic=2757.0 , or get the proper version of the
InSIMenator (the Sim Edition) for your game version found HERE:
http://www.insimenator.net/forumdisplay.php?f=38 or you can use both. This is simply a matter of preference. Read up
(thoroughly!) on both to find out what they do and choose which method
you prefer, and please note that if you choose to use just the
InSIMenator you will have to have a sim ask the townies you exported to leave
the lot. Also, you can adjust their gender preference before
exportation with the Personality Adjustor. With the shrub, you can
remove all non-residents and they will vanish off the lot. Both have
advantages the other doesn't.
This will be split into two sections. Making Maxis townies, and making
custom townies.
a.)To Make Maxis townies: Make a sim in CAS aka Create A Family. Move them into a house or empty
lot - it is up to you. As soon as the lot loads for the first time, one
townie, the Grim Reaper, Mrs. Crumplebottom (If you have Nightlife),
the Shrink, and the NPC-Remote Control Car will be generated. Now, open
the cheat console again, and type in boolprop testingcheatsenabled
true. Then you can either Shift+click on your sim and select
spawn...NPC and Townie Maker. It looks like the dead willow tree. Or,
you can Shift+click on the mailbox, and on the second set of menus you
should see *DBG - FORCE Create Townies. It will ask you if you want to
create them now, select yes. SOmetimes you will get a random skintone
option as well. If you have Nightlife, you will have the option to
create Downtownies. Do not pick this one, you will simply get an error.
Now your townies will be generated without a hitch if you have followed
the directions thusfar. More often than not during the creation of said
townies, you will see the icons of the one townie, the 4 NPCs, and the
sim you made where the game is showing you it is creating townies. Do
not be alarmed - this is normal. About halfway through, you will begin
to see other faces as well as blank ones. By the time you are done
generating townies, the paper will likely have been delivered and your
NPC paper delivery teen will have been generated. Save your game. You
should now have 32 files in your Characters folder. 1 is your sim, one
is the paper delivery sim, and the other 30 are townies.
b.)To Make Custom Townies:In CAS create 24-30 sims of your liking (preferably in groups of 6-8),
using whatever custom content you want, and leaving them in the Sim Bin
until you are done (it seems to be easier that way). After you have
created your townie sims, move one group into a lot at a time,
preferably an empty one. I prefer to use the same lot for townie
exportation, leaving one sim behind so I can just combine households
(you must have University for this option) with the remaining sims in
the Sim Bin. No waiting for the lot to move them in that way. Do not
give them a phone. Do not greet any visitors that may come to welcome
your sims. This makes the process easier.
Shrub instructions: With each sim, click on the shrub and choose Make
Me A Townie. As you do this, the selected sim will automatically
change. When you have exported all on the lot, you will no longer have
the "make me a" option. Sims will remain on the lot and wander around
doing sim stuff after exportation if you do not pause the game, which
is recommended. After you are done exporting every sim on the lot,
click on the shrub again and select Remove All Non Residents. This will
cause all of them to vanish. Exit the lot, and repeat with the
remaining sims you made that are still in the Sim Bin.
InSIMenator Instructions: click on the ground and select Spawn...Family
Tree. Click on the Family Tree and select Remove From Household...As
Townie...<insert sim name here> - Leave Downtownie alone for now, and
I highly recommend not touching the NPC option. Continue until you have
one sim left. Have this sim tell everyone to leave. If you do not do
this, they will remain on the lot, even after exiting the lot. If you
have University, you can now take another group from the Sim Bin and
combine households. If you do not have University, export this sim and
then exit back into the neighborhood and move your next group in.
Continue this process until you have sucessfully exported all, and
there will be one exported sim on the lot left. If you wait until it is
really late, they will leave on their own - or if their motives get too
low they will leave before that. If you have a refrigerator and a bed
they will stay, so leave these items off the lot, as they will use them and stay indefinitely. Otherwise,
you can tell them to leave when a new family moves in, but I do not
recommend that.
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3.)Adding a Downtown:Before you add a downtown, go to your character files folder and look
at the highest file number (example:N001_User0x00032) and remember it,
write it down, whatever. Now it is safe to make a downtown. Make ONE
and ONLY ONE! DO NOT use the Maxis made Downtown!
Immediately after making your subhood, exit the game. Go to the
Character Files folder and select all the new character files, then
Shift+delete. (This will bypass the Recycle Bin and delete them from
your hard drive). This will normally create 78 new character files.
Start the game, and follow the instructions above for making townies.
It is exactly the same, simply select Downtownie instead of Townie in
each case.
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4.)Adding A University:Follow the same instructions for making a downtown, making a note of
the highest character file number, and deleting all new files. There
should be 98 of them. What happens next depends on what you want to do.
Maxis Young Adults: Can be generated by selecting "Create Townies" on a residential lot in a University hood, but be warned: This makes 49 YA, unlike every other neighborhood, which makes 30.
If you make a YA sim and move them into a dorm it will automatically
generate one cafeteria worker, Professors, the Gypsy (if you have
nightlife), a cow mascot, and enough dormies to fill up your dorm. Then over time it will produce a llama
mascot, a cheerleader, and a streaker. If you put another student or students in another dorm, it will
generate enough dormies for that dorm, as well as a new cow, llama, cheerleader, dorm cook, and streaker.
If you put your sim in a house, about 30 sim minutes or so after lot load,
the game will produce the required Professors (29), but no dormies or other
YA. On first visit to a community lot ON campus, the game will generate
the necessary NPCs and a Secret Society member - but that is it. If you
want more YA then put a sim in a dorm or make your own.
Custom Young Adults: To make your own YA, follow the same instructions
for making custom townies, only do so in the University CAS. You MUST
do this on a regular lot - not in a dorm. Young Adults are considered
Townies in most (if not all) cases. So export them as Townies, unless
you really want a few as Downtownies for some strange reason.
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5.)NPCsNPCs will be automatically created by the game as needed, so it really
isn't necessary to generate them all. If there are NPC's that you never
use or see, there is no point in making them anyway. You can choose to
generate all NPCs with the mailbox (DBG-FORCE Create NPCs) or the tree
(Make All...Base Game NPCs or EP2 NPCs) for the base game or Nightlife.
You can generate special NPCs for each expansion, except Open For
Business, individually with the tree, as well as EP/non-EP specific
NPCs (maid, burglar, repoman, barista, streaker, mascot, Grand Vampire,
Dateable Slob, Mr.Big, Chef, DJ, etc.) If you find you want specific NPCs
and do not want to wait for them to generate on their own, then this is
a good option.
Edit May 17:
If you wish to let them generate on their own, they will. When you create a sim and move them into a downtown lot, it will make a downtownie, if you move a sim into the main hood, it will make a townie. This will happen every time you add a new sim to your neighborhoods. When you first visit a community lot, it will create a new sim plus NPCs every time you go. The first 10 or so seem to be teens, and then it begins to make adults. This is still experimental as far as the numbers are concerned, but so far my new hood has made 26 character files.
Thanks to Jordi for the inspiration!
That's it! Hope this helps
Author