Tutorial: Deleting, Creating, and Generating Townies OFB and pre-OFB

[LadyCrimsonSkye]

I really need to thank you for your help, and the excellent resources you have provided here!

My Townies have all been created, and moved into town, now I need to make my downtownies.  I'm a little burnt out on the making part now, I'm ready for a break... maybe some dinner.

Is it possible to just use Maxis generated townies for University, Downtown, and OFB once the base neighborhood and townies have been created?  I think I can live with a few big mouths, squished noses, and squinty eyes... if nothing else, I can cow plant the ugly ones, and replace them later with custom sims, correct?

Really, thanks a lot for all the information provided here... there is a LOT to read, but it's SO nice to have a reliable source, finally!

[cwykes]

Best I know, the game will create them when it needs them unless you have Pescado's no-regen hack in which prevents routine bloating. I think you get extras added every time you play up to set limits.  There's a post somewhere here about it.  So no, you don't have to do it. 

Downtownies are said to be better looking - DK if that's just the maxis created ones though.   At least they will be new rather than excatly the same guys as in Pleasantview.  I read somewhere here that the game uses the Pleasantview ones if you have no sims in your hood.  (hope that's not back to front!)   If you want a better choice of names Jordi has one based on the most common names  from the US census.  You need live.package and I think it's still on variousimmers.

[jrd]

It's also on MTS2 now again, since VS is moribund.
http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=110889

The game should generate a townie per lot load until the limit is reached, but there seems to be a sadorandom bug in the default townie generation.
Last time I let the game do its stuff, I ended up with far more teen males than any other age group.

A helpful hint: if you want some more variety, edit your genetic skintones and eye colours according to theo's method, and new townies will have all skintones and eye colours.
Clothing won't work that way alas.


And downtownies are better looking because they come from preset templates including makeup etc.. This also means that if the sadorandom generator resets, you end up with near-twins (same hair, same clothes, possibly only a different face template).

[Sleepycat]

if you use face replacements then I suggest using SaraMKs empty templates

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.0.html


I use her empty Uni template and all my new dormies(and professers+) were spawned using the better looking face templates rather then getting the same old fugly maxis dormies. Now most of them are atleast decent looking and my sims get to marry them 

[jrd]

Oh, and FYI:

If you delete or rename the N001\Characters folder in the template user data (C:\Games\TheSims2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001\Characters or whereever) the game won't import the Pleasantville posse on creating a new 'hood.

Combined with the empty templates found here this means you could very well do without Delete-All-Characters.
You still need to clean out the SimDNA and relationships though.

[jrd]

New info!

Before creating a new 'hood, I had completely renamed the C:\Games\TheSims2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001\ folder. My new 'hood was created CLEAN, without ANY characters, SDNA, or other garbage.

I did not do a delete-all-characters.

Batch-creating townies and downtownies with the tree worked without errors!

I still got errors on creating individual NPCs, but I don't care since those get spawned anyway

[Stitches]

Batch-creating townies and downtownies with the tree worked without errors!

With the busted OFB generator?

If so, this is fantastical. I renamed the templates folder last night but hadn't gotten around to creating a new 'hood. Should I rename the entire N001 folder, or will disguising the template folder suffice?

[jrd]

Yup, with the built-in NPC/townie generator. Apparently deleteallcharacters is what breaks it…

I have renamed my entire N001 folder. Just renaming the /character subfolder will still leave the SDNA and relationships.

No nasty sideeffects seen yet from renaming.

[Jelenedra]

Wait, what?

If you rename the N001 folder, you can make a new neighborhood without having to clean it up? It'll just spawn empty? No SDNA or such and such to delete?

I just want to make sure I understood that right.

[jrd]

Yes, that's it. You get a completely clean neighbourhood without /any/ garbage at all.

At least so in my game (all expansion and shopping packs). Furthermore, the NPC/Townie generator does not throw errors on batch creating of townies of downtownies.

[Sleepycat]

Jordi,  was it a custom hood you made or a fresh copy of Pleasantview?

*wants to make sure she understands correctly*

[gypsylady]

I did this with a custom neighborhood.It has only a uni attatched. Everything showed up in the Uni hood,Lots , Hood deco and such ,but in the main hood the only problem I am haveing is that only 14 of my lots are showing I have checked to make sure the lots are named correctly. My opion is it should be all or nothing. Can't figure out what I am doing wrong.

[jrd]

Let me be more clear…

*I renamed my entire N001 folder in the install folder (C:\Games\TheSims2\ in my case: full path C:\Games\TheSims2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001\).
*I then created a new custom neighbourhood.
*On inspecting this new 'hood file in SimPE I found it to be clean: no townies, no SDNA, no relationships: no Sims or Sim-related items at all except for the default NPCs (such as the Grim Reaper).
*I created a single Sim and moved him in a new lot. I spawned the NPC/Townie generator tree, and batch-created townies. No errors. I set the tree to downtownies and spawned those, again no errors.
I have not  tested the mailbox townie generator but since it runs on the same code it should also work.

I also added a uni, downtown, and shopping district (using the empty templates), and the tree still works on batch runs.

Conclusions: #1: the default townies are always pulled from N001 in the install folder.
#2: the deleteallcharacters is the cause of the errors in the batch creation of townies
#3: Deleting or renaming N001 in the install folder forces the game to start with a clean new custom neighbourhood.


Note: generation of NPCs using the tree remains broken.

[shanpooter]

This sounds great!  Thanks Jordi for sharing this.  I have a question though.  If I rename the D001 template in the Nightlife install folder woul it enable me to create a custom downtown that was clean?  Or do the downtownies get created from something else?  I like to have all custom hoods and sub-hoods with no townies, downtownies or dormies.  If this method works for all of those as well, it would save me a ton of hassle.  I could use the empty templates, but then I am stuck with the default terrains.

[jrd]

Subhoods don't work as main 'hoods: their Sims are not pulled from D001 (or U001 or B001), but the default collection of townies/downtownies comes from the template userdata folders (can't check the path right now). That's why they always got unique names.
I have not tested if renaming the template folders will lead to a clean subhood, but it should work.

I used the empty templates for my uni and downtown, and while I did add a custom shopping district I did not get any extra townies from it (then again, B00x does not have any NPCs or townies, right? Just a reporter who is spawned in-game).

[dizzy]

Okay, here's my experience:

- Renamed "N001" in the "...The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods" path to "lame-N001"
- Created a new neighborhood with one empty lot
- Alt-tabbed and noticed that in the "My Documents\...\N004" folder there were no characters
- Created one sim (Katy Kunoichi) in CAS
- Moved Katy to the empty lot and used the batch NPC from the mailbox
- Noted that the NPCs were all perfectly normal
- Noted that in the "My Documents\...\N004" there were the proper number of character files
- Tried to batch create townies using the NPC and Townie Tree, but the townies were being generated as repeats of Santa, Katy, and Toddler New Year, etc. so I quit to hood without saving
- Created the townies one at a time as normal, and that worked fine

[jrd]

dizzy: the thumbnail problem is harmless. The game does not actually create multiple santas
If you had let it run its course you would have found ~30 townies.

Batch NPC from the mailbox works then? Interesting
I only tried individual NPC creation on the tree.

[jrd]

I've rewritten this tutorial with latest findings. See here.

[miros]

If you wanted the maid to just have a different uniform, use the NPC Changer from SimWardrobe http://www.simwardrobe.com

If you want the maid to have a different face, I'd use the SimSurgery part of SimPE on her.

[miros]

I haven't been to SimWardrobe in ages, but there used to be a forum.  A woman moderator named Kiki would answer what questions she could, since Paladin was still somewhat under the weather.

[Mizz Rose Bud]

You should be able to get in contact with James at N99 http://p218.ezboard.com/bstarlightsims and also Kiri hangs out there.

Rose