Empty and Cleaned-up Templates. [UPDATED]

[pepsihamster]

Hi, I just installed Freetime and the new patch. As I play my game with clean templates I installed the F001 Desiderata Valley right after, according to tut. No townie and NPC respawn in place. Thanks Emma for your links to the empty templates. 

I then started the game and loaded Desiderata Valley - then shut the game down again. I look in the new F001 character folder in my documents and it has 35 characters. Hmm. So I take the character folder to the desktop and start the game again, loading DV once more. Now the new character folder is empty, which I like better.    Only, I checked some of the character files in SimPe and some of them were NPC's like the grim reaper, some of them were townies (3 of those were food judges).

So, before I do something totally stupid to my game, and destroy all the other things I have done up till now, I am thinking I better check with someone more knowledgable. I haven't played the game with the new FT installation yet - I only loaded DV.

Is it safe to take all those characters out of the F001 characters folder the way I did, even the NPC's and food judges?
I looked in the other neighborhood folders like N001 and N002 and those character folders are empty. So I am thinking I can just delete those in F001. I still want my sims to be able to use all the Freetime things and secret lots and food contest ...

What should I do, please?

[Emma]

To check whether your empty templates are working, rename your 'Sims 2' folder to 'Sims 2 main' or something, then run the game to generate a clean install. Once you've done that, don't click on anything, minimise the game to desktop and check your F001 folder to see if there are any characters in there. It should be completely empty. You then load up Desiderata Valley and once it is loaded, check the character folder. It should still be empty. The only way you will have files in there is if you have not installed all the empty templates for each EP you have, or if you haven't followed instructions correctly.

[pepsihamster]

Thank you so much for your reply Emma.

I did what you suggested and there were no characters in the folder after loading the game. Then I loaded DV and checked again - now there are 35 characters   

I have succesfully installed all the templates for the other EP's up till Seasons, I have played with that for a while and had no problems. What I did when I installed FT was: patch the game -> get the empty F001 template from your links -> empty out the FT characters folder in program files -> delete the neighborhood package file -> put in the empty neighborhood package file that I downloaded. Load the game... and I got 35 characters in my documents F001 folder.

Did I miss something  I have not installed the F002 package file that I saw in your template links. Is that the reason? I figured I didn't need that one.

[Emma]

Yeah, that's why you have those characters. F002 is the 'stealth' template that adds Hobby Leaders and some other characters that I can't remember off the top of my head. You need to install that too if you want a totally empty neighbourhood.

[pepsihamster]

OK then 

Where do I install that package and do I have to delete anything like with the F001? There is no rtfm in the F002 download.
Already figured it out: I do like with Pets, in the neightborhoodtemplate folder.

If I install F002, will I still be able to visit the hobby lots and meet hobby leaders (i.e. they spawn as needed) or will I not be able to use some the FT options anymore??

Thank you for helping me. I obviously realise that every time someone is responding to a question to help someone else, it takes off their own time to play and such. So I am very greatful for all the help I am getting, anywhere! Thanks

[Emma]

Yeah things will spawn as needed, don't worry. If you are feeling up to it though, you can either create your own hobby club leaders, or download mine at Laverwinkle Sims </shamelessplug> You need 10 of them anyway. If they spawn as needed then they tend not to use the 'uniforms' and just have regular clothing.

To assign them as Iconic Hobbyist NPCs you need to make them in CAS one by one and leave them in the sim bin. Note their names! Then create a sim, put debug mode on, move him to a residential lot, pause and spawn the NPC and townie gun. Click on the bit that says 'make>Iconic Hobbyist>hobby> and choose the sims name you have assigned to be the club leader. Unpause and it should say 'done!' Do this for all 10 of the hobby sims. Once you quit and save that lot, open the sim bin and the 10 hobby club sims will be gone. That means you have done it right!

[pepsihamster]

Thank you for that tip about your downloadable hobby club leaders - wonderful. I d/l them and turned them into iconic hobbyists. It was easy to do, provided I gave them names that are not used by others in the hood. Otherwise its difficult to choose the right one from the npc/townie gun, as I found out. But in the end they were all gone from the bin, yippedy! 

When I check them in Simpe, they don't seem to have any employment. Will they get that later, or are they working as "volenteers" at the clubs  ?

Thanks so much again for all your help.

[Emma]

Nah, they are all jobless

Glad you got it working-yay!

[pseudonymph]

Emma, I've been looking for this kinda help as well, so I must thank you too lol .

[Assmitten]

Emma, you're so helpful, someone should nominate you for Senate!

[Emma]

Emma, you're so helpful, someone should nominate you for Senate!

*Emma laughs at Assmitten

[pseudonymph]

Okay, I have another question, and sorry if it's been covered already...

(If it has, bring it on! I like torture...I'm into light S&M)

Okay, SO...

Do I need to follow the whole "custom hood" tut if I'm not even gonna use any of the pre-made neighborhoods? I plan to DELETE every SINGLE neighborhood I see once I load the game up and then make my own. I'm just wondering if I'm exempt from some of this somewhat tedious process.

Gracias in advance! 

[toad]

Even if you delete the other hoods that come with the game, any custom hood you make will spawn the same townies unless you have empty templates.  So if you made 3 completely different custom hoods, they'll still have the townies that come with Pleasantview (Goopy etc).
Empty templates and making your own townies means that you know they'll be different. So yes, you do have to go through this process even if you're going to delete the default hoods, unless you want the default townies.

[pseudonymph]

Yeah, I figured that was the case, just wanted clarification. Thank you.

[zolabee]

I don't think you did anything wrong - when you reinstalled the base game it added the three original neighborhoods, before you had a chance to replace everything with cleaned/empty templates. The templates don't affect already existing neighborhoods but if you started a new neighborhood it should be empty. If you want to empty out the original three hoods, drag the Neighborhoods subfolder from My Documents to someplace safe (in case you want to put it back at some point or whatever) and allow the game to generate the folder again. This time the neighborhoods should be empty.

If i read this correctly, I can drag my neighborhood folder (from the documents folder) someplace or delete it if say I just reinstalled FT and didn't save my stuff *I did save download folder*, but checked it out to see how it was running.  Please tell me I'm right?  Unlike others that just recently posted *grac..cough, cough*, I would be very grateful for any help in getting this right.  Thank you!

[Emma]

What I would do Zolabee, is rename the 'Sims 2' folder to generate a new one with all the templates you want in place. Once you have enabled CC, quit the game. The renamed 'Sims 2' folder can just be deleted then. You can then replace your Downloads folder in your new Sims 2 folder, load up the game and if you have the Maxis hood empty templates as well as the stealth hood templates you will have an empty Desiderata Valley, Riverblossom Hills, Pleasantview, Strangetown and Veronaville. Of course, if you don't want them you can just delete them. Any subhood you add to them or any custom neighbourhood will be completely empty too. I figure if you are starting fresh then this is the best way to do it.

[zolabee]

What I would like to have are the neighborhoods with the maxis playable and the people they know.  When I checked the first of the thread that link no longer works, are they somewhere else or is there another way to get that such as separate downloads - one for neighborhood the other for characters?  And, I understand what you are telling me to do with the rename folder, ect., but do I install the templates into program files before I start the game (after rename) or .... something else?  Thank you, I appreciate the walk though.

[Emma]

You install the templates before generating a new folder..

I think Sysa has posted a link to the cleaned up templates somewhere in this thread...possibly around page 11? I dunno. Have a look anyway.

[zolabee]

Okay, what I have done is gone into documents folders and moved all those folders to my desktop then re-installed K&B, but not started the game - so everything should be ready to install templates (of which I will save to desktop folder shortly)? 


Okay, I read the info and have followed instructions from base through and am ready to do Seasons.....

[Sleepycat]

The Clean and Fixed Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville templates have been uploaded to Crazy Town.

http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=695

[missaaliyah]

Which is the Free Time download that will only get rid of the NPC's & Townies of Desiderata Valley?

[toad]

There's an empty copy of Desiderata Valley one page ago.  Reading is FUNdamental.

[zolabee]

Okay, I have installed everything up to seasons.  I also put the cleaned up character files in the character files folder.  I did this in program...   Now, when I go in I should have only Maxis playables & who they know in the neighborhood, but I don't.  I'm going into a completely uninhabited neighborhood.  So, I checked the character files, and they are there.  Any ideas on what stupid thing I did?  I did follow directions, and deleted and redownloaded to make sure....same thing.

Thanks for any help!

Fixed - so don't need help - thanks anyway.

[gethane]

Is there a reason no one has uploaded a comprehensive download of all (empty template only) files through Freetime? And if not, do any of the original creators mind if I do? It was incredibly painful to slog through this whole thread when I was grieving for my broken hard drive .

[Emma]

Do what you like with mine Jordi won't mind, and I am sure SaraMK won't mind either This is why I uploaded them all to my 4shared so they were all together. Didn't think to start a new thread though. Grab/link them from there if you like.


http://www.4shared.com/dir/4323880/c0795b00/EmptyHoods.html