Empty and Cleaned-up Templates. [UPDATED]

[rosesforme]

I know this hasn't been posted in for a while, but I am really confused. I wanted to install clean templates (I interpret that as including playables) of all neighborhoods. I did read through this thread and alternate links and of course found most links in the first post. But here is where I am confused, I followed the links given in the first post for Cleaned-Up Templates of Bon Voyage, Freetime, and Apartment Life, but those links are for empty templates (I interpret that has not including playables) not clean ones as far as I can tell.

So where can I find the clean Bon Voyage, Freetime, and Apartment Life templates that still include the playable characters?

[Cynarra]

They are in the first post of this thread under CLEANED.

[rosesforme]

Like I had said:

I followed the links given in the first post for Cleaned-Up Templates of Bon Voyage, Freetime, and Apartment Life, but those links are for empty templates (I interpret that has not including playables) not clean ones as far as I can tell.

They say CLEANED, but they are actually empty versions according to their descriptions.

[nocomment]

I checked, and rosesforme is correct.  The links for BV, FT, and AL lead to "Empty" templates. 

This means no familes in the bin - no Traveller family, no Julien Cooke.  Has anyone even made "Cleaned" templates for those EPs?

Looking over that first post, BV, FT, and AL are only referred to once.  I seem to remember being confused, when I wanted to create an Empty hood, I had to use those links, which are labeled "Cleaned-up."

[Sleepycat]

Has anyone even made "Cleaned" templates for those EPs?

I don't think so.  

If you want any of those pre-mades (or any of the pre-mades from any of the hoods - including the extra shipped families), I have them packaged up on Lots. They are all cleaned and safe to use in any hood. You can make your own clean hood with them.

Actually, I have two versions of all of them available (another member got some of the originals for me since I didn't have them). One version is the original households and the second version is my own where I gave them all plastic surgery (made genetic).

originals:
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=1472
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showforum=193 (bit scattered in that section but most are near the bottom)

my versions:
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=1483
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=1501

  

[Mootilda]

Not quite the same, since most of Sleepycat's sims were made with all EPs; they're not likely to be compatible with the EP that they shipped with.

Does anyone know of a cleaned version of these sims which is actually compatible with the EP?

[haifen]

Has anyone even made "Cleaned" templates for those EPs?

I don't think so.  

If you want any of those pre-mades (or any of the pre-mades from any of the hoods - including the extra shipped families), I have them packaged up on Lots. They are all cleaned and safe to use in any hood. You can make your own clean hood with them.

Actually, I have two versions of all of them available (another member got some of the originals for me since I didn't have them). One version is the original households and the second version is my own where I gave them all plastic surgery (made genetic).

originals:
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=1472
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showforum=193 (bit scattered in that section but most are near the bottom)

my versions:
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=1483
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=1501

  

How drastic are your genetic changes? Can you provide side by side pictorial examples? I want to plop some Maxian sims in my hood for breeding but I happen to like some of the weirder faces so I'm just wondering..

[Sleepycat]

I used selzi's default face replacements (the maxis faces made sane) and for nearly all of the pre-mades, I used the face I felt was closest to their original deformed fugly face.

Can you provide side by side pictorial examples?

No, I can't. Considering I hated most of them before giving them plastic surgery, I didn't take pictures of them before and then after there were too many to even consider bothering with pictures. The project was time consuming enough as it was.

[LoveStainedHeart]

This is really frustrating me. I've followed everything from this thread and others like it and I still can't get rid of some of those damn lot bin families. I still have the Goodie, Gavigan, Newson, Cooke, Picaso, Traveller, Ramaswami and Ottomas families in my game. These are the families from Apartment Life, Free Time, Bon Voyage and Seasons. I've replaced the hood files for all of these, the stealth hoods too. All character files are gone as well, yet they still show up in the bin! I have downloaded and re-downloaded the empty templates thinking I got the wrong ones that only delete the townies but still no luck. Are the character files for these annoying sims stored somewhere else? I can't for the life of me figure out why they wont go away!

The files from these expansions and their sizes in my folders are as follows:

G001 - 297kb
G002 - 114kb
A001 - 159kb
M001 - 216kb
T001 - 186kb
V001 - 144kb
F001 - 280kb
F002 - 213kb

I'm trying to play the pleasantview neighbourhood and currently without running the hood in game there are 85 character files. This should only be the pre-made families and the townies they know. I obviously haven't been running this hood for fear of those stupid lot bin sims showing up so I've been testing the empty templates by creating a new blank hood.

So... any ideas why these sims are still hanging around? What did I do wrong?

[sloppyhousewife]

The bin families are definitively stored in the stealth hood folders. I just checked on the Ramaswamis/Ottomas, they're in G002. So if you emptied the stealth hoods located in the Programs/EA Games directories, there's simply no way for them to appear in a newly generated game.
To me, it seems that you replaced the templates and than created a new, empty hood in an already existing game to see if the bin families are gone. That's not how it works. Stealth hood sims will show up in each and every new neighborhood once they got generated for the "alpha" hood (N001, usually Pleasantview). If I misunderstood what you did, I apologize.

I'd recommend the following: Rename your My Documents/EA Games folder, e.g. into _EA Games or EA Games_backup or whatever and fire up your game. A new EA Games folder will be created, with new neighborhoods based on the empty templates.

[LoveStainedHeart]

I've discovered the problem with some help from my tekky brother. Since I'm currently running the RC1 of Windows 7 when you install programs that change files in your Program Files directory it actually doesn't change the files IN program files it creates new ones in a dummy folder located under your user directory in a hidden folder called AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files This is a silly way of "protecting delicate files" in your programs files.

So essentially I had to repeat all these steps for all the expansion packs since its not actually getting the changes from Program Files at all. (The best work around for this if you're running vista or win7 is to install the game to a different directory, or just straight onto c:\) Since I don't feel like reinstalling the whole game I figured just installing the empty templates to the dummy folder would work for now. Hopefully this will solve issues for people in the future trying to install these empty templates on the newer operating systems, and really the easiest way to solve this is don't install to program files!

Thanks for the help sloppyhousewife, I wasn't actually trying to use empty templates on an existing hood, it just seemed like that the way I worded things I guess. Anyway, the problem is now solved and I can finally play the game how I want!

[Tarlia]

To me, it seems that you replaced the templates and than created a new, empty hood in an already existing game to see if the bin families are gone. That's not how it works. Stealth hood sims will show up in each and every new neighborhood once they got generated for the "alpha" hood (N001, usually Pleasantview). If I misunderstood what you did, I apologize.

That's not correct. I think you might be confusing it with the Pleasantview template which is in the basegame userdata folder. That's where the game gets the default townies and NPCs from if you don't have an empty template for it. However, this has nothing to do with the stealth hood families.

If you've correctly replaced the stealthhoods with empty templates, the bin families and townies/NPCs that come with them will no longer appear when you create a new, blank neighbourhood. Keep in mind that they will not disappear from any existing neighbourhood, it has to be a new one. You do not have to replace your whole Documents EA Games/Sims 2 folder, though,  each new neighbourhood is separate and copies nothing from your other playable 'hoods.

Make sure that there is nothing else in the neighbourhood template folders where the stealthoods are. Remove the original completely (move it to a backup folder somewhere else), and have only the empty template folder there.

Edit: Sorry, LoveStainedHeart, seems we posted at the same time. Wow, that sure sounds like a useful feature. Thanks lots, Microsoft! Glad you got it figured out, though.

[sloppyhousewife]

That's not correct. I think you might be confusing it with the Pleasantview template which is in the basegame userdata folder. That's where the game gets the default townies and NPCs from if you don't have an empty template for it. However, this has nothing to do with the stealth hood families.

You're right. It was the only thing I could think of *why* those suckers won't disappear from her sim bin, but yes, you can kill them in an already existing game. My bad. So Windows 7 was the culprit? That explains a lot. Gotta love their "Users are stupid and need to be guided/protected in any possible way" approach.

[Cynarra]

I've discovered the problem with some help from my tekky brother. Since I'm currently running the RC1 of Windows 7 when you install programs that change files in your Program Files directory it actually doesn't change the files IN program files it creates new ones in a dummy folder located under your user directory in a hidden folder called AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files This is a silly way of "protecting delicate files" in your programs files.

So essentially I had to repeat all these steps for all the expansion packs since its not actually getting the changes from Program Files at all. (The best work around for this if you're running vista or win7 is to install the game to a different directory, or just straight onto c:\) Since I don't feel like reinstalling the whole game I figured just installing the empty templates to the dummy folder would work for now. Hopefully this will solve issues for people in the future trying to install these empty templates on the newer operating systems, and really the easiest way to solve this is don't install to program files!

Thanks for the help sloppyhousewife, I wasn't actually trying to use empty templates on an existing hood, it just seemed like that the way I worded things I guess. Anyway, the problem is now solved and I can finally play the game how I want!

So changing the default install location to :c \\ fixed this issue?  Then you install the empty templates?

Anyone know if this is also causing issues with the Bin folders? and the CEP files? 

[Bayadere]

Hello,
This might sound really stupid, but I am quite new at this (backing up and changing files in my game) and it is making me quite nervous. Of course I saved all the original folders on an external hard drive, so nothing can happen to them.
Here is my situation.
I was playing Pleasantview with EPs up to Seasons and Kits up to Celebration stuff (because my old computer would not have more).
I had deleted (understand put in the game's bin) all the characters that came with that neighborhood.
I put in my own Sims and I have quite a story going on there. So I don't want to loose them.
However now that I have a new computer and can put all the EPs and all the Stuff packs, I would like to have neighborhoods without the ugly Maxis townies, dormies etc.
I installed everything on my new computer and I put back my saved neighborhood of Pleasantville in My Documents (before adding the new EPs).
I understand I am making the changing of files in Program Files.

Now my question is:

If I want neighborhoods with no ugly Maxis NPCs, but still want to keep my Sims in Pleasantville, I suppose I will keep the ugly NPCs they already know. I can live with that.! But should I change the files in the all the folders anyway?
Even in N001?

What I would hope to achieve is to get the other neighborhoods clean of NPCs (townies, dormies, maid, mailman etc.) Can I do that, or am I just wasting my time as it will not work anywhere because I want to keep a neighborhood already "infected"!

I'm sorry if this question seems really basic, but that's what I am really, a beginner in that area. I never did anything but play and download and I am not REALLY understanding what I am doing when I follow the instructions... so I can't deduce what will happen...

Thank you

[MechanicalPen]

If I want neighborhoods with no ugly Maxis NPCs, but still want to keep my Sims in Pleasantville, I suppose I will keep the ugly NPCs they already know. I can live with that.! But should I change the files in the all the folders anyway?
Even in N001?

Yup, the N001 in UserData\Neighborhoods is a template. The game only uses templates to fill newly made neighborhoods with townies. Any neighborhoods you already have should be unchanged.

[haifen]

I think Bayadere should give us the path to which N001 folder he's putting the templates in. It's an easy mistake to replace the wrong ones.

[rome_raven]

I don't know where I'm going wrong with these templates but they are driving me nuts.

I believe I followed the instruction regarding cleaned out templates (Base-AL+stuffpacks).  I was going for no Maxis characters but the ones already in residence.  No sims in the family bins.  I currently have Universities and Downtown that have no lots but the green or blue outlined ones.  Sims can move in but no one can be moved out and the lot can't actually be entered.  I have also have had to problem where all of the sims in the bins are duplicated (yeah me and my duplicated sims) when there aren't supposed to be any sims there in the first place.

Going through my Program Files, all of the character files are empty, the lots are still there and the neighborhood.package has been replaced.  I don't know if there's some hidden folder where all of these Critturs and Ramaswami's are hiding out but I want them gone.

Completely emptied with no files
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\P001\Characters
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\D001\Characters

All of the lots are present
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\D001\Lots

I have tried starting a new Sims 2 folder under my documents but all of the sims are there...in the bin, almost waving at me.

Any help or suggestions...anything?

[Tarlia]

Completely emptied with no files
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\P001\Characters

That's only the Pets stealth hood. You need to replace G002 (Seasons), F002 (FT), V001 (BV) and B002 (AL) as well. Have you done this?

Have you replaced the neighbourhood package for downtown and the universities with clean (and NOT empty) templates?

[rome_raven]

I did go through all of the stealth hoods from Pets to AL, in addition to going through Base-NL.

I went to the link on the "List of Empty and Cleaned-Up Templates" and it only links to the empty neighborhood.packages.  Are there any link for the cleaned out ones instead?

[Sleepycat]

Cleaned Up & Fixed Pv, St And Vv Hood Templates by SaraMK 
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=695

Saramks Other Hood Templates
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=697

Empty Templates For Bv & Ft Argons and XPTL297
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=707

[Tarlia]

I've made a clean downtown (and clean everything else; meaning they contain only playable characters) which you can find here. If you use an empty template with the lots in, you'll probably get the what you were seeing, just empty squares where the lots should be. The same goes for the universities. The empty templates are meant for creating your own, blank 'hood and subhoods only. If you want any of the Maxis stuff, sims or lots, you need a clean template. My downtown has no downtownies, only the dead Tricou family.

[rome_raven]

Redid all of my neighbourhoods, following the instructions (create a back-up, replace or delete the files in the characters folder, replace the neighbourhood package).

Issues:
- Pleasantview is completely missing
- Doubles of all of the binned families
- Sim State University and La Fiesta Tech have no buildings, just lot outlines with plumbobs floating above the occupied lots from Sim State

I used the links provided by Sleepycat.  Am I missing something basic?

[Tarlia]

I have no idea what you're doing wrong. I especially don't understand how you're getting double bin families. Which OS are you running?  And just to make sure, you do start with fresh neighbourhoods each time you try this, right? (Delete/move the Neighbourhoods folder, let a new one generate.)

[rome_raven]

I'm running Vista and I'm doing this with a fresh Sims 2 folder in my DL folder every time.  No hacks, no cc, just what the game provides on it's own.