Sharing populated hoods

[Inge]

I just realised I have no idea how to go about sharing or installing a ready-decorated and populated hood?   I only know how to make SC4 empty terrains.   Can anyone give me a brief idea?

[cheriem]

I know how to install them and I think you just click on the appropriate n'hood folder, zip it up and go.  Not positive though....

[JadeEliott]

I use 7-zip: http://www.7-zip.org/ to zip up the whole hood folder (N002, for example) nice and tight and then upload it to a file sharing service like megaupload. The other person must not have a hood with that number, or it will overwrite it.

The tricky question comes with shared custom content...that is a big mess to work out if you are a download 'ho, like m'self.

[jrd]

Yup, that's about the only way to do it.

[MaximilianPS]

you can use utility like bulkRenamer to rename all file with another number, i've already used this system to clone or move my hood from N001 to N002 and it works without issue

[Inge]

But what if you want to use it as an add-on hood?   I was thinking of how when you add a uni or business area, they come with some people already living there, like Florence Delarosa and the students who are in rented houses.

[MaximilianPS]

evey hood have his own sub-hood
N001 have his own uni, with his own students..
and they will never mixed with the N002's uni's students..

but what's up if you install an hood with Uni on a pc thate haven't university installed ?.. dunno

[Simsbaby]

Playables will be moved into the sim bin, aged into adults. Townies will be aged up into adults also and left in the townie bin.

[Horanda]

If you try to load a neighborhood that goes beyond the EPs installed by the user, it will not load, the game will crash.

[Inge]

Well I didn't want to make one that goes beyond an EP the person has.   I can see there might be problems bolting on a hood that is already populated, but what if you just wanted to bolt on a custom-made hood that had its decoration in it and a few empty houses?

[Horanda]

I don't think the decorations have changed (for the main 'hood) and as long as the houses are completely undecorated or only use items available in the original game then there shouldn't be any problems with the zip-n-go method above. But you would need to delete ALL sims from the 'hood before zipping. It seems to be the character files that change most with each EP.

[Inge]

Yeah but that still leaves me with the question how do you prepare the hood for being recognised by the game as a valid add-on hood?  I mean the sort that when you click the big "+" to create or add on a new hood, it will be in the list of hoods to choose from?

[MxxPwr]

Yeah but that still leaves me with the question how do you prepare the hood for being recognised by the game as a valid add-on hood?  I mean the sort that when you click the big "+" to create or add on a new hood, it will be in the list of hoods to choose from?

Random thought...
Bluewater isn't known as 'Bluewater' in my N006 (my custom 'hoods) folder. It's known as N006_Suburb001.package. So, if you renamed your populated neighborhood (which I assume is currently named Nxxx_Neighborhood.package) to something like Nxxx_Suburb002.package, would it show up in the '+' create or add new suburb? Maybe already be attached proper to your base neighborhood?

[J. M. Pescado]

I believe "template hoods" are in the main game install directory, where Bluewater was B001 in one of the subfolders. Downtown was D001. Presumably, installing a B002 or D002 would create a second template.

[Inge]

I'll play with that idea then, thanks

[jrd]

It does work that way.

[SaraMK]

I'll play with that idea then, thanks

Inge, you might want to read my "Merging the Maxis neighborhoods" tutorial in the Peasantry. While the tutorial is for something specific, it has a ton of info about getting the game to accept another neighorhood (even a fully populated one) as a valid sub-neighborhood template. Using the tutorial you could add any neighborhood as a sub-neighborhood to any other neighborhood.