Confused: Too-Much-Non-Awesomeness!

[SimulatedDork]

Forgive me for my noobyness - it is all the non-awesome crap floating around that has lead to my confusions! But I have some questions that I need answers to, in search of my clean, custom neighborhood. (Yes, I trust the awesome people here)

1. Does deleteallcharacters affect the suburbs/downtowns/universities if used on the mainland? I am looking to create 4 suburbs (OfB districts), one downtown and one university but without townies. I plan to create them all empty, then use deleteallcharacters. I am just wondering if that would work (I have all the notownieregen, dormie etc. hacks installed) Yes.
2. Will DAC affect sims in the lots and houses bin? Will it really delete all characters? o.O Never place sims in the Lots and Houses bin anyway!
3 & 4 moved to another thread
5. Can a sim own their own business and be an employee of another's at the same time? Am I right in thinking you can hold a job (with carpool etc.) and be the owner of a business? Would it be possible for my sim to have a job, own a business and be an employee at the same time? - A sim can own a business and be an employee at the same time but cannot hold a job and be an employee.
6. Once the DAC has been used, which files do I need to delete in SimPE (if any?) - SWAFs, SDNAs, Sim Descriptions & Sim relationships.
7. How does one delete hacks and custom careers safely? Make sure they are not in use in a household, just to be sure.

[sara_dippity]

Forgive me for my noobyness - it is all the non-awesome crap floating around that has lead to my confusions! But I have some questions that I need answers to, in search of my clean, custom neighborhood. (Yes, I trust the awesome people here)

1. Can a sim own their own business and be an employee of another's at the same time? Am I right in thinking you can hold a job (with carpool etc.) and be the owner of a business? Would it be possible for my sim to have a job, own a business and be an employee at the same time?

Yup.

2. Does deleteallcharacters affect the suburbs/downtowns/universities if used on the mainland? I am looking to create 4 suburbs (OfB districts), one downtown and one university but without townies. I plan to create them all empty, then use deleteallcharacters. I am just wondering if that would work (I have all the notownieregen, dormie etc. hacks installed)
3. Another question on "deleteallcharacters" - will it affect sims in the lots and houses bin? Will it really delete all characters? o.O
4. Once the DAC has been used, which files do I need to delete in SimPE (if any?)

Don't know, I used the empty templates. Much safer.

5. Is it safe to delete an exported sim's original template and the 'hood it came from?
6. How are household bills calculated?

Don't know. Ain't I helpful?

7. How does one delete hacks and custom careers safely?

I've never done the careers, but deleting the hacks from your downloads folder is safe. I use a subfolder for all hacks then cut it from the directory and paste it on my desktop whenever I install a new expansion, then put them in when the creators verify they will work in the new expansion.

[SimulatedDork]

After doing a bit of extra research, I think it is safe to conclude delete all characters really does delete all characters. There was a thread here some time back. I could always check in the N'hood folder after, to check, right?

[pioupiou]

your sim can't have a job and work as an employee because these 2 things are actual jobs. your sim can however be an employee and own businesses or have a job and own businesses.

[sara_dippity]

It also causes problems. Don't do it! Use the templates. Now. Obey and be happy.
By the way, for individual sim deletion in a safe way obey the master of us all.

[Ambular]

When deleting careers, make sure none of your Sims is using the career (either unemploy them or get them a different job, by the usual means or using Boolprop or a hacked object like the InSimenator) and most especially, make sure no sim is *at work* in that career when you take the career out!

ETA:  Just deleting hacks from the downloads folder is usually safe, but there can be exceptions, especially if you have interoperable or interdependent hacks (i.e., versions of mods made to be compatible with the InTeenimator, etc.)  Also, there are a few hacks (none of the Awesome stuff, AFAIK) that change stuff in the base game files as well as in Downloads, so if you have anything like that and want to remove it you need to restore the original file you replaced.

[jsalemi]

When deleting careers, make sure none of your Sims is using the career (either unemploy them or get them a different job, by the usual means or using Boolprop or a hacked object like the InSimenator) and most especially, make sure no sim is *at work* in that career when you take the career out!

I've deleted custom careers while sims still had them, and suffered no ill effects.  Only thing that happened is that the sim was listed as Unemployed when I played the lot the next time, and I had to get them a new job.  I can't vouch for what would happen if the sim is at work though, since I never save lots unless all residents are present -- I usually play each lot one sim day before moving to the next, so I prefer to have everyone home at least, if not asleep, just in case a patch or new hack comes around that causes a reset before I play the lot again.

[Tamha]

The first post in this thread will help you to make a clean custom neighborhood. The directions are quite complete, and I've used them myself to make new neighborhoods. 
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=5861.0

[SimulatedDork]

On this page, http://www.geocities.com/saramkirk/nhoods/nhoods.html , by the wonderful Sara she states that after you "delete all the files from the University folders" you can open up SimPE and delete hanging SWAF + the unknowns. Would this apply to a main hood after I use deleteallcharacters?
I actually remember reading about this on Jade's site. What did she do to rid her game of the extraenous junk and townies?

[SaraMK]

Here are a thread that explain what needs to be deleted after DeleteAllCharacters.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=5723.0


Remember, the tutorial on my site that talk about cleaning only some sims out of the neighborhoods applies ONLY to the Maxis neighborhoods mentioned in the tutorial, and can't be used with any other neighborhoods. Although of course the steps would be the same for other neighborhoods, but you'd need to make sure you aren't deleting sims that will leave junk (such as memories and gossip) clogging up the neighborhood and causing glitches. Follow Pescado's tutorial for deleting sims: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6205.0

[SimulatedDork]

Right - thank you for the link!
At least I called you wonderful. Surely some credit for that?
This doesn't really affect my custom 'hood, but I would like to know anyway if the cheat-of-doom kills minions in the lots and houses bin?

[SaraMK]

This doesn't really affect my custom 'hood, but I would like to know anyway if the cheat-of-doom kills minions in the lots and houses bin?

What occupied houses do you have in the houses bin? I hope you know it's a bad thing to pull any occupied houses into the bin.

The occupied houses that come with Pets and Seasons are safe to delete from the bin, according to Pescado, so DAC is not necessary. My empty templates thread also explains how to permanently stop the game from dumping those occupied houses into every neighborhood.

[SimulatedDork]

No, I didn't know that you shouldn't place occupied houses in the bin. Why not?
And I don't have any in the bin at the moment, I did at one point but I placed them in ST and now I plan to delete ST.
Should I create all my sub-hoods before DAC and then just use one big one? Or will I have to use it on each terrain?

[SaraMK]

No, I didn't know that you shouldn't place occupied houses in the bin. Why not?

The short answer is that it completely destroys the neighborhood. There are numerous threads here about it, so just do a search. But the main point is that you should NEVER pull any occupied house into the lots bin, and NEVER download occupied houses.

Should I create all my sub-hoods before DAC and then just use one big one? Or will I have to use it on each terrain?

DeleteAllCharacters only needs to be done once. In fact, using it more than once per neighborhood can cause problems. Read Jordi's custom neighborhood creation thread in Peasantry, which explains that. If you aren't using empty templates, I suggest attaching all the sub-hoods that you want to attach, and then using DAC once. It will delete all sims in the entire neighborhood, which includes sub-hods.

[maxon]

DeleteAllCharacters only needs to be done once. In fact, using it more than once per neighborhood can cause problems. Read Jordi's custom neighborhood creation thread in Peasantry, which explains that. If you aren't using empty templates, I suggest attaching all the sub-hoods that you want to attach, and then using DAC once. It will delete all sims in the entire neighborhood, which includes sub-hods.

Don't you then need to clean up all the mess that gets left behind?  I thought that's why you developed the empty hood templates to avoid all that.

[SaraMK]

Don't you then need to clean up all the mess that gets left behind?  I thought that's why you developed the empty hood templates to avoid all that.

Yes. I think Jordi explains that... but maybe not. I linked to a thread above that does explain it.

I really don't see any reason not to use the empty templates, since they save you a ton of work and trouble, but some people apparently have either a misconception or a downright fear of them. The only possible downside to them is the small chance that a patch or EP will complain at you until you put the originals back. So far the only time that's happened was the OFB patch. So, yes, I recommend the templates, obviously.

[SimulatedDork]

I had 170 character files in my N001 folder, after deleting them. Is this normal?

[SaraMK]

After deleting what, exactly?

[SimulatedDork]

After deleting the characters files here: C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001 in the "Characters" folder, I had 170 files. Is this normal?

"Open the N001 folder. Open the Characters folder and delete everything inside it. Locate the file N001_Neighborhood.package and delete it.
Unzip the file you downloaded from me and locate the file N001_Neighborhood.package. Place this file into the N001 folder. "

Do I need to rename the N001 file to N001-bak as well as install the empty templates?

[Gwill]

You need to rename, move or delete the character files in the N001 folder.
All character files must be somewhere the game can't find them when it generates neigbourhoods.

[SimulatedDork]

You need to rename, move or delete the character files in the N001 folder.
All character files must be somewhere the game can't find them when it generates neigbourhoods.

I have deleted the characters files and installed the empty templates. Do I need to rename the N001 folder though?

[Gwill]

No.  But your new neigbourhoods should not have 170 character files in your new neigbourhood if you did that correctly.  Unless they are pets.

[SimulatedDork]

Not in my new neighborhood, in N001 (C:\Program Files\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001) before I deleted them and installed the clean templates.

[Gwill]

The maxis default N001 contains 170 character.  The clean template contain 80-ish if I remember correctly.  An empty template should contain 0.