Early preventative maintenance

[Chafe]

Hey all. So my old computer didn't run the sims 2 very well and so my copies of it, Uni, and NL sat in a drawer gathering dust. Recently built a new machine and decided to pick it up again. Ran out to Gamestop today since I had a bunch of trade in credit there and picked up OFB, OMFGPETS!!11! and Seasons. I had installed what I already owned first and dinked around for a bit but decided to hose everything out and reinstall fresh with all the new expansions. Just wanted to check in and made sure I am doing everything to avoid future headaches and explosions. For now I'm going to tool around with the premade stuff and worry about a custom town later, but I read up as much as I could here, and wanted to check in and made sure I'm doing everything I should be. Here's what I did.

1) Installed and patched everything in order (installed ts2, patched, installed uni, patched, etc.)
2) Copied the Neighborhoods and LotCatalogs folders out of mydocs in case I ever needed to go back to maxis fugliness
3) Read up SaraMK's cleaned templates FAQ, backed up everything required and downloaded and copied over the new stuff (minus the rar'd townies)
4) Deleted the mydocs Neighborhoods and LotCatalogs folders
5) Created a Downloads folder, grabbed the latest director's cut and threw everything in said Downloads folder
6) Started up The Sims 2, which took a while as it freaked out and then recreated all the neighborhoods from the new templates
7) Quit out and checked on the neighborhoods, found G001 and got confused
**edit: (eek smiley, this is step 8, though you hopefully figured that out)** Realized G001 was Riverblossom Hills, couldn't find a clean template for it, so I just hosed it out of mydocs and left the one in program files etc alone
9) Looked up all the objects.package files I could find (15 of 'em) and made them read only
10) Backed up the Neighborhoods and LotCatalogs folder again so if I do something I don't like I can get back to this point with minimal effort

That's about it. I'll prolly pickup a few of the awesome objects eventually. Is there anything I'm forgetting? Thanks!

[Zazazu]

You swallowed the entire Director's Cut? Really? Huh.

Other than that, sounds good. I would have replaced all Maxis neighborhoods with SaraMK's super neighborhood (Pleasantville with Veronaville & Strangetown as downtowns) but that's personal preference.

[Chafe]

Yeah I used the whole thing back when I was first playing and enjoyed it, so I figured I'd give all the new stuff a go. I can always turn off anything I don't like but haven't been disappointed before. I noticed the super neighborhood and may have to try that out soon.

**edit: Of course I may need to rethink this, as living in the dorms all by yourself is purty lonesome**

[Count Four]

Whoot! Way to be organized.

One more step.  If you ever think you may begin hoarding custom content at all, go into the downloads folder now and create an organized system of subfolders for CC.  At very, very least, a subfolder for Mods-Hacks. 

[Gwill]

Just generate some dormies to populate the dorm with you.

[Ambular]

I'd strongly recommend choosing a set of default face template replacements before you do any actual playing, so your Sims won't be subject to the Maxis Quasimodo effect.  (The link is to my set, but there are links on that page to all the other fulls sets that I know of, plus Naitali's set-in-progress.)

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=194488

[Strangel]

Wow chafe.. you approach awesomeness! lol

-bookmarks cos gods know this is likely not the last I'll see of needing/wanting to reinstall-

[Chafe]

Awww, no more female caveman exterminator? Seriously tho these templates are awesome, thanks Amber.

Organize hacks, mods and other crap...check.

Generate dormies...check.

Thanks for the additional tips guys.

[JennyJenny]

I have looked around and I probably have the search terms wrong, but is there a "For Dummies" thread/tutorial on truly clean custom neighborhoods? With pictures?

Edited for clarity

[jolrei]

I generally build all my own townies in bodyshop, takes time, but then I always have the basic sims if something goes wrong.  Tweak them in CAS (personality, astro sign, etc.) and export to the game as townies or dormies, or whatever.  They show up as playables, but you can export them off as townies using Insim's Family Tree.  That works reasonably well.  Caution with this: if you make any teens or kids, you have to edit relationships in SimPE, or they'll end up with family ties you may not want. 

OK, I know, it's a fair bit of work, but I get what I want in the game in the end and don't overload with useless townies that I wouldn't let my playable Sim teen girls date, let alone marry.  I think if you use the mailbox "generate townies" option, it gives you 32 straight off (if you're doing that, you probably do want to replace the default faces).

[Chafe]

Hey JennyJenny, did you mean this one in Peasentry?

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5861.0.html

There's no pictures but it's pretty comprehensive.

I think for when I'm finally ready for my own custom hood I'll make my own townies and play around with SimPE. While I dink around in Pleasentview I'll either toss out some of the noregen hacks for a while or mess around with boolprob and use the generator there, now that I've got some nice faces.

And speaking of hacks since I've taken a whole "ask questions first and shoot later" approach to this (I dunno what's gotten into me), I've decided to refresh my memory on all the director's cuts hacks before I just toss them in. So I'll be rtfm'ing...anticking...antiquing...whatever...for a while. From what I've found so far though most of these are gonna have to happen.

[JennyJenny]

I did! I knew I had seen it! And I should have seen it in one of my searches... I must've skimmed right past it, like a dummy!