More Awesome Than You!

Since Motoki's Simpotence thread's mention of a MATY Neighbourhood I've been wondering were there any final decisions made?  The threads have become impossibly long and muddled, so I'm just seeking a little clarification. 

Is it still happening?  Is a custom neighbourhood still being made for download or do we use any neighbourhood?   I've downloaded the available MATY sims into a folder in anticipation.

Are there any rules that I should be aware of? 

Thanks for any helpful answers in advance!

Well, so far to the best of my knowledge this is what is going on:

I am taking contributions from people to include in the joint neighborhood. A sim, lot, story, anything can be submitted. Custom content can be used. I will take all submissions and make a shared hood with background stories included for the submitted characters. If there is interest in a non-custom content hood, I will strip out all custom content and make the same neighborhood also available for download.

Some people have talked about having "challenge" rules like no20khandouts. Some ideas were thrown around, but it seemed like more people were not interested in this. Although, there's no reason why some people can't do it if they want.

I have received some contributions, but not many. Several people have indicated that they are interested but haven't had time to contribute. I figure we could wait until the end of the month to see if there are any more contributions. I expect to have the hoods ready for download around the first of the year.

You can send the contributions to simmiecal@simpotence.com or let me know where you've uploaded the sim you want included.

Thanks :)  Do you have many MATY sims? I have Ancient Sim,Blue,Boris, Emma, Hook, Kewian, Pescado, Reggiko, Trepie, Veilchen and Witch.  Have I missed anyone, or will they be included in the neighbourhood anyway?

Well, when the time got closer, I was going to PM them and ask if they would mind if I put their sims into the hood.  ::) Haven't got around to that just yet. If any of them read this thread, maybe they could post or PM me with their yea or nay.

I hope to have the basics of the site up in a week or two and will keep people updated as the month goes on.

Well, as far as that goes, you can use my sim anyway you want to :D

Hi Sandilou, long time no see. I hope everything's alright. Oh, and by the way, I don't see Brynne in your list, can't forget Val, she's a very funny sim. I put her in my neighborhood, and she went right up to sim-me, started talking, doing the school cheer, and wanted to play 'red hands'. That's the first time that ever happend in my game that a sim came to my playable one and acted as if they were the best of friends right of the bat. Needless to say, sim-me and Brynne (Val) went to friendship status in record time.

Yep, you can use my sim-me too :) I might upload a couple of lots that can be used too if they are wanted  ;D I have downloaded everyone, but they are sitting in my sim-bin until I make my new MATY hood. I had to download Pescado again because my 14 year old daughter wanted to play with him.

Hi Veilchen ;D  I've been around but sometimes I'm just too lazy to log in.  I'm really looking forward to playing this neighbourhood.  I will do a Sandi-sim - but I have to work out who I want to be;  I quite like the idea of being a romance, trailer trash sim.  Its my favourite type of sim to play - although I'm nothing like that in real life (ahem).

Sims BlueSoup, Pescado and Boris are OK for the neighbourhood.  I made Pescado and Boris for everyone.   :)

I sent you a couple of Sims who are in my custom neighborhood but as yet havent been played .........they are still standing outside their house waiting to be moved in. the male I sent you is aquaintances with Sim Trepie ,Ancient,and Emma and he is married to the female Isent you they are sim versions of my oldest daughter and her husband. the male is a popularity sim and the female is a family sim. hope this helps

Veilchen, Sim Brynne wasn't downloading when I tried it the other day.  But it works fine now so I've added her to my MATY folder. 

Simmiecal, I've uploaded Sim Sandilou onto TS2's Exchange.  You're more than welcome to use her in the MATY neighbourhood.

Sandilou-where are you?  I have been checking the exchange but cant locate your simmie.

Humybyrd, I've got numbers over there - I'm Sandilou442.  I've made two versions of myself, one custom content free and one riddled with custom content (none of it made by me).  The latter is not for the prudish!  I'm just waiting for the BBS to load so that I can check it's all there, then I'll add a link and post the details in The Peasantry.

OK I think I found your page and one house with your selfsim in it-the surprise family. Did not see anyother ones though. Will download and extract you for the MATY game. Any links you put up are welcome since this is all I can find. Also what personality and such should I give you once you go through CAS whatever you have in game will be gone.

The site was taking forever to load on my pc, so I shut everything down and restarted my computer.  When I finally got MySimPage up, I realised that the custom content sim wasn't there.  Maybe there's too much custom content for it to load!  It's running too slow for now, so I'll try again when TS2 is less busy.

My sim personality is Sagittarius: standard's fine, as this particular sim is my alter ego.  I'm very sedate and responsible in real life. ::)

Sim Reggikko definitely wants to live in the MATY neighborhood!

Simmiecal you're also free to use any of my lots there.

Simmiecal, I created myself and would love it that you make it part of that neighborhood.  You can find Sim Missdoh in the peasentry section of this site.  I did add a little guideline about her in the sim description.

Anyone can download that Sim if they wish.  I did not use any custom content to make that Sim and have both Univeristy and Nightlife.

Anyone can download my Sim-mes and use as they wish. It'd be fun to see if one or both of them can get along with others, or if they end up causing havoc, like the female sim-me did in Uni. It was both funny and a little disturbing to see her get into knock-down, drag out fights with anyone she had chemistry with!

I have gotten 21 sims selves here and only 4 are men (Pescado and Boris being 2 of them).  Come on guys! We already know women run the world but is that really the way you want this to go? Although it means the 4 I have will get very lucky. Look at all the beautiful women, dont you at least want you sim to get a little of that?

I could make a guy Sim, though I'm a girl.   ::)

I've got a male version sim, and I'm just as happy to have him played as the other. Only thing he hasn't got that the female version has is my proper haircolour and style, but I could fix that fast enough if anyone cared that much.

I put my brother up... you can use my Vin sim too, (link in siggy).  I've got a Brad Pitt and a Jonny Depp also.  I'm willing to contribute them for use as, say... NPC's or townies.  Just let me know and I'll upload them.  I'm working on a house/dorm setup with a garage.  I can do some base game houses too as my hubby only plays the patched no ep version of the game... again let me know, okay?

Just a little update....

I've now received several posts from people. This weekend I will update the website and post more information about what has been received and what is still needed. Unfortunately RL is getting in the way during the week so I can't respond individually right now.

Feel free to submit all the sims you want as I intend to wipe out the fugly townies. Basically, feel free to submit anything you want to and I'll work to incorporate it into the neighborhood.


Does anybody know:

I know that several of us have custom nieghborhoods in addition to the Maxis hoods. If I made the shared neighborhood something like hood #9 N009 - would that be a problem for anyone's game is they didn't have hoods #4-8? I'm thinking that it shouldn't be a problem but does anyone know for sure?

Does anyone have more than 8 neighborhoods?

not me...

Me neither-I only have 3  ;D I meant to say, you can use any of my lots which are on the exchange. I have quite a lot of starter houses in there :)

I have  4 neighborhoods 3  maxis and 1 custom

I have 6 neighbourhoods.

I also have 6 neighborhoods.

Okay, I've just whipped up a sim-self and posted in Peasantry>Made-Up Animals. Do with him what you will . . . or nothing at all. I know there have been some complaints about boring self-sims, and this one won't change matters any.

As for getting a little of that:  well, sure—but it doesn't do me much good if it's my self-sim that's getting it.   8)

Ditto.

I deleted the Maxis ones-I love to start fresh  ;D

I think #9 would be fine for most people, currently I have only 3 and actually only use 1 but then I did just back after a long break (which explains my low post count/date of joining  lol)  I don't think I've ever downloaded a neighborhood before(my dial-up connection really sucks) but I am really interested in this one so I plan to download it even if it takes hours!  :)

I don't know if I'll have time to make anything new to contribute but I have some "affordable" (under $20,000) Lots up for downloading over at  http://www.insimenator.net (in the Community Downloads section) that can be used if any appeal to you guys (done before I got NL)

I have more than 9 neighborhoods but I have a renaming program too so changing it won't be a problem for me.  My sim is also in peasantry, Humy made her for me :D

It would be okay to use me if you want, my sim is in peasantry. 
 I would like to share a house but everytime I try to package any of my houses they crash.   I think I need to take out the mods first. 
 Is there anything else I need to take out?   I have the delivery paper not coming, but I am not using a mod for that.   I just build a fenced in place and put my newspaper in there and they stop coming after three of them are in it.   Should I start the paper girl back before trying to package a house?   

 Can I keep the custom skins and objects in it?   Also do I need to uninstall the sim clean pack installer before trying to package a lot?   Sorry for so many questions but I never had trouble packaging a lot before I got the new ep's and all the custom content and the sims clean pack installer.     thanks   :)

Have you added/deleted/disabled any custom terrain lately?  That will immediately crash the lot when trying to package it.  Terrain paints = bad news.

You shouldn't need to uninstall the Clean Installer, there should be no conflict at all with that.

If you want a clean package, you can remove all the stuff that you aren't using in the lot (although do not remove terrain paints if you haven't done so already), and that will make it a smaller package, and less work for the people who download it.  But I'll download any house if I like it, and just use the Clean Installer to remove anything I don't want.

No problem with all the questions. Hey, I need answers to those questions as well! I plan on having custom content in the neighborhood and the only hacks I was going to include were gunmods hacks for the camera (so you can see the whole neighborhood and not just the middle). I figure after people install the neighborhood, if they put it in the same directory as their other hoods, whatever mods they currently have will be available for use in the shared hood. (Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this assumption.

Custom content (skins, clothes, hair, furniture) are ok. Several people have said that terrain paints are bad and I really don't know much about it, but if JM says it will blow up the game, I'm thinking maybe we shouldn't include terrain paints. What does everyone else say?

Also, this weekend when I go through and start organizing what I have received so far, I was going to put together a list of what I have received from everyone. Some people have sent emails from their personal accounts and I'm not sure what their screen names are. If you have sent me an email with your submission and don't want me to list your submission with your real name, please send me an email and let me know your screen name.

The neighborhood terrain and lot sizes. Are there any preferences for lot sizes? I personally prefer smaller lots but was planning on having a mix of lots but with more towards the smaller size. I still need community lots. Well, after this weekend, you'll get a better idea of what I've received and what is still needed.

Thanks to everyone for their contributions so far.

I sent you Lulu the crazy pirate elf.

My screen name here is tsrynolds and at the official bbs it is tsynolds.

I'm fine with custom content as long as it doesn't include terrain paints I've had way too many problems with those.

What size file can you accept by email? I have a couple community lots I can send.

I have a 2 gig allotment and haven't even used 1% of that. Someone was having difficulty sending a file to me but I'm not sure if it was a size problem or not. I'd say give it a shot but let me know if you have any problems. If there is a size restriction, there is always megaupload.

Updated to add:
I plan to add a family with a home business and asked Inge for her permission to use her objects in the neighborhood. She has said she is ok with her objects being used, her only request is that people be made aware of which objects are being used and that they are given her site address so they can check for updates and other info on the object. So, feel free to incorporate Inge's stuff, just please include in your email to me a list of any of her items that you might use and I'll add them to the master list for the neighborhood.

THANKS INGE !!!

LaverwinkleSims (http://LaverwinkleSims)

I have several starter houses there, as does witch. I also uploaded a couple of small Community lots. I have some custom-made townies that I can also contribute, all checked to make sure that their features do not look hideous as toddlers, children and teens or on the opposite sex.

Reggikko I cant get in to Laverwinkle

Laverwinkle Sims (http://www.laverwinklesims.com)

thanks

yes, I did delete some terrain paint and then put in a different one.  I have tried to package two different lots and they crash in a few seconds after they start saving.

 If I ever get ready to start from scratch again I am removing all  custon terrain paint. I did not know that it caused problems.  You are talking about custom terrain causing problems or all terrains in general?   ???      thanks.    :)

Custom terrains are bad.  Maxis terrains that are pre-built into the game are fine.  If you decide to start from scratch, never put in terrain paints, and then you won't have that problem.  Until then, your lots are now ruined for packaging.  :(

well... that explains that.  I suppose then that the only lots I can pack up are the ones from my custom free game.  Heck.

I guess I'm wiping the other side (hacked to the max fun game) clean and starting over. 

Can someone clarify for me -

Are custom terrain paints bad in ALL cases or just if you package them in a lot or install a lot that has them?

Thanks

This is where I got the information on Terrain Paints:
 http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=282627

With the type of thing you're doing here, if you include them with lots they'll work on those lots and should be OK and not crash because they *have been* included, but as with any custom content, it will fill up people's download folders.
People here don't seem to be minding this, so if the general opinion is keep them then it's up to you all.
Sometimes it's not just the one paint that travels with the house either.
They're bad because of the Maxis way of letting them be packaged, otherwise they do make a difference to a lot if they're good and well placed...
There are also the odd ones that do mess things up, so again it's up to you and the people here really.
We decided against it with our own Downloadable Neighborhood because people add their own things to their own games and boring as Maxis things are we all wanted it clean.
We were also keeping the file size down as we weren't sure how easy hosting would be if it was larger.

I have a great working prison with Inge's system if your interested in it. It is LARGE though with loads of custom content even have a folder full of real prisoners-females that i have created using real women like eileen woronos and other female serial killers.

I had problems converting the old prison so here it is a shiney new one built in a new hood without most of my custom content in the dl folder (mainly inges stuff) so should be pretty free of hacks and content. like I said its large so before thinking about playing with it in the maty hood understand its a 5x5 lot with the prison system only but i furnished it and story lined it for your viewing pleasure
http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=63664 
I also have a folder with 7 female prisoners and a warden if you like all created from real people. Had to modify a prison uniform to go on elders since the ones linked from inges site are only for adults.
well all that said let me know what you think.

There is a thread here somewhere with more about terrain paints - I understood that they just never get deleted properly.  MaxoidTom didn't know custom terrain paints were a problem until he came visiting before the last patch.  I think we all have our fingers crossed he does something about it.


When I move folders around and mess up the name Noo3 for example, the game finds N004 and N005 with no problem, so I think you're OK there.

I'm sending a Sim Foster home.  the teen sims in it are as weird as my limited imagination and maxis default clothing can make them.  You can grow them up or have them run away and put your own in instead!  I've given up trying to put them in nice clothes - lot packager isn't including all the relevant files and I have too many to go on a hunt the file marathon...  Lotpackager needs fixing too 

Now that I have almost everyone in my game, I got them together for a group portrait (although even with the LotFullofSims hack from MTS2 I couldn't get more than eight on a lot—if there's a "no family size limit" hack here, I can't find it). I know I'm missing a couple folks (sorry!), and YAs aren't available in the regular neighborhood (sorry Andygal).

While standing around on the curb waiting for the contractors to show up to build some housing, and even before the paper carrier had come by, I've already got two bolts and pink hearts between Ausieone and Renatus femme; Witch has two bolts with Phedge; and Sandilou has two bolts with Phedge and one bolt with Hegelian, who was passing through the neighborhood (go figure). Sadly, when Sandilou tried to flirt with Hegelian, he resisted, the moron. I may need to smack him 'round the head a bit. LindaEtterlee and Kukes are already at 100 as friends (entirely on their own) but with neither bolts nor hearts.

UPDATE:  Thanks to Reggikko, the Group Portrait with Pescado Wallpaper is now available for download at this link:
http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=122.msg822#msg822

UPDATE: This now includes both the 1024x748 version and the 1280x1024 version (thanks again Reg).

EDIT:  The 1280x1024 version still available from Megaupload:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U7GCZIQK

Anyway, here's the group:

[attachment deleted by admin]

That is a very nice shot. I loveit!

That is absolutely awesome, Hegelian! I love it!

edited to add:

I am using that as my desktop wallpaper, now.  ;)

Thanks to you both!

The household pics are stored as jpeg files in the Nxxx_FamilyThumbnails.package for each neighborhood; you can extract them with SimPE. I just pasted them together using Photoshop (but any decent image-editing app should work). It's probably best to save the extracted files in .png or .tif format if you expect to edit them, and then save the final version as a jpeg for uploading (or whatever).

Wow—I'm flattered.

That gives me an idea:  I may reduce it to 400x300 and use it as my neighborhood picture. . . .

It does make nice wallpaper indeed! Thx for the idea Brynne :D

Just so you know I was serious...I present to you my desktop.


(http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y62/Brynne14/new%20album/desktop.jpg)

I love it looks great as wall paper

Pescado looks happy in that shot.  ???  Great pic, Hegalian, I am also using it as my desktp wallpaper now.

oh wow, sim me is in someones game, nifty! (and I am not a prostitue - even better!)

Nice Job with the Photo the only sims I see missing are me and of course AndyGal

I cant seem to download off the exchange so my neighborhood is missing all those that are on there.

the exchange is down more than it is up these days

Looks like I'm in the game, as well. As a GIRL.


edit to clarify: Nectere has me in the game as a GUY named BRIAN. But I have a daughter named Brynne.

Uh-oh. If you're not there then I used the wrong download for Sim Bangelnuts.  :(

The one that's supposed to be you is in the center of the group in the upper right (brown top and Helaene's jeans).

I thought that was her, too.

ok I just didnt recognise the clothes

*** Rubs hands together ***

Ok - tonight I'm starting to populate the neighborhood. Everyone that has given their ok to include their self-sims in the game will be imported. I am going to be using the lots from http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php) for many of the lots in the neighborhood. If you contributed a sim / sim family in a lot - that's where they will reside. If you just submitted a sim or sim family, or have made your self-sim available, go real estate hunting at laverwinklesims and let me know which lot you want to live in.  If I don't hear from you by this weekend, I'm just going to stick you into whatever housing is available (and that might be some of the ghetto "projects" I plan on building.  ;D :P ).

I had to change the neighborhood layout a little bit to facilitate building and well.....when I reinstalled the sims a few weeks ago, I accidently trashed the simcity neighborhood file. Hope to have some pictures posted by tomorrow in order to get some feedback from all of you.

Any suggestions, themes or ideas.....now is the time to speak.

I love the Creole Cottage. I'd love to live in that.  :)

Oh Brynne, I guess I should clarify, your sim me Brian is a legacy sim in Pleasantview, but in the custom neighborhood MATY you are very much female. Feel better?

*your sim me is so versatile what can I say?

Okayyyyy, I can live with that, I guesssssssssss...

Real me is a girl though. A girl, dammit.

AWESOME, HEGELIAN!  :D :D :D

Were you trying in CAS to make them a family of more then 8? In CAS you can't have more then 8 in a family even with the hack but you should be able to move the rest in afterwards...  (I have the same hack but haven't yet tried it out)

I like reggie's starter house #2 very muchly :D is replying at this thread ok or do you want us to let you know personal-like?

Either way works for me.

I used your picture for my MATY Ville hood...:)

 

[attachment deleted by admin]

Hegelian, you can upload it on laverwinkle if you want. I have a section there for Member Uploads:
Here (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?board=20.0)

I'll use it!

Except for Ancient Sim's family, they are all singles, which I added to the lots one at a time. The game wouldn't let me add more than eight even with the hack. Is this the only "no family limit" hack out there?

It doesn't really matter now since I've managed to make a portrait anyway, and I have no interest in mega-families like those of Brynne and  Bangelnuts—that doesn't look like fun to me.  ;D

So how come you aren't in it??

Are ya kiddin' me? It's tons o' fun! I wouldn't play any other way, but small families bore me. I'm not out to convert anyone, anyway.  ;)

I showed off your portrait to my hubby last night. I must say, my desktop has never looked so smashing!

Hey, thanks Reggikko! The Group Portrait with Pescado wallpaper is now available for download at this link:
http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=122.msg822#msg822

UPDATE:  This now  includes both the the 1024x748 version and the 1280x1024 version. Both are proper BMPs without file compression, although the 1024x768 version has been reduced in size from the 1024x1024 original. FWIW, the 1280x1024 version is still available from Megaupload as well:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=U7GCZIQK

Lol—I figured you found it fun, otherwise you wouldn't be doing it . . . um, unless you're into the masochism thing, or .  . . well never mind.   ;)

As for me, I grew up in a small family and currently live alone; and I'm not much into chaos (I left that to my cousins—in one family that was eight, with nine years between oldest and youngest).


Well, thanks. I honestly didn't think anyone would pay much notice. BTW, although it's none of my business, it would look better if your monitor was set to its native resolution (in the screen shot you posted it looks like it's set to a lower resolution than it is designed for).

Chicken, chicken...:). But I am very happy to have all the others...:).

Ah, so your title really should be Gali The Yellow Bellied Mutilator

That's very good!!! But "Gali Cold Feet Mutilator" is good either...:).

OK -

Here's an update of the hood. It's still very much a work in progress.


Here is the general layout of Matyville.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_30aaa3b5.jpg)


Matyville was first settled centries ago on the island in the middle of the river because of its location and ability to be well defended. It is here that the ancients of Matyville built their first stronghold castle. Today, the island is mainly a tourist attraction for locals and visitors. It has a medieval fair ground, a tavern and some shops. You can dine in the open air restaurant with a view of the castle.  (This was inspired was Paris's Ile de la Citie.)

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_b0aaa3c9.jpg)


This is the area of the "new" downtown. It will have the modern office buildings and "nightlife".

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_70aaa430.jpg)


Here is the "marshy" neighborhood by the river. It was one of the earlier settled areas and has some of the older homes.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_b0aaa3db.jpg)


This is an average neighborhood, often the area where families buy their first starter homes.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_70aaa3e7.jpg)


The local swim club:

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_50aaa410.jpg)


The city's prison. And if you lived next door to a prison, you'd live in a bunker too.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_50aaa421.jpg)


And here is part of the more "run down" area of town. This area is next to the slums but at least these trailers are a little nicer than the big tenement buildings.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_00000009_30aaa3fc.jpg)


About an hour's drive into the mountains is Shadow Valley University.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_0000000b_10aaa333.jpg)
(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_0000000b_10aaa30a.jpg)


No one is sure when the area was actually settled, but it has the same kind of ruins that are found down in the city. Archaeologists from all over Sim Nation come to Shadow Valley University to study these ancient ruins.

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_0000000b_50aaa33e.jpg)


So far, the only buildings that exist at the University are the hippie communes. How can you have a university town and not have hippies?  ;D

(http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a303/SimmieCal/snapshot_0000000b_70aaa323.jpg)



There isn't much neighborhood decoration yet. I'm still working on that.

Comments or suggestions greatly appreciated.

Nah, I tried it that way, but I like it this way better. My desktop icons all show up nice and clear on the side, and the picture is undistorted. This actually was the look I was going for.  ;)

 ;D
I'd be quite happy no matter where you put me, but I quite like Witch's Lucy un the Sky with Diamonds commune, or Castle, Or Emma's starter Log Cabin.  Being in the getto area would be um, interesting too...

And you know, I love that preview.  I can't wait to play MATYville....

Simmiecal, I would definetely see myself Sim live in Emma "trailer" house.  Not too fancy, very practical, so it is perfect for Sim MissDoh!

you can use my self sim just dont marry me off Banelnuts wants the single life for a change....as for where sim me live  any where exceprt JM's Bunker is fine

If you are looking for cuties to use for NPC's I've uploaded my Brad Pitt and Jonny Depp sims to http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dewshine_recolors_for_sims2/

They are in the sims folder under files.
Brad comes in Brown hair and Blond hair. Jonny has black hair.

I'll try to get some pictures.

I think I've made an orlando bloom too, but I can't find him....


Okay here are the pics:

Jonny Depp
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/dewshine2003/YAFSS_043.jpg)

Brad Pitt (Blond version) He's wearing a default skin replacement so he uses the standard Maxis light tone
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/dewshine2003/YAFSS_044.jpg)

Brad Pitt (Brown hair)  Actually he's a light skined sim but I altered him to the next tone up to show sorta how he looks with standard skin
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/dewshine2003/YAFSS_045.jpg)

Very cool, Simmiiecal.  :)  That neighborhood is beautiful!  I can't wait to play it.  If you want more old houses, take them off my sim page.  I'll give you the link when I get home.  I'm on my work machine right now, and the official site is blocked.  :(

I want to live in my Trendy Townhouse (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=91.0) please! And if I get married and have kids, I want to live in My House (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=110.0)  ;)

Don't you just hate it when work actually expects you to work!  ;)

Your lots are getting loading up tonight.   ;D

Any of Witches Crystal Homes would be good, at least until my sim husband and I start having children.  ;D

Simmiecal, the neighborhood looks terrific. I was planning to make a sim-me (uh, and boyfriend, since there's a distinct lack of males) and house, but I won't be able to make a house until this weekend when I get NL. That won't be too late, will it?

Wow. The neighborhood is beautiful!

Not at all. Several people have indicated that they needed more time to work on stuff. My goal is to have the neighborhood (with story lines and relationships established) ready by the end of the month. In addition to working on the hood, I have to figure out how to set-up the web pages to host the hood.  ::) There was a time that I almost knew what I was doing on a computer. I'm really feeling my age re-learning a bunch of stuff.

Alright, awesome. If you need help with the webpages, I know some stuff (that actually sounds kind of sinister, on rereading, for some reason). I don't know if you need webspace or anything, but I have a website that is currently doing nothing but sitting and looking vaguely pretty (translation: there's a nice graphic, a link to my livejournal, and a page of wallpapers I made) while I try to figure out what I can use it for, and I'd be willing to host or mirror it there. If you have webspace and need help setting up or something, I'm not exactly a whiz, but I can try to help, although I bet there are tons of people on this board who DO know what they're doing far more than I do. It's not actually all that hard though, there are some pretty good tutorials if you google for them. That's how I figured out what to do.

Hmmm, where to live.

This Starter (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=48.0)

If I become rich and famous, Here (http://laverwinklesims.com/index.php?topic=90.0)

Ha! In my game you live in a house worth 700,000$, with 2 sport cars, a pool, etc...:)

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Simmiecal, I'm so impressed - you've done an amazing job.  :-X 
Hegelian - your fantastic group photo is now my desktop wallpaper too. Thank you. :-X
Regg, I love your houses and Emma's too.  They've sneaked their way into my game already.

 
Just like real life!  ;D

The Matyville neighbourhood is my most desired Xmas present!  I'm really looking forward to downloading it when it eventually gets finished.  From what I can see so far, it really is worth the wait.

You can use my sim me if you like its nothing to brag about. :)

Stick me in any kind of house you like, I like just one floor to lazy to walk steps.

You mean the moron part??   :'(

Simmiecal, the neighborhood is gorgeous. You've done a great job.

If you have any need for a weird witch, you're of course welcome to Sagana (I'm just not a self-sim kind of person and haven't really been on maty long enough to belong in the neighborhood either.)

Indeed it does. I particularly like the swim club.   ;D

I've whipped up a one-bedroom New England-style bungalow that would be perfect for recluses like Hegelian or
Bangelnuts (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2147.msg64527#msg64527), and that doesn't look like a box on a foundation. Only §15,192 furnished; all Maxis except for Numenor's exterior lamp and a couple recolors of Maxis objects. I will send it along.

  Just teasing!  

On a separate note, I'd like SimSandilou to start off in a trailer, preferably in the poorer area of Matyville.  I wanted to sow the seeds for a number of storylines...
...rags to riches...
...how to woohoo your way to the top...
...5 simple steps to marrying a rich elder whose only got 2 days left to live...

Heck, you came around just a couple of weeks after I did and I'm ballsy enough to put myself into the neighborhood. Well, maybe not ballsy.  :-\ Booby. I'm booby enough to put myself in the neighborhood.  ;)

Lovely neighborhood!   ;D  I'm attempting to send a few Sims.  Maybe you could use my custom made Elrics and Severus Snape as townies or something.   :D

Is there anything you are missing?  Army or other guys?, mid range homes?  decorative lots?  community lots?

Thank you so much for managing this whole project and doing a lot of the work.  I know it's going to be great!

Well, right now we have a bunch of female adult sims.  Send me men!  And for the neighborhood  ;) , we need more male sims and sims of any age except adult.  I have a bunch of lots right now (contributed by members and -ahem- borrowed from a couple of sites) that will handle low to mid-range housing. Right now, what would be good is any lots that are unusual in some way - decorative or themed - and "luxuary mansion" kind of houses. I'm still trying to fill in the area where the rich sims live.

Of course, if you were going to contribute your sim self and/or a lot that falls into the bargain range or is a female sim, please go ahead and do so. After all, this is the Maty neighborhood and I will incorporate anything that people want to contribute.

Also - using self-sims: last night I was going thru my emails and thru some of the posts looking for people's permission to use their self-sims. There are a lot of sims that have been uploaded here that I do not have the creator's explicit permission to use in the shared hood. Would it be ok for me to assume that if they uploaded their sim here that it's ok for me to incorporate them into the neighborhood or should I seek each creator's permission - what do you think?

It's probably fine to use them for the MATY neighbourhood, since that's the reason people submitted them to the website.

Well, mine was originally submitted at JM's request, as he wanted a toy peeing Brynne to torture, but, yes, you have my explicit permission to use me. Abuse me. Make me write bad checks. Whatever.

I found my Oralndo Bloom... do you want him? 

Simmiecal, do you want townies, or just some random Sims to fill things out a bit? I could do either. Of course, with children and teens, they would need to be related to an adult. That's easily remedied with SimEnhancer and remedied a bit more complicatedly with SimPE.

I've been building so much, making some Sims would be a good buffer activity!

Yes - more men!

I really need townies, but I also plan on putting a lot of single sims into apartments. I think we need some single men for our self-sims to hook up with.  ;)

Tonight I could create an elder male living with a teenage girl and an elder woman living with a teen male.  I will place both families in 2 different houses in a newly created neighborhood so there should not be any files coming with it.  I will upload them to the Sims 2 exhange and moved my downloads folder prior to do this so no custom stuff will come with it. The only problem right now is that I temporarely do not have access to internet right now but should on Saturday the 17th the latest.

Would that be useful Simmiecal?  If so, I could also create another couple of elders which are brothers and sisters and they live with their 2 grandchildren... (kids parents are dead you would need to play with it though if you wish since I have no idea how too create links of dead parents).

Since my HD crash I have no DL so I will reinstall and just do some men and children.  Nothing to worry about tagging along because, now I have nothing.

I have all the sims I've created sitting in Sims2Packs; I could send you some. Men, women, teens, & one male child. Lots of custom content,though; although with the Clean Installer you can uncheck anything you don't want and save the Sims2Pack with a different name (Helpful Hint #17—double-click the file but choose Save As... instead of Install).

No problem. I expect the housing to be completed later this week or early next week. I will probably take sims up until the end. The closer to the end, the less I'll have time to develop stories for them and they'll probably become townies.

Well I could come up with a story for them if you wish, you could work around it but it would be a start.

Okay I'll be adding Orlando to my site in a few minutes. Actually he's up now.  You can get him at http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dewshine_recolors_for_sims2/

Here's a preview pic:
The real Orlando Bloom:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/dewshine2003/OrlandoBloom.jpg)
And the sim Orlando Bloom:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/dewshine2003/YAFSS_047.jpg)
Granted he needs that custom curled hair for men from MTS2...

*drools* Orlando looks yum dewshine ;D

 ;D
Yeah, he turned out okay, huh?
I've tried my hand at a few other fellows, but then got stuck with Vin Diesel... took me a bloody year off and on to get him right. 
I might go back now to making a few other movie stars now. 

OK -

Should I make the sim celebrities townies or should I set them up in the rich areas in the neighborhood? Or should I set them up in the trailers and make them struggling actors before they were "discovered".  There's a couple of theatre lots out there - I could make a Simmywood section of the neighborhood.

Or maybe I just need to cut back on the caffeine. I can't wait to finish the neighborhood so I can actually play it.  ;D

use them however you like.  If you need or are making new NPC's they would be cool for that too.  Would you like some more?  perhaps have a favorite I've not done?  (Mr. DiCaprio, anyone?)...

I'd really looooooooove to see Jared Leto.  ;D  It doesn't have to be how he is in this pic, I just googled his image and this came up.  Trubble would like it too, I know it. 

(http://www.celebrity-exchange.com/celebs/photos36/jared-leto-4.jpg)

I can do an assortment of townies. I've done this in my own custom neighborhood easily enough.

I love the idea of a Simmywood with celebrity townies. Would it be possible to make a few older actors wealthy residents in Simmywood and make a few younger ones struggling npc waiters/baristas who work in Downtown?

Consider it done. A couple of months ago, my main hood was "Simmywood". The storyline was following several struggling actors and actresses with the idea that one or two of them would move up and become famous. Then I got this funny idea that some "commercials" that the sims see on tv and some shows on the tv should have the "star" sims in it and that's when I got all side tracked with making sims movies.  Some of the "less talented" sims fell into the sim porn industry........well, I've probably said too much already.  ;D

Consider yourself drafted: give me a backstory for one of the celebrity sims - either one of the aging "I'm ready for my close-up" actors or one of the struggling thespians.

I posted my self sim in the animals area and would love to be in the MATY neighborhood even as a townie or an apartment tenant if you have to many households already. I'm a pretty settled down person in a very small town irl but I always think of my sim self as representing my younger years when I was much more shall we say "un-settled" in the big city.

Oh and I like Mark Valley formerly of Keen Eddie and presently on Boston Legal. He would make a fine townie I think.



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You can tell that I don't watch much TV - I was reading that you posted your sim self and saw the picture and thought, hmmmm, I need to be real nice to PlaidSquirrel. Then, I realized that this must be a picture of Mark Valley.  ;D :D

Hey Dewshine.....if you're up to it, make a Mark Valley for the hood.  ;)

Um, hubba, hubba...  okay.  I'll work on him  ;D

Simmiecal, I'd really like Sir Anthony Hopkins (yes, the Chiante drinking 'Hannibal the Cannibal' of 'Silence of the Lambs') to play  JM's long lost brother in Matyville.  For a longtime over at Variousimmers, I actually thought JM was the real life Hannibal - I couldn't help thinking that he was locked up in that bunker for a real reason, and that all that security was actually for our protection.

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Oh....the start of the JM storyline. I was reading in MAde Up Animals that were had a Rentechd and that got me to thinking about a JM storyline.  Do you have any Anthony Hopkins sim?  Should his personality be like Hannibal's or should his personality be the opposite of whatever JM's personality is in the game - sort of like good brother, bad brother?

*drools on the pictures of Orlando Bloom and Jared Leto* *has a thing for guys with dark hair*  I'd love to see Patrick Swayze in our Hood  ;D

My self-sim is now up in Animals too.

  If only!  I popped over to MTS2 and found
 http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=39145&highlight=anthony+hopkins
 which I really don't like.   
I would like them to be arch rivals/enemies as JM has commented on his RL family reunions - I got the impression that a family barbecue would double as a venue for fightclub.  I imagine that Hannibal's personality would have to be 10 outgoing but 0-2 nice to be part of the Pescado clan. I'd imagine that JM's personality count would be pretty close to Ms Crumplebottom's.  ;)

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I put a retirement home up on the exchange. Not sure if anyone may be interested in it for maty hood. May have to take it down soon as some custom content went along for the ride that really shouldnt have (i only used maxis stuff but see a big list on the site of crap that tagged along).  So if your at all interested in a 'nursing home' for your elderly better check it out and snag it before it gets removed.

http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/lot_detail.php?asset_id=282385

That is just a face mask, I'm afraid.

I am working on Mark Valley and Anthony Hopkins currently.
There's several Jared Leto's on the exchange (didn't really like any of them)  and I found one patrick swayze at MTS2 (he was okay).  If I can get Mark Valley and Sir Hopkins I think I'd rather try Sean Connery next.  Still, I can try doing Leto and Swayze too.

hnote has some really good celebs, there is also one person on the exchange that does really great celebs as well, but I would have to wait until I get home to tell you who. I have an Orlando my daughter forced me to download that is amazingly accurate.

OK -

Need some help with the hood. I don't want to give too many details right now because when people download the hood, I want there to be a couple of surprises that people find.

What I need:
Someone who knows how to customize the pictures / posters in the game (put our bmp or jpg pictures into the game)

Someone who would be willing to design or re-design a couple of specific lots

Any volunteers? Email me if interested and I'll give you the details.

thought I'd list some sims I found while taking a break with my struggles with Sir Hopkins...

John Travolta: Here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=333180&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=travolta&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Leonardo DiCaprio:
Here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=238004&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=DiCaprio&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Sean Connery: Here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=191175&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=sean+connery&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Will Smith: Here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=446168&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=Will+smith&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Nicholas Cage: Here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=382629&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=cage&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Collin Farrell: Here (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=266692&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=Colin+Farrell&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Jake Gyllenhaal:
Here  (http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/sim_detail.php?asset_id=101966&searchPage=exch&search=1&asset_type=sim&key=Jake+Gyllenhaal&order=CREATION_DATE+desc&nrows=50&game_version=&age=&gender=male&custom=&locality=&country=&view=new)

Dewshine thanks for taking the time to hunt those sims down.  I particularly like the John Travolta sim - I think that simmer did a good job.  Nick Cage isn't bad either. I imagined that the Sir Sean Connery sim would be bald as he hasn't had anything on top for quite some time now;  I am the first to say that Sir Sean was the best Bond ever - he's still simmering hot now, even as a balding elder.  It's those eyes and masculine eyebrows - what a man!  The Colin Farrell sim does resemble him...something about the mouth area is just right.  As for the Will Smith sim, they really need to stretch those ears....otherwise its just not Will. :D

As for Anthony Hopkins, stick the mask back on if its driving you up the wall - you can always use JM's face as the base, then he can be his long lost twin brother!

Shaken, not stirred!

Mmmmm - Sean. I loved him in Hunt for Red October. Now, that's a man that has aged well.

Yep. Too bad he's a woman-beating, misogynistic pig, isn't it? Sorry, I'm in a mean mood. But he is.

Ssssh! Don't ruin the fantasy. If I let reality into the picture.....Johnny Depp is married......Harrison Ford can't stay faithful......no, no, reality has no place in my fantasyland!  :D ;) ::)

OK -

Help again please.

I suck at searching threads but I usually take the time to try and search out my answers before posting.   :-[ As I'm trying to get the hood done before Christmas, I'm hoping some of you will help me out and either answer my questions or give me links to threads which explain what I'm asking.

1. I'd like to have the NPCs (maid, cop, fireman) be sims we made - not generated by the game. I could have sworn I read that people were doing this. Has anyone here done it? Is it hard to do? What hack is used to do it? Any links about this?

2. Is there a certain number of townies, downtownies and dorm students that I need to generate in order to prevent the game from generating them? Inge's brush can handle this, right (or just townies)?

3. Where can I get the family names of the townies, adoption pool, etc so I know which group I'm adding the sims to?

Thanks for your help.  :)

Simmiecal, I spent most of this morning making male townies for you. No uglies and no hideous clothes! I also made a group of teen townies (3 of each sex). The game doesn't require any specific number of townies, or any at all, actually. All you have to do is deleteallcharacters and install the notownieregen hack. Then, use Inge's shrub to add the premade townies to the pool. As for the last names, I just named these "Townie". You can change them and give them individual last names if you want.

As an added bonus, two, that's right, two groups of toddlers and children have been made for the adoption pool. 10 toddlers, and 4 children. I figured more people adopted toddlers than children, but if you think you need more, I can always make some. Guaranteed no hideous kids!

I'm not sure if this is possible. Eric added the option to InSIM but we found any NPCs we made using it, never showed up on any jobs :( 

could Sim surgery be used?  Keep the sim files for NPC's the game generated and then alter the faces with simPE?
I don't know really.

I got Mark Valley done.
He's got custom eyes by exnem, Brows by Helaene (recolored to a lighter red by me) and lips by Louis Of SimCribbing. 

Here's a pic:
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v21/dewshine2003/Project01.jpg)

I'll upload him to my Yahoo Group.  Link in Siggy.   ;D

edited to add:
And sandilou, I am a perfectionist.  I spent a year (really!) on my Vin Diesel sim.  A year... I'll do Sir Hopkins correctly or ... well, my stubborn streak will kick in and I'll do him correctly, lol.  Hopefully I can figure out what is not right and fix it, soon.  I feel better that I got Mark Valley though. 

Ohhh, yummy Mark Valley Sim!!  I remember him as the re-cast Jack Deveroux on Days of Our Lives.  ;) 

In MATYville, Kristal Rose Sim is single and would put a major hurtin' on him!!  ;) 

Unless, of course, someone creates a Patrick Swayze or a Aarogorn sim.  :D

Posted by: dewshine  I can only (very lazily) admire your dedication.  I wouldn't know where to begin!  I was terminally lazy with my own self sim, I pushed the sliders a couple of times and thought - it's not gonna look like me anyway so....I sneaked over to a ready made sim head...  ::)

Posted by: dewshine And what a brilliant job too! :)