More Awesome Than You!

I really love making houses and I am just wondering how to make them suitable for upload and that doesn't have a load of custom content attatched to it. I usually upload to my simpage.
I am wondering if it is possible to actually remove the downloads folder before loading up a neighbourhood that is new and fresh-will this crash the game? TIA for help ;)

Yes, I always do that, but beware not to enter the neighbourhoods you are playing. Just open a special empty custom neighbourhood, in which you build your houses.

Thanks gali  ;D

Emma, Inge has good instructions for the safest way to do this on her site. Here's the synopsis. In your My Documents--EA Games folder, rename the Sims 2 folder to something like The Sims 2 Play. Start the game. It will generate a new Sims 2 folder, completely free of hacks and custom content. Build, etc. When you want to play, rename the new folder The Sims 2 Build and change The Sims 2 Play back to The Sims 2. This way, everything that you build is always in a clean game and you know for sure that nothing can tag along.

Thanks Reg! I know for sure it will take a very long time to move my downloads folder to the desktop, being the download whore that I am  ;)
*Runs off to Inge's site*

Thanks, Reggikko - I didn't know that too. I always move my downloads folder to the desktop, but never enter the playable hoods. Your suggestion is much better...:).

What about creating another user for the computer in the control panel area?  The new user area will have a clean (no hacks, no custom content) game.  Someone on MTS2 suggested it so that a child could play the game without the adult user's hacks and custom content.  I do this for the houses I upload.  I thought it was easier than yanking out the download folder, the collection folder, and the camera folder every time I felt the urge to just build.

I presume from all this that using the games own option to disable custom content is untrustworthy?  (I've never tried it.)

Ilikecoffee is right, creating a new user account is much easier than moving the Downloads folder every time you want to build a clean house. You need XP or 2k to do it, but it's a quicker process and doesn't require nearly as much work in the long run.

Yes, I know people who do that.  I still just have a clean install on another pc for housebuilding.  The main advantage is when I get fed up, I can just switch over to the the main pc and play the game or go on the net.

Just popped in to say that Inge's method works great :) All you have to basically do is change the folder names. Easy.

Same principle as when you had two different sets of skins in Sims1 and you could change them over by simply changing names.  I think if you have two Pleasantviews, you could do the same thing, just call one of them N001-2 and the game would only recognise the other, but I've not tried it yet in case I'm wrong!!!!

I use the separate user account method too. Works great for me, as I'm sure I'd continually forget to swap out the downloads folder at the right time. I'd forget my head if it wasn't attached :P

FYI, Pinecat has a really good thread on TSR about uploading clean lots: http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=268085

Jen

I use cleaninstaller on the packaged lot file and take out all the custom content for a vanilla house.  Then save as "newfile".  I upload that.  Any reason why that isn't good enough?  If you want to put a bit of custom content in you need to know the filenames to leave in, but it's not too hard to spot them.  You can always try it out and see if anything is missing.

I usually move all my downloads to desktop when I'm building apart from the hacks folder so I don't get townies regenerating.  That's just to speed up loading really.

Well, if you build in a custom neighbourhood which you don't use for gameplay, does it matter about townies - you don't need to deleteallcharacters so you don't need to stop them regenerating - so no hacks need to be in game while you build.

True - but I usually build them in my normal hood, package them and let my real sims try them out.   I prefer that to working with dummy sims.  Before I know it I'm caught up in these new sims and their story in an empty hood!  it's easy enough to take the hacks out with cleaninstaller.   unless I'm missing something... 

It doesn't matter which method you use, as long as it works! I don't have clean installer, so I don't use it.

After all the downloading I did the other night, it takes a while now to transfer my downloads to a desktop folder and back again.  I think this method of Inge's will work best for me.  I'm so glad you mentioned it Reggikko :)

I actually wonder whether the in-game option to disable custom content would also work, or is it, like so much else, bugged?

I just tried this with a starter lot I built, and it most definitely does not work.  I packaged the lot, and I had a whole bunch of crap tag along.

Do the special cameras tag along when you package as well? I like being able to see the whole neighborhood, whether I'm building or playing, but... bleh if they tag.

I had a funny feeling it wouldn't work!

Built-in Maxis feature doesn't work? Say it ain't so?
If only some grouchy but affable type fellow would waste spend hours of his time fixing all of the mistakes in return for nothing but the adulation of his peers, the inflation of his ego, and perhaps a pittance of a subscription fee...

He has no peers. Only minions, groupies, and hangers-on.  :D

I only yank the downloads folder, and when checking it in Clean Installer, I see only the lotsegment portion - nothing else seems to get packaged in.

Hm...makes me wonder if I'm a minion, groupie, or hanger-on...

I guess groupie can be scratched right out, if you're going with the version of groupie I'm familiar with.  ;)

I think that option only disable the custom content in the game so you cannot use it, it does not stop it from being packaged with any lots.

It does indeed do that, I tested it.  ;)

IF you're talking about GunMod's stuff, it's not a "mod" in the sense that it resides in the download folder. You are actually overwriting some text files in the text files that control the camera. I would highly doubt any of that would be picked up when packaging something as it's not something the game would expect to be part of a lot, object or sim.  But, just my guess....

I would say that the only way to be sure things like the special camera don't get packaged would be to package your house in the normal way, then remove every custom item from your folder, then install the house with clean installer and check that the camera etc. have not been installed with it.

It doesn't get included in the package for lot packaging.  When I packaged my lot, the only thing that remained was the lotsegmentforupload, and the only thing I removed was the Downloads folder.  I have Gunmod's camera and lighting mods in my game, and those were not included.

For future reference, the CEP file doesn't get sucked into the lot package either.

Jen

Makes you wonder why that doesn't, yet global hacks do, when they're all basically the same type of file!