More Awesome Than You!

I'm planning to do a sci-fi themed neighborhood in the near-ish future and I'd like to replace all the townies, as it just wouldn't do to have *humans* wandering around instead of the natives  :P I want to at least change the skin tones of the NPCs too, because really, would they have brought their own maids with them to an alien planet? I think not. But will doing this make my neighborhood implode? I'm not terribly experience with monkeying around in SimPE :o but  I know sorta kinda how to do this (though any links to tutorials and/or tips would be much appreciated)...

Jen

SimPE has a feature, SimSurgery, that allows you to change the appearance of a sim, but I think it also allows you to change just the skin tone as well.

Yeah, I just poked around a bit in SimSurgery and I think that's going to be the way to go. Does it cause any problems doing that on NPCs, though? Does changing townie/NPC names cause problems either?

Jen

I don't think so, but some testing would be required to be sure. No reason why changing an attribute they already have should mess anything up, though, as long as it's something non-critical to their function.

When you change the skin-tone they will show up in the plugin view with their old skin-tone, but that the new skin tone shows up in game. I tried it and was disappointed when my sim didn't sport the pretty purple skin in the plugin view, but when I opened the game, there she was, all nice and purple. She was however, a regular townie, not an NPC. But I don't think that it should make any difference; I tend to believe Oddysey, especially since she knows things like that much better than I do.

Just a heads up so you don't end up thinking it didn't work, when in reality it did :D

G.

I change townies all the time in Sims Surgery but I'm a bit anal about the fact that their thumbnail still stays the same so what I usually do is make archetype Sims in CAS, that way I can decide their clothes as well as their other features.  Then I make them into a family and keep them in the Sim bin.  Exit out of the game and go into Sim Pe's Sim Surgery.  I usually name the archetypes with the first name of the Sim they will replace so it's easier to find the two together and just replace them.  The new face shows up in the thumbnail and when I go back into the game, I delete the family in the Sim Bin.

Another possibly easier way I discovered, if you just want to change their skintone is to do so in Sim Surgery and then go into the game and control the NPC you changed and take them to the mirror to change appearance.  Their new skin tone will then show up in their thumbnail.  Depending on how many townies you want to change, this can be convenient or a complete hassle.  I only use it when there are a couple of townies who weren't too ugly for me to completely change but I wanted to make a few adjustments.

I was thinking of just that process for the townies, Nikita, I'm glad to hear it works without causing problems :D What do you use to control the NPCs to take them to the mirror? Merola's mirror?

Jen

Well, I'm not Nikita, but I can answer that :D

Yes, use Merola's mirror.

G.

Okay, thanks. Sorry if it sounds like I'm a dummy, but, well I am  :P LOL I don't generally muck around in SimPE or use hacked objects so it's all kinda new to me.

Jen

Well, then we can be dummies together :D.

I read posts of all these savy people (and you know who you are!) talking about memory editing, changing sim tokens, etc. and I don't even know where and how to find the sim memories in SimPE. Val (aka Brynne) particularly makes me dizzy. She is doing major work on one of her neighborhoods with SimPe's help and just reading about it makes my mind boggle.

As for hacked objects... I have just about all of JM's, and many of TJ's fixes, but I don't consider them hacks per se. I do have the teleporter shrub,  Merola's mirror and his painting, and Carrigon's memory in a bottle (for townie production)...other than that...well, what can I say? Not because hacks are bad and evil (see BBS), but because I'm convinced I will somehow manage to make my neighborhood explode into a fiery ball... etc. etc.

I have Carrigons witchy stuff, such as the cauldron, crystal ball, vodoo and vampire doll, but I just use it as decorations for my, shall we say more eccentric sims. Maybe one day I will get the nerve up to use it. :D 

G.