More Awesome Than You!

If you are sick of seeing Bluewater every time you go to add a shopping 'hood to your game, try Sedona instead.
I've made an alternative to Bluewater that you can put in your OFB defaults.  It includes 43 lots and 33 sims. Download it here http://users.telenet.be/hardlucksims/> and here http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/cwykes/
If you like grand and classy 'hoods or hate palm trees, this is not for you!  Desert terrain, palm trees, houses built for the heat with flat rooves and not too many windows, sims with hats and sunglasses.  Plenty of starter businesses for you to use in other hoods and some 3x1 businesses that fit neatly down the middle of the dual carriageway in Strangetown.
(http://users.telenet.be/cwykes/Sedona/snapshot_721e373c_b21e38c6.jpg)
Report any problems in this thread.  I'd also welcome feedback on what you like and what you don't like.  I'm happy to work on it some more if there's something that needs doing.  In case you'd rather make your own, here's the thread that explained how to do it. http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,3996.0.html

Oh thanks, I will try it out. I've been wanting to have some alternate subneighborhoods to go to so this will be nice. :)

The "Add Shopping District" dialog is indeed messed up as you explain in the readme. Thankfully, it's not *too* difficult to select #3 in the list.

Am I crazy or are all the townies in Sedona aliens? (And one looks like Elvis.)

yup - I liked the idea of selling all your expensive junk to alien tourists.  I hope they're as badly dressed as tourists usually are!  And you can spot them a mile off and get ready to dazzle them into buying your most expensive piece of art as a souvenir.  If you hate them I could do an empty hood without too much trouble.  There's probably a way to suppress that big Bluewater button, but I'm not techie enough.  I also don't know how to get the .png file to update - the 'hood camera scrolls around the empty hood at the moment.

Syberspunk tested it out for me last weekend and said the storytelling didn't show in his game.  Was it OK in yours? 

Sorry, I really want to test this out but I can't click on the Sendona "Line".
I can see the option for Sedona but every time I move the mouse towards it, the big Bluewater Village button highlights.
Am I missing something? Probably something really obvious knowing me  :-[

Maxoid error. You need a dummy B002 in order for B003 to be usable. For some reason Maxis has made it nearly impossible to add a B00x template.

See, I knew it would be something obvious. ::)
Whilst I had installed the B002 & B003 to the correct folder, I hadn't physically "created" the B002 within the game. Once I created Aridia(sp?), I had no problems creating Sedona.

Lastly a couple of questions, do I have to DAC before playing the rest of my game? (I've created Sedona in my primary 'hood.) Also is it safe for me to delete the B002 (Aridia) from within the game?

You can now delete B002 (Aridia) again.
I wouldn't do a DAC unless you really want to start from scratch again (remember, DAC will delete ALL Sims, from the main 'hood and all sub'hoods).
Sedona looks clean from a cursory inspection, so if you don't mind the alien tourist shoppers just leave it intact.

This looks fun, I will give it a whirl and tell you how it goes.

@ Jordi;
Thanks. I forgot about DAC deleting all Sims and not just the ones in the sub-'hood.
As for the alien shoppers, meh, I've already got loads of aliens and other assorted wierdos in my Townie "pool".

No neighborhood story in mine. There might be a lot story, but I didn't bother to check.

No neighborhood story or Lot stories for me either.  :'(

You shouldn't have had to create it in the game.  I don't.  When I click to add a hood, both names are there and I can just about manage to click on Sedona.

I should look clean, cos I put a lot of effort into that,  but I'm really glad you agree.  :)  I created it in a hood on which I'd done deleteallchars.  I didn't put the alien sims in until after I'd cleaned it in SimPE.  Then I cleaned it again in SimPE to get rid of Grimmy and Co and a post boy or two.  I've done that enough times that it wouldn't be a problem to do a sim free version. 

I'll puzzle away over the album problem. - it must be a numbering issue.  Bluewater pics get renumbered to whatever the hood number is in your game.  Mine obviously aren't.  If you are curious renumber the 'hood pics and album appropriately and it should show in your game.  Or you can look at it with the Storybook viewer.  If you don't have that it's great for looking at stories outside the game.  I've still got the Alpha version from MTS2 but there is a newer HTML version somewhere.

Cathy,

I was thinking about the album thing... and my guess is, that it probably depends on how many 'hoods you have and possibly when the hood was added.

Since you only have OFB and the basegame, it will differ than those who have other EPs, and thus have Unis and Downtowns added. It probably will also change depending on the order that they were added. One might assume that a Shopping District was added last, but you never know, since apparently you can install EPs out of order. One could presumably add subhoods out of order as well.

One thing you can do, to manually fix this. Go into the Sedona subhood and actually take a picture in-game. Then go inspect the storytelling stuff and see how the image was named/created. I think there are .xml files as well, with pre/postfixed numbers in the file name. You might also have to peek into the NeighborhoodManager.package or something.

I did this one to fix my 'hood. It was kind of a pain in the ass, and I don't remember exactly what I did, and unfortunately I was too lazy to document the process. :P Anyhew, if you can figure out whatever pattern the filenaming is, or if it is dependent on some setting in one of the .package files, then you can just rename the files from this download and/or change the .package file accordingly so the show up properly.

I hope that all makes sense. :P

Ste

Thanks Syberspunk - you've been a real help with this. You can install Bluewater at any time with any combination of EPs in place.  So the game has a functional mechanism to change all the lot, character and album numbers in a default hood to something that works for your game.  If that didn't work we'd all have lost lots or sims when we added a new subhood.   

 I've got answers on two points - missing story and mdrturner's problem.

You were adding it to a 'hood that already had Bluewater in weren't you?  I tried that and I got just what you reported.  You can't get to Sedona, but the dummy is highlighted and hitting return installs it.  I've updated the readme.  If you install the dummy (aka Aridia), Sedona is highlighted next time you visit that screen. So you can install both and delete the useless one.  There is a trash can to drop it into onscreen, even if that works as badly as other maxis deletions, it ought to be OK because there are no sims or lots to leave a mess.  You could also delete the 002 template and see if that works.  (I'll test another day) EDIT - deleting N002 works fine I've updated the readme


Re the story telling - It's another crap bit of coding by Maxis.  Here's what I put in the updated readme.

Neighbourhood story and albums
========================
The install doesn't handle this very well and I'm afraid it's maxis problem not mine!  Existing albums for families in lots are renumbered and installed with the pictures and text.  The neighbourhod album is renumbered but the pictures that go with it are not transferred from the template file.  Check your own Bluewater album with wordpad and you'll see there are pics referenced that aren't in the 'hood, but are in the template hood. 

If you want to see the (very short) story and pics.  Cut and paste snapshot_00000004_121d9534.jpg and all the other 00000004 snapshots and thumbnails into your 'hood storytelling  (don't renumber unless there's a clash) Find the neighbourhood story for the new Sedona subhood in your game. (It's numbered 00000002 in my test hood.)  Open it with wordpad. Insert a couple of lines space between    <Style>Album</Style>    and   <KeywordList/>     Then Open my webentry_00000004.xml with wordpad.  Copy all the entries  (from the first <Entry>  to the last </Entry> inclusive and paste them into the middle of your new album into the gap.  Should work fine.

Got it in game and I think it is quite good. Strangetown now has a shopping district, I didn't attach Bluewater Village there because it didn't fit. And thanks for putting so many residential lots in!  :)

Glad someone has finally cracked how to do this.  I have been puzzling over it for ages!   I shall come and visit your site and have a look.

A little later...   Lol!  Do you need a web designer? :D

Yup - I am to web design what Pescado is to paperwork! - I figured I'd start learning how to do it when I'd got Sedona out there and tested.  20MB was too big for e-mail and I could hardly just dump it someone else's site, so I figured out enough to get it up there.  My son the computer student can probably be coerced into showing me some stuff instead of playing Warcraft when I get him home again.  Failing that my daughter has a webdesigner boyfriend and I have techie nephews.

OR - If anyone wants to put it up on their site where more people will find it, I'm happy with that.  I just think we'd better test it out here before offerng it to less savvy simmers.  Well I also think someone more graphically talented should make a really great hood.

How to do it is in that thread I linked in the first post.  I only cracked the last bit.  Also, I don't know if it works for Uni hoods as I don't have Uni - is there anything special about them?

Just save this as index.html and upload it:

It's a cute neighborhood. I like it. I really have to be in the mood to build so I definitely appreciate the time you spent doing this. And I agree it's nice to have more residential housing.

It goes really well with Strangetown, but could work with other neighborhoods too. Here in Washington the coastal areas are 'lush' but if you go over the mountains it's desert. Of course, I can't say I've ever had the urge to shop in eastern Washington but still! ;)

cwykes I know you don't have Nightlife, but I wonder if someone else might make a new downtown too. That would be nice. I suppose a new University might be interesting, but we already get three and I never much cared for that expansion. :P

Mind if I see some pictures before I download it? It sounds good, though. I love palm trees.

I second the request for pictures. Especially of the tonwnies. :)

I've put the pics I have into a story and I'll upload it to the exchange.
EDIT - it's here  http://thesims2.ea.com/mysimpage/mysimpage.php?user_id=1159607
(The two alien families are also there for download from way back and so are stories about the sims who were in the MATYville hood)  The pics are a bit dark, but you'll get some idea.

The townies are recognisably from the same race and it's a race that has pollination technicians and clones.  Your sims may have a bit of trouble telling some of them apart - All those foreigners look a bit alike you know!  I'm sure they'll develop their own fashion style once you've sold them haircuts, makeovers and clothes.  there aren't many pics of them - sorry - I'll take a few more...    If anyone who has DLd it has pics, please post them in this thread - I couldn't work out how to insert a pic  :-[ :-[.   

Like I said it wouldn't be a lot of work to do a deleteallchars, clean up the files and make a version with no sims at all.  I'll probably do that anyway next week as the hood is a bit quirky. 

Can we make a new Uni?  If there is anything special about Uni hoods, this won't work. Otherwise I think you can do it the way I did this one.  If I cut this down to a few lots and renumber it to  U004(?), someone can try and make it into a Uni sub-hood instead.  I can't test as I don't have Uni or NL  I'm tempted to go buy Uni, just to do a Uni hood!  I'm also willing to collaborate on one with someone else - I can do file clean up and conversion.  Same thing for downtown - what number would it need to be?

Anyone know about png files? - it would be nice to scroll round the hood!
Oh and thanks for the html - should it go in the root directory or the sedona folder?

You can use Irfanview or the GIMP or most any paint program to save as png.

I missed one tag from my code, by the way:


This code goes in your "/var/www" folder (or whatever is the "root" of your visible web page).

thank you Dizzy.

I'm away for about a week - no updates til then. 
I had a lot of trouble getting text into the uploaded hood story.  I'd write it in game and it looked fine.  I'd upload it and all the pics were there, but half them were missing text.  To cut a long story short, the bits I'd cut and pasted from lot stories had a different value in  textresource ID - when I changed them all to match what was in the hood pics it went fine.  DK what's going on - I mention it in case someone else has the same problem.
<TextResourceId>0x00000000</TextResourceId>

OK - I fixed the png file - that was easy. Thanks for explaining.
Now how about the moving pic in the .reia file?  Google search picked up threads on MTS2 saying it can't be done.  http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=58454  Anyone know better?

Still no progress on the website.  Daughter's boyfriend got a job and son is disinclined to help.  Ah well I'm sure I'll figure something out.

No body has reported any problems, so I'll take the testing off the title soon I guess.

Subhoods don't have reias anyway, these files only work for main 'hoods.

AFAIK nobody has cracked the format yet.

I figured out HTML - well the basics anyway - and the web page looks almost normal. 
Here are a few pics as originally requested. I figured that out too today.
(http://users.telenet.be/cwykes/Sedona/palmcourt.jpg)(http://users.telenet.be/cwykes/Sedona/community.jpg)(http://users.telenet.be/cwykes/Sedona/thumbnail_00000006_91b1732f.jpg)(http://users.telenet.be/cwykes/Sedona/thumbnail_2d92eaad_91c07533.jpg)

So much for the .reia.  We can't do that 'hood scrolling either can we?

Was this broken by Pets? I have the template in my game, but it does not appear at all.

Someone on MTS2 is saying they can't get Sedona to work and we can't figure out why between us, so could be Pets did break it. >:(     I don't have Pets to run tests, but what could have changed?  Surely they didn't mess with the file structure of Bluewater?  Seems unlikely to me, but if it was that I could fix it.  Did the date modified change on the OFB default hood when Pets was installed?  If so which files changed and how?

All I can think of to try is either 1) to add another couple of dummy's and make Sedona B005 in case it's that honking great Bluewater button that has got more solid somehow or 2) to renumber Sedona to B001 and take Bluewater out of the defaults completely.  I'm away for a couple of days, so I can try some things at the weekend.  Suggestions and volunteers welcome!

B001 itself was not changed, but the 'hood picker was. They completely disabled the list display for B00x subhoods in Pets. Bloody Maxis :o

I suppose renaming Sedona to B001 instead of Bluewater might work. I'll try that later this week.

Did they screw up the Uni and NL list as well?  I've got a U004 up there as a test if you want to try it.  It's not a real hood just a test to see if it works the same way.  I don't have Uni, so I downloaded some Uni lots from MTS2 (Uni content vanished of course) and messed around with some sims in simPE.   Motoki tried a D002 for me, but I took it down after establishing that it worked.  pre-Pets though!

Uni still works, I still need to test NL, but I suspect it is broken like OFB 'hoods are.
Only Uni shows a visible list at the moment.

If you take Bluewater out of the defaults, does Sedona and/or the dummy Aridia show in game instead with the current 'hood numbers?  If not, do you know if Sedona shows when renumbered to B001? 

If renumbering works, I can put a B001 version of Sedona up for download.  I can also put my test D002 online sometime this weekend if that helps check out whether NL 'hood listing was broken too.

Already tested that. If I replace Bluewater B001 with Sedona renumbered B001, clicking the "Bluewater" button will add Sedona instead.
NL still not tested, I have somehow messed up my vidcard drivers so can't play TS2 atm.

I have put a second version of Sedona up on my website for Pets owners.  Basically you have to replace Bluewater with Sedona instead of adding it as an alternative.  Please could someone test it for me - I don't have Pets, so if I've made a mistake, I have no way of knowing without feedback!

Okay, testing Sedona and your test NL for Pets.

thanks Jordi - glad your video card drivers are sorted!

Custom downtown does not appear under Pets.

Sedona is non-functional under Pets even if it replaces B001. Thumbnail remains that of Bluewater, and the 'hood itself is broken.
There are no lots, and the present families carry the Bluewater names. Characters in the \Characters folder are all from Bluewater.

The only way I can think of to get this working is to use Numenor's Base Game Starter Pro (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=107015) to go back to OFB, and create the 'hood and add subhoods there.

So the counter is broken for Uni, NL and OFB.  Rats.  Thanks for testing.

I can't see any obvious mess in what I put up.  If you renamed the Bluewater folder as I suggested, do you think the game is still finding the Bluewater stuff in the subfolders?  The characters are still numbered B001 after all.  What happens if you take Bluewater right out of the template folder rather than just renaming it? 

No, it works for Uni actually... my own U004 is still in the list.
Will test one more time with Bluewater completely removed.

Finally some good news!
Completely removing Bluewater and replacing it with Sedona works. Just remove B001 from its current location and put Sedona there.
I just renamed put Bluewater's B001 one level higher (under OFB\TSData\Res\), so it is easy to place back.

Downside: there is no possibility to add both Sedona and Bluewater, as you can only have one B001. Then again, who needs two shopping districts….

Brilliant Jordi :D - thanks so much - I've changed the instructions on my website and MTS2.

Is your Uni going to be available for download anytime?

Probably not, it is boring as heck. Just a small uni with a couple of dorms, my pre-built dormies, greek house, and secret society brothel.

Actually, I was going to add a second one as a retirement village for my elders, so I didn't have to watch them die.

The game will only refer to the template folder when creating the sub-hood, right? So if I wanted to add Bluewater to Pleasantview then put in the Pets version of Sedona and add that to Strangetown, would both work properly when I tried playing them later?

Yes.  The actual sub-hood lives in the appropriate Neighborhoods folders in My Docs/EA GAMES/The Sims 2. The templates aren't changed by the game at all.

I figured as much, but I wanted to double-check. Thanks.

Thanks for this shopping district, cwykes.  I added it to Strangetown to do the Apocalypse challenge.  I just love all the aliens, plus all the different reasonably-priced businesses. 

The only problem I've had is that when Dee and Eee Jones became teens, their faces disappeared.  I hoped they'd take on adult alien faces if I moved them to Uni, but no luck.  I had to give them face paint because hair sitting on top of nothing was creeping me out.  When I went into Change Appearance to add the makeup, the default faces were not green.  Is there any way to get back alien characteristics for their faces in SimPE or something else?

I don't know what is wrong with them (I haven't even played this hood yet), but I do know that if you look under Sim Description - More - Sim DNA the information for alien is

eye - 12d4f3e1-fdbe-4fe7-ace3-46dd9ff52b51
skin - 6baf064a-85ad-4e37-8d81-a987e9f8da46

and I hope that helps you.

I'll look at it and report back.  Thanks for the detailed info on genetics.  I'd have to play them to teens in my game to check what happens there, so it might not be quick.  Big thank you for letting me know!

The disappearing head thing happened when they changed from child to teen - actually the morning after they changed.  Right after the grow-up change they were fine.   And their thumbnail had the initial complete alien head.  When I sent them to Uni, even the thumbnail had no face, just hair sitting on nothing.  I'll try changing the DNA the next time I get a chance to play.  I haven't tried breeding any of the alien townies, although I've paired some up.

Their DNA is fine in my files.  Let me know if it's not in yours.

The townies were made in CAS in Sedona and turned into townies with Inge's bush.  The Jones family were made in CAS in Strangetown and exported in a package which I cleaned up carefully before installing it into Sedona.  Aaa & family were on the exchange for ages and I never had any feedback about problems, but then I wouldn't necessarily expect people to bother.  I can go play them in Strangetown to see if they grow up OK there and attach Sedona to another hood and try there.  I froze Sedona at the point where I uploaded it to be sure I didn't mess up my versions!

Jordi cast his eye over the hood early on and said it looked clean, which was a great relief at the time.  I did use deletallchars to clean it out initially so if there's any lingering problem, I'd point at that.  I've read that's not recommended since then, but it was the best info I had at the time.   I've no idea what problems that causes and whether these symptoms relate though.  I've had a sim without a face in my game and it went away eventually, still you've got me worried here. 

.......heads off to play the Jones family .............

Good news - it's fixable and it's not to do with the packaging or cleaning or Sedona per se.

On the next hour after growing up, the newly aged sim loses his/her face.  It happens in the hood they were originally made in as well, so it's not caused by packaging, cleaining, Sedona or any corruption introduced on the way.  The fix is to change appearance twice.  The firs change generates a new face, but it's a default of some kind and is quite wrong.  If you change appearance again, you get a face that does have family characteristics but isn't so extreme.  I think that is then stable though I didn't play for that long as I wanted to report back.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going by observation and that's not my best skill especially with low graphics settings.  I put some pics on the exchange here to illustrate  http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=136911

When I made all 5 sims in CAS, I pushed the extremes because I wanted a really alien look and I think I got that.  I suspect the game just doesn't like the extremes.  I couldn't have seen it in CAS because they did age OK.  Stupid game letting them grow up fine and then rearranging their faces!

I forced errors on everything in the lot using the lotdebugger and got something about headslots - DK if that was connected.

I'll put a warning on my website and MTS2.   Thanks again.

cwykes - do you have faceblending enabled or disabled?

I hadn't heard of facebleding until yesterday when I read the userstartup.cheat thread, so I guess it was and is set to the default.  I made this family when I first got the sims and thought I was really clever getting alien skin to show in CAS.  So it's way too long ago to remember any early glitches.  I must have thought they were OK, or I wouldn't have put them on the exchange at the time.

Two "change appearances" turns out to be only a temporary fix. They switch back to no face at the drop of a hat.  Does it matter when?  I'm playing the family now to see if the same problem hits the kids born in game and I'm going to move on to the alien clone guys next and let them breed. Then the townies.  I fancied leaving clones as a collection of no-hopers, but needs must...  - I think it's important to play them in the original hood to be sure that's where the problem came from.  It doesn't look like it was anything in the making of Sedona that caused the problem does it?

It's interesting that when CiCi Jones, who started as an alien teen, went to Uni, her face was perfectly OK, and I had no problems when she graduated and turned into an adult.  Also Aaa and BiBi aged to elder last weekend and they were OK.  In the meantime, at Uni, I put Dee in the white facepaint and Eee in the green camo facepaint.  I tell myself that their disappearing heads are just a problem that some aliens have in Simland and they are doing their best to cope with their environment.  Sort of like Superman with a yellow sun.  I am sort of glad to hear that it's not just me - misery loves company.

As far as I can see, Dee and Eenie are OK as adults if that's any consolation and there isn't a problem with children born in game either.  Aaa and Bibi had 3 more kids who aged to kid normally and were fine when I cheated them to teen ("set to birthday" and grow up).  I cheated Dee and Eenie to adult and they seem OK like Chi-chi.  I'm assuming the glitch is going to show up almost immediately as it did for Dee and Eenie.  I only played for about a sim day after the transitions with no glitches.   

I put a thread about faceless sims in "oops I broke it" where more people will see.  Jordi suggested trying with faceblending off, which I did and it didnt' solve it unfortunately.  He had another couple of suggestions though: "M sister had the problem with one Sim (not using your 'hoods), I solved it for her by applying full facial make up to her Sim and removing it again. This forces a repaint of the entire face and therefore may help." and "Also try making the affected Sim a vampire and curing them again."  The full facial make up is what you are using isn't it?  Anyway I can try that, but please could you try the vampire thing for me, I don't have NL.

Marvin Kosh, who wrote that "how to make a sub-hood" tutorial, made a hack to get rid ot that big Bluewater button.  If anyone wants to test it out for him, I could really use it to make Sedona easier to install,
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6872.0

Facepaint is the answer.  once Dee and Eenie age to teen, change their appearance by adding anything on the facepaint tab.  You'll notice their face changes to a default, but ignore that.  Then make a second change back out of facepaint and the game should have sorted itself out.  They now have the correct face and should keep it!   Thank you Jordi!

Just downloaded. Very excited. Question:

Can I use this as a base 'hood? I'm not sure if there's some unique identifier that makes a Shopping District, a Shopping District and vice versa for a Downtown. I'm using HP's Uber-Mega Hood and have been thoroughly instructed NOT to add any additional Shopping Districts to it.

I'm planning on making your Sedona a base, with Strangetown as a Downtown and La Fiesta Tech as a Univeristy.

Am I asking for trouble to try and just rename folders?

A LOT of modding and work goes into making a subhood, so if I were you I'd leave it alone. Making it a main neighborhood would take much, much more than just renaming folders (or renaming folders and all the files within, since that's actually one of the steps you'd probably need to take).

It started out as a base neighbourhood, so I have those files somewhere in my backups.  If you're using Strangetown, why not use that as the base hood?  Life would be much simpler that way!

I actually don't want to use Strangetown at all.
I figured if there was even a semi simple way to convert 'hoods,
I could use Sedona as a base. I already have Strangetown as part of my
install of the Uber-Mega Hood so, having yet another is boring.
I was willing to do it, if needed. Also, ST fits into the deserty feel of it.
But if it's not something I shouldn't fuck with then,
I won't be able to use Sedona at all.

EDIT - I couldn't edit my original post.

ALSO, if it started as a base, do you think you could be so kind as to send it to a n00b like me?
Sorry, I mean "Tasty Tourist".

Actually, I did it myself, that is...Sedona as a base hood; followed SaraMK/HP's tutorial about the ID number. So, sorry for the dumb questions and thanks again for making it, Cwykes!!!

glad you managed to do it.  The problem with sending it would have been file size. 

Thanks for this-- it'll be an awesome sub-neighborhood for Strangetown, I'll bet.  :-*

I'll make sure to follow your instructions... my game is borked up as it is.