More Awesome Than You!

I recently had an urge to change the look of my downtown's vampires. They're all still unplayable, but I occasionally summon them and make them selectable for story purposes. I would like to keep them as NPCs, but I want to give them a make over. I've attempted this a couple of times and I just can't seem to figure out how to do it. So, I turn to you wise folks. What's the best way to do this? I can change their apperance (hair, make-up), but not their clothes. Any time I try and get them a new wardrobe, it just doesn't show up for them on a dresser.

Is there a mod somewhere that would let me do it? Is there a boolprop command that lets me do it? Do I have to move them in and make them playable to make it work? If I do that, do I need to do anything special to make them NPCs again? Is the best option to have an OFB shop and suggest an outfit to them once they're on the lot?

OFB shop would do it. However, the caveat: While they will briefly wear the outfit you give them, they quickly revert to their Official Uniform the next time they make an official appearance. Some patch may have claimed to change this, the wording was vague. It has not been confirmed to work. You're welcome to get back to me with the results.

Is there a way to tell what patches we have on a game? I think I put the Pets patch in, but I'm not sure. I also am not sure if I ever downloaded a seasons patch. I should probably verify what I have before reporting anything.

When it comes time, though, I'll definitely try the OFB shop method. I know someone who did do the change clothes thing, but when I tracked her down to find out how she did it, she said she used Christianlov's teleporter and clothes object. She has a mac, though, so I'm wondering if that's why they haven't reverted on her. Hmm. AH well. I'll make due with what I can.

You may also want to look into a 'casual NPC' hack... I've heard tell they exist, although I've never gone looking for one. I think the text/readme for Christianlov's clothing rack mentions one.

What about Paladin's NPC Replacer at http://www.simwardrobe.com/?  Seems like that might do the trick.

ETA:  Here's what it says on the page with that program:  "The Sims 2 NPC Replacer allows you to easily alter the default outfits of most NPCs in the game. The changes are made globally so all that existing NPCs and newly created NPCs will be wearing the new default outfits. This program works without the use of a "no NPC revert" hack. NPC replacement packages can be easily swapped in and out of the game. There is also a feature to create and load entire sets of NPC replacement packages."

I actually checked that (I have it installed) as soon as I saw the original post, but while it does cover NL NPCs (it doesn't cover NPCs from any later EPs), it does not include the vampires as far as I could tell.

Well, pooey.  Since it had a NL radio button, I was hopeful.  Sorry about that.

You can make vampires and other NPCs change clothes via the OFB shops (or with Christianlov's hacked clothing rack), but they do revert back to their original outfits. The Diva and Mr. Big also revert back to their original outfits on their next visit anywhere. It is most annoying, especially in a themed hood where everything else is either high-tech or low-tech compared to the NPC outfits. Oh well.

what about boolprop?
cant you make them selectable and change them by themselves?

The "no NPC revert" hack is supposed to keep them from changing back to their original clothes.  I haven't tried it and have no idea whether it's any good, but here it is:

http://modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=89766

Thanks, phyllisp. That sounds like just the thing I need, actually. I'll be testing it later today, and will report whether it works, or not.

I tried that with a home clothes buying option, but the clothes won't show up when they access a dresser.

The OFB thing worked to get them to change, it's just a time consuming process. 'Suggest Outfit', then two dazzles to make sure they buy.

I'll be trying this out too, I'm still trying to mod the cyberhood, Paladin's NPC replacer worked for the maid then promptly crashed. (After I spent about two nights tring to find suitable cyberclothing for all the NPCs and putting them in a folder so I could find the damn things in the flat 2D interface). The maid briefly wore the outfit but has now stopped. Why wouldn't anyone want to do housework in latex, that's what I want to know!

I tried getting a townie sim to change clothing in an owned community business with Cristianlov's dresser, he couldn't see any clothing. (I made him selectable). So I'm back to making lists of townie names and loading Style Maven's lot to get the townies dressed appropriately.

Has Paladin updated the NPC replacer at all? Has anyone else had problems using it and are there any tricks I should know?