Blast! Oh well, time for plan E.

I've got a handful of lots that have uneven terrain along the edges and cannot be placed so that they are touching any other lot. My new neighborhood is on the small side and I don't have much room to leave an open area around each of them, nor does it really fit with what I was trying to accomplish. Is there a way to flatten these lots to be even with the street level on all sides? I have tried the lot flattening tool and the smoothing terrain tool but neither affects the outermost tiles on the lot. This is an example of what I'd like to correct :

Are you using custom skintones or default replacements? I can't see the pics but it kinda sounds like what happened with the skintones I had been using.

If I were to say, give everyone in a neighborhood a new first name with SimPE before reading this thread, could I correct the incompleteness by repeating the process with an in-game tool? Or is it best to restore the neighborhood from before the changes were made?

Do the inflatable cat and cauldron do anything special or is it just the snowman? I'm not a fan of yard decor so I've never even purchased one to see what they do, if anything.

Decorative -> Sculptures, 850 Simoleons

Here it is. There are a couple other posts in the thread about it as well, this is just the first one I could find.

There is a new Gamer career in Seasons, she should still be able to achieve her LTW.

It looks like they are using the first wrinkle set in the costume/full-face makeup category. There are three "masks" of wrinkles of varying degree towards the end of that section.

Interesting... that sounds like what's going on. Some of the lots creating the tag-along NPCs were downloaded from various places so I have no way of knowing if they were owned or not but I'm willing to bet that they were. I did save Club Dante myself, possibly while it was still owned or right after DACing that neighborhood (it was a long time ago and I didn't know any better) and it generates a bartender. I guess I'll keep sticking with removing anything that could possibly spawn an NPC before I package a lot. Cheers Jfred!

I've been going through the lots I've accumulated, trying to decide which ones to keep and which ones to pitch, and on several occasions when I install one and take a peek in build mode, there is a new NPC that came along with it. There have been bartenders, register clerks, and employees (? I didn't know wtf they were, they were with the makeover chairs). At first I thought maybe the game was using the NPCs I've created but they have different names/appearances and when I check the Characters folder, there are additional files added. I check each file with Clean Installer beforehand and remove everything except the lot itself. I use SaraMK's empty neighborhood templates, generate my own NPCs, and use the norespawns/noredundancy mods. I've started removing any object that might spawn an NPC - cash registers, bars, DJ booths, etc. - before I save the lot and then putting them all back afterwards. Is there any other way to prevent these invaders from tagging along?

On a slightly related note, I remodeled a Uni Secret Society lot and I'd like to use it in other neighborhoods but I'm not sure how to go about doing so or if it's even possible. I copied the file out of the neighborhood Lots directory but when I looked at it in SimPE I saw a bunch of relationship info  in addition to the regular lot type stuff so I didn't use the file in another hood lest I fuxxor something up. Am I better off rebuilding it as a residential or commercial type lot and then changing the zoning when I start a new neighborhood?

I've had the green stink cloud in the corner of a couple of my lots turn into sleeping "z"s. I saw it out of the corner of my eye and thought maybe a pet got stuck way out there or something, but it was just a snoozy cloud of funk.

Sloppy and/or playful

If you were following SaraMK's tutorial for you might have to copy the N001 folder off the base game CD/DVD, as hers involves tinkering with the N001 files in the Program Files/EA Games directory.

I thought it was a torture device, with hypodermic needles and probes and stuff.

Very handy, thanks jfade!

This has been around since at least OFB that I can remember. I actually send my Sims out to work as baristas or bartenders because every time the Sim comes back to the espresso machine from a canceled interaction, another pay cycle gets added on. With enough interruptions, Sims can pull in over 1000 Simoleons every 10 minutes or so. I agree the constant monitoring of their queue is frustrating, but I don't mind the extra spending cash.

APO = Authorized Personnel Only

I watched my Sims a little bit more closely and it seems as though the hatred only occurs if the Sim with the thought bubble is idle or is in transit to an activity. I never saw it on Sims who were actively involved in an interaction (preparing a meal, reading a book, fishing, etc.) but if a Sim was on his/her way to do something (getting on a school bus, walking up the stairs to go to bed, heading to the pool table, that sort of thing), I'd almost always see it. It seems like it's part of their thought bubble repertoire, like how they think of their aspirations or who they just wohooed.

I don't have much experience in SimPE outside of the basics, but there is an "ideal plantsim" NPC now in each of the neighborhood files and from his placeholder image he's pretty uggo. He has a long and narrow face and a long skinny nose. I would imagine that someone with the know-how would be able to create a replacement.

Orangeade doesn't give badges outright, it adds points towards a random badge. Unless your Sim was already very close to having the next badge, you should only see the badge point increase over his/her head (like you would see if they were actually working on that badge).

Sim food must be pretty potent stuff - even the mail carriers in my neighborhood can smell someone in the bathroom three stories away.

Aye, "converted" Sims keep their pre-plant aspiration and LTW. I haven't grown any spawns up yet, but I'd imagine when they turn into adults you pick their apiration and turn ons/offs like you would a newly transitioned teen.

There's a lightning rod in the Decorative - Miscellaneous category that you can stick on the roof (or wherever you want) that supposedly attracts strikes to it. It's called the EZ120v Lighting Finial I think.

I thought for a second you were being sarcastic, having almost typed the thread title there word for word.