Hegelian, the files I uploaded are base templates for making your own replacement 21 and/or 25 templates. Replaced templates are larger in file size. For example, if you look at AllenABQ's face replacements, you'll see they're larger than his base templates. You'll also notice that his replacement files have his name at the beginning, eg "AllenABQ_facefile...", while the base template filenames are just "facefile..."
So no, the base templates aren't supposed to replace anything. They're supposed to be replaced!

Attached are files that add the Elf and Alien faces to the NPC/townie pool. Huzzah.

Thanks for unhiding the alien. I'll have a much easier time making an archetype to base a Pol Tech replacement off of. I imagine folks will be wanting the gmdcs extracted to make replacing easier... I think I have them, so I can age/gender separate them (a la AllenABQ) like I did 21 & 25. Stay tuned.

Re: the normal flag value-- boy, do I feel stupid. I did change the flags on the eelf face to 0 in one of my experiments, but I thought since its order was changed like the other archs I hid and it wasn't showing up for young adults, I had accidentally hid it instead. Changing the flags to 0 does randomize the template, for all ages except YA. So before I upload the file, I'd like to:
A) Make it show up in the right order (like you did w/ 21 & 25)... How do I go about doing that?
B) Make it show up for young adults. ETA: I was able to do this by extracting the af/am XFCHs from the Uni program files. Changing the flags on those made things show/randomize properly, but since the age is 0x00000048 instead of 0x00000008, will doing it this way work for folks without Uni?


Edit: Here are the extracted GMDCs for the Alien template for all you face replacers out there.

Here you go!

(Whew! I usually just cram all 8 faces for each archetype into 1 package. They're easier to keep track of that way.)

Amber, when I started fooling around with face replacements (Nov 05) I made full base templates (minus the absent toddler files, of course) for these two faces. I need to see how AllenABQ did his naming scheme so they will match his but I can have them up shortly.

Thanks. Now if only I can muster the energy/enthusiasm to actually replace these faces again... Maybe in a year.

Edit: While you're at it, why don't you "fix" the eelf and alien templates? I know you said it would be frustrating, but a lot of people would appreciate it, I think.

Right.


I just misread this sentence while I was trying to multitask. Sorry for misunderstanding. Cute faces, btw.

Hey, personally, I don't think you should apologize for anything! At least you tried to actually fix them, unlike me, so I appreciate the effort. However, I'm unclear about what you're saying you did here. Do you mean that you were able to fix all the ages except toddlers, or something different?

Edit: I guess I will dl and find out 

Edit the 2nd: I looked at them in Body Shop; other ages still revert to the mannequin face.

I hid them because I wanted a quick and dirty solution. Fixing them is a job for someone moreawesomethanme, like Ennarys. Also, some people might want some faces nuked just for kicks. Re: the first part of your post, thanks for explaining.

I apologize if this has been done before. *ducks* I searched here, MTS2 and Insim and didn't see anything, but I notoriously fail at searching for anything.

These files will hide facial archetypes 21Cper and 25Csla (numbered according to the order that they normally show up in Body Shop/CAS). The Cper and Csla faces are missing some data, so only the adults display correctly. Other ages revert to another default or the mannequin. Most of my playables are ex-townies; I got sick of these archetypes peeing in my sims' gene pool.

With these hiders installed, hidden archetypes won't show up at for young adults. In Body Shop and CAS, they will show up out of their usual order, but the game won't use them to generate townies/NPCs.

All I did was apply Jordi's method for hiding hair/clothes, described here, to Motoki's idea. I changed the "Face Arch XML" flags from 0x00000000 to 0x00000001. So thanks Jordi and thanks Motoki (wherever you are nowadays). Baa!

They should work whether you have default face replacements or not.

Install/uninstall like you would any other download. Subfolder-friendly AFAIK.

I haven't had any luck getting the alien template to show with this method, or getting the 26Eelf template to work like the others (i.e. show up on townies). It doesn't help that I am a lazy and impatient amateur.

Hiders for the rest of the archetypes coming soonish. Done. Attachment updated. Hider files included for all except 26Eelf, which doesn't show up on non-playables anyway. If, for some reason, you decide to hide all the original archetypes, your game will only generate mannequin faces (unless you have the Hillary Duff face or something like that).

UPDATE:
Argon fixed the broken archetypes. He also made the Alien archetype visible. Since I was too lazy to make another thread, I posted full base templates for 21Cper, 25Csla, and the Alien archetype in that thread, as well as files that add the Alien and 26Eelf archetypes to the townie pool. (See replies #5, #9, and #11 in his thread.)
I no longer need to hide any of the faces, but if anybody else wants to for any reason, I have updated the files here using a couple of tips I learned from Argon. Now they display in the familiar order for all ages and they show up properly for young adults. They won't replace the old files I had up here. (Why should they? That would make too much sense, and I don't have any good sense.)

Nailati, I'm happy to see your set coming along so nicely. The teen males piss me off, too. Especially their lips. I finished another set last month and I'm testing them now. Testing means generating new townies and making sure I can tell the new archetypes apart from a reasonable distance, which is something I didn't do with the last set I uploaded. So far so good, but I have a feeling that I'll end up starting from scratch again anyway. I really admire you for taking your time to put the best product out there.

Oh, ouch! I've had that happen before. No way to fix it that I know of, but I can sympathize. Here are some tips that are probably painfully obvious to you now, but may be useful to others thinking about trying these:
-- Work on only one archetype at a time. Trying to work on all faces in one age group increases the chance for this kind of error, unless you are in the habit of keeping frequent backups of your SavedSims.
-- Flip over to other ages and genders often to avoid... surprises.
-- Complete all eight gender/combos of a face before replacing any files. I do them in this order now: Create AF, AM, TF, TM, CU, PU in BS. Check faces in CAS. Make changes in BS. Check faces in CAS again (stupid perfectionism). Then replace files. Replace EF and EM with AF and AM, respectively. Fiddle with EF and EM in BS. Optional CAS check. Replace EF and EM files. Replacement is always my last step.
-- Make obsessive backups of SavedSims rather than deleting them, and keep them organized by archetype and/or date discarded. (This can't help you if your backups are based on incomplete replacements, of course.)

Best of luck completing your replacements, Nailati! They look luverly and unique. No matter when you release them, they'll be a hit.

Ooh, very nice!

I hope you'll consider uploading when you have more finished. They would be a hit. People don't have a lot of sets to choose from yet, I guess since there's so much busy work involved in creating them.

*I wish there was some SimPE plugin to make it all easier.*

I've been working on another set, incorporating the lessons I learned since uploading a set to MTS2. Mainly, I'm taking my time to tweak each age group individually and make them all distinct... And I'm using Body Shop in correct 1024x768 resolution on my widescreen laptop. I was a bit startled when I saw just how strange my last set looked on a normal screen.

You said you redid the changes to the GMDC. Did you re-extract the data you were using to replace the GMDC beforehand? Try re-extracting then re-replacing the adult female data.

If doing it over with re-extracted files doesn't help, I don't know what to tell you...

BTW, your Erus repl. looks b-yoo-tiful and unique. Are you doing a complete set, or just certain faces?

Wow, that is a fantastic idea! I really hope people give it a try.
Nailati, you are "teh awesomeness." Keep up the good work.

Great job, Nailati! We can never have enough of these, especially since mine all look alike, allegedly.
Well, okay. Most of them do look alike. But they breed so well together, I promise!

I admire how you've made this a community effort. Your faces look great, and they look like they'll blend really well with each other and even with other sets.

To everyone else, let's see more people creating and sharing face templates. Yes, it's tedious, but it's soooo worth it.

That's how I did it, too (the CAS part)! I used a toddler female for all my female data and and teen male for the males. Saves a lot of time, doesn't it? I extracted the facial data myself, though, way back in November when the tutorial was first posted (unrepentant lurker), and named/numbered them according to the order they appear in CAS.

For my next set (if I ever get around to it, lol) I will probably do it the long way and spend more time tweaking each age and gender for a particular face. As it is my children and teens' faces are too similar for my tastes. Shame on me for rushing.


Same here.

TheCheat, I've had this problem too. Actually, I've only ever gotten one review (home business, positive). Other than that the reporter shows up, scribbles, racks up 2-3 loyalty pts, scribbles, makes a purchase, then leaves without giving a review. I know I've met the criteria to receive reviews, dammit.

Entire lots disappearing just because plan uniform wants to pull a hissy fit.

Only in an EA game.

So I'm guessing the temp workaround is either to forgo planning uniforms at all or to never ever delete existing planned uniforms? Argh, this sucks. *Negative customer loyalty stars explode over head*

This happened to me today. It was my first ever comm lot business, too.

The lot still existed, but there was nothing on it. It was like a brand new community lot with only a phone and a trashcan.

Okay, here's what happened in no particular order... Bought pre-built comm lot. Entered the lot with one playable sim on a Friday evening and left on a Sunday afternoon. Energizer was present. Bought a lot of merchandise wholesale and placed some crafted goods from the inventory. Had trouble planning uniform. Invited the rest of her household (two servos) to come and work there.
Hired some people, fired some people. Did some remodeling. Reporter came, but didn't give a review. Got to rank 5. Hired a sim, made him a manager. Sent him home for the day because he was an idiot. Had some espressos. A professor showed up, but didn't shop and left quickly.
I never saved while I was there. Took the taxi there and back.

The next day she took the taxi to the lot to find every wall, floor, and tree gone forever. She still had the deed in her inventory and was able to sell the lot back to the community. (What else could i do?) This was a pretty nifty lot, too.

Thanks, Regina! 

I noticed the same thing about the noses when I was compiling the pictures, but by then I had already declared the project "done." Not to mention I had to sacrifice some image quality to make the attachments small enough, so it's that much tougher to make out the differences among the faces. They do blend pretty well genetically, and that was what I was going for in the first place.

As for uploading in separate files, me=lazy.

I made a set. They're nothing special, but here's the link:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=135121

Regina, have fun doing your own! It's tedious but rewarding.

It definitely works in my game. I was wondering why my florist was doing so well -- She had four snapdragons up for sale, keeping her and her customers in excellent moods. After I read that the snapdragons were responsible, I made sure to put a couple in the crafting room and one in the bedroom. They don't even have to view them. Just keep one or two in the room and it will take care of every motive except energy, as long as they're at good levels to start with. My sim hasn't ventured toward her fridge in days. She subsists entirely on snapdragon fumes. It's the best thing ever.

Nope, it was random! Lucky me. He came with silver register and bronze flower arranging. My sim had gold flower arr., gold robotery, and gold toy-making. Now she also has gold sales and silver restocking since she doesn't have to babysit the cash register. I love my robot slave!

When mine broke down he didn't run amok, didn't recharge, and couldn't be repaired. The water thing makes sense, though.

When I rebooted everything was back to normal. My first Servo came with a silver register badge. Thanks in part to that my very first business, a home-based florist that also sells pet bricks and hydrobots, is at level six. woot.

I only wish we could click on Servo directly to have him "do chores" instead of the option popping up at random times.