Greetings and hi! I'm a non-awesome newb. After reading all of this (and many other posts here, much to my confusion) I think I finally have a plan of attack. What I'm going for is a Cleaned Up game. Not completely empty. Let me see if I got this right:
Installed game (I have all expansions/packs/patches) Sims thru BV.
Moved/backedup old stuff.
Empty EA Folder In My Documents.
Downloaded MATY hacks I will need (the whole pack actually)
Downloaded CAS/Face template replacements (to prevent EAxis fugliness)
Downloaded (this is optional) Custom Defaults for skintones/eyes (more fugliness prevention)
Downloaded cleaned/empty templates for Pleasantview, Veronaville, Strangetown, Downtown, Seasons (Riverblossom + Stealth), and BV (I will have to do Uni, Blue Water myself as the links are gone unless someone has them or I missed them)
backup all hoods
Need to: The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods
Rename N001 to N001-bak to disable it.
clean out uni/bluewater hoods per instructions here:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,5861.0.htmlinstall all downloaded hoods (overwriting maxis ones)
Run game.
Game should:
-contain only maxis families/npcs/townies as left in the cleaned hoods (the ones I wanted to keep like Pleasant, Strange, Capulet, Kat, Travellers plus known friends/npcs )
-generate the 48 necessary tourists w/ replacement looks
-generate only 1 townie w/ replacement looks
-generate necessary npcs (and then after as necessary on a 1 per basis)
Be free of BFBVFS!
Ready to test and import more hacks/cc.
Did I get it?