Removing non-default skins - how bad is it?

[Faizah]

I haven't got any skins in my game that are not default replacements at the moment. What I'm wondering is, what would happen if I installed and later removed custom skins? Would it break any Sims 'wearing' them, would those sims just default to some other skintone, or what? Same goes for hair and eyes.

I'm thinking of getting some geneticised skins, or geneticising them myself if I can find a tutorial. Would removing a geneticised skin be different to removing any other skin? (ie, would they 'default' to a close genetic match?)

[J. M. Pescado]

I haven't got any skins in my game that are not default replacements at the moment. What I'm wondering is, what would happen if I installed and later removed custom skins? Would it break any Sims 'wearing' them, would those sims just default to some other skintone, or what? Same goes for hair and eyes.

If you remove a sim's skin, they turn into S2s and their internal data goes FUBAR'ed. Removing their hair just makes them bald, unless your sims have messed up hair DNA from unbinned hairs, very bad. Unbinned eyes, also evil. All these things are basically evil and removing them will mess up your sims internally.

[Faizah]

I see. That's about what I expected, really. Since I don't fancy trying to keep things around forever, I think I'll give custom genetics a miss. At least I have decent default replacements.

[SaraMK]

Does something actually break that can't be fixed with either an in-game tool or SimPE? DNA data isn't something that we can't access, after all.

I use a couple of custom eyes and skins, but I'm not worried since I haven't found a reason to remove them in several years.

[J. M. Pescado]

It's FIXABLE, although eyes are more of a PITA than skins, but it's not something that should be recommended.

[nekonoai]

This happened to poor Notovny when I removed skins. He turned white! A quick trip to Simpe fixed him up nicely, though.

[Quinctia]

It's not that big of a deal, it's just a pain in the ass, especially if you've bred them.

For skins, you just need to change their DNA (you could just change it to S2, or you could pick another skin and change it to that), and the DNA of every one of their relatives that could have a gene for that skintone.  For eyes, you need to fix the DNA of sim and relatives, but you also have to fix the agedata in their Character file for their "new" eye to show up.

I've always had geneticized skins in my game, and my problem came from my downloading of the first "townified" skins that were floating around, made using a method that wouldn't allow them to show up in CAS.  I eventually switched them out for versions that could be townified and be in CAS at the same time, and I had a bunch of DNA to fix up.  It's worth it for me to have tons of variety in my genetics, and nowadays I do all the file modification myself.  I just make sure to boot up bodyshop and check the quality of new custom genetics before I townify it and let it randomize itself into my game.  Just make sure you only put in stuff that is up to your standard of quality, and it shouldn't be much of an issue.

[professorbutters]

When you say "internal data messed up," how badly do you mean, and will it make a difference if you *can't* fix it with SimPE?

I've only removed one custom skin, and I can't say I'm sorry.  The mother was a Marilyn Monroe sim, and I never once thought about changing her to male and back to see what happened.  The male version of the skin was EW.  Lots of badly-drawn body hair and EW.  I could not stand to see that bred in over and over.  I took the skin out last July and no big problems so far.  (And he looks WAY better as an S2.)

Otherwise, with custom skins and hair, I just check it first, or learn to live with it.  I'd edit it, but I can't (see above.)

PB

[BastDawn]

As an alternative, I just replaced the internal textures the last time I changed my s3.5 skin.  That way I retained the original file and all of the data that went with it.  You can also geneticise in-use skins and they will not break for the sims using them.

[J. M. Pescado]

When you say "internal data messed up," how badly do you mean, and will it make a difference if you *can't* fix it with SimPE?

This is unclear, but I am not going to recommend any course of action that will inflict ANY damage to the files.

[Lion]

How about change their skin using ChristainLov's Custom Skintone Selector to something else (e.g., Maxis ones) first, fix the sim's dna (i.e., character file) and then delete the custom skin? Will that be ok?

His fixing dna tool: http://www.modthesims2.com/download.php?p=1959274#post1959274

[seelindarun]

How about change their skin using ChristainLov's Custom Skintone Selector to something else (e.g., Maxis ones) first, fix the sim's dna (i.e., character file) and then delete the custom skin? Will that be ok?

That would be fine if the sim has not been bred at all, though it doesn't much matter whether you do it before or after.  The most annoying part of the process Quinctia described is chasing down all the relatives where that dna may have been passed.

When you say "internal data messed up," how badly do you mean, and will it make a difference if you *can't* fix it with SimPE?

It mainly makes a difference if the DNA is passed on.  The spawn will not follow the usual rules for inheritance, if they receive the deleted skin from a parent.  Because CAS sims are usually homozygous for their custom skin, the children almost always display it.  If not, they still carry the dud gene and I had some oddly pigmented spawn as a result, though none were so badly borked that it rendered them unplayable.

[Indiasong]

I used to repair skins and eyes with a few clicks using ts2 enhancer.
Now you can bite my head off.
Worked a charm, though.