My experiences with creating townies

[Klaatu]

Yup, that's how it works.  deleteallcharacters means just that.  It nukes ALL characters.

Are you saying that deleteallcharacters deletes all characters from all neighborhoods, not just the current neighborhood (and universities and downtowns)?

[Renatus]

No, it deletes all characters from the current neighborhood set. It WILL delete all characters from anysubneighborhoods, but not anything in different base neighborhoods.

To demonstrate: Say you have a base neighborhood of First Town and as base neighborhood of Secondville. First Town has a First Downtown and First University attached. If you deleteallcharacters in First Town,it will delete all characters in First Downtown and First University as well as those are its sub neighborhoods, but it will NOT delete a thing from Secondville. Base neighborhoods are completely seperate from one another.

[angelyne]

Yup, that's how it works.  deleteallcharacters means just that.  It nukes ALL characters.

Are you saying that deleteallcharacters deletes all characters from all neighborhoods, not just the current neighborhood (and universities and downtowns)?

Right all characters in the neighborhood you are in, plus attached universities and downtowns.  If you do it in Pleasantview, no characters will remain in neither neighborhood, attached university nor downtown area.  However other neighborhoods are unaffected

[SaraMK]

A while back I just got sick of creating townies all the time, so what I did is...

I created a new default neighborhood template. I went to Program Files and found Pleasantview, made a backup, and then edited the hell out of it. The new Pleasantview has no Maxis characters, and instead is inhabited by about 50 super good-looking NPCs and townies. These all have good names, perfect personalities, interests, clothing, makeup, and so on. Now when I create a custom neighborhood, all these sims get added to it automatically and I don't have to do a thing.

I also edited all the Unis, but since I couldn't figure out how to add characters, all I did was just delete all characters so that adding a Uni adds no character files at all. This way I can add several Unis to one neigborhood and not have an overload of characters. I also did that to the Downtown.

While I was doing all that editing, I also made new copies of all the neighborhoods (the 3 originals, the 3 Unis, and the Downtown) so that the only characters they have are the Maxis made playable sims (Goths, Brokes, and so on). So when I restart the neighborhoods, Pleasantview has about 90 characters (used to have 170) and I can add all 3 Unis and a Downtown to it and still have less than 150 character files. Before, adding 3 Unis and a Downtown to Pleasantview would have given you exactly 587 character files.

I don't recommend messing with any of the stuff under Program Files unless you know what you are doing and/or won't be very upset if your game blows up and needs a complete reinstall.

[ThyGuy]

I like the townie kids and teens for the sole purpose of getting the controllable ones aspiration from becoming friends with them and all.

Listening to their screams of death as they burn alive is fun also.

[J. M. Pescado]

The only disavantage to this method is that they end up with a Random Maxis house-of-horror outfit.

Meh, it's not like running them through the clothing tool is onerous. You would have had to pick their clothes at creation anyway, to avoid House of Horror outfits, so now you don't have to do that part.

[angelyne]

The only disavantage to this method is that they end up with a Random Maxis house-of-horror outfit.

Meh, it's not like running them through the clothing tool is onerous. You would have had to pick their clothes at creation anyway, to avoid House of Horror outfits, so now you don't have to do that part.

I know but I'm mad that I didn't think of it for my game, so I had to find SOME disavantage to your method, however minor

SaraK that's an amazing idea. You are always one step ahead of everyone else.   So you just replace the N001 folder found in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001?

BTW, any chance you'd make yours avalaible ?  <bats big blue eyes at her>

[mistymage]

I customized a Java generator to generate Sims awhile back...

http://www.springhole.net/bogsims/fun/simgen.htm

What a great tool!  I only know a little about j/s so there may be an easier way to turn ons/offs.. but I couldn't find a script that pulled 3 things from a pool without duplicating. 

So I started making the List starting with "fat".  I don't know math well either  but the list is going to be huge cos I only got as far as "List12[] ="+fat,+masks",-custom hair" ... before my eyes and fingers hurt. So it might be easier to place this on a second page.. not sure how long it would take to load since it's just text.

Hopefully someone who does know j/s can pipe up with how to do it. But if not.. how about we (MATY readers) each take one of the turn ons and create a list for it.  The hardest part would be to then delete out the repeats.

To show what I mean about making a list:

List12[1] ="+fat,+fit,-stink"
List12[2] ="+fat,+fit,-cologne"
List12[3] ="+fat,+fit,-vampirisim"
List12[4] ="+fat,+fit,-formal wear"
List12[5] ="+fat,+fit,-swimsuit"
List12[6] ="+fat,+fit,-panties"
List12[7] ="+fat,+fit,-make-up"
List12[8] ="+fat,+fit,-masks"
List12[9] ="+fat,+fit,-glasses"
List12[10] ="+fat,+fit,-hat"
List12[11] ="+fat,+fit,-facial hair"
List12[12] ="+fat,+fit,-black hair"
List12[13] ="+fat,+fit,-brown hair"
List12[14] ="+fat,+fit,-red hair"
List12[15] ="+fat,+fit,-blond hair"
List12[16] ="+fat,+fit,-grey hair"
List12[17] ="+fat,+fit,-custom hair"

 and as far as I got:



List12[137] ="+fat,+masks,-fit"
List12[138] ="+fat,+masks,-stink"
List12[139] ="+fat,+masks,-cologne"
List12[140] ="+fat,+masks,-vampirism"
List12[141] ="+fat,+masks,-formal wear"
List12[142] ="+fat,+masks,-swim suit"
List12[143] ="+fat,+masks,-panties"
List12[144] ="+fat,+masks,-make-up"
List12[145] ="+fat,+masks,-glasses"
List12[146] ="+fat,+masks,-hat"
List12[147] ="+fat,+masks,-facial hair"
List12[148] ="+fat,+masks,-black hair"
List12[149] ="+fat,+masks,-brown hair"
List12[150] ="+fat,+masks,-red hair"
List12[151] ="+fat,+masks,-blond hair"
List12[152] ="+fat,+masks,-grey hair"
List12[153] ="+fat,+masks,-custom hair"
Here's the list of turn ons/offs:

fat
fit
stink
cologne
vampirism
formal wear
swim suit
panties
make-up
masks
glasses
hat
facial hair
black hair
brown hair
red hair
blond hair
grey hair
custom hair


~misty

[SaraMK]

SaraK that's an amazing idea. You are always one step ahead of everyone else.   So you just replace the N001 folder found in

C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001?

Pretty much. It really is that simple, if all you want is a new template for custom neighborhoods.

The exact process is different for the different types of neighborhoods, and also depends on what you want to end up with. For example, if you want to keep some of the sims that already come with the neighborhoods, it gets a bit more complicated.

Assuming you've made a backup of everything... Here's a sort of tutorial. I wrote most of it right after doing it, since I had planned on putting it up somewhere, but then I figured there would be too many people screwing up their game as a result, and so I didn't share. I think it has way more info than you would really need, but it does cover the various ways you can edit the neighborhoods. http://www.geocities.com/saramkirk/nhoods/nhoods.html

If anything doesn't make sense, let me know.

BTW, any chance you'd make yours avalaible ?  <bats big blue eyes at her>

I don't think anyone would have any trouble deleting character files from the Characters folders, but if you can't figure out how to delete unknown sims in SimPE, I can upload those files for the Universities and Downtown. They're about 500KB each. If you want them, let me know which version you want (totally empty or with the pre-made Maxis playable sims).

Sharing Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville would be impossible since they would be huge files (like 50MB each), and I've edited them to suit myself (stuff like Cassandra already married, and so on).

[angelyne]

The new Pleasantview has no Maxis characters, and instead is inhabited by about 50 super good-looking NPCs and townies. These all have good names, perfect personalities, interests, clothing, makeup, and so on. Now when I create a custom neighborhood, all these sims get added to it automatically and I don't have to do a thing.

No I think I can figure it out pretty well.  Your tutorial looks pretty thorough. The above is what is of interest to me.  The 50 replacement NPC's and townies.  That's a lot of work to create, and since you've already done it, well .... <smiles>.  I understand however is some of the stuff is from pay sites and you can't share.  I could always give them new clothes and makeup.  It's not that important.   It's the sims themselves, face structure, personalities, interest, ect that interests me.

Is that the file you said was 50 MB ?

[SaraMK]

No I think I can figure it out pretty well.  Your tutorial looks pretty thorough. The above is what is of interest to me.  The 50 replacement NPC's and townies.  That's a lot of work to create, and since you've already done it, well .... <smiles>.  I understand however is some of the stuff is from pay sites and you can't share.  I could always give them new clothes and makeup.  It's not that important.   It's the sims themselves, face structure, personalities, interest, ect that interests me.

Is that the file you said was 50 MB ?

This one is actually less. I haven't tried zipping it up yet, but I think it might be more manageable. I'll see what I can do with it over the weekend. The custom content is all from free sites, and there are no custom genetics used. As far as I recall, I just used some custom clothing and makeup on some of the females.