Creating a new Downtown Area question

[Bain]

So I took all the businesses from bluewater and downtown and put the house bin then restarted Pleasantview and placed all the homes and community lots in that neighborhood (it's packed!). I added a University, but I wasn't planning on adding Downtown or Bluewater because I didn't want the extra loading times. Now I know I don't have any downtownies so I wanted to know, if I add a blank custom downtown area, will it create downtownies for me and the nightlight npcs even though there will be no lots?

If yes, once those townies and NPCs are there, can I delete the downtown area and keep the new downtownies and NPCs?

[MissDoh]

Yes it will create NPC in any downtown section you create even if you live it blank.

The problem is that the NPC won't appear anywhere else than in the downtown section (correct me if I am wrong) so there is no use to create it if those Sims do not appear anywhere else in the game.  Vampires for example will only appear in the downtown section.

I think if you delete the downtown section they will stay but they will just be character files taking place since they won't be useful.

Maybe you can do something with them using SimPe but I am not familiar with that wonderful tool.

[Bain]

So basically you have to have A downtown section to utilize the Nightlife NPCs. That kinda sucks. I was hoping to have everything in 1 hood so when moving form res to comm lots the load times wouldn't be so bad. Oh well. Atleast I don't have to add Bluewater

[angelyne]

I hoped you didn't move the occupied houses to the lot bin

[Bain]

nah I deleteallcharacters before I crammed my lot bin just to be on the safe side

[Regina]

Yes, the Downtownies will only show up Downtown, as will the vampires, Mrs. Crumplebottom, Mr. Big, the Diva and the Slobs.

However, in your main neighborhood you will be able to have the Nightlife service workers, so if you build a nightclub it will be fully functional.

I just built a brand new neighborhood and what I've done for that is made a custom map using SimCity 4, downloaded GunMod's camera mode which allows the entire neighborhood map to show, then set that up as the Downtown in that neighborhood.  At the load screen, I just bypass the main neighborhood and go straight to the Downtown hood where all my sims are currently living.  I have a corner set up that's a 'country' area, a corner set up that will be my main 'business district', another area has more of a neighborhoodly atmosphere with things like parks, community pool and the like.

I used the DeleteAllCharacters options AFTER I had attached the Downtown and Uni areas so currently the only NPCs in the 'hood are the 10 Downtownies I've made, a couple of newspaper carriers, a pizza delivery gal and stuff like that.  Of course once Cara-Berri and Abercrombie get headed to college that'll change.

[MissDoh]

So basically you have to have A downtown section to utilize the Nightlife NPCs. That kinda sucks. I was hoping to have everything in 1 hood so when moving form res to comm lots the load times wouldn't be so bad. Oh well. Atleast I don't have to add Bluewater

Like Rainbow said, the regular NPC like the Maitre D', the dj will show on any commity lot you have.  But special NPC like vampires, Diva won't.

[Motoki]

It's quite possible to play your residential homes, community lots, businesses etc all downtown if you want to move them there. Most of the sims I'm currently playing have homes in downtown.The default Maxis one is a little cramped, but if you make a custom one you can pick any neighborhood layout you want, even Pleasantview's.

[angelyne]

I know that special NPC's from Downtown do not wander the street of your suburbs, but do your townies wander downtown?  I haven't loaded my downtown often to notice.

[Motoki]

The regular townies do wander downtown too, yes. At least they do for me.

[MissDoh]

They wander around in my game too.  Actually regular hood townies can go everywhere except in the University section.

Goopy and many other townie visited my business.  I think we can only see the NPC (maid, gardener, fireman etc) passing by on regular community lots but not in other sections. The only one I am always surprise to see almost everywhere is the professor.

[angelyne]

Unless you have the special "Motoki" edition, I'll assume that will work for me

I was toying with the idea  of moving my playable characters downtown.  I just finished converting most of my unplayed playables characters to townies.  With OFB it's too annoying to leave them as playable, since they run out of money and then they just take up space in your store.  A couple of families, I didn't really want to convert, so I moved them out of an (empty) house and moved them on an empty plot with a phone.  They will have plenty of spending cash for my stores now

[Trubble]

Downtownies not visiting the main 'hood got even more irritating with the addition of OFB - I'd wiped out all townies, left the downtownies (they seemed worthwhile to keep), and had a home business in the base 'hood... only two shoppers as they were the only other sims there. I eventually caved and added Bluewater to it for the business... but really and truly I hate having all the sub 'hoods - it's not necessary right away. Had I really thought about it I would have set it up in the Downtown area, but ah well. You live, you learn.

[Motoki]

angelyne: I know! I'm so tired of my broke assed playbles coming to my store to 'window shop'. 

I also irritates me that they take up valuable slots among the few sims available for hire that day since they have no badges.

[MissDoh]

Maybe I was just lucky the days I look for some employee (using the computer) but I did found some townies with badges.  In fact I found a few with even gold badges in some area.  The badges were atrributed randomly.  Some of them though are really useless since they have no badge and no skills at all.

EDIT:  Oops sorry, were you taking about playables Sims taking useful place?  If so... forget what I just wrote.

[Motoki]

The townies will always have some badges because they've been randomly assigned. I'm assuming the same is true for downtownies and possibly even npcs, but I haven't checked.

The other playables will not have any badges assigned to them unless you've played them and earned them yourself. It's annoying because they take up valuable space when you only have a few slots a day for people to hire. It's also stupid because many of them have good jobs already. And if you are sharing the game with someone else, it has the potential to screw things up for you, like your kids could hire one of your sims that's about to be promoted to the top of their career to be a cashier or something stupid like that.

[MissDoh]

Sorry Motoki I misread your post and edit it a few seconds before you posted yours. 

I disagree though, it can be a good way for playable Sims to earn badges in another way than starting their own businesses or making them earn it at their home lots. Having a job gives them time to do other things when you load their lots.

As you, I don't like that the one already with a job show up in that list.

[Motoki]

I suppose, but some of them are a bit silly. I've had Malcom Landgrab show up on that list several times now. He's filthy rich, owns several businesses and has no useful skills. What point is there in hiring him? 

I just don't like the playables showing up in the list period. Most of the time I am trying hard to find someone with good skills to employee, especially with that damned register badge because it takes FOREVER to build up. The playables have zero skills and usually have better jobs anyone, so to me they are just wasting the few slots for employees. Besides, if I really want to employ a playable I can always invite them over and hire them in person. I know I can do it with townies too, but it's a pain in the ass to invite every townie over, develop a relationship with them, and ask to hire them one by one to see their skills.

I suppose we need to have a good memory to keep track of who has what skills.

That hire list also is good to find townies with good jobs and skills to marry lol.

[MissDoh]

I suppose, but some of them are a bit silly. I've had Malcom Landgrab show up on that list several times now. He's filthy rich, owns several businesses and has no useful skills. What point is there in hiring him?

100% with you on this, sims with jobs or already owning a business either at home or a community lots should not show.  If we wish to hire them we are able too, as you said, to call them over and do so instead.

That hire list also is good to find townies with good jobs and skills to marry lol.

I just love this too... 

[Bain]

Thanks for all the info guys. My next plan...

So since if I want a count/countess and Mr Big/Diva to wander around I'll put everyone's gravestones into personal inventory (like the Goth's cemetary in the back yard I'll put in Morty's backpack) and then evict everyone into the sim bin. Then I'll shove all the homes/businesses back into the lot bin (I haven't had any sims start any businesses yet so I don't think that will cause any problems). Next I'll create a new downtown area using a map that has alot of roads.

Before doing anything I'll exit the game go into my documents blah blah blah and delete all the new character files that was generated with creating a new downtown. I have Doc Doofus's CAS Face replacements in, so I'll just let the downtownies and NPCs recreate themselves. Then plop all the homes and businesses on the new Downtown hood, then move everyone into new homes (not sure if i'll just rebuild everything or use the pre-existing homes again).

So my questions. Will manually deleting the new char files mess anything up? Does the notownieregen hack stop downtownies from regening? Is there anything else I should consider before I do this?

[simposiast]

You want to move everything from the base neighbourhood to downtown?  I haven't a clue if this is possible, but could you use the base neighbourhood folder to create a downtown template?  Then you could create an exact replica as a downtown, and delete the originals in the base neighbourhood. 

I'm only guessing, I don't know what makes a neighbourhood template work other than being in the right folder.