Empty and Cleaned-up Templates. [UPDATED]

[jolrei]

I just checked out Inge's teleporter (pet statue) and it says it's updated for pets and seasons. How then, will it manage to turn a sim I made in CAS to a Vacation Sim (since there's no indication it was updated for BV)?

Correct, it has not been updated for BV.

Not sure if this helps or if it's old news by now, but in lieu of an updated teleporter shrub, Insim has been updated for BV and may include options for this (have not tested for this myself).

[Emma]

I'm looking for one that just gets rid of the Traveller family while keeping everything else. 

I think if you just put in the V001_neighbourhood.package, that gets rid of the Traveller family. If you put in the other ones then it cleans out the vacation destination townies and npcs. If you don't want to do that then don't replace the T001, M001 and A001 ones.

Thanks Argon, btw.

[edit] Hmm. Looking at the V001 character folder it has 74 sims in it. Are these the vacation townies and will they be generated as needed by the game? I am guessing that the special NPC's needed are in the relevant destination folders. I can't check myself as I don't have SimPe yet.

[jsalemi]

Yea, it was those 74 character files that threw me about that.

[Emma]

I am just testing it out now, will report back when I find stuff out.

[jsalemi]

Did you read the whole thread on Argon's make vacation local (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,9684.0.html)?  There's a whole discussion in there on how to do it.

[Argon]

Yea, it was those 74 character files that threw me about that.

I personally don't like broken Sims in my game Almost all of them are missing thumbnails and have "gossip" attached to their memory tokens (which gets merged into the base neighborhood).

[syberspunk]

Yea, it was those 74 character files that threw me about that.

I personally don't like broken Sims in my game Almost all of them are missing thumbnails and have "gossip" attached to their memory tokens (which gets merged into the base neighborhood).

Questions about the individual hoods there.

1) Are those 74 from that V001 (?) 'hood just regular ol' sim townies?  Or are they vacationies/vacation localies (whatever u wanna call 'em)?

2) Are vacationies/vacation localies from those other 'hoods (T001, M001, and A001) also broken (i.e. missing thumbnails and gossip memory crap)?

3) Anyone know if the Travellers' (whatever) family already has any existing relationships with other sims (Maxis EA pre-made townies or dead relatives)?  Or are they a 'self-contained' family (the only sims the know are just each other)?



Ste

[Emma]

The 74 sims are the 3 Travellers and the rest are the vacation townies. Everything spawned as normal including the WOM, Ninja, Tour Guide, Witch Doctor and all the vacation locals you learn crap from. I admit I didn't go to the mountains, as hubby was kicking me off the PC. I really do suggest making your own vacation townies though as mine all had atrocious dress sense

Has anyone noticed that the 'NPC and Townie maker' is now the repoman's gun and not the dead tree?

[FlareStorm]

Is there a problem with just hitting the garbage pail button on the Traveler family?

[PlayLives]

Using Argon's clean/empty custom hood, is it suppose to create a neighborhood, N001, called Driftwood in place of "Pleasantville"?

[FlareStorm]

Most probably not. You moved something into the wrong directory, would be my guess.

where are we on cleaned up templates? This thread IS getting a little confusing.  Is it done enough where the original post can be updated?

[Yimmit]

I will risk that this will get lost in all the BV hoohaw, but I had a problem with the empty BV and a new OFB mac install. I created a new custom neighborhood with empty templates. I created a sim in CAS, created townies, created downtownies, attached the downtown (clean and empty), attached Bluewater village (clean and empty). Then I decided to move my new sim into a  Bluewater Village lot instead of in the main hood.

I played him through the welcome wagon and decided to let him go on the 6pm call for an outing downtown to let him meet some new folks. When he was coming back from the outing downtown, the game crashed to desktop. When I reloaded the game, the new neighborhood (NOO4) did not appear on the main panel. I quit. When I checked the neighborhood folder, NOO4 was in the folder. I reloaded. Still, no NOO4 (just P-view, etc, plus, create custom). N004 was loaded in the neighborhoods folder but would never register.

I was able to create a N005, but have never installed any Bluewater village and never will because I am now completely paranoid that it will make my 'hood unreadable by the game files.

I have had no trouble at all with downtown or any uni. I also had the problem someone reported of Tessa Ramirez having permanent blank want slots when I installed just the Eaxis characters version. I quickly decided I hated all those characters, so that isn't an issue, but I may like to install a shopping district someday. Does anybody think a custom one will have the same issues. I'd really prefer to use the empty one offered here (I hate building!).

[Anilyn]

where are we on cleaned up templates? This thread IS getting a little confusing.  Is it done enough where the original post can be updated?

I second that!   Please!

I recently asked if Step by Step instructions for the BV templates could be included/added but nothing yet.
It's so easy to make a mistake when you're moving files around.

[Emma]

Is there a problem with just hitting the garbage pail button on the Traveler family?

Well, I moved then on a lot and looked at their memories and they only have memories of 'met each other' getting engaged and married to each other and having Tina. The dad (can't remember his name) has 2 memories of getting promoted though. The kid only has the 'move in' memory. They have no memories of meeting any other sim so I am guessing it is safe to just delete them. I dunno whether they have any other hidden memories, but I am going to just delete them out of the bin. If my game blows up I'll come back and let you know I'm not keen on the idea of clean templates for the vacation hoods just yet as I haven't really played enough to see what's what (and who's who, lol)

[syberspunk]

The 74 sims are the 3 Travellers and the rest are the vacation townies. Everything spawned as normal including the WOM, Ninja, Tour Guide, Witch Doctor and all the vacation locals you learn crap from. I admit I didn't go to the mountains, as hubby was kicking me off the PC. I really do suggest making your own vacation townies though as mine all had atrocious dress sense

I are confused then... what is a vacation townie?  How is it different from vacation local?

By 'vacation townie' do you mean to say there is an explicitly different 'family' of townies?  Afaik, the game has a few 'types' of npcs:  service npcs (maids, cashiers, gardeners, etc.), townies (game generated sims that are 'non-playable' at least until you marry or move them in), and downtownies (game generated sims that are supposed to only inhabit Downtown subhoods).  There are a few other extraneous 'types' (ghosts and adoption pool, I think).  But in general, npcs, townies, and downtownies are like the main non-playable type characters.  As in the ones that walk around, and you don't control, unless you marry or move them in (thus, making them playable).

Anyhew... since you are distinctly using the term 'vacation townie' and 'vacation local' separately... are you saying that there are two new 'types' of npcs?  Or... are these terms interchangeable?

I am assuming that a 'vacation local' is a npc that is supposed to live on the vacation lot that you are visiting.  Is a 'vacation townie' an npc that shows up as a 'visitor' to these vacation sub-hoods?  Meaning, these townies are considered travelling tourists as opposed to locals from the subhood you are visiting?

If this is the case, that vacation townies are different from vacation locals... what happens if you use a clean 'hood template?  Will the game generate at least one of each? With at least one local per vacation sub-hood?

Or... if you don't have any to start off with, the game won't generate them, causing your vacation sub-hoods to be virtually empty?


Also... I'd still like to know if the Traveller family is self contained, or if they are linked to other sims?


Ste

[Emma]

The vacation locals are the ones who teach you gestures and special skills such as the tai-chi and hula dance. The vacation townies are the 'tourist' types that are like regular sims, they check into hotels and visit community lots etc. If you invite them over to your main lot however, you can only invite them as houseguests.

About the other stuff, see my post above yours. As I do not have SimPe as yet I can't be 100% certain, this is why I am not using my main regular neighbourhood.

[jsalemi]

And the 'vacation locals' usually have a specific type of dress.  In the Asian village, they all wear kimonos; in the mountain one, they all look like lumberjacks, with flannel shirts and suspenders.  I know all the women in the beach village have grass skirts, but I haven't played that one long enough to easily recognize the men yet.

The vacation townies/tourists all wear casual clothes.

[MissDoh]

So in other words, if i only want to get rid of the Traveller family and the vacation townies, I only change my V001 folder with Argon update but do not change the other 3 folders so I would still have the locals created by Maxis?

[selzi]

Has anyone noticed that the 'NPC and Townie maker' is now the repoman's gun and not the dead tree?

Uhm, yes. I posted that several times already, in this thread as well as in others ...

So in other words, if i only want to get rid of the Traveller family and the vacation townies, I only change my V001 folder with Argon update but do not change the other 3 folders so I would still have the locals created by Maxis?

Yes, that should work!

[MissDoh]

Yes, that should work!

Thanks, I just don't have the patience to create the locals with the proper clothes so I can recognize them 

[IAmTheRad]

The traveller family is self contained as far as I've seen. Their only files are 0000, 0001, 0002.
Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

[Emma]

Has anyone noticed that the 'NPC and Townie maker' is now the repoman's gun and not the dead tree?

Uhm, yes. I posted that several times already, in this thread as well as in others ...

Umm, doh! Shows how observant I am

I must stop skimming over threads. I tend to do that when they get too long.

[eta]

The traveller family is self contained as far as I've seen. Their only files are 0000, 0001, 0002.
Correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

No, I think you are right. To have the Traveller family not show up in the sim-bin everytime you start a new neighbourhood, go to:
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\V001\Characters
and remove:
V001_User00000.package
V001_User00001.package
V001_User00002.package

Keep them somewhere safe if you want/need to put them back at any time. Do this at your own risk. Don't blame me if this is a VBT to do and your game blows up.

[eenaleor]

Thanks for all the help and advice in this thread. With Argon's instructions and fix, I was able to make my own locals, and I also noticed the new antiredundancy hack would not spawn a local if there already is one. This is convenient because the spawned locals will have random skin, eyes, hair and clothes.
I also tried to make tourists and failed, but then I thought, what good are they anyway? The only thing tourists add to the game is spreading the greetings and dances to other places.
Or am I missing something about tourists?

[squish]

I've most likely missed a step somewhere, but after installing Argon's empty BV templates, I still get an extra 60 character files when first going on Vacation. I started out with four sims, and before they left, a paper boy, garden club member and a driver were spawned. Now there are 65 characters files for the completely clean hood. Some seemed to be other NPCs - bellhop, tour guide, house keeper, but there are still locals/tourists around and they're wearing mixed up clothes grrr.

Everything else about the clean hoods worked. NPCs are spawned on need, there are no townies, no sims in the sim bin...

Back to the drawing board and see where I went wrong. 

ETA: Do the Family Thumbnails packages need deleting? That's the only thing I can see that I've not done for locals/tourists to be showing up.

ETAA: Ok, my notownieregen was a couple of days out-of-date so I've updated and it works fine now. I still had one "local" spawned though. i think he's a teen and he's wearing some punk clothes in the Asian hood. I guess he's an exchange student 

[selzi]

I also tried to make tourists and failed, but then I thought, what good are they anyway? The only thing tourists add to the game is spreading the greetings and dances to other places.
Or am I missing something about tourists?

If you've got lots of locals in your game you don't need any tourists, I think. Tourists are supposed to add realism to the vacation spots, I think - you can make friends with them, beat them up or whatever your sims like to do when they're on vacation. Since you can do the same thing with the locals there's really no need for them in my opinion. Since I installed the new notownieregen hack my vacation hoods are quite abandoned though - this is why I created five tourists for my own game ...