Empty and Cleaned-up Templates. [UPDATED]

[Jelenedra]

Enter CAS with boolprop testingcheatsenabled true and hold down the shift button and hit "n."

This puts CAS in debug mode, so you can select career and locked outfits for your CAS sim. You should be able to select the locked outfits you want this way.

[louisacoletta]

Oh thanks Jelenedra! Is this bad for the game in any way, though? And would it ruin my game if I dressed these hobby heads in custom clothing instead of the unlocked maxis ones?

[Jelenedra]

I am pretty sure that it wouldn't matter. There are default replacements for npcs available, afterall.  If you're worried, make a backup, which you should be doing regardless.

[louisacoletta]

Thanks I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but does anyone know what the Sports & Games hobby head looks like? I've been trying and trying to get those sims in Desiderata Valley to get a membership in sports and games but it just refuses to happen. I want to have a look at them before I custom make my own. Has anyone seen pictures of them?

[runswithscissors]

Potential problem with the empty templates...

While the game will generate a NPC to be the 'hobby' head, and the lots are in the game, the game makes a NPC a member of that club.

In riverblossom where I did some testing (since Rose is most likely always going to be nature enthusastic), I put her into the lot, where the head, and two NPCs showed up. A pizza delivery man, and an exterminator.

I doubt this is a problem with the empty templates. I noticed the very same thing even without them. Several NPCs showed up as club members, such as the burglar, some custom dormies, some professors and even the cook from Downtown. I have very few townies in my game - maybe five "real" townies and about eight dormies? The rest are all playables, maybe that's why the game even allows NPCs to wander around the club lots? *wonders*

I haven't even installed the clean hood and I had a burgler, mailman and a professor show up as members. And...this was before I put any hacks in for testing. Hmm... I'm gonna install this anyway as I really, really want a clean hood. *remembers to backup first. not wanting firey balls...he, he*

[Jelenedra]

What about judges, are those separate NPCs or do the hobby heads work as those?

[gynarchy]

What about judges, are those separate NPCs or do the hobby heads work as those?

AFAIK the Food Judge is a separate NPC but unlike the iconic hobby Sims, you can't interact with him/her at all. I don't think any of the other contests have a judge but I'm not 100% on that.

Thanks I don't know if this is the right place to post this, but does anyone know what the Sports & Games hobby head looks like?

The L&P guide shows the Sports Sim wearing the coach uniform with a blue baseball cap and the Games Sim wearing the jumpsuit from the top of the Gamer career.

[missaaliyah]

Note: Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT delete the lots in the neighbourhood folder.

This is an empty template, maybe has some garbage files in it. It might be able to be cleaned better than I can do this.

And again, do NOT delete the lots. I can't stress this enough

Go ahead and delete all the characters, the thumbnails.

You may think that you need to delete the lots folder, but those are needed by the game. The game will use those lots for the special hobby lots that you need a membership card to get into. The game most likely cannot create them on it's own, much unlike the secret society lots.

Both attachments are exactly the same. Just a bug in the forum makes it show two of the same.

Thank you, just a question or two, when installing this, do I need to delete the characters as well?  Also will this delete the original player sims?

[louisacoletta]

Hi missaaliyah,

please refer to the first post in this topic on how to install empty templates. You need to manually delete all files in the Characters, Thumbnails, Storytelling folder. Empty templates will NOT delete any sims, they will only prevent the game from spawning new ones.

[SimFeliz]

I borked my game so I thought I would start fresh in the new hood. I'm using the empty template on the previous page, but the game is  still adding characters to the hood. I did the usual delete the character files in c: drive/freetime etc.. and add the replacement empty template.  Am I missing something? Or have a misread and that's not a empty template?

[Jelenedra]

Are you placing the empty template in the correct place? Under program files, not My Documents?

Also, if you plan on adding subhoods, you'll need to empty templates for them as well.

[SimFeliz]

Yes in the correct place. I've always use empty templates for my game. It's just this new hood that won't stay empty.

[gynarchy]

Are the characters being added Townies or hobby Sims? The game will generate a head for each hobby and a Food Judge if you don't spawn them yourself. I don't think there is a way to prevent them from being created, but if you make them yourself you can at least have control over what they look like.

[bugga]

I would love to add the clean up template that still has the maxis families and the npcs/townies that they know.  However, the link on page one appears not to be working.  Has it been updated or moved?  Is it now on another page.  Its a bit much to read all 18 pages of this thread to find out.  Thanks.

[gynarchy]

Sysa has a link to the clean neighborhoods in this post.

[SimFeliz]

Are the characters being added Townies or hobby Sims? The game will generate a head for each hobby and a Food Judge if you don't spawn them yourself. I don't think there is a way to prevent them from being created, but if you make them yourself you can at least have control over what they look like.

When I load the hood houses still have familles. I have even checked back to C drive folder and the characters fold is empty, so I'll be damned where the game is pulling them from to create the characters. To be honest I haven't checked if it's adding townies too but I assume so since the character folder has quite a few files. I might just give up on that hood.

[Tarlia]

When I load the hood houses still have familles. I have even checked back to C drive folder and the characters fold is empty, so I'll be damned where the game is pulling them from to create the characters. To be honest I haven't checked if it's adding townies too but I assume so since the character folder has quite a few files. I might just give up on that hood.

You're misunderstanding, the template isn't for Desistetatawra Valley, it's for the "stealth neighbourhood" that adds itself to ALL your neighbourhoods when you first load them after installing FT. It contains two sim bin families as well as some townies/NPCs. Like Cyd Roseland and all those bloody strays in Pets, or Ottomas & Co in Seasons.

[SimFeliz]

When I load the hood houses still have familles. I have even checked back to C drive folder and the characters fold is empty, so I'll be damned where the game is pulling them from to create the characters. To be honest I haven't checked if it's adding townies too but I assume so since the character folder has quite a few files. I might just give up on that hood.

You're misunderstanding, the template isn't for Desistetatawra Valley, it's for the "stealth neighbourhood" that adds itself to ALL your neighbourhoods when you first load them after installing FT. It contains two sim bin families as well as some townies/NPCs. Like Cyd Roseland and all those bloody strays in Pets, or Ottomas & Co in Seasons.

Oh Duh! Don't I feel stupid. 

[IAmTheRad]

So I'm assuming that my clean neighbourhood template for the 'stealth' hood is working properly.

So far, nobody has said it's made their game unplayable. Maybe now I can take it out of the 'testing' phase.

Go ahead and remove the familytemplates file. It's just the small pictures the game generates for the thumbnails of the family. The regular neighbourhood has this, and it won't destroy your game deleting the one in the FT directory.

Since if you generate townies the game will make those sims as needed, then I assume it's a working as intended behavior...

I'm wondering if A: there is a clean riverblossom with only the playables available. B: there would be a clean 'FT neighbourhood with only the playables avaiable (NOT the stealth hood) c: the stealth hood clean with only playables...

I'll just say the playables avalaible for every expansion... would make my custom neighbourhood easier to make.

[Lion]

IAmTheRad, I have used your empty hood, for a testing new hood. There was zero character file when the hood was generated (I used empty hoods for all the others). So far, I have continuously played one family, which hired other families, and I have seen no problems, definitely playable, and NPCs were generated as supposed to (paper girl, mail woman, etc.) Any specific problems we should keep an eye on? I remember you made it with SimPE QA, right? That's why I'm still cautious and haven't played my real hood yet. I'm waiting for some "official" word. Would you make it with the released SimPE? or it does not make a difference? I really can't tell. It's your (and other awesomarians') call. Let us know. Thank you.

[IAmTheRad]

The QA was fine to make the clean stealth hood.
There should not be any difference whatsoever between using the QA and a 'proper' release of SimPE.

Unless there is a HUGE problem with it, which as of yet, nobody has said there's a HUGE problem, then I'm considering it final and not needing to be changed anymore.

So, for now, it's final. It's working as intended.

[Lion]

Sounds good. Thanks.

[Miss-BD]

Note: Do NOT, I repeat, do NOT delete the lots in the neighbourhood folder.

This is an empty template, maybe has some garbage files in it. It might be able to be cleaned better than I can do this.

And again, do NOT delete the lots. I can't stress this enough

Go ahead and delete all the characters, the thumbnails.

You may think that you need to delete the lots folder, but those are needed by the game. The game will use those lots for the special hobby lots that you need a membership card to get into. The game most likely cannot create them on it's own, much unlike the secret society lots.

Both attachments are exactly the same. Just a bug in the forum makes it show two of the same.

You mentioned that there might be some "garbage files" in the empty template, I was just wondering if you still thought that it needed more cleaning or if it was completely cleaned?

[IAmTheRad]

The thing is I think I mostly cleaned it. Since nobody has really raised any problems with the empty template, I'm considering it final. I'm sure somebody who's more awesome than me might have taken a look at it and if it wasn't as awesome, they would have made a cleaner one.

[Insanity Prelude]

The game still automatically generates townies, dormies and strays if you don't have the patches to stop those in, right? I'd like some for my Sims to interact with, but making my own would take forever, you know? I just don't like the fugly default ones.