Empty and Cleaned-up Templates. [UPDATED]

[pbox]

Thank you. Yes, this looks readable enough =) it's nicely commented, as well.

AnyGame1.bat is what it's using to set up a BaseGame mini game, yes?

:USERDATAOFF apparently renames the entire UserData folder of the regular base game (but not of any of the EPs).
In line 35, it calls IF EXIST HD.bat CALL HD BASE -- I don't have a HD.bat, but if it's IF with no else or error or anything, it must be really an optional extra.


Fake edit: Numenor also just wrote back, with more info. This is interesting for OS X users who want to create a clean, EAxis-free environment (but can't use the AGS for that), hence why I'm posting it here.  Windows users are probably better off just using the AGS (or, of course, empty templates), that's much simpler.

The AGS renames many things that don't have to clog the save-game folder, but don't affect strictly the neighborhood; for each expansion (and also the basegame), the AGS renames all the intro movies and then locates the folder
(Program Files)\EA Games\[each expansion]\TSData\Res\Userdata
and renames the following subfolders (some don't exist in all expansions):
- Collections
- SC4Terrains
- LotCatalog
- Paintings

But all the resources above don't harm an empty neighborhood, so you don't need to rename them (I'm only explaining what the AGS does).

On the other hand, the resources that do harm an empty neighborhood and therefore must be renamed are the following:

*** BASE GAME ***
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2\TSData\Res:
- UserData

*** PETS ***
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res:
- NeighborhoodTemplate

*** SEASONS ***
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res:
- NeighborhoodTemplate

*** BON VOYAGE ***
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate:
- V001 (THIS ONE MUST BE MOVED AWAY, NOT JUST RENAMED)

*** FREETIME ***
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res:
- NeighborhoodTemplate
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\F002:
- Characters
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\UserData:
- Neighborhoods

 *** APARTMENT LIFE ***
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res:
- NeighborhoodTemplate
(Program files)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\UserData:
- Neighborhoods


Please note that in some cases renaming the single neighborhood (e.g. N001) may not be enough: better rename the entire USERDATA subfolder. In other cases, it's the opposite: in Freetime, for example, you can't simply rename the F002 folder, because the game won't run: you need to rename only the "Characters" subfolder.

NOTE: I may have included in the "must rename" list something that actually doesn't harm the empty game; I'm not sure, I compiled it some time ago. On the other hand, I'm sure that all the harmful resources ARE included.

Again, let me clarify that MATY's empty NH *are* good; nevertheless, they are normal NH that were cleaned up, while the AGS ones are created already empty. Cleaning up a normal NH alway leaves some traces, that can't be removed or the game won't load it any more; the AGS games don't suffer for this problem.

Note that "empty neighbourhoods" above means neighbourhoods created WITHOUT any empty templates installed. There's nothing wrong with just using the templates and not doing anything else -- I've used them for a long time and never had any issues.

(The reason I wanted to know whether I need them at all, or figure out an alternative method, was mainly that I set up a lot of test games in the last couple of weeks and also reinstalled twice, and then it does become a bit tedious having to reinstall the empty templates all the time .. just renaming/removing the entire folder is easier for me.)

[crunk]

These are awesome, but I'm not! Anyone willing to share their d001 backup with me and save me the reinstal? I have a truly empty downtown, complete with missing lots and terrain picture.

[Emma]

No need to reinstall, just open (instead of run) the NL disc and get it from there.

[crunk]

Didn't realize I could do that - have some sheep noise. 

[Sysa]

I could only find an empty template for the AL stealth hood, so I made a clean, Maxis-only version with the three sim bin families. If anyone's interested, it's available here.

[delonariel]

Is it at all possible to have a Pets template that gets rid of all the strays but not the wolves? I assume the leader of the pack (vroom, vroom) shows up anyway because he's an NPC, but what about the stray wolves?
Otherwise, if it's possible to make them in Cas and turn them into 'townies,' how do I flag them as wolves?

[Emma]

Wolves are generated as needed. I use the empty template and have a few pack wolves roaming around.

[Mixreality]

This is a modification of Argon's cleaned-up downtown template.

This is a clean downtown template with the downtown ghosts (Tricou family and Rainelle Neengia) alive and in the sim bin. They are not normally resurrectable (they are, but they'll end up with weird memories, broken relations and an inheritance from a living toddler). The purpose of this template is to avoid all that stuff. It's far from perfect, though.

1. Even though their memories are made from scratch in SimPE, they'll end up corrupted. If you don't care about memories this is not an issue, because you can simply wipe them with lot debugger.

I suspect this happens for the same reason memories get corrupted in megahoods - something about the sim ID numbers gets mixed up in the process of adding a subhood. A (sort of) proof: when I added this Downtown to the Clean and Fixed Uber-Megahood, Fricorith Tricou had 3 corrupt memories (referring to himself). When I added this Downtown to the completely new hood with absolutely no sims, Fricorith had 6 corrupt memories (reffering to himself AND his cousin Gvaudoin). Which particular sims and how many of them will get wrong ID numbers is not a constant (even when added to the same hood, from a back-up). I can't fix it 'cause I don't know what to look for. Any help would be greatly appreciated. (I could only make a fixed Neighborhood/Memory resource for people who add this downtown to the completely unplayed Clean and Fixed Uber-Megahood, if anyone's interested - nope, not working).

2. The two families won't have descriptions 'cause I couldn't think of anything witty enough.

(Possibly 3. - Tricous had weird fears of zombification or getting their (very much alive) cousins' thombstones kicked and similar dead stuff. I *think* I fixed it, but I need to test more.)

INSTALLATION:

Download

Navigate to C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate;

Back up your existing D001 folder;

Extract D001 - Living Dead - V1.rar there;

When you add a downtown to the hood, Tricous and Rainelle will appear in the sim bin. NO downtownies included!

* * * WARNING * * * 

If you want to add multiple downtowns to the same hood after adding this one, make sure you install completely empty downtown template first (from first post in this thread). NOT this template, NOT any other cleaned up D001 and NOT the original! You don't want duplicate Tricous of which some may be alive and some dead. Sounds like a VBT, and even if it isn't, having duplicate families is stupid.

ETA - ALTERNATIVE VERSION

Ok, I tried every thing I could think of. Whatever I do, some memories get corrupted. So I made a version without any memories.

This is the same as V1, but without ANY memories, hence without possible corruption. The complete lack of memories is not that stupid in this particular case, because all these sims just got out of the graves, so it does seems likely they wouldn't know anything Plus it's not like they had interesting lives - same old, same old 'got engaged', 'got married', 'did woohoo'...

The downside is, e.g. a married Tricou couple will have first kiss option, and such.

Download V2

Navigate to C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate;

Back up your existing D001 folder;

Extract D001 - Living Dead - V2.rar there;

When you add a downtown to the hood, Tricous and Rainelle will appear in the sim bin. NO downtownies included!

[Sonshine]

Hi, I'm wondering if somebody could make me a cleaned up and empy version of Belladonna Cove. I need a totally empty hood w/no playable charachters in it for a challenge I'm doing. I tried reading the tutorial, but it just make my head swim since I'm neither a programmer nor a techie. Also, once this hood is made, is it possible to kind of tweak it in SC4 to add more roads or should that be done before? Thanks!

[witch]

Hi, could someone please come and scroll for me? My middle finger's getting sore and I'm just not technical enough to find the scroll button onscreen.

~thanks.

[Fidi]

Uhm.. Hi. I am sorry if this has already been asked, but I am not really in the mood to read through a 26-page topic completely. But yeah. If I download & use these, will they change my non-english game's neighborhood names into the english ones? Not that it would matter, but it wouldn't really look good if otherwise finnish game would have english neighborhood names. ^^;

[saphfire]

I've been using clean/empty hoods for a while now but for some reason I'm having an issue with downtownies using maxis face templates instead of mine with my newest hoods. I redid the whole tutorial to make sure all my neighhourhood templates are the empty ones but I'm still getting fug downtownies! Has D001 template changed at all? This time around I'm getting even more maxis sims than I was before.

[grammapat]

Since SaraMK started this thread THREE years ago it has become impossibly ponderous. After reading it all, and following many dead-end links, and digressions, I don't know WHERE to go for my cleaned up hoods. I will be reinstalling the whole game (again!), and know how to get rid of and regenerate new townies/NPC (with my default faces, names, etc), but this isn't enough:  I understand N001 (Pleasantview), as the "master" hood, will regenerate some people just as they were in the original hoods -- yech! And Strangetown & Pleasantview came with characters having such errors they could even crash the game..As for all the inner-hoods (shopping districts,etc), I guess I don't really care about all the redundancies takeing up space, as my computer is pretty super-de-doper. If someone has captures all this hood info, with various sorts of cleaned hoods , I am unable to find it. SO, please, pitty on the brain-dead: help

[tryclyn]

 You could try the other thread.  http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13382.0.html

[grammapat]

Thanks, but the links seem to go to "vanilla" hood templates which only eliminate townies/NPC. What I really want are templates of Pleasantview & Strangetown where the DNA has been corrected (I don't even care about memories). And I am concerned about the "master hood" - Pleasantview- being able to re-generated Goopy and other miserables into a hood I have cleaned of townies.  The original SaraMK thread talked about this but I could not find a final template.

[tryclyn]

 I must not understand what you are looking for.  Emma's 4shared link still works and the cleaned and fixed base game hoods are there.   

[grammapat]

Thanks. I may wind up using those hood replacements, but I'm hopeing to do THIS(I LIKE playing the hood caracters): for  Pleasantview, I had thought that even with my default faces, eyes, etc, goons like Goopy would still be produced - but NOW I don't believe that would happen. But Pleasantview & Strangetown have another problem - the messed up DNA. I have read referrences to JUST that issue being fixed, but can't find those hoods still MAXIS, but just genetically corrected. If these don't exits, I will have to get the totally empty hoods. And yes, SimPE could fix the DNA, but I will be doing well  just to figure out how to geneticise my custom hair and eyes.

[tryclyn]

 
  I do remember that Pleasantview DNA is "good"as is.  Does Goopy know anyone in the base hoods to begin with?  I don't remember and I'm using empty templates at the moment so it wouldn't be a quick check for me.

 Clean and Fixed Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville should be the same as Emma's.

  "The three original Maxis neighborhoods (Pleasantview, Veronaville, and Strangetown) come with all the Maxis playable sims plus any townies and NPCs that those sims know. No other townies and NPCs are included. The DNA, memories, and other problems have been fixed.
   There is also a PleasantviewTownies.rar file, which will let you add the townies back in, in case you'd miss Benjamin Longnose and the rest of the gang.  You're on your own for installing these, but it's pretty easy. The location to start in is C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods"

   If you just want the DNA corrected for N002 and N003, the files in this thread are still good.


   Geneticizing hair and eyes was easier with Wardrobe Wrangler last time I did some.

[grammapat]

Looks good to me - I will be getting Strangetown & Veronaville as you so kindly directed. I mis-spoke about Pleasantview; I read that it is the "master" and causes custom-built hoods to populate with families, etc., but I assume that with the anti-spawning stuff (antiredundancy,etc) I will be getting, that won't happen.My research did not clarify the differance between Wardrobe Wrangler and Q-Express, guess I'll just have to get both and fiddle.. doom doom. Thanks again..

[madelonia]

Hi! I thought I'd give the clean custom hood thing a try. Thanks to this thread and quite a few others around here, I've followed each step carefully and finally succeeded - with one really annoying glitch that I cannot figure out. I guess I need some advice from people more awesome than me.

The tutorial by Jordi that is linked to in the first post of the template list thread has this to say:

If you don't care about customized NPCs, don't bother creating them. The game will make them as needed.

This is not the case in my new hood - somewhat. Most NPCs do show up when needed (fireman, mail carrier, etc.). The ones that are not getting made are the ones you hire by phone (maid, exterminator, etc.). I exited my new hood and went to Pleasantview, and was able to hire a maid there.

I went back over the steps for creating my clean custom hood, and checked off everything I'd done in order, to make sure that I have not missed any steps along the way.

I tested in different households, in all my different hoods. The only hood in which I cannot hire NPCs over the phone is my new one. Please, does anyone have any idea what might be wrong in there, or have a suggestion as to something I can try to get this right?

Edit to add more info that may or may not be helpful:
When a playable sim attempts to hire anyone over the phone, they talk for a bit, then "jump" away from the phone and hang up, no hire has happened, no NPC has replied. No other phone-related glitches in game. I had a sim call with boolprop testingcheatsenabled true so I do have a log for the error, if anyone wants a look. I know nothing of reading error logs.

Edit the second and SOLVED: Never mind, apparently I hadn't fully sifted through enough ancient threads before posting. The answer is here, for anyone who's wondering: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6151.0.html
And the other answer is: It's always PETS.

[hypebeast]

How do I do empty with custom neighborhoods?

[Tarlia]

I mis-spoke about Pleasantview; I read that it is the "master" and causes custom-built hoods to populate with families, etc., but I assume that with the anti-spawning stuff (antiredundancy,etc) I will be getting, that won't happen.

This only refers to when you make a NEW, empty custom neighbourhood. If you don't have a clean template for Pleasantview, you will then get all the townies and NPCs (but not playables) from Pleasantview. Same goes for all the bin families and the belonging stealth-hood townies/NPCs, they'll show up in any new neighbourhood you make unless you have clean templates. Also - custom universities, downtowns and business districts will get dormies/townies (again, not the playables) from Sim State University/EAxis Downtown/Bluewater Village unless you have clean templates for those.

However, once you HAVE a clean neighbourhood without any of these townies in, they can't be added by the game on its own anymore. It ONLY happens upon the creation of a neighbourhood or subhood. Antiredundancy etc only prevents the game from spawning NEW, random NPCs and townies and has nothing to do with the ones added from the templates.

[Cynarra]

Is there a link for an EMPTY Apartment Life?

Also, can we get the link updated for EMPTYG001, as that link is now inactive.

[tryclyn]

 The link to Emma's 4shared is still working.  The list thread.

[Cynarra]

Thank you, the list that I was using is this link http://www.4shared.com/dir/4323880/c0795b00/EmptyHoods.html which doesn't have those files and has the bad link.