TUTORIAL: Merging the Maxis neighborhoods.

[simfan]

do you think you could upload the ones you made?

i want to some how make strange town to be anotehr downtown in plleasantview.

[Kyna]

If you take a look in Peasantry you'll come across this thread where SaraMK has uploaded the merged neighbourhoods.

[Roux]

If you take a look in Peasantry you'll come across this thread where SaraMK has uploaded the merged neighbourhoods.

IMPORTANT NOTE: I DID NOT attempt to attach another Downtown, and I strongly suggest that you DO NOT attempt to do so either.

Every template seems to have its own numbers that it uses. So if you have one Downtown and add another, it gets a different number. Until I figured out where to change these, I kept getting one neighborhood transplanted onto a previous one. Since I changed the Downtown numbers by hand, I figured there might still be a danger of that happening. It's good to know that nothing blew up, but I would still caution people not to do it. The one-on-top-of-another glitch is FATAL. The only thing to do after you get it is to delete everything.

I just thought I'd take a moment to emphasize SaraMK's warning in the thread Kyna linked to.  I had deleted the Maxis Downtown shortly after I merged the neighborhoods, then last weekend decided I wanted it back so I could play the Tricou family.  All of a sudden Windows was crashing whenever I tried to exit any downtown lots (both residential and community).  After scouring MATY for similar problems and trying many standard fixes (removing hacks, deleting groups.cache, uninstalling/reinstalling, resetting to a vanilla game, etc.), I finally realized that the game was fine but the neighborhood was simply FUBAR. 

So I deleted it today and came back to this thread, because I love playing the merged neighborhood and wanted another.  That's when I saw the link to the other thread, figured I'd save myself some time and download the merged neighborhood, and saw the warning about attaching additional downtowns.    

Fortunately I don't mind starting over, and the Tricous are included in the merged neighborhood (thanks, Sara!), but I'm kicking myself for not knowing this before.  I'm just hoping others can learn from my mistake. 

[Celestard]

It worked great.  I even merged the Tutorial neighborhood, Riverside, and a custom neighborhood I made of a Sims 1 version for Sims 2 neighborhood.  So I have Tutorial Joe and Jane, Claire Charming, Kat, and all the rest in one neighborhood.  Pretty cool!

One thing.  I found that Part 8 wasn't necessary to do. I Skipped that part and it still works fine. 

I don't know if I would recommend this for anyone with a weak computer though.

[SaraMK]

One thing.  I found that Part 8 wasn't necessary to do. I Skipped that part and it still works fine. 

Unfortunately, that step is necessary if you want the neighborhood to be as safe and glitch-free as possible.

In my testing, not replacing ID Number files from a clean source sometimes caused a glitch where one neighborhood would be transplanted on top of another. You might not notice a problem until adding a new sub-neighborhood... and then... BOOM! You might get lucky and never experience the glitch, but if you do, you would have to delete everything because there is no way to fix it (that I found, anyway).

[SaraMK]

I have a question, I did all of this,and it worked great  But, I'm becoming a bit more demanding now  I was wondering if it is possible to have bluewater as my main neighborhood and pleasantvieuw, strangetown and veronaville all 3 as suburbs. Also, if this is possible, how should I start with it? Any ideas?

I've never tried it, but I assume you would use the same method as the tutorial describes.

Create a new neighborhood alongside of Pleasantview, Veronaville, and Strangetown. This will be N004. Rip out its ID Number and put in a safe place. Go to where the Blueweater template is located, make a backup, and then import the ID Number file. Then take the edited Bluewater and rename all files to N001. Then go to where the Pleasantview template  (N001) is located and make a backup. Replace Pleasantview with the edited Bluewater.

Let the game generate a new set of neighborhoods. Instead of Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville you should have Bluewater, Strangetown, and Veronaville. If you don't, then something is wrong with my thinking here, so stop right there because it isn't going to work.

If you do have Bluewater, then simply delete Strangetown and Veronaville from the neighborhood menu, and then follow the tutorial to attach the three neigborhoods as Bluewater's downtowns. It helps if you do Part 1 before anything else, since you will need to have those files ready.

[butterflykisses]

I haven't tried the tutorial, but I did download the merged neighborhood. Everything seemed fine at first, but when I went to Veronaville and Strangetown in Pleasantview's downtown, I had no families there. Did I do something wrong?

[SaraMK]

I haven't tried the tutorial, but I did download the merged neighborhood. Everything seemed fine at first, but when I went to Veronaville and Strangetown in Pleasantview's downtown, I had no families there. Did I do something wrong?

Do you have all the expansion packs that are required by the merged neighborhood?

[Ashleigh]

You are EXCELLENT. I attached the three base neighborhoods to a custom neighborhood, purged the unused townies, made a few minor tweaks that make my gameplaying experience better... and now I have Teh Bests Neighborhood Evar!!!1~!  Thanks a million.

[Lana B]

This may be the wrong place to ask, but it takes a bit of courage to ask anything here. So, from the depths of un-awesomeness:
Is it possible to take an existing custom uni and use it with a different base 'hood? I am quite happy for it to be unpopulated, but would like to be able to avoid setting it all up again. OR, would it be easier to just put it all back together as the faster, less likely to go disastrously wrong and set fire to the neighbour's cat option?

[CrabOfDoom]

If I had found this tutorial about five months ago, my legacy neighborhood would not be the fireball it is today.

I just went through the tutorial, and everything is working perfectly. The game's even running faster! What the heck? Well, it's a perk, and I won't knock it. Anyhow, as others have said before me, I've been wanting all of the Maxis folk in one neighborhood since I first got the game, too. I've been due for a restart, anyway, and this is the best way (and excuse) for doing it I can think of. Do I kiss your feet here, or is there a line to join? Thank you!

[uaintjak]

Using your New And Improved Method, Sara, is it now possible to attach additional downtowns without problems?  Or should we still avoid that?

[SaraMK]

Using your New And Improved Method, Sara, is it now possible to attach additional downtowns without problems?  Or should we still avoid that?

Make a backup of your neighborhood before attaching another downtown. Then, if anything goes wrong (you would see immediately if something goes wrong), you can just replace the backup.

[Rose Outlaw]

Just to be deterrent - attaching another downtown afterwards didn't work for me. Both existing downtowns were either wiped clean of houses or some houses missing, the others strangely placed.

Of course there was no backup. A good inspiration to start over with just two hoods... and they are running fine now.

[SaraMK]

That's the one over the other bug. *sigh*

It's a very sucky bug.

[CrabOfDoom]

My Mergeville is still working fine, but I have a question before I do something I oughtn't:

I see that any more Downtowns should not be added (thankfully, I like the default DT terrain, especially with camera hacks that let you see all of it,) but can a Business District be added safely? I've added one University campus, and haven't encounted any problems - it is correct to assume one BD would be just as seamless?

[Celestard]

In case anyone asks.  I was able to successfully attach Riverblossom Hills to my existing merged neighborhood using SaraMK's method.  Only I used an OFB shopping village instead of a downtown.   I am spoiled on using a merged neighborhood and wouldn't want to play the game any other way now that I've started this.  I had gotten pretty far with my current merged neighborhood and hated the thought of having to start all over because of Seasons and at the same time I wanted to play the new Riverblossom Hills.  So I made a copy of my back up and experimented to see if I could attach Riverblossom Hills and it worked!  Pleasantview now has another suburb.

[SaraMK]

My Mergeville is still working fine, but I have a question before I do something I oughtn't:

I see that any more Downtowns should not be added (thankfully, I like the default DT terrain, especially with camera hacks that let you see all of it,) but can a Business District be added safely? I've added one University campus, and haven't encounted any problems - it is correct to assume one BD would be just as seamless?

Attaching other sub-hoods is fine.



If you want to attach Riverblossom tro the merged 'hood, you might want to read this: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4274.msg207964.html

[FlamingoKicker]

OK, this is probably the simplest dumb question but starting at step 1 of the tutorial you say "Allow the game to generate a new game set with the three Maxis neighborhoods"....

How do you do this? 

[Venusy]

Rename the EA Games folder in My Documents. When you next run TS2, a new EA Games folder will be generated, but your old one will still be intact at whatever you renamed it to.

[FlamingoKicker]

OK now at the end I assume you can just put your original Pleasantview files (characters and lots) back into your N001 folder in order to get your existing families back?  From backup I mean?

[SaraMK]

OK now at the end I assume you can just put your original Pleasantview files (characters and lots) back into your N001 folder in order to get your existing families back?  From backup I mean?

No, you can't.

And I think you had better step away from this tutorial, before you blow up your entire game. Sorry, but judging from your questions, you have no business messing with the game files. Even the smallest screw up while working with the stuff in C:\Program Files\EA Games will cause you to have to reinstall the entire game from scratch.

Go download my ready-made neighborhood if you really want a merged neighborhood.

[J. M. Pescado]

Uh, no. That is not how it works at all. If you had a modified version of original PV, I suggest you reload the backup from before you broke it, because you normally cannot fuse neighborhood files together like that except in very specific, experts-only cases. The thing I think you're proposing is most assuredly not one of those cases.

[FlamingoKicker]

Oh, OK. So you really need to merge your neighborhoods BEFORE you start playing and creating families and lots.  Thanks.
God, I love the concept. But I'm not sure I want to wipe out all three years of playing Sims 2 now.  Damn
I did try that pre-merged neighborhood and it looked like it worked fine.
I still want to add Riverblossom Hills as a sub-hood.  But your note states you can't add another Downtown with that setup so I assume I could add Riverbloosom Hills as an additional Shopping District?

[SaraMK]

You could use your existing neighborhood as the "base" neighborhood, but obviously some of the steps would be different.

You can add Riverblossom... I had a tutorial in another thread, I think maybe it was the thread that has my downloadable neighborhood, or maybe it was Jordi's Custom Neighborhood thread. The Search on this site isn't working at all for me right now, so I can't look it up.