Sedona OFB sub-hood - an default alternative to Bluewater

[cwykes]

I'll look at it and report back.  Thanks for the detailed info on genetics.  I'd have to play them to teens in my game to check what happens there, so it might not be quick.  Big thank you for letting me know!

[vcline]

The disappearing head thing happened when they changed from child to teen - actually the morning after they changed.  Right after the grow-up change they were fine.   And their thumbnail had the initial complete alien head.  When I sent them to Uni, even the thumbnail had no face, just hair sitting on nothing.  I'll try changing the DNA the next time I get a chance to play.  I haven't tried breeding any of the alien townies, although I've paired some up.

[cwykes]

Their DNA is fine in my files.  Let me know if it's not in yours.

The townies were made in CAS in Sedona and turned into townies with Inge's bush.  The Jones family were made in CAS in Strangetown and exported in a package which I cleaned up carefully before installing it into Sedona.  Aaa & family were on the exchange for ages and I never had any feedback about problems, but then I wouldn't necessarily expect people to bother.  I can go play them in Strangetown to see if they grow up OK there and attach Sedona to another hood and try there.  I froze Sedona at the point where I uploaded it to be sure I didn't mess up my versions!

Jordi cast his eye over the hood early on and said it looked clean, which was a great relief at the time.  I did use deletallchars to clean it out initially so if there's any lingering problem, I'd point at that.  I've read that's not recommended since then, but it was the best info I had at the time.   I've no idea what problems that causes and whether these symptoms relate though.  I've had a sim without a face in my game and it went away eventually, still you've got me worried here. 

.......heads off to play the Jones family .............

[cwykes]

Good news - it's fixable and it's not to do with the packaging or cleaning or Sedona per se.

On the next hour after growing up, the newly aged sim loses his/her face.  It happens in the hood they were originally made in as well, so it's not caused by packaging, cleaining, Sedona or any corruption introduced on the way.  The fix is to change appearance twice.  The firs change generates a new face, but it's a default of some kind and is quite wrong.  If you change appearance again, you get a face that does have family characteristics but isn't so extreme.  I think that is then stable though I didn't play for that long as I wanted to report back.  Please correct me if I'm wrong, I'm going by observation and that's not my best skill especially with low graphics settings.  I put some pics on the exchange here to illustrate  http://thesims2.ea.com/exchange/story_detail.php?asset_id=136911

When I made all 5 sims in CAS, I pushed the extremes because I wanted a really alien look and I think I got that.  I suspect the game just doesn't like the extremes.  I couldn't have seen it in CAS because they did age OK.  Stupid game letting them grow up fine and then rearranging their faces!

I forced errors on everything in the lot using the lotdebugger and got something about headslots - DK if that was connected.

I'll put a warning on my website and MTS2.   Thanks again.

[jrd]

cwykes - do you have faceblending enabled or disabled?

[cwykes]

I hadn't heard of facebleding until yesterday when I read the userstartup.cheat thread, so I guess it was and is set to the default.  I made this family when I first got the sims and thought I was really clever getting alien skin to show in CAS.  So it's way too long ago to remember any early glitches.  I must have thought they were OK, or I wouldn't have put them on the exchange at the time.

Two "change appearances" turns out to be only a temporary fix. They switch back to no face at the drop of a hat.  Does it matter when?  I'm playing the family now to see if the same problem hits the kids born in game and I'm going to move on to the alien clone guys next and let them breed. Then the townies.  I fancied leaving clones as a collection of no-hopers, but needs must...  - I think it's important to play them in the original hood to be sure that's where the problem came from.  It doesn't look like it was anything in the making of Sedona that caused the problem does it?

[vcline]

It's interesting that when CiCi Jones, who started as an alien teen, went to Uni, her face was perfectly OK, and I had no problems when she graduated and turned into an adult.  Also Aaa and BiBi aged to elder last weekend and they were OK.  In the meantime, at Uni, I put Dee in the white facepaint and Eee in the green camo facepaint.  I tell myself that their disappearing heads are just a problem that some aliens have in Simland and they are doing their best to cope with their environment.  Sort of like Superman with a yellow sun.  I am sort of glad to hear that it's not just me - misery loves company.

[cwykes]

As far as I can see, Dee and Eenie are OK as adults if that's any consolation and there isn't a problem with children born in game either.  Aaa and Bibi had 3 more kids who aged to kid normally and were fine when I cheated them to teen ("set to birthday" and grow up).  I cheated Dee and Eenie to adult and they seem OK like Chi-chi.  I'm assuming the glitch is going to show up almost immediately as it did for Dee and Eenie.  I only played for about a sim day after the transitions with no glitches.   

[cwykes]

I put a thread about faceless sims in "oops I broke it" where more people will see.  Jordi suggested trying with faceblending off, which I did and it didnt' solve it unfortunately.  He had another couple of suggestions though: "M sister had the problem with one Sim (not using your 'hoods), I solved it for her by applying full facial make up to her Sim and removing it again. This forces a repaint of the entire face and therefore may help." and "Also try making the affected Sim a vampire and curing them again."  The full facial make up is what you are using isn't it?  Anyway I can try that, but please could you try the vampire thing for me, I don't have NL.

Marvin Kosh, who wrote that "how to make a sub-hood" tutorial, made a hack to get rid ot that big Bluewater button.  If anyone wants to test it out for him, I could really use it to make Sedona easier to install,
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6872.0

[cwykes]

Facepaint is the answer.  once Dee and Eenie age to teen, change their appearance by adding anything on the facepaint tab.  You'll notice their face changes to a default, but ignore that.  Then make a second change back out of facepaint and the game should have sorted itself out.  They now have the correct face and should keep it!   Thank you Jordi!

[Sparks]

Just downloaded. Very excited. Question:

Can I use this as a base 'hood? I'm not sure if there's some unique identifier that makes a Shopping District, a Shopping District and vice versa for a Downtown. I'm using HP's Uber-Mega Hood and have been thoroughly instructed NOT to add any additional Shopping Districts to it.

I'm planning on making your Sedona a base, with Strangetown as a Downtown and La Fiesta Tech as a Univeristy.

Am I asking for trouble to try and just rename folders?

[Tamha]

A LOT of modding and work goes into making a subhood, so if I were you I'd leave it alone. Making it a main neighborhood would take much, much more than just renaming folders (or renaming folders and all the files within, since that's actually one of the steps you'd probably need to take).

[cwykes]

It started out as a base neighbourhood, so I have those files somewhere in my backups.  If you're using Strangetown, why not use that as the base hood?  Life would be much simpler that way!

[Sparks]

It started out as a base neighbourhood, so I have those files somewhere in my backups.  If you're using Strangetown, why not use that as the base hood?  Life would be much simpler that way!

I actually don't want to use Strangetown at all.
I figured if there was even a semi simple way to convert 'hoods,
I could use Sedona as a base. I already have Strangetown as part of my
install of the Uber-Mega Hood so, having yet another is boring.
I was willing to do it, if needed. Also, ST fits into the deserty feel of it.
But if it's not something I shouldn't fuck with then,
I won't be able to use Sedona at all.

EDIT - I couldn't edit my original post.

ALSO, if it started as a base, do you think you could be so kind as to send it to a n00b like me?
Sorry, I mean "Tasty Tourist".

[Sparks]

Actually, I did it myself, that is...Sedona as a base hood; followed SaraMK/HP's tutorial about the ID number. So, sorry for the dumb questions and thanks again for making it, Cwykes!!!

[cwykes]

glad you managed to do it.  The problem with sending it would have been file size. 

[uchuujin]

Thanks for this-- it'll be an awesome sub-neighborhood for Strangetown, I'll bet. 

I'll make sure to follow your instructions... my game is borked up as it is.