Tutorial: Clean custom neighbourhoods + townie creation (updated for Seasons)

[jrd]

If you create your own YAs in YACAS, and mark them as townies with the shrub, they become dormies.

To prevent townies and dormies from being created, use Pescado's notownieregen and nodormieregen hacks. With these in the game, no new townies or dormies will be created at all.

[SimFeliz]

Thank you. I already use those hacks, just wanted to be 100% sure.

[Wkdude]

Stupid question, but I can't figure out the answer. If I download SaraMK's clean Pleasantview template for custom 'hoods and follow those directions, would I still need to download the anti-regen hacks so the game doesn't create the standard townies (Goopy, Sandy, etc.)? Or would I just go ahead and create my own custom townies/downtownies (with the townie tree)?

[Zazazu]

If you use a clean template, it won't regen the same Pleasantview townies. Without using notownieregen, it will create randomized townies as needed. They'll use the Maxis name list, so you will get Goopy and Marcela, etc, but not with the same looks and not with the same last name. If you've made your own townies beforehand, you shouldn't regen many, if any.

[jrd]

Unless of course you also use a namelist override hack.

[Emma]

If you use a clean template, it won't regen the same Pleasantview townies. Without using notownieregen, it will create randomized townies as needed. They'll use the Maxis name list, so you will get Goopy and Marcela, etc, but not with the same looks and not with the same last name. If you've made your own townies beforehand, you shouldn't regen many, if any.

Marcela? I haven't ever had a Marcela What does she look like?

[Wkdude]

Ha, thanks, that answers my question. And no, I've never heard of a Marcela, either. 

[Jack Rudd]

There's a Marcella in my avatar.

[Zazazu]

If you use a clean template, it won't regen the same Pleasantview townies. Without using notownieregen, it will create randomized townies as needed. They'll use the Maxis name list, so you will get Goopy and Marcela, etc, but not with the same looks and not with the same last name. If you've made your own townies beforehand, you shouldn't regen many, if any.

Marcela? I haven't ever had a Marcela What does she look like?

Well, I don't have them anymore One was married to one of the Test spawn...William? Eh, doesn't matter. She was black, can't recall eye color, and had black hair that was in that chin-length cut that kind of flares out a bit. Wore one of those dresses with the hoodies. & yeah, namelist override rules all. Well, namelist override, default replacement eyes & skin tone with other geneticized skins in between. Plus default replacement face templates....most of my townies are cuter than my playables (excepting Jasmine, she's adorable, got a good mix for gen 10).

[Wkdude]

I figured out how to do everything but this: for the subneighborhood templates, why is the file type ".7z"? I don't know how to open that, either.

[Venusy]

It's a 7-Zip file, and is generally used because it has a higher level of compression than ZIP or RAR. You can open it in WinRAR or 7-Zip.

[Fuzzbucket]

Hey! This looks like a great tutorial, but unfortunately it seems to require SimPE to create custom Townies and Downtownies and NPCs and I have a Mac. Is there any way to do this without SimPE? It sucks because I'm trying to create an all-female Amazon neighborhood, so I want everybody to be female, and thus need to custom create them.

[jrd]

Then you're limited to either creating them one at a time in CAS, or using the lot debugger (or insimenator?) to change their last names.
Or you can spawn a townie per time with the tree (set gender to female), but then you have no control over name and clothing.

[Jelenedra]

Jordi, using a combo of blank college template and nodormie regen, does that mean the only dormies you would come across on community lots SHOULD be SS members?

[jrd]

Yes - one dormie will be created for the SS, the rest should be blocked from generating.

[Fuzzbucket]

Then you're limited to either creating them one at a time in CAS, or using the lot debugger (or insimenator?) to change their last names.
Or you can spawn a townie per time with the tree (set gender to female), but then you have no control over name and clothing.

Thanks! I guess I'll try those.

[jolrei]

Jordi, using a combo of blank college template and nodormie regen, does that mean the only dormies you would come across on community lots SHOULD be SS members?

Jordi: Yes - one dormie will be created for the SS, the rest should be blocked from generating.

OK, I don't understand this.  I used blank college template and nodormieregen to create my uni.  I created a number of custom dormies (about 30 I think).  However, when a playable Sim goes to a community lot at the uni, they run into one SS member, but the other dormies there are not SS members.  In fact, my game did not generate a third SS member (necessary to allow for induction/abduction of the playables) and I had to designate a third SS member using InSim.

Jordi, are you saying that, if there are no other dormies at all (i.e. if the uni stays "dormie free" and clean), the game will create one SS dormie, even with nodormieregen?  Would it create a second and third SS dormie as well?

[jrd]

The way it should work:

Nodormieregen prevents the game from spawning dormies.
Nossrespawn prevents the game from arbitrarily spawning SS members.

Since you need to have one SS member at least for the SS to function, nossrespawn will attempt to turn one existing dormie into an SS member. If no dormies exist, one will be spawned.

On the first visit to the SS lot, the SS will be filled up to the limit (20? 30? Not sure.) with existing dormies. If you have less dormies, no new members will be spawned until all existing SS members are graduated from college, or dead.

During the SS abduction the SS member with handcuffs is actually a cop. If you already have a cop in game, he or she will be used for this purpose. Upon arriving on the lot, true SS members take over.

[Jelenedra]

So how do you get the three SS friends to join the society? Do you have to just randomly pick your own playables?

[jrd]

That's what I did (sort of). I have 20 dormies (non-playables) in total, and set three of them in the SS with the pie menu.

I recently started a new 'hood, so I only have one playable family as of yet. The oldest child has just entered college (but the father I started with began as a YA, so I have it already setup).

The downside is of course that all dormies are now SS members so as soon as my Sim has three friends, he's in :/

[jolrei]

That's what I did (sort of). I have 20 dormies (non-playables) in total, and set three of them in the SS with the pie menu.

That was my solution as well.  I had to set at least one as SS member with the pie menu or Insim.  Now I'm just waiting for an abduction.  I'll be interested to see how many of my other nonplayable dormies end up in the SS when that happens.

[jrd]

All of them, likely. Once the SS starts filling (is first visited), it will fill the roster up to the limit. And that limit is at least 20 and may be more (I have no idea of the exact value).

[Kyna]

The only time I had 20 non-playable members of the SS was when I was playing around with the MaxNumofVisitors line in my userstartup.cheat file.  I normally have it set to 8, but I set it to 20 for a party.  Forgot to change it back once and a student was abducted - there were 20 SS members on the SS lot.  Normally I have 8 SS members.

If you've created your own dormies, then the SS members will be taken from the dormie pool in order of character creation.  This is the same way that the dorm fills - with dormies from the pool in order of character creation.  So for those of us who create our own dormies, the SS members will always be the same as the dormies in the first dorm.

[jrd]

Oh right, that's the limit then. I should remove that entry from userStartup.cheat -- I'm using Paladin's hack to get unlimited parties anyway.

[jolrei]

I reckon 8 SS members is about right for my game, for the moment.  I don't like to run more than 8 Sims on a lot at a time anyway as it seems to slow down gameplay quite a bit.  Might have to look into those dual core processor solutions offered in one of the other threads.