NPC Creator - Make Vacation Sim (Local) fix

[maxon]

To Argon:

Thanks once again for this. I downloaded it and it works fine. You are truly the awesome-ness.

I have a question now: sloppyhousewife mentioned that based on her research, she has found the game spawns about 12 locals. I have made those 12 locals. But does anyone know how many tourists are required?

I did my numbers test with BV before I installed the empty templates.  Here are the results for BV for your information.  I generate a new (empty) hood each time, I have all expansions and I add one of each type of extra hood (one university, one downtown etc.)  So I added the three holiday hoods after adding everything else - so some of the numbers are an agrregate.  This is only one test.

BV spawns the tourists with the base hood:

Bon Voyage Tourists (no thumbnails) (55)
Adult female 17
Adult male 16
Child female 2
Child male 2
Elder female 4
Elder male 4
Teen female 5
Teen male 5

Then adding a custom Tropical Island
444 Character Files SimPE
427 Character Files in Folder
+14 files plus a Vacation001.package file
Neighbourhood.package = 1506kb

Locals (14)
Adult female 4 (of these grass skirt outfit 3)
Adult male 5 (of these grass outfit 3)
Child female
Child male
Elder female
Elder male
Teen female 2
Teen male 2

Fire Dancer am 1

Adding a Mountain Retreat
456 Character Files SimPE
439 Character Files in Folder
+12 files plus a Vacation002.package file
Neighbourhood.package = 1563kb

Locals (several with lumberjack outfit but most with missing thumbnails) (12)
Adult female 4
Adult male 4
Child female
Child male
Elder female
Elder male
Teen female 2
Teen male 2


Adding a Japanese Resort
468 Character Files SimPE
451 Character Files in Folder
+12 files plus a Vacation003.package file
Neighbourhood.package = 1620kb

Locals (several with kimonos but most with missing thumbnails) (12)
Adult female 4
Adult male 4
Child female
Child male
Elder female
Elder male
Teen female 2
Teen male 2

The Tour Guide, like the reporter, is not generated until you send sims on holiday (1 (if you have the fix and no townie regen))

You can have the whole report if you want - I do it with every EP because I'm anal about what gets added to my neighbourhoods.  I want to know EXACTLY who and what they are.

[louisacoletta]

To Maxon:

Wow! Thanks so much for the very detailed report! I'm glad to find someone as anal as i am about what gets added into my neighbourhood :)This is very helpful since I don't use SimPE. Although I'm pretty sure SimPE hasn't been updated for BV right?

Correct me if I'm wrong - the number of the locals don't seem to add up.

eg:

Locals (14)
Adult female 4 (of these grass skirt outfit 3)
Adult male 5 (of these grass outfit 3)
Child female
Child male
Elder female
Elder male
Teen female 2
Teen male 2

Isn't the correct amount: 4+5+1+1+1+1+1+1+2+2=17?

Same goes with the rest of the locals, Mountain Retreat and Japanese Resort.

And geez...that is an insane amount of tourists! 55? What was EAxis thinking?? Does this then mean that I must custom make 55 tourists for my game to function properly? Is it possible to have only 20 tourists?

[pixiejuice]

Thank you for this.  I can't wait to try it.

I'm playing without the notownieregen at the moment, because with my face templates, I never really minded seeing a new face pop up now and then.  What I am wondering though is if anyone knows why BV seemed to have skipped over my face templates and made regular old Maxis ugly ones?  And if I don't use notownieregen, will my game continue to spawn ugly locals and tourists?  Or will it use my face templates from now on?

Is there just one no regen hack?  The notownieregen?  Will this stop downtownies too?  Dormies?

Thank you for the info on the tourist/local pools.  Is there a new SimPe out?

[maxon]

To Maxon:
Wow! Thanks so much for the very detailed report! I'm glad to find someone as anal as i am about what gets added into my neighbourhood :)This is very helpful since I don't use SimPE. Although I'm pretty sure SimPE hasn't been updated for BV right?

Thank you and YW - I am using the QA version of SimPE which is available now to those of us who signed up to the programme.

Correct me if I'm wrong - the number of the locals don't seem to add up.

eg:
Locals (14)
Adult female 4 (of these grass skirt outfit 3)
Adult male 5 (of these grass outfit 3)
Child female
Child male
Elder female
Elder male
Teen female 2
Teen male 2

Isn't the correct amount: 4+5+1+1+1+1+1+1+2+2=17?

You're wrong - sorry, it's the way I've noted it.  When I do the test, I list all the possible variants and then just put numbers next to the ones (as I go through SimPE) that are actually present - so it's 4 adult female + 5 adult male plus 2 teens of each sex plus the adult male firedancer who you cut off the list = 14.  The children and elders have no numbers so they don't count.

And geez...that is an insane amount of tourists! 55? What was EAxis thinking?? Does this then mean that I must custom make 55 tourists for my game to function properly? Is it possible to have only 20 tourists?

I should think 20 would be fine - that number I quote is just the amount that EA/Maxis put in the game unfiddled with.  I've just tested Argon's new empty templates and have no character files at all in the test neighbourhood - Huzzah!  With the no regen hacks in, I'm not expecting to get any either as I play.  My main neighbourhood, Little Carping, was built with empty templates and has and has never had ANY townies in it at all.  It does have a number of NPCs (maids, nannies etc.) which the game generates as it goes along.  Works just fine. 

[sloppyhousewife]

You're wrong - sorry, it's the way I've noted it.  When I do the test, I list all the possible variants and then just put numbers next to the ones (as I go through SimPE) that are actually present - so it's 4 adult female + 5 adult male plus 2 teens of each sex plus the adult male firedancer who you cut off the list = 14.  The children and elders have no numbers so they don't count.

Thanks for clarifying, maxon - I was surprised to see the local children and elders in your list, because I didn't see any of them ingame. Is it possible that the "grass outfit" refers to the hair instead of the clothing? All of the female adults in my game wore those skirts, but only three of them had the grass "hat".

[maxon]

Thanks for clarifying, maxon - I was surprised to see the local children and elders in your list, because I didn't see any of them ingame. Is it possible that the "grass outfit" refers to the hair instead of the clothing? All of the female adults in my game wore those skirts, but only three of them had the grass "hat".

Entirely possible - I didn't look at them in game just in SimPE.

[jsalemi]

Is there just one no regen hack?  The notownieregen?  Will this stop downtownies too?  Dormies?

Notownieregen will stop townies and downtownies.  Nodormieregen does the same for dormies.

[Argon]

Bah! I figured out why normal families weren't showing up on the pie menu, and I was able to add a "Make into blah blah>Family>Sim name" but it doesn't remove the sim from the current family. I'm thinking of just making a new object that does what I want in a heck of a lot less code, so I'll be doing that today.

[pixiejuice]

ETA: CAS Sims into Vacation Locals
-Merge with existing family on lot with NPC creator
-remove Mystery Sim memories with FFS debugger
-make into townie using Inge's teleporter
-Make Into Vacation Sim>(type)>Sim Name on NPC creator

Do you have to remove the memories before making them townies and then locals?  This is what I would like to do - I have an elder couple who I am not playing anymore, but they still have family that I do play, and I thought it would be nice if they "retired" to Twikkii Island until it is time for them to die.  Would there be any harm in leaving their memories intact, and making them into locals on the island?  That way they'd be there for their family to call or go visit, but I wouldn't have to worry about playing them, or leave them taking up space in a house somewhere   One of them is born-in-game, so she has quite a few memories.

ETA: So I guess I am impatient, because I just went ahead and tried it out   It seems to have worked just fine.  But the game did erase their memories, with the exception of their going to college and their marriage.  They even forgot having their daughter, I suppose because the daughter is no longer living, though she does show up on the family tree just fine.  The woman's sister was able to invite her as a houseguest, and she came the next morning.  She had the appropriate gestures.  I'll just have to check to see if she shows up wandering around Twikkii Island, next time I have someone visit. 

Feel free to let me know if I've made a huge mistake.  But so far, it seems to be a great way of getting rid of sims you don't want to play anymore

[J. M. Pescado]

Memory destruction tends to result if you move a playable into the townie pools. If you REALLY want to dump off sims you don't want to play because they're boring, make use of the Lot Sync Timer's tracking feature and Skip Day feature so you can know when to revisit them to age them off and die.

[Doc Doofus]

I'm baffled by the need for this mod?  Is it possible I downloaded this weeks ago and didn't notice, because, really, I have had no problems using the spawned NPC townie-maker to make new vacation Simmies.  I have done it quite a bit, actually, and it seems to work just fine.  I see them on vacation in the correct, respective, vacation-hoods.  I don't see them on home or downtown lots.  They seem to have the normal set of "mementos" for their type -- Asian townies know how to bow and how to do tai chi, twikki townies know how to hula and hang-out.

So what exactly does this mod fix?

One problem that I find with the NPC maker (and it's only a minor one) is that it doesn't generate new Vacation-sims with their correct clothing -- kimonos or grass dresses, etc..  You have to work around that by summoning them back and changing their clothes using the "change clothing" action on the NPC maker.  Tedious extra work, that's all.

[Gwill]

I wish I'd seen this before I made all my locals manually and had to go through them all in SimPE adding the correct gesture and dance tokens.

[Swiftgold]

Hmm... so, have I done something wrong, or is it EAxis-normal for locals from one destination to go walking around in another? I generated new island locals, got them with the correct dances and gestures, and then went to the mountain one and found them visiting comm lots there. They were made from the Tropics section in the NPC generator and afterward assigned to the Tropics family with this hack, and otherwise they seem to be working fine...

[Sarimar]

Sorry to bring up this old-ish post but I'm having a bit of a problem. I started a new hood and started making townies, tourists and locals. I created a bunch of sims in CAS and started converting them. When making them into tourists I noticed something weird. When I click "Make Vacation Sim/Tourist/... on the NPC creator (the gun) all the names are there 10 times. I mean there's 10 pollinations, 10 witches etc. And 10 Teds, 10 Maceys and whatever names my CAS sims have. I exited the lot because I wasn't sure if it would work just to click on one of the options. I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain, my brain doesn't translate words into english very well at this time of day (1:00am here).

I installed the fix by Argon into a sub-folder inside my DL folder. Should it be directly in the DL folder? Or am I doing something wrong? Or is my game - once again - going completely bonkers?

[Quijibo]

I created a bunch of sims in CAS and started converting them. When making them into tourists I noticed something weird. When I click "Make Vacation Sim/Tourist/... on the NPC creator (the gun) all the names are there 10 times. I mean there's 10 pollinations, 10 witches etc. And 10 Teds, 10 Maceys and whatever names my CAS sims have.

You explained the problem wonderfully, Sarimar.  I have the same problem.  When creating Tourists I get the same result  I have my copy installed directly in the downloads folder, so I doubt changing where you installed it will help.

Perhaps Argon's fix is not playing nicely with something else in our downloads folder.  I get no reported conflicts when I check (involving this download, at any rate).

Regardless, it seems to work properly - I just pick one of the 10 offered copies of the name and it seems to turn them into tourists properly.  I just wanted to chime in and say you're not alone.  Maybe there are others experiencing the same problem or it's a well known glitch that neither of us know about.

[Argon]

Well this file doesn't even touch the part for listing Sims in the pie menus, the npc creator in Bon Voyage is just broken to begin with (not surprising since they weren't expecting anyone to use it anyway). I've given up on doing anything more with it, and instead hack functionality onto a dummy object (affectionately known as my townie brick haha) when I need it.

[sorchin]

Hello all:
This is a newbe question(s) I know but I have to ask.
I can't seem to spawn the NPC Creator using the "boolProp testingcheatsenabled true" cheat. What do I need installed to do this?
Remove Mystery Sim memories with FFS debugger.. Hmm well I have the debugger mod installed but I have no idea how to remove memories, can someone help please?
I can make townies/downtownies with the schrub teleporter. This part I am able to do, wheather they have memories or not I have no idea.
Make into Vacation Sim>(type)>Sim Name on NPC Creator. I can't do this because I can't figure out how to "spawn" the NPC Creator object. What is this object supposed to look like?
Any help would be great. I have worked for a long time clearing out my hoods and creating custom made NPC's, I would hate for it all to be for not because I can't get custom vacation NPC Sims
Thanks everyone..

[gynarchy]

I can't seem to spawn the NPC Creator using the "boolProp testingcheatsenabled true" cheat. What do I need installed to do this?

Shift-click the active Sim and select Spawn... NPC and Townie Maker. It will be the Repo Man gun at your Sim's feet.

Remove Mystery Sim memories with FFS debugger.. Hmm well I have the debugger mod installed but I have no idea how to remove memories, can someone help please?

Select Memories... Wipe Mystery Sim (or whatever it's called) on the debugger object.

[sorchin]

Thank you for the very quick respnse gynarchy.
I will try that s soon as I can get back into the game.
 

[Sarimar]

Thanks Argon and Quijibo. Since it works, I'll just keep using it. I should've known it was an EAxis blooper!

[Ellatrue]

I'm having a similar problem when using the debug NPC and townie maker-

When I tell it to "make vacation sim," it doesn't list any of the sims on the lot- only the current townies and NPCs (including the ideal plant sim, social workers, etc).

[Tarlia]

I'm having a similar problem when using the debug NPC and townie maker-

When I tell it to "make vacation sim," it doesn't list any of the sims on the lot- only the current townies and NPCs (including the ideal plant sim, social workers, etc).

You have to make them into townies first.

[Argon]

I hate using the debug NPC and townie maker in BV, this was more of a temporary fix anyway. Use the townie brick instead, you don't have to make them townies first and it's less of a headache.

Find it here:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,11060.0.html

[Kyna]

Townie brick will be handy, but I'll still use this fix for the tourists (since the townie brick doesn't do those according to the other thread).

[Argon]

Well the npc creator will work for tourists, but this fix doesn't affect them either way since I only modified the behav specific to locals.