"setting up sims 2" question & THANKS

[Moon]

First of all... I totally forgot about your step by step tutorial, Kiri! And right now I am so happy I've found it. I've forgotten so much stuff!

But I had a couple of questions... the nhoods you have supplied in the link, those are the totally clean versions, NOT the ones with the original Maxis playables, right? If I dig around MATY and find the just cleaned up versions (was looking at the thread last night so shouldn't be too hard) is there any extra steps or things I need to keep in mind?

Also, with the no townie respawn hacks, will there be any townies at all if we start with all new nhoods and have the hacks in place right at the beginning? Or does the hack just allow the base number to be spawned and stop there?

So starting to look forward to playing again LOL

[Kiri]

That's correct. They are the totally cleaned up versions without the maxis playables. Regardless of whether you use them or the playables version, the steps remains the same.

The hack will allow the essential NPCs to be spawned - so Father Time, The Reaper etc. But it will stop the spawning of townies - that is, non-essential townies. What that means is that, at the beginning of the game, your essential NPC's will be there but no others. However! If you need a bus driver, and don't have any NPC's to drive the bus, it will spawn a NPC bus driver. The redundancy hack, will stop it from spawning 40+ bus drivers. So what ends up happening is that you have a much smaller townie population.

Using Inge's teleportation hack, you can create your townies so that your game never has to create the awful maxis ones.

[Moon]

I never used Inge's teleporter much, but I guess it can't be too tricky to try out... does it make vacation townies too? In my last game I only had one vacation townie and that was pretty frustrating LOL

Edit: I guess vacation townies are called "locals" whoops LOL

I have thought about it, I don't think I'll bother with the "cleaned up" 'hoods... just starting from scratch is something I've never truly done.

Thank you Kiri!

[Zilla]

I'm not trying to change your mind, but cleaned up hoods are not as difficult as they may appear. When you want townies, all you have to do is remove the hack ( it helps if it's put into it's own folder) for however long and put it back in when you feel as though you have enough.

Regardless, if you don't use any other type of anti-spawn hacks, definately use the Uni one if you have Uni that is. University was the EP that caused games to implode as it just keeps cranking out NPCs and townies with no limit.

[Kiri]

It's fairly simple to use - you just click on 'turn selected into a townie'.

And yeah - Zilla is absolutely correct. If you take out the hacks to start, then put them back in it will stop the game from spawning but start with a basic bunch.

[Moon]

I am starting to like the idea of making my own townies, actually! I might have to give it a go... but, if I've already started playing and then take out the hack will it create townies automatically or does the game need to do something to recognize the lack of townies? Just in case I decide that making my own is too time consuming, LOL

Edit: never mind, found how to using townie tree!

[Sylphide]

Oh! there is actually quite a lot to discuss here...

First I am very surprised, as I thought that the hacks had to be in all the time or not at all. I thought that if you took out the hack, then there was no going back.

Does this mean that I could take out the hack (not sure which) before sending my Sims on a vacation site to create locals and then put it back in? When do you take it out? before or after sending your Sims on site? and then when do you put it back?

In Uni I was thinking about sending enough teens at the same time with lots of scholarships so they could be in a rented house and I could play that house or to fill up a dorm (but that's a lot of teens...)

Moon, what is "townie tree"???

[Kiri]

Nope - Hacks work to stop/enable things when they're in and things revert to Maxis code when they're not.

So yeah - you could take out the hack, send your sims on Vacation, have a lot of locals, put the hack back in just before you go back to your main hood, and only have the townies you want in.

Renting a house in Uni, actually doesn't cost that much - Jimmy Phoenix was able to afford a rented house just from his Top of Dean's List, and his busking. He didn't have any scholarships, because he started at Uni.

Pretty cool tutorial on how to make townies

[Kiri]

Townie Tree Info: (as from boolprop.prophpbb.com/topic322.html)

Are you tired of always having the same Townies? Now you can design your own in CAS (Create-A-Sim), making them look however you want. You can even use custom content.
One of Nightlife's hidden features is an NPC and Townie Maker. This is a Spawned object which looks like a dead tree. It is obtained from the Spawn menu of testingCheatsEnabled (like the Tombstone of L and D). The NPC and Townie Maker has many useful features, one of which is the ability to make Sims into Townies. The list of Sims which can be converted includes all the Sims in the Family bin, as well as ghosts and (who knows why) current townies. Sims can also be converted to DownTownies if you Switch to make DownTownies. Since the list includes all the ghosts, this also provides a way of bringing back dead Sims who can't be resurrected because nobody knows them or because you don't have University.

How to make your own Townies
Make a Sim in CAS
Leave the Sim in the Family bin and enter the lot of a playable Sim
BoolProp testingCheatsEnabled true
Shift-click a Sim and Spawn/NPC and Townie Maker [Tree or Gun depending on expansion]
BoolProp testingCheatsEnabled false
Click on NPC and Townie Maker and Make into Townie...
Find the Sim's name and click on it. New Sims will be at the end of the list
Don't forget to save

[Moon]

oh Kiri that version is way easier than mine was.... thanks!!

[Sylphide]

Yay for Kiri the Queen of clear and simple tutorials!

[Moon]

Digging up an old thread since I am apparently doing some of this all over again....

If I am making Townies and I make a parent and say, two teenage children and give them the appropriate family tree connections, and them add them to the townie pool using the simple and easy steps above, will they retain their familial connections or will they just be strangers that happen to look alike?

I guess I could just try it out and poke around Sim PE to figure it out myself but it has been so long since I have futzed about with the software that I don't remember my way very well! Do game spawned townies ever have family trees and connections?

[Kiri]

In-game townies all belong to one of 2 or three families - yet none of them are related. For created townies, it really depends on whether they just switch the flag, or whether they add them to the townie family.

My guess is that they are likely to be preserved if it's just the flag. If they move them to the family (which is more likely) they'll lose the links.

To be honest, try it out in a test hood would be my suggestion.

[Moon]

It's not a really big deal, I was just curious... had considered making a family of sims for townies but doesn't matter in the long run.

It only just occurred to me yesterday while doing some research that Vacation locals need to be made separately from tourists. I didn't even know that tourists were a special pool on their own, I just thought it pulled from existing townies. Now I have a whole other set of sims to make! LOL