Index: 0) Required mods 1) Preparing 2) Creating a new neighbourhood 3) Subneighbourhoods 4) Populating the 'hood a) Batch-creating townies and downtownies b) Creating custom townies and downtownies c) Pets 5) NPCs 0) Required mods * from moreawesomethanyou - antiredundancy.zip - nodormiespawns.zip - nostrayrespawn.zip - notownieregen.zip - nossrespawn.zip * from Cyjon's site - CJ-TownieApartmentResidents.zip - CJ-ThereCanBeOnlyOneProfessor.zip 1) Preparing — cleaning out templates EMPTY PLEASANTVIEW Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods Make a backup of the N001 folder Open the N001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file N001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is N001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the N001 folder. EMPTY UNI, NL, and OFB Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ Make a backup of the D001 folder Open the D001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file D001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is D001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the D001 folder. Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ Make a backup of the U001 folder Open the U001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file U001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is U001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the U001 folder. Repeat for U002 and U003 Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ Make a backup of the B001 folder Open the B001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file B001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is B001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the B001 folder. EMPTY SEASONS Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ Make a backup of the G002 folder Open the G002 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file G002_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is G002_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the G002 folder. EMPTY PETS Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\ Make a backup of the P001 folder Open the P001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file P001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is P001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the P001 folder. EMPTY BON VOYAGE Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Make a backup of the A001, M001, T001, and V001 folders Open the A001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file A001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is A001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the A001 folder. Repeat steps ofr M001, T001, and V001 EMPTY FREETIME Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods Make a backup of the F001 folder Open the F001 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file F001_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is F001_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the F001 folder. Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\F002 Make a backup of the F002 folder Open the F002 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file F002_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is F002_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the F002 folder. ** DO NOT DELETE THE F002 LOTS FOR ANY REASON! ** EMPTY APARTMENT LIFE Open C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate Make a backup of the E002 folder Open the E002 folder. Delete everything inside the Characters folder and delete the file E002_Neighborhood.package Unzip the downloaded file, which is E002_Neighborhood.package. Place this into the E002 folder. 2) Creating a new neighborhood Open The Sims 2 and start a brand new neigbourhood in the normal way. Do not create any Sims in CAS yet! After creating this 'hood, alt-tab or exit to Windows and check your new neighbourhood character folder (If this is your first custom neighbourhood, this will be My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\N004\Characters\). This folder should be empty. If it is not, you have not done step 1 right. You should probably start over at this point. DO NOT USE THE DELETEALLCHARACTERS CHEAT! This corrupts the neighborhood. 3) Subneighborhoods Adding a default subneighbourhood (universities U001-U003, downtown D001, shopping district/bluewater B001, or vacation destination T001, M001, or A001) will add a great number of default townies and NPCs, as well as some playable Sims. You can prevent this by replacing them with empty versions (follow the instructions above, in step 1), or by starting from an empty terrain file. If you use the cleaned out templates, make sure you have also deleted the templates' character subfolders. 4) Populating the ‘hood First, decide if you want to create all townies yourself in CAS, or if you want to batch-create them. Batch creation will lead to a balanced neighbourhood setup, but your townies will not have any custom clothes or make-up, unless you "de-customize" them. Theo explains the process here. They will use the default facial templates (or overrides, if any) and default name list. You can change the name list with Jordi's mod from MTS2. The thread there explains how to change the name list yourself. The CAS method requires you to create townies yourself, and later edit them in SimPE. There is not yet an easy way to make custom Pets into strays, aside from using SimPE. 4a: Batch-creating townies and downtownies Create a Sim or family in CAS and move him in a lot. Immediately pause the game. Note: unless you had Pescado's No Townie Regen in place at this time the game will automatically create one townie. Important: If you also want to fully customize your NPCs, buy the FFS Lot Sync Timer and use the Time Warp feature at this time to set the hour to 05:00 to prevent the paper delivery NPC from coming by while you're busy. If the clock approaches 08:00, reset it to 05:00 again with the Time Warp. Enable the testing cheats in the console: boolprop testingcheatsenabled true. There are two ways to batch-create townies: the NPC and Townie maker ("Townie tree") or the mailbox. Both methods will work. If you want to use the Townie tree, click on your Sim, and in the Spawn menu select the NPC and Townie maker. This looks like a dead willow tree before Seasons or like the Repoman's gun post-Seasons. Choose "Create townies", and select "townies" again. If you want to use the mailbox, shift-click the mailbox and select *DBG - FORCE Create Townies, and select "townies" again. Townies will now begin spawning. At first the thumbnails will show NPC portraits, ignore this. It will report when it is ready. Save the game and check the character folder when it is done, you should now have 32 Sims: your CAS Sim, the initial townie (unless notownieregen is in place), and the ~30 created townies. This number seems to be increased post-Pets: I ended up with almost 50 townies by batch-spawning them. Downtownies can only be created using the Townie tree. First, select Switch to make downtownies (not needed in Pets), then "Create Townies" again - select "Downtownies" this time. Downtownies will begin spawning, without portraits in the upper right. Again, the game will report when it is ready. From the mailbox: *DBG - FORCE Create Townies - "Downtownies" Save the game/lot now. 4b: Creating custom townies and downtownies In CAS create as many townies as you like, of whatever ages, genders, and using any content you like. No need to bother with names at this time. I simply named them 1 to 8 for each group. My own setup is the following: Group 1: males -- create 8 adult male Sims Group 2: females -- create 8 adult female Sims Group 3: Miscellania 1 -- create 2 elder males, 2 adult females, 2 teen males, 2 teen females. Set the teens as children to any adult female. Group 4: Miscellania 2 -- create 2 adult males, 2 elder females, 2 child males, 2 child females. Set the children as kids of any adult male. This leads to 32 townies: 10 male adults, 10 female adults, and 2 of each gender of the other age groups. This leads to an average spread of ages and genders. But you are of course free to chose anything you like. Move group 1 in a lot, and pause the game. If you also want to make your own NPCs, refer to the note above about the Sync Timer in 4a. Buy the Ingelogical Teleporter Shrub or Painting (or another teleporter such as the inSIMenator module). I use the Teleporter Shrub in this example. Select Sim 1, and make them a townie using the teleporter. Repeat this for Sims 2 to 8. Using the teleporter, summon the Sims from the other groups you created, and move them in using the shrub. Then make them into townies. You should have no playable Sim left on the lot after you're done. Save and quit the game, and check the character folder. You should now have 32 Sims: all your custom townies. Now open SimPE, and select all Sim Relationships you see. Delete them if you don't want your townies to have family relationships with each other. Start naming your townies anything you like. If you like, also give them skills, jobs, and gender preferences. Note that if you do not give them a job they will get a random one the first time they're loaded, and their skills will be randomized accordingly. Save the 'hood file, and you're done. Make downtownies the same way you did townies, only select Make me a.../Downtownie for them. I created just 8 downtownies in my game: 3 adults and a teen for each gender. To make vacation Locals and tourists, you need to make the Sim into a townie first, then select "Make Into Vacation Sim>(type)>Sim Name" from the townie-making nerf gun. Note that that menu doesn't give the Sims' last names, so make sure you differentiate your Vacation Sims' first names in CAS from your regular townies. (Such as A1 - Asian 1 - instead of 1.) 4c: Dormies *Please correct me if I'm wrong about method (a). You can make dormies the same way you make townies. Using method (a)*, you have to be on a University residential lot when you batch-create the townies. A residential lot, not a dorm. Under method (b), you have to create the Sims in the Uni CAS (duh), then move them in to a residential lot and use the teleporter or townie tree/gun as illustrated above. Again, it can't be a dorm. 4d: Pets You can create strays one-by-one with the tree, or you can create custom pets in CAS. Use SimPE to put CAS-made pets into the Strays family. 5) NPCs Note: NPC creation using the tree may not work correctly in OFB, FFS, and GLS. This was fixed in Pets/Seasons. If you don't care about customized NPCs, don't bother creating them. The game will make them as needed. You can use the Townie tree to customize your NPCs. Make sure the townie/downtownie switch is set correctly (townies for base, EP1, and EP3 NPCs and downtownies for EP2; the switch is not needed in Pets), and set your desired age, skintone, and gender settings. Then create NPCs one-by-one. Select 'keep' once one is created. Do not chose invalid combinations: nannies must always be elder females, headmasters are always male, etc.. As of Pets you can create individual NPCs again, and Grand Vampires (Count/Contessa) are now under the NPCs menu. If you want to spawn the "special townies" Vampires, Slobs, Diva/Mr Big, set the switch to downtownies (not needed in Pets), and spawn the special townies using their menu. 'Keep' them once done. You cannot spawn the (OFB) reporter "special townie" (one reporter will be spawned whenever the game needs one). The special NPCs Death, Mrs. Crumplebottom, etc. cannot be spawned as these are unique: the game creates them the first time a 'hood is loaded.