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At last, I've finished the project I've been working on for a while. New, even cleaner versions of the EAxis neighbourhoods, both as normal neighbourhoods and subhood templates! Now you can build your own uberhood exactly to your liking, no M&G Stuff Pack required!
Also, just to make it clear, the main 'hoods can also be used on their own, as cleaner, better versions of the originals. Just dump them in your Neighborhoods folder (after deleting the old one(s)) and play. :)
There's a lot of information here, so bear with me.
First of all, how are these different from the previous versions (aside from the subhood versions)? The two big things are that all the sims with broken face templates and similar oddities have been fixed, and that I've cleaned up all the marriage and love flags between a living sim and a dead sim. Now Brandi Broke and Timothy Riley and all the rest of them should be able to remarry in everyone's games. There's also a whole bunch of little details, like memories and relationships and such that I missed the first time, AND I've run Mootilda's excellent HoodChecker on them all (it's still in testing, which I've been helping with, so it's not available for download yet), getting rid of leftover stuff that I couldn't do in SimPE. Oh, and if you go to the graveyard lot in Belladonna Cove, you'll be in for a little surprise...
All the subhoods are shopping districts/suburbs. This means that OFB is required. I didn't think it made sense to make any of the small towns into a downtown. Belladonna Cove would be the exception to this, but like I said, that didn't work out...
Before we get to the 'hood downloads:
REQUIRED DOWNLOAD:
In order to have all the subhood templates available to you when you add a subhood ingame, you'll need THIS MOD by Mootilda. Only the shopping district one is necessary, but I recommend getting all of them.
RECOMMENDED DOWNLOADS:
Pescado's mods, particularly the ones that prevent spawning of massive amounts of townies, NPCs and strays.
Squinge's mod that prevents memory loss for townies and NPCs. If you install this before playing Pleasantview, Bella Goth won't lose her memories (nor will other townies or unplayable characters).
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I have only tested these in my own game with all EPs and M&G Stuff installed, so let me know if you have problems getting them to work if you have a different configuration (as long as it falls within the requirements listed).
MediaFire is difficult at times, so if you have problems getting the downloads to start etc, clear out your cache and try again in a while. However, if the links are broken, or the .rar files are corrupted, please let me know.
MAIN HOODS:
First, remove any existing copies of the 'hood(s) you intend to use. Note that this only applies to the main hood. You can have as many copies of the subhoods as you want, just like with Bluewater Village or Downtown.
Pleasantview
Requires: Needs University or a later EP for 'first woohoo' memory but will still function with only base game!
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder AND/OR put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods folder. If you choose the latter, make sure you take backups of your existing templates first. You'll need to regenerate the Neighborhoods folder in Documents for the new 'hoods to show up.
Strangetown
Requires: Needs University or a later EP for 'first woohoo' memory but will still function with only base game!
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods folder. If you choose the latter, make sure you take backups of your existing templates first. You'll need to regenerate the Neighborhoods folder in Documents for the new 'hoods to show up.
Veronaville
Requires: Needs University or a later EP for 'first woohoo' memory but will still function with only base game!
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods folder. If you choose the latter, make sure you take backups of your existing templates first. You'll need to regenerate the Neighborhoods folder in Documents for the new 'hoods to show up.
Riverblossom Hills
Requires: Seasons
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhood
Desiderata Valley
Requires: Free Time
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 FreeTime\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoo
Belladonna Cove
Requires: Apartment Life
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods folder. If you choose the latter, make sure you take backups of your existing templates first. You'll need to regenerate the Neighborhoods folder in Documents for the new 'hoods to show up. I recommend using the first option for this one, though, because:
CAUTION:
Short explanation: If you want to keep all the gravestones for the dead sims, please make sure Belladonna Cove is the ONLY neighbourhood in your Documents\...\Neighborhoods folder when you first start the game. Go into the 'hood, and load Gamesend Grounds. Save the lot. Now you can exit the game and add your other neighbourhoods back in.
Long explanation: EA seems to have intended Belladonna Cove to have a full graveyard. There is a community lot called Gamesend Grounds which is obviously intended to be a cemetery, and as Mootilda discovered with her HoodChecker, all the dead sims have urnstone tokens floating around. The problem is that all of these (except Olivia Riley's grave, which shows up at the art museum) point to a non-existent lot. I was able to fix this with the HoodChecker, and move them to point to Gamesend Grounds instead, but because the lot needs to be loaded for them to actually be "delivered", they're sort of in limbo at the moment. If Belladonna Cove's IDNO changes to anything but 1, which it will if there is a neighbourhood with that IDNO currently in your game (very likely), the tombstones seem to disappear. For the same reason, I recommend that you make sure all your tombstones in your existing hoods are safely delivered to a lot before you do any of this.
The "This was all way too technical for me and I don't really care about the tombstones" explanation: No big deal. Just follow the normal install instructions. You might lose the tombstones, but nothing else bad will happen.
Bluewater Village
Now you can use Bluewater Village as your main neighourhood if you'd like!
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods folder. You'll need to regenerate the Neighborhoods folder in Documents for the new 'hoods to show up. I haven't tested option 2, but it should work.
Downtown
Now you can use Downtown as your main neighourhood if you'd like! Note: It will no longer function as a downtown (with downtownies etc).
Requires: Nightlife
Install instructions: Put directly in your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder OR your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods folder. You'll need to regenerate the Neighborhoods folder in Documents for the new 'hoods to show up. I haven't tested option 2, but it should work.
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UNIVERSITIES:
Sim State University
Requires: University
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTempla
La Fiesta Tech
Updated 02/10/2011 - Fixed Mickey Dosser's face template.
Requires: University
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTempla
Académie Le Tour
Requires: University
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTempla
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DOWNTOWNS:
WARNING: Because of silly EAxis coding, ONLY THE FIRST DOWNTOWN ADDED TO A NEIGHBOURHOOD WILL HAVE SIMS ADDED WITH IT. That means that if you add the regular downtown first, and then Belladonna Cove, BDC WILL NOT HAVE ANY PLAYABLES. And vice verca, if you add BDC first, I don't believe there will be any Tricous. I haven't yet confirmed this in my own game, but once I do, I'll upload a shopping district version of Belladonna Cove as well. I'll leave this version here, though, in case someone wants it as a downtown anyway. I'm sorry for the inconvenience!
Downtown
Requires: Nightlife
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplat
Belladonna Cove
I had to move out all the families that lived in apartments for this to work. You can just move them back in, though, and use either the debug option or Pescado's apartment hack to rent the apartments furnished. Requires M&G because I had to open up the 'hood to edit it. Sorry. There will be graves in the graveyard! Remember that Olivia Riley's grave is at the museum.
Requires: Nightlife + Apartment Life + Mansion & Garden Stuff
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplat
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SHOPPING DISTRICTS:
ATTN: It's important to remember that when merging in a subhood, the game will randomize all townie and service NPC names! That means Meadow Thayer, Kaylynn Langerak, Crystal Vu, and even Bella Goth, will all get different names. You'll have to fix this with an ingame tool like the Sim Blender, or SimPE.
Only Pleasantview (and a couple of stealth hoods, more on that later) contains "unnecessary" unplayables (that have no relationships to any playable sims), the rest only have unplayables that are somehow linked to playables, businesses, etc. This is also true for the main hood versions.
Bluewater Village
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder. Make sure you take a backup of your existing template first.
Pleasantview
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Pleasantview without Townies
What it says - Pleasantview as a subhood, but without any townies (except Kaylynn Langerak and Gordon King).
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Strangetown
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Strangetown with no Bella Goth
In case you want to merge it with Pleasantview, and you only want one Bella Goth.
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Veronaville
Requires: Open For Business
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Riverblossom Hills
Requires: Open For Business + Seasons
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Desiderata Valley
Requires: Open For Business + Free Time
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
Belladonna Cove
I had to move out all the families that lived in apartments for this to work. You can just move them back in, though, and use either the debug option or Pescado's apartment hack to rent the apartments furnished. Requires M&G because I had to open up the 'hood to edit it. Sorry. There will be graves in the graveyard! Remember that Olivia Riley's grave is at the museum.
Requires: Open for Business + Apartment Life + Mansion & Garden Stuff
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder.
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STEALTH HOODS:
If you want to use these for your neighbourhood, they will need to be put into your game folders before you load the game and the 'hood for the first time. Most of them only have the playables, but the Pets stealth hood also has all the strays and adoptables, and the Seasons stealth hood has the Garden Club sims.
Pets Stealth Hood
Requires: Pets
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder. Make sure you take a backup of your existing template first.
Seasons Stealth Hood
Requires: Seasons
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder. Make sure you take a backup of your existing template first.
Bon Voyage Stealth Hood
Requires: Bon Voyage
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder. Make sure you take a backup of your existing template first.
Free Time Stealth Hood
Requires: Free Time
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Free Time\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder. Make sure you take a backup of your existing template first.
Apartment Life Stealth Hood
Requires: Apartment Life
Install instructions: Put in your -INSTALL LOCATION-\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate folder. Make sure you take a backup of your existing template first.
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BONUS: Kat and Kim Families:
I cleaned up the genetics, memories and pet ages of the Kat & Kim families, and repackaged them. I have no idea what these require in addition to Pets, but it's very possible you'll need at least Mansion & Garden Stuff to make them work.
Kat and Kim families
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...Whew. That's a lot of text. I've probably made a few typos and I'm sure at least one of the links was pasted incorrectly or something like that, but I'm too tired to proofread much right now. Let me know if there's any problems. And enjoy. :)
2011-05-24 03:02 pm (UTC)
2011-05-24 03:18 pm (UTC)
2011-05-24 03:18 pm (UTC)
This is going so helpful for everyone!
Thank you so much for all you amazing work <3
2011-05-24 05:55 pm (UTC)
Thanks!
2011-05-24 07:22 pm (UTC)
Seriously, this must have been a lot of work, thank you for sharing!
2011-05-25 08:25 pm (UTC)
2011-05-25 02:27 am (UTC)
2011-05-25 01:19 pm (UTC)
A question though: do I still have to follow the instructions about the 'clean templates' at More Awesome Than You? (zipping up stuff and replacing and such?) I'm a bit confused about what you mean by 'removing' copies.
2011-05-25 08:24 pm (UTC)
2011-05-25 02:24 pm (UTC)
2011-05-27 02:15 pm (UTC)
2011-05-28 06:31 am (UTC)
Any chance you might make one with no sims whatsoever?, I'd love to use it for a building project but have no idea how to do it myself.
2011-05-28 07:21 pm (UTC)
At this time I don't plan on attemtping to make these without the playables. To do so cleanly and safely would be a lot of work. The easiest way would be to just copy the lots to your bin, after moving the occupants out, and move them to a new neighbourhood. I think there also might be empty templates with the houses on MATY, but I've never tested these so I'm not sure what they're like.
2011-05-30 01:15 am (UTC)
I downloaded the Strangetown and Veronaville shopping district packages and for some odd reason they aren't showing up to be added as shopping districts, Riverblossom, Desiderata and Bluewater all show up to be added except for Strangetown and Veronaville. I have double checked and triple checked to make sure I put them in the OFB folders.
I took out Pleasentview and replaced it with your's and I took out Strangetown and Veronaville but didn't replace it with your's because I'm under the impression that your not supposed to. Is that where I went wrong? I'm slightly getting confused and feel like I'm missing something >.>
I also downloaded the stealth folders...even though I'm not really sure as to what they do! :O Was I supposed to do that? Or did I royally screw up my game??
2011-05-30 05:20 am (UTC)
What EPs do you have?
It doesn't sound like you've done anything wrong. The stealth 'hoods are fine to download, they just replace your existing stealth 'hoods. They're nicknamed "stealth" hoods because they automatically add themselves to every new neighbourhood you create. That's when it says things like 'Creating Pets, Creating Weather, Creating Magic when your 'hood is loading. They contain families like Cyd Roseland and the Ottomas family.
Anyway, that's not your problem here... Let me know what EPs you have, and I'll get back to you.
2011-05-30 05:04 pm (UTC)
Amaaazing!!! Thank you thank you thank you!!! I've love playing your Uberhood more than anything, and I can't wait to play new/different combinations of 'hoods!
Question: Does your cleaned up Downtown have the teens who are related to Jon Tricou???
2011-05-30 05:32 pm (UTC)
In answer to your question, it does not. I considered their relation to him to be a mistake, seeing as it only went one way (teens to John Tricou, but neither he nor his family members recognize the teens as family). I've considred making another version with them in, but I don't know if I'll get around to that or not. Anyway, they're fairly simple to extract and add in with some little SimPE-adjustments. Keep in mind that at least one of them has a borky face template (the gothy kid).
2011-05-31 07:09 am (UTC)
I do have a quick question. Some of the other megahoods I have seen (mostly older stuff) warn against creating a custom shopping district if you already have Bluewater Village. I didn't see a similar warning in your post, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
My question is can I make another custom subhood without my game exploding? xD
2011-05-31 09:06 am (UTC)
In answer to your question: Yes! You can add as many subhoods as you want. :) The reason older megahoods come with warnings about adding more shopping districts (or downtowns) is that they were made in a very "hacky" way, before better methods were found.
With these templates, there's no trickery involved, they work just like Bluewater Village.
2011-05-31 12:53 pm (UTC)
2011-05-31 02:05 pm (UTC)
The Strangetown version does not have any memories or relationships - she cannot, because there aren't any Goths in Strangetown to link them to. That's why I made a version without her, for people who want to link Pleasantview and Strangetown together and only want to have the real Bella.
2011-06-02 09:51 am (UTC)
Thanks so so much for all your hard work on this. Also, does this mean that you can have more than one Uberhood in the game, or am I wrong on that one?
2011-06-02 10:05 am (UTC)
I haven't tested it myself, but as long as the main 'hoods are different, I see no reason why you can't have the subhoods in several different 'hoods at once. So you should be able to have a Pleasantview with Strangetown attached, and a Strangetown with Pleasantview attached, at the same time. I do know the game protests when you manually try to give any 'hood or subhood a name that's already used by a different 'hood or subhood, but hey, you can have several Bluewater Villages, so... Still, if you use something as both a main hood and a subhood elsewhere, it might be wise to name the subhood 'Strangetown subhood' or something.
2011-06-02 11:50 am (UTC)
This might be a stupid question, but even more stupid would be not to ask and go wrong, so: is it ok to add for example Desiderata Valley as a shopping district then move all the sims from there to the main hood and then delete Desiderata Valley? ...or is that what the stealth hoods are for? They still remain as a bit too much of a mystery for me those 'stealth' hoods.
2011-06-02 01:58 pm (UTC)
As for your question - yes, you can add the subhoods, move out the sims and then delete the subhoods, that's perfectly fine. :) Just remember to not move their whole houses to the lot bin - you probably know that already, but it's such a VBT it just can't be warned about too much. :P
The stealth hoods aren't really that mysterious. They're sort of like any other subhood, except that they automatically add themselves to any new neighbourhood you make. Some of them come with a "secret" neighbourhood (Free Time Hobby 'hood and Apartment Life Witch 'hood), others simply don't have any actual 'hood you can go to or lots, only sims.
I like to use empty ones or just disable them (rename the NeighborhoodTemplate folder to something else) if I don't want the sims that come with them.
My stealth 'hoods are just cleaned up versions of EAxis', containing mostly only the playables.
2011-06-03 01:29 pm (UTC)
Well, did I notice you tweaked some Sims? You deleted ancestors from family tree and changed the last name of Singles household and Alexandra O'Mackey, but that's really good! It means I don't have to do it myself. But did you also tweaked their ages? I thought Johnny Smith only needed to blow the candle and turned into adult, but when I played him he's still 4 days away...
2011-06-03 03:11 pm (UTC)
I did indeed do a number of changes. Deleting the ancestors was mainly a space saving thing. I thought it was a bit silly that 3/4 of the sims (minus townies) in a 'hood were dead! And either non-resurrectable or just boring template sims.
I did tweak some of the ages. Maybe I shouldn't have... but I did originally make these to my own preference, and I thought Johnny and Ophelia should at least be teens for another day or two before growing up. It's easy enough to change back if you don't like it, though. :)
2011-06-06 02:27 pm (UTC)
2011-06-06 04:05 pm (UTC)
2011-06-09 04:16 pm (UTC)
Just one silly question. Is it safe to add this shopping districts to already existing Belladona Cove main hood (with custom downtown and shoping district already attached to it)? Or do I have to replace it with your clean version? I just finished building and decorating my Belladona Cove and it's subhoods so I would want to keep playing them and add some of your subhoods to it.
So, is it possible to keep it?
2011-06-09 07:42 pm (UTC)
2011-06-09 11:28 pm (UTC)
First: I did remove all the old neighborhoods (they were bloated and creaky and in somecases messed up anyway). I replaced them with the clean ones from this thread. I put only Belladonna Cove into the Neighborhoods folder because, while I don't care much about tombstones in general, it sounded like a cool thing to have a real functioning graveyard. The others I put into their respective neighborhood template folders: the downtown into the Nightlife one, the unis into the uni one, the vacation hoods into the bonvage one, the others into the ofb one, and the stealth ones into each of their respective template folders.
I also removed the neighborhood manager and tutorial figuring that they would regnerate: I had seen some references to corrupt managers and I thought this situation was a prime setup for that, and that it would be safer to get a new one. From looking at the folders, they did regenerate.
I loaded the game and had Belladonna Cove as the only choice, as I expected.
The map was empty of lots. Decorations were in place -- though I think maybe not all of them, I can't be sure -- but no lots.
The sims bin was empty.
I added in Downtown. It had named lots, but no buildings, and no sims.
I added in the universities. Named lots, no buildings, no sims, and the lots were not enterable.
I added in the vacation spots. Lots, buildings, no sims.
Added in two of the shopping districts -- bluewater cove and strangetown -- again, named lots with no buildings, and no sims -- and then I stopped.
It's not supposed to be like this, is it? I looked in the lot bin, but all that was there were lots I had put in before I removed the neighborhoods.
Can you tell from this description what I might have done wrong?
2011-06-10 02:28 am (UTC)
2011-06-11 04:56 am (UTC)
i have a question about a very minor point - i noticed that in Riverblossom Hills (as a shopping district with Belladonna Cove as the main hood), the pictures and story text didn't appear in the pop-up when you open the neighborhood. so i copied the files from the original RBH storytelling folder (from My Documents, not C drive) into the uberhood's storytelling folder, but RBH's story actually appeared in Belladonna Cove's intead. any suggestions about this? maybe i should try copy-pasting from the C drive instead?
2011-06-11 06:49 am (UTC)
It's not really a big deal, you can fix it manually by adding the pictures and text to the 'hood family album, since you've already started playing and obviously don't want to start over. I think you'll have to do it ingame, but I'll experiment with changing the names of the pictures.
I'll also try to fix the problem and upload the fix along with the OFB only base game 'hoods.
2011-06-12 01:14 am (UTC)
Thanks for all your hard work!!
2011-06-12 10:08 am (UTC)
2011-06-13 08:43 pm (UTC)
2011-06-13 09:04 pm (UTC)
In what way do they not work, by the way? Do they not show up, or...?
2011-06-16 07:16 pm (UTC)
2011-06-16 07:29 pm (UTC)
If you didn't see my post about downtown Belladonna Cove - be careful if you want to use it and the regular downtown at the same time, only one of them will be able to have playables because of EAxis foolishness. I'll upload a shopping district version of BDC when I find the time.