Date Posted: 20th Apr 2011 at 8:25 PM

I'm so pleased to see a new vacation destination from lechapeau available for download at MTS: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=426792

So, now we have a University, a Business District, and a Vacation Destination. Anyone want to try making a Downtown?

Date Posted: 16th Apr 2011 at 6:21 PM

The neighborhood terrain is stored in the Neighborhood Terrain Geometry (NHTG) record in the neighborhood package. However, the neighborhood terrain under the roads is stored in the Neighborhood/Memory(NGBH) record. This means that the terrain under the roads can become out-of-sync with the rest of the neighborhood terrain.

Elsewhere is a prime example of this. The neighborhood terrain is concrete and the road terrain is desert. In this case, I believe that the mismatch was intentional, because the low elevation of the neighborhood terrain means that the actual neighborhood terrain under the town is sand, not concrete. Since sand is not one of the options for the terrain type, plasticbox chose desert as the closest available option.

Unfortunately, it can be difficult to change the road terrain, because SimPE does not display the terrain field for the NGBH record. This means that you have to edit the field in hex. You can't solve this by replacing the entire record NGBH, because it stores the memories for the entire neighborhood.

Perhaps HoodReplace should ask whether to modify the NGBH if it detects a change in terrain type?

There also seems to be a separate place where the road terrain is stored for the lot package. So, changing the neighborhood and road terrains in the neighborhood package will not replace the type of terrain on the lots themselves. To change these, you need to modify the terrain type in the Lot Description (LTXT) for each lot in the neighborhood package.

Reference: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...ic,20151.0.html

Date Posted: 12th Apr 2011 at 6:20 PM

I created a new wiki content list for neighborhoods and added the populated neighborhoods list from my journal, along with lists of megahoods and subhoods:
http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?t...t:Neighborhoods

Still need to add other types of neighborhoods. Here's a list of other possible categories:

- Terrain Maps (SC4 files).
- Decorated Terrain (hood deco, but no lots). Currently included in the next category.
- Unpopulated Neighborhoods (neighborhoods with lots and deco, but no playable sims)
- Clean, Empty, and Fixed versions of the shipped neighborhoods.

Did you know that google can't search MTS journals? I hadn't realized that people couldn't search the list in my journal.

Date Posted: 10th Apr 2011 at 7:03 AM

I never realized that you can add record types to be recognized by SimPE. Just edit the tgi.xml and add the information for the new types.

For example, my version of SimPE was missing the following:
6C589723 - LOT - Lot Definition (found in the lot package; very similar to the Lot Description that you find in the neighborhood package)
B21BE28B - WTHR - Weather Information

Date Posted: 8th Apr 2011 at 5:34 AM

I have no idea what I've done to deserve a cookie, but thanks!

Date Posted: 5th Apr 2011 at 5:43 PM

Ever noticed how the same dormies always appear in the same dorms, even if the dorm has been empty for some time? That's because a dormie is a young adult townie who has been assigned a door key for a specific dorm.

So, what happens to that young adult townie when the dorm is deleted? That's right! EA doesn't bother to do the proper cleanup. Your young adult townie has forever been removed from the dormie pool, since they are unwilling to move into any dorm other than the one that they were assigned to.

If you have the "no dormie regen" mod and you tend to delete existing dorms and replace them with better ones, you may find that no one will move into your new dorms, even though you have a wide selection of young adult townies, since they've all been assigned to no-longer-existing dorms.

Luckily, there's an easy fix. The (decimal) instance number of the Lot Description for the dorm is stored with the door key. So, just look for young adult townies with a Token - Door Key in their memories. If the door key has a value which is not a valid dorm instance, remove the memory and your young adult townie will join the pool of sims who are able to move into the next available dorm room.

Even if the young adult townie has a door key for a valid dorm, you can still delete the door key memory; the game will eventually clean up the picture on their old doom room and they'll be available to move into a different dorm. This will allow you to do some "dormie shuffling", if you'd like a change.

Reference: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=438636

Date Posted: 21st Jan 2011 at 11:53 PM

... Continued from previous journal entry:
http://www.modthesims.info/journal....howentry&e=5299

Updated: 15 Sep 2011 - New neighborhoods

Note:
I haven't done any investigation into the neighborhoods for these later EPs yet, but I thought that I'd at least note the neighborhood names and websites. I'll be adding comments on all of these neighborhoods as I play them.


Pets:
Geoff Military Estate
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets.
Stuff Packs: "All", which probably means "all SPs released before Pets", ie: Family Fun, Glamour Life.

A neighborhood based on a military base.

Puempelines Neupümpeldorf
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets.
Stuff Packs: Family Fun, Glamour Life, some items from the Holiday Pack which may also be downloadable from EA.
Custom Content: Included. Required.

English translation of this neighborhood name: "Puempeline's New Plunger Village". "Neupümpeldorf consists of four islands: the main island, the campus, downtown and the business district".

Problems:
- SIMKEA will crash without the appropriate downloads.

Seasons:
Corpus Noor (compilation of light)
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons.

A neighborhood and downtown based on characters from several books, including: Princess Bride, Howl's Moving Castle, Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter, Interview with the Vampire.

Notes:
There no longer seems to be documentation on this neighborhood, but the download itself is still available. I have a text-only version of the website, if you're interested.

Bon Voyage:
Crystal Heights
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Bon Voyage
Stuff Pack: Celebration
Custom Content: Included.

A murder mystery. Very few playable sims and buildings; lots of townies and ghosts.


FreeTime:
Larksville
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime.
Custom Content: Included. Optional?

This one comes with a special controller, but you don't need to use it if you don't want.

Problems:
Includes two Pets stealth subhoods, two Seasons stealth subhoods, two Bon Voyage stealth subhoods and two FreeTime stealth subhoods (one custom). It's not clear whether this will create problems, but it is very odd.

Twisted Valley
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime.
Custom Content: Included. Optional.

A neighborhood with playable sims, but no townies or lots. Be sure to download the "Alternate (Sims in Bin)" version, which contains the playable characters. The other thread in that forum has one large multi-part RAR which contains many lots which were made for the neighborhood. Alternatively, you could download a neighborhood with lots but no sims and merge the two neighborhoods; feel free to ask me how.

Problems:
Many "Met Unknown" memories and relationships with non-existent sims, which implies that the sims were not properly cleaned before being added to the neighborhood.

NeighborlySims also has a number of DIY neighborhoods available. More about DIY neighborhoods to follow.


Apartment Life:
The Sims 2 Old School Final
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, Apartment Life.
Custom Content: Included

The Sims 1 neighborhood for the Sims 2. Not complete, but still interesting.

Notes:
The download is an executable, but you can extract the Downloads and Neighborhoods folders from the exe using 7Zip if you'd prefer.

Villa Sims
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, Apartment Life.
Stuff Packs: Family Fun, Glamour Life, Celebration, H & M Fashion, Teen Style, Kitchen & Bath, Ikea

Only one playable family. Only one playable sim.

Mansion and Garden:
Bliss
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, Apartment Life, Mansion and Garden.
Stuff Packs: Family Fun, Glamour Life, Celebration, H & M Fashion, Teen Style, Kitchen & Bath, Ikea
Custom Content: Not included. No list available.

Uberlicious
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, Apartment Life, Mansion and Garden.
Stuff Packs: Family Fun, Glamour Life, Celebration, H & M Fashion, Teen Style, Kitchen & Bath, Ikea
Custom Content: Not included. No list available.

This is a different take on a mega-hood. The standard Maxis characters are there, but they were born in-game and may look very different.

Sleepycat also has a number of neighborhoods with lots and townies, but no playables.

Edgewood Terrace
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business, Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, FreeTime, Apartment Life, Mansion and Garden.
Stuff Packs: Family Fun, Glamour Life, Happy Holiday Stuff

ASimWen also has a DIY neighborhood available. More about DIY neighborhoods to follow.

Date Posted: 21st Jan 2011 at 10:33 PM

... Continued from previous journal entry:
http://www.modthesims.info/journal....howentry&e=5285


Open for Business:
Balloth
While Balloth isn't technically a neighborhood (it's a shopping district subhood), it can easily be played as a standalone neighborhood with one small edit. Interesting storyline, lots of shops.

Beacon Falls
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business.
Custom Content: Included. Just one item: a special controller. Optional.

Definitely my favorite downloaded neighborhood (so far). A rich varied neighborhood with several custom subhoods. This one comes with a special controller, which will drive various storylines.

Problems:
- (minor, fixable) Even though adults graduated college, they do not have additional want slots and locks.
- (minor, fixable) Some university lots have a stove but no empty counter, which means that there is no way to prepare food.

Granite Falls
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business.
Custom Content: Not included. No list available. Website seems to suggest that you install all CC included with every download in that forum.

Life Stories
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business.

Not really a downloadable neighborhood. If you have Life Stories and the first three EPs, you can convert your Life Stories save games to run under TS2.

Meadow Lawns
Custom Content: Not included. Available for download here: MaxoidMonkey objects. As far as I can tell, only the three lawn ornaments are required to avoid crashing.

A really nice neighborhood with a good story line. Another of my favorites.

Problems:
- Several lots will crash without the MaxoidMonkey objects.
- The Monty family at Monty Retreat has an odd family tree. When you select anyone in the middle generation, either the grandmother or granddaughter's picture is displayed. Pescado says that the neighborhood is corrupt.

Prosperity Fellowship
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business
Custom Content: Not included. CAS items are available for download on the website as an additional ZIP or RAR file. It's not clear where to find the build-mode items.

Sparse; only two lots in the whole neighborhood. No community lots. A good number of families in the sim bin, waiting for new houses. Some very odd looking sims.

Notes:
- Because there are so few lots and they are incomplete, it might make sense to replace the neighborhood terrain with one of the (unoccupied) neighborhoods with lots that can be downloaded here at MTS. I have a technique for doing this; I can document it if anyone is interested.

- An alternative would be to download the families individually. They are available from the website. Since they have additional custom content, this may be a way to ensure that you have everything that you need.

Problems:
- The Yessam house has no windows. Possibly requires unspecified custom content.
- The Jenkins house has no wallpaper. Possibly requires unspecified custom content.
- The Jenkins don't have any family relationships.

Riverside
Requires: University, Nightlife, Open for Business

This is a recreation of an EA neighborhood which was used in their advertising, but which was never shipped. Beautiful neighborhood, but most of the houses are unfurnished.

Notes:
The download is unavailable from that site right now, but it's available here:
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=3F8BUQKG

Problems:
From: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s....html#msg320774

Quote: Originally posted by Kyna

I downloaded this neighbourhood earlier today, and I discovered that one of the playable teens knows a whole bunch of teens that don't exist in the neighbourhood - they are not playables, not in the townie family, not in the NPC family, not in the default family, and not in the hobby instructors' family. They simply don't exist. The playable teen is also best friends & in love with 2 of these non-existent teens. My guess is that the creator set up the family's story in another 'hood, packaged the family & lot, and then installed the package in Riverside (including installing the ghost files of these extra sims) - which is an excellent way to corrupt a neighbourhood.

Potential solution:
Sleepycat has extracted and cleaned the occupied lots:
http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index...ide-households/

Sedona
Custom Content: Included.

Again, Sedona isn't technically a neighborhood (it's a shopping district subhood), but it can easily be played as a standalone neighborhood with one small edit. Only three families, all alien, but a number of small business lots.


Continued in next journal entry:
http://www.modthesims.info/journal....howentry&e=5300

Date Posted: 13th Jan 2011 at 5:07 PM

Updated: 15 Sep 2011 - Added Scotia.

I've been investigating various neighborhood downloads and realized that I particularly like populated neighborhoods: hoods with playable characters with interesting story lines.

If you know of any neighborhood downloads with playable sims that I've missed, please let me know.
Comments about any of these neighborhoods also welcome.

It can be hard to find occupied neighborhoods which can be downloaded. There are very few available; most "neighborhoods" which you can download are either neighborhood terrains or decorated neighborhood terrains; some of the neighborhoods here at MTS have lots, but no sims. It's also become apparent that creating an occupied neighborhood is really difficult, because some of the occupied neighborhoods that I've seen have problems.

I just wanted to make some notes about some of the neighborhood downloads that I've been looking at. Be sure to read the download threads, since I'm not going to repeat information that you can find there, including known problems. I'm going to organize these by latest EP required, since that is the thing which most affects whether someone can play them.

Important: Even when I mention problems with a neighborhood, that doesn't mean that the neighborhood is unplayable. You may be able to get years of enjoyment out of these neighborhoods without experiencing any problems at all. However, if you begin to experience random odd problems, you should be aware that there may be no way to fix the underlying corruption and you may lose the neighborhood. I always recommend that people keep backups of neighborhoods that they can't bear to lose; if the neighborhood becomes corrupted, you will still be able to salvage the hood terrain, sims' appearances, and lots from your backup.


Base Game:
Morewood
Custom Content: Included. Just a couple of pieces. Optional.

Haven't played a lot, but it seems fairly nice. No problems found yet.

Seagull Island
Haven't played a lot; seems a bit sparse somehow, perhaps because it's a large neighborhood terrain with minimal neighborhood decorations.

Notes:
There no longer seems to be documentation on this neighborhood, but the download itself is still available.

Problems:
Many of the Pleasantview, Strangetown, and Veronaville sims (both playable and townie) are in the neighborhood, unlinked and without character data, so it looks like the neighborhood may not have been well-cleaned. As well, there are a number of duplicate sims: for example: Alexander Goth, Darren Dreamer, and Dina Caliente.

Scotia
Custom Content: Not included. Shopping list available on website.

Not technically a playable neighborhood. Instead, this is meant to be a replacement for the Pleasantview template. It will add a completely different set of townies with a medieval theme to a newly created neighborhood. However, it can also be played as a standalone neighborhood, by just adding it to your Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder. Note that this neighborhood will conflict with Pleasantview.

Weivtnasaelp
This isn't really a new neighborhood; it's Pleasantview with all of the sexes reversed. A bit of fun.


University:
Maple Valley
Brand new fixed version with documentation. I'm looking forward to having some time to explore.


Nightlife:
The Past Of Pleasantview
Another version of Pleasantview. In this one, everyone is younger and some of the (previously deceased) ancestors are alive and well. Most of the homes are the original homes from Pleasantview and Downtown, although Pleasantview has been reorganized.

Problems:
Rather than aging down the playable sims, new versions were created. The original versions of the playable sims are still in the neighborhood; all now have a first name of "Unknown". It's not clear that this will cause any problems, but it's still a bit odd.

Continued in next journal entry:
http://www.modthesims.info/journal....howentry&e=5299

Date Posted: 19th Dec 2010 at 4:11 PM

I just used this wonderful tutorial by plasticbox to fix the lot impostor lighting for the unoccupied base-game neighborhood that I use for building, so that the lighting of a lot in the neighborhood view matches the lighting that I see when editing the lot:

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=325634

Wow, what a difference that makes! Before, the neighborhood view was gray and uninspired. Now, it really bursts with brightness, and actually seems more colorful, even though most of my buildings have a muted color scheme.

Although it means having to edit every single building, I must admit that I'm tempted to fix the lot impostor lighting on all of my neighborhoods, especially Brainania. The brighter lighting makes me feel more cheerful, which can only help when creating.

Leave it to EA to swap the direction of the lighting in the neighborhood and lot views. I often think that the Sims team just don't bother to talk with each other.