While on holiday and away from my game, I've decided to completely uninstall then reinstall my game. My downloads folder is an uncategorised mess full of duplicates and orphans, and I get the feeling this current install is borked anyway (MATY's tutorial on removing the default townies, for whatever reason, wasn't working, so throwing subtlety out the window I spawned them all on a lot and had them slaughtered wholesale, accidentally making Grimmy selectable in the process - is there actually a way of doing this properly with the UC?), so it's probably necassary. I've been perusing various websites for good cc - stumbling across the wonders of OMSPs in the process - but what do you guys think is 'essential' for your game? I'm not talking about the essentials that stop the game from corrupting itself by mistake - I'll be nabbing those the moment I'm home - but what can't you play without? A particular hack, or the perfect dining table? I'm aiming for a completely cc game, not a whiff of maxis content in sight (in smell?), so any and all contributions are welcome! (Also, first post! I think? Woo!)

Yes there is a way for you to not have the Pleasantview townies or any townies at all when making a new hood and this only works for new hood you make.

In the programs C:\Program Files (x86)\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\Base\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001 and place .bak at the end of N001 so it looks like this, N001.bak or just move the folder N001 to your desktop.

You don't have to uninstall. You haven't, so far as I can tell done anything to break your installation files, which is the only reason to reinstall. All you have to do is take out your Downloads folder and reset your neighborhoods.

To generate an empty neighborhood with the UC, you'll want empty templates and/or to disable the stealth neighborhoods. Instructions for disabling here: http://meetme2theriver.livejournal....4.html#comments

As for the CC, look first under the sticky threads for the Essential Mods thread. And if you don't want to see any Maxis content, you will need default replacements, for which the Default Replacement Database is useful: https://sims2defaults.dreamwidth.org/

I thought that making certain npcs selectable (e.g the Grim Reaper, Mrs Crumplebottom) corrupted the game?

And thank you for the links! I knew of the essentials thread, but the others may prove useful

If you also don't want the bin sim families then you need to get Jawusa clean and empty templates installed. http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=520751 the path for UC is listed on the download page for you.

MATY has a lot of outdated info and is very hard to follow but the way I just posted to this thread is now the best way to go.

@Esky yes by making Grimy selectable you may have borked your install and maybe a reinstall needs to be done.

Esky, if you've done that, then yes, quite possibly. By the time I googled the references, I'd zoned on you making Grim selectable. This might not have changed the file, though. You need to check your objects package for the base game. If the date's changed then a reinstall is prudent. If you already had the object packages lost, then you may not have been able to do anything untoward - that's one of the points of doing so.

If you hadn't locked your objects packages, then the sooner you do so the better!

For the removal of Townies - I tried adding .bak to the folders specified in the tutorial I followed. When this didn't work, I added .bak to every folder that looked similar to those, but still nothing. Both times I had notownieregen installed. I hadn't tried removing the folders or some more extensive google use, so I'll do that in a week or so, when I have access to my game



I had no idea that was a thing, so thank you! I'll likewise be doing that ASAP.



Thanks! You've both been incredibly helpful

Before you uninstall check the date on your object.packages. If it's unchanged you may not have to uninstall and reinstall.

No uninstalling is required for UC because you can do a game repair through Origin on UC.

Start up Origin and right click on the UC icon and an option to do a repair should be there and just click on it.

You will want to make backups of both your hoods and your downloads that you want to keep safe otherwise the repair option may delete you My Doc folder for a new start up.

I've never restarted -- I'm far to attached to my neighbourhoods and my Sims! But, to go back to your original post, if you really want to restart (as opposed to having to restart), the mods that are essential to my enjoyment of my game are Squinge's No More Fires! mod (for the peace of mind it gives me), Jenflower's Homework Sometimes, Faster, Fun!, because it lets my children and teens enjoy their lives, Dolphin's Control that Sim, because it lets me control otherwise unselectable Sims, Pescado's Romance Mod, because it lets some of my Sims have "open" relationships, and Aaroneous's Sim Manipulator, because it lets me change a lot of things in-game. And, I nearly forgot Christianlov's Gussy Up and Change Into hacks, that let me change Sims' clothes (including townies) without a wardrobe.

I've recently been play-testing a house in base game (using Any Game Starter, and realising just how much I rely on some of these mods.

If you think any of those might be of use to you, I'll post links.

I only ever used Origin to install the game, and have long forgotten my password. I'm removing all my stuff anyway, so the repair's effects aren't an issue, but thank you anyway



I've found myself to be quite fickle and easily bored, but hopefully a fresh start can help me make sims I could never get rid of too :D

I kinda like my sims' fail!cooking, and fires often have 'happy' side effects, so I don't think I'll get that one. Homework sometimes sounds pretty cool, I'll definitely try that out.
Does 'control that sim' do anything different to the cheaty way of doing things?
I've been looking at the romance mod, also something I'll definitely get. Jealousy is really OTT in the base game :P
The sim manipulator sounds intriguing, I'll give it a look.
Those last two sound great - even with only custom content available to pick from, townies are likely to make some unfortunate fashion choices, so those will be very handy :D
Thank you so much for these! I doubt I'd've found half of them on my own!

Here are the links I promised you:
Jenflower's Homework Sometimes, Faster, Fun!
Dolphin's Control this Sim It's just a simple but reliable mod that lets you take control of any Sim. Don't use it on "object" Sims (The Grim Reaper, The Therapist, The Pollination Technician, Mrs Crumplebottom, etc.) and be careful using it NPCs. I generally don't use it when they're "on duty".
Pescado's Romance Mod
Aaroneous's Sim Manipulator You have to register to download it.
Christianlov's Gussy Up and Change Into The ones you want are Plug In Closet, which adds a "Change Into" to your Sim's menu when you click on him/her, and Plugin Closet Gussy Up which adds "Gussy Up - Plan Outfit" and "Gussy Up - Buy Clothes . . ." options. Be careful about using any other mods from that archive, as they're old and undocumented.

I'm a little disappointed that you don't want No More Fires. I love all my Sims, including all my townies, and regard them as my friends. I have a real horror at the idea of watching someone I love burning to death. I'm sure it would give me nightmares for weeks. Still, it saves me finding a link for you. I like Squinge and his mods, but it can be hard finding the right version of a Squinge mod for a given configuration.

Thank you so much for those! They'll certainly come in handy
Personally, I view my sims more like characters in a tv show. All the drama of their lives adds to this multi-generational sitcom, and what can be more dramatic than a good death scene? :D

You haven't said what it is you would like to do game wise, what interests you or not. My medieval game is full of cc, do you like medieval? My modern game is set up as a self contained/integrated hood. That means all jobs are done by playables with everything in place that a town would have. I use numerous mods to do that, are you interested in that sort of play? Everyone has there own idea of fun.

I do use all the above mods that Andrew mentioned except the no more fires. I don't get many fires and often when I do it's funny sim aspiration melt down time lol. I also like to see if an adult sim will carry a baby or toddler out of the house to safety. That is an autonomous action. I have very rarely ever had a death as I put a smoke detector inside and outside, a sprinkler near a bakery oven or train table. I find proper precautions enough. Even the last time I played an asylum it took forever to get two deaths from a stove fire.

Medieval hoods seem a little hard to do - finding default replacements for every little thing would be quite tiresome, I imagine Plus, as any game starter doesn't work with the UC, I'd have to swap out my downloads folders to switch to my 'normal' hoods, which I'm worried would potentially bork up all my efforts. So I'm not going for a medieval just yet, but maybe one day
That other one sounds kinda cool, actually. I'm guessing there's no way to, say, have your playable in the police show up for a robbery, but do you mean like having lots for the careers? I'd thought of doing that, but they'd only be decorative. I'd heard if having working prisons, hospitals, etc - do you mean like that?
I think I'll be going for a city-esque feel for this neighbourhood; plenty of cracked bricks, graffiti, grubby apartment blocks etc. There'll be an area of niceness, of course, for my richies to live it big with their multi-million simoleon careers. I want to have lots connected together, like row houses, so is there a hack/mod that does that?

Mootilda's Lot Adjuster is how you make row houses.

In fact, you should look at all the late lamented Mootilda's utilities. Hoodchecker, Lot Adjuster, Sim Retriever - at least look at them! And running the Hoodchecker periodically - every time you make a backup, which I hope you will start doing at regular intervals, is not too often - is probably the best game hygiene practice you should get into.

The way I play my medieval hood is a made a separate sims 2 folder. No switching out Download folders, that could cause a file not to be read or become corrupt. In fact I have 3, Sims 2 folders. Old, New and Medieval. All you have to do is rename the one you want to play as the game only reads the one called 'The Sims 2' For me I found it quite fun finding all the cc. Between Sunni and Hat close on everything is defaulted right down to the bills. Sun&Moon have a whole heap of 'workbenches' so now I have weaving, wine making, salt making, chickens, fruit trees, hunting and mining. Becks has candle making, knitting, washtub washing and milkable goats.

I have about the same amount of cc in both games. I think with the medieval one I get away with a lot less clothing, hair, floor and wall variety but in my modern game I have a lot more of that kind of cc.

If you use simsurgery you can make the NPC cop look like your playable sim. I have a working school and clinic (too small yet for a hospital) The police station and fire station are both residential lots. My fireman drives off to work in his fire engine. You can also have a working prison or office. There is all kinds of cc and mods you can use.
You can certainly have row houses the seaside town I play is mostly that kind of house but with coloured cladding and sea views.

I think Tumbleton would suit your needs if you don't want to build. There's custom NPCs, huge sections of area both run down and nice, and all the row houses you'd want. My few families I've started out with right now are great, drama-wise, because you don't have to fear hooking up with Goopy GilsCarbo and passing along his unfortunate genetics (which I honestly think are endearing, but he doesn't reproduce well).

There is another Homework Sometimes mod by Twojeffs which doesn't make it faster or fun, if you like the idea of it being sometimes but don't want the challenge taken away. I use it with Cyjon's Harder Homework and Partial Homework Credit, which means that sims will find homework tailored to their aspiration, playfulness and logic scores (a logical, knowledge, serious sim will be done in no time and find it fun, a pleasure, playful, zero-logic sim will struggle to stay motivated and find it hard). Secondary to that, however much of their homework they manage to finish determines their grade and it disappears overnight. Which means no piles of homework doom. If they have a busy evening, they can skip it and just work extra hard the next day to make up for it. And then homework sometimes just means that they get an occasional break which is nice.

You want the Lot Adjuster by Mootilda to create intricate interconnecting lots. They are a lot of fun to build, but challenging!

Thank you for pointing me towards those! I'd heard of most of them I think, but had never gotten around to downloading them.
And yeah, I'll start backing up. Despite only really using The Sims, Steam and the Internet I only usually have about 1 gig of free space left (probably all the other junk I've downloaded over the years), but I'm also planning a cleanup in that department so it won't be an issue much longer



Ahhh, that's a good idea. I might just try out a medieval hood. Medieval is really the only alternate hood style I'd be happy with. Having 10 generations of Victorian, 20's style etc. sims would really bug me. The Middle Ages took so long to progress that that's not really an issue (Well, I could have the same complaint about modern hoods, but then how could you imitate technological advancement without actual technology to base it on?)
And woah, that sounds cool. I've seen the stuff for prisons and schools - though I'd need to play around with them a bit for it to not be confusing - but how do you do offices? Clinics? I'm guessing that the stations are just well decorated and with custom vehicles (either I'm forgetting the firefighter career or that's custom too :P)



Oooh, Tumbleton looks cool! I do want to make my own hood, but I'll certainly nab that to play in when I'm getting bored with building. Though, knowing me, I'll forget to go back to building and spend countless weeks in Tumbleton :P
Yeah, avoiding maxis fish-people is my main reason for wanting my own townies :D



Ah, thank you! I definitely prefer to keep some challenge in my game - I'm looking for more realistic bills, deadlier diseases; why wimp out on homework xD
Cyjon's stuff you've mentioned sound pretty cool. I like the idea of more academic-focused sims finding homework easier than the others.

Jenflower's mod does do at least some of that. It's not faster and fun for everyone. Only serious Sims with 3 or fewer playful points find it fun. I think they also can do it faster. Thereafter it depends on your grades. With his serious disposition and A+ grades, Andrew can do his in minutes -- and enjoy it! Then he can ask Julian round and spend the rest of the evening doing something they enjoy even more! But Jenflower's mod never makes it harder -- Maxis homework is quite hard enough! I think the real reason I like it is because my own teenage years were spoiled by 3 or more hours of homework every night. Not doing it wasn't an option; I'd have been terrified to go to school with my homework undone. So I make sure my Sim teens have a much better time. It's sharing that fun time with them that makes it one of my favourite mods.

Esky, I strongly suggest you get an external drive and back up onto that! Not just your game files, but anything to do with work/school/the nuts and bolts of life. All harddrives die eventually, and when that happens you'll feel dumb if your game files are safe but your tax data aren't!

There are a couple of tutorials floating around. The prison is something I have tried but I found that to be a lot more confusing than a school. If I play one again I wouldn't use all the objects, just what I need to make it work my way. I do the same with the school but it's a lot more straight forward. I have homeschooling, no schooling (medieval hood) Prep school and boarding school.

I am planning on doing these jobs on my job and business thread. You can do an office with a combination of items such as the meeting controller and Monique's computer and writing articles.

The fire station in my old hood was quite large and it had a deco fire poll with Targas Ascension Elevator pieces top and bottom which would teleport the fire fighter down and up. Drivable fire engine and custom fire fighter career. You could also make the NPC firefighter look like your own using sim surgery. In my new town I only have the one guy in a small place and the NPC is female.


My clinic (again hood is too new and small for a hospital) has rooms to stay in if sims get sick. I use Christianlovs teleporter mirror. These rooms have a snap dragon to fill motives. My DR does clinic on her days off work or I can also skip work with the institution sign from Simlogical. I use the PCsims medical kit.




I use halved wages, no 20K handout and many of my sims have taken out loans on Monique's computer. This is enough to keep them poor.

I use homework sometimes as homework in the game is a drag, they loose fun for nothing really. It's only kids I have using the Maxis school system that get homework. I'd rather the kids be skilling. The main thing done at my pep school is skilling. I have gold putters, activity tables, a music room, punching bag, a candy maker all that type of stuff. It's only kids ysing maxis school that get homework, kids going to prep school don't get homework as the bus drops them back at 5pm.
Instead I use harder grades and slower skilling. Although I am debating if this skilling is too hard. i use a double age mod and still my teens are skilling constantly if they want to make uni.