To each their own. I don't really care if he likes to look at naked women lol. And he has made an effort to include males in his stuff even though he doesn't play them. The bodyshapes and outfits are avoidable (and not all his work) and there are male ones with huge *cough* packages too. It is an adult site after all. And the bear can be used for both girls' and boys' outfits; it just happens to have been cloned from a girl's only bear, so boys can't play with it.

That's a pretty nice build technique only it will mean loading screens between parts of your 'building'. Not that that's necessarily a problem. It does go to show that we can get pretty far with the build techniques we have so far. What you couldn't do though is have your store open onto a shopping square or street, for example, with the other shops in the street functional at the same time. And a visiting sim to your store, could only visit your store at any one point. What you might be able to do is have a general shopping lot (with a cafe, for example) and then have, in-fixed into it so to speak, individual ownable stores which you'd have to have a loading screen to enter (bit like TS4). Interesting.

I've done lot overlays with Moo's lot adjuster before. Perhaps after Polgannon I might have a thorough go at an integrated downtown or something. Try to get it, as far as possible, as though you were able to move from point to point without having to go to neighbourhood view. With the 'click on lot' functionality of University, it might be possible to get the feeling you are moving through the neighbourhood in a slightly more organic way (the one thing I really liked about TS3). I say 'might' (before anyone gets their hopes up).

I wonder how one might go about improving the lot imposters. If it's not been done thus far, it's likely because it's not possible. That's just the sort of thing a past modder might have had a go at.

Isn't there a visit neighbors mod somewhere or other? I remember looking at one once, but it wasn't compatible with all EPs or Inteen, and thinking, well, that's interesting but not particularly usable for me.

True. They are still separate lots, so you can't play more than one "area" at once and there will be loading screens between them. As I understand it, though, with Mog's mod, you won't get non-resident visitors in the "commercial" part of the lot, only the Sims who actually live on the lot as well. That was the dealbreaker for me, with that mod. Just a preference thing. What you COULD do with stacking, though, is have a sort of "shopping mall" lot as one part of the stack, with numerous different small stores on it so that Sims -- both the "resident" ones and non-resident ones -- could freely travel from shop to shop, and then stack residentials over/around the "shopping mall." It'd take pre-planning to lay out the stacking, but it would be doable. Doing it that way, the individual shops wouldn't be separately ownable, although you could have one Sim own the whole thing. Or, yes, you can "stack" individual small shops on a lot and then they'd be separately ownable but, indeed, only visitable one at a time because they'd be separate lots-within-the-lot. So, that's the trade-off. You could, though, take a playable there and have him/her shop around using "click to lot," but yes there'd be a load screen between them. Which doesn't bother me at all, but it doesn't give you an "open world" feel.

So I guess it's a question of what you want/prefer. I'm not a big "urban" builder, myself, so I've been using stacking in lieu of home businesses, which I tend to dislike running. With the stacking, I can have the shop below and a residential lot above without having to worry about locking doors to keep customers out of the residential part and such. Also, I can have my playables visit the "home business" this way, which you can't do otherwise.



Yes, I make use of the "click on lot" feature a lot. It does feel more organic than going out to neighborhood view to switch between community lots or between playables' houses. Ironically, in TS3, I find myself going out to map view more to travel around. But perhaps that's just because I've not played the game enough to be familiar with where everything is and what it looks like in...Sim view, I guess it is. I think there's only a limited range with TS2's "click to lot" feature, though? Although that might not be as much of an issue in an urban setting, where things would/should be closer together and if walking you'd be well-advised not jump all over the city, anyway, but rather walk from place to place in a logical progression of next-nearest stops.



I have no idea. But, like you said, I suspect that if it COULD be done, someone would have done it by now. It's pretty much the only major thing I'd change about the game, but I have a feeling it can't be changed.

That tutorial looks awesome but soo complicated.
My one want for TS2 is a big large urban world with nothing but highrises and lots stuck together lol.

If I could fix the awful texture nearby lots have, then I'd be content with the game.

It looks more complicated than it is, actually. If you've never used the Lot Adjuster or the "constrainfloorelevation" cheat before, then it's probably a little intimidating, but the former is easy to use and the latter is a VERY basic use of the cheat, and if you follow the instructions carefully you'll succeed. You will also need the Unleveled Walls, so you'll need the Scriptorium which, I confess, I was a little wary of, myself, but I bit the bullet and...Well, it was one of those things where, afterwards, I thought, "I was afraid of this why?"

So....Hey, give it a shot. The worst that can happen is that you'll mess something up and it won't work. But then you can try again and you'll probably get it right. Basically, using this technique in creative ways it is your ticket to that large, urban, highrise-filled neighborhood that you want. You can't build such a thing otherwise.

But just be very careful with this mod (to those planning to download it ... veterans probably already know this.)

This mod has both an NPC and apparently, the potential to generate the Super Hug Bug. To newbies to this forum, this is what it means:

1. If you yank out this mod, it can cause your hoods ... all of them ... to corrupt eventually. Fortunately, not your game, so you won't have to reinstall. But you may have to do a mass reset of all your hoods if you pull the mod out.

I think someone suggested a work-around in Sim PE. Perhaps that someone can elaborate on that.

2. The Super Hug Bug ... one of the more erratic and puzzling bits of nonsense in this game. If someone has certain custom content social mods in their game and/or uploads a lot from someone who has these mods, the downloader can get the bug. Or someone can have no problem whatsoever. If you get it, it brings up a "hug bug" menu, and if you're really lucky, your Sims will be hugging. Constantly.

Download one of certain hacks intended to prevent this in the first place. If you do it later, you won't have the Hug Bug annoyance, but if you ever want to upload or share a lot, you can infect other players. If lucky you does have it, use the Any Game Starter or a machine you 100% KNOW is clean if you ever want to upload a lot.

I downloaded a lot where the creator had no idea of the effect of the Surfing Mod in her Downloads folders. I don't blame her. She honestly didn't know. The Boiling Oil No Sim Loaded keeps the Hug Bug out of my menu for now, so I'm glad for that.

And as for the visit neighbors mod ... Back Alley Sims has that. Fantastic mod. It was strange but fun visiting my user-mades, and enjoyable for me to watch this interaction.

One big problem. I had a Sim have to leave for work while my other Sim was visiting. Uh-boy. The Build and Buy modes grayed out, and I couldn't play my Sims. Even when my visitor returned, I couldn't play that house. I had to move them out and back in.

Another player ... I believe it was sushigal ... had the misfortune of having the stove catch on fire, which brought in a bunch of frantic Sims. She got a similar result.

Back Alley Sims knows about this, and I don't think they can do much about it. Just be careful using this mod, and watch those entering and exiting Sims.

I don't think I've the time or energy to completly design an urban world lol

You definitely get non resident visitors. I'd have to double check, but you definitely get walkbys and the walkbys interact with the commercial part of the lot. Whether you get more walkbys than normal, I'm not sure.

If someone has the surfing mod in and has never pulled it, then they can still upload houses safely. Having the mod in doesn't cause the super hug it's pulling the mod out that creates it. The rest is correct. I hope the creator of the surfing mod has looked to fix their mod.

Did you try using the dorm tools on cheat? I don't feel like Googling the full name of the cheat as I just got up. This should ungrey buy mode anywhere anytime.

I tried just about everything on that house, short of sacrificing a young goat. Nope. Nothing budged. Moving the Sims in and out wasn't that horrible, but I would prefer not to do that constantly!

It's nice to know that if it hadn't been for the uploader not yanking the surfing mod, the lot would have been fine. It lowers the odds on getting this annoying bug. Or did you mean me? I never had the surfing mod, so I never yanked it.

I'm not sure you are understanding me gazania, I'm not saying her house didn't have the hug she could have had it from a number of sources, but just putting the surfing mod into your 'clean' hood will not give you the hug, it's pulling it out which makes the game use the fall back guide.

I see you edited after I started editing lol. in a sense it's similar to these blasted NPC's, everything is rosy in the garden until you pull the suckers. At least with the NPC's you only effect your own game, while the super is contagious. No I mean the creator of the lot you had. She may have got the Super from that or another mod or from a house herself. often it sneaks in and you don't know where the blasted thing came from. Everyone should keep a mod fix for it in place.

@Mumty , I saw in your WCIF thread about the urban hoods that you'd asked me to upload the one from the pics I posted. I wish I could , but unfortunately I was just making that for myself and wasn't even remotely thinking about taking the safety precautions I would have needed to do to make it safe for others games. However , it really doesn't take that long to make something like that. I spent about 2 hours looking for hood deco I didn't yet have ( because 400 megs isn't enough ) and maybe 20 hours , 25ish tops , placing the infrastructure ( trains, El's, and the rest of the hood deco). That's it , at that point I was ready to play. I still needed to make sims , residences, comm. lots to remain public and comm. lots to be owned , but I'd need to do that in any game I played.

I keep the actual lots ( res. and comm.) spread out because of exactly what you mentioned " the awful texture nearby lots have". If you have a large enough building area , as that hood has , it's pretty easy to have everything look good ( meaning grungy and decayed ) from any hood view or any lot view. I have over 60 lots ( res.and comm. combined) in there and they all blend in very well. If you decide to tackle it , I still have those links if you want them and remember to place trains/ El's first , much easier that way.

Yes, but unless it's been updated since it was initially released, the non-resident visitors wouldn't buy anything. They'd walk by and perhaps visit the shop but not actually buy anything. Only residents would be able to buy anything, and, IIRC, only playable residents while you're playing them. In other words, if you've got four apartments above but playables in only one apartment, only the playable residents would ever buy anything from the shop. Since my ultimate goal is/was to replace "home businesses," which I don't like to run, this mod isn't what I needed. With the stacking thing, I can have a regular, fully-functioning, fully-visitable-even-by-playables community lot in one part and residential space on the same lot, even if it's residential space for just one person. The difference is that there's a load screen in between the "parts" and that when I'm playing one part of the lot, the other(s) doesn't/don't look as good because of the low-res lot imposter thing. But I'm willing to deal with that for the sake of being able to do what I want to do.

Not that the mod isn't good. It totally is. It just doesn't do what I want it to do, is all. In fact, I couldn't get what I wanted until threadandsandpaper figured out and shared the stacking technique. So, it's all good, but what to use depends on what you want your lot to do. And, of course, on whether or not you're willing to futz around with "stacking" lots.

I ended up getting the super duper hug bug recently trying to figure out why my CC wasn't working on the Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, I figured out I just hadn't pressed the enable CC button (I had transferred over my downloads folder from laptop where I had TS2 on discs to desktop where I now use TS2 UC). I googled it and found out This hack, specifically the 2nd file only LBFRemovesocial.zip, will fix it. Not sure if I need to keep it in there now or not though o.o but it did get rid of it. Does anyone know if I need to keep the hack in or if it's ok to just leave it in?

You would do better to download BO's No Sim loaded to keep it suppressed as that also cleans up your lots and sims each time you load them. When pulling cc you should always keep in certain mods such as the Super Hug fix or make a backup and restore to that. Make a back up anyway.

As too modding it, look at these new beauts. http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=240 real little rippers as us Aussies would say. :D

Will that work with the batbox? And if I install that do I take out the LBFRemovesocial hack?

I'd just rather be safe than sorry, hence the questions .

Yes it's compatible. It cleans up automatically every time you load a lot and you get a pop up saying what it did. I still have the bat Box as it has some other handy functions. You can remove the LBF. You just need to know that once you have the Super you will always have it unless you reinstall and toss all neighbourhoods. You also can't upload lots from that game as it piggybacks in the file and spreads to whoever downloads and uses the lot. I have it in my main game and as a lot uploader it was a very big deal. It forced me to look into Any Game Starter which was a good thing. I upload all my lots from there now. If you don't upload lot's then you have nothing to worry about.

I don't upload lots, or anything, so i'm good there . So my 'hoods should be good if I uninstall them and reinstall Tarlia's cleaned templates right? I haven't played in any of the hoods but 1 custom world I transferred over yet, and that's where I saw the bug because my stupid self didn't realize I needed to click the enable CC button at the start and it took me forever to realize that is why CC wasn't showing up, though skins/hair/eyes did but nothing else >.< I was having a moment apparently. Since I haven't done anything in the 6 non-cc worlds I wouldn't be losing anything anyway.

Hmm..if I finish up with my CC world (trying to finish up a challenge really quick then i'll just toss that hood anyway) and then uninstall and reinstall the other hoods with Tarlia's cleaned ones, should that get rid of it?

I'll put in the mod and remove the LBF thank you for the help! Sorry if i'm a bother >.<

Edit: Or would I have to uninstall the entire game and reinstall it? Honestly I haven't even loaded any of the other hoods...but it's not like it's hard to uninstall them and reinstall them via Tarlia anyway

I haven't used the clean templates so I can't help you there. You don't need to reinstall if you are just playing, BO's mod will prevent it showing up during game play.

It won't go corrupting the game or anything?

I think once i'm done with the custom world (not CC world... >.< my bad, just a regular custom world) i'll just uninstall all the hoods and reinstall them, I use Tarlia's cleaned templates. Should the bug infect worlds I haven't even used or loaded?

Maybe i'll just uninstall and reinstall the game, I may be overly worried about screwing up the game lol.

BO's mod? No it's a lot cleaner and Super Hug fix. Boiling Oil is a trusted modder. You should always keep one of the fixes in place to prevent the hug from ever starting if you reinstall. It's a sneaky Maxis made code and it's not fully understood even by Mootilda or BO, but I believe loading any hood will make it show up. It also seems to spread differently if you get it by mod or by a lot. Really all you need do is stick the fix in and forget about it.

I meant the Super Duper Hug bug, if it would corrupt the whole game but thanks, I'm guessing it'd be a no just need the fix . Thank you so much!

If you got the Super by pulling a mod it is likely to be across every hood. The fix just squashes it down and makes it so it doesn't show, which if you are playing and not uploading lots is all you need. It won't harm your game as it's maxis code used by modders, only it's not supposed to pop up during game play.

It's no matter. The only thing I was doing, the challenge I mentioned, was becoming a chore anyway. I'm uinstalling the entire game and everything and reinstalling. I am going to start in Riverblossom Hills this time. And this time I know to remember to enable CC when it shows up, before I wasn't paying attention and just clicked ok while it was still disabled after I put my downloads folder in and I am pretty sure it was the sudden lack of a batbox that had been on my lots (which is the first thing I noticed missing, eventually realized why, and then saw the Super hug bug) that caused the bug in the first place.

I'm starting fresh and this time with BO's mod you mentioned! Thank you for all your help

Edit: It really isn't a problem. It shouldn't take long anyway.