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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 23rd Oct 2019 at 5:39 PM
Default Bodyshop, downloaded sims, and genetics
So, I've been downloading sims to populate my neighborhood. However, I don't want all the custom skintones and eyes so my plan is to put them in my own (default) skins and eyes. My plan on how to do this is to install the sim, go into bodyshop, edit the sim with my own (defaulted) skin/eyes, make a copy, uninstall the sim, and install my new edited version.

My question is, some of the sims I'm downloading are sims that were born in game, and thus (from what I understand) carry recessive genetics. Would me changing the sim in the way described above remove those genetics? If so, is there a better way to do this all without removing the genetics? (Hell, a better way to do it in general?)

Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 23rd Oct 2019 at 8:31 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 23rd Oct 2019 at 8:46 PM.
If you install the sim with the Clean Installer, you know it's a safe sim if you can see the CC and the sim template file (file with a random 8x8 digit number, looks something like "5f2e004b_5f2d6bb2.package"). This sim is just a template, and does not carry any recessive genes.

The only thing you have to keep to get the sim to show up is the sim template. If there is CC you don't like, you can remove it already in the Clean Installer. The sim may not show up like in the pictures, though. Bodyshop and CAS can sometimes throw a tantrum if they detect a missing hair.

In Bodyshop (or CAS) you can change sims' CC as much as you want, either completely removing it or adding whatever you feel like. Sims don't get recessive genes until you make a family with them in CAS, and they usually don't get mixed genes until the second generation (first set of kids). "Rolling the pacifier" to make a child sim in CAS can in theory cause recessive genes, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

If you want to avoid any issues with missing CC, you can install the sims, keep all the CC in a separate folder in Downloads, remove the CC from the sims in Bodyhop, save sims as a new template, and then delete the CC.

I'm guessing the following doesn't apply to you, but mentioning it just in case:
If you (or the uploader) have extracted sims from the game with SimPE, you should clone the sim (and then package for upload if need be), and then delete the extracted file. You should not leave in the extracted files, because these have memories and all sorts of stuff attached to them, and can in theory corrupt your game. These sims also aren't packaged properly with CC and may not work in the other person's game. Cloning in CAS is not enough, but when cloned in Bodyshop, the sim is safe.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 24th Oct 2019 at 1:42 AM
Thank you so much for the amazing and super detailed response!

It sucks that downloaded sims don't care recessive genes but c'est la vie. I thought I'd read that somewhere but I'm only just getting back into TS2 after years away from it, so it's not surprising at all that I'm not remembering it correctly. (Or the person that wrote it was wrong; lord knows there's always some incorrect info floating around the interwebs.)

I think that I'll probably install the sims, keep the CC separate, etc that you mention. I mean, I want to try to get the skintone as close to the original as possible (if I can) and it's much easier to tell if I can just switch between skintones versus just looking at a pic. Thank you for confirming that it's a valid option/plan!

Is there any way to see if a sim was extracted with SimPE? I don't believe anyone I've downloaded from has mentioned using that method but that doesn't mean they haven't. I actually have a post saved on my phone on how to extract sims correctly, so I'll check that out when I finally reach a place to start tweaking the sims I'm adding to the game. (I'm currently working on default replacements, which of course I want to get in before I start sim-tweaking.)

So this is only tangentially related but it's something I've been wondering about and just remembered today as I found some more sims to add to my (too long) list. I hope it's okay to ask you; you seem very knowledgeable and I've tried googling for the answer but couldn't find anything. Why don't people package accessories when they package sims? I'm pretty it was done way back when I first downloaded cc but now no one does it so I'm wondering if it's an etiquette thing or if there's issues with packaging accessories or something else?

Again, thank you so much for your helpful and very detailed response. It was incredibly helpful.
Mad Poster
#4 Old 24th Oct 2019 at 2:07 AM
Sim extracted with SimPE (and not cloned in Bodyshop afterward) will not have a face preset with this type of format "5f2e004b_5f2d6bb2.package" (numbers and letters may vary, but it's always "8_8.package") and the file also won't have any CC included.

I've only come across maybe one or two the past 13 or so years, so the chance of this happening isn't very big. It's more a problem if you extract sims from your game with SimPE. If the creator has included a Clean Installer picture you can check before you install.

Quote:
Why don't people package accessories when they package sims?

Not all accessories will pack with a sim. Meshes in particular (I don't think most accessory meshes will pack with a sim, and there are sometimes issues with clothing and hair meshes, too). Some accessories also tend to flash blue ingame if they're improperly made. It may also be a "please don't pack this CC with a sim" request from a creator.

Back in the very early days (particularly in the Exchange days) people would frequently package sims with a default face and a large set of CC to get a lot of downloads. This isn't so widely accepted now.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#5 Old 27th Oct 2019 at 10:53 PM
Thank you so much for all your help! I will definitely make sure to keep an eye out to make sure that I don't install a sim extracted via SimPE.

Oh, that makes sense, thank you! It wasn't common practice to leave meshes out of packaged sims unless the creator specifically said back when I was downloading (which, I think, was when the expansions were still coming out). But that all makes sense. Thank you again!
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