So...

[mzyra]

Further to my last post: I still haven't experimented with my game yet, but I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to recreate my neighbourhood.

Comments

[katrisims]

Hmm... Both have their benefits and drawbacks I guess. With imports, there'd be fun possibilities for inter-dimensional story aspects, and seeing beloved characters in your own game could be fun. On the other hand, at least to me the random, batch-generated townies have the benefit that you don't immediately know everything about them the moment you see them walking on the lot, there's a little bit of a surprise in there. Plus it's less effort of course, and then there's no temptation to make everyone and everything "perfect

[mzyra]

Oh, well 30's not many - I could have one or two of those plus imports... *hmm*
You can get blank templates of all (or at least some of) the subhoods as well, so theoretically it wouldn't add anything too much... Plenty of time for experimenting with that too ;)

[katrisims]

Yeah, not too many, although it *might* be one of those things that varies game by game. I think I've read that some people get more than that, but about 30 was what I got when I did it for Terra. And I think about 50 dormies when I did the same in the college hood I attached to it.

And yes, there are templates for the subhoodst and hidden hoods as well, so at least theoretically you can start with no sims at all (except for the absolutely necessary Grim Reapers and whatnot) before you start making your own. Although I think it's sometimes said that adding a Downtown could add downtownies no matter what you do to prevent it. I haven't tried adding one to Terra, so I don't have first-hand experience on that.

[esmeiolanthe]

Did someone already give you a link for the tutorial over at MATY for how to make your own completely empty 'hoods? If you do that and batch-generate townies, you'll end up with ones that are different than the standard Pleasantview crew. If you don't batch-generate them, but you also leave out the hacks that prevent respawning for a little bit, then the game will generate new townies as is feels is necessary. (I can't use the anti-respawning hacks, so this is what I'll be doing when I rebuild after I finish the current round of play.) Of course, that method means that you have to place lots and neighborhood decorations and everything yourself

[mzyra]

^_^ Hee, I like the way Rodney continues to be a git in other people's neighbourhoods, though I've seen him being nice in somebody else's game. It was weird :P

Yeah, I guess that's the kind of thing SimsCrossing is for *hmm* I guess I just need a new way to spice up townies, I might need to ponder on it some more...

[mzyra]

Also: I'll see how the numbers are going and how complex your sims would be to make. Your AiP sims tend to have pretty blended faces, don't they? Hmm...

[esmeiolanthe]

Some of 'em do, some of 'em don't. Tyrone and his brothers, for instance, can actually be made pretty readily off one of the template faces, with some minimal tweaking. And I can always try making somebody in BodyShop for you as long as they aren't an alien. I'm not sure how to get them off my computer, but I'd be willing to have a crack at it...

[theafterimages]

The benefit with imports is, of course, it's fun for simmers to see their pixelpeople in other games, and for readers to recognize characters they know. Plus it's just a lot of fun to throw characters into new places and see how they react to events and to each other.

Troubles are just as obvious--writing imports can often be stressful (though I will say that I've always gotten lots of help from any simmer whose character[s] I'm writing, and have provided the same to anyone who's imported my babies) and a lot of the time you'll have readers who don't read their native legacies, so if you don't spell things about the sim in question out well enough you'll have some confused readers in the audience.

But of course, if you want any of my sims just download away. :) And I will always answer any questions you may have.

[mzyra]

Lol - the only problem I'd have with some of your sims would be like: "Right, so I've got Merlin... Must find Arthur! They are MEANT TO BE!" ^_^ Lol, I could go with some of the more obscure ones who don't get so much attention anyway :)

[joandsarah]

You can have any of mine you like, just say who. Mine were all extracted for my rebuild.

I think if I was further along with more townies/dormies married in then I was, I would have gone with the blank template. As it was I don't have many clones I can run into. The NPC waitress who use to be Joanne is the only one being a bit of a pain by ringing Joanne at the main house. I figure if they do become more of a pain I'll just kill them off. Maybe I'll set up a mafia graveyard along with those that died at heirship challenge.

[mzyra]

Lol - it's going to be like going shopping ^_^ "I'll take one of those, and one of him, oh and those two girls there" :P

See to be fair, there are /loads/ of townies I haven't married in, but I've had like 12 dormies, and Alvin, Juan and Rodney are rather conspicuous because I don't tend to change appearances very much.

Definitely with the mafia graveyard idea ;)

[katrisims]

Oh, and I forgot to say: if you want any of mine, you can have them of course. :) If you want any, just let me know, I can upload them for you. (I'm working on a new, fancy download archive, but I'm happy if I get it set up some time this year. :D )

[mzyra]

Lol, I'm looking forward to my sims shopping spree ^_^
I'll let you know :)