After a while many players get bored of seeing the same buildings and the same Townies all over again in each new Hood.
There is a way to make a completely "clean" hood, or even a custom one using special costumes etc. It uses some cheats and takes a little work, but as far as I can ascertain is "safe".
There are many steps involved, most of which are optional. Please yourself! This is a creative process, and it can be work or it can be FUN! You can put in as much or as little work as you like.
I started from the very beginning and made a custom terrain in SimCity4.
Tutorial here.
Don't forget to Decorate the Neighbourhood. Trees, rocks, even buildings are available in the Neighbourhood screen. My city has a couple of small farms which help to make it more realistic.
You can remove all the Maxis NPCs from Sims 2 (sales assistants, postmen, newspaper delivery kids, etc) using a cheat.
| open the cheat console by typing Control, Shift, C
simultaneously.
type into it boolprop testingcheatsenabled true Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key. Now, in Live mode, right-click on a mailbox (so you need to be in a Lot to do this). This will bring up the testing cheat menu. Look through the menus - get each successive menu by selecting More... DBG - Force Create all NPCs this recreates all the maids, gardeners, etc, according to the game's templates. Disable the cheat by typing Control, Shift, C simultaneously which will bring up the cheat console again, then type boolprop testingcheatsenabled false Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key. |
(You can also allow the game to replace them as you go along but it is much quicker this way.)
NOTE: This cheat MAY be bad for the game. See discussion on More Awesome Than You and there is more information here.
Although I must admit I like some of the Maxis Townies (Melissa and Ricky Cormier are probably my favourites ) it's fun to have some new ones to play with. This cheat will cause the game to create new Townies, though they will use the same templates.
| open the cheat console by typing Control, Shift, C
simultaneously.
type into it boolprop testingcheatsenabled true Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key. Now, in Live mode, right-click on a mailbox (so you need to be in a Lot to do this). This will bring up the testing cheat menu. Look through the menus - get each successive menu by selecting More... DBG - Force Create Townies this recreates all the Townies, again according to the game's templates. Disable the cheat by typing Control, Shift, C simultaneously which will bring up the cheat console again, then type boolprop testingcheatsenabled false Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key. |
Obviously, if you have University installed.
Build a custom University. If you do this you will need to put in a Secret Society Lot, and a Greek House is a good idea.
Or, if you use a pre-made University you will need to delete the Sims that are there too, to keep the "purity" of your town.
Obviously, if you have NightLife installed.
| open the cheat console by typing Control, Shift, C
simultaneously.
type into it boolprop testingcheatsenabled true Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key. Now, in Live mode, right-click on a mailbox (so you need to be in a Lot to do this). This will bring up the testing cheat menu. Look through the menus - get each successive menu by selecting More... DBG - Force Create all EP2 NPCs this recreates all the NightLife NPCs, etc, according to the game's templates. Disable the cheat by typing Control, Shift, C simultaneously which will bring up the cheat console again, then type boolprop testingcheatsenabled false Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key. |
Playable Sims.
Make them in Create-A-Sim or download premade Sims.
Set them up in large family groupings in the first instance and then move some out - this generates the family bonds you need for a well-balanced Hood. Unless you want absolutely everyone to be a total stranger.To develop these families, use the Ageing cheat. (Nightlife is required for this).
open the cheat console by typing Control, Shift, C simultaneously. type into it
agesimscheat on
This adds "set age" to the interaction menu. Any Sim you click on can be set to any age group you desire. agesimscheat off turns it off.
Disable the cheat by typing Control, Shift, C simultaneously which will bring up the cheat console again, then type
aging off
to turn your game back to normal.
Close the cheat console, if it is still there, by putting your cursor in it and hitting the Escape key.
Move some of them into different Lots so that, for example, older couples may live separately from their adult children, uncles or aunts might live in flats on their own etc.
This will increase the demographic spread of your Neighbourhood.
Making three or four large families like this will set the scene nicely. These Sims can then become "semi-Townies" if you like, or be played on.
Now the fun can really start. Download if you like, but use the Clean Installer to make sure that all you are getting is the building or build objects you want.
You might want to make your own, or to download buildings. Or use Community Lots from other Maxis Hoods by putting them into the Houses Bin and then importing them into your new city.