Grrr, f'n AL townies...

[bel0vedautumn]

So, first thing's first. I'm extremely meticulous about my simmies... to the point where I even create my own (down)townies, one by one - just so I won't have any sims with ugly hair and clothes. I replace the NPC outfits, have face templates, names, skintones, maxis hair hiders, hacks, the whole shibang! After installing AL and sending one of my sims to move into an apartment... an ugly maxis townie appeared to rent the apartment below. Then later a hidious witch showed up on a community lot! You have no idea how pissed I was. But I knew through previous trial and error that I couldn't go in and just delete the file now because it would mess up the already existing neighborhood for good. So... I started all over. *sigh* Right away I deleted the character files ((yes, even the ones on the C: drive)) and made sure I had the updated "notownieregen" hack. I've done this before with perfect success and figured doing the exact same thing again would work just fine. I got my new neighborhood all set up and continued with my same scenario... moved sim in and UGLY AL TOWNIE APPEARED! Is there something wrong with the notownieregen hack... or character files that are hidden somewhere or some maxis conspiracy to make sure their characters never go away or... WHAAAAT? I just can't stand them. I have a very specificly created neighborhood where these kind of sims just don't fit in!!! Thanks to anyone who can help...

Oh and another small question... Can I uninstall a previous expansion... I need more space on this thing and I hardly ever utilize any part of Seasons. Thanks again. :?

[Dracoamie]

I'd say you could uninstall a previous expantion but I recomend backing up your game before you do so.

As for the ugly townies... I'm not sure about the hack you're using but if nothing else works you can always insimenate them when you come across them and change their appearence, personality, names and clothes.

[ancienthighway]

Each neighborhood now consists of townies, npc, stray pets, social groups, hobbiests, garden clubs, and whatever else manages to be snuck in by EA with a  given EP.  All of those need to be customized and put back into the game in the proper category,

[abaris]

Each neighborhood now consists of townies, npc, stray pets, social groups, hobbiests, garden clubs, and whatever else manages to be snuck in by EA with a  given EP.  All of those need to be customized and put back into the game in the proper category,

Is there a how to to be found anywhere? I was creating a custom neighborhood to avoid these kind of problems, but it seems futile without massive editing.

[raindrops84]

There has been an AL update on MATY for the notownieregen hack, that may be your problem.

[Xtian913]

Oh and another small question... Can I uninstall a previous expansion... I need more space on this thing and I hardly ever utilize any part of Seasons. Thanks again. :?

Well, I could be totally wrong, but I believe that if you uninstall Seasons, you won't be able to play any neighborhoods that have previously had Seasons as a part of it? The files would have been overwritten with portions of Seasons in them, so without Seasons the game wont let you load them.

I could be wrong, which I hope I am for your space-saving sake, but I know my sister couldn't play a lot I sent her via email because she didn't have Freetime and I had saved the lot after I had Freetime installed.

[bel0vedautumn]

There has been an AL update on MATY for the notownieregen hack, that may be your problem.

I mentioned that. I made sure to get the updated hack before I even installed AL.

[MissDoh]

Notownieregen as far as I know only stop the game from generating new Townies if you happen to move some in or kill any.

It won't stop the game from creating those default Maxis townies/NPC upon loading your hood or subhood (like downtown/uni for example) for the first time.

For a clean AL hood you need Empty and clean templates which do not have those default townies/NPC attach to it and you will need to create all of them by yourself.

I linked you above to a post at MATY site so you can have info on how to use them and get them.  I am not sure if one for AL is out yet though.

This post could also be quite useful:  Tutorial: Clean custom neighbourhoods + townie creation

[bel0vedautumn]

So... are these characters that spawn to rent rooms, lead social groups, etc. NPCs rather then townies? Is that why the notownieregen hack doesn't seem to apply?

[MissDoh]

Like I said above, notownieregen does not stop the game to load the template that comes with any EP's which will add townies/NPC to any hood you load for the first time.

You need clean/empty templates to avoid the game from adding those unwanted sims.

Just go read both post I linked you too, they explain in details why you need those templates to achieve what you want.

[miros1]

I suspect they're like Dormies.  They get spawned as needed, but Maxis has granted you a bountiful supply of premade ugly tenants.  If you can get rid of the ugly tenant pool, you should get new, randomly created tenants, who cannot possibly be as ugly as the Maxis supplied ones, especially if you're using replacement facial templates.

You may need the updated neighborhood templates from MATY.

Do not uninstall anything unless you backup your 'hoods and Downloads!  Every single Sims 2 Uninstaller deletes them.

[bel0vedautumn]

I understand perfectly well how to clean out a neighborhood, trust me. I've done it for each of the expansion packs I have. Also I only have one neighborhood at a time (N001). Those having been gone for good and having the hack installed... I assume that these new characters are NPCs and can never be totally gone, correct?! If they are townies they would not have spawned in the neighborhood I created post AL installation because I have the hack and deleted the character files generated when I created the neighborhood, right?

[MissDoh]

For any further questions you have about that mod, you are better to go on MATY site since they are the one that created the mod.

[miros1]

As well as all folders named Characters, did you also get rid of (or zip) the files with names that start with cx_Character?  Those are the residents of occupied lots.

You could also see if your methods of making Townies are appliable to making "Tenants" (for lack of a better name).

[bel0vedautumn]

Thanks, miros1. I use the teleporter shrub found on MTS2... I haven't been able to find anything for AL yet. After I posted this I was able to find a few MORE character folders... and after deleting those and setting up yet another neighborhood... the game didn't generate those 25 or so characters it usually does immediately (townies). I'm excited about that. Aaaand... instead of making tons of "tenants" it only made one as soon as my sim went to rent a lot (tragically, she died by flies)... not seventeen extras. I'm not sure if I messed something up or not... but I like it. The game still spawns newspaper boys and bartenders and stuff... which is allllll I want. Yay.