How are you "saving" them? Are you burning them through a specific software like Nero and that is where you are getting your error, or are you doing something else?

You should just be able to burn the files onto a DVD (I say DVD because a CD would most likely be too small), but depending on what files you are burning, you may be running out of room. My personal Sims 2 folder (as in the folder where the games are saved) is 3.64GB and I do not have a lot of custom content. If you have a lot of custom content, you may want to burn everything else to a DVD first and then burn the downloads onto a separate disk.

Hope this helps.

You will probably have to search for a bit, but that mod can be found here. Just remember though, there is no longer support for it and there is virtually no guarantee that it will be updated for Bon Voyage or any subsequent expansions.

It is very possible! Doing that saved me a lot of heartache when I was making the beginning of my story. Here is what you do:

Find the folder where you actually have the game installed. This is different from the folder where you would put custom content and the like. If you did a basic install, the path on your computer would most likely look like this:
C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

Folder N001 =  Original Pleasantview, N002 = Original Strangetown and N003 = Original Veronaville.

Copy the neighborhood you want and paste somewhere else, but DO NOT delete or cut it. I would paste it onto your desktop for ease of finding it later.

Rename the folder something like N007 or a number that is not the same as any of your other neighborhoods. All of the files inside that folder will also need to be replaced. If you have some time, or just like to click around with your mouse, you can do this by hand, but if you are you impatient (like me, ), you should use this program (http://www.antp.be/software/renamer) and have it rename all the files like it suggests in this link (http://forums.thesimsresource.com/showthread.php?t=337587&highlight=ant+renamer).

Once you have renamed the folder and all its contents, move it to the folder where your saved games are stored. If you have a basic installation, it would probably go into this folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\(User Name)\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods

When you start up your game again, you will have a new neighborhood at the end and it will be Pleasantview/Strangetown/Veronaville exactly like it was when you first installed the game.

Happy Simming!

Ooh! Well done! I am already intrigued.

Aww...thanks!


I agree with you, Sadie79. The constructive criticism is good because it helps us become better writers.

I took a poetry class two quarters ago at school and we actually had to discuss each other's poems which was so beneficial. When I write something, I pour my whole heart into it and even the criticisms help me see where I have failed miserably and where I can improve. Comments make better stories in the end!

I have been working on my name's dot com for a while and added a SMF forum recently. If you have a domain, I recommend SMF or phpBB since they are free and open source and people can post comments and such just like in any other forum.

I intended for the forum to be a little place where people could comment on my stories (both sim and non-sim), but as my single sim story is taking a backseat for another week while I am working on a book, the whole project is kind of...well, dry. No one posts there either. Oh well...

Use Control+Shift+C and type exactly: StretchSkeleton 0.90

This will give you a sim who is just a little bit shorter than a normal sim who stands at 1.00. You can change the values to just about anything from there.

Sounds promising! I am excited to see what you do with it.

Chapter Two (Part 3): Troubled Teen Years




Her love for Dirk notwithstanding, nothing seemed to be going right in Lilith's life. Her grades had hit an all-time low and school administrators were threatening to hold her back a year in school. While most of her professors ignored the vast differences between her and her sister, one of Lilith's assistant principals made a call to child welfare to check in on the Pleasant household.
Faced with pending investigations that might hurt their respective careers, Daniel and Mary-Sue implored their favorite daughter to show pity on the other one and tutor her to keep her from failing.
Angela agreed and she forced Lilith to listen to her "lessons" on everything from math to physics. Lilith, knowing the only reason Angela had decided to tutor her was to have something brilliant to put on her college applications, took little joy from the sessions and spent much of the time half asleep and dreaming about Dirk.







Spending time with Dirk Dreamer was like a dream and for the first time in her life, Lilith felt at peace amidst the turmoil in her house. After Angela had stolen Dustin from her, Lilith had missed the simple act of having someone with whom she could talk well into the midnight hours and know would be there for her whenever she felt low. Nothing else bothered her anymore; not Angela's put downs during their arduous tutoring sessions, not insults from Mary-Sue or even her father's growing affair with the help. A calm had settled over her life through a benign Eros love and she relished it throwing aside all other cares.







Her days spent with uncaring teachers and antipathic peers, Lilith spent her nights with Dirk. They would sneak out together, sometimes to vent their frustrations on bare Pleasantview windows while other times they simply held hands and watched nature peacefully play across the bordering lakes of the town. Every night when he brought her home, Lilith would leap into Dirk's arms and they would whisper a quick "I love you" before parting ways for another night.
Daniel, having grown accustomed to hearing his other daughter either spending her time locked in her bedroom crying or being brought home by Officer Briggs, grew concerned over Lilith's newfound glow and despite Mary-Sue's apathy over the situation, began spying on Lilith. He researched everything he could on Dirk and his father Darren and upon learning about the former's quite lengthy juvenile record, rounded on Lilith after she crept home one night.







"I don't want you seeing that boy!" he said. "He's a criminal! Worse than you! Think of what the neighbors might say."
Eyes brimming with angry tears, Lilith shook her head at him. "The only reason you even give a care is because you think people will at Angela differently because I'm with him. You don't care about me at all! You just don't want me to be happy!"
"You're not much use to this family, but you can do better than him!" Daniel shouted.
"I don't want anyone else!" Lilith screamed in return. "I love him! We're going to get married someday and we're going to live a beautiful life together far away from you!"
"Over my dead body!" Daniel yelled. "If you're going to live in my house, you're going to obey my rules and I say that you're going to stay away from that boy!"
"That boy's name is Dirk Dreamer. I love him and he cares for me far more than you ever will."
Daniel ran a frustrated hand through his thinning hair. "You're too young to know what love is."
"I'm old enough to know that you never cared about me and I'm old enough to know that what you and Mary-Sue have isn't love. It's just something to keep the two of you from feeling like you're going to die alone."
"You will not speak to me like that," Daniel said.
"I'll speak to you any way I want, you adulterous monster!"
With those words, Lilith tore from the house and they did not see her again for three days.







"Maybe it's for the best," Mary-Sue said one night over dinner. "I mean, I certainly don't want her running around the house as we're getting so close to election time again."
Yet Daniel, felt a primordial fatherly concern for the daughter he had told himself he could not handle. The thought of his child running around the streets with a boy he knew would land her into even more trouble than juvenile detention was an incommodious blotch on his normally peaceful demeanor and he could not Lilith's last words out of his head.
When he had first married Mary-Sue, they were still young and happy to simply be together, but time had pushed them apart and he, Daniel, into the welcoming arms of another woman.
"I saw her, Daddy," Angela said, breaking his reverie. "They were running out of the convenience store on Main Street. They'd just stolen a box of Twinkies. To be honest, I'm surprised the two of them haven't come in here to hold us all at gunpoint, yet."
The front door opened quietly and Lilith stepped into the hallway, listening to her family.
"You know what?" she yelled as Mary-Sue began a second tirade about how wonderful life was without her. "If Officer Briggs hadn't forced me, I would never come back here to ruin your perfect family!"







Hearing the tell-tale crashes of a tantrum coming from Lilith's room, Daniel went upstairs and tried to appease his daughter.
"Just get out!" she yelled. "I hate having any of you near me!"
He started to leave when he heard the doorbell ring and when he opened the door a moment later, Daniel watched Dirk Dreamer step nonchalantly into his house.
"Is Lilith home?" Dirk said. "Normally wouldn't have dropped by like this, but I knew she got caught by Briggs and I needed to make sure she made it home all right."
Daniel drew himself to his full height and stared down the teenager. "Listen you...I want you to stay away from my daughter."
"Why?" Dirk said. "She can hang out with whoever she wants."
"Anyone, but you!" Daniel yelled. "I won't have you corrupting my children."
"Your children?" Dirk shouted. "You said you never wanted to have her! Remember? Lilith told me everything."
"I don't care what Lilith told you!" Daniel said. "I don't want to see you around her ever again! You're a bad influence!"
Lilith, having heard the argument from the stairs stepped forward and glared at her father. "Don't you dare yell at him! He's no more a bad influence than you are when you're sleeping with the maid in Mom's bed!"
Lilith took Dirk by the hand and spent the rest of the night just talking by the poolside allowing the reflecting lights to dance across them as they spoke about what life would be like when they were old enough to get married and always be together.







A gross tension seeped through the walls of Pleasant house over the next few days and Lilith's veritable words were at the root of the disquiet. Mary-Sue had long wondered why Daniel had seemed so fond of their maid who sometimes left the beds unmade, dishes lying in the sink and the toilets cleaned only half of the time, and her suspicions had reached an event horizon as Lilith's accusations echoed throughout the house.
Daniel and Mary-Sue's bickering became a constant soundtrack for the once calm household and while Angela seemed almost sick over the idea of her parents fighting, Lilith was not the least bit interested.
"It's what they deserve," Lilith said during one of their long-winded and useless tutoring sessions.
"No one deserves to be cheated on," Angela continued. "And no one deserves to have what that woman is trying to do to Dad. And, why did you have to say that when you knew Mom would hear it?"
Lilith slapped her History of the Western Sim World shut and glared at Angela. "I said it because it should have been said a long time ago. If Mary-Sue hadn't been so hell bent on getting on the city council, she would've seen it long before we did."
"But, you care," Angela said. "I know you do. Remember what we found about Kaylynn? You cared then. What's changed?"
Lilith shook her head as she rose to leave the living room. "You're so deluded, you know? How can I care at all when they don't care about me?"
"Well," Angela said, "if you weren't such a degenerate, maybe Mom and Dad would care about you a little more."
Lilith threw the history book at Angela and left her twin to listen to the harrowing echoes of their parents fighting in the next room for another night.







"For the last time, I'm not having an affair with Kaylynn."
"Don't lie to me, Daniel. I see the way she looks at you."
"Darling, I'm being honest," he lied. "I would never even look at another woman. I only have eyes for you."
"I don't believe you!"
Daniel opened his mouth to defend himself again when he heard a squeak from the corner of the room.
"Why are you fighting like this?" a tearful Angela asked.
He crossed the room and hugged his daughter. "We're not fighting," Daniel lied again. "Your mother and I were only talking, that's all."
"It doesn't sound like you're just talking," Angela said. "Why don't you just get rid of that Langerak woman if she's the one causing all this trouble?"
Daniel sighed. "Kaylynn needs this job and she does good work. I don't see a reason to get rid of her just because there have been some misunderstandings."
"Misunderstanding is right!" Mary-Sue yelled. "Tell me: am I misunderstanding the way she flips that little skirt of hers anytime she passes by you?"
"Now, don't start on that again!" Daniel shouted.







As the argument flared, Angela ran upstairs to cry on the phone with Dustin, when she noticed the light on in Lilith's bedroom.
"They argue all the time now!" she said, nearly pleading with her twin, hoping for some sense of solace. "They're going to break up, I just know it."
Lilith scoffed as she flipped a black nail polish brush off the edge of her fingernail.
Angela stormed across the room and slapped her, spilling the small bottle across the rug. "What is the matter with you! They're your parents too! Why don't you care about anyone but yourself!"
Lilith stood quickly and pushed Angela away from her. "I don't care about them because they never once gave a damn' about me and when I'm eighteen, I'll be so far from this place, it'll blow your mind."
Angela shook her head as she turned to leave the room. "When you turn eighteen, you'll be lying on the couch wishing you'd done something with you life. I can see it now: I'll be having the time of my life with Dustin at college, and after that Dirk boy sees you for who you are and drops you, you'll be here with Mom and Dad, alone and feeling sorry for yourself."
Lilith picked up the nail polish bottle and threw it at Angela just as she slammed the door shut.
The next day, after she kissed Dirk goodbye, Lilith gave him an extra long hug. Angela's cruel words resounded in her head and while she did not want to think it possible, she still worried what might happen if the boy she loved so much left her all alone.



Chapter Two - Part 4

Tragedymcneil, I am the same way. I recently went through my downloads folder and tossed over a gig of items I never used in the game. Most of those were clothes and recolours of objects that I never ended up using anyway, but had to have when I first saw them. I am very particular about the custom content I download now, because my computer is aging and I do not see a reason to keep a load of it just in the off chance that I might use for an aged sim later in my game. Some hacks are nice to have because it just makes game play more fun for me, but I often try to purge those if I think I have not been making much use for them.

I do not use custom skins that seem like almost a necessity on a lot of sites because I like mixing up the sim babies and seeing what I can get out of their genetics and I find that most fabulous-looking custom hair, looks kind of bad when played in the game. It is this lack of custom items that has kept me from entering contests and had kept me from even attempting stories for the longest time. The contests seem a bit overwhelming to me with the amount of cc and I end up feeling like, "Well, I don't use custom skins, so I'd probably get laughed out of the contest if I tried." I try to make up for "lackluster" imagery in stories by just writing well and hoping that the story does what it should do.

On the subject of the stuff packs however, I have not purchased one nor do I see myself doing so in the future. Reason being, there is enough "stuff" in the game as it is and I do not really see the benefit of paying a lot extra for items that are not going to give me another level of game play. At least with the expansions, there are new interactions and new things to discover with the game. That said, I can see why someone who justs wants a few other options for chairs, beds, etc. might dive into the stuff packs if he or she did not want the added nuisance of custom content.

One of my favorite sims, Lillias Michaels. She is at Sim State currently, and just joined a sorority.



Her parents were CAS sims I had created as teenagers, but they made probably the most beautiful sim of my game.

My goodness!

Worry not; an update is forthcoming! Most likely Wednesday morning or afternoon...probably afternoon.

Continue! I like this idea.

Chapter Two (Part 2): Troubled Teen Years



Regardless of the flying hatred they held for one another, Lilith and Angela managed to come together in response to a sole issue: their disgust for the "help," specifically one Kaylynn Langerak. Kaylynn had a constant obscure expression as if not aware of what she said or the things she did, but they could each see through her. Instead of going through series of interviews to find the perfect maid, Kaylynn contacted Daniel specifically and inquired about work.




Suspicious of her risque clothing, Lilith and Angela found themselves working in tandem at Angela's computer and found that a "Jaylynn Langerak" had broken up a home by posing as a maid and managed to secure millions of dollars by having an illegitimate child with the house owner, and she had a sister, deemed to be just like her, living in Pleasantview named Kaylynn. Lilith hated her parents, but deep in her heart, family was family, and the thought that an outsider sought to break up her "unhappy" home, was harder to take than Angela's previous beatings. They appealed to Mary-Sue to fire Kaylynn as they noticed Daniel becoming slowly enamoured with her, but Mary-Sue's work at the congressman's office kept her away for most of the week and she would pay neither Lilith, nor Angela, any mind when it came to her marital affairs.




With Kaylynn deemed as a formidable enemy, Angela began to burn the household phone lines, calling her friends at all times of the night to tell them all about the new situation at home. At first, Lilith was just irritated by having to carve out time to talk to Dustin at odd times when she could pry the phone away from Lilith or Mary-Sue, but when Angela began talking on the phone into the late night hours, she was simply angry.
One night, Lilith went into Angela's room to snatch the phone away from her and caught a bit of Angela's conversation:
"...really? She never told you she had a sister? That's wild...I mean we're twins...yeah...Where do you go to school? Oh really? Do you know Gordon...?"
"Who are you talking to?" Lilith demanded. "You've been on the phone all night!"
Angela simply turned her back to her. "My friend...Dustin."
A fire ignited within Lilith at the knowledge that Angela had somehow gotten in contact with her Dustin, but she simply stomped away to sulk in her own room. She had developed quite the crush on Dustin, and regardless of the fact that Angela had managed to contact him, she was confident that if she acted quickly, she would have her first boyfriend.




With her mind made up to casually ask Dustin to hang out, Lilith went to the social academy expecting to subtly outpour her heart to him, but he was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Dustin?" she asked one of the administrators.
"Oh, he's graduated from the academy," the administrator said. "He's fine now, but we can only hope for you."
Slightly put out from learning that Dustin had not bothered to call her with the news that he was free from the social academy, Lilith went home, preparing to pry the phone from Angela's fingers. When she walked through the house, she noticed a flash of blond hair in the background and ran to see if Dustin had stopped by for a surprise visit. Lilith burst through the back door and her boots skidded on the grass as she came to halt. Dustin had indeed come to visit, but come to visit Angela.
"Good to see you're home, Sis," Angela said in a high-pitched voice. "Dustin's come by to see me!"




Rage coursed through Lilith at the sight of them together and she tore down the street not knowing or caring where she went. When she had finally run out of breath, she fell on the sidewalk and cried; a mixture of disbelief and fury making all her thoughts unintelligible. Unable to think of what else to do, Lilith allowed the rage to course through her and ripped through the town kicking down fences, smashing windows and slashing tires everywhere she went. By ten o'clock, the police finally caught up with her and Lilith sat next to an officer's desk in the police precinct as the officer, Officer Briggs, called Mary-Sue.
Lilith had expected her to come to the precinct scowling and ready to ring her ears with screams, but Lilith heard Mary-Sue's voice clearly through the officer's phone:
"Leave her there!"
Officer Briggs slowly set down the phone and stared at Lilith who looked so low that he doubted if anything could pull her back up again.
"Come on," he said, rising from his desk. "Let's go."
Begrudgingly, Lilith followed him, wondering what it would be like to spend the night in a jail cell, but instead of heading towards the back of the precinct, he ushered towards his squad car, to take her home. It was not the first time, Lilith had, ironically, experienced kindness from another person's extreme pity.




"You were arrested!" Angela yelled when Officer Briggs brought Lilith home. "God, you're pathetic! No wonder Dustin likes me better than you. At least I'm a good influence on him."
Yet, Lilith did not hear her sister's newest harsh words. Thankfully, the officer had felt sorry for her and just took her home, but she was still a fifteen-year-old girl with a record, and now she had lost the only person who she felt could commiserate to her retched twin sister. Despondent and depressed, Lilith began spending long hours in her room, simply staring at the far and not knowing what else she could do with her life.




To add to the ever-increasing angst in her life, the heated discussions between Mary-Sue and Daniel were becoming full arguments. Though they attempted to keep their voices down when either Lilith or Angela were home, both girls could hear they're parents' arguing resounding through the house.
Coming close to his retirement, Daniel had been spending more and more time at home during the day. Suspicious of their seemingly profligate maid, Mary-Sue began questioning every one of Daniel's actions and wondering all the while if he might be tempted by Kaylynn's short skirts and plunging necklines.
"I'm just making sure the maid is doing her job," he would say to Mary-Sure or "I'm just working out more often to look good for you," when she asked about his sudden increase in time on the treadmill or on their universal system. She did not have proof any possible infidelity, but she distrusted his words all the same.




With her father stretching his philanderous legs, her mother ignoring her even when they were in the same room together, and her sister overtaking anything after which she sought, Lilith entered the tenth grade at a new low. Her grades were worse than ever and without having Dustin by her side, she felt lonelier than she had as a small child.
Rather than go home and face the family that never wanted her, Lilith spent her nights roaming the streets and getting into general mischief that caused several more trips home by Officer Briggs. After a night of slashing tires to vent her frustrations, Lilith found herself sitting, once again in the chair beside Briggs' desk, but this time across from a boy about her age.
"What're you in for?" he asked.
She shrugged. "Tires...sometimes they piss me off."
He gave her a dashing smile. "I have that same problem with plate glass windows."




They ended up talking for another four hours until Briggs and another officer separated them to take them home. Lilith learned the boy's name was Dirk Dreamer and he was also well-acquainted with the Pleasantview Police Department.
Dirk's mother had died in a fire a few years earlier and if the death itself had not been tragic enough, his father, Darren, appeared to be slightly losing his mind. Since the day they buried his mother, Darren spoke rarely and only painted image after image of her, to the point that her haunting visage covered nearly ever wall their house.
"He actually hasn't said anything to me in four days," Dirk said one night while they were both sitting the police precinct, once again. "I work as gofer doing odd jobs in a Downtown law office, but if that doesn't make ends meet, I've got to steal and hock things just to make sure the lights stay on and I've got something to eat."




Lilith listened to Dirk's stories about the differences between life before and after his mother's death and for the first time was able to put things into perspective. As much as she despised them, she did have a family that was more or less whole and kept a roof over her head. Where Dirk snatched purses for money to buy tomatoes, and sometimes the thrill of it, Lilith smashed windows and slit tires just because she was angry with the world, and the more she got to know him, the more she respected Dirk.
After several other nights spent in the police precinct and one unfortunate night across from one another in juvenile detention, Lilith and Dirk began to spend time with one another outside of judiciary circumstances. By the summer before Junior Year, Lilith was spending all her time with Dirk, who, through his attention and care, helped her finally graduate out of the social academy. When she went to Dirk's house straight after school one day instead of going straight to the academy, Lilith realized with a smile that she was in love with Dirk Dreamer.

...on to Chapter 2: Part 3

This is very cool! I am excited to see what happens next.