Sims in Bin ...

[Kristin76]

I was playing Pleasantview today and moved Roseland and his dog into a house. Got them all settled and was going to go move another Sim family from the Bin to a home, but then out of the corner of my eye ... I notice the Ottomases' ... impossible as I already have them in Riverblossom.

So my question is ... does each *hood* have their own *Sims in Bin* and can I have two Ottomases in the game? Or is there something wrong here?

[TortureTheNannies]

Each hood has their own sim bin. They are different worlds entirely. However , the sub-hoods such as come with Nightlife and OFB are part of the main hood.
Pleasantview and Strangeville are different worlds. Bluewater village is a subhood, not distinct from the main village.

[Kristin76]

Right i know that Desderata Valley, RiverBlossom Hills, Pleasantview and Strangetown are all worlds/hoods -- and each then have their own subhoods - Bluewater Village and a Downtown and Uni for each.

[TortureTheNannies]

So Ottomas from one world should not be the same Ottomas from another world. I don't have that EP, so I'm not sure where Ottomas are expected to appear. Did you or some custom content copy these sims from one neighborhood to another? That's the only time I would see a problem in the game.

[Kristin76]

Its actually all of the binned Sims ... the Sims that come with the game, the Oldies, Ottomases, etc that are in the bin in each neighborhood. I just didnt know if this was typical. And my game is vanilla with the exception of some walls I made awhile back.

[Mootilda]

Yes, this is typical. EA decided to ship several "stealth" neighborhoods which are added as invisible subhoods to each neighborhood that you play. Some of those "stealth" neighborhoods contain sim bin families, like the Ottomas.

You can stop this from occurring by replacing your "stealth" neighborhood templates with empty versions which do not contain the sim bin families.

[Kristin76]

They are safe to play though? I have moved the Ottomases into Riverblossom already and moved Roseland and his dog to Pleasantview ... I will be moving the Oldies into Pleasantview as well. I like playing EA Sims ... as I consider them to be part of the story so as long as I dont put the Ottomases in Riverblossom and Strangetown I will be safe?

[Richcelt]

Is this based on the last EP you uploaded? My last EP was Apartment Life, thus I got Belladonna Cove, but I tend to play my own neighborhoods based on the other terrain they have available. Thus far, in each of the three extra neighborhoods I've created, there are the Gavigans et al from Belldonna. However, I DON'T get the Pleasantville, Strangetown, or Verona sims in my neighborhoods, just the Belladonna ones. Would I lose them and gain new ones if I installed a new EP?

[Sunbee]

When you buy one of the later expansions, it ships with two neighborhoods, but you can only play one of them. The other adds sims (and pets) to all your neighborhoods, those you already have and those you might make in the future. So Seasons adds Riverblossom Hills, and it adds this stealth neighborhood with the Ramaswami and Ottomas Families. Freetime adds the Picasos and Julien Cooke in the same way. AL adds Newsons, Gavigans, and Goodies, Pets adds the Critturs and the Roselands. If you have all those expansions installed and you make a new custom neighborhood you'll see all those sims in it. You won't see sims like the Oldies (tied to Pleasantview) or Alexandra O'Mackey (Riverblossom).
A lot of people get frustrated to have all those families added, especially to custom hoods. Others don't mind. You can think of those families as being like sims you made in body shop and then added to each of those neighborhoods using the Create a Family tool--they're clones of the same sims, but they aren't really the same.

[maxon]

They are safe to play though? I have moved the Ottomases into Riverblossom already and moved Roseland and his dog to Pleasantview ... I will be moving the Oldies into Pleasantview as well. I like playing EA Sims ... as I consider them to be part of the story so as long as I dont put the Ottomases in Riverblossom and Strangetown I will be safe?
Yes, completely safe (if you like that sort of thing). The sims are different files in each neighbourhood.

[Peni Griffin]

Which is nice, with difficult families like the Ottomases and the Newsons, as you can take what you learned playing them the first time and play them differently, perhaps more successfully, the second time.

[rogue_55]

Yes, this is typical. EA decided to ship several "stealth" neighborhoods which are added as invisible subhoods to each neighborhood that you play. Some of those "stealth" neighborhoods contain sim bin families, like the Ottomas.

You can stop this from occurring by replacing your "stealth" neighborhood templates with empty versions which do not contain the sim bin families.


Hello Mootilda. Can you please explain how to replace the stealth neighborhood templates? I have all of the EP's and I moved all the families from the sim bin into Pleasantview. I really have no desire to play those same families again if I decide I want to play another neighborhood.

[Mootilda]

There are many different tutorials available. Here's the one that I learned from:
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13382.0.html

[rogue_55]

Thanks Mootilda.

[Kristin76]

Whew ... thank you for all your help. I was afraid something was going wrong in my game. Last time I had the game installed I dont rememeber this happening. But then again I only had up to Pets installed. I do like playing EA's Sims for some reason ... as I kind of like to think they are tied into the story/history that way. I dont create my own Sims (*gasp* I know)