I have tried googling this, but am only finding answers for community lots.

I'd like to have about 20 sims on the same residential lot. Is that possible?

It would only be temporary, for a wedding, so it wouldn't have to be a permanent change. I need to have them all controllable, if possible, as I want to take pictures for a story and need to put them all in their proper places.

A second choice would be the ability to invite more people to a party, but then I couldn't micromanage them! lol

I should mention that I have never downloaded any hacks or custom content ever, so I would be a real newbie at that if that's what's needed.

Thanks!

If it's just for a party, I don't recommend a mod for having more than 8 sims on a lot.
Have you ever used the boolprop cheatcode? With that you can make visitors selectable and you can control them.
Then you make them unselectable again and they'll leave like they would have otherwise.
The boolprop is: press CTRL+ALT+C and type boolprop testingcheatsenabled true
Then press SHIFT + Left Click on a sim you want to make selectable.
You'll see a menu with the option "Make selectable" (somewhere because it's a large menu)
When they're selectable and you SHIFT + left click them you can make them unselectable again.
To turn off the cheat CTRL+ALT+C and typ boolprop testingcheatsenabled false (don't forget to do this!)

Hope this is what you meant and it can help you.

Not even the Essentials? The corruption suppressors? You really need those...You won't need any new skills to install custom content, I promise.

It's possible - I've done larger parties - but it may strain your machine. There's a larger parties hack; it's possible to edit your files yourself to allow larger parties; or you can use a teleporter to summon the extra people to your lot. Once on the lot, you can make them all selectable with the testingcheats.

Which of these things would you like instructions for?

That sounds just right--so could I have eight family members and then invite 8 party guests, do you think? That would be enough.

I have used boolprop for things like the modder and tombstone of life and death, so I think I could manage it. Thanks so much!

I've never had corruption so never saw a need--but I tend to get bored with a neighborhood once everyone is happy and fulfilled and I've never been interested in multi-generational stuff, so I tend to simply delete and re-load neighborhoods pretty often.

Will i need the "larger parties" thing if I can invite 8 over and then make them selectable? I think 16 total would be okay.

What is the teleporter? (I've only done that with a witch, lol)

Thanks!

Oh you need the essential mods, just because you haven't seen outward signs of corruption doesn't mean it's not there. People have played corrupt hoods for months, others have played a week and had them go kaboom, it's like Russian Roulette.

You want the Simlogical telporter. But first, go grab at least no unlink on delete and no corrupt death and the bat Box, no sim loaded and smarter ep check. If you play vampires also grab creature fixes.

I appreciate the concern, but you just said a whole bunch of things I've never heard of, lol

Simlogical teleporters:
http://www.simlogical.com/sl/Sims2P...Teleporters.htm

To use for this purpose, click and choose Summon/household name/individual from household. If you want to get rid of someone, you can "zap" them away with the teleporter, too. Also good for making townies and moving people in.

You're around here often enough you must've heard of the batbox! Play without the essentials at your own risk - they'll still be there when you decide you need them. There's a sticky "essential mods" thread that should have all the links. If you play vampires, though, creaturefixes stops the vampires from biting Mrs. Crumplebottom, which can mess up your game program files, not just your neighborhood.

Can you tell where to download those essentials? I have played sims 2 for years and except for smarter ep check I have never heard of those before.

Stick around here and you will hear those names many times. So the two main ones are No Unlink on delete and no corrupt death, both mods are to stop corruption from death/dead sims sims. These are Pescado mods found on MATY. I typed 'no corrupt death sims 2' into Google' and it was the first link to pop up so I don't think I need to go track these down for everybody. http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/s...hp?topic=2368.0 If you can't find them are not sure you have the mod I will certainly help you look, but I think it's fair if people actually look themselves first after being told the name. The other ones mentioned are also Pescado mods except for No sim loaded which is by Boiling Oil and Smarter EP check is by Cyjon.

My problem is that once I click on the link to download something, i have no idea what to do then. Is there a "For Dummies" guide to how to add these things to your game?

Read "Downloading for Fracking Idiots." It's mostly about custom content instead of mods and the screenshots are a bit outdated, but it should help you get started. Post back here if you still have questions.

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...Fracking_Idiots

Okay, that's different we are always happy to help new people. So go to Documents>EA Games>The Sims 2 folder. Inside the sims 2 folder will be your Download folder or if there isn't one you can make it. Right click>new folder> Spell it Downloads. Must have the capital D. Once you have the folder open it and make another folder inside and name it with the name of the download or the download type. For example, if you are grabbing a few mods you will want a folder called 'Mods' these folders can be called anything and spelt any way you like. This is to keep the things you download organized.
Next, go and grab the downloads that you need, you will need an unzipping program. Unzip them into the folder/s that you just made. Load your game, it will stop on a screen which might give you a scare first time you see it, pretty much EA going you have installed something not made by EA!! Yeah ignore it, it can be turned off under settings. Also under settings, you will need to make sure that you have CC turned on. There is little on/off area in there.
That is pretty much all there is to most sims 2 cc, make a folder, unzip your download and toss it in. Of course, when or if you start wanting lots of mods like most of us here do read them over carefully, mods can clash. Most times that means finding what is clashing and pulling it out. Not the end of the world, most of us here have had clashing mods. If you get No Sim Loaded (recommend it cleans up extra junk on your lot when it first loads) you must also get Smarter EP check by Cyjon, it needs it to work.

If you are unsure or have any questions feel free to ask.

This looks great! Thank you!

I do not have an unzipping program--are there any free ones?

Well WinZIP actually comes installed with Windoze (from Win7 onwards I think) so unless you uninstalled it, you do have an unzip utility but the ones most popular I guess are WinRAR and 7zip - many people (including me) use those but there are plenty of others. Just Google for them.

WinZIP keeps telling me I need to pay for it--but I'll try those others, thanks!

If you have Windows 7 or later, you don't need WinZip. Windows will open .zip files all by itself. You may want 7zip or WinRAR anyway. Many downloads are in .rar or .7z format and Windows can't open those. 7zip opens .rar and .7z and a wide variety of other archive file formats, which is why I recommend that one.

I use WinRar. Most times I right click on a file and tell it to extract to (name it gives me) it then extracts while making a folder plus it doesn't ask me to pay for it. You can get a demo version or a paid version, the free version doesn't stop working but it will ask you to pay if you left click it.

Doesn't matter if it (Winrar) does ask you to pay, you just click away from the pay screen. It goes on being free, it just nags you about it.

about corruption; from my understanding, all pre-made main neighborhoods start with some corruption.
the Hood Checker program might extend their play-ability time.

I mention the pay screen because it's blooming annoying, but right clicking can avoid that.

Ok I found them all, but is it right that most of them are +10 years old. I never download such old mods because I am not sure of compatibility.
But I do understand there might be corruption you don't see. So I need them.

Maybe I can use hoodchecker to see how bad it is at this time.

It isn't the age of a mod that matters but how it was made/if it needed an EP update; some don't. If your game randomly deletes a grave you will have serious corruption issues all for the want of an easily accessible mod. We wouldn't recommend them if there was something newer. Pesacdo gave up modding for sims 2 when Sims 3 came out. Death in game has remained the same since the base game so there was nothing to update. It works with all EP's.

They stopped making the game 10 years ago. With the last game engine done, there is no need to update some of the mods. 10 year old mods are generally fine, especially when made by a certain set of modders.