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Test Subject
Original Poster
#1 Old 27th Jun 2018 at 9:47 PM
Default Advice on creating a custom story hood
Hi folks,

I just finished my degree (!) and while waiting for masters to start this autumn, I thought a fun long term goal to dip in and out of over the summer would be to make my own custom ‘story’ hood with the goal of sharing it when/if it’s ready! (Think in the same vein as maxon’s fab murder mystery hood)

I’m familiar with clean templates and very basic SimPE actions, however since I want to be able to share this I have a ton of questions about everything from memories to graveyards! I’d just rather not be responsible for ruinging someone’s game ahah

TL;DR - is there a good tutorial on making your own story hood for sharing? Otherwise I’ll drop all my questions into a post and hope someone can answer!

Thank you kindly in advance!
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Alchemist
#2 Old 28th Jun 2018 at 6:05 AM Last edited by Sunrader : 29th Jun 2018 at 1:02 PM.
I hope you keep the discussion here. I'd be interested to see what information you get. What are your questions?
Test Subject
Original Poster
#3 Old 29th Jun 2018 at 3:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sunrader
I hope you keep the discussion here. I'd be interested to see what information you get. What are your questions?


Thanks Sunrader! Yes I hoped keeping this discussion would be good for other folks as well. I imagine I’ll have Moreno as it goes on but for the time being my questions are:

Most important question would be Where’s the safest place to make this neighbourhood? AnyGameStarter or my own game with clean templates?

- When making memories for sims so it looks like they’ve rounded characters, is actually playing the events the best route or is just adding the correct memories via SimPE a way easier way?

- Is creating townies/NPCs within the neighbourhood and then sharing it safe? Or is it better to let people’s games create that?

- Is it safe at all to include a pregnant sim/pet? I have no plans to necessarily but hey the more options the better!

-When taking pictures for stories, is it better to use the camera in game or a third party one?

Thanks for reading the wall of text, hope some of these can be answered!
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#4 Old 29th Jun 2018 at 9:38 PM Last edited by maxon : 29th Jun 2018 at 9:51 PM.
I would recommend AGS - you can keep everything separate in there. Make backups after EVERY work session. Sometimes more than that if you do anything major.

With memories, I made them. If you want to avoid the game making too many NPCs and other extraneous sims, making the memories is the best way to go. It's fiddly though. I spent ages on that. Also bear in mind, I'm the queen of memory fiddling - it's not something everybody finds all that easy (don't know why 'cos I find it simple and quick but then, as I said, I'm pretty much a queen of that).

You can create townies/NPCs if you like. I didn't. Peni did, I think. It will bloat your file size though. There are still 2 NPCs in Polgannon. And four townies. They got created because I had apartments and you can't avoid it.

Preggers sim - OK I think. Both Peni and I included pregnant sims.

Third party all the way. I spent a long time cropping pictures and arranging them. I use Fraps.

I'll warn you now though, it took me four years to do Polgannon. Attached - a picture of the properties of my archived Polgannon working folder. Those are the files and records I used to create the hood and the story - NOT the hood itself. 26,463 files, 7.17GB - I'd never checked before. That's just the folder for the last year of work (when admittedly, I did most of it). You've been warned.

Ask me or Peni or Jawusa (or anyone else with experience) - we like talking about this topic.
Screenshots

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Alchemist
#5 Old 3rd Jul 2018 at 2:28 AM
I would examine the ones that work well to see how they did it, too. I've played with Widespot, but Polgannon is next on my todo list. As for how to make it, I thought it was really interesting how Dorsal Axe was able to recreate Strangetown, apparently, entirely in SimPE. http://modthesims.info/t/610026 This thread seems like it might have some useful skills mentioned in it to me.
Test Subject
Original Poster
#6 Old 4th Jul 2018 at 10:46 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
I would recommend AGS - you can keep everything separate in there. Make backups after EVERY work session. Sometimes more than that if you do anything major.

With memories, I made them. If you want to avoid the game making too many NPCs and other extraneous sims, making the memories is the best way to go. It's fiddly though. I spent ages on that. Also bear in mind, I'm the queen of memory fiddling - it's not something everybody finds all that easy (don't know why 'cos I find it simple and quick but then, as I said, I'm pretty much a queen of that).

You can create townies/NPCs if you like. I didn't. Peni did, I think. It will bloat your file size though. There are still 2 NPCs in Polgannon. And four townies. They got created because I had apartments and you can't avoid it.

Preggers sim - OK I think. Both Peni and I included pregnant sims.

Third party all the way. I spent a long time cropping pictures and arranging them. I use Fraps.

I'll warn you now though, it took me four years to do Polgannon. Attached - a picture of the properties of my archived Polgannon working folder. Those are the files and records I used to create the hood and the story - NOT the hood itself. 26,463 files, 7.17GB - I'd never checked before. That's just the folder for the last year of work (when admittedly, I did most of it). You've been warned.

Ask me or Peni or Jawusa (or anyone else with experience) - we like talking about this topic.


Maxor I cannot thank you enough for this response! You’ve covered everything and I feel prepared to tackle this project now :lovestruc:

Thank also for your honesty, while I’m not going for anything as complex as Polgannon its probally more realistic that this project may run into my PHD then by the sounds of it lmao!

If I have further questions would a PM work best for you?
All the best x
Test Subject
Original Poster
#7 Old 4th Jul 2018 at 11:00 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sunrader
I would examine the ones that work well to see how they did it, too. I've played with Widespot, but Polgannon is next on my todo list. As for how to make it, I thought it was really interesting how Dorsal Axe was able to recreate Strangetown, apparently, entirely in SimPE. http://modthesims.info/t/610026 This thread seems like it might have some useful skills mentioned in it to me.


Thank you for that thread Sunrader, I only looked for stuff linked to custom neighbourhoods and didn’t think about threads dealing with fixing the maxis ones.
Guess I’ll have to REALLY get familiar with SimPE then, I’m hoping I’ll feel more confident after spending the last few months mucking about in other scary programmes!

I’ve been reading the comments in the customhoods ( like Polgannon, Widespot and Sedona) and Ive begun to foray into Polgannon. I’ll try the other as well I think, thank you for the suggestion!
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#8 Old 5th Jul 2018 at 12:47 AM
Quote: Originally posted by cleanwindows
Thank also for your honesty, while I’m not going for anything as complex as Polgannon its probally more realistic that this project may run into my PHD then by the sounds of it lmao!

Funnily enough, I wrote Polgannon while I was doing my PhD. Yeah, it was late. (both of them).

Quote: Originally posted by cleanwindows
If I have further questions would a PM work best for you?

Post here if you like - then everyone can see it. Besides you might attract the attention of other hood builders. There are a few of us about and people have different ideas and perspectives.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Test Subject
Original Poster
#9 Old 5th Jul 2018 at 8:43 PM
Quote: Originally posted by maxon
Funnily enough, I wrote Polgannon while I was doing my PhD. Yeah, it was late. (both of them).


Post here if you like - then everyone can see it. Besides you might attract the attention of other hood builders. There are a few of us about and people have different ideas and perspectives.


Good point, I said at the start I'd keep it here to help people as well, big brain fart on my part!

I actually do have a question; when tweaking sims memories, is it okay to have slight discrepancies between events? IE two sims share a first kiss together but one remembers a mystery sim instead
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#10 Old 6th Jul 2018 at 11:52 AM
Oh yes - memories are individual to the sim, there's no connection between them.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
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