@Tleilaxu3
MM2TR's cleaned Strangetown does not include any townies. It's the game which auto-generates the townies as you load the neighborhood for the first time.

To STOP that, download the following mods: notownieregen, antiredudancy, nossrespawn, nostrayrespawn, nodormieregen
Have a look here. https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Game_g...an_neighborhood

Hi ! Thanks for responding.
And for the links !

Ok, I may have asked this in the wrong way-- I do have the necessary hacks to prevent townies and strays, etc. from spawning.

@Jawusa : Sorry, Updated question :

I already have the default versions of your empty templates in my Program Files folder where the game is installed.
I now want to play your wonderfully totally empty hood.

I have all of the necessary hacks to prevent townies and strays from generating.

Do I put the default hood into the my documents folder and then play the game ?
Or do I download the non-default and put it in my doc. folder and play from that one ?

I re-downloaded the default Strangetown as I want to create my own playables.
Wanted to make sure I do this right.
Thanks again.

Hi again!

You don’t have to put the neighborhoods into your Program Files folder, unless you want to prevent the game from adding the versy same set of townies in every neighborhood.

But since you actually want to play in an empty Strangetown and create your own sims, I‘d recommend you putting either version (default or non-default) into your Documents folder.

If you get the non-default version, you can also play in a copy of Meetme2theriver‘s Strangetown alongside my empty copy. You’d have 2 Strangetowns then in your game. 1 with EA’s sims and 1 with your sims only. This however is not possible if you get the default version since it replaces the original Strangetown.

I've noticed that when playing in an empty uberhood with Belladonna Cove as the main hood, any graves sent to Gamesend Grounds just vanish. They work fine when they're sent elsewhere although I only tested the Downtown graveyard. I wonder if the lot itself is borked?

@nuidyaforever
Try using Mootilda's HoodChecker to restore the graves. Maybe that'll help making the gravestones appear in Gamesend Grounds.

Thanks - I think I tried that but I'll try again and see what happens.

I've placed everything in every expansion pack folder per your instructions and moved the originals to my external HDD "The Sims 2 Multimedia Archive" folder, exactly. However I still have the Traveller family and the Smith family in the Strangetown neighborhood, that includes Gieke who is now Caliente, and the Grunt's, though I need to break up Jenny from Pollination Tech. 9, so that she can marry Tank, as for the playable Sim families that are stuck in that limbo EA calls The Family Lot Bin or whatever, I expect there should be no one in there as I set up Strangetown's occupants in their Lots before the "Clean And Empty Neighborhood Templates" installation!

So... what pray tell do you have to say about that, it's a waste of my time to start over from the beginning, I hope all the OTHER Neighborhoods are "empty" as they don't have any pre-setup Lots that are occupied by otherwise-SimLess houses!


Sincerely Frustrated Yet Thankful,
Michael Simkins/Cloud_Strife

@Cloud_Strife

Are you sure you loaded the neighborhoods after installed the templates? Because, it does not effect current neighborhoods, but future ones. If you want to play EA's neighborhoods without the bin families, you have to start a fresh copy.

That's what I was afraid of, I won't be doing that unless something tragic happens to my PC or I install it fresh on another separate custom-built PC!

1. File named U003_Neighborhood.package (default version) contains empty Resource Tree. Académie Le Tour not available for adding.
2. A similar problem with D001 default, Downtown not available for adding too. SimPE says that id must be unique.

I downloaded non-default versions and installed them, it works!

P.S. thank u for your work ♥ But I think u should know about issues

Hey, so I had been using these files previously (with success), but after a recent reinstall I can't seem to get them to work. I have UC on win7 and I'm trying out the CleanUI from greatcheesecakepersona for the first time.

I've put all the stealth and default hoods into their appropriate folders, double-checked and triple-checked it, but each time I load the game up there are plumbobs everywhere. I've tried looking into the Virtual Store path as advised in a prior comment, but the EA folder doesn't exist in there.

I haven't played any households or created any Sims or subhoods, only loaded 2 main hoods to check whether they were empty or not (and they're not). Any ideas about what I'm doing wrong?

@smrhsn
Are you sure you removed the original files BEFORE putting in mine? Do not just copy and paste them over the originals, these won't work.
Also, have you tried resetting your neighborhoods? Just remove the "Neighborhoods" folder in your Documents/EA Games folder and try again!

Hey - first of all, thank you so much for still being active for these!! Second, I am on a Mac and I just had to switch to the Super Collection ... my BV Neighborhoods Template has a fourth folder called V001 - any idea what that's for? And/or is it safe to delete? I have never cared about BV and I have no real desire to play it.

(Also... there is a default neighborhood and families in the Pets EP folder but that isn't on the list here.)

I am so grateful that this exists. I've downloaded the Sims 2 again, and trying not to go too crazy with custom stuff. This is different though because it gives me empty towns subhood stuff and I wish I had been on this site back in the day but thank you!

And also thank you and a very late R.I.P. to Cow Mom. I feel like people would call her that. I'm sorry if that's really weird, but I am really weird.

She was a genius with this stuff, clearly. She was one of the greats! Fuck Cancer.

Hi there, I tried googling myself blind but found nobody else with this issue. I have installed the defaults + main hood versions of the holiday destinations and downtown, however when I start the game the neighbourhoods are still populated (no townies though. yay!). I play UC on W10, so tried this method... but I dont have an EA GAMES folder? Only thing showing up is the Warderobe Wrangler and Collection Maker. What do you reckon?

@katalina522
V001 is the hidden sub-neighborhood that adds the Traveler family and bunch of townies/NPC into each of your neighborhood. If you just remove that file as well (which is recommended), you can make sure that the vacation nhoods are completely empty!

@otium
When installing the files, did you remove the originals first completely? Or did you just copy/past the new ones to the old ones?
Also, try deleting your game caches and re-install the neighborhoods again, to see whether this fixes the issue.

can someone explain why it is bad to replace the original files? because oops i just did that. should i reinstall my game or something? is it borked forever like this?

@cows
If you just replace the original files without taking them out, there might still be some references left, which is why, the templates wouldn't work. So, you really have to delete any exisiting files before putting these ones.

Question: If I were creating a custom university and have Cyjon's There Can Be Only One (Professor) mod installed, will I need to download your clean hood template for Sim State University? I was directed here from a help thread I posted as I still had two professors created per each major even though I had the mod installed.

@trambling101
Yes, because that mod only prevents the game from generating new professor NPCs, but it won't prevent the game from copying the default dormies/NPCs to your neighborhood when creating custom subhoods, unless you have these templates installed.

Bear in mind that installing this template won't affect your already exisiting neighborhoods, but your future ones. So, if you want to get rid of your unwanted dormies/NPCs, you either have to restore from a backup of your neighborhood in which you haven't attached the university subhood yet, or you use the safe method of deleting the unwanted sims individually.

Understood and thanks for letting me know. I know it won't affect my already created neighbourhood and that's fine. Will I only need to replace the first premade university hood in order for the game to generate new ones?

@trambling101
Yes, replacing the first premade university hood is enough to prevent new sims from being added. Don't merge files though when installing. Make sure to remove the original template completely before putting in mine. (ie make sure the Characters folder is empty!) Otherwise, it won't work.

I'm not sure whose version of Bluewater Village I actually got, but - it wasn't completely clean. Moved in a couple of sims to one of the houses, and discovered too late that on the kitchen counter there were two half-prepared meals: a chef salad and a lobster thermidor. They spoiled before I could get them completed.

So if this isn't really a clean version, what can I do about it?

Hokay, found the explanation. It was a MAXIS bug. The neighborhood shipped buggy, and the cleaner overlooked it too. https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/223_Idlewild_Street

223 Ildewild Street is a residential lot featured in Bluewater Village, the neighborhood from The Sims 2: Open for Business. It is the home of the Jacquet family. The house has two floors, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms....

The kitchen contains a plate of chef salad and lobster thermidor. Even though they have been finished, it is not possible for Sims to eat from these plates, and the only interactions available on them are to clean them up or resume cooking. Performing the latter interaction will result in a routing failure.

Hi, I have two questions (I've had to re-install my games and am going through putting in the clean templates)
1. With the templates for N001, N002, N003, and G001, if I put them in the Program Files, do I also need to put them in the Documents folder, as well? Or is it one or the other?
2. Some of the Program Files I went into only had the stealth hood templates--do I still need to put the neighborhood empty templates into those folders as well, or do I just leave those be?