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Alchemist
Original Poster
#1 Old 24th Dec 2020 at 9:24 PM
Default Tutorial – Adding Custom Vacation Locals Using a Subhood
Preamble:
I wanted custom locals for my vacation spots, with better names and faces than the EA versions. But I didn't want to create them fresh every time I start a new hood, and it is a Very Bad Thing to move sims from one hood to another.
This method means I can create my own set of sims, and safely install them again and again.

Resources:
Mootilda's Custom Subhood Tutorial
(optional - Non-default ethnic face templates by Isbrealiomcaife , or at GoS
Moo's Subhood Selection Fix SimPE TJ College Adjuster
TJ SimBlender
Pescado Batbox (FFS Lot Debugger)
Argon Townie Brick Townie Brick
Moo's Hoodchecker

Credit:
Apart from all the creators whose resources I used, credit also goes to MeetMe2TheRiver, whose work showed me that this was even a possibility.

Method:
- Create CAS templates (I used the ethnic face templates Isbrealiomcaife), and have them ready in your SavedSims folder. Choose an Everyday outfit for your template sims, but don't bother with the other outfits as they won't stick. Hair colour is maintained, but not style. Makeup, fit/fat state, age and skin tone will all remain.
- Create an empty suburb environment, using the method described in Mootilda's tutorial.
Within that hood, use your template sims in Create-A-Family to build your vacation locals and save them to the Sim Bin. At this stage, you can apply hairstyles and clothes properly - everything works just like creating playables. (If you didn't prepare templates beforehand, you can of course make sims from scratch at this stage.)



- Place one empty residential lot.
- Place TwoJeffs' College Adjuster and SimBlender, and Pescado's Batbox and Argon's Townie Brick on the lot.
- One by one, move your CAS households onto that lot. Check / finalise them any way you want.



My finalisation process:
College Adjuster/Electronics/Cellphones - give phones to teens and older. CollegeAdjuster/Randomize/Skills Max 5 - give a few skillpoints to children and older.
SimBlender/Relationships/Set/Remove - check that each family has the right kind of relationships.
Batbox/Info/One True Hobby - check that the group has a range of hobbies.
I may also give a secondary aspiration to adults and elders.

I haven't messed around giving them jobs, special memories or bios. You can if you like.

- Save after making these changes.
- Use Argon's Townie Brick/Make Me/...Local (choose Tropics, Asia or Mountain, depending what vacation spot you are creating for).
As this is applied, each sim will become unselectable. Once they are all finished, Save.
- Exit the lot. The mod objects will still be there next time you open it.
You should have the correct number of files in the suburb's Characters folder.
- When all the new locals have been finished in this way, bulldoze the lot. There should be nothing in the Lots folder for the subhood.
- Install your new subhood with the other Shopping Districts/Suburbs. (Program Files...OFB... /TSData/RES/NeighborhoodTemplates)
- Create a new primary neighbourhood to test your subhood. This hood needs one sim in a residential lot, and a vacation subhood matching the locals you just made.
(I actually test with one adult and one child sim, because child townies don't usually turn up on lots unless you have a playable child in the household.)
Install the suburb you made ('Add Shopping District' button). Once it has been added, you should have the correct number of new sims in the Characters folder for the main hood.
- The BV locals subhood can now be deleted – it was just a placeholder for the sims, who should now be available at the destination.
- Send your test sim/s on vacation, and your locals should turn up to show them greetings and dances.
- Run Hoodchecker to fix any broken memories for the new sims. (Installing a subhood apparently messes with them.)
- You can then add the same sims to any other neighbourhood you have, as long as the suburb is kept in your game files.

This process will also work for other NPC types you may wish to create, such as tourists or townies.

Here's my test sim (red shirt), learning the hula with some new Tropical locals:

Hope this is useful for others. It would be lovely to see some more custom locals sets available to choose from.
Screenshots
Attached files:
File Type: 7z  AE_Tutorial-BVlocals-Subhoods.7z (692.2 KB, 15 downloads)

My new downloads are on my Pillowfort
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