FINAL Update July 27th 2018:
All of the clean and empty neighborhood templates are finished and have officially been uploaded HERE!. This thread is now closed, any questions regarding these neighborhood templates go to the official upload thread, please! Thanks!

Hi everyone,
After doing clean and empty stealth hood templates, http://modthesims.info/d/520751 I decided to do the same for the base game neighborhoods and later for the EP neighborhoods.
I've found a way to clear sim references from a lot. These neighborhoods need more testing before I upload them. Mootilda's HC doesn't warn of any non-existing sims. So there shouldn't be any sim references in the lots.

I will write a picture tutorial of clearing sim references from a lot after I've officially uploaded these neighborhood templates.
All of the lots have been compressed with Mootilda's LotCompressor, except the lots of the CS neighborhoods. LotCompressor doesn't support those lots but the LS and PS lots have been compressed.

Oh, this shouldn't happen but please report if you see any floating trees, lots, etc.

Thank you for testing these templates! Of course you will get a credit for testing the neighborhood templates.

As for the LS neighborhoods, they don't work with TS2 if you just move the neighborhoods folder into TS2. But there's a work around to get them working in TS2. There will be missing wallpapers, floors and some other objects if you managed to get them working in TS2, though.

As for the PS neighborhoods, they will work with TS2 but you need the Pets expansion pack. But it's not really recommend to use them in TS2 because the lots will have missing wallpapers, floors and some other objects; it will look ugly in TS2 but fine in TSPS. By the way, user warnings appear on every PS neighborhoods if I check them with HC but if I load those lots in TS2 and check, the user warnings disappear which is a bit odd. I believe these empty PS neighborhood templates are not corrupt but there's a compatibility issue between TSPS and HC.

As for the CS neighborhoods, Wanmami Island should work with no problems but as for Felicity Island... it was a pain to remove the story from the neighborhood. It can't be removed by just renaming the neighborhood folder. It's hard coded. I've spent the entire day to try to remove the story from Felicity Island. Well, it's not perfect yet. The story rewards are all there in my game but the travel button is grayed out. Fortunately, you CAN travel but you have to click on the portrals if you want to travel. I'll update Felicity Island if I found out a way of re-enabling the travel button.

I tried it, if I renumber the neighborhood, the travel button is enabled but the map is the wrong one. Therefore you can't visit any community lots if you renumber Felicity Island. That's why I kept the number 'N001'.

To install:

Download and extract the files.
Backup your existing files first. Make sure that you have moved the original templates somewhere other before you but mine. Don't replace any existing files.

The Sims 2 Base Game:
Cut and paste N001, N002 and N003 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

The Sims 2 University:
Cut and paste U001, U002 and U003 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 University\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

The Sims 2 Nightlife:
Cut and paste D001 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Nightlife\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

The Sims 2 Open For Business:
Cut and paste B001 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Open For Business\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

The Sims 2 Seasons:
Cut and paste G001 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

The Sims 2 Bon Voyage:
Cut and paste A001, M001 and T001 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

The Sims 2 Free Time:
Cut and paste F001 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Free Time\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods
Cut and paste F002 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Free Time\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

The Sims 2 Apartment Life:
Cut and paste E001 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods
Cut and paste E002 to C:\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

The Sims Life Stories:
Cut and paste LS01 and LS02 to C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims Life Stories\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

The Sims Pet Stories:
Cut and paste PS01, PS02 and PS03 to C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims Pet Stories\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

The Sims Castaway Stories:
Cut and paste N001 and N002 to C:\Program Files (x86)\Electronic Arts\The Sims Castaway Stories\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods

Keep the N001 but you may want to have it another number to so it can work with Pleasantview.

Ok first off you have the newspaper on the Goth lot and there are shocking pink flamingo's on that lot. Newspaper = paper boy/girl had to bring it there so that means they may be hidden sim references there that the Hood Checker can not see.

Have not looked any farther yet.

I extracted them with a mod which unlocks hidden stuff. So those newspapers, trash, pizza box, etc. are straight from the catalog. Nobody brought them there. And those pink flamingos are for the tombstones. Yes, I have to delete them before I upload it here. I just placed them to see where the tombstones are. I couldn't do the same for the bills and for the tombstones just like I did for the newspaper, etc. because they are iffy. So that's why I put those pink flamingos instead.

But these objects are all corruption free. They are all bought from the catalog.

By the way, thank you for looking into it.

I have not had any more time to look this over but will try to this weekend.

Oh just take your time you need. I'm in no rush.

I had a look around and did not see anything out of place or missing.
I for one think it is done.

I'm sorry that it took a long time until I've finally uploaded the new and updated versions of the templates. Please redownload the templates if you have downloaded the old versions. See post #1 of this thread for more information about the neighborhood templates and the lots.

Will be testing these new ones out soon.

OK, thank you. Nobody seems to be interested in these empty neighborhood templates, though.

Not very many players come here so we have very few testers for this.

If you can give me precise directions that I need to do .. point A to point B ... I would be more than happy to be of service. I feel sorta like a dork in that I don't quiet understand what you need. The whole cleaned and stealth templates makes me cross-eyed tryin to figure it all out and understand it. I kinda understand it, but still fuzzy.

I mean I get what the stealth hoods are and do - bloat your game w/ unnecessary crap that EA forces on you. You came to the rescue and said no more crap. Yes?

I know I had questions at the time I looked at the different hoods, but atm, I can't think of them. Seems as I get older I gettin more and more confused by things that never used to confound me (and I'm really not that old ... yet... lol).

Ok, so sorry for the subject derailment. So, how can I be of help?

If you look at the 1st post you will see whats here and if you follow it you will be able to have no normal townies and any other sim that get gen up when you make a new hood.

Also if you install all the other empty templates from here: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=520751 and you have all the ones in this thread when you go make a brand new hood it will be empty, even downtown and
universities plus Bluewater.

But all of this needs to be tested to make sure they work.

Oh, this templates will just remove the Maxis sims from the neighborhood. This will also prevent the townies to be added in each neighborhood. You won't have townies if you create a custom university, a downtown, or a suburb. By the way, I'd like to have some more testers because nobody has cleared any sim references from lots before and it needs testing so that I can verify that it's 100% safe. Then, I'll write a tutorial for clearing sim references.

If you ask what sim references are... Well, the game saves informations about the sims on a lot. Even if the sims move out, the references won't be cleared. It's one of the VBT if you would place it into another neighborhood or if you want to share it. Because in a new neighborhood, the game cannot link those references to a sim because the sim doesn't exsist in the new neighborhood. Unfortunately, this will corrupt the neighborhood. That's why you have to clear the sim references before you move any previously occupied lots into another neighborhood. The solution (unfurnish the lot as many people believe) doesn't solve the bug. You don't even have to unfurnish it. You just have to delete some files inside the lot package and it's cleared of that little thing which will corrupt your neighborhood. But as said, it's still unknown if the sim references are completely removed. It seems it is but I just want to make sure that it's really corruption-free.

By the way, I've added the LS primary hoods as well.

It`s the first time hoodchecker is clean after playing for several times, always backup the clean version, and going to the last clean backup, the game go smooth and have no errors at all; absolutely no townies (Maty's mod about no townies seems to work 100% with your clean hoods), 'call to lunch' or 'view much' options go on working, fine! I have had 'hoodchecker's reports when one sim went to any community lot, then the first errors appear. The message from Moothilda's 'Neighborhood checker' was that with 'a sim having a relationship with self'. I installed the lots from your Pleasantview to your Veronaville, put them on the bin; I hope and it seems not to be the problem, for I checked it with a previous backup, and it said the same report. I don't know if this information is what you need, nor if I can help you testing, Forgive me if this is unuseful. I would be honored if I could help, and my sims could have 'clean' dates. I wonder if there's no way to preserve an absolute clean report forever.

Oh these relationships with self are harmless. They don't have to do with the sim informations in lots. They appear if you play the game, also in other neighborhoods. You can remove it with HC if you want but they're harmless.
By the way, please report if the HC is reporting any sims which do not exist. In other words, please report if you see anything under 'User Warnings'. The other things (wants and fears, memories, relationships) can be safely removed and are harmless corruptions and don't have to do with this project.

By the way, it shouldn't be a problem to place the previously occupied lots from Veronaville to Pleasantview. Therefore, you're neighborhood should be fine, I hope.

Thank you for your report.

Hi Jawusa,

Can I just ask what did you do that was different from the original empty templates at MATY? I'm interested that's all.

I'm just about to put back empty templates into my main game after the new installation with the new rig. I tried Polgannon in my main game yesterday only for the game to add a pile of pet and townie files. Sigh. I thought, nope - takes too much time if I'm swapping around neighbourhood folders so the empty templates need to go back. I always found the original versions worked just fine but would be interested to know what you spotted in them that you've improved upon.

Basicly they are the same but Jawusa took it father by also cleaning all the sim ref. from the houses as well.

This way you also get all the houses from the hoods.

Read post #13 if you want to know what sim references are. The templates from MATY haven't been cleaned with Mootilda's safer method of deleting all of the sims from the neighborhood. http://modthesims.info/t/468987

The other version, where you have to delete them with Batbox or delete the entire Characters folder without to use the Batbox first) is not safe and it still leaves some junk in the wants and fears records and sim scores in the neighborhood behind, even if you use the batbox version. Thus the sim references inside the lots are not cleared as well and will cause corruption if you would load those lots. Sim references aren't well-known and there are still people who place previously occupied lots in other neighborhoods which will cause corruptions if you don't delete the sim references inside the lot packages.

I've used Moo's version to remove all of the sims and cleared all of the lots from the sim references. As marka93 said, you can now safely move (for instance) the Goth residence to another neighborhood and make over that lot, without fearing that your neighborhood could be corrupt.

In other words, the neighborhood templates on MATY were cleaned using a different, less safe, technique.
I don't want to insult them. I really appreciate their templates but after I've figured out, that those templates are corrupt, I decided to create my own empty neighborhood templates to replace their 'hood templates.

Well, this project was already on Moo's 'To-Do List' You can find it here http://modthesims.info/member.php?u=589252 Go to 'Journal' and scroll a bit down until you see 'To-Do List' There you'll find this:


Unfortunately, we will never see such an upload from her anymore. I miss her so much. That's why I decided to take over her project and finish it for her.

Oh right - you are talking about the EAxis neighbourhoods. Never use them and don't want them. With the prior empty templates, on making a custom hood there were no SWAFs or SREFs on making a new hood (I know because I look at that sort of thing). Clean lots, as I say, are irrelevent to me. Thanks for clearing that up. It means I can use the old ones without worrying.

You should be fine if you don't have any SimDNA files in the neighborhood package.

The sim reference that are left on the lot, are those there from the moment the sim is moved into a lot or do they start after the lot has been played for a while?

Sim references will be generated if you move a family to a lot and play it. You don't even have to play it, it still has those references.

By the way, I've sent you a PM about that.

Yes, none of that either. I think the confusion arises because what I mean by empty templates and what others seem to mean these days is slightly different. When that thread at MATY was written there were far more of us around who didn't use EAxis neighbourhoods at all and what we were looking for was a way to avoid the lot of it. That was what was meant by empty - lots were definitely EAxis and as such a no-go. Now it seems to mean something linked to the existing EAxis hoods. You might help old-timers like me by making that clear on your downloads.

Okay, the neighborhood templates seem to be fine. No one has reported any user warnings. But I can't credit anyone here. There are people who have downloaded the templates but didn't report anything. Please let me know if you have downloaded them so I can credit you then.

I'm a little confused by this. Does this mean all Maxis created Sims won't be in the hood anymore with these templates? Like the Goths and Calientes? Or does this mean only townies and NPCs are purged?