Turning on and off Custom Content

[Glitchie]

Hi,

I was wondering if there's a way to turn on and off custom content - I know there's a splash screen to disable en mass, but what I'm looking for is more selective. Such as, I would like to turn off my Harry Potter content when making a real world neighborhood, which I'd like to do as well.

[maxon]

I thought both Delphy's Download Organiser and the Clean Installer had that function - in fact, so does Wardrobe Wrangler. You have to use them outside the game, of course, but then that's also true of the splash screen option in a sense since you have to close the game and restart for it to take effect. You might be better taking stuff out of Downloads and putting it in a folder somewhere because the game will still look at the files even if it doesn't read them which will slow loading.

[Glitchie]

Ugh, *headdesk* taking stuff out of the downloads folder sounds like a long and painful process. I will try Delphy's first. Thanks!

---

Okay, I've got Delphy's Download Organizer, and I'm sorry, I'm confused. It may be that its 6 am where I am, I was up all night on Friday, and didn't sleep at all till yesterday around 3 pm, and was up and down since 7 pm, lol but does the Sims game pull stuff from the subfolders of the download folder, so I'd have to move the folder somewhere else entirely? I don't mind having SOME Harry Potter stuff accessible, just the newspaper, careers/classes and names. I want to have a real world Salem, Mass. for my game. Kinda play out a story I'm working on. :)

[sushigal007]

I think Nightlife came with the option to put stuff in subfolders - I know basegame doesn't allow it and I can't remember about Uni. So you could sort all your Harry Potter stuff into one folder and drag it into your Downloads folder whenever you want to play it, then pop it on your desktop when you don't want it.

[TortureTheNannies]

When disabling one hack at a time, I change the file extension from .package to .off .. Anything other than package disables it, and you can easily reverse the procedure.

[gazania]

The big problem I see if you have certain CC files turned off and on in the Installer (or manually) is if you save the game while they're off. Wouldn't mods and other content in other neighborhoods that add memories, custom careers and majors, food items, or geneticized skintones cause you more than a bit of hassle if you do that? Doesn't saving a game with the CC off affect all neighborhoods? I thought that was a VBT, under certain circumstances. Or does a save without the CC affect one neighborhood only?

Perhaps I misread the OPs question? I was under the impression that the person wanted to take out all HP content when creating this neighborhood, and would be saving with files in .off. But if Sims in another neighborhood happen to have a Arithmancer career, for instance, wouldn't saving a neighborhood with the career missing affect the HP one as well? Or do I need more caffeine?

I could be wrong. After all these years, I'm learning more and more about this game ... it keeps it more interesting!

EDIT ... I suppose the person could keep their HP content in a special Downloads folder, move or hide the folder while setting up the new neighborhood, re-activate everything before saving, save the new neighborhood. It would help in finding non-HP stuff while setting everything up in the new neighborhood. Still I don't think there's a selective CC hider for each neighborhood that you can use every time you play ... is there?

[HaunterMooneyes]

If you have Nightlife, subfolders work like a charm for this. I have a "medieval" subfolder that goes in when I want to play Rivervale, my medieval neighbourhood, and comes out whenever I want to play another neighbourhood. Put all of your Harry Potter things in a subfolder and pull them out when you don't want them--but be careful that you haven't placed any of that CC on any lots in your "clean" neighbourhood, and that none of your Sims in said neighbourhood have careers etc from there.

@Gazania: So far as I know, as long as you don't place any of the CC on a lot in one of the "clean" neighbourhoods, there shouldn't be a problem. Neighbourhoods don't share data that way. The problem would lie in the lots, and if the CC comes out of the folder and doesn't go back in for the duration of your play on a clean lot, I don't think there'd be an issue.

[maxon]

The big problem I see if you have certain CC files turned off and on in the Installer (or manually) is if you save the game while they're off. Wouldn't mods and other content in other neighborhoods that add memories, custom careers and majors, food items, or geneticized skintones cause you more than a bit of hassle if you do that? Doesn't saving a game with the CC off affect all neighborhoods?
Neighbourhoods are only affected by the absence of CC if you load them. It's quite possible to swap alternative Downloads folders in and out and play different games in different neighbourhoods. I regularly take out all my CC (except for the 'reset' hacks) in order to test new stuff. I only leave the 'reset' hacks in for insurance and out of habit - there have been several occasions when I've loaded the game with nothing in Downloads at all and gone into the testing hood, exited the game once I'd done what I wanted to do - all with no effect on Little Carping. For testing purposes, removing everything except what you want to test means much faster loading times and also helps when trying to locate the new stuff in the catalogues.

[Glitchie]

Awesome! Thanks! Like I said, I don't mind having SOME HP stuff loading, ie, wall papers, some hp-ish objects that kind of thing, just not the 'magical ones' like the careers, magical names and the Daily Prophet newspaper. I just wanted to be sure that it wasn't going to pull from the subfolders when I open the clean neighborhood.

[RebaLynnTS]

I wrote a folder switcher program for Sim City, for just this type of situation. I am sure I could do something similar for Sims 2.

[Mootilda]

Why not? That's basically what the AnyGameStarter is (a folder switcher program... plus some registry changes). Just be sure to clear the caches when you swap the folders, so that you don't have conflicts between the cached mods and the current ones in the Downloads folder.