Mod The Sims - (Testers Wanted) Megahood: All Maxis Neighborhoods in One

(Testers Wanted) Megahood: All Maxis Neighborhoods in One

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HystericalParoxysm

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Posted 18th Mar 2008 at 02:49 PM - Updated 26th Mar 2010 at 12:56 AM by Phaenoh : fixing category - Viewed 265440 times. Direct link to this thread

388 Comments / replies (Who?) , 219 times favourited , 1557 times thanked

Tags: #combined neighborhood, #merged neighborhood, #all in one neighborhood

This is a featured upload! It showcases the best talent and creativity available on MTS and in the community.

What this is for:

Ever wanted to play the Maxis neighborhoods, but couldn't choose just one? Ever wanted sims from Strangetown to meet sims from Pleasantview, but didn't want to move them over in the method that creates a Big Fiery Ball Visible From Space? If so, this neighborhood is for you!

This is Pleasantview, with five shopping districts: Bluewater Village, Strangetown, Veronaville, Riverblossom Hills, and Desiderata Valley - i.e. Pleasantview with all of the other Maxis neighborhoods attached as shopping districts.

Maxis Sims:

This was created with the Maxis-only original 'hoods so it has all Maxis playable sims, their homes, and everyone they knew (to preserve memories and relationships without Very Bad Things happening) but a minimum of stupid-named fugly townies - no Goopy Gilscarbo, no Joe Carr, etc.... Most of the playable Maxis simbin sims are included. Certain ones may not be, but can be moved into an empty lot from another neighborhood and then moved into this one. Because they know nobody but their own family, this is safe - never move inhabited lots otherwise unless you know what you're doing.

You will have two living Bella Goths. They should both be townies. The one known by the Goth family in Pleasantview is the real one (and can be invited over and asked to move in by any member of the family), and the one in Strangetown is the fake.

There may be some additional quirks involved due to the use of those templates. These quirks are not my doing, and if you have any questions on why certain sims are missing/alive/dead/blonde, please ask on the MATY Maxis-only original hoods thread. I have done no fiddling with any of the sims involved, any of their genetics, relationships, or anything like that... it all comes from those templates, so I won't know the answer if you ask me if I've fixed their genetics or anything like that.

Expansion Packs Required:

Because I created this using the AnyGameStarter, this only requires the actual required EPs:

Open for Business (for shopping districts)
Seasons (for Riverblossom Hills)
Free Time (for Desiderata Valley)

This Megahood does not require any other EPs to function. It does require the EPs that I have listed above, though - each EP adds important data not only neighborhood-wise but also to the sims (OfB adds badges, Seasons adds temperature data and more badges, Free Time adds hobby info) so you MUST have these three EPs to use this Megahood.

Known Issues:

The only issue appears to be with one lot in Desiderata Valley, Gustav's Grocery. For some reason, this lot has gone wonky (while all other lots in Desiderata Valley seem to be fine). The lot square is blue, and missing the building when viewed from neighborhood view. Why this is, I have no idea. However, it is fixable: bulldoze the lot from neighborhood view and replace it. You can do this by moving a copy from your own Desiderata Valley neighborhood into the lot bin (and then into my Megahood Desiederata Valley).

Had I noticed this before uploading I would have fixed it in the main version, but I'm not reuploading 177 mb to fix one tiny little glitch.

Regarding any other issues, I make no guarantees, so please test this neighborhood for me and let me know if there are any major issues. Use at your own risk. Your mileage may vary. Not to be used for the other use. Remove nutmeats from shell before eating. Caution, contents will be hot after heating. Do not insert into anus.

If you have problems:

With anything that required as much fiddling as this, problems are a possibility. If you have problems, I would appreciate detailed reports so I can fix them. However, I don't want to waste time tracking down issues that are not due to my Megahood, but other custom content, etc., you may have installed - just because you're having a glitch in my Megahood does not mean it is a problem with the Megahood whatsoever.

I really do appreciate reports, but "Halp it don't work!" or "Stuff is messing up!" will not help me fix anything.

If you are having problems with my Megahood, please test the problem properly so that you can give me a useful report so I can fix it. This means going through each step of this FAQ in order before reporting the issue to me, to make sure it's not a problem on your end!

If you have an issue to report, you MUST state you have gone through each step of the Game Problem FAQ and tried everything there (please list what you tried), as well as a detailed description of the problem - exactly what happened, what you'd been doing before that, etc.... If you do not do this, your report may be ignored till you go through and do as I ask so I can properly identify problems.

Installation Instructions:

1. Download: Download ALL of the attached files. They are all required. Save them somewhere you can find them (like a folder on your desktop). This is 177 mb total - yes, I know it's huge, but that's just the way it is.

2. Extract from Multi-Part RARs: When all of the 20 attached files have been downloaded, right-click on "N372.part01.rar" and choose "Extract Here" (you must have WinRAR installed to do this - do not ask for zip versions or I will hit you with a shoe). WinRAR will extract a folder called N372 to that folder.

If you prefer a single file rather than multi-part RARs, see the Alternate Download section below. If you choose this method, simply right-click on the "N372.rar" file and choose "Extract Here."

3. Move Folder: Cut and paste N372 to your My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods folder. Because it is N372 it should not interfere with any existing neighborhoods - including existing copies of Pleasantview or any of the other neighborhoods.

4. Play: Now you can begin playing with the combined hood. If you already have a Pleasantview, it will be the second Pleasantview listed. You can play them both separately just fine.

5. Fix Gustav's Grocery: If you notice that Gustav's Grocery in my sub-hood of Desiderata Valley has gone blue and blank, go into your real Desiderata Valley (main neighborhood) and move that lot to your lot bin. Then go back into my Desiderata Valley (sub-hood) and bulldoze the broken Gustav's Grocery. Replace it with the version from the lot bin. This is mentioned above in Known Issues.

Very Important Information (MUST READ!):

Do NOT under ANY circumstances attempt to attach another shopping district to this neighborhood, EVER!

I have already included a default Bluewater Village shopping district. You may NOT add additional custom shopping districts!

If you attempt to add another shopping district to this neighborhood it will completely ruin the entire neighborhood and the only thing you can do at that point is delete it! There is -no- fix if you accidentally add a new shopping district!

You MAY safely add Downtowns, Universities, and Vacation Destinations but NEVER shopping districts!

Recommended Additional Files:

To prevent any newly created townies and NPCs from having stupid names, I strongly recommend my Modified NPC and Townie Names mod
Get yourself a set of default replacement face templates. Here's some, with links there to more. This will keep newly created townies and NPCs from being Maxis fugly.
Pescado's antiredundancy.zip, to prevent unneeded NPCs from spawning.

Alternate Download Links:

Because I have my own hosting which generally serves at 150-300 kbps, I have uploaded these files to my own server. This may be faster than downloading the files from MTS2, and requires no registration.

If you have a fast connection, you can probably get these files in about 15 minutes downloading from these alternate links:

Single-File rar (177 MB): Download only this single file if you choose the single-file rar method. Good if you have a fast, stable connection.

N372.rar

Multi-Part RARs (6.5-9 MB each, 20 files total): Download all these files if you choose the multi-part rar method. Good if you have a slower or intermittent connection.

Thanks to:

SaraMK, for her tutorial on this, and for the cleaned-up templates.
Sysa, for reuploading the Maxis-only original hoods.
Nerd, for explaining stuff to me.
Quaxi, and everyone who has contributed to the development of SimPE.
Numenor, for the updated AnyGameStarter.
Delphy and the folks in #create and #social, for listening to my bitching and whining and moaning about why this wouldn't work the first six tries.