For some insane reason, I want to do a Victorian Neighborhood, full of Ruthless-kk's lovely houses. I have downloaded clothing, hairstyles, hexameter's carriages, some odds and ends. I don't care that the NPCs and Townies are fugly, I just want them in Victorian clothing. I downloaded a program that is supposed to let you change that, the Sims 2 NPC Replacer. But I am unsure how to go about using it.

The simplest way is to download default replacement NPCs, like Sunni's: http://www.medievalsims.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=74

There are these but they are not defaults AFAIK
http://disemporium.dreamwidth.org/9716.html
Someone was going to make them defaults but I don't think that ever got done. However,

1. you could default them yourself (not that hard to do)
or
2. see if I get round to doing them. I've done a version of the policeman uniform for Polgannon but I will be finishing that before I think about converting the original skins to defaults (plus I need to ask permission).

Edit to add:
This is the LJ of the person who said they were going to do the defaults. I can't see the policeperson/fireperson/postperson (possibly because there's no female mesh for those skins) but they did manage the drivers, delivery drivers, newspaper delivery, gardener and maybe maid (not entirely sure) using meshes from here there and everywhere. You might like them.

Edit 2: aaaaand to add the link, sorry.
http://vuokkosims.livejournal.com/?skip=10

Wow, that is a really nice collection of replacement NPCs! Unfortunately, all the clothing is from an era about 300 years earlier than the one I want. Victorian/Edwardian clothing is not even similar to Medieval clothing. But it is proof that it can be done!

Di's Emporium is a great place to get Victorian cc. She has some beautiful food defaults which I was very tempted by, but my game is medieval so I use Sunni's and Hat's. Medieval is way easier to get and unfortunately I haven't seen Victorian defaults for NPC's. It may be a case of learning to default things yourself or if you find some nice items ask on the GOS wishing tree if someone could default it for you. I'm not at all sure what Di does, but always assumed she defaulted the clothes for her story herself. The other person who you will find good cc from is Cait. Her game is regency so another different time period, but closer to what you want. http://regacylady.livejournal.com/

Wow, sorry, my brain totally failed to process that!

However, if you were interested, I'm sure you could make an equivalent set with Victorian clothing, which would probably be very popular :P

Which brings me back to my original question. How do I use the NPC Replacer to make my own default NPCs? And does it still work, lo these many EPs after Nightlife? Plus I am going to download the Regency NPC defaults at Vuocco Sims, but Regency is not Victorian. Men did not wear short pants in Victorian times, although boys did.

I'm not sure how the NPC replacer works or whether it does permanently. The only way I have seen it done without a default is to change the age of the NPC. Explanation:

The game will use its original default outfits for any NPC. So you can create a new NPC, put it in game (using SimSurgery) but when the NPC comes to carry out its mission, the game uses the original default anyway and ignores any choices about outfits which you made.

You can use SimSurgery to overwrite an NPC appearance file - as indicated above. To make the appearance stick though what is needed is to change the age of the NPC. So make the mail carrier an elder for example. Overwrite the appearance using an elder template instead. Then the appearance of the NPC will change and stay changed.

HOWEVER - CAVEAT:
This information is very old and I have no idea whether it will cause problems with those sim files. I would guess not as long as they remain NPCs but if you move them in, yes, it will.

The reason people don't do this is that using defaults is so much easier. Much less fiddling around with SimPE. What defaults do is basically tell the game 'no that's not the default appearance you should use, you use this one instead.' Easy to change appearance without all the potentially problematic fiddling with NPC game files. I don't know now the NPC Replacer works but it was made long before the potential of defaults was discovered so I don't think it does it that way. What it might do is change the game files but that, really, is a big no-no and also means you have to change the files back again should you want the original appearance back (whereas reversing a default just means deleting the file). Using defaults also means you can have different defaults for every neighbourhood by having swappable Downloads folders or using Any Game Starter).

Edit:

Just having a look at the programme. The first thing James says is this:
"The Sims 2 NPC Replacer allows you to easily alter the default outfits of most NPCs in the game. The changes are made globally so all that existing NPCs and newly created NPCs will be wearing the new default outfits. This program works without the use of a "no NPC revert" hack. NPC replacement packages can be easily swapped in and out of the game. There is also a feature to create and load entire sets of NPC replacement packages."

Which seems to imply that what it does is create a new default package. This is a little confusing because making defaults is a fairly involved process. I'm going to investigate and see what the programme does. It is a fairly old programme now but James is quite a reliable programmer. I'm still using his SimCat.

Edit 2: I actually can't get that programme to run. Not sure why but it's crashing while trying to pick a new outfit.

On the topic on NPC's there is also the NPC maker by Christianlov. With that I know you can make them but I know you can also use playable sims as NPC's at your house. I saw it in a Let's Play where a playable sim was made to be the maid. http://modthesims.info/d/286864

Not OP, but I have been looking everywhere for this sort of thing. It sounds perfect. The link you gave doesn't really sound like what you describe. Where could I find this?