Tutorial for Creating a Custom Hood text From Jade, of Isle of Thyme,

Part 1
This tutorial will take you step by minute step from creating, designing, and populating your own custom hood. I will teach you how I create my own economic system and how I create NPCs from my playable sims.This is JUST ONE way of creating a hood. I have read as much as I could find on the process then refined it to suit me. So this is what works for me. This is Part One.

Here is more info one creating custom hoods if you wish to research further.

MATY: Tutorial: Deleting, Creating, and Generating Townies OFB and pre-OFB

MATY: Tutorial: Clean custom neighbourhoods + townie creation

MATY: How to create a TOTALLY custom neighborhood

NOTE: This tutorial works up to the Open for Business expansion pack. Any packs after that I can not guarantee this process. Use with caution.
Playing Style

In order to decide what sort of hood you will enjoy most think about your playing style.

Do you enjoy playing the generational aspect of the game? Then you may need lots of room to grow and a large terrain will be more appropriate.

Do you prefer to concentrate on one family, Legacy Challenge style, or do you prefer to develop several family's story lines at once? If you prefer one family, you may be able to make their lot the focus of the hood in it's size and scope.

Do you like large or small families? Remember the size factor when picking/building out lots.

Do you turn aging off? If so, then you will need lots of room to keep all those Simmies as your family(ies) grow.

Most importantly, what are your computer specs? This will be the main factor in deciding the size of your new hood! No matter how lovely and rich in storyline a hood may be if it takes forever to load it just isn't worth it.

Picking Out a Terrain

My favorite terrains are Loverat's Tiny Terrain Series. Thyme is based on "Incy Isle" of that series. You can, of course, use this terrain but before you do so, think about your playing style. I am a very slow player, I turn aging off, and I tend to stick with just a few families. Thyme can fit about 40-45 2x2 and 1x3 lots - and many of those are commercial lots. So if you build or download bigger lots, you may run out of room real soon!

So really think about the your long-range goals of the hood when picking a terrain. Mod the Sims 2 has a very good terrain section. I also like Elstone's Designs' terrains - in particular her Whimsy Valley terrain at her Elstone Sims 2 Designs yahoo group.

Also, if you have not already, I recommend downloading hood decorations at this point, in particular Maxis's Waterfall and River effects, extracted by Numenor.

Lastly, you can also make your own hood with SimCity 4. I cannot tutor you on this because I have never done it.

You install a hood by copying the .sc4 file (usually it is accompanied by a picture of the hood - sometimes in several different terrain versions, lush, desert and so on - as a .png or .jpg file) into your C:\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\SC4Terrains folder. The file will then show up in your choices of terrains when making a new hood in the game.

Cleaning Out the Hood

Once you have picked out and installed your terrain using the method above, start up the game. In the Neighborhood Loading Screen, click on the Create Custom Neighborhood button. You may need to click the > arrow to get past your currently installed neighborhoods, if you have three or more.

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Finding Lots

One rule I stick by that really took my hood creating to another level is using only uniform lots. That means all lots in a hood are similar in style. If you have visited my site much you probably already know how much I love WolfSim68's Stone Collection lots. My style leans toward the quaint countryside type of hood and these lots fit the bill perfectly. Size also matters, I rarely use lots that are larger than 2x2. I find that there is more than enough room on a lot that size when the house is well designed. I hate the carpal tunnel that comes from always need to scroll around to see what my Simmies are doing. You can also fit more lots on a terrain if they are smaller. For all those reasons, I stick to 1x3 and 2x2 lots primarily - the few exceptions being a town park or square, which is usually 5x5 and defines the hood. Thyme has two - Paisley Park East and West.

I also recommend (all of these designers use primarily 2x2 lots):

ErwinSims Townhomes - They all have a wonderful Old World European charm to them and are very well designed. The Mayor's Mansion is an ErwinSims lot. (Can also be found at The Sims Resource.)

The Brixham Project by Starrling - She has made a complete university and many residential and commercial lots.

The Compact Series by Ed Newman - These are honestly the BEST designed modern homes I have ever seen - all compact, all very functional, very well-designed. I love this guy's work.

Nengi65's lots: Great if you are going for the urban feel.

Plasticbox has done an entire series of over 100 starter homes that are very well done. The school lot is awesome!

Some other sites I like:

Hugo's Houses: http://www.xn--hg-gkaw.de/houses.htm

Haksenhausen.de: http://www.haksenhausen.de/houses.htm

A bit modern: http://a-bit-modern.atspace.com/

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Don't forget commercial lots! They are the cornerstone of your soon-to-be economic system. This is a list of the lots that I recommend to start out your economic system (C denotes Commercial lot, R denotes Residential):

C-Bookstore/Coffeehouse/Bakery

C-Baby/Toy Store

C-City Hall/Newspaper Office (The current Mayor always owns this lot. There is also a Sim who is the Editor and plays the NPC reporter.)

C-Clothes (with Bridal Section) Store/Salon

C-Farmer's Market (The Sim that owns this lot also is one of the gardeners other Sims hire)

C-Gentlemen's Club (For the rich and powerful men in town. Kind of like a Secret Society)

C-Gym

C-Nightclub

C-Park/Playground (I have several of these in my hood)

C-Performance Hall/Music Venue

C-Pool Hall/Bowling Alley

C-Pub/Restaurant

R-Art Gallery/Photo Studio (Your local artist(s) live here)

R-Church and Vicarage (The Vicar lives here - you have weddings, baptisms and funerals here)

R-Medical Center (The town Doctor lives here, of course)

R-Firehouse (The Fire Chief lives here)

R-Graveyard (I have an old curmudgeonly fellow live here - the Cemetery Caretaker - also a gardener)

R-Jail (The Chief of Police lives above the jail)

R-Mayor's Mansion/Visitor's Center (The current Mayor lives here, obviously)

R-School (The Schoolteacher lives here - all children attend this school)

R-Bed and Breakfast (Where I keep Sims that are between housing)

R-The Brothel/House of Ill Repute (Owned by the local Madam)


All of the commercial lots will be owned by your playable Sims.

***
Installing the Houses

For this step I ALWAYS use Clean Installer. I am not going to repeat all the great info on the site on how to use it, so check it out the manual. The most important thing - I always make sure I am installing ONLY the lot file, not any custom content that may have come with it. If I already have the custom content it will show up when I load the lot, otherwise it will be replaced with the Maxis object it was cloned from. For walls and floors pertinent wall/floor spaces will be left blank. So after you open your sims2pack file click the button that looks like a little house in the top right corner of the Clean Installer window. When you mouseover, it will say:

Select lot file only

This will clear all checkboxes except for the lot itself. If you do not follow this method, you take the risk of getting a very messy Downloads folder as well as unwanted hacks that can mess up your game.
Placing the Houses

First take a good look at your terrain. Decide where it makes sense to have the commercial section, the rich houses, the Mayor's Mansion, the beachfront lots (if applicable), the po' folks section, etc. I tend to place the nicer houses in front of my large parks because they would have a view and less expensive/smaller lots on the outskirts. I just try to think like a city planner.

Next I put down the houses more or less anywhere. Really, just slap 'em down. This allows me to see what I am working with. Then, like a jigsaw puzzle, I just start placing them in different locations until the puzzle starts to form a cohesive whole.

Some tips:

Do not overfill the hood - let some areas be forested and leave room for hood decorations. Not all houses need to be right up against each other.

Keep taller houses near each other. It looks weird to have all these little cottages and then a big old four story house in the middle of them.

Keep starter homes together, they tend to be smaller and more bare, so I put those on the outskirts.

Place like things together: I place my cemetery behind my church. The performance hall goes next to my pub - so the Simmies eat and then go next door to listen to a performance. The Medical Center and Jail are next door to each other.

I usually keep all my modern homes in one area. They tend to look out of place next to a cottage or an English Tudor or somesuch.

Some lots will just not be placed next to another. I do not know why. So I just keep shuttling everything around until it fits.

Don't worry about giving lots street addresses, we will do that in Part V.

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Placing the Hood Deco

Most Simmers I have talked to do not pay much attention to decorating their hoods. But I find that it really makes the town come alive. And since the Nightlife expansion we are able to see most hood decorations from the lot view, so deco'ing the hood is really worth it now.

Note: To really deco a hood properly, you MUST have GunMod's Camera Mod 3.1. Without it, you cannot scroll in as close as you need to in order to place some of the smaller deco - like the fire hydrant. This mod is truly essential.

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Mods

Before we go even one step farther, in order to use my economic system, you MUST have a few mods in place. So if you are against mods, move on. I am sorry, but this is the only way to have a clean running economic system in my opinion.

You will need:

Pescado's Antiredundancy - it will only let the game create one NPC per type. You will see why this is essential later.

Pescado's No Townie Regeneration - because, unless you want them and choose to create them (preferably in CAS), you will not be needing townies. I do not use them anymore.

If you have Pets, I also recommend:

Pescado's No Stray Respawns - Why? Because I want to make my own pets, darnit. I'm anal. Also, all the strays make me sad.

In fact, I should have told you to put the first two mods in during Part One before you entered the hood again after cleaning it out in SimPE. I am sorry. But no worries. Just go back to Part One and follow the steps again. Use the DeleteAllCharacters cheat and then go into SimPe and clean out extraneous junk again. If you have placed lots and deco'd the hood already, no worries! None of that will be lost. It will just delete any Sims that have been created by you or the game. (If you already made Sims, well that's what you get for jumping ahead of the tutorial!) If you have the Pets expansion pack you cannot use SimPE yet, but it will be updated very soon.
Roles

I created the following characters for Thyme:

Civil Servants:

Mayor (lives in the Mayor's Mansion)
Doctor (lives in the Medical Center/Hospital)
Schoolteacher (lives in the School/Schoolhouse)
Chief of Police/Sheriff (lives in the Jail/Police Station)
Vicar (lives in the Vicarage/Church)

Business Owners:

("C" denotes community lot, "R" denotes residential)

C-Bookstore/Coffeehouse/Bakery

C-Baby/Toy Store

C-Clothes (with Bridal Section) Store/Salon

C-Farmer's Market (The Sim that owns this lot also is one of the gardeners other Sims hire)

C-Gentlemen's Club (For the rich and powerful men in town. Kind of like a Secret Society)

C-Gym

C-Nightclub

C-Performance Hall/Music Venue

C-Pool Hall/Bowling Alley

C-Pub/Restaurant

R-Art Gallery/Photo Studio (Your local artist(s) live here)

R-Graveyard (I have an old curmudgeonly fellow live here - the Cemetery Caretaker - also a gardener)

R-The Brothel/House of Ill Repute (Owned by the local Madam and worked by her "ladies")

Sims to play NPCs:

Animal Trainer (If you have the Pets Expansion)
Barista
Bartender
Burglar
Driver (Will be the same Sim for the bus and taxi and carpool)
DJ
Exterminator
Fireman
Gardener
Maid
Mailman
Social Worker/Also owner of Orphanage
Nannies (mine work and live at the orphanage)
Newspaper teen
Repoman (In my game, the repoman is played by the Mayor)
Reporter (Also the Editor of The Thyme Times)
Waiters (some of mine also works as "escorts" at the House of Ill Repute)

***
I did not include any University Expansion pack NPCs because 1) I have not played University and 2) because you can follow the same principles in this tute for creating a custom University hood.

At this point, just make these characters in CAS (Create-A-Sim). You can make them as a family, singletons or couples. I found writing out the above list (or printing it out) and crossing off the characters when I created them helped me keep track.

I also wrote in their notes section what their role was. This is important or you will get confused later on.

That is Peter Flynn - he will own Flynn's Tea and Ale House in the new Thyme. So I wrote that in his bio in the CAS screen. His brother Clay is the Repairman. Do not worry about trying to designate the Sim as an NPC in SimPE or TS2 Enhancer. I will show you in Part V how to make the Sim play the role of the NPC.

I rarely make my Sims anymore. I download them all and then modify them. My favorite site is ModTheSims2 - a lot of interesting looking Sims there! But if creating Sims is what you enjoy then by all means make all yours from scratch!

Do not worry too much about setting them up with correct zodiac signs and personality points. We will do that in the next section.

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Tweaking your characters:

Alright, I gave this next part a lot of thought. I use TS2 Enhancer and I love it. I hesitated to use that program when creating this tutorial because it is a pay program and SimPE can do all of what I am showing you. Also the owner of SimEnhancer is rumored to be notorious for taking off for long periods, not responding to emails, not updating the program for hellatious amounts of time (it still has not been updated for Pets as of this writing, as far as I know) and all sorts of not-very-professional stuff. But he has been great when I needed help and gave me a new unlock key when I reformatted my hard drive.

But even with all of that, I decided to use TS2 Enhancer for one simple reason. It's easier. And I don't like using SimPE unless I have to. So that's that. If you do not have SimEnhancer and do not want to buy it, then you can do all that I show in you in SimPE. BUT I won't be able to instruct you on how to do it because I simply don't know how. So you will be on your own there. Perhaps some kind Simmer will point us to a tute or make one.

Okay. So one feature I like is the Random feature in Enhancer (ChronicBoredom informed us that there is a random feature in SimPE, too - thanks Chronic!):

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I go in and hit random in the Current area of the Personality section. This gives my Sims a wider range of personality then you get from unmodified CAS Sims. I also change their Zodiac Sign in this screen to one that makes sense to me.

I also randomize their skills:

Because in my view, they are adults and should have some skills.

Then I randomize their interests.

And change their last names if I made them as a family, but they are not related.

For instance I made all the waiters, the driver, the exterminator, and some other NPCs as a group of eight in household, so they all had the same last name. I changed that in the screen above in Enhancer. Also, having their role typed out in their Sim bio in CAS shows up in this screen in Enhancer. So helpful for keeping you from getting confused later.

So if SimPE has a random feature (could someone enlighten me if it does?) use that...otherwise just do it by hand in SimPE. I know you can change last names, skills, personality points and interests in SimPE.

The point of all this is to basically make your new neighborhood of CAS Sims more interesting and varied then CAS will let you. Do not worry about setting up your relationships. We are going to do that in very unique way next.

***

Setting Up Relationships

This part is going to be fun. Once you have all your Sims made up and sitting in the Sim Bin, take the Mayor and whoever is in his household (in my hood the Mayor has a daughter who also plays the NPC papergirl) and slap them down on an empty 1x3 lot. Just any old empty lot, you are going to delete it after you are done.

Once they are moved in, teleport the other Sims in the hood there (even with my slow PC I was able to handle it because I turned off the Lot View Options and had almost nothing on the lot). I found that you can NOT do this via the Boolprop cheat "Invite all Neighbors" you find by shift-clicking on the mailbox, because all the other Sims are still in the Sim Bin. So I just used Inge's Teleporter Shrub/Painting, modified by Jordi to do it. Why didn't I move Sims into their houses first and then invite them all to the Mayor's Mansion or something? Because I wanted to see who would get along with whom without having to deal with the slow down of a house and objects.

***

These are all the Sims in Thyme. I have not yet found the need for townies as I have enough playables to keep the hood fresh.

First, max all Sims motives. I used Dolphin's modified Please-Yourself-2 Plant because it monitors and keeps the motives I chose high so I did not have to think about it. I kept all motives but fun and social green so they would keep talking to each other. You could try Merola's painting, the motive monitor on the Inseminator, or even the plain old MaxMotives cheat. Second, place a few pool tables on the lot. I found these objects to be best because it allowed Sims to socialize while playing and games were short enough that a Sim would soon finish and other Sims would take over. Then I set the Sims loose to see who was drawn to whom, who got along, and who couldn't stand each other. If they were standing around, I directed them to talk to another random Sim. I only instructed them to chat. I did break up pillow fights, red hands and kicky bag games because the Sims just don't stop playing those.

The experiment was a rousing success. Several Sims got into fights (Thyme's new firemen was being picked on by two Sims at once - one of them female! Perhaps I might give him another role, he is a bit too wussy to be a fireman), several Sims were very drawn to each other romantically that I did not foresee, and a few friendships were made without much interference by me. It was all very entertaining.

One thing: During this, the game will create your newspaper person (but only ONE as you have installed Pescado's Antiredundancy mod, right?). Because of Maxis's stupid face templates, you might get a downright butt ugly one

***

Good Lord, somebody drown that Sim. *shudder* But never you fear because Dahlia (the Sim in the User Interface on the bottom of the screen) is the playable Sim I chose to play the papergirl. She'll soon help this sorry-looking Sim out. You'll find out more later in the tutorial.

Afterwards, I simply had Inge's teleporter shrub delete all non-residents and then moved the Mayor and his daughter back out to the Sim bin. The wonderful result was that when I moved Sims into their homes, they already had some contacts and folks to call as well as a few love interests and an enemy (or in Wussy Fireboy's case - two). They even had things to gossip and/or brag about!

A note on townies: If you find that you truly desire to have townies, use this method BEFORE you make your playabe Sims (copied - and modified a bit by me - from this thread by Jordi at MATY):

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Creating custom townies and downtownies

In CAS create as many townies as you like, of whatever ages, genders, and using any content you like.
Do not bother with names at this time. I simply named them 1 to 8 for each group.

A good setup is the following:

Group 1: males -- create 8 adult male Sims

Group 2: females -- create 8 adult female Sims

Group 3: Miscellania 1 -- create 2 elder males, 2 adult females, 2 teen males, 2 teen females. Set the teens as children to any adult female.

Group 4: Miscellania 2 -- create 2 adult males, 2 elder females, 2 child males, 2 child females. Set the children as kids of any adult male.

This leads to 32 townies: 10 male adults, 10 female adults, and 2 of each gender of the other age groups. This means 2 more adults than the default game will get you.

Make sure Pescado's No Townie Regen is in the game before you continue.

Move group 1 in a lot, and pause the game.

Buy the Teleporter Shrub or Painting (or another teleporter such as the inSIMenator module). I use the Teleporter Shrub in this example.

Select Sim 1, and make them a townie using the teleporter. Repeat this for Sims 2 to 7.

Now teleport in the Sims from the other groups you created. Then make them into townies.

Make the last remaining Sim from the first group into a townie now.

You should have no playable Sim left on the lot after you're done. Quit the game, and check the character folder. You should now have 32 Sims: all your custom townies.

Now open SimPE, and select all Sim Relationships you see. Delete them! You don't want your townies to have family relationships with eachother. (ONLY DO THIS ON A CLEAN NEW HOOD OR YOU WILL DELETE YOUR PLAYABLES RELATIONSHIPS!) If you are making townies on a hood that has already been played, then use SimPE or TS2 Enhancer to go to each Sim's character file and delete their family relations individually.

Start naming your townies anything you like. If you like, also give them skills, jobs, and gender preferences. Note that if you do not give them a job they will get a random one the first time they're loaded.

Save the 'hood, and you're done.

***
The first Sim you will need to move in is the Mayor and his family. Since you have so meticulously designed your hood in Part II, you already know which house is to be your Mayor's Mansion, right? RIGHT? Heh. I shall allow no laziness! *cracks whip*

If your Mayor does not have enough funds to afford the Mayor's Mansion, then use the familyfunds cheat to give him enough. You will only need to do this once, as future Mayors will be added to the family and then you move the old Mayor out.

You will be using the family funds cheat a LOT, so best memorize it now. Here is a quick how to:

[[ Open the cheat console by holding down the CRLT and the SHIFT key, then hitting the letter 'C' key.

Type:

familyfunds householdname amounttosetfunds

So, to set Mayor Daughtry's (New Thyme's Mayor) household funds to say 20,000, I would type:

familyfunds daughtry 20000

then hit enter. Instant cash!

But it gets better. Let's say I want to add 1,329 Simoleans to Daughtry's funds. I would open the cheat console and type:

familyfunds daughtry +1329

and hit enter. The same works if I want to subtract the same amount.

familyfunds daughtry -1329

Easy! ]]

Once your Mayor is moved in, have him buy City Hall as a community lot business. If he needs Simoleans familyfund him. Head back to the neighborhood screen and move everyone else into their homes. When you move folks in, do the following:

1. Make sure they have a phone and Monique's computer. You will need her computer to send Sims money, to easily invite a group of Sims to a party with no limit and no rejection, and many other things. Her computer is a cornerstone to my system.

2. Set them up with Monique's Landlord Tenant mod, if you wish. I use the "rent" the Sim pays to the Mayor to represent taxes. This is the best I can do without an automatic payment mod. I have begged and pleaded Monique to make one for me, but so far - no go. So until then, I make do with using this mod as a substitute. It does work well provided I do not have the Mayor or the tenant set up a home business. (EDIT: Monique has now made an Automatic Payment Mod, so you can now just use that.) The only Sims who do not pay taxes are the city employees: the Doctor, Sheriff, Fire Fighter, Vicar, or Mail Deliverer.

Don't worry about giving them a job yet. They will either be employed by the city, own a business, or be an employee at another Sim's business. Integrated economy!

This next step is important. Before heading back to the Mayor's Mansion first rename your hood's lots. If you were paying attention in Part II, you will notice that I did not instruct you to name the lots after you placed them. We are going to do that now.

I like to name my streets by using even numbered on the north and west sides of the street and odd numbered on the south and east side. Yeah, I know I'm a nerd, what of it?

Commercial lots are named when you place them, but residential lots have this small little button to rename lots:

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I name streets something that makes sense to how the town is laid out. For instance, I name the street with all my modern houses on it Modern Way. I name the streets with all the businesses Commercial Way or Market Street. In Thyme there is also Oceanview Drive, Foothills Way, Corner Cul-de-Sac, Parkside East and Parkside West, and so forth. The Mayor's Mansion, Saint Magdalene's and the Vicarage, The Police Station and Jail, The Firehouse and The School and Schoolhouse get so named, respectively.


On the street in the screen above, I have (from bottom) the Saint Magdalene's and the Vicarage, then the Mayor's Mansion, then 28 Modern Way (I just renamed it from the screen above):

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Click the ACCEPT (Checkmark) button, then hit the CLOSE (X) button, not the one on the left. That button will take you into the lot and waste a lot of your time and patience (I speak from annoying experience):

Following is 30 Modern Way, 32 Modern Way and 34 Modern Way until the road turns and is now Parkside North.

Why all this meticulous naming? Is is just because I am a total weenie? Sort of. But also, when you use the Tenant Landlord Mod, you will be VERY happy I am a total weenie. If the lots are not named, you will find it very hard to figure out which deed belongs to which lot. This brings us to the next step. If a family lives in the lot, then you need to add their name to the end of the lot name, like so:

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Okay! Now once your lots are renamed, you can head back to the Mayor's Mansion.

***

Hiring City Employees and Setting Up Taxes

Take the Mayor to City Hall. You are now going to hire the City Employees. Teleport in (using Inge's Teleporter Shrub/Painting, modified by Jordi) and hire the following Sims: the Doctor, Sheriff, Fire Fighter, Vicar, or Mail Deliverer. Hire each one and pay them whatever you wish. I used Pescado's Business Runs You to set their wage to exactly what I wanted. If I recall correctly, everyone is paid 25 or 30 dollars an hour. Do not worry about Fairly Paid and all that. The employees will never be called to work by the Mayor, unless you want to give them a raise - so they can't quit.

Send the employees and the Mayor home. The first big step of the economic system is done! Yeah! Now when you go to the lots of those Sims you will see they are listed as an Employee of City Hall (or whatever you named your City Hall lot). Their hours will be Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm.

Once back at his home, set up the Tenant Landlord deeds. They will all be sitting in the Mayor's inventory (the inventory feature requires the Nightlife Expansion Pack). I used Numenor's "Illumutations" - Transformable Shelf w/ Light to set them on. I set the City Hall deed on his desk in his home office. You can also just leave it at City Hall, too.

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Setting Up NPCs

NOTE: If you have Pets installed and get an error spawning NPCs, then please check out this critical fix.

Now comes the fun. You can do this at the Mayor's Mansion, but I did all my NPCs at the Wayward B and B. In my hood, the Wayward B and B is where I leave Sims who are between homes and where I make new Sims (using Christianlov's Sim Transporter). Why? Because all those clothes that I need to buy for each Sim stays in one dresser. Basically any choosing-of-clothes task for non-playables I do at the Wayward B and B. If you always make Sims in CAS or just don't see the point of this practice, don't use it.

Once at your decided location, you need to create the following NPCs: Police Officer, Fire Fighter, Repoman, and Mailman, Driver, Repairman. I *think* you can use Boolprop to create NPCs, but I honestly don't know how. (If anyone does let me know in comments.) So I just called emergency services for the Police Officer and Fire Fighter and took my 500 Simolean fine. For the Repoman, I did not pay the bills until he showed up and for the Mail Delivery, I just waited until Tuesday morning. For the repairman, I just called for him to come over under Services on the telephone. For the driver, I called for the Taxi and then did not take it anywhere - it just drove away in under an hour.

I do not use the delivery services for Pizza and Chinese takeout in my game right now, so you can do the same steps for those if you wish in your game. The good thing about this method is that it works for any NPC. So you can do the same method for College NPCs or the Animal Trainer in the new Pets Expansion Pack - one SimPE or TS2 Enhancer is updated for it.

For the burglar, I am waiting on this until my hood develops and I decide which I want to play the burglar. I *do* know you can use Boolprop to force the burglar, just shift-click on the mailbox and choose Force Burglar.

Anyway, no matter how you do it, make those NPCs. Once that is completed, close down your game. Now comes TS2 Enhancer (or SimPE's Sim Surgery) again. Follow the steps to make your playable Sim play the NPC you just created.

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1. BACK UP! You can do so very easily in the Neighborhood Screen of TS2 Enhancer. Choose the neighborhood you are working with from the upper drop down.

2. Choose Cloning Lab on the left. Pick the Sim whose looks you want to change from the drop down at the top of the screen.

3. Choose the Sim that you want clone where it says "Select Neighborhood Clone" .

4. Choose the attributes you want to be cloned onto the first Sim. Choose every checkbox EXCEPT career. In the example below I could have cloned Dahlia Daughtry's attributes onto her dad, Greg. The next time I played the game, Dad would be an exact clone of his daughter, except for his career. I did not do this, it is just an example:

5. Click Direct Clone. The thumbnail of the Sim on the left will now change to a question mark. When you load the game again, a new thumbnail will be created.

6. SAVE and Close.

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Now for Maids and Gardeners. I use Christianlov's NPC for all my maids, gardeners and nannies. I would rather sell my first born than use a Maxis nanny. Rather than spell out how to use Christianlov's NPC (I am too lazy, this tute is draining my life force as it is) I trust you can figure it out. But it allows you to assign playable Maids and Gardeners. For the Nanny's, it will make an NPC for you, but just use the Cloning Lab (or SimPe's Sim Surgery) to make her look like any Sim you wish. I could have SWORN that old versions of this mod allowed you to assign playable Nanny's, but recent reports say that feature is not there now. Maybe she will add it in later versions. *prepares to start begging*

The coolest thing is that when you are playing the house of the Gardener or Maid you assigned with this mod, you will get a pop-up telling you they have been paid.

Colton owns the Farmer's Market in town and does gardening on the side. In the above picture he is contemplating the grass.

So those are the basics of the economic system. Next time, we will finish up this series of tutorials with other ways that I use the economic system to make my Sims lives more interesting and realistic! We will also give our Sims who are playing NPCs careers that send them on the same job as their NPC.

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Sara, a Simmer I much admire for her ingenuity has made careers for all the NPCs
[ http://www.geocities.com/saramkirk ]. So I use a custom career for the Sims that are not hired by the City or another Sim business owner.

I found the hours of the paper delivery career was off by an hour, from 6am - 7am. The real NPC comes by just after 7am, so my Playable would be just coming home when the paper was being delivered. I fixed this with SimPe's Career Editor, changing the end time to 8am - took just a few minutes. You can check out SimPe's site for info on how to use the career editor. PLEASE ask questions there.

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When you are making a one-time payment to another Sim, use Pescado's Money Order (MO) or Monique's Computer. When you are making regular payments, use Monique's Automatic Payment Mod (APM).

The thing to remember here is that you are playing a WHOLE NEIGHBORHOOD, not just a house. So alway try to think of ways to intertwine the Sims who live there. When you need an employee you will not just choose from a list of unknown townies but instead think: "Who is the Sim who would work best in this role?" Like in real life, choose who would be the best fit! Or if you want a different storyline, choose who would be the WORST fit, and then let chaos reign! Either way, think about your hood as what it is - a real place with real people - errr, Sims. *smile*

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The Church and Vicarage:

Since I have the Vicar living on the lot, and he is a City Employee I pretend that he is going out on his round in the town visiting the members of his parish.

For weddings, I would have the Sims being married send, say, 1000 Simoleans to the Vicar for the cost of the ceremony, using Pescado's money order. I would do the same for funerals and baptisms. When a Sim dies, I would ask the Vicar to my cemetery and have him give a speech while other's mourn. For Baptisms, I dress the family in nice clothes then have the Vicar bath the baby in a very nice sink.

Perhaps you can have church members tithe an amount every week using the APM, or hire a Sim to work at the Vicarage as Church Secretary, paying her with the APM.



The Cemetary:

You can have the Cemetery Caretaker paid by the Vicar, using the APM, or make him a City Employee. You can make him keep the lot in order by doing the gardening. He can also be a gardener for other Sims.



The Mayor's Mansion and Visitor's Center:

My Mayor runs the Visitor's Center out of The Mayor's Mansion. So he spends his days selling to customers and chatting up his fellow Thymians. I am thinking that once he gets his business to level 10, a new Mayor will run for election against the current Mayor. I am not sure how I will do it, but I am guessing that it will be a three-day contest where in the one who gets the most influence and aspiration points in that time is the winner.

I plan to take video of significant events to be played back on the Television.

The Mayor also owns City Hall, as discussed in Part V.



The School and Schoolhouse:

I love playing the School. I use Inge's school mod to set it up and it works fabulously. I have each child pay the teacher 50 Simoleans a day tuition using the APM. If this turns out not to be enough, then I will raise tuition later. You could have the teacher play the headmaster NPC so that only student's who get in can go to your custom school, the rest have to go to public school.

I am not going to give detailed directions on how to set it up because Inge has already done that. I run my school M-F, from 9-5. I have the kids do gradework in the mornings and in the afternoons they do artwork or make clay pots (I love this object), or practice on skill/badge building machines.

Before graduation I will have the Schoolteacher throw a party, invite the parents and show off the paintings, pots and any other projects of the students.



The Police Station:

I have not set it up yet, but I plan to use these objects to do so. My ideas are that whenever the burglar gets caught I will send the Playable who was playing the burglar will go to jail for it. I also plan to have a few murders here and there and see if I can get the criminal to confess.

Perhaps the Sheriff can visit the school and give a speech to the kids or you can host a policeman's ball to raise money for the station.

The policeman can train other Sims to be deputies, in that they have to complete a certain number of tasks (gain body points for example) to pass.

The Policeman is a City Employee, so when he is at work, you can imagine that he is on patrol.

If you have Pets, the Sheriff can train police dogs for selling for guard dogs.



The Fire Station:

The Fire Chief is also a City Employee, so when he is at work, I imagine that he is putting out fires or at training. You can have the fireman do a lot of body training or design a training ground where you start fires and he has to put them out as practice. You can have him build a relationship with the Sheriff or the Mayor and have them start a weekly meeting to discuss important City Business.

The Fire Chief can also visit the school to educate the kids. Lastly, the firehouse can also have fundraisers of any kind you can think of.

The Fire Chief can train other Sims to be deputies, in that they have to complete a certain number of tasks (gain a body points for example) to pass.

If you have Pets, you can have several Fire Dogs as mascots.



The Medical Center:

The Doctor who lives here is a City Employee, so I imagine that he is on rounds to his patients when he is at work. I also have him take care of sick Sims that I have temporarily moved in.

I found some great hacked objects that can help you run this lot:

Chemistry Kiosk: http://www.pc-sims.de/smb/showthread.php?t=3804

Wellbeing Doctor: http://www.pc-sims.de/smb/showthread.php?t=39

Emergency Suitcase: http://www.pc-sims.de/smb/showthread.php?t=1364



The Art Gallery/ Photo Studio:

This lot is also fun to play, as the artist Sim who lives here takes photos or paints portraits of other Sims for their special events, like weddings and graduations. Once done the photo/painting is marked for sale and sold to the Sim who ordered it. Or, you can just use the MO to send the funds for payment.

I play this lot as a residential lot and teleport in the Sims who will be painted or photographed.


Farmer's Market:

I have my local gardener on this lot. I use Echo's garden objects. I also have him running a business and that is where Sims go shopping for food.

Orphanage:

In my hood, this residential lot is run by the same Sim who also plays the Social Worker. When Sims are taken by the Social Worker, I teleport them to and move them into this lot. When a Sim wants to adopt, I have that Sim visit the lot, make him/her selectable and play with all the babies and children. The one they are most drawn to, they then "take home" (move them into the adopting Sim's lot). I use Christianlov's Sim Transporter to move Sims to different lots. I pay the Orphanage for the adoption using an MO.

I also have the two Sims who play Nannies for other families living here. A note on this: since Christianlov's Nanny does not allow us to use playable Sims, I will just clone the Sim I want to be the Nanny onto her NPC and then use the APM to pay her a daily wage.


Animal Shelter:

If you have pets you can use Pescado's No Animal Respawns to keep strays from spawning, then move all strays into an residential lot set up as an animal shelter. The Sim who runs the shelter would also play the Animal Trainer NPC. Then s/he would sell pets to the Sims you wish to adopt them.


The Bordello:

I plan to set this lot up with a Madam (a powerful Sim who is very well-known in the hood) and three "ladies". I will use Pescado's Customer Selector to make sure that only certain men show up at the lot. Using the ticket machine, I can make sure that the price is very high to use the services offered.


Using Other NPCs Creatively


Reporter:

In my hood, I have a Sim who plays the NPC Reporter. So not only does she visit businesses, I also have her come to important newsworthy events, like the Mayor's Inauguration Party. She uses a portable camera to take photos. You can also use Monique's Computer to set up a Newspaper Office with Sims coming in to write articles. From Monique's text:

"Business.../OFB - Write Article (ON/OFF).../Assign to (Employee/Household).../"Sims". This option will allow you to assign a computer to your sim to write an article for you and the payment goes to you. If this is "ON", the effect is automatic, it will automatically call the assigned sim to write an article for every interval of one hour, so after your sim finish writing article a break of one hour then this computer will try to call your sim again to write an article. It is useful if you want to set a small office in your business/Home"

Driver:

You could use this hacked taxi to have the driver earn money and run a business on the lot: http://www.pc-sims.de/smb/showthread.php?t=16

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