Marticore

Would you like to create a neighborhood, but without Kaylynn Langerak, Benjamin Long, pre-made social group Sims etc.? Or maybe you'd like to get rid of the generic Family Bin Sims before you start a brand new Pleasantview? This tutorial will show you how to disable generating pre-made Sims of certain categories and let the game generate new ones in their place. Pick and choose!

This will only work in a freshly loaded neighborhood! If the game has already loaded all the Sims in your Documents folder, do NOT delete their character files!!!

If you wipe these folders off character files, these Sims will never reappear in any of your newly loaded neighborhoods. They will come back after you reinstall the game. So back up the folders just in case! BUT if you lose the backup, you can download these Sims/families as subhoods here. The subhood can be deleted right after adding it and the Sims will remain in the Family Bin.

How does the game generate these Sims? They are located in the game installation files, in a particular DLC's folder. When you first launch a neighborhood, you can see loading screens of Pets, Weather, Magic... this is when the game imports these Sims into the neighborhood folder in Documents. Most of them are called "stealth hoods", but you can also clean out visible neighborhoods and have them completely empty, buildings only.

You can download empty stealth hoods on ModTheSims. They are folders with deleted character files, so if you feel safer downloading and replacing folders like that, go ahead! But stealth hoods are not all that you can clean out. Subhoods also have clean versions, so if your only problem is a Sim's broken face template – no need to pre-delete all Sims, just get the clean version!

All folder paths are the defaults. If you have your game in a custom folder, I assume you know where it is. If you don't have the Ultimate Collection, the folders may look different, so I'll give you directions on which DLC we're talking about, as it's actually easier to navigate them if you have the Legacy Collection or disks.

Basic townies and service Sims The townies and NPCs from Pleasantview that generate in every custom neighborhood. These include Kaylynn Langerak and Benjamin Long mentioned at the beginning. You can pre-delete them in: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\Base\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods\N001\Characters So in Pleasantview's game files directory. Go into the "Characters" folder and delete all files. The folder must remain empty. Note: This deletes ALL Pleasantview Sims, so if you load Pleasantview AFTER doing this, there will be NO SIMS, even playables! Doesn't affect an already launched Pleasantview.

Strays, adoption pool pets and the Roseland family Pets EP. If you want completely fresh strays and pets to adopt, delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\EP4\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\P001\Characters Now, if you call the Pet Adoption Center, your game might freeze for a minute because it will be generating a lot of pets. For puppies/kittens to appear in the pool, it needs to generate strays first, as baby pets are made with strays' DNA.

Ottomas, Ramaswami and Garden Club Sims Seasons EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Seasons\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\G002\Characters

The Traveller family Bon Voyage EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\V001\Characters

Picaso, Cooke and hobby instructors If you don't have the hobby instructors disabled with a mod. Free Time EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Free Time\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\F002\Characters

Newson, Goodie, Gavigan and pre-made witches Apartment Life EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Apartment Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\E002\Characters

Cleaning folders of the Pets, Seasons, Bon Voyage, Free Time and Apartment Life expansion packs = NO FAMILIES in the Family Bin! Except of course the ones that belong in a neighborhood, such as the Burbs in Pleasantview. Cleaning all folders mentioned above will result in an empty "Characters" folder in a freshly made custom neighborhood. So now you can make all Sims from scratch. To prevent the game from randomly generating townies and strays, you'll need a few mods: NoTownieRegen (find on the list) NoStrayRespawnNoDormieRegen I also recommend Anti-Redundancy

You can also have:

Pre-made universities with NO pre-made Sims Dorms, houses, university buildings... but with no students. University EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folders here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\University Life\EP1\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate U001 – Sim State University. Wiping this folder off character files will prevent the game from importing generic Sims (dormies, mascots, professors) in a custom university neighborhood. It's a college equivalent of Pleasantview. I also recommend getting the One Professor mod. U002 – La Fiesta Tech. U003 – Academie Le Tour.

Pre-made Downtown with NO pre-made Sims Nightlife EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\EP2\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\D001\Characters

Bluewater Village with NO pre-made Sims When you love the hood, but not the Landgraab. Open for Business EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folder here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Best of Business\EP3\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate\B001\Characters

Vacation destinations with NO pre-made Sims Bon Voyage EP. Delete all files in the "Characters" folders here: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate A001 – Takemizu Village. M001 – Three Lakes. T001 – Twikkii Island.

Hi! There's a video on my channel about how I play rotationally, but some info there is outdated. I figured a post can always be edited, so it's a better way to share how I play The Sims 2.

What is rotational gameplay?

Playing rotationally means that you play multiple households for the same number of days, jumping from one to the other in rounds. This way, you keep the households even, have story progression in all of them, and then you can make them interact, intertwine and merge into new families, not leaving any playable Sim behind.

If you play two-three households and leave the rest unplayed, that's also rotational gameplay. There's no right or wrong way to play The Sims 2!

Setting up the neighborhood

First of all, stealth hoods. I don't want all the same Sims appearing in my family bin over and over, so I made the stealth hoods empty. This tutorial shows how to do it.

Second, I think of which subhoods make sense for this neighborhood. I hardly ever add Downtown. Vacation destinations depend on what I need, I usually add one during gameplay if I'm planning a vacation (which is rare). I like to have one, max two university hoods, especially if they include pre-made Sims. And Bluewater Village is completely redundant, but I sometimes make my own shopping district as an extra area. For example, in my Pleasantview 2.0 I made "Goth Square" that is kind of like a downtown district with apartment buildings, restaurants, clubs etc.

Sometimes I'll tinker with seasons, e.g. Strangetown seems like warm climate, so I might turn off winter in it. Riverblossom Hills must stay default, though.

Basics and keeping track

One round is 4 days for most of my neighborhoods. Some people do it by days of the week or seasons in-game, but I can't be bothered synchronizing my neighborhood after someone moves out and it's again a summer Monday for them. If it's Thursday in the middle of winter in another household at the same time, I really don't mind.

I'm an old school gal when it comes to taking notes to keep track of played days. I have a paper notebook with the grid pattern and mark rounds as squares – each line is one day. I have a whole list of families named by last names mostly, but if a last name repeats (which is often), I either sign them with one of the Sims' first name or their last name + initials. For example, in Riverblossom Hills I have families named Roth (for the "main" Roth family still living in the original house) and Roth LF (Roth – Larch & Fiona).

These days, I use erasable pens in my notes, so no crossing out if a family merges with another or changes its name. For marking days, I still like to use a simple pencil. For side notes (such as planning someone's career or matchmaking) I either use sticky notes or draw a special square and use the erasable pens again to take easily erasable notes. If there's no space on the page anymore, I move onto another. I always keep the old pages, though! I have them pinned in the back of the notebook. Also, I only use notebooks that have tabs of different colors and each neighborhood has its color. Blue for Pleasantview, green for Strangetown, purple for Veronaville, orange for Riverblossom Hills etc. I like to match pen colors to it as well. Yes, I do have ideasthaesia.

For more "serious" neighborhoods I have an additional document on my PC in table form where I plan out the storytelling. I pretty much only have it for my Youtube let's play neighborhoods like Townieville. Fun fact: I have two separate notebooks for "work neighborhoods" and "private neighborhoods". The work one is in smaller format 😂

Here's a fragment of my Townieville notes (the Bendett-LeTourneau family takes too much space when spelled out lol):

As for aging, I made my own custom lifespan that mimics real life years (1 day = 1 year). However, I only age up Sims at "1 day away" (aka the orthodox way) when they're babies and teenagers. Babies because I want them to be 1 year old as toddlers (only Nopke somehow figured out a way to make the baby stage actually 1 day), and teenagers to give them time to attend college. In all the other stages, I wait until the last minute for them to age up on their own. I would never remember to age them up manually or throw parties, also the 1 extra day would make it difficult for me to count their age. That results in the elder stage starting at "57 days old", but I count it as 60 years old. I like to know how old my Sims are for context, that's all.

Population

My limit for one neighborhood is 16 families. If there's more, one round takes forever and I lose interest. In my old Pleasantview, I finally managed to lower the number of families from 24 to 18 and still going. It feels great! So, as you see, I can't do an uberhood/megahood.

To stop my neighborhood from expanding too much, I simply don't make too many kids. I have pretty strict rules that are based on aspirations: Family+Family is 3 kids, Family+Other is 2 kids, Other+Other is 1 kid. If both Sims have family as a secondary aspiration (and I remember that they do), I'll make them have two. It has been working pretty well, but I'm open to changes in the future. Sometimes I will even impregnate a Sim with InSimenator instead of naturally to make sure it's not twins.

I mark every birth on a certain day as a dot and letter (B/G – boy/girl) and plan newborns in advance to have babies be born at a similar time and with balanced genders, so I can match them later. Of course I do have same-sex couples and big-age-difference couples as well. It all comes out when the babies get older, but synchronizing births creates a solid basis. Usually there are no more than 4 kids born in one round.

I love townies, but I avoid bringing them into the neighborhood as much as I can (it expands the population). If two playables are not related and have the potential to be together, I'll tinker with their chemistry to make it happen. I have this mod to help me avoid marrying second-cousins, even if it's not really that big a deal in real life. I do follow chemistry very much in matchmaking though, so if there's any decision to be made between two Sims, I'll always go for the one with the higher chemistry (sort by chemistry and choose the one that appears first – even if the bolts are the same, they are sorted by points).

Wants & Fears

I like to say that I play half-wants-based. I especially like to use wants to avoid having only wealthy families. How? Only if they roll a want of getting a skill point, I'll prioritize career skill points and let them get promoted. Otherwise, they might stay at the same level for years and do other things instead such as hobbies. Even if their lifetime want is the top of a career – the Sims are responsible for progressing in their careers. I don't lock the skill wants either, only the promotion ones if a promotion is guaranteed. But keep in mind that I use mods for no friends needed for careers and less often promotions (I changed it to 85%). That way, some Sims struggle financially, some just have enough to pay the bills, some accumulate money very slowly, and some become rich fast. It's true that it's fortune Sims that usually reach the top of their careers, knowledge Sims are second place, but isn't that actually realistic? If a Sim's lifetime want is anything other than a career, I realize they won't get everyday wants regarding that LTW (unless it's a knowledge Sim with "Max out 7 skills"), so I will push them towards it, but still, not every Sim completes their lifetime want. Also, I use 50 New LTWs and Slower LTA Gain. Homework works a similar way. Since, without mods, your Sims are either failing or having an A+, I use the School Grade Mod for more grade variations, but also base doing homework on the child or teen's wants. If they have any wants about education (private school, college, fear to go to school because of bad grades), they do their homework that day. Also, on weekends I make them catch up on homework if they're not busy.

I do like to listen to what my Sims want to do, but if the want is ridiculous (like wanting to get married to 3 Sims at once for Romance Sims on dates), I'll ignore it. I only use wants or lack thereof for more variety and less decision-making. I use a lot of mods that change wants as well, such as Fewer Hobby Wants. What about pets? If more than half of the household has corresponding wants to get a pet, I'll get them one. These days, I might lock a pet want if the Sim has minimum 8 points of interest in Animals.

Decisions

Deciding makes me anxious. I want gameplay to be fun and the Sims to be their own people. That's why I have certain rules for choosing aspirations and careers. Here's my entire calculator that saves me in choosing careers. For aspirations, I only use the calculator sometimes if I'm not sure, but usually I look at the Sim's personality and can easily see their aspiration based on traits. Obviously I make exceptions to that rule, I WILL have a grouchy Family Sim from time to time. But I do that only if I feel a certain vibe, so no decision is needed either, I just know this Sim will be the exception. Sometimes, I make exceptions to also differentiate Sims from their parents, as personality is genetic for the most part, so it's likely for two Knowledge Sims to “produce” another Knowledge Sim and I'd like to avoid repetition. Especially with Family Sims, as with my population system it might lead to one family dominating the neighborhood. Family+Family having 3 kids and all of them with the Family aspiration? Not on my watch!

In families of more than one child, how do I decide who moves out and who stays home as an adult? If there are no other factors influencing it, the youngest child stays because the older ones moving out will create the space for the next generation. But it varies based on what housing situation the potential partner has. Oh, yeah, I don't play with elders only, that's boring.

How do I decide who changes their name at marriage? These days, I like to keep the OG last names, so if there's a townie marrying into a pre-made family, I'll keep the pre-made family's name. Gender doesn't matter. If it's two pre-mades getting married, I decide based on how many other Sims there are with that last name (do the Sims have siblings?). It's real tactical work sometimes. If I want to keep both, a hyphenated name is always an option too (Last Name Copier for editing names).

Random events

Not a lot of random events happen in my game. Mostly it's just Sims cheating. I have ACR's risky woohoo set to zero most of the time. I do have some mods that make Sims' lives more risky like more dangerous fires (this version is edited to work with the fire safety skill) or death by childbirth. But if someone dies untimely, they die. Especially if they've already had kids (which sounds cruel lol, but my gameplay is based on legacy and genetic continuity). I also ignore chance cards because they make my game too hectic, and my Sims don't get promoted too much, so I don't need the difficulty. I'll only click on them (randomly without reading) if a family is exceptionally boring.

University

One round is 4 days, that means 4 years, so I guess it would make sense to play the "empty nest" once the offspring is in college. But I don't do that. College is frozen time. In my game, the teenager stage is 9 days – from 13 to 22. It would be too short if I treated university as passing time, as 22 is when US college students graduate. So, I mark a dot with the letter C whenever someone is "1 day away" and ready for college. It's often for the future more than the past, as I like to send a few Sims at once (you know, the babies marked 22 days earlier), so I plan ahead and need to know how many days left. I also send them to college according to their age (even if I don't have to do that with frozen time, it's fun to do), so if there's 2 years difference between Sims, one of them will be a Freshman when the other one is already a Junior. Also, not everyone goes to college! It's wants-based, again. If the teen has the want to go to college the very last morning of their teen stage, they go immediately. And again, exceptions. Sometimes I'll lock in the college want because I just can't imagine that Sim not going to college. I have the No Memory Uneducated mod to stop Sims who didn't want to go to college from crying about it. My university gameplay is the most strictly wants-based, to avoid having all Sims graduate with honors. Don't have a want to gain skill points, but fear academic probation? We're doing bare minimum. That kinda thing. The only want I lock in is "Make Dean's List" because it's pretty rare, and without it I was ending up with 3.2 GPA for every single Sim. This want means we're doing everything to get the highest grade possible.

Supernatural Sims

I'm not a fan of supernatural in The Sims (unless it's Planet Alades). The only occult I absolutely LOVE is ALIEN. I will have aliens in nearly every neighborhood. No Multi PT mod needed. PlantSims are cool too, but only in neighborhoods where they appear from the start. Very rarely do I let my Sims become werewolves, or especially vampires and zombies. If a Sim doesn't age, I don't see a point in playing them. Best regards to all the 'aging off' Simmers out there 😆

A while ago I uploaded the "userstartup.cheat" file to download in 4 flavors to choose, so you don't have to configure it yourself from scratch. Feel free to edit it however you like!

What is userstartup? It's a file that lets you run cheats by default, as in you launch the game and they're already enabled. You can also make an alias of a cheat that is annoyingly long to type in. So for example - this file is useful for having cheats like "boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true" always on, so you can place items diagonally by default, with no need to use the cheat first.

It goes into: Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Config Only put ONE in your folder! If you don't have "userstartup.cheat" in your folder, just paste it in there. If you do have one, replace it with mine.

DOWNLOAD

Flavors:

userStartup_testingcheatsoff - testingcheats is OFF at game launch.

userStartup_testingcheatson - testingcheats is ON at game launch.

userStartup_noQuarterTile_testingcheatsoff - for those who don't own Mansion & Garden stuff (quartertileplacement wouldn't work); testingcheats is OFF at game launch.

userStartup_noQuarterTile_testingcheatson - for those who don't own Mansion & Garden stuff (quartertileplacement wouldn't work); testingcheats is ON at game launch.

More info:

To get access to QuarterTilePlacement in-game you need to pres Ctrl+F first! And then again to disable it.

Other cheats enabled at startup (in every flavor): boolProp allow45DegreeAngleOfRotation true - using < and > you can set objects diagonally. intProp maxNumOfVisitingSims 12 - for inviting more than 2 guests to a party.

This is a list of programs that will make your life easier if you're an avid Sims 2 player. Click on program titles to get download links.

SimPE The most known software for The Sims 2 that lets you edit package files. You can do basic stuff like rename a Sim, change family name, edit Sims' genetics as well as edit/create mods. Don't use if you have no idea what you're doing, watch a tutorial first or back up your neighborhood beforehand in case you mess something up! The newest version also has a terrain editor.

Sims2Pack Clean Installer The best program for installing downloaded lots and Sims. Those don't just go into Downloads, you need to install them!

Hood Checker This program checks neighborhood references and can clean out ones that are broken. Also useful for bringing back lost graves (it's still good to have NoUnlinkOnDelete).

HCDU Plus The Hack Conflict Detector Utility lets you scan your Downloads folder to check if you have any mods that edit the same aspect of the game, so can potentially be in conflict. Also useful to navigate which mods load first (load order is important for some mods to work).

What Caused This When you have 'testingcheats' on, the game gives you error messages if there's something going on. Not all of them mean there's a serious problem, but What Caused This can help you navigate what the source is. Upload the log file (Documents/EA/TS2/Logs) in the program, give it your Downloads folder and it will scan it to look for the culprit. Might give you straighforward information on which mod conflict caused the issue or that you lack Smarter EP Check for a mod that requires it.

The Compressorizer You can compress your Downloads to take up less space.

Delphy's Download Organiser You can filter your files to a certain category, scan for orphans (files that don't fully work if other files are missing, such as meshes), duplicates, and clean up your Downloads folder in an easier way than trying to track it inside the folder manually.

Outfit Organiser You downloaded CC clothes that the creator marked as outerwear but you think they don't fit in that category? With this program you can quickly change that! It's also doable in SimPE, but Outfit Organiser is a lot easier to use.

CPack Editor If you want to make plastic surgery genetic, there's no need to do it manually in SimPE, especially if it's more than one Sim. In CPack Editor, you just choose your neighborhood's folder, run the program, and it changes ALL surgery faces in that neighborhood to genetic!

Lot Adjuster This program lets you edit already existing lots. If you want a smaller or bigger lot than possible in-game, you can do it here! Also great for creating pavilions or row houses that are all separate lots, as you can get rid of the 2-tile border separating buildings by making the lots smaller and copying them.

AUTONOMOUS CASUAL ROMANCE - MY SETTINGS

I like more romance autonomy in my game, but ACR is way too much when not customized. I like to control the population, so there's no way I'll have any % of risky WooHoo or autonomous TFB (Try For Baby). Here are my personal settings!

Hood-Wide Settings → Global Switches ACR autonomy is enabled Teen-Adult interactions are disabled Teen WooHoo is enabled (ACR doesn't have teen pregnancy) Cheating is enabled (usually) Auto & unmarried WooHoo are enabled TFB dialogs are disabled Booty calls are disabled Auto & unmarried TFB are disabled Auto Gender Pref is disabled Sofa woo test is standard

Hood-Wide Settings → Global Defaults Default Risky (WooHoo) - 0% (you can set it to zero at cancel) Timer Multiplier - 4x Required Relationship - default* Gender Pref Targets - usually 10% gay, 20% bi (I sometimes manually randomize it for teens)

Hood-Wide Settings → Global Overrides Pregnancy Odds - default (I don't use ACR's TFB at all) Dress - Undies Jealousy - default (I have another mod for jealousy)

*I don't see the point in setting required relationships globally. I used to set it high for family Sims, low for romance etc. but Sims' individual settings are dynamic by default so they'll do whatever they want anyway. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE it if someone were able to change that default in ACR or write a separate mod to change it from dynamic to static for all Sims in the neighborhood (or even on the lot). I can't be bothered with clicking five times on every Sim in every hood.

THE SIMS 2 ULTIMATE CALCULATION You need to copy it and save on your account to be able to use it. I can't risk letting people edit the calculator so they can just wipe out the whole thing.

I made a calculator for The Sims 2 that makes it easier for me to choose certain things for Sims such as aspiration, career, hobby and to get a clear idea of who this Sim is.

How does it work? Here's an explanation for all modules!

Aspiration I rarely use this part of the calculator because usually I look at a Sim's personality and already know. This module is not perfect, but definitely comes in handy when I'm not sure. So basically you put in the Sim's personality points into the teal-colored category, and the burgundy-colored one counts itself (giving "negative" points for a trait, e.g. 6 in Neat is 4 in Sloppy). Each aspiration takes different traits into its formula, giving a certain number of points. The more points, the "better" the aspiration fits the personality. Of course this is very simplified, so only use it when indecisive (which I always am). Here is a general idea on which traits suit which personality in my opinion. Except now I think the difference between fortune and knowledge is how nice the Sim is.

Interests finally matter! The calculator has two systems based on interests that I think make a lot of sense and actually make the interests mean something other than if Sims are going to argue while talking. This calculator makes NO SENSE with VANILLA interests system!!! Interests are based on age which means kids and adults are interested in specific things "according" to their age, e.g. kids like animals and adults like culture. In the vanilla system, this calculator will end up giving you the same results over and over! So I recommend getting this mod that makes interests random and not change in the child→teen age transition.

So go ahead, type in your Sim's interests! Expand the interests panel to have them in the same order as in the calculator (counting by columns left-right top-bottom, so starting with Politics and ending with Sci-Fi).

Career Without this calculator, I would give my Sims the same jobs over and over because I wouldn't even remember all the 25 careers + a few custom ones I have. Each career has a formula and takes different interests into account, you can find them listed next to the career name. It also counts in aspiration, so don't forget to give a few points there! I add in 5 points for aspiration.

One True Hobby I often just leave whatever OTH the game calculated for the Sim based on personality mainly. But sometimes I like it when the hobby and the job align. I also don't like that certain OTHs seem to repeat a lot, so I recalculate it if need be.

The calculator highlights 22+ points in careers and 12+ points in OTH. You can also mark all the career numbers and look in the bottom-right corner for the "max" value to navigate it more easily.

Custom career - Psychologist!

I edited LientebollemeiS2I's Psychologist career, changing nearly everything about it. What stayed are links to uni majors, the icon (which is also a uni major) and some inspiration for chance cards. IMO this career has a strong Maxis vibe, with "start from nothing" first levels, NPC references and silly chance cards.

Each level title has a number added to it, like in this mod.

The 4 skills required for this job are: Logic, Charisma, Cleaning and Creativity.

IMPORTANT EDIT: With LientebollemeiS2I's guidance, I also edited the GUID of the career and changed PTO (paid time off) back to default. Now you can use both our careers at the same time! The GUID is: 0xC6A05A9D. In case you need to check if you have something that uses the same one (it was generated, so might repeat).

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

List of levels with descriptions:

Psychology Books Enjoyer Lvl 1 You'll take any book that has anything to do with the topic of psychology and devour it instantly, hoping this knowledge will be useful some day.

Internet Mental Health Advisor Lvl 2 You dive into web forums to find the most interesting psychological cases and comment on them. Your aspirations are high, but you don't have the skills or degrees yet to become a real therapist. One can dream, though!

Social Bunny Lvl 3 You've actually made it to a real mental health institution, and not as a patient, but as an assistant… sort of. Don't forget to be the fluffiest bunny out there because what you're doing here is really helping other Sims. And all you ever wanted was to help others, right?

Therapist in Training Lvl 4 It's been hard, but you've made it to an actual psychology path. Just stay strong and you'll definitely open your own private practice office one day.

Social Worker Lvl 5 Whether it's leaving children home alone for too long, starving them or not dressing them appropriately to the weather… you'll be there to collect them and find more responsible families for them. It's a tough job, but it's something you have to get through in your training.

Private Counselor Lvl 6 You've finally made it! You're officially a therapist and working in your private office. Now, your mission is to care for your clients in the best way that you can. So don't stop educating yourself!

Psychology Researcher Lvl 7 Your passion for psychology is never-ending. You've decided to take it to the next level and do important research to contribute to the science. Good job!

Personality Specialist Lvl 8 During your research, you've grown very interested in the depths of Sims' personality. What can change it? To what extent is it genetic? What's that thing about werewolves?

Clinical Psychologist Lvl 9 Regular therapy practice and deep research were not quite enough for you. Now it's time to make real diagnoses, assist psychiatrists in their work, and make the world a better place. Keep on learning and you might become the ultimate Therapist.

Therapist NPC Lvl 10 It's time to deal with the real Wretched Outcasts and Doddering Deadbeats. In order to do it, you needed to learn teleportation, hypnosis and partial invisibility. If someone is in crisis, you're the Sim they'll always turn to.

As for clothes and cars (or lack thereof 👀), you'll have to see for yourself in game 😎

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

Hope you like it! I've always wanted a therapist-like career in The Sims 2.

How to make custom eyes non-dominant?

So you downloaded cool custom eyes for your Sims 2 but you wish they weren't dominant in genetics (as they usually are)? It's very simple to fix as long as you have SimPE.

Explanation: Custom eyes are dominant because their default genetic value is 0, and creators usually don't bother with changing that. Maxis genetic values are 1 and 2, so 0 dominates over both, which means custom eyes are more dominant than Maxis dominant.

And now, how to change it:

Open SimPE.

Open the eye file that you'd like to edit (you can drag it directly from the folder into SimPE).

Go to Texture Overlay XML, it will probably be named something like "uuface_eye_gray".

In Plugin View below, find "genetic (dtSingle)".

Now it's time to decide if you want the eyes to be dominant or recessive. 1 - Maxis dominant 2 - Maxis recessive In the window located to the right, you can edit it and type in the desired number (1 or 2, never leave it at 0!).

Commit. Save. Done!

Now you can go into the game and test it (close SimPE first!). Make two fresh Sims, one with a Maxis recessive eye color (e.g. light blue) and the other with this custom one you just edited. Then "play with genetics" and if the offspring ever gets the Maxis recessive color, it works! Sims straight from CAS are homozygous, so it wouldn't be possible for recessives to even appear if the other color was dominant.

I personally changed the value to 1 to make it the same as in the Equal Genetics mod. If you want dominant and recessive in your game, just choose which colors have which value. Unfortunately, you need to edit every single file separately.

You can also use this version of Equal Genetics for eyes to have them all set to 0 - this way no custom eyes will dominate and there's no need to edit them!

MY NEW EYE COLORS SYSTEM

I'm a huge fan of Anna's default eyes, had been using them for probably nearly 10 years, but it was time for a tiny change. Emphasis on tiny!

I wanted to add some custom eyes to have more variety, but I really needed them to be the same style as my defaults. Anna's eyes sadly don't come with any non-defaults (links don't work anymore), so I switched to a very, very similar edit that has custom eyes too. Then, I chose a few customs and edited them to not be dominant (I use the Equal Genetics mod). It just so happened that at the time I was watching a friend of mine replace the texture of default eyes in SimPE. So I edited the default replacements to exactly the colors I always wanted Anna's eyes to have (using the custom colors). I changed light blue, green and brown. To me, they look slightly more Maxis in new colors. So now I have defaults + 6 custom colors of the same style. Two of three formerly default colors have been installed as custom to honor them! I'm satisfied! And can't wait for random townies & NPCs to get the custom colors as they are townified.

It's not that visible when you compare the pictures because John is in the shade, but I chose a darker color for brown.

I also replaced PlantSims' eyes, both normal and wilted! And for vampires I use these. The eyeballs are a little more shaded but I can accept that. For aliens I still use Anna's replacement!

If you'd like to have my light blue, green, brown and PlantSim, you can download them here. For the rest you'll have to go to the original authors. This upload doesn't include gray and dark blue eyes because I haven't touched them, they're Maranatah's work!

Townieville!

A little project that was supposed to be just for fun, but felt so cool I decided to give it a little more character, make it CC-free and share it.

I adore the original townies of the base game. At some point I noticed that some of the adults share similarities with teens and kids - so I figured out how to merge them into whole families, based on their shared face templates, genetics and/or last names. Sadly, some last names were lost in the process, so I kept a few of them alive in street names.

VERSION 3, updated June 2025!!! NOW ALL NAMES SHOULD BE ENGLISH REGARDLESS OF YOUR GAME'S LANGUAGE! No more incoherent names of playables. I edited all character files, so pets and service Sims too. BUT the Repo Man and one Social Worker will be written in English as well, possibly along with the repo's notification, because I got ahead of myself and can't change it back anymore... I'd have to do all files all over again. Sorry! Pay your bills lol. I'm surprised SimPE even allowed that, as the Social Bunny cannot be changed to "US English Only". If you see a clearly pre-made Sim or pet with a name in your language, let me know! I had to open and edit about 150 character files, so oversights are more than probable. Also, I fixed a weird family relation between Orlando Cox and Joe Sims that resulted in Orlando getting memories about Marsha (as if she was his cousin).

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

POLISH VERSION (MIASTOWICE)

And there are two things that annoy me about this town. First, FIVE (5) Sims use the 7th face template (Marylena, Melissa, teen Ivy, Orlando and Chandler). Second, the names Ivy and Orlando are doubled. But well, they're townies originally!

There are 12 families, that's quite a lot for a starting neighborhood, but many of them are single Sims (often single parents), so they have the potential to merge.

The families:

Bendett-LeTourneau Marisa Bendett and her daughters Sophie and Meadow, Brandi LeTourneau and her kids Alvin and Chloe.

GilsCarbo Goopy GilsCarbo is married to Marylena Hamilton (now GilsCarbo) and they have a teenage daughter named Ivy.

Cox Kennedy, Melissa and their two sons: Orlando and Chandler. They own a dog named Otis. Chandler is not Kennedy's biological son, see Melissa's memories for details.

Copur Ivy Copur and her roommate Abhijeet Deppiesse.

Tellerman Jan living alone, next door to her brother Komei.

Tellerman Komei, Christy and their daughter Brittany. There's a new baby on the way!

Centowski Orlando and Ricky living alone as teenagers after both their parents passed away.

Sims Benjamin Cox (Kennedy's brother), his fiancé Amin Sims, and their cat Heidi.

Sims Joe Sims (Amin's brother) and his daughter Marsha.

Lillard Brandon and his a lot younger sister Tosha.

Hogan Andrea and her teenage son Randy.

Bruty Sandy.

Other population notes: Anything other than the Pleasantview game folder has been cleared out of character files, so there are no vanilla pets, social groups, garden club members etc. All service Sims are Maxis because they belong in the Pleasantview folder. The only typically Maxis pets are Otis and Heidi that are replicas of the original adoption pool pets made in CAS. Other pets have been spawned completely fresh. Since the townies are now playables, I made a few townie children, teens and adults. They are CAS Bin Sims. There's also the founder Sim that I needed as the first playable to spawn all the townies on the lot (his name is Deighton Freeman) and Nerissa Bee who's supposed to be the clothing store owner. This neighborhood has no subhoods. Feel free to add them if needed.

Genetics I fixed all "dyed hair" genetics, so e.g. Brandi LeTourneau now has brown hair genetically. I also gave everyone recessive genes, so they're not homozygous.

Townieville landscape: Made on the Sedona map but in lush, the town gives (as one of my viewers pointed out) the Blue Ridge Mountains vibe! So it could be located in North Carolina or Virginia.

All the houses are Maxis, just furnished by me. Some of them have been reconstructed on the inside so the families have enough space. Four families live in an apartment building that I built from scratch.

There are many needed community lots: a town pool, a clothing store, a convenience store, a game arcade, a tiny bistro, a park, a graveyard. Some of them are built by me and some are Maxis lots from the bin (often edited by me). There's also a lake beach on the hill, close to the Sims family.

The town revolves around a big hospital building where Brandi and Marisa work as doctors.

DOWNLOAD (SFS)

Hope you like it! Happy Simming!

Planet Alades is a custom neighborhood with ALIENS ONLY!

Hardly anyone in this galaxy knows that Planet Alades even exists… Therefore it's a safe space for those whose home planets collapsed because of climate change, meteors or foreign invasions. As the inhabitants come from all different species and cultures, they have to stay open-minded and at least tolerate each other.

Neighborhood presentation on Youtube My gameplay series on Planet Alades

There are 6 households on Planet Alades:

Zoyvi A royal family of planet Elaganda. Maloya was the queen of her home planet, so here in this new land she's happy to be the Mayor. Her husband Unifu is an excellent architect who designed all the buildings on the planet.

Damaga A very powerful species of vampire-witches from planet Oppsnoxx. Their only weakness is a constant desire for woohoo... and the presence of sunlight.

Naikeman The asexual, non-binary species of PlantSims from planet Naike. They produce excellent fruits and vegetables and sell them in their store, providing most of the food for the whole community.

Yven Their home planet Repta was a desert, so the only flora they knew were succulents. Here on Planet Alades, they discover so many beautiful plants and would love to harvest good produce of their own. They're extremely envious of the Naikemans and their green thumbs.

Okm They still can't wrap their head around the idea that all the other species on this planet have a body part called eyes. And they can use it to experience their surroundings in a new dimension, additionally to hearing, smell, taste and touch? Back on planet Querty, no one had ever heard about it. This family consists of a doctor and a scientist, so it's extremely important to the entire community. They're very friendly and easygoing as well and their doors are always open to visitors.

Rojin Vateeg is the only specimen of his kind that survived the destruction of planet Mubic. As a former warrior in the worst intergalactic war of the Universe, he just wants to rest peacfully in his new home.

DOWNLOAD (MF)

There's also a Polish version!

In the folder there's a document with a list of mods that can help maintaining the no-earth-humans policy of this planet. It's located very far away from Earth, so there's no way humans can get there. Well, at least not on their own. I put a tiny easter egg regarding Maloya, but you have to resurrect her parents and see their bios to figure it out. I edited nearly all NPCs to look at least a little bit cosmic, I worked hard to keep it as human-free as possible. Only the Social Worker and the Unsavory Charlatan haven't been edited (although they can be, as we now know from April Black's video). Note: the burglar hasn't been spawned yet in this neighborhood, so I recommend quickly changing that Sim into a vampire with the Sim Transformer. They work nights, right?

Other than that, the neighborhood is CC-free! Might include Store content though.

Enjoy!

Credits: