#ts2uc

Astoria Hills — Hood Deco

Earlier today I started work on my new neighborhood’s deco. I made a small plaza with some items that came with the game as well as cc. I have TS2UC, so I don’t know if the carousel and some of the fencing comes with the base game or another ep. Anyway, here’s a list of the pictured items:

Hi guys, how are you? I’m off to work but I had 10 spare minutes to check on the pc... I wrote this post on MTS a while ago and I meant to share it with you: I guess some people might still not be aware of the existance of these mods and how default neighborhoods work, so why not sharing it here too?

Just one little note: this is not a tutorial, nor original tips I wrote myself, but rather a collection of suggested hacks and mods that will make the game look/work better (imho). All credits to the original posters!

Premade Neighborhoods VS Custom Hoods

Hoods are quite easy to move around/be edited/created, you just need to keep track their ID numbers. Basically, each hood has assigned a 4 letter "name" and everytime you create one, it will continue the numeration. In a vanilla game, you will have a total of 6 hoods (Pleasantview, Strangetown, Veronaville, Riverblossom Hills, Desiderata Valley and Belladonna Cove) - the first 3 are respectively named "N001", "N002" and "N003" and any other player made hood will follow this system, meaning that a new hood in a fresh install will be named "N004". The following ones have completely new numbers/letters to avoid conflict with any custom hood you might have created before installing an EP that add one of the "extra" hoods. For this reason, if you ever decide to create a custom hood, I'd suggest you to rename it asap - you can either do it manually or using a software (I've always used "Bulk Rename Utiliy", which is great and free). You can rename the hood using any alphanumerical character, as long as it's 4 letters short - I usually use some letters from the name I gave.

More than one TS2 folder in Documents!

On a similar note, you might want to keep more than one "The Sims 2" folder in your documents. For me it's useful to keep one for when I want to create something BodyShop, which it would be quite slow to load in may main game folder, due to the huge amount of CC. You just need to rename the one you don't want to use in something else - the game won't read it unless it's called "The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection". Some simmers use this system to have themed CC hoods - you could have a medieval one, a futuristic one, a victorian one and switch from one to another according to what you'd like to play.

Clean Templates and where to find them My first tip is to download clean/fixed templates since, no matter what, the EAxis ones are corrupted in some aspetcs. You can find more info here or here Also, it might be a good idea to get rid of some "extra" families and Sim that are automatically added to the game: http://modthesims.info/d/520751/cle...-templates.html

Essential mods for your game There are a number of critical fixes and mods that improve the game stability and also the playability, you can read more here: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=532696

Graphics & Memory Allocation Also, if the game runs on a newer machine, you might probabily double check also the Graphic Rules Maker and the 4GB Patch.

Lesyasun knows better!!

On the "appearance side" there are a lot of mods which make the game look so much better, including lighting mods , water overhaul and skylines: http://lesyasun.tumblr.com/post/175...to-make-my-game

Useful tools and organasing your Downloads Also, if you intend to use custom items, don't forget to download the CEP, the Clean Installer and the Download Organiser - the first two are essentials for managing/see CC, while the latter is a nice software that help reorganising your downloads. You can organise your Download folder in subfolders, some other simmers have shared an empty structure that you can use instead of creating it from scratch: http://allisas.tumblr.com/post/3241...mething-we-were.

I’m quite sure I’ve missed something huge/more important than the rest but at least is something.

Astoria Hills — Hood Deco and Apartment Complex

I was working on an apartment layout I drafted and decided to add a hood deco complex next to it to make the area next to the cafes feel a bit more “lived in”.

The apartment I actually built came along pretty decently. It’s 4 units so two of the 1bd layout and two of the 2bd layout. Not really happy with the exterior and interior color schemes so I may eventually change it. Also, not quite happy with the front yard layout — might have to axe the pool. The 2bd layout is not exactly true to the design I created in Photoshop — couldn’t quite get the proportions right but it still turned out decenty.

As for the hood deco I placed next door, that was fun! I wanted something to take up a bit of blank space on the map without actually having to build it from scratch. I really love this map, but I will say one caveat is that it’s very hilly and the terrain can make it hard to build or place things in corners. And there are a lot of slopes (towards the waterfront). But this still turned out great in my opinion! I placed another bus stop towards the back of the cafe because I want this hood to seem transit friendly. (And now that I think about it, maybe this will be an excuse to use “walk to lot” more often for my households.)

I have a problem where I’ll start building lots or hood and then never finish them, but I don’t think that will be an issue with Astoria since I’m in school. I’ll need something to help me recharge after all this homework. Speaking of which...time to get started on my English and Math assignments.

I also started a YouTube channel after seeing @anibats’ channel earlier today! I’m not good at remember to turn my game bar/screen recorded on, but when I do I will probably upload my speed builds there.

Bark & Ruff — Community Lot

Finally built up a lot I placed a while ago. I definitely could have done better with furnishings and maybe made the building smaller, but it still turned out okay IMO! Since I didn't do a voiceover for this one, I will probably just upload the Rosehill house build sans voice, too. It's easier that way!

Astoria Hils — Hood Deco

The neighorborhood is coming further along! A lot of the deco (like the trees, quay, train station) was already placed on this premade map but I’ve been adding my own touch. Like the “private school” (big brown buildings) near the edge of the water, the bus depot and various stations around town, some condos and brownstones, the cafe, and such.

I had an experience today where an Origin client update completely wrecked my Sims 2 game (or so I thought), and I don’t want this happening to anyone else. And before you ask, an EA rep walked me through clearing the cache on my computer. That didn’t work.

The Issue I Had

I updated Origin because it was touted as “mandatory” (cue eyeroll that gives me a migraine). When I went to open TS2UC after the update...The game wouldn’t open! Running the program as an administrator didn’t work, compatibility mode did nothing. I would click on TS2UC and instead of launching it would open the Sims 2 copy in my Game Library. Clicking ‘Play Game’ would make the Origin window disappear for a second or two (as if the game was about to load) only for nothing to happen. The game was not launching in the computer Task Manager either.

After much of the day trying to figure things out (with the “help” of EA/Origin Games support representatives), warning fellow Simmers on Reddit, and thinking my game was wrecked, I have a solution.

Backup Your Game Files Before All Origin Updates*

Backup your Sims 2 Ultimate Collection Folder (or specific folders like Downloads, Lot Catalog, Neighborhoods, and SC4Terrains). 

Place the copy somewhere else in your computer that is not the Documents > EA Games folder. 

For more information on backing up files, read about it via ModtheSims.

*The Sims 2 is a “legacy game” (read: old, geriatric, and unsupported), so support is not really available outside of the Simmer community, and Origin is not accounting for the game whatsoever when new client updates are published. Because of this, you need to back up all your game before allowing updates. Even if you have no had this happen to you and you believe it never will, backup your files anyway. If you have your Origin client set to auto-update, I recommend turning that feature off so you have time to backup TS2. In fact, putting Origin in Offline Mode may be in your best interest (read more under the Misc. section).

Please only follow this solution if clearing your Origin cache didn’t work, or you are not comfortable messing with program data and such.

The Solution

After backing up the files you want saved, uninstall the Origin client from your computer. It is not necessary to uninstall Sims 2. You can leave that alone. (In fact, don’t touch TS2 in your Uninstall Program manager unless this tutorial doesn’t work!)

Reinstall Origin. 

After logging back in, go to your Game Library, and right-click on the TS2UC thumbnail. 

Click ‘Repair Game’. Let it repair. 

Launch TS2 and let it load.

Check if your game was switched back to the default settings (no custom content, no saved games, no custom neighborhoods, etc.). 

If you find anything like this changed, that is where the backed up files come in handy! Close your game.

Go to the Documents > EA Games folder. Delete any and all files within. Place your backed up game files in that same folder. Launch. Voila!

Or are you like me and you already updated the game before you found this tutorial and backed up your files, so you “lost” everything?

Fear not!

Check your Documents > EA Games folder. Are there two files (one saying ‘The Sims 2′, the other saying ‘The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection’)? 

Delete the folder that doesn’t have your Downloads folder (or it is not filled with your finds), has no custom neighborhood(s) in the Neighborhood folder, and/or no custom neighborhood(s) in the SC4Terrains folder. This will most likely be the most recently created folder, usually with only a few folders/files inside (instead of 16-20 total items), and/or it may be entitled simply ‘The Sims 2′.

After deleting the appropriate folder, please make sure it is named  The Sims™ 2 Ultimate Collection exactly, or TS2 will create another file (more than likely named The Sims 2 only).

Misc.

You may notice that the resolution has switched to the default. You will have to re-edit the Graphics Rule information, including using the Graphics Rule Maker program from Sims Network.

For those of you who only use Origin to play Sims 2, it would be better to avoid all Origin updates by using Offline Mode. Read this thread on ModtheSims for more info.

Pinterest inspiration for a living room. I'm going to start little design challenges so I can get better at interior (and eventually exterior) design.

Challenge #1 wasn't the best, but it's definitely a good start!