Better Names v3 (2010-11-15)

DESCRIPTION

Better Names completely overhauls the default name lists (male, female and surname) that TS3 uses for randomly generated Sims - NPCs, "townie" employees and bosses, and Sims created through Story Progression.

I've endeavoured to rebuild the name list from scratch, working mainly from U.S., British, Canadian and Australian sources (birth and census records). The resulting name list, in my opinion, suits the setting of the Sims much better than EA's mish-mash of names from varying cultures or nationalities.

I have nothing against multiculturalism, but in the context of the game EA's random names stick out like a sore thumb because they inevitably get assigned to Sims who in no way resemble the racial/cultural/national background of the name they're given. That's why this mod uses mostly "Western" names.

This mod should not re-assign the names of existing Sims but any newly-generated ones will take on names from this mod. Check out the screenshots to see some examples of names.

I created this mod using STBLizer - check out the thread for the templates I originally used to create the names (but keep in mind there are probably simpler, less invasive ways to accomplish the same things these days...)

INSTALLATION

Install like any TS3 tuning mod - set up the Resource.cfg framework, and place into Mods\Packages\.

**NEW** a version called "AwesomeNames" has been added for all your AwesomeMod! users, which uses the custom name loader feature. To activate it, after installation you must set the Generator Keys in the configuration utility to "ChannBetterNames". Or add the fields to the XML yourself. Plug and play. See this image:



There's no significant difference using this version versus the default, except that it's easier to swap in and out with other custom name packages - plus the package itself a smaller size (because the duplicates are unnecessary).

COMPATIBILITY AND LIMITATIONS

• This mod works with all language versions of the game as of version 3.
• As a STBL mod this is compatible with all known core mods. The only incompatibility is with identical name-list mods, unless those mods add names rather than replace the default ones.
• chann_AwesomeNames.package requires AwesomeMod, otherwise it won't do anything

CREDITS

• Peter and Inge Jones for s3pe/s3pi
• Tiger for describing the process of loading a partial STBL with a unique instance.
• Digitalchaos for the STBL Duplicator
• Everybody that put in the hard work deciphering the file formats

CHANGELOG

Version 3 (2010-11-16)

• STBLs made multilanguage with STBL duplicator
• Added a non-replacing, smaller version which can be used with AwesomeMod's loader
• Fixed the instances, because a later patch changed the way STBLs load. I don't exactly know when the 'old way' of loading strings stopped working - may have been the release of Ambitions? Try it and see.

Version 2 (2009-08-06)

• Repackaged files to be much smaller and use the override method (thanks to Tiger for describing it)
• Fixed the instances, because a later patch changed the way STBLs load.

Version 1 (2009-08-01)

• Initial release. Uses the "total STBL replacement" method - Unlikely to even work anymore.