Polgannon - A Complete Story Neighbourhood Whodunnit?

Before We Start
Please read the installation instructions (Installation tab) carefully for this download. It is not simply a case of dumping everything in Downloads.

Also please take note of the issues and warnings section on this download page so that you are aware of potential problems which can be easily avoided. I put a lot of the information under spoiler tags since there is a hell of a lot for a single thread.

There's a lot more information about the sims and lots in the comments. Also, there's a list at the bottom of this page of successful solvers.

Update 13 September 2015 - 2nd edition of the neighbourhood released and is now the version of the file available here. Only the neighbourhood file is affected, custom content remains the same. Changes include: SimDNA files for some brown eyed sims corrected; LTW for Tamara corrected; Golf Club lot description added; James Penhaligan's name is now spelt correctly; some corrections to parts of the story including one story picture replaced; other minor adjustments.

Also, the files for the extra families have now been moved to Sims File Share and are available here: Edgcumbe, Kestle and Grenville. Please see bottom of post six in the comments section for details.

Update 11th December 2015 - 3rd edition of the neighbourhood file is now available for download. Only the neighbourhood folder is affected, downloads remain the same. Fixes include: two statement pictures in Ruan's story updated to show correct information and appearance; reset the marriage status of all married couples to try and combat a problem reported by some players that couples had the 'propose marriage' option even when otherwise showing as married; some minor tinkering with physical evidence and a couple of furniture placement issues corrected.

My policy for Polgannon
My normal policy is to allow people to share what I make freely (though no pay sites). However, Polgannon is an exception to this rule. It is a large and complex piece of work and it took me a long time to write it. As such, I would prefer not to see Polgannnon shared on any other website than this one and also I will not give permission to convert Polgannon to other uses such as making it into sub-hood or gender-swapped versions. I just don't feel that would be appropriate for what it is. Please respect my preferences here.



Having said that:

This just in: read all about it!



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Blaise Penhaligan has been found brutally murdered - can you solve the mystery that surrounds his death?

What is this?
This is a complete neighbourhood for you to play. It is based around the idea of a typical murder mystery from the Golden Age of murder mysteries and thus it has elements lifted from Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Josephine Tey, Margery Allingham, Ngaio Marsh and all the rest I could think of (now you know my bedtime reading). I have included practically every whodunnit character cliche I could think of. This is why I wanted to build the neighbourhood in the first place. I wanted to see if I could write a COMPLETE mystery story with a murder, background, motives, character and detectable solution. I am quite pleased with the result, it is not perfect but I have achieved the goal I set myself.

So the neighbourhood encapsulates the first part of a murder mystery story. You have characters, their backgrounds, their histories, loves, jealousies, rivalries and life problems. You can find out how they came to be here in Polgannon and where they might be going. Though where they actually go is up to you since what we have here is effectively the first half of a murder mystery. Blaise Penhaligan is dead but no-one knows who killed him (except me, of course). The idea is, you can find the answer to that by playing out the sim's lives and finding the solution. I would say ...

There are two approaches to playing it:

1. you can play it like any other downloadable storied neighbourhood: get to know the sims resident here and play out their lives. Make your own mind up how Blaise Penhaligan came to meet his fate and let life go on from there. I hope you would find it interesting and enjoyable.

OR

2. you can set out to solve the mystery. Because, you see, there is one.

Or both, maybe.



About Polgannon
Polgannon is built on a custom neighbourhood map. I was attempting to create a sense of place from a visit I made to Cornwall a few years ago. Polgannon is a village tumbling down the steep coastal margin of northern Cornwall towards the sea surrounded by isolating and bleak moors. You will find 37 living sims (plus several dead ones including Blaise), 3 cats and 3 dogs in 17 families with 24 lots (a mix of residential and community) in Polgannon - all unique to this neighbourhood (see first few posts of the comments thread for pictures and more detail). There are four townies plus 2 NPCs (a driver and a landlord). I resisted the urge to include a Chinaman BTW. Polgannon was built in an otherwise empty AGS environment, so initially, that's all the sims you get. There are no sub-hoods, no universities, no downtowns, no shopping districts and no vacation destinations - you can add those yourself.

Issues
You will need all EPs and SPs to play. If you don't have all, you may find stuff missing from lots or lots that won't load - there is nothing I can do about this. If you are missing an EP, it's likely Polgannon won't load at all. If you have missing SPs, you will find stuff missing in lots but you will possibly be able to load the neighbourhood. This neighbourhood wasn't made with the Store Edition.

The neighbourhood has been checked with the Hoodchecker and is clean.

First Load
On first load in a regular neighbourhood slot in game, the game will generate some of the hidden sub-hoods because they are at present not loaded. The game will load pets, magic, exotic destinations and various other stealth hoods (unless you have modded your game to prevent this). What it is doing is adding NPCs and townies to your version of Polgannon. This means the initial load will be slightly longer than usual as the game copies the files and folders. There is nothing wrong with the neighbourhood.

NPCs and townies
Your game will also generate NPCs as you play. What I tried to do was keep the download file size to an absolute minimum. Although I have play-tested the neighbourhood and had it play-tested by others, the version of the neighbourhood files you will get has only been played for a very short time in order to prevent the game from generating any extra sim files. Thus, there are very few NPCs in the files (there's a driver and a landlord). As you play, your game will generate these NPCs as needed (if you have the no-regen hacks, it will only generate those it actually needs). So you will find that the first time you play a lot through the morning hours, the game will make a newspaper girl/boy and a post-person. This may cause some lagging as you start to play the neighbourhood though it will not last forever - once the NPCs are there, the lagging will go away.

Lots
Many of the lots have been fiddled about with Mootilda's Lot Expander. As a result, I strongly recommend that you DON'T try to move them around. They won't go back if you do.

Recommendations
Polgannon is a complicated neighbourhood and there are large lots - it is NOT recommended for smaller, less powerful machines.








Congratulations need to go to successful solvers:

Jojoa777
koololdster
bloodstained_black_lace
Amairani
vllygrl
Lord St.Croix
lorinsv60 & Little Nemo
vaayvaay
Sims2 4ever
Medollga
notreallifeliving
letmereadinpeace4
Paolopollo
TeaAddict and all members of her stream community (especially Jo)

Additional Credits:
Thank you to SimPE creators (Numenor and R Giles) — not possible to do this without SimPE.
My testers who include JoandSarah77, PeniGriffin, HugeLunatic, Klaartje, Marka93
In particular:
JoandSarah77 for the lot no. 1, Lanscumbe Road (was no.1, Tregannon Road and is available as a standalone lot here: modthesims.info/d/523196) and general just being Jo-ness (which is to say very supportive)
Mootilda (for the Lot Adjustor, other modder utilities and general helpfulness and usefulness — we surely miss you)
Jawusa and Marka for helpful information
Peni — for writerly support
Simmer22 for helping a fellow simmer out with the brilliant strollers — looking forward to seeing those available for download
PlatinumPlumbob, NewSimgirl2011, lauratje86, vllygrl, Sunbee
Ovenhole for help testing the extra families
Queen of France for pursuing an issue for me
(I think that’s all guys — if I missed someone = SORRY)

Finally: a thread has been opened on the Sims2 forum - I think they're going to compare notes. If you're interested, head on over