Curious' Townie Pool - Custom and Default Replacement

Edit: 17 February, 2025
Apparently because my townies have secondary aspirations, the game doesn't know what to do when a sim is attracted to this secondary. You might have been getting this error if one my townies comes on a lot and a sim tries to check them out. This has now been fixed with all my four versions.

Queen of France had the same problem in their townie pool and they have a great explanation for those of you had any of my files attached to a hood already. If you want to keep the townies without getting the updated file, and still want to fix this change, you'll need SimPE. I posted a visual guide to help if you want to fix the issue on your own.

Basically, you need to open the hood that has the townies that need fixing, go to Sim Description (SDSC) which can be found in the left panel, and look for my custom townies. If you have one of the defaults, it will easy to spot the names I gave them. Depending on if you have the FULL or LITE, you'll have to change between 36 or 72 sims, sorry about that. If you used the subhood version, their names will be different. Go to the top left and under "Tools" go to "Neighborhood" and hover until "Sim Browser" pops up to the right and click that. You can filter by townies to help narrow it down. The next step is to then go to the bottom panel, and switch to the Freetime tab. Under the "Secondary Aspiration" dropdown, change it to none. Hit commit on the right side and go to the next sim. Once all are changed and committed, save at the top and you're good to go!

Please download one of the new files that starts with "UPDATED" if you have been getting these errors and don't want to fix the issue yourself in SimPE as stated above. I'm sorry for the inconvenience. If you're still getting errors, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

For celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Sims 2, here is my very own Townie Pool Replacement!*cue the confetti*🥳

Overview
About a year ago, I learned about custom townie pools and how it's possible to make of your own. I discovered Delijume's and Queen of France's works, as well as others over on Tumblr, and thought it was super cool and creative to be able to do that - I wanted to do that. And so, after a good couple of months of work, I have!

Like others that have been playing this game for a long, long 20 years (or there about), I was getting tired of seeing the same townies over and over again. I would restart Pleasantview one too many times and whenever I would make my own worlds, I would still see the same faces. Of course, I eventually learned about how you can stop the game from generating them, or even download a version of hoods without them there. I did that for quite some time until finally, I decided I wanted to do something different.

One the main reasons for wanting to make this entire thing was that I wanted townies that looked to my taste while also having as much genetic variety as possible. All age groups are included from elders to children. All skin tones, hair colors, and eye colors are included. The genetics are also paired in as much variations as possible. Sim A will have skin tone 1, hair color 1, and eye color 1, while sim B will have skin tone 1, hair color 2, and eye color 1. So on and so forth. They may not be the same sex or age, but the difference is there. It's not perfect, but I tried my best to make it that way.

Basic Information
This was created with the Ultimate Collection. Plenty of the sims are wearing hairs and clothes from various expansion and stuff packs.

Each sim was made with the intention of creating a group fleshed out characters. Whether they stay as townies in your game or integrate into playable households, they all have everything a sim needs. From first and second aspirations, turn on's, turn off's, sexual orientations, differing body types, jewelry, randomized skills, appropriate hobbies, appropriate life time wishes, (some) college degrees, and careers. All sims in their age group also have differing amounts of days left before they age up. The only thing I didn't change to give variety were the grades of teens and kids (because I didn't think of that until I was pretty much done).

If you choose to install one of the default versions, the names I gave each sim will stay the same.

If you choose to install one of the custom versions, the names I gave each sim will randomized.

If you don't mind the different names, should you choose a custom version, you're good to go! The only thing that will be noticeable is that all sims have a bio. Their original name will most likely be in there but you can change it to match. If you would prefer to have the original names that I gave, you will either need to have some sort of mod that lets you change a sims name in game, or you can use SimPE to change them back.

All sims that were made for this project were:

• Created in bodyshop
• Created using the "Pooklet Method"
• Created using default replacement face presets
• Possibly tweaked using custom sliders

Every sim was created as an adult before I changed them to the appropriate age so that I could guarantee they didn't look too odd. While every sim was made as stated above, I also went in to make sure that all sims had smaller eyes across the board. I was never really a fan of how large the eyes are normally in game.


Meet the Townies
Each sim has an image that shows both what their entire outfit is as well as a close up of their faces. The close up of their faces is from three angles so that you have a better idea of their genetics. Their full names are at the top, even though some are sort of hard to see with the black text and if they have darker hair, my bad.

Below, you can see basic information about aspirations and turn on's and off's. I tried to keep the aspirations different but there will be some overlap. The first turn on, I always make a randomized hair color. The second turn on and the turn off are also randomized using a generator. Refer to the images to see which sim is which.



Installation
There are 4 versions that are available for download.

• "FULL - Custom Version" includes a total of 72 sims aged elder to child. Broken down, there are 8 elders split male and female, 32 adults split male and female, 16 teens split male and female, and 16 kids split male and female.
• "LITE - Custom Version" includes a total of 36 sims aged elder to child. Broken down, there are 4 elders split male and female, 16 adults split male and female, 8 teens split male and female, and 8 kids split male and female.
• "N001 - FULL Default Version" Is a default replacement which includes the same 72 sims as above.
• "N001 - LITE Default Version" Is a default replacement which includes the same 36 sims as above.
• The custom versions require Open for Business. If you do not have that expansion pack, the only two available to you are the defaults.

Once you have chosen a download, read on to see where to install.

• For a "Custom" townie pool, place the file name "FULL" or "LITE" into:
  Program Files (x86)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Best of Business\EP3\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate
• For a "Default Replacement" townie pool, place "N001" into:
  Program Files (x86)\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Double Deluxe\Base\TSData\Res\UserData\Neighborhoods
• If you do not have the Ultimate Collection but do have Open for Buisness, and you are getting the custom version, you need to direct to the latest expansion pack you have, then go to TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

You can only have one N001 default hood in your game. If you follow the directory above, and find there is already an N001, that is where the usual townies like Ivy Copur and Abhijeet Deppiesse are spawning from. Backup the N001 that is there and then remove it to replace with this download.
You can technically download both custom versions, however, if both are attached to the same hood, half of the sims will be redundant. If you do want both, ensure only one is attached to a single hood.
I encourage you to create an empty test hood to add these sims to before adding to any hoods of your own. It's good to just be able to see the added sims and decide if you truly want them.

Where to find the sims

• The custom hoods are subhoods. They can be added while in your main hood. Select the icon in the top left that says "Add a shopping district". There, the custom hood should be found with an image showing which version you have. Once you add the district to your main hood, you can delete the now empty subhood. It will not remove the townies as they are now attached to the main hood.
• The default hood will be automatically added to any hood you open after adding to your game files. Once again, I would ask you to create a test hood first to see if you like the sims and if all looks well. Backup any hoods you want to add these sims to.

Recommended Mods
Mootilda's Fix Subhood Selection
A name changer mod like this or simPE.
Different townie name mods like this or this
Some sort of lifespan mod like this or this
Smart AgeCorrect by Lazyduchess


Credits:
Delijume for the inspiration and helping along the way. Anytime I had a question, you were there to answer.
xfivexfivex for DR face templates "Butterflies and Hurricanes".
DeedeeSims for non-DR face templates of Beccabear’s "Masquerade".
simNopke for custom sliders.
randomgenerators.com for helping me create interesting and fun names for all these sims.