Do you want to get rid of those Maxis families which always appear in your neighborhood's bin?
And you don't want to delete them because this corrupts your neighorbood?

Then this is something for you!
These stealth hoods don't contain any annoying universal families and NPCs...

I used Numenor's AnyGameStarter to create empty neighborhoods using an empty Anygame with no Maxis content.
I copied everything over with Mootilda's HoodReplace and if necessary, I copied the lots from the Maxis stealth hood into my stealth hood. (only Hobbies and Magic)

I had to copy the hobby lots and the witch lots because every neighborhood needs them.
That's why EA created a stealth hood for them but they filled it with unnecessary sims...

These stealth 'hoods have been thoroughly checked with Mootilda's HoodChecker and no errors have been found.
You also don't need all 5 expansion packs for 1 stealth hood.

The "Pets" stealth hood only requires The Sims 2 Pets
The "Weather" stealth hood only requires The Sims 2 Seasons
The "Exotic Destinations" stealth hood only requires The Sims 2 Bon Voyage
The "Hobbies" stealth hood only requires The Sims 2 Free Time
The "Magic" stealth hood only requires The Sims 2 Apartment Life

If you have all expansion packs, then you can download all 5 stealth hoods.

Before downloading,
Make sure you make a backup of your existing template first.
You may want the stealth families or NPCs back.

Note: These templates will ONLY affect new neighborhoods or neighborhoods that haven't been loaded yet. In short, neighborhoods that don't already have the original stealth hoods installed. Meaning, if you saw loading screens like "Create Pets"; "Create Weather"..., then these templates will not change anything but future neighborhoods!

To install them, put them to your install location...
By default, it is C:\Program Files\EA GAMES
If you have Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, it is C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection

Pets Stealth Hood (Pets)
Install instructions: Put the P001 folder in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Pets\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate
If you have The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Fun with Pets\EP4\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Seasons Stealth Hood (Weather)
Install instructions: Put the G002 folder in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Seasons\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate
If you have The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Seasons\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Bon Voyage Stealth Hood (Exotic Destinations)
Install instructions: Put the V001 folder in C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate
If you have The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Bon Voyage\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Free Time Stealth Hood (Hobbies)
Install instructions: Put the F002 folder in in your C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Free Time\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate
If you have The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Free Time\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Apartment Life Stealth Hood (Magic)
Install instructions: Put the E002 in your C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2 Apartment Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate
If you have The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection: C:\Program Files\Origin Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Apartment Life\TSData\Res\NeighborhoodTemplate

Update: 15th January 2019
For those who use Windows 10 and have difficulties with getting these templates to work.
If you see that the default sims still appear in your neighborhoods despite of installing these empty templates, please try the following.

Apparently, Windows 10 stores the default templates somewhere, which is why, the game still adds the characters to the neighborhoods.


In order to fix this, go to C:\Users\Your Username\AppData\Local\VirtualStore\Program Files (x86)\EA GAMES
and install my templates there as well, just like in the normal Program Files. Thank you, somedaythesun for reporting this issue!

If you are confused, which file you should download...
Here's a better view of it:

- P001 is the stealth hood which came with The Sims 2 Pets
- G002 is the stealth hood which came with The Sims 2 Seasons
- V001 is the stealth hood which came with The Sims 2 Bon Voyage
- F002 is the stealth hood which came with The Sims 2 Free Time
- E002 is the stealth hood which came with The Sims 2 Apartment Life

Additional Credits:
Thanks to:
- Numenor for the AnyGameStarter - without him, I had to deinstall all of my EPs and I wasn't able to create an empty neighborhood
- Mootilda for her HoodReplace and Hood Checker - without her, I wouldn't be able to do anything. Changing 'hood's ID to stealth, copy everything from one neighborhood to another and checking for issues...
She was the most helpful one here. Thank you very much!
- somedaythesun for reporting the Windows 10 issue