Hello everyone, I hope you are having a good day so far :D
This is my first post here!

In the past few months I have spent some time creating a new neighbourhood (the Title of the NBHD is The Island of Secrets)
And I hope all of you are going to like it! I've made some spicy storylines and I can't wait to post the neighbourhood! But... I have faced some issues that are preventing me to publish the neighbourhood as soon as I was planning to...

The 1st problem is, I don't know how to add pictures in the Neighbourhood story gallery - I have the Sims 2 Ultimate collection, maybe that is the reason? I try to add pictures but nothing happens...
The 2nd problem is I don't know how to create a video that will show up as you open the Neighbourhood (you know what I mean)
The 3rd is, I need to post the neighbourhood as well, but this would be my first time posting so ANY HELP would be much appreciated!

You can send me messages or replys here or on my insta @paralelizamart, or on my TikTok: @paralelizam, or on my email: kokoricleonarda84@gmail.com! Thanks in advance :D

Hi @paralelizam
1) What do you mean by 'nothing happens'- could you describe exactly your steps? Do you have One Drive or other cloud storage enabled? Check that your antivirus isn't scanning your game files as you play.
2) You need this:
https://modthesims.info/d/672500
3) Click Upload> Creator Guidelines for help. Also, when you think you are ready to upload, you can show your pictures and share your files in the Creator Feedback Forum and people here can assist you and help you to prepare for upload.

1. All the story albums work the same way: by accessing pictures that use the unique identifier for the household/neighborhood. Take a game-camera picture in neighborhood view and that will give you the unique identifier for the neighborhood. You can then change the names and the thumbnails of any existing pictures to have this unique identifier as well as its own individual ID number, either by using the + tab in the organization screen (which lets you manage all the game pictures in the neighborhood and bring copies of them into additional albums) or by manually changing any non-game-camera pictures to match the naming protocol, and make thumbnails for them. You can then use the album tool to arrange and caption them however you like. These will all be in the Neighborhood Storytelling folder, not the general one found directly under Sims 2.
The naming protocol is picture type_unique ID_picture ID.jpg, like so: snapshot_7059f0fa_32b19438.jpg. Snapshot tells you whether this is the picture you see in the album or the thumbnail with which you organize the album; 7059fofa tells you which album it belongs to, and 32b19438 is the ID for that picture. The thumbnail name will be the same except for the word "thumbnail" in place of "snapshot." The album file itself is named "webentry_unique ID." The album does not recognize any graphic files except .jpgs, so if you want to user a bunch of .png files you'll have to convert them.

2. I think the flyby feature is only available for certain neighborhoods with certain names, but someone may have beaten this by now.

3. Creator Guidelines for posting uploads to MTS are here: https://modthesims.info/rubrics/ . If for some reason you cannot/would prefer not to meet all the guidelines, you'll have to choose an upload site like SimsFileShare and do your own promotion for it.

Good luck and I hope to see people playing your neighborhood soon!

Oh, I didn't realise they meant the flythrough video! You're right, I don't think we know how to make custom paths, they are hard coded to neighbourhood name. I think the names that have flythroughs are- the main hoods, Sedona, Lakeview, Europa... anyone remember any others?

Thank you so much for the quick answer and help!^^
I managed to upload a photo before entering the Neighborhood and also to make the gallery!
The photos aren't high quality but I hope the Neighborhood's families and stories will make it up :D
Once again, thank you so so much for your help!

Heeey,
thank you so much for the help!
I made it! Now it only remains to upload the Neighborhood, I'm literally so excited about it, hope you will play it too and thank you for being so kind and helpful I really appreciate it so much^^

Nobody expects story album photos to be high quality. If you take them with the setting of Size: Large and Quality: High they'll be as good as story album photos get, and good enough.

For the upload thread here, however, you will need good screenshots. Fortunately there are tutorials and guides to taking those, and once you've learned how to get rid of grid lines and use the key shortcuts for cameraman mode, everything else is just practice. Pace yourself and don't get discouraged.

Thank you for being so kind and supportive!
Unfortunately I didn't know that when I was creating the album...
Speaking of that, I have read the rules yesterday but unfortunately I still didn't figure out some things... for example the largest pics I have of the community lots and my sims are the large high quality snapshots. And also I don't know how to create a clean template of my NBHD :/ I tried to upload files of my NBHD on the Google Disc and then install it in the files on another PC but the NBHD didn't show up in the game. Now I don't know if there is a way that I save the files of my already populated NBHD and somehow duplicate it and then create a clean template out of it because I don't wanna lose it, but still even if there is a way (which I believe there is) I still don't know how to do it

Usually, when a neighbourhood shows up on one computer but not another, the issue is with the gameversion. For example, if you have expansion packs on the computer you made the neighbourhood on, but try to play it on one without the expansion packs.

Thank you so much for the quick reply! Both of our games are Sims Ultimate Collections so I don't know what's the issue still :/

Don't forget to turn off OneDrive! OneDrive is evil! Also, if two neighborhoods have the same instance number they may conflict and one may not show up. This is a problem with a couple of my subhoods; I wasn't careful enough about instance numbers.

I was afraid the neighborhood might not be eligible for here if you hadn't read the guidelines before starting, but didn't want t presume. There's a lot of picky boring stuff you need to do upfront in order to get a nice clean hood with no subhoods, a unique instance number and name, etc., before you get to the fun part.

There's no really good way to take the existing neighborhood and clean it up, but you can use cloning, Neighborhood Replace, and other tools and techniques to make a usable copy. Or you can upload it to SimFileShare with warnings about what you did and didn't do. This is not the only place to share neighborhoods, and only you know where your point of diminishing returns is.

Long ago, the late great Mootilda posted a tutorial on making a custom subhood template that also has wide applicability for making a shareable main hood: https://modthesims.info/t/420196 . Scroll down to the second post, Create an Empty Neighborhood. UC had not come out when this tutorial was made, but the overall process is still valid.
More recently, katatty published a very long, very detailed, very useful guide to creating shareable neighborhoods on tumblr, with technical and creative advice: https://katatty.tumblr.com/post/173...hbourhood-guide

Both of these tutorials were made prior to recent discoveries on what, precisely, corruption is in the Sims 2, and therefore refers to the best available information at the time of writing, some of which has been superseded. That can be found in video format but I don't have that link. Somebody can direct you to it: if nothing else, post in WCIF. I believe most people refer to this as "April's video on corruption" or something similar. Sorry, I was kind of out of it when this video dropped and haven't paid as much attention as it deserved. Modern hood builders should probably be familiar with this information in order to make the best decisions without being confused or led astray by outmoded concerns.

For in-game images (neighborhood story), the images can be in-game snapshots set to large/high quality, as Peni mentioned. But for your download thread, they need to be larger and better than the in-game snapshot tool; I think I used Fraps back in the day, but I guess any such app will do You use that extra app to take pictures while the game's running, but remember to hide the grid and the UI (to do that, press R and then press Tab. The first makes you go to design (recolor) mode, and the other is the freecam mode.

Typically you don't need to make a template out of your neighborhood, unless it's a subhood (campus/downtown/shopping district/vacation destination), but I think I know what you mean. Does your neighborhood have any subhoods attached? You can check that by going to the neighborhood folder (for example, N007 or whatever it's called). If it doesn't have any N007_Subhood001.package or similar files, and just the N007_Neighborhood.package, you're good to go! No need to clean it down any further.

If however it does have those files, it could mean that the "stealth" subhoods got added automatically. (Despite not having any campuses/downtowns etc., it may have subhoods if you've seen the Creating Pets, Creating Weather, Creating Exotic Destinations etc. upon first creating the neighborhood.) Stopping Pets, Weather etc. hidden subhoods from attaching to new neighborhoods is easy, but you may have to get rid of them from your existing neighborhood. I *think* I remember seeing a tutorial on that; I'll try to search for the link.

Why are you trying to copy the neighborhood via Google Drive? More importantly - are you uploading the right files? You need to upload the entire folder, and paste that folder in the Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Neighborhoods. If you're using an older machine (i.e. Windows 7 or alike) make sure you're pasting the folder in the user's personal Documents folder instead of the Public Documents folder. Do any other neighborhoods show up at all? If you have OneDrive enabled, make sure that the Documents folder is completely excluded from backing up, and store your other important files elsewhere. If OneDrive starts backing up your EA Games folder, the game won't see the files at all, despite them being marked to stay on the computer and not get deleted to free up space!

Also, your name sounds local! If you speak Croatian (or the neighboring languages) and have trouble with the tutorials, feel free to PM me.

Thank you for reminding me of OneDrive! They do not have the same number but thanks for pointing it out!
I do realize there is a lot of work here and I'm not an expert with the computers and files but I will try my best!
I will definately try to upload it on the SimFileShare and maybe try to share it with someone to see if it works for them^^
If you want to I can share it with you as well (if it is allowed to do so).
Also, thank you so much for sharing those links! I'm definately gonna check them out and examine the whole thing.
You really helped me a lot and I appreciate that so much^^

Wow, thank you so much for letting me know! I'm definately gonna try Fraps out and use all the info you just wrote me!^^
Oh, I didn't know that! That would make things 1000x more easier though! It is a main hood without subhoods!
I wish I could attach a photo... It literally is the N007 haha! I only have Characters, Lots, Storytelling, Thumbnails, NBHD and 5 Suburbs but these are default I think.

Q: Why are you trying to copy the neighborhood via Google Drive?
A: Because I wanted to duplicate the file so in case I mess something up I can have a backup original version of my NBHD!

Q: More importantly - are you uploading the right files? You need to upload the entire folder, and paste that folder in the Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection\Neighborhoods.
A: Yes I did upload the entire folder - the whole N007 is uploaded on my Google Disc!

Note: If you're using an older machine (i.e. Windows 7 or alike) make sure you're pasting the folder in the user's personal Documents folder instead of the Public Documents folder.
A: Thank you so much for reminding me of that!^^

Q: Do any other neighborhoods show up at all?
A: On the other PC, yes, other NBHDs show up - the default ones (Pleasentview, Desiderata V., Strangetown etc. - everything you get with the Ultimate Collection! But when I uploaded my NBHD it didn't show up.

Note: If you have OneDrive enabled, make sure that the Documents folder is completely excluded from backing up, and store your other important files elsewhere. If OneDrive starts backing up your EA Games folder, the game won't see the files at all, despite them being marked to stay on the computer and not get deleted to free up space!
A: Thank you so much for the info!^^

Yes, I am from Croatia! Fortunately I am excellent at English I'd say, but thank you so much for letting me know I can talk to you for anything related to this, it really means a lot to me that you want to help me!^^ And other than this we can always connect on the other socials as well, why not!?

Ok, that is a smart and pretty obvious answer - backups! It completely went over my head The only attempt at getting it to appear (without diving in with SimPE and other tools) is to make new neighborhoods on the new computer, up until you make a new N007. Then exit the game, go to N007 folder, and delete everything in there, and then paste data from The Island of Secrets. It's probably not going to do much, though...

Usually, people post their creations on the Creator Feedback forum before they upload it officially. It's a great place to get all sorts of feedback - from how to clean your neighborhood, to typos in family bios, missing wallpaper and tiles in houses, etc. Others can also check if indeed they also have problems with the neighborhood showing up, or it's just that one machine. In case of the latter, it's an entirely different problem!

Ok, regarding "cleaning" your neighborhood of redundant subhoods; I can think of several methods on how to remove the stealth hoods. Probably the most straightforward method is following Jawusa's tutorial. I'm pretty sure that even after removing the subhoods, you'll still have the characters from those subhoods (think Ramaswamis, the garden club members, stray pets, tourists and BV locals etc.), and there's a different tutorial on how to remove those. I can also offer help once you reach that step anyway, it takes a lot of work to remove the Maxis junk!

(Keep in mind - all this getting rid of stealth hoods is because of MTS upload standards only. If you think this is too much work - and trust me, it can be a handful - I can suggest a lighter approach, as others have already suggested as well: upload your neighborhood to SimFileShare, make a post on your Tumblr describing the island, plop the Tumblr link to your signature on the forum and maybe post somewhere (for example, Shiny things thread). Much easier to not get burnt out that way and lose interest in your project if data cleaning is not your thing!)

Once I reinstall Instagram and other socials on my phone, sure! Right now it's finals time - I keep telling myself that MTS isn't a social network and therefore all the time I spend here is time well spent

Hmmm the programming of this will be the end of me haha!

Note: Usually, people post their creations on the Creator Feedback Forum before they upload it officially.

A: Thank you so much for letting me know! I think I'm gonna do that too, I'm now uploading my NBHD on the SimFileShare so any feedback I get is precious! I also need to know if the NBHD will be visible for the other simmers!

Thank you so much for the useful info about the cleaning! I think I'll try to upload the NBHD first and have some people try it out so I know it's visible and functioning in the games of others and then when I know I have a duplicate do all the other things! Also thank you for offering the help! It really means a lot to me

Note: Keep in mind - all this getting rid of stealth hoods is because of MTS upload standards only. If you think this is too much work - and trust me, it can be a handful - I can suggest a lighter approach, as others have already suggested as well: upload your neighborhood to SimFileShare, make a post on your Tumblr describing the island, plop the Tumblr link to your signature on the forum and maybe post somewhere... Much easier to not get burnt out that way and lose interest in your project if data cleaning is not your thing!
A: That info is actually incredible and if it turns out to be too much for me I'll def take that advice! That's literally incredible!

Note: Once I reinstall Instagram and other socials on my phone, sure! Right now it's finals time - I keep telling myself that MTS isn't a social network and therefore all the time I spend here is time well spent.

A: It's a deal! Good luck with your exams! And once again thank you so much for everything.^^