Hello everyone, I'm just getting my laptop and downloads folder (organising and possibly getting rid of some clothes) ready to start playing Sims 2 again.

I've been thinking about neighbourhoods a lot, I recently read an article online about all the playables (the pre-made storylines, Goths, Pleasants, Brokes etc.), and was surprised just how many townies are included with the game 'as is' if you know what I mean.

I have Tarlia's clean templates at the moment, but was thinking of maybe starting my neighbourhoods/game again from scratch.

Is it possible to have a neighbourhood with the playables, but no townies? Or are they linked, so you can either have an empty neighbourhood or one with playables and townines? I know Daniel Pleasant has an affair with a maid, so perhaps they are too closely linked in terms of memories and things?

Or is it possible to somehow extract the appearance of the playables from the game, and then create those families in an empty neighbourhood, if that makes sense? But then I suppose the storylines wouldn't be there.

I do like the idea of playing with the playables, but also have a few households of sims that I created, which I would like to recreate in a new game, and I like the idea of having them in a seperate neighbourhood, with their houses near each other. Or could I move the existing Pleasantview houses together, leaving space to build mine?

Are there empty neighbourhoods that I could download and it wouldn't cause problems with the other neighbourhoods in the game?

I have forgotten quite a bit about sims, but I seem to recall that downtown neighbourhoods are linked to all the main hoods, is that right?

Sorry for all the questions, but I know everyone on here is very knowledgeable

carrit did a cleaned up version of Pleasantview that has all ancestors able to be resurrected and has all townies included.
Cleaned up Pleasantview

marka93 did beginnin hoods for all the EAxis hoods so you can start from the very beginnin of any (or all hoods). They have all the ancestors aged to adult (or elder for some) but no townies. Link is for Pleasantview, but if you're interested in the others just look up the rest he did. He also made them into shoppin districts so you can make your own beginnin uberhood from whichever you choose.
Beginnin Pleasantview

tarlia/ meetmetotheriver has updated their cleaned hoods. There are many options available of with townies or without for Pleasantview. The ancestors were removed to save on space. Not sure what options are given for the other hoods. They've all been done and rereleased with, I believe the University hoods (as of yet :D)
Rereleased Pleasantview

doral axe did a cleaned up Strangetown which does include the ancestors and I think townies, but you'll have to check that to be sure.
Fixed Strangetown

There might be more, but these are the ones I know of and can think of off the top of my head. I hope you find one that suits what you're lookin for

EDITED to add:
Here's a link to all of meetme's rereleased hoods. She's also given the option of Bin families for those who use the empty templates, but still might want a mix of any of the bin families. Check it down the page.
Bin Families

Jawusa did stealth hoods. These files don't go in your neighborhood downloads though so read the instructions. These nuke all the hidden hoods that get added when you start a new hood. These will only work if they're installed prior to a hoods creation. They will not affect any hood made before they were installed.
Stealth hoods

Also, just in case you were not aware Jawusa also did empty versions of all the hoods. They have no sims, but all the original houses.
Empty hoods

Welcome back Dizzy-Noodles! I remember you well from a few years ago. I hope Real Life has been treating you well!

I recall that, when it came to Simming playstyle, I used to see you as a bit of a kindred spirit. Like me you played with Double Deluxe, with just one EP added, and I recall you saying that you saw your Sims as your friends, which is very much how I see mine. About the last I recall of you was that you got all the EPs (possibly through the Ultimate Collection) but you seemed to drop out of the Sims 2 forum soon after. I took this to mean that I might be better to play a game that I enjoyed with just a few EPs (and low resolution graphics) than to get all the EPs and maybe find that the game had changed in ways I didn't like. I now have 3 EPS -- University, Nightlife (which I've always had), and Open for Business.

You can have playables without townies. Tarlia's Pleasantview has all the townies, her Strangetown has 3 or 4 (Bella Goth plus some who have relationships with playables), and her Veronaville has none. I briefly played her Veronaville (to test something) but hated it without the townies. On visits to community lots I got nothing but Montys and Capps fighting each other. I have Tarlia's Pleasantview and Strangetown and play them occasionally, but my main game is the original Maxis Veronaville, which I've been playing since I first started up the game in 2012. It has lots of CAS-created Sims as well as the Maxis playables. I've "made friends" with many of the townies, and a lot of them are now playable.

You can attach Downtown to any main neighbourhood. Tarlia has two versions of Downtown, one with the Downtownies, and one without. If you choose the one without the Downtownies, you don't get the Tricous, not even the dead ones buried at Gothier Green Lawns and the House of Fallen Leaves. If you have Open for Business (OFB) you can similarly attach shopping districts to any main neighbourhoods. Shopping District versions of all the main neighbourhoods have been made available (I think by Tarlia) allowing people to create to create so-called "megahoods" with all the main neighbourhoods combined.

You can export the appearance of a Sim on SimPE, and then clone them in Body Shop to get a new clean copy of a Sim. You then of course have to set their personality, aspiration, etc., manually in Body Shop. Be careful to keep only the Body Shop clone and to delete the original exported Sim as the latter will contain references to the 'hood they came from, and this is likely to cause corruption in their new 'hood.

Many Simmers regularly restart their neighbourhoods, but I prefer to keep playing the old ones. I think I'd feel I was letting my friends down if I abandoned them. While you can export and clone the appearance of Sims in the way I described, they will essentially be "new" Sims; they won't have any memories of what happened in the past. More importantly they will lack all the "training" of your old Sims. Peni Griffin gives an excellent description of "training" in this recent post. Whether you mean to or not, the training mechanism gradually adapts your Sims to your way of playing them.

I have to attend to some Real Life matters so I'll have to go now, but I'll try to get back soon. Meanwhile, if you can see your way back to continuing to play your old hoods, I can't help feeling that your old friends will be absolutely delighted to see you back. TS2 Sims really do have souls you know.

Welcome home!

CaliBrat = Thanks for the links and information, that's really helpful.

I do like the idea of no townies but the playables, so I'll look into it a bit more, thanks

I still don't really understand 'stealth hoods', I can't remember what they were.

I think I need to play abit and get my bearings first!

AndrewGloria = Thanks, I remember you too! I think we chatted a few times I'm doing ok thanks, how are things with you?

Well, it probably sounds a bit strange (long story coming, sorry), but what actually happened was I only played with Nightlife and Pets, because my laptop had intergrated graphics and couldn't handle much more.

I decided to buy a better laptop with a proper graphics card, so I could play some of the expansion packs and not worry about my game crashing. My laptop was getting old and kept having the 'Blue Screen of Death'. It died for good not long after, and I had to take it to the computer shop so they could recover my stuff onto a hard drive.

So I bought a new laptop, and some of the expansion packs on disc (I'm old fashioned, I used to love buying games and CDs in the 90s when you got a book included, it was quite exciting to sit and read it first). I had all these plans to prepare for and load each one one at a time, playing each for a few weeks before adding the next one. To this day I have never played any of them, sadly, they are still in the plastic wrapping in the cupboard.

I'm a perfectionist and have an obsessive personality, and I'm a worrier too. My 'to-do list' was getting huge.

I had tried a bit of recolouring and basic meshing, shoe swaps etc. (nothing good enough to upload). I liked meshing and had some success with it, but I really struggled with recolours, as I'm not at all artistic and can't draw. I had recolours that I was working on, lots of projects, because I wanted to make sims of my favourite characters from films, TV and games, but I kept getting stuck and found it very difficult.

I decided I had to finish all my projects before using the new laptop, and basically completely overwhelmed myself. I started feeling guilty if i just played the game, because I 'wasn't being productive'. I started putting things off, and eventually my brand new laptop just sat in a cupboard, where it stayed for 5 years! I had bought a cheap one just for the internet etc. when the old one died, so I think that made things worse, as I didn't need the new laptop for the internet.

But then a few months ago, just by chance, I discovered the game Subnautica, and I fell in love with it. I remembered how much I loved playing computer games, and realised how much I'd missed it, and I kept thinking about the Sims 2.

So I have dug out the new (5 years sat in a cupboard) laptop, and am sorting out my old downloads folder ready to play again. I think I'll have to install Windows 10 on it first.

Thanks for all the neighbourhood tips! I do know what you mean about my old sims, they are friends really! Some of them I can even remember now, I was quite fond of them. That is an interesting point too, about training sims.

I was thinking the neighbourhoods might be a bit overpopulated, as I had downloaded some mods to keep the population down a bit last time I restarted it (I had to that time, I think it was corrupt from what I can remember), but then I forgot to actually put them in my downloads folder, so lots of townies which I didn't want got generated.

I have forgotten such a lot about how to play, and how to avoid corruption, that I think I will have to just load up my old game and just play for a few months at least, just to get the hang of it again.

It's nice to be back, thanks, hopefully I'll be up and running soon, I will just have to find a way to relax my brain a bit and stop overthinking things

I wouldn't bother with adding Win10. You have to jump through a few hoops to make it work and play well with Sims2, which was created for an OS that worked differently. Newer isn't the same as better.

Welcome back, and go easy on yourself this time. You've had five years to get a better handle on your perfectionism, so maybe you'll be able to have fun longer this time.

Hi Dizzy-noodles, welcome back :D

Stealth hoods are like they sound stealthy. They add townies/strays and or or bin sims.
https://modthesims.info/d/520751/cl...-templates.html

I've been playing TS2UC on my 8 year old laptop with Windows 7 and the game works almost perfectly though I've got far too much CC and too many Mods installed.I'm playing my current BACC in Dodge using the Strangetown terrain and it's already the fall of 1841 there.I've only got two couples living there so far and ony ever see the other residents when visiting community lots because the lot visitor controller banned NPCs.

Peni Griffin = Thanks, I felt like I had to get Windows 10 instead of Windows 7, as I keep getting error messages when I start it saying that Windows 7 is unsupported and won't be as secure as there will be no updates, or something like that.

Is that true, or are they just trying to sell Windows 10?

Thanks for the welcome, it's nice to be back How are you?

I hope so, I feel like I am better in some ways, but when I'm stressed I tend to go a bit overboard, for example I start obsessively cleaning everything!

joandsarah77 = Thanks how have you been?

Thanks for the link, it was an interesting read, I think I understand better now.

TadOlsen = Thanks, that's reassuring! Do you feel the game plays as well as it did when your laptop was new, or have you seen a bit of a slow-down?

Unfortunately it is true... MS is no longer supportin win7 .. no more updates ... so any issues that arise or such are not bein delt with ...well for average folks that is.. but for companies who are willin to pay they still get updates .. however, that doesn't mean you hafta get win10 ... depends on what you do on your comp ... there are still some antivirus programs that are updating for win 7

for me, personally, I won't get win10 until I absolutely hafta ... I'm stickin with win7 .. but I did stop doin anything on my pc that dealt with anything of a sensitive nature .. ie banking and such .. for that I use my phone or my tab ...

you'll have to decide for yourself what works best for you..

They're just trying to sell Win 10. Windows 7 isn't supported, because it's been debugged and you aren't going to get many problems with it; and malware makers aren't targeting it anymore. It won't be subject to automatic updates that disrupt your existing programs and have to be rolled back. You're unlikely to download malware with Sims 2 cc (if you download sensibly; obviously avoid Adfly links etc.). Do not let Microsoft dictate terms on your life! They don't understand your needs and are firmly on the side of the corporations that would force you to pay for Sims 4 when you already have a perfectly good game that you love.

I have a dual boot and use win 10 for the internet and downloading stuff for sims and then i shut it down and boot win 7 and have my sims on that with internet disabled. My tech guy made it so when im on win 10 my sims folder is mirrored on my d drive so i dont have to use a usb or anything.

I've been very careful with my computer and always used AVG PCTuneup to keep the usage under control until the recent version was changed and I had to find other alterantives to replace missing functions from my old manager.I've actually been adding tons of new CC to my TS2 game and having no crashin issues except for a user about to crash in my morning session which meant cutting it short because I was starving and never inteneded to play vary long.I exited the game normally and got ready to eat quickly.I also play it in wondowed mode as I'm unable to play full screen due to screenshot labelling issues and not having a clock in view if playing full screen.I'm playing my game heavily Modded and hacked to death with way too much buy mode CC and just added more in my morning session and I was about to crash though my game would've been playable for much longer if I'd not needed to stop.

I guarantee you that malware makers are most certainly still targetting Windows 7, and probably a lot of things that target Window 10 will also compromise Windows 7, but since it isn't being supported anymore Microsoft will not patch the issue in Windows 7. Advising people to allow their Windows 7 computers to go online is dangerous, irresponsible, and harmful.

I didn't say go online. I said use it.

You clearly said that it's perfectly fine to go online and download CC on Windows 7 as long as you're "sensible". It's not. It's also not true that no one is targetting it.

It's not Peni who is being irresponsible -- it's Microsoft. For withdrawing support for a good operating system after a ridiculously short period of time. Their advice to me is to get a new computer with Windows 10 on it. I honestly cannot afford to buy a new computer at the present time. And anyway my existing 8 year old computer is running well. True, the original 115 GB hard disk failed last year, but I replaced it with one of about 300 GB, giving me plenty of room for everything I want to keep on it (including lots of backups of my Sims game). But it's unlikely that Windows 10 would run well on it, and I'd almost certainly have more difficulty running The Sims 2 under Windows 10 than under Windows 7, even if I bought a new computer. (I have to admit that playing the Sims 2 is now one of the main things I use my computer for.)

I heard recently that Microsoft wanted to become a zero emissions company. Well, forcing the premature scrapping of millions of quite young computers, because they won't run satisfactorily run a new bloated operating system is not a zero emissions policy. (All PC versions of Windows from at least Windows 95 onward are bloated!) I wish that Microsoft would find a way to remain a profitable company without forcing us to change our Operating System every couple of years. (Much as I wish EA would come up with something better than thinking up new Sims games that aren't even compatible with previous versions!)

For the moment I have no real alternative to continuing to use my Windows 7 computer both to play Sims 2 and to access the internet, and to hope that the anti-virus software I pay for (F-Secure SAFE) keeps me safe. The alternatives would be to buy a new Windows 10 computer just for the internet, or to set up a dual boot system like Fearless Butterfly describes. Both would involve me in spending time, money and effort, to get to something less satisfactory than what I had before Microsoft withdrew Windows 7 support.

How long should the software life cycle for an operating system last? Well, my last computer had Windows Millennium Edition. As I understand it, the word "millennium" means a thousand years! Somebody should tell Microsoft! Personally, I think I'd be content with a hundred.

I wouldn't say 11 years is a "ridiculously short period of time". Microsoft is a for profit company, that means their whole business model is selling things to people. They are no different than mobile phone companies or automakers. Or even clothing companies!


My pc is older than yours and runs Windows 10 and sims 2 just fine. Just because some people have issues doesn't mean it's widespread. And spreading misinformation is irresponsible.

@AndrewGloria I built my PC in 2011, it had Win 7 on it originally but when Win 7 support ended (after 11 years! That's a long time in computing) they offered a free upgrade. So now I have Win 10 Pro, and I really like it- I have Sims 2 installed on it, the only thing I needed extra was Grumpy Loader and I had to mess with the Graphics Rules, as many have. But Win 10 runs better on my old machine than Win 7 did, and my Sims look and run great, too.

I don't think you can really even blame this on them being a for-profit company - all software gets new versions from time to time, and the old versions eventually stop being supported, because there's only so much time you can spend doing that. Linux is free, for example, the people who develop it are not for-profit in any way, but they also stop supporting older versions of the OS eventually. They do usually support the LTS/Long Term Support versions for longer than Microsoft does, I think, but eventually you have to stop supporting old versions and get people to upgrade. The problem with old software not working well with modern operating systems is a perpetual issue - the main solutions are things like emulators and VMs, or like some people have said here, running the old OS on another partition. These are all things that should work just fine, even if you get a new Windows 10 computer and TS2 doesn't work with it.

Ooh! I didn't expect that response to what I thought was a fairly light-hearted post. It looks like I misjudged things. In which case, sorry! I suppose I posted partly out of loyalty to Peni, who has always been one of my favourite people here. I love the way she finds something interesting, and indeed loveable, in even the most unattractive of Sims. So I didn't like to see her called "irresponsible". Even if some of her views are, perhaps, just a little more extreme than my own.

So I hope we're all still friends!

Over the years I reckon Microsoft have come up with 3 "dud" operating systems: MS-DOS 4, Windows Vista, and Windows 8. Which is quite a lot for what I believe is still the world's most influential software house. MS-DOS 5 fixed what was wrong in MS-DOS 4, Windows 7 was Windows Vista fixed so ordinary humans could run it, and I believe that Windows 10 is a similar fix of everything that was wrong in Windows 8. So I was quite hopeful about it when it first came out. I was therefore disappointed when I read reports here that people couldn't get The Sims 2 to run on it. (Though I recall some people couldn't run TS2 on Windows 7, so they stuck with Windows XP, which I never had.) Windows 7 was running like a dream on my PC, and my Sims 2 game had far fewer crashes than other people were reporting, so, when I was offered free upgrades to the new Windows 10, I stuck with what I had, because I knew it worked. I fear I'm probably too late to get a free upgrade now.

My computer is a far lower spec machine than most people here use. It's a Packard Bell netbook bought new in 2011. It has 2 MB RAM (upgraded from 1 MB) and a ca. 300 GB hard disk (upgraded from 115 GB when the original disk failed). I use it as a desktop replacement with external mouse, keyboard and monitor. I originally bought it for work, mainly developing Microsoft Access databases. It's by far the highest spec machine that I've ever had -- it's good enough to run the SQL Server engine in the background -- something that more typically runs on big enterprise servers. I've never actually checked if it meets the minimum system requirements for Windows 10. But, assuming that it does, my main worry about running The Sims 2 under Windows 10 is the latter's reputed lack of support for SecuROM. Now I know a lot of people hate SecuROM, but I've never had any real problems with it. @simsample , Is Grumpy Loader the fix that I need to get round the SecuROM problem? Graphics Rules may not bother me too much; I've always played on low resolution anyway. I don't think my Intel on-board adaptor will support anything better. (It's also why I've never gone beyond OFB.)


Of course I want Microsoft to still make a profit. Because, If Microsoft goes out of business, nothing will be supported. But there must be a better model than this -- possibly paid-for support when free support ends.



Sorry @Dizzy-noodles for derailing your thread! I'm still here. Work has virtually dried up, but I've become my 91-year-old mother's principle carer. We've moved house to one that's no longer at the top of a very steep hill. Because I was getting past pushing her wheelchair up the road, and then the path to the old one. Despite Covid lockdown, I'm generally happy.

I think my Sims are quite happy too. I've still never seen the Grim Reaper in my game, so I must be doing a passable job of looking after them. I've got a few other 'hoods, but my original Veronaville is still my main one. In addition to downtown it now has two shopping districts attached -- Bluewater and Monopolis (a largely empty version of d_dgjdhh's Monopoly Game Town Neighborhood. I added the latter when d_dgjdhh ran a building contest a few years ago. Andrew and Julian (both still schoolboys) got together to start a construction firm, and I acted as their architect. I did enjoy that. Andrew is still a teen, but he and Julian recently got engaged. And his mum Gloria is doing well as a star player for Veronaville All-Stars. I've been busy in CAS, so lots of new Sims have joined them in and around the town, but I've still only got two born-in-game Sims in Veronaville. They're still toddlers, but I think they'll start school soon. I know I play rather differently to most people here, with aging almost permanently off, and the story progressing very slowly, but I enjoy it, and I'm pretty sure my Sims enjoy it most of the time too.

My Sims send yours their best wishes!

@AndrewGloria Grumpy Loader gets around the installation problem that happens on Windows 10:
https://modthesims.info/showthread....458#post4051458
You need this help too for the Suckyrom issue.

I agree about the Windows versions, Windows 8 really sucked! Windows 10 is good so far though (although nothing beats Windows RG!).

I'm fine. I have a lot of health issues but doing better right now.
I am sticking with Windows 7 until it doesn't run, put it on my pc that I got set up 18 months ago. I hate win 10 and not just for sims, I hate it, how it looks and runs and is organized, everything about it. If I wanted my pc to look like a tablet I could borrow my son's tablet. *Is a cranky stubborn old lady*

I have Windows 10 on my work computer and I hate it. The interface is so confusing and different from what I'm used to. If Microsoft wants everybody to switch to Windows 10, they should have at least offered an option to make the interface look and work like the older versions that so many of us are used to.

Stardock has a replacement start menu called "Start 10". Maybe they have some other "fixes" to make 10 look more like 7. I haven't looked at their stuff in a long time.
https://www.stardock.com/

^ Could be the work menu looks different. There are some differences, and the start menu is kinda awful, but overall the version I have doesn't look vastly different from 7. At least it is similar enough for me to find stuff without having to send out search and rescue parties every 5 minutes (another phrase for "Google how to do X in 10"), even though I still have to do that more often than I'd like...

Maybe it depends on version? I think the first releases were more like app icons gone berserk. I went kinda wild on the right side of the start menu and chopped out everything I didn't want, replacing with icons I'd actually use. Come to think of it, I still depend heavily on desktop icons... :/

I guess to each his own - I have used Windows 10 since the day it was available on my pc. No regrets, no going back to 7.

Using the UC which runs smoothly for me.