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How to... > Creating a duplicate neighbourhood
Genlisae	posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 12:26 pm
Member since: 2009-08-27 Posts: 1	I am attempting to create a duplicate or 'dummy hood' with the goal of having exact copies of the sims and houses in the original hood for story purposes. I found what I believe to be instructions on how to do this, but somehow it is not working out for me. The instructions I found and the steps I haave taken so far: 1) Back up your existing hood, just in case. Done 2) Open up your My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2/Neighborhoods folder. done 3) Use the right mouse button to drag the desired hood to an empty spot in the folder. Choose "Copy" from the context menu that pops up when you remove your finger from the mouse button. done 4) Rename the hood folder to N00#, where # is an unused hood number. Note: If you use a number higher than 10, keep the number of digits the same! Neighborhood 99 would now be N099. done 5) Double click the renamed folder. done 6) Press control-F (for the Windows search function). Search for N00, where is the old 'hood number. done 7) Patiently (and tediously) rename each file and folder to the new hood number. done 8) Open SimPE and change to "plug in" mode (tabs at the bottom) if necessary. done 9) Open the Neighborhood Browser under the Edit menu. done 10) (I think, I'll have to check) The neighborhood ID should come up on the first page displayed in the bottom window. This is where I get lost. I can not find the neighborhood ID no matter where I look. I did use the scanner and the new hood does (naturally)have a duplicate GUID, I just have no idea how to fix this or even where to start looking. 11) Click the link for "Make Unique." This should change the GUID for the whole hood to an unused one. Obviously not on this step yet. Any help would be wonderful, thanks.
Ghost	posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:05 pm
Member since: 2006-03-19 Posts: 788	Where did you find those instructions, and how old are they?
pljones	posted: Thu Aug 27, 2009 6:53 pm
Member since: 2005-04-02 From: London, UK Posts: 610	You should be seeing something like this: But that only gets you the right hood to edit. The next step in your instructions is incredibly vague... I think it's the "IDNO" file you want. You might want to edit the CTSS.
reflect	posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 3:38 am
Member since: 2011-08-20 Posts: 1	I have nearly the same issue. The difference is I'm to about duplicate neighbourhood from a later expansion to be played in my current expansion. It should be okay in feature because the neighbourhood is clearly empty. I got it from: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,4306.msg218734.html#msg218734 I'm playing The Sims Life Stories, I know its much different thingy but I'm trying to hack this. When I open the IDNO file, version of my current playable neighbourhoods is on version Business (0x08). It looks like all Life Stories neighbourhoods is based on OFB EP. Unfortunately the IDNO version of new empty neighbourhood I download before is on Season (0x0a). I have do all the instruction above but the neighbourhood still doesn't show up on my Sims game browser. I assume the failure happened there at IDNO version. Could anyone help me with the instruction to change IDNO version since I can't edit it on simPE?
Ghost	posted: Sat Aug 20, 2011 2:29 pm
Member since: 2006-03-19 Posts: 788	Unfortunately, Peter and Inge never had any of the Stories. Some people managed to convince SimPE to work with one of their stories, and some didn't. But the policy was "If it works, wonderful! If not, it wasn't designed to." So if you are having trouble with duplicating a Stories neighborhood using those instructions, you are going to need to need to try something completely different. (Or ask for help at MTS. You can try (If the neighborhood isn't too big to be moving) making a pair of folders. Label one "Play" and the other "Test". Move the neighborhood folder into the one in the Play folder and copy it into the Test folder. When you want to play, take it out of the play folder and put it back into the game. When you are finished, put it away. When you want to test, do the same thing with the Test folder. If there is a folder that hasn't been put away, it belongs in the empty folder. Example: You have N_001 that you want copied. Somewhere where you can easily find them are a pair of folders named Play and Test. In each of those are N_001 folders. The N_001 folder in the game does not exist. When you want to play, you add the N_001 folder from the Play folder to the game, which now has an N_001 folder. When you are finished, you move it back to the Play folder. If, at any point, you are asked if you want to overwrite a duplicate folder, Cancel the move. (Note: you may need to add the Play neighborhood even if you are planning to play a different neighborhood, as the game may regenerate missing EA neighborhoods. If you are working on a custom neighborhood, this won't be a problem, and may not be a problem anyway.) Edit: On re-reading, this won't help. You are trying to make a Seasons neighborhood work in Life Stories. This would only help if the neighborhood already worked. Peter may remember, but asking at MTS would be a good idea, too. (Or Crazy Town or Simbology... Trif there, and he is one that I remember having had success with SimPE and Stories.)
pljones	posted: Sat Aug 27, 2011 8:08 pm
Member since: 2005-04-02 From: London, UK Posts: 610	The IDNO is a packed file in the 'hood package (0xAC8A7A2E). The number inside is the unique identifier of the 'hood within your game. Step 11 in the instructions above ensures that the number is unique. Are you having a problem with the method in the instructions?

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