I would Like a Tutorial on Changing default NPCs

[MrGrey]

I've seen post where the default sims were changed e.g. the Goth family. I mean, I have "default" sims that I change out at the start of every game, but some folks have tray and mod files that change the NPCs so that a new game already has this done! I want to do that.

Can anyone tell me how this is done? It's not that the downloads here are bad or anything, I just want to change them for my own twisted preferences.

[BatDood]

6 hours ago, MrGrey said:

I've seen post where the default sims were changed e.g. the Goth family. I mean, I have "default" sims that I change out at the start of every game, but some folks have tray and mod files that change the NPCs so that a new game already has this done! I want to do that.

Can anyone tell me how this is done? It's not that the downloads here are bad or anything, I just want to change them for my own twisted preferences.

A novel could be written on it but here's the abridged version.

 

What I (and some others) do is create what I call a "master" file. This is essentially a save that you will use for all future playthroughs.

You start a new game and then you'll want to edit the NPCs to look however you want them to look. The simplest method is to do it through Manage Households.

You can save these sims to your Gallery as you go along to have them available in the future.

 

You can also take it a step further (which I suggest) and edit all your lots to have whatever you need in them. You might want to make sure your save has enough Bars/Nightclubs and other Community lots.

Be sure to save as you go along. I tend to call mine "Master".

 

At that point, you now have a save file with every NPC and lot edited. Any time you want to start a new playthrough with a brand new sim, you use that master file, place your new sim in the world and then "SAVE AS" and give it a different name. That leaves your master untouched and you have a brand new save with all the NPCs looking exactly as you want.

 

As I started out mentioning, this can be a lengthy topic. It depends on how far you want it to go.

If you want them to have certain skills and certain traits, there's other steps involved.

But if you just want all the townies to have a certain look then what I described above is that way to do it.

[Scorpio]

Several novels or at least several chapters involved for the rest, lol.

 

How to use MCCC to import your edited saved Tray sims instead of random EA uglies and using 'Pause on Zone' and other handy settings.

 

How to prevent the game from spawning 200 new sims into your game using Mods.

(Normally used when aging and culling is disabled in game)

[CanadianGhost]

Ill wait for the movie edition

 

But to add one thing to the comments above - when creating the Master File or whatever it is you would like to call it, be sure to not only save each household (go to creator, click on that folder up top!) but to do the same thing for the Lots.  A lot of folks just click save or save as, and dont bother to actually save the families and lots that they editted and are left wondering what happened when they try to load up their backups only to find things missing. 

[Denton47]

11 hours ago, MrGrey said:

I've seen post where the default sims were changed e.g. the Goth family. I mean, I have "default" sims that I change out at the start of every game, but some folks have tray and mod files that change the NPCs so that a new game already has this done! I want to do that.

Can anyone tell me how this is done? It's not that the downloads here are bad or anything, I just want to change them for my own twisted preferences.

Premade Sims like the Goth family are created from a resource named Household Binary HHBN 0xB3C438F0, it's a protocolbuffer so you should be able to edit it with S4Studio, you may also be able to use Cmar's SimRipper but I am a little unsure about that.

 

The Goth household is this resource:

0xB3C438F0-0x00000000-0x01BD3F7EDED01430

[MrGrey]

1 hour ago, Denton47 said:

Premade Sims like the Goth family are created from a resource named Household Binary HHBN 0xB3C438F0, it's a protocolbuffer so you should be able to edit it with S4Studio, you may also be able to use Cmar's SimRipper but I am a little unsure about that.

 

The Goth household is this resource:

0xB3C438F0-0x00000000-0x01BD3F7EDED01430

It appears that S4S only reads .package, .world and .save files. I felt sure I had downloaded some default replacement sims from  here and they just showed up in the game, and I know I had downloaded a "Father Winter" aka Santa Clause (not sure why EA thinks Santa  and  Christmas trees are taboo but that's just EA being EA) that had a proper red santa suit from ModTheSims. It can be done without resorting to a save file (and I'm stupid and always mess up the save file). They must be editing the household in CAS, and then somehow editing the Household file to give it the instance of the original household, but how did they do that? I tried tray importer but I see no way to change the instance.

[Denton47]

30 minutes ago, MrGrey said:

It appears that S4S only reads .package, .world and .save files. I felt sure I had downloaded some default replacement sims from  here and they just showed up in the game, and I know I had downloaded a "Father Winter" aka Santa Clause (not sure why EA thinks Santa  and  Christmas trees are taboo but that's just EA being EA) that had a proper red santa suit from ModTheSims. It can be done without resorting to a save file (and I'm stupid and always mess up the save file). They must be editing the household in CAS, and then somehow editing the Household file to give it the instance of the original household, but how did they do that? I tried tray importer but I see no way to change the instance.

 

I am not very good at S4Studio but it goes something like this:

 

Start the Game File Cruiser, select Household Template and select a household, scroll down to sim and click Edit Items.., here you can edit outfits, genetic data, sliders etc, when you are done you can export the edited household into a package you can place in your mod folder.

 

 

Editing Sims like this in S4Studio is probably not the most userfriendly way, in fact the protocol buffer in the household resource is the same as then one in the save file so you can just copy the data, this is how I edited my premade households.

 

I have a tool somewhere to extract data from save files, I will see if I can find the time to make it into a proper tool and upload it.
 

[MrGrey]

20 hours ago, Denton47 said:

 

I am not very good at S4Studio but it goes something like this:

 

Start the Game File Cruiser, select Household Template and select a household, scroll down to sim and click Edit Items.., here you can edit outfits, genetic data, sliders etc, when you are done you can export the edited household into a package you can place in your mod folder.

 

 

Editing Sims like this in S4Studio is probably not the most userfriendly way, in fact the protocol buffer in the household resource is the same as then one in the save file so you can just copy the data, this is how I edited my premade households.

 

I have a tool somewhere to extract data from save files, I will see if I can find the time to make it into a proper tool and upload it.
 

Household Template! I completely overlooked that! Thanks!  This is the best hint ever. Ferb, I know what I'm gonna do today.

[Denton47]

14 hours ago, MrGrey said:

Household Template! I completely overlooked that! Thanks!  This is the best hint ever. Ferb, I know what I'm gonna do today.

 

I am working on a tool that can extract premade Sims from save game files and save them as a Household Template, this should make it a bit easier.

 

[Denton47]

On 10/15/2021 at 6:02 PM, MrGrey said:

Household Template! I completely overlooked that! Thanks!  This is the best hint ever. Ferb, I know what I'm gonna do today.

 

I have uploaded the tool.

 

 

[MrGrey]

On 10/16/2021 at 11:23 PM, Denton47 said:

 

I have uploaded the tool.

 

 

A gift! thanks!

Edit: You can edit sims appearance, clothing etc. If you use WP to make them prostitutes or Dolls, that stays too. I've not been able to change names or gender e.g. Travis Scott to Conchita Gomez (default sim replaced with gallery sim) or Morgan Ember to Morgana Ember (gender change) was a total failure.