SimPE Tutorial: Sim2 Family Export by Trif

First, thanks to Quaxi and SimPE for without this application, the below would not be possible. The Sims2Pak clean installer is also helpful in this.

http://sims.ambertation.de/

http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/

I developed this procedure in response to a desire not to lose many generations of breeding in the Sims 2. By the time one gets to the third or fourth generation, a neighborhood has between twelve and fifteen hundred sims, making actually playing the hood difficult. Up to this point, I have been starting fresh, archiving the large neighborhoods and beginning the experiments again, as I strive to master the genetic system employed by the game.

Using this process I can now go through these archived hoods, and pull out the fruits of my labors, creating my new hood with family lines that are already well established. Be forewarned though, that editing Hoods of this size or larger, can be a frustrating experience as once past the three-three fifty mark, sometimes a given edit must be performed multiple times before it sticks. Chiefly, this deals with the relationship pane of simpe, with respect to this procedure.

The problem - packaging families on lots using the default package lot function of the Sims 2 not only takes forever, it yields huge files and twelve million extra sim data files incorporated into the package to totally mess up any new hood you place the lot in. This is how I solved this issue.

The first step, is to use SimPE to create a backup of the hood you want to export your family from. This is so you can return it to your pre edit state and continue playing it with no impact on the family you exported.

Select the hood and press the create backup button. Once this is done, highlight the hood again and open it.  On to Family ties. In the top left, click on Family ties, then again in the top right. In the bottom, select the family to be exported, then the first sim in it.

The objective here is to remove any and all family ties, except those of members of the lot like so:

Commit then the next step, going down the resource tree, is the Neighborhood memory. Click on it in the top left, then again in the top right. Then in the bottom, select the family to be exported from the drop down.

This gets a bit more intense. Here you have to make some decisions. You must delete or modify, any memory dealing with anyone who does not exist on the lot. This is very important to the success of this exercise. For this example, I chose to keep the learned memories from toddler hood, changing the subject of these memories from the sims mothers to their spouse, who is on this lot.

So they potty trained each other, how romantic... Anyway, I can not stress enough this is the most important step, missing a memory here can blow the whole thing. Commit when done. Now on to the relationship pane. Click Sim Description in the top left, then if you do not know where the sim is in the top right use the sim browser to select a household member.

Click Relations, then select All households in the drop down. You know the drill, right click on every sim that is not a member of the lot being exported and choose delete relation.

When done, you should only have household members visible.

Commit, and if your neighborhood is small, you can go ahead and edit other household members. If the hood has more than three hundred sims though, I suggest saving at this point, and then continuing with other sims. When you are done, and have saved, Quit Simpe, and then load it back up, checking to make certain your edits stuck.

If you made it this far, load the game and hood. Click on the lot in question and choose package lot. If you did this all correctly, then it should complete relatively quickly. The next few steps are debatable as to their importance to the overall success of this, but they make me feel better. What I do is Quit the game. I then go to my data dir, packaged lots, and click on the newly created packaged lot. Since I have it installed, up pops Sims2pak clean installer. If you see any person files that are not people physically on this lot, you missed something in your edits. I uncheck any custom content that may have tagged along, and do a save as in the end, the clean packaged lot looks like this:

Next, I have a test neighborhood. Again, this step is not strictly needed, but it lets me check to make sure I have not blown up the family. I install the package. I then load my test neighborhood, open lots and houses, located the occupied lot, and place it in the test neighborhood. I go into the lot, let it run for a few, making sure there are no errors, or that the sims suddenly miss their neighbors... If all is well I save and exit to the neighborhood and package the lot again, repeating the clean installer steps. This then is what I use for my final product, my exported family. Using this procedure, the only sims that come into any hood you choose to place such a family in, are those existing on the lot itself, no nieces, parents, etc...

All done? Not quite. Remember the backup we created? Start SimPe and choose backup manager from the neighborhood browser for the neighborhood you exported from. Restore your backup so the changes you made to the family to prepare them for export are undone.

CLICK HERE