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Author Topic: Play Themed Versions  (Read 2148 times)

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ancienthighway

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Play Themed Versions
« on: July 10, 2009, 05:13:49 AM »
Requires Windows, any variation.

This utility is designed to make it easy for you to play different themes in The Sims 2.  It requires you to have at least two separate The Sims 2 folders, one for your normal game, and one named The Sims 2.<theme> for your themed game.  The same with any script files for modular stairs or fireplaces or anything else in the Script folder that you want to separated by theme.  If your themed games aren't in separate folders now, the most time consuming part of using this will be to set up your themed folders with the appropriate custom content.

Why should you use this?  By using themed folders, you can reduce the amount of CC in your Downloads folder.  That custom car is out of place in your Victorian themed neighborhood, just as the carriage is out of place in the modern neighborhood.  Themed folders will make sure you don't have any incongruities like this.  You'll find your themed custom clothes and hairstyles much faster not having to wade through all the other themes you have.

Why not just have separate Downloads folders to separate the themes?  Swapping Downloads folders in and out will increase the chances of corrupting the group.cache.  We all know how easy it is to delete that when we have problems.  You end up with all of your themed collection files in every game.  I don't know what would happen if you use one for a theme that you aren't playing.  I don't want to find out.  I don't care to find out what happens in the Thumbnails either.  There's also custom Paintings and SavedSims and PackagedLots.  Basically every folder could have things you want for a particular theme.

OK, so how do you use this thing I say you can't live without?  After setting up your folders and a couple of things I give you step by step instructions to do, all you do is click on an icon, type "play <theme>" and your Victorian themed game starts up.  Or your Medieval game.  Or your Fantasy game.  <theme> is whatever stylized game you play.

The folders would be something like this:

EA Games/The Sims 2  This one is the plain ordinary, no themed set
EA Games/The Sims 2.victorian  This one is, duh, the Victorian themed set.

Run my program "play victorian" and the game starts:
EA Games/The Sims 2.original  This one is the plain ordinary, no themed set
EA Games/The Sims 2  This one is the Victorian themed set.

You quit the game:
EA Games/The Sims 2  This one is the plain ordinary, no themed set
EA Games/The Sims 2.victorian  This one is, duh, the Victorian themed set.
« Last Edit: July 11, 2009, 10:23:42 AM by ancienthighway »

floopyboo

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #1 on: November 03, 2009, 05:30:04 AM »
I wish I'd known about this a long LONG time ago. I miss my themed hoods so much and my lappy can't handle the amount of CC crap I have at the moment. Thankyou for giving me back my themed hoods!

ancienthighway

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #2 on: November 03, 2009, 07:13:44 PM »
But it wasn't around a long time ago...only since July.  Nice to see you again, boo!

floopyboo

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #3 on: November 05, 2009, 06:51:22 PM »
I lose track of time what with the teaching of arabic dance & all (you'd be surprised how much time one little class per week eats up!)

I am having a brain fart with this one though - possibly because I'm hellishly sick (it is in-term after all, can't possibly be healthy while I'm teaching!) okay, so I've got it all set up & stuff, how do I get it to recognise my themed hoods. Meaning do I need to tell it what to look for in the script, and if so, how?

floopyboo

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #4 on: November 09, 2009, 04:51:25 PM »
*Pokes the thread*

I do kinda need an answer on this because while I'm pretty clever & good at cut & paste & edit, I'm not exactly a computer wiz. ;)

To clarify - how do I need to edit the script to let it know that there is more than one alternate folder to choose from, what said folders are, etc?

ancienthighway

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #5 on: November 11, 2009, 06:55:29 AM »
You don't need to edit the script at all to tell it about the different themed neighborhoods.  You need to create a duplicate of "The Sims 2" folder and rename it to The Sims 2.<theme>.  Then create a shortcut for play <theme> as instructed in the play.txt file provided in the .rar. 

The only need to edit the script is if you want to use the same modular stairs for every theme, and play.txt tells you which 4 lines needs to be deleted from the script.

floopyboo

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #6 on: November 11, 2009, 10:14:45 PM »
Ah, well that's nice & easy now isn't it? Thanks for indulging my sequin-bedazzled brain.

floopyboo

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #7 on: December 28, 2009, 04:45:34 AM »
Protip - do not compressorize this program. It doesn't like it!

Yes, it was an accident. I've been wondering all evening what the hell is wrong with it & then I realised I'd accidentally compressorized it in the batch I did last night. Go me!

Zirconia Wolf

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #8 on: January 21, 2010, 12:54:21 PM »
Gads this is going to sound stupid but will your theme thingy be alright with me using a no-cd exe instead of the one Maxis created? (Obviously I am avoiding SecureROM... )
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ancienthighway

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Re: Play Themed Versions
« Reply #9 on: January 21, 2010, 02:33:39 PM »
Shouldn't be a problem.  All this little script does is automatically rename folders for your different themes.