Easy renumbering neighborhoods!
 

I'm in the process of revamping my Simcity Saga, because I could already see myself getting bored trying to play out the families in real-time. So I wiped the neighborhood and am starting from scratch. In doing so, I decided to use a tutorial I found on merging neighborhoods, rather than recreating them.

Now, I am constantly going back and forth, reinstalling whatever neighborhood I'm working with. I basically needed two copies of the default towns; one for merging and wiping characters and starting fresh with houses, roads, and decorations intact; and one for cloning/recreating characters in SimPE/Bodyshop. Only way to do this is to renumber each neighborhood and ALL the files within it that refer to that number (i.e. N001 becomes N100, and all zillion-odd files within it).

So I found this tutorial and program. I tested it and I now have 2 identical copies of Pleasantview on my computer! The only thing that didn't translate was the neighborhood story, which is an easy enough copy/paste job if I need it. I'm going to copy the rest of the hoods and then attempt the merge and report back!

Here's the link to the renumbering hoods tutorial: Clicky! The program you need is linked a couple of posts into that thread.

If I understand this, the real point is to be able to duplicate a neighborhood rather than simply renumbering an existing one, right?


(I fixed the link.)

Basically. I copied my neighborhood files from Program Files over to my other drive so I didn't foul up the originals, then used the renumbering system there. Then I copied the renumbered files back to my Documents. So now I have 2 copies of Pleasantview, and now Strangetown and Veronaville. Gonna do Riverblossom Hills and Desiderata Valley now, then attempt the merge.

(And thanks for fixing the link...I thought I did fix it but I guess I left too much junk in the URL)

Edit: Of course, this works for simple renumbering of hoods as well. I dunno what people usually do and how long it takes, but this takes about a minute to renumber a hood.

Off hand, I can't think of a reason to renumber neighborhoods unless you want to change the order in which they show up in the main screen. :thinking:


(Yeah, the remnant of the link had some stuff about your session ID embedded in it, so it would for work you but not for anyone else. I just had to strip it back to the number of the thread. That's an artifact if ipBoard. On the vBulletin that we use here and on Insim, all that same information gets transmitted via cookies.)

Oohh!

Thank you for this link!

Wish I would have had it two days ago when I was re-swapping some Hoods, but I'll be ready for next time anyway!

Semi-off topic, but do you know if renumbering the Maxis made Hoods (Pleasantview, ect.) interferes with the Official Patches or not? I would sort of like to have my Hood organized in "EP Order" rather than the newest EP Hoods at the front, but wasn't sure if this would effect a Patches effectiveness...

-ZW

Since renumbering hoods involves the My Documents/EA Games/etc. folder, it likely won't interfere with patches, which should be editing the Program Files/EA Games/etc. folder.

Back on topic...I tried the tutorial but couldn't get Strangetown to attach as a downtown. I'm sure it's something stupid I overlooked or forgot to click on somewhere, but I don't feel like starting the process over. So I'm just going to snag the megahood from MTS2 that has them all together as shopping districts. Work smarter, not harder!

Yeah, probably for people who want to move neighborhoods they don't play often (premades, for example) off the first screen of 'hoods, for convenience. Or if they're OCD and delete neighborhoods in the middle, and can't stand there being a gap in the numbering.

Now that's a good point--I haven't played any of the first three neighborhoods in over a year.

Well, another reason for changing the Hood number would be if you cloned one & wanted them both to show up.

For me it's just an "order" thing, as I like my Hoods to show up in "EP Order". (I think I'm one of the few people who rather enjoys the pre-made Hoods! )

:laugh:

Yeah, it's nice not to have to always "reinvent the wheel", so to speak!

-ZW

Are there more Maxis neighborhoods other than 1, 2, and 3?

Yes, there's also G001 and F001, which are the Seasons (Riverblossom Hills) and Free Time (Desiderata Valley) hoods.

That 'splains it. I haven't installed either Seasons for Free Time.

I never installed FT or Seasons neither so I don't know why I'd want to do this but its nice to know I could if I wanted to! :lol: