Can I delete custom skin tones? I used a custom skin tone for some of my major sims and now I'm sorry I did. I like the "blending" that happens with the in-game skin tones, and having pale white skin be dominant kind of freaks me out. So I was wondering if anyone had ever deleted a skin tone that is in use in the game and what happened. Does the Sim default to skin tone 1? Or is it random? I've heard you can change a sim's age using SimPE. Can you also change their appearance? Any advice would be appreciated. If no one's ever tried this I plan to backup my neighborhood and then experiment.
Not sure about the custom skin tones as I don't use them myself. I believe there is a facility called Sim Surgery in SimPE that allows you to change how your sim looks. Apparently you can also change their genetics to match this. The plastic surgery machine in the game also allows you to change the look of your sim, but doesn't change the genetics, so even though I removed a rather pointy nose from one of my sims with this once, his son still received the same feature.
Great. I'll make a backup and check out Sim Surgery. I decided, belatedly, that ghostly white sims weren't for me. My old neighborhood, second gen, was decidedly brown, and I liked that ... And there is also, as mentioned, the weirdness factor of sim life not mirroring real life, genetically. Though I suppose it would be cool, if I had a ghostly white sim marry a "true black" sim (the other custom skin I downloaded) and see what color each baby was. Kind of like salt and pepper ... OH! And, thanks!
OK, I tried it and it was just gobbedly gook. I can't find a useful tutorial on the web. They assume you know how to get to the folder they describe. I'll keep looking but if anyone has any tips let me know. I'm not even sure the tutorial I found was using the same version of SimPE that I have. It's not an intuitive program. I did however make my first recolor. I made an orange silk bedspread with matching satin sheets. Later: Success! I found a tutorial on Mod the Sims 2 called Cracking the Sim Genetic code that actually made sense to me. I found out I knew more about SimPE than I thought, I just needed that final piece. I'll let you know if it works.
I have done Sims Surgery a few times and it has worked out fairly well. You pick a sim that you want to do surgery on, and then a "donor" sim that you like their looks. You can pick their skintone, or pick the facial features of "donor" sim and the another skintone. You're right, it's not very intuitive, and because the program changes so often, the tutorials do to. When I get stuck, I always use Carrigon's basic tutorial. I'm not sure if she's updated it recently, since she's now over at Various Simmers, but here's the link: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=6505 So, where'd you find yours? Share with the group!
It was on mod the sims 2 and it was called something like altering genetic code. I copied the pertinent part, but don't have it with me right now ... if anyone's interested I can post it later. I thought sims surgery just made a clone. Are you saying you changed the DNA of a sim you were playing? That's what I'd like to do.
Well, Not exactly changing their DNA. It changes their facial structure, or their eyes, or their skin tone. You can pick one or all three.
I think it does. I think it's the DNA of the Sim at the time of their birth. So, say you have a little girl, and you make her have rounded cheeks. Then when she grows up and has a baby, if she still has rounded cheeks, the baby will have them, too. I've noticed it with hair color. I had a sim that had brown hair. Her daughter had brown hair. Then I changed Mom's hairstyle to that long black one from WDS. The next daughter she had also developed that long black hair.
I didn't find that post all that helpful. It looks like all she's saying is "just do it." Is there information buried deeper in the thread? Or was I just not reading carefully enough? The one I found said which strings to edit, which I thought was more helpful. Unfortunately, it didn't appear to work ... here it is, for what it's worth: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=58083&highlight=sim+dna According to another post at http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=64759&highlight=change+sim+skin+color, what I did will work, it just won't show up until the next gen. I'll let you know if that's true or not once I have my third gen. That is NOT to say that I don't appreciate your help ... so, thanks!