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HOW TO ADD THREE NEW WALL TYPES TO YOUR GAME
CAUTION: PLEASE READ CAREFULLY, THEN PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK

This is one way to have walls in your game that will be flexible at both top and bottom, without changing your regular, normal walls. By doing this procedure, you will be ADDING three different wall types to your game, but you will still have your original walls to use most of the time.

You must remember that when you USE one of these other types of walls, you should NOT upload your asset to the TS2 Exchange, because people who have not changed their own "walls.txt" script file will have nothing but problems using your lot. First of all, the other types of walls will not show up in the lot when a person only has the game configured for one type of normal wall. If the user then tries to correct that problem by deleting the non-appearing wall (the wall is still there...it is just non-appearing, or non-usable), the game will IMMEDIATELY crash. Obviously, this is not practical!

So...for now, at least, these walls are for enjoyment in your own game, only, or if you can upload the lots on your own website with a disclaimer like the one that brought you to this page. :-)

Having said all that, here is what you must do to have three new "normal" (full-height) wall types in your game. There are probably endless possibilities with wall types, but these are the three that I know about and am using in my game. BEFORE DOING ANY OF THESE STEPS, PRINT OUT THIS INSTRUCTION SHEET SO YOU CAN REFER TO IT AS YOU WORK.

  1. Go to the following folder/directory (if you have followed the default game installation):
    C:\Program Files\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\TSData\Res\Catalog\Scripts
     
  2. Inside that folder, you will find a set of .txt files that contain settings for the different catalogs within the game. The one we want to change is called "walls.txt" because it is concerned with how the wall tools work. Before you do anything else, right click on that file and choose "Copy."
     
  3. Then click in an empty space within the folder and right click again. Choose "Paste," and Windows will make a copy of the file that says, "Copy of walls.txt." Now click on the name of that file so that it gets highlighted, and type in "walls.BAK" instead of what is already there. Windows will ask you if you are sure you want to change the name, and you should say, "Yes." Now you have a backup copy of the "walls.txt" file that you can resort to if you don't like having the other walls in your game (just leave it there, in the Scripts folder). If you ever need to use it, throw out the file we are going to change (below), and rename the "walls.BAK" file to "walls.txt" and your game will be back to the way it was before.
     
  4. Now double click on the original "walls.txt" file to open it. It will open in Notepad or in WordPad, depending on how you have your computer set up.
     
  5. About halfway down, you will find the following text, in a block separated by other text by a space above it and a space below it:

    # normal walls
    wall 1
    defaultPattern "blank"
    wallThickness standard
    mayChangeSurface true
    mayAttachObjects true
    mayCutAway true
    requiresFlatBottom true
    requiresFlatTop true
    submersible false
    deleteTool partition
    thumbnailResource 0 0x499db772 0xe9261348
    thumbnailResource 1 0x499db772 0xe9261347
    catalogTextIndices 0 1


    DO NOT CHANGE THIS!!!
     
  6. Go to the last line that you see above (in that block of text in the "walls.txt" file), and set your cursor there, then press Enter a couple of times to make a space into which you may copy and past the following text into the document. Remember...DO NOT DELETE OR OVERWRITE ANYTHING IN THIS FILE. You are only going to ADD text to the file. This is very important.
     
  7. Here's the text you need to select and copy (from beginning to end):

    # normal walls
    wall 2
    defaultPattern "blank"
    wallThickness standard
    mayChangeSurface true
    mayAttachObjects true
    mayCutAway true
    requiresFlatBottom false
    requiresFlatTop false
    submersible false
    deleteTool partition
    thumbnailResource 0 0x499db772 0xe9261348
    thumbnailResource 1 0x499db772 0xe9261347
    catalogTextIndices 0 1

    # *custom* Invisible wall
    wall 91
    defaultPattern "blank"
    wallThickness standard
    mayChangeSurface true
    mayAttachObjects true
    mayCutAway true
    requiresFlatBottom true
    requiresFlatTop true
    submersible true
    verticalSpan floorToFloor
    blocksLight true
    blocksPlacement true
    deleteTool partition
    notRendered
    thumbnailResource 0 0x499db772 0xe9261348
    thumbnailResource 1 0x499db772 0xe9261347
    catalogTextIndices 0 1

    # *custom* Invisible walls
    wall 92
    defaultPattern "blank"
    wallThickness standard
    mayChangeSurface true
    mayAttachObjects true
    mayCutAway true
    requiresFlatBottom false
    requiresFlatTop false
    submersible true
    verticalSpan floorToFloor
    blocksLight true
    blocksPlacement true
    deleteTool partition
    notRendered
    thumbnailResource 0 0x499db772 0xe9261348
    thumbnailResource 1 0x499db772 0xe9261347
    catalogTextIndices 0 1
     
  8. Now go back to the new space where you set your cursor in the "walls.txt" file, and simply paste in what you copied from above.
     
  9. Make sure you leave a space before the first entry and after the last entry--just like the spaces you already see in the file for the other configurations.
     
  10. Save the "walls.txt" file.
     
  11. Start your game. When you get into a lot and begin to build, you will now find FOUR walls in the normal Wall Tool area, instead of just one. The first one is your regular, normal wall. Use THIS wall when you intend to upload the lot, and DO NOT use any of the other three if you intend to upload.

The other three walls are: (2) a wall that has both a flexible bottom and top; (3) a normal wall like #1, EXCEPT...it is invisible (it's still a barrier, but you can't see it); and (4) a flexible invisible wall. It's important to note that all four icons in the catalog look the same. That's OK. Just try them out, and you'll see the difference.

Experiment with the walls to see what they will and won't do, and have fun. Just remember, though...DO NOT UPLOAD LOTS TO THE TS2 EXCHANGE IN WHICH YOU HAVE USED WALLS 2, 3, OR 4!


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This Page Updated 07/31/2007