Hey anon! There are a lot of great resources that spell out exactly how to do this – better than I can. So I’ll try to be as informative as possible, but I will be linking you to other references!
There are a few different ways to get non-fugly townies. One way – which is what I did for my Windham University dormies – is to make them yourself in Bodyshop or CAS. Once you’ve created the Sims to your liking, move them to an empty residential lot and then, using a teleporter from Simlogical, select the option to make that Sim a townie. (If you perform this action in a University subhood, those Sims will become dormies!)
Too time-consuming to make each individual townie? Then you can batch-create them! To avoid weird Maxis faces, first install default face templates. I use these by Joedy. ❤ Then, create a single Sim (or family, if you wish) and move them to a residential lot. Pause the game immediately, bring up the cheat window, and type in “boolprop testingcheatsenabled true”. Shift-click on the mailbox on the lot, select the option that says *DBG – FORCE Create Townies, then click the option that says “townies.” You will see a window pop up in the top right corner – your game is now spawning townies.
However, be warned – if you batch-create townies in an already townie-populated neighborhood, you run the risk of creating a lot of character files that could bloat and potentially corrupt your neighborhood (perhaps not right away, but in the future). If you would like to create a completely customized neighborhood – meaning no Maxis face templates, Maxis townies, or Maxis NPCs – and control exactly how many townies/NPCs are spawned, I would recommend following this excellent tutorial. Be sure to install the mods mentioned early on in the tutorial – this greatly reduces the number of unnecessary character files the game creates and reduces your risk of hood corruption.
Always remember to BACK UP your game before making any changes to the program files and/or your neighborhood files!
If you already have a neighborhood that you’re quite attached to, but it’s unfortunately overrun with weird-looking townies, you can always use an item like the Sim Blender to change just about anything you want about that Sim – from their clothes, to their face structure, even their wants! Some options will only work on the active Sim, but never fear – the Sim Blender has an option to teleport any Sim to the lot and make them selectable, so you can perform all the edits you want before sending them back out into Townieville again. 🙂
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask – don’t be afraid to come off anon, either! It might be easier for us to go back and forth that way if you have more specific questions. 🙂
simper fi 