Hello! I’ve just re-downloaded TS2, and had I question about installing mods. The skin I want to install has both a “Default” and a “genetic / townie” file. Do I install them both? or is only one needed? Sorry if this is a dumb question I just have never used CC with TS2 before so I’m a tad confused. Thanks! c:

[short answer which was originally shorter but I started rambling so I should’ve actually titled these “long answer” and “longer answer”]

Hey! No worries. 😀 You could install both! In fact, if you’re going to use the genetic/townie skins, their geneticized values are most likely based around the default skins. If you’re only going to use one skin set – for example, Lilith’s Feathers skin set – you can use the default AND geneticized/townified versions because the geneticized/townified skins fit around the defaults. Basically, they will fill in the spectrum of skin tone shades between your typical four defaults. So if you’re sticking with one skin set, you could almost certainly install both and everything will be genetically sound. 

Unless you have another default skin installed – then you’ll have to decide with default skins you want. (Friendly reminder to everyone reading that you can only have one default for something installed at a time!) If that’s the case, you can certainly still download the geneticized/townified skins, but it may require some tinkering in SimPE to ensure that all your skin tones fit properly on the genetic spectrum (thus ensuring that any future Sim babies born don’t have a skin tone lighter or darker than both of the parents :D). 

Tinkering with genetic values in SimPE isn’t difficult, but it may be beyond the scope of what you were really asking me here, so I’ll put it under a cut in case you didn’t need all this additional information. 😀

[long answer, with a rambling explanation as to how this stuff really works and partially copy-pasted from a similar ask I did awhile ago]

Basically, in TS2, there are four default skins – S1, S2, S3, and S4. If you only want to use defaults, your skin defaults will only replace those four colors. But, of course, many of us want a little more variety in our skin tones, and that’s where geneticized/townified skins come into play! 

But Fi, what does “geneticized/townified” mean? (Not implying that you didn’t know this already, abundanceofpixels! Only that this is a topic that I get asked about frequently and sometimes it helps to explain the very basics. :D) The simplest way to explain it – skins are geneticized on a scale, with values ranging from “lightest” to “darkest”. The four default skins have assigned values of 0.1, 0.3, 0.6, and 0.9 (going from S1 to S4). To geneticize skins, therefore, simply means going into SimPE and assigning each skin a value around the pre-existing default values. 

So a custom skin lighter than S1 (the pale default) would have a genetic value smaller than 0.1. If your custom skin is a shade between S2 (0.3) and S3 (0.6), for example, it could have a value of 0.4 (or 0.45, etc.).

I use Mayberries Invasion skin as my default, but I wanted to use several other skin sets as well (as listed on my resources page). For example, I also use Lilith’s Honey skins. Since I’m currently using a different default skin set, there’s a chance that if I merely downloaded the geneticized Honey skin set and threw it in with my Invasion defaults, the geneticized skins would not fit properly on the spectrum around my defaults. For example, the lightest Honey skin tone might’ve been lighter than my S1 default, but its genetic value may have placed it on the spectrum between the S1 and S2 defaults.

SO, I took all the custom skin sets I wanted to use, and in a notepad file, I arranged them in order from lightest to darkest, then set about assigning values on the scale to fit them around my defaults. Here is part of my notepad file:

My default S1 skin is the lightest of all the skins I have in my game, so I started the scale after 0.1. Everything between S1 and S2 are skins darker than S1, but lighter than S2 (ordered to the best of my ability – it gets tedious clicking back and forth in Bodyshop, and depending on how many skin sets you’re using, it’s often hard to discern if one is really “lighter” or “darker”, as sometimes it’s just a different shade :3).

THE WHOLE BLEEDIN’ POINT OF THIS, basically, is to ensure that if an S3 and S1 Sim have a baby, for example, the skin tone of the baby will come from anywhere on the spectrum between 0.1 and 0.6, and not lighter or darker. Think of all the genetic possibilities! Here’s an example of one of my Sim families. I don’t know the exact genetic values for the skin tones of the parents, but Nate has a significantly lighter skin tone than Tabitha, which opened up a wide range of genetic skin tone possibilities for the kids. And sure enough, they had quadruplets – and each one has a different skin tone. 😀 

None of this is critical to playing the game – for example, you don’t have to have all your skin tones fit around a certain genetic scale. You can have as many skin tones as you want, they can be custom, they can be geneticized, they can be on a completely arbitrary scale. But if you’re anal about genetics, like me (and honestly the genetics system in TS2 is freakin’ amazing and one of my favorite parts about playing the game), then you might need to tinker around with genetic values SimPE if you want to use a wide range of skin sets. Again, that’s only if you care about “correct” genetics. 🙂 There’s no right or wrong way to play the game, so if you want your TS2 game to defy human laws of genetics, physics, etc. (I mean, the game has werewolves and vampires and alien babies, so you can pretty much take that as your cue to do anything you want) – GO NUTS!

THIS TUTORIAL SPELLS OUT EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW! I’m pretty noobish when it comes to SimPE (I’ve only started getting more confident with it over the last year, as I’ve been doing more default replacements), but this tutorial explains everything about TS2 genetics in clear and easy-to-follow language. It seems daunting, but it’s really very simple! 

Oh, and if anyone is unclear on what “townified” means – a townified skin means there’s a chance it will spawn on any newly-created townies. 🙂 Otherwise, your townies will have your basic four default skins. Again, townified skins aren’t necessary for playing or enjoying the game, but it’s definitely a way to add more variety to your neighborhood (and the genetic pool).

I’m by no means an expert on this, but if you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out! (Posting this publicly because I get a lot of asks on this, and it’s easy to have everything in a handy post. :D)