How to Properly Package Up Lots

by Dour

 

Something else Maxis made easy!

 This tutorial assumes that you have already made a lot that you wish to package, and that you have Sims 2 Pack Clean Installer (and know how to use it).

1. Open the game.

2. Open the neighborhood that contains the lot you have already built.

3. Select the family button, and click on your lot.

4. The window that pops up will have a little icon to the left of an arrow on the custom icon. Click it.

5. If you want your lot to end up on the exchange, you can choose package to thesims2.com (make sure you're connected to the internet) if you are planning on uploading the lot to any other site you will need to package the lot to a file. Check the appropriate box and then click the checkmark.

6. The game will package the lot (sometimes slowly). When it is finished it will tell you where it can be found (My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\packaged lots).

7. While you're still in game, play the lot (in live or build mode, depending on if there is a family) and take screenshots. A good rule is to take one of the exterior from the street, and to take an aerial shot (from above) of each floor, to give the downloader an idea of the floorplan.

8. Exit the game when you are finished.

9. Your lot is in My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\packaged lots it will be named whatever you named the lot when you built it in game. If you'd like to change the name, make sure to rename the sims2pack file now.

10. You will need to open this file using Clean Installer and scan it to make sure that there are not hacks/careers. Don't skip this part, if you download houses from other people there is a chance that you have a hack that you don't know you have. Do it just to be safe.

***If you are uploading to a site that doesn't accept Sims2Pack files alone, or you wish to include a readme.txt or screenshots with your lot, you will need to create a .zip or .rar file to hold everything together. Zip and Rar are simply file compressors. They work exactly like folders, except folders can't be transferred over the internet and these two can.

11. Go to your desktop and right click, then select New > Compressed (zipped) folder [Or WinRar Archive, whichever]. Name your new zip/rar the same name as the lot you are packaging. It will make things much easier for you in the long run (see the packaging bodyshop tutorial for more tips on naming files).

12. Drag and drop your lot, readme.txt, screenshots, and any additional junk into your newly created zip folder [or archive]

You're done. Commense feeling awesome.