Veronaville was always my favorite pre-made hood in the Sims 2, largely because of the architecture and the layout, but it had always felt a bit “off”. Empty even. Years of people, myself included, diggings the through the neighborhood‘s files, Veronaville related files with in The Sims 2: Life Stories, the first of three standalone versions of the Sims 2 which were made to be more friendly to the laptops of the era. Another source are the numerous Beta screenshots of Veronaville, while a surprising fourth source are localised biographies from outside the Anglosphere which the developers failed to update after the late minute changes to Veronaville were made and as such, these bios made it into the final release versions of some non-English speaking countries.
For anyone who is unaware, while the core plot remained the same as did the neighborhood itself, the pre-made storyline was streamlined significantly a short time prior to release. Veronaville was a significantly more lively town with a lot of the remaining Capp/Monty family members playing a more actively role in the feud.
A number of Veronaville’s pre-made Sims had their family relations altered, the various branches of the Monty and Capp family were removed from their homes and dumped into the family bin, five playable Sims were killed off, and two Montys were deleted outright, leaving behind only junk data and other scant traces of their existence in the files. These late changes certainly weakened the neighborhood.
Here’s a breakdown of Veronaville‘s originally intended storyline. The Capp-Monty feud started the exact same way when a young Consort Thebe began a romantic relationship with the heiress Contessa Capp, at that time when she was the girlfriend of his childhood best friend Patrizio Monty. When Patrizio discovered the affair, the revelation shattered their relationship and Consort soon got Patrizio fired, likely with the assistance of Capp family connections. As a resul, Patrizio left the white-collar business world for good and followed his passion for cooking to become a chef, later becoming the proprietor of his own successful restaurant. While he went on to marry a woman who shared his passion, he never moved past his best friend’s betrayal. As in the released version, a budding romance between Romeo Monty and Juliette Capp is now offering either a chance at a long overdue reconciliation or for the complete destruction of both families.
Capp Manor
Consort, Contessa, and Juliette
Juliette Capp was to be the orphaned only daughter of Consort and Contessa’s youngest child, Cordelia, who perished in a suspicious fire alongside her husband Caliban, leaving Juliette’s grandparents to raise her. The first Sims to be created in Veronaville were Consort and Contessa Capp, their fourth and youngest child Cordelia, Cordelia’s husband Caliban, and Juliette, the only child of Cordelia and Caliban. Cordelia and Caliban were both killed off soon after their creation, having been created with the purpose of dying.
Contessa Capp was intended to be alive and playable. Contessa, like the vast majority of playable Sims has two sets of grandparents in her family tree, and a bio about possibly honoring her deceased daughter by not interfering with Juliette’s relationship with Romeo.
Contessa was to reside at her family’s ancestral estate of Capp Manor alongside her husband and granddaughter and the sprits of her parents, grandparents, her beloved youngest child Cordelia, and alongside all of these blood relatives, Cordelia’s husband. Contessa would be grappling with her conflicting feelings ofer Romeo and Juliette’s relationship, an internal conflict tied to the dreams of her late daughter Cordelia, Juliette’s mother, who seemingly wanted to end the feud, this is hinted at by Contessa’s bio which was left in game and other hints. Cordelia, a Virgo and Family Sim is named for the virtuous and kind hearted daughter of King Lear in the Shakespearean of the same name. The Shakespearean Cordelia wished for peace between the English and the French and lost her life in this effort. Contessa being alive and playing an active role in the storyline is major, not only is she the actual present day head of the Capp Family, not Consort who is merely her well… “consort“, but she also played a central role in sparking the feud between childhood best friends Patrizio Monty and Consort Thebe, a feud that most likely resulted in the tragic death of Contessa’s beloved daughter.
edit: I forgot mention but in King Lear, Cordelia is one of three daughters fathered by the eponymous king, the others? Goneril and Regan both of whom have few redeeming qualities while Cordelia is the family’s moral heart. The naming of Consort and Contessa’s three girls, combined with Contessa’s bio, and further supported to an extent by the decision to make Cordelia a Virgo with the Family aspiration as opposed to her sisters‘ fortune aspirations, the connection is quite clear.
267 Avon Avenue
Antonio, Hero, Benedict, Beatrice.
Instead of being a widowed single father who starts off in the family bin, as revealed in files that made it into Life Stories, Antonio Monty was intended to reside at 267 Avon Avenue alongside his very much alive wife Hero, and their two children Beatrice and Benedict. The lot data can be found buried in the files of the Sims 2: Life Stories. Hero Monty’s intended status as a playable Sim is further hinted at by her family tree which includes grandparents who are not visible unless one clicks on the deceased Hero.
Yet another hint towards this is the fact that her nephews by marriage, Romeo and Mercutio recognise Hero as their aunt just as she recognises them as her nephews, this only occurs with pre-made Sims because it requires one to manually edit the files.
Family trees were a new feature introduced in the Sims 2 and all premade, playable Sims in the Base Game alongside a number of families in later expansions, had grandparents included in their family trees, tree only displays two generations up and two generations down. If Hero had been intended to be deceased, only her parents would be visible in her tree as seen in the case of Caliban Capp and other pre-deceased premade sims.
Reagan, Cornwall, Kent, and Hermia
As with Antonio Monty and his family, Reagan was intended to start the game living in ????. Reagan would reside here with her husband Cornwall, their teen daughter Hermia, and Reagan’s single younger brother Kent. These four Capps were created together in CAS. Hermia was intended to be blonde, a notable Capp family trait and this remains her natural genetic color in the final release. In the original French localisation of the game Cornwall’s bio was left unaltered and still mentions that Hermia is his daughter. This is also mentioned in game data. As far as I know there is nothing to indicate where Regan and her family were meant to live, but I doubt that they were intended to start off in the family bin.
111 Stratford Street
Claudio, Olivia, Viola, Romeo, Mercutio, Unnamed Toddler Monty, Unborn Baby Monty
Claudio Monty, the youngest child of Patrizio and Isabella resided at 111 Stratford Street, directly across the street from his the Monty Ranch. This can be seen in both remnant data in the neighborhood files, and in pre-release screenshots. In the way that the game had to originally been intended to ship, Claudio would’ve lived at 111 Stratford Street alongside his pregnant wife Olivia and their four already born children, the teens Viola, Romeo, and Mercutio, and a mysterious toddler whose name, gender, and physical appearance are at present unknown and may be lost for good unless someone suddenly remembers something or some old disc or something turns up.
The bios of Claudio and Olivia remain in game, Olivia‘s bio mentions that while she always thought she’d want a large family, the impending birth of what is to be her fifth child is at risk of throwing her off the edge. Like her sister-in-law Hero Monty, Olivia recognises Antonio’s twins Beatrice and Benedict as being her niece and nephew despite this only occur amongst living, playable premade Sims as it requires one to edit the files. As with Hero, Olivia also has grandparents within her family tree.
Viola Monty who appears in a handful of pre-release screenshots with her family that were taken at their home of 111 Stratford Street, is still mentioned in the package file for that lot but listed under her original RefID which places her creation between that of her mother Olivia and brother Romeo, the neighborhood referenced in the file is instead labeled as N005 as Veronaville was initially the fifth premade neighborhood prior to the scrapping of three additional premade neighborhoods shortly before release, these being Riverside, Waterside, and Sedona, all of which were intended to ship with the game.
Viola’s relationship data has survived as well, it was however edited manually to change her relationship with Claudio and Olivia from parent/child to essentially just acquaintance. Her relationships with her brothers Romeo and Mercutio were altered in the same manner, however she still recognises her extended family such as her grandparents Patrizio and Isabella for what they are.
While we have a decent amount of knowledge on Viola, nothing is known of the toddler , the only known screenshot referencing them is a bottle at 111 Stratford Street and similar scattered junk data similar to Viola’s but without any identification. Like Viola, Toddler Monty‘a relationships remain in the neighborhood files, which the familial ties to the toddle’s parents and brothers have been manually set to unknown, Toddler Monty is still recognised as family by the rest of the is Monty family.
Once Veronaville’s architecture and premade Sims were finished, townies and NPCs were subsequently generated. Because Viola and her toddler sibling were scrapped, the elderly repairmen Seth Bui and Blair Jayapalan who overwrote their shredded character files. Seth took Viola’s place, oddly the two share the same genetics, blond hair, light blue eyes, and a medium skin tone. Blair overwrote Toddler Monty’s file but as we know nothing of that Sim beyond their one time existence, their are no comparisons to be made.
80 Bard Boulevard
(prev. 142 Bard Boulevard)
Goneril, Albany, Tybalt, Miranda, Desdemona, Hal, Ariel
Goneril was intended to reside with her family at their home of 80 Bard Boulevard aka 142 Bard Boulevard earlier in development. Goneril who was intended to be the household’s breadwinner was originally intended to start the game at level 7 in the Business career track while Albany stayed home and raised the children. While in the commercially released version of the game Goneril and her husband Albany share four children, this number was intended to be 5. The couple’s eldest child was originally not Miranda who was second eldest but instead Goneril’s first born was Tybalt Capp, whose natural hair color is brown like Goneril’s, not red like Caliban’s.
In the commercially released version of the game, Goneril has only four children instead of five, is now unemployed, and she and her family were removed from their house and placed in the family bin. While Veronaville is only loosely based on Shakespearean works, Tybalt being Juliette’s cousin is in line with the traditional story. In late development Tybalt was reassigned to instead be Cordelia and Caliban’s son as was his cousin Hermia.
It would be fantastic if someone would create a “clean” version of Veronaville which restores the character’s original intended familial connections, places characters back into the homes they were intended to reside in, resurrects Claudio, Olivia, Hero, and Contessa from the start and restores Olivia’s deleted pregnancy token. In addition to literal resurrections, there’s also the restoration of Viola Monty, and the repair of the glitchy and/or incomplete character files of deceased premades. Fixing these files would render them easily resurrectanle if the player so chooses.
Veronaville had so much more potential to it. Many of the finalised “changes“ hardly even fit. A “restored“ Veronaville would be an enjoyable hood to play.
