Yes, and no. TS2 character files are predetermined. After installing AL you will see the characters in that file become the walkbys and Sims who show up on community lots. I preferred to continue to see the basegame townies like Goopy and Benjamin, even that aggravating Marisa and some others. :p
The reputation system is good if your Sim on community lots is friendly, greets a lot of different Sims and tells jokes etc. Networking can get some free stuff and fast promotions.
It's better if they don't, and your Sim gets a bad reputation, , more Sims may not want to talk that much to your Sim, but I never did see that it made much difference if they had a bad reputation rather than a good one. Most of my Sims remained average since I never did like the whole darn 'greet' thing going on after installing that EP. Especially for OFB lots. It changed all that and had to greet a Sim first before you could click 'basic sale' etc. I installed a mod years ago to remove the 'greet' action on OFB lots so that my Sims could get back to selling. It was too many steps before my Sims could just go ahead and start selling. So, I removed it on those lots. Witches, I also installed a mod to remove withces from showing up on OFB lots. Had enough to deal with and back then it caused a horrible lag, freeze on my machine if a witch showed up.
I never did like the lot rating. This affects all lots, the game rates what type of Sims will show up on lots after installing AL. A well visited community lot such as one of my sparsely decorated bars, was a sort of hotspot for a long time before AL. After AL this type of lot's rating may be so low only a few Sims show up on that lot and may prefer other lot types. That is hugely annoying to me. I place a lot of my community lots in the mainhoods and rarely add DT's subhood anymore. Because my pc will allow about fifteen Sims on a community lot without straining it, so most of my community lots are inside the main worlds now. But the AL lot rating system lowers how many Sims will show up depending on if it's rated not so good a lot by the AL system.
The less apartment buildings you have in the game the less lag. It's a fact many apartment buildings generates lag, maybe people don't notice it as much anymore on better machines these days. But if you want less AL townies reducing the amount apartments in the game reduces the walkby AL townies and the lag of the game. But yes, I can't stand the AL townies nor their clothes. I prefer the basegame townies.
One thing that can happen that will cause the carpool not to show up is if you convert a community lot to a residentual then to apartmentbase the carpool will not show up. The lot will work just fine for apartments but there won't be a notice for the carpool or the bus. I have the buyable AL mailbox so I can convert any lot to residentual then apartmentbase or whatever, but AL will not send a carpool or bus. So, it's important to remember this if you do have the buyable mailbox (AL mailbox not BV mailbox) in your downloads, to remember if you convert a community lot there won't be a carpool. They will have to remember to walk to work manually.
I love to build apartments and used the boolprop cheat to rent a furnished apartment, but I fill the ones I have with my own Sims because I can't stand the AL townies. lol
Clones, the AL has a problem where if you move out one of your Sims in an apartment building to somewhere else then go back and play or move in someone else into that building, the previous Sim will still be there on the lot hanging outside all day and night. It's a bug they never fixed.
The landlord will not clean up the bug jars that any other Sim on the lot puts on the lot all day. Your Sim has to go out there and clean all that up. If you don't put anything outside of them to do all day while your Sims are at work they do this all day long and or just stand outside and talk to each other all day. There is a bug where sometimes, you see your other Sims go to work, and they are supposed to go to work and leave the lot sometimes, but sometimes they don't and are outside all day and night, too. So, it's important if you build apartment lots to put things outside for Sims to do so they won't dirty up the lot with bug jars or just stand around all day.
The apartments were good but there are dozens of things I never liked about it, and one time I played for years without it no longer installed. Until 2014, when EA sent me an email to download TS2UC. It's not all that great in my opinion, as far as townies, bugs, and workarounds.
