A question on Skills

[Rolfy]

Is it possible for Sims to lose skills in TS3? Conventionally or unconventionally... ?

If so please spill.
 

[FireDrake]

You could use Twallan's Super Computer mod to adjust them to your liking. I'd post a link, but my iPod doesn't have it.

[Rolfy]

I found it and have been looking it over it, it has what I need, but, are The Super Computer and the Story Progression mods compatible with AM?

[FireDrake]

Yes, almost all of Twallan's mods work with AwesomeMod, but as for the Story Progression, Awesome comes with it's own, so I wouldn't use Twallan's with AM. On Twallan's homepage though, it generally says whether or not it works with AM. So SEARCH MOAR, and all that jazz.

[Rolfy]

Yes, almost all of Twallan's mods work with AwesomeMod, but as for the Story Progression, Awesome comes with it's own, so I wouldn't use Twallan's with AM. On Twallan's homepage though, it generally says whether or not it works with AM. So SEARCH MOAR, and all that jazz.

Yes more power to search. I should be good from here out, Thanks a lot for the info.

[J. M. Pescado]

Twallanian Story is compatible with AwesomeMod, but you will obviously not be able to use AwesomeStory while using Twallanian Story. In fact, AwesomeMod's Story Driver Options are specifically coded to deactivate if Twallanian Story is present to avoid conflicts.

[Rolfy]

Twallanian Story is compatible with AwesomeMod, but you will obviously not be able to use AwesomeStory while using Twallanian Story. In fact, AwesomeMod's Story Driver Options are specifically coded to deactivate if Twallanian Story is present to avoid conflicts.

Yes, I am aware of that. But I've been play testing the game and, I still have AM installed and can use all the features like, Supreme Commander, etc. And in all honesty -not being rude in any way- it made me wonder what am I missing with AM Story Mode being off? Can anyone make this a little clearer? 

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes, I am aware of that. But I've been play testing the game and, I still have AM installed and can use all the features like, Supreme Commander, etc. And in all honesty -not being rude in any way- it made me wonder what am I missing with AM Story Mode being off? Can anyone make this a little clearer? 

If you are using EA story, you are missing things like "sanity". If you are using Twallanian story, your neighborhood is probably missing things like "casuality" and "consistency", but I have no idea how well Twallan now handles these issues.

[Madame Mim]

Depends on how you feel about causality I suppose. Unplayed Sims with Twallen seem to make friends (and otherwise) a lot faster than you can when controlling them, but it still requires actual interaction for pollination to occur. I like the way cheating has consequences (if caught) with Twallen, but I hate the way his system imposes his custom retirement on Sims (although that may be the super computer).

Consistency I'll need to have defigned for me in a game context. I personally think most of the universe lacks consistency.

[J. M. Pescado]

Inconsistency is "behavior that directly contradicts observed and observable facts". For instance, Twallanian Story could arbitrarily move sims around, including into houses they could not actually afford, and makes no attempt to maintain the game's actual rules. As such, it is less a progression, and more a series of random alterations without continuity or causality. Twallanian Story is also generally "fluffier", and runs closer to EAstory in its tendency to do things to sims that are not strictly necessary for neighborhood health. See: The friendmaking, the little vignettes, etc. None of these things really MATTER, and sims are perfectly capable of performing these actions on their own when you can actually SEE them doing it, rather than being hamfistedly TOLD they did it in past tense. Twallanian Story, for instance, will go and tell you that two sims are fighting...possibly when you can see both sims and can visibly tell that this did not happen. AwesomeStory doesn't care about this and simply lets them fight or not fight, as they wish, according to their traits and behaviors, and win, or lose, purely by their own skills and abilities. If they fight, you will, or could, if you cared to pay attention to that, see it, and victory or defeat is determined purely by the skills they earned or didn't earn. In brief, AwesomeStory is REAL: The game, as it really is, with as few concessions as possible, generally hidden as much as possible. Any handwaved loose ends are done in a way that maximizes concealment from the player, so that the player will not observe inconsistency, and handwaving is kept to a minimum.

Obviously, there are people who don't care for the "Hard" world, and for them, there's the fluffy Twallanian Story.

[Anach]

I like the idea of consistency and causality, and as such I've been using AM story mode until a few days ago, where I thought I would give Twallan's another go. So far I have found that Twallan's can be configured to run much like AM in appearance, but of course it has the randomness to create "Stories".  For me this is a much needed break. I found that with AM, no one EVER died without me killing them or old age. No one EVER broke off from a relationship once they were in one, and over all the town really started to stagnate. All the flirty sims had a romance with what seemed like every sim in town, yet there was never any down side to this. The main issue with AM for me is that it keeps generating babies for houses that have enough beds, so It didn't take long for my town to be full to the brim (290 sims + 50 Service). Unlike Twallan's where I can put limit on generated sims within houses and townies in total, leaving me to add the rest by my personal interaction with the town, or have room to create new sims. In AM the only way to do this was by removing beds and wait the long life for sims to die of old age. Even real life has random deaths, unhappy relationships and different personalities. This is what Twallan's mod simulates, and simulation is needed to a degree, as unfortunately sims don't take risks in love or life on their own.

While in theory having sims do things for real reasons is a great idea, and that is why I first chose AM story over others, but in practice nothing exciting happens and the world feels dead. AM needs to have some limits and a small degree of randomness, but still try to maintain consistency and causality. This could possibly be done by having a repercussions for flirty sims or romance. Having sims die from repairing household items (like actives can). Suffering random house fires from cooking or pyromaniacs (like in twallan's). Most of these types of scenarios happen even for active played families, so there is no reason why they shouldn't happen with AM inactives too. Just a shame sims don't get run over in the street.


Anyway that is my experience. Yesterday I had a meteor fall on the Hospital and kill about 12 sims working there. My active sim just made it out alive. Fun

[J. M. Pescado]

For me this is a much needed break. I found that with AM, no one EVER died without me killing them or old age.

Why should they? You can look at them at any time and see they're doing perfectly fine. Why would they just suddenly die? All the normal death mechanisms are in place and available to them...but there's no reason why they should just suddenly die for no reason. If they set themselves on fire, they'll die. Otherwise, they won't. They're not just going to spontaneously combust. Such a thing would violate the consistency rules of the game.

No one EVER broke off from a relationship once they were in one, and over all the town really started to stagnate.

If a relationship falls apart, then it will. Sims in TS3 seem much better at not doing dumbass things that quickly crash relationships, or maybe that's just because Furiousness isn't in there to trigger it. Additionally, not all "romance" actions in AwesomeStory are successful. Degree of success varies, with lesser compatibility sims having an elevated chance of getting negrel out of it, which decreases their romance advancement status. I have increased the base failure penalty, so more unstable relationships should probably collapse in the next version.

All the flirty sims had a romance with what seemed like every sim in town, yet there was never any down side to this.

All the relevant jealousy emitters should be in place. If they don't get caught, they don't get caught. What happens, happens. If the right people aren't there at the right times, then they can't be caught. You can clearly see the person who needs to do the catching is in the wrong place, so why should he be able to catch them from the wrong end of town?

The main issue with AM for me is that it keeps generating babies for houses that have enough beds, so It didn't take long for my town to be full to the brim (290 sims + 50 Service). Unlike Twallan's where I can put limit on generated sims within houses and townies in total, leaving me to add the rest by my personal interaction with the town, or have room to create new sims.

Popcap feature will be in the next version.

In AM the only way to do this was by removing beds and wait the long life for sims to die of old age. Even real life has random deaths, unhappy relationships and different personalities. This is what Twallan's mod simulates, and simulation is needed to a degree, as unfortunately sims don't take risks in love or life on their own.

Actually, all these things exist in the game. Flirty sims, for instance, flirt with the wrong people. Negative interactions exist. Sims can incur death by being splatted at random by falling space rocks. Fires occur. However, AwesomeStory is not concerned with such microscopic events, and forcing someone to suddenly die of fire nowhere near an actual source of fire violates consistency: The player can clearly see that the sim is not in a position to die. Sims are much more likely to die if put "offworld" due to overcrowding, as the player cannot see any consistency violations.

Suffering random house fires from cooking or pyromaniacs (like in twallan's). Most of these types of scenarios happen even for active played families, so there is no reason why they shouldn't happen with AM inactives too.

They do. If a sim cooks, a fire can occur and someone could die. If something is specifically preventing the fires, I will find it and squash it, but that's not AwesomeStory's fault.

Just a shame sims don't get run over in the street.

We're working on it.

Anyway. Yesterday I had a meteor fall on the Hospital and kill about 12 sims working there. My active sim just made it out alive. Fun

See? Shit happens.

[Anach]

I understand that all the options are in place for shit to happen, as this is what attracted me to AM in the first place. It's just that nothing really ever seems to happen. I've only ever played 2 towns, this last town I've played the longest and I created that Christmas last year. The first generation of Sims has almost entirely died out now, but during that time, I didn't notice one breakup, or anyone dying of anything other than old age. All the ghosts in town are from old age (until the meteor). So while all these possibilities exist, there does not seem to be any of it happening, at least in the lifetime of my sims, which means the games get very VERY predictable.

Maybe some other death methods should be introduced to AM. Some nice STD transmitted by sims at the local beach toilet, and some asbestos walls to build houses with, or have the grocery store sell cigarettes. That should take care of a few of them. What I'm saying is that not everything should be within a control limit. Not everything in our lives is under our control and there is a lot of random. Twallan's mod takes some decisions out of the sims hands and introduces some randomness. Yes under the hood it might be entirely random with no sensible reason, but maybe some percentages in AM could be higher or lower to introduce a little more random but in a way that makes sense. When that meteor hit I was using Twallan's. I've no idea if that is standard, AM or Twallan related, but it certainly took the town in a different direction.

[Madame Mim]

OK, I get consistency now. Yes. Twallen's mod runs these things on top. It announces something is happening and then may push the sims into it (such as woohoo in the mausoleum) or not (such as fighting in the street). Put it down to Shroedingers Cat. I like the think of the getting caught or not as pertaining to gossip.

All the 'pushing' of actions with Twallen's mod gets a little much after time and I go back to AM's story generator. Then later I want MOAR ACTION so I go back. Both generators have their benefits but sometimes a person wants a little soap opera in their life, and I think that's what we get from Twallen's mod.

[friendlyquark]

I can see both sides of this issue, but as a supreme micro-manager, I much prefer AMSP, since it is far less likely that when I decide to have my Sims start looking for love, that half the town will already be sleeping with the other half, and no matter who I choose for my Sim, they will end up being a home wrecker. LOL It gets a little too "Housewives of Sim City" for me.

There is a Big book of skills on MTS that can also set the skill level of your Sims, including hidden skills. I find it useful for when I don't want to go searching through all of the supercomputer's sub-menus looking for one thing.

[Motoki]

For me with EAxis story, almost nothing happens but then sometimes something really bizarre happens like someone dies or just disappears forever. With Awesome story nothing happens. And with Twallan story a lot happens, unless you scale it back via configuration.

Personally I like things to happen. I don't want to control the whole town, I want them to just go off and do things on their own and live their own lives (or give me the appearance that they are living their own lives) without me having to interfere, except when my sims interact with other sims.

If all of that is too much for someone, Twallan story is completely configurable. Almost too much so. You can configure and turn on or off literally ever aspect of it so it's really just as active or non-active as you want it to be.

As far as being able to see the actions being done, I don't care. It's done off screen to me so it doesn't make a difference one way or another if I can observe it.

I can see though where Awesome story would appeal more to those who are playing the town as a whole, and not just one family, and really anal 'detail oriented' types like cwurts who simply must micromanage everything.

Personally, a like a story, I like things to happen without me having to initiate them. I like some randomness. Sometimes shit just happens.

A little bit of unpredictability, as long as it doesn't go overboard, keeps things fresh and interesting for me. It's especially important for me in this game because I find I often get to the point where it just feels like same old same old like a hamster running in place on a wheel so I get bored and stop playing.

I also like that Twallan story is completely configurable. Awesomestory is basically just on or off. If a certain option annoys you (like the damned cribs ugh!) you can turn it off with Twallan story but not with Awesome story.

[Zazazu]

Lack of repercussions for slutty sims? Call a meteor using debug commands. It's not as good as TS2's smiting, because often there are side casualties, but it reinforces that ROMANCE SIMS MUST DIE. At least, married ones who sleep with half the town should. Ambitions has given me back a little bit of my old Oversoul justice system, though unfortunately there is no way to safely and fully implement Free Love.

[Rolfy]

There is a Big book of skills on MTS that can also set the skill level of your Sims, including hidden skills. I find it useful for when I don't want to go searching through all of the supercomputer's sub-menus looking for one thing.

Interesting. Good to know.


Otherwise, I'm quite pleased to find out my question has garnered so many different opinions, I've gleaned a lot of info from this. Still experimenting with Twallan SP, so nothing to say about it and AM contrast yet.   

[kattenijin]

Obviously, there are people who don't care for the "Hard" world, and for them, there's the fluffy Twallanian Story.

"You're vile! You're foul! You're FLAWED!"
"And also cute and FLUFFY!!!"

[Rolfy]

Almost a week into my testing, and I've come across a problem... All of the babies born in my hood deform into brown graphical sticks...

I've asked the people at Twallan about it and they referred me to the "stick baby" problem caused by bad cc (a discussion on ts3 official website) http://ts3.tscexchange.com/index.php?topic=3482.msg17220#new

But I'm not entirely sure that's the problem, as I haven't downloaded any new cc in a while, and I never had any problem like this before I installed Twallan's mod's... so, just putting this out there to see if any of the knowledgeable people here know about this.

[Motoki]

Almost a week into my testing, and I've come across a problem... All of the babies born in my hood deform into brown graphical sticks...

I've asked the people at Twallan about it and they referred me to the "stick baby" problem caused by bad cc (a discussion on ts3 official website) http://ts3.tscexchange.com/index.php?topic=3482.msg17220#new

But I'm not entirely sure that's the problem, as I haven't downloaded any new cc in a while, and I never had any problem like this before I installed Twallan's mod's... so, just putting this out there to see if any of the knowledgeable people here know about this.

Two things. First what the hell does this have to do with this thread?

Second, did you actually read through those links you were given for the Exchange threads and check to see if you had some of the problem custom content known to cause this? Don't assume because you haven't installed any custom content in a while that it can't be it. The problems some content creates do not always show immediately.

Also logic dictates that if no one else is complaining about this on Twallan's board surrounding his mods and a lot of people are complaining about this being caused by custom content on the Exchange that it's most likely custom content. Don't think you know better and argue with people or bug people on another forum that isn't even Twallan's about a problem you think is caused by Twallan's mods. Just check your custom content.

As usual, the obvious first thing everyone should be doing when having a serious problem they don't know the source of is to take all mods and custom content out temporarily (move the Mods, DCCache and DCBackup folders out of My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 temporarily) and try loading the game to see if the problem is still there. Don't save the game, just see what happens. If the problem does not show this eliminates that your game files themselves are hosed and points that it is indeed something you downloaded.

Next put the mods/packages/hacks folder back in (don't put custom content package files under Mods/Packages/Objects or Clothes etc in yet, just hacks) and try it. If you still don't get the problem it is a piece of custom content.

If you had dug through the Exchange thread your were linked over at Twallan's forum and the further links it gives you would have seen that the known problem files to cause the weird baby issue are as follows:

top-nkd
bottom-nkd
Metallica Magnets logo t-shirt
toddler_tee (with 'milk' written on it)
collectionblondes (has a picture of a woman with a black bikini top and bottom)
New CAS Project
Nightime, Daytime, Everytime shoes
Shymoo

And while you are at it, lookout for "Girl Doll Dressed" the infamous viral doll.

These are things that (should have) gotten installed via the launcher so look for them there and uninstall them if you have them. It doesn't matter if you never downloaded them because they can embed themselves in other sim3packs and sneak in.

[Rolfy]

Almost a week into my testing, and I've come across a problem... All of the babies born in my hood deform into brown graphical sticks...

I've asked the people at Twallan about it and they referred me to the "stick baby" problem caused by bad cc (a discussion on ts3 official website) http://ts3.tscexchange.com/index.php?topic=3482.msg17220#new

But I'm not entirely sure that's the problem, as I haven't downloaded any new cc in a while, and I never had any problem like this before I installed Twallan's mod's... so, just putting this out there to see if any of the knowledgeable people here know about this.

Two things. First what the hell does this have to do with this thread?

Second, did you actually read through those links you were given for the Exchange threads and check to see if you had some of the problem custom content known to cause this? Don't assume because you haven't installed any custom content in a while that it can't be it. The problems some content creates do not always show immediately.

Also logic dictates that if no one else is complaining about this on Twallan's board surrounding his mods and a lot of people are complaining about this being caused by custom content on the Exchange that it's most likely custom content. Don't think you know better and argue with people or bug people on another forum that isn't even Twallan's about a problem you think is caused by Twallan's mods. Just check your custom content.

As usual, the obvious first thing everyone should be doing when having a serious problem they don't know the source of is to take all mods and custom content out temporarily (move the Mods, DCCache and DCBackup folders out of My Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 temporarily) and try loading the game to see if the problem is still there. Don't save the game, just see what happens. If the problem does not show this eliminates that your game files themselves are hosed and points that it is indeed something you downloaded.

Next put the mods/packages/hacks folder back in (don't put custom content package files under Mods/Packages/Objects or Clothes etc in yet, just hacks) and try it. If you still don't get the problem it is a piece of custom content.

If you had dug through the Exchange thread your were linked over at Twallan's forum and the further links it gives you would have seen that the known problem files to cause the weird baby issue are as follows:

top-nkd
bottom-nkd
Metallica Magnets logo t-shirt
toddler_tee (with 'milk' written on it)
collectionblondes (has a picture of a woman with a black bikini top and bottom)
New CAS Project
Nightime, Daytime, Everytime shoes
Shymoo

And while you are at it, lookout for "Girl Doll Dressed" the infamous viral doll.

These are things that (should have) gotten installed via the launcher so look for them there and uninstall them if you have them. It doesn't matter if you never downloaded them because they can embed themselves in other sim3packs and sneak in.

First, I didn't want to start a new thread... Sorry.

Next, your absolutely right about everything, point taken.
Honestly I hate going through that "taking out and putting back in cc" process(which I know everyone hates), which is why I ask around first sometimes, like now...

And the list of bad files you have is right on the money... I can spot one that I do have, So thank you.