Lot Sync Timer: All BlueSoups Suck Edition

[agcons]

My solution in many houses has been to build the garages out an extra two tiles beyond the end of the driveway, and put the placeholders and the timer next to the wall.  I add a few things like some of the smaller sculptures, and the whole works looks like the usual pile o' crap most people have in their garages.

[Karen]

I love this. It is great to be able to keep track of the families w/o having to remember who you need to play next, not to mention the added benefit of not having to exit to the neighborhood each time you want to change.

I agree.  It's really making a big difference in my game, adding a level of realism that wasn't there before. 

Karen

[dewshine]

I was wondering though, if someone could possibly make a recolour of it and turn the green liquid to clear, so as to more simulate a bottled water setup, then I can place it in the kitchen.

Any takers?

I took a look at this item.  The hack references the model in the game. I cannot create a recolor package for it alone because it has no Material Defination files to alter.  I made a recolor of the aspiration reward instead but this item comes up as "non-designable"  I will test to see if my recolor works at all as SimPE only pulls the reference to the outside of the object, not the liquid.  *sigh*...

[Braveheart]

I was hoping for a recolor or possibly even a clone so it could be a house plants or vase. The idea is awesome and very useful but the object does leave a bit to be desired in the decor department. No offence J.M..... just leave me my lips intact please and drop the cheese here.Thanks

[BlueSoup]

Well, perhaps you should have been on the planning committee, then. 

I don't mind this object, I don't even notice it most of the time.  I stick it in the back corner of the lot, and as I mostly concentrate on the house itself, I don't even pan out that far to check on things (except when I'm in omniscient mode of Sim management).

But the original idea was that it is hourglass-shaped, and as it *is* a timer....well, you can see where the thought process led.

[dewshine]

I actually think it's a cool idea.  I know (after looking it up) how to change the color of the liquid inside the thing. I just don't know if I added the second Material Defination to the package correctly.   So the big thing is: How is this linked to the original item and is the original item color enabled?

[Liss]

I just stick it in the kitchen like a water bottle, so yeah clear would be cool.

When we were talking about this we wanted something that had to do with time.  Not a lot of options that hadn't already been used. 

By the way WHERE the hell in the inventory is the damn sleep clock???

[BlueSoup]

By the way WHERE the hell in the inventory is the damn sleep clock???

It's in electronics, in small electronics.

[Liss]

Thanks Blue, you are great. :p

[J. M. Pescado]

I just stick it in the kitchen like a water bottle, so yeah clear would be cool.

I could just drain it to empty, thus there wouldn't be any green in it anymore, it'd be an empty-looking, and thus clear, bottle instead. Cloning the bottle is no-go. Item uses hardwired GUIDs.

[dewshine]

Totally up tp you, Oh Awesome One...

But looking at altering the liquid it seems that a clone is infact the only way to do it.  I can (and have) cloned the elxir and managed to change the color, but I lose the original option in the process.  The base however can be recolored...

[BlueSoup]

Draining it to empty would be cool.

[Ancient Sim]

As I'm still not totally sure what to do with this, I have a couple of queries.  Seems to me that if I introduce a new family when all the other lots are on, say, 6 days or whatever, I will still need a piece of paper to note down the fact that this family needs to be 6 days behind all the others to stay in synch.  Similarly, if a child leaves home and moves into their own place, I would need to remember that the child's lot needs to be X number of days behind the parents' lot, thereby needing another piece of paper.  So, once someone moves out, are we meant to reset all the timers back to 0 to avoid a growing mount of pieces of paper, or is there a more sophisticated way of handling this? 

[jrd]

You can add or remove days for each lot from the timer itself. If your families are on day 6, and you introduce a new family, you can use the timer to set that family to day -6.

[BlueSoup]

Or you can just set the days for the new lots at the same as the others, and then you don't have to worry about keeping track, although you won't know how many days you've actually played the lot unless you remember it.

[vcline]

I love this!  I've never tried cycling through a neighborhood to keep everyone in sync before, it seemed too hard.

I know this has been posted somewhere, but I don't seem to be able to find the proper search parameters.  How many days in the neighborhood per year or semester at college?  I sort of remember 3 days, but don't know if that's right, or if it's per year or semester.  Ta in advance.

[Kyna]

A semester at college is 72 hours long - i.e. 3 simdays.

Different players handle how that equates to main neighbourhood time.  Some players say 1 semester = 1 simday.  Others say 2 semesters = 1 simday.  There are people who put the graduates back into the main hood the day after they left, to keep aging consistent with sims who don't go to college.  Still others work out how many days of teen a sim had remaining when they left for college, and use that to work out when the graduate should return (with the aim of keeping aging consistent with sims who don't go to college).

Personally I think of 2 uni semesters as the equivalent of 1 simday in the main hood - that's what works for me.  But it's your choice which method works best for you.

[speedreader]

OMG!  How have I missed this for 14 days???  I never even dreamed this was possible.  Can't wait to try it.  I have been using a system of symbols to determine which Sims/households should age together.  I was running out of little symbols to use.  This will be soooo much easier. 

Where's the stupid thanks button?

[BlueSoup]

Perhaps you missed it because you're a speedreader?

Yeah yeah, I know, lame joke.  Whatever. 

[Ancient Sim]

OK, the family number, how do I change it in SimPE?  I can see where it is (Instance in Family Information) but there appears to be no way of changing it.  Because I've amalgamated families and deleted lots and so on, all my numbers are totally mixed-up and it annoys me intensely that they're in the wrong order (can't help it, Virgo ascendant).  Anyone know how to do it?  And what's this thingy I found saying "Uninstall BlueSoup's game"?  Did it work???

[nectere]

Ok I found the problem I think, when someone dies I have to reinstall for all the families. After a death, now when I enter each lot I click on the sync timer and it's only option is install for family, on a sync timer that was previously set. It is probably just my game though so no biggie. I can say however that when I do click install for family (again- like after someone in the hood dies) it does show the previously correct number of days etc. And it didnt do it right away after the death, it was after I quit the game and restarted it later. Other notes, I am not exclusively using the sync timer to jump lots, I do exit to neighborhood quite a bit still for various reasons, I dont know if that matters in any way.

[J. M. Pescado]

OK, the family number, how do I change it in SimPE?  I can see where it is (Instance in Family Information) but there appears to be no way of changing it.  Because I've amalgamated families and deleted lots and so on, all my numbers are totally mixed-up and it annoys me intensely that they're in the wrong order (can't help it, Virgo ascendant).  Anyone know how to do it?

It is not possible to renumber families. Family numbers are assigned basically in order of instantiation, where if a family is de-instanced by merging or extinction, that number is vacant and reused later. The numbers are purely internal and under normal circumstances, users never see them. The lot clock displays these numbers to let you differentiate between families that have the same name.

And what's this thingy I found saying "Uninstall BlueSoup's game"?  Did it work???

Only if you're BlueSoup.

Ok I found the problem I think, when someone dies I have to reinstall for all the families. After a death, now when I enter each lot I click on the sync timer and it's only option is install for family, on a sync timer that was previously set. It is probably just my game though so no biggie. I can say however that when I do click install for family (again- like after someone in the hood dies) it does show the previously correct number of days etc. And it didnt do it right away after the death, it was after I quit the game and restarted it later. Other notes, I am not exclusively using the sync timer to jump lots, I do exit to neighborhood quite a bit still for various reasons, I dont know if that matters in any way.

This item affects the game at a neighborhood level. If you ever remove the file from your downloads directory, all of the neighborhood level data is lost, even if you put the item back before visiting any lots (causing the item to not disappear from your lot). Do not remove the lot clock from your downloads directory for any reason, or the tracking will be lost and you will have to reinstall on everyone.

[Karen]

This item affects the game at a neighborhood level. If you ever remove the file from your downloads directory, all of the neighborhood level data is lost, even if you put the item back before visiting any lots (causing the item to not disappear from your lot). Do not remove the lot clock from your downloads directory for any reason, or the tracking will be lost and you will have to reinstall on everyone.

So if you want to remove your downloads temporarily (such as before installing a new EP), it sounds like your best bet would be to sync up all the families ahead of time, then remove the timer from the Downloads folder.  Then when you restart the game after adding the timer back into your Downloads folder, you simply add the same number of days, for example, 23 days (or 5, or -14, or whatever) to each family after you put the timer back on their lot.  Does that sound right?

Karen

[BlueSoup]

No, if you remove the timer from the game, all you have to do is Install for Family again, and it maintains the day settings for the family.  No resynchronization required.

[J. M. Pescado]

So if you want to remove your downloads temporarily (such as before installing a new EP), it sounds like your best bet would be to sync up all the families ahead of time, then remove the timer from the Downloads folder.

Your best bet is not to actually remove the timer from your downloads folder at all. Backup your neighborhood before installing a new EP (you should do this anyway), then boot up the EP, make sure that your custom contents are still loading, and then put this one back. Self-contained objects, such as this one, are not hacks and cannot conflict with future expansion packs except in the highly unlikely event that Maxis takes to stomping people's GUIDs.