Testers Wanted: Active Workout Self Pie Menu Interaction (Updated 1/19/2005)

[syberspunk]

I'm surprised I didn't post this here as well. Again, reposting just because I know some of you SOBs don't go over to MTS2. Heheh. Lazy bastards! I made some slight changes to it anyways, so maybe you can provide some feedback.

I also added this post:

It also just seemed to make more sense to lower the body skill requirement, since the skilling rate is slow (100) and supposedly Yoga is much faster (200). So at least, before you have Yoga available, you can still do a work out without requiring objects.

The point is to help out those dirt po' sims who ain't got no loot to buy body skilling items when first starting out. But... to keep it balanced so it isn't too easy to gain body skill. You gots to earn it foo'! It seems reasonable to me, to have mood requirements and I just threw in environment cause that hardly seems used. That way, you might actually have to think about how you build/decorate your room, as poor as you might be, maybe different wallpaper, flooring, or lighting might actually make a difference.

I reserve the right to:

A) Change the mod again later, if I find out that it is still too high of a requirement for my own tastes.

B) Ignore your requests to lower the requirements if I feel that it is reasonably balanced.

   



This hack enables a pie option for "Work Out" on the sim, which allows the sim to work out in place, similar to the interaction that occurs after the Uni EP NPC Coach that orders you to workout. The sim won't require a stereo, TV, or exercise machine to work out. I always thought that it was silly sims required objects to work out and I wanted my sims to be able to do so without necessarily buying an object. Should be useful for those poor sims, as well as add variety so you don't always have to Do Yoga. I basically just found this in the game and enabled it with a few minor changes. This option will show up if the sim meets the following criteria:

• The sim is generally in a good mood (all motives mostly in the green).
• The sim is very active (>=6).
  
• :new: Or the sim has at least 2 body skill points and in a good mood (>=60).
• :new: Or the sim is in a very good mood (>=80) and likes the environment (>=70).

INSTALLATION:
This MUST be in your Downloads folder, typically found under:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads


Compatibility:
Nightlife tested and approved. It will probably work in Uni. I'm not sure if it will work in the base game, so any feedback would be appreciated.

I have tested this in my game and it appears to work fine.

This hack is compatible with most, if not all mods by MATY crew (Pescado, TJ, and CBoy), dizzy, and probably more. Again, up to you to help me determine any possible conflicts.


REMINDER and fine print (to cover my ass ) :
Remember to ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING NEW HACKS. By using this hack, you agree to absolve me of any responsibility or liability for any potential loss of or damage to your data. You have been warned.

HOW TO REPORT: Conflicts, problems, or errors
I would appreciate any constructive criticism and feedback that is actually helpful. With that in mind, it would be helpful, when reporting any conflicts or issues, that you include the following:

1) thorough but reasonably brief description of what you were doing
2) clear, comprehendible explanation of your problem
3) list of hacks that may be related to working out
4) archived (.rar or .zip) of log produced by error

Posts which do not include a clear description of what your problem is will be pretty much ignored. (i.e. posts such as "This does not work! I am taking it out! You suck! Nice try! etc.") I can't and won't help you if you don't explain what's wrong.

Please be nice when trying to explain your problem and I might be nice and help you.

Finally, my Thank Yous go to:

J.M. Pescado, twojeffs, dizzy2, and jase439 for being excellent tutors and providing excellent models in their mods. As always, thanks to those creators who've put out some excellent modding tutorials, Quaxi and co for SimPE, and dizzy2 for disaSim2, and the finally letters T and S, and the number 2, all of whom, without which this mod would not be possible.

If I left anyone out, I apologize in advance. You know who you are and you deserve my thanks.

Version History
v1.1 - Changed requirements

[Sandilou]

Ste, you've kept this one quiet!  I've only just noticed it today.  I'm off to try it out.

[cheriem]

I liked the first version, now I'll try the new and improved version.

[Lion]

I want to make a suggestion. I always like autonomous (and reasonable) behaviors, the more the better. Can you also add the autonomous part so that sims will work out on theirown if all the requirements are met?

[gypsylady]

I have been useing this for a few days now and it works great so far. Thanks

[HelloKit]

I wasn't going to get this because it just seemed a bit too "cheaty" to me, but I'm so sick of the bug with the Work Out option constantly disappearing from the stereos, I'm going to use this as a workaround. Does the Work Out option appear for children with this? Because normally, the stereo is the only way children can work out, and when the option is constantly disappearing... grr!

Any chance of someone fixing the bug with the stereos?

[Karen]

Does the Work Out option appear for children with this? Because normally, the stereo is the only way children can work out

Do you have Nightlife?  Kids can use the bowling alley to get Body points.

[Sandilou]

Ste I tried this one with OFT but I'm not having much luck.  The workout menu only becomes available when a sim is dancing and then it drops out of queue when selected.  I'm going to take it out of my game for now.  I had it alongside the skill while dancing mod, which seems to be working fine so far.

[cwykes]

Tried this today with base game only and it seems to be working fine.  Thanks

As a matter of curiousity what level of skilling is it giving you?  Is it low like a hifi workout or higher?  My sims do a lot more yoga since I read Pescado's factoid!

[syberspunk]

If I remember correctly, it pretty much uses the same speed as the Work Out interaction when a Uni EP coach comes and forces you to work out. My guess is you don't have Uni then? That skill gain is fairly slow, probably something like 100 (using Pescado's scale). So I think Yoga is faster, which is why I ended up changing my hack a bit.

Anyways, I'm glad to hear you report that it works in the base game.

Ste

[cwykes]

That's right no Uni.  thanks for the info.  nice mod.

[RainbowTigress]

Thanks Ste, going to give this mod a try. 

Out of curiosity, though, what is the "Diary" option on your sim's menu in the picture above?

[syberspunk]

Thanks Ste, going to give this mod a try. 

Out of curiosity, though, what is the "Diary" option on your sim's menu in the picture above?

Let me know if you have problems. I believe Sandilou reported potential issues with OFB. I haven't quite gotten around to testing this yet.

The "Diary" option was a self menu pie interaction that supposedly was going to only be available to shy sims. It was either unfinished or cloned/moved to the BookCaseGlobals. It worked pretty much like writing in your diary. I think it had a write and read option. I'm not sure how the current one for Bookcases work, as I never intentionally use that. On rare occassions my free will sims might write in their diaries if I'm not paying attention.

Anyways, since it's pretty much the same, and it was probably moved over to the Bookcase, I decided not to bother enabling it.

Incidentally, there's also another personality specific self sim social that was unfinished/never enabled for outgoing sims. It was something like 'Work the Room' and it basically made the you go from sim to sim in the room, trying to socialize with them. It was pretty crappity though, and Macrostatics.../Socialize Friends or whatever it's called is much better and more useful.

The only thing different is that it sort of made your sim actually appear to network, chatting up a few sims at a time, rather than hunting one target and pinning them down for hours before moving on to the next victim. For roleplaying purposes, I suppose it would be a neat idea. But practically, it was pretty useless, especially if the other sim was already engaged, it kind of just made your sim wait, which is a useless waste of time. And then your sim would use a single action or two, sometimes potentially damaging, like having a bad convo or telling a bad joke, and then they would move on. Again, not very useful for building up relationships much.

Ste

[Li'l Brudder]

I wouldn't mind having a shy sim write in their free time.  Better than trying to burn the house down or eat computer chair space.  And I hate having to have a bookcase in the room to write in their diary.  Who the hell outs their secret diary in the boojkcase where anyone can look at it.  It be nice if you released that.  Heh.

[dadditude]

Does this work with the skillinator? I would love it if Sims would use this for skillinating if the TV, stereo, or other exercise options were unavailable...

[RainbowTigress]

I don't believe this does.  JM doesn't usually include stuff in his mods that depend on other people's mods, such as the hack that prevents sims from getting slapped from looking through the telescope.  So Macrotastics only sends teens and older sims to use the telescope for logic when it is nighttime.  I and many others use TJ's mod to prevent sims from getting slapped when looking through the telescope, but he said there was no way to tell if that hack was installed.  Having said that, I have this mod installed along with Macrotastics, and it doesn't use it.  But I can issue the command manually.  Once they reach a certain level, Yoga becomes available and they'll use that if nothing better is available.

[dadditude]

That's true. I always forget about yoga.

[jsalemi]

That's true. I always forget about yoga.

Plus, I think yoga improves body fitness faster than any other method, even though it's not the fastest way to build body skills. The ratio of fitness improvement to body skill increase seems higher with yoga.

[RainbowTigress]

The Skillinator will automatically use the best option available for building body skill.  If there is nothing else available, it will use Yoga.  But if you have a treadmill, it won't use that until they develop enough skill that they don't spend more time falling off than they do actually using it.  The only thing that bugs me about them doing yoga is that the skill bar disappears when they do it so that I can't see how much skill they are building.  I don't know if this is because of the usage of the Thinking Cap or what, but JM says this is a known bug, not with the Skillinator, but with the game.  So I usually make sure they have exercise equipment if no career objects are available.  The best thing ever for building body skill is the obstacle course that sims get in the Military career.  My sim kids can max out body in a day or two with that and an instructor.

[jsalemi]

The best thing ever for building body skill is the obstacle course that sims get in the Military career.  My sim kids can max out body in a day or two with that and an instructor.

Yea, and kids with the smart milk bug can max out pretty fast even without an instructor.  But I've noticed that they build fitness really slow with the obstacle course, so they still sometimes have to do something else to get fit, even with high body skills.  I like the punching bag for kids and teens -- seems to be the best balance between body skill and fitness.

[RainbowTigress]

That's good to know, jsalemi.  I hadn't been paying attention to building fitness.    All my kids are smart, hehe, thanks to the smart milk bug, and the Lot Debugger, if they should happen to lose it.  Maybe I can have them do Yoga when they get older to build fitness, since they will have the necessary body skill to do it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Yoga is interestingly buggy, in that only the presently selected sim is allowed to do it. Why? I have no idea.

[jsalemi]

Yoga is interestingly buggy, in that only the presently selected sim is allowed to do it. Why? I have no idea.

Is that a recent thing?  Because I seem to recall having two playable sims in a dorm do yoga at the same time.  I think that I had the first one active, and there appeared a 'join yoga' or 'ask to join yoga' on the other sim.  Or maybe the non-yoga sim was active, and a 'join yoga' option appeared when I clicked on the first sim.

I'll have to try it again later.

[dadditude]

I think Pescado means that only the currently selected sim can do yoga with macrotastics, but I could be wrong.

[jsalemi]

I think Pescado means that only the currently selected sim can do yoga with macrotastics, but I could be wrong.

Hmm, maybe -- I'll give it a test run later.