Testers Wanted: Call Private School Phone Plug-in (Updated 11/7/2006)

[syberspunk]

Call Private School Phone Plug-in v1.40 for TS2PETS v1.0p0
Made by: syberspunk

This hack adds new options to the phone regarding private school. Basically, I wanted a non-cheaty hack in my game which allowed my sims to switch between private and public school. With that in mind, this hack will allow you to select students who are already in private school, and make them quit private school and go back to public school. You can probably do this if they get kicked out somehow (I'm not even sure if the game does that). I wanted a way to do it without having my sims get kicked out.

Additionally, if a sim has quit private school and you change your mind, you can also call back and re-enroll them. You can only re-enroll public school students who have already been accepted into private school previously (i.e. have the 'Got into Private School' memory). I added this option so that you can easily switch back, without necessarily having to do the whole Headmaster scenario again.

This hack does not preclude the Headmaster Scenario. In otherwords, you still need to have successfully completed the headmaster scenario at least once and have your sims accepted to private school in the first place for either of these options to show up.

As requested/suggested by twojeffs, I have added a new feature, called "Enroll Legacy" to allow enrollment of siblings or children of sims who have already been accepted or previously attended private school.

In this way, as your build "legacies" for different households, you can have sims continue this "legacy" at private school. It simply just saves time if you've already done the headmaster scenario once, and don't really want to do again for the same house when your sims had more babies. Or, for roleplaying purposes, it kind of makes sense that your parents sort of have "connections" with their former alma maters.

Note: 11/6/2006

Due to significant code changes in the way the game handles phones, the phone call options have now moved to the sim pie menu i.e. you must click on the sim in order for the Call... options to show up. These options will show up on the sim regardless of whether they have a cellphone or not. If they do not have a cell phone, they will attempt to use a landline.

Edit: 4/27/2006
New version available. I currently do not have a very large neighborhood. In my testing so far, I have personally not experienced the 'too many iterations' error. However, that does not mean it won't happen for you. As such, this still requires testing. Please report any errors with log included if possible.

Edit: 4/11/2006
Another bug has cropped up. Please download and test the new version. Report back if bugs persist.

Edit: 4/7/2006 Update Available - Fix has been confirmed. Thanks again to csigirl27 and Thanhlienh for testing.

Note: 3/29/2006

I hard coded the availbility hours, so now you have a 2 hour window before the school bus arrives and 3 hours after 2:00 PM.

So these options are only available between 6-8 AM and 2-4 PM. I thought this would be slightly more realistic. So that you can only change their school type when they are actually not at school. Since to me, it wouldn't make much sense for them to switch school types while they are at school, just from a role-playing persepctive.

:new: 4/25/2006

Added cousins to the list of family members who can be in private school already. Previously only looked for parents, siblings, grandparents, and aunts and uncles.

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. This should also work in Uni and the Base Game, as essentially, it is a stand-alone separate object, and does not override anything else in the game. It should simply add new options. Let me know if you have any problems, and as always, feedback is 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.
This is definitely compatible with the phonehack.

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 the phone
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 - Added new feature as requested/suggested by twojeffs to allow enrollment siblings or children of sims already accepted into private school.
v1.2 - Fixed Bug for college lots - options probably will not appear unless there are valid children capable of attending private school (most likely you would need some hack or cheat to enable or transport children to a Uni lot)
v1.3 - Fixed Bug (hopefully ) for options not appearing, causing 'jump' bugs due to undefined transition
v1.31- Fixed Bug (crosses fingers ) for options not appearing, causing 'jump' bugs due to undefined transition on Verify ID
v1.32- Cleaned up code. Compressed data. Hopefully addresses 'too many iterations' error.
v1.33- More code clean up. minor bug fixes. 'too many iterations' error still needs testing.
v1.40- Pets Version Available

Here are some pics:

[angelyne]

This is pretty cool.  This will be very useful if JM actually writes a mod to increase the fees to attend private school.  Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd want to quit private school?

[syberspunk]

This is pretty cool.  This will be very useful if JM actually writes a mod to increase the fees to attend private school.  Otherwise I'm not sure why you'd want to quit private school?

That was pretty much the reason I wanted it for myself. If anyone else finds it useful, that's great. I figured, it might also be used for role-playing/storytelling purposes.

* syberspunk shrugs.

For myself, I just wanted an option that allowed my sims to quit, if I wanted them to, without having to wait for them to get kicked out. Plus, it was a helpful project that let me learn a bit about the phone and how to make my own standalone phone plug-in.

I originally cloned the Work phone plug-in, which had options for calling in sick, retiring, and quitting. So, I was considering possibly adding with a call in sick to school option(s) as well. I probably won't because I'm too lazy, but if I'm really bored, I might come back to it.

Ste

[Gwill]

Hey! I want the call in sick from school plugin! 

I like this option.  It probably won't be used a lot, but it's great to have the option. Especially for stories.

[LilAbner]

I had a slight problem with this. Some of my sims couldn't use the phone at all when I had it installed. Everytime I tried and moved the cursor over the phone they jumped and all of their actions fell out of the queue. I uninstalled it and everything worked fine again.

[syberspunk]

I had a slight problem with this. Some of my sims couldn't use the phone at all when I had it installed. Everytime I tried and moved the cursor over the phone they jumped and all of their actions fell out of the queue. I uninstalled it and everything worked fine again.

Can you zip up an error log and post it here so I can take a look?

Also... do you have Uni and NL? Or just Uni or just the base game?

I'd appreciate a bit more information, otherwise I really can't help you.

Ste

[LilAbner]

I have both Uni and NL, and I'll be more than willing to give you an error log. If you just tell me how to do it...

[twojeffs]

I've was going to do something similar to this, but what I wanted was the option to enroll the younger siblings if they were too young (or not born) when their brothers/sisters got accepted or if their parent married into a family that had kids in private school. I always thought it was stupid that you had to redo the headmaster scenario for them. I just cheat them in, but you shouldn't have to do that in my opinion. I've had the private school tuition on my list forever as well. Oh well, one of these days one of us will get around to it. 

[J. M. Pescado]

Oh, I actually have that sorta-done, it's still sitting in my private test collection. I should finish packaging it up.

[syberspunk]

@twojeffs:
Ahhh... good idea! I'm glad I thought of it. Oh wait... I'm not Pescado. I keep forgetting how unawesome I am. Lol. But that's a really neat idea. It really is kinda dumb to have to repeat the scenario if you didn't want to go through it again. I'll see about adding this feature, probably tomorrow.

What I'll do is, for students who have not yet received the 'Got into Private School' memory, And their parent has a memory of one of their kids getting into private school, then another option to 'Enroll New Students' or something like that will pop up on the phone. Should that be sufficient to cover all cases? Does it make sense to limit this to siblings? Or... maybe... should I also open it up to children of sims who have previously attended private school themselves? In this case, the parent either has a memory of getting into private school themself, OR a memory of one of their children getting into private school. That seems about right. Anything else I should think of?

Maybe, to add a slight difference, for those who have a "legacy" in the case that their parent has been to private school, their grades won't matter. However, for those who only have siblings in private school, their grade has to at least be a C. In this way, 'legacy' sims have a slight, unfair advantage. As I have it now, for students who are being re-enrolled, I still have the minimum grade check. I might keep that, since you quit for were kicked out for some reason... so the 2nd time around will have more strict requirements.


@LilAbner:
1) You said this happened for some of your sims? Does that mean the option appears for other sims i.e. does it work okay for other sims? Or is it totally broken for all sims?

2) In your The Sims 2 folder, under My Documents (assuming you have it installed with default directories) there is a Logs folder. The next time you play your game, turn on the 'boolprop testingcheastenabled true' cheat. Then, when you hover over the phone plug-in, and your sim experiences the 'jump bug' a dialog box should pop up. This dialog box should give you three options: Delete, Reset, and Cancel (or something like that) as well as give you the directory path of where an Object error log was created. Browse to the Logs directory and you will find the .txt object error log. Find whatever program you can (WinZip, WinRar, 7zip, etc.) and zip or rar the file (personally, I'd prefer .zip). Then, post your .zip file here as an attachment. When I get the chance, I'll take a look at it, and see if I can figure out the problem.


@Gwill:

I'll consider it. It will take a bit more work, since the original code had some stuff about "random" chance for your boss believing whether you were sick or not, and whether or not you got lost vacation days or were fired. I'll have to think about that and whether I would actually try to incorporate vacation days (if they had a teen job) or just have the student lose a grade? The latter would probably make more sense... but there are probably other routines that already cause a grade to drop. I'd have to find those and figure out how to hack them as well to prevent grade loss if they successfully play sick or actually are sick, and otherwise cause grade loss or possibly have a sim kicked out of school for abusing it. Since I'm lazy and this would require a bit more work, I'll probably hold off on it for now.

Oh, I actually have that sorta-done, it's still sitting in my private test collection. I should finish packaging it up.

Hehe. Woohoo. Finally. This will go well with these bunch of school related hacks.

Ste

[syberspunk]

Bu-uump.

Ok... added the new feature as twojeffs requested/suggested. Let me know if anybody has any problems.

Hopefully we'll see this more expensive private school hack sometime soon. *nudge*nudge*

Ste

[syberspunk]

Bu-uuuuuuuump.

Fixed a bug that was occurring on Uni lots. Hrm... wonder why no one here reported it. Probably because everyone hates Uni.

Anyhew, get the latest and overwrite. It should work for all EPs and the base game as well. Let me know if you run into any problems.

Ste

[C.S.]

Or probably because everyone's busy opening for business.

I added this recently, and one of my sims, Jennifer Burb, suddenly could call everyone and anyone across Pleasantview and all of its sub-hoods. Beyond that too, Grim Reaper and all. I think I even saw Mrs Crumplebottom listed in the phone book. No error logs, and I haven't checked in other families. Jennifer is the only one in the Burb family with this problem though.

This mod is the only one that has to do with phones amongst those I added recently (JMP's 'noplayableshoppers' before that), I thought this problem might have something to do with this plug-in. Just thought you should know.

[syberspunk]

Edit: 3/18/2006
Ok, whew, just tested it out in my hack testing account. I tested it both with just this hack alone and with all of my regular gamehacks. I used my Pleasant guinea pigs, who I've used to test out the private school functions to begin with. I even went so far as to move the Burbs in and test it out on Jennifer, just in case for some odd reason it might be Jennifer Burb/Sim specific problem, since some Maxis made sims are known to have wonky data. In all cases, I was not able to reproduce the errors that you mention below. I have updated versions of Pescado's hacks, including nolamehires from 5/15/2006 as well as the latest noplayableshoppers and phonehack from the most recent Director's Cut.

So right now, I don't know what could be the problem. Other than what I've already mentioned regarding other possible hacks or cheats. The only other thing I would suggest is to make sure you have the latest versions of Pescado's hacks? Does removing my plug-in make the problem go away? I would check a number of things, maybe turning off all hacks to even see if it is hack related in the first place. If it isn't, then check your friends panel, and if your sim(s) happen to know everyone in the neighborhood, then that's most likely your "problem." As far as I know, my hack wouldn't enable this. I even tried to see if using any of my options would alter this, checking what sims I could call before and after using a private school call, and I did not see any problems. Unfortunately, if somehow your sim(s) met all the other sims in the 'hood, either through some hack or cheat, the only thing I can think of to "fix" this, is to use SimPE to edit relationships and make it as if they never met. The only hack that I know of, that lets you call people without knowing them is dizzy's call anyone hack. Also, I know the college directory in Uni lets you call other students without knowing them, but I don't think it would enable this for all sims from all 'hoods.

Or probably because everyone's busy opening for business.

I added this recently, and one of my sims, Jennifer Burb, suddenly could call everyone and anyone across Pleasantview and all of its sub-hoods. Beyond that too, Grim Reaper and all. I think I even saw Mrs Crumplebottom listed in the phone book. No error logs, and I haven't checked in other families. Jennifer is the only one in the Burb family with this problem though.

This mod is the only one that has to do with phones amongst those I added recently (JMP's 'noplayableshoppers' before that), I thought this problem might have something to do with this plug-in. Just thought you should know.

Ack. Ok, I'll take a look at this later. How odd. I don't know how or why this would happen. I would think that the BHAVs should be local, and so they shouldn't affect other options...

Are these extra options showing up under the Call... Sim, or under some other option?

Do you happen to have any other hacks, like maybe dizzy's hack that actually let's people call everyone?

Does Jennifer happen to know all the sims in your game? I know there's like a cheat that let's you do this.

Admittedly, when I tested, I didn't have all my other hacks in my testing account. It's quite possible there could be some odd conflict... but there really shouldn't be.

Anyways, I'll try and check this out sometime later/tomorrow and see if I could figure out what might be happening.

Ste

[C.S.]

I went back to check, and these new sims (YAs, townies, downtownies, NPCs like drivers etc, anyone who's alive) are showing up in Call Sim and Manage Groups. Earlier mention about Mrs CrumpleBottom and Grim Reaper, I remembered wrong - they don't show up in Call Sim, but they are available in Manage Groups, together with '*NPC - Robot' (I don't know what/who that is, it doesn't have a picture) and the Therapist. The problem didn't fix itself even after removing all my hacks and mods out of the Downloads folder.

The thing is, Jennifer Burb doesn't really know these people. I checked in SimPE and none of the new sims were even in her Relations, they weren't marked 'known' and they all are still in the Sim Pool/NPC/Townie part. I looked in her memories and she doesn't have any memory of meeting these sims either. I've heard about dizzy's hack, but I've never owned it. I didn't use any cheats (TOL&D or the mailbox, is it?) to make her know everyone in the neighbourhood either, I don't know how they got into her phone book  .

I have nolamehires dated 03/13/2006, phonehack dated 03/11/2006 and noplayableshoppers dated 03/07/2006.

The only thing special about Jennifer is that she owns a home business while holding down a regular job (former Mad Scientist, now Junior Executive in the Business career track with harderjobs). I have a feeling Mary-sue Pleasant is also affected as she also owns a home business and is employed (same as Jennifer, formerly in Science career and now in Business career), so I loaded the Pleasant's lot and confirmed that she's also affected. I then checked in a lot that doesn't own a home business, no problem there. Jennifer and Mary-sue are the only ones in the entire game who own a business, and it seems they are the only ones with the phonebook problem.
 
Right now, it's more of an annoyance (I have 2 male servos, they look the same it's like trying to call Buffy and Buffy-bot) because I can't remember who they've met but are not friends with, but I'm afraid this might lead up to a BFBVFOS if I leave it like this. If even you are at a loss, I have no chance.... *groans* Well, at least I'm not soooo far ahead I'll have wasted a lot of time and effort if I have to restore the game to a backup.

[syberspunk]

Hehe. Silly CuriousSpurious. I just mentioned this to Pescado in chat, and he explained to me that this is actually one of the new "features" in the OFB EP. It is actually one of the 'business perks' that allows business owners to call anyone in the neighborhood. It must be under the networking track or whatever. I guess the idea is that you can call anyone up and invite them over to either be an employee or a shopper.

Whew. I'm glad to find out it isn't a hack problem, or related to my hacks. On the other hand... I did find an issue with my Less Autonomous College Assignment hack, which I am currently investigating. It may be a result of installing a new EP and you might be forced to delete all college assignments. I'm checking this out now and I'll update if necessary. Hopefully it isn't a conflict or it might be that the hack needs updating.

Ste

[C.S.]

Oh my, LMAO . I haven't used the phone up until that point. I worried that something had gone wrong, seeing *Robot, the GR, Mrs C and Therapist in Manage Groups. So it's a 'feature'. I'm so sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase.

'nopartyassignment' is still in my Downloads although I haven't been back to Uni (had gotten rid of the fugly professors and didn't want to spawn any NPCs without the new SimPE) since OFB . Thanks for the heads-up.

[syberspunk]

Oh my, LMAO . I haven't used the phone up until that point. I worried that something had gone wrong, seeing *Robot, the GR, Mrs C and Therapist in Manage Groups. So it's a 'feature'. I'm so sorry I sent you on a wild goose chase.

'nopartyassignment' is still in my Downloads although I haven't been back to Uni (had gotten rid of the fugly professors and didn't want to spawn any NPCs without the new SimPE) since OFB . Thanks for the heads-up.

Hehe. No problem. I'm just glad we could figure out what was going on. However... *Robot, the GR, Mrs. C, and the Therapist showing up in your list is probably a bad thing. I would mention this to Pescado. It probably would be a bad idea to try and call them up. Having them in your relationship panel will probably lead to a BFBVFS.

As for the nopartyassignment hack, I've posted a notice in the respective threads here and on MTS2. I don't think an actual update is needed, just a work around solution which I've explained.

And no worries. I actually appreciate people coming back and providing feedback. I can't always catch all problems that might happen. And if I can actually help someone in the long run, resolve a problem that may or may not be hack related, I feel like it's worth it. It's better to get the right information out, so maybe other people who experience the same problems will find the solution as well.

Ste

[C.S.]

I figured as much, that's why it didn't occur to me that it might be a feature that came with the EP. Those special sims aren't in the relationship panel though, they only show up in Manage Groups. "I have connections to the underworld, get beaten repeatedly by a big purse, suffer an electric shock, buy or die! Take your pick!"

Thank you for yet another quality product.

[syberspunk]

I figured as much, that's why it didn't occur to me that it might be a feature that came with the EP. Those special sims aren't in the relationship panel though, they only show up in Manage Groups. "I have connections to the underworld, get beaten repeatedly by a big purse, suffer an electric shock, buy or die! Take your pick!"

Lol. Well... I mentioned this to Pescado in chat, and he has no plans for making any hacks to prevent these sims from showing up. His policy is, those of us who actually download his hacks should be fully aware of his warnings regarding the game such and things you should NOT do i.e. trying to socialize, move in, or do things that would result in these special NPCs ending up in your relationship panel as they can lead to a BFBVFS. So... even though they show up in the panel, it probably is a bad idea to call them up, socialize with them, or invite them to your business. Those who aren't wise enough to be using his hacks most likely deserve to have their game turn into a BFBVFS. Well, he didn't say this explicitly, but that's my interpretation. Lol.

Thank you for yet another quality product.

Hehe. Quality? You must have low standards. j/k And thank you for your patronage.

Ste

[syberspunk]

Ok, now I think I found the problem. But since it was working for me, I am not absolutely sure. So this definitely still needs testing!!!

I went back and looked at the code (thanks csigirl27 for the log, it was Really helpful! It was exactly what I needed! ) and I am pretty sure I know what the error is. The thing that confuses me is that, according to the log, and the code, it theoretically should NOT have worked for me. :screwy: This would probably cause similar problems in other peoples games. So how it managed to work in mine is somewhat of a mystery.

An in depth explanation, for those who care:

I had a line setting the Stack Object to Param 0. I was then trying to Verify ID (neighbor in Stack Object). This throws an error because, according to the log provided, the NID that was passed is actually the Object ID of some other object in that lot. I guess in my game, I must have gotten lucky, and the NID getting passed did not match anything else on the lot? :confused:

Anyways... this is hard for me to test in my game, since it has always been working for me. I made the changes to what I think is causing the problem in everyone else's game. What I need now is for those of you who have it, to test the new version and let me know if you are still having problems.

Please download the new version, test in debug mode, and report back whether it works or you still have problems (and if so, please try and include an error log). Also... if you see someone else has posted an error log, I don't mind if you post another one. The more info I get, the more likely I will be able to track down the problem or problems as there might be more than one that are unrelated. Hopefully there are none... any more.

Ste

[FroggySim]

I think I have encountered a little conflict or problem with this hack.
In my game it causes a jump bug when sims want to use the phone.
It might be a conflict, I´m clueless, but maybe the you can find out something
from the error log.


[attachment deleted by admin]

[syberspunk]

I think I have encountered a little conflict or problem with this hack.
In my game it causes a jump bug when sims want to use the phone.
It might be a conflict, I´m clueless, but maybe the you can find out something
from the error log.

It probably is not a conflict. I'm going to look into this... but I was wondering if you have the latest version from 4/7/2006?

I did update this to fix other problems... but the too many iterations is a different problem, so this might be new. Please check and reply again to let me know that this is a problem with the latest version. Thanks! I'm sorry that people seem to be running into problems that I haven't come across myself.

Ste

[FroggySim]

Well, the file said it´s been changed April 3rd which means it should probably be the new version.
I´ll re-download anyway and test it. May take some time though, I haven´t tried to reproduce an error before 
Thanks for your quick answer by the way.

Edited: I tried again and the error still occurs. This has happened in 3 different CAS-Families after their first children transitioned from toddler to children.

[C.S.]

... but the too many iterations is a different problem, so this might be new.

I haven't tested this mod in its entirety (lost everything in a hard disk crash last year, play families in rotations and I'm a slow player still trying to get my game near to where it was before ) but I had this problem recently with the Bachelor family; I had brought back all the dead, given them memories including getting into private school, which of course isn't true, and Michael Bachelor was one of the formerly dead.

So Michael's been aged down to an adult and re-married Dina, they got their own house and had 2 babies - made it twins so the gameplay goes kinda faster without playing through extra days of pregnancy and waiting for the kids to grow up if you know what I mean - everything was fine until the toddlers grew up. After the kids transitioned, I tried clicking on Michael and Dina to get them back on socialising the guests, but got an error message everytime, and I knew just mousing over the phone would cause an error too, which it did. I presumed that's because of the fake memories, so I saved, quit the game, disabled the mod, went back to the lot and everything was ok again.

I was kinda expecting this problem but left the mod enabled because I wanted to know if cousins count (I know, I know, I could've just asked, but it's no biggie and I'll get the answer soon enough) and hey, at least I can be sure this only happens in a family that hadn't gone through the whole HM scenario at least once prior to gowing up new family members to school going age.

Edit: Well, I was expecting a problem because the readme already said "still need to have successfully completed the headmaster scenario at least once", but I wanted to know about the cousin thing.