Testers Wanted: Grow Up Townies (Updated 3/15/2008)

[Theo]

I did some testing with the first version of the hack, and here's what I found:

My first subject was a teen donwtownie who was asked to growp in a college lot (a greek house, actually).

As expected, it grew up into a Young Adult, it even had the "Went to college" memory. The problem was that it was missing the "Grew Up Well" memory; no errors appeared during the transition .

I tried again in another college lot (the urele-oresha-cham house), this time with a normal townie, and the grow up memory was assigned correctly.

Note that when a teen grows into a young adult, it doesn't feature the transition animation.

It should also be of interest to say that if the young adult is by any means reset while it is selectable, it will turn into an adult.

And finally, I noticed that the "Ask to grow up" interaction was available to a controllable sim that had been a townie before (OFB townie in this case), but I personally don't mind this one, because now I can age them whenever I want

[syberspunk]

I've declared the hack a BETA until further notice, since I am still working on it based on feedback. I wanted to release it at least in a form that would be as stable and bug free as possible, but I obviously still needed feedback and other testers cuz I can't test for all possible case scenarios on my own. I'm pretty bad at that, and thinking about 'edge' scenarios and what not, so I really appreciate the help and feedback.

I did some testing with the first version of the hack, and here's what I found:

My first subject was a teen donwtownie who was asked to growp in a college lot (a greek house, actually).

As expected, it grew up into a Young Adult, it even had the "Went to college" memory. The problem was that it was missing the "Grew Up Well" memory; no errors appeared during the transition .

Yes, I noticed this as well. But I did see the animated hourglass over the head and just assumed that they received the hourglass memory as well. I wasn't sure why they didn't go through the twirling animations either. I'm pretty much just calling the age transition I found for Teens to YA. I'll look into this and see if there is another BHAV I can call or if I have to add things.

I tried again in another college lot (the urele-oresha-cham house), this time with a normal townie, and the grow up memory was assigned correctly.

Note that when a teen grows into a young adult, it doesn't feature the transition animation.

It should also be of interest to say that if the young adult is by any means reset while it is selectable, it will turn into an adult.

I assume you mean the young adult that transitioned from teen? And I assume you are making them selectable after transitioning them? Because they shouldn't be selectable after they transition. I just want to be clear, because I thought I made sure that the sims aren't selectable after transition.

So, when they reset, do they transition to Adult or do they just appear as adults? No college data stuff (semester or major), they have the employee/unemployed panel instead... do they have an adult body and head?

And finally, I noticed that the "Ask to grow up" interaction was available to a controllable sim that had been a townie before (OFB townie in this case), but I personally don't mind this one, because now I can age them whenever I want

Hrm... now that I consider a bug. I'll look into this. Could you possibly do me a favor and force an error on this sim, and then post the error log so I can look at that sim's data. If you moved in a townie... I would have thought that they should be set as a "PC" type. I may force it so that the interaction only appears for those in the 'townie' and 'downtownie' family numbers.

I'll try and release a new version, if not shortly, then later today.

Ste

[syberspunk]

Alright, I have fixed a few of things that Theo mentioned above, however I came across something odd in my play testing. Please note the following:

Known Issue:

Problem: If a townie that has transitioned becomes deleted for some reason, when that townie is summoned/teleported back to the lot, their Sim Age will NOT have changed even though their physical appearance retains the transition. This results in some creepy ugliness, where for example, Brittany Parker should have aged to Teen, and while she still has a teen body, with the selected aspiration and teen wants, she will be crouched down at the knees and still have a child voice and animations. This seems to Only be a problem if you DELETE the sim. If the sim is reset, they seem to still be ok. This is currently being investigated.

Solution: Workaround - If you SAVE right after the transition, this seems to permanently write the proper Sim Age. So even if you force the townie to be deleted, when they return to the lot, they will appear as the correct age.

Unfortunately, to fix a sim with this problem, you would have to use a debug cheat or hack to age them back down. I will try to think of a way to detect this problem and enable a fix via the pie menu, so you can click on a sim and force them to age back down.

If anyone can possibly shed some light on the situation (other modders perhaps), I'd appreciate the help. At the moment, I'm not quite sure how to fix this. Resetting seems to be ok, and one would hardly think users would delete sims willy nilly. But that doesn't mean it might not happen by accident. I would have to check if this even happens with regular playable sims.


Or if anyone can test this scenario out:

Get a regular, playable sim ready to go through a regular Age Transition.
Force Error and Reset the sim before the Age Transition happens and save the error log. (You should probably rename it in case the next one tries to overwrite it with the same name).
Let the Age Transition happen.
Force Error and Reset the sim After the Age Transition and save the error log.
Force Error and again but this time DELETE the sim.
Restore the family, or wait for the sim to return, or summon them back.

Do all of this WITHOUT Saving!

Do you notice anything weird with the shape/model and the animations?
You can also Force Error again, Reset and save the error log.

It is probably best to test this on a child transitioning to a teen. You should notice right away if there is a problem. The sim will have the teen body shape, but they will be scrunched down at the knees and still have a child voice and animations.

If this does indeed occur with playable sims, then it is probably a general problem that never occurred to Maxis, because why would a sim be deleted after an Age Transition anyways? But... if it doesn't occur, I'll have to try and compare the error logs with those from a townie, and see if I can spot the difference and either fix it for townies or rely on a debugging way via the pie menu to force the sim to age back down so you can do the Age Transition again. As far as I can tell, it seems to Only be a problem if the sim gets DELETED after an Age Transition and you haven't saved.


Edited to Add:
Alright, I tried this myself, and it seems like this also happens with playable sims as well. I did this with Lucy Burb, and she got the same problem. So... suffice to say, it isn't something that is caused by my mod specifically, and thus, I won't bother doing any further in-depth research as to figure out how to prevent this from happening, since it seems like it isn't expected to happen often.

Anyways, let me know how the new version works out. If you find any other bugs, or if you have any requests or suggestions on how to improve the mod.

Ste

[Riez Forester]

Just wondering, this only works just for townies, or can we use it to our neighbors as well (sims that doesnt stay in the same house). Coz a sim child that turned adult and moved out can also benefit from this by asking their adult parents to became elders.

Actually adding the same option to sim who are in the same household also can benefit some simmers, which sometimes, a sim finds his wife/gf in the middle of his adult years so after they are married, that girl will naturally 1/2 way of his age. So let say the guy turned into elder, he can ask the girl to turn with him as well.

Of course we can also used a hack object such as Igne's cake, but an option like that would be useful. Just a suggestion, though.

[jase]

Has anyone tested this with inteen? lol don't shoot me had to ask.

It should be fine, Linda...subject to the same warning I give for any "age adjusting" mods (such as the InSIMenator):  Don't attempt to adjust the age of a pregnant teen.

[syberspunk]

Minor Update

- Added Italian Translation. Thanks Max3D. If anyone else wants other language translations, let me know. I'd rather have real, idiomatic translations rather than resorting to any internet tool.
- Added check(s) to disable option for pregnant sims (although... you really shouldn't get the option for pregnant sims anyway... since thus far, I have only enabled the interaction for down/townies, and you really can't have pregnant townies without cheating, and I don't think their pregnancies would progress anyways, would they? I don't think the InTeen enables townie pregnancy as well, does it?)

Anyways, it's been fairly quiet... so no news is good news huh? I guess that means it is working for everyone thus far? Hopefully nothing has blown up yet. I'd like to be sure the mod is stable enough and bug free so the only way it can lead to potential BFBVFS is due to the fact that you might kill of several townies, contributing to the overall count of your dead character files... which you can circumvent anyways if you use the various flavors of noregen type hacks. Or if you stop aging your townies at elders. At least the choice should be yours.

If all is well, I will consider making a version with no relationship or age checks, for those who want to use it as an easy/cheaty tool to age sims, rather than a (somewhat) realistic interaction within the game.

I was wondering if anyone would prefer that I place the option under 'Adjust...' instead to sort of hide it. It sort of adds a bit to the clutter on the overall pie menu, so I was considering doing this, but I wasn't sure if the general public would prefer that it be immediately available.

Well.. any other questions, comments, criticisms, suggestions? I'll happily take anything into consideration within reason.

Ste

[Riez Forester]

A version that grows up both townies and playable sims with the relationship check would be nice.

This is just a suggestion tho. Why not making it towards all relationships, but have random chances plays a part in it. Let say a person who is not a friend suggest another to grow up. It will have only 25% chances of success or something like that. Friends would have about 50% while best friends would have about 75% chances. Lovers would have the most success chances of accepting growing up interaction. That would be fun to play with .

[miaokitty]

Here is a Korean translation, I'm not sure it's 100% because I don't speak Korean and my Korean friend doesn't speak fluent English, but it was good practice for us.    I think it should be close enough.

Ask to Grow Up: 어른이되는것을 명령하다
Grow Up: 어른이되다
Say Goodbye Forever: 안녕 영원이 사라져라
Die of Old Age: 나이가 많아 죽음을 맞이하다

[MaximilianPS]

wonderfull i'll test it today.. thnx for the italian translation 

[jase]

I don't think the InTeen enables townie pregnancy as well, does it?)

Not explicitly, but its not uncommon for people to make townie teens selectable, knock them up, and then send them on their way.

[Ancient Sim]

I had a child age to teen and tried it on his townie best friend, a child, but he had no option to ask him to grow-up.  Teens can ask townie teens to grow-up, but not children, so I had to do it manually.  Just as well, because as I thought they would, once they were both teens it only took a teeny bit of tweaking with the Turn On/Offs to give them 3 lightning bolts.  They went to Uni, got engaged, and have both just graduated. 

No idea why it wasn't available, because you do say it's available for children, and they were definitely best friends. I think their relationship was something like around 83/78 at the time, but I don't think the STR/LTR levels matter, do they?  It's kids I want it for most really, because I can grow the teens up by sending them to Uni, which I do with any teen who is best friends with one of my playables, or has 3 bolts with them.  Similarly, the kids are grown to teen if they make it to best friends with one of my playables before the playable leaves for Uni.  I don't suppose the fact that they became best friends shortly after my playable aged to teen would have affected it, would it? 

[Ness]

Ste, in relation to your poll...

I don't recall seeing the adjust option on a sims pie menu until after I installed Twojeffs triplets and quads hack and visitor controller.  I'm wondering if people without those hacks will still have an adjust option?  Or if it will even be the same adjust option for those of us with the twojeffs hacks.

It could be that I'm just being a stupid ness and not understanding things fully, but I thought I would ask.

[ElfPuddle]

For the poll....It makes sense to me to put it with all the "asks" (ask about interests, etc.), but if that menu seems crowded, then "adjust" works for me.

[syberspunk]

No idea why it wasn't available, because you do say it's available for children, and they were definitely best friends. I think their relationship was something like around 83/78 at the time, but I don't think the STR/LTR levels matter, do they?  It's kids I want it for most really, because I can grow the teens up by sending them to Uni, which I do with any teen who is best friends with one of my playables, or has 3 bolts with them.  Similarly, the kids are grown to teen if they make it to best friends with one of my playables before the playable leaves for Uni.  I don't suppose the fact that they became best friends shortly after my playable aged to teen would have affected it, would it? 

Hrm... I haven't play/tested in a whiles as I am currently very busy with some school related stuff right now, but... it is supposed to work for children. Not toddlers or babies. But it definitely should work for children. I previously tested it out on usual suspects Chandler Platz, Brittany Parker, and Chloe Gonzanga. I tested out aging them on resi lots and uni lots to see what would happen (if Uni would try to automatically age them to YAs... I don't think it did). But I could have botched something in the last update.

I don't remember... but I don't think the STR/LTR should matter specifically. And even if I was checking for STR/LTR... 83/78 should be high enough. I'll take a quick look at the code...

Ok, I'm looking at the code and it looks like you have to be 'best friends' not just regular friends. I probably did that because it's pretty easy to make 'friends' in the game. I was considering implementing an adjuster like twojeffs' stuff so people might be able to adjust these options. Of that means I'll have to get off my lazy ass and put work into it one of these days... But right now I'm kinda busy being lazy and trying not to be as I have a major exam comin up next week. And then after that, I'll be on a brief vacation and won't be back until the following week.


As for the poll related questions/replies:

ness and ElfPuddle:

Any hack that adds Adjust... to the menu will have it. This includes twojeffs CR stuff and Crammyboy's penis and nudist stuff. I can pretty much stick the options almost anywhere on the sim pie menu. I think it's just great that TJ and CBoy both decided to use Adjust... And that's why I thought about sticking it under there as well. To sort of make the menu a little less cluttered. I could also stick it under Ask... as well. I was also thinking about that too, but I felt like this interaction is more of sort of like a 'cheaty' type interaction that adjusts other sims ages, and it might seem odd under that heading.

If I ever get around to making the adjuster, I might provide an option to adjust where this shows up on the pie menu.

Other options I was considering were:
to allow/toggle the option to show up for friends,
to allow/toggle the option to show up for best friends, etc.
or turn off relationship checks altogether
allow random % chance of acceptance if not a friend, (and perhaps a way to adjust that percentage)
to allow/toggle the option to show up for PCs,
to allow/toggle the option to show up for NPCs, etc.

I'd be willing to consider more options if anyone has suggestions. Of course it all depends on how motivated I am after/if I get through the next couple of weeks.

Ste

[ElfPuddle]

Frankly, m'dear,

You haven't disappointed me yet. Where/What/Whenever things happen...you'll make it just right. That's why we love you. (Well, one of the reasons.)

[Riez Forester]

Just wondering... Are you still planning on releasing one that works to everybody, not just townies? With relationship check of course, to make it more challenging.

[syberspunk]

Alright, since I've been too lazy to take a look at the adjuster type code, I went the lame, easy route, and just made 3 different controllers available.

Some minor changes to the regular version:

1) added the korean translation finally (sorry it took so long, I had to figure out how to install korean text on my machine since I don't have a WindowsXP install disc, only recovery discs since I bought my machine from BestBuy)

2) There was a minor bug with pregnancy. Even though I disabled the interaction for pregnant targets, I forget to disable the pie menu from showing up. So you may have seen it show up when you clicked on a pregnant sim, but if you tried to use it, the interaction should not have shown up on your sims' queues. Still, it's better that I disable the option altogether.

In addition to those minor updates, there are 3 other controllers available. You can use those instead of the one in the regular version:

1) notypechecks - It will not check for the 'type' of sim. Meaning, you can use it on PCs, Townies (and Downtownies), AND NPCs. Use with Caution! I don't know what happens if you try to age a 'special' NPC, like the Grim Reaper, Social Bunny, Mrs. Crumplebottom, etc. That is most likely a VBT to do, possibly causing your game to turn into a BFBVFS. So I recommend you DON'T do it. Consider yourself warned.

Theoretically, you should be able to use it on other 'safe' NPCs, like Professors, Mascots, Maids, Nannies, etc. I suppose you could even have them die by old age. I'm not sure what happens then, but my guess is the game will try to respawn those npcs, unless you are using Pescados there can only be One npc thingamajig. I'm also not sure what happens if you age any of the teen NPC barista type cashier people. I don't know if they can still function at those jobs, or if they are supposed to remain as teens. And if so, I don't know if the game will try to respawn a teenaged NPC to take their place.

Since I'm lazy, each of the other controllers include the previous changes.

2) norelchecks - It will not check the relationship between the sim you are controlling and the target sim you are clicking on. In the regular version, I think I made it so you had to at least be friends (or best friends, I forget exactly). This version of the controller removes those checks, so now you can use it on any sim, even total strangers. This version also removes the 'type' checks as above.

3) noagechecks - It will not check the age range between the sim you are controlling and the target sim you are clicking on, but it Still requires that the two sims involved must be at least child aged or above. This is limited due to the animations used in the interaction, which only exist for child and above (I think I used hugging animations). In the regular version, I think I required that the two sims at least be within three age stages, with the controlled sim being older. This version also removes the 'type' and relation checks as above.

Also... since I'm still lazy, I did not change the location of the pie menu options, even though the majority complained about the pie menu being a tad cluttered. Instead, I'll describe how you can change them with SimPE:

1) Open up the growuptowniescontroller.package with SimPE
2) Click on the MakeActionString prim string set Text Lists STR# 0x12D resource
3) Click on the Plugin tab (if it isn't already selected) in SimPE

You should see two lines:

Ask to Grow Up
Say Goodbye Forever

If you want to change this to show up under the Ask... menu, then replace the text with:

Ask.../Ask to Grow Up
Ask.../Say Goodbye Forever


Note:

• It MUST be a forward slash '/'
• You CANNOT use a backslash '\'
• You MUST use a 3 dot ellipsis '...'
• I'm not sure what happens if you use more or less, but it probably won't show up properly.

If you want the options to show up under the Adjust... menu, then replace the text with:

Adjust.../Ask to Grow Up
Adjust.../Say Goodbye Forever

I think Uni and above supports tri level menus, so if you want them under another menu, you can do:

Adjust.../Age.../Ask to Grow Up
Adjust.../Age.../Say Goodbye Forever

4) After you're satisfied with your changes, hit the Commit button.
5) Save your changes. (Either save or save as if you want to have your own copy separate from my originals).
6) Overwrite the originals in your Downloads folder or wherever you put them (or remove the orignials and put your new ones in, DO NOT have more than one copy of the controller and modified controllers, otherwise weird things might happen).

I hope this all makes sense. I'd use pictures, but I'm too lazy.
Oh, and obviously, you can change the text to be whatever you want actually. It doesn't have to be 'Ask to Grow Up' specifically. You don't have to worry about that being text specific or case sensitive.

If I ever get around to the adjuster type stuff, maybe I'll come back to this and encapsulate these options within an adjuster. Don't hold yer breath tho. heh.

Ste

[Riez Forester]

Despite your lazyness, I'm still truly thankful for the updates! Yay~

[Sleepycat]

Since I'm lazy, each of the other controllers include the previous changes.

Does that mean that if I use #3 (noagechecks) it also has #2 (no relchecks) and #1?  I like the idea of being able to grow up any townie without age and relationship checks...

I finally downloaded this yesterday and hadn't even had a chance to try it out and you end up updating today *laughs* guess I had good timing really since I really wanted it with no relationship checks 

[Riez Forester]

I have tested this with my sim. He just got a son and his kid brother came for a visit. He ask him to Grow Up. He Grows Up. Good, simple and effective!

[veilchen]

I've been keeping an eye on this one, because it looks so very good. I didn't test it myself, because I'm a) a big chicken, and b) I don't have a test-hood at the moment. I do however, want it to work; it would add so much more realism to the game. I hate it that the townies/dormies never age. The restrictions are fine with me, I only want my pixel people's friends to grow old with them.

Here's the German translation:

Ask to Grow Up = Bitte zu Wachsen

Grow Up = Wachse

Say Goodbye Forever = Verabschieden für immer or Verabschiede dich für immer
--the first one has no subject and is more like Be saying goodbye forever. It sounds strange for the english speakers, but is a legitimate German sentence --

Die of Old Age = Stirb an hohem Alter  or  Stirb an Altersschwäche

I realize that the typical english/american keyboard doesn't have the extra characters of the German language, such as ö, ä, ü, and the ß. The work-around for that would be to use oe for ö, ae for ä, and ue for ü, although this work-around looks funky to the German eye . The ß is remedied with a double s (ss). My keyboard has two layouts that I switch back and forth as needed, the english one, and the German one (now there's a shocker).

[jsalemi]

Theoretically, you should be able to use it on other 'safe' NPCs, like Professors, Mascots, Maids, Nannies, etc. I suppose you could even have them die by old age. I'm not sure what happens then, but my guess is the game will try to respawn those npcs, unless you are using Pescados there can only be One npc thingamajig. I'm also not sure what happens if you age any of the teen NPC barista type cashier people. I don't know if they can still function at those jobs, or if they are supposed to remain as teens. And if so, I don't know if the game will try to respawn a teenaged NPC to take their place.

I've had Professors and Mascots die (usually from being eaten by a cow plant ) and the game regenerates replacements just fine. I don't think any of the NPC business folks are teens (but I may be wrong) -- I  had a sim marry a cashier, and again no problems. They had a long happy life with a couple of kids.  As far as I can tell, the game just generated another cashier to take her place. And she didn't age when she moved in -- just started at the usual beginning adult level.

[syberspunk]

I realize that the typical english/american keyboard doesn't have the extra characters of the German language, such as ö, ä, ü, and the ß. The work-around for that would be to use oe for ö, ae for ä, and ue for ü, although this work-around looks funky to the German eye . The ß is remedied with a double s (ss).

I won't have those letters on my keyboard, but I think the Windows character map still has them. So, if you want to edit your post and use the exact phrase with the exact letters, I can most likely just copy and past the text into SimPE. That's what I did for the korean text, which I also obviously don't have on my keyboard. Before I installed the asian fonts, it just looked like gibberish to me. At first, I was like... uhh... thanks, that's no help. lol.

But then, one time, I viewed the page on my hubby's laptop, and he had the asian fonts installed on there by default. Anyhew, I finally figured out how to install the asian fonts on my own laptop and my desktop and I was able to see the korean characters properly. I think, as long as my computer has the fonts to see certain characters, and it shows up fine when I'm looking at this page, then I can copy and paste it without a problem.

Also, do you have a preference between the ones where you give multiple choices? Since I don't speak or read german, I wouldn't know whether it is grammatically correct or not, nor would I know which may be a preference for the general german population. Pick your favorite and/or best transltion for each phrase and I'll use it.

I've had Professors and Mascots die (usually from being eaten by a cow plant ) and the game regenerates replacements just fine. I don't think any of the NPC business folks are teens (but I may be wrong) -- I  had a sim marry a cashier, and again no problems. They had a long happy life with a couple of kids.  As far as I can tell, the game just generated another cashier to take her place. And she didn't age when she moved in -- just started at the usual beginning adult level.

Really, I thought that some of those cashier people are teens. They look like teens. Heh, I was thinking about maybe including another option to Ask about age in my other hack since teens, YAs, and adults are sometimes difficult to tell apart upon visual inspection. Heh. When you say, she didn't age, you just mean that she didn't start as a teen and turn into an adult right? I hope you don't mean that she was stuck as an adult and never aged from that point on.

Anyways, the point though, is to age townies without necessarily making them playable in the first place. So I was just wondering if, for certain NPC types that seem to be age specific (like how dorm cooks are all elders) I was wondering what would happen if you aged them. For teens to adults and adults to elders, would they still work their NPC job? Or does the game require that they be that age for that job? And if so, what happens to them? Because I never see those NPCs walking around like 'normal' townies on comm lots. Or at least, I didn't notice. With elders (aging to death of course) and with making any NPC playble, I kinda figured the game would regenerate a replacement.

Ste

[J. M. Pescado]

Most NPCs don't require being a specific age, other than that the age must function (no children, toddlers, etc), but their uniforms may no longer fit them if you change their ages.

[jsalemi]

Heh. When you say, she didn't age, you just mean that she didn't start as a teen and turn into an adult right? I hope you don't mean that she was stuck as an adult and never aged from that point on.

Right, I mean she didn't start as teen and turn into adult, and she did age properly to elder (and is now long dead, in fact). Now, this was before OFB, so I don't know if OFB added teen cashiers/etc.

I'm also pretty sure I've never seen the cashier/etc NPCs as walk-bys or on comm lots either, though I do recall seeing a policeman, fireman and grocery delivery person occasionally walking by on a community lot, usually in uniform.