Testers Wanted: Uni Careers Hack v0.00.20 (Updated 9/23/2008)

[syberspunk]

1) You can unbalance them as much as you want.  I quoted "balance" because it's really arbitrary.  I decided to "balance" it for "general audiences" so people who don't want to bother with SimPE because they're unsure about using it or they're just too wussy

I have like two other threads about this hack floating around, and it was brought up that, due to the way I initially hacked the careers and majors, which was somewhat more realistic, it basically rendered some majors "useless" in the sense that there was almost no point to have a sim declare that major.  For  example (and I'm kinda pullin this out of my arse cuz I can't remember the exact scenario), Biology was associated with several careers, and even used to open up tracks like Medicine, which was made to require a major.  Physics was isolated to only a few careers, many of which were already covered by Biology.  Biology ended up "unlocking" more career paths, so basically it seemed pointless to have a sim major in Physics.  Thus, the reason for me trying "balance" things so that no one major necessarily had more of an advantage than others.  So in the very least, people who won't try to customize the hack will be able to have a somewhat "balanced" choice.

If you choose to create an "unbalanced" sitatuion between careers and majors, of course, you as the player, can choose to have a sim declare any major, regardless of the unbalancing.  Nothing "bad" should happen.  Just realize that, if you make many of the careers require an education, and strictly specific majors, you may end up with potential situations where only a couple of careers tracks might be offered to your sim.  There may be even days where the game rolls up all 5 careers that might be locked to your sim because of the changes you made.

2) You can probably customize custom careers in the same manner.  You would have to open the custom career in SimPE.  Then look for the Tuning BCON.  Just like the instructions in my documentation, just click on the BCON in Resource Tree window to isolate all the BCONs.  Aside from the extracted careers from Life Stories, I do not have any custom careers, but I assume that careers are created in some standard way.  So, once you have isolated the BCONs, you can use the filter option in SimPE.  Use 0x1056 as the value for the Instance: and click the set link.  Then you can use Plugin View and edit the values in the same way.  Theoretically, it should work.  But, as always, you should backup your game data and keep copies of the original hacks before you edit them.

ETA:

A problem...

In the calculator, if I try to change anything in the 0/1 columns, to get a new hex value, it gives me an error.  It says "#NAME?".  It won't let me change anything.


Note: when possible, please use edit rather than double posting.

Hrm... that is really weird.  Which columns are you trying to change?  You should be able to change the columns C-M.  However, only the rows 2-11, 14-17, 20, 21, and 24-29.  ALl the other rows are totals.  You cannot change row O or P.  If you do, you'll bork the calculator.  I'm gonna try to download the .zip file myself to see if something got screwed up.  I'm working with the original on my compy and it seems to be fine for me... the only valid values are 0 and 1.  If you turn "on" all the bits, the Hex value should be 7FF.  And obviously, if you turn them all "off" it should be 0.

You don't really need the Excel calculator.  You can use the windows calculator to do this.  I just thought it would be easier if I included a somewhat simple "tool" and explained how to do it, rather than go into details about how to convert bin to hex and what it all means.  Basically, the bin value should be a "string" of 11 "bits" (0's and 1's), where each bit represent each major, with 1 meaning it is turned "on" and 0 is turned "off" for that career.  You take that bin value and convert it to the hex value, by whatever means you have (the Excel calculator, the calculator program that comes with Windows, a real actual calculator, whatever ) and use that value.

ETA2:

Ok, I just downloaded the .zip myself and opened up the Excel spreadsheet.  It still works for me.    I would suggest redownloading it and trying it again.  If you are still having problems, you might have to enable macros in Excel or something.  Although... I just assumed that Excel should be able to interpret formulas by default.  The other thing I would check is if you have some old version of Excel.  I have 2003, but 2000 should still work... and, I don't think I'm using anything new.  I would have figured the functions I used in the formula are kinda standard.  Unless the bin to hex converting function is new?


ETA3::

One thing I probably need to add eventually is maybe a message that at least tells you that there are no jobs available that your sim is qualified.  One "problem" I have run into is, sims who are unedumacated will sometimes have no choices, especially using the newspaper, and the sim just opens the paper and closes it right away.  This isn't a "bug" per se, rather it is most likely because they are not qualified for any of the jobs offered that day.

Ste

[Magicmoon]

I *thought* that somewhere in this or a related thread that it was said that the 2 LS careers were taken into account with this mod. Am I imagining things again?

If so, then are these potential conflicts harmful or just address the same thing? Or should I just remove the 2 LS careers to use this mod?

*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BHAV
Procedure Name: Init
Group ID: 0x7F81CC61
Instance ID: 0x00001000
Packages Containing This Procedure:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_entertainment\ls_career_entertainment.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package
 
*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BHAV
Procedure Name: Init
Group ID: 0x7FDE288B
Instance ID: 0x00001000
Packages Containing This Procedure:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_gamedev\ls_career_gamedev.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package

*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BCON
Group ID: 0x7F81CC61
Instance ID: 0x00001056
Packages Containing This Constant File:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_entertainment\ls_career_entertainment.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package
 
*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BCON
Group ID: 0x7FDE288B
Instance ID: 0x00001056
Packages Containing This Constant File:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_gamedev\ls_career_gamedev.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package

[akatonbo]

I want this mod badly, but am a little unclear on a few things thanks to the sheer volume of RTFM:

- there is a version that covers the Seasons careers now, correct?
- but there isn't a version (yet) that doesn't have any specific-major requirements at all, correct?

Also, how beta is beta when it comes to this hack? Is it in the 'probably ready to be used but feedback is always appreciated' stage now, or still in the 'only run if you're up to doing some QA' stage?

[syberspunk]

I *thought* that somewhere in this or a related thread that it was said that the 2 LS careers were taken into account with this mod. Am I imagining things again?

Yes, you are correct.  You are not imagining things... well, at least this time.

If so, then are these potential conflicts harmful or just address the same thing? Or should I just remove the 2 LS careers to use this mod?

These conflicts are intentional, so my hack needs to load last.  However, you must keep the LS careers in your game if you want them to actually show up.

The Init BHAVs, as far as I can tell, are not really used.  I've toyed around with changing these and I can't tell if they actually affect anything.  It appears as if they might have originally been used to associate certain careers with certain aspirations.  From what I've seen in Maxis code, it isn't always consistent with which career LTWs are actually associated with the corresponding aspirations.  As example, I've seen some of the Inits have the "Grow Up" aspiration included, which doesn't make sense since any sim that has that aspiration shouldn't even have an LTW.

The BCONs, on the other hand, are essential, because they define whether the career requires an education or not, and which majors might afford you a career boost (theoretically) when using the computer to search for a job (at least, that's how I vaguely recall it works.  That's why you can start off at higher levels in a career track, whereas, if you use the newspaper, you should always start off at the 1st level - but that could be something that Pescado's hack enforces...).

The unicareershack will only affect the Seasons and LS careers if and only if you actually have them installed (meaning you have Seasons or you have the LS careers mods).  If you don't have either, the hack will still be compatible with your game configuration.  Basically, the code is there in the hack to override the Maxis EA defaults if they are present.  If they are not present, then there's nothing to override and they are functionless (nothing bad happens by just having them in there).

I want this mod badly, but am a little unclear on a few things thanks to the sheer volume of RTFM:

- there is a version that covers the Seasons careers now, correct?

Yes.  The 0.00.19 version in the third post of this thread is compatible with Seasons.

- but there isn't a version (yet) that doesn't have any specific-major requirements at all, correct?

I'm not sure what you mean... you are asking for a version that doesn't have specific major requirements?  So... you want a version where all careers that require an education are open to any major?  If that is the case, I have no plans to make such a version.  The wussy documentation should provide you enough information to custom tailor the hack as per your request.  Basically, you would change the second line (0x01) in each BCON to 0x7FF.

Also, how beta is beta when it comes to this hack? Is it in the 'probably ready to be used but feedback is always appreciated' stage now, or still in the 'only run if you're up to doing some QA' stage?

I'd say it's in the 'probably ready to be used but feedback is always appreciated' stage.  As far as I can tell, nothing in the hack could potentially break your game, because mostly I am changing BCON values.  There aren't actually any real or direct changes any major game behaviours, especially since I removed the change to the career level boost thing.  I may go back and rethink that... but for now, I have no plans to put that back just yet.

Although there are BHAVs in the hack... as I mentioned above in response to magicmoon, I believe these BHAVs most likely don't really do anything.  They are needed to initialize the career, but the semi attributes that they supposedly set don't seem to actually do anything (that I've noticed so far).  If you do notice something that actually depends on these values, I'd like to know about it. *shrugs*  That might be the only uncertain thing about the hack.  The changes I made were just things that I thought were more logical, basically making so that the init follows whatever aspirations the career LTW shows up for.

The only QA/feedback that I'm worried about is whether you sim has any problems with careers showing up (or not showing up) when they are supposed to (or not).  Meaning... according to the settings of the hack (as described in the documentation... which will differ if you choose to customize things) if your sim fulfills the criteria for a career track, but has problems with that career not showing up.  I've had time to finally toy around with this, and thus far, it seems to work fine for me.

As an example, the Paranormal career no longer requires a uni education.  It always shows up for my sims who don't have a uni education.  In the current household that I am testing, I have two graduates (one in Math and one in Politics).  The Business career shows up for both, as it now requires an education, but will show up for any major.  However, Law Enforcement now requires an education and it must be an associated major, so it only shows up for the sim who majored in Politics.  In the same vein, Medicine and Science will only show up for my sim who majored in Math.

I have a 3rd sim in this household, Gieke who came with OFB.  Since he is an adult with no uni education, his options are very limited.  Thus far, the only "problem" I have are days when he has searched for a career with the newspaper, and he was unqualified for all of them, so he isn't offered any jobs at all.  It appears like he looks through the newspaper, but since the game loops through all 3 careers and he is unqualified, he just closes the paper right away.  I am considering possibly adding a notice that at least informs you that your sim isn't qualified for any of the jobs, so you know that an attempt was made.  When I did this, I switched to another sim, just thinking that the dialog would eventually pop up, but it never did.  It isn't necessarily a "bug" per se, just a consequence of the hack.


Ste

[Magicmoon]

The only QA/feedback that I'm worried about is whether you sim has any problems with careers showing up (or not showing up) when they are supposed to (or not).  Meaning... according to the settings of the hack (as described in the documentation... which will differ if you choose to customize things) if your sim fulfills the criteria for a career track, but has problems with that career not showing up.  I've had time to finally toy around with this, and thus far, it seems to work fine for me.

I've been using this mod for quite awhile, but didn't have any questions until I added the LS careers. I sent 14 Uni CAS sims through college, each with a different job related LTW. Every one of these has had their careers available to them...eventually. It took one Sim 3 Sim weeks before their job finally showed up. But most Sims were able to lock in their chosen field within the first week. I haven't tried every combination of major/careers, but so far all has been well.

[akatonbo]

- but there isn't a version (yet) that doesn't have any specific-major requirements at all, correct?

I'm not sure what you mean... you are asking for a version that doesn't have specific major requirements?  So... you want a version where all careers that require an education are open to any major?  If that is the case, I have no plans to make such a version.  The wussy documentation should provide you enough information to custom tailor the hack as per your request.  Basically, you would change the second line (0x01) in each BCON to 0x7FF.

Er, but in the very first post in the thread, it says

Future Features
1) Incorporating the new careers from the Lies and Propaganda: Seasons Edition Wink
2) Less restricted version that does not require specific majors to enter a career track

Which is why I asked about it.

I suppose eventually I will find a tutorial that will make editing BCONs make sense to me. The earliest stage of my learning curve for new tasks in SimPE is so steep it's a wall -- once I've gotten past the part where I have to be hit over the head repeatedly to actually learn the new thing, I usually have no trouble at all, including being able to improvise safely from what I've just learned.

[syberspunk]

Er, but in the very first post in the thread, it says

Future Features
1) Incorporating the new careers from the Lies and Propaganda: Seasons Edition Wink
2) Less restricted version that does not require specific majors to enter a career track

Which is why I asked about it.

Uh... true, but that was so long ago.  Since then, I've decided that it isn't worth the trouble to create and have to maintain too many different versions.

I've now updated the first post to reflect that.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

I suppose eventually I will find a tutorial that will make editing BCONs make sense to me. The earliest stage of my learning curve for new tasks in SimPE is so steep it's a wall -- once I've gotten past the part where I have to be hit over the head repeatedly to actually learn the new thing, I usually have no trouble at all, including being able to improvise safely from what I've just learned.

Well, I would like to think that my how-to instructions are fairly simple and thorough enough to follow along, complete with pictures.  You could experiment and follow along with that.  The chances you would need to make are only to BCON values, and if you stick to using valid values, it shouldn't blow up anything in your game.

Incidentally, I updated the how-to doc, cuz it was missing a picture.  Plus, I moved the pictures into a subfolder on my photobucket account, so you will have to update since the old links won't work.

Ste

[akatonbo]

Fair enough.

I really do want to learn some remedial BCON modding, so once I'm ready to drop the mod in and have played around with it some, I'll investigate the tutorial. (Still weeding out custom content and not playing.) If it doesn't do the trick, I'm sure it will be no fault of yours, since I tend to need the For Bleeding Idiots Who Need Their Hands Held All The Time version of how to do anything significantly different from what I already know how to do in SimPE.

[syberspunk]

I thought my doc was pretty much written FBIWNTHHATT in mind.   If/when you do take a look at it, let me know if you have questions about anything that might seem confusing or needs further elaboration.  I'm open to any useful feedback you can provide.

I thought the pics would be sufficient.  I wanted to be all fancy and draw circles and lines to indicate that portions of the pic are actually intended to be insets that zoom in on key areas of the larger pic.  Alas, I lack the skills of an artist and fail at photoshop.

If anyone else gets the gist of my doc and can manage to put together something that is prettier and better written, that would be great too.

Ste

[pixiejuice]

Just wanted to say that I had no problem understanding the documentation.  I never did get the Excel calculator to work though.  I ended up breaking out my old graphing calculator from high school - finally, a use for that stupid thing! 

[Gwill]

Is this going to be compatible with Free Time.
*hint, hint, nudge, nudge*

[Zazazu]

He's working on his listing.
Nudge, nudge. Poke, poke.

[Garnet Avi]

After installing this mod, I tried to search for a job using a non-uni educated sim, but she was unable to obtain one at all. The "Find a Job" option did not work at all on the newspaper or computer. She started the actions and then ended them without any dialog box opening. I obtained two error logs, one for each object, attached. I don't know anything about modding, but I'm guessing the education checks saw she was without education (Pleasure sims don't need Uni) and rejected her completely. It could be because the jobs it was going to offer that day (or just the first) were beyond her. Also, if some of the 3/5 are beyond the sim, will it replace them with others or merely offer her less jobs?
I hope this helps the issue get fixed. The idea of this mod is very cool.

[syberspunk]

Thanks.  I'll try and take a look at the error logs this weekend when if I can find the time.  Btw, what EPs do you have installed?

As for this:

Also, if some of the 3/5 are beyond the sim, will it replace them with others or merely offer her less jobs?

I vaguely recall how it works... but I think the game generates a fixed set of jobs and only those jobs for that day.  They don't change until some fixed time, I forget when now.  Probably 6:00 PM or whatever the time is when the game "thinks" it's the next day.  I think then, if a sim is not qualified for the job, it will not offer other options.  I played around this this a bit, and I vaguely recall running into this issue.  So, in the case that, if a sim is not qualified for 3 out of 5 jobs, I think they will only get 2 offers available.

I really should take notes about these things.   It's always a problem whenever I have to update for a new EP, and I forget how things work.  I kinda just mod/update on the fly just to get things to work again, and then I forget it all over again. Lol. 


Ste

[Zazazu]

Syberspunk, at the risk of sounding like a dunce, are you considering this compatible with FreeTime? I miss it terribly. I need a bit more automation in keeping certain sims down and depressed.

[jsalemi]

I vaguely recall how it works... but I think the game generates a fixed set of jobs and only those jobs for that day.  They don't change until some fixed time, I forget when now.  Probably 6:00 PM or whatever the time is when the game "thinks" it's the next day. 

Midnight -- they jobs don't change until after midnight.

[Garnet Avi]

I have all the EPs and stuff packs, though when I posted that I didn't have K&B S. I'm guessing that wouldn't make a huge difference.
What I was thinking was that either she was unqualified for all 5 jobs, or she wasn't qualified for the first so it rejected her from the rest of the search, but like I said, I'm not a modder.