Phone Sort of Hack

[Trixiet]

Hey, your Royal Awesomeness.

In all your copious free time, would you consider making a 'not quite so hacked phone' hack?

The ringing endagers my sanity, the 'have you been abducted, you never call me' calls endager my townie's lives. Being able to just call your friends is a godsend (thank you god)

But the part of the hack that makes them stay on the phone until their social is maxed AND their daily is maxed is just not compatible with 99.99% of the challenges that we do.

So there are hundreds, even thousands of people who can't use your phone hack, because of the one tiny thing that changes the gameplay the most.

If you could make a ChallengePhoneHack (or whatever) that takes that part out, it would be an even greater godsend to us. I know the phone babysitting is annoying, and should have been programmed differently, but that is what we are stuck with, if we want to do the challenges.

And the challenges are what keeps it FUN for a lot of people

So thanks for considering this, and thanks even more if you get the chance to DO it. You will be a hero to thousands of Townie Sims out there who no longer have to worry about being invited over 'for a little swim' or to 'play with Spot, the cowplant'.

Trixie

[sara_dippity]

Personally I would love one that only fixed bugs and set the ringer, nothing else.

[Gus Smedstad]

I actually don't care for that aspect of the Phone Hack myself, but I've been willing to accept the "cheatiness" of Sims staying on the phone until they reach 100 DR in exchange for incoming phone calls being useful rather than annoying spam.  It's not quite a "cheat" since you can get the same effect manually by calling Sims over and over, but I prefer bringing Sims up to the 30-35 range on the phone and then inviting them for face-to-face interactions, rather than zooming right to 100 from the start.  For me the tradeoff has been worth it.

Which challenges put restrictions on phone calls, by the way?  I can't think of any myself.  But then, I've only played the "Bachelor Challenge," though I've considered doing "Legacy."  My problem is that most challenges I've read are dumb.  They're easy and open-ended.  It'd be nice to see a board devoted to challenges that were actually worth playing.

Personally I would love one that only fixed bugs and set the ringer, nothing else.

Don't you find calls where they just say "Why haven't you called me?" an annoying waste of time?  For popularity and romance sims, it seems like there are days when 10-15 nimrods will call to say that instead of chatting.

You will be a hero to thousands of Townie Sims out there who no longer have to worry about being invited over 'for a little swim' or to 'play with Spot, the cowplant'.

Uh, that sounds like a really bad thing to me.  Certainly if I were Pescado I'd think twice about changing the phone hack if it were to save Townies from the Cow Plant.

 - Gus

[sara_dippity]

Personally I would love one that only fixed bugs and set the ringer, nothing else.

Don't you find calls where they just say "Why haven't you called me?" an annoying waste of time?  For popularity and romance sims, it seems like there are days when 10-15 nimrods will call to say that instead of chatting.

No. I turn off the phone. Just like I do in real life.

[Ancient Sim]

I always cancel it out well before it gets to that stage anyway.  If they need X amount of social I prefer them to ring several people rather than just one, especially if they are going for 20 Best Friends.  Sometimes they reach 100 on their own if they're close, but mainly I keep watch and stop them when they still have some social to get so they can make as many friends/best friends as possible out of the session.  I never use the AutoYak facility because of this.

What I really want (and get ignored everytime I ask for it!!!) is a separate hack that doesn't stop the stalking.  I really only use the hack to stop the constant "Why haven't you called me?" calls, I would much rather keep the others as I find them amusing.  I miss seeing the parents of kids hovering around outside like Peeping Toms and would really love a separate version that doesn't take that out, ditto the kids that keep calling.  Also, the parents hovering around and so on removes what could be some interesting scenarios if the parent is an Enemy, or furious with the Sim, or whatever.  I don't want to miss out on anything like this that may come about.

I think with a hack as complex as this, we really should have separate versions because different elements appeal to different people, as this thread illustrates.

[J. M. Pescado]

There's also the fundamental untenability of maintaining umpteen-million-versions of something. Maintaining multiple varieties of everything exponentially increases our maintenance overhead. Given how high the workload already is, if we started doing this, you could expect to see the NL version ready sometime after the next expansion pack is out.

[Motoki]

The why haven't you called me calls have to be the stupidest feature ever. I could at least see if them if they actually chatted for a bit and got their relationship up some, but no. :p It could easily be done as a pop up message in the corner, like the one you get when you lose a friend, except in this case as a warning. If it were done that way, it would be far less obnoxious and intrusive. The fact that it is done the way it is currently done just proves that no one at Maxis plays the damned game under normal gameplay for any signifigant period of time and that either they have no playtesters or they don't listen to them.

I also resent that the damned sims pick up the phone autonomously answer the phone. It's my right to ignore it if it I want even if it ringers for hours and annoys the shit out of me. And it makes no sense that you actually get a prompt to answer yes/no when someone calls for a sim who is clearly out (the result is the same duh!). The sim should autonomously tell the caller said person is not home without waiting on interaction from you.

[gali]

Sell the phones, and buy one only when you want your sim to call anyone.... I did it before the phonehack was made. Better than to go insane....

[Motoki]

Well I do but it's a pain and sometimes I forgot to buy one back before I quit that lot and when a sim on another lot goes to call them they get told that person has no phone. :p It's irritating and I have to bend over backwards and jump through hoops not to be driven insane by that damned phone and I'm sick of it. 

[dizzy]

I don't remember, but can't you use the computer to invite someone over? Might be a good alternative to using the phone.

[Inge]

I think you have to wait until the computer pops up the "would you like to invite them over?" message.  I don't think it is on the computer's menu.

[DrBeast]

I don't remember, but can't you use the computer to invite someone over? Might be a good alternative to using the phone.

I think you have to wait until the computer pops up the "would you like to invite them over?" message. I don't think it is on the computer's menu.

That, plus not all sims are at the computer all the time. Which means, if you want to invite a specific sim via the computer it may take forever and a half years!

[buddha pest]

Well I do but it's a pain and sometimes I forgot to buy one back before I quit that lot and when a sim on another lot goes to call them they get told that person has no phone. :p It's irritating and I have to bend over backwards and jump through hoops not to be driven insane by that damned phone and I'm sick of it. 

I just wanted to say that I've been enjoying your passionate hate of lack-of-phone-hack. I share it so deeply.

I keep forgetting to buy a damn phone before exiting a lot too. Or forgetting to sell it back after use, and then I'm surely soon reminded. Oh, the obnoxious joys.

[witch]

I don't often make 'me too' posts but find the phone behaviour in sims2 is incredibly annoying. I wouldn't put up with it in RL and I'm damned sure I'm not going to put up with it in a game.

However, as I don't have NL, I still have a phone hack. *smug*

[wyrdwing]

It's irritating and I have to bend over backwards and jump through hoops not to be driven insane by that damned phone and I'm sick of it. 

I miss the phone hack... it was useful...  but since NL my phone doesn't stop ringing... where before my sims just left it ring and ring they always seem to answer it by themselves. Sims sure are addicted to downtown.

[RainbowTigress]

Sims sure are addicted to downtown.

Well, I would be too if I'd never had anyplace to go before.

Dizzy2 has a hack that "auto-laterals" calls, so you don't get the dialog box asking for the other person, they either call the other person to the phone if they are home, or inform them they aren't home if they are not.  Someone said this works with Nightlife.  Can you confirm this, Dizzy2?

[Trixiet]

Most of the challenges out there specify 'No Cheats, No Hacks' meaning nothing that really changes the gameplay. In this case, the only thing that really changes is that you can leave your sim unattended on the phone and get relationships all the way up. This makes life too easy the point of challenges is to CHALLENGE you.

I've talked to Pinstar about this, and my partner in crime Violet Kitty, and we all agree that the setting the phone ringer, having people call who are actually HOME (ie, no children in the middle of the day) and getting rid of the spam calls are all acceptable to keep the sanity of the players. These are things that dont' really change the gameplay.

So if Almighty god would make this hack, then it would be allowed in Legacy, and all of VK/TT's contests I'm working on the designers of Royal Kingdom, Rights of Women, and Prosperity

These are the current Challenge designers, I am betting (if I were a betting type of person) that there are others who would be using a modified hack if it were available.

So PLEASE, Almighty, PLEASE, when you are fixing the phone hack for NL, consider pruning it back to just affect the calls, not the relationships.

I'll send you some homemade chocolate chip cookies! How is that for a bribe?

Trixie

[Motoki]

I'll send you some homemade chocolate chip cookies! How is that for a bribe?

It would have to go through numerous drop boxes in several countries including, but not limited to Kazakstan and Namibia, and take 6-8 weeks to get to him. I'm afraid they'd be quite stale by that time.

[Dark Trepie]

I don't remember, but can't you use the computer to invite someone over? Might be a good alternative to using the phone.

Its Hit and Miss with the computer.  The person you want to invite over has to actually be chatting on the computer.  Good luck if your neighborhood has a Downtown and one or more college attached to it.

[dizzy]

Dizzy2 has a hack that "auto-laterals" calls, so you don't get the dialog box asking for the other person, they either call the other person to the phone if they are home, or inform them they aren't home if they are not.  Someone said this works with Nightlife.  Can you confirm this, Dizzy2?

Yes it does, thank goodness. And I see it in action several times a sim day in large family lots. 

[linolino]

features that dislike on the phone hack:
1 - not beeing able to call someone after midnight and beeing shouted at.

features that i like about the phone hack:
2 - that infamous "you haven't called me in a long time" call is turned into a real call

3 - i used to dislike the phonehack because of the ralationship maitenence check it does for turning the phone off, however, since i didn't have a version without that, i just played with it anyway, and found out that its not that bad, because they will turn off if a need is low, and i will just leave them talking on the phone for as long as i want. when i want them to stop, i just cancel the action.

However if anyone bothers to make a version without this, i would like too.

WAIT WAIT...
actually i do like the infamous call... hum.. can't decide.
You know what would be the best, since some people don't like, and some people do?
just like the option to configure the ringing, it could have an option to turn 2 and 3 on and off

[RainbowTigress]

features that dislike on the phone hack:
1 - not beeing able to call someone after midnight and beeing shouted at.

You can still do this.  When it says Phone harrassment is bad, m'kay? you have the option to click Harrass to call them anyway and get shouted at if this is really what you want to do.

Actually, one of my favorite parts of the phone hack is that your sim will stay on the phone until their relationship reaches 100.  It saves me from having to babysit the sim and keep them redialing the sim myself, which is a pain.  Sure it makes gameplay easier, and to me that makes it more enjoyable.  It's not fun when I keep having to click through all the dialog boxes every time.  But I guess everyone has a different style of play and enjoys different things.  One thing is for sure, it seems a lot easier to make and maintain friends in Sims 2 than it was in Sims 1.

[RainbowTigress]

Dizzy2 has a hack that "auto-laterals" calls, so you don't get the dialog box asking for the other person, they either call the other person to the phone if they are home, or inform them they aren't home if they are not.  Someone said this works with Nightlife.  Can you confirm this, Dizzy2?

Yes it does, thank goodness. And I see it in action several times a sim day in large family lots. 

I love this hack.   Do you think you could make any other phone type hacks?

[Kitiara]

features that dislike on the phone hack:
1 - not beeing able to call someone after midnight and beeing shouted at.

You can still do this. When it says Phone harrassment is bad, m'kay? you have the option to click Harrass to call them anyway and get shouted at if this is really what you want to do.

Actually, one of my favorite parts of the phone hack is that your sim will stay on the phone until their relationship reaches 100. It saves me from having to babysit the sim and keep them redialing the sim myself, which is a pain. Sure it makes gameplay easier, and to me that makes it more enjoyable. It's not fun when I keep having to click through all the dialog boxes every time. But I guess everyone has a different style of play and enjoys different things. One thing is for sure, it seems a lot easier to make and maintain friends in Sims 2 than it was in Sims 1.

Well, apparently my style is somewhat like yours, because I love this feature too. I would be extremely disappointed if Pescado took that out. Of course, Since he does this for no reward but praise I will accept whatever he puts out.

[Motoki]

You know, I don't see what's the big deal about the sim staying on the phone part. Sure, it's sort of a cheat, but there are several ways to achieve more or less the same thing without any hacks. Playing chess with another sim, soaking in the hot tub with them, or relaxing on a bed and having them join you will basically have a sim join yours and chat continuously ignoring needs until they get critical.