RandomStuff: Configurable "dice rolling" program

[Zazazu]

Generating names:  MikeInside has a great random name generator.  Here's the link:

http://mikeinside.modthesims2.com/family/index.html

It shouldn't be too much trouble to generate multiple things from one list, for use in turnon/off.  I can think of a couple of ways to do it right off the top of my head.  I just want to make sure that you can give red hair, for example, a high weight and still have the program work.   In the mean time, you can run the program multiple times until you get three different things.

Hook

I used to use MikeInside's, but I really don't like firing up a new program while the Sims is up. Not that Addison can't handle it, it's just an old preference from my laptop days. Plus, having an all-in-one customizable one is lovely, right? Theoretically, we could just set it up to randomize every little thing about a sim...would help immensely with custom townie creation. What I'm saying is....this is fantastically customizable and thanks a million. Great framework.

Edit: Got a chance to really play around with it and configured something to give an output as below. .txt file included in case anyone wants to build off it, since there's 1500 last names and approximately 1200 first names used. Last names are from public US Census data, first names are from Keep&Share, and ad-riddled free list site.


Gender
*Male*
Life stage
*Adult*
Astrological Sign
*Scorpio*
Aspiration
*Grilled Cheese*
Turn-on 1
*Vampires*
Turn-on 2
*Swim wear*
Turn-off
*Facial Hair*
Alternate in case of duplicates
*Brown hair*
First Name: Male
*John*
First Name: Female
*Beth*
Number of sims in family
*5*
Last Name
*Aaron*

[gethane]

I love it. I'm thinking along the lines of Sims MadLibs. I can set up a whole bunch of bizarre random stuff and then make my sim lead that life. Mwa ha ha. My sims with cushy lives should be afraid, very afraid.

[Hook]

Zazazu:  thanks for including that file.  Makes a good way to generate names.

I haven't posted it yet, but I've got a new version with two changes.  One, when it asks you to "Press a key to continue" if you press R it will regenerate the list.  You can scroll up the DOS box to see older lists if you wish. Does not handle the CSV file elegantly yet.

Two, I've added a way to generate multiple things from one list without duplicates.  Useful for turnon/off and I tried it with your names and it works nicely.

I still have in mind to make it where you can drag and drop a config file onto the program icon to have the program use that config file rather than the default one so you can have multiple config files.

I'd like to make the next version the last one (but this isn't set in stone), so if anyone else has any requests, make 'em now.

Hook

[Faizah]

Hm, I use these: aspiration die. Revised ganked-over die that I don't recall who made originally, so I don't take complete credit.

This is kind of random, but the 2 and the 6 should be swapped. The opposite sides of a D6 always add up to 7. (All of my D6s follow this rule, at least...)

[J. M. Pescado]

It would be cooler and more realistic if the program actually modelled the physical impact of a d6 or whatever upon a surface.

[gethane]

Just mentioning that your example .txt file is missing the Popularity aspiration, in case anyone is just copy/pasting, etc.

Also, love the idea of drag and drop for ease of using multiple files! I'm planning on running it at teen bday, adult bday, and marriage to determine various options.

Edit: Also, I was getting some weirdness when I moved options involving $ down further in the text file. For reasons I couldn't figure out, it was then causing output to be in a wrong order. Since I wasn't actually using your example number generators, I just deleted them. BUt in case anyone else sees it...

[Hook]

Just mentioning that your example .txt file is missing the Popularity aspiration, in case anyone is just copy/pasting, etc.

Edit: Also, I was getting some weirdness when I moved options involving $ down further in the text file. For reasons I couldn't figure out, it was then causing output to be in a wrong order. Since I wasn't actually using your example number generators, I just deleted them. BUt in case anyone else sees it...

Oops.  Thanks.  I forgot we had a new aspiration, and was counting 5 and figuring I had 'em all.  It's corrected in version 3 of the program.

Copy and paste the offending part of the config file so I can see what's going on.  If there's a problem in the code, I'd like to fix it before I put up version 3.  Version 3 is ready to upload, btw, but I'll wait a bit for your info.

Edit:  never mind.  I see the problem.  Working on it now.

Version 3 has drag and drop, but only one file at a time.  CSV files are now appended to rather than overwritten, and mulitple runs are separated with ***** fields to delimit them, hopefully making it easy to read.  The CSV file will have the same file name as the config file.  If you just double click on the program, it will use the default config file.

Multiple exclusive selections from one list is working nicely.

Hook

[Hook]

Version 3 is up.  It includes all the changes discussed, the fix for the random number display, and a new file of names for generating Sim names.  This data is from the US Census, and includes about 500 male first names, 500 female first names and 500 last names.

It might be cool for people to post interesting and useful config files, like ones to generate interests, career fields, etc.  People can pick and chose what they want to use, and either use them separately or combine them into specialty config files for various uses.  Now that we can have multiple config files, this should be very useful.

Additional comments and suggestions are appreciated.  Especially bug reports.  

Hook

[witch]

TGIF! Thank God It's Friday!!!111!!! I can play with this tomorrow!
I was wondering about the naming of the config files, I guess we can name them differently now the drag and drop is available?

[Aggie]

Maybe being a heartless ninja mercenary killing machine it wouldn't occur to you, but it's common courtesy IMO to at least let someone know if you're deleting their post and why (Shells was not notified her post had been deleted) and ESP when changing someone's word. How long does that take, five seconds?

As I recall, InSim has some sort of 'automated' notification system going on when they alter someone's post. I used the word 'fuck' where i shouldn't have, and I got a PM from. . . uh, something saying that my post had been altered. I went back, checked, and changed the wording accordingly. I wonder if that would work here.

It might be cool for people to post interesting and useful config files, like ones to generate interests, career fields, etc. k

I will do so for careers if you'd like. I'll enclose three attachments: the one labelled All Careers has all careers right up to Seasons included; the Base Game one only has the original 10 jobs; the Uni career included the original 10 as well as the four than came from Uni (if anyone is interested).

Also, if anyone's interested, I'm going to post one for hair and eye color, where the hair colors are also given either a long, medium or short length designation. Here's what mine looks like:

[Aggie]

I was considering adding a section for which face template to use for my new townies when I create them, but thought that might be pushing it a touch. :p  I'm going to experiment a bit to see if I can figure out how to decide whether a Sim should be a townie, downtownie or NPC. *rubs hands gleefully*

[witch]

As I recall, InSim has some sort of 'automated' notification system going on when they alter someone's post. I used the word 'fuck' where i shouldn't have, and I got a PM from. . . uh, something saying that my post had been altered. I went back, checked, and changed the wording accordingly. I wonder if that would work here.

No.

[Li'l Brudder]

I have created my own RandomStuff.txt for it.  Here comes extra small text so it doesn't make my post extra long.  I have kidnapped some of Denimjo's config files, so you'll see those in there.

[Kyna]

Li'l Brudder, I noticed you've weighted black and brown hair so that they'll be twice as likely as red or blonde hair.  I chose to do the opposite, I gave red and blonde hair a much higher weighting than black or brown hair.  The reason for this is that I've played a few Legacies where my sims married townies/NPCs and within a few generations every sim born in the family had black or brown hair for both dominant and recessive genes.  I figured if I start with a higher proportion of redheaded & blonde townies, this is less likely to happen.

I do like the weighting for skills and badges you've used.

I made some dormies yesterday, and gave them randomised majors.  Undeclared was in my list of majors, so some of them are still undeclared.  I will be adding "did townie graduate" to my version of the randomiser when I next make townies, and if so, they will get an appropriate degree.

I also gave the dormies randomised LTWs.  I use Squinge's any LTW for any aspiration, however I don't like pet LTWs, or the family/romance/pleasure sim specific LTWs.  I added the LTWs I don't mind using to the randomiser - all the careers, max 7 skills, 20 best friends, earn $100k, 5 top-level businesses.  Then I rerolled using the lot debugger until the LTW came up.  Does anyone know if there's a mod that allows me to select the specific LTW I want (as rerolling/cycling the LTW on the lot debugger for 30 dormies takes a while)?

I've noticed that townies I've made since installing Seasons never get the Seasons specific careers.  I've added the Seasons careers to the randomiser, as well as career level 1-8, so that I can get a more random spread of careers for my townies.  I was always disappointed that NL didn't take the opportunity to give downtownies degrees and uni careers if you have Uni installed, so I have also included those careers.  I'll be adding your idea of weighting the job level.

[Li'l Brudder]

Fair point about the hairs.  It'd probably equal out in the end, seeing as brown and black are dominant.

But I designed it like that because it'd make sense that the neighborhood started out with more, appearing as though that the neighborhood always existed and that genetics was already in play.

[witch]

Does anyone know if there's a mod that allows me to select the specific LTW I want (as rerolling/cycling the LTW on the lot debugger for 30 dormies takes a while)?

I use SimPE

ETA: No I don't. It's been so long since I was in SimPE for tweaking I got confused with the jobs. I use SimPE to set jobs. I don't know a quicker way to do LTW, sorry.

[Kyna]

Hook, I love the fact that I can drop the config file onto the program icon and have it run just that file.  I have the program in a folder on my desktop called "Hook's Handy Sim Randomiser", and I simply alt-tab to it and drop the appropriate config file onto the icon when I want.  Definitely handy - hence the name.  BAAAAAAAA!

For chance cards I have been using the info in the thread in the War Room to pick the best option, where there is one.  But sometimes the best option comes up wrong anyway, and sometimes I might want to shake things up by being random.  So I added some lines for chance cards, depending on that particular card's chances of the best option (as per the thread in the War Room).

The Seasons careers no longer follow the 85/15 for best/worst option, so I added lines for their percentages also.  I have also included a 10% chance of passing on the card.

NB By best option I mean "most likely to be the right answer", not necessarily the option with the best outcome.

*For 85/15 cards
Best option [765]
Worse option [135]
Pass [100]

*For 80/20 cards
Best option [36]
Worse option [9]
Pass [5]

*For 75/25 cards
Best option [675]
Worse option [225]
Pass [100]

*For 65/35 cards
Best option [585]
Worse option [315]
Pass [100]

*For 55/45 cards
Best option [495]
Worse option [405]
Pass [100]

*For 50/50 cards
Option A [9]
Option B [9]
Pass [2]

[J. M. Pescado]

Fair point about the hairs.  It'd probably equal out in the end, seeing as brown and black are dominant.

I do believe that's a fallacy: In the absence of selective pressure, allele frequencies in a population remain constant. So unless hair color influences a sim's chances of spawning more, providing selective pressure, the allele frequencies will remain constant, except for randomized genetic drift due to the small population of a sim neighborhood. Whatever you put in at the beginning is going to basically be whatever you get out. The same applies for eye colors. This misunderstanding is what led to the prediction that blondes were going to become extinct, an event which has shown to not be occurring.

Skintones, however, work differently: The skintone of your neighborhood will gravitate towards whatever is most common, especially if S2 or S3 are the most frequent, as skin tone information is permanently lost anytime two sims of different tones breed. If your initial population consists of S1 and S4 sims, and they breed producing S2, S3, and S4 sims, S1 is permanently lost forever and unless you introduce fresh blood, those tones will never reappear, as normal ranged skintones are not transmitted as recessive traits.

[Aggie]

I suppose if one really wanted to get complicated, they could open up the SimDNA of their townies and manually add a recessive gene for red and blonde hair (or whatever). They'd simply have to add the following code into the 'recessive hair' line:

Red hair:
00000004-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Blonde hair:
00000003-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

If you wanted it, the numbers for brown and black:
Brown hair:
00000002-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
Black Hair:
00000001-0000-0000-0000-000000000000

[JenW]

I made a couple of config files for pet names for use with this, attached in case anyone is interested I'm probably going to do some for Sim names to, categorized.

Jen

[witch]

Would you mind sharing your text file with all the chance card info, including Seasons, please Kyna?

ETA:

Hook's Handy Haxor

[Kyna]

If you mean the info on the chance cards themselves, I don't have that in a text file. 

I printed out the info available in this thread, including Pescado's table in the first post and Striker's info in this post (some of which needed to be corrected by cross-referencing with Pescado's table as the chance cards occurred in my game, as some of them are the wrong way around).  When Pescado updated the table for Seasons, I just added a basic handwritten page to my printouts, listing job level, job title, and the percentage of option A being right.

As for my RandomChanceCard.txt file that I use with the randomiser, I already gave the contents of the file in my earlier post.  But here it is as an attachment.

[witch]

Thanks Kyna, I had trouble getting onto MATY a few nights ago and probably missed some posts.

[J. M. Pescado]

Picking chance cards at RANDOM seems rather stupid, since it would simply significantly reduce your odds of being right. If you choose the "right" answer which works 85% of the time, 85% of the time, you will instead only be right 74.5% of the time (0.85*0.85 + 0.15*0.15). This is clearly worse than choosing the "correct" answer without exception (0.85* 1.0 + 0.15*0), which yields an 85% chance of positive yield. The only question is whether or not to play at all, not what to play.

[Kyna]

I found that knowing the "right" answers to the chance cards led me to ALWAYS choose the 85% option. 

I wanted to throw in a little randomness into it, to shake things up a bit.  I'll still be right the majority of the time, but I'll get it wrong often enough to upset the smooth running of my sims' lives.  For those chance cards where the odds are 55/45, I would hesitate to call 55% the "right" answer, but I'll still be picking it more often than the 45% option.

Of course sometimes choosing the wrong answer gets it right, particularly with the less extreme Seasons career odds.  The first chance card I had come up using this was the one at the top of the Gamer career - the Bella question.  I went with the randomiser's answer (choose the 45% option) and it paid off.