Jordan M. G.'s Hack Shack

[Singularity]

Well, B suggested I claim a thread in Peasantry, and I do seem to be getting sucked in to hacking this game (but then, anyone who hangs around MATY long enough would!) so here are the two hacks I've already made.

EmployeeNoDoubleDip prevents playable sims who are employed at a business from heading to work when you play their lot.  This was a quick fix to try to reduce sims getting paid twice or more due to playing different lots.  A more substantial one, perhaps with tokens, may eventually be forthcoming. NoCommProtect was made under the same general premise as Pescaso's nouniprotect -- that is, a holy quest to eliminate invincible sims. Sims will pass out (and therefore drown) on community lots now, as well as starve to death.  Kids still cannot starve to death, but that's standard Eaxian behavior so I've left it alone.

I'm sort of learning how to hack these things together as I go along, so don't hesitate to yell at me if something blows up.  I will take requests, if I feel like it -- both of these were born from somebody else's complaining.  A little boredom never hurts, either.

[pbox]

EmployeeNoDoubleDip (..) A more substantial one, perhaps with tokens, may eventually be forthcoming.

Are you already working on this? Just asking because I posted a request over at InSim (just before I saw this thread) .. I wouldn't want anyone to do double work because of my whining =)

Also:

I will take requests, if I feel like it

In case you currently feel like it, may I direct your attention towards this whine? No Inheritances .. because "from the ether" payments suck.

[Singularity]

No, I am not working on that yet, mainly because I don't know a thing about tokens yet, or, indeed, most hacking concepts that aren't immediately obvious.   As for No Inheritances... That depends on how hard it'll be to hack in.  I'll look at it.  I'd never really considered it an annoyance, but thinking about it now, most sims have too much money anyway and you can always use Money Orders to spread it around.

[pbox]

As for No Inheritances (..)  I'll look at it.

Oooh thanks! 

you can always use Money Orders

in principle yes (I used to do that before no20K, for example) -- the difficulty with those damn inheritances is just that they often go to sims outside the home lot (of the sim that died), and the maxian dialogue always only lists the first five sims that inherit .. so without extensive tedious bookkeeping, it's impossible to know who exactly now has money they shouldn't have.

You know what I mean? If it's just that the spouse of the deceased (on the same lot) inherits 12.000§, no problem -- it's easy to familyfunds that money away and be done with it .. but when the popup goes "8 sims inherited somehting, and now we're gonna tell you the first five and keep the rest a secret" I'm tearing my hair out every time.

I have no idea how many others are playing like this, but the way I play, I try to build a society/economy from scratch (I started with a randomly generated bunch of sims and I think 50.000§ for the entire hood) with sims employing each other and farms / fishermen feeding the rest of the hood and rich sims building community lots that everyone else can use ("Joe Random Memorial Park") and all that .. in short, what I want is develop the hood from the work that my sims do. In this context, it's incredibly annoying when stuff just falls from the sky and throws everything out of balance .. obviously, Maxis were trying to make everything as easy as possible to keep the 12-year-olds happy, but I'm not 12 and I prefer a less boring game.

[Singularity]

As for No Inheritances (..)  I'll look at it.

Oooh thanks! 

Well, it took a lot of digging and trying random things, but here it is. I'm a pretty slow player, but inheritance is only for death by Old Age, right? If not... then this isn't quite complete.  Eaxis uses "Inheritance Tokens" or whatnot.  My eyes glazed over trying to decipher the code that set those up, so I just ripped out the call for setting them up entirely.  A nice benefit of this is that the inheritance messages don't show up at all, but of course there may be a couple loose ends somewhere I didn't notice.  Please let me know if something blows up.

in principle yes (I used to do that before no20K, for example) -- the difficulty with those damn inheritances is just that they often go to sims outside the home lot (of the sim that died), and the maxian dialogue always only lists the first five sims that inherit .. so without extensive tedious bookkeeping, it's impossible to know who exactly now has money they shouldn't have.

Sorry, I guess I didn't make myself clear.  What I meant was that, if after disabling inheritances you wanted to give some money away anyway, you could use the money order for that.  I wasn't at all suggesting you "undo" the inheritances -- that's why I made the hack, after all.

I have no idea how many others are playing like this, but the way I play, I try to build a society/economy from scratch (I started with a randomly generated bunch of sims and I think 50.000§ for the entire hood) with sims employing each other and farms / fishermen feeding the rest of the hood and rich sims building community lots that everyone else can use ("Joe Random Memorial Park") and all that .. in short, what I want is develop the hood from the work that my sims do. In this context, it's incredibly annoying when stuff just falls from the sky and throws everything out of balance .. obviously, Maxis were trying to make everything as easy as possible to keep the 12-year-olds happy, but I'm not 12 and I prefer a less boring game.

Wow, I think my head would explode trying to keep track of all of that.  I've only recently made it a habit to sync my lots time-wise. I do know what you mean about it being too easy.  I have to actually make a concerted effort to put my sims in aspiration failure, while getting them platinum is a matter of habit.

[pbox]

Well, it took a lot of digging and trying random things, but here it is. I'm a pretty slow player, but inheritance is only for death by Old Age, right?

YES! Hooray! Thank you! Yes, "accidential" deaths don't yield the inheritance (which is why I currently throw satellites at my elders as a workaround)

Thank you 

* cradles precioussss new hack *

Eaxis uses "Inheritance Tokens" or whatnot.  My eyes glazed over trying to decipher the code that set those up, so I just ripped out the call for setting them up entirely.  A nice benefit of this is that the inheritance messages don't show up at all, but of course there may be a couple loose ends somewhere I didn't notice.  Please let me know if something blows up.

To me it sounds like you've done the right thing, throwing out all the Maxian garbage =) I think I have a sim in a test hood who is about to die of old age, I'll see if i can test this tomorrow. Will let you know how it goes.

What I meant was that, if after disabling inheritances you wanted to give some money away anyway, you could use the money order for that.  I wasn't at all suggesting you "undo" the inheritances -- that's why I made the hack, after all.

I thought you were suggesting a workaround for the time being! "I'll take requests when I feel like it" didn't translate to me as "Hacks to go, grab'em while they're hot"

Thank you again, I've been wanting this for ages. I think I posted my first request back in the Base Game era.


OT:

Wow, I think my head would explode trying to keep track of all of that.

It takes some getting used to, but it's so much more fun it's really worth it. The downside (for me) is only that 90% of my sims are still dirt poor (I've been playing the same hood for almost two years now I believe) and live in tiny shacks .. and I *love* building houses. I compensate by clogging the mts2 Lots+Housing department

[Singularity]

I thought you were suggesting a workaround for the time being! "I'll take requests when I feel like it" didn't translate to me as "Hacks to go, grab'em while they're hot"

Thank you again, I've been wanting this for ages. I think I posted my first request back in the Base Game era.

I always try to keep my school schedule in mind when I'm doing stuff like this, and I really wanted to put something else out yesterday because I'll probably be too busy to do anything the rest of the week.  You were just fortunate enough to be the first to ask.

It takes some getting used to, but it's so much more fun it's really worth it. The downside (for me) is only that 90% of my sims are still dirt poor (I've been playing the same hood for almost two years now I believe) and live in tiny shacks .. and I *love* building houses. I compensate by clogging the mts2 Lots+Housing department

Well, if all your sims are employing each other, then money only gets added to the system when townies buy your stuff, right? Or do you even let townies go shopping? Either way, 90% being poor sounds a lot like real life to me. Besides, if you really wanted them to be rich, you wouldn't be wanting to nuke double-payments and inheritances.

[pbox]

Well, if all your sims are employing each other, then money only gets added to the system when townies buy your stuff, right? Or do you even let townies go shopping? Either way, 90% being poor sounds a lot like real life to me. Besides, if you really wanted them to be rich, you wouldn't be wanting to nuke double-payments and inheritances.

Exactly -- I don't want them to be rich, I want them to be interesting . And if someone gets rich, I want them to be rich for a reason .. like the founder of the local publishing house, who enslaves employs two highly creative sims as writers who would otherwise be living on the street most likely (they could never have afforded a computer in the first place). This way they have a job and can at least rent a little shack, and she gets .. well, not filthy rich yet, but she owns a reasonable house (which counts as "pretty well off" in this hood), and she can afford to buy more computers and provide more jobs.

And you're right, money mainly gets added to the system via the townies; I've started this long before OfB so I had to make up a lot of stuff at first (like a town whore dating tourists for the gifts) .. I actually try to not sell too much useless crap to the tourists (townies) though -- mostly food and drinks, and "services" like ripping them off at poker --, because eventually someone might marry them in and then what are they going to do with 34 toy firetrucks?

Eventually, I want to get rid of the townies entirely .. I'm about to make subhoods instead, with the residents of each acting as "townies" for the other. So that everything and everyone has a backstory and is endlessly interconnected, like when the town whore got abducted by aliens it was with a telescope that she got as a date gift from a tourist who is the father of a girl that lives in the daycare that is run by the eldest daughter of said town whore who is married to the cashier of the hamburger stand that is run by the brother-in-law of the farmer who is the sister of the repairman who is the boyfriend of the barkeeper in the bar that was founded by the uncle of the town whore. True story! And the scary thing is that I still *know* all of this, even though I haven't touched this hood since March or so. I'm finding this much more interesting than everyone waltzing off to some anonymous "carreer" in the morning and knocking up the girl next door in the evening ..

Er, OK, I could go on endlessly =) will stop derailing your thread now. (But you asked!) My point, I think, is that everyone and everything in this system has an identity, and money changing hands should have a source and a target .. there is no room for silly maxian "life insurance" coming from nowhere, and I'm glad I'm rid of it.

[Magicmoon]

NoCommProtect was made under the same general premise as Pescaso's nouniprotect -- that is, a holy quest to eliminate invincible sims. Sims will pass out (and therefore drown) on community lots now, as well as starve to death.  Kids still cannot starve to death, but that's standard Eaxian behavior so I've left it alone.

Does this also affect playables who are on a comm lot, but who are there as visitors and not part of the household you are currently playing? (Unselectable playables)

I ask because I believe that JMP said that uncontrollable playables dying on comm lots was a bad thing.

In any case, I'm looking forward to trying both of these mods. I love nouniprotect, but it only affects dormies, not playables of yours from other lots.

[Madame Mim]

Thankyou very much for the no inheritance mod. It's recently started annoying me too as I start trying to integrate my Neighbourhood economy (although not to the degree pbox is going).

*gently places new mod into game and goes off in search of 'new' jewelery after deleting every damned old one out of my game*

[pbox]

I just playtested the no inheritances hack: it worked fine!    The reaper procedure seemed strangely short but maybe that was just my imagination .. wouldn't be a big deal anyway, it's not like I've never seen it before 

I was being a tad stupid and saved after the fact .. which means I coudn't doublecheck for what happens with yellow and platinum aspiration (the tester sim was in green), but I know for sure the inheritances are normally for every death by old age, not just platinum, so I guess it Just Works. If not I'll be back and let you know.

What a relief! Thanks again 


Eta, forgot to say: this is with Base+NL+OfB+Seasons p2 + way too many hacks to list (mostly MATY ones).

[Invisigoth]

Pbox, I am really interested in the idea that you've put together as a play style. I think that I'd like to try it. If it isn't too much of a problem for you I would really appreciate if you would put together a step by step explanation/instructions and maybe post it in Planet K. I believe that this would could be considered to be a "challenge". Perhaps the "Real Economy Challenge".

Jordan, thanks for the hacks! I'm trying out no comm lot protect. 

[pbox]

Pbox, I am really interested in the idea that you've put together as a play style. I think that I'd like to try it. If it isn't too much of a problem for you I would really appreciate if you would put together a step by step explanation/instructions and maybe post it in Planet K. I believe that this would could be considered to be a "challenge". Perhaps the "Real Economy Challenge".

I don't see any way to play this as a challenge .. there are so many variables and unexpected turns, how would you want to score that? But if there's interest I can try to put together the rules / general prinicples and experiences from my hood and what hacks i use and stuff, and post the whole thing here in peasantry? I've got some of it written up somewhere anyway .. I also posted about it here (with my old account) I think .. try searching for "plasticbox", I think that was my old username.

Also, do you know that the Isle of Thyme rules/howto have been reposted at S2C? Might be of interest for you too.

And now I'm REALLY going to stop hijacking this thread .. sorry Jordan =)

[Invisigoth]

Pbox, I am really interested in the idea that you've put together as a play style. I think that I'd like to try it. If it isn't too much of a problem for you I would really appreciate if you would put together a step by step explanation/instructions and maybe post it in Planet K. I believe that this would could be considered to be a "challenge". Perhaps the "Real Economy Challenge".

I don't see any way to play this as a challenge .. there are so many variables and unexpected turns, how would you want to score that? But if there's interest I can try to put together the rules / general prinicples and experiences from my hood and what hacks i use and stuff, and post the whole thing here in peasantry? I've got some of it written up somewhere anyway .. I also posted about it here (with my old account) I think .. try searching for "plasticbox", I think that was my old username.

Also, do you know that the Isle of Thyme rules/howto have been reposted at S2C? Might be of interest for you too.

And now I'm REALLY going to stop hijacking this thread .. sorry Jordan =)

Oh, I never score my challenges anyway. I just like the rules to give me some direction because I get bored sometimes and fall into a pattern of playing the same way with every house. I would really appreciate it if you'd post something in peasantry, or wherever you'd like. I'll take a look at the Isle of Thyme thing, I've never heard of it before. Thanks for the tip!

/derailment

[Ambular]

I will take requests, if I feel like it -- both of these were born from somebody else's complaining.  A little boredom never hurts, either.

Ooooh, that's a dangerous thing to say in this community!  XD  But perhaps when you have time you could look into this small but intensely irritating problem for me: that insipid grin on the face of CAS Sims.  I'd bow down before you as a true Mod God if you could substitute a nice, pleasant, neutral expression in its place.  XD

[witch]

Inge had a 'no gurning' hack so sims don't make those stupid faces as soon as you zoom in to put makeup or whatever on them. They just keep neutral expressions from memory. Not sure about the smiling.

[Singularity]

Does this also affect playables who are on a comm lot, but who are there as visitors and not part of the household you are currently playing? (Unselectable playables)

I ask because I believe that JMP said that uncontrollable playables dying on comm lots was a bad thing.

In any case, I'm looking forward to trying both of these mods. I love nouniprotect, but it only affects dormies, not playables of yours from other lots.

Hmm... that's a very good question.  I really don't know, but I can say that in my testing with a crap lot containing only a pool, the visiting sims acted like they couldn't leave fast enough. I'm pretty sure their free will prevents them from drowning unless you have a ladderless pool... But if you're setting up community lots like that, then you're just asking for it.   If I wanted to torture a sim on a community lot, I'd send them to any old community lot and turn their free will off.  That's the easiest way.  If I wanted to kill a particular sim as fast as possible, however, that's where Paladin's assault rifle comes in.

Also, while there are people who take requests for houses or comm. lots, I am not one of them.  I consider my building skills sub-par on a good day.  I still build houses frequently, because I find it more annoying to edit a house someone else made than it is to start from scratch, but they definitely value function over form.  They almost all share the same architectural style/price range, anyway: "Modern-type-thing" and "Whatever it takes to move my sims in", respectively.  I'm just throwing this out now, lest I turn down such a request in the future and be skewered with pitchforks.

[Aggie]

I'd be willing to test out the 'visiting playables death' scenario if someone could tell me what the possible/probable game-wrecking outcome would be if it succeeded.

[squish]

I've had a problem with the noinheritances mod. It doesn't seem to like pets (I have all EPs and SPs). It works fine for just sims, but I've been stuck in my game for a bit with a pet who's dying of old age, but once the Grim Reaper reaches it, he disappears and then reappears on the lot and gets stuck in the loop. I've got an error log for it.

[attachment deleted by admin]

[Singularity]

Hmm... I have all EPs except Pets and BV, and no SPs at all.  Whether I can fix this depends on whether the Seasons file also checks for pets or not.  Either way, I'm pretty sure I know what I did wrong.  I pulled that BHAV from the base game, for what I foolishly considered "compatibility reasons". It's getting late here, but hopefully I'll have a fix for you tomorrow.  Surely I'm not the only modder to make a foolish mistake... right? I'm kind of new to this still, in case you couldn't tell.

[squish]

I don't know anything about modding, but I can kind of see how it happened. At a guess, it seems like there's a link between sims dying of old age and pets, and when the pet died of old age the mod was preventing something happening (ie. the bit you modded to stop the inheritance) but because the game couldn't find it, or whatever, it resulted in the game to loop the grim reaper appearing to try and find what it was missing. Or something like that. It makes sense in my head anyway 

[pbox]

Found something new to bother you with -- a trading mod?

I usually have my sims exchange items by selecting a visitor and putting stuff in and out of their inventories. This works, but is not very elegant .. it requires selecting and fiddling and somehow doesn't feel very "in-game" -- it is a workaround, after all, as there's no regular way to exchange things between sims.

Since there already is an in-game method of giving stuff to other sims (Seasons gifts), it suddenly dawned on me that it might actually be possible to write something that would let sims trade/give/sell items in a similar fashion: a "give" or "trade" interaction but without the whole gift-giving aspect (boring animation and rel++) .. much like the gifts, only useful?

It would be great to be able to trade between sims .. or even just give something to someone without ceremony and wrapping paper (poor trees!). Maybe this would work with money too? Perhaps even taking relationships or niceness or charisma into account? Say, I offer you my old lawn chair, can I have that piano for it? Or: how much are you willing to pay? Or: "Sell" > chair, and the price depends on who I'm talking to? Or: how much is that piano in your pocket?

Not that I mean to ask for everything at once -- just to give you an idea what it could be used for .. if this kind of thing would work with money (not just inventory items), I'd love to have a way of paying/giving money to sims directly when I see them, without having to get a money order and fill out the forms .. recycling the tipping animation for that would be perfect (not sure if there's more than one -- I mean tipping the waiter at an owned restaurant).

Buying stuff would be yet another aspect .. playables could be like walking stores, selling small things (like some of the NPCs sell potions and such).

Um, yes. Just talking aloud -- I'm well aware that this is not a "quick fix" request, more like a suggestion for a bundle of new features .. I wrote stuff about sim economy in this other thread over there, that's why I was thinking about it.

[Singularity]

Yikes! That trading mod seems more than a little out of my league. Ask me again in a few months, maybe I'll have changed my mind. Seriously though, if I were to look at that now it'd be a recipe for banging my head into the wall from frustration. The one part I probably could do is nuke the give gift animation... that shouldn't be too hard. I'll think about it.  As for the dying pets problem, try this version.  I haven't tested it in game (because I don't own pets ) but I think it should work. As a result, this was taken from Seasons, so you should own that EP unless somebody wants to test it and prove otherwise.

[pbox]

if I were to look at that now it'd be a recipe for banging my head into the wall from frustration.

Totally understand =) I just wanted to get the suggestion out there (not sure if it's considered OK to blatantly request stuff in the Podium .. but I guess I shall repost now), and since I've no way of knowing how complicated these things actually are, i didn't want to just presume it's "too hard" based on nothing but a gut feeling.

Does it make sense for non-Pets (but Seasons) users to test the new noinheritances? Or did nothing change for us anyway?

[Singularity]

Well, pbox, I'm in that exact situation myself, as I mentioned above (having Seasons, but not Pets).  I haven't tested the new version on my own system yet, but I will soon.  I'll respond soon with results.

As for a new shiny, currently I'm looking at the remnants of code dealing with the scrapped power outage scenario.  I have no idea how much of it is salvageable/currently hooked up, but it appears that there were functions that took energy/water use into account when calculating bills, functions to turn on/off the power, and something that runs a function tied to objects when this state changes.  I'm currently investigating to see how this can all mesh together.  I was probably one of many (well, at least several ) people who hoped this power outage scenario would return with the Seasons expansion.  Exactly what I can accomplish remains to be seen.