More Awesome Than You!

Does any one know of a way to take a census of a particular neighborhood? What I'd like to do at a minimum is to know the male/female ratio, but it would be nice to know how many of each zodiac sign and aspiration.

Edited because I can't spell.

Sure, use Pegasys' great database:  http://www.sims2db.com/

Thanks, but I was hoping to find something that would interface with the game in some way so I wouldn't have to do the manual entry. I did a spreadsheet for MATYville which listed all this data so I could get a census. I was hoping that as I was re-building it, I could take a lazy way out and just get a report from the game instead of manually tracking it all.

Ooh, census. Fun. I'll get right on it.

Simmiecal, this is not automated, nor does it interface, but would this help?

It's just a chart. Nothing exciting guys.

[404'ed!]

Yes - that definitely helps.
Thank you! I had the aspiration listed but not the turn ons and offs. This will save me having to go back into each individual thread for the data.

Simmiecal,

There's a new feature in SimPE .54 to get a csv file containing character info.
Quaxi added this to support sims2db easier.

You should be able to open the cvs file with any spreadsheet program.

Woo hoo! (I need a new expression for excitement - the sims have "stolen" this one from Homer Simpson.)
Now I get to play more with SimPE (translation: pull my hair out for a couple of hours figuring something that would take a normal person fifteen minutes) and then install the new database.

With an import / export capability, the database will be very helpful for this project and for others.

Thanks all!

So I take it nobody is interested in quickie in-game census reports, then?

Actually, JM, it sounds good to me!  I hate to break out of the game just to see how many of what sex I have in each gen.  And pertinent information like aspiration would be helpful for getting romance sims together, when I hate to search through a list for that info.

Go for it!

Well, so far I have the basic head count and breakdown by gender and age. Any other suggestions?

If you write it, we'll use it :)

Summary info would be good to check before making new sims in CAS.

A configurable 'whois' search would be good too.
ie. Who is 'female, single, fit, brown hair, adult, ...".

Aspiration and zodiac signs

Edited to add: as much as I like the database concept, this would be much better suited to my purposes. Basically, I just want to know what kind of sims to add to try and balance out the hood (any hood). If I have no popularity libras, and 5,000 romance aries, I don't want to add another romance aries.  ;)

Can you get aspiration, astrological sign and career?  And is there any way to get the data that would tell how many sets of twins by age?

I still want an in game census, Awesome One.

^^Not Relevant to Discussion^^

Yeah, aspiration would be good.

That was exactly what I was going to say.  Also Private/Public School, University graduates (+honours), Uni Progress (1st year, 2nd year etc)?

We don't ask for much, do we?  :D

How do you make SimPE .54 make the .csv file?  I am as SimPE literate as a rock.

Would soooo love this.

I am interested in zodiac, turn on's/off's, age and family name. As I teleport alot with Inge's shrub, I often forget which townie is in which family and have to search through thousands of names. My sims marry and interact with the townies and NPC's alot so having a total list with all sims on it would be so handy for match making. The manual way takes me ages and I keep losing all my written notes which I scribble down in normal engineer fashion whilst playing the game.

Bear with me, I'm writing some step by step notes on this as I post.
The CSV option is under preferences for the Report Format.

BTW, V.54 only came out today, so you'll need to update it if you haven't already.

I updated it.  Okay, thanks, I'll be waiting.

You write it I use it. :)

I can't find Report Format under Preferences.

It is the Preferences under "Extra" right?

Open SimPE version .54 (30 Jan 2006)

On the Menubar at the top...
Extra->Preferences.  Choose SimPE Settings.  Set 'Report Format' to CSV. Press OK.

Tools->Neighborhood->Neighborhood Browser.  Select your hood then press OK.

Look in the left hand pane and select "Sim Description (SDSC)".
In the Right hand pane select all the sims you want a report on.
eg. Click the first, scroll the list down, shift-click the last.

Press "Ctrl-D" (or Tools->Create Description->from selection)

The report pops up, choose 'save...' to create the CSV file.

Hope that's clear.

I would love in game census reports. 

Where do I find save?  I mean, when the report comes up, Ctrl+S doesn't work.  I can't select save from the menu, and there is no menu on the Report Box.

[Edit:]Makes me sound un-dumb.

This sounds cool. I'm interested in age, sex, asperation, zodiac, career and if possible also turn ons/offs. This would be so usefull. But it would be even cooler if you could do townies and playable sims seperately. The townie info squished in together would make the playable sims info harder to gauge if you were only interested in them.

The 'Save...' option is on the report dialog, at the bottom right.

Are you on AOL or something? Perhaps your ISP still has the old version cached?
This is not gonna make much sense until you have .54
The character (neat, outgoing, etc) columns were added with 54 too.

The data will look like a mess as there's far more columns in there that you will need, but if you load it into a spreadsheet you can easily delete the stuff you don't want. If you're thinking of creating your own table of your sims now, this gives you an excellent head start.

This output is mainly for programs like sims2db, so you won't have to type it in manually.
The CSV is also RAW data, so some of the values like DNA will show 'imcomprehensible' strings, instead of blue eyes, etc.
So turn-ons won't make sense unless you write some spreadsheet functions to replace them, or wait for Pegasys to write the import function for sim2db.  Lots of work to do there.

I see it, the color of the Save button is the same color as the background.

'Cool' is not the word :)  It makes me shudder how much time in the past I've been writting sim info by hand.

All those columns are there, you'll need the info below for the turn-on flags (thanks Jaxad).
Reporting on *all* the sims doesn't take long.  You can then sort by household in your spreedsheet program to gather townies etc, together.

List 2:
32 - Gray Hair, 16 - Custom Hair, 8 - Black Hair, 4 - Brown Hair, 2 - Red Hair, 1 - Blonde Hair
List 1:
8192 - Tatoos, 4096 - Hats, 2048 - Full Face Makeup, 1024 - Makeup, 512 - Glasses, 256 - Facial hair, 128 - Vamprism
64 - Underwear, 32 - Swim Wear, 16 - Formal Wear, 8 - Fitness, 4 - Fatness, 2 - Stink, 1 - Cologne

Aspiration count by gender.  I prefer to have roughly equal numbers of each aspiration, and so far I've done it by running them through college 6 at a time.  I.e. the dorm contains one Sim of each aspiration, and then one graduates.  Then a new Sim joins, and he or she chooses whatever isn't represented.  This has its drawbacks, and while I'd like it balanced by gender, doing so was too much work.

 - Gus

I too vote for forging ahead with the census. It would have to beat my dinky little chart. Everything I would want in it has already been suggested. ;D

Hey you all! Just wait!

I've been working feverishly on the new and shiny version of Sims2DB which will allow import from the new version of SimPE. As I see you're all aware, Quaxi made some wonderful tweaks to SimPE which allows for text output. It can be then read into the database and you can create reports galore! Plus you'll be able to see things like recessive genes and stuff! It'll be even more awesome.  ;D  But of course, it's not in-game...

My head has been swimming with 4096 vs 2048 vs. 00000001-0000000 vs. 32dee745..... I've been doing the conversions so you won't have to remember which is "blue eyes", etc. Also if you don't want the complexity of the Sims2DB database, I plan to make what I call the SimPE Importer available which is like a simple spreadsheet and I'll enable .csv output from this...

I'm gonna need some testers though!

Edited to add: I think an in-game census would be way cool too. Aspiration, gender, career, age, etc., basically everything others have mentioned. That combined with the lot-timer would mean a greater degree of fine-tuning of gameplay.

I was just thinking how useful it would be to take a census pre-decimation & post-decimation - you know that thing we can achieve with that button we are never never to press

Pegasys - you'll have testers, probably more than you want. ;)


I also agree with the In Game Census, I think everything was mentioned, FN, LN, Household, Asp., Age, would be all I need, but I suppose I'll want the rest when I put in NL. Just adding my 'me too please'

There are times you're in the game and times you're not... I'd use both.

That sounds great!  I am still using the database quite obsessively lol  If you need a tester you'd know I'd be happy to help! :)

I think an in game census would be nice to an extent, as long as it doesn't start getting too detailed.  I like the idea of just gender & age groups.

Pegasys, this sounds great!  I really like the look of your database and the reports, but I was dreading typing in all the data.  There seems to be a lot of stuff not in the CSV file, like family relations, but if you can pull in what's there, it would be a smaller data entry job.  I assume we could update the fields from the CSV whenever we make a new one.

Anyway, you are awesome, as are the SimPE authors. :-*  Thanks so much.

There's a test version of the Census tool in the NL hack test section, if anyone is brave enough to test it.  I tried it last night, and it seems pretty cool.

Of course, I take no responsibility whatsoever if your game blows up in a BIG FIERY BALL VISIBLE FROM SPACE.  ;)

Then I'll have a fire hydrant to put out the BFBVFS.

I'd love an in-game census.

I can't get SimPE to read my sim files at all. I think I *might* have chosen poor/wrong options when I loaded it and it's confused as I'm using a 2nd user account, not the base one (although I did find how to change it so it at least recognizes the neighborhoods). I probably should reload and not choose extras and just classic and stuff. Anyway I'm too dumb and don't have enough time to work it out, so I've decided to avoid the whole issue until I can't anymore (might be awhile). </stupidity admission>

Anyways, I'd love an in-game census with all the things people have already mention (especially age, gender, zodiac, aspiration, turn-ons/offs) and also hair color (yes I'm asking for the moon.) I almost always use hair color as one of the turn ons for my playables so I'd love to be able to find out easily if there's a good match in the Uni pool or whatever.

<goes off to download and playtest - I'm extremely likely to break something so probably a good test subject>

Sagana,

I think you might find when the new version of Sims2DB is out it might be useful to you even though it's not in-game. The neat thing will be that you can load in all the townies and see their traits, turn-ons/offs, etc. with all of the traits you want to look for. You'd have to use the most current version of SimPE but I've found it to be very stable so far.

I'll also say the in-game census is very useful; I tested it out and so far no BFBVFS. Just more and more awesome stuff coming down the pike.

Uh, where now? I'd be happy to test, but I've had a few too many to find it right now, apparently...

Clem..

www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/test/

Maybe you should sober up a bit before you try it  ;)

I was perfectly sober and had a hell of a time finding it. I kept looking at the thread titles and was about to post a "where the hell is it" question when I happened to stumble across it.

I blame it on the natural suckiness of all Simmiecals.

I looked around a bit and then just did a search for "test" and put in the right directory... that one's kinda hidden, yes?

So now that I've found the file - is there also a proper hidden place for discussing testing? Puts stuff in here, but feel free to move it or just rip my lips off or whatever if it's the Wrong Thing To Do<tm>

No BFBVFS at all, all loaded up fine and everything - even tho I took my simslife in my mouse and added Inteenimater at the same time (and removed some stuff I had in that's incompatible). All the sims on the lot were standing, rather like adding a new EP but I'm figuring inteen is responsible for that (it changes so much and the census thing doesn't). The census thing is easy to find and looks great, places no problem. Reports numbers a charm, easy enough to figure out what it's gonna (tho I dunno what safe mood does or doesn't with it off)  and no issues getting them to come up (doesn't even take that long).

However, I'm wondering if the numbers I'm getting are accurate. I guess they might be, but they're a little funny. I'm running Pleasantwhateveritisvieworville. I've one uni and one downtown attached. I didn't delete all characters, but I do have both nodormieregen and notownieregen (and all critical fixes, I think). I've got one family of my own added - mother and father had 4 kids, oldest child married a townie and had a child of his own (just born) and mother died. I haven't touched the Maxis playables except to grow some kids up and send some to college (and mostly turn them back into townies except a few that joined the greek house I was doing 'til I realized inteen wouldn't let Greek houses have famblies).

Anyway, the census report says I have 306 non-playables. Kinda high, but not impossible. 40 playables - same thing. 'Cept it says there's 1 male toddler playable... and... I don't have anyone with toddlers. Do any of the Maxis made folk start with toddlers? I know Brandi Broke starts out pregnant, but the older boy is a child, yes?

Also a little curious why there's 40some aspirations the census taker can't understand :) It gets cheese and even power (it'd be cool if that did something, really) so what could those others be?

I've also realized it'd be really awesome great if the bureau could give stats just for Uni, just for downtown etc. Some division so I could put it in context.

Pegasys, the DB sounds really great, but it's the next-newest version of SimPE I'm having trouble with. For some reason, it reads all my CAS and in-game born sims as unidentifiable or something. I dunno, I broke it. Not uncommon with me :) Maybe the very newest one will just work or someday I'll figure out what I did wrong. If I can ever made it work, I'd love your DB.

Sounds about right. Beau Broke starts out as a toddler.

Those are probably "dead sims". Many older dead sims may have nonvalid aspirational states, or not-be-people. Things like Grimmy, PT, Hula, they may not have meaningful aspirations.

Downtown isn't considered a seperate condition from the rest of the neighborhood. Uni-only mode can definitely be added, though.

What is "Power" aspiration?

Oh he is a toddler. I rarely play the premades and I couldn't even remember his name :) Ok, all about right then (306 nonplayables, geez... and 40 playables when there's only 6 I really needed, well and then another 6 I moved in from being townies... so ok, 12 I wanted. Silly Maxis :p)


Ah, that makes sense then. And I think it did report about that number of dead sims (surprised me for a sec until I remember all those Triceau's in the graveyard). I'll check again tomorrow and subtract dead and so get a count for Grimmy et. al. That'll be interesting.


Uni will be wonderful! Thank you very much.

Silly me. And in such an obvious place  :) Yeah, I didn't think of looking in the indices. Mostly 'cause I didn't remember how to do that.

Am sober now, though, and look forward to using it.

ETA: Forgot to say thank you, this is great. And thanks to aussieone for spinning me in the right direction. 

Yes, this always happens if you install InTeen or uninstall it, and some other hacks I can't think of now.  It's not anything to worry about, although it can disrupt your sims' sleep cycles if you tend to save after putting them to bed.  It messes up sims at work or school.  With NL, you can usually send them back to work though in their cars.  I didn't install InTeen, but I'm still finding families in different neighborhoods I haven't played since installing NL, and they are all standing in the front yard after being sent to work and school.  Also, any sims who grew up with the stuck smart milk bit will be "unstuck" now.  Now it's not so much of an issue because I can put it back with the Lot Debugger.


Beau Broke is a toddler, and Dustin is a teen, not a child.

The Power Aspiration is Aspiration #4. It is unused and incomplete. It may or may not become something else in the future. No sims should be listed as having this aspiration unless you've been doing things you really shouldn't.

Hrm... interesting. Are you absolutely positive about these values for the Turn Ons/Offs? I tried looking at these (not in game/internally as I started to, and it made my head spin :P) but when I tried to look at the values under person data in various error logs, they seemed inconsistent. In my test sample, I was looking at the various settings for Turn Ons and Offs for the Pleasant family, and Cologne had been set for 3 of them, twice as a Turn On and once as a Turn Off, and the numbers did not all match.  ???

I just took a look a few of the error logs I had some other values like: 4608, 1025 and 0. Granted they are close to 1024 and 1, but I was skeptical as to whether it was safe to assume they are the same. And what about tht 4608 value? Also... for Attraction Traits, I've had all sorts of values like 3200, 3202, 1032, etc. It looks like the person data has two fields for this (Attraction Trait 1 and Attraction Trait 2). Are these values simply several traits added together? Thus far, there doesn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to these values, at least superficially. I would have to dig more through the code to figure it out, but I was wondering if anyone else had already been able to decipher these. The only way I've seen these changed is by brining up the dialog box for Turn Ons/Offs, but no direct way to set a specific trait to a specific value. Nor why certain values don't fit the schema that you mention above. Do some sims, in particular, Maxis pre-made sims just have garbage junk value? Or is there an acceptable range for values that correspond to a particular Turn On/Off?  ???

Any info that sheds light on the situation would be helpful. :)

As for the whole census thing, that would definately be a great tool to have in-game. It would be great to have more in-game tools that sort of do things like set relationship status (friendship, crush, love, etc.), sexual orientation (yeah I know LizzLove has a tool for that, I'd definately like to see more tools though), etc. I know that many of things can be done with the debug options, but even those options seem... well buggy. :P I also wish there was also a way to remove or prune people from the relationship panel, especially the ones that you have 0 relationship points with. Too bad they don't just drop off automatically so that you wouldn't have to waste the space or have them clutter up your relationship panel.

Ste

Thank you so much for this!
Placed the census in the hood and it was all shiny and worked wonderfully. I think after taking a census in a brand spanking new Pleasantville, I've definitely convinced myself that I will not start any hood without first deleting all characters. Sheesh! So many that you never even see. Can't wait to see how many more OFB adds.

Thanks again! This is great!  ;)  ;D  ;)  ;D

I tried this out last night, its all shiny and stuff.

A listing by zodiac sign would be nice.

They are flags, so yes they are additive.  Look at the values in binary and count the '1's.
If there are more than 2 '1's in a turn-on field then we need to rethink.

They show up in SimPE in the check boxes, and you can see the decimal values in the alternate view to check them.
So it was Quaxi that figured them out first, and Jaxed0127 posted that list recently over at ambertation (http://ambertation.de/simpeforum/viewtopic.php?t=2532).  I havn't checked them myself, their word is good enough for me.

OOOHHHH, a census! What fun! I can't wait to go home and try it out!! Sigh, another night of not grading homework for me.


I know it isn't an AWESOME thing, but InSiminator will let you adjust relationship flags in-game, and will also help you "prune" out the relationship panel.

*ElfPuddle runs away to avoid being beaten and poked for mentioning the non-awesome*

I want that too! I have spent much time wishing I could just click to get rid of some of those useless people. I guess they have to be there so your sim will know they've met them? But why when they don't really know them at all? Even if they can't be gotten rid of it would be nice if all 0/0 relationships could become invisible or hidden from the panel view somehow. It's a pain to scroll through all those nobodys to get to the guy you are furious with. And sometimes the panel gets weird and the scrolling loops and it won't stop at the begining anymore.  >:(

Anyway, yeah, that would be cool.

I think you have to have them so you can call them up and use the phone to make friends or ask them out/over or whatever. I really wish they'd put in a white pages phonebook like they did in Uni with the campus directory. Then it'd really be unnecessary to have people in the panel unless you had a score with them (just to keep track then).

Eep I read on another thread that only designated testers are supposed to get things from the test folder. I hope it's ok I did. I really did try to provide useful-ish info.

<isn't a designated anything>
    Laura

Well welll, what an interesting little add-on.  I will have to try that since I like balance hood with a lot of variety.  I am using sheets so far to do this but ingame tool is way better.

oooo - Snap - I'm not grading a pile an inch thick.

Okay, quite aware that people could have downloaded it, not liked it, and summarily deleted it, but I'm still quite surprised to see that my little chart was downloaded 52 times (especially with this new census thing).

I realize the above statement probably had little or no significance for anyone but me.

I've tried out the census tool and it was quite interesting, even in my new Pleasantview I have 4 times as many non-playables as I do playables.  One extra thing I'd find helpful is to know how many pregnant Sims I have.  Because I play on strict lot rotation now, I keep forgetting who's pregnant until I see them waddling around or being sick in other people's toilets.  I know it can't tell you who's pregnant, but it would help to know how many because at the moment I haven't a clue.

Another good one would be how many Sims are ill with the 'flu or colds or whatever, although I do wonder whether it would include pregnant Sims in this as it doesn't seem to know the difference.

One inch? Oh, no, dear maxon..half a foot. For once, my students are actually DOING their work and turning it in!

(high pitched girly squeal of joy!) 

I've been doing this in a notebook!!!!  How silly am I?  Wait, don't answer that.  ;)

Okay, downloaded, off to test it. 

Is anyone using this with OFB?  I'm about to try, although it's not listed on the OFB compatibility list. 

I don't think it was ever moved from testing.  It was a try-at-your-own-risk thingie.  But since it is a self-contained object and contains no global code, it should be safe. 

Thanks, Rainbow. :)