More Awesome Than You!

Your playables no longer show up at stores to clog their inventories with garbage purchases, which you then have to dispose of at a loss in funds (items are sold at depreciated price, NOT at purchase or catalog price!).

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/terror/blue.gif)
(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif) noplayableshoppers.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ofb/hacks/noplayableshoppers.zip)

No Playable Shoppers for TS2OFB p0
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado & Doctor Boris)

Congratulations to: Draklixa!
In Memoriam: Dizzy

FEATURES:
Playable sims no longer show up at stores to waste all their family's monies
buying junk they don't need that has to be sold back at massive losses in time
and family funds, unless given an FFS Money Order object placed in their
inventory to designate them as shoppers (so you can sell them useful stuff!).
Placing one on the lot will make the lot visitable by all playables.

COMPATIBILITY:
Compatible with all FFS hacks. Tested for TS2OFB p0.

SIDE EFFECTS:
May cause computer damage, incontinence, explosion of user's head, coma, death,
and/or halitosis.

WARNING:
Do not open, crush, dispose of in fire, put in backwards, short-circuit, or mix
with non-awesome hacks - may explode, leak, or catch fire, resulting in injury
and/or death.

Yay! a new shiny!! *kills a goat*

*kills a goat or 10...hell...kills a sheep too, just for good measure*

Finally, now I can actually open up a community business without worrying about screwing up my playable's incomes.

Yes! :D Very shiny and very awesome!

Are they limited to spending the amount of the money order, or is it just being used as a flag?

Hah, so you want calf's blood or will a Mr Pibb suffice? Awesome.

How exactly does the FFS Money Order thing work? If we actually want our sims to show up, when we play them on their lot, we place a money order in their inventory? I forget how the money order works... do we have to designate the amount first before putting it in their inventory? And if so, does the amount matter? Does the amount designate how much the playble sim is allowed to spend on a business lot? Or does the money order just sort of serve as a "dummy" key that allows them to show up on business lots?

Ste

I'll take the blood, thanks. Mr. Pibb sounds like a weak soft-drink that is lacking in caffeine content, and if I were to drink it, I would probably fall into a coma and die.

No, the settings don't matter, it's just a "dummy key" like you said. I just kinda threw that thing in at the last minute just in case. It's sort of the same function as Ingelogical prisoner tags.

I am not sure this is working 100%.  I saw one of my playable Sims on a home business lot, but she may have been there already from a previous session (saved before I installed this hack).  Can you make it so that if there *are* playable Sims that are on the lot as customers (without the money order in their inventory), they leave immediately, or something like that?

I'm sure I don't have the money order object in anyone's inventory.  I haven't used it in ages, since almost all my families have more money than they can use.

Karen

It is a poor substitute for Dr. Pepper. It probably has caffeine in it, though.

No, that's a seperate issue. Playable sims can appear your home businesses anyway if you deliberately invite them, or if they were already there when you installed it. It will quickly fade into history as soon as they leave. Just tell them to sod off.

I'd love a hack which changed the menu from "ask to leave" to "tell to f'in sod off".

Hilarious.

Do you think you could do one where they won't autonomously buy, but they'll still show up? I don't send my simmies to community lots often, and walkbys are a toss up, so it's hard for them to meet other playables. I'd like them to still show for socializing, but I'm not keen on the crazy inventory clogging.

It's not possible to make them show up and NOT buy. Once they show up, they will buy things.

Hmm, will playables still do walkbys on a residential lot with a home business if the business is closed?

Yeah, the guide said that there'd be an inventory limit. I guess they're wrong on that...again. Do you think, Pescado, that you could implement an inventory limit then, so that they'd only keep 3 items?

Thank you for this much needed hack, Pescado. Playable Sims buying stuff is not the only problem. They can also spend their hard-earned cash in a ticketed venue, like Club Dante. I don't know how much of their cash they can spend, but I know it ain't coming back.

Plus, being the control freak that I am, I don't want my Sim going shopping and flirting with someone they are not supposed to. I will tell you who to fall in love with, dammit.

Thank goodness! *worships* I have a playable sim who owns a toy shop. It's doing very well. He has a gold badge and makes and sells water wigglers. And then he turns up at another playable sim's shop and buys a water wiggler there! WTF.  :o

Lol I kinda had a feeling Maxis was going to do this kind of un-thought of feature where they dont think very far into the game. Anyway This would kinda nuke the whole idea pf having a business selling items. Hmm could you make it so only townies would buy autonomysly?

Er...how?  All this does is prevent Sim-family-you-created A, from blowing their money on the stupid crap at Sims-family-you-created B's shop that you only want the townies to buy.

It stops sims you play from showing up, and thus buying.  It doesn't affect townies at all.

If you want Family A to buy from Family B's store, just play Family A, and go to Family B's lot.

Of course, this only works if it's not a home business.

I would join this petition too, because I like my playables to appear in community lots when I visit. Just make them keep the last three items as the townies, please?

Ahh well, hmm maybe I got confused for a second because I play with the notownie re-gen and deleted all characters before I started to play in the neigbourghood.

The "three items" thing is a myth. Everyone keeps everything they've ever bought. Townies, your sims, everyone. Meanwhile, they buy junk you ultimately have throw out at a loss anyway. Nobody cares what townies buy, since their money is free and unlimited, but your sims are not similarly gifted.

If you REALLY want your sim to buy something, you can invite them over with the phone, then ignore them and they will quickly fall into the shopping mode like anyone else visiting a business. Then you can peddle whatever item you think they actually NEED to buy, then say "Bye" before they buy anything stupid.

is it possible to make the bought item have their original instead of depreciated value?

I think at some point Maxis must have intended the three items limit because it's all over the Prima Guide. I guess they either didn't get around to implementing that feature or did but it's broken and didn't bother to test it to find out.

I read in the newspaper about a guy writing guide for games, like half-life 2 etc. He would play the game, and get help from the company, but he says sometimes he couldn't get much help if the company people are very busy. hehe....so, maybe Maxis also farmed out the guide writing to some guy/gal?  ::) I was stunned how low the pay can sometimes go, it says $3000 to $12000  :-\

Well, then. No wonder it's unreliable.

I'm a tech writer so I do more or less what Prima does (though for far less exciting things  :D) and it's hard to get info from developers...they are indeed very very busy, often don't see documentation as important or worth their time reviewing, and often don't keep the writers updated on changes that are made to the software (sometimes even very big changes). So while the mistakes and inaccuracies of the guide annoys the hell out of me, I can sort of understand it. We should all be kicking Maxis, not Prima ;D

Apparently not. Have you looked at that piss poor scrap of paper that they're trying to pass off as a manual that comes with OFB.  ::)

Also, it seems that sometimes Maxis themselves is not informed on certain aspects of the game so they pass on their misinformation to Prima. Maxis seemed quite blissfully igornant of the fact that the cheesecake causing twins feature in fact was broken and did not work. Perhaps had they tried actually playing the game.  ::)

This is an awesome hack!  Since I've had it, I haven't had any sim complain that they didn't have enough money to buy my overpriced stuff.  :)  I guess townies have unlimited funds?

I assume you must be modifying separate BHAVs than twojeffs visitor adjuster, because (at least so far) the two hacks don't seem to conflict.

That thought occurred to me shortly after I posted it, so I grabbed the Jeffian Visitor Controller hack and checked it, and they are, indeed, located on seperate BHAVs, and don't conflict as a result. A fortuitous coincidence, at that.

Thank you so much! Highly useful

The trouble is with Maxis, as far as I can tell, a guy in a suit at EA says 'You have 8 weeks to create this expansion pack... ready, steady... code!' and they throw themselves in to creating as much of their idea as possible, then at the deadline the man in the suit comes back and tells them to stop and whatever isn't finished stays that way, whatever they didn't have time for doesn't get done when its released.

that piss poor piece of paper remains untouched in the case, as has the more glossier versions in previous cases

hmm...i quite like the playable sims coming to buy stuff, but it has been concerning me exactly how much crap they will buy. wtf does  a single sim do with 2 little sister computers and another, custom teen only, one?? not to mention the 3 alarm clocks, all bought on the same outing

If you move a townie in to your lot, does he/she bring with them all the stuff they've ever bought? If so, it could be quite a windfall when you finally sell it all.

I can see it now: Jane Golddigger goes around marrying all the townies she can, selling all their stuff, then they somehow wind up dead from trying to fix that TV with zero mech skill! LOL

According to the Prima Guide, the townies and downtownies have bottomless pockets. Nice windfall, that.

Supposedly, the Prima guide also says that they only keep the last 3 items they bought, except I'm finding that not to be the case. They do have bottomless pockets too I can confirm that, hell I sold a business deed to some teen townie for 100,000 lol. Those get sold back though, they don't keep them. But the items they do.

NPCs also have unlimited spending money. Normally, they don't show up as shoppers but they will if you call them or if they walk by and you greet them. Be careful though as walkbys have been known to shoplift and leave without paying.  :P

Oh and the funny thing is, you can marry a townie with LOADS of expensive junk in their inventory and it doesn't count as marrying a rich sim.  ::)

The fact of the matter is that playable sims buying things is irreversibly broken. Firstly, they buy these things at an illogical loss, meaning your money is simply going down the tubes, since anything they buy cannot be returned for their money back. Secondly, they tend to buy useless things, perhaps because your stores tend to sell useless things. Thirdly, you have to manually junk everything from their inventories if you want ANY of your money back.

The short version is that for logic and sanity reasons, playable sims simply should not buy things unsolicited. On the off chance you DO want them to buy your things, I have left a trigger method so that you can designate specific sims as designated shoppers on a temporary basis. But as a general rule, they really, really, shouldn't, for the above reasons.

So if you teleport your sim to a business to buy something, they have to have the money-order trigger in their inventory, otherwise they won't be able to buy?

Wait, so townies keep everything they ever bought? Please say that isn't so, because it sounds like a really bad idea. What happens if I sell them some custom content and later delete it? Would that cause the whole 'hood to go KABLOOY?

Would it be possible to extend this to banning townie kids and teens from visiting business lots during school hours?  Whenever a townie kid shows up on one of my home business lots during the day, I want to yell at him, "Aren't you supposed to be in school?!"

Karen

If you invite any sim to a business, he may start buying, but he will never show up on his own with the intent of being a customer. If you put the trigger in their inventory, they will show up on their own.

Ah, yes, the joys of delinquency in general. Maybe they show up during recess, and since they return back at the same time they left, they can spend hours there and still make it back in time for the bell.

That would wipe out the legitimate contents of their inventory and quite possibly other things.

I tried the shopping thing in my game by noting down the money I had in a household, then changed to my business, waited until one of my sims from that house bought something, then went back to the house. There I saw that exactly the money my sim spent in the shop had been deducted from the household money. After that, I sold the two things my sim bought from the inventory and then...I didn't make a loss, I actually won money. Everything was sold at the catalogue price and it seems that my sim hadn't paid this price for it. So it's not always a bad thing to have your sim buy crap...

Edit: Maybe that has got something to do with the shop owner having bought things in whole sale mode?

Well, then. If you have an inventory token already in place for this, why not have an inventory token in there that entirely restricts the addition of objects to the inventory. If you're playing the sim and want to take him shopping, then you can just take it out for the moment and go. Would this be possible at all? I very much like having playables visit - my sims are making lots of useful friendships - but the inventory thing bothers me.

Could be.  Could also be that the price that you have the item set to on the lot is lower than the re-sale price the Sim in question has to deal with.  This is most likely if you have the Wholesale perks, since they reduce the restocking fees.

So my Sims can make good deals and bad deals, depending on how I run my shops. But why should I always stop them then?

this hack is for if you want to stop them, don't use it if you don't mind your playables shopping at your businesses.

I tried it out and ended up removing it. I like seeing my male playables show up at the hoods whorehouse (all female visitors have been banned by TJs visitor controller, they will get their own to visit soon)

Well, you see, I was trying to work out if I want them to visit or not...


This sounded to me like it was always a bad idea to allow them to do it.

Well, do remember that you can keep this in and still allow certain playables to go shopping by sticking the FFS Money Order in their inventory as a token. That way your more wealthy sims can waste their money while the poor and lower middle-class ones don't.  ;)

Would it be possible to add an object  that overrides the prevention of playable shoppers if present on the lot? I mind if my playables are buying cars and plasma TVs, but I'd like to still allow them to show up at owned venues and restaurants.

Yes. I'll think of adding this in the next version, so if you put a money order somewhere on the lot, it will tell them to show up anyway.

Whoa, that was quick. Cool beans!

Just a quick note to thank you so much for this hack :) Now I don't have to send them off each time they peek in.

Found a very interesting, minor conflict with this hack and the 'no townie respawn'

If you have both in your game, you do not respawn townies, and your player sims do not show up to buy things, BUT, if you used 'deleteallcharacters' so you HAVE no townies, and you send a player sim to another player sim's store to buy (a servo in this case) then the game automatically generates a SHOPPER for the store.

I have had 21 out of 22 families drive to Frank en'Stein's Electronics to buy the toys and electronics that I want them all to have. After about 30 to 45 seconds of shopping, another Shopper will walk in. So far only 2 or 3 new character files have been created, as most of the time it is the same townie shopper that arrives.

I'm sure that if you have Townies in your 'hood, this won't happen (until you kill them all off) but I thought I would pass along the info to the wonderful and all powerful Oz..um.. JM just in case he needed the info.

Trixie

This is probably due to the way the game controls shops.  Since a shop of a certain rank should have X number of shoppers on it at any given time, the game finds none available and creates some, just like it will do for the Secret Society in UNI.  This townie showing up sounds a lot like the single SS member that will spawn if you visit the SS Lot in a UNI with no SS members in existance other than your own.

Hmm thats interesting. I havn´t played long enough to test out features of OFB since I wiped everything with this expack. Hardly had the time to check out Nightlife either.

Here is an idea, don´t know if it could be implemented: Allow player sims to buy a certain item IF and only IF, they have a want for that particular item.

Won't happen. It'd have been cool if you could set a shopping list for a sim and they would then bargain-hunt for the items you wanted in a directed and purposeful manner, but sims seem to have no real purpose in mind when shopping.

What a stupid, stupid, stupid feature, by Maxis.  Thanks for this patch.

At first, I assumed that playable Sims bought stuff the same way townies do... 1) pull money out of thin air, 2) make object disappear.  That's how it should be.  Of all the times to choose a "realistic" implementation of a feature, instead of a much more playable alternative that requires some suspension of disbelief... Maxis really blew it on this one.

Too bad the only solution is to prevent playable Sims from entering the lot.  If only you could code it so that their shopping transactions (as visitors) have no effect on their inventory or their cash... oh well...

That's exactly how it should be, my friend, and God alone knows what possessed Maxis to do it the way they did. Can they have been so earth-shatteringly short-sighted as to have imagined for a second that players wouldn't get seriously fed up of cleaning out Inventories, time after weary time, of useless crap? I think it's probably that same trade-mark "no Alpha-testing" policy they have which peculiarly resulted in Messrs Le Tourneau et al failing to notice within, oooh, 14-and-a-half seconds, that Objects can no longer be placed in roads and on sidewalks... and then actually releasing the product onto the shelves in such a poor state of health.



I too wish it were so. Indeed I posted a request of this to Squinge(he, like JMP, has been working tirelessly to help turn OfB into something approaching playable) on the forum at Insiminator.net.

I was directed to here by Sleepycat - my thanks to you, BTW.

I thank you unremittingly for this hack, JMP. While it doesn't re-address the STUPID sales coding in quite the way I'd have liked(ie. the way jdanddpt describes in the post above mine), it is nonetheless an improvement.

I should like to concur with the user who requested that we have an over-riding controller item for specific Lots of course. It'd be a shame if playable sims never again visit our Gyms, Nightclubs and Cafés. But for the time being, it's better that than filling their pockets with unwanted crap.

Thanks ever so much, JMP.

Actually, I think the version that works that way has been availiable since the day after I made the request. The Awesome one just hasn't updated the first post's readme to  reflect it.

I've tried it that way in home lots, and it worked fine.,  Haven't tried it on owned community lots, because I haven't been able to find the money order in the community-lot catalog. plan to move one there to a community lot with inventory tonight.

Erm, when you say "a version that works that way," you mean that playable sims who shop there don't part with their families' funds and get their Inventories filled with rubbish(as I've hoped and prayed would come from somewhere)? Or do you mean, as one of the above posts mentioned, simply a version whereby playable sims can be permited back onto specified Lots?

Sorry, just wanting a clarification.


There is another way to do it while AT the Business Lot - it can even enable you to buy stuff that's not anywhere in the Community Catalogue. Use the Business Tag Tool, and put the Lock ON. Residential-only items will appear, and be purchased as STOCK. Then just use the Tag tool again to De-STOCK them, and they can then no longer be purchased, but will instead remain and act as functionable items as normal. :)

Well, depending on your stores, you may *WANT* your sims to have what they buy. This is particularly true when they buy some of those nice handy snapdragons from my playables-allowed store, and I find them in their inventory later, saving me the bother of having to drive over there and fight with the obnoxious browsers to buy out the store. :P

Yes, but then people would start demanding it the other way, because they might WANT the items they purchase. Ultimately this seems to be no-win, except to selectively ban playables from patronizing establishments NOT suitable for them, and allow them into others.

The present No Playables allows this level of control: You can permit playables on a shopwide basis by hiding the token on your lot, or you can permit SPECIFIC playables to show up at all lots, or you can ban all but specifically exempt playables.

Perhaps in the future, an improved populator-replacement will be made to enable one to designate specific clientele for your lot. So you can run, say, a gay bar, that will thus only be patronized by gay sims. Because as it stands, every sim will visit anything.

twojeffs Visitor Controller does this very well already  ;)

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=2271.0

The Jeffistani Visitor Controller is not directly connected to the OFB's business customer summoner, and is also a global override hack (conflict risk). I was thinking of extrapolating it into a replacement controller entirely.

I note you use the word "depending", ie. in some circumstances it may be that some purchases made randomly by sims over whom the player has no control may JUST prove not to have been completely undesirable and thus, it VERY OCCASIONALLY vindicates the inventory-based shopping system we currently have... so that Playable sims can buy snapdragons.


To be entirely honest with you, JMP, I'm very surprised to see you of all people write this kind of thing. As someone I've always admired for thinking outside the Box, and grasping the simplistest and most elegant solution to a simple problem.

Lovely though the idea above IS, of banning specific sims from specific Lots, while allowing others - and believe me, I welcome it, and have always wanted to be able to do it - you can't seriously mean that it's the most convenient and easily playable way to prevent UNwanted purchases, surely? Not when you've got to configure each Lot individually(or each sim) every time, and then wait for the required sim to show up when the game randomly chooses, and then persuade them to purchase the right item you want them to have, while steering them away from purchasing stuff you DON'T want them to buy, then reset the configuration to prevent them returning, then, later, remember to extract the item(s) from their Inventory, removing(at a loss) any superfluous item(s) they may also have bought, and then putting on display any you want to keep... all for the sake of the occasional Snapdragon or any other crafted Items...?

...and all that in favour of keeping a very clunky and NON-foolproof Inventory-based purchase system? When a far more workable and easier system would be to have the Illusory system of "fake" purchases, as outlined by jdanddpt, which would prevent, with 100% effectiveness, any unwanted purchases(and thus necessitate Inventory clearances) that slipped through the net?

I find that hard to believe, sir, coming from a man with the awesome intellect you have always hitherto shown.

I mean, if a Global Hack that worked the way jdanddpt suggested, WHO would seriously wish to return to the way things currently work, and burden him/herself with the necessary, Lot-specific set-up, for the sake of a few crafted items, which could far easier be purchased on Residential Lots with this Collection:

http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=138087 (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=138087)

It contains ALL the flowers, toys and robots(to my knowledge), and they can be placed directly in the sims' homes. Job done. On my other PC to my right, I've just tested this by purchasing a Snapdragon Bouquet and placed it on a desk in a Residential Lot. No problems. The OFB Craft Objects Collection solves the issue of "the bother of having to drive over there and fight with the obnoxious browsers to buy out the store."

This Collection would thus(if a Global "No Inventory purchasing" Hack complemented it) remove the need for ever, as you put it, wanting sims to keep what they buy(on Business or Community Lots). When would a user ever require their playables to keep the stuff they'd bought, if just about every Community- and Craftable- item from all EPs is available for instant purchase in one Shop-at-Home Collection or another?

Now, I grant you that I have no idea whether or not a Global Hack such as the one jdanddpt and myself talked about is at all possible; nor do I know if it is easy to code; nor do either of us have any right to demand it or expect it of you or anyone else for that matter. Not one iota.

BUT, I do declare that it's by far the best and most playable way of rectifying this "unwanted Inventory Items" problem... and it would leave nothing to chance, while still permitting playables to visit our Businesses by default, and a the Hack in THIS thread would serve to complement it as a nice, optional filtration process to go along with it.

And if, as you point out, some users were to start "demanding it the other way, because they might WANT the items they purchase", why on Earth would they DL such a Hack in the first place?  ???  Nobody would be forcing them to.   

JMP, with all due respect, I've always admired you for the work you have done, and for your keen intelligence, which has time and again proven that YOU, above all others, have out-thought both Maxis and the average user vis-a-vis how the game can be made more convenient and easily playable with a minimum of unwanted micromanagment and handling during said gameplay... that is precisley why your arrogance and frequent lip-ripping are justified(we wouldn't endorse them if that weren't so).

Thus, surely you must see how a Hack, the nature of which I speak, coupled with use of the Collection I linked to, provides a foolproof solution which covers every eventuality while ellimating the need for ever again worrying about who's allowed where or who's filled their pockets with what useless crap?

Am I wrong? 

That was an absurdly long winded way to say "Wouldn't it be easier if you did it this way?"

True, but I had of course already asked if it could be done such a way, and JMP had said that he felt it would a) prompt people to complain, and b) hinder the game by stopping purchases of craftable Items.

Hence my discourse to expalin WHY I felt that it's a good idea.

I could of course have been briefer, very much like yourself, and said "Could you do it this way," but that would've made no sense at all without an explanation of WHY.

Beyond an unreasoned demand, my tacit friend, there is something we like to call "discussion". It's how literate people express a point of view.

I'm sure JMP understands.

How perspicaciously, patronizingly, pedagogically pedantic of you. Could you be any more condescending? ;)

Seriously, I don't think impressing upon us your wit and intelligence will work to budge the stubborn ole coot. :P Despite how simple and somewhat logical this solution might be, it would pretty much be a cheaty, cop out way to deal with a borked/broked, poorly implemented system. And for the most part, Pescado doesn't really believe in cheaty hacks, as evidenced by his more realistic, harder type, life's a bitch and then boars rape you hacks.  :D

In other words, his method is a way to work within the system, or to think of it in another way, to make the current implemented system work in a less borked/broked manner. ::) Although the idea of sims automagically pulling out $imoleans from their ass would make it simpler, I agree that many players wouldn't want that. They would prefer the realism of sims actually using their $. Besides, it's so easy to build up loot in the game anyways, I think many long time players just want a way to actually spend the loot when they've gotten bored with their families after having gone through several generations, building up huge houses and the family fortune. As opposed to casual idiot players who don't know how to really play the game and maximize everything to their advantage. As I see it, it would seem that this EP would do well to strike a balance between keeping veterans interested while inticing newcomers s well.

It would probably be even more realistic if everyone had a budget, including townies. But then that would not be practical and no fun at all, when townies end up broke after several hours of gameplay, and either stop showing up, or keep on showing up but are broke and thus worthless. In a way, since townies are essentially immortal, it makes sense that their wealth is equally limitless.

Now... in the very least, if they had only implemented the purchasing/inventory limit as described in the guide, where PCs actually only kept the last 3 items they bought, and you actually were fully reimbursed for such items rather than being penalized due to depreciation, then it would still be fairly crappity, and people would no doubt still complain about it, but it probably wouldn't have been so bad. :P

In anycase, your best bet would probably be to pursue this type of request with Squinge, as s/he? doesn't seem to have any qualms about making cheaty type hacks.

Ste

Well, it helps if you intentionally rig shops so that they sell things to a specific theme. So that businesses can thus be divided into "places that sell things that are useful enough that even playables will want them in quantity", and "businesses that sell crap for townies". More advanced client-controls may be forthcoming in the future.

Amazingly enough, this does seem to be the simplest and most elegant, as far as the problem is that *I* can see, since it simply utilizes the existing tools.

That is, yes. A system for preventing unwanted purchases while permitting wanted purchases would be even more cumbersome and unwieldy.

I wouldn't say occasional. I mean, there always seem to be a need for more of the damn things. And honestly, do you really care who your customers are as long as you have them? It's probably safer that way. Shops are prone to all manners of hazards which may harm your pretties. Why not let the townies, who you don't really care about, run the risks of being stuck in a restaurant auto-dine where the server has forgotten about them until they piss themselves and then pass out onto the floor, instead of subjecting your playables to these random vagaries, seeing as they extract no benefit from it anyway?

There's the minor problem that the shopping inventories are buried in one of the more arcane elements of TS2 code, the inventory system, modification of which is rather difficult to test and fraught with peril. Like having your sims' memories randomly wiped with no apparent cause. Understandably, some of us wish to avoid messing with that when possible, especially when other alternatives exist.

Sure, just undermine the inherent CRAFTABLENESS of the object. Making them common buyables just seems so demeaning and makes them so...not-unique anymore.

It's certainly potentially doable, but not something that I wish to occupy my time with at present, in light of other, more pressing issues. It may perhaps become a possibility in the future when I explore the finer points of inventory-junk-a-thons.

Ah, here's the rub: I don't want such a thing in my game. In order for me to make it, I would have to put something I don't actually want in my game. It would have to stay there for quite some time, during which nobody would actually see it, and if something goes wrong afterwards, I have to put the darned thing back. In my game. Where I don't actually want such a behavior.

Therefore, since I don't actually want such a thing to occur in my game, I'm not really feeling motivated to make such a thing. And therefore I'm going to dismiss the complaint. Nyah. :P

Your post would have been at least 25% shorter just without the asskissing. Fortunately for you, Pescado has a high tolerance for long posts, it didn't reach tl;dr land for him and you got your answer.

Ah, well if it's a question of feasability, JMP, then yes, of course I fully appreciate where you're at there. :)

It is a shame though that Maxis buried something so, as syberspunk puts it, "borked/broked", in such an inaccessible place. :(

One might've thought they would at least have made a distinction between Catalogue and Craftable for Inventory purposes though, eh? Ensuring that only Craftables went in, or something like that. Clearly there's some discrepency between how the game identifies them, as Craftables need to be remade and put into the Owner's Inventory before they can be Restocked, so they clearly made them different in some way. Shame they didn't differentiate between the two for "purchasing purposes" as it were.

Oh well.

As before, I remain endebted to you for the Hack you've given us, JMP, and reiterate the thanks I mentioned above. While it doesn't do 100% of what I'd initially requested in my post to Squinge a few days back, it does nonetheless afford the user a measure of insurance against PCs running rampant with chequebooks on Lots where they have no sane desire to do so. For example, buying cars if they have no driveway or even room for one.

And that's certainly an improvement.

Thanks. Again.

But, syberspunk, I confess I'm somewhat surprised that you would consider it "cheaty" to have a hack such as the one I've talked about. I don't see how it's cheating to ensure that our Families(when NOT being played) aren't ever wasting their funds on spurious items they don't need(or which we don't want them to have), or which they can't use.

In previous releases - TS2 and its first two EPs - this was not possible for them. I don't really see how it would be cheating to make it impossible for that again.

They'd still be able to make purchases, through either the Catalogue or by visiting shops when we take them there. That's the way it's always been. Run out of food and you take your sim to the Grocer's(I lifted the Permafridge out of my game when I installed OfB because it was preventing this), and so you could still do that - including shopping for Crafted Items. None of that would be removed, and the playable sims' spending power would still be constricted by their families' budgets. So I don't see how it would be at all Cheaty.

The only Cheating as far as I can see would be by the console("Kaching" and "Motherlode"), and would be down to the conscience of the player.

I'm not quite sure I get your drift.

In any event, as I said before, I have no idea if such a hack would be possible, and if you assure me, JMP that it would be difficult at best - and moreover that it would be undesirable for it to be in your game - then I certainly don't cast doubt upon that, as I know nothing about Maxis code, as I freely admit.

But I'm not sure how it could be seen as Cheaty.  ???

Did someone say Cheaty?

Exactly how arcane is the code for inventories, anyways? Is it highly prone to make a BFBVFS?

I always enjoy a lovely debate when it comes to intellectual, sardonic wit and obfuscating circumlocution. ;)

You probably aren't aware, but see I don't actually play the game all that much. lol. So I was never really aware that, prior to OFB, your sims actually didn't really pay for things while they were on comm lots? At least, I think I read that somewhere... ???

Anyways, whatever the case may be, my drift is that now the game does charge your sims for their purchases. And completely turning 'features' of inherent gameplay 'off' is my personal definition of being 'cheaty' or 'cheatyish.'

I'm not saying it's bad to cheat. Play your game however the way you want. Use cheats or don't. I personally think of hacked objects or global hacks that completely turns off (e.g. the InSimenator or no jealousy) as being 'cheaty' in the sense that they give you control or modify game behaviour in a way that is otherwise unaccessible or not possible. However... I do use hacks that modify game behaviour in a way that adds more realism or reduces annoyances (e.g. romance mod or noroutefail). I don't necessarily consider those 'cheaty' for my own personal tastes. Obviously someone else may differ in opinion.

Basically, it comes down to preference of gameplay style, and many modders (not all) tend to make things mostly for themselves first, and then share them with others who have similar tastes. I guess it kind of flows back and forth, with people suggestion or making requests, and modders implementing the ones that they agree with and are feasible for them to do. Well... maybe I shouldn't speak for the modding population as a whole. Really, that's probably mostly my own philosophy, in combination of my own interpretation. Like with all these 'no autonomous this' and 'no more that' mods. Those are easy enough to do, but would I want that behaviour for my game? Probably not. Moreover, would I want the overhead that comes with having to troubleshoot, debug, maintain, update, and provide tech support those kind of things? Definitely not. Especially if it's a mod that I have no use for in my game. Essentially, I was pretty much pointing out the unlikeliness of Pescado delving into making this hack, based on (well my perception of) his Draconian, Machiavellian gameplay style, which he responded as predicted. Lol. ;D

For me, the thing that inspired me to take up modding was the 'burning' desire to make things for myself, and the 'impatience' of waiting for others to make it for me. My impatience got the better of my laziness and I ended up learning a thing or two. I'm still learning, but at least now I know how and where to begin, if I ever find something that I want to change or fix.

You might not know much about the 'code' but you seem very eloquent, intelligent, and presumably well-read. You don't necessarily have to be a coder/programmer to take up modding. I presume you love to read, and therefore you're well disposed to following directions. You already have a leg up so to speak on the general non-modding population. I'd suggest taking a stab at it, checking out some SimPE tutorials, and possibly digging through the code and maybe coming up with a mod of your own that satisfies your tastes. You might surprise yourself. And despite Pescado's gruff, outer exterior, he's actually very helpful when it comes to answering questions about modding. In general, it's been my experience that most modders are gregariously magnanimous when it comes to sharing information. :)

Wow. I never get to use those SAT/GRE words in every conversation. Lol. Talk about being uselessly and overly educated. :P

Ever the pretentious erudite,

Ste

I have had this VERY handy hack installed for some time, but I have noticed that none of my business' have had a reporter show up and they are all doing very well. Could there be a conflict stoppping a reporter showing up with this hack?

Thanks
-Xi-
xXx

I've had reporters show up in my businesses, but they don't seem to stay long.  I even invited one back, but he didn't behave like a reporter when invited over (even though he got a couple Stars during his visit).

I don't think it's this hack, though.  I think it's just Reporters being fickle.

ah, thanks thats good to know :)

There is a possibility that this hack does not work with the new expansion pack and the new pet stores.  Might be fixed, or partially fixed, with the new noautopetbuy.  Have yet to try it.

Reporters show up randomly, and often infrequently. Inviting a reporter does not cause him to function as a reporter, although you can pump up his loyalty score without risking a bad review. Once a reporter maxes out his loyalty stars, you get an automatic Best of the Best without doing anything whenever he shows up to report.

Note, however, that "Best of the Best" doesn't really do anything, whereas "Good Review" is +2 max customers. Winning a Best of the Best automatically makes it impossible to get a Good Review from that reporter.

This is related to customers shopping. I have a hack on another comp that is in the shop right now that allowed playable shoppers, but when they bought something it would not show up in their inventory nor was the money deducted from their house finances. It was called shopnosave hack and I loved it. Does anybody here know where to get it? I've forgotten where I got it from. If worse comes to worse, I'll have to wait til my other comp comes back.

Squinge on Insim. It's in his OFB directory as "shopnsave".

Thanks Dopp! Heading over there now!