More Awesome Than You!

Well, here's a handy anti-ghost device for keeping annoying ghosts out of specific areas. I finally had enough ghosts to appearing to actually test and finish it.

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/terror/green.gif)
(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/avatars/ghostbusters.gif)
(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/zip.gif) ghostbuster.zip (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/uni/objects/ghostbuster.zip)

Ghost Buster (v1b) for TS2 v1.0p2 & TS2U v1.0
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado)
Mesh Assembly By: Queen

Special Thanks To:
Quaxi, for writing SimPE
Fairlight the Bitch

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.

FEATURES:
Any ghost that comes to a stop inside a room with one of these objects is
banished back to its urnstone. If the ghost is already *AT* its urnstone,
it will be zapped. Available as an aspirational award, for 12K. Because we all
have way too many ASPs to burn.

COMPATIBILITY:
Compatible with all FFS Hacks. Tested for TS2U v1.0.

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

Would this be compatible with Jeff's Ghost hack?

In theory, yes. It's a standalone object with no overrides.

I like this a lot. I like having ghosts about but it'll be cool to have "safe zones". I also like that you make people pay a reasonable fee to have convenience. It removes it from the outright cheat category.

Too true. I always end up with a lot of ASP's that follow the sim into oblivion when it dies, since unfortunately, they can't be passed along as the regular money can via inheritance. I like the idea of safe zones too, I don't want to ban ghosts outright (they are too much fun to watch), but I hate that they interfere with the sims need fulfillments, such as sleep.

G.

Speaking of Asp. points....Is there any way to pool them in the game? IE, sometimes, especially when first starting out, an individual Sim may not have yet accumulated enough points for something, but two together would.

Nope, 'fraid not. ASP aren't really a kind of currency that you trade with.

Well, how does the SimVac work when draining aspiration instead of skills?  Do you just get the mood boost, or do you get aspiration points as well?  Maybe you can trade relationship points for aspiration points.

You only get the meter. Points are unaffected. Plus, the SimVac itself is pretty expensive already! Its primary function is more a torture device than a purposeful thing.

Not sure whether I'll be able to use this as I enjoy seeing people scared to death by ghosts, but I love the idea of using aspirational points.  My Sims accumulate hundreds because I hardly ever spend them as I can't resist using TwoJeffs' aspirational rewards collection.  The only time I do spend them is when they haven't enough money to buy the items in it because for some reason, although they're free, you still need the specified amount to actually get the reward.  Anyway, I would really love to see more objects made like this, it's a great idea.  I didn't even realise it was possible.

Well since 2jeffs ghost hack doesnt seem to work for me, (I tell it to only scare knowledge sims and the ghost goes away forever until I take the hack out, even though I may have one or more knowledge sims living on the lot) hopefully this will be a viable fix...I think. Hmm...if they are banished back to ther urn/tombstone though then I cant have the knowledge sim go outside to fullfill the ghost want. gah! I have taken to making almost all of the sims knowledge aspiration.

Regarding aspiration points, generally I use move objects on and then fill the attic (or build a special room without doors) with smart milk and thinking caps. Its a good way to use up grams and gramps aspiration points before they kick the bucket. Thus whenever a sim has a kid and its at the toddler stage I set the sim to making mass quanities of smart milk which I store under the house for future use/generations. I set both mom and dad to making it at the same time with freewill off. I can get about 10-12 canisters of smart milk out of them in no time.

Most of my sims are already maxed in skills by first day of teenhood.

Oh, this is excellent, thank you. I have been currently using Inge's teleporter bush to "clear all visitors" when the ghosts get to be too much ... but I like the idea of allowing them in certain zones and not others. This way my sims can get a frigging lousy cup of coffee, having the lovely ambience of ghosts floting around without choking on their espresso in fright.  ;D

I have mausoleums on some lots but that certainly isn't feasable for every lot.  Will try this out.

The Ghostbuster works particularly well with Mausoleums, since if the ghost manages to escape by spawning outside of it, when it runs into a Ghostbuster, it will get zapped back to the mausoleum.

This is a great idea! I find it really irritating that, should you WANT to leave your dear departed relative's tombstones in a place of honor, you face constant harrassment. There's no way you can keep urns in the house unless you like mopping up pee. And the damn stereo keeps getting turned on. Woo, scary.

Ghosts should be limited to situations where actual disruption happens - say if you move their stone around, dig in the area, move-ins of strangers, stuff like that. On the other hand, ghosts should make life totally miserable for the enemies they had in life. It gives you some incentive to patch up those relationships before grandma dies, or you ain't getting any sleep no more.

How about a makeover of the haunting code as the next big thing?

P.S. What's this about mausoleums? I've tried putting the tombstones in a seperate building or fencing them off, but it doesn't seem to stop the differently corporeal from floating all over the place anyway.

Mausoleums are structures elevated on foundations wherein urns are placed. It exploits a weakness of ghosts, namely, the inability for them to cross a foundational boundary without using the stairs like everyone else. Once a ghost is trapped in a mausoleum, since ghosts spawn at the last place they manifested, unless so clogged with ghosts that they can't spawn there, they will not be able to leave. Of course, there's no telling where a ghost will appear the first time, although it seems to be localized around site of death, and if the ghost spawns outside, he'll be able to move again.

The Ghostbuster will prevent this, because if a ghost stops moving in a room with a Ghostbuster, he will get zapped back to his urnstone, which is probably located in aforementioned mausoleum, trapping him.

Other weaknesses of ghostly movement include the inability to cross a pool without using the pool ladders or boards, and the inability to cross water created with the water tool under any circumstances. Basically, with regards to foundations, pools, and water, ghosts are limited to the same movement methods are regular sims.

This didn't work exactly right for me.  The ghosts took a several seconds to get zapped in the room that had the sign.  They still interrupted sims and still were able to scare the crap out of one.

Well, it does have to wait for the ghost to stop routing, since otherwise the ghost will get a weird teleporting-back-and-forth effect without actually going AWAY. I could try increasing the pulse rate again, though.

There: Tripled the pulse rate on the device. It should scan slightly more often. See if that helps.

Yes this one works better thank yew.

By banishing, do you mean "killing" the ghost so it does not interact with anything anymore? Or, if it goes to the room where the Ghost Buster is, it just relocates to the urn?  This sounds like a really great hack, but I'd like to understand what it does before I download it :)

Does this stop ghosts from raiding the fridge should the Anti Ghost Device be in the kitchen? I did just that, and the death-by-hunger ghosts still raided the fridge. However, maybe the fact that the house isn't on a foundation could be a problem.

It takes awhile for the device to kick in if your ghost is in motion. If your house is on a foundation, you have some bottlenecks where the ghosts must pass through, but if you're just on flat ground, your ghost can clip through the wall at leisure and enter anywhere. This makes your house hard to defend. Digging a moat can help if you don't want to deconstruct everything and make a foundation.

I just wanted to let you know that this hack shows up as having a corrupt OBJD with DatGen's File Maid plugin: "OBJD File name corrupt (via SimPE);" I don't know what the effect of that is, but I thought I'd bring it to your attention in case you can or want to fix it. Your clothingtool shows up with this error as well, but the rest of the million hacks of yours I have don't. And while I'm here, thank you for all your mods that make this game playable.  :-*

Hmm. That's interesting. Yet the object appears without any problem in the game, and SimPE says nothing is wrong. I don't use this "File Maid" but all empirical evidence suggests it's smoking asscrack.

It's got something to do with how the mesh or object is saved by SimPE; DatGen folks think there's a better way to do it.  It's not harmful, though.

Yes, well, given the pictures of how the Datgen folks think objects should be programmed at all, you'll understand why I'm understandably skeptical of the value of their opinions. Have you seen it? It looks ridiculous, like some little kid's erector set toy. That is not how to program anything!

Eh? What looks ridiculous? Datgen itself, the Datgen code, the way Datgen edits code? I am not entirely sure of your meaning.

I did an experiment today on my death lot with a bunch of ghosts and the Mind Control Mirror.  Use mirror to pick ghost and use their asp point (out of their own pocket) to buy more Ghostbuster signs!  Dang it, it works!!

All of the above.

That's great, as well as really funny. So they keep the asp points even as ghosts. Who would've suspected? Great idea Bippy, I'll try that right away. I'd have never thought of doing that. I have to cease and desist thinking logical where maxis is concerned and just try things out.

G.

Just so you know, I at least know about The Maltese Bippy.  I have seen several people ask you about that on different forums.

Your experiment is primo - How ever did you think of it?  I would say your Spirits definitely got a lift out of that.

Hmmm, what else can be done?  Oh, I wonder if the SimVac could be of use here?  You know, you can grab those guys and they become visible for a moment.  I impregnated a Sim with a ghost this way one time - I wanted a particular bloodline.

Somehow all this seems wrong on so many levels, but hey, they're dead and the fun just never ends!

I noticed something in SimPE concerning ghost flags.  For the Goths and most other dead ancestors in Pleasantview, only Is ghost is checked.  But for Mortimer, he has all flags checked, Can pass through walls, objects, people, and Ignore traversal costs.  I'm not sure what the last one means, but what would happen if I were to uncheck these options except for Is ghost?  Would it actually prevent him from going through walls and stuff, which would be a good thing, or would it cause my game to explode into a BFBVS?

I've been using this for a long time without any problem, but just noticed last night that it wasn't working in one of my dorms.  The girl was haunted by a ghost on the lot 3 times!  I had to put one in the room after the first time, because I didn't realize there wasn't one already there.  But the ghost came in twice after I put up the ghostbuster, and woke her up.

I was looking to see it something in the OFBp2 might have messed up my old file, and see the one here is dated 4/6/06, whereas my current version is the old one from a year ago.  Was something fixed in this newer version for OFB?

Always get the newest version. Even if you don't know why. This way, everyone's happy. :)

I always check for updates, but I must have missed this one!  Since I wasn't having any problems with it until last night, I didn't think about it being updated.  I play with walls down, so I don't see the thing hanging on the wall to remind me it's there!

I frequently have that problem. Not that I want my paintings showing when my walls don't, but I would like someone to remind me, "Hey, Stupid!, you've got something hanging there!"

It's really wierd to see a sim standing and staring at something (nothing?) only to realize they're looking at a painting!

I see now how I missed this -  it's not in the director's cut, and I usually DL that because the hacks I use are in there - except for this one, I guess!

Yeah, it's in the objects folder, so I guess it doesn't qualify as a hack.  But I had this version and I still had sims being scared by ghosts.  And I know I had one of these things hanging in just about every room in this house!  I wish it weren't so attractive to sims also.  They are always admiring it, sighing over it and otherwise messing with it.  You can tell even when the walls are down because they will have it in their thought bubble.

Usually when one of my elders is in their last couple of days, I buy a lot of aspiration objects with their points.  My sims use a lot of Thinking Caps, so I buy a lot of those and usually one of everything else.  Their aspiration points die with them, but whatever you've BOUGHT with those points sticks around.

It's like spending down your savings so Medicaid will pay for a nursing home. :-)

Meh. My sims have more ASPs than I know what to do with, so I've started to treat dying with 327670 points as a rite of passage.

I've imposed a rule on myself to only allow sims to use aspiration rewards that they got with their own aspiration points (except toddlers use smartmilk "bought" by their parents).  My older sims die with massive amounts of unused aspiration points all the time, and this also makes it harder for me to max out the skillpoints of my sims too fast.  It gets a little boring when your knowledge sim gets their ltw to max their skills when they're very young, and then you have a skill-maxed permanent platinum sim who spends the rest of their life in a good mood with no ambitions except seeing ghosts and getting abducted.

Eh, but when they max out when every young and get perma-plat, you can then switch them over at college to one of the less "functional" aspirations to get some diversity in your neighborhood, without being enslaved to their crabby mood swings and insane wants, and just do the ones that make sense. :P

And frankly there needs to be more aspirational-rewards, that are useful. Like this one.

That's what I've been doing.  I don't like being a slave to their wants, I can pick the ones that I like, and if there aren't any I like, I can let them do whatever and not worry about them going into aspirational failure.  :)

Eh, I just go after their least-stupid wants.  Since there's so many Uni-graduates, there's bound to be something sane somewhere on their wants panel.  If not, I don't bother satisfying any wants at all.

Is the ghostbuster painting not compatible with Pets?  I just had a Sim get scared by a ghost while he was standing directly in front of a ghostbuster painting.

(http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f81/karenh3/snapshot_9217e6c5_7247964e.jpg)

The version I have installed is dated 4-6-06, if that helps.

Karen

The painting works, but stopping a moving ghost has never worked, the ghost just warps back and keeps going, so it has to wait for the ghost to stop. Sometimes this can already be too late.

I have my elders constantly topping off the Energizer and Thinking Caps and buying extra Elixir for the next generation to guzzle.  If you don't like all that stuff sitting around, jam it into a kid's inventory.  There's no law against a kid taking an Energizer and a Thinking Cap to college with him!

Does this thing have a number of charges? Or infinite? I prefer the former myself.

It doesn't run out, since there's no discrete trigger point, but it also only works for one room, so you have to buy several. And they're not really cheap, either, considering that you'd only use them if you want ghosts, but not in the house (it's cheaper to just foist them off to a cemetary or your inventory).

Meh.

By the time you even get ghosts, your sims will have a lifetime supply of asp.

I can't really do anything about *THAT*. Maxis calibrated the game for people who are not awesome.

I wasn't really blaming you for that or even asking you to fix it. It was just a statement.

Meh, don't worry about JM, kutto.  He's just a cranky old bastard with a long beard.  :D

What, me worry?  ;)

I know I'm super tardy to this party but... what does it mean that they will be "zapped" if they're already at their urn?  I don't want the ghosts destroyed, I just want them to stay near/inside the urn.