More Awesome Than You!

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/terror/green.gif)

NOTE:

1) Debug version is available at the bottom of this post.
2) v0.00.18 version is available at the bottom of the 2nd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190408#msg190408).
3) v0.00.20 version is available at the bottom of the 3rd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190409#msg190409) without - including wussy documentation.

Use the Custom Calculator spreadsheet to compare the Default settings and the Custom settings.


Uni Careers Hack v0.00.20 for TS2FT v1.0p0
Made by: syberspunk

Future Features
1) Incorporating the new careers from the Lies and Propaganda: Seasons Edition ;)
     Done.  See 3rd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190409#msg190409).
2) Less restricted version that does not require specific majors to enter a career track
     You can now use the instructions found in 3rd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190409#msg190409) to customize the hack.
3) A "how to" file explaining how you can customize which majors are associated and/or required for each career track
     Done. See 3rd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190409#msg190409).
4) An "imbalanced" but somewhat more "realistic" version where majors are relevant to career tracks (in name only, not the skill set earned)
     You can now use the instructions found in 3rd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190409#msg190409) to customize the hack.
5) Possibly adding teen/adult careers and completed chance cards for Uni careers
6) Possibly adding changes to job level salaries and skill set requirements


So... as Pescado has assigned me homework (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6709.msg189093#msg189093) :P I am in the early stages of working on a mod to alter which jobs depend on Uni. It appears to be a trivial change, but I want to make it fairly realistic, so here's your chance to throw your 2 cents in. Of course, I'll have the final decision of what gets incorporated into the mod, but if your argument is reasonable enough to sway me, who knows. ;)

Of course, that was with respect to current Lies and Propaganda, which is a bit of a ways off. However, croiduire brought this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6707.0) up with respect to the current state of careers, but I wasn't able to find the hack which supposedly swapped Uni careers for basehood careers. I can't remember where I saw that or if I just imagined it. ::) So I guess I'll make one myself, as practice, and I can later update this to include any future careers that develop from the Lies and Propaganda. :D If anyone does find that hack, let me know.

In anycase, I'm not quite sure yet if it will work, as it will require some testing, but my plan is to have 3 categories of jobs:

1) Jobs that do not require a uni education
2) Jobs that require having a Uni education i.e. they must have at least graduated
3) Jobs that require having a uni education in a specific major

From my notes, this is currently how default Maxis EA rules work:


Note: If your sim has an associated major, then they are supposed to get a "bonus" when looking for a job using a computer. They will be able to start at higher levels in that career track.


I propose to change this so that it will be somewhat more realistic. Career tracks such as Medicine and Business will require a degree, whereas Paranormal and Show Biz won't. Also... certain career tracks will only be open to you if you have a valid, associated major. I may also expand the list of associated majors for certain careers. Note proposed changes in bold


Notes:

The effect of expanding the associated careers is that, your sim will have a further range of careers to major in that will give them that extra boost up the career ladder when searching for a job using a computer. I may also increase the penalty for not having an associated major.

The effect of requiring a major is that a sim will have to graduate with the major that is associated with the career in order for that track to show up when searching for a job.

Ultimately... using this hack will most likely result in having unfulfillable wants (and fears) as well as unfullfillable Lifetime Wants. Which is fairly realistic, because in real life, many people are born, with wants and lifetime wants that never get satisfied, then you die, and then you get raped by wild boars. Or wait... do you get raped by the wild boars before you die? I forget. ;D

Caveat

Due to the fact that the base hood careers have teen/elder jobs and the Uni careers don't, there are obvious exceptions:

1) Teen sims who start off in a certain track that has teen jobs but would otherwise require a uni degree will still be able to retain that career track if they do not enter Uni. Otherwise... once they graduate, they will be unemployed again, and the previous career track may no longer be available to them if they did not pursue an associated degree, if that career is restricted as such.

i.e. A teen sim can get a job in the medicine track. You then send them to Uni, but they major in Politics. Once they graduate, they can no longer pursue a career in the Medicine track.

Perhaps I will find a way to make an exception if say... the teen has a memory of reaching the top of that teen career track (and the memory actually stores the specific career track and isn't just a generic memory). I will have to look into this further.

2) Uni career tracks that have been changed to no longer require a Uni degree will still be unavailable to teens (and elders unless you have noagediscrimination, and even if you do have that hack, your elder will need a degree and the associated major if required) obviously since those career tracks do not have teen/elder jobs.

There's no work around for this unless someone bothers to hack the Uni careers and add teen/elder positions.


I'm open to suggestions. Let me know if you agree or disagree with certain things, and let me know what should be added or removed.


INSTALLATION:
This MUST be in your Downloads folder, typically found under:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads

:!!: Note: You can use subfolders, however, be aware of 'benign' conflicts that depend on the load order of hacks.


Compatibility:

:!!: This hack obviously requires University to be of any use.

This hack is compatible with most, if not all mods by MATY crew (Pescado, TJ, and CBoy), dizzy, and probably more. Again, up to you to help me determine any possible conflicts.
This hack is compatible with Squinge's Uni Enabled LTW Hack (at least, as far as I can tell, for now, until it is reported otherwise).


REMINDER and fine print (to cover my ass ) :
Remember to ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING NEW HACKS. By using this hack, you agree to absolve me of any responsibility or liability for any potential loss of or damage to your data. You have been warned.

HOW TO REPORT: Conflicts, problems, or errors
I would appreciate any constructive criticism and feedback that is actually helpful. With that in mind, it would be helpful, when reporting any conflicts or issues, that you include the following:

1) thorough but reasonably brief description of what you were doing
2) clear, comprehendible explanation of your problem
3) list of hacks that may be related aging, moving in sims, or inheritance
4) archived (.rar or .zip) of log produced by error

HOW TO PRODUCE AN ERROR LOG:
1) Open the cheat menu - Ctrl + Shift + C
2) Enable the debug mode - Type: boolprop testingcheatsenabled true
3) Hit Enter :P
4) Play as normal until an error occurs. If an error dialog box pops up, note the location of the error log and choose Reset. If the error pops up repeatedly, choose Delete and exit WITHOUT SAVING!
5) Post your error log here, preferably as a .zip or .rar archive.

Posts which do not include a clear description of what your problem is will be pretty much ignored. (i.e. posts such as "This does not work! I am taking it out! You suck! Nice try! etc.") I can't and won't help you if you don't explain what's wrong.

Please be nice when trying to explain your problem and I might be nice and help you.

Finally, my Thank Yous go to:

J.M. Pescado, twojeffs, dizzy2, and jase439 for being excellent tutors and providing excellent models in their mods. As always, thanks to those creators who've put out some excellent modding tutorials, Quaxi and co for SimPE, and dizzy2 for disaSim2, and the finally letters T and S, and the number 2, all of whom, without which this mod would not be possible.



Version History:
v0.00.15 - Beta Release for testing
v0.00.16 - Removed Uni requirement for Law Enforcement, Moved Bio from Culinary to Science
v0.00.17 - Removed change to career level major bonus
v0.00.18 - Fixed minor bug/conflict with duplicate group instance
v0.00.19 - Updated for Seasons
v0.00.20 - Updated for Free Time

(http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/terror/green.gif)

Uni Careers Hack BETA v0.00.18 for TS2PETS v1.0p0
Made by: syberspunk

Future Features
1) Incorporating the new careers from the Lies and Propaganda: Seasons Edition ;)
2) Less restricted version that does not require specific majors to enter a career track
3) A "how to" file explaining how you can customize which majors are associated and/or required for each career track
4) An "imbalanced" but somewhat more "realistic" version where majors are relevant to career tracks (in name only, not the skill set earned)
5) Possibly adding teen/adult careers and completed chance cards for Uni careers
6) Possibly adding changes to job level salaries and skill set requirements


So... as Pescado has assigned me homework (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6709.msg189093#msg189093) :P I am in the early stages of working on a mod to alter which jobs depend on Uni. It appears to be a trivial change, but I want to make it fairly realistic, so here's your chance to throw your 2 cents in. Of course, I'll have the final decision of what gets incorporated into the mod, but if your argument is reasonable enough to sway me, who knows. ;)

Of course, that was with respect to current Lies and Propaganda, which is a bit of a ways off. However, croiduire brought this (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6707.0) up with respect to the current state of careers, but I wasn't able to find the hack which supposedly swapped Uni careers for basehood careers. I can't remember where I saw that or if I just imagined it. ::) So I guess I'll make one myself, as practice, and I can later update this to include any future careers that develop from the Lies and Propaganda. :D If anyone does find that hack, let me know.

In anycase, I'm not quite sure yet if it will work, as it will require some testing, but my plan is to have 3 categories of jobs:

1) Jobs that do not require a uni education
2) Jobs that require having a Uni education i.e. they must have at least graduated
3) Jobs that require having a uni education in a specific major

From my notes, this is currently how default Maxis EA rules work:


Note: If your sim has an associated major, then they are supposed to get a "bonus" when looking for a job using a computer. They will be able to start at higher levels in that career track.


I propose to change this so that it will be somewhat more realistic. Career tracks such as Medicine and Business will require a degree, whereas Paranormal and Show Biz won't. Also... certain career tracks will only be open to you if you have a valid, associated major. I may also expand the list of associated majors for certain careers. Note proposed changes in bold


Notes:

The effect of expanding the associated careers is that, your sim will have a further range of careers to major in that will give them that extra boost up the career ladder when searching for a job using a computer. I may also increase the penalty for not having an associated major.

The effect of requiring a major is that a sim will have to graduate with the major that is associated with the career in order for that track to show up when searching for a job.

Ultimately... using this hack will most likely result in having unfulfillable wants (and fears) as well as unfullfillable Lifetime Wants. Which is fairly realistic, because in real life, many people are born, with wants and lifetime wants that never get satisfied, then you die, and then you get raped by wild boars. Or wait... do you get raped by the wild boars before you die? I forget. ;D

Caveat

Due to the fact that the base hood careers have teen/elder jobs and the Uni careers don't, there are obvious exceptions:

1) Teen sims who start off in a certain track that has teen jobs but would otherwise require a uni degree will still be able to retain that career track if they do not enter Uni. Otherwise... once they graduate, they will be unemployed again, and the previous career track may no longer be available to them if they did not pursue an associated degree, if that career is restricted as such.

i.e. A teen sim can get a job in the medicine track. You then send them to Uni, but they major in Politics. Once they graduate, they can no longer pursue a career in the Medicine track.

Perhaps I will find a way to make an exception if say... the teen has a memory of reaching the top of that teen career track (and the memory actually stores the specific career track and isn't just a generic memory). I will have to look into this further.

2) Uni career tracks that have been changed to no longer require a Uni degree will still be unavailable to teens (and elders unless you have noagediscrimination, and even if you do have that hack, your elder will need a degree and the associated major if required) obviously since those career tracks do not have teen/elder jobs.

There's no work around for this unless someone bothers to hack the Uni careers and add teen/elder positions.


I'm open to suggestions. Let me know if you agree or disagree with certain things, and let me know what should be added or removed.


INSTALLATION:
This MUST be in your Downloads folder, typically found under:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads

:!!: Note: You can use subfolders, however, be aware of 'benign' conflicts that depend on the load order of hacks.


Compatibility:

:!!: This hack obviously requires University to be of any use.

This hack is compatible with most, if not all mods by MATY crew (Pescado, TJ, and CBoy), dizzy, and probably more. Again, up to you to help me determine any possible conflicts.
This hack is compatible with Squinge's Uni Enabled LTW Hack (at least, as far as I can tell, for now, until it is reported otherwise).


REMINDER and fine print (to cover my ass ) :
Remember to ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING NEW HACKS. By using this hack, you agree to absolve me of any responsibility or liability for any potential loss of or damage to your data. You have been warned.

HOW TO REPORT: Conflicts, problems, or errors
I would appreciate any constructive criticism and feedback that is actually helpful. With that in mind, it would be helpful, when reporting any conflicts or issues, that you include the following:

1) thorough but reasonably brief description of what you were doing
2) clear, comprehendible explanation of your problem
3) list of hacks that may be related aging, moving in sims, or inheritance
4) archived (.rar or .zip) of log produced by error

HOW TO PRODUCE AN ERROR LOG:
1) Open the cheat menu - Ctrl + Shift + C
2) Enable the debug mode - Type: boolprop testingcheatsenabled true
3) Hit Enter :P
4) Play as normal until an error occurs. If an error dialog box pops up, note the location of the error log and choose Reset. If the error pops up repeatedly, choose Delete and exit WITHOUT SAVING!
5) Post your error log here, preferably as a .zip or .rar archive.

Posts which do not include a clear description of what your problem is will be pretty much ignored. (i.e. posts such as "This does not work! I am taking it out! You suck! Nice try! etc.") I can't and won't help you if you don't explain what's wrong.

Please be nice when trying to explain your problem and I might be nice and help you.

Finally, my Thank Yous go to:

J.M. Pescado, twojeffs, dizzy2, and jase439 for being excellent tutors and providing excellent models in their mods. As always, thanks to those creators who've put out some excellent modding tutorials, Quaxi and co for SimPE, and dizzy2 for disaSim2, and the finally letters T and S, and the number 2, all of whom, without which this mod would not be possible.



Version History:
v0.00.15 - Beta Release for testing
v0.00.16 - Removed Uni requirement for Law Enforcement, Moved Bio from Culinary to Science
v0.00.17 - Removed change to career level major bonus
v0.00.18 - Fixed minor bug/conflict with duplicate group instance

As requested, here is the seasons version of the Uni Careers Hack sans documentation and how-to guide, for those far too impatient to wait. :P

Use at yer own risk.  If you don't like the changes, tough noogies for now.  I'll finish the documentation when I'm good and ready, so nyah! :D

Oh, and this should pretty much work in most any game configuration that at least has Uni (cuz... duh...).  It should also affect the Life Stories careers if you happen to have those installed.  Feedback, as always is appreciated.  At this point, I'm more concerned with potential bugs, rather than suggestions regarding the "features" i.e. what career or major should have this or that.  Other features previously mentioned/suggested are still being considered, but are on the back burner for now.

Ste

ETA:

The hack has been updated to include the Free Time careers.  It should also be compatible with Apartment Life.

The documentation has also been updated.

Alright, here is the beta version. It definitely needs testing. I've done some preliminary tests in the Goth household, and it appears to work so far. Right now, what I probably need is feedback with regards to what happens with graduated sims.

In my own tests, using noagediscrimination, the Artist, Paranormal, and Show Biz careers showed up for both Mortimer and Cassandra. Aging Cassandra down to teen, she still had options available for Medicine and Science. More testing is required to determine whether these options do not show up for non graduates and they only show up for graduates, and where applicable, only if they have the associated degree as explained in the table above.

I would also appreciate in-game pics. So feel free to take some in-game pics showing that the hack works. If you've got any photo editing skills, probably keep the file down to 600x800 the largest. But probably something more reasonable like 450x600 pixels by size. You can email me your in-game pictures to my hotmail address in my profile. Please put in the subject line of your email:

Re: Uni Careers Hack - In Game Photos

Any feedback, positive or negative, and suggestions would be appreciated. :)

Ste

That was quick. I will be putting this into my game. Hopefully I'll get a chance to play this week to test it.

*squeeeels like a pig

I've wanted this for the longest time. I will start testing tomorrow.

I'll download it, but I probably can't be of much help testing-wise; I don't have many non-graduates.

Then you can test whether your graduate sims get options to enter the restricted tracks. For example, only sims who have a degree in the appropriate majors should be able to enter the Medicine track. Check to see if graduates with other majors can still enter that track (hopefully... they shouldn't be able to).

You can also check the promotion boost thing. I decreased the job boost/bonus arbitrarily by 2 levels. I can make this even lower depending on feedback. Hopefully I can get a general consensus about it. For now, I just thought I'd try it to see how this works.

Ste

Just reporting in to say my game hasn't blown up yet.  I haven't seen any jobs I shouldn't see, although I'm not sure I remember exactly what major each of my sims had, at least one studied physics.

I assume it's a sign of associated major required when one day there were only three jobs available on the computer.

You can find out what they majored in using SimPE...

I thought the memories showed what major they had. Well... I don't remember. I'll have to look in the game.


This is probably true... but it shouldn't be. Theoretically... it should refresh and try and offer other jobs. :/ So this is most likely a bug, and I will have to take a look into it.

The next time this happens. Can you do me a favor? Make a note of the following:

1) The age of the sim (teen, adult, elder)
2) how many jobs you saw, if less than the amount you should see normally (if using the comp < 5, if using the paper < 3)
3) what jobs did you see
4) try to use the same object (comp or paper) with sims from the other two ages (i.e. if you were using an elder, and they only saw 3 jobs, try using a teen and an adult and see if they are limited as well)

Oh also... are you using noagediscrimination?

Afaik, teen/elder jobs should not be affected by dependency on major. At least I don't think so. Teen/elder jobs use a separate BHAV which doesn't even test the major properties. So those should be available all the time.

Only adult jobs should be limited. But... if the game cannot offer a job to a sim because they aren't qualified... I thought it was supposed to go back and randomly generate other jobs again. So I definitely will take a look at this and hopefully it can be easily fixed. Thanks for the feedback! :)

Ste

You could also just have them stick their diploma on the wall and read that.  And if they misplaced the diploma along the way, the lot debugger has an option to regenerate it for them.

I'd love to use this hack, but it doesn't work for me. Here's an error log: CAS-made sim, in new neighbourhood, looking for the job using a computer. The only other thing in my Downloads at that time was Twojeffs' ACR. He jumped somewhere about the first job offer should appear.

Edited to add: I guess I should remind I have Pets, but no OFB.

I thought so too, but I couldn't find it.  I do hve the diploma on the wall somewhere, but this is my 5th generation of graduates, so it might take some fiddling to find the correct one.


I believe that's normal maxis coding.  I seem to remember having a servo look for a job in the paper once (ages ago) and finding no available jobs at all.  So I had another sim on the lot check, and there were three uni careers available.

Anyway, I'll take some notes along the way and keep testing through normal game play.  I've got at least one other sim coming out of college soon.

I believe I'm having the exact same error unfortunately, but I have OFB as well.

[attachment deleted by admin]

Ok, I'm not quite sure why the error is occurring. I suspect that it may be related to the change I made for the boost that you normally get from graduating, honors, and associated major. So, for now, I have removed that in the latest version 0.00.17. Please update to that version and let me know if you are still getting errors.

I have also uploaded a "debug" version which may help me better. It keeps the changes I made that reduce the bonus levels you get. However, I sorted the "CT - Offer Job" so any error logs you get will hopefully help me track down the problem.

For those of you who use v0.00.17, please keep me informed as to whether you still get the same problem. For those of you willing to use the "debug" version, please post any subsequent error logs you may get.

I will probably be pretty busy in the next few weeks. So I'm not sure if I will be able to add any further improvements for now. In the meantime, I have been workin on two other minor things that I'm hoping to release fairly soon.

Ste

Alright, it works just fine for me now. No problems at all.

I'm curious as to whether this will work with sims who "graduate" from Uni using JM's Lot Debugger - Upgrade Pre-Uni Sim option? I've stopped actually sending sims to Uni since putting the Debugger in my game (yes, I know I'm lazy!), and while the concept of adjusting which careers require a degree is very attractive, I dunno if I'd bother to install this if my insta-grad sims weren't affected by the changes.

Thanks for the feedback. :-* When I find time, I'll have to dig around and/or sit around and think more about this. I just started working this week, and although I actually haven't really done anything yet (still sorta in the trainingish, intro, adjustment early phase :P) I have been gettin up crazy early and puttin in a full days of awake time has been tiresome. Anyhew, maybe I'll get a chance to take a look at this some weekend, but the next few weeks will be just as crazy with the holidays and family. ::)


Well... one way to figure this out would be to test it. :P Heh. But... off the top of my head, it would depend on whether the lotdebugger sets the major and semester flags. If so, then I don't see any reason why lotdebuggeredly upgraded sims wouldn't also be affected by the hack. Afaik, it doesn't bother to check memories, just if certain bits have properly set flags.

Ste

Just wondering if this is a bug or a feature or just an effect of Pedcado's noagediscrimination:
I had a retired mad scientist look for a job, and she was offered a possition in the Science career as a mad scientist.   All other jobs offered were suitably low levels.

And I think lotdebugger upgraded graduates get graduate jobs.  At least I think that's what happened to my servo.  Is there any way to de-graduate an upgraded sim?

It's actually an effect of "harder jobs": Sims applying for a job may be offered the position to unretire if their old slot is still vacant, otherwise they won't be offered it at all.

:o That's strangely considerate for a Pescado hack.

Minor update. I found a silly little conflict where I mistakenly had two instances of the same Group BHAV. Should be fixed now. No major changes yet as I've been a tad too busy to dig into things. Probably will have to wait until the new year before I find time to really dig in. :P

Ste

Wow! I've been wanting this for ages! Sadly, while I have omgzPets (Richard bought it for me for Christmas in a panic that he hadn't got me enough presents ::) ), I won't be installing it until after I've played with OFB for a while. So I won't be able to help you with the initial testing.

The thing I would REALLY like to see is probably impossible with the current Maxian code, but I'll tell you about it anyway:
Any career available up to e.g. level 4, but for certain careers, promotions are only possible past level 4 if you've graduated in a relevant discipline. So a non-graduate sim could enter the Medicine career and work as an EMT or a Nurse, but never be promoted to Doctor.

To make that work without sheep bleating that their sims didn't go to Uni so they're stuck with "crappy" jobs, you'd need a Night School hack, so that sims who chose not to go to University after being teenagers could still study on the computer and unlock some of the later levels of their career. Even then, it would be impossible to get to the top of some careers - because it's very difficult to become a university lecturer without a degree of your own (e.g. Scholar & Theorist, Science track).

Also, I really think you should reverse the Associated degrees for Medicine and Military:

I can just about see History being linked with Natural Scientist (geology? hmmm), but Literature for Medicine?! Psychology seems much more useful for Medicine than Literature is!

You don't need Pets to test this. You must have Uni. I've sorta just been modeling my titling after Pescado's in that, when I've made a hack for <EP X> it just means that's the EP I had when I made it. And if I have to update a hack... that's probably the time that I will bother to change the title. If a hack doesn't need to be updated, then I will be lazy and I probably won't change the title. That doesn't mean a hack I made for say NL, but is still compatible with Pets won't work with Pets. It just means I was lazy and didn't bother changing the title. :P

The reverse is also true. For the most part. :P If I make a hack for <EP X>, unless otherwise specified, a hack should be compatible with almost any configuration (Base game or up). Most of the time, it will be obvious if a hack is EP specific such as the hacks that modify things that are specific to an EP. Obviously you can't use that hack because you don't have that EP yet. But other times, if it is something that exists in the basegame and in all later EPs/SPs, then unless I've specified in the compatibility section, it should theoretically be fully compatible. In some cases, I won't actually know if a hack is incompatible until it's been reported as such. And if I'm not lazy, I may be willing to make a compatible version. :P



That would be neat... I'd have to dig deeper into something like that. That would be a much bigger project. Locking promotions might be easy to do... but it probably could conflict with Pescado's harderjobs hack. I'd have to look into that as well. The night school thing seems like it would be a bit more difficult, well for me at least. It would be an interesting project tho. And even if I was able to create a night school for adults, I'd have to think of a way to differentiate the degree from regular uni degrees. This would most likely require custom memories, tokens, and what not, which I don't yet fully understand, so it might be beyond my capabilities at the moment. :-\



I'll consider this. I did want Psychology related to Medicine. But would Literature make sense elsewhere? I can imagine that Doctor's tend to be much more well read. Doctor's must do a lot of lit research and reviewing. And the Medical career track does describe goin to med school too, doesn't it? I'll think about it. But eventually, when I get around to it, the how-to/faq should explain how to customize what majors are required and whether or not specific majors are required. :)

Ste

Hi Ste. I've been playing the updated version of this hack for a few days, and it works great. I was able to get an uneducated sim into the showbusiness career via the newspaper, and have experienced no problems whatsoever. Good job!

Edit: I thought I should mention that I am NOT using the debug version of this mod.

I'm running your DEBUG version and I have a couple of oddities and an error report for you. The Sim in question has just exited Uni with a Physics degree.

When she read the paper the three jobs offered were;
Military Career - General - 00:00 to 00:00 for 0 Simoleans
Slacker Career - Professional Party Guest - 00:00 to 00:00 for 0 Simoleans
Althetic Career - Team Mascot - 15:00 to 25:00 for 154 Simoleans

When she uses the computer to look for a job the offers are;
Slacker Career - Golf Caddy - 05:00 to 10:00 for 126 Simoleans (definate difference there)
Politics Career - Campaign Worker - 09:00 to 18:00 for 306 Simoleans
Military Career - Recruit - 07:00 to 13:00 for 350 Simoleans (another difference)
and then I get an error message which I have attached to this post. Hope all this helps 'cause I love the whole concept of this mod.

[attachment deleted by admin]

Currently when a YA is choosing a major, the list of majors also reports what careers they are good for. Does this mod change the wording on those to reflect your changes? If not, are there plans for it in the final cut?

I'm just concerned that I'll never remember which majors correspond to which careers.

IIRC careers are dynamically tied to majors based on skills.
Certainly custom careers show up (and replace) the careers relevant to Maxis majors in the major dialog.

edited for clarity and because I am an idiot.

It'd be great if anyone (who does not currently have custom careers) can verify whether or not the changes are reflected in the major choosing panel.  If I get a chance to set up my computer tonight and get some playtime in, I may casually glance at this.  Otherwise, I most likely won't get to really looking at this until sometime this week or even later, depending on what fancies me. :P

But... if it doesn't change this, I will consider hacking the text (if need be) to reflect such changes.  Hopefully it won't be a painful process, and will be customizable for others who dare to use SimPE.  If it is easy to do, then for sure, I'll include instructions along with the FAQ/how-to I have planned.

@MadameMin: Thanks for the error log.  Again, it will have to wait until I get my computer up and running again, and when I actually find the time to sit down and scrutinize it.  But I really appreciate you testing with the Debug version so I can actually have an error log to look through. :)

Ste

I would like to propose that the culinary career gets physics or biology connected as an associated degree. As my favorite chef on the Food Network cooks like a scientist. (Alton Brown)

Lol, I said something similar (Food Science is big right now), and JMP bashed me for it.  Guess he likes parasites in his food.

I don't have any custom careers in the game. I played last night and tried to find a major for my Sim who had a LTW of Athlete. None of them showed athletics. I know that a degree isn't required for that field, but degrees aren't required for cooking or artist either and they show on the dialog. Well anyway, this is what the dialog box shows when a Sim tries to declare a major:

History:  Science, Artist, Politics
Physics: Paranormal, Science, Medicine
Literature: Showbiz, Slacker, medicine
Political Sci: Showbiz, Politics, Military
Mathematics: Nat Sci, Science, Crime
Economics: Showbiz, Politics, Crime
Biology: Nat Sci, Science, Medicine
Philosophy: Paranormal, Slacker, Politics
Art: Showbiz, Artist, Slacker
Drama: Showbiz, Artist, Politics
Psychology: Paranormal, Military, Law Enforcement

That breaks down to:

5 politics
5 showbiz
4 science
3 artist
3 paranormal
3 medicine
2 natural science
3 slacker
2 crime
2 military
1 law enforcement
0 Business
0 Athletics
0 Culinary

So it looks correct to me except for the fact that each major only lists 3 matching careers so some of them are being left off the list.

...Edited to fix error in break down list...

Wow. So using this hack actually does alter the major dialog thingie? Interesting... hehe. Well, less work for me then. ;D And I would suspect that the reason that some of those careers are not being shown is, as you say, because they are being left off.  So it probably isn't that Athletic isn't showing up because it isn't linked to anything, but most likely because there are far too many careers that it gets left off.  I'm not quite sure yet how the dialog decides to display the careers and in what order... I need to look at my notes and compare your findings to my list of careers vs. majors breakdown.

Ste

*If* you are able to manipulate the dialog, I'd like to make a suggestion. Since only 3 careers will fit on each major, priority should be given to those careers that require a specific degree, with 2nd priority to those careers that require education but not a degree. So if athletics, slacker, military etc. don't fit, then leave those off entirely.

This way when I have a Sim that wants to be a Professional Athlete and I don't see anything on the list of majors, I'll know that an education isn't required for it. Then I would just pick one of the majors that stress body and charisma since I know that will be important to that career.

Alternately, or in addition, it would be nice to have an object that when you click on it, will pop-up the chart as updated for this mod. That way, without having to leave the game and consult the RTFM, a teen can decide whether or not to attend college. Otherwise, we either have to remember all the changes, keep a written list next to the computer, or wait until they are already in college to call and see the majors list. Perhaps since JMP assigned this homework to you, he would be willing to include the pop-up on the lot debugger.

Oolo-voodoo-moodoo-WO!
</necromatic chant>

Any seasons update on this in the works?

I have updated it for myself and I've been greedily hoarding it. :P

Actually... I've been slowly working on the documentation.  Well... actually an Excel spreadsheet that should help if you plan to customize the hack for your own tastes.  Then, I have to work on the faq/rtfm stuff.  I'll eventually finish it... eventually... hehe. :D

Ste

Need a beta-tester?
I'm very good at beta testing; ask Pescado.  Documentation is for wussies; just give me the goodies!

And while you're at it, beat Pescado over the head until he sets up a section for your hacks.  I'm going crazy looking all over for them with every new EP.

Ok, you've twisted my arm.  I posted the next version here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=6773.msg190409#msg190409) in the 3rd post.  No wussy documentation.  There were some significant changes to the majors and careers stuff.  So don't be a wuss and whine about it, if it turns out to be not to your liking. ;D

Ste

This makes far more sense and I shall look forward to seeing which of the new careers needs a degree,  The only thing I'm a bit concerned about the dropping of two bonus levels.  For some reason, mine don't seem to get any boosts and haven't done for some time - I had a newly-graduated sim go into Culinary today with an associated degree (Art) and all she could get was dish-washer, which I believe is the very lowest level, and I haven't even installed this mod yet!  She was pregnant at the time she got the job (with a baby conceived at Uni), but I doubt that made any difference, unless it was the fact that I'd installed Pets & Seasons in between her graduating/going back to the main neighbourhood and applying for the job, although I can't see how that woud affect it, either. 

Maxian logic with these careers has always puzzled me.  I know the reason the Uni careers need degrees is because they pay more, but it never made sense that a doctor/scientist didn't need a degree and a film star or artist did.   Then when I checked-out the new careers, I was AMAZED to discover that a literature degree is of no benefit to a sim wanting to become a journalist.  It appears that a literature degree is of no benefit whatsoever to someone who wants to write for a living, but if they want to rob banks ... any chance you could add Literature to Journalism? 

Going back to the income side of it ... I suppose upping the financial rewards for the 'new' degree careers (such as medicine) and dropping them a bit for the previous ones (paranormal, etc.) wouldn't be possible?  It sort of seems a bit unfair that the graduates could end-up earning less than those with degrees ... then again, film stars do earn more than doctors, don't they!

I'd also like to see JM collaborate with you a bit on this in terms of his LTW mod.  A career like Paranormal, for instance, should be available to all aspirations, as it's something that appeals to a wide variety of people.  The same goes for culinary, art, etc.  As long as the interest in the topic is there, I think these careers should be open to all aspirations.  They may be already, but without testing I won't know.  JM's mod is rather restrictive with newly-created sims & ex-dormies and so on, esp. as I always reject the generic ones (such as grandchildren, etc.), either because they're basically impossible or because they can do those later, after they've achieved a career one.  I also reject 20 Best Friends because it's too damned easy.

Anyway, I am rambling.  Will test this out tomorrow as I have several students on the verge of graduating.

Ancient: Pescado's harder jobs removes the bonus levels if you get a job through the newspaper. You may run into this.

As for graduates earning less than people who immediately get a career: that's how the real world works. By not going to college you get a headstart, which means the graduate will never catch up to your salary level (since you only have from 18-65 to work, and a graduate typically enters the job market from5 to 7 (or more) years later than the non-graduate).

It appears that the careers to majors link is arbitrarily determined by an algorithm, and not set by the career anywhere. It's apparently some kind of correlative effect between the major's skills and the job's skills. There is nothing that can really be changed there.

Doctors haven't really been lucrative ever since malpractice insurance got outrageous.

It was through the computer, I always get them that way.  Not that I mind, the headstart was always way too high, just that starting right at the bottom, esp. with a relevant degree, makes no sense.  It's almost as if the game didn't recognise the fact that she had the degree.

I actually removed that part because it was kinda buggy.  Problem was, I had the code deduct levels depending on certain things... but then I wasn't catching the possibility of having negative numbers.  I didn't want to think too hard about it, so I just removed it all together. :P  Maybe if I rethink the code, I may come back to this feature.


Yes, it puzzled me too, but then again Maxian EA logic is about as sensible as insane Troll logic. ;)  As for Journalism... I think the new veresion (in the 3rd post of the thread) includes the Seasons careers, with adjustments to the majors.  I still have, as of yet, to finish the customization documentation.  I'll get around to it, eventually. :P


It would be, but right now, I'm a bit too lazy about looking into that.  It would involve a lot more delving into how careers work and which values that would need changing.  Hopefully, it would be something as easy as editing some BCON values.  But then, who decides which salaries need adjusting and what those adjustments are.  Those kinds of changes usually never pleases everyone.  If it is something as easy as just changing BCON values, then it should be fairly easy to customize for your own game.  Right now, I don't want to think about it too much. :P



Lol.  Awww... a sweet idea, but I doubt the ol' coot would be up for collaborating in that way.  He marches to the beat of his own logic.  You'd probably be better off trying to customize his mod for yourself.  Btw... with the way his mod works... Family sims can pretty much have any Career LTW if they have a family member that can serve as a "role model" in that career and they have a good relationship.




I could have sworn I saw somewhere that the code checks to see if a sims major matches "bits" that are set in a BCON for the career, and if they do, this adds to the potential of starting further up in the career.  No?  It's now been awhiles since I actually looked at the code. :-\




Hrm... that is weird... well... I have a few sims that I graduated from Uni recently, and one more on the way.  He's just got to finish his last 72 hours before he gets sent back.  I think I will send him off with a grad party, as I have yet to actually have one of those.  Once I've graduated him, I will have a chunk of sims that I could finally test out my career hack with.


Ste

I love this hack!  Anything to make my sims lives a little harder :)

Are you still looking for testing info on this?  (seasons version)  Everything seemed to be working as described, except a few small differences.  I used three sims, one born in game, one spawned from TL&D, one CAS.

all of these job searches are on the computer

Day 1:
born in game, went to uni, math major was offered 3 jobs: writer (custom), social work (custom), and science - no more.
spawned from TL&D, no uni was offered 2 jobs: writer (custom), and social work (custom) - no more.
CAS, no uni, upgraded to biology major with debugger was offered 4 jobs: writing (custom), science, law enforcement, social work (custom) - no more

Law enforcement should availale to everyone?  My math major and my non-uni sim were not offered it.  And no one was offered 5 jobs, not even the biology major.

Day 2:
born in game, went to uni, math major was offered 4 jobs: adventurer, military, athletics, investment (custom) - no more.
spawned from TL&D, no uni was offered 4 jobs: adventurer, military, athletics, investment (custom) - no more.
CAS, no uni, upgraded to biology major with debugger was offered 5 jobs: adventurer, natural science, military, athletics, investment (custom)

My math major should have been offered natural science?

Day 3:
born in game, went to uni, math major was offered 5 jobs: journalism, slacker, medicine, computing (custom), social work.
spawned from TL&D, no uni was offered 3 jobs: slacker, computing (custom), social work - no more.
CAS, no uni, upgraded to biology major with debugger was offered 5 jobs: journalism, slacker, medicine, computing (custom), social work.

My math major should not have been offered medicine?

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you want me to test anything else.

And are you still working on the documentation for customizing?  I would definitely be interested in making some of my custom careers require degrees.

Thanks!

There may be regional differences, but certainly here in the U.S. this is not uncommon. I'm an incomplete dissertation away from having a Ph.D (which will never be completed), yet I'm not even in the top half of the national income distribution—and I got my first real job in 1974. This phenomenon was recognized at least forty years ago:  social activists in the U.S. called us the "new working class"—white-collar workers paid low hourly wages. I'm also part of the first downwardly-mobile generation in American history, the first generation which could not expect to automatically enjoy a higher standard of living than our parents.

Like Leonard Bast in Forster's Howard's End, the new working class tends to identify its interests (mistakenly) with those of its employers, and so is not an agent for economic or social change.



It has been my experience (without this hack) that suitable jobs are not always offered on the first try. The available jobs for the day are the same for every sim on the lot.

Yay!  Glad you like it. :)


Yes.  Always.  Feedback and constructive criticism is (almost ;)) always welcome.



Hrm... well... I actually changed things since the last time I posted, to make things somewhat more (but kinda arbitrarily) balanced.  I actually haven't had any sims get jobs yet... although I have had a slew of recent grads (I have about 6 grads that I've either moved into households or they are waiting to be moved in from the Sim Bin).  I've still been playing in Uni, so I actually haven't had a chance to test things out more since the last update.

From what I can vaguely remember about the code... I think each day kind of "rolls" up what 5 jobs are available for that day/household.  As Hegelian says, those jobs will pretty much be the only jobs available for that day.  I think the 'cycle' for when the jobs change is at 6:00pm.

Then... the only jobs that will be "offered" are the ones that a sim may be "qualified for" based on the Uni related bits.  If a career is set to not require a uni degree, then it should always be available.  If a career requires a uni degree, it should be available only to uni grads (I assume the lot debugger sets all appropriate flags/sim data).  If a career requires a specific uni degree, then only uni grads with the qualifying degree should be offered that career track.


Again, I changed things a little in the last update, which I posted without documentation.  So I'll have to dig through the code again to remember what I did. :P


This definitely helps.  This is probably exactly the kind of info to help me figure out whether the hack is actually working properly.  Again, I'll have to check the code to see if the above info fits.  I assume you are using the latest version?  Only v0.00.19 has the seasons related stuff.  If you're using the older version, they will still work, technically, but the seasons careers won't be affected.



Still working... yes.  I started it up again last week, but then I've been playing more instead. :P  I suppose I could go back to working instead of playing *sniffs* if I must.  Well... eventually I'll get around to finishing it up.  Maybe sooner than later if I let the guilt get to me. lol. :D


Ste

Just to clarify,
Don't worry about it, I would rather be playing too! :)

Yes, I am using v0.00.19 for Seasons.

In my game the jobs change over at midnight.  I think my original post was a little confusing, so let me clarify.  In my post, each line of each day represents one of the three sims, and the jobs they were offered in that same day, before the jobs changed over at midnight.  Does that make sense?  I know what you guys mean about the game rolling up only 5 jobs for each day.

I guess the weirdest thing I noticed, is that on the same day the biology major was offered the law enforcement job, neither of the other two were.  I assume you've left the law enforcement career path open to everyone?  But of course, if it's not supposed to be open to everyone, then that's a whole different story :)  I guess the other discrepancies could be explained by the changes you've made to the requirements.

I like it though, so I'll keep playing it the way it is until you update.  Happy Simming!

Ok, I finally got around to making the documentation. :P  You can find it in the 3rd post here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6773.msg190409.html#msg190409).


I would've uploaded it last night, but I was having problems trying to upload a 3MB zipped Word document.  So... Fairlight the Bitch... or was it Fagor?  I can't remember.  They're pretty interchangeable. ;) suggested I make it an html file and just link the pics (which were the reason why the Word doc was so large).  Brilliant idea!  Glad I thought of it. :D

Unfortunately, I couldn't imgred the pics... so, since they're currently hosted on my photobucket, there may be a slight chance that they'll be disabled if the bandwidth gets eaten up (unless photobucket changed their policy and/or increased the quota limit).

Hopefully the instructions are fairly easy to understand.  The docs consist of an HTML file and an Excel spreadsheet.  The Excel spreadsheet actually serves a dual purpose:

1) it documents the existing "state" so to speak in how the hack has changed the majors associated with each career.  It also tells you whether education is required, and whether or not they have to be the specific majors associated with each career.

2) it acts as a "calculator" to generate the values you should use if you want to customize the hack.


As mentioned in the documentation, I "balanced" the hack so each career has 4 majors associated with it, and each major can apply to 8 careers.  Please note, this is under the assumption that you have the Seasons EP and the Life Stories careers (which is what my current set up includes).  Even if the associations don't quite make sense, I did my best to try and "balance" them so that no career or major necessarily is heavily favored over the others, since this was brought up as a point of concern. 

As always, feedback is appreciated.  The only caveat, now at least, being that you can't complain to me about associated majors and careers not making sense.  You now have the power to change it however you see fit. :P

I probably won't make any major changes until new careers become available, either in the next EP or extracted from Life Stories.


Ste

Very easy to understand, thank you! 

I just have a couple questions.  What would happen if I decided to make it unbalanced?  If I didn't keep the 4 majors per career ratio?  For example, if I wanted only biology majors to be able to go into medicine? 

And is there any way to add custom careers into this hack?  If it's very complicated, don't worry about it, because I probably wouldn't be able to do it.


ETA: (by syberspunk to merge posts)

A problem...

In the calculator, if I try to change anything in the 0/1 columns, to get a new hex value, it gives me an error.  It says "#NAME?".  It won't let me change anything.


Note: when possible, please use edit rather than double posting.

1) You can unbalance them as much as you want.  I quoted "balance" because it's really arbitrary.  I decided to "balance" it for "general audiences" so people who don't want to bother with SimPE because they're unsure about using it or they're just too wussy ;)

I have like two other threads about this hack floating around, and it was brought up that, due to the way I initially hacked the careers and majors, which was somewhat more realistic, it basically rendered some majors "useless" in the sense that there was almost no point to have a sim declare that major.  For  example (and I'm kinda pullin this out of my arse cuz I can't remember the exact scenario), Biology was associated with several careers, and even used to open up tracks like Medicine, which was made to require a major.  Physics was isolated to only a few careers, many of which were already covered by Biology.  Biology ended up "unlocking" more career paths, so basically it seemed pointless to have a sim major in Physics.  Thus, the reason for me trying "balance" things so that no one major necessarily had more of an advantage than others.  So in the very least, people who won't try to customize the hack will be able to have a somewhat "balanced" choice.

If you choose to create an "unbalanced" sitatuion between careers and majors, of course, you as the player, can choose to have a sim declare any major, regardless of the unbalancing.  Nothing "bad" should happen.  Just realize that, if you make many of the careers require an education, and strictly specific majors, you may end up with potential situations where only a couple of careers tracks might be offered to your sim.  There may be even days where the game rolls up all 5 careers that might be locked to your sim because of the changes you made.

2) You can probably customize custom careers in the same manner.  You would have to open the custom career in SimPE.  Then look for the Tuning BCON.  Just like the instructions in my documentation, just click on the BCON in Resource Tree window to isolate all the BCONs.  Aside from the extracted careers from Life Stories, I do not have any custom careers, but I assume that careers are created in some standard way.  So, once you have isolated the BCONs, you can use the filter option in SimPE.  Use 0x1056 as the value for the Instance: and click the set link.  Then you can use Plugin View and edit the values in the same way.  Theoretically, it should work.  But, as always, you should backup your game data and keep copies of the original hacks before you edit them.

ETA:


Hrm... that is really weird.  Which columns are you trying to change?  You should be able to change the columns C-M.  However, only the rows 2-11, 14-17, 20, 21, and 24-29.  ALl the other rows are totals.  You cannot change row O or P.  If you do, you'll bork the calculator.  I'm gonna try to download the .zip file myself to see if something got screwed up.  I'm working with the original on my compy and it seems to be fine for me... the only valid values are 0 and 1.  If you turn "on" all the bits, the Hex value should be 7FF.  And obviously, if you turn them all "off" it should be 0.

You don't really need the Excel calculator.  You can use the windows calculator to do this.  I just thought it would be easier if I included a somewhat simple "tool" and explained how to do it, rather than go into details about how to convert bin to hex and what it all means.  Basically, the bin value should be a "string" of 11 "bits" (0's and 1's), where each bit represent each major, with 1 meaning it is turned "on" and 0 is turned "off" for that career.  You take that bin value and convert it to the hex value, by whatever means you have (the Excel calculator, the calculator program that comes with Windows, a real actual calculator, whatever :P) and use that value.

ETA2:

Ok, I just downloaded the .zip myself and opened up the Excel spreadsheet.  It still works for me.  :-\  I would suggest redownloading it and trying it again.  If you are still having problems, you might have to enable macros in Excel or something.  Although... I just assumed that Excel should be able to interpret formulas by default.  The other thing I would check is if you have some old version of Excel.  I have 2003, but 2000 should still work... and, I don't think I'm using anything new.  I would have figured the functions I used in the formula are kinda standard.  Unless the bin to hex converting function is new?


ETA3::

One thing I probably need to add eventually is maybe a message that at least tells you that there are no jobs available that your sim is qualified.  One "problem" I have run into is, sims who are unedumacated will sometimes have no choices, especially using the newspaper, and the sim just opens the paper and closes it right away.  This isn't a "bug" per se, rather it is most likely because they are not qualified for any of the jobs offered that day.

Ste

I *thought* that somewhere in this or a related thread that it was said that the 2 LS careers were taken into account with this mod. Am I imagining things again?

If so, then are these potential conflicts harmful or just address the same thing? Or should I just remove the 2 LS careers to use this mod?

*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BHAV
Procedure Name: Init
Group ID: 0x7F81CC61
Instance ID: 0x00001000
Packages Containing This Procedure:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_entertainment\ls_career_entertainment.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package
 
*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BHAV
Procedure Name: Init
Group ID: 0x7FDE288B
Instance ID: 0x00001000
Packages Containing This Procedure:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_gamedev\ls_career_gamedev.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package

*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BCON
Group ID: 0x7F81CC61
Instance ID: 0x00001056
Packages Containing This Constant File:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_entertainment\ls_career_entertainment.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package
 
*** POSSIBLE CONFLICT DETECTED ***
File Type: BCON
Group ID: 0x7FDE288B
Instance ID: 0x00001056
Packages Containing This Constant File:
\downloads\Z-NEW Hacks\Life Stories Careers\ls_career_gamedev\ls_career_gamedev.package
\downloads\Hacks\MATY\Syberspunk\unicareershackv0.00.19\unicareershack.package

I want this mod badly, but am a little unclear on a few things thanks to the sheer volume of RTFM:

- there is a version that covers the Seasons careers now, correct?
- but there isn't a version (yet) that doesn't have any specific-major requirements at all, correct?

Also, how beta is beta when it comes to this hack? Is it in the 'probably ready to be used but feedback is always appreciated' stage now, or still in the 'only run if you're up to doing some QA' stage?

Yes, you are correct.  You are not imagining things... well, at least this time. ;)


These conflicts are intentional, so my hack needs to load last.  However, you must keep the LS careers in your game if you want them to actually show up.

The Init BHAVs, as far as I can tell, are not really used.  I've toyed around with changing these and I can't tell if they actually affect anything.  It appears as if they might have originally been used to associate certain careers with certain aspirations.  From what I've seen in Maxis code, it isn't always consistent with which career LTWs are actually associated with the corresponding aspirations.  As example, I've seen some of the Inits have the "Grow Up" aspiration included, which doesn't make sense since any sim that has that aspiration shouldn't even have an LTW. :P

The BCONs, on the other hand, are essential, because they define whether the career requires an education or not, and which majors might afford you a career boost (theoretically) when using the computer to search for a job (at least, that's how I vaguely recall it works.  That's why you can start off at higher levels in a career track, whereas, if you use the newspaper, you should always start off at the 1st level - but that could be something that Pescado's hack enforces...).

The unicareershack will only affect the Seasons and LS careers if and only if you actually have them installed (meaning you have Seasons or you have the LS careers mods).  If you don't have either, the hack will still be compatible with your game configuration.  Basically, the code is there in the hack to override the Maxis EA defaults if they are present.  If they are not present, then there's nothing to override and they are functionless (nothing bad happens by just having them in there).




Yes.  The 0.00.19 version in the third (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,6773.msg190409.html#msg190409) post of this thread is compatible with Seasons.


I'm not sure what you mean... you are asking for a version that doesn't have specific major requirements?  So... you want a version where all careers that require an education are open to any major?  If that is the case, I have no plans to make such a version.  The wussy documentation should provide you enough information to custom tailor the hack as per your request.  Basically, you would change the second line (0x01) in each BCON to 0x7FF.


I'd say it's in the 'probably ready to be used but feedback is always appreciated' stage.  As far as I can tell, nothing in the hack could potentially break your game, because mostly I am changing BCON values.  There aren't actually any real or direct changes any major game behaviours, especially since I removed the change to the career level boost thing.  I may go back and rethink that... but for now, I have no plans to put that back just yet.

Although there are BHAVs in the hack... as I mentioned above in response to magicmoon, I believe these BHAVs most likely don't really do anything.  They are needed to initialize the career, but the semi attributes that they supposedly set don't seem to actually do anything (that I've noticed so far).  If you do notice something that actually depends on these values, I'd like to know about it. *shrugs*  That might be the only uncertain thing about the hack.  The changes I made were just things that I thought were more logical, basically making so that the init follows whatever aspirations the career LTW shows up for.

The only QA/feedback that I'm worried about is whether you sim has any problems with careers showing up (or not showing up) when they are supposed to (or not).  Meaning... according to the settings of the hack (as described in the documentation... which will differ if you choose to customize things) if your sim fulfills the criteria for a career track, but has problems with that career not showing up.  I've had time to finally toy around with this, and thus far, it seems to work fine for me.

As an example, the Paranormal career no longer requires a uni education.  It always shows up for my sims who don't have a uni education.  In the current household that I am testing, I have two graduates (one in Math and one in Politics).  The Business career shows up for both, as it now requires an education, but will show up for any major.  However, Law Enforcement now requires an education and it must be an associated major, so it only shows up for the sim who majored in Politics.  In the same vein, Medicine and Science will only show up for my sim who majored in Math.

I have a 3rd sim in this household, Gieke who came with OFB.  Since he is an adult with no uni education, his options are very limited.  Thus far, the only "problem" I have are days when he has searched for a career with the newspaper, and he was unqualified for all of them, so he isn't offered any jobs at all.  It appears like he looks through the newspaper, but since the game loops through all 3 careers and he is unqualified, he just closes the paper right away.  I am considering possibly adding a notice that at least informs you that your sim isn't qualified for any of the jobs, so you know that an attempt was made.  When I did this, I switched to another sim, just thinking that the dialog would eventually pop up, but it never did.  It isn't necessarily a "bug" per se, just a consequence of the hack.


Ste

I've been using this mod for quite awhile, but didn't have any questions until I added the LS careers. I sent 14 Uni CAS sims through college, each with a different job related LTW. Every one of these has had their careers available to them...eventually. It took one Sim 3 Sim weeks before their job finally showed up. But most Sims were able to lock in their chosen field within the first week. I haven't tried every combination of major/careers, but so far all has been well.

Er, but in the very first post in the thread, it says


Which is why I asked about it.

I suppose eventually I will find a tutorial that will make editing BCONs make sense to me. The earliest stage of my learning curve for new tasks in SimPE is so steep it's a wall -- once I've gotten past the part where I have to be hit over the head repeatedly to actually learn the new thing, I usually have no trouble at all, including being able to improvise safely from what I've just learned.

Uh... true, but that was so long ago.  Since then, I've decided that it isn't worth the trouble to create and have to maintain too many different versions. :P

I've now updated the first post to reflect that.  Thanks for bringing it to my attention. ;D



Well, I would like to think that my how-to instructions are fairly simple and thorough enough to follow along, complete with pictures.  You could experiment and follow along with that.  The chances you would need to make are only to BCON values, and if you stick to using valid values, it shouldn't blow up anything in your game.

Incidentally, I updated the how-to doc, cuz it was missing a picture.  Plus, I moved the pictures into a subfolder on my photobucket account, so you will have to update since the old links won't work.

Ste

Fair enough.

I really do want to learn some remedial BCON modding, so once I'm ready to drop the mod in and have played around with it some, I'll investigate the tutorial. (Still weeding out custom content and not playing.) If it doesn't do the trick, I'm sure it will be no fault of yours, since I tend to need the For Bleeding Idiots Who Need Their Hands Held All The Time version of how to do anything significantly different from what I already know how to do in SimPE.

I thought my doc was pretty much written FBIWNTHHATT in mind. :D  If/when you do take a look at it, let me know if you have questions about anything that might seem confusing or needs further elaboration.  I'm open to any useful feedback you can provide.

I thought the pics would be sufficient.  I wanted to be all fancy and draw circles and lines to indicate that portions of the pic are actually intended to be insets that zoom in on key areas of the larger pic.  Alas, I lack the skills of an artist and fail at photoshop. :P

If anyone else gets the gist of my doc and can manage to put together something that is prettier and better written, that would be great too. ;D

Ste

Just wanted to say that I had no problem understanding the documentation.  I never did get the Excel calculator to work though.  I ended up breaking out my old graphing calculator from high school - finally, a use for that stupid thing!  :)

Is this going to be compatible with Free Time.
*hint, hint, nudge, nudge*

He's working on his listing.
Nudge, nudge. Poke, poke.

After installing this mod, I tried to search for a job using a non-uni educated sim, but she was unable to obtain one at all. The "Find a Job" option did not work at all on the newspaper or computer. She started the actions and then ended them without any dialog box opening. I obtained two error logs, one for each object, attached. I don't know anything about modding, but I'm guessing the education checks saw she was without education (Pleasure sims don't need Uni) and rejected her completely. It could be because the jobs it was going to offer that day (or just the first) were beyond her. Also, if some of the 3/5 are beyond the sim, will it replace them with others or merely offer her less jobs?
I hope this helps the issue get fixed. The idea of this mod is very cool.

Thanks.  I'll try and take a look at the error logs this weekend when if I can find the time.  Btw, what EPs do you have installed?

As for this:


I vaguely recall how it works... but I think the game generates a fixed set of jobs and only those jobs for that day.  They don't change until some fixed time, I forget when now.  Probably 6:00 PM or whatever the time is when the game "thinks" it's the next day.  I think then, if a sim is not qualified for the job, it will not offer other options.  I played around this this a bit, and I vaguely recall running into this issue.  So, in the case that, if a sim is not qualified for 3 out of 5 jobs, I think they will only get 2 offers available.

I really should take notes about these things. :P  It's always a problem whenever I have to update for a new EP, and I forget how things work.  I kinda just mod/update on the fly just to get things to work again, and then I forget it all over again. Lol.  :-[ :P


Ste

Syberspunk, at the risk of sounding like a dunce, are you considering this compatible with FreeTime? I miss it terribly. I need a bit more automation in keeping certain sims down and depressed.

Midnight -- they jobs don't change until after midnight.

I have all the EPs and stuff packs, though when I posted that I didn't have K&B S. I'm guessing that wouldn't make a huge difference.
What I was thinking was that either she was unqualified for all 5 jobs, or she wasn't qualified for the first so it rejected her from the rest of the search, but like I said, I'm not a modder. :)