So making custom careers...

[Jelenedra]

I hear it's different with the new OFB compatiable SimPe. Does anyone know exactly how it's supposed to work now? I haven't been able to find any materials explaining it.

Or is it just not possible now?

[SaraMK]

I hear it's different with the new OFB compatiable SimPe. Does anyone know exactly how it's supposed to work now? I haven't been able to find any materials explaining it.

Or is it just not possible now?

Eh? I didn't find it any different than before... and I've been making careers since before Uni, and before any plugins for them... which means I have actually made careers completely by hand before. The plugin makes it a snap.

All the tutorials I've seen are outdated, which is probably what's throwing you off.

What exactly are you having trouble with?

[Jelenedra]

Well, I haven't tried it yet. Sorta thinking and writing out the career right now. I'm just intimidated by things I don't understand completely (as you can tell by many of my 'HELP ME!' posts) and would really rather know what I am getting into before I throw myself into it.

[SaraMK]

Well, don't worry. It's pretty easy. 

Write out all your levels and any chance cards, that way once you get into SimPE all you'll have to do is copy and paste.

You'll need to download at least one career from here: http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=49038

Open the career in SimPE, and choose Bidou's Career Editor from the Tools menu. After that it's self-explanatory, I think.

To change the icon, find it and click the big Export button, don't right-click on the entry and select Export. Then edit the icon and right-click on the entry (not the icon) and choose Replace. It has to be a  .png file and can have transparency.

Remember to hit the Fix Integrity button to change all the Group #'s. And remember to change the GUID, of course.

Let me know if you run into any problems.

Someone really should write an updated career-making tutorial, but it won't be me because I know the level of support on those things makes it nearly a 24/7 job.

[Jelenedra]

Mmkay thanks, I will have to flesh out my idea a bit further.

I'm trying to make a custom career for a book character, so I wanted the chance cards to follow events from the book. I gotta decide which events are chance card friendly.   

[webwench]

So...this is going to sound dumb, but...

What the heck's a GUID?  I see the acronym used all the time in reference to specialty careers, but have never thought to ask.

Hee Thanks!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Just out of interest. Sara, when I played sims1 I had a program for making custom careers or just using a different set of ready made ones, which all overwrote the existing careers.  Now, it so happens that there is one career I never use, and I wondered if you can still overwrite a Maxis career with a custom one.

[Jelenedra]

ZZ, I think you just have to not change the GUID for the career (if you clone it off of the career you want to replace).

[ZephyrZodiac]

That's great!  No more nasty crims in my game!

[SaraMK]

A GUID is a unique number that looks something like this: 0xEC154B38. Each object in the game (including careers) must have a unique number. If two objects have the same number, only one will show up in the game. That's why it's important to always change the GUID when making any custom object or career. Failing to do so will make the original (the one you cloned, usually a Maxis object) vanish from the game. And people will be really pissed off at you.

The second important thing is the Group #. Failing to change this will ALSO cause the original to be overriden by the custom object.

So yes, if you want the Maxis careers to be overriden by a custom, just don't change the GUID. I think the careers in the thread I linked still have everything unchanged, so you can use them to find out what the GUID is. I have edited several levels on the Maxis careers for my own personal use, and this is the method I used to do it.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks for the advice, Sarah, and now I have another question.  I got the career I want to change and opened it in SimPE, then opened the Career Editor, and I can see what I need to do to enter in the details of the career I want to replace it with, but what I wonder is, do I just click off the Career editor and then close simpe and get the option to save the changes, and will I then have the ustom career in place of the default?  I can't find any commit option on the plug in window at all.

[SaraMK]

Thanks for the advice, Sarah, and now I have another question.  I got the career I want to change and opened it in SimPE, then opened the Career Editor, and I can see what I need to do to enter in the details of the career I want to replace it with, but what I wonder is, do I just click off the Career editor and then close simpe and get the option to save the changes, and will I then have the ustom career in place of the default?  I can't find any commit option on the plug in window at all.

I'm not completely sure I understand, so I will just give you a short tutorial on using the career editor plugin.

Open SimPE.

Open the career you want to edit -- example, Business career from the thread I linked.

From the menu select Bidou's Career Editor.

A window pops up inside of SimPE. You'll see all the career levels. There will be four tabs, called Job Details, Hours & Wages, Promotion, and Chance Cards.

Edit anything you want.

When done, hit the x-button in the top right-hand corner of the window. This closes the editor and returns you to SimPE. There is no Commit button or save option within the editor.

Hit the Save button immediately after closing the editor. Do not click on anything else. I've found that SimPE *sometimes* (not always) loses changes if you select the wrong thing after the career editor window is closed.

After saving, you can continue working with the file, like editing the icon and so on.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Sorry, do you mean the save package button underneath the tools menu button?  I just don't see anything else at all.  That's why I was confused, everything else I understood.

[SaraMK]

Sorry, do you mean the save package button underneath the tools menu button?  I just don't see anything else at all.  That's why I was confused, everything else I understood.

From the menu bar, select File > Save. Or push the button that does the same thing.

They really should have put a big Save or Commit button somewhere, because this way it doesn't look like anything else we are used to doing in SimPE.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks, Sara!  I suppose it's just that there are a lot of people all doing their little part of it, and something just gets missed.  Trouble is, as well, as fast as you get to understand something in its current format, they change it!  But I'll give it a try now and see what I can come up with!

[ChamiMinds]

First thanks to ZephyrZodiac for posting this because I did awhile back but no one posted anything related to my actual question. lol. It was a fun thread but not helpful. And thanks to Sarah because now I have the answer I was looking for too! Love you all to pieces! At least for the moment so no worries that you'll have a stalker or anything. Unless of course you want one then I could possibly be of help there. LOL ok I'll stop typing nonesense now. Thanks again to all who posted here very helpful!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Actually the thread was begun by Jelenedra.  I just added my two pence worth!

[ChamiMinds]

Actually the thread was begun by Jelenedra.  I just added my two pence worth!

Oops! Then in that case a big thank you goes to Jelenedra for starting it up and thanks to you Zephry for asking more questions. Hehe ok I think I got it right now.

[ZephyrZodiac]

   Looks like it!