SimSheet (a sim-tracking program) [Now with Aspiration and LTW tracking!]

[Inge]

I am not sure from your post if you know that this has to be done in SimPE itself?  Assuming you do:

Yes, just open SimPE and check the ticks in Extra/Preferences/Filetable.  When you close it, it should save them.  But this can't be anything to do with SimSheet, can it?  Unless you have both X Stories and The Sims 2, in which case you will have duplicate hood numbers and will definitiely need to make sure you have the right ticks in SimPE.

[coralleane]

Inge, if that was directed at me, I wasn't aware that it could be set in SimPE - however, having gone in and looked where you suggested, those boxes are correctly ticked for the expansions I have.  The settings option on SimSheet, however, always comes up with the expansions unchecked when I open the program.  I cannot recall if initially it would load a list regardless of whether or not the expansions were correctly set to match with the saved list, but whether or not it was, it doesn't seem to be now. 

[Inge]

Oh sorry, I didn't know there were ticks in SimSheet too.

[rufio]

Well, I reread some of my old code today, and found out why the filter dialog kept crashing - I forgot to initialize the pointer.  Durrrr.  You'd think I was a Java programmer or something.  I think I would have figured it out sooner if I hadn't become convinced that it had something to do with the path.  Anyway, new crashless version is up.

Katemonster, I've done a bit of housekeeping in importdialog.cpp; could you try to import with the new non-debug version and see if that works?

OK, maybe it's jet lag, but I'm missing something.

I tell it how to find the Test SimPE version.  But there is no way to specify a neighborhood.  The drop down in blank and I don't seem to be able to type into it.  My game is on the F: drive.  I don't know if that has something to do with it or not.

When I hit import I get an error rufio {outpath} {-hood hood) {-group group}  Which is, I assume telling me that I haven't specified a neighborhood.

I'm lost.

Yes, it is to do with having the game installed on another drive.  I'll fix that in the next upload.

That's the value in the sim's data field, but as users of my shrub know, the value is out by one in terms of how a human thinks of having a day left.  You can adjust in your display, if you think it will make it more intuitive for the users.

Yeah, the point of the "days until age" display is to mimic what is seen in the game.  Will fix.

Is there any way you can make the expansion pack settings stick (even if the default behaviour is to clear the settings each time you load the program, it would useful to have a 'save these settings' button as an option if it can be done)?  I'm not 100% positive, but having created a new list of all playables/townies/NPC's, it seems that if I try to load it without the correct EP's checked, it hangs.  If I remember to check them before loading, it loads okay.  I tried the same with a slightly smaller sample (playables only, about 440 sims) and got the same results: if I remember to check the expansions before loading, the list opens in a few seconds.  If I don't, it doesn't load.  I know the Any Game Starter is out there to allow different EP's, but I expect the vast majority of people use the same EP's for all their hoods.

You should be able to load previously saved files and have the settings that you set for those hoods show up; you should also be able to import hoods that have a different set of EPs than you've specified - the EP checkboxes are really just to hide the EP-related stuff from people who don't have those EPs and don't want to see it.  Is it hanging when you try to load a file, or when you try to import?  I can try to have it auto-detect which EPs you have too.

ETA: New version is up, with Lerf's issue fixed as well as the off-by-one age problem.

[Lerf]

Is it the Simsheet-test file that is now at the URL you sent me yesterday?  If so it doesn't have an .exe file in it.

[rufio]

That's odd.  I reuploaded; is it there now?

[tunaisafish]

The exe is there now

The At large family is now showing ~600 sims, so this appears fine now too.

I had noticed that in an older version you had split the townies & NPC's into the family names given by the SimPE output.
Could this be an option?
Reason:  I used SimPE to change the useless names for the all the special townie/downtownie/NPC's to their 'functional' names (see here.

[rufio]

That was a bug that happened when you selected them using the select all buttons.  The problem with putting townies etc. in non-At Large households is that SimSheet will think they are playables and will have them age along with the playables.  If Inge will tell me how to distinguish between Townies, Downtownies, special Townies, etc., though, I can have SimSheet automatically stick them into appropriate special households.  There are actually already special households for sims/pets in the adoption queue and sims/pets that have run away, and it would be nice to assign those automatically too.

[Inge]

That thread Tuna linked to should have all the info you need for that.

[tunaisafish]

The problem with putting townies etc. in non-At Large households is that SimSheet will think they are playables and will have them age along with the playables.

Now that we can import the 'live' data simply and quickly, is the aging option now redundent?
Using the live data also accounts for againg mods that the user may be using.

I can have SimSheet automatically stick them into appropriate special households.  There are actually already special households for sims/pets in the adoption queue and sims/pets that have run away, and it would be nice to assign those automatically too.

That would be brilliant
The output from SimPE lists these fields under 'FamilyInstance'.

[rufio]

Oh, I see.  "Orphan" means in the adoption queue, right?  And Tourists/Asia/Mountains/Tropics are BV groups?  What are "Display Pets"?  What is "Bob the Builder"?  What are the family instances for the AL social group townies?  Do Grand Vampires/Head Witches/Landlords/Hobby Mavens/Special BV NPCs/Pack Leaders/etc. count as Service NPCs?

Now that we can import the 'live' data simply and quickly, is the aging option now redundent?
Using the live data also accounts for againg mods that the user may be using.

I wouldn't think so - at least, I'd prefer to just add updates rather than importing the entire hood again, but I suppose you can use it that way.  And the next savefile is going to have support for aging hacks.

[tunaisafish]

I'm going to lose power any minute now.  The power company are replacing some poles.
All the info is in that thread but I'll mail you a completed list later when the power comes back up.
Some of the special NPC's are in the downtownies group.  I don't have a list of all these, but they'll have the NPC flag set.
In fact your program will make finding info like this much easier

For aging, you could skip all the groups above 0x7f?? (will check later)

[Marhis]

Oh, I see.  "Orphan" means in the adoption queue, right?  And Tourists/Asia/Mountains/Tropics are BV groups?  What are "Display Pets"?  What is "Bob the Builder"?  What are the family instances for the AL social group townies?  Do Grand Vampires/Head Witches/Landlords/Hobby Mavens/Special BV NPCs/Pack Leaders/etc. count as Service NPCs?

From my notes, yes Tourists etc are BV groups:

0x7FF1 = Tropics locals
0x7FF2 = Mountains locals
0x7FF3 = Asia locals

Tourists are in 12 families: from 0x7FE5 to 0x7FF0

Display Pets are those available in cages, in pet shops, ready to be bought; Bob the Builder is probably something unrelated left behind by Maxis, it does not pertain anything in game.

Head Witches, Landlords, special BV NPCs, wolves and pack leaders are all Service NPCs (family 0x7FFF), while Hobby Mavens have their own family (0x7FF4 0x7FE4), and Grand Vampires (and Diva, Mr. Big and Slobs) are in Downtownies family (0x7FFC)

AL Social groups are:

0x7FDF = Socialites
0x7FE0 = Techies
0x7FE1 = Jocks
0x7FE2 = Bohemians
0x7FE3 = Gearheads

The other families (to summarize) are:

0x7FF6 = Garden Club
0x7FF7 = Display pets - in use
0x7FF8 = Display pets - available (not currently shown in cage, maybe)
0x7FF9 = pets adoption pool
0x7FFA = strays
0x7FFB = (Bob the Builder - ignore it)
0x7FFC = Downtownies
0x7FFD = sim adoption pool
0x7FFE = Townies
0x7FFF = Service NPCs

EDIT: Fixed the family number for Hobby Mavens; thanks tunaisafish for the finding! 

[rufio]

Ok, cool.  I will start working on this tomorrow.  How does the game keep track of teens and pets that have run away, by the way?

[katemonster]

Katemonster, I've done a bit of housekeeping in importdialog.cpp; could you try to import with the new non-debug version and see if that works?

  Same crash. I wish I could give you more useful information, but I have no idea what could even matter.

[rufio]

Katemonster, I've done a bit of housekeeping in importdialog.cpp; could you try to import with the new non-debug version and see if that works?

  Same crash. I wish I could give you more useful information, but I have no idea what could even matter.

That's ok - I'd rearranged some of the code and just wanted to check that I hadn't accidentally fixed it before testing for real.  Download the latest SimSheet-debug and try importing with that, and tell me what messages you see.

[katemonster]

Well, with the new debug program I get the same crash after the same messages. If this helps any, when I run SimSheet on my old laptop running WinXP there is no crash and I actually see the import screen (the one that presumably precedes the progress bar)...my real computer has Vista. I may actually consider just syncing my sims files from my real computer to my old laptop, just so that I can update things on the laptop with the game running on the real machine, in which case I won't have this problem anymore. But surely I'm not the only tester running Vista, and no one else seems to have this weird crash...?

[Inge]

Ok, cool.  I will start working on this tomorrow.  How does the game keep track of teens and pets that have run away, by the way?

I haven't looked into this specifically, but going by how these things are normally managed, they are probably still on the lot, hidden, and they may have a hidden inventory token that times out or a controller is taking care of it.  It's highly unlikely there is an actual data item with a value for "run away" that we could output.

[coralleane]

You should be able to load previously saved files and have the settings that you set for those hoods show up; you should also be able to import hoods that have a different set of EPs than you've specified - the EP checkboxes are really just to hide the EP-related stuff from people who don't have those EPs and don't want to see it.  Is it hanging when you try to load a file, or when you try to import?  I can try to have it auto-detect which EPs you have too.

ETA: New version is up, with Lerf's issue fixed as well as the off-by-one age problem.

Okay, tried again with three different length of lists: one of all 1210 Sims, one of 400~ playables and one of 20 playables.  The first two wouldn't load even after being left for several minutes (with the expansions checked, the longest list loads in about 30 seconds when I time it).  The list of 20 sims will load, and the settings are imported with it.  Either it is hanging on trying to change the settings, or it will take an obscenely long time to load the settings for large lists; either way it would seem that the simplest way to minimise the problem for most is making the EP options stick, unless you can find a way to bring the option-loading time down.  It might be relevant to note that a couple of days ago I forgot to check the EP's before I imported a large list of Sims.  When I went into settings to do it manually, it took about thirty seconds (towards the end I was timing them) to apply each EP before the program would let me check the next box. 

[rufio]

katemonster - download the latest SimSheet-debug, import, and tell me what the last debug message you see is.

coralleane - this is loading using "Open" from the LM dialog?  I can load a list of ~800 sims in a second or two without having any EPs checked.  Can I verify that at least some sims in the list have households listed?  Are you opening it in the right savefile version?  I guess this could be partly due to redoing the container class, but I'm not getting anything like this.

[Lerf]

Still nothing showing up in the neighborhoods drop down under import files in the manage sim lists window.   My game is still on the F: drive.   

[katemonster]

Okay, after "Set epFlags" I see "Loop 0 begin", "Loop 0 middle" and then the crash. Hope this is helpful.

[rufio]

Lerf, can you just verify that a folder called F:\Documents and Settings\<username>\My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2\Neighborhoods\ exists?  And has some folders in it called N001, etc?

Kate, can you redownload SimSheet-debug and try it again for me?

[coralleane]

coralleane - this is loading using "Open" from the LM dialog?  I can load a list of ~800 sims in a second or two without having any EPs checked.  Can I verify that at least some sims in the list have households listed?  Are you opening it in the right savefile version?  I guess this could be partly due to redoing the container class, but I'm not getting anything like this.

Opening from the Manage Sims List dialog.  I've only ever used the 0.5 version for saving and opening, the files open fine with the EP's set, and when I do so there are Households listed under the Household tabs, a quick sampling of which seems to be accurate.  It will open a small list fine without settings, just not a large one.  Bearing in mind I don't really know how it's programmed, would the existence of large numbers of EP-specific Sims (ie, pets, plantsims, servos, etc) have any effect or not? 

[rufio]

It should not have any effect; those are just flags that the program understands regardless of whatever is checked in settings.  Can I see the savefile?