Phone Hack v8.3

[J. M. Pescado]

New Phone Hack for OFB+


OFBp2+: phonehack.zip
OFBp1-: phonehack-p1.zip
NL: phonehack.zip
UNI: phonehack.zip

Phone & Taxi Hack (v8.3) for TS2OFBp2 - TS2FT
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado & Doctor Boris)

Special Thanks To:
LilAbner, for the Swedish translation
Hobbsee the Scrawny Pencil Neck
Fat, Hairy-Bellied Ness

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.
Install optional TalkModule if you want the smart-conversation-lengths back.

BUGS FIXED:
1. The parent of a child who is on the phone will not invite himself inside.

2. The Headmaster will no longer self-invite himself when he calls you, nor
   will the phone freeze up.

3. You should now be able to properly invite new Headmasters even if your Sim
   has married a Headmaster.

4. Teen Go/Sneak Out in Pets hopefully unfarkled.


ANNOYANCES ELIMINATED:
1. Teens can now go and sneak out even, or especially if, they lack a guardian.
   This should not be construed as support for parenticide, although we're sure
   some of you are going to try it now. In event that no adult is present, the
   teen sim no longer requires permission to go out, because, obviously, he has
   nobody to request it from but himself. The options to "Go Out" and
   "Sneak Out" will appear at the appropriate times.

2. Harassment Call Lock - Ever wondered why your Sims somehow seem to decide to
   go to sleep earlier when you're not playing? Tired of them simply screaming
   at you even though normally, they never go to sleep under YOUR direction
   until like 2 in the morning? We couldn't make insomnia-tracking to determine
   which families are regularly insomniacs, but you are now protected from
   accidentally doing this: If your sim attempts to call another sim outside of
   valid calling hours, he will pick up the phone, then realize this is a bad
   time and put it down before bugging the other sim. You may still attempt to
   place emergency, service, transportation, sneak-out, and crank calls
   normally.

3. No more dumbass phone calls: Friends who miss you no longer make stupid
   phone calls just to waste your time with their whining: They will instead
   make a USEFUL phonecall, so if a friend you haven't heard from in awhile
   calls you to talk, instead of bitching about it, this is why.

4. Sim-children should no longer bug random adults that they bumped into on
   some community lot by phone. Sim children should only call their relatives
   or other children.

5. Sims should no longer place casual calls when they are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE
   HOME. No more truant children calling for kids which are at school, or
   people calling when they SHOULD be at work.

6. Now possible for teens to introduce people to adults using the phone:
   Teens no longer shouted at unless phone call join is declined.

7. Now possible to invite headmaster if toddler will auto-transition at 1800
   while headmaster scenario is in progress.

8. Calling in sick no longer generates a useless NPC to clog your data files.


FEATURES ADDED:
1. Set Ringer - Set the number of rings you want your phone to ring when an
   incoming call is received: 5, 10, 15, the default 20, or even OFF, which
   means you will not be notified or receive any incoming calls.

COMPATIBILITY:
This hack is for TS2OFBp2+ ONLY. It does not function with the previous
versions.

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

CHANGELOG:
v8.1: Pets fixes. Taxi feature reinstated.
v8.0: Pets Compatibility, Taxi feature cut.
v7.5: OFB Updates
v7.1: No talk animations bug fixed.
      Restored conversation length feature as optional module.

[jennydeenyc]

Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh! I'm so excited to try this out I've lost all my words! 

[ramseyazad]

I'm wondering if this silly bug means somewhere in Ikea stuff we can call our furniture on the phone?

Did anyone actually figure out how to fix this yet?

*whines pitifully about *absolutely needing* phone hack and wife *absolutely needing* ikea. 

[jsalemi]

Make sure you have the latest version of all hacks before whining -- the problems with the Phone hack and AutoYak have been fixed in recent updates.  If you still have problems, you have either an old version of the phone hack hiding elsewhere in your downloads directory (it's a hack that will hitchhike on downloaded lots), or another hack that's conflicting with it or with the game (aka, tight pants).  Get the clean installer from MTS2 and the Hack conflict detection utility from simwardrobe, and run both to find your problem(s).

[ramseyazad]

they've been updated since ikea came out?

[lordrichter]

Seems that the latest phone hack might have made it so that ringing cell phones wake up sleepers?

[jsalemi]

they've been updated since ikea came out?

Yes, at least twice.  I suggest you keep an eye on the 'Hack Directory' thread in the Armory, as new updates are reported there as they happen (or pretty soon afterward ).

[ramseyazad]

Oooo, I knew the folks here were awesome, but I didn't know they were *that* awesome.

[J. M. Pescado]

First, you are oldversioned. Second...

Once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

[fway]

First, you are oldversioned. Second...
<snip>
Once again, I point the blame squarely at tight pants.

actually, I downloaded the newest moreawesomethanyou.zip as of yesterday.

I realize that the inteen is a notorious hack, but I have the patch that doesn't kill kittens. I'll remove it, but I had no problems since Kitchen and bath.

EDIT: I removed inteen. I realized I downoaded the newest moreawesomethanyou.zip but it was moreawesomethanyou-ft.zip that I was supposed to download.

Thank you Pescado. *bows*

Moral of the story kids:
Download the one that has the expansion pack abbreviation at the end.

[jsalemi]

EDIT: I removed inteen. I realized I downoaded the newest moreawesomethanyou.zip but it was moreawesomethanyou-ft.zip that I was supposed to download.
...
Moral of the story kids:
Download the one that has the expansion pack abbreviation at the end.

Actually, it doesn't make a bit of difference -- both names point to the exact same file (the ol' Unix alias function, dontchaknow), so it doesn't matter if you download moreawesomethanyou.zip or moreawesomethanyou-ft.zip.  The real moral of the story is to get the moreawesomethanyou.zip from the directory that corresponds to the EP you have.  Or if you always have the latest EP, just download it from the link in the Hack Directory thread in the Armory.

[Entgleichen]

Pescado, could you possibly add the option to remotecontrol business from vacation?

[J. M. Pescado]

I don't believe business decay and income even function on vacation, so it'd be pointless.

[cuthbert]

BUGS FIXED:
1. The parent of a child who is on the phone will not invite himself inside.

Actually I didn't know this was a bug, as I was quite fond of this little feature. My main sim went to college, and her little sister calls every day. And most of the time mom or dad comes over during the phone chat and dance the time away in the dorm lobby. After hanging up, my sim comes to her dancing mom/dad and shares a family kiss, hug and some inside jokes before sending them off. Happens almost every day. Quite the heartwarming experience. 

[J. M. Pescado]

The problem is that this is actually a bug: The sim is showing up to collect the child...who isn't really there. This becomes more apparent when your caller is Marsha the Stalker and some random townie invites himself into your house and begins destroying things as a result.

[Madame Mim]

With the latest phone hack installed + Ikea et al all Sim attempts to phone for Sneak Out are turning out to be Crank Calls.

Basically I click on Call - Sneak Out, but the Crank Call option window comes up. I select a Sim to call. The Sim I am controlling shouts abuse down the phone and hangs up. A little later the called Sim turns up on the lot.

[Milhouse Trixibelle Saltfucker III]

Wasn't that an old pets-era bug that was fixed in some fix here? I remember getting that after installing pets, before I found out about this place.

[Madame Mim]

Maybe, I don't remember it. The new phone hack has cured the problem in my game. My Sims can once more Sneak Out.

[Magicmoon]

Since yesterday's update, I get this error whenever a Sim clicks on a Phone.  If they click on themselves to use the phone, no error occurs.

Edit: Problem fixed in last update.

[miramis]

Call/Targets isn't working like I remember, the sim hangs up straight away and says something like "I don't know anybody", they can place other calls normally.  I initiate the action by clicking the sim.

[Magicmoon]

Targets are Sims that you have met but are not yet friends, so friends won't show up. They also must be at home, not at work or in school and during normal calling hours 7am to midnight, or 7pm to 7am for vampires IIRC. I don't think enemies show up either.

[miramis]

Oh bugger! I should know that already, he would have been in work *head desk*.  Never mind then, nothing to see here   (Thanks magicmoon )

[Karen]

I just installed AL and I haven't been playing with it very long yet, but one thing I noticed already:  The "phone harassment" time seems to be set much earlier than it used to be.  I've tried it on several lots, and attempting to call another Sim (whether on cellphone or regular phone makes no difference) after about 10 pm will result in the "Phone harassment is bad, m'kay?" message.  I tried once at about 10:15 pm, and on another lot around 11:30 pm.  Same results.  FWIW, it was a Monday night on both lots, not that the day of the week should make any difference.  And these were adults trying to call other adults...not that it matters.

I am running the latest version of the AL director's cut (phonehack dated 9/1/08 6:30 am, autoyak dated 8/30/08 6:08 pm) plus a couple of Twojeffs' hacks (ACR and Smart Beds), but that's it at the moment.  Have not played long enough yet to risk putting any non-awesome hacks back in.

I can't remember if the phone harassment code is part of autoyak or the phonehack, but thought I'd post it here just in case.

Karen

[jsalemi]

I think AL reduced the harassment hour -- if you play apartments, you'll notice that most of the other tenants go to bed at 10pm, and even your playables will sometimes get the urge to go to bed @ 10pm, even if they're not all that tired.

[Karen]

That's ridiculous.  (And definitely something I would love to see fixed!)  But thanks for the tip.

Karen