Novels - A Guide

[Motoki]

They never show up in the bookstore, despite hints to the contrary.  They show up in the library, but otherwise the free copies you get for writing them are the only copies in existence.

I've heard some people talk about stealing from the library but as of yet have been unable to do it. The sim will never put a library book in their inventory and if I have them set it down you can't pick it up on a community lot.

[pbox]

I want my sims novels to be buyable

The way I'm working around the "one copy only" thing atm:

- grow copies of the books with the Omniplant
- "trade" the copies to other households by means of plunking them into a sim's inventory, temporarily adding the sim to another household (with ctrl-shift-click), pulling the book into the other household's bookcase, and re-adding the sim to where they came from.

The latter part is a bit crude and tedious, but what can you do .. I'm certainly hoping there will be simpler ways of exchanging things between households in the future.

I don't have any of the EAxian stores or comm lots in my neighbourhood, my sims all trade with each other this way (repairs against fertiliser, books against fish, etc). I'm planning to establish a marketplace where everybody goes on Saturdays so they can do this sort of trade more easily (no scrolling around to the other household), or make a dedicated "courier service" sim who can be temp-added to other households for trading.

[Motoki]

The way I'm working around the "one copy only" thing atm:

- grow copies of the books with the Omniplant
- "trade" the copies to other households by means of plunking them into a sim's inventory, temporarily adding the sim to another household (with ctrl-shift-click), pulling the book into the other household's bookcase, and re-adding the sim to where they came from.

The latter part is a bit crude and tedious, but what can you do .. I'm certainly hoping there will be simpler ways of exchanging things between households in the future.

I don't have any of the EAxian stores or comm lots in my neighbourhood, my sims all trade with each other this way (repairs against fertiliser, books against fish, etc). I'm planning to establish a marketplace where everybody goes on Saturdays so they can do this sort of trade more easily (no scrolling around to the other household), or make a dedicated "courier service" sim who can be temp-added to other households for trading.

I do wish there was some sort of give gift or exchange item menu in the game itself. It's rather irksome it doesn't have that feature. They are probably saving it for an expansion I'd imagine. 

[pbox]

I do wish there was some sort of give gift or exchange item menu in the game itself. It's rather irksome it doesn't have that feature. They are probably saving it for an expansion I'd imagine. 

I think so, too. The thing is, i believe the foundations of such a thing must be in the game already -- after all, kleptomaniacs can already put stuff in their inventories that isn't theirs (big things as well -- not just normal "inventorisable" items), and any sim can "Pick Up" plantables on other sims' home lots. I tried all combinations of picking up/putting down stuff on all sorts of lots, and it's really aggravating that nothing works even when it so *obviously* could.

I dunno, I requested this for awesomemod a while ago, perhaps it'll show up as a new feature at some point. *crosses fingers and toes*

[J. M. Pescado]

Inventory transfer is a feature that is being researched. Positive results may be forthcoming.

[pbox]

Awesome. Now that would be a feature I'd even be willing to install EA patches for! 

Are you also looking into putting "big things" into sim inventories? I'd love if sims could move house and take some furniture with them -- not only when moving the entire household, I mean when one sim moves out it'd be great if they could just take the stuff from their room or whatever.

[ingeli]

Growing books! I didn't think of that, lol.

[pbox]

Growing books! I didn't think of that, lol.

You can make your own bookstore/publishing house that way! =) I'm sure that at some point, we'll be able to make replacement meshes for the omniplant (or clone xerox machines off the omniplant or whatever), so it won't look as stupid as it currently does.

[J. M. Pescado]

Awesome. Now that would be a feature I'd even be willing to install EA patches for! 

Feature is up.

Are you also looking into putting "big things" into sim inventories? I'd love if sims could move house and take some furniture with them -- not only when moving the entire household, I mean when one sim moves out it'd be great if they could just take the stuff from their room or whatever.

Not really. In truth, there's really very little point in doing so. Unlike TS2, you're not looking at an annoying rigamarole anytime you want to move with trying to keep the original lot from being shredded, so once a house is furnished, it pretty much stays furnished for life and moving about is a fairly painless experience.

[pbox]

Are you also looking into putting "big things" into sim inventories? I'd love if sims could move house and take some furniture with them -- not only when moving the entire household, I mean when one sim moves out it'd be great if they could just take the stuff from their room or whatever.

Not really. In truth, there's really very little point in doing so. Unlike TS2, you're not looking at an annoying rigamarole anytime you want to move with trying to keep the original lot from being shredded, so once a house is furnished, it pretty much stays furnished for life and moving about is a fairly painless experience.

For me it's not about the houses so much, more about the belongings of individual sims, and about trading (of my old couch vs. your tomatos/books/fish). But I believe I can workaround the former by making them temp-kleptomaniacs and having them steal their own stuff from the old house -- it's not like they're moving every day, so that should be feasible. I believe at least some of the stuff re. the kleptomaniac trait is tuneable as well, maybe I can just make everyone kleptomaniac and disable the possible annoyances (like auto stealing .. I wouldn't want everyone to do that)

Thanks for enabling the inventories! Looking forward to try this out on the weekend.


ETA, just wanted to add that I have a current awesome with inventory trading installed now -- this works really nicely, sims can swap books with their friends in a very uncomplicated manner now. The only thing you need to be aware of is that both sims must be on the same lot, and the visitor needs to have been "invited inside" (not just greeted).

[Sirah]

I'm sorry for necroing this topic, but I just wanted to point out that there is a third pregnancy book. it's gotten from the medical career as a reading-material-opportunity and is called Gift of Life. The opportunity doesn't say anything about it being pregnancy book, but it has white covers. Noticed when mommy had taken both normal books with her and daddy wanted to prepare for sprog.

[chann]

I'm sorry for necroing this topic, but I just wanted to point out that there is a third pregnancy book. it's gotten from the medical career as a reading-material-opportunity and is called Gift of Life. The opportunity doesn't say anything about it being pregnancy book, but it has white covers. Noticed when mommy had taken both normal books with her and daddy wanted to prepare for sprog.

Actually, the only two books that will satisfy the Read a Pregnancy Book wish are the two in the bookstore (the code only checks for those two specific titles). That medical book reuses the "prenatal" cover but it won't fulfil the wish.

[Sirah]

Could have sworn the wish came through, but oh well, must have been my imagination. Too bad, the name is perfect in the "makes you nauseous" way.

[Linden]

Does anyone know if it's possible to make at least 20,000 simoleons in royalties on one book? My author sim got this as a wish. She has written a ton of best-sellers, has all the trait and perk bonuses. I've gotten very close to, but not quite to 20,000. Masterpiece is the genre, obviously. She also has a wish to write 60 novels, and I'm wondering if I should give up on the 20K and aim for shorter books. She is an elder so I need to prioritize.

[J. M. Pescado]

It might be possible, but these wishes are procedurally generated wishes, so they wil just inflate to greater and more ridiculous levels.