Story Mode: A Random @Toading: Congratulations to Draklixa!

[J. M. Pescado]

Story Mode: How it works, why you should hate it.

HOW STORY PROGRESSION WORKS
Basically, a score timer counts up. When the score reaches a certain point, up to 18 (default) random story actions will be considered and some of them will randomly happen. None of these actions truly *DO* happen and there is no built up. It is a major violation of the Good Writing Rule of "Show, Don't Tell".

TERMINOLOGIES
SelectRandomHouseHold: This indicates a household chosen by the library function "SelectRandomHousehold". A household chosen by this function is picked at random from a list of all households in the neighborhood except your current household and the Service NPCs. Some households are homeless, but can still be chosen by this. A custom predicate may be specified that excludes some candidates.
SelectRandomSim: This indicates a sim chosen by the library function "SelectRandomSimDescription". A sim chosen by this function is picked at random from any household in the neighborhood other than Service NPCs or your current active household. Sims not part of a household cannot be chosen. A custom predicate may be specified that excludes some candidates.
SelectRandomLot: This indicates a lot chosen at random from the list of all lots in your neighborhood. The lot may be commercial or residential.
Items chosen at "random", but not using these specific terms, are chosen by a local function and not by the aforementioned library functions. A custom predicate may be specified that excludes some candidates.
CanSupportPopulation: A test of whether a lot has at least one fridge and a number of beds >= population.
CanSupportHousehold: A test of whether a lot CanSupportPopulation(number of sims in household).
MoveOut: Household is evicted from their home lot. They receive no funds to compensate for the value of the lot, and their household funds are not otherwise changed.
MoveIn: Household is moved into target lot. They do not have to be able to afford the lot and do not pay for it, their household funds remaining unchanged.

WHAT CAN HAPPEN
Here is a list of the random crap which can happen in the default game.

AddSim
A sim is randomly added to a random household that is not full. This can either be a sim of random age(unknown range), or a baby. If it is a baby, two parents will be chosen. If two parents could not be found, parthenogenesis occurs.

ChangeFitness
A SelectRandomSim is chosen and permanently mutilated, having its prebuilt fitness/fatness characteristics altered at random by up to 0.5. This change is permanent and irreversible, unlike changes produced by actual in-game exercise or gluttony.

ChangeRelationship
One of three modes chosen at random: "Befriend", "Antagonize", "Romance".
Two different SelectRandomSims are chosen. If the relationship change is Romance, the SelectRandomSims will be valid romance candidates. Relationship improves or worsens depending on the mode chosen.

Create Household
A random household of composition defined by "MakeTypicalFamily" is created as a fambly of homeless vagrants.

Create and Move In
As above, but they also MoveIn a SelectRandomLot that is Non-Empty, Residential, Uninhabited, and CanSupportHouseHold.

Emigrate Household
A SelectRandomHousehold is permanently disintegrated. All sims contained within cease to exist.

GetJob
A SelectRandomSim that is unemployed will receive a random job of random level.

KillSim
A SelectRandomSim that can die will randomly and instantly die from one of the 4 (5 for elders) available random deaths.

LeaveJob
A SelectRandomSim with a job will instantly quit/be fired/retire, regardless of performance or goals.

MergeHouseholds
Two different SelectRandomHouseholds A and B will be chosen such that their combined population count does not exceed 8 (nontunable). B will MoveOut from its house if any and all members of B are dumped into A. B's household data, including inventory and funds, are lost.

MoveInHousehold
A SelectRandomHousehold that is homeless will be randomly MoveIn to a SelectRandomLot that CanSupportHousehold.

MoveOutHousehold
A SelectRandomHousehold that is not homeless and has no one who is pregnant will randomly MoveOut and become homeless.

PromoteDemote
A SelectRandomSim who has a job and is not the "Boss" will be randomly promoted or demoted regardless of performance. They cannot be promoted past the top level or demoted below level 1.

SplitHousehold
A random member of a SelectRandomHouseHold who is not pregnant, and a YA or an ex of an existing member of the household will be kicked out and become a new, homeless household. The funds of the original household are not affected. The new household of the kicked-out individual receives a 20K handout.

ThrowHouseParty
A SelectRandomHousehold consisting of at least one YA or older throws a party. This is the only event that isn't harmful!

[smokeverbs]

I'm most interested in the fact that "A custom predicate may be specified that excludes some candidates". Does that mean that it might be possible to come up with Story Progression that actually makes sense? Parts of Awesomemod address this, but only in a "disable x from happening" way - which I'm thankful for, it's definately a start. How much further can we take this? And why hasn't Eaxis offered you obscene amounts of money to come program for them?

[rufio]

Questions:

1.  What causes the "score timer" to increase?  Is it based on Aspiration point accumulation in the present household, or time, or some random recipe known only to EA?
2.  How does "MakeTypicalFamily" work?

[kattenijin]

This one:

CanSupportPopulation: A test of whether a lot has at least one fridge and a number of beds >= population.

is obviously borked, as before Awesomemod I would consistantly have households where #sims was significantly greater than #beds, my fave being the lot that no matter how many times I would delete the extra sims, it would grow to 6 youngadult/adult/elder and 2 babies/toddlers, and yet still have only ONE single bed.

[rufio]

This one:

CanSupportPopulation: A test of whether a lot has at least one fridge and a number of beds >= population.

is obviously borked, as before Awesomemod I would consistantly have households where #sims was significantly greater than #beds, my fave being the lot that no matter how many times I would delete the extra sims, it would grow to 6 youngadult/adult/elder and 2 babies/toddlers, and yet still have only ONE single bed.

Well, MergeHouseholds does not appear to check that.

[J. M. Pescado]

is obviously borked, as before Awesomemod I would consistantly have households where #sims was significantly greater than #beds, my fave being the lot that no matter how many times I would delete the extra sims, it would grow to 6 youngadult/adult/elder and 2 babies/toddlers, and yet still have only ONE single bed.

Here's the thing: There are two functions which add sims that do NOT check that: Neither the AddSim nor MergeHouseholds events carry a check for CanSupportPopulation. Any households can be added to or merged independently of space limits. Read the actual info: If it does not say there is a check, then there is not one.

I'm most interested in the fact that "A custom predicate may be specified that excludes some candidates". Does that mean that it might be possible to come up with Story Progression that actually makes sense? Parts of Awesomemod address this, but only in a "disable x from happening" way - which I'm thankful for, it's definately a start. How much further can we take this? And why hasn't Eaxis offered you obscene amounts of money to come program for them?

Predicates are specific rules defined in the event. For instance, a predicate may stipulate that a something cannot be chosen twice, or that sims cannot be pregnant, or that lots chosen must be Residential, or whatever, without altering the core logic of the SelectRandoms. Basically, it's an additional restriction unique to a specific action, which still calls that function, rather than using its own logic (AddSim does not use a SelectRandomHousehold, for instance, but has its own logic).

1.  What causes the "score timer" to increase?  Is it based on Aspiration point accumulation in the present household, or time, or some random recipe known only to EA?
2.  How does "MakeTypicalFamily" work?

To answer those questions, I would have to unravel the logic of them first. They are not related to the active household, however. The short version is that the "Timer" functions similar to the ACR "timer", only instead of "must have sex NAO", it's "MUST DO A RANDOM TOADING NAO".

[simsdesperado]

It appears they worked so hard on the town AI, to make it into a living breathing town. Just put random occurence everywhere and call it a day. It probably took them half an hour to write the code for that. They put so much thought into the traits and the create a style and then they did a very sloppy job on the real importat aspects of the game. I am actually contemplating reinstalling my Sims2 game.

[phyllis_p]

Are you going to fix it?  Just curious, because if you did it would, naturally, be awesomesauce.

[J. M. Pescado]

Are you going to fix it?  Just curious, because if you did it would, naturally, be awesomesauce.

Depends on what you mean by "Fix it". I have already added options to awesomeconfig to tweak many of the story options. More to come soon, perhaps. Suggest what you want to hate.

[Roflganger]

From the things not already addressed by Awesomemod, here are my pet hates:

CreateHousehold without MoveIn (and other events that result in vagrants). 
MergeHouseholds - I'm constantly going into Edit Town to split out the stupid move-ins that take place.
AddSim where the Sim is some random non-spawn.

Oddly enough, ThrowHouseParty is the one feature I actually like (assuming there's a chance for one of my actives to get invited), yet have never encountered.  Didn't even know it was possible until I saw it on the list.

[J. M. Pescado]

Oddly enough, ThrowHouseParty is the one feature I actually like (assuming there's a chance for one of my actives to get invited), yet have never encountered.  Didn't even know it was possible until I saw it on the list.

That is because it is the single entirely benign event that actually adds life to the neighborhood and enables the player to participate in it: the decision to have the party is arbitrary, but the actual party itself is subject to player participation. Everything else is a blatant violation of good writing, and thus makes a terrible story: All the other actions are simply told to you, you are never shown them and cannot participate in them in any way. It is as if the story was "And Trogdor smote the Kerrek, and all was laid to burnination." as the story instead the just a tagline: One day you have a Kerrek, and the next day your entire neighborhood is on fire and the Kerrek is dead without any warning. You never actually got to see Trogdor smiting the Kerrek and laying all to burnination.

[Gus Smedstad]

This explains why I have a household that has the name of my original household, but which contains Sims that are not in any way related to that household.  They got a random Move In and the old Sims died of old age.

It also explains why the Sims I moved out to be with their spouses all died without spawn.

I'm not sure the existing model is fixable.  I hate parthenogenesis, but a stable population model would require that reproduction work like aging.  Every time a Sim dies of old age, the game should build a list of suitable households, those with two romantically involved adult Sims and additional space available, and add a baby to a random household from that list.  If there are biological bars to real reproduction (same sex or two old), we can assume it's an adoption.  Or just don't include those households in the first place.

It needs to be event-driven.  The completely random approach means odds are that births simply won't match deaths if you restrict parthenogenesis.  Given what you've said earlier about other Sims code, I get the idea that the Sims design team thinks in terms of polling instead of events.

When two Sims develop or improve a romantic relationship, there should be a chance that one Sim moves to the other household.  That'd be a much more natural progression than the current Move Out / Merge Household approach, which requires a series of unlikely events to get this common and expected change.  Though I'd put a bar on this happening if either Sim has the Commitment Issues traits.

 - Gus

[J. M. Pescado]

Strictly speaking, a stable population model doesn't require the existence of children at all. Just replace a household with a newcomer anytime an existing one goes extinct. It's a method used in many games that don't even have children. As a side benefit, it'll prevent the giant logjam that reportedly afflicts the school building with sims unable to actually get to school.

[rosenshyne]

I second Gus's idea of adding babies to households in an intelligent manner. Would it be possible to make two flavors, one adding children and one adding adults? Assuming, of course, that making the code intelligent is possible.

[Zazazu]

I'd love that, if and only if I can exclude households from the rolls. Right now, I'm playing three houses and going through townies to do random deaths, births, marriages...what Story Progression was supposed to do, but right.

[phyllis_p]

Are you going to fix it?  Just curious, because if you did it would, naturally, be awesomesauce.

Depends on what you mean by "Fix it". I have already added options to awesomeconfig to tweak many of the story options. More to come soon, perhaps. Suggest what you want to hate.

Hmm.  Okay, let me look over the various points again.  I think you've done some editing since I read it early this a.m., and I'm more awake now, too.

...

1. The most glaring thing, to me, is if you would make ThrowHouseParty actually work, or trigger more often or something.  I've played two versions of Sunset Valley to the 4th generation now -- one without Awesomemod and one with -- and have not been invited to a single house party.  This would have been particularly nice for my guitarists, since one of their challenges is to play at a certain number of parties.

2.  I like Gus Smedstad's assessment/suggestions.  It would be nice if AddSim could be tweaked somehow so that a) the YA+ who is moved into the household is one with whom someone in the household has a romantic relationship, and b) those in romantic relationships would spawn together more often.  I know you put the option in Awesomemod to kill parthenogenesis, which means that the addition of a baby to an existing household would require two parents, but it does not happen frequently enough.  My town always starts dying and I end up enabling parthenogenesis again for short periods just to increase the younger population.  I realize that children are not necessary to a stable population model, but I do think that for some of us this was an attractive possible feature of the game.  I know I can make new households to replace ones that go extinct.   However, I'm one of those folks that don't actually like making my own Sims.  I'd like the game to do it for me and to keep track of that sort of thing for me.

3.  It would be nice if GetJob would trigger more often, or if jobs were just automatically assigned when YA-hood is reached.  I hate that most of my town seems to be unemployed.

I think you're already addressed with Awesomemod the other things that annoy me, and whatever is left doesn't annoy me.

[BastDawn]

I would like new children, but there should be a cap.  For instance, there don't need to be more than five or so babies at once, and there should be a breeding freeze if the number of children goes up to ten.  That will prevent overcrowding at the school.

I agree with Gus Smedstad and phyllis_p's posts. 

In my opinion, AddSim is desirable only for new babies with two parents (pregnancy is preferable), ChangeRelationship is useful for making new marriages (and maybe a few enemies), GetJob seems fine, MergeHouseholds is good only for sims who marry (using SplitHousehold if they initially belong to larger households), and ThrowHouseParty is fine at any time.  Everything else needs to be killed with fire.

[smokeverbs]

Before I name the things I want to hate, is disabling things our only option at this point, or can those predicates be edited/expanded to add sanity to the programming? Don't get me wrong, killing by fire is better than nothing - I'm just hoping that a good game can be salvaged out of this mess.

[Mandapotpie]

I wondered that too. I don't mind a random death once in a great while to add something to the game. But it does it too often etc. Most of the ideas sound good in theory, if they had any kind of checks on them at all.

[Ashkitty]

This may be useless information, but it seriously bothers me and I hope at some point it can be fixed.

I wanted the House family swimming over at the exchange. I moved them into a house with the requisite number of beds and, after editing House to my liking (turned that fugly thing into a hawt, yee), I got them all medical career jobs and let them go, with the exception of having one of my kids go molest house from time to time. Most of them have, of course, the medical career wish.

When Select Sim was added to Awesomemod, or I just noticed it in a new update, whatever, I finally took control of House to check up on the happy family. The results? Everyone still has their med job at level one or two, except for Wilson (HAW!) who is now a World Renowned Surgeon and has eight points of logic. ...wut?

I assume this is because Wilson is the only one who spent any time on his logic, I believe the others had one or two points each, which is likely what's keeping them back. Again, I never played Wilson, never even talked to him with my active family. Why and how was he the only one to level logic? He certainly seems to be a rare case.

What I want to know is, is there any way to:
- Have sims work on their career-requisite skills, if nothing else.
- Have sims auto-apply for a job based on their lifetime wish, if applicable.

Again with Select Sim, I've been bouncing around npcs and discarded family fugs. Way too many discrepancies there... like the poor old lady, I don't remember whom, who wanted all her life to be an astronaut, but retired in her Journalism career at level two. It's just so sad.

[Ezura]

Wow, I had no idea how awfully bad story progression was programmed!
No wonder it destroys all my family trees by selecting some random Sims to spawn clones instead of making my Sims get married and have kids.
It's disappointing, because story progression was the one feature I looked forward to most in Sims 3.
When I first started playing, I would make characters from movies I liked and see who they would get married with and stuff - utterly pointless!

Thanks to you I can still play the game Sims2 style! (what's the point playing sims 3 style if nothing actually happens?)

None of these actions truly *DO* happen and there is no built up. It is a major violation of the Good Writing Rule of "Show, Don't Tell".

Yeah, I noticed this "feature".
My Sim, Jared, was dating a woman, Carla, who I tried getting pregnant. She told me she didn't feel like it, so I went home.
(like always, because she was always in a bad mood. Asked her for several days to try for a baby with the constant "I don't feel like it". I've noticed neighbors never takes care of their needs and are grumpy anytime I make romantic interactions at their house. At my house, they are suddenly fine)
Of course, the next day I visit her, I see a baby on the floor..... she wasn't even pregnant!
And the baby was a clone spawn, she was the only parent.
It was odd though, because she was living together with a man, Sherman, but they weren't in love.
But Sherman wasn't chosen as the father.
He actually spawned his own clone...  
(Both Sims were created by me, babies were spawned on Story Progression)

The broken marriage thing is also glaringly obvious after some time, that only newly moved in Sims gets married.
"The Stupid family moved in."
"Very Stupid and Extremely Dumb got married!"
Of course, Extremely Dumb never existed before, because they are instantly added with the Stupid family upon move-in to the neighborhood.
Add fake marriage announcement and it looks like a marriage took place and that Extremely Dumb actually lived somewhere before Stupid moved in.

Now I understand why EAxis pulled the memory function -  they didn't want us to see their mistake!

[J. M. Pescado]

I have a different, unrelated question: WHY THE HELL IS YOUR AVATAR SO STUPID-LOOKING? Is that YOU? Because if it is, you look like an utter moron.

[Gus Smedstad]

ChangeFitness
A SelectRandomSim is chosen and permanently mutilated, having its prebuilt fitness/fatness characteristics altered at random by up to 0.5. This change is permanent and irreversible, unlike changes produced by actual in-game exercise or gluttony.

I've taken in a fat townie and slimmed her down through exercise.  Maybe I'm not understanding what you mean by "irreversible," but it sure appears you can change these numbers through gameplay.  Though it does not work on Sims who are merely guests, rather than currently part of your household.

 - Gus

[Roflganger]

I've taken in a fat townie and slimmed her down through exercise.  Maybe I'm not understanding what you mean by "irreversible," but it sure appears you can change these numbers through gameplay.  Though it does not work on Sims who are merely guests, rather than currently part of your household.

Yes, but she was probably "just fat" rather than mutilated via StoryProgression.

[Gus Smedstad]

So, there's some sort of hidden limit to how far you can change a Sim's fatness / fitness variables through game actions?

 - Gus