Awesome Story Driver Beta-Testing reports

[moosemonk]

Also, is there anyway to activate for it to tell me when other sims in the neighborhood get married or have children?  More reminiscent of ISM.  Right now it tells me when other sims are going to work or are working on skills, which I don't really care about, but I do care about marriages and babies.

Enable InformOnStoryAction in the config file.The pop-ups will alert you to romantic interactions and marriages,households moving and pollinations.It doesn't report actual births though.

[J. M. Pescado]

I might be missing something, but the story driver hates a particular family of mine.  They went "homeless" (living in a hospital) and I have no way to make them my active family.  I even tried moving them in with another active family and then buying them a house.  It worked for a day or two, and then they "moved out" so another family could move in.  It even told me where they were moving (Minihaus) but I have yet to be able to find them on the neighborhood map.

That is extremely unusual, then, because there is nothing in AwesomeMod that EVER evicts a fambly from the neighborhood. At this point in the dev process, no sims are ever evicted to the homeless pool in AwesomeStory.

[Inge]

If the Story was going to ever make sims move out, what sort of valid scenaria might lead to it?  What about inability to pay bills?  I think realistically, you would get *some* people moving out, even just on a whim.

[J. M. Pescado]

Eviction due to inability to pay bills is likely the reason that will eventually be instituted. As for "some people moving out", it's not like they can really GO anywhere. If I start vaporizing sims entirely, we're back to the thing we hated in EA storymode, that even EAxis got rid of. So we're certainly not going there.

[tjstreak]

Do you have anyone in your town who is actually capable of having children (that is, do you have any Young Adult or Adult females)?  If not, you'll probably have to manually move a few in to avoid total town extinction.

It's not a big issue.  The NRaas computer confirmed there were no infants or toddlers and about 2 children and 2 teens.  There were about 75 young adults, adults and elders for each gender.  I did my usual, creating a couple of families -- one named Breeders -- with six children each, which solved the immediate problem.  I turned Indiestone back on to let it start repopulating the town, and will give the birth control mirror a try to see how well it pollinates the town.

I just posted this to let Pescado know that there may be one instance, at least, where the story driver may not be working.  Who knows, I may have borked the configuration of the Awesome mod.  After I fix the town, I will give it another go.  I guess that's what one does with betas.

[spaceface]

Eviction due to inability to pay bills is likely the reason that will eventually be instituted. As for "some people moving out", it's not like they can really GO anywhere. If I start vaporizing sims entirely, we're back to the thing we hated in EA storymode, that even EAxis got rid of. So we're certainly not going there.

We would really need apartments. We could make Terrible Slum Dwellings for AM storymode to send useless sims to. The famblys could be packed in like sardines, with communal bathrooms and kitchens to keep costs down.

[J. M. Pescado]

This project is being worked on right now, actually. There won't be communal bathrooms or kitchens, though. As a brilliant innovation, sims will actually be able to LIVE in a rabbithole. Do you really care what they're doing there, or if you can see it, as long as they do? It's not as if they don't stand like posts and pretend they're doing something anyway.

[Tangie]

I might be missing something, but the story driver hates a particular family of mine.  They went "homeless" (living in a hospital) and I have no way to make them my active family.  I even tried moving them in with another active family and then buying them a house.  It worked for a day or two, and then they "moved out" so another family could move in.  It even told me where they were moving (Minihaus) but I have yet to be able to find them on the neighborhood map.

That is extremely unusual, then, because there is nothing in AwesomeMod that EVER evicts a fambly from the neighborhood. At this point in the dev process, no sims are ever evicted to the homeless pool in AwesomeStory.

As previously reported, I had two families who were moving 3 times per day and the common theme was one particular house they were taking turns moving into. Both families had a toddler already and the Romance story actions were alternately sending them to the house that had two cribs. The Romance actions causing this for one family would generate Move In actions for the other family and so they would move into another house. When I investigated what was going on, I deleted the second crib and the musical houses stopped.

I do not know the mechanics involved in Awesome story mode, but if the Romance or Move In actions send a familiy to a house that's already occupied (because it has some feature that it requires, such as the example in my 'hood of two cribs instead of one), what happens when the family that is displaced has no other suitable, affordable house to move to? It seems like it would be occasionally possible for all the available homes to be too small, or not have enough beds, or to cost more than the family can afford, etc., so what would happen to the displaced family then?

[J. M. Pescado]

I do not know the mechanics involved in Awesome story mode, but if the Romance or Move In actions send a familiy to a house that's already occupied (because it has some feature that it requires, such as the example in my 'hood of two cribs instead of one), what happens when the family that is displaced has no other suitable, affordable house to move to? It seems like it would be occasionally possible for all the available homes to be too small, or not have enough beds, or to cost more than the family can afford, etc., so what would happen to the displaced family then?

Nothing. A fambly can only be displaced if there is a valid house to displace them into, otherwise they will not sell and nobody moves.

[Inge]

So what happens if we want to prune the population a bit?  Is there a way to forcibly remove sims from the hood?   And once they are in the workhouse, will there be a way for the player to give them another chance, like move them in with another family?

[byronh]

The story mode has been working very well for me but there are a few oddities I've noticed.

-As mentioned by other people, multiple families are doing musical houses and moving multiple times per day back and forth between the same houses.
-A married Sim I made keeps showing up on the Romance popups even though his relationship with his wife is very high and he has two kids
-I set Gobias Koffi to have +1000 attraction to males and -1000 to females but he keeps romancing women, yet Abraham Finkel is having same-sex romances without my intervention.
-The boss for my Sim's career hasn't reappeared yet. When I first started the game, my boss was another Sim that I had created and whose career I set to level 8 in music. Then for some reason my boss was then replaced with Artie Page. Then suddenly Artie Page disappeared and no new boss has appeared since. If I try to "Meet Musicians" it says I have already met them all. This isn't too bad since the Music career doesn't require a good relationship with the boss, but alot of other careers would need it and it's good to be able to ask for promotions.

[playintheleaves]

Also, is there anyway to activate for it to tell me when other sims in the neighborhood get married or have children?  More reminiscent of ISM.  Right now it tells me when other sims are going to work or are working on skills, which I don't really care about, but I do care about marriages and babies.

Enable InformOnStoryAction in the config file.The pop-ups will alert you to romantic interactions and marriages,households moving and pollinations.It doesn't report actual births though.

I have been playing with it enabled but it still is only telling me when sims go to work or move houses.  Nothing about marriages and pollination, although I've noticed them happening by going into edit town mode and checking on various families.  Is there another file that perhaps I'm missing?

[byronh]

Also, is there anyway to activate for it to tell me when other sims in the neighborhood get married or have children?  More reminiscent of ISM.  Right now it tells me when other sims are going to work or are working on skills, which I don't really care about, but I do care about marriages and babies.

Enable InformOnStoryAction in the config file.The pop-ups will alert you to romantic interactions and marriages,households moving and pollinations.It doesn't report actual births though.

I have been playing with it enabled but it still is only telling me when sims go to work or move houses.  Nothing about marriages and pollination, although I've noticed them happening by going into edit town mode and checking on various families.  Is there another file that perhaps I'm missing?

Mine tells me every time about marriages and pollinations. It would be nice if could tell you about births because I really hate having to read the newspaper every day.

[Tripcore]

The story mode has been working very well for me but there are a few oddities I've noticed.

-As mentioned by other people, multiple families are doing musical houses and moving multiple times per day back and forth between the same houses.
-A married Sim I made keeps showing up on the Romance popups even though his relationship with his wife is very high and he has two kids
-I set Gobias Koffi to have +1000 attraction to males and -1000 to females but he keeps romancing women, yet Abraham Finkel is having same-sex romances without my intervention.
-The boss for my Sim's career hasn't reappeared yet. When I first started the game, my boss was another Sim that I had created and whose career I set to level 8 in music. Then for some reason my boss was then replaced with Artie Page. Then suddenly Artie Page disappeared and no new boss has appeared since. If I try to "Meet Musicians" it says I have already met them all. This isn't too bad since the Music career doesn't require a good relationship with the boss, but alot of other careers would need it and it's good to be able to ask for promotions.

I've never had musical houses, sorry I can't help with that.

If the said married man has "Commitment Issues" and/or "Flirty" trait(s) he will romance with whoever is available regardless of his relationship status with his wife, the amount of children they have and even if the girls he go out with are already committed as well.  Hopeless Romantics are less susceptible to this, though can be persuaded at times and Family-Oriented ones will never cheat on their partners, or so I have observed only in my games.

If you start Same-Sex relations in the hood it will start similar relationships with any sim inclined to it. And yes, I also have a similar problem with Gobias, though I didn't set the numbers that high, around +50 for male & -50 for female only.

It seems Artie went to apply for another job elsewhere if he disappeared. Since the music career has no need to have good relations with the boss, you'll be fine. In other careers however, you'll need to initiate interaction with the boss first before they appear.

[byronh]

I've never had musical houses, sorry I can't help with that.

If the said married man has "Commitment Issues" and/or "Flirty" trait(s) he will romance with whoever is available regardless of his relationship status with his wife, the amount of children they have and even if the girls he go out with are already committed as well.  Hopeless Romantics are less susceptible to this, though can be persuaded at times and Family-Oriented ones will never cheat on their partners, or so I have observed only in my games.

If you start Same-Sex relations in the hood it will start similar relationships with any sim inclined to it. And yes, I also have a similar problem with Gobias, though I didn't set the numbers that high, around +50 for male & -50 for female only.

It seems Artie went to apply for another job elsewhere if he disappeared. Since music has no need to have good relations with the boss, you'll be fine. In other careers however, you'll need to initiate interaction with the boss first before they appear.

Thanks for the info. The married Sim does indeed have the Flirty trait and I am removing it.

So are you saying that the "Suck up to Boss" work tone will cause the boss to spawn? Or do I have to physically socialize with the boss outside of work? (And how the hell would I know who he is in the first place?)

One funny thing I'm noticing is that the gayness is spreading. Abraham Finkel has just recently recruited Cycl0n3 Sw0rd and Iqbal Alvi.

[Tripcore]

Thanks for the info. The married Sim does indeed have the Flirty trait and I am removing it.

So are you saying that the "Suck up to Boss" work tone will cause the boss to spawn? Or do I have to physically socialize with the boss outside of work? (And how the hell would I know who he is in the first place?)

One funny thing I'm noticing is that the gayness is spreading. Abraham Finkel has just recently recruited Cycl0n3 Sw0rd and Iqbal Alvi.

LOL, no don't remove it, you'll take all the fun away! Kidding.

Yeah "Suck Up to the Boss" can spawn the Boss if one isn't assigned yet, then you can go back to the normal work tones you do afterwards. I think I'd be hard to find someone outside the workplace if you don't know who to look for in the first place.  

And yes, once you initiate it you'll see romancing of all types left and right, very amusing I might say. AwesomeStory is indeed awesome.

[Alek]

Please stop the Young Adult/Elder relationship forming (Romance) or limit it a lot in the next version of Awesome Mod. I love the automatic relationships, but hate that there are too many Young Adult/Elder couples in the town.

[J. M. Pescado]

This already isn't supposed to be happening all that often. Where are you seeing this occurring?

[Cocomama]

Using AMS 8/28/2009 7:11 AM and AMS 8/28/2009 10:36 PM with the new config that now automatically includes tracking/SC.

I have a few questions about the, for me, new factors. I like the tracking feature and a lot more info and colours are showing up now. Purple cars and bikes, sacred halos and bloodred simpictures cruising my hood.
 
I already find out that some of the red sims need my attention, because they are stuck/looping in some way of store-action. Canceling queue cured that. Replaced a bed that was still marked as owned by former resident, but other families/lots are red, and I don't see anything thats wrong with them?
 
-Families had sacred halo's although I did not make them sacred. Because I want storemode deal with them, I first had to make them sacred ?! before I could make them unsacred.

-I have no idea what the purple-coloured car/bike means, they are not abandoned, but in use/moving around? After a while they dissappeared.

AMS 8/28/2009 10:36 PM
No more stuck/looping sims found, however the game still freezes after a few hours play. Deleting the .caches files allowed me back in my hood, and after deleting some of the families was able to play untill the next freeze. It definitly looks to me, there is some limit to the number of sims I can have in the hood/my PC can handle.
 
-Can I delete the 60 or so homeless NPC and let/will the game generate only needed new ones?

[J. M. Pescado]

I already find out that some of the red sims need my attention, because they are stuck/looping in some way of store-action. Canceling queue cured that. Replaced a bed that was still marked as owned by former resident, but other families/lots are red, and I don't see anything thats wrong with them?

Red is the color used for sims you are tracking on radar, but haven't marked sacred.
 

-Families had sacred halo's although I did not make them sacred. Because I want storemode deal with them, I first had to make them sacred ?! before I could make them unsacred.

If a fambly is in yellow, it means a sacred sim lives there. Even a single sacred member will mark the entire fambly in yellow, which is why you have to first make them sacred (sets on all), then unset (clear from all). I'm sure you did something interesting to cause that in the first place, though.

-I have no idea what the purple-coloured car/bike means, they are not abandoned, but in use/moving around? After a while they dissappeared.

Purple car/bikes are those which are derelict. If they are on the road and not moving, this is a bad sign. If they appear only briefly, that's probably because the tracker spotted them right when they spawned, before the sim popped into it. They may subsequently change color or start moving, which means they are fine again. Those that AREN'T moving, if they are on the road, were abandoned because a sim was ejected from them while driving, and now they are stuck on the road. Placing the owners on Supreme Commander will cause them to reclaim their vehicle. I may also include a "Dude! Where's My Car" action that will let you order it immediately later.

[Cocomama]

I picked up the new AMS 8/30/2009 3:15 AM and doing Wolfrun, not using SC on any sims yet.

Thank you, I removed the red tracking for most of them, does the story mode colour some sims red too? For some sims I had to put tracking on, before I could un-tracking them. One of the sims refuses to be un-tracked, but she is skilling fishing via story mode.
Edit: Turned out she had a one-shot-command to skill fishing but was doing nothing. Deleted queue now she's fine.

I made a screenprint of a purple bike and purple derelict car in front of the library. The bike is owned and moving, appearing and dissappearing. The car is marked as derelict, but towderelicts does not work on it? It did gave a pop-up a derelict was removed once, but that must have been another car I didn't noticed.
Edit: added a second picture from purple car that is owned and used/moving. Later in game that car became a derelict too.

Don't think I did something to make that familie sacred, am not using this feature because I want them all to be used by the story mode. They were sacred when I placed them in the hood. Sacred happened spontanious before in other new hoods too, from all fresh non-played families placed at least one turned out sacred, without me causing it.

Edit: All is OK now, did a fixall and after the popup "5 phantom butts cleared" the stubborn stuck purple car in front of the library finally was removed.
I made a copy of the autosave before/while it is happening, if you are interested.

[J. M. Pescado]

Nope. Not interested. This is a known issue that fixall will sweep.

[Tangie]

I ran into some odd but seemingly benign behavior yesterday; I have no idea if it means anything or not, but thought I'd report it just in case. The sim I was controlling went to the library and two other (created by me) sims were there. Neither of the two were from the same household. One sim was a romantic interest of my controllable sim so I directed him to greet her and she suddenly ran to the toilet and threw up. My first thought was to wonder if she had been pollinated but she is single and I hadn't received any story mode announcements about it. About the time she came out to speak to my controllable, the other sim, a male, ran to the toilet to puke also. Like I said, they were not part of the same household so it doesn't seem likely that they both ate the same rotten food. I suppose they could have both eaten spoiled hotdogs at the park or something, but for this to happen at the same time to two unrelated sims seemed strange. Is there any chance that you doing any tweaks to the game involving throwing up that might have somehow generated this? I did not see this behavior repeated again by these sims or any other sims during the remainder of the play session, so it's not a big deal or anything, just thought I'd mention it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Like I said, they were not part of the same household so it doesn't seem likely that they both ate the same rotten food. I suppose they could have both eaten spoiled hotdogs at the park or something, but for this to happen at the same time to two unrelated sims seemed strange.

Nah, this is pretty common. Sims don't seem to have learned not to eat the mystery meat.

[ingeli]

Grah was deserted, so here are two FSE:s in one rar-file. I had odd things happen when I enabled the new command, and then shortly after used forcemovein - the homelessfamily moved in to the house I was playing, and THAT family was evicted. I got the FSE:s when trying to switch between families. The force-moved-in family was not possible to switch to, at all.