Lot Sync Timer: All BlueSoups Suck Edition

[J. M. Pescado]

Tracks lot time in rotations to day-length precision, and allows jumping directly to lots in the rotation without going through neighborhood load screen.

WARNING: Lot-jump feature appears to exhibit odd side effects with OFB and has been disabled in OFB.


synctimer.zip

Lot Sync Timer for TS2NL v1.0p1
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado)

Special Thanks To:
Quaxi, for writing SimPE

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS - INSTALLATION:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.

INSTRUCTIONS - UNINSTALLATION:
SHIFT-Click on clock in debug mode and choose "Uninstall From Neighborhood".
Negative side effects may occur if clock is deleted from downloads without
properly uninstalling.

FEATURES:
Keeps track of time played on a lot relative to global time, and allows you to
see what the time is on other configured lots and jump directly to them without
going through the neighborhood screen.

COMPATIBILITY:
Compatible with all FFS hacks. Tested for TS2NL v1.0p1. Theoretically works for
all versions.

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

WARNING:
Do not open, crush, dispose of in fire, put in backwards, short-circuit, or mix
with non-awesome hacks - may explode, leak, or catch fire, resulting in injury
and/or death.

[lordrichter]

Guess I am confused as to why this is needed?  Maybe I don't understand what it does.

[Inge]

YIPPEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!   Thank you Pescado

[Sandilou]

Wow!

[reggikko]

Shiniest.Thing. Ever.

[Oddysey]

This is pretty dang awesome.

Basically, it tells you how long you've been playing each lot, so you don't have to keep notes to stay in time sync. This is a very good thing for those of us with serious note taking issues. It's basically an auto note taker. If you want to keep your neighborhoods time sync-ified, this is very important, because otherwise you're liable to forget to note down day/play an extra day/ etc. and before you know it someone's kids are older than them.

It's for lazy people, really. Or those who can't be bothered by little pieces of paper.

[BlueSoup]

This has already come in immensely handy.  I love the new lot jumping feature you added to it; it's awesome.


And I think I should be thanked instead of you calling it the "All BlueSoups Suck" edition, but whatever. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Great, I really need this!  Just one question, is it retrospective, or does it just begine counting when you install it?   (It was one useful feature we had in Sims1 that I've really missed!)

[BlueSoup]

You can set forwards or backwards the amount of days you need the lot to go.

To set up in the neighbourhood:

Buy and place the lot timer for each lot you want to keep track of (looks like an Elixir of Life bottle, located in the Misc/Misc section).
Click on bottle and choose "Install for family"
Set the day timer to the appropriate day (IE.  If it's the fifth day on the lot, select +5).

Set all families the same way.  Once all the families are set up, you can use the lot jumping feature to switch between them (it auto-saves the lot).  You can click on the bottle to see which family is on which day and who you need to play and for how long to make sure the aging is even for the neighbourhood.

I can't think of anything else now, I'll edit if I do. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Thanks for the help, BlueSoup!  Useful info for the future, I'll just have to guess at how long families have been on current lots. 

Oh, and if you have Aging Off, does it count those days too?  If so, a useful way, if you start your family from CAS, of keeping track of the REAL age of adults, so if they take a full bottle of elixir, you'd know they are 15 days older than they appear!  (I mean, if Icould take elixir in RL, I'd look and feel younger, but I'd still be the same age!

[BlueSoup]

I haven't tried it with aging off, but I believe it would mark the days, although they wouldn't actually count for anything.  For those families, it would only be useful to know how many days you've been playing, not how old the family is in relation to the others in the neighbourhood.

One thing I forgot to mention as well...

If you are on high days in the neighbourhood (50+), you can go into debug mode, and shift-click on the lot timer, and select Resynchronize (or something like that).  It will set the current lot back to 1 and the other lots that are on the timer back the same amount of days.  The ones that don't have as many days on their counter will go into negative numbers.

[FatedCircle]

Wow!  This is super shiny, and muchly appreciated.  Am downloading it right now.

[breyerii]

This is just... superb!

[J. M. Pescado]

Oh, and if you have Aging Off, does it count those days too?  If so, a useful way, if you start your family from CAS, of keeping track of the REAL age of adults, so if they take a full bottle of elixir, you'd know they are 15 days older than they appear!  (I mean, if Icould take elixir in RL, I'd look and feel younger, but I'd still be the same age!

If aging is off, the timer will not tick. You will have to advance the timer manually.

[Emma]

OMG yay! Thanks! 

[Liss]

Finally I was wondering what you were waiting for :p

This has come in really handy for the way I play. 
The lot hopping was a great addition!

[BlueSoup]

If aging is off, the timer will not tick. You will have to advance the timer manually.

So, really, the only advantage to having this on a non-aging lot is a lot-jumping feature?

Edit:  I think in the next edition, aptly titled, "All BlueSoups are Really Cool Chicas," it should also count for aging-off families.  After all, you're not counting the age of the family, only the days played.   

[J. M. Pescado]

Age of family is the entire point of tracking time on the lot. If your family doesn't ever age, you can't lose sync, since you've frozen them. It's the same reason why a lot populated by immortals does not lose sync.

[BlueSoup]

Yes, I know it's the point, and it works marvelously for my families, who *do* age.. I really only posted the edit for the name the next edition. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Age of family is the entire point of tracking time on the lot. If your family doesn't ever age, you can't lose sync, since you've frozen them. It's the same reason why a lot populated by immortals does not lose sync.

Well, in a sense it would, since if you have grandparents who are still have 26 days (thank to the elixir) before becoming elders, and on another lot you have their child and their family, who, because you have to have aging on for babies and toddlers etc., it would be confusing to say the least if those on that lot couldn't afford elixir!  But I get the point, and the manual reset option would help in that you would know how old he lot is.

[purple]

I downloaded this  and when i installed to few houses i get a List menu and when I click on the List menu I get  L## F##, Family Name, Days. What does L## and F## stand for?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Lot and Family?

[Kyna]

Lot number and family number?  Internal numbers used by the game to identify each lot and each family (you can see them in simpe).

I've been using this and it's great.  Less paper on my desk!  *Does a happy snoopy dance across the forum*  (Ahem ... just demonstrating my total lack of awesomeness there for a moment ...)

How does this work across sub-neighbourhoods - eg families that live downtown.  Am I right in assuming it won't keep track for my uni lots given that young adults don't age?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Guess you'd ned to only age the home families by the equivalent number of days, then graduate the kids and bring them back - or play them long enough to get them back in sync again.

[BlueSoup]

I changed this hack in my game to an All Pescados Suck edtion.