Taking a census

[Li'l Brudder]

Where do I find save?  I mean, when the report comes up, Ctrl+S doesn't work.  I can't select save from the menu, and there is no menu on the Report Box.

[Edit:]Makes me sound un-dumb.

[PlaidSquirrel]

This sounds cool. I'm interested in age, sex, asperation, zodiac, career and if possible also turn ons/offs. This would be so usefull. But it would be even cooler if you could do townies and playable sims seperately. The townie info squished in together would make the playable sims info harder to gauge if you were only interested in them.

[tunaisafish]

The 'Save...' option is on the report dialog, at the bottom right.

Are you on AOL or something? Perhaps your ISP still has the old version cached?
This is not gonna make much sense until you have .54
The character (neat, outgoing, etc) columns were added with 54 too.

The data will look like a mess as there's far more columns in there that you will need, but if you load it into a spreadsheet you can easily delete the stuff you don't want. If you're thinking of creating your own table of your sims now, this gives you an excellent head start.

This output is mainly for programs like sims2db, so you won't have to type it in manually.
The CSV is also RAW data, so some of the values like DNA will show 'imcomprehensible' strings, instead of blue eyes, etc.
So turn-ons won't make sense unless you write some spreadsheet functions to replace them, or wait for Pegasys to write the import function for sim2db.  Lots of work to do there.

[Li'l Brudder]

I see it, the color of the Save button is the same color as the background.

[tunaisafish]

This sounds cool. I'm interested in age, sex, asperation, zodiac, career and if possible also turn ons/offs. This would be so usefull. But it would be even cooler if you could do townies and playable sims seperately. The townie info squished in together would make the playable sims info harder to gauge if you were only interested in them.

'Cool' is not the word  It makes me shudder how much time in the past I've been writting sim info by hand.

All those columns are there, you'll need the info below for the turn-on flags (thanks Jaxad).
Reporting on *all* the sims doesn't take long.  You can then sort by household in your spreedsheet program to gather townies etc, together.

List 2:
32 - Gray Hair, 16 - Custom Hair, 8 - Black Hair, 4 - Brown Hair, 2 - Red Hair, 1 - Blonde Hair
List 1:
8192 - Tatoos, 4096 - Hats, 2048 - Full Face Makeup, 1024 - Makeup, 512 - Glasses, 256 - Facial hair, 128 - Vamprism
64 - Underwear, 32 - Swim Wear, 16 - Formal Wear, 8 - Fitness, 4 - Fatness, 2 - Stink, 1 - Cologne

[Gus Smedstad]

Well, so far I have the basic head count and breakdown by gender and age. Any other suggestions?

Aspiration count by gender.  I prefer to have roughly equal numbers of each aspiration, and so far I've done it by running them through college 6 at a time.  I.e. the dorm contains one Sim of each aspiration, and then one graduates.  Then a new Sim joins, and he or she chooses whatever isn't represented.  This has its drawbacks, and while I'd like it balanced by gender, doing so was too much work.

 - Gus

[Kitiara]

I too vote for forging ahead with the census. It would have to beat my dinky little chart. Everything I would want in it has already been suggested.

[Pegasys]

Hey you all! Just wait!

I've been working feverishly on the new and shiny version of Sims2DB which will allow import from the new version of SimPE. As I see you're all aware, Quaxi made some wonderful tweaks to SimPE which allows for text output. It can be then read into the database and you can create reports galore! Plus you'll be able to see things like recessive genes and stuff! It'll be even more awesome.    But of course, it's not in-game...

My head has been swimming with 4096 vs 2048 vs. 00000001-0000000 vs. 32dee745..... I've been doing the conversions so you won't have to remember which is "blue eyes", etc. Also if you don't want the complexity of the Sims2DB database, I plan to make what I call the SimPE Importer available which is like a simple spreadsheet and I'll enable .csv output from this...

I'm gonna need some testers though!

Edited to add: I think an in-game census would be way cool too. Aspiration, gender, career, age, etc., basically everything others have mentioned. That combined with the lot-timer would mean a greater degree of fine-tuning of gameplay.

[vilia]

I was just thinking how useful it would be to take a census pre-decimation & post-decimation - you know that thing we can achieve with that button we are never never to press

[Zeljka]

Pegasys - you'll have testers, probably more than you want.


I also agree with the In Game Census, I think everything was mentioned, FN, LN, Household, Asp., Age, would be all I need, but I suppose I'll want the rest when I put in NL. Just adding my 'me too please'

There are times you're in the game and times you're not... I'd use both.

[skandelouslala]

Hey you all! Just wait!

I've been working feverishly on the new and shiny version of Sims2DB which will allow import from the new version of SimPE. As I see you're all aware, Quaxi made some wonderful tweaks to SimPE which allows for text output. It can be then read into the database and you can create reports galore! Plus you'll be able to see things like recessive genes and stuff! It'll be even more awesome.    But of course, it's not in-game...

My head has been swimming with 4096 vs 2048 vs. 00000001-0000000 vs. 32dee745..... I've been doing the conversions so you won't have to remember which is "blue eyes", etc. Also if you don't want the complexity of the Sims2DB database, I plan to make what I call the SimPE Importer available which is like a simple spreadsheet and I'll enable .csv output from this...

I'm gonna need some testers though!

Edited to add: I think an in-game census would be way cool too. Aspiration, gender, career, age, etc., basically everything others have mentioned. That combined with the lot-timer would mean a greater degree of fine-tuning of gameplay.

That sounds great!  I am still using the database quite obsessively lol  If you need a tester you'd know I'd be happy to help!

I think an in game census would be nice to an extent, as long as it doesn't start getting too detailed.  I like the idea of just gender & age groups.

[vcline]

I've been working feverishly on the new and shiny version of Sims2DB which will allow import from the new version of SimPE. As I see you're all aware, Quaxi made some wonderful tweaks to SimPE which allows for text output. It can be then read into the database and you can create reports galore! Plus you'll be able to see things like recessive genes and stuff! It'll be even more awesome.

Pegasys, this sounds great!  I really like the look of your database and the reports, but I was dreading typing in all the data.  There seems to be a lot of stuff not in the CSV file, like family relations, but if you can pull in what's there, it would be a smaller data entry job.  I assume we could update the fields from the CSV whenever we make a new one.

Anyway, you are awesome, as are the SimPE authors.   Thanks so much.

[BlueSoup]

There's a test version of the Census tool in the NL hack test section, if anyone is brave enough to test it.  I tried it last night, and it seems pretty cool.

Of course, I take no responsibility whatsoever if your game blows up in a BIG FIERY BALL VISIBLE FROM SPACE. 

[Li'l Brudder]

Then I'll have a fire hydrant to put out the BFBVFS.

[Sagana]

I'd love an in-game census.

I can't get SimPE to read my sim files at all. I think I *might* have chosen poor/wrong options when I loaded it and it's confused as I'm using a 2nd user account, not the base one (although I did find how to change it so it at least recognizes the neighborhoods). I probably should reload and not choose extras and just classic and stuff. Anyway I'm too dumb and don't have enough time to work it out, so I've decided to avoid the whole issue until I can't anymore (might be awhile). </stupidity admission>

Anyways, I'd love an in-game census with all the things people have already mention (especially age, gender, zodiac, aspiration, turn-ons/offs) and also hair color (yes I'm asking for the moon.) I almost always use hair color as one of the turn ons for my playables so I'd love to be able to find out easily if there's a good match in the Uni pool or whatever.

<goes off to download and playtest - I'm extremely likely to break something so probably a good test subject>

[Pegasys]

Sagana,

I think you might find when the new version of Sims2DB is out it might be useful to you even though it's not in-game. The neat thing will be that you can load in all the townies and see their traits, turn-ons/offs, etc. with all of the traits you want to look for. You'd have to use the most current version of SimPE but I've found it to be very stable so far.

I'll also say the in-game census is very useful; I tested it out and so far no BFBVFS. Just more and more awesome stuff coming down the pike.

[clem]

There's a test version of the Census tool in the NL hack test section, if anyone is brave enough to test it.  I tried it last night, and it seems pretty cool.

Uh, where now? I'd be happy to test, but I've had a few too many to find it right now, apparently...

[aussieone]

Clem..

www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/test/

Maybe you should sober up a bit before you try it 

[simmiecal]

Clem..

www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/test/

Maybe you should sober up a bit before you try it 

I was perfectly sober and had a hell of a time finding it. I kept looking at the thread titles and was about to post a "where the hell is it" question when I happened to stumble across it.

[J. M. Pescado]

I blame it on the natural suckiness of all Simmiecals.

[Sagana]

I looked around a bit and then just did a search for "test" and put in the right directory... that one's kinda hidden, yes?

So now that I've found the file - is there also a proper hidden place for discussing testing? Puts stuff in here, but feel free to move it or just rip my lips off or whatever if it's the Wrong Thing To Do<tm>

No BFBVFS at all, all loaded up fine and everything - even tho I took my simslife in my mouse and added Inteenimater at the same time (and removed some stuff I had in that's incompatible). All the sims on the lot were standing, rather like adding a new EP but I'm figuring inteen is responsible for that (it changes so much and the census thing doesn't). The census thing is easy to find and looks great, places no problem. Reports numbers a charm, easy enough to figure out what it's gonna (tho I dunno what safe mood does or doesn't with it off)  and no issues getting them to come up (doesn't even take that long).

However, I'm wondering if the numbers I'm getting are accurate. I guess they might be, but they're a little funny. I'm running Pleasantwhateveritisvieworville. I've one uni and one downtown attached. I didn't delete all characters, but I do have both nodormieregen and notownieregen (and all critical fixes, I think). I've got one family of my own added - mother and father had 4 kids, oldest child married a townie and had a child of his own (just born) and mother died. I haven't touched the Maxis playables except to grow some kids up and send some to college (and mostly turn them back into townies except a few that joined the greek house I was doing 'til I realized inteen wouldn't let Greek houses have famblies).

Anyway, the census report says I have 306 non-playables. Kinda high, but not impossible. 40 playables - same thing. 'Cept it says there's 1 male toddler playable... and... I don't have anyone with toddlers. Do any of the Maxis made folk start with toddlers? I know Brandi Broke starts out pregnant, but the older boy is a child, yes?

Also a little curious why there's 40some aspirations the census taker can't understand It gets cheese and even power (it'd be cool if that did something, really) so what could those others be?

I've also realized it'd be really awesome great if the bureau could give stats just for Uni, just for downtown etc. Some division so I could put it in context.

Pegasys, the DB sounds really great, but it's the next-newest version of SimPE I'm having trouble with. For some reason, it reads all my CAS and in-game born sims as unidentifiable or something. I dunno, I broke it. Not uncommon with me Maybe the very newest one will just work or someday I'll figure out what I did wrong. If I can ever made it work, I'd love your DB.

[J. M. Pescado]

Anyway, the census report says I have 306 non-playables. Kinda high, but not impossible. 40 playables - same thing. 'Cept it says there's 1 male toddler playable... and... I don't have anyone with toddlers. Do any of the Maxis made folk start with toddlers? I know Brandi Broke starts out pregnant, but the older boy is a child, yes?

Sounds about right. Beau Broke starts out as a toddler.

Also a little curious why there's 40some aspirations the census taker can't understand It gets cheese and even power (it'd be cool if that did something, really) so what could those others be?

Those are probably "dead sims". Many older dead sims may have nonvalid aspirational states, or not-be-people. Things like Grimmy, PT, Hula, they may not have meaningful aspirations.

I've also realized it'd be really awesome great if the bureau could give stats just for Uni, just for downtown etc. Some division so I could put it in context.

Downtown isn't considered a seperate condition from the rest of the neighborhood. Uni-only mode can definitely be added, though.

[PlaidSquirrel]

What is "Power" aspiration?

[Sagana]

Sounds about right. Beau Broke starts out as a toddler.

Oh he is a toddler. I rarely play the premades and I couldn't even remember his name Ok, all about right then (306 nonplayables, geez... and 40 playables when there's only 6 I really needed, well and then another 6 I moved in from being townies... so ok, 12 I wanted. Silly Maxis :p)

Those are probably "dead sims". Many older dead sims may have nonvalid aspirational states, or not-be-people. Things like Grimmy, PT, Hula, they may not have meaningful aspirations.

Ah, that makes sense then. And I think it did report about that number of dead sims (surprised me for a sec until I remember all those Triceau's in the graveyard). I'll check again tomorrow and subtract dead and so get a count for Grimmy et. al. That'll be interesting.

Uni-only mode can definitely be added, though.

Uni will be wonderful! Thank you very much.

[clem]

Clem..

www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/test/

Maybe you should sober up a bit before you try it 

Silly me. And in such an obvious place  Yeah, I didn't think of looking in the indices. Mostly 'cause I didn't remember how to do that.

Am sober now, though, and look forward to using it.

ETA: Forgot to say thank you, this is great. And thanks to aussieone for spinning me in the right direction.