Playable sims asking for employment?

[mildlydisguised]

Is there anywhere, a most awesome hack that allows playable sims to ask a business owner for a job?  I have searched MATY but no luck so far.  If this wonderous thing does not yet exist, would it be an easy mod to create?

[Inge]

Well, even without hacks they will come to the shop as potential employees not customers.  If you see a sim in the shop obviously not shopping, then he'll usually have the option to hire him.

[mildlydisguised]

That's what I've been waiting for but so far it hasn't happened    They haven't appeared as one of the 6 options to hire on the telephone or computer either. 

Damn Maxian code, my Sims seem to read my mind then do everything possible to sabotage my plans for their lives.

[jsalemi]

You don't happen to have JMP's 'noplayableshoppers' in your game, do you?  That would keep playables from your business lots unless you stuck a money order in their inventories.

[mildlydisguised]

*runs off to check*

Aha yes I have, that must be the problem, thank you - I shall remove that offender now.

*blushes* Damn Directors Cut - I am go to check that throughly to make sure nothing else is lurking with intent - intent to mess up my plans, that is 

[Dopp]

Warning: the risks of removing "noplayableshoppers" far outweigh the benefits. Playable sims will come to your businesses and bankrupt themselves buying needless junk and stuffing it into their inventory because the Maxis AI is brain-dead and treats them like townies. Townies have unlimited credit and their purchases vanish into thin air. Playables actually pay for their junk and then you have to go through the hassle of selling it off at rock-bottom prices (it depreciates completely upon purchase to about 10% of original value) when you get around to playing them next. So, be aware that having playable shoppers on your business lots just on the off-chance that you can hire them brings with it many hours of using "motherlode" and managing inventories to fix their inevitable financial problems.

Squinge over at Insim has a "shopnsave" mod that makes playable customers act like townies when buying stuff (they pull the money out of thin air and purchases disappear in the same way) that I used to use as a nice compromise. Now I just use "noplayableshoppers".

[Inge]

But I like that element of unpredictability in my game.  I am always amused when I go to play a family and find them unexpectedly broke because of retail addiction    What's more sometimes I make them sell off their other stuff and keep the stuff they bought.  At the end of the day, if I really don't want that effect, it's no more cheating to kaching them a little than to let them shop for free.

[mildlydisguised]

Now that makes me want to go and put noplayableshoppers back in.  I don't want my sims to be broke considering I'm on generation 1 of an economic township thing.  See this is why an 'ask for a job' interaction would be much more helpful and avoid the buying all manner of crap they will no doubt try to indulge in.

So would this hack be possible?  Or would it involve too much tweaking?  This isn't a direct request, more of a musing really.  Unless of course some kind modder took it upon themselves to do me a favour, which obviously I would be very grateful for 

I do like a certain amount of unpredictabilityin my game, but most of my playable sims are up to their eyeballs in debt already.

[idtaminger]

SimWardobe has a hack that stops sims from taking money out of their own accounts to buy stuff. It might just apply to the bandatron though, but I'm not sure. I think I remember seeing one for objects as well...

I don't normally like to do stuff like this, but when I decided to build a business charging $1000 by the hour, I didn't want some of my richest playables going broke on me.

[jsalemi]

Playables actually pay for their junk and then you have to go through the hassle of selling it off at rock-bottom prices (it depreciates completely upon purchase to about 10% of original value) when you get around to playing them next.

I've not found that -- when my playbles sell stuff from their inventory, it's usually very close to what they paid with little or no depreciation.  I've never seen a playable sell stuff they bought autonomously for only 10% of its value.

[Karen]

But I like that element of unpredictability in my game.

Same here.  Particularly with shops that sell useful things such as robots that take a long time to make.  I would much rather sell a servo to one of my playables than to have some random townie buy it.  And since I never pay much attention to who's buying what, I like the occasional surprise when a playable suddenly has something valuable in his/her inventory.  I don't mind selling off the useless crap, it doesn't take that long anyway.

If you want control over who comes into your shop, you can always use the customerselector.  I find it suits my playing style better anyway.

Karen

[mildlydisguised]

Can you force a playable sim into your shop with the customerselector even if you have the noplayableshoppers hack?

[jrd]

IIRC if you want playables to be able to shop, you have to give them a money order in their inventory first.

[Sagana]

Oh bleh, how many salespeople do you have in this shop? If all the customers are buying tons of expensive stuff without sales interactions, your prices are too low. Set the prices up high enough that they at least need a basic sell or something, and if you don't want the playable to have it - don't sell it to him :p Either tell him/her bye or let him get mad and leave.

Money is a triviality in this game, without doing lots of stuff to make it harder (and I've never managed to make it actually hard yet). And no their loss isn't anywhere near only 10% on items when you sell 'em back - they get very close to the same as they cost. I can't imagine anybody's sims going broke buying stuff at stores unless they're botting the stores so bad they aren't even playing the game :p

If you're trying to do realistic economics, you want the playables to buy stuff. If the only customers are amorphous townies with unlimited budgets, there's no economy at all. I'm running a neighborhood set-up now that has no townies. Either their neighbors buy the goods, or the store goes broke.

[jrd]

Paladin has a few good mods that deal with playable shoppers.
His mods let them buy, but money is not deducted from the household fund, and they don't get any items in their inventories.

[BastDawn]

You don't need the money orders to get playable sims on your lot if you also have the customer selector.  Set the selector to allow playable sims... and if you also set it to disallow all other sims, you can quickly get several playables and the reviewer all on your lot at once.  You can do this while nothing is marked for sale, hire who you want, and then close business long enough to get rid of the playables and set prices and the selector again.  You can also invite a friend over while your business is open and hire from there.

[mildlydisguised]

Oh bleh, how many salespeople do you have in this shop? If all the customers are buying tons of expensive stuff without sales interactions, your prices are too low. Set the prices up high enough that they at least need a basic sell or something, and if you don't want the playable to have it - don't sell it to him :p Either tell him/her bye or let him get mad and leave.

Me?  One shop and one owner acting as general purpose cashiersalesperson/restocker etc.  All I want is for one of my other playable sims to be hired by the business owner, hence the question about a 'ask for employment' mod.  The noplayableshoppers mod is useful so I can control my playable sims spending on the community lots, that way they only buy when and what they need to, but it means my sim will never visit the lot in NPC mode to be hired.  Any revenue generated by the stores in the hood is primarily from 'transients' (townies), as many towns rely on passing trade of non-residents I figured it would be fine to rely on this economic situation especially as I am starting off with a limited generation 1 and no money cheats, only loans.  I have notownieregen so when my hood grows a little (in a few generations) and after a few townies marry into my playable sims families, the transient population will be less and the township businesses will be less dependent on their incomes.

Jordi, thanks I'll check out those mods from paladin although it may mess up the whole economic slant on my hood.

BastDawn I may try your idea as all I really need is the damn sim to get hired, thanks.    

[J. M. Pescado]

Squingeland has an item that will expand the hiring pool to "everyone applicable" rather than just 6 people. If you get that, you'll be able to track down the available playables anywhere.

I'm not 100% sure, but I don't believe depreciation extends to items in the inventory.

It doesn't, but items will depreciate while sitting on the shop floor. This is not reflected in their sale prices (not that you even care how much an item is actually worth when you arbitrarily stamp prices on them).

[mildlydisguised]

Thanks this should help and I can put noplayableshoppers back in 

[notveryawesome]

Squinge over at Insim has a "shopnsave" mod that makes playable customers act like townies when buying stuff (they pull the money out of thin air and purchases disappear in the same way) that I used to use as a nice compromise. Now I just use "noplayableshoppers".

I use Squinge's mod rather than noplayableshoppers, because I like my playable sims building relationships when they visit other sims' businesses. I always have my playables interact with each other, because I'd rather them have relationships with other playables than with random townies. But that's just my own personal preference...

[J. M. Pescado]

I use Squinge's mod rather than noplayableshoppers, because I like my playable sims building relationships when they visit other sims' businesses. I always have my playables interact with each other, because I'd rather them have relationships with other playables than with random townies. But that's just my own personal preference...

I'd suggest KEEPING noplayables since it reduces CPU load, but then using the Customer Selector to create playables-only businesses so that your playables can interact with each other in a townie-free business. You can even keep them segregated by subhood in this way, by choosing "Local" playables only.

[Magicmoon]

I have noplayable shoppers and don't have a bit of trouble hiring a playable that I want.

Just be on your owned lot, pick up the phone and invite the sim over. They come to the lot and start behaving like a shopper. Walk over to them and hire them. They start working right away.

You can also invite them "after hours" but I once had some problems with this. Some items saw the playable as an employee, while other items did not. (The list of employees with badge info, BRY controller, the phone, etc) So I made her quit and rehired her during open hours and had no problem. I only tried this once, so I cannot be sure that my problem was actually caused by her being hired while the shop was closed.

[J. M. Pescado]

It isn't. Just a random bug.