Wants & Fears Sanity "Death To All Nesses" Public Beta Edition

[JCSpencer]

Sorry for the delay. Had to get my morning coffee and then edumacate someone that foolishly attempted to belittle me on another thread. Coffee and retribution - the breakfast of champions. Just throw in a cigarette for good measure.

Off the top of my head, dramafix is needed because the met-self memories are a very bad thing.  Like some of the other things we've said are VBTs, it doesn't cause problems right away, but does have a ripple effect that can eventually blow up your hood.

Okay, now that I didn't realize. Frankly, I always thought the memory system was a feature that EAxis could have done without. There doesn't seem to really be any point to it. "Yeah, thanks for the memories - it's not like I wasn't just sitting here making you watching you do it." So now to learn that a system I find useless is also potentially game breaking - well, that just gets my knickers in a twist.

Many of the hacks aren't found in individual files; they're only part of the Director's Cut package.  There's a thread in the Armory (don't know why I kept saying archives)  that documents most of them, and if you're not sure, someone here can tell you what they do.

Since I'm currently laid off (read: sitting on my lazy ass getting doughnut crumbs in the keyboard), one thing that's occupied me for most of the last couple of days (literally 15+ hours a day) has been reading almost every single thread in JM's section. I only just started on syberspunk's, and I've barely grazed the surface of the other sections (I like to be thorough). Even if a mod sounds interesting in the description of the initial posts, I always try and do my homework to make sure I don't have any questions, to see if there are any potential conflicts of which I should be aware, or to see if that mod/hack/fix is really something I need.

As for the Director's Cut suggestion - that tends to be opposite my general modus operandi [+1 Look Smart point, +1000 Aspiration]. I like to download pieces at a time, even if I find I have everything in the end anyway. For one, I feel like I have a little more control, and have less to go through if a problem arises. Now, I'm not saying there are problems with JM's work, but obviously everyone's tastes vary, and I could have already downloaded something else that may conflict (but no kitten/puppy killers here. 'K, thx.) However, I have, for the most part, read the descriptions of virtually every one of the files that are included (fortunately RTFMs are included for most of the files, there or in other places); and for anything I don't fully understand, I have sense enough to ask about it, such as is evidenced by our little tête-à-tête [+1000 Aspiration].

See, macrotastics is PERFECT for micro-management.  You tell the sim to go skill, and they go skill until their motives drop enough to make them stop.  Then they'll take care of their motives (BUY for the bathroom, sleepclock for sleeping, something to kick for fun, they'll eat on their own), and go back to skilling. You tell them to make friends with someone, and they'll keep yacking/joking/busting a move/whatever until they're friends. And if you want them to absolutely not do anything you don't tell them to do, put them on Power Idle, and they'll go sit quietly somewhere until you tell them what to do (other than taking care of any motives that need taking care of).  Pescado may be the ultimate micro-manager -- he DOES play with Free Will off all the time, so mods like this are made just for that reason.

Honestly, I don't know why I play with Free Will on, because I almost never (1% of the time) let them do their own autonomous thing. I usually end up X'ing out their self choices, but I just don't like actually turning off Free Will for some reason. That's assuming I leave them any time to make a self choice. Okay, now here comes a really long reply (and you guys thought syberspunk was inordinately verbose!).

As for Macrotastics, one thing I worry about is that I won't be able to do things my way anymore, or at least not in the way that I like doing them. For example, since you mention skilling, I handle my Sims in a very specific manner every single time. When it's time to work on skills, I make sure they every motive is pretty much maxed out (other than energy or environment). Then I have them plop on their helmets (if they can) and start studying in a particular order. First focus is on job-related skills. I always make sure they have at least 1 point higher than the current requirement. Don't ask why, I just do. When that is completed, they are to work on all their other skills, but only 1 point at a time. Get Cooking to 1 point, then work on Mechanical; get that to 1 point then work on Charisma, then Body, et cetera. Once all are at 1, go back through and get them to 2, and then 3, and so on. It may be unnecessary, it may be trivial, but it's just the way I'm used to doing it and the way I like doing it.

As for BUY, sleep clocks, auto-socialization, and the like, well I pretty much already act as those objects, so installing them would simply mean less clicking. However, clicking doesn't really bother me that much. Makes it feel more interactive. Besides, if I had all this automation, what's left to do? Unless I have the wrong idea about how Macrotastics works.

Auto-socialization presents another problem for me. I can get my relationships to 100 STR fairly quickly, and best friends soon after. The secret (well, not much of a secret I guess) is to use lots of flirting, and to only use the same command once or twice, but to use as many as possible. You tend to get double plusses the first time you use most of the interactions (sometimes on the second use as well, or if it's been a while). Plus, I also learned (the hard way) not to use an interaction as soon as it appears, because it usually appears well before you can use it successfully without turning off your companion. In a day, I can usually make several good friends, and then I simply wait a few Sim days (phoning them to touch up any that are getting low or weren't high enough); when the LTR score rises to 50, and a single phone call makes them best friends.

Now here's the problem: I flirted everyone into my favor (talk about manipulation), which means I've got a lot of crushes out there. I have to be careful where I go and who I'm with, and if I let my Sim autonomously interact with another Sim, chances are he'll end up flirting with a former crush while he's around another former crush, or worse, while he's with the person he's really dating/engaged to/married to. Thus I almost never let Sims autonomously socialize, and I rarely invite former crushes over to parties (unless time has finally killed the pink heart, but that seems to take forever).

I like control. Maybe it's because of my military background, or maybe it's because I love exerting God-like control when I'm a pathetic non-awesome boob in real life. I'm the same way in real life: I can't stand being the passenger in any car; I have to be the driver, or I'm a nervous, paranoid wreck. I don't like letting anyone else drive in the Sims either. I run a very tight ship in every household, and I won't let my Sims do anything (most of the time) without my explicit consent. They all go to bed at the same time, rise at the same time; they go to the bathroom, shower, and relax at the same time. The only time their schedules tend to vary is with work, school, off-lot activities, or during play time, but even though they aren't always doing the same thing, I make sure they are doing exactly and only what I tell them to do (or I end up cussing like a sailor, since I am one, when they deviate - damn mp3 players and handheld games). The only thing I won't let them do together anymore is eat. I mean seriously, WTF? Four hours for a frickin' meal? Now that I know about JM's No Eat Crap and Crammyboy's Eat More Talk Less, I'm going to check one of those out. I also got the "don't wave at me" and "less whining," because I hated it when one Sim went to bed 20 minutes after everyone else since he had to stop and bitch about how tired he was - despite the fact the next command in queue was "GO TO F'ING SLEEP!". Well, sans the F'ING part, but I wish that could be changed.

BRY makes running a business with employees easier, since you can't really control non-family employees. It works in conjunction with macrotastics and BUY so that the employees do whatever job you tell them to do (i.e., Be Cashier or Be Restocker) and to take care of their motive needs when necessary so they don't leave early or quit on you.  And it has some handy utilities that let you set the job for the owner when you visit the lot with other sims (treating it as a comm lot), and let you adjust an employee's wage without having to drop everything, go find the employee, stop whatever they're doing and give them a raise.

I don't know whether it's a bug or a feature, but I've never had to send my employees on a single break for one reason alone - they are all set to be ridiculously overpaid. From the moment they arrive to the time I cut them free, they get no pee breaks, lunch breaks, or lounging breaks. They do exactly what they were hired to do, and they do it until the store is closed. I've never had them quit or walk away from a task. With this method, it negates most of the reasons I'd even need BRY. I do sometimes adjust their pay, just so it can be recalculated to include new badges (although that seems to have relatively very little monetary benefit; skills seem to count more than business badges for some stupid reason).

The only thing I am unsure about is what you mean by "set the job for the owner" when visiting the lot with other Sims. To be honest, I've actually never visited a comm lot owned by one playable with another playable, so I don't yet know what to expect.

The customer selector is a must for any owned business, because it does just what it says -- it controls the customers you allow at the business.  Want only rich sims -- ban the poor.  Ban pets so they don't disrupt your customers (that's about the only default setting).  Hate serving zombies, or having customers turn into werewolves in the middle of a sale? Ban em.  Want you downtownies to shop at your business?  Allow them.  Same with your YAs from Uni.  Want to make a teens-only coffee shop?  Ban all other age groups. And so on, and so on...

I honestly don't understand why I would want to do that, though. "The more, the merrier," is my motto. The way I see it, every Sim I turn away is a Sim from whom I could be gaining stars and, more importantly, simoleons. Plus, with sales encompassing most of my life's work experience, I couldn't think of very many realistic locations where clientele would be truly limited. The closest examples I can think of would be Fifth Avenue stores where only the rich could really afford to go, or lingerie stores like Victoria's Secret, which would be mostly populated by women. However, a non-rich Sim could still go to browse a Fifth Avenue store (or may have saved up just enough for that one item that he or she intends to impress the friends/family with, or maybe it was a gift); men can still go to lingerie stores, and often do (whether because they were dragged along, are shopping for a girlfriend, or are interested in the products for themselves).

When I owned a gaming store out in Washington, our target audience was obviously gamers. And no surprise, we got gamers of every age that came: children, teens, adults, elders. People of all ages love games. However, we also had several people ignorant of or inexperienced with our products. Some were coming to learn, some were coming just to buy a gift for little Johnny. I obviously wouldn't turn them away just because they weren't a certain age or didn't already have an interest in what we sold.

Now, I'm not knocking JM for his ideas. The fact he can even make something that does that amazes me. But I don't see how it's realistic in my vision of business. What *would* be more realistic, in my opinion and if it were possible, would be a customer "limiter" - something that let me limit, but not completely ban shoppers of a certain type. Borrowing from my previous example, if I had a lingerie store in Sim City, most of the clientele would and should be women, but I wouldn't want to entirely exclude men, for the aforementioned reasons. Even in my adult-themed businesses, I don't exclude teens; I actually thinks its humorous that I plaster "Adults Only" signs around the lot, but as long as they pay at the bandatron, I'll look the other way.

Just my onions. Er, opinions.

Really, just give them a try for a couple of days.  Make a backup of your hoods first, put them in, and see how they work.  If you don't like them (or they cause something you don't want to happen), take them out and restore the hood.  I'm betting you won't take them out.

(Oh, and comm-skilling is here. Unless otherwise stated in the description or RTFM, BV hacks are compatible with all prior EPs.)

Oh, yeah, I did find comm-skilling (and downloaded it) but forgot to edit my earlier post. Thanks, though. However, one I still can't find is the breakup fix you mentioned. I found everything else.

And I think perhaps I'll at least give Macrotastics a whirl, if for no other reason than to see exactly what it does. I really hope that you don't think I'm trying to simply reason away your suggestions, though. I really do appreciate all the time you've spent trying to help me out. Tons! And I have downloaded most of what you suggested so far. But I guess I'm still in "paranoia" mode, too. I had over 5000 downloads and countless problems, and I realized I'd gotten too carried away and wasn't picky enough with what I downloaded. It would take me a little more than half an hour to go from inserting the disc to entering a household, and believe you me, when something retarded causes a crash after all that, you become just a tad incensed.

So I'm trying to be more selective now, and I'm focusing mainly on creators that have established good repuations for stable, worthwhile mods [+3500 Aspiration] (yes, that was fulfillment of the "WooHoo with JM" Want). On a side note, it was surprising to see just how many of those 5,000 downloads that looked great in little screen shots were actually horrific monstrosities in the game (and even game-breakers, in some cases). And ohhhhh, the headaches Pets has caused for non-Pets users like me.

Anyway, thanks again for all the help, Joe! Mucho merci!

[Invisigoth]

As for the Director's Cut suggestion - that tends to be opposite my general modus operandi [+1 Look Smart point, +1000 Aspiration]. I like to download pieces at a time, even if I find I have everything in the end anyway. For one, I feel like I have a little more control, and have less to go through if a problem arises. Now, I'm not saying there are problems with JM's work, but obviously everyone's tastes vary, and I could have already downloaded something else that may conflict (but no kitten/puppy killers here. 'K, thx.) However, I have, for the most part, read the descriptions of virtually every one of the files that are included (fortunately RTFMs are included for most of the files, there or in other places); and for anything I don't fully understand, I have sense enough to ask about it, such as is evidenced by our little tête-à-tête [+1000 Aspiration].

The way that you are going about this reminds me of how I did it at first. I didn't want even one unnecessary mod in my game. Now I am using almost every single hack by JM. You probably will end up doing the same thing eventually. But I understand why you are doing it this way and I respect that. I think that it's really important to know every single mod that you have, what it does, where it came from, and where it's located. My organization system for CC is almost identical to yours. Organization is critical if you're going to be downloading things that muck around with game code, IMO.

As for Macrotastics, one thing I worry about is that I won't be able to do things my way anymore, or at least not in the way that I like doing them. For example, since you mention skilling, I handle my Sims in a very specific manner every single time. When it's time to work on skills, I make sure they every motive is pretty much maxed out (other than energy or environment). Then I have them plop on their helmets (if they can) and start studying in a particular order. First focus is on job-related skills. I always make sure they have at least 1 point higher than the current requirement. Don't ask why, I just do. When that is completed, they are to work on all their other skills, but only 1 point at a time. Get Cooking to 1 point, then work on Mechanical; get that to 1 point then work on Charisma, then Body, et cetera. Once all are at 1, go back through and get them to 2, and then 3, and so on. It may be unnecessary, it may be trivial, but it's just the way I'm used to doing it and the way I like doing it.

That's the beauty of macrotastics. You can stack macrotastics commands in the queue, so you can say skill/cooking and the sim will put on the thinking cap and start skilling. After that you've lined up skill/cleaning, skill/body, macro/clean (makes them clean everything that needs to be cleaned), macro/pay bills. If you kill the macro cooking once they've gotten the skill point they'll move onto the next activity. They will automatically take off the thinking cap if their aspiration falls into the green. I mentioned macro/clean because it's one of my favorite parts of macrotastics. You'll never have to worry about that one plate that a stupid guest dropped out in the back yard for no apparent reason getting forgotten and developing roaches. Macro/clean will also automatically compost trash if you have a composter on the lot so you don't have to worry about them wasting valuable material.

As for BUY, sleep clocks, auto-socialization, and the like, well I pretty much already act as those objects, so installing them would simply mean less clicking. However, clicking doesn't really bother me that much. Makes it feel more interactive. Besides, if I had all this automation, what's left to do? Unless I have the wrong idea about how Macrotastics works.

You don't have to use any parts of macrotastics that you don't like or want. BUY is critical, once you've played with it you'll never go back. Yeah, it's mostly less clicking but you can also use it in conjunction with APO (authorized personnel only) to keep guests out of family only bathrooms, you set the toilet paper on to "deny guests" and if you want to make sure that they absolutely don't get into the bathroom set APO as well. Then you don't need to worry about your sim being unable to get into their own freaking bathroom. It also helps keep your guests from peeing on the floor because they'll get "pulled in" to the appropriate bathroom.
I also used to think that with all of the automation I'd have nothing left to do. But it's not true at all. I can set one sim to do exactly what I want and then pay more attention to another sim without worrying about the first sim dying or setting the house on fire. The first sim will be doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing when I return to him. These hacks are especially useful for large households because it makes everything easier to micro-manage. Plus, isn't it annoying to knock those stupid autonomous actions out of the queue?

Auto-socialization presents another problem for me. I can get my relationships to 100 STR fairly quickly, and best friends soon after. The secret (well, not much of a secret I guess) is to use lots of flirting, and to only use the same command once or twice, but to use as many as possible. You tend to get double plusses the first time you use most of the interactions (sometimes on the second use as well, or if it's been a while). Plus, I also learned (the hard way) not to use an interaction as soon as it appears, because it usually appears well before you can use it successfully without turning off your companion. In a day, I can usually make several good friends, and then I simply wait a few Sim days (phoning them to touch up any that are getting low or weren't high enough); when the LTR score rises to 50, and a single phone call makes them best friends.

Now here's the problem: I flirted everyone into my favor (talk about manipulation), which means I've got a lot of crushes out there. I have to be careful where I go and who I'm with, and if I let my Sim autonomously interact with another Sim, chances are he'll end up flirting with a former crush while he's around another former crush, or worse, while he's with the person he's really dating/engaged to/married to. Thus I almost never let Sims autonomously socialize, and I rarely invite former crushes over to parties (unless time has finally killed the pink heart, but that seems to take forever).

Autosoc comes with three options on the target sim "socialize friendly", "socialize unfriendly", and "socialize romantic". If you select the first option they will not attempt to flirt or otherwise romance the target sim. They will only choose appropriate interactions that have a good chance of being successful. It will stop at 100 STR. The phone hack understands "cooking" LTR so when you use "call friends" it will skip over the friend with a high STR and a low STR until the STR drops down to around 50 or until the LTR has reached 50.

I like control. [...] The only time their schedules tend to vary is with work, school, off-lot activities, or during play time, but even though they aren't always doing the same thing, I make sure they are doing exactly and only what I tell them to do (or I end up cussing like a sailor, since I am one, when they deviate - damn mp3 players and handheld games).

That's just it, macrotastics = no more deviations from your obsessive control.

I honestly don't understand why I would want to do that, though. "The more, the merrier," is my motto. The way I see it, every Sim I turn away is a Sim from whom I could be gaining stars and, more importantly, simoleons. Plus, with sales encompassing most of my life's work experience, I couldn't think of very many realistic locations where clientele would be truly limited.

A gay/lesbian club, a brothel/strip club with workers of one gender (you can allow only gay men and straight women for example), a vampire club, a teenage hangout (so that your teen sims can meet potential mates without being harassed by adults), a bar (only adults), as you mentioned an extremely expensive store (right, no poor people, but would you really want children there too?). There is an add on hack for the customer selector that looks like a little clock which can be used to control the customers allowed based on time as well. So you could have a kid friendly environment during the day but ban children after say 11 PM. You can also change the settings whenever you want. So maybe you want to have an elder only dance at your club. Set it to elder only and when you've finished set it back.

I had over 5000 downloads and countless problems, and I realized I'd gotten too carried away and wasn't picky enough with what I downloaded. It would take me a little more than half an hour to go from inserting the disc to entering a household, and believe you me, when something retarded causes a crash after all that, you become just a tad incensed.

I have a four year old computer and virtually all of JM's hacks. His hacks are always as small and lightweight as possible. With nothing but JM's hacks in game my load time is not noticeably impacted. It's all of the other types of CC that start to add up really fast, IMO.

Oh yeah, another random thought. Have you ever had that one sim who always comes to your business lot, never buys anything, and spends the entire time harassing and bothering your actual customers? BRY's "bugger off" option will kick that sim off lot without you needing to find a playable and walk them over to the annoying sim. You can also toggle the open/close without your sim having to walk over to the sign which I find convenient.

[JCSpencer]

Wow, big response! Thanks, Invisigoth, and nice to meet you.

The way that you are going about this reminds me of how I did it at first. I didn't want even one unnecessary mod in my game. Now I am using almost every single hack by JM. You probably will end up doing the same thing eventually. But I understand why you are doing it this way and I respect that. I think that it's really important to know every single mod that you have, what it does, where it came from, and where it's located. My organization system for CC is almost identical to yours. Organization is critical if you're going to be downloading things that muck around with game code, IMO.

Glad to know I'm not the only obsessive compulsive here. And to be honest, I've already downloaded probably 2/3 of JM's hacks from the archive. But there's another reason I do this too. By playing a few at a time, I get to know what they do and familiarize myself with all the options. If I download, say, his entire DC pack, I'll have a whole bunch of new content I don't know anything about (and probably will end up not discovering since it will be all over the place). That was one problem I had before. I went from my 2nd new install to those 5000 downloads I told you about. Even after weeks of playing, I was still finding stuff (but what irked me was half of it was in the wrong catalog spots, and took me forever to find if I saw it once by mistake and then wanted it again later). Even if I do end up with all the (compatible) hacks from JM, TJ, Syber and others, at least I'll know what each does, and which one I specifically want to remove if it's not for me. And on that note, I am eternally grateful to JM et al for actually labeling the packages with what the mod does, not generic crap like hexadecimal or a single word... "red.package." Um, wtf is that?

That's the beauty of macrotastics. You can stack macrotastics commands in the queue...

I guess I misunderstood what Macrotastics was about. But I have to ask... if it does the same thing I'm already doing, why do I need it? Wouldn't this be more for people who can't stand the tedium of micromanagement? And is that "take off helmet when green" thing part of the mod, or at least controllable? I don't want them taking it off if they turned green, 'cuz then I gotta work up asp to get it back on. Only want them to take it off when they're done skilling altogether. And I never really worry much about cleaning since I always have a maid, and I always make each Sim clean up after themselves as they go. Of course, if there is cleaning needing to be done, I tend to reserve it as "punishment" for anyone that misbehaves (although the biggest misbehavior was whining, which may no longer be an issue thanks to JM). God I love virtual punishments (especially the time-out-till-you-wet-yourself box)...

Did I mention that I babysit IRL? Gimme a call.

You don't have to use any parts of macrotastics that you don't like or want. BUY is critical...

I don't know if I'm just lucky, or that much of a control freak, but I've never had a problem with bathrooms. Especially thanks to whatever EP introduced lockable doors. Never had a guest anywhere I didn't want one. And never have clogged bathrooms since I decide when they get to go (clogged bathrooms, no; clogged toilets - yes).

I also used to think that with all of the automation I'd have nothing left to do. But it's not true at all. I can set one sim to do exactly what I want and then pay more attention to another sim without worrying about the first sim dying or setting the house on fire. The first sim will be doing exactly what they are supposed to be doing when I return to him. These hacks are especially useful for large households because it makes everything easier to micro-manage. Plus, isn't it annoying to knock those stupid autonomous actions out of the queue?

Sometimes, but I rarely have a Sim without a full queue (and thus few autonomous actions), except for the annoying bugs and events that would knock everything out of queue (most of which can be eradicated thanks to the MATY crew). I rarely play large households, mostly 2 Sims that have 1 or 2 kids. I let the kids grow up, go to college, and then it's virtual party time for the folks. Of course I avoid larger families just because it becomes a logistical nightmare, for which case JM's mods DO sound more appealing. Maybe not having experienced 8 controllable Sims at a time, I'm not able to truly appreciate what Macrotastics does?

Autosoc comes with three options on the target sim "socialize friendly", "socialize unfriendly", and "socialize romantic". If you select the first option they will not attempt to flirt or otherwise romance the target sim. They will only choose appropriate interactions that have a good chance of being successful. It will stop at 100 STR. The phone hack understands "cooking" LTR so when you use "call friends" it will skip over the friend with a high STR and a low STR until the STR drops down to around 50 or until the LTR has reached 50.

Okay, that sounds prett cool then. I do have the phone hack, which I think I'm going to enjoy. That was one of the few things I hated dealing with. It's such a pain to keep switching between the Sims you are watching motives on, then to the Sims on the phone that require you to look through the acquaintances window to find friends that keep jumping around based on whose on the phone, who's on the lot, their relationship scores (which are constantly changing since I'm talking to them), etc. And then having to check the motives of the Sims on the phone who just hung up and now I have to go digging to see if they got the STR high enough or if I have to call back. And then dealing with the 30-second phone calls followed by a hang up just because Social motive was already maxed out. Definitely going to love the phone hack. Auto-soc... I might check that one out too.

A gay/lesbian club, a brothel/strip club with workers of one gender (you can allow only gay men and straight women for example), a vampire club, a teenage hangout (so that your teen sims can meet potential mates without being harassed by adults), a bar (only adults), as you mentioned an extremely expensive store (right, no poor people, but would you really want children there too?). There is an add on hack for the customer selector that looks like a little clock which can be used to control the customers allowed based on time as well. So you could have a kid friendly environment during the day but ban children after say 11 PM. You can also change the settings whenever you want. So maybe you want to have an elder only dance at your club. Set it to elder only and when you've finished set it back.

I tend to play with stores that are mostly for anyone that shows up. I haven't really had the desire to do a selective store, but if I do, then I can certainly keep this in mind. Having children around hasn't really become a problem for me, but then again, my townie count isn't that high yet. Maybe it will? After all, for all I care, these people can sit around all day and not buy a thing if they want to. I'm racking in the bucks with the bandatron. But usually they do buy, and buy a lot (this seems to be directly related to how many items you have - the more the items, the more people will shop; the fewer the items, the more they tend to lollygag). Running the businesses is one of my favorite parts of the game, but unfortunately one of the most borked in my opinion. I do hate how I can leave at 8 to go open the store, close at 6, come home and it's still 8. So now that Sim is exhausted and it's still the start of the day. Maxis didn't implement that very well. Home businesses alleviate that problem, but then limit some of your selections in the catalog (equally annoying, and without any merit). But I digress.

I have a four year old computer and virtually all of JM's hacks. His hacks are always as small and lightweight as possible. With nothing but JM's hacks in game my load time is not noticeably impacted. It's all of the other types of CC that start to add up really fast, IMO.

I do like that aspect of his mods, certainly. While reading the many threads, I saw several mentions of fairly large drops in file size where he had cleaned out a lot of useless miscellany, so it's nice to see he's conscious about that sort of thing (whereas others couldn't give a damn). It's one of the things that attracted me here. Always good quality, no B.S. Well, not from the hacks anyway.

Thanks for all the great tips and suggestions, Invisigoth. I really appreciate it. You guys are great over here! Well, everyone other than JM.

[vcline]

I don't know if I'm just lucky, or that much of a control freak, but I've never had a problem with bathrooms. Especially thanks to whatever EP introduced lockable doors. Never had a guest anywhere I didn't want one. And never have clogged bathrooms since I decide when they get to go (clogged bathrooms, no; clogged toilets - yes).

Do you never have a problem with guests at a party hanging around chatting in the bathroom and a sim who needs to use it has to shoo them out?  The best part of BUY is that sims immediately vacate the bathroom when they're done.

[Zazazu]

I don't know if I'm just lucky, or that much of a control freak, but I've never had a problem with bathrooms. Especially thanks to whatever EP introduced lockable doors. Never had a guest anywhere I didn't want one. And never have clogged bathrooms since I decide when they get to go (clogged bathrooms, no; clogged toilets - yes).

Do you never have a problem with guests at a party hanging around chatting in the bathroom and a sim who needs to use it has to shoo them out?  The best part of BUY is that sims immediately vacate the bathroom when they're done.

The easy solution is to never have parties. I mean, why would you invite a whole bunch of people over just so you can feed them and they can dirty your toilet & dishes? This makes no logical sense. Go to parties, don't throw parties.

Bathrooms have never been an issue for me. Most bathrooms in my houses are large enough that shooing doesn't cause a huge traffic jam. I usually keep one large potty on the first floor, then lock the second floor access for family only. As for businesses, I don't use community time project, so I freeze motives. Nobody quits, nobody pees.

[J. M. Pescado]

Now here's the problem: I flirted everyone into my favor (talk about manipulation), which means I've got a lot of crushes out there. I have to be careful where I go and who I'm with, and if I let my Sim autonomously interact with another Sim, chances are he'll end up flirting with a former crush while he's around another former crush, or worse, while he's with the person he's really dating/engaged to/married to. Thus I almost never let Sims autonomously socialize, and I rarely invite former crushes over to parties (unless time has finally killed the pink heart, but that seems to take forever).

It sounds like you need Romance Mod, and maybe the Undiscovered Shiny which actually causes the extinguishment of old love/crush hearts during the marriage process. Ask Fat Gwilly People.

I like control. Maybe it's because of my military background, or maybe it's because I love exerting God-like control when I'm a pathetic non-awesome boob in real life. I'm the same way in real life: I can't stand being the passenger in any car; I have to be the driver, or I'm a nervous, paranoid wreck. I don't like letting anyone else drive in the Sims either. I run a very tight ship in every household, and I won't let my Sims do anything (most of the time) without my explicit consent. They all go to bed at the same time, rise at the same time; they go to the bathroom, shower, and relax at the same time. The only time their schedules tend to vary is with work, school, off-lot activities, or during play time, but even though they aren't always doing the same thing, I make sure they are doing exactly and only what I tell them to do (or I end up cussing like a sailor, since I am one, when they deviate - damn mp3 players and handheld games). The only thing I won't let them do together anymore is eat. I mean seriously, WTF? Four hours for a frickin' meal? Now that I know about JM's No Eat Crap and Crammyboy's Eat More Talk Less, I'm going to check one of those out.

It sounds like you definitely need MOAR AWESOMENESS, because the description of your gameplay sounds EXACTLY like mine.ish that could be changed. You'll fall in love with Macrotastics the moment you see the control box. With Macrotastics, there is no whine, only "SIR, YES, SIR!".

I don't know whether it's a bug or a feature, but I've never had to send my employees on a single break for one reason alone - they are all set to be ridiculously overpaid. From the moment they arrive to the time I cut them free, they get no pee breaks, lunch breaks, or lounging breaks. They do exactly what they were hired to do, and they do it until the store is closed. I've never had them quit or walk away from a task. With this method, it negates most of the reasons I'd even need BRY.

Uh...I don't think what you describe is POSSIBLE. Motive decay doesn't just STOP because you pay them more. They WILL stop functioning eventually. Perhaps your attention span is just too short to notice, but you MUST try BRY, the efficiency increase is HUGE.

I do sometimes adjust their pay, just so it can be recalculated to include new badges (although that seems to have relatively very little monetary benefit; skills seem to count more than business badges for some stupid reason).

Sounds like YOU need "relevant wages", which makes only relevant skills and badges count.

I honestly don't understand why I would want to do that, though. "The more, the merrier," is my motto. The way I see it, every Sim I turn away is a Sim from whom I could be gaining stars and, more importantly, simoleons. Plus, with sales encompassing most of my life's work experience, I couldn't think of very many realistic locations where clientele would be truly limited. The closest examples I can think of would be Fifth Avenue stores where only the rich could really afford to go, or lingerie stores like Victoria's Secret, which would be mostly populated by women. However, a non-rich Sim could still go to browse a Fifth Avenue store (or may have saved up just enough for that one item that he or she intends to impress the friends/family with, or maybe it was a gift); men can still go to lingerie stores, and often do (whether because they were dragged along, are shopping for a girlfriend, or are interested in the products for themselves).

Classic example: Gay bars. There's also another very simple reason: restricting the clientele of a Sim business can actually make it easier to gain more stars faster, due to one factor that differs from real life: In real life, you're not limited to a maximum of N customers at once: Clogging the works with low-yield customers that don't even understand what they're there for simply jams your store with people who stand around and complain as they don't even understand why there's NO FOOD in a clothing store. Even if you don't wish to limit clientbase, the selector also lets you designate business PURPOSE, so sims show up with appropriate motives.

A final reason should appeal to your control-freak ways: When you lock out playables from a certain business, YOU control their buying habits, rather than having to constantly empty their inventories (At a loss!) of all useless crap they buy for no good reason.

And I think perhaps I'll at least give Macrotastics a whirl, if for no other reason than to see exactly what it does. I really hope that you don't think I'm trying to simply reason away your suggestions, though.

The Macro set is our flagship product. It is simply the best, of the best, of the best. It is the most Awesomesauce thing in Sims. Whether you just want to avoid carpal tunnel, or rule with a 42-pound, allegedly portable fist, this is for you.

So I'm trying to be more selective now, and I'm focusing mainly on creators that have established good repuations for stable, worthwhile mods [+3500 Aspiration] (yes, that was fulfillment of the "WooHoo with JM" Want).

More Awesome Than You: Accept no Kewian-based substitutes.

I guess I misunderstood what Macrotastics was about. But I have to ask... if it does the same thing I'm already doing, why do I need it? Wouldn't this be more for people who can't stand the tedium of micromanagement? And is that "take off helmet when green" thing part of the mod, or at least controllable? I don't want them taking it off if they turned green, 'cuz then I gotta work up asp to get it back on.

An excellent idea. I'm glad I thought of it! Helmet retention in the event of ASP-dangerzone will be added to next version.

The easy solution is to never have parties. I mean, why would you invite a whole bunch of people over just so you can feed them and they can dirty your toilet & dishes? This makes no logical sense. Go to parties, don't throw parties.

That's what locking the fridges is for. NOBODY TOUCHES THE PRECIOUS!

[mitchellcjs]

It sounds like you need Romance Mod, and maybe the Undiscovered Shiny which actually causes the extinguishment of old love/crush hearts during the marriage process. Ask Fat Gwilly People.

Mr. Gwill?  Could you please request this shiny?  It sounds WONDERFUL. 

[nekonoai]

To the best of my knowledge "Fat Gwilly People" are female.

[mitchellcjs]

Mr./Ms. Gwill, I apologize for not knowing your preferred gender-based title, but would you please ask for this undiscovered shiny?

[Gwill]

As it turns out Miss Fat Gwilly One is already in possession of a certain dropoldloves.package and might just sit back and point and laugh (maniacally) until people acknowledge her as female.

Since I can not wield my awesome power without doing the hugely embarrassing "release shiny dance", I feel like sitting back and abusing my powers for a while.  Grovel brief mortals!

[Gwill]

On the other hand, something I would like fixed: Prior to BV sims on a date at a community lot would only roll "whoohoo in car" wants if they actually arrived in a car.  Now they also roll the want if they walked, making it unfulfillable and useless.

[cassblonde]

*grovels before great feminine Gwilly*

/sigh/ I have no pride I was down here anyway may as well make it useful

[Emma]

Take the fix out, and try running the game again. If you still get the same error message then it isn't this fix that is causing it.

[Zazazu]

Pavsc, delete groups.cache. That's exactly what my game usually does when the file gets corrupted.

[Gwill]

OK, OK, fine...

* Gwill jumps up and down

Release shiny to the people!  My comrades need shiny too!

[mitchellcjs]

Thank you, Oh Great Gwilly One.

*Mitchie prostrates herself in thanks*

[MidnightVoyager]

*prostrates herself before the Gwilly as well*

Edited to remove my non-existent prostate. Damnit.

[JCSpencer]

Do you never have a problem with guests at a party hanging around chatting in the bathroom and a sim who needs to use it has to shoo them out?  The best part of BUY is that sims immediately vacate the bathroom when they're done.

I don't really have many parties at all. I find they tend to be more of a pain to manage than they are worth in ASP points. I only throw parties for graduation now, just to get the little video and memory. I don't even throw birthday parties; getting the kids a cake and blowing out the candles is enough for me. I can get ASP way faster and easier than having to deal with pleasing my stupid guests for 5 real time minutes. Buh-lah.

And like Zazazu said, I really never have a problem with bathroom cloggage either. First of all, I manage everyone that goes in there; secondly, I use the door-locking mechanism like there's no tomorrow. Nobody goes into any part of the house that I don't want 'em. If you're a visitor and you wanna pee, go stand in the corner or go home.

DISCLAIMER: Fortunately, I am NOT like that in real life. I'll at least give you an empty bottle.

It sounds like you need Romance Mod, and maybe the Undiscovered Shiny which actually causes the extinguishment of old love/crush hearts during the marriage process. Ask Fat Gwilly People.

Oooh, undiscovered shinies? I like the sound of this one.

It sounds like you definitely need MOAR AWESOMENESS, because the description of your gameplay sounds EXACTLY like mine.ish that could be changed. You'll fall in love with Macrotastics the moment you see the control box. With Macrotastics, there is no whine, only "SIR, YES, SIR!".

Okay, okay. I'll try it. Who am I to argue with the Most Awesome One?

On a side note: Will someone slightly more awesome than me explain MOAR to me - I see that acronym a lot. Slight flaming (and spanking) allowed, and maybe I might like it.

Uh...I don't think what you describe is POSSIBLE. Motive decay doesn't just STOP because you pay them more. They WILL stop functioning eventually. Perhaps your attention span is just too short to notice, but you MUST try BRY, the efficiency increase is HUGE.

Well, I wasn't saying that I keep them there all day. Their motives do decay, and by the time I send them home for the day, their balls are glowing red (I mean the ones over their heads). Still, they never whine or complain or quit or wander off from their assigned tasks, as long as they are overpaid. My attention span for Sims is ridiculous, like in most things, and I'm so anal about it, I build every home and business in a way that I can keep an eye on everyone on the lot simultaneously. Nobody sneaks by with nothin' while I'm on duty. Little rat bastards.

I do sometimes adjust their pay, just so it can be recalculated to include new badges (although that seems to have relatively very little monetary benefit; skills seem to count more than business badges for some stupid reason).

Sounds like YOU need "relevant wages", which makes only relevant skills and badges count.

I wasn't bothering with an extra hack because it really doesn't affect me to pay them through the roof to keep them happy. I still make so much money I don't know what to do with it all, other than buy more businesses. Or redecorate the one I'm at for the umpteenth time. I just think it's dumb the way Maxis calculated the wages. Badges should count big time, skills not so much. I mean, really, for the most part - other than Charisma - none of the skills really apply in meaningful ways to employees working at a player-made business.

Classic example: Gay bars. There's also another very simple reason: restricting the clientele of a Sim business can actually make it easier to gain more stars faster, due to one factor that differs from real life: In real life, you're not limited to a maximum of N customers at once: Clogging the works with low-yield customers that don't even understand what they're there for simply jams your store with people who stand around and complain as they don't even understand why there's NO FOOD in a clothing store. Even if you don't wish to limit clientbase, the selector also lets you designate business PURPOSE, so sims show up with appropriate motives.

Gay bars was one of the examples I used previously to point out why I wouldn't limit customers. When I first started going to the gay club in Ann Arbor, I was going with my best friend, a straight girl. She loved it there. And when I got there, there were plenty of girls, and a surprising number of straight couples (they like it because everyone there is pretty real; beats the trash at most of the other clubs and bars in our area).

That said, I do understand what you're saying about the customer limit thing. That does bother me a little, but I can't really think of any way that's affected me except the one time I converted my car dealership to deal exclusively with custom content cars that were priced in the tens of thousands. Suddenly, almost everyone got turned off from every Dazzle, even with the improved sales interactions business perk, and it eventually occurred to me that they were getting turned off because they couldn't afford what I was trying to sell them. So in that way, yes, the hack would help me, but I never really went back to that dealership because I found that it was just too hard to sell super-expensive stuff anyway.

Some businesses I have include: bar & grill with a stage and little shopping store; a dance club with an adult-themed store and upstairs entertainment with pinball, arcade, pool and bowling; a gay-themed art store with paintings and sculptures; a full-range car dealership covering from the cheap Maxis car to the ultra-expensive Wonkey's Ford GTO; and a video game store, small, with some toys and stuff too. Each store includes some sort of entertainment to entice the people to use the Bandatron, as well as small money makers like newspaper boxes, vending machines, the electronics kiosk, and whatnot. So I definitely don't want to rush people off my lot. I also include a full range of price ranges on items, so everyone from the poor people to the filthy rich have something to buy at my lot.

Now, I know Townies are typically the best people to have because they have bottomless pockets. However, it's still more realistic to try and sell something to someone even if they can't afford it. I've gone drool-shopping for computers in stores before and let the salesman give me his or her spiel even though I knew I couldn't afford it. I don't know, I guess that part just doesn't bother me (and it's pretty easy to reset your customer pool and get new ones to show up if you have to - close and reopen the business, takes two seconds).

A final reason should appeal to your control-freak ways: When you lock out playables from a certain business, YOU control their buying habits, rather than having to constantly empty their inventories (At a loss!) of all useless crap they buy for no good reason.

Playables are the one group I *do* want to control when it comes to shopping, but right now I have a hack installed from SimsWardrobe that prevents playables from spending their own money, and they don't actually keep the items they buy. Essentially makes them a townie for the purpose of shopping, but they also don't have the clutter afterward. However, the one thing I don't like about that hack is it also includes as part of the package that customers leave immediately after purchasing something. That eliminates potential bandatron sales, and creates a bug with the reporter - he will never give you a best of the best award because he can't stick around after the sale is complete to rate you.

So I'm trying to be more selective now, and I'm focusing mainly on creators that have established good repuations for stable, worthwhile mods [+3500 Aspiration] (yes, that was fulfillment of the "WooHoo with JM" Want).

More Awesome Than You: Accept no Kewian-based substitutes.

:not worthy:

And is that "take off helmet when green" thing part of the mod, or at least controllable? I don't want them taking it off if they turned green, 'cuz then I gotta work up asp to get it back on.

An excellent idea. I'm glad I thought of it! Helmet retention in the event of ASP-dangerzone will be added to next version.

:cough:

As it turns out Miss Fat Gwilly One is already in possession of a certain dropoldloves.package and might just sit back and point and laugh (maniacally) until people acknowledge her as female.

Since I can not wield my awesome power without doing the hugely embarrassing "release shiny dance", I feel like sitting back and abusing my powers for a while.  Grovel brief mortals!

I grovel before you, Oh Great Fat Gwilly Person That Is Female. I am not worthy, but I ask you to take pity on this wretch. I await your almighty judgment, Oh Magnificent One.

[J. M. Pescado]

For those not paying attention, the formerly undiscovered Shiny has been released as a Director's Cut extra.

[JCSpencer]

For those not paying attention, the formerly undiscovered Shiny has been released as a Director's Cut extra.

Who wasn't paying attention? The bastards!

 

[vcline]

On a side note: Will someone slightly more awesome than me explain MOAR to me - I see that acronym a lot. Slight flaming (and spanking) allowed, and maybe I might like it.

I'll take a stab at this, although I may be wrong.  I believe it is part of kitty pidgin, and means "more."  Check out LOLcats, aka cat macros - here's an example.
http://icanhascheezburger.com/category/moar/

[Zazazu]

*begs for Venusy's forgiveness in advance*

On a side note: Will someone slightly more awesome than me explain MOAR to me - I see that acronym a lot. Slight flaming (and spanking) allowed, and maybe I might like it.

MOAR is for more as NAO is for now. It's a very emphatic version. MOAR should be visualized as !!!MORE!!!. Perfectly valid use of MOAR: Need MOAR glowing red balls!

Still, they never whine or complain or quit or wander off from their assigned tasks, as long as they are overpaid.

Then how are you breaking even? Are you setting everything to ridiculously expensive? See, that's something I don't like doing myself. At my public beach (no employees), the lemonade stand is set at cheap to pull the stupid tourists inside the alcove for a heatstroke break, and the ticket taker suggests $96 as average cost, but I set it at $10. Yes, the sim economy is messed up, but when was the last time you paid the equivalent of a cheap kitchen counter for an hour at the beach? At my businesses, I set almost everything to average, with the exception of the lawn ornaments my self-sim's daughters are selling in order to fund their clothing store. Relevant wages makes it so that my employees, all playables with considerable skills, are set at $40/hour at the most (that's for Kyle, a manager). Until level 5 or so, they barely break even, but after that it's free money. Edmund, selling mostly cheap artwork between $30-$500 a pop and a couple of $1000+ sculptures with two gold-level cashiers, and a double-gold level restocker/manager, makes $17,000 a day at level 10. That's fine...he only works there two days a week and gets $3,000 on the off days, and his pile of money goes into the pot to make neighborhood improvements...parks and the like as the alien overlords see fit. As for the convenience store being run by Kennedy's branch of the family, it takes in about $5000 a day (and they work M-F) with all household workers and items set to cheap, because all items are the crappiest versions of those available and he has warehouse discounts maxed.

Check out this thread by Plasticbox on his three neighborhoods. I stole emulated quite a bit of his to set up my 'hood, and it's great so far. Not bringing in much money as an employee keeps them nice and stuck in their class, unless they become a business owner themselves. Even then, if you don't set your prices over average, it takes a bit to start raking it in.

[Venusy]

*begs for Venusy's forgiveness in advance*

To be honest, "MOAR" irritates me more than stupid formatting techniques. It's one of the few pieces of lolcat speak which manage to get out of the medium that they're allowed/accepted in (plus, I can block the lolcats without learning how to edit in Greasemonkey, while filtering "MOAR" would take more effort. I don't choose to block the lolcats anymore, as some of them are genuinely funny, but the majority aren't what I would call laugh out loud material). Same with "lulz", what's wrong with doing something for the laugh/laughs? And I hadn't heard "NAO" before, but I'm adding that to the list.

[J. M. Pescado]

MOAR is actually portmanteau of "MORE" and "ROAR", and thus of an entirely different class from "LOLcat misspellings". "Lulz" on the other hand, is a term that defines laughs as specifically confined to the context of the Internets, and forms a tighter specification in that the laughing must involve Internets.

[JCSpencer]

Ah okay. The only thing I could find pertaining to MOAR was "Mother Of All Retards." It seemed to fit in some cases, but not all.

Then how are you breaking even? Are you setting everything to ridiculously expensive?

Oh heck no. I hate doing that too. I usually stick with Average until I'm at 7 or 8 stars, then I bump it up to Above Average. I only use Expensive for 10 star businesses that are supposed to be posh. I've never used ridiculously expensive. However, I have a wide range of goods priced from around §100 to §30,000. I find that everyone can afford something. About three-quarters of my stock is priced at §5,000 and up. I've never really paid close attention to my daily profits, because I'm usually spending it as fast as I make it (house or business renovations mostly, or buying more real estate and fixing that up). I usually stay open for 10-12 hours. My employees are glowing red by that point, so I don't like to push it further. Or I'll send them home and let my Sims keep it going a bit longer (but they're pretty ragged by that point too).

It also depends on the type of business. My art gallery brings in about §50k per day when I play it, my car dealership gets close to that, and my club makes about §25k-ish a day. Of course, just like in real life, their are worse days and better days. I've broken §100k in one day with my car dealership (but my Sims were pretty exhausted at the end of that day). I find that the more items you have, the more you make. Not even taking restocking into consideration, the larger the number of items in my store, the more Sims tend to keep browsing and buying. If I only have a dozen items, half of the Sims that show up just end up chatting with each other, and most customers seem to buy only 1 item at a time. If I have 100 items to choose from, most of the customers that come buy something, and a large number of those will buy multiple items. I don't understand why it works that way, but that's what I've noticed.