Phone Hack v8.3

[J. M. Pescado]

New Phone Hack for OFB+


OFBp2+: phonehack.zip
OFBp1-: phonehack-p1.zip
NL: phonehack.zip
UNI: phonehack.zip

Phone & Taxi Hack (v8.3) for TS2OFBp2 - TS2FT
Made by: Flying Fish Systems (J. M. Pescado & Doctor Boris)

Special Thanks To:
LilAbner, for the Swedish translation
Hobbsee the Scrawny Pencil Neck
Fat, Hairy-Bellied Ness

Congratulations to: Draklixa!

INSTRUCTIONS:
Place in your MYDOCU~1\EAGAME~1\THESIM~1\DOWNLO~1 directory.
Install optional TalkModule if you want the smart-conversation-lengths back.

BUGS FIXED:
1. The parent of a child who is on the phone will not invite himself inside.

2. The Headmaster will no longer self-invite himself when he calls you, nor
   will the phone freeze up.

3. You should now be able to properly invite new Headmasters even if your Sim
   has married a Headmaster.

4. Teen Go/Sneak Out in Pets hopefully unfarkled.


ANNOYANCES ELIMINATED:
1. Teens can now go and sneak out even, or especially if, they lack a guardian.
   This should not be construed as support for parenticide, although we're sure
   some of you are going to try it now. In event that no adult is present, the
   teen sim no longer requires permission to go out, because, obviously, he has
   nobody to request it from but himself. The options to "Go Out" and
   "Sneak Out" will appear at the appropriate times.

2. Harassment Call Lock - Ever wondered why your Sims somehow seem to decide to
   go to sleep earlier when you're not playing? Tired of them simply screaming
   at you even though normally, they never go to sleep under YOUR direction
   until like 2 in the morning? We couldn't make insomnia-tracking to determine
   which families are regularly insomniacs, but you are now protected from
   accidentally doing this: If your sim attempts to call another sim outside of
   valid calling hours, he will pick up the phone, then realize this is a bad
   time and put it down before bugging the other sim. You may still attempt to
   place emergency, service, transportation, sneak-out, and crank calls
   normally.

3. No more dumbass phone calls: Friends who miss you no longer make stupid
   phone calls just to waste your time with their whining: They will instead
   make a USEFUL phonecall, so if a friend you haven't heard from in awhile
   calls you to talk, instead of bitching about it, this is why.

4. Sim-children should no longer bug random adults that they bumped into on
   some community lot by phone. Sim children should only call their relatives
   or other children.

5. Sims should no longer place casual calls when they are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE
   HOME. No more truant children calling for kids which are at school, or
   people calling when they SHOULD be at work.

6. Now possible for teens to introduce people to adults using the phone:
   Teens no longer shouted at unless phone call join is declined.

7. Now possible to invite headmaster if toddler will auto-transition at 1800
   while headmaster scenario is in progress.

8. Calling in sick no longer generates a useless NPC to clog your data files.


FEATURES ADDED:
1. Set Ringer - Set the number of rings you want your phone to ring when an
   incoming call is received: 5, 10, 15, the default 20, or even OFF, which
   means you will not be notified or receive any incoming calls.

COMPATIBILITY:
This hack is for TS2OFBp2+ ONLY. It does not function with the previous
versions.

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

CHANGELOG:
v8.1: Pets fixes. Taxi feature reinstated.
v8.0: Pets Compatibility, Taxi feature cut.
v7.5: OFB Updates
v7.1: No talk animations bug fixed.
      Restored conversation length feature as optional module.

[jennydee]

Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh Oooh! I'm so excited to try this out I've lost all my words! 

[Andygal]

OoooooooOOooooOOooooo.....does this mean you have NL and the updated Romance mod will be forthcoming? OoooOooooOOoooo!

Anyway downloading this...never used it before but seeing the bugfixes I think I need this.

Edit: Oh by the way, how does this handle vampires? I've heard tht it will allow the call to go through all night but will it stop you from accidentally phoning them during daylight hours?

[Ms.Perception]

Thank you. I think I can finally play the game without setting random sims on fire. Wait, no, I'm still going to do that, now I just don't have to worry about annoying ringing sounds while I do it. Thanks ever so much.

[Ness]

 

yay!

thankyou!

[Issy]

/does smustle dance

Thanks so much, trying it right now! 

[skandelouslala]

*squeals*

[aussieone]

Says "Yay, 'bout bloody time" 

[nenechell]

Thank You, Thank You, Thank You... The phone madness was driving me crazy.  It's so nice to know that you now have the game and these annoying things will begin to be repaired!!!!

Thank heavens for the slow boat from China finally arriving!!!!

[SciBirg]

Thank you so much! The fixes have surpassed my wildest dreams.

[aussieone]

Now about the romance mod........

[RainbowTigress]

Ok, just tried this out in my game.  The first thing I noticed is that sims no longer talk on the phone until their relationship reaches 100 when I have them Call Sim.  Is this by design?  I hope not...this was one of my favorite features.

[J. M. Pescado]

Due to maintenance load, and complaints from people, I've decided to intentionally cut that feature from the phone hack, since it's been supplanted by the AutoYak functionality that is otherwise superior.

[Andygal]

I played with it in my game. One sim day and the phone rang *once* of course this was a new family with not many friends and aquantinces...I will test it with a family with lots of friends tomorrow.

This will save my sanity. Those stupid "why haven't you called" calls drive me absolutely utterly and completely loopy.

[J. M. Pescado]

Yeah, the "why haven't you called" call (especially just met the sim and he just left!) is banished by the Phone Hack. You will only get regular "chat" calls, and maybe the new Nightlife-related calls (haven't seen them yet, I never answer the phone, heh - should I start?). It also adds tighter logics to the phone calling, so only people who think they have something to gain from calling you will call you at all (i.e. NOT Marsha The Stalker).

[vector]

Ra!

PS: "COMPATIBILITY:
This hack is for TS2 University. It does not function with the non-expansion
pack version of the game."

University? Nightlife? Are you trying to confuse us?

[J. M. Pescado]

Oops. Forgot to update manual text.

[lauraglenn]

  *** doing a happy dance ***

So glad you finally got the game, JM.  I was about to take up a collection to get it for you!  Even though we would still have to deal with your odd delivery needs... 

[karen]

Thank you so much for finally updating this!  I played for over an hour this morning, no problems at all.  The game seems so *quiet* without all that constant phone ringing, especially late at night.  What a relief!

Good to have you back in business.  I can't wait to see what else you'll come up with for Nightlife.

Karen

[Motoki]

5. Sims should no longer place casual calls when they are NOT SUPPOSED TO BE
   HOME. No more truant children calling for kids which are at school, or
   people calling when they SHOULD be at work.

Uh, ever hear of cell phones? People at my work on on their phones all the time calling people with personal calls. Sometimes they use the work phones too instead of the cell. This feature doesn't bother me, but just pointing out that people do make personal calls from work and even school.

As for the new NL calls, yes you probably should start taking some as sometimes you will get new "contacts" which are people your sim didn't know previously that you get temporary relationships with. This happens if you go on a good outing or date and word spreads about how awesome your sim is. These calls I would like to get, while I personally would rather not get the just regular old 'hey ya wanna go downtown' calls.

[LynnMar]

yay,  it is finally ready.   thanks   

[Ancient Sim]

Interesting point there from Motoki - have to admit that my kids call me from work and school all the time (not just on cellphones, either!), so maybe that should perhaps be looked at again.  Without this hack in it's pointless because they can't ring them back, but with it in it's not so essential to cut them because the calls will be real calls as opposed to "Why haven't you called" calls that they can't return because the person is at work.  Does that make sense?

Unlike Motoki, I don't want to lose the invite downtown calls, I really like those.  Will they still come with this? 

[Motoki]

Well, not that there's anything wrong with anyone who feels differently, but my reasoning on this is I don't want to be bothered with chat calls or invites, I want to decide when I call someone or invite them downtown and with who. On the other hand, I also don't want to miss out on a call that has a tangible benefit like money for a novel, contacts/friends, hitting the lottery (the latter doesn't exist, just an example ) etc.

I usually just turn the ringer off and pre-NL the only real tangible benefit you got from a phone call was money from writing a novel. But now with the new contacts feature I don't want to miss out on that, but at the same time I don't want the annoyance of people bugging me every 5 minutes to chat or go downtown. :p

Yes I want my cake and to be able to eat it too.

[Rebochan]

WORSHIP HIM!  WORSHIP HIM!  *goes to test*

[greeneyedsims]

Whoooo!!!  THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!  I was about to lose it with that phone ringing, JM.  You came just in time!!  Thanks for letting this be your first project!!

*gives a big juicy kiss to JM, with no fear of losing my lips"

--green