Jordan M. G.'s Hack Shack

[Ambular]

As for a new shiny, currently I'm looking at the remnants of code dealing with the scrapped power outage scenario.  I have no idea how much of it is salvageable/currently hooked up, but it appears that there were functions that took energy/water use into account when calculating bills, functions to turn on/off the power, and something that runs a function tied to objects when this state changes.  I'm currently investigating to see how this can all mesh together.  I was probably one of many (well, at least several ) people who hoped this power outage scenario would return with the Seasons expansion.  Exactly what I can accomplish remains to be seen.

You might want to go snag the new BV edition of the InSIMenator at Insimenator.net, then...I believe I saw something in the list of new features about cutting off power and water to a lot, so perhaps you can gain some insight into that by checking out how Eric has applied it.

Also, I believe there's been an object at Simslice for ages that uses part of the original weather code and power outage scenario (a pylon, if I remember right.  ETA: or possibly it may have been the hidden windmill generator object.)  It's a paysite, but chances are that item is available in the Booty.

[Singularity]

Seems like my great ideas have already been done. It looks like both mods mainly invoke the built-in BHAVs that I've already noticed.  Ah well.  I can still have the task of tying the scenario/power outage with an actual thunderstorm, which neither mod has done.  That'd still be cool... right? At least if they're using Eaxis BHAVs, that holds some promise for the amount of functionality that was left in.  Funny thing, too, in the same group as the power outage scenario are also shells of scrapped engagement and grandchild scenarios.  The engagement one has sort of made a comeback with the NL dates, but I'm not sure WHAT they were thinking about the grandchild one.

[Ambular]

Awww, I didn't mean to kill your idea, I just wanted to save you unnecessary work.  *Pats*  However, it would be cool if you could get it to work with thunderstorms instead of tying it to an object, and perhaps pro-rate the household's bills to account for the down time.

Grandkid scenarios would also be neat...it's odd how Sims tend to not realize someone is related to them a few generations along.  XD

[pbox]

I can still have the task of tying the scenario/power outage with an actual thunderstorm, which neither mod has done.  That'd still be cool... right?

Yes, that would be very cool =) I was also hoping for that to surface in Seasons. And if the bills took the amount of electricity/water used into account, that would also be cool!

[Madame Mim]

Well, as long as we're posting wild mod desires that may or may not even be acheivable I shall post my favourite desire.

Truly integrated Risky Woohoo.
Somewhere at the back of any woohoo code sequence (as I understand it) is a test to see if the Sim can get pregnant. Original code excludes teens, males, elders and females that are not selectable (ie non-residents) and we now have mods that include teens and males if we want them included, but not non-residents. Now, Pescado has said that pregnancy tokens created for non-resident Sims is a VBT (and I just have to take him at his word) but what about something different.

My premise is that the test for pregnancy comes around and hits the 'can I get pregnant' question - a mod could be slotted in there that takes the ones that fail 'am I resident' and roll a value for possible pregnancy. If pregnancy 'occurs' instead of impregnating the visiting Sim there is a dialog sequence.

<Mary> is pregnant from Risky WooHoo with <Don>. Mary is a <family sim> does she;
a. move in with Don
b. abandon the baby on Don's doorstep
c. put the baby up for adoption
d. abort the baby

a. and she becomes part of the household (at which time a pregnancy token is applied to her)
b. a countdown token is given to Don and at the end of 72+ hours (providing he is home) a baby 'arrives' made of his and Mary's DNA
c. the baby is made immeadiately and added to the adoption pool
d. nothing happens and the game goes on.

How's that for a tall order?

[squish]

I don't have any pets in game at the moment (way too many sims to deal with in the house) but I'll test the new noinheritances as soon as I get room (or time, rather ) to add in a pet.

Grandkid scenarios would also be neat...it's odd how Sims tend to not realize someone is related to them a few generations along.  XD

I would love something that fixed that. My fourth generation legacy heir three-bolted with her great-aunt 

[Singularity]

I suppose I wasn't very clear on the grandkid scenario.  It wasn't something to help with family ties; rather, it was (or appeared to be) a scenario you would have to go through in order to have a grandchild.  I didn't see anything for having a regular kid.  So I figured if parents could have kids normally, and their kids had kids normally (as they do now) a scenario wouldn't make much sense. Besides, what if they somehow went through the grandkid scenario before having regular kids (cheat, boolprop, glitch, whatever)?  I probably could fix the family ties if I only knew where/how they were calculated.

Risky Integrated Woohoo: Talk about a tall order! The thing is, most of those can be done either manually or through other hacks.  A is easy to set up ahead of time, I believe Inge's shrub takes care of C, and InSIM or something similar can handle D.  B can be done in-game (sort of) if the resident sim is female.  So I guess what you're looking for, mainly, is to be able to have a kid without marriage/move in if the resident is male.  I have no clue WHAT I would do about that.  If I think of something, I'll get back to you.

[lefty]

Yikes! That trading mod seems more than a little out of my league. Ask me again in a few months, maybe I'll have changed my mind. Seriously though, if I were to look at that now it'd be a recipe for banging my head into the wall from frustration. The one part I probably could do is nuke the give gift animation... that shouldn't be too hard. I'll think about it.  As for the dying pets problem, try this version.  I haven't tested it in game (because I don't own pets ) but I think it should work. As a result, this was taken from Seasons, so you should own that EP unless somebody wants to test it and prove otherwise.

Just wanted to let you know I had the same problem with the first version of this mod, where I would get an error popping up for grimmy. I installed the newer version and the cat was able to pass on fine, and I have all eps installed. Thanks for the mod

[Singularity]

Yeah, I know, I'm edging the line on the cardinal necromancy rule, but since it's my thread, hopefully I'm okay... right? In any case, I'm posting to explain why I've been gone.  In short, stupid Real Life rearing its ugly head again.  In particular, I have annoying college application stuff to deal with, so I'll be busy for the next couple of weeks.  That being said, I revived this thread because I plan to get back into modding after things cool down over here.  Just updating so that, you know, people realize I'm not dead or anything.

[Singularity]

Well, fortunately I get a whole week off of school for thanksgiving, so for a while at least I'll have some time for modding.  I just finished a beta version of a mod that will calculate bills solely on water/power usage.  (It never made sense to me that I had to keep paying for my stuff over and over, anyway )  I call this a beta because I haven't done enough testing to decide whether the bills are too much or not enough.  Also, some of the objects were still coded to calculate utility costs, and some weren't -- I haven't looked through all the objects yet.  It's trivial to add or adjust, but it involves editing the BHAVs which is usually bad for compatibility, so I haven't done any yet.  I also changed the mailbox so it's calculate bills function doesn't require debug mode -- if anyone would like to use that to test certain objects and see whether they affect the bills, I would appreciate it.  And, of course, all comments and questions are welcome.

[dizzy]

Does it factor in property tax?

[Singularity]

Hmm... Well, if the sims don't pay income tax, why should they pay propety tax>   Seriously, though, the thought just never occurred to me.  It wouldn't be too hard to put in, I suppose, but I think it can wait until tomorrow.