More Awesome Than You!

Well I've been putting a lot of time into this Sims 2 database... it's been an interesting project! Anyway as I've designed for more than just myself (trying to make it user-friendly, navigable, etc.) I would love to have a few testers before I figure out how to distribute it (totally freeware, of course) more widely. So if you're interested in testing it, please let me know. It's designed on a few-years-old version of FileMaker Pro but you won't have to have FileMaker to use it. 

If this is not the proper forum for discussing this, please point me to a better place! Cheers. And now I'm off to actually *play* the Sims 2, which I haven't in over a week!!!

I can certainly try to break it for you.

I wouldn't mind trying it either. :)

What is this database?

I would like to give it a peek also. :)

I have FMP 6.  I'll give it a shot.

What is it about?  I'd probably like to try it too.

Okay, for a little more info, here's a sample screenshot...

(http://www.geocities.com/pegafree/screenshot1.jpg)

that looks intersting. I think I'd like to try that.

'Nother volunteer here, though I'm not nearly so skilled as the others (who are much More Awesome Than Me).

You are probably more skiled then me. I know absolutely nothing about modding and if I tried to learn I'd probably end up causing my game to explode in a firey ball visible from space.

So I reply on all the modders who are ALL More Awesome Then Me.

Oooh I wanna play!  Pick me!  Pick me! ;D

(EDIT: looks similar to the Access Database I made, but, like, better!) :D

Cool, count me in for sure!

Would love to try this out.  I badly need something like this in my Pleasantview, it's so full.  In fact, I've been looking for something like this for a while, as I have no idea how to use Excel or whatever it is that does this kind of thing.  This interface looks far more user-friendly, would be a great addition to the game I think.

Oh wow that looks awesome ;D What a great idea. Does it pull any data in automatically or do you have to fill everything in?

Jen

Unfortunately,  :-\ and this is the biggest drawback, it does not pull in any data, so you need to enter in all the data manually. I have to confess it is a bit time consuming (extra for me, because every time I've added a record I have found a new thing to tweak). If you have a lot of Sims it will take awhile. Now that I've entered in my data I can see I am managing about 40 Sims, and 15 households plus a couple of dorms. I know many people have a lot more Sims than that.  It's time for some of these Sims to transition...  ;)

However, once most of the data is in there, it is a breeze to update.  :D If your Sims aren't having twins every other hour, no problem. 

I do wonder whether a tool like SimPE has a function whereby some of the data could be exported out, but I have to confess I tend to use very few hacks/mods and have not yet installed this software. If it turns out there's enough interest in it I will pursue it further.

Oh - that is so great!  Awesome! 
I have been wanting something like this for a while.  I designed some charts in Microsoft Word and printed them out to keep track of my Sims, but all those papers get a little disorganized on my desk.  I was toying with the idea of trying a Visual Basic version...but I tend to lose steam mid-project, so I doubt I would have gotten very far.   ;D

The layout you have looks very user-friendly...let me know if you need any help testing it out. :)

I have so much paper on my desk - family notes, thoughts on where I'm going with each sim, future spouse possibilities & whether they've met yet, where they'll live when they do marry, family trees printed in a genealogy program, etc.

A database I could access by alt-tabbing would make my desk so much neater!  This is a great idea, hope it's released soon!

Yes, I'll be in too. Though I downloaded a geneaology program - Legacy - the other night and that's quite handy. I'm running 20-30 sims at the moment so it wasn't a big issue to enter data. What is not suitable in a free gen. program, is that I can't create custom fields to track my genetic data and the birth and death dates are irrelevant, amongst other things.

I'd be much more keen to try a custom made database for the sims. :) Pick me too!

This looks so much more useful than the notepad file I've been trying to use! I'm only playing one family and even then I have a hard time keeping track of them. Just out of curiousity, how would one go about using the date of birth/marriage fields? Would you just note the day in-game the event occurred or use the RL date? Very cool indeed.  ;D

I'm hoping to have a release available for testing in the next day or two. I can already tell that there will probably be a lot of possible enhancements... things keep popping up in my head.  I started this project because I too had downloaded a genealogy program and entered all my data - but it is a trial version expiring in one day and I didn't feel like paying for it. Also I found it cumbersome to enter data that's unique to the Sims 2. I do love the tree charting aspects of the genealogical software though.

As far as the date field in the marriage/birth, it's a bit of a holdover from my working with the genealogy program.  If it turns out very few people really use that kind of data, maybe it'd be removed or deemphasized. (I do recall one person saying they kept track of their Sims' birthdays and only let them age on their actual birthday!) But it might be fun to track how long you've been playing a particular Sim - in real days. It's harder to figure out Sim days, especially if they've been drinking the green juice. 15 days till Elder, but one's gone through 3 bottles of Elixir? Hmmmm. Good question.

Yes, difficulties with sims unique data, that's what I meant about no custom fields. The tree charting was why I tried the gen software. If you were able to make a report like that for your d'base, I would be thrilled. Which may be no incentive at all of course. ;)


I briefly tried putting in dates as if it were real world - field was constructed to only accept dates in various formats - but quickly realised it was a lot of work for no real gain. I just used the dead/alive flag tickbox thing. I was going to import the character pictures too. I won't bother now, I'll wait for yours. :)

So I get to play tonight after all. Hope you do too at some point. This d'base is looking really good.

Me wants. Me wants.  Me wants!

I keep trying to keep track on legal pads but ..... me wants this.

Loading the database with all my frickin' Sims is going to be work  :P, but this is exactly the kind of thing I've been needing.

(I'd be lousy at testing mods and such, but I work with databases at the day job, so this I might actually be helpful with.  Just don't ask me to link tables.  I HATE linking tables.  ;D )

Thanks!

I would love to try your database.  It looks great!  I've been trying to keep track of my sims on paper... this will be so much better.  I also noticed there is a reports tab.  Do you have some printable reports created?

Great idea!
I'm interested!

I'm definitely intrested, my lab notebook is a bit tedious, and looks cluttery on my desk :)

I'd try this out.  I have an odd family tree going at the moment and would like something to keep up with my Sims.   :D

Ah lovely idea!  I would also be very interested in trying this.

That looks like it would be very useful! I would love to try it out.

I guess I should have known I wasn't the only one with a method for tracking my Sims.  I use large index cards for each household.  I also have a sheet of legal paper folded like an acordian where I track generations so that I am sure I am aging them uniformly.  Oh, and then there are the symbols for each generation.  I also keep track of attractions/crushes so that at a glance I will know Tom shouldn't flirt with Angie in front of Amanda with whom he already has a shared crush. 

And then there is my jobs cheat sheet - letter sized paper folded in quarters.  On the various quarters I have:  careers for each aspiration, total skills needed for each career, which degree for which career and, which careers for each degree.  The last ingredient to my play records are the three index cards with career chance cards and their outcomes.  I refer to those every time a chance card pops up so that I know what to expect.  Surprisingly I still get new ones occasionally.

I need all this information at my fingertips, so a database on my computer wouldn't work unless I bought a second computer and ran it next to the current 'puter...hmm...it wouldn't need an expensive Pentium...might be possible...(off to check Sunday ads).

My family thinks I am nuts.  Now I can point out to them that I'm not alone.

In reply to Lauraglenn: yes there will be printable reports available. There is one semi-customizable Excel-like view (called a table view) where you'll be able to position and resize columns and this can be printed. I also have a couple of other printable reports but this is is kind of the tricky part because there are so many possible ways to present the data. I fully expect that these reports will be tweaked and more reports added.

I think the way I'll personally use the database is to print the reports and use these also as a form to add more data. Or just review it before I start playing. I don't think I'll switch back and forth during play but take notes and then enter in afterwards. It was kind of weird I started playing yesterday after a 10-day hiatus and I had no idea to do with the one family I was playing, I'd sort of forgotten who they were and had lost momentum.  Previously I'd been playing (not just that family) at least a couple of hours a day every day.

I really have been in need of something like this, but have been too damn lazy to do it myself.  I just have post-it notes strewn all over my desk.  I would love to do some testing on something like this.

Printable reports?  Ooooh, now I am getting chills!

This sounds great (I LOVE databases) but I have no printer and I too need info at my fingertips, so I'm not sure it'll be practical for me (I do have two monitors on my computer, so technically I could run TS2 in window mode on one monitor and the program can be up on the other one, but I don't like playing games in window mode)

It looks like SimPE does have an export feature (http://ambertation.de/simpeforum/viewtopic.php?t=1485), sort of.  It's manual and it uses a bunch of codes, so that would need to be translated into plain English, but it could theoretically be done to import and/or update Sims one at a time.

I'd love this.  It would be great for reconstructing things when I fubar my game!

C

This looks really cool.  Can't wait to try it.

I can't install SimPE because my computer refuses to install NET Framework 1.1, and I refuse to care why.  While I'm sure this doesn't have all of SimPE's features, this looks to be sweet nonetheless.

I don't mind that this wouldn't import data. Sometimes if I have to restore a n'hood or change a storyline in some way, I don't want an automatic update in my records. I want to be able record sequentially, separate from the game.

I will try it it would certainly come in handy in my game

Any chance for a status update?  I've got a free evening and would just looooove to spend it databasing my Simmies.  On a Saturday night.  My life is sad.

I am in desperate need of something like this! I keep buying spiral notebooks for this very reason, and my son keeps ripping all the paper out so he can draw.

You should buy him some drawing paper just for him so he will leave yours alone!

I do! He goes through a huge pack of printer paper every 2-3 days.

Dang!  When I was a kid, I was only allowed two sheets of paper to draw on, and I had to use them both front and back.  My mother was very frugal with paper.  But I've seen kids take a tablet, scribble once on every page, then say the needed a new one.

I can TOTALLY relate...

I was hoping to have it up by yesterday evening, and then I realized I had to find a place to host the darn thing, because Geocities Free won't cut it. (It's not a really big file, about 4 MB zipped, but obviously I can't upload it to the official Sims site, etc.) No worries... my plan is by this evening!

Is there an appropriate section on MTS2 that you could put it?

There are only 2,000 sections on MTS2.  I'm sure they could find one.

Oh, yeah, me too! My son has that artistic/autistic creates-like-a-madman thing going. No time for silly erasers. He works in pen, anyway. I can't tell what the mistakes actually are, they all look the same to me. Some sheets of paper will have a circle or line or something, then be discarded. He'll then draw a new circle or line on a new sheet of paper and it will satisfy him. I have tried to get him to be a little less wasteful, but no go. I, however, put his "mistakes" to good use. I use the scrap paper for my shopping lists, sim notes, etc.

If you get stuck, I could put it up on my home page for about a week or so till you get it sorted. I have a 10MB limit. My webpage is not current but am thinking of resurrecting it in the next few weeks.

 I love the idea of this database and will be eager to try it. I thought I'd posted earlier but can't seem to find my thread.
I wonder if there would be a way in SimPe to export useful info from the N00X_Neighbourhood file to it. I've considered trying it with Access, as some of my neighbourhoods have over 90 families, and I am still a little crazy with twoJeffs trips/quads mod, so none are small families.
I wonder if even running Clean Installer and trying to convert the character list to a text file which could be imported... bah, I talk too much.
I would be delighted to test this. I seem to have a lot of time on my hands lately and will do anything to further procrastinate cleaning out my neighbourhoods to install the EPs.


A coworker has 5 kids under the age of 10 and keeps a crate beside our 'to be shredded' bin. Anything not confidential goes there so she can take it home for them to draw or colour on. It's no any special effort to throw it in her box vs. the one we pay to have removed, so it's working well for her.
I am a bit jealous though, my mom never bought paper and my sister used to snag her pantyhose so we could draw on the cardboard from the new pair. We weren't extraordinarily poor, just not something she bought, never occured to us to ask.
Must have scarred me because in college I bought a box of computer paper.  It wasn't very expensive, and though I give my nephew packs to colour on, it's been over 10 years and I still have over half left.  ::)

Pegasys, thanks so much for the reply.  I am really excited about your database.  I will probably use the reports just as you mentioned, to keep notes while playing and update the database regularly.  I can't wait!