Time paradox

[zoebme]

I have been thinking about the time paradox a bit lately (sim goes out, spends lots of time on a community lot, and then comes home at the time he left). I find it quite annoying, like many people, but I am also aware that you can't just change the time on the home lot. So I was wondering how you handle it and how you would like it to be in the game. Do you just play as if nothing happened and use the extra time? Or do you try to set it "right"? I am letting my Sims meditate lately (those who can do it, at least), until the time they are supposed to be home, so that their motives stay as they are.´

What I would love to have is the possibility to send them away for x hours (to be set by me), similar to when they go to work, only without their motives changing. By foot or possibly by car (if they used that to go to the community lot in the first place). So if I wanted to, I could thus just send them out again as soon as they returned home. Then the other sims in the household could be played (and no one gets jealous if there is a little adultery...). If I didn't want the sim to leave, I wouldn't make him. So if he came home with his date from a night out, there would be no problem.

Does anyone more awesome than me know whether such a thing would be possible? I might want to learn to mod then or (maybe more likely) request that somewhere 

Oh, and by the way, what do you think of the idea?

Edit: edited for clarity

[Madame Mim]

Given that there is both an in game way (sethour #) and a Pescado mod that can do this (lotsynctimer) not a lot.

[zoebme]

But doesn't this change the time for the other sims in the household, too? So they don't get to "live" that day?

[J. M. Pescado]

That's basically why you return at the same time you left, yes. The obvious answer would be have been to delay the returning sim's appearance, holding him offworld until it was time sort of like when a sim is at work, but Maxis wasn't clever enough to think of that and refitting the existing system to support it would be a horrendous amount of work at this point in time.

[Soylent Sim]

I actually wouldn't be all that surprised if they tried something similar when they toyed with "unified time" in OFB, and I'd love to pick early playtester brains on the concept of why it never took off.  It's a good idea, but I have a feeling something about it must be more annoying than useful in practice.

[witch]

I reckon it takes so long in sim time to cross a lot, or make a meal, or have a shower, that I don't mind when sims gain a little time in other ways. Swings and roundabouts. I use TwoJeffs static energy statue to maintain energy at community lots.

[Vren Lyet]

Up until now I used TwoJeffs energy statue on comlots, too, and I let my sims enjoy their extra time.
Also, getting the lifetime want "own 5 top level businesses" satisfied is nearly impossible without the "extra time" comlots provide. (haven't had any sim fulfill this want yet though).

Nonetheless, the feature to keep sims offworld until their supposed return from a comlot is something I've been wishing to have for a long time now.

It's a pitty even Pescado thinks of this to be a pain in the a** to code - this consequently means "it can't be done"...

I wonder whether it would be more interesting for modders to dive into this if there was more demand...

[zoebme]

I guess you're right, if Pescado says it can't be done, then it can't be done. I just kind off thought it might be easier to code something that sends a sim offworld again after they returned home than to change the way they return home. You'd have to keep track of how long you want them to be offworld yourself, though. It would be a bit clumsy, admittedly.

I saw a mod on MTS somewhere which allows you to send your sim jogging for between 1 and 4 hours that gave me that idea. But then again, I have no idea about what's possible and what's not, so I'll have to trust the awesome ones on this. 

[Sagana]

I think there's one somewhere that uses the "take a spin" thing in the same way the jogging one does and lets you have them leave for awhile.

Or maybe I saw someone wanting that - because I can't seem to find it now.

[crammyboy]

I was working on a test version of this when OFB came out, but I had no interest in pets.
I may revive it for seasons.

Here is a part of the rtfm:

How it works
------------
One or more sims go to a community lot.
Sims wander around the lot doing stuff.
Sims leave the lot to go home at date/time XXX
Home lot is loaded.
Home lot progresses normally but the sims are shown as away at a community lot. (In much the same way as 'At Work')
Date/time xxx is reached and sims return to the lot.

Notes:
1. Sims will not age on community lots but they will age when they return to the home lot. (even though they will be off-world).
2. If they stay on the community lot when they should be at work/school, they will miss the carpool/bus on the home lot and be penalised.
3. Community lots can not be saved unless they are owned business lots for that sim family.
4. Motives are set to what they left the community lot with, but are made static while off-world.
5. Only drivable cars are affected by this hack at the moment. (Requires NL).
6. Sims that remain on the home lot will not be able to visit community lots, by any means, until the car returns to the lot. (This will not be the case in the future)
7. Is prevented from working on UNI lots because the time will pass TWICE. (I am looking into this)

[Sagana]

Oooh that sounds very good.

Does time pass twice for Uni students on downtown lots or is it only the Uni community lots, where time doesn't stop, that do that?

[crammyboy]

That would be students going to Uni lots only

[zoebme]

It does sound great! Like how it should have been in the first place.

[maxon]

I thought Maxis actually tried to do this with OFB but couldn't get it to work and so didn't implement it.

With shop-owning sims, they get so tired working a day at their shops that I put them straight to bed when they come home.  I sort of think around it by saying to myself that the time they are sleeping and regaining energy is the time they are away working.  I find the energy drain a bit too fast overall, but don't want to use cheats to change it because I want to see them get tired.  Unlike Pescado, my sims sleep.

Crammyboy's mod sounds interesting though - would you freeze their needs while they are away?

[RainbowTigress]

Crammyboy's mod sounds interesting though - would you freeze their needs while they are away?

4. Motives are set to what they left the community lot with, but are made static while off-world.

[SaraMK]

That sounds like it would be a great mod. It really should have been in the game to begin with.

[dizzy]

5. Only drivable cars are affected by this hack at the moment. (Requires NL).

Ah, clever. I didn't think of that. 

[maxon]

Crammyboy's mod sounds interesting though - would you freeze their needs while they are away?

4. Motives are set to what they left the community lot with, but are made static while off-world.

Well, d'oh - that obviously went straight past. 

[Inge]

Yes the best solution is that you return to the lot and either play the sims' who didn't go out until the time the absent person would have come back, or if they all went you sit there in fast mode like you have to anyway when they all go to work.  Then they get materialised on the lot at the time they should have been coming back.  I don't really care if it doesn't do all the animations like buses and taxis pulling up, really.  Though if they left with the family car that needs to come back, obviously.   Again, I wouldn't care if if just suddenly appeared on its launch pad.

[abelle]

This sounds like a fantastic mod. I just thought about how much I would want it like that, when I last played.

I would mainly like it to be this way, because I like to split my big households, so that I can concentrate more on the indivisual sims. I did try to achieve that by using the `take a spin´ option, but I couldn´t find a way to freeze the motives for one sim only. It would be even better, if other sims could still visit a community lot while another one is gone.

This would make so much more sense. It would really be awesome, if this mod could become reality.

And I agree, I wouldn´t mind fast speeding, when all sims are gone at the same time.

[gjam]

I'll cast another vote in the Pleeeaaase!!! column.

[crammyboy]

Test version is here->http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,7462.0.html

[Vren Lyet]

This sounds incredible!

I'm going to test this as soon as I have satisfied my curiosity about Seasons (which arrived today).
So in a few days I'll be checking this one out.

Thanx a lot!

[Sagana]

<laugh> I don't have Seasons yet. I'm not sure when I'll be getting it - maybe, maybe I'll get lucky and be able to upgrade this computer this weekend (because I still can't quite manage the new one) and get seasons, but maybe not.

But I love the sound of this so much, I went ahead and downloaded it anyway. <puts it safely away in a 'save for seasons' file.>

[Hana]

Me neither. I just installed Pets..heh...where I am, Pets are not available, I had to ask a friend who was coming here to buy it for me. And now Seasons is out...wish I could help out testing, but right now I'm trying to figure out what's borking my game. I look forward to this hack though. ^_^