#ask midge

[midgethetree]

Hello, Midge. Do you know if the more extreme a Sim's preference is has any noticeable gameplay change? For example, would the behavior that a Sim with -5 attraction to males displays, and the behavior a Sim that has -10 to males displays be different from each other? I hope this makes sense. Thanks. :)

The extremity of the preference only matters in that the game sometimes compares the two preferences to see which is bigger to figure out what wants the sim is allowed to roll, and the extremity also determines how hard it'd be to change the sim's sexuality through natural gameplay. With @deedee-sims's no bi gender pref decrease that doesn't matter as much, and my gender pref allow wants fix and twojeff's have child not adopt + baby wants fix (or mods based on the same) can help keep the game from trying to treat all bi sims as straight or gay based on which gender they have more attraction to. So basically extremity might not matter at all depending on your mods.

[midgethetree]

hi midge, i want to use monique's automatic payment mod but i have noticed that it deducts/pays funds twice. so someone who should get $50 gets $100. i have AL/M&G so i'm guessing it's not up-to-date - is there a way i can fix this myself?

Hello! The code for the autopayment... frankly looks like a mess. I think the BHAV 0x1004 in MQ_Auto_Payment_Controller should have its call to BHAV 0x1005 removed, but I'm not entirely sure if that's correct and won’t have unintended consequences since I’m not entirely sure why that BHAV is there and might be missing something about the function it’s supposed to serve... give it a try in a test hood, maybe.

[midgethetree]

hi midge, hope you’re doing well! i had a question about the function of custom turn ons/turn offs: would it even be possible to have TOs based on aspiration and personality (like being attracted to mean sims / sims with >= 4 nice points) without it conflicting too heavily with the chemistry systems already in place for those categories? i want to try some “opposites attract”-esque couples but i wasn’t sure if it’d even be possible given the game’s rules of similar personalities = higher chemistry.

Hello! It's definitely possible to create a mod with personality- or aspiration-based TOs, any potential "conflicts" would be more of a game design problem in trying to design a system that makes sense and gives the couples you want the high chemistry you want.

I'm not sure why you feel this is necessary in order to have “opposite” couples, though. Any TOs would help raise their chemistry, so long as they fulfill each other's turn-ons but not their turn-offs, they wouldn’t have to be personality- or aspiration-based TOs.

Also, the maximum chemistry personality can add or subtract is 35, but getting the maximum requires extreme personalities (all 10s and 0s for both sims). Most of your sims chemistry often comes from other factors: compatible zodiac signs give +/-35, compatible primary aspirations can be another +/-35, and TOs can get as much as +70 if all 4 turn-ons and neither of the turn-offs are fulfilled (or as low as -45 if no turn-ons and all turn-offs are fulfilled).

You only need 35+ to get 2 bolts, or as low as 1+ chemistry if you don't mind 1 bolt couples, so with the right TOs most couples should be able to get at least 1 bolt. You could always change their zodiac signs with the sim blender to be compatible if they aren't already and you're struggling to get their bolts as high as you'd like.

Here's a guide to chemistry in TS2 if that helps, good luck!

[midgethetree]

hi midge! i'm returning to sims 2 after playing it for most of my childhood and found your mods and i wanted to say thank you! i could not play without your fixes. :) i did have one question - after coming from ts4 (and how easy it is to preview package files with sims 4 studio) i'd like to find a way to preview my old downloaded cc for sims 2 as well but i can't parse simpe at all. do you know of any guides for just previewing the 3d model in a package file?

Hello! The way to preview 3d models is to open it in SimPE, open the GMDC, and click the preview button that appears in the lower left (if it doesn't, make sure you're in Plugin View). It takes a bit to load everything, which is more or less why other programs like cleaninstaller and delphy's downloads organizer use textures for previews.

Fun fact, MMATs (the resources that make recolors work) also have a preview button! Previewing the MMATs included in the object's package will show you the 3D mesh with the recolor applied instead of in untextured gray. Some objects aren't recolorable though, so they won't have MMATs.

[midgethetree]

Hi! It's the simler90 Dining Group Mod anon again. So after some googling on how to extract BCON 0x2004 from group 0x7FDFFE55 and editing the lines you told me (thank you btw) I have two questions that I wasn't able to find answers on by myself, hope you don't mind. I pressed the 'make labels' button (creating a TRCN file) so that I know which lines to edit again, is this fine to do? And would deleting the lines I won't use (0x0,0x3,0x6 & 0x7) be okay or does it need to stay there?

Hello! Creating a TRCN in your mod .package is fine. You can delete the text for those unused lines from the TRCN, but TRCNs aren't able to "skip" lines so to speak so if you delete 0x0 for example all that does is make the old 0x1 line the new 0x0 line, which means it now matches up with the wrong BCON line.

Same more or less applies to BCONs by the way, deleting lines just shifts lines up and generally just messes up everything.

[midgethetree]

Jezz midge, I misplaced everything, I'm sorry! I mean that HDCU suggest a load order lol! I dunno why I was with SiMidge in mind. But anyway, I put sim manipulator in a folder, and then to load before all mods and now the add-on menu is working again! I changed a lot of mods recently and I think I forgot to mess the load order to work properly. I also had this problem with 'notownieregen', that was in my mods folder, but I having a lot of random townies clogging my hood. I think I solved! Tks!

HCDU also doesn't suggest load orders, just tells you the load order you already have. Regardless I'm glad you got your mod setup working again!

[midgethetree]

Hello Midge! I'm looking into modifying the community Chef code so that they'll use fridges and food processor/counter surfaces to prepare food for restaurants, which is how the NPCs worked back in the Sims Hot Date. I don't mind them using the big chef stove to cook and serve the food, but at present they're pretty boring lol. I always liked how you could watch the Sims 1 chefs actually cook your food. Do you know where I should look for modding Chef NPC behavior? Is this even possible? Thanks!

Hi! The code for how NPC chefs prepare food is all in the stove itself - group 0x7F2B8FB4. The BHAVs "CT - Chef Cook" and "NPC - Chef - Cook Loop" especially stand out to me as relevant.

If you're envisioning the chefs cooking exactly what diners order with anims based on the dish, you should know the way the restaurant code is setup means the chef NPC/stove never know or need to know what they're making, with the food only revealed when the server serves it. Not only that, but as I remember it chefs will often try to "look busy" while waiting for the first orders (or in between orders, if there's downtime) and end up producing another serving platter in advance, so even if you try and have the code check the dining controller and figure out what food is needed there won't always be food needed.

Should be possible to add a few extra anims to be randomly switched between for variety, though even getting them to use counters and fridges isn't a quick task - look at the food globals to understand how this is normally done.

[midgethetree]

Do you know where in simler90 Dining Group Mod I can edit the STR and LTR that is being checked. It just might help me see more of my unplayables actually hang out with friends instead of strangers all the time.

The 5+ STR and 0+ LTR requirements are actually Maxis's, not simler90's, and aren't even being checked in the BHAV that mod edits. You'll need to extract BCON 0x2004 from group 0x7FDFFE55: lines 0x01 and 0x04 is the min STR, line 0x02 and 0x05 is the min LTR.