Hi everyone

What I am trying to do is change the XML files in charge of romance and woohooing, what I'm trying to achieve is to make romance generally more difficult.

I can't seem to get around changing the values right. Nothing seems to change even with extreme values (i.e. I set the base score to -1000 (in mixer_social_WooHoo_targeted_romance_transition), but I still get the option displayed in the radial menu).

Can someone explain the following:

1. The higher the base_score, the more likely it is displayed on the radial menu, correct? (So why does it still appear when I set it to -1000?)

2. I can adjust the values test_based outcomes (example: for positive outcome in scores_socialoutcomes_romance), I suppose here I can make an sucess/failure outcome more likely, by changing the value. Is there a certain range I can set these values to?

3. When I set a value (-50) for relationship_bit_preference to 15792 (friendship-acquaintances). What does this value do? Is 50 a lot or is 5000 a lot.

Thank you for any answers or linking any resources where these concepts are explained.

The explanations should be in TS4_Custom_Content_Guide\TuningDescriptions\Interactions\Descriptions.

Which file is it you're editing? -- ah, duh, you actually said that, I see it now.

For instance:





If what you're trying to do is completely exclude something, I would think it'd be easiest to blacklist against it in the test section, rather than change preferences/score.

Thanks for the answer. I still don't understand though. Perhaps I can't even achieve what I'm trying to do with XML tuning. I'll try to figure it out some more.

Keep in mind that this is more a guess than certainty, as I have not tested any of this.

I believe the base_score is about autonomous interaction, with no control over whether or not the interaction is available in the radial menu or successful. The radial menu reference is likely about the command appearing at the top level of the "modern" social menu, with no influence if the player has selected the "Traditional Social Menu".

As for the success and failure, from what I understood of the tuning files, there is nothing left to chance in this specific interaction. The conditions from scores_socialoutcomes_romance are tested in order, the score for each successfully tested condition added, and the end result is selected in mixer_social_WooHoo_targeted_romance_transition based on the score: large success if score >= 10, average success if from 6 to 9, normal failure between -14 and 5, and bad failure if -15 or lower. If you want just harder WooHoo, the file to change is likely mixer_social_WooHoo_targeted_romance_transition, by changing the test_based_score_threshold parameters; if you want to change all romantic interactions, the file to change is likely scores_socialoutcomes_romance, by changing the individual scores (which will be a lot of work).

It should be possible to do more complex things, such as making the outcome random; take a look at the files for gaming tournaments (such as motionBasedGaming_PlayTournament_REFUGE_Pro) if you want an example of random outcome.

Thanks. From what I've seen so far, I think you have the right idea about things.

I played around with the values in
-scores_socialoutcomes_romance_availability (I guessed this was the availability in the radial menu)
-scores_socialoutcomes_romance

I put a lot of negative scores for moods and relationships and lowered the positive scores. I expected that I'd notice a change, but I didn't.

I see that my .package is loaded. Is there a way to debug the tuning values? So can I check if my values were actually loaded?

If you find a way to do that, I would be really interested in learning it

My usual way is to add some outrageous change to the file, one that I can readily test but is either purely cosmetic or can be easily avoided. For example, when testing the terrain-jog file, I changed the used outfit to formal clothing, making it very easy to see if my file was being loaded.

I haven't played with the scoring files, but in their case what I would do to test if they were being loaded is to add a test that makes the interaction either an automatic success (by giving it a large positive score) or an automatic failure (same with a large negative score) if my sim had a specific buff that I can get or avoid on command. As for the interaction tuning itself, I might make it give an out of place moodlet.

Thanks DarkWalker, good input. I ended up doing the same. I added the following:



So as a Male Character I would always end up failing the romance, no matter what it was. As a female it (usually) worked, with the same two characters. It be great if you could make a popup or a custom notification or something. I know in Sims3 Dwallans mods could output quite some debugging information. Perhaps we will get there eventually.

I guess that means my values are actually used and after starting a new game I think romancing is actually harder now (so if anyone is interested in this, PM me).

However my guess that:"scores_socialoutcomes_romance_availability" had something to do with the romance items being visible in the radial menu was wrong. I actually don't know yet if the changes to: "scores_socialoutcomes_romance_availability" or "scores_socialoutcomes_romance" actually influences the outcome of the romance options (I think the latter, but haven't tested it - too lazy).

The next steps for this mod would be (but I have no idea how to do this, I hope other modders will either do them or similar stuff, so I could learn from them):
- get less friendship / romance gain per success
- limit the amount of friendship / romance gain per in-game day
- don't show (all) romance options in the radial menu unless certain criteria are met (i.e. don't show woohoo if you've never been on a date)
- add some random element to success/fail of romance stuff (--> even if you've maxed romance with a sim, there should be a change to fail to initiate woohoo - simulating that the other sim actually has a mind of his/her own)
- add a romancing(?) skill (which influences success chances and relationship gains)
- add a kissing(?) skill (which influences success chances and relationship gains)
- add a woohoo skill (which influences success chances, relationship gains and satisfaction)

Perhaps I should also post in WCIF...