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- General - Increasing the game difficulty with mods? (decaying skill pts, more frequent burglars etc..)
#1
13th Sep 2017 at 8:05 PM
Last edited by fe2o3 : 23rd Sep 2017 at 6:06 AM.
Posts: 18
Increasing the game difficulty with mods? (decaying skill pts, more frequent burglars etc..)
The Sims 2 is fun and all, but it's too easy. Since the game lacks some kind of hard mode option, I went looking for a does-it-all mod that would accomplish similar results. Couldn't find one unfortunately, so instead I started a compilation of small mods to get the same thing going following a list of personal changes that I deem appropriate for a hard more option.I'm asking for the community help and imput to fill the empty lines.
Here is the list of changes I'm looking for, and the corresponding mods I found so far. The goal of the compilation isn't to list every mod available, but to find at least one mod for each change. If several mods accomplish the same thing (ex: money) I'll only pick the one I deem to be the better one. The goal is to make the game harder, not impossible, one mod for each change is enough.
- more frequent burglars / fires / catastrophes -----> Daily & Weekly Arsonist/Burglar, Lightning Storm Fix (Optional: Realistic Sickness, Faster Disease Processing,
Frequent Disease Processing, More Dangerous Fire) - harder income management -------------------------> More realistic Payment for Maxis careers (Optional: Cyjon's Bigger Bills or AH Higher Bills, No free food with refrigerator, Taxi charges money, Vehicles cost money to drive, Tipping Fix, No20KHandout, No Inheritance, Fair wages for service NPC)
- harder relationships ------------------------------------> Harder Relationships (Optional: Increased Challenge Dating)
- more needs decay --------------------------------------> ?? (Optional: Studying is not Fun)
- more aspiration decay ---------------------------------> More Aspiration Decay
- more mood decay --------------------------------------> ??
- skill points now decay over time ---------------------> ?? (Optional: Slower Skilling hack 1 or 3 or 5, Sim Blender cheats use at your own risk)
- more expensive aspiration rewards -----------------> Increased Challenge Asp Rewards (Optional: Slower LTA Gain, Slower Aspiration Benefits)
- harder business ----------------------------------------> Increased Challenge Business lvl1-5 or Increased Challenge, business lvl1-10 (Optional: Harder Sales, Less Profitable Junk Car)
- harder jobs ---------------------------------------------> Increased Challenge Jobs or
- harder school -------------------------------------------> Read Phantomknight comment for more info; (Optional: Harder Grades, Harder Homework)
- harder university ---------------------------------------> Read Phantomknight comment for more info; (Optional: Harder Grades Class / Term / Professors, Harder Jobs (no free promotion upon graduating university))
- harder gardening --------------------------------------> ?? (Optional: NoFreshFood, MoreRealisticYields, LowerFishPrices)
- others: ---------------------------------------------------> Hack Detection Conflict Utility, (Optional significantly alter the gameplay of all controllable sims and npcs use at your own risk: ACR aka more pregnancies & babies for all adult sims, Inteen aka more pregnancies & babies for all teen sims, Zombie Apocalypse aka Dawn of the Dead, Hidden Needs aka Russian roulette )
If you think I missed something or want to share something, you are encouraged to comment.
Thanks.
Edited to add/remove stuff.
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#2
13th Sep 2017 at 8:59 PM
Posts: 177
Interesting mods list. Also there's the Blind Needs Challenge at this link (http://hexagonal-bipyramid.tumblr.c...the-blind-needs) which basically hides the need bars so you have to rely on the plumbob color to see what mood the sim is in.
Slowly moving steps into basic TS2 modding.
Slowly moving steps into basic TS2 modding.
#3
13th Sep 2017 at 9:02 PM
Posts: 9,952
Thanks: 416 in 15 Posts
Harder Income Management: Cyjon's Bigger Bills. There's also a number of other bigger bills mods.
I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister
Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister
Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
#4
13th Sep 2017 at 9:53 PM
Posts: 2,858
Thanks: 198 in 2 Posts
Love this idea! Will have to get links when I go home and check my download folder, but, off the top of my head, I know I have mods for:
-slower skills
-Harder grades (I use a combo for this)
-Harder Uni
-More difficult OFB biz levels
-slower LTA gain (makes it harder to fill up the FT meter)
-More expensive npcs (gardener, nanny, etc.)
-empty fridges (makes it so fridges you buy in the catalog don't come with groceries)
-cars cost money to drive; taxis cost money
-cell phones cost money
-no seasons food boost
Plus I know there's mods for more castrophes like rain/lightning and fire. Oh, and satellites. So, I'll edit this post and fill out links later.
-slower skills
-Harder grades (I use a combo for this)
-Harder Uni
-More difficult OFB biz levels
-slower LTA gain (makes it harder to fill up the FT meter)
-More expensive npcs (gardener, nanny, etc.)
-empty fridges (makes it so fridges you buy in the catalog don't come with groceries)
-cars cost money to drive; taxis cost money
-cell phones cost money
-no seasons food boost
Plus I know there's mods for more castrophes like rain/lightning and fire. Oh, and satellites. So, I'll edit this post and fill out links later.
"Thinking of you, wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend." - Kingdom Hearts
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
#5
13th Sep 2017 at 10:29 PM
Posts: 669
I did not know there was a mod for empty fridges. I need that one!
I have:
BoilingOil's No Fresh Food! (gets rid of the sparklies and the extra filling portions of fresh food) and his Lower Fish Prices.
CyJon's - Job Stopinator (keeps Sims from climbing to the top of their career).
MATY - Slower Skilling, No 20k handouts, Real Sickness & No Instant Love (I wonder if this will conflict with the Harder Relationships?)
Soon, I'll be adding Cyjon's Frequent Disease Processing.
Thanks for this thread, fe2o3! I'm going to look for some of the mods mentioned.
So many things to learn; so few brain cells to process the info needed to learn things!
Shipwreck Island
I have:
BoilingOil's No Fresh Food! (gets rid of the sparklies and the extra filling portions of fresh food) and his Lower Fish Prices.
CyJon's - Job Stopinator (keeps Sims from climbing to the top of their career).
MATY - Slower Skilling, No 20k handouts, Real Sickness & No Instant Love (I wonder if this will conflict with the Harder Relationships?)
Soon, I'll be adding Cyjon's Frequent Disease Processing.
Thanks for this thread, fe2o3! I'm going to look for some of the mods mentioned.
So many things to learn; so few brain cells to process the info needed to learn things!
Shipwreck Island
#6
13th Sep 2017 at 10:40 PM
Posts: 167
My suggestions may be hard to find since I honestly don't know where I got some of them (I'll look and edit the post if I can find them, or I can just upload them if you want).
-Bought fridges come empty. You could technically cheat to soften the blow with a community garden, if you found it too difficult or if having this as a global mod bothers you. I like it for the realism, added challenge, and it makes gardens, especially ones made with Sun&Moon's custom crops, more of a desirable thing. This one is available on mts, I'll just naked-link because I'm feeling lazy: http://modthesims.info/d/288769
-ChristianLov's debit card. Sometimes I want my fresh from CAS sims to have a cute house from the get go, I like decorating, but it costs money. I'll buy them the debit card for $1 and then they can take out a loan to... I think the limit is $10k, not sure, but I usually do less, because after I let them take out the loan and buy stuff, like deco, skilling objects, better furniture, they aren't allowed to buy anything until they pay it off except for in specific scenarios like fire/burglary, or if it's a want that if fulfilled will help them reach other goals. It functions like bills and will quickly become overdue, unless you pay a fee to add days. Unfortunately I have no idea where to find this online, but I have an archive on my external somewhere with all of his hacks/mods.
-Alternatively, I have an ATM. You can do loans, but leaving money in the bank will help them accumulate money. If you have the Unsavory Charlatan running around this comes in handy, though, since he can't just rob your bank accounts. I think this is the one: http://modthesims.info/d/87893
I know I have a few more but they're slipping my mind at the moment.
-Bought fridges come empty. You could technically cheat to soften the blow with a community garden, if you found it too difficult or if having this as a global mod bothers you. I like it for the realism, added challenge, and it makes gardens, especially ones made with Sun&Moon's custom crops, more of a desirable thing. This one is available on mts, I'll just naked-link because I'm feeling lazy: http://modthesims.info/d/288769
-ChristianLov's debit card. Sometimes I want my fresh from CAS sims to have a cute house from the get go, I like decorating, but it costs money. I'll buy them the debit card for $1 and then they can take out a loan to... I think the limit is $10k, not sure, but I usually do less, because after I let them take out the loan and buy stuff, like deco, skilling objects, better furniture, they aren't allowed to buy anything until they pay it off except for in specific scenarios like fire/burglary, or if it's a want that if fulfilled will help them reach other goals. It functions like bills and will quickly become overdue, unless you pay a fee to add days. Unfortunately I have no idea where to find this online, but I have an archive on my external somewhere with all of his hacks/mods.
-Alternatively, I have an ATM. You can do loans, but leaving money in the bank will help them accumulate money. If you have the Unsavory Charlatan running around this comes in handy, though, since he can't just rob your bank accounts. I think this is the one: http://modthesims.info/d/87893
I know I have a few more but they're slipping my mind at the moment.
#7
13th Sep 2017 at 11:02 PM
I also have No Instant Love http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ since that is on the relationship harder vein.
I don't know of a skill decay mod although you could roll a die to decide if the sim will be loosing a point and then roll again to decide which skill type. Then use something like the simblender to remove one.
If you use Monique's computer loans your sims will soon be as poor as church mice because the interest rate on that is terrible. I had to actual ditch it and I like keeping sims poor.
Halved Maxis wages. http://modthesims.info/d/304457
I think the rest has been mentioned.
I don't know of a skill decay mod although you could roll a die to decide if the sim will be loosing a point and then roll again to decide which skill type. Then use something like the simblender to remove one.
If you use Monique's computer loans your sims will soon be as poor as church mice because the interest rate on that is terrible. I had to actual ditch it and I like keeping sims poor.
Halved Maxis wages. http://modthesims.info/d/304457
I think the rest has been mentioned.
"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
#8
13th Sep 2017 at 11:15 PM
Posts: 818
Thanks: 154 in 3 Posts
Hardcore Simming is an interesting concept. Oh and isn't there a mod to change the prices for NPC services?
For my physical health, I can't eat cheesecake everyday.
For my mental health, I imagine eating cheesecake everyday.
It's a delicate balance.
For my physical health, I can't eat cheesecake everyday.
For my mental health, I imagine eating cheesecake everyday.
It's a delicate balance.
#9
13th Sep 2017 at 11:40 PM
Posts: 536
I use Daily & Weekly Arsonist/Burglar ( http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=84336 ) to have the burglar come more often. It also makes the burglar set things on fire. It's great!
There's no drama, like Sims drama.
Currently Playing: Sims 2 again!
There's no drama, like Sims drama.
Currently Playing: Sims 2 again!
#10
14th Sep 2017 at 2:18 AM
Posts: 227
Quote: Originally posted by monijt1
I use Daily & Weekly Arsonist/Burglar ( http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=84336 ) to have the burglar come more often. It also makes the burglar set things on fire. It's great! |
I'm pretty sure this is exactly what my game needed tbh.
EDIT: Wait, are you using this with all EPs and such? I want it but I don't know if it'll work with a fully EP/SP'd game.
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In the name of the Moon, i will right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means YOU! ❤️
#11
14th Sep 2017 at 4:37 AM
Posts: 227
I decided to test it out and the burglar came on the first night and set three things on fire, and thanks to more dangerous fire, the inferno burned down everything in their house and killed everyone. Looks like it's a keeper!
My simblr
In the name of the Moon, i will right wrongs and triumph over evil, and that means YOU! ❤️
#12
14th Sep 2017 at 6:02 AM
Posts: 7,361
Thanks: 2940 in 27 Posts
#13
14th Sep 2017 at 6:24 AM
Posts: 2,858
Thanks: 198 in 2 Posts
First, off I'm very excited to share my cc list and finds, so thanks, fe2o3, for starting the thread. This post is about to get loooong though, so I apologize in advance if anyone ninja's me and I'll try to remember to check the thread before I finish this post. If anything, I'll put links up too, so that no one has to search too hard. Also, you'll probably notice that the post gets less descriptive as it goes on. I can't decide if that's a good thing or a bad thing, but it took hours to write this all up, so I hope this helps people. (Side note, I feel like that last sentence belongs in the "You've been playing Sims 2 too much when..." thread.) Anywho.
BO - MoreRealisticYields. While BoilingOil's No Fresh Food and Lower Fish Prices were mentioned, I wanted to add this one. It does increase the yield of fruit trees, but it also lowers the sell prices of the other Maxis garden plants. So no getting rich off of eggplants.
BoilingOil's Landlords No Gardening is also useful from stopping your sims from getting free labor.
In an earlier post, Gazelove mentioned the empty fridge mod I now use (and love) by dickhurt, who also has Baby Toddler Food and Feeding Fixes. It fixes a few things, but also prevents sims from feeding babies and toddlers bottles and toddler mush unless they have the required food points.
The main homework mod I use is Syberspunk's Harder Grades 2.0. There's different versions, but this is the one I use and it makes it so that sims need skill points and a good mood to do well in school. The skill points required depends on sims' aspiration and interests. I also use Twojeffs' School Bus/Bring Friend & Homework Hack. I use this version instead of Jenflower's HomeworkSometimesFasterFun to make homework random once a kid has learned to study. I use Twojeffs' version because I also like his edits to who kids bring home from school. Using Homework Sometimes may seem like you're giving sim kids a break, but when used with Syberspunk's mod, it makes it harder for them to increase their grades because they can't always rely on the homework boost to their grade.
And finally I use Cyjon's Harder Homework and Monique's Auto Do Homework Mod. I use Monique's mod to give my sims a chance to do homework without my telling them to, since homework is not autonomous, and Cyjon's mod to affect whether they actually finish what they start. Cyjon's Harder Homework is supposed to affect how long a sim takes to do homework, depending on personality and aspiration and Monique's mod calls sims to do their homework at 7pm.
Other Homework Mods:
These are ones that I don't use, but might be useful to someone else. With Cyjon's Partial Homework Credit, designed to be used with Harder Homework, instead of piling up old homework that will never get completed because it now takes your sims hours to do homework, Partial Homework Credit grades your sims based on the % of homework completed and old homework gets destroyed. So no piling up old homework for days, hoping that completing them all will give you a grade boost. Doesn't work with Syberspunk's Harder Harder Grades though. There's also Smonaff's Fall Asleep While Doing Homework/Assignment, just in case you want to make extra sure your sims never finish their homework.
Related School Mods:
Inteen! Don't overlook this one; in addition to making your teen sims' lives hard because, well, babies, the College Admissions flavor pack makes it so that teens have to have graduated high school with a C grade or better before being admitted to college. So if your sims are struggling to pass class because of the mods you've downloaded above, you can also make it so that their poor school performance prevents them from going to college and getting all the uni benefits (more on that later). Disclaimer: this flavor pak makes it so that, a few days away from turning into an adult, teens graduate high school (the game considers them a mini adult: the school bus stops showing up for them, they get adult jobs, etc.) But yes, there are flavor paks for Risky Sneakout and Risky Runaways, which gives female teens the chance of becoming pregnant when they return from sneaking out or running away. Disclaimer: The odds for these ones must be very low, because I don't think any of my sims ever returned pregnant after sneaking out. Ymmv.
There are a few ways to make Uni harder as well and once you do, you might find you need every second of those long fall days. I personally use Ancient Highway's Harder Grades Class and Harder Grades Term Required, but there's also Harder Grades Professor. Harder Grades Class affects how much going to class, doing assignments, and doing college research fill up the grade bar--spoiler alert, the boosts become tiny. Harder Grades Term Required makes it so that sims have to complete their term paper, or else their grade bar takes a hit. It also adds the potential for sims to randomly fail their final. Harder Grades Professor makes it harder for socials with professors to increase grades and also adds the potential for sims to randomly fail. Ancient Highway also has a higher bill mod, but this one includes tuition.
And, if all that isn't enough of a challenge, pair them with Dave Luv's Faster University Education mod, which shorts university semesters, giving sims less time to get things done.
So you think your sims are too smart? (Too much smart milk, I say) Well, to prevent them from getting too skilled, you can use a slower skilling mod. I use one by Lientebollemeis, uploaded by Almighty Hat here (it's waaay down the page). It actually took a bit to figure out where that came from, but on the upside Lientebollemeis has a blog that still works and has tutorials for editing skilling and aging mods here.
You can also limit your sims skills, so that they don't earn skill points too early in life. Ancient Highway has some skill limiters and there's also the Sim Blender, to which Twojeffs added a plug in that allows you to set limits on how many points sims can learn.
To go along with that, Cyjon updated jfade's Bigfoot Skill Tuning (original here in case anyone needs extra faqs), which makes Bigfoot less skilled, in case you too think it's unfair that a secret creature who lives in the middle of the woods has 10 points in every skill and badges in everything. Cyjon also modded plantsims so that sprouts only get half of their parent's skills and badges.
If you're not squeamish about editing mods, you may be interested in Extremely Slow Skill Gain at MATY because you can edit it to change skill and badge gain in one file.
Various harder bills are out there so I won't list them all, but I'll mention Cyjon's Bigger Bills again because it also makes bills come daily. It sounds harsh, but eventually, as lot value stagnates and you buy less stuff, the bills aren't so bad. Only use one billing mod, though. Don't use this with Ancient Highway's bill mod above.
Gummilutt's Vacation Flight Changes makes vacation flights more expensive, if you so choose.
Cyjon's No Life Insurance for no payouts when elders die.
Monique's Computer gets another mention because it also allows you to set private school fees. (AL version here. Veranka's 3t2 converted computers as hacked computers here.) And Jo wasn't lying; if sims borrow more than 10K, they quickly end up in a financial hole. Loans are added to bills as well, so no escaping.
And there are Dickhurt's mods, including Vehicles Cost Money to Drive, Cell Phone Calls Cost Money, Taxi Charges Money, Better Rod Humble Visit, which charges the household money for the computer Humble leaves, and Harder (or Easier) Money Tree, which can decrease the amount of money the money tree gives you, and can make it take longer to harvest.
Simmodder has some Increased Challenge Mods that include requiring more customer loyalty stars to progress the first 5 business levels, decreasing the OFB cash perk, making promotions harder by changing job performance, and reducing promotion bonus.
Casual Jobs Fix by cedrigo makes it so you can't exploit the barista glitch (where you click 'be barista' over and over and then earn money faster).
Phaenoh's Major Revamp Degrees Req Only changes some Maxis careers so that a college degree is required. Also, it's highly editable. Cyjon's Edukashun Iz Gud is similar: "sims can get into any career track regardless of degree, but promotions will be limited based on education." Pair one of those with BoilingOil's Random Job Offer and you can really create a tight job market.
Didn't even know this existed until I did this post, Cyjon's No Reputation Rewards to stop AL reputation bonuses.
Same with this one, No Date Gifts from picknmixmods.com.
Cyjon made a Lightning Storm Fix to let your game actually generate lightning storms. And there's plenty of mods to help you change how severe weather is like Sophie-David's Seasons Automatic Lot Based Weather Control.
Twojeffs increased the chance for Death by Satellite (Gummilutt also made the chance customizable) and Cyjon's Deadly Satellites changes it so that the game checks for a satellite death every 30 in-game minutes, instead of only once, when a sim first watches clouds or stargazes.
Sophie-David also has wishing wells that will spread plague and poison sims.
Gummilutt made a Customizable chance of Death by Murphy Bed mod that you can use to increase the chance of that death.
More Dangerous Fire is by Simmodder over at leefish.
No 20K Handouts and Expensive NPCs were mentioned; they can be found here. Other useful hacks from Pescado include:
Tipping Fix - No free money; tips come out of sims' funds.
Harder Jobs - Uni graduates no longer get offered lv 8 and 9 jobs (career level bonus) and creates limited openings for higher level positions.
Enemies Accumulate - Keeps negative relationships negative and enemy status doesn't disappear over time--that way you'll have plenty of sims to walk by your houses and kick your trash can, giving you roaches! (There's a similar mod by inge here.)
Anti Visit Campus - stops sims from visiting campus - no free stuff.
Zombie Apocalypse - Life is definitely tougher when you're running from zombies who want to eat your brain. But idk, maybe you like zombies. Either way, pair with Fight Club for extra fun.
These aren't all of the Pescado mods relevant to this topic (for example he has his own billing and private school fees mods), but I tried to list the more unique ones.
Slower Aspiration Benefits by Doc Doofus was mentioned, I think, but I also use Cyjon's Slower LTA Gain for slowing the hourly LTA points.
No Friends From Sales by Black_Spirit so your popularity sims don't get 30 best friends just from running a business.
Triplets & Quads. Just posted about that here if you're unsure it can make your game harder.
Huge Lunatic's Mod 'ur Dig lets you set how often you dig up items. Similarly, one of Monique's Dig For Treasure mod features is to randomize the value of the treasure chest.
Huge Lunatic also has Mod 'ur Hike to change the things you find on a hike.
Gummilutt's M&G Physiology Fix stops you from getting easy body points after learning physiology.
BoilingOil's Alien Experiments can help make lots of terrible things happen to your sims.
And that, my friends, is all I got for now. Apologizes for any ridiculous spelling and grammar errors you may find, too. Again, hours. I'm tired now.
BO - MoreRealisticYields. While BoilingOil's No Fresh Food and Lower Fish Prices were mentioned, I wanted to add this one. It does increase the yield of fruit trees, but it also lowers the sell prices of the other Maxis garden plants. So no getting rich off of eggplants.
I'll also mention Monique's Harvest Yield Mod in case you just want to edit the number of fruits and veggies each plant yields. Also there's Monique's Harvest Time. There's info on how to edit it in SimPE so that theoretically, you could increase the amount of time it takes for plants to grow, instead of decreasing it, like the mod originally does.
BoilingOil's Landlords No Gardening is also useful from stopping your sims from getting free labor.
In an earlier post, Gazelove mentioned the empty fridge mod I now use (and love) by dickhurt, who also has Baby Toddler Food and Feeding Fixes. It fixes a few things, but also prevents sims from feeding babies and toddlers bottles and toddler mush unless they have the required food points.
Just an extra warning for those who've never used dickhurt's mods; they require additional files that get installed outside your downloads folder so please read instructions carefully. Also, when you backup your game or change TS2 folders, don't forget to copy the add on files too.
I used to use another version of empty fridges, by Lion and Lord Darcy. These versions (pick only one) are not global mods and instead give you custom empty versions of the Maxis fridges. This is for those who might want a challenge, but not on all lots. Lord Darcy's version in the second post makes the fridges repository, too, so that they use any recolors you already have.
The main homework mod I use is Syberspunk's Harder Grades 2.0. There's different versions, but this is the one I use and it makes it so that sims need skill points and a good mood to do well in school. The skill points required depends on sims' aspiration and interests. I also use Twojeffs' School Bus/Bring Friend & Homework Hack. I use this version instead of Jenflower's HomeworkSometimesFasterFun to make homework random once a kid has learned to study. I use Twojeffs' version because I also like his edits to who kids bring home from school. Using Homework Sometimes may seem like you're giving sim kids a break, but when used with Syberspunk's mod, it makes it harder for them to increase their grades because they can't always rely on the homework boost to their grade.
For example, when I played the Pleasants, it took a long while before Angela got an A, and I don't think she ever got an A+, since she didn't have too much charisma or max any skills. She was often in a good mood when going to school, and being platinum definitely helped, but she usually didn't come home with homework and so, without skilling like crazy, it was hard for her to boost her performance enough to raise her grade. You'll probably find that your average sims, the ones in good moods when they go to school and who do moderate skilling, will get Bs and A-s if they focus their skilling into the required areas.
And finally I use Cyjon's Harder Homework and Monique's Auto Do Homework Mod. I use Monique's mod to give my sims a chance to do homework without my telling them to, since homework is not autonomous, and Cyjon's mod to affect whether they actually finish what they start. Cyjon's Harder Homework is supposed to affect how long a sim takes to do homework, depending on personality and aspiration and Monique's mod calls sims to do their homework at 7pm.
Installing homework mods can be tricky cuz they might edit the same files and, indeed, Twojeffs' mods also affects the school bus, so you might have clashes there, depending on what else is in your download folder. Now, full disclosure, Cyjon's faq states it conflicts with other homework mods, but other simmers have stated that it's okay as long as Homework Sometimes loads last. I personally use all of them together and my load order is: Cyjon's Harder Homework, Syberspunk's Harder Grades 2.0, then Twojeffs' Homework Sometimes (Monique's mod shouldn't conflict with anything). This works in my game, but doesn't mean I have all the features of every mod. I actually lose one of Twojeff's features, the getting one pop up dialog per kid, for example. But it gives me the set up I want: a little autonomy in how sims complete their homework and makes it harder for sims to earn that A+. In short, ymmv. Test and see what works for you.
Other Homework Mods:
These are ones that I don't use, but might be useful to someone else. With Cyjon's Partial Homework Credit, designed to be used with Harder Homework, instead of piling up old homework that will never get completed because it now takes your sims hours to do homework, Partial Homework Credit grades your sims based on the % of homework completed and old homework gets destroyed. So no piling up old homework for days, hoping that completing them all will give you a grade boost. Doesn't work with Syberspunk's Harder Harder Grades though. There's also Smonaff's Fall Asleep While Doing Homework/Assignment, just in case you want to make extra sure your sims never finish their homework.
Related School Mods:
Inteen! Don't overlook this one; in addition to making your teen sims' lives hard because, well, babies, the College Admissions flavor pack makes it so that teens have to have graduated high school with a C grade or better before being admitted to college. So if your sims are struggling to pass class because of the mods you've downloaded above, you can also make it so that their poor school performance prevents them from going to college and getting all the uni benefits (more on that later). Disclaimer: this flavor pak makes it so that, a few days away from turning into an adult, teens graduate high school (the game considers them a mini adult: the school bus stops showing up for them, they get adult jobs, etc.) But yes, there are flavor paks for Risky Sneakout and Risky Runaways, which gives female teens the chance of becoming pregnant when they return from sneaking out or running away. Disclaimer: The odds for these ones must be very low, because I don't think any of my sims ever returned pregnant after sneaking out. Ymmv.
There are a few ways to make Uni harder as well and once you do, you might find you need every second of those long fall days. I personally use Ancient Highway's Harder Grades Class and Harder Grades Term Required, but there's also Harder Grades Professor. Harder Grades Class affects how much going to class, doing assignments, and doing college research fill up the grade bar--spoiler alert, the boosts become tiny. Harder Grades Term Required makes it so that sims have to complete their term paper, or else their grade bar takes a hit. It also adds the potential for sims to randomly fail their final. Harder Grades Professor makes it harder for socials with professors to increase grades and also adds the potential for sims to randomly fail. Ancient Highway also has a higher bill mod, but this one includes tuition.
The bill is at $500 (general), and the tuition at college gets added to the general bill ($200 per college student in the active family either at a dorm or college resident lot). On regular resident lots outside Uni, the bill gets figured based on the lot value, not on anything else. The bill becomes ridiculously cheap over time as the lot value deteriorates. Does not use Mansion&Garden bonuses to cheapen the bills (solar panels, anything "green"). Do not use this mod with other bill mods made by AH. They all are the same with the exception that this one gets tuition added. Your YAs will be miserable paying their bills with this one guaranteed. Also, the mailman comes roughly every two days, making it difficult to pay the bills if the student does not get more money for their grades by the end of the semester.
Ancient Highway's mods can be found on this page at Simbology, where simmers have posted their copies of AH's files and given descriptions as best they can.And, if all that isn't enough of a challenge, pair them with Dave Luv's Faster University Education mod, which shorts university semesters, giving sims less time to get things done.
So you think your sims are too smart? (Too much smart milk, I say) Well, to prevent them from getting too skilled, you can use a slower skilling mod. I use one by Lientebollemeis, uploaded by Almighty Hat here (it's waaay down the page). It actually took a bit to figure out where that came from, but on the upside Lientebollemeis has a blog that still works and has tutorials for editing skilling and aging mods here.
You can also limit your sims skills, so that they don't earn skill points too early in life. Ancient Highway has some skill limiters and there's also the Sim Blender, to which Twojeffs added a plug in that allows you to set limits on how many points sims can learn.
To go along with that, Cyjon updated jfade's Bigfoot Skill Tuning (original here in case anyone needs extra faqs), which makes Bigfoot less skilled, in case you too think it's unfair that a secret creature who lives in the middle of the woods has 10 points in every skill and badges in everything. Cyjon also modded plantsims so that sprouts only get half of their parent's skills and badges.
If you're not squeamish about editing mods, you may be interested in Extremely Slow Skill Gain at MATY because you can edit it to change skill and badge gain in one file.
Various harder bills are out there so I won't list them all, but I'll mention Cyjon's Bigger Bills again because it also makes bills come daily. It sounds harsh, but eventually, as lot value stagnates and you buy less stuff, the bills aren't so bad. Only use one billing mod, though. Don't use this with Ancient Highway's bill mod above.
Gummilutt's Vacation Flight Changes makes vacation flights more expensive, if you so choose.
Cyjon's No Life Insurance for no payouts when elders die.
Monique's Computer gets another mention because it also allows you to set private school fees. (AL version here. Veranka's 3t2 converted computers as hacked computers here.) And Jo wasn't lying; if sims borrow more than 10K, they quickly end up in a financial hole. Loans are added to bills as well, so no escaping.
And there are Dickhurt's mods, including Vehicles Cost Money to Drive, Cell Phone Calls Cost Money, Taxi Charges Money, Better Rod Humble Visit, which charges the household money for the computer Humble leaves, and Harder (or Easier) Money Tree, which can decrease the amount of money the money tree gives you, and can make it take longer to harvest.
Simmodder has some Increased Challenge Mods that include requiring more customer loyalty stars to progress the first 5 business levels, decreasing the OFB cash perk, making promotions harder by changing job performance, and reducing promotion bonus.
Casual Jobs Fix by cedrigo makes it so you can't exploit the barista glitch (where you click 'be barista' over and over and then earn money faster).
Phaenoh's Major Revamp Degrees Req Only changes some Maxis careers so that a college degree is required. Also, it's highly editable. Cyjon's Edukashun Iz Gud is similar: "sims can get into any career track regardless of degree, but promotions will be limited based on education." Pair one of those with BoilingOil's Random Job Offer and you can really create a tight job market.
Didn't even know this existed until I did this post, Cyjon's No Reputation Rewards to stop AL reputation bonuses.
Same with this one, No Date Gifts from picknmixmods.com.
Cyjon made a Lightning Storm Fix to let your game actually generate lightning storms. And there's plenty of mods to help you change how severe weather is like Sophie-David's Seasons Automatic Lot Based Weather Control.
Twojeffs increased the chance for Death by Satellite (Gummilutt also made the chance customizable) and Cyjon's Deadly Satellites changes it so that the game checks for a satellite death every 30 in-game minutes, instead of only once, when a sim first watches clouds or stargazes.
Sophie-David also has wishing wells that will spread plague and poison sims.
Gummilutt made a Customizable chance of Death by Murphy Bed mod that you can use to increase the chance of that death.
More Dangerous Fire is by Simmodder over at leefish.
No 20K Handouts and Expensive NPCs were mentioned; they can be found here. Other useful hacks from Pescado include:
Tipping Fix - No free money; tips come out of sims' funds.
Harder Jobs - Uni graduates no longer get offered lv 8 and 9 jobs (career level bonus) and creates limited openings for higher level positions.
Enemies Accumulate - Keeps negative relationships negative and enemy status doesn't disappear over time--that way you'll have plenty of sims to walk by your houses and kick your trash can, giving you roaches! (There's a similar mod by inge here.)
Anti Visit Campus - stops sims from visiting campus - no free stuff.
Zombie Apocalypse - Life is definitely tougher when you're running from zombies who want to eat your brain. But idk, maybe you like zombies. Either way, pair with Fight Club for extra fun.
These aren't all of the Pescado mods relevant to this topic (for example he has his own billing and private school fees mods), but I tried to list the more unique ones.
Slower Aspiration Benefits by Doc Doofus was mentioned, I think, but I also use Cyjon's Slower LTA Gain for slowing the hourly LTA points.
No Friends From Sales by Black_Spirit so your popularity sims don't get 30 best friends just from running a business.
Triplets & Quads. Just posted about that here if you're unsure it can make your game harder.
Huge Lunatic's Mod 'ur Dig lets you set how often you dig up items. Similarly, one of Monique's Dig For Treasure mod features is to randomize the value of the treasure chest.
Huge Lunatic also has Mod 'ur Hike to change the things you find on a hike.
Gummilutt's M&G Physiology Fix stops you from getting easy body points after learning physiology.
BoilingOil's Alien Experiments can help make lots of terrible things happen to your sims.
And that, my friends, is all I got for now. Apologizes for any ridiculous spelling and grammar errors you may find, too. Again, hours. I'm tired now.
"Thinking of you, wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend." - Kingdom Hearts
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
#14
14th Sep 2017 at 9:12 AM
Posts: 10,972
Thanks: 5477 in 47 Posts
Does more dangerous fire allow fire to spread out of the room it started in?
Mad Poster
#15
14th Sep 2017 at 10:15 AM
Posts: 3,859
Thanks: 3709 in 13 Posts
Great list, Phantomknight!
Have you also heard of Real Sickness? It's on MATY but not a Pescado mod. That's something I'd seriously consider adding to the list. I would also recommend pairing this with Cyjon's Faster Disease Processing and Frequent Disease Processing, otherwise sims on lots with a high number of sick people can get stuck in a loop of never being able to recover, which could be useful if you want a terminal kind of disease, but is frustrating for most players. I find with all three in, when my sims get sick I have to watch them very closely and force them to rest otherwise they will die. This can mean skipping work or school, which can of course be disastrous. Something in one of these hacks seems to disable the healing effect of Orange Juice, if that ever worked, and there is some bug in that Comfort Soup only works about 50% of the time, the other half of the time they stand up and immediately get sick again. Warning: If you have RS installed for some time and then suddenly add Cyjon's two mods, many of your sick sims will immediately die. But any sim who gets sick after installing the two Cyjon mods gets the normal process applied to them and will die if you don't look after them, but normally live if you're very careful and they are pampered enough to have the luxury of resting.
I prefer banning Humble entirely and letting the computer be purchaseable from the catalogue. It would annoy me too much to have my families charged for something they didn't order.
I think my dropbox link is broken, so I intend to move these over to MTS at some point, but I also created a combination of teen careers/schools which are harder for teens to maintain, although with some providing higher wages, which really helps out when you have teens who live independently, come from very poor families, or need to support their illegitimate offspring as a result of some of these other hacks!
Charity, unfortunately no. That's something I've always wished for as well. But because it spreads faster, it does mean that your sims' escape routes can end up blocked.
Does anyone know of a mod for lower chance of receiving the Genie lamp? 2% per sim per day is massively too high and I feel like one or another of my families gets one every week or more in some populous hoods. Currently I roll a die for whether they can keep it and if not they get to sell it for the small cash bonus, but I'd rather just make it a much rarer event TBH.
I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Have you also heard of Real Sickness? It's on MATY but not a Pescado mod. That's something I'd seriously consider adding to the list. I would also recommend pairing this with Cyjon's Faster Disease Processing and Frequent Disease Processing, otherwise sims on lots with a high number of sick people can get stuck in a loop of never being able to recover, which could be useful if you want a terminal kind of disease, but is frustrating for most players. I find with all three in, when my sims get sick I have to watch them very closely and force them to rest otherwise they will die. This can mean skipping work or school, which can of course be disastrous. Something in one of these hacks seems to disable the healing effect of Orange Juice, if that ever worked, and there is some bug in that Comfort Soup only works about 50% of the time, the other half of the time they stand up and immediately get sick again. Warning: If you have RS installed for some time and then suddenly add Cyjon's two mods, many of your sick sims will immediately die. But any sim who gets sick after installing the two Cyjon mods gets the normal process applied to them and will die if you don't look after them, but normally live if you're very careful and they are pampered enough to have the luxury of resting.
I prefer banning Humble entirely and letting the computer be purchaseable from the catalogue. It would annoy me too much to have my families charged for something they didn't order.
I think my dropbox link is broken, so I intend to move these over to MTS at some point, but I also created a combination of teen careers/schools which are harder for teens to maintain, although with some providing higher wages, which really helps out when you have teens who live independently, come from very poor families, or need to support their illegitimate offspring as a result of some of these other hacks!
Charity, unfortunately no. That's something I've always wished for as well. But because it spreads faster, it does mean that your sims' escape routes can end up blocked.
Does anyone know of a mod for lower chance of receiving the Genie lamp? 2% per sim per day is massively too high and I feel like one or another of my families gets one every week or more in some populous hoods. Currently I roll a die for whether they can keep it and if not they get to sell it for the small cash bonus, but I'd rather just make it a much rarer event TBH.
I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Test Subject
#16
14th Sep 2017 at 12:24 PM
This is a very interesting topic to me and I've made some mods in this area, some of which have already been mentioned.
My more dangerous fire mod has already been mentioned, I do think it's a lot of fun so I hope others enjoy it too. It doesn't allow fire to spread out of the room it started in, as it's just a simple change to some constansts in the BCON file. I did take a quick look at the function that controls fire spreading, I could take out the check for only spreading in one room but then it would also spread through solid walls which doesn't seem right, I couldn't find how to make it only spread through doors so I left it alone.
I did try changing this once, but then I decided the changes were not fun and took them out again. I could probably make + upload a mod that does this if there's a demand for it.
I did make a mod that reduces the "starvation protection" that sims get when hunger is very low, that makes it take a long time for them to starve to death. It's fun to use with the no free food fridge. You can find it linked from my journal. It's bundled in with a change that limits the hygenie decay for dogs, but I could make a seperate version. I also intend to re-upload all the files linked to there to SimFileShare.
Part of the problem with this is that aspiration rewards can be made to cost more than around 32,000. An old, but still working mod of mine made them more likely to fail, so there is at least some element of risk to using them. The 25% for elixer of life in particular makes it more expensive in practice, since each failure reverses the effect of one success.
I also made a simple mod which increased the cost of the money tree, but so far haven't uploaded it anywhere.
That mod can be found here
@SimFreq - I also use Real Sickness together with Cyjon's Faster Disease Processing and Frequent Disease Processing, it makes sickness more than hard enough to deal with. I also made a mod to make the genie come less option, it's linked to in my journal. With this mod you'll once a sim has at least 2/3rds lifetime aspiration, because getting the genie too early can really mess up the challenge.
All the other mods linked to in my journal are designed to make the game harder in one way or the other, there's one to make college harder to get into and give lower grants, one to make repairing harder (which also increases chances of electrocution) and one to allow non-controllable sims to get pregnant as well affecting needs when giving birth.
Quote: Originally posted by fe2o3
more frequent burglars / fires / catastrophes |
My more dangerous fire mod has already been mentioned, I do think it's a lot of fun so I hope others enjoy it too. It doesn't allow fire to spread out of the room it started in, as it's just a simple change to some constansts in the BCON file. I did take a quick look at the function that controls fire spreading, I could take out the check for only spreading in one room but then it would also spread through solid walls which doesn't seem right, I couldn't find how to make it only spread through doors so I left it alone.
Quote: Originally posted by fe2o3
more needs decay |
I did try changing this once, but then I decided the changes were not fun and took them out again. I could probably make + upload a mod that does this if there's a demand for it.
I did make a mod that reduces the "starvation protection" that sims get when hunger is very low, that makes it take a long time for them to starve to death. It's fun to use with the no free food fridge. You can find it linked from my journal. It's bundled in with a change that limits the hygenie decay for dogs, but I could make a seperate version. I also intend to re-upload all the files linked to there to SimFileShare.
Quote: Originally posted by fe2o3
more expensive aspiration rewards |
Part of the problem with this is that aspiration rewards can be made to cost more than around 32,000. An old, but still working mod of mine made them more likely to fail, so there is at least some element of risk to using them. The 25% for elixer of life in particular makes it more expensive in practice, since each failure reverses the effect of one success.
I also made a simple mod which increased the cost of the money tree, but so far haven't uploaded it anywhere.
Quote: Originally posted by AliaD85
Oh and isn't there a mod to change the prices for NPC services? |
That mod can be found here
@SimFreq - I also use Real Sickness together with Cyjon's Faster Disease Processing and Frequent Disease Processing, it makes sickness more than hard enough to deal with. I also made a mod to make the genie come less option, it's linked to in my journal. With this mod you'll once a sim has at least 2/3rds lifetime aspiration, because getting the genie too early can really mess up the challenge.
All the other mods linked to in my journal are designed to make the game harder in one way or the other, there's one to make college harder to get into and give lower grants, one to make repairing harder (which also increases chances of electrocution) and one to allow non-controllable sims to get pregnant as well affecting needs when giving birth.
#17
14th Sep 2017 at 1:56 PM
Posts: 7,361
Thanks: 2940 in 27 Posts
Thank you so much for the elaborate list @Phantomknight ! That's awesome. And now I need the College Admissions flavor pack..how did I missed that one?
Fire burns walls in real life and so will totally spread that way. I'd go for it, and add the option/flavor
Quote: Originally posted by simmodder
I did take a quick look at the function that controls fire spreading, I could take out the check for only spreading in one room but then it would also spread through solid walls which doesn't seem right, I couldn't find how to make it only spread through doors so I left it alone. |
Fire burns walls in real life and so will totally spread that way. I'd go for it, and add the option/flavor
#18
14th Sep 2017 at 5:16 PM
Posts: 536
Quote: Originally posted by Steffyn
I'm pretty sure this is exactly what my game needed tbh. EDIT: Wait, are you using this with all EPs and such? I want it but I don't know if it'll work with a fully EP/SP'd game. |
My bad. I should have said that I have all EPs/SPs. I glad that you tried it out. I love that it creates such chaos. Who knew that a burglar could be so deadly?
There's no drama, like Sims drama.
Currently Playing: Sims 2 again!
#19
16th Sep 2017 at 1:33 PM
Last edited by fe2o3 : 16th Sep 2017 at 1:50 PM.
Posts: 18
Lots of good posts, I won't be adding everything suggested to the first post just yet I don't think, we will see. Also some mods I can't really judge of their usefulness (ex: slower LTA gain.. seems useful if you play a lot of toddlers and teenagers I guess?), some other mods seem good but really minor (ex: No free food with refrigerator, that's smart, but you save what, 200$ over a lifetime? haha), some mods I had previously checked but wasn't convinced by the way they implemented said changes, and finally some suggested mods without link I wasn't able to find (ex: More difficult OFB business levels, maybe ah_cd_business_levels?)
That's actually really smart, I can see it working great as a short challenge of sorts, but I'm afraid it's going to make the game less engaging and less fun in the long run. The whole point of playing The Sims is to use the information you are given to make the right decisions, a bit like a puzzle, you are given all the pieces right at the start and you have to use your observation and deduction skills to assemble those pieces together correctly to complete the puzzle, that means accordingly balancing your sim needs and aspirations with its daily routine and the kind of actions you do and furnitures you buy to hopefully "beat the game". By hiding that information, the game becomes more of a crap shoot where your decisions and actions are driven by luck more than observation, logic or reasoning, which is not as fun imo.
Looks good. I would have preferred an increased chance % over a weekly occurrence to avoid routine / keep it an unexpected event.
A lot of good stuff, thanks for typing out the description of each mod, makes it a lot easier for me to tell what and how.
I found that one indeed, but I'm not convinced it's the right approach, it only delays the inevitable where your sim eventually learns everything or close to it. I think a system where your sim has to keep practising a skill now and then (say once or twice a week after level 5 idk) or risk losing a skill point to be more realistic and engaging from a gameplay perspective, to encourage your sim to create habits / routine that revolves around that activity, just like every other system really with its own activities (needs, mood, etc..) that needs to be interacted with daily + that forces your sim to make choices, so he can't learn and practice everything and become a superhuman.
Sim Blender seems to do that, but you have to do it manually every time if I understand correctly? heh. It's an option I guess, not the most elegant one.
Like that a lot, it's bit of a quirky way to do it, but it's essentially accomplish the same thing like you said.
The other stuff in your journal, I'd would have to have another look when I have a better sense of certain mechanics, and how easy/hard everything is. But yes, dating, and early business levels seem bit easy.
Can someone clarify the nuance between those 2? I don't really get it tbh. What are the repercussions on the gameplay for either of them?
Quote: Originally posted by ConsoC
Interesting mods list. Also there's the Blind Needs Challenge at this link (http://hexagonal-bipyramid.tumblr.c...the-blind-needs) which basically hides the need bars so you have to rely on the plumbob color to see what mood the sim is in. |
That's actually really smart, I can see it working great as a short challenge of sorts, but I'm afraid it's going to make the game less engaging and less fun in the long run. The whole point of playing The Sims is to use the information you are given to make the right decisions, a bit like a puzzle, you are given all the pieces right at the start and you have to use your observation and deduction skills to assemble those pieces together correctly to complete the puzzle, that means accordingly balancing your sim needs and aspirations with its daily routine and the kind of actions you do and furnitures you buy to hopefully "beat the game". By hiding that information, the game becomes more of a crap shoot where your decisions and actions are driven by luck more than observation, logic or reasoning, which is not as fun imo.
Quote: Originally posted by monijt1
I use Daily & Weekly Arsonist/Burglar ( http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=84336 ) to have the burglar come more often. It also makes the burglar set things on fire. It's great! |
Looks good. I would have preferred an increased chance % over a weekly occurrence to avoid routine / keep it an unexpected event.
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
snip |
A lot of good stuff, thanks for typing out the description of each mod, makes it a lot easier for me to tell what and how.
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
[spoiler=Skilling] So you think your sims are too smart? (Too much smart milk, I say) Well, to prevent them from getting too skilled, you can use a slower skilling mod. I use one by Lientebollemeis, uploaded by Almighty Hat here (it's waaay down the page). You can also limit your sims skills, so that they don't earn skill points too early in life. Ancient Highway has some skill limiters and there's also the Sim Blender, to which Twojeffs added a plug in that allows you to set limits on how many points sims can learn. |
I found that one indeed, but I'm not convinced it's the right approach, it only delays the inevitable where your sim eventually learns everything or close to it. I think a system where your sim has to keep practising a skill now and then (say once or twice a week after level 5 idk) or risk losing a skill point to be more realistic and engaging from a gameplay perspective, to encourage your sim to create habits / routine that revolves around that activity, just like every other system really with its own activities (needs, mood, etc..) that needs to be interacted with daily + that forces your sim to make choices, so he can't learn and practice everything and become a superhuman.
Sim Blender seems to do that, but you have to do it manually every time if I understand correctly? heh. It's an option I guess, not the most elegant one.
Quote: Originally posted by simmodder
Part of the problem with this is that aspiration rewards can be made to cost more than around 32,000. An old, but still working mod of mine made them more likely to fail, so there is at least some element of risk to using them. The 25% for elixer of life in particular makes it more expensive in practice, since each failure reverses the effect of one success. |
Like that a lot, it's bit of a quirky way to do it, but it's essentially accomplish the same thing like you said.
The other stuff in your journal, I'd would have to have another look when I have a better sense of certain mechanics, and how easy/hard everything is. But yes, dating, and early business levels seem bit easy.
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
Slower Aspiration Benefits by Doc Doofus was mentioned, I think, but I also use Cyjon's Slower LTA Gain for slowing the hourly LTA points |
Can someone clarify the nuance between those 2? I don't really get it tbh. What are the repercussions on the gameplay for either of them?
#20
16th Sep 2017 at 2:25 PM
Posts: 5,228
I believe Slower Aspiration Benefits slows down the points gain, thus you earn the slower aspiration perks (which includes, need decays, secondary, and first aspiration perks). LTA makes it slower for sim to reach a certain aspiration's bar color / nirvana.
#21
16th Sep 2017 at 3:08 PM
Last edited by Phantomknight : 16th Sep 2017 at 3:20 PM.
Posts: 2,858
Thanks: 198 in 2 Posts
Well, @fe2o3, I can tell you how I used some of the mods, and maybe that'll help your confusion?
Yes, some of the mods, like the skill limiters and slower LTA gain are designed for players who either play sims from birth to elder or for simmers who might use longer aging mods. Even in a vanilla game (no mods) if you've ever played a sim from birth to at least YA, you'll notice that they are very skilled and most likely have a high aspiration. Even if you never directed the sim to skill, if you put out the right autonomous objects, these young sims will have high skills in things like creativity, logic, and maybe even charisma, mechanical and body, depending on the objects you have in the household. So, by the time your sim graduates Uni, if they go, when they become adults, a significant challenge of the game is gone, because they already have the skills required to meet certain thresholds. Aside from a few random points, unless they pick majors that completely have nothing to do with the skills they already have, these sims won't need to skill much to graduate uni and then, when they graduate, they receive a career boost when job hunting. They start in the upper levels of a career and it only takes a few days--half a week at most--for these sims to top careers and complete LTWs, if they haven't already. Obviously, if you play with a longer lifespan, this "problem" is again experienced. Depending on the amount of days you add, a toddler might very well max a couple of his or her skills, taking the challenge out of some of the other life stages. And then along came Free Time and the lifetime aspiration bar.
Again, you might not notice these things unless you do things like play a legacy or play sims from birth to elder/death. But basically, it's not uncommon for YAs to have maxed their LTA bar before graduating, earning permanent platinum aspiration status. This is partly because the LTA bar is weighted so that the earlier life stages increase the bar faster and because of the wants/achievements that add to fulfilling up the bar. Learning toddler skills and making best friends--the core of a young sim's life--all add to the bar. Having a good aspiration level, also adds to the bar.
For example, with my first generation of legacy kids (so my founder's kids), two of the kids, the knowledge sim and the pleasure sim, of all sims, maxed their LTA bars in college. The other one, a family sim, maxed his days after graduating, when he topped Education. And of course, being perma-platinum takes some challenge out of the game. The sim will do well in whatever career he's in, because being platinum boosts job performance and increases the chance of cards, making it easier to get promotions and earn money. The sim will live longer, too, because when you grow up well you get more days. And of course, there's aspiration rewards. The sim can use the many, many points they earned on the way to getting perma-plat to buy rewards they can use without fear.
So, Doc Doofus' and Cyjon's mods slow all this down. Cyjon's adjusts the hourly gain, so that toddlers don't gain more points than other life stages and fill up the bar too fast while Doc Doofus' cuts the points that certain milestones and wants give to the bar. This way, sims don't have things too easy and actually have to be later in life to earn perma-plat status.
For the no free food and empty fridges, it's not about saving money, but about making the game feel less "cheaty" or about making it realistic--at least for me. Some players, when their fridge is empty, just buy another fridge. Maybe you want to make it so that sims have to buy groceries (either from the store or over the phone)--or you want to have sims grow their own food (or forage and hunt for it, if you play with mods). It's about taking away the convenience of buying things from the catalog and how you view the world your sims live in.
And for the skill limiting, yeah, it sucks a bit that you manually have to do it (game limitations, I guess), but there are some out there that place limits via object--i.e., sims using the easel can only gain x amount of skills. The problem with that though, is that you'd have to do that with every custom version of an object that you place in your game. The sim blender is probably the easiest way, and I think the way a lot of people use it is making sure that sims don't earn too many skills early in life. Because even if you mostly ignore your toddlers and kids, if you have the right objects in your house, they can very well max some skills without any direction from you.
Yes, some of the mods, like the skill limiters and slower LTA gain are designed for players who either play sims from birth to elder or for simmers who might use longer aging mods. Even in a vanilla game (no mods) if you've ever played a sim from birth to at least YA, you'll notice that they are very skilled and most likely have a high aspiration. Even if you never directed the sim to skill, if you put out the right autonomous objects, these young sims will have high skills in things like creativity, logic, and maybe even charisma, mechanical and body, depending on the objects you have in the household. So, by the time your sim graduates Uni, if they go, when they become adults, a significant challenge of the game is gone, because they already have the skills required to meet certain thresholds. Aside from a few random points, unless they pick majors that completely have nothing to do with the skills they already have, these sims won't need to skill much to graduate uni and then, when they graduate, they receive a career boost when job hunting. They start in the upper levels of a career and it only takes a few days--half a week at most--for these sims to top careers and complete LTWs, if they haven't already. Obviously, if you play with a longer lifespan, this "problem" is again experienced. Depending on the amount of days you add, a toddler might very well max a couple of his or her skills, taking the challenge out of some of the other life stages. And then along came Free Time and the lifetime aspiration bar.
Again, you might not notice these things unless you do things like play a legacy or play sims from birth to elder/death. But basically, it's not uncommon for YAs to have maxed their LTA bar before graduating, earning permanent platinum aspiration status. This is partly because the LTA bar is weighted so that the earlier life stages increase the bar faster and because of the wants/achievements that add to fulfilling up the bar. Learning toddler skills and making best friends--the core of a young sim's life--all add to the bar. Having a good aspiration level, also adds to the bar.
For example, with my first generation of legacy kids (so my founder's kids), two of the kids, the knowledge sim and the pleasure sim, of all sims, maxed their LTA bars in college. The other one, a family sim, maxed his days after graduating, when he topped Education. And of course, being perma-platinum takes some challenge out of the game. The sim will do well in whatever career he's in, because being platinum boosts job performance and increases the chance of cards, making it easier to get promotions and earn money. The sim will live longer, too, because when you grow up well you get more days. And of course, there's aspiration rewards. The sim can use the many, many points they earned on the way to getting perma-plat to buy rewards they can use without fear.
So, Doc Doofus' and Cyjon's mods slow all this down. Cyjon's adjusts the hourly gain, so that toddlers don't gain more points than other life stages and fill up the bar too fast while Doc Doofus' cuts the points that certain milestones and wants give to the bar. This way, sims don't have things too easy and actually have to be later in life to earn perma-plat status.
For the no free food and empty fridges, it's not about saving money, but about making the game feel less "cheaty" or about making it realistic--at least for me. Some players, when their fridge is empty, just buy another fridge. Maybe you want to make it so that sims have to buy groceries (either from the store or over the phone)--or you want to have sims grow their own food (or forage and hunt for it, if you play with mods). It's about taking away the convenience of buying things from the catalog and how you view the world your sims live in.
And for the skill limiting, yeah, it sucks a bit that you manually have to do it (game limitations, I guess), but there are some out there that place limits via object--i.e., sims using the easel can only gain x amount of skills. The problem with that though, is that you'd have to do that with every custom version of an object that you place in your game. The sim blender is probably the easiest way, and I think the way a lot of people use it is making sure that sims don't earn too many skills early in life. Because even if you mostly ignore your toddlers and kids, if you have the right objects in your house, they can very well max some skills without any direction from you.
"Thinking of you, wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend." - Kingdom Hearts
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
#22
16th Sep 2017 at 3:15 PM
Posts: 10,972
Thanks: 5477 in 47 Posts
Quote: Originally posted by fe2o3
The whole point of playing The Sims is to use the information you are given to make the right decisions, a bit like a puzzle, you are given all the pieces right at the start and you have to use your observation and deduction skills to assemble those pieces together correctly to complete the puzzle, that means accordingly balancing your sim needs and aspirations with its daily routine and the kind of actions you do and furnitures you buy to hopefully "beat the game". |
I think you've kind of missed the point here. You can't 'beat the game'. The Sims isn't that kind of game. It's a sandbox. You don't beat the sandbox; you play in it until it isn't fun anymore.
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
Some players, when their fridge is empty, just buy another fridge. |
I always mean to buy groceries! But then I get the empty fridge message and I just wanted to feed them now and f--k it, have a new fridge. XD
#23
16th Sep 2017 at 3:21 PM
Posts: 2,858
Thanks: 198 in 2 Posts
Posting this separately cuz I didn't see the question while I was writing my second post.
For extra clarification, yes, Slower Aspiration Benefits slows down the point gain--again, lowering the points that get added to the aspiration bar. Cyjon's mod slows down the hourly rate that fills up the bar. Cyjon explains it a bit on the mod page, but basically, sims also earn aspiration points every hour (and the better your aspiration, the more points). Think of the LTA bar like a meter. It constantly runs, adding points to the bar. Certain milestones/wants, also add boosts to the bar. In a vanilla game, toddlers' LTA bar fills up fast, because the game sets it so that the shorter the life stage, the more the hourly adjustment will be. This means that a toddler's aspiration bar will have much more of an impact than an adult's. The wikia also explains this a bit here. Doc Doofus' mod will slow/lower the boosts to the meter, Cyon's will slow the meter overall, making the meter run the same rate through a sim's life, instead of fast at the beginning, then slowing down as sims get older.
And Charity, no judgement. We've all been there at least once.
For extra clarification, yes, Slower Aspiration Benefits slows down the point gain--again, lowering the points that get added to the aspiration bar. Cyjon's mod slows down the hourly rate that fills up the bar. Cyjon explains it a bit on the mod page, but basically, sims also earn aspiration points every hour (and the better your aspiration, the more points). Think of the LTA bar like a meter. It constantly runs, adding points to the bar. Certain milestones/wants, also add boosts to the bar. In a vanilla game, toddlers' LTA bar fills up fast, because the game sets it so that the shorter the life stage, the more the hourly adjustment will be. This means that a toddler's aspiration bar will have much more of an impact than an adult's. The wikia also explains this a bit here. Doc Doofus' mod will slow/lower the boosts to the meter, Cyon's will slow the meter overall, making the meter run the same rate through a sim's life, instead of fast at the beginning, then slowing down as sims get older.
And Charity, no judgement. We've all been there at least once.
"Thinking of you, wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend." - Kingdom Hearts
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
aka Kelyns | she/her
#24
16th Sep 2017 at 3:22 PM
Posts: 9,952
Thanks: 416 in 15 Posts
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
I always mean to buy groceries! But then I get the empty fridge message and I just wanted to feed them now and f--k it, have a new fridge. XD |
You might like dizzy's stuff-face-hack (in my signature, latest version is in magic-al10c.zip) - it replaces the "stuff face" on the fridge with "go shopping" and they'll go off the lot for a few minutes and return with groceries (which cost money). It's pretty convenient.
I'm secretly a Bulbasaur. | Formerly known as ihatemandatoryregister
Looking for SimWardrobe's mods? | Or Dizzy's? | Faiuwle/rufio's too! | smorbie1's Chris Hatch archives
#25
16th Sep 2017 at 7:20 PM
Posts: 18
Thanks for the clarification I get it now.
Well yeah, you can always restart the game over and over with a new generation etc, but your playthrough for the sim you are playing essentially ends when he dies, and to some extent, when he achieved his lifetime want/aspiration etc. Which doesn't change the premise, gambling with your character needs/mood and the actions/decisions related to it,or simply said, playing randomly, isn't as fun as trying to make the right actions/decisions based on the information you are given, or simply said, playing logically. It's like playing eyes closed, sure, that can be fun for a moment, and in a way creates its own difficulty, but eventually you don't really get to play the game and appreciate it for what it is haha.
I got that part, but that makes no sense to me haha, refrigerators are way too expensive to simply throw them away twice a week haha, you might as well be playing to lose, you are losing so much money doing that, that's really counter productive, unless you are a millionaire or something.
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
I think you've kind of missed the point here. You can't 'beat the game'. The Sims isn't that kind of game. It's a sandbox. You don't beat the sandbox; you play in it until it isn't fun anymore. |
Well yeah, you can always restart the game over and over with a new generation etc, but your playthrough for the sim you are playing essentially ends when he dies, and to some extent, when he achieved his lifetime want/aspiration etc. Which doesn't change the premise, gambling with your character needs/mood and the actions/decisions related to it,or simply said, playing randomly, isn't as fun as trying to make the right actions/decisions based on the information you are given, or simply said, playing logically. It's like playing eyes closed, sure, that can be fun for a moment, and in a way creates its own difficulty, but eventually you don't really get to play the game and appreciate it for what it is haha.
Quote: Originally posted by Phantomknight
For the no free food and empty fridges, it's not about saving money, but about making the game feel less "cheaty" or about making it realistic--at least for me. Some players, when their fridge is empty, just buy another fridge. Maybe you want to make it so that sims have to buy groceries (either from the store or over the phone)--or you want to have sims grow their own food (or forage and hunt for it, if you play with mods). It's about taking away the convenience of buying things from the catalog and how you view the world your sims live in. |
I got that part, but that makes no sense to me haha, refrigerators are way too expensive to simply throw them away twice a week haha, you might as well be playing to lose, you are losing so much money doing that, that's really counter productive, unless you are a millionaire or something.
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