What I want to do
I want an aging mod compatible with pet, as the one l like is out dated.

What I have done so far.
Open the old aging mod I like and looked at the valuer and ruleof6 from MATY which is compatible with pet. As ruleof6 works in game I started by changing the aging values to ones I wanted, put it in game and it seems to work. Sims, and pet are the ages I wanted, and the scale from short life span to epic is as I had hoped. They also age. So far so good.

I also have found the age manager file in the game so I can start from scratch if I need to.

MY QUESTION:
Both the ruleof6 file and the ea aging files have tons of addition lines of code in them that i am NOT changing. Things like camera angles, cakes, notification, skill for npc's on age up.

Do I need the whole file and the values I changed, or just the lines I am changing in the new package?

for instance do I need to keep this line
<kAgingEnabledByDefault value="True">
<!--Range: True or False. Description: whether aging is enabled by default in new worlds.-->
</kAgingEnabledByDefault>

in the new package file if i am not changing it?

or can i just include the items i am changing?

I figure I need the stuff at the top and the bottom and the items that go with the values i am changing. for instance:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<base>
<Current_Tuning>

and

<kMinimumSimDaysPerAgingYear value="1">
<!--Range: positive decimal values greater than or equal to one. Description: minimum number of Sim days that make up each year of aging.-->
</kMinimumSimDaysPerAgingYear>
<kDefaultSimDaysPerAgingYear value="7">
<!--Range: positive decimal values greater than or equal to kMinimumSimDaysPerAgingYear. Description: default number of Sim days that make up each year of aging.-->
</kDefaultSimDaysPerAgingYear>
<kMaximumSimDaysPerAgingYear value="100">
<!--Range: positive decimal values greater than or equal to kDefaultSimDaysPerAgingYear. Description: maximum number of Sim days that make up each year of aging.-->
</kMaximumSimDaysPerAgingYear>

I am new to xml and do not know how to do "tags" and was unable to come up with info in a google search. I would however be willing to read a tutorial if one is available.

thank you

You need the whole file. When you put an XML override in the game, the game will only load the override from then on and ignore the original XML.

Last edited by Buzzler : 11th Feb 2012 at 10:58 PM.

Good to Know. Thank you for the quick response.

There seem to be some weird inconsistencies in how EA codes. Either that, or I'm just not privy to their logic.

I want to edit NPC ages (There are mods that do this, but I've decided I don't want to download 3257029583209502 mods that will inevitably conflict when I can do my own XML tuning.) I've got the ServiceNPCSpecifications XML up, and it's referring to "Age Flags" like this:

At some points, I've seen various values. 4 is child, as that is what the Newspaper NPC's AgeFlag is set to, and teen is 8, according to the Babysitter tag. I've seen other values, 32, 48. But I was looking at some of the career resources, and I think I recall seeing values like 52 and one number greater than 100. So what does each value mean?

I tried looking for a "common XML" page or something, where it explains what some of the more common Sims 3 XML tags and values are. If it exists, I'd love a link. If it doesn't, I think it'd be super helpful. Even just as a cheat-sheet.

--elan

Are you sure it's not a cut-down hex or hash string?

Well, this is from the core (Sims3.SimIFace.CAS). Maybe it's useful.

public enum CASAgeGenderFlags : uint
{
None = 0u,
Baby = 1u,
Toddler = 2u,
Child = 4u,
Teen = 8u,
YoungAdult = 16u,
Adult = 32u,
Elder = 64u,
AgeMask = 127u,
Male = 4096u,
Female = 8192u,
GenderMask = 12288u,
Human = 256u,
Horse = 512u,
Cat = 768u,
Dog = 1024u,
LittleDog = 1280u,
Deer = 1536u,
Raccoon = 1792u,
LargeBird = 2048u,
SimWalkingDog = 2304u,
SimWalkingLittleDog = 2560u,
SimLeadingHorse = 2816u,
SpeciesMask = 52992u,
LeftHanded = 1048576u,
RightHanded = 2097152u,
HandednessMask = 3145728u
}

The u on the end is just a suffix, so you don't need to include that in the XML tuning.

@Whiterider: Not sure. Here's more information in context, if it helps. This is still from the ServiceNPCSpecifications XML:



What nonamena posted looks related, but it doesn't have 48. I think 48 indicates that the NPC may be of either YA or A age?

In regards to the other values I've seen, this is from the ActiveCareers XML:



I'm assuming that these values all indicate what ages are allowed for each "job." It looks like 8=teen only, 48=YA or A, 56=YA or A or E? I suppose I could keep up with this assumption and go look for other values. According to nonamena's post, each age alone has a power of 2 value, which means the 48 and 56 are intermediates which indicate combinations.

As much as I like computers, coding can be so... blah.

Last edited by elansims : 24th Mar 2012 at 07:55 PM. Reason: fixed for clarity

I might be totally off on this, but this is what I am thinking:

48 = 16 + 32, which would be YA or A (like you suggest)
56 = 8 + 16 + 32, which would be T, YA, or A. There is a career uniform prefix for teens, so I guess it's not totally off.

AgeMask = 127 which is the sum of all integers from baby to elder.

I hope if I'm wrong somebody will tell me. I think I will ask at the NRaas wiki and see if somebody there can help. I've been googling but have not found an answer.

Ah, Twallan has explained it here: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/message...105676#52106014

Oh, thank you nonamena! God, binary. Twallen's right, that's a bit old school. ...no pun intended. I'm going to keep a .txt of his explanation somewhere so I don't go crazy trying to remember my binary.

Apparently there is/was a bug with the Master Chemist logic skill challenge where it resets if a Sim moves town and can't be completed again. For example my sim has 130% potions discovered and has no more left to discovered, but it's incomplete.

I wanted to fix it but couldn't find where to tune it in gameplaydata. I can find the chemistry set tuning bits, and the other logic challenges are under LogicSkill_0x18d1257adfd2ed99, but Master Chemist is missing.

I found a mod that alters many other challenges but not this one.

Does this mean it's simply not tuneable? Do I then need to look at core modding?

Thanks.

[QUOTE=DeadEV Could not open package:
C: \ Program Files \ Electronic Arts \ The Sims 3 \ Game \ Bin \ Gameplay \ GameplayData.package [/QUOTE]

I can't open this either.....

"Program Files" are not on my system. I have "Documents" and "My Documents".

Mine shows: Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/ ....there is no "game" folder in here.

Why?

I downloaded S3PE and was hoping to be able to use it.

I have some custom mods on my "C:\Users\David\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3\Mods\Packages" Folder, and normally it would be detected on "Custom Mods Found" in game. But it didn't show up, nor it works. How to make it works? Sorry for bad english, I'm not native in english. Thanks.

Edited:

I got three new installed mods(that's the problem :/ ) highlighted ones.



and all of them are not detected, thus not working in game.




I tried to remove Script folder and moving all files to Package folder, but it didn't help.

Last edited by Arc216cN : 2nd Jun 2012 at 10:18 AM.

Tuning mods (XML/ITUN/OBJD/OBJK etc edits) do not show up in the Mod Scripts Found popup dialog. Only script mods show up there.

Thanks for quick reply.
Btw, will it work even if it's doesn't show up?

Yes. Tuning mods never show up in the mod scripts found pop up, whether they "work" or not

Why don't I see an editor button? What do I do? I want to mod but every time I try, something gets in my way...

Same happened to me. I don't have a /game folder in there either. So does anyone know where I find the gameplay file to create a mod??

ETA: I found it. Mine is located here:

Program Files (x86) / Origin Games / The Sims 3 / Game / Bin / gameplay.package

There are also separate file folders for the expansion packs (example: Program Files (x86) / Origin Games / The Sims 3 / Late Night /), so I'm guessing if I want to edit something like bar and club open/close times I would go into the folders for Late Night....?

I downloaded my base game and 2 expansions via the EA site so I guess that's why I have a different path from everyone else? I know a couple other people had the same problem finding it so hopefully this will help.

Last edited by ladyluxe : 30th Jun 2012 at 03:53 AM.

I am currently learning how to read the _xml resources, and was wondering if there is a tutorial to understanding a lot of the abbreviations and codes used? (I don't actually want to change anything, just learn more about game mechanics)

Specifically I want to know what <Overmax_Mult> means in the SculptingData _xml. EDIT: Could it be the additional value for every nth sculpture made? If so, is it added to all sculpture types, or just the type of sculpture? Eg: If my sim makes 6 stone sculptures, the overmax_mult is 15; 6x15= 90, so is that 90 added only to stone sculptures, or to all types of sculptures?

Also, there seems to be a lot of variance in the units that multipliers are calculated in.
Most seem to be in decimal form, but referenced as a percent, so I'd assume they mean 40% when they say .4 rather than 0.4%; but sometimes they use a value like '1200', like in the minumum bonus value for a masterpiece sculpture. Would that value be in simoleans? In other words, an additive bonus rather than a multiplier? That would make sense to me, but I'd like to confirm with someone who knows more about the coding.

Edit: Yes, overmax is the additional value for every nth sculpture made. I've posted this information at Carl's Sims 3 Forum.

Last edited by chuckles_82 : 16th Aug 2012 at 07:57 AM.

ok...silly question...browsed through first 5 pages no one asked....:D
so if i just want to change the value of something....say make learning skills instant...do I really need to create a new package or can I just save the original file (overwrite it) or would that mess up my game?

Yes. You must always make a new package. Never overwrite the original game data.

The Tutorial on Wiki needs to be updated. Pretty much none of it is correct. I printed it off before I realized just how little of it was relevant - pretty maddening. So I come to this thread and it appears that I must look through all of these threads to see if I can piece something together. I don't have that kind of attention span. I've worked with S3PE some but was looking to take it a bit further with modifying a few of the aspects of parties, since the Mods I used to use haven't been updated for quite some time.