Custom Vacation Destination Themes?

[Verno77]

I was wondering, do you think modders, like the ones here at MTS2, will figure out how to make there own vacation destination themes for BV (like woodland, tropical, or Asian). What kinds of things would a modder need to do and how long would it take? That would be sweet if someone did it. What types of themes would you want to see, too? I would want to make a medieval or a Mars theme.

By the way, this is not a request thread, I’m just really curious of the possibility of custom themes. I don’t even use mods (I’m just here for the lots).

[Numenor]

I think that the game can manage only the 3 known types of exotic destination. I say so, because the game marks each neighborhood type with a code that represents its type. These codes are stored in the global Behaviour Constant 0x014C; at the present time, these are the only allowed values:

http://img292.imageshack.us/img292/1013/pic1jw0.jpg (http://img292.imageshack.us/my.php?image=pic1jw0.jpg)

The NH code is checked many times by the game: for example, to choose what wants should appear in the selector, or to know whether the NH can host a hotel, or whether the NH should spawn a Bigfoot, a tourist guide etc.

If you create a NH and DON'T associate it with one of those codes, the game won't recognize it as a vacation NH (or won't recognize it at all...)

[Verno77]

Wow, thanks for the info.

[funkyj]

The NH code is checked many times by the game: for example, to choose what wants should appear in the selector, or to know whether the NH can host a hotel, or whether the NH should spawn a Bigfoot, a tourist guide etc.

This may be slightly off-topic, but are those attributes editable?

Say I wanted Bigfoot in my Asian travel location, or wanted to change the greeting of the NPCs in the vocation NH from bowing to something else, like the vampire Bleh emote?

Is that kind of thing possible with SimPE (and very little skill) ?

I know the basics of SimPE - I can figure out how to change wants and lifetime achievements etc, but my knowledge fades greatly as soon as I see a hex value :D

[Numenor]

Well, changing the BCON is possible but would lead to a more "global" result that you'd want...

Example: let's say that the code for the Bigfoot checks the neighborhood type with an instruction like this (I'm putting this "human" words :P )

- Is the NH type equal to the BCON 0x014C:04? (note that "BCON 0x014C:04" means "line 4 of the Behaviour Constant 0x014C", which currently holds a value of 6).

- If the above statement is TRUE, then create BigFoot.

Now, if you edit the BCON 0x014C, for example swapping line 4 and 5, then the BigFoot will be created in tropical destinations, but NOT in mountain. Moreover, everything the game usually applies to a mountain environment will now be applied to tropical islands (I guess for example the seasons: it will be always winter, in your tropical islands, and always summer in your mountain locations!).

I don't think it's a good idea...


EDIT:
I was thinking that perhaps it *IS* possible to create custom NH types, but it would require:

1) Adding a line to the BCON, setting a value not conflicting with the existing one;
2) Create a global mod, so to modify *ALL* the BHAVs that perform the "NH type check" (there might be a lot, in the game...), forcing them to take in account, among the various possibilities, also the new custom code.
But this would be a very hard mod to keep up-to-date: probably, at the first new EP it would cease working...

EDIT AGAIN:
Naaahh! What I wrote above is just silly...
We can create a new code for a custom neighborhood, but then, *how* can we assign a code to a neighborhood? We can only create Tropical/Eastern/Mountain neighborhoods, and even using the "LotZoning" cheat we can change the NH type, but only assigning one of the existing NH types...

So, I back up to my first opinion: creating a custom vacation lot is not possible.

[Verno77]

Well good luck to who ever attempts it. :)

[Numenor]

I've re-read my earlier post and I've changed my mind, lol :lol:

[Verno77]

Well that’s a bummer. :(

[Inge Jones]

Well perhaps if we find whereabouts in a hood file this value is stored, it could be edited manually, say put a 8 in it and add a 9 to the BCON (and write some code that actually does something if it matches that etc etc...)

[funkyj]

Thanks Numenor.

I was hoping that using one of the NH as a basis I could mod everything and turn it into a medieval/horror themed destination complete with custom greetings and such.

Oh well, maybe Sims 3 :D

[Verno77]

I can't wait that long. A medieval/horror themed destination sounds great though.

so... any other ideas on how this might work?