School & Work Friend Choices

SCREENSHOTS
Downloaded 2,701 times 85 Thanks 22 Favourited 10,684 Views
 Say Thanks!
Update Logs

Background
Maxis did a poor job, pun intended, with bringing school or work friend home. TwoJeffs (Simbology), an old legend, made a hack that gives player a choice whether to bring a friend home from school, just befriend them, or reject them. I expanded on their work and made a version for work friend, but after getting frustrated with how the game kept bringing up the same old Sim, I took action and learned a little bit about array...

The resulting reworked school and work friend mechanism sorts for eligible Sims and then narrows them down randomly into a list of up to 6 Sims, depending mainly on Charisma, thanks to the usage of array. Thus, the player now has a choice between turning down all of them and bring no one home, befriending them in any number, or bring 1 of them home as before. Great if not perfect, but now the school and work friend mechanism is far more truly random and respecting the player's choices.


Features
  • Multiple choices of school\work friends
  • Presented Sims are randomly selected through a series of straightforward but long test.
  • Presented Sims can be befriended without being brought home, and in any number - individually, those marked, those unmarked, or all of them.
  • Presented Sims can still be brought home individually, or rejected entirely.
  • STR and LTR boosts are furthur increased by Charisma. (Take that, Maxis! )
  • The chance of bringing any friend home depends on the factor of: outgoingness, reputation, and the "Hospitality" Aspiration benefit.
  • 5 Charisma is almost guarantee to bring any friend home.
  • The number of presented Sims is increased linearly by Charisma.
  • The number of presented Sims is also increased with the "Hospitality" Aspiration benefit and high outgoingness.
  • The maximum number of presented Sims is 6. (Configurable but hard-capped by the code to 10 )
  • Presented Sims are selected through a number of factors.
  • The primary idea is to present Sims less known to the bringer, so those with high LTR are less likely to be selected.
  • Kids going to the same school types are more likely to be selected, same with Sims on similar job levels.
  • Sims within the same range of reputation are more likely to be selected.
  • The minimum chance of being selected is 10%, so a Best Friend can be presented once in a while.
  • Pets may also befriend other pets via the same dialog options.
  • The chance for any friends to be presented for pets is based solely on the playful learned behavior.
  • The number of friends presented is increased as more behaviors are learned.
  • They cannot bring other pets home, however.
  • This feature is enabled by the _PetBringFriend module.

Mod is configurable chiefly by editing BCON: 2013, the Booleans, which control the types of Sims selected and if STR\LTR\rep. should be accounted for.

_Work in particular, has line 0x13 which can be set to 1 to enable befriending work friends outside the bringing hours - a boon for those returning home late at night, or early in the morning.

Other BCONs are straight-up mathematic stuffs, so be advised.


Other changes are complete suppression of hobby chance card in _Work.package as well as the slightly modified Semi-Global Tunings in _SGTunings.package. The SG tunings have increased likelihood of chance card appearing and longer hours for work friend dialogs to appear.

"Simbology Schoolbus Hack" is an optional module that limits school bus notifications.


Options
_SGTunings, _PetBringFriend and "Simbology Schoolbus Hack" modules are optional and located within the main download. _PetBringFriend allows pets to befriend others working in the same careers. Despite its name, pets cannot bring each other home.

The Compatibility_Files.zip contains modified versions of Pick'N'Mix's Automated Walk To School mod and University of Life mod that have been edited to be avoid overlapping resources with this mod. The texts have already been incorporated into this mod, including a Thai translation. If you download it, then follow the Read Me text inside and check for dependencies.


Issues
This mod was made with all expansion packs, and due to certain BHAVs, it is advised to have at least Pets, Seasons, or Bon Voyage installed.

The earliest release of _Work module had an unfinished code that let anyone, on another career or unemployed, or even a pet or a toddler, to be selected. Please get Update 3.

Please report any other bugs in the comment section.


Conflicts
The core module _School adds to or modifies the School Semi-Global group (0x7FBE051B) in the following instances:


The core module _Work adds to or modifies the Job Semi-Global group (0x7F8F4EB6) in the following instances:


Other modules add to or modify by the following list:



Conflicting Mods



Credits:
TwoJeffs (Simbology) for the original School Bus hack, as well as many other works.

Pick'N'Mix for Automated Walk To School and University of Life mods.

kaligi for testing mod conflicts.
heyoniina for Finnish translation.
Simmie-Maus for German translation.
Advertisement:
Other Download Recommendations:
More downloads by Big Woe: See more
Back to top