The SmartDoor HOWTO
The SmartDoor HOWTO
This file is also included in the main download.
Contents- INSTALLATION
- BUILD MODE - PLACING DOORS
- QUICK CONFIGURATION
- Choosing a Preset Access Mode
- No Entry
- User Directed
- Pass Gender
- Halt Ages
- No Visitors
- Keyholders
- 3's a Crowd
- Simple Clothes Changing
- ADVANCED CONFIGURATION
- Popup Summary
- Show Settings
- Door Visibility
- Private / Locked / Unlocked
- Grouping Sims
- Age list
- Keyholders / Fishholders
- Max Sims
- Advanced Access Control
- Advanced Clothes Changing
- HAVING PROBLEMS
INSTALLATION
Copy the package file to the "My Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2 Downloads" folder.
To uninstall, delete the package file.
BUILD MODE - PLACING DOORS
To place these doors on your lot, switch to 'Build Mode' and open the category
Build Tools -> Doors and Windows -> Doors.
These doors will show with a '*' on the icon indicating that they are custom doors.
Clicking on these icons will pop up a box stating 'tunaisafish smart door'.
If you don't see this, seek help for how to install custom content.
If you install the optional smartdoor_collection.package , you can also find the doors
in the 'Smart Door Items' collection folder.
You can now move the door over an existing wall on your lot and it will snap into the
wall in valid positions. Look at the green squares at the base of the door, you MUST
ensure that the ARROWS POINT OUT OF THE ROOM - in the direction of the EXIT.
Sometimes you need to help the door snap into the correct wall when there is more than
one wall available. Use the '<' or '>' keys to rotate the door in these situations.
QUICK CONFIGURATION
When a smartdoor is first placed, it acts just like a normal door.
Access is unrestricted (Normal mode). Both sides are unlocked.
Sims will not change clothes when passing through the door.
In 'live' mode, when you click on the door the configuration menu is displayed.
You can configure all options on the doors while the game is paused.
Choosing a Preset Access Mode
The first menu displays the current mode, and leads you to a menu to choose other modes.
For example. "Access (Normal)..." shows the door in the default mode.
When using a 'preset mode', additional options that are relevant to the mode are shown
under the "Show Setting..." menu. An option common to all will be locked/unlocked.
All of the preset modes allow sims to pass freely in the exit direction;
the same direction the green arrows were pointing when you placed the door.
The preset modes avalable are:-
No Entry
Entry is completely blocked.
Well that is almost true. Some special Sims are *never* blocked by the smartdoor as
doing so could mess up your game. These special sims are the Grim Reaper, Burglars,
Cops, Fire Fighters, RepoMen, Social Workers, Social Bunnies and the Therapist.
Settings:
Locked (default), Unlocked
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (Off)
Halt Others
User Directed
Entry is blocked, but it will not block Sims if you are controlling them.
This blocks sims that are acting under Free Will; sims that you have not queued any
commands for. So the main way for a sim to pass is for you to direct them into the
room, or command them to use an object in the room.
You can also issue 'user directed' commands to sims you do not directly control.
An example of this is 'Ask to join' command that you can give another sim when the
selected sim is playing a game or laying on a bed.
As well from letting your user directed sims pass through, the door does not block
NPCs when they are doing their jobs. So your maids, gardeners, etc. can still turn
up on your lot and perform their tasks unhindered. Most of the preset modes include
the Pass NPC option.
Settings:
Private (default), Locked, Unlocked
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (Off)
Pass Overrides; user directed, no power
Pass Employees
Halt Others
Pass Gender
Choose which gender you want to allow entrance.
After choosing this mode, it defaults to allow females through. If this is wrong,
go to the 'Show Settings' menu to toggle this setting to 'Passes Males'.
Settings:
Private, Locked (default), Unlocked
Passes Females (default), Passes Males
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (Off)
Pass Overrides; user directed, no power
Pass Employees
Pass Females
Halt Others
Halt Ages
Choose which age groups to blocked from entry.
After choosing this mode, use the age toggle options under the 'Show Setting' menu
to set the ages you want to be able to Pass.
Settings:
Private (default), Locked, Unlocked
Passes/Halts Toddlers, ... ,Passes/Halts Elders
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (Off)
Pass Overrides; user directed, no power
Pass Employees
Halt Age List
Pass Others
No Visitors
Don't allow visitors entrance.
Visitors to your lot include everybody that doesn't live there, and NPCs when they
are not performing their job. The lot residents and Employees can enter freely.
Settings:
Private (default), Locked, Unlocked
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (Off)
Pass Overrides; user directed, no power
Halt Visitors
Pass Others
This is the default mode for smartdoors placed on community lots.
Your controllable sims are still classed as residents to the door, so will not be halted.
Keyholders
Give keys to those sims you want to allow entry. Up to 12 keys may be given out.
Use the submenus under the 'Show Settings' menu to give or take keys from your sims.
You can give a key to any sim that is present on your lot as you click on the door.
Visiting sims will still be able to enter with their key the next time they visit.
You can take the key back from a sim at any time; even if they aren't present.
Settings:
Private (default), Locked, Unlocked
Give/Take keys
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (Off)
Pass Overrides; user directed, no power
Pass Keyholders
Pass Employees
Halt Others
3's a Crowd
Choose how many sims are allowed in a room.
When using this mode, make sure there is only one door to the protected room (or rooms).
The door keeps count of the room occupants by counting the sims entering and exiting
through the door. Entry is blocked when the room occupants equals the Max Sims setting.
Initially, the room is assumed to be empty, but if there are sims in the room things will
sort themselves out when the last sim leaves.
Settings:
Locked (default), Unlocked
Max Sims; 1 to 7. Default 2.
Equivalent Custom Options:
Max Sims (2)
Pass Others
Simple Clothes Changing
You can set clothes that the sims change into as they enter or exit the room through the
"Entry Clothes" or "Exit Clothes" menus.
When first placing the door, both these menus will display (off), click the menu to turn
on clothes changing. Now these menus will show "..." at the end, indicating that there are
sub-menus.
Click the menu again, and choose the "Change into (no change)..." menu.
Select the clothes you want from the list.
The door will not change the clothes of babies, toddlers and children.
Ignore the other options for now. Or read 'Advanced Clothes Changing'
ADVANCED CONFIGURATION
Popup Summary
Choose the menu option "Access (mode).../Popup Summary"
to see a summary of all the current access and clothes-change settings.
These menu items are always found first in the list (at the top).
Show Settings
The 'Show Settings' menu displays general information about the door, as well as the main
settings discussed above in 'Choosing a Preset Access Mode', when they are relevant.
Door Visibility
'Door is always visible' (default), 'Doors hides with walls'.
This toggle option is always displayed.
If you find the doors get in your way, use this option so that it displays the latter.
You may then need to raise and then lower your walls for this to take effect.
Private / Locked / Unlocked
This tri-state setting is displayed for preset modes.
- Unlocked
In this state, sims pass freely. This turns off all the blocking actions, except one.
Sims will still not barge in on others that are using the toilet, or other similar
objects. This makes the smartdoor behave like a normal door.
- Locked
The access checks are turned on, and sims will be allowed to pass or be halted
dependant on the access rules you choose. Sims that are allowed to pass can still be
halted by another sim using the toilet though.
- Private
As locked, but sims that are halted will not be aware of other Sims or objects
behind the locked door. They lose their object telepathy.
Sims that are allowed to pass will still be aware of the objects in the room.
For best results, only use this state on rooms that only have one entrance.
For example, you could use the private state on a music room and block visitors from
wanting to play the instruments. If you had used the locked state instead, your visitor
would walk to the door, find it locked, then wave their arms and complain at you.
The object telepathy is different from the game's jealously emitter. So don't use
this state and expect your sim to be able to cheat on their spouse and not be found out.
Both sims will still get the 'caught cheating' memories, although the spouse can still
be halted when they run to dish out the slapping, so at least the cheater will not be
furious with the spouse for being slapped.
Techie talk: The 'private' door state is achieved by using the route-blocker-flags.
Each sim on the lot, runs a routine occasionally that scans all objects on the lot and
calculates routes to the object. If it discovers a portal along the route it looks to
see if the route-blocker-flag 3 (lockable) is set. When set it calls the Test BHAV to
see whether the sim can pass. So setting the 'private' state will cause the access
checks to be run many more times than the 'locked' state.
I've not noticed any slow down in game play using the private state. But I would not
use this state with *two* smartdoors controlling access to a room or area. This is
because the route checking routine would then see the controlled area as a route to
reach objects outside the controlled area - in through one door, out through the other.
Grouping Sims
There are three different groups that can be used in the advanced access control, and
two of these can also be used in the clothes changing control.
The 'Show Settings' menu allows you to add or remove sims from these groups.
The grouping of sims, does just that. It defines them as a group.
If you are in 'custom' mode and add a Sim to the keyholders group, don't expect that
access will be automatically granted.
- Age list
This allows you to group sims by matching their current age.
Use the Add/Remove menus to select the ages that you want to match.
This group is only relevant to the 'custom' access mode.
- Keyholders / Fishholders
These two separate groups hold the names of individual sims.
They are relevant to both custom access and clothes changing control.
Sims that you give a key, are referred to as Keyholders.
Sims that you give a fish, are referred to as Fishholders.
The number of keys and fish you give out cannot exceed 12.
eg. you could give out 7 keys and 5 fish, or 12 keys and no fish.
You are allowed to give 1 sim a key and a fish if you need to.
Max Sims (Off)
This settings shows whether you are using the door to control how many occupants the
room can hold before blocking more from entering.
Toggle the option to turn this test on, and choose a number from 1 to 7.
Choosing the number 0 will turn the test off.
See the "3's a Crowd" preset access mode above for more info.
Advanced Access Control
The "Custom Entry" and "Custom Exit" menus, have an identical set of submenus.
The submenus should be read in a clockwise direction as that is the order that the tests
are applied. As soon as a test matches, the sim will either be allowed to pass through the
door (Pass) or they will be denied (Halt); the remaining tests will be skipped.
If you are using the 'Max Sims' test described above, it is applied before all other tests
for the 'entry' side only.
The common access menus are...
- Private / Locked / Unlocked
This option has the same meaning as described above in the 'Show Settings' section.
When 'Unlocked' the remaining submenus are hidden.
- Pass Overrides...
If any of the conditions in this list are marked (On), and they test true,
the sim can Pass.- Day 7-18
- Dusk 18-19
- Night 19-6
- Dawn 6-7
Tests the time of day. These conditions are true between the hours shown. - User Directed
True if the sim is carrying out a user directed action.
See the notes in the 'User Directed' preset mode above. - No Power
True when the power has failed. As of Nightlife, this does not happen,
but it may be introduced in an later Expansion Pack.
- Halt Overrides...
If any of the conditions in this list are marked (On), and they test true,
the sim will be Halted.- Day 7-18
- Dusk 18-19
- Night 19-6
- Dawn 6-7
Tests the time of day. These conditions are true between the hours shown. - Free Will
True when the sim is carrying out an autonomous action.
This is the opposite of 'User Directed'.
- Other Tests...
You can optionally choose to ignore carrying out the following tests by toggling the text to display 'Ignored'.
Otherwise the tests are enabled and display 'Matched'. When these tests are on
you will see additional toggle menus to decide whether a true test means they Pass or Halt.
- Keyholders
True if the sim a member of the Keyholders group. - Fishholders
True if the sim a member of the Fishholders group.
A sim can only ever match one of the following 3 tests at any one time.- Residents
True if the sim is currently controllable (sims icon shown on the LHS flagpole) - Visitors
True if the sim is currently uncontrollable (and not an Employee) - Employees
True if the sim is 'on the job'.
- Age list
True if the sims age matches one set in the Age list group. - Gender
True if the sims gender matches that displayed.
- Passes/Halts Others
If all tests above were false, this toggle menu diplays the default action.
Advanced Clothes Changing
The "Entry Clothes" and "Exit Clothes" menus, have an identical set of submenus.
The submenus should be read in a clockwise direction as that is the order that the rules
are applied.
- Enabled
This means that clothes changing is turned on. click it to turn it off.
- Fishholders (ignore) / Fishholders (no-change)...
Use this menu to control which outfit the fishholders group will change into.- If you do not have any fishholders, or do not want the fishholders group to have
different clothes changing rules than others, leave this setting on 'ignore'. - If you want your fishholders to never change when going through the door, use the
'no-change' options. - Otherwise, set the option to the outfit of your choice.
If the setting is changed from the default 'ignore', the fishholders group will not
have any further rules applied to them.
- Keyholders (ignore) / Keyholders (no-change)...
The same options as with Fishholders.
- Skips Employees / Changes Employees
By default, the door excludes maids, gardeners, etc. from changing out of their work
clothes while they are 'on the job' - Skips Employees.
Toggle this if you want the following clothes changing rules to apply to them too.
- Ignores Current Outfit / Match Current Outfits...
By default, the door does not take into account what the sim is currently wearing
to decide whether to change their outfit - Ignores Current Outfit.
Toggle this if you want their current outfit to be taken into consideration.
When you click on 'Ignores Current Outfit', the 'Match Current Outfits...' menu
appears showing toggle options for all the outfits you can match against.
Also, an extra menu will appear so you can decide what action you want taken if the
sim is currently wearing an outfit that matches one listed.- Changes if Matched
Only change the sims clothes if they *are* wearing a matched outfit.
- Changes if not Matched
Only change the sims clothes if they *are not* wearing a matched outfit.
- Change into (no change)...
Choose the new outfit to change into from the list.
Examples scenarios
Your husband and wife are turned on by different outfits, Undies and Formal respectively.
Give the husband a fish, and set the menus as follows.
- Enabled
- Fishholders (Formal)...
- Keyholders (ignore)
- Skips Employees
- Ignores Current Outfit
- Change into (Undies)...
You don't like seeing your sims leaving the house when they are in undies, PJs or Naked.
- Enabled
- Fishholders (ignore)
- Keyholders (ignore)
- Skips Employees
- Match Current Outfits... (Matches Undies, PJs, Naked)
- Changes if Matched
- Change into (Everyday)...
This last example behaves in a similar way to the 'Coming Home' doors made by Inge Jones.
Her doors have preset changing options on both sides, and double doors are available too.
HAVING PROBLEMS
Menus not appearing - The door does not divide two rooms. Fix it in build mode.
Sims do not stop at door - Read 'User directed' access mode.
Sims don't stay naked - Install nudity/noblur hacks.
Sims won't change into naked - Thai versions of the game will use Undies, apparently.
Some Sims are never blocked/changed - Search above for 'special sims', 'babies'.
These doors are too complex for me - See Inge's doors at
http://www.simlogical.com/
These doors are too easy for me - See Pescado's APO at
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/
I want to have your children - I'll post a Sim tunaisafish some day.