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YAWN - Yet Another WritiN' Mod UPDATED 22nd October 2009

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4,059 Downloads 671 Thanks  Thanks 47 Favourited 66,620 Views
Created by dave_n_charity
Uploaded: 20th Oct 2009 at 1:08 PM
Updated: 22nd Dec 2010 at 2:12 AM - Two new versions added
I have updated YAWN! It's Late Night compatible! It's pending approval! It's failing to allow me to add it as a new file to this post! So you'll just have to wait for it!

I have just added two more versions which make writing a lot faster! See what's new just after "Okay. Anything else?"

Why another writing mod?
I thought the system of advances and royalty payments could stand to be a little more realistic. Plus there were a few other things I really wanted to adjust.

What has not been changed at all?
First of all, I did not change anything relating to the Article, Life Story or Political Memoir. These three "genres" are all related to specific careers, and so are not available to a normal "career" writer.

So what has been changed?
I changed the order in which some genres are available, and the level needed for them. It made sense that longer books are harder to write, so the order has been adjusted so genres become available in the order of shortest average length to longest average length. Of course, this won't apply to Biographies or Autobiographies as they are dependant on Opportunities, nor will it apply to Fantasy or Satire as the levels required for Sci-Fi and Humor have not changed. It will apply to Vaudeville as Romance will be available a little earlier, but the requirements for Vaudeville kind of make it no big deal. The only two changes were Children's book went from level 3 to level 1 and Romance novel went from 10 to 9.

So what about this new way payments are made?
First of all, I changed the values of the books. It seems to me that the higher the level of a writer, the better known they are, and the more their books ought to be worth. The values for written books are now related to the length of the book as much as possible. Yes, this means that some books will be worth a whole lot more than they used to be.
More importantly, Royalties are now linked to the value of the book, just as they should be. Before you go thinking you're going to be stinking rich in no time, I have to tell you that all of the Royalty payment have been lowered. Some by a lot. For example, the default average for a Masterpiece was 2925, but I've lowered it to 678. But don't start yelling yet, you will make more on average than you used to! For one thing, just as with the very excellent "SolaceInSound's Writing Mod With Royalties for Life," Royalties will be paid out "for life." To be more exact, Royalties will be paid 1174 times, which should be enough to cover the entire life of a long-lived Sim with an Epic life span.
I've also greatly increased the amount for Advance payments. I found it a little stupid that the default setting had my Sims earning (for example) Advances of §8 for each of the 5 parts that were submitted for a book that would earn a total of §150 in Royalty payments. When a publisher pays an author an advance, it's usually a great deal more than that. Advance payments are linked to book length, and, by default, are paid at the rate of 1/2 Simolean per page. Oh, and for some extremely ignorant reason, this amount is the same whether your Sim is a level 0 unknown or a level 10 world-renowned master author. Call me silly, but I think most publishers would gladly give Stephen King a much larger advance than they would give to Johnny Noname. So I changed the amount of Advances as follows:
  • level 0 - There was no option to change this for level 0, but it seems to be the same as level 1.
  • level 1 - §1.5/page
  • level 2 - §2/page
  • level 3 - §2.5/page
  • level 4 - §3/page
  • level 5 - §3.5/page
  • level 6 - §4/page
  • level 7 - §4.5
  • level 8 - §5/page
  • level 9 - §5.5/page
  • level 10 - §6/page
So you're total Advance for a 2200 page Masterpiece will be §13200! I think that makes up for the much lower Royalty payments!

What about unlockable genres?
For one, I've lowered the number of Biographies required to unlock Autobiography from 3 to 1. I also lowered the number of Sci-Fi required to unlock Fantasy from 3 to 2. And I changed the number of Drama, SciFi, Humor, Mystery and Romance required to unlock Vaudeville from 2 each to 1 each. I know some people might be very unhappy with this, so I have a version that keep those numbers the same.

Okay. Anything else?
  • Page Per Minute bonus for Sims that have mastered writing => from .25 to .5
  • Hidden skill multiplier => from .1 to .15
  • PPM bonus for Bookworms => from .03 to .1
  • Max % change from hidden skill => from 60 to 90 ("GenreX Writer" is almost definately going to have a Best-Seller when writing in their specific genre.)
  • Books required to unlock Masterpiece => from 25 to 20
  • Painting skill required for Children's book => from 4 to 3
  • Times partial work is submitted => from 5 to 4
  • PPM base value => from .125 to .17
  • PPM multiplier for "Speed Writer" => from 1.4 to 2
  • § earned to achieve "Speed Writer" => from §30000 to §25000
  • Minor tweaks to the "Royalty Rating" system - I changed the values so there would still be §,§§,§§§ et cetera values listed next to the available genres in the skill journal. At the default values most everything would have been only §!

I see faster versions! How much faster is writing in these new ones?
Yeah, I made versions that make writing faster. A lot faster. For one thing, I bumped the base PPM from .17 all the way up to .25! Why .25? No, it is not just to be faster than Chaavik's (very excellent) Faster Novel Writing For Sims 3! With a base PPM of .25, it will take a starting writer (with no other bonuses) exactly 6 hours (an average work day) to write an average-length fiction (or non-fiction) novel, which will earn them about §135 in advances, or about §22 to §23 per hour. This is in keeping with starting wages for decent careers, so it seemed like a great basis for the new speed.
I also lowered the required number of books that have to be read to earn a speed bonus in writing from 50 to 25. I was thinking about making it even lower, but I decided cutting it in half was a pretty major change and I didn't want to make it too easy.
The only other change here involves the speed bonus for writing 20 books. For some reason the default increase was 0! Why even have it in there if it isn't going to be used! So I bumped it up to .1. Not a lot, but it makes a whole lot more sense than 0!

Anything else you'd like to say?
Uh, sure. I guess first of all, though it shouldn't need to be said, the four versions here cannot all be installed at the same time, so pick just one. And it won't play well with other writing mods either. I am still thinking of creating versions where advances are paid at 10%, 50% and the default 20%, as well as versions that pay royalties for different lengths of time. Right now I'm not sure what to set those lengths of time at, or how many more versions would be too many (as adding just one change means adding four more versions). I would really welcome any feedback on those points! That's about all I can think of. I hope you enjoy this mod. Thanks.

Additional Credits:
Thanks to SolaceInSound's Solace In Sound's Writing Mod and Chaavik's Faster Novel Writing For Sims 3for the inspiration to do this.
Extra special thanks to everybody that has ever taken the time to help people figure out how to make mods.
A world of thanks to all of you who have downloaded the original two versions, said thanks and given feedback!
No thanks at all to a certain nameless "mod-creating" programme that completely borked my junk. *GRR*
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