So basically you mean how to read a BHAV. That phone book is relatively advanced coding, not something I'd recommend for a beginner. I would suggest you put that on your "to do when I know how"-list, and do other things for the purpose of learning. Understanding a BHAV is a gradual thing, you don't go from not understanding anything to understanding all of it. At least I've never spoken to anyone that did that. There are still lots of stuff that I don't understand, or struggle to understand. You learn bits and pieces here and there, and gradually understand more complex things.

Some people are tutorial learners, some are poke and prod learners. I'm a poke and prod. I find it hard to learn from tutorials, because I don't have the patience and just copying instructions doesn't teach me much. I dig around, try changing something and seeing what happens, and when it doesn't work, figure out why. I find I learn more from mistakes than I do from things going right. So first figure out what kind of learner you are. Do you prefer tutorials, or do you like to poke and prod? If you like tutorials, head over to the tutorials section and start working on the modding tutorials. If you are more the poke and prod type, I would recommend starting by looking at other peoples mods. Simple ones, mind you. Things like autonomy changes, or little edits making things faster or slower. When reading, don't just look at the list in the BHAV. Click the individual lines in the BHAV, and look on the right side below the Operands-boxes. A lot of things have labels that give clues to what they are, and you'll only see those if you look at the line itself and read below operands-box. Since you are looking at mods you know what they do, you already have the answer on what that code does, which makes it easier to decipher. You reverse engineer the code, trying to piece together what part is responsible for what. Then if you think you understand something, try changing it and see if you get the result you expect, or not (I recommend testing in a separate copy of user files, or an AGS game you don't care about).

I'd also recommend you find yourself someone you can ask questions. Whether it be a specific person, or a forum, at some point you'll need help to get un-stuck and give you a push along your road. It is possible do learn without help, but it takes us a whole lot longer and causes more frustration than it needs to. Modding discussion here on MTS is increasingly active. Leefish also has a forum where questions can be asked. And I hang out on discord in MTS' create chatroom, from time to time, as does lots of other MTS creators that might be able to answer questions. I'm happy to answer questions if I have time, and if it's something I can answer. PMs are okay too, but I prefer discord because my inbox fills up so quickly.

Oh.
I just found this thread and I thought this would be the kind of place where I could find mods which suit me (in fact I have subscribed in case there are more replies) and I was surprised to find one of my mods in the list.
Might be silly but made me feel kinda proud :D

I linked it in my signature because I noticed a few members asking about these types of mods. I like that you had options for multiple rates and made a set for apartments, by the way.

For university:

• unicareershack - allows you to choose whether a career requires a university degree or specific ones
• Since Phaenoh's version was mentioned on the first page, here's lauratje86's take on a degree-career linkage mod.
• No Late Cafeteria Worker - prevents the dorm cafeteria worker from making food after 11 PM
• nouniprotect might make your dorms livelier... or not later on.
• Bad Floor Sleeping - Sims who voluntarily sleep on the floor will have the same motive changes as sims who pass out. This means no comfort increase, slower energy increase, and earlier waking.
• No Autonomous Research and Assignment
• Dizzy's less-college-study, less-homework-uni, lunch-server-breaks, random-goto-class, and slutty-cow
• kestrellyn's College Tuition and Student Loans
• Lamare's YA Maternity and Related Mods

For needs:

• Faiuwle's nomotiverefreshonarrive - Sims will no longer have all their motives refreshed just because they drove to a community lot.
• Electrocution Fix - fixes motive check errors in determining death by electrocution, and correctly accounts for servo and plantsim motives
• Period hack - I don't use this, but someone might be interested.
• Bed Wetting - affects any child if their aspiration level is low OR if they were not potty trained, and affects teenagers of both sexes if their aspiration level is low, and if they already used to wet their bed as a child. There's another version here.
• Death by childbirth: Sims have a 10% chance of dying in childbirth, which increases if they’re less than 14 days away from becoming an elder by 1% per day. These odds are BCON tunable.
• Guinea pig disease - a recreation of TS1's guinea pig disease

For aspirations:

• Age Duration Hack - checks aspiration level to randomize age range for adults, randomizes age range for elders but the latter isn't aspiration-based
• Aspiration by Use - Aspiration objects are free to buy and instead drain aspiration when a sim actually uses them.
• Dizzy's perma-gold (see Dizzy link above) - makes the lifetime want bestow permanent gold rather than platinum aspiration
• Fragile Permaplat - Fears can cause sims to lose permaplat status.
• Moody Birds - Because birds have moods too.
• Display Aspiration Score Change - It stops the game from resetting NPC & townie Sims aspiration scores, so they retain them when they're out and about. You might have some sims who'll be in constant aspiration failure in the background if they witnessed a fire unless they gain some aspiration points, for example, so they'll be likely to act out.
• Growing Up Wants Panel - Sims receive a 4th fear slot when they grow up with red aspiration levels.
• Mood Mod - Aspiration meters have an effect on a sim's mood.
• Aspiration Failure Mod - Aspiration failures decrease LTA.
• No LTA Permaplat - prevents LTA points from causing permaplats; a personal favorite of mine since I'm selective about permaplats.
• Immaturity For More - changes thresholds to allow sims to engage in actions reserved for those in low aspiration

Relationships-wise, there are also these:

• Break Up Anytime - this version doesn't reduce the relationship hit or fury
• Argue Social Fix - argue always lowers STR and LTR rather than sometimes raising it
• Fury Initialization Fix - prevents "furious" from ultimately improving relationships between sims
• Fragile BFF - removes BFF status when sims become enemies
• Furious Walkby Fix - if you use this you really should also install one of his Fewer Enemy Visit mods unless you like being visited by hordes of enemies every day
• Always Defend Self - always poke or shove back the sim that pokes or shoves them
• Always Insult When Insulted - makes sims insult back when they get insulted instead of crying
• Lecture Enabled - allows you to have your sims lecture other sims anytime
• No Autonomous Apologize - helps keep the relationships down
• Fight Anyone Anytime - also enables fight interactions between teens and adults
• More Nagging
• Chastise Unlocked
• STR-LTR Decay Tuning Mod
• Aspiration-based Engagement and Marriage Memories - with instructions for tuning
• Romantic Standards - some fixes and additions to the game's romance system

A bit of a warning - if you have grouchy sims or those with negative reputations, several of these mods can easily keep them constantly at war with everyone else. Nice sims who find themselves at the receiving end will fight back instead of letting the slight pass.

Financial/Economic:

• Monique's computer does quite a number with loans but also increases interest gained by savings; to prevent interest gain, there's the Wallet Token Controller, Honeywell's Money Jar, and Sun & Moon's Banks for savings, and there's Cyjon's Loan Jar for an alternative loan source.
• Pescado's apthack can make apartment living rather expensive as well, and when you pair it with more expensive bills...
• alternative antihumblehacks by jfade
• Cat Litter Isn't Free
• More expensive plant seed and fertilizer costs
• Realistic newspaper hack - deducts money from household funds for every newspaper delivery
• Commercial Buffet - Buffets work differently on commercial or owned business lots.
• Maternity Pay Fix - Sims no longer get maternity pay on their days off.
• No Autonomous Tipping at Restaurants
• No Autonomous Fishing - just in case you want to limit the food sources
• Lower Promotion Chances
• Random Chance Cards - All chance card choices have a flat 50% chance of being right.
• Not exactly financial, but No Instant Firefighter or Cop may do a number on your funds.
• Lamare's Lot Traits are still in testing, but it mostly works well so far. It includes power outages (and all that entails - including voltage surges breaking your electronics and elevator breakdowns), apartment rent rate tuning, and digging accidents. It's solid on its own, but the effects are better (?) felt when you pair it with Cyjon's LightningStormFix, Simmodder's harder repair, more dangerous fires, and starvation protection reduction. One thing though - if you use Community Lot Time, Community Time or Taxi Charges Money, you might not be able to leave the lot via taxi when the landline are unusable. I don't use cellphones in my game, so correct me if I'm wrong, but I think you can use them to call for a taxi instead.
• Water required for baths/showers and sinks - as it says on the tin; sims must now acquire a water supply to use showers, bathtubs, and sinks. Please read the instructions carefully as it's extensive and requires another mod set linked in the description.
• Playable pickpockets - other versions here.
• Burglary Odds Tuning Mod

Supernaturals:

• Cyjon's Ghost Hack - contains a critical bug fix and a few modules to choose from to change ghost behavior
• Modded Ghost Hack - an edited version of Cyjon's ghost hack that makes ghosts more active haunters and sims more vulnerable to them. I asked HB about it and it turns out that Cyjon's Pushy Scares lowers the motive drop when a Sim is scared to compensate the increase made by Scaring Tweaks. They also said that installing Scaring Tweaks without Pushy Scares makes the ghosts extremely deadly even with Sims with high motives. I tested it in my game with other mods mentioned on this thread and without Pushy Scares, and, in my game at least, it worked as advertised, all right.
• Better Ghosts - some fixes along with new features
• Zombie apocalypse - original version here (mentioned in previous pages, but it might be good to put them side by side), Midgethetree's edit here.
• Vampire Motive Decay Mods
• Vampires Can't Eat Food
• TS1 Genie Lamp - with tunable success and failure rates
• Grimmy-Be-Gone - causes tombstones to appear without Grim's presence; may be used to prevent the temptation of pleading for someone's life

Miscellaneous:

• Hexagonal-Bipyramid's Traits Project - TS2 versions of TS3 traits; includes traits such as Night Owls having increased mood at night and Sense of Humor influencing joke interactions
• Chris Hatch's The Globe - includes miscarriage, relationship changes for discovering the child's other parent and if the pregnant sim is a teen, Wait on Community Time, Time Controller, and other features. Stand-alone versions here.
• Loud Parties Tuning Mod
• Extracted InTeen Features - includes age fertility changes, risky honeymoons, and college admissions
• Random Runaway Pet Pregnancy - just in case you feel like having unexpected runaway pregnancies for your pets too
• Personality Please - This isn't meant as a purely game difficulty-increasing addition to the list since each facet of personality has its upsides and downsides, but this might be useful for someone who wants sloppier sims or whatnot. For sloppier sims alone, there's Cyjon's More Sloppy Sims.
• Slower Fitness Gain
• Disease Mod - an alternative to real sickness
• Personal Acne Cream - can be used to set a sim's personal hygiene levels for zits. Alternatively, there's Cyjon's Faster Zits.
• Variable bookshelves - Study rates are dependent on bookcase cost.

I found that too - if a sim has a low income, Inge's Mortgage Shrubs are painful enough to deal with. However, at least those are tied to the lot, not the sim. I had a sim die accidentally with a loan outstanding and any family moving into her old place get the bills. I'm guessing that if I move her gravestone to her now-grown-up son's house, he'll inherit the debt!

Basically that one just kills dormies. They go to a lecture when they are hungry and need to eat. When they return to the dorm, they have reached starvation point and they drop dead. After a while you get a little collection of gravestones beside the portal. Evidently Mr. Pescado finds this hilarious. I don't.

Once upon a time I went to university, I neither saw nor ever heard of students dying after lectures because they had forgotten to eat. I'm sure I would have noticed the graves outside every hall of residence.

Townies and other non-controllable Sims generally leave the lot if they're hungry unless they can get food. Dormies can't do that because they live there. This mod takes away a basic protection that they need just to live.

Definitely one of my un-favourite mods.

Some members have been asking me about simmodder's mods, but the links on his journal are dead. His policy on his journal says that he doesn't mind his mods being re-uploaded to other non-paysites, so I thought to attach them to this post in the mean time. I've sent him a PM with a link to this post and I'll take these down if and whenever he ever wants me to. All of his zip files with notes are included in the folder below.

In the folder are the following mods:

• Pregnancy changes
• Motive protection tweaks - reduces starvation protection
• Harder repair
• Less chance for genie lamps
• College pack - college admissions, less autumn grade boost, reduced grants

Edit: I forgot to mention that I received permission from simmodder to keep hosting his files here until further notice.

As I've said before, nouniprotect does not kill domies. It's the game programming that does that. All nouniprotect does is unfreeze the dormies' motives so they have to eat, pee, shower and sleep like the playable sims. If the game engine wasn't forcing them to go to class multiple times per day without allowing them time to eat or sleep, there wouldn't be a problem. I wish there was a mod that would make it so they only leave for class ONCE per day and any others visits off-lot would be to visit campus without draining their motives quite so much or even filling fun or hunger (from visiting the campus lounge or etc.). I don't know if this is even possible, but it would be a nice complement to nouniprotect.

Dormies "can't" leave the lot when their hunger, energy etc. get low because they don't need to! They LIVE there! If the dorm is properly designed, dormies should have no trouble getting food from the cook (except during the cook's off work period from midnight to 4am), peeing and showering in the bathrooms, or recharging their energy by retreating into their own dorm rooms. None of my dormies have died or even wet themselves in years (mods that improve need-filling AI can help a lot). They do seem to have some trouble understanding that they need to go to their own rooms when their energy gets low, so I frequently see at least two or three of them passed out on the floor somewhere nearly every day.

Dormies can die with nouniprotect installed, but it's not automatic or guaranteed and it's certainly not the main purpose of the mod. I understand that it's not everybody's cup of tea, but it's hardly a sadistic mass murder mod either.

Even a mod that recharged dormies' needs a bit in class would be pretty nice (either by plain adjusting what happens to them, or - perhaps in the style of some recent mods for after-school/work activities, by adding a "[Sim] was hungry, so will stop by a food place on the way back" event that delays any hungry Sim's arrival at the dorm by an hour and adds food motive (maybe even a little comfort, fun and social, if the Sim is low enough on those)?

Ah well, this is what happens when mods are put in - there are often unintended consequences. Sometimes these are fun... ...sometimes they need to be planned for. (Luxaire Dorm, where six Sims died before I figured out how to keep dormies alive, is a case in point).

I'm adding some mods to the list. Some of them have already been posted on the forums, but not in this exact thread.

• Water required for baths/showers and sinks - as it says on the tin; sims must now acquire a water supply to use showers, bathtubs, and sinks. Please read the instructions carefully as it's extensive and requires another mod set linked in the description.
• Modded Ghost Hack
  Quote: Originally posted by HexagonalBipyramid
  

  This mod is a mix of some elements of Ghost Hack by Cyjon as well as some changes I made. In short, ghosts will be more violent and haunt more often (except during the first night). It will also make Sims a bit weaker, being more vulnerable from dying of fright.

  
  I asked HB about it and it turns out that Cyjon's Pushy Scares lowers the motive drop when a Sim is scared to compensate the increase made by Scaring Tweaks. They also said that installing Scaring Tweaks without Pushy Scares makes the ghosts extremely deadly even with Sims with high motives. I tested it in my game with other mods mentioned on this thread and without Pushy Scares, and, in my game at least, it worked as advertised, all right.
• Okay, this one isn't really a mod, but more of alternatives to the in-game crops and fish that some of you might already be familiar with. Sun&Moon have several sets for those who want more options for wood-collecting and the like, and if you want sims to garden/"hunt" but not necessarily gain gardening or fishing badges, there are collections like these or these that you might be interested in.

Edit: copied to list above

Sorry for the double-post, but I thought I should bump this since I've actually been updating my list in Post 104 over time without notice and some people might want to know about the additions.

(Edit: On the other hand, I'm wondering if I should make a new thread instead of possibly hijacking someone else's, but there's useful information throughout the thread that could be forgotten. If anyone has any idea about the policies regarding this, I'd appreciate the heads-up. )

It's okay to bump threads if you have new and relative information-which you do have.

I didn't see Ancient Highway's University mods mentioned here, so I thought I'd provide some links. These three mods all make it more difficult to raise the class performance meter.

(Chaavik's links in post # 20)
Harder Grades - Professor: Makes it tough to get a good grade by socializing with a visiting Professor regardless of romantic or social interactions. Potential for YA to fail randomly.
Harder Grades - Term: Makes it tough to get a good grade without writing a term paper. Potential for YA to fail randomly.
(Check this with the HCDU since it may conflict with other mods.)
http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=8104.0

Harder Grades - Class: Going to class will not raise your sim's class performance meter as much as in an unmodded game.
(Check this with the HCDU since it may conflict with other mods.)
http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=8059.0

I cannot get this link to work. Actually, it looks like the whole site is down.

But anyway, I came here for simmodder's Harder repair and since I'm here, I might as well share a few I've encountered recently that others might not have yet seen:

Slower Skills-Badges-Cleaning-Repairing - 4 separate mods so you can pick what you like. Most notible imo is the "SlowerCleaningMod" which makes sims take longer to clean, but Neater sims will clean faster than Sloppier ones.
Cleaning Mod - Makes Sloppy and unhappy sims far less likely to clean.
School Mods - Includes another Private School billing option. Also includes (as a separate mod) a few bugfixes related to bringing friends home from school.
Long Life Award Mod - Decreases the effect of the Elixir of Life. Also increases the power of the genie's "Long Life" wish, but since the lamp is about a billion times harder to get than enough aspiration points to buy a bottle of Elixir, I'm positive it shakes out as an increase in difficulty. Probably a rather significant one.
Homework Assignment Mod - I don't use this as it conflicts with simlogical's Homework Skills mod, but those of you who are truly committed to making the game harder wouldn't be using that particular mod anyway. And apparently also conflicts with "Homework Sometimes," but again we're here to make the game harder. Makes it take longer for a sim to learn to study, especially if neither the teacher nor the student is Knowledge aspiration and especially if both have low Logic skill.
Date-Outing Mod - Significantly increases the difficulty of dates by decreasing the affect of fulfilling wants on the date score. (Read my feedback post for even more info.)
Aspiration Failure Mod - Causes aspiration failure to lower Freetime's long-term aspiration.
Mood Mod - Technically makes the game easier while also making it harder. Increases the affect of all aspiration levels on a sim's overall mood, for better or worse. Also includes a version where the sim's most recent 200 memories affect their mood with negative memories having a greater effect than positive ones (still probably evens out to a plus in most cases, but YMMV).
"Ask Sim on Date" by Phone Want Fix - Just a bugfix, really, but technically makes the game a little more difficult because you lose out on those undeserved aspiration points.
Modified Date/Outing Rewards Frequency - A set of independent mix and match mods that allow you to cut back on or completely turn off each type of date and/or outing reward.
Temperature Mod - An alternative to "warmthfixes" so your sims can stay chilled/overheated longer. Allows visitors to pass out and freeze rather than just leaving the lot.
Trash Compactor Fx - Another bugfix that technically makes the game a little more difficult by removing a possible exploit.
Womrat Mod - Hungry and neglected womrats who bite your sim can and make them sick.
Guinea Pig Disease - An alternative to the above mod. I'm not sure what differences, if any, the two have from each other.
More Nagging - Allows more sims to nag each other more often.
Immaturity For More - Allows more child sims to perform "immature" actions such as stomping flowers, kicking trash cans, and having tantrums.
Uncancelable Plantsim Motive Failure (scroll down past the mermaid mods) - Removes the exploit bug that allowed the player to cancel a PlantSim's motive failure.
Only Plantsims/Fairies Talk to Plants - Includes a PlantSim-only version in case you don't have/want Fairies. Prevents sims who simply have a Gold Gardening badge from talking to plants.
Vampires Can’t Eat Food - Obviously you'll need alternative ways to feed your vampires unless you want them all simply to die.
Walk to Lot Mod - Removes the "car" motive boost when sims "walk to lot," since they are not, in fact, in a car.

Edit: I realize now that Sketching linked some of these a few posts up but I'm going cross-eyed trying to read with all the links in my post so I'm just going to leave them along with an apology for being repetitive.

I am going to be no help here at all, because I have no wish to make my sims' lives harder - but I do use noinstantlove

No reason to go shopping or buy a new fridge, @Charity - with Cyjon's perma-fridge here: http://cyjon.net/node/45 - the fridge is filled at midnight and the money deducted from the household fund. (I used it in my military hood, because there were no shops to buy food from, so my idea was that the military is supplying food to the soldiers. But they have shops now ). Which, I guess is the complete opposite of what the OP asked for, but I just thought Charity might like it.

I don't use cars, my sims walk everywhere - does that count as making the game harder for them?

I don't understand why Maxis puts things in the game if the chance is so low that it's irrelevant. I have a mod to increase burglar frequency to 25% chance, I think (still pretty rare in practice--it's not often that everybody's asleep, especially with a pet). Also a mod to increase death by satellite chance to 5%--I've still never witnessed this death in my game.

Thanks. Although I am getting better at feeding them. XD Part of my problem I realise now was DLing a lot of new foods and having to test them.

I don't have a mod, but - I do like my hoods big and there are plenty of burglaries. I don't think I could handle more

Oh yeah if you have a big hood the burglar can show up several times per rotation. By now I'm using the "no burglars" sign because it was getting waaaaaaay to frequent.

I may need to use that too

I quickly looked where I got it from. It's by Simslice and I got it off the booty.

http://svs.paysites.mustbedestroyed...mslice/objects/

Edit: Careful though, I think it also teleports the Burglars off the lot if your Sims are friends with them and invite them over. So, since you like the Pleasantview Townies, I'm not sure if this mod is what you want.

Thank you Getting it right now (and, sorry, I guess that is again not what the OP was asking for )