SassyTeffie: Try this page - http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=111469 - and read Adidas' "Part 5 Dialog and Array" section (well, at least the part about the dialog primitive!). He'll probably be explaining it much better there than I can in a single post.

Well, I haven't gone through ALL of it (still the last part to go) but what I really wanted to do was be able to access animations through an object, and this tutorial turned out to be exactly what I needed. I'm still a little fuzzy on the operands and all that, but I know I'll figure out the details with time and effort. You've done an incredible job explaining how everything interrelates to each other, and that was definitely the scary part of hack stuff to me, not knowing how everything linked up... Thank you so much, Echo. I was completely daunted by the idea of ever messing with BHAVs, but in a very short time, I've gotten competent enough that I can do this. Don Lothario was hula dancing, yay!

Now to go expand on what I've learned and add a buttload of animations to an object. :D

when i get to the Pie Menu Functions part,even though ive ckicked add,then clicked on the copy of View-then inthe Pie String ID box,my new interaction still isnt there even though ive committed and saved the changes in the Pie Menu Strings. Does it take a while to commit-do i have to wait for a 'file committed' box?

It'd help if you could post the object Were you using the painting as your base?

I really like your tutorial, but I'm having a problem in part 4. I've followed it all the way up until after you have me add in the name of the animation to the STR# section. I commited it, and the tutorial says that the description next to the action should say the name of the animation, but it still says:

Animate Sim (Animation: [Fallback: Global] "a-noExpression" [AdultAnims: STR# 0x0081:0x00],

Any help? I've attached two screen shots, one of the STR section with the name added in, and one of the BHAV section with the action selected. Thank you so much if you can help me!

This is normal. The tutorial is a little outdated with respect to the latest version of SimPE, or more specifically, the version of Peter Jones' Simantics Editor plug-in that comes shipped in the latest SimPE.

If you save the package and test it in the game, you'll find the Sim will do the animation.

Well, I can try it... I'll tell you what happens.

Edit - Yay it works! Thanks so much! :D

Edit again - Huh, it's showing it now anyways... Go figure.

butterfly_girl - I think you'll find that when you close the file and reopen it, the filetable is refreshed and the list shows up the correct version. There is a "Refresh Filetable" button which will probably do much the same thing.

Yeah...lol I'm glad it was something simple and not some big thing I did wrong.

I just did most of this (don't have the coin flip alternate paths stuff done) and I have had a great time. Thanks a ton for this. I am using it for my test tubes in my Mad Scientist set that I will upload here in the next few days.

I really wish I had an annotated list of animations.

Well it's not annotated, but there's this in the wiki:
http://www.sims2wiki.info/List_of_Animations/Base

It is possible to extract the lists from SimPE, I've done it before because I've got most of them listed in my useful stuff spreadsheet, I just can't remember how off the top of my head. If you fiddle for a bit you can probably find it though.

Thanks. I actually have that list in .txt on my compy for use. While most animations are pretty self explanatory, it would be nice to know how long they go on and blah, blah, blah. Maybe one year when I don't have anything else to do, I will tackle that.

I'm having a problem with were I make the thing 'Come do stuff' I put in an instance of 0x1002 in the resorce tab. But when I put it into the Pie menu fuctions-untimed tree table, it says that is an invalid Bhav! What have I done wrong? Or is that ok?

Can you post the object here? I can't tell if there's something wrong if I can't see it.

I know this is probebly a pain, the site wont let me attach it, it says it's a .package file. I tried to convert it to .rar but it didn't work!

Edit: Don't worry. I figured it out. Here's the file.

Thanks for this excellent tutorial. I was able to follow it easily, and get everything to work.

Now for my question -

I am working on a "decorative" car, which several people have requested. But I didn't want to make such a large object that did npthing, so I cloned it from a stereo so the radio would work. I used your other tut to make it "non-walkable", and everything works. But I wanted to make the "repair" option always available, so it can be used as a skill object too. I made the menu option "repair" always available, and that also works - but since the stereo is not broken, the Sim will only repair it for a few seconds, then quit.

So what I am trying to do is to have the stereo become broken when the menu option "repair" is chosen, and then have the repair go on just like normal

If I use testing cheats, and click on "set repair level", then on "set maintenance level", it is now broken and my Sim can properly repair it.

So, I imported the "repair" global bhav, and altered it by having it call the "debug set repair level" and then the "debug set maintance level" BHAV's first. I thought this would do the same thing as using them with "testing cheats", but it seems to have no effect at all - the Sim still just repairs the car for a few seconds.

There is also a "repair event" file in the globals, but I wasn't able to make any sense out of it so I left that alone.

I suppose I'm going about this completely wrong, I'm hoping you can point me in the right direction. Or at least let me know if this is actually a very advanced thing that an amature like me shouldn't be attempting.

Jess - You missed the step where you change the group on all your imported files. Find the pie menu functions file, open up the resource tab, and enter 0xFFFFFFFF into the "Group" box. Then do the same for the pie menu strings. It should show up better then.

Dr Pixel - Actually, you're doing it the advanced way, it's just that most people don't really think to do it the somewhat easier way. My suggestion is just to make a "come here and animate until I tell you to stop" BHAV just like the tutorial describes. Use a "fixing things" type animation. Then, just before the looping part of the code, paste these in:
[opcode] [parameters]
0x0193 1A87580700000A00000A000001000000
0x01D7 1A834D0800000A000007000001000000
then just after you leave the looping part of the code, add this one:
0x01D8 00000000000000000000000000000000

When you add it to the pie menu, just call the interaction "Repair" and no one will ever know the difference.

That's the bare bones of skilling, at any rate. It adds to mechanical, which you can change using the second and third operands boxes on the first row. If you want the funky "Your sim has earned a new skill point" option, then just import the "CT - Skill Gain Dialog" BHAV from whatever it was you cloned.

It may sound like more work, but it ends up being a lot easier than trying to understand how the Maxis guys got their object to work, then figuring out how to change it without breaking it.

All that said, you were certainly heading in a valid direction. The problem is that the break/repair system is actually a very complex one which is a pain in the backside to actually work with. And in your case, I have a feeling you don't actually want the thing to change between fixed and broken at all, you just want it to act like it's permanently broken?

Oh, great idea! I think I can manage that. Yes, you're completely right, I really don't care if the object is broken, I just want the Sims to be able to act like they are repairing it for a while, and gain a skill point. Actually, I think I will just leave the whole original "repair" stuff as-is complete with it's menu option (because eventually the thing really will "break" and need repairs) and just add a new option, maybe I'll call it "tinker with" or something like that.

Thanks again for making such nice, clearly explained, tutorials.

I am going to look at the tutorial, but got one question, does this show how to change the pie menu that is already there? I want to change some of the text that comes uop when you click on serve meal>???? like

instead of:
pork chops

change it to:
Meatload.

Thanks

esjay - Didn't you ask this question once before? http://db.modthesims2.com/member/sh...499#post1509499

This tutorial doesn't directly explain how to change the pie menu of an existing object. To do that, you need to create an override package for the food item's text list.

I'm just wondering if you can edit sim to sim or sim to NPC actions with this.

Hi Naruto! Yes, you do edit social interactions using BHAVs, although the changes are a bit more complicated than you'd find in this particular tutorial.

I figured out how to but the NPC's always leave before any interactions can take place, is there a mod for this?

You mean you've cloned a unique NPC and you're trying to make them do something new, but they keep leaving? Or is this a different problem?

The above is caused by the existing code inside the "main" loop of the cloned NPC, and yes, it's a real pain to get rid of. But no, there's no mod for it, because it's part of the proper behavior for most NPCs. If you don't want your NPC to have that behavior, you need to modify the code for your clone, not use a mod.

so I need to make a stay behavior?