Okay, so in my game, I'm playing a challenge where you can only control two of your people, but you need more for the challenge to work. So I have eight living on my lot, but I can't even click on the other 6 to see what their needs are (not allowed). So, to make it easier, and also because all their pictures were annoying me, I made six of them unselectable. It worked fine until I left the lot and went back in, and now the other six keep saying "bye" and trying to leave. They walk right through locked doors, go to the edge of the lot, disappear, reappear, walk to the other side of the lot, disappear, reappear, etc, etc. I've tried deleting the doors so they couldn't get to the sidewalk and they stand their and scream until they pass out or starve. I've tried making them selectable and canceling the "leave" action, but it just reappears... They are all members of the household, so I don't know where they think they're going... *Rolls eyes*

SO, my question is this: Is there any way to make them unselectable without them trying to leave? Or do I just have to bear with their portraits taking up the entire left side of the screen, and be more careful where I click?

I would say it was saving and exiting the lot that did it. I've made sims unselectable before, but I've never left them that way on leaving. Maybe try moving them in?

Phaenoh's apocalypse mod does it without causing that effect.

You could try figuring out how Phaenoh coded it, I suppose. Or use that portion of the apocalypse mod, if the sims you want uncontrolled happen to be elders.

Usually what I do with that sort of challenge is make sure the sim I can click on is at the top of the list, since it's alphabetical when they're the same age, I get a lot of Asylum controllables with 'A' names.

Or one could ask Phaenoh if she could write a program that would be only for Asylum or other challenges. Perhaps I will!

If you make sims unselectable, they may glitch. Particularly if you save them as unselectable, or if they don't really belong to the family (if they've been summoned to the lot and made selectable).

I think some of them might sort of turn into a form of townies when made unselectable, and I've had unselectable sims try to "go home" in the evening. Not entirely sure whether or not they were family members, though.

The safest is to have them selectable, but not touch the portraits, or make them selectable again before you save the lot.

Ok, I did send a message to Phaenoh, and here's what she says:



So that's how you do it, and by the creator herself.

Edit: I took a look at the original download here, and this is the particular package that makes elders unselectable:
Pet Service: Elder sims are not selectable or controllable.

So all one has to do is open up SimPE and find the controlling node to change it into a mod that works for an Asylum challenge.

Simple as pie!

Semi-random comment:
I love that mod! I use the elder part in another hood which has a nursing home where elders who developed dementia go (random dice roll)

I wonder if the mod could be adjusted for the letter of a sims first name (ie: all "B" names be unselectable but controllable sim has a "C" name) but that might be too finicky. Are you going to give it a go Fran? I think the hair colour differentiating would be interesting, as long as there were the different options of colours.

I'm afraid not. I can't read the logic systems for this kind of mod, and I'd just screw it up hopelessly. If you've ever seen the 'nodes' of SimPE, you'll understand what I mean.

You have to know some basic Cobol/Fortran programming logic to understand how it works, and that I do not.

Sorry! Just threw that out there for someone who's braver than I to try their hand at. A programmer, I am not.

Edit: I looked at a 'cheat sheet' that I have for building hoods, and this is the cheat that you can use either permanently (by putting it in your userstartupcheat) or temporarily for a session:


From what I can remember you have to go to the NH view to get the cheat to activate properly. If that's the case, exit the lot to the NH view, then enter the cheat. Re-enter the lot and do the second step.