Nraas Story Progression...issues!

[JohnL]

First off: I have just a handful of individual houses set to FALSE for "move individual" and "move as family", (mainly my sims family members or best friends) but SP is still moving them into new homes. Not a huge deal, but when it's a house I built especialy for that family I prefer them to stay. Besides, it's usually tons better than what they end up moving to..so I don't get why they move. I never overlaod homes with people and there are always penty of beds and things to do and space. But whatever I know they don't really "think".

Basically I'm having some trouble understanding several of these menu options in the SP mod.
I have no idea what "allow caste" means. I think that caste has something to do with matching traits of sims? But how do you work it so you get desired results? Like keeping your sims parents from flirting with your kids spouses. WTF is up with that anyway? It bugs the crap outta me!
sigh....Is there a SP mod for dummies?

It's just a lot to file through! My head hurts. LOL Whoever made this mod is amazing! Even what I have been able to do so far has been great! I just wish they'd dumb it down a bit for those of us who are not so adept at this kind of thing. I swear I''m not stupid in general. I mean; give me an English paper to write or a world map to fill out and I got that easy peasy. I can name almost any planet or galaxy and tell you all about them. But this SP mod is a whole lotta stuff!

Another issue I have is that default is set to NOT push teens to get jobs, yet the SP mod has given nearly every teen outside my active family a freakin job. I even added a bunch of homeless into empty houses in hopes of filling jobs, but they still got put into them. Some were even put into adult type of jobs like writers and investigators! The teens in question don't even have a Lifetime Wish yet! I don't like the teens working because they are never available to hang with my family's teens! It's not even like most of the households need workers, some of them are already rich.

It also bugs me that the game takes sims away from active sims all the time to go do something else that isn't even really nessessary. (rabbit hole jobs...really? They don't even really do anything...fine for active sims, but inactive? please!) Half the time they are just going home to watch TV! Or it will say they are unavilable to talk, but anyone who's looked sees the other sim never really is on their phone who you're talking to...so why the BS? I know I've followed them! (this was true even with EA's SP) You'd think the active sims would take precidence over what the SP wants them doing, at least within reason. I get it if it's not a good friend or family memeber, but seriously, having your sims brother take off in the middle of a game or conversation because the AI wants them watching TV at their home is stupid! I tthought I read there's a way to ease that happening a bit, but I never found out just how.

Anyway, if one of you out there can explain some of this or direct me to a link where someone else explains some of this I'd be grateful. I spent several days filing though FAQ's and forums that my eyes are blurry! I find bits and pieces of explanations, but never what I need. Of course I know some of it I will just have to deal with, and that's okay, but if I can make my gameplay better I'd like to do that!

[marstinson]

For some of this (like the Sims moving houses when you're not looking), I'd have to refer you to the mod's documentation, but I can answer at least some of what you're asking.

"Caste: Allow" doesn't have to do with traits; it's more about categories that Sims belong to or conditions that a Sim meets. So, you can work with a caste that consists of all Sims in the medical career, or all Sims who are teenagers, or all Sims who have an occult life state (or not) or even Zodiac signs. So whatever action it is that an NPC Sim might do when you're not looking (remember that the active household is exempted from SP control), "Caste: Allow" means that the Sims who are members of that group can have that aspect of their behavior controlled by SP.

There is a boatload of Boolean logic involved with sorting through those caste options, so I'm afraid that "SP for Dummies" isn't going to be very helpful. However, the Chatterbox board at NRaas ( http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Chatterbox ) is populated with people who know a lot more about this kind of stuff than I do. I mostly leave the caste stuff at defaults unless I am really clear on what I'm doing and why (which probably explains why SP is mostly at defaults - it's a brain strainer).

Keep in mind that SP's purpose is to give the player a sense of a living community. Joe can't come over right now because he's got a job, so you do that stuff outside of his work hours. I agree that it's kind of aggravating. My teen couldn't hang out with her BFF after school because her BFF had an after-school job because SP decided that she needed to have one.

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di marstinson:

For some of this (like the Sims moving houses when you're not looking), I'd have to refer you to the mod's documentation, but I can answer at least some of what you're asking.

"Caste: Allow" doesn't have to do with traits; it's more about categories that Sims belong to or conditions that a Sim meets. So, you can work with a caste that consists of all Sims in the medical career, or all Sims who are teenagers, or all Sims who have an occult life state (or not) or even Zodiac signs. So whatever action it is that an NPC Sim might do when you're not looking (remember that the active household is exempted from SP control), "Caste: Allow" means that the Sims who are members of that group can have that aspect of their behavior controlled by SP.

There is a boatload of Boolean logic involved with sorting through those caste options, so I'm afraid that "SP for Dummies" isn't going to be very helpful. However, the Chatterbox board at NRaas ( http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Chatterbox ) is populated with people who know a lot more about this kind of stuff than I do. I mostly leave the caste stuff at defaults unless I am really clear on what I'm doing and why (which probably explains why SP is mostly at defaults - it's a brain strainer).

Keep in mind that SP's purpose is to give the player a sense of a living community. Joe can't come over right now because he's got a job, so you do that stuff outside of his work hours. I agree that it's kind of aggravating. My teen couldn't hang out with her BFF after school because her BFF had an after-school job because SP decided that she needed to have one.

Thank you, this is helpful. And I'm going to leave most of the stuff as is too. LOL.

I'm figuring out some of the stuff and I did read that others have had sims move out with the SP mod even with them supposedly "protected". I guess nothing is perfect.

I do like realism, so if my BFF or love has to work then okay...I worked as a teen so I get that. But other stuff, like the flirting IMO that would mean once a sims kid marries someone they are as off limits as the kid would be. I get that it happens sometimes, but seriously I've never known anyone and I've been around the block and seen some crazy stuff. I would be fine were it an option of game-play, but it should not be easy or common and I would think if they can keep sims from flirting with their own kids then same or similar algorithms should apply once they are married. I'd be okay if it was while dating...but what kind of horrible parent would do that to their kid? At the very least they should have a "faithful" trait that you can get or have as a lifetime happiness where your sim wont stray. I don't mind the occasional drama, but sims are kinda horrible HAHA

[marstinson]

Messaggio originale di JohnL:

Thank you, this is helpful. And I'm going to leave most of the stuff as is too. LOL.

I'm figuring out some of the stuff and I did read that others have had sims move out with the SP mod even with them supposedly "protected". I guess nothing is perfect.

I do like realism, so if my BFF or love has to work then okay...I worked as a teen so I get that. But other stuff, like the flirting IMO that would mean once a sims kid marries someone they are as off limits as the kid would be. I get that it happens sometimes, but seriously I've never known anyone and I've been around the block and seen some crazy stuff. I would be fine were it an option of game-play, but it should not be easy or common and I would think if they can keep sims from flirting with their own kids then same or similar algorithms should apply once they are married. I'd be okay if it was while dating...but what kind of horrible parent would do that to their kid? At the very least they should have a "faithful" trait that you can get or have as a lifetime happiness where your sim wont stray. I don't mind the occasional drama, but sims are kinda horrible HAHA

Sims should not be autonomously flirting with family members. In fact, Romantic interactions should be completely unavailable when interacting with family members other than spouses, live-in partners, and that kind of thing. The Woohooer mod can override this restriction, but it's one of the things that can cause problems with SP where those restrictions are enforced, so you get mod conflicts (Woohooer wins in this case because it's the last loaded).

Autonomous flirting outside of an existing steady relationship is also fairly rare. Modded games are another story and Romantic Interests don't count for this, so it's entirely possible for a Sim to end up as an R.I. with several other Sims due to that behavior. Little interest letters and presents that show up in your Sim's mailbox are a different problem created by one of the EPs and I don't recall anyone coming up with a mod or work-around to dampen that behavior. Lots of gripes about it on the official forums, but no solutions as I recall.

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di marstinson:

Sims should not be autonomously flirting with family members. In fact, Romantic interactions should be completely unavailable when interacting with family members other than spouses, live-in partners, and that kind of thing. The Woohooer mod can override this restriction, but it's one of the things that can cause problems with SP where those restrictions are enforced, so you get mod conflicts (Woohooer wins in this case because it's the last loaded).

Autonomous flirting outside of an existing steady relationship is also fairly rare. Modded games are another story and Romantic Interests don't count for this, so it's entirely possible for a Sim to end up as an R.I. with several other Sims due to that behavior. Little interest letters and presents that show up in your Sim's mailbox are a different problem created by one of the EPs and I don't recall anyone coming up with a mod or work-around to dampen that behavior. Lots of gripes about it on the official forums, but no solutions as I recall.

The parents DON'T flirt with their kids, but their kids spouses. I have never had them flrit with their own blood or stepchild. But I have had nearly ever parent flirt and compliment appearences and such with their own kids spouses. Gay and straight couples. They are married and live in the home with the parents. Eventually, if left automous, one of the parents will flirt with the spouse of their own kid. Sometimes to the point the partner gets upset. The only mods I have are SP, Overwatch, Master Controler, MC Cheats and Error Trap. I have no desire to have the whoo hoo mod. I was not aware this was supposed to be rare. That's upsetting because I have 5 differnt games, one in each of the towns, Twimbrook, Sunset Valley, Bridgeport, Appaloosa and RIverview. In every town I have had this problem. I make sure all my couples are over 75% happy with each other too! IDK what the problem is, but I had it happen a few times before I ever even added a mod.

[marstinson]

For the immediate problem of the upset partners, use Master Controller to give your Sims enough reward points to puchase the "No Jealousy" and "Above Reproach" rewards. That will at least dampen down the hurt feelings and keep the gossip-mongers at bay, although anything more than some flirting might earn someone an unwanted reputation.

For the underlying problem, you can blame the developers. Any Sim that is Young Adult or older and not related by blood is pretty much fair game for some autnomous flirtation. It usually doesn't go beyond that, which is why I said that it's rare (OK, Don Lothario in Riverside is kind of designed to be a skirt-chaser). I know you don't like Woohooer, but it actually does let you clamp down on autonomous Romantic interactions, although many who use it go the other way. You can limit autonomous Romantic interactions to partners only and crank up the relationship level required before the target will be receptive to them. I have mine set to something like 60 or 65, so the only autonomous Romantic interactions that can happen are between Good Friends or better. Those settings can also be applied to cats, dogs, and horses if you have Pets installed.

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di marstinson:

For the immediate problem of the upset partners, use Master Controller to give your Sims enough reward points to puchase the "No Jealousy" and "Above Reproach" rewards. That will at least dampen down the hurt feelings and keep the gossip-mongers at bay, although anything more than some flirting might earn someone an unwanted reputation.

For the underlying problem, you can blame the developers. Any Sim that is Young Adult or older and not related by blood is pretty much fair game for some autnomous flirtation. It usually doesn't go beyond that, which is why I said that it's rare (OK, Don Lothario in Riverside is kind of designed to be a skirt-chaser). I know you don't like Woohooer, but it actually does let you clamp down on autonomous Romantic interactions, although many who use it go the other way. You can limit autonomous Romantic interactions to partners only and crank up the relationship level required before the target will be receptive to them. I have mine set to something like 60 or 65, so the only autonomous Romantic interactions that can happen are between Good Friends or better. Those settings can also be applied to cats, dogs, and horses if you have Pets installed.

Thanks. I suppose it just bugs me overall, but you're right: They usually only flirt and it rarely goes beyond that. It's just creepy when it's a parent to their kids spouse, outsiders I don't mind. Oddly the "ask to watch the stars" action seems to upset partners the most, which I find hilarious. (other than actual kissing of course)

IMO basic flirting is harmless in RL. But in this game I suppose it's the way the sim reacts to a flirt that is odd to me. If a sim compliments your appearence, they seem to get so giddy and do that whole "ummm hmnmm!" thing which makes it seem worse than it would be in RL. When someone tells me I look nice I just say thanks. LOL Refining the way a sim reacts to different flirts would be nice of the dev's.
BTW: I don't have "no jealousy" reward, that must come with a DLC I don't have? I do have "above reproach" though and most of my sims have that..but I just thought that was to keep others from freaking out if you make out in public.

Anyway, thanks for all your help and responses. I really am loving the SP mod quite a bit, I have had a few glitches though, like where a family would be moved into a "wealthier home", and it has fewer beds than people, or they have pets and babies and there isn't anything for them in the new home. But that's not a big deal, I just edit the home when that happens, or move them into one with the right number of beds/pet stuff.

I am amazed at how many more pregnancies there are with SP! I love that aspect, I was tired of my sims kids having like 6 people in their class! LOL But god forbid you give a sim the "surrounded by family" wish! One of my sim extras with that LW has now had two sets of twins and is preggo again! She didn't even wait for the first two to age out of toddler age! I had to build them all cribs! I keep most sims NP now with this mod since I can just look in and do things from the side. I think that is what I love most. Of course once and a while you have to make others active to get some things done.

[marstinson]

You have the right idea on dealing with Sims who move into houses that are not properly equipped for them. Either Master Controller or Story Progression (I forget which) has a "Home Inspector" function which checks for things like appropriate number of beds for people and pets, cribs and that sort of thing. You access it from City Hall (maybe a computer, too). Once I locate a household that needs to be fixed, I make it the active household (because it makes the new stuff come out of their funds), add/move/fix whatever is critical, and then repeat (home inspector, switch active household, fix) until everyone is dealt with, at which point I switch back to my regular household. I've tried doing all of that with the game paused in order to keep SP from messing with my household while they aren't active, but I almost invariably have to undo what SP changed while I was otherwise occupied.

Go check the end of my guide on non-traditional pregnancy (how to do it for gay/lesbian couples), for a similar experience after two of my Sims had babies.

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di marstinson:

You have the right idea on dealing with Sims who move into houses that are not properly equipped for them. Either Master Controller or Story Progression (I forget which) has a "Home Inspector" function which checks for things like appropriate number of beds for people and pets, cribs and that sort of thing. You access it from City Hall (maybe a computer, too). Once I locate a household that needs to be fixed, I make it the active household (because it makes the new stuff come out of their funds), add/move/fix whatever is critical, and then repeat (home inspector, switch active household, fix) until everyone is dealt with, at which point I switch back to my regular household. I've tried doing all of that with the game paused in order to keep SP from messing with my household while they aren't active, but I almost invariably have to undo what SP changed while I was otherwise occupied.

Go check the end of my guide on non-traditional pregnancy (how to do it for gay/lesbian couples), for a similar experience after two of my Sims had babies.

Nice guide. What I do with my gay-male sims is use the instant baby and use his hubby as the donor. They take turns being the "mom". It works fine. Only once did I get a very many-looking girl, but to be fair her dads both had very square jawlines and so that transfered. (I just softened her up in CAS) It works like a normal pregnancy to pollinate with two females.
Also, I've done the "pollinate" on two guys, but they go though their pregnancy with no bodies only a head and feet. LOL I don't know why that happens when you can have them get pregnant via alien and gain weight just like the women. Seems strange the system wouldn't just use that. Also, with the pollinate male cheat if you do not get the dad-mama to the hospital he wont stop having kids! He has one, puts it down, has another and another....But it works out fine if you get him to the hospital to deliver. This happened to me on two occaions and I had to restart the game without saving. I save often so it wasn't a huge loss of time. Anyway instant baby works best for two men so that's what I use. =-)

[marstinson]

The "floating head and feet" thing is because the game lacks the appropriate meshes and textures for males and teens. I can understand not having meshes/textures for teens because EA wanted to keep their T-for-Teen rating, but the missing male stuff is weird because male pregnancy was added through an official expansion, but it didn't include them (figures). Anyway, if you check modthesims.info, you'll find player-made fixes for that.

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di marstinson:

The "floating head and feet" thing is because the game lacks the appropriate meshes and textures for males and teens. I can understand not having meshes/textures for teens because EA wanted to keep their T-for-Teen rating, but the missing male stuff is weird because male pregnancy was added through an official expansion, but it didn't include them (figures). Anyway, if you check modthesims.info, you'll find player-made fixes for that.

Thank you. I may look into that. But I am okay with instant baby, pregnancy only last a few days and there doesn't seem to be much benefit in being preggers other than time off work.
I thought it was odd since young adults and adult males can get alien-pregnant, and even get regular fat in the same clothes, but for some reason it doesn't transfer?

I do wish that like the NPC's you could just leave your babies at home and they'd vanish to daycare of whatever. (BTW where is daycare? I see options for the job, but can't seem to find an actual daycare in town...is that in another DLC? About 80% of the babysitters you get are horrible! I only had one lady in Bridgeport who did a good job and spent most of her time with the babies, the rest have nearly all been horrible, (in every town) leaving them screaming their heads off while they watch TV or play around the house.

[JohnL]

Marstinson- I've been meaning to ask, is there anyway with the mods I have to turn off the crappin trick or treating? And to get rid of that godforsaken ice cream truck? I wouldn't mind the trick or treating except it seems to come more than just once a "sim-year" and always at the most inopportune times, like the kids and teens my sims are playing with take off suddenly to go trick or treat. GRRRRR What's worse is they end up in the stupid costumes for days before changing out of them! I usually just MC cheat them back in their usual, but it really get's old! It's completely annoying. I looked in SP and haven't found anything yet.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think because I have my seasons set differently it somehow messes with the holidays? I have SPring and Fall for 7 days and winter longer (15 or 20 I think?) and Summer is maxed out.

[marstinson]

I'm not aware of a way to turn off the ice cream truck without going to other mods. There is an older mod (built for v.1.29) that turns is off completely, but I have not checked whether it works under the current patch level and the last comment on it was six years ago.

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=459968

If you really want to get rid of the truck (it is annoying, but you also have to give up the "Yummy Goodness" moodlet - it's a trade-off I could live with), I'd say drop in the mod, see if it works (since it only addresses one thing, it shouldn't conflict with anything else) and delete it if it doesn't.

For the trick-or-treating, it should only be happening on Spooky Day. If it's happening at other times, there is something else going on. I don't think the oddly lengthed seasons are the reason because the holidays are only one day within those seasons and trick-or-treating is only supposed to start at 4pm on Spooky Day. So I'll have to claim "beats me" on that one. You might try evening out the lengths or just reducing Fall to 1 or 2 days (Spooky Day has to fit somewhere) to see if that fixes it.

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di marstinson:

I'm not aware of a way to turn off the ice cream truck without going to other mods. There is an older mod (built for v.1.29) that turns is off completely, but I have not checked whether it works under the current patch level and the last comment on it was six years ago.

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=459968

If you really want to get rid of the truck (it is annoying, but you also have to give up the "Yummy Goodness" moodlet - it's a trade-off I could live with), I'd say drop in the mod, see if it works (since it only addresses one thing, it shouldn't conflict with anything else) and delete it if it doesn't.

For the trick-or-treating, it should only be happening on Spooky Day. If it's happening at other times, there is something else going on. I don't think the oddly lengthed seasons are the reason because the holidays are only one day within those seasons and trick-or-treating is only supposed to start at 4pm on Spooky Day. So I'll have to claim "beats me" on that one. You might try evening out the lengths or just reducing Fall to 1 or 2 days (Spooky Day has to fit somewhere) to see if that fixes it.

Thanks I will try that with the ice cream truck. I tried twice to object delte...the frst time the music still played and didn't stop until next time I opened the game, So I waited for it to turn off and drive away and delted it and it was back the next day!
I just don't get why it sets outside all day until night! Geez! Go away! It would be better if the damn thing did like a real ice cream truck and drove around stopping ONCE or twice at the house but also went to the park and stuff. But instead it just sets outside my sim house like some FBI survelence vehicle! LOL

It could just be my imagination, but I swear it seems they trick or treat on every holiday, but I will try to pay more attention to be sure.

[Thundercracker]

you might want to give this a look, in regards to the ice cream truck: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Traffic

[JohnL]

Messaggio originale di Tarn:

you might want to give this a look, in regards to the ice cream truck: http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Traffic

Thank you. I don't know how I missed that one when I got my other mods.