How to mod skillnames..., (lots of questions)

HI,

me (maybe others too) needs information (about how to) :

  1. mod new skillnames - although its easy to add a new skill it always shows up as “nv_skillname”
  2. there is an issue that skills, especially the job experience doesnt seem to degrade !
  3. add custom achievements like the theory or song writing, with custom text, conditions and effects
  4. there is also some small issue that there seems to be a song-royalty limit of six royalty payments - preventing my rockstar becoming insanely rich :slight_smile:
  5. a way or structure to add things like assets,industries,commute,attributes, activities, websites, and some variables and settings of the config.txt into the MOD-folder
    (that means without using or appending the original \simulation files)
    this should also be used to alter the values for existing items (like an override)
  6. is it possible to implement the use of variables (like skill or attributes) or very simple formulas in the effects of activities - smt. like fitness,0.4*_energy,_DEGRADE_FITNESS
  7. change the user interface - especially the size of the attribute screen (or make it auto-fit the amount of attributes read). Increase the number of displayable skills in window - right now its capped at 50 as my martial arts, SW-architect scientific doctor and lawyer and acting chef of the local sports club cant see her progress on the various instruments she practices.
    . Maybe add a filter to display only skills between 1% and 100%.
  8. Basically if all the other things were that simple to add as txt.mods like the jobs - then i just need the documentation for that :smiley:
  9. only issue with job-moding - the “locked = 1” or “locked = 1.0” setting doesnt work cause its shows still on the jobboard or do i have also set the “rarity = 0” ?
  10. now some copyright questions: if the point no. 5 is not possible to solve (modular plugins/addons) - but i want to release for testing and playing my modification
    (rebalancing and new skills/attributes/jobs/activities/assets/commute/) can i offer the changed simulation and data files in a zip to others or do it easy and clog cliffskis mailbox ;D

thank you for your patience reading this far - and i hope to get some answers

Hi, if you add an entry for the nv_skillname in data\strings.ini, it will be read in as it should be.

custom theory stuff is hard coded, so not easily moddable unfortunately. The events (like being invited to an awards ceremony etc) are moddable, look at solo-activities.csv to see how.

new types of commuting can be modded too, I did write to the guys who made segways and ask permission to include them, but they didn’t even reply ;( Just edit the commute.csv file to add new ones.

  1. sadly not. But Democracy (my other game) does this, to great effect :smiley:

if you come up with some cool mods, let me know and I’ll see what I can do to make them available to everyone.

Big THANKS for the quick (and short) answer cliffski :smiley:

refering to my question no. 5) again - me thinks that i have to hack the files in \simulation right ?

And if yes then how to export the .csv files right in openoffice org 2.1 -

  • can i use the text delimiter " for every field ?
    cause if i dont use the text delimiter the entries with " are separated into own fields and mess the exported file, and if i use it every field entry starts and ends with "

so far that broken? export of csv out of openoffice makes me
editing in notepad (a major pain) the only other way i know .
Maybe you have some tips or another editor that supports that.

Another important point left open is no. 2) : skills do not degrade
although in activities there is such a thing like _XXX_DEGRADE multiplier
will this be changed or not - it is important to balance things.

One last question how to write a condition in jobs or activities that smt. has to be lower than x ?

(Sorry for all the question - but its your fault making such a simple though elegant and fun game :slight_smile:

ok most of this is greek to me…but I saw songwriting and rock star…I want that mod, lmao. PLease Dari and Cliffski.

You have to ensure files are saved out as comma separated value files. otherwise they get lots of junk added.
You can add more websites etc, but I’m not sure if the GUI will stretch to them or not.
Unfortunately some modding requires editing the files rather than adding new ones ;(

Don’t worry about rock star mods. Such things are under construction in a big way :smiley:

I found a way around that weird csv saving export in openoffice:

  • do not use the delimiter " for import -> the fields will look a little strange but they are still much more readable then notepad
    and for export as csv select the edit filter option under save as
    and remove the text delimiter " - then the saved file will look as the original one.

And here is my next question - how to add some more college types for the evening classes, editing the hook_eveningclasses.csv , adding the college names (starting with SCHOOL_) to the strings.ini and even copying and renaming one of those icon_.bmp did not even yield a crash !

i wanted to add a language and a business college.

btw. the gui-borders of the website banners doesnt expand - but the picture for the banners will be compressed or stretched that it fits to the banner dimensions and appended - looks a little weird but after making a simple banner out of typed words my sims can enjoy their own wikipedia.

The gui for the attributes looks like it tries to auto-fit but there is a strange one row of empty space after the muscles entry and that row is needed for the last entry of any added attributes. (well i can live with that)

(k i ll go to sleep)