coolspear

@PokaNYCDo you play your game on the newer DX11 settings, or do you stay on the older DX9 settings? I have opted to stay on the original DX9 settings. Mostly because I always tweak game graphics settings on my NVidea card, never using the Maxis in game settings. As such my game always looks the best it can, so when switching to DX11, graphically I do not notice the slightest improvements. But technically, I do not use DX11 on TS4 because Maxis made a balls of it at first. They said that's been fixed in a patch, but their fixes are never to be trusted. Case in point, when switching to DX11, I get in game what I've come to call the Omen Curse. If you've ever seen that old Omen movie, with Damien 666, there is a journalist/photographer in that movie who noticed some of the folks he took pictures of had streaks of light cutting through their photos, that went on to highlight how those people would be killed. One had a streak of light going through their neck, who was later beheaded in the movie, another a streak of light going though their body, who later fell through a window and was impaled on a fence. In my game, with DX11,  I see a streak of light going through some sims, from their butts to their heads,  who look like Vlad the Impaler is soon coming to town and that's how they will be killed. The Omen Curse. I think this is because they are wearing CC clothing, and CC creators since the beginning have only been working with DX9, but now Maxis has changed things, this is the result.

Anyway, my point being, I'm trying to find out if this stuttering camera lag might be a thing related to DX9, since Maxis currently ignore that setting now, that Maxis currently blame on mods or graphics cards need a driver update, because they never believe it's their own damn crappy coding until the majority of players are reporting the glitch.    

Hi all. Regarding the doc career mods, I do need to take a look at them as the game is throwing a bizarre LE when my sim goes to the hospital. (Outside of work hours.)  MC reports the LE, but no LE has actually been generated. This has happened three times now since Business & Hobbies patch. I'm guessing it's something to do with the barista NPC, but with no actual LE to read it's a bit puzzling. Not only this happening outside of work hours, but when my doc sim actually went to work, same LE message from MC with no actual LE report to read and the stuttering camera lag did not quit, going on and on, making the experience unplayable. I didn't even check to see which staff turned up, the stuttering camera lag would not relent so I rage quit. I do not know when I can fix. If this stuttering camera is the new glitch in town, replacing the old frame rate camera glitch Maxis allegedly fixed (Typical Maxis fix) then the hospital is unplayable and I just won't be able to update and test doc mods. I cannot test or play in that endlessly stuttering environment. Frikken brain damage.

Actually going to update all Fame mods soon, as I've very recently been making a bunch of gorgeous, eye-candy celebs in my game. Thy're all done now and living in their Celebrity Dormitories. Just holding off giving them their Fame ranks and Actor careers till I get the mods here ship shape and Bristol fashion. So in a week or thereabouts I can roughly estimate. 

Many years ago I did once do a better "Get to Know" mod as part of a defunct "More Traits" set of mods. Where I'm never going to work on a More Traits mod again, I did feel a need for a better Get To Know to make a reappearance. Especially since the Lovestruck EP and the seemingly endless qualities to learn about other sims. Not to mention the abysmally lousy and slow process of only learning one random new thing at a time with each Get To Know interaction, and sims getting bored very easily when asking Get To Know more than twice in a single conversation. Yawn, with a capital YAWN!!!!

To say this is a remake of that old, original Get To Know mod is an understatement. Now you can be a true god of your game and make Get To Know the true power of a deity.

Firstly, the interaction itself has been moved out of Small Talk pie menu and placed directly in Friendly conversation with a top billing slot. Meaning it should be the first thing you see when accessing Friendly conversation. No more hunting the bastard down through several tedious pie menu selections. I would've said that's very helpful when using the default Get To Know a heck of a lot for each slow, learn just one thing at a time, interaction. But as a god, using it once on a sim will now tell you everything there is to know about that sim. I mean EVERYTHING, all at once, bam!!! Even stuff Maxis did not include. Meaning I added the missing skills of Photography and Horse Riding to those knowable skills as Maxis dropped the ball on those two.

With the skills of a questioned sim, I have deemed them only worth knowing of if the sim has maxed them. That's nice to know, sure. "You've maxed Fitness?! Me too! We should be gym buddies!" Right? "You've got level two Flower Arranging skill. Err, how can I put this? I don't give a shit. Why did you even bother telling me this?" Right? "Ahh, a level one Mixology skill, so you can pour a glass of water? Frikken great stuff." Some things just aren't worth talking about, right? "You have a level one Juice Fizzing skill? Doesn't everyone? That thing is more like a virus than a skill. All you gotta do is talk to another sim with it and, bam, you get it too. In fact I probably have it too now after talking with you, FFS!"  See what I mean? Just keep it to yourself. "And what, you randomly told me about a worthless low skill than the fact your romance preferences have me as the hottest hunk of love you could ever find?! Don't you think you should have replied with that instead?" Akkk, enough of this pithy learning one random thing at a time crap! Bring on the god mod.   

If the sim being questioned is one of your main mega super sims, with all maxed skills, hundreds of likes and dislikes and romance preferences, jobs, education, uni degree history and god knows what else, the text reports of learned personality and disposition factors will be numerous and you may need yet another shot of Get To Know to find out even more things.  Because god knows that god knows that god knows, that eventually god knows. I think only god knows what I'm talking about at this stage, so I'll leave it there.

 cool1_sim_GetToKnow_LearnMuchMore.rar -  New for March 2025

Happing simming and god-like get to knowing, folks. 

The direction of the slash does not matter in any great capacity, relating to "more than" and "greater than" that's not much of a difference anyway in the grand scheme of things. It's been pointed out by several users that the slashes in my cfg do not follow the standard example, so it has folks questioning whether it works? Many thousands of happy users over the last seven - almost eight - years since my version was released, myself included among them, should be answer enough.

I have answered all this before in the cfg thread many moons ago, but it will crop up again every now and then by someone having difficulty getting mods to work, who newly discovers the slash direction thing and feels a need to question it, abandoning the logic that many thousands of happy users for well over half a decade do not exist, including me, and they may well have, at last, found the culprit to why their game mods do not work properly.

For all those who think they may have found a culprit, by all means, change slashes to standard direction if compelled, if that's what puts your mind at ease, but you'll find that alone will not solve the mod problems you're having because it was never the catalyst for them. I will speak no more on the slash direction matter.

I did a few tweaks a short while ago for the grim career. But the career is limited, repetitive and boring (Not to mention glitched, the cowplant missions are a pile of broken shite.) and the novelty soon wore off. So none of my sims actually have the career any more. But I do want to do an overhaul to make the Grim HQ something a bit more fun, special and unique like my Hospital experience mods. So watch this space.

The small handful of career mods I did do, I'll have to test them again because I've forgotten what they actually do. Indeed, that's a reflection of how memorable the experience was. Forgettable. Ouch.

But the one mod from that small handful that is a benefit for the Grim venue, even outside of the forgettable career, is the mod to stop the game reverting any decorative changes a player makes to the Grim Lot. I went to town sprucing up the venue in my game, and I did not want to lose any of it. MCCC is needed to gain access to build mode while visiting the lot, this mod needed to stop the game reverting your changes after leaving the lot.

If using my latest version of Hidden Everywhere Portal that now has travel available to the Hidden Grim HQ lot, - https://simsasylum.com/tfm/index.php?/topic/12564-teleportation-the-hidden-everywhere-portal-get-to-work-ep-alternative-version-added-march-2025-travel-to-hidden-grim-hq/ - again this mod here is needed so that if all you do is place a portal on Grim lot as a means to travel back home - or anywhere else - you still won't want the otherwise stubborn game removing it. 

cool1_venue_GrimLot_DoNotUndoRedecorating.rar - New for March 2025

Happy simming and permanently sprucing up the Grim Lot, folks.

Update March 2025 - Added an Alternative Standalone version. I had recently updated the Alpha version in my game so sims can travel to the Hidden Grim HQ location, but thought it best not to upload that Alpha as it has so many newer options for summoning many different sim types to many CC venues I have yet to upload. It would be a mess of unfamiliar, broken interactions in anyone else's game but my own. But I also know for anyone who has Life & Death installed, a quick travel option to Grim's hidden lot would be a nice addition. And even if one day I do get round to uploading all those CC venues, some people might not want them, so will certainly not want all the pointless (from their POV) summoning options included with this mod. So here is a new alternate version that won't include those summon interactions, even if I do, eventually, get round to uploading the CC venues. But we'll cross that bridge if we ever get to it. The Overrides mod for Snowy Escape will still be needed, so if you use it then continue doing so. Do not use this standalone alternative version with the Alpha or the Silent Running versions as they will conflict. This alternative version is same as Silent Running version in regards to the SFX animations. Meaning you'll only see the SFX when using object, never at any other time.

Enjoy being a pest at the Grim Reaper HQ. But try not to piss him off too much, or he'll put that deadly scythe of his to good use, I'm sure. You have been warned. Actually, he probably won't ever be there after normal travel there. Though the portal does have the old function to summon the Grim Reaper, so he can be there if you truly want. And keep in mind the old zone director conflict rule as seen with the Science Career and this mod. That if someone in the house works at the Grim Reaper lot, and goes to work. And then you try to send another family member to the Grim lot from home, it may incur an endless loading screen because it will not load up two zone directors for the same lot. I've not tested this as yet, but I guess it will be the same as the Science Labs and the Science career. So, once again, you have been warned.

Update March 2025 - Needed update to bring residential living in line with Business & Hobbies coding. Also a third penthouse xml added to Penthouse mod to cover the latest penthouses in Lovestruck, because Maxis love making new penthouse xmls every time they add more penthouses to the game. (Because they make newer elevators in those EPs, ergo using old Penthouse xml will not allow access to new penthouse if it has new elevator object access. Given that a player might not have older packs that have older elevators. All logical, I guess.) 

Normally I don't comment on every mod thread after every major EP patch, that would take me ages. Only if a mod needs updating. However, due to the important file in this mod, that Maxis are prone to frequently edit, I will make a quick comment here to say all is well with this mod as of Business & Hobbies. I would have bet money Maxis would have done something to this file for B&H, new items with new storage perhaps. But no. Surprisingly, for a file they often tamper with, they did not on this occasion. Anyway, mod's good to go, for now.

Finally got round to clearing this of my list of things to do the other week. It simply increases the radius range the bees of a beehive will travel to to fertilize plants. What with my mods to collect more honey and more wax more often, less hives are needed. But then you'll still want to have more unneeded hives in a large garden because the default fertilization range is pathetic. I think we're all aware that beloved bees are often willing and able to cross entire continents to get a job done, yet Maxis says they can't go more than five feet. Nah, this needs an edit. Now they can go up to 32 tiles to get a job done. Admittedly, this is still nowhere near comparable to the expanse of a global continent, but still better.

cool1_object_BeeBox_LargerFertilizerRadius(32Tiles).rar- New for March 2025

Happy simming and bee-keeping, folks.    

I could have sworn I already had these mods uploaded here somewhere. Especially the Walkstlyes mod. I've looked through the General Mods forum and they don't seem to be here. (If anyone else finds them please let me know. I found it. A very outdated version in other thread. That thread has had mod removed and a link added to redirect here. The old thread will soon be deleted.)

The Walkstyles mod began life back in the day made by Shimrod and found on MTS. I took over it ages ago. It primarily stops sims continually shifting their walkstyles to all manner of silliness depending on their moods. No, no, no. Be gone. Just walk frikken normally. Geez.

It also prevents the Emotional Deaths that can randomly happen. No, no, no. Just NO!

All other mods in the set are to do with the almost endless barrage of sim idles that sims will do so often, and to such annoying degrees, to drop what they're doing just to stand and do the same stupid idle yet again for the hundredth time. No, no, no. NOOOOO!!!

Where my Simulation Lag mod reduces the frequency of most idles, these puppies here exterminate them completely. And there are quite a lot to exterminate. From trait idles, to mood/emotion idles, to Lifestyle idles, to Likes & Dislikes idles, to Reaction idles, to (My biggest pet hate idle) Reacating to the Thermostat every frikken time they enter a room with a Thermostat. AHHHH! I hate that one the most! Stop, stop, stop it!!!

Each idle type is in its own package file mod, so you don't have to install should you actually want to keep any particular type active in game.

And as much as I have endeavored to cover all idles, there will will always be one or two idles that Maxis have named allusively such that the xml is currently hard to find. But I'll get them in the end. I'll get them all in the end. Grrrrrr!!!!!

Sim Idles & EmotionWalksyles.rar - New for March 2025

Happy idle-free simming, folks.

Maxis has kept to their ongoing tradition and once again edited the files of this mod in March. Every frikking March for the last four years or so. (Where they never edited this file at all before that.) What's up with that? Even so, the only values they changed are to do with the frequency of idles, which this mod already edits. And where their newly adjusted rates are now more closer to the values I set in this mod, they're still not quite the same, so I won't bother updating as it's long since been covered.  I wound't have bothered mentioning this at all if it wasn't for the March factor. Why only in March, Maxis? Bizarre.  

Update March 2025 - Uploading the updated Command to Teleport mod from this set. Seeing as this particular mod has an important Terrain XML in it that governs and allows all the walkstlyes on land, you're gonna need that one fixed pronto. A few others in the set also need updates, but only of a minor nature so I'll get to fixing them later.

@daluved1Sorry for late reply. Maybe it can be done. I think I'd only need to add the code line to the alpha mod, just tell it it's a debug cheat, then shift +click will be needed. At least I think that's all I'd need to do if memory serves. I'll look into it.

Update March 2025 -  Nothing patch related. The Alpha Sprinkler just needed some long overdue love and attention. Since Cottage Living EP was released, this mod needed to have the 5 Giant Crops added to those it will do its magic on. They have now been added. Plus a nice new feature for fertilization that was not included before. Swarms of helpful bees will gather round each plant within a Super Sprinkler's (very large) radius and now fertilize the plants too. (No beehives required in the garden.) Lovely. But I'll tell you now, if you have a large garden with many plants, and you also have a phobia of bees or any flying insects, then LOOK AWAY! Man alive, the swarms and swarms!!! Like something out of a horror movie! But it's all in a good cause. Fertilize, fertilize, fertilize. And then some.

Update March 2025 - Needed updating for latest Business & Hobbies patch. Nothing new in terms of extra features as yet. I haven't had time to fully test gardening in game since updating, but the updating was pretty straightforward so I shouldn't imagine any weirdness.

Update March 2025 - I added the gold, jade and whatever else that came with Crystal Creations SP. I did it a while back but forgot to upload, so here it is. But it's a good thing I checked it before uploading today, because I'd neglected to add the Refined Crystal versions of those same new gems. So added them today, too. That should be everything in game up to data.

Yeah, I did add the new gold and gems, but have not uploaded the new version yet. I'm currently fixing up other mods, for gardening and such which the latest patch broke, so I'll upload this one soon as well.

On 3/8/2025 at 10:15 PM, mcromance said:

It turned out to be a case of massive brain fart.

 

I updated and repaired the game, so it also overwrote resource.package file.

So I redownloaded the edieted resource.package file for overrides folder from forum, but forgot that my overrides folder is called "_Overrides" and not "Overrides", aka. I did not change the folder name inside the resource file, so game was not reading files correctly.

 

Now I corrected issue and everything works smoothly.

Glad to hear it. If you haven't done so already as your solution, you can keep your preferred "_Overrides" as the name for the folder, just as long as you edit the named folder in the resource cfg text file to be exactly the same name. As I've mentioned somewhere before, you can call the folder "bananas" if you want, anything you like, just as long as the name is the same in the cfg text file. 

And I do think the underscore is a good touch, to make the _Overrides folder be the first folder in your mods folder so instantly easier to find. Though take note, I think it's fine to do so for TS4, but some other modded games consider the precursory underscore on mod files and folder names as an off switch. So be careful doing this with other modded games. Anno 1800 to name one such moddable game.

Though I won't be doing same underscore for my download version. The next thing you know, some amateur detectives start second guessing me and will be getting back to me saying older override cfg files haven't done this, so could this underscore be the cause of why it doesn't work in their game? The cfg file does not get loaded into the game period. It could not possibly have any adverse effects in game period. If the cfg text file was incorrectly "coded," you'd know this because not a single mod would load into your game period. And why are the back slashes and forward slashes in my cfg not the same as in older cfgs, because the values of "more than" and "greater than" seem more a... sorry, greater a prevalent matter to me. No biggie in the grand scheme of things, but certainly no "breakie" either for those amateur detectives to second guess and concern themselves with. Do any mods get loaded into your game at all? Yes? Do most other users of same cfg and Overrides folder enjoy the benefits of the working mods? Yes? Logic prevails. End of. Period.

Maybe I should have written that last mini-rant in the Simulation Lag Mod thread, where this second guessing, clutching at straws, first occurred. But akkk, ah well. Good as here as anywhere. A copy and paste job for the future, if I can be arsed. Ouch, this game is so broken it gets everyone second guessing and clutching at straws and abandoning logic for answers for almost all of its wonky mechanics. I know, I know, I know, I empathize and suffer in kind and I know. And just talking of TS4 gets my blood boiling as my main sim's quest since last October to become a mega landlord rental owner were shattered by the fucking bug with For Rent, which the recent updates of Goth, Landgraab, Spencer-Kim-Lewis houses had crashing down on my game like the Sword of Damocles hanging over it all this while. Maxis couldn't just add the houses to Gallery and say come get them if you want them. No, they forced them into the game and totally fucked up the whole rental system. I had to go back to a previous save, and start selling off all rentals, then converting them back to normal residential homes, to prevent the Sword of Damocles falling again. What a fucking rigmarole. And now this next patch that breaks the tattoo system, so that all CC things classed as tattoos get removed from sims. (I know S4S has the batchfix now, but some sims still get stuff removed.) How many sims have I got to take into Cas to set it right, putting all that CC stuff back on them? For the sake if irony, probably all the same hundreds of sims who were up until two weeks ago all my main sim's tenants. Now isn't that rubbing salt into the wound. So FUCK YOU MAXIS!!! How about the Sword of Damocles falls on your dopey fucking heads once in a while. PLEASE!!!

Yeah, maybe I shouldn't talk about TS4 just yet. Too soon. My apologies if coming across too brusque. Perhaps once the Tray Importer app is updated to work with newly saved Tray files, so I can go hunt down and fetch out some of the more troublesome Tattoo CC mods, I'll be a lot happier. Though don't expect me to say anything nice about Maxis for a good while. Too long have you left the For Rent coding a shambles, just let it slide and release more packs on top. And the sword of peril finally fell. How many broken rental reports came in after you did the forced refresh on base game houses? TOO MANY. And still you shrug your shoulders at it and release more new, broken packs.

Edit - Yay! Tray Importer got a update, now installed and working. I can feel my happiness coming back already. Time to go fetch out those troublesome Cas CC files and see if I can mend them. 

Start reading the posts from the top of this very page. You should find your answer on what to do to fix things.

It does not make any difference if only two parameter values exist - 500 base and 600 overrides. Changing 600 to 1000 - or even higher - does nothing more "potent" as 600 already overrides 500, and that's all that counts.

You could have a more intricate and involved overrides procedure on more than two levels, base = 500, overrides_1 = 600, overrides_2 = 700, on and on. Helpful if you really wanted to spit three conflicting mods to get the best from all of them while overriding the bits you don't want from each. In ten years of TS4 I've never needed to go that far. 

Hi all. Lots of folks questions recently if this is compatible with most recent patch. Yes it is, mod fully working, just now checked against Maxis most recent files 1.112.519.1020 and all is well, clean bill of health, good to go.

@Bblahqone of the best features of this mod is that you can enjoy using MCCC slower world time and this mod together without issues. That's one of the reasons why I did this mod back in the day, as I fully love using MCCC to slow down world time and needed a compatible simulation lag mod to work in alignment with this. (In ten years of playing TS4, my perfect MC world time speed is 3.5 slower than Maxis default speed. That's me happy. That's how I roll and that's how my sim's days unfold.) And here's the mod to help and work with that. Enjoy. 

You're welcome. Also keep in mind that some regions are better than others at sustaining high amounts of sims. Many talks about this nine years ago. In my opinion, the unique labs zone is one of the worst at sustaining many sims. So if you are noticing an increase in the general simulation lag with 10 or so sims at the labs, this will be due to "some zones are better than others and the labs zone is definitely one of the worst." So trim down the numbers if sims are too unresponsive.

Grab the first mod of this set "coworkers uniform only." Open with Sims 4 Studio. It only has one xml in the package so you cannot possibly go wrong.

Scroll down right panel to near the bottom. Find the chunk of coding relating to work shifts. At 10am is the number 4, this is the amount of coworkers who will come. Change that to whatever you desire. Save, load game, and next time at labs you will see that many coworkers.

For best results hand pick your own coworker scientists relative to the number before going to work. If the game generates them randomly it could be a regrettable shit show of undesirables. Not just looking stupid and dressed like clowns, but probably coming with their own families. If you only want 10 new, you might end up with 30 all told, with sims, pets, horses and giraffes, who knows.

But if you do want the game to do the random generating, make sure the fourth mod from this set - no generate new coworkers - is not installed.

Let me know how it pans out. I know the job xml you'll be editing is safe enough with latest patch. There's newer code that is missing, but that is only to do with Ravenwood and ghosts. Since the labs are not in Ravenwood, no need to rush to update this file.   

Anything street related is gutted from the files these mods use. Truly, the files are totally gutted, nothing left but the XML name and number, no other coding left in the file whatsoever. (That's why patches can have no effect on them. No coding left to effect. Unless it's the regions where I allow some street stuff to still happen, like Henford-on-Bagley Prize Competitions. If Maxis ever patched that event stuff for whatever reason, then I would need to update that particular region mod.)  If trick or treat is street related, they will not happen. However, if it is lot related, triggered of and by visiting the lot itself, or living on residential, and is contained within the coding of the zone director of that lot type, then it will not be covered in these street mods.

Each world region mod is standalone for that region, so you can pick and choose which ones you want. You don't have to use them all if you want one region to still have street activities. Such as keeping all street sims for Granite Falls if you you like seeing that when your sims go camping.

Update December 2024 (Again) - Did a thorough check on all files used, practically remade the mod with latest files to ensure all the little Maxis embellishments, such as Lifestyle choices loves to drink coffee, or static commodity pushes for Ranch Nectar Parties, all that kind of thing, are now included where appropriate. Also all flavors of recent Hot Cocoa drinks now added to make sims sit while drinking, as once again Maxis don't care if a sim stands drinking right where they got the drink from and is an annoying asshat roadblock preventing other sims access. Just sit down, relax and enjoy your hot cocoa with marshmallow, please, thank you. Also a temporary allowance for kids to grab and drink tea from base game tea brewer. I say temporary as it's not ideal for this mod as kids have the stretchy animation while grabbing tea. But in my upcoming On/Off mods for kitchen appliances, I can build my own, new interaction XML for the Tea Brewer object especially for kids, so they can grab tea that will not be stretchy animation. Once those mods are released after testing I will remove the temporary stretchy kids grabbing tea from this mod.

@rosalegal2005As noted above, there is a temporary inclusion for kids drinking tea from tea brewer object. I took a look at the LMS mod for kids drinking tea and it does quite a bit to let kids drink tea, using three mods in one! (LMS files, plasicbox old mod and scumbumbo xml injector.) Sorry, but I'm not going to go that far in this sit while drinking mod just for kids to drink tea without stretch animations. So I have temporarily added the child tag allowance, so they can grab tea, but it will be a split-second stretchy animation when they first grab the tea. (Though correct animation while they drink.) I don't know if you use my On/Off set of mods, but I will soon be uploading my On/Off Kitchen Appliances to that set. And I will include a new interaction in those mods for kids to grab tea without a stretchy animation. (Again with no need for old plasicbox mods or xml injector.) After I upload those On/Off mods I will remove the child temporary allowance from this sit while drinking mod. It will all work out in the end, and On/Off Kitchen Appliances will be a big Quality of Life help in the game.