It's compact, cute and child- friendly. All the basic motives are covered with this new gizmo, for all ages child and upwards. Plus new features and buffs are regularly added. Check the growing list of New Features below.
Human & Alien Options -
Plantsim Options -
Vampire Options -
Next we see a child able to use it -
Comes in three swatches. The original, another swatch with a few more details and some English text. And a third swatch with the details and Simlish text. I got bored and started doodling on it, what ya gonna do, hey -
Played and un-played sims on any lot will use most functions autonomously after unit is activated. Social Motive and Fun Motive are not autonomous. (To prevent sims standing at the unit all day getting zapped, never doing anything else.) Hunger Motive is autonomous, but those sims who are able to eat food, still prefer to do so if meals are available. Likewise Energy Motive is autonomous, but household sims still prefer their beds. It helps visiting sims with no access to a bed. Bladder and Hygiene Motives, well, they prefer the Motive Manager Machines over using a bathroom, any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I've never tweaked any of this preference behaviour, sims just do this naturally.
New Features - April 2018 - Many new interactions a buffs added to control emotions, teen mood swings, childhood phases and to alter school attendance!
- Interaction & Buff - "Prevent Parenthood GP Moods & Phases - 7 days" - Select this for teen to be given the "Embrace The Equanimity" buff. The buff lasts for one week and for the duration it will prevent teens being forced into mood swings or being given any childhood phases.
- Interaction - "Clear Existing Moods & Phases" - Select this to clear away any visible or hidden moods and phases the sim may currently have. I recommend using this function before applying the Embrace The Equanimity buff.
- Interaction & Buff - "Be Just Fine For..." - Two selections here for the "Picked A Fine Time" buff to last either 24 hours or a whole week. Once selected, the sim will not go through any further emotional swings and roundabouts no matter what any other buffs they get say. The sim will remain in a Fine emotional state for the duration of the buff. Then right back to the mad myriad of emotional ups and downs and their flitting colour schemes once the buff is gone. Or just top it up with another Fine Time zap before the countdown completes. (This feature was added last March, but has been fine tweaked to work alongside all the new features for April.)
- Interaction & Buff - "Take A Long Break From High School" - The teen who you command to select this will be given the "Free At Last!" buff. Thereafter the teen will not go to school again until buff is removed. It works by booking a PTO (Paid Time Off) vacation day for the teen. The buff is on a 24 hour countdown, whereupon reaching zero it will reset and reapply itself for another 24 hours, over and over. Essentially rebooking another PTO giving the teen another "Day Off" in perpetuity, over and over. The buff does not take away any vacation days the teen may have accrued. Meaning even if a teen has none in the bank, the buff can still be applied over and over at no cost. I recommend first issuing the buff at about 3am, then that's the time set to better coincide with booking the day off school when it autonomously repeats issuing the buff every 24 hours and better avoids "**stored sim" buff deletion. I find this to be a far better system than a heavy handed mod that stops all teens going to school permanently. Now you can pick and choose which ones are free from school, Free At Last! Those late stage teens, 17, 18, 19 years old may very well appreciate this new feature. Though it's up to you to give it to whomever you want. Your game, your way.
**Stored sim. Please keep in mind that the rules for buffs and traits are different for stored sims than the rules for active played family sims. Stored sims are those in the world whose households you're not currently playing, or those in a household you are playing but not part of the lot you are on, such as a GTW scientist going to the labs to work, or a sim visiting a community lot alone, while the rest of the family back home become stored sims. If you are away from home at the time the stored teenager's Free At Last buff is due to reset, it will not generate a new buff for the next day, essentially ending the buff. These are Maxis rules, nothing to do with the mod. So if you are extra careful to have the teens as playable and present at the nominated time for the buff reset cycle, the buff will never end. Failing that, just give it to the teens again if you were playing away from home during the buff reset time.
- Interaction - "End The Long Break From School" - Command your teen to select this and it will delete the Free At Last! buff. Essentially sending the teen back to school. The buff is instantly removed, yet it may take up to 24 hours to reset the school schedule and put them back on the attendance registration. In fact, when the very next school day ends in your sim world is when the teen will go back on the attendance register. But that was one long, long, long day off. I hope your teen used the time wisely.
Also all the pie menu options have been organised and tided, and now divided up into sub menus for specific sets of options. For more details on the new features, see the pictures in below spoiler if you like.
Spoiler
May 2018 New Features
Interaction & Buff - "Prevent Parenthood GP Moods & Phases - Infinite" - Select this for teen to be given the "Embrace The Equanimity - Infinite" buff. The buff has a countdown for one week, where at the end it resets and reapplies itself for another week, over and over infinitely. It will prevent teens being forced into mood swings or being given any childhood phases. The same stored sim game rules apply as explained above.
Interaction & Buff - "Shock me to my bones." Want your sims to become a skeleton for the day? Just pick this and the zap will make it so. Based on the Jungle Adventures GP, so that pack is needed for this option to work. There are three skeleton types, Ivory, dark and a bluish mosaic, and the sim will be given one type randomly and remain that way for 24 hours. Also I threw in a random clothes pile hitting the floor under skeleton's feet if you have Laundry Day pack, because why not? I can't explain with any credible certainty where Maxis make the skin, organs and hair all disappear to for 24hrs, but I can explain the sudden loss of clothing. Right there on the floor! Most sim motives freeze while in this skeleton state. After all, you can't have bladder failure if you don't have a bladder.
January 2019 New Feature
Interaction & Buff - Added a new feature for sims to smoke an accessory cigarette. The accessory item is made by curbs and can be found here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/now-free-2017-3-22813602 - So many wonderful, top quality things you could spend the whole day downloading stuff. I know I have. The one on that page to get is "curbs_Patreon_cigarro_2" and once in the Mods folder can be found in game in accessories under rings. The interaction on the Little Zapper starts the smoke special effects and gives the sim a dazed buff from the nicotine that lasts twelve hours. The sim smoking all the while like a proper chain-smoking, fag-ash-Lil. (BTW over here in the UK, "fag" means a cigarette, and not what in the USA is as derogatory term for homosexuals.) The pictures below try to demonstrate the effects, but screen shots are notoriously bad at capturing special effects so they don't do it much justice. Looks much better in game. The smoke is actually frosty, winter breath from the Seasons EP, so that is a required install to see the effects.
Also tidied up the breakage upgrading, as that was a bit off. Causing the options to be greyed-out and to display "cannot break unbreakable object," especially if the object is on a community lot. The object still comes a pre-updated, but now it displays that in the options under Upgrade option. Due to this, any older Little Zappers will need to be replaced as they will say you need to complete certain upgrades. Just replace with a new Zapper and the message will say everything is already upgraded. Lastly I have removed the option to get the buff to stop the annoying blizzard walkstyle. Maxis have fucked that up even further, and the new Python has taken a dislike to many CC buffs. As a consequence the buff I made no longer did anything, so I've removed it. I have made another mod in the General Mods section to stop the stupid blizzard walk completely.
This object is a partial, standalone clone made from a Parenthood GP object. Parenthood is a required install for this mod to work in your game. The Little Zapper can be found in Electronics / Misc
Motive Manager Machine - The Little Zapper
It's compact, cute and child- friendly. All the basic motives are covered with this new gizmo, for all ages child and upwards. Plus new features and buffs are regularly added. Check the growing list of New Features below.
Human & Alien Options -
Plantsim Options -
Vampire Options -
Next we see a child able to use it -
Comes in three swatches. The original, another swatch with a few more details and some English text. And a third swatch with the details and Simlish text. I got bored and started doodling on it, what ya gonna do, hey -
Played and un-played sims on any lot will use most functions autonomously after unit is activated. Social Motive and Fun Motive are not autonomous. (To prevent sims standing at the unit all day getting zapped, never doing anything else.) Hunger Motive is autonomous, but those sims who are able to eat food, still prefer to do so if meals are available. Likewise Energy Motive is autonomous, but household sims still prefer their beds. It helps visiting sims with no access to a bed. Bladder and Hygiene Motives, well, they prefer the Motive Manager Machines over using a bathroom, any day of the week and twice on Sundays. I've never tweaked any of this preference behaviour, sims just do this naturally.
New Features - April 2018 - Many new interactions a buffs added to control emotions, teen mood swings, childhood phases and to alter school attendance!
- Interaction & Buff - "Prevent Parenthood GP Moods & Phases - 7 days" - Select this for teen to be given the "Embrace The Equanimity" buff. The buff lasts for one week and for the duration it will prevent teens being forced into mood swings or being given any childhood phases.
- Interaction - "Clear Existing Moods & Phases" - Select this to clear away any visible or hidden moods and phases the sim may currently have. I recommend using this function before applying the Embrace The Equanimity buff.
- Interaction & Buff - "Be Just Fine For..." - Two selections here for the "Picked A Fine Time" buff to last either 24 hours or a whole week. Once selected, the sim will not go through any further emotional swings and roundabouts no matter what any other buffs they get say. The sim will remain in a Fine emotional state for the duration of the buff. Then right back to the mad myriad of emotional ups and downs and their flitting colour schemes once the buff is gone. Or just top it up with another Fine Time zap before the countdown completes. (This feature was added last March, but has been fine tweaked to work alongside all the new features for April.)
- Interaction & Buff - "Take A Long Break From High School" - The teen who you command to select this will be given the "Free At Last!" buff. Thereafter the teen will not go to school again until buff is removed. It works by booking a PTO (Paid Time Off) vacation day for the teen. The buff is on a 24 hour countdown, whereupon reaching zero it will reset and reapply itself for another 24 hours, over and over. Essentially rebooking another PTO giving the teen another "Day Off" in perpetuity, over and over. The buff does not take away any vacation days the teen may have accrued. Meaning even if a teen has none in the bank, the buff can still be applied over and over at no cost. I recommend first issuing the buff at about 3am, then that's the time set to better coincide with booking the day off school when it autonomously repeats issuing the buff every 24 hours and better avoids "**stored sim" buff deletion. I find this to be a far better system than a heavy handed mod that stops all teens going to school permanently. Now you can pick and choose which ones are free from school, Free At Last! Those late stage teens, 17, 18, 19 years old may very well appreciate this new feature. Though it's up to you to give it to whomever you want. Your game, your way.
**Stored sim. Please keep in mind that the rules for buffs and traits are different for stored sims than the rules for active played family sims. Stored sims are those in the world whose households you're not currently playing, or those in a household you are playing but not part of the lot you are on, such as a GTW scientist going to the labs to work, or a sim visiting a community lot alone, while the rest of the family back home become stored sims. If you are away from home at the time the stored teenager's Free At Last buff is due to reset, it will not generate a new buff for the next day, essentially ending the buff. These are Maxis rules, nothing to do with the mod. So if you are extra careful to have the teens as playable and present at the nominated time for the buff reset cycle, the buff will never end. Failing that, just give it to the teens again if you were playing away from home during the buff reset time.
- Interaction - "End The Long Break From School" - Command your teen to select this and it will delete the Free At Last! buff. Essentially sending the teen back to school. The buff is instantly removed, yet it may take up to 24 hours to reset the school schedule and put them back on the attendance registration. In fact, when the very next school day ends in your sim world is when the teen will go back on the attendance register. But that was one long, long, long day off. I hope your teen used the time wisely.
Also all the pie menu options have been organised and tided, and now divided up into sub menus for specific sets of options. For more details on the new features, see the pictures in below spoiler if you like.
May 2018 New Features
Interaction & Buff - "Prevent Parenthood GP Moods & Phases - Infinite" - Select this for teen to be given the "Embrace The Equanimity - Infinite" buff. The buff has a countdown for one week, where at the end it resets and reapplies itself for another week, over and over infinitely. It will prevent teens being forced into mood swings or being given any childhood phases. The same stored sim game rules apply as explained above.
Interaction & Buff - "Shock me to my bones." Want your sims to become a skeleton for the day? Just pick this and the zap will make it so. Based on the Jungle Adventures GP, so that pack is needed for this option to work. There are three skeleton types, Ivory, dark and a bluish mosaic, and the sim will be given one type randomly and remain that way for 24 hours. Also I threw in a random clothes pile hitting the floor under skeleton's feet if you have Laundry Day pack, because why not? I can't explain with any credible certainty where Maxis make the skin, organs and hair all disappear to for 24hrs, but I can explain the sudden loss of clothing. Right there on the floor! Most sim motives freeze while in this skeleton state. After all, you can't have bladder failure if you don't have a bladder.
January 2019 New Feature
Interaction & Buff - Added a new feature for sims to smoke an accessory cigarette. The accessory item is made by curbs and can be found here - https://www.patreon.com/posts/now-free-2017-3-22813602 - So many wonderful, top quality things you could spend the whole day downloading stuff. I know I have. The one on that page to get is "curbs_Patreon_cigarro_2" and once in the Mods folder can be found in game in accessories under rings. The interaction on the Little Zapper starts the smoke special effects and gives the sim a dazed buff from the nicotine that lasts twelve hours. The sim smoking all the while like a proper chain-smoking, fag-ash-Lil. (BTW over here in the UK, "fag" means a cigarette, and not what in the USA is as derogatory term for homosexuals.) The pictures below try to demonstrate the effects, but screen shots are notoriously bad at capturing special effects so they don't do it much justice. Looks much better in game. The smoke is actually frosty, winter breath from the Seasons EP, so that is a required install to see the effects.
Also tidied up the breakage upgrading, as that was a bit off. Causing the options to be greyed-out and to display "cannot break unbreakable object," especially if the object is on a community lot. The object still comes a pre-updated, but now it displays that in the options under Upgrade option. Due to this, any older Little Zappers will need to be replaced as they will say you need to complete certain upgrades. Just replace with a new Zapper and the message will say everything is already upgraded. Lastly I have removed the option to get the buff to stop the annoying blizzard walkstyle. Maxis have fucked that up even further, and the new Python has taken a dislike to many CC buffs. As a consequence the buff I made no longer did anything, so I've removed it. I have made another mod in the General Mods section to stop the stupid blizzard walk completely.
This object is a partial, standalone clone made from a Parenthood GP object. Parenthood is a required install for this mod to work in your game. The Little Zapper can be found in Electronics / Misc
cool1_MotiveManager_TheLittleZapper.rar - Updated for 1.52
For patch version compatibility status, please see most recent Patch News thread for the TS4 Specialized Mods section.
XML Resource Used:
All files used are both new clones and new XMLs made by me, so should not conflict with anything else.
Mod first made and uploaded with Game Version 1.34.18.1020
Thanks and Credit: Simsasylum, Sims4Studio, our sims community, EA Maxis, Franzilla at MTS for the Simlish font