Dev Blog: Next Large Mod, Remove Hats Update Preview, & More

Hey everyone! This post today will cover what I've done for the Remove Hats update, a WIP Trello Board, and my next mod that I will be focusing on in-between my other small projects and AM updates while I wait for the sewing machine animations to be finished by Pancake.

📌 Next Large Mod:

The next project I've decided to focus on fully is bringing functional newspapers back, which I've mentioned previously as one of the projects I wanted to do, but never got a chance to properly start until now. Here is what I've currently outlined so far for what I will be attempting to add:

🔹 NPC Newspaper Delivery

🔹 Interactions: 

• Read option provides notifications about things happening in town. Will be using the Neighborhood Stories as a base, but will be adding more unique ones where possible (stuff like holidays, festivals, etc.)
• Clip Coupons
• Weather forecast
• Crossword/maybe other puzzles
• Search for jobs
• Search for pet adoptions
• Search for roommates
• Possibly add more reading options to unlock/gain stuff, such as recipes, skill gains, or whims (like traveling), etc.

🔹 Frugal Trait

🔹 Coupon System (to be used where possible & can be used without Frugal trait)

🔹 Pets tearing newspapers and retrieving them

🔹 Afterschool newspaper activity from Sims 3

🔹 Journalism career from Sims 3

My main focus at the moment is getting the actual object and it's base interactions working first, then the NPC delivery system and pet interactions, then the frugal trait and coupon system. The career and activity come once I know everything else is working perfectly and if I'm running on time, as they are more side features that I thought would be nice to add based on their theme, and I can add some connections. I'll try to make sure that the career/activity and coupons can be used without the newspaper part, if people want them separate.

In-between the broom updates and updates for mine and Pancake's combined mods for the patch, I'm deciphering how Sims 3 used the meshes with the animations. There's about 6 meshes/states for the newspaper that I found, with 2 being geostates (geostates are basically just a different version of a base mesh, think of the dollhouses being broken or not), and I've figured out all but one which is one of the geostates. I have a theory but need to do more digging. It's the flat part in this image, while the folded part in the middle is the regular newspaper that sims pick up and carry around.

If you have any suggestions for the mod, please let me know here or on Discord!

Once I've completed this I'll either A) work on sewing if the animations from Pancake are done, or B) continue working on swordfighting as my next large mod to release, unless something else comes up or I run into a block, then landlines are next on my list. Smaller mods and AM updates are still being worked on in-between all this.

📌 Trello Board/To-Do List

I've been working on a public Trello Board for a while now which lists the majority (but not all) of my future planned mods and tutorials, group projects, some of the stuff I'm researching, patch status, and has a summarized list of planned updates. I haven't posted or talked about it yet because I haven't decided if it's the right format, too much info to browse through, etc. so if anyone wants to view it and let me know their thoughts on how it looks, any possible things that cause confusion or suggestions, that would be wonderful. 

https://trello.com/b/WHXz1UOC/mizoreyukii-planned-mods-status

I'm leaning towards "too much info" and likely will be cleaning some parts up, moving stuff around, and maybe considering another board website in general that displays info more easily, but still want to see what others think before I do anything.

📌 Remove Hats Update Preview

I wanted to show you guys what I added to the mod so far, until I've got the post finalized and released with the broom updates. 

There are now 2 more coat racks to choose from for a total of 3, all are base game compatible and the original one is no longer an override so it's compatible with LMS's Change Outfit via Closets, Coat Rack & Wardrobe mod.

And 2 pie menus on the object, one for hats and one for gloves. Both are separate rule systems so you can mix and match the rules to your preference. This means you can make it so that sims remove hats but not gloves and vice versa.

Gloves only come with 2 rules, which is allow gloves or remove gloves. I don't remember ever hearing about situations where certain groups don't remove them or not, so this is all for now.

I also added 2 new rules for hats: "Women Only" and "All Men & Only Female Household Members". The latter because I saw a historical simmer mentioning this would be a situation, so I've added this for that.

Individual "Add/Remove Gloves" interaction is added as well (on the sims, like the hat one), and two new "exemption" interactions for both gloves and hats has been added (called "Block Sim From Following Glove/Hat Rules"). This will allow you to block certain sims from following the household rules so that you can remove/add their hats or gloves whenever you want.

I've also fixed the hat remover by enabling children and toddlers, and the gloves one works the same way, so now everyone should follow the rules. And of course the most important fix is that the LE no longer happens when other coat racks are on the lot.

And that's it, hopefully you guys like this new update as much as I do!