January/February 2020 Summary 1

Ah, finaaaaally able to post a summary, it's been too long! More computer time but I keep getting sucked into helping people or something else! Nothing wrong with that but it's keeping me from working. >_< 

I'll split this summary into two posts, there really is a lot of info to cover! For now I'll just cover misc/life, my current mod progress, and new modding discoveries and my thoughts on them.

Misc

The first thing I want to cover is what is happening on my side. My family and I are moving across the country, so I know that towards the end of March, maybe earlier, the focus will be on handling last minute details, packing, etc. and getting ourselves ready to go. So you can expect me to go "dark" for maybe a week or two as we move and get settled, maybe more. I honestly have no idea how long it will take but I will make sure I get on as soon as possible, etc. for patches and whatnot. Anyways, just wanted to let you guys know this. I do plan on finishing a few mods before then though so you have some new stuff to use. I also did not setup the new monitor yet. We realized we were moving so keeping it wrapped was the better decision as we'd have to just pack it up again soon.

Current Progress & Focus

My current focus atm is to finish the Bloody Vampire Bites & Wounds mod, then handle some smaller mods that have been on my to-do for a while or were requested. I'll go over those smaller mods in the second post as I can only remember a few atm without looking at my notes and they need their own post anyways. Today I just want to focus on the bigger projects.

Bloody Vampire Bites & Wounds:  I'm starting to think I need a better name for this as it seems long. Any suggestions? Anyways, now that I've finished a few last minute things, I'm going all in this week to finally finish the second version (yes, second version). I haven't been able to inform you guys the progress on this until now, and boy is it exciting!

Not only did I finish and it looks freakin' amazing and works well, but LeRoi on MCCC taught me about commodities and it's going to be even cooler! I'll explain!

As previously mentioned this mod is meant to apply blood overlays to the victim and vampire after a feeding. I wanted to do a tiered system where each bite was bloodier based on aggressiveness and type, so drink calmly vs drink uncontrollably is a noticeable (and bloodier) difference. We got Natalia-Auditore to make our overlays (again, thanks to Shinobu!) and they look amazing on the sims after a feeding. So we were able to accomplish our original goal, but then we realized: How do we get the blood off? 

It originally overrided the regular vampire buffs, loots, and one interaction, to add in the skin detail overlays, but this isn't ideal for compatibility, among a few other reasons, and wouldn't fade until after the buff did, which meant some lasted 24 hours or more! That was a mess and we wanted it to wash away, which I vaguely knew how to do. But LeRoi taught us about commodities which builds and decays stuff, like relationships! We were blown away, this meant they would fade on their own and the blood would build if a vampire kept feeding! I had no idea the power of commodities and I'm so excited such a thing exists.

This of course meant I had to redo the mod, which I didn't mind at all as this version sounds amazing in comparison. Sadly could not work on it due to my mental slump, being busy, etc. but I'm finally able to tackle it. Thanks to the first version I have 1/3rd done, now I just need to make a few more loots, something I'm for sure forgetting, add wash away capability, and work through a loot injector for compatibility.

Functional Archery Range/Gauntlet: I don't have much to report on the archery mod right now, however we did finish the object itself! Textures, models, etc. It isn't completely MM atm and uses the original S3 textures, however I do plan on doing MM swatches last minute before I release it, it just isn't a priority atm as we only wanted to get the basic object done. We are tackling the tuning next and then basic animations. Still no ETA of course but I'm so excited to finish this still! I also decided to hold off on a skill, only because doing a skill for it now feels silly as there are only a handful of animations and interactions. I would like to eventually do more archery range options to justify a skill, but it won't come for some time. For now it will just build fitness. Getting this object done was such a mess, and I discovered so much that will help for future functional objects. Like I discovered that you shouldn't delete stuff you deem unnecessary because in reality they are necessary to the package. Our object turned bright pink when we deleted some DST we thought we didn't need!  (Sorry for the sucky pic, I thought I had some front views but I guess I didn't take any last time I was messing with it.)  

No update on the Arranged Marriages mod as it's still on hold till I tackle the rest.

Modding Discoveries

Guess what I found out? A lot for sure, already forgot a few smaller things I discovered the past few months, but here are my thoughts on what I do remember as they were the most important!

Aspiration Categories: You know how aspirations are sorted based on categories in CAS? We can make custom ones! I discovered this on accident through someone's help thread because they used a really outdated aspiration. It caused a duplicate version of a category to appear. I asked some other modders and they confirmed that yeah, seems possible. Of course no one saw the use in this and thought it was silly to make such a thing, but as someone planning a ton of custom skills, jobs, etc. having my own aspiration category, and even moving aspirations around, sounds like a good idea! Someone recommended an occult category as right now they are all over the place, and I was thinking a historical category for historical themed ones.

Custom Walkstyles: Custom Walkstyles are possible but the current process isn't very good because S4S doesn't support importing them. My friend, thepancake1 if I never mentioned him before, told me it wasn't possible before but he actually meant it wasn't possible to import into S4S (and is also slightly glitchy). Talk about confusion. xD Custom walkstyles, for those not aware, are the different walks sims do. The emotional ones, the ones you choose in CAS, bikes, walking up and down stairs, etc. He's been working on a program and addon for improving animations etc. and plans to do walkstyles too! I hope he completes it successfully as I'd love to do strollers and so many other things we're missing. Here's to hoping!

Active Careers: Asdjasjdsakdka, I'm so mad about this one! When I first started modding one of my very first questions of course was if this was possible (I like doing active careers as it makes the game immersive). I was told it was not. Imagine my surprise when I ask my friend, after this question came back from someone on S4S, and was told yes. .-. And it doesn't require scripting excluding the usual interactions, which XML injector can do. Are you serious!? The rage passed quickly though because this just opened a ton of modding options for me down the road. An actual active salon, therapist career, I could do historical careers too. The possibilities are seriously endless with this, and it means we can alter current active careers and add more events so they aren't so repetitive! Why is this info not spread around? Why aren't there more mods based on active careers? In fact, why isn't Mod Constructor built for this? It has all the required material already and Zerbu made his own active careers with his Turbo Careers mod so he knows what goes into it creating one. But yeah, we have Zerbu's Turbo Careers, that sex phone mod (someone mentioned it when we were discussing and I think it is active after a quick glance at the download page), and the Get to College mod. That's all we have in terms of actual active careers and not events or other stuff that mimics it. Anyways, all it takes is situations, roles, events, etc. and if you already make events or anything else by hand that uses those, you can probably easily do an active career.

CAS Items Can Have Buffs: Yes, CAS items can have actual buffs applied when you wear them!!! Again, discovered this on accident as someone in the history server was wondering why the hat they just downloaded was applying a sad buff and if it was just a coincidence. I opened the file and looked, saw a section called "buff", looked up the instance, low and behold it's using the Sad Panda Hat buff from that animal party hat pack, or whatever it's called. And of course because this isn't common knowledge the creator had no idea and left it there. That's just crazy, I had no idea we could do this! Again this opens so many ideas. I was planning a "beggars mod" similar to the one that we used to have on MTS and I could add in special peasant clothing that applies boosts, gives sadness, etc. Or the armor for the sword fighting skill I eventually plan to do could give a confidence boost that improves their chances of winning. Seriously, this is an awesome feature and I wish it was used more by EA (and modders). I mean they have quite a few already but it's usually for misc situations people rarely get into. I could probably apply a "bloody and need a shower" buff to the blood overlays for the Bloody Vampire Bites & Wounds mod, but I'm not sure.

Anyways, that's it so far! I hope to get the other post out later this month, so maybe around the 15th? I'll start the outline now so in case I get busy I just need to finish the rest. If you have any thoughts, recommendations, etc. let me know as usual!