Testers Wanted: Harder Grades - Version 2.12 (Updated 3/8/2007)

Harder Harder Grades v2.12 for TS2SEAS v1.0p1
Made by: syberspunk

Since Pescado has an unofficial harderjobs hack in the works, that got me to thinking there should be an equivalent for grades as well. This hack makes it slightly harder to get an A+ for children and teens. It seems to easy (at least to me) to get an A+ in school for our sims. But A+ don't come so easily for some people in real life. Apparently the sims' schools aren't all that challenging. In anycase, this hack now requires sims to have logic points and essentially puts a cap on grades based on those points. Here's how the "logic" of the mod should work:

Edit: 7/6/2006
As requested, Version 2.10 should be even harder. This is untested and thus feedback would be appreciated. Basically, I just reduced the contribution from each of the four base skills. Each skill normally contributes 1/4th of their total value, which is then modified based on personality traits and aspiration. I reduced this to 1/8th instead, which theoretically should make it harder. I'm not sure how significant an impact this will have. It could be fairly subtle to blatantly noticeable. Please provide feedback as to whether this is now Too hard, or still not hard enough.
Further tweaks to the code to make it a bit harder to climb the grade ladder so to speak, as well as thrown in some randomness of grades dropping. Needs testing obviously.

Edit: 5/31/2006
Added/modified code to lessen cheering. Cheering should only occur if a student has an A- or greater, and their current grade is better than their previous grade. Modifications have only been moderately tested. As such, I have uploaded a separate archive .zip but the .package name is still the same. Just overwrite the previous file. If it doesn't work properly, you can always redownload the older 2.0 version. Please check how it works in your game and provide feedback if possible.


Note: Since a few people requested it, and I thought it was a great idea, I decided to make a version that uses other skills. I will keep the original, simpler version based on logic only available. However, I will also attach version 2.0 as a separate download. The 2nd version still has the same name, so if you choose to use the much more complex version, all you need to do is download and install it in the usual place and let it overwrite the older, simpler version.

The newer version 2.0 also has a slightly different RTFM included in the .zip archive. I am including those differences here in the first post, so previous users can note the difference and decide if they would like to "upgrade" to the newer version, as well as let new users see the differences between the two versions and decide which they prefer.







Incidentally... I'm not sure if this was a bug or just "poor coding" but the way it originally worked is that, if a sim was in a very bad mood they were guaranteed to lose a point. Sims in a very good mood were guaranteed to always gain a point. Even though there was code checking if a random # between 0-100, since the threshold was always 100 or more, the checks always returned true. What's the point of having randomness in there if it always returns true?

It appears that Maxis initially wanted to make grades slightly harder and slightly random and then changed it. Who knows whether this was done "by design" to make it super simple and super easy, or it was abandoned or incomplete, or their "design" was flawed. :shrug:

I've tested it out in my game, but have not yet observed the long term effects. A lot of my playable sims have high logic already, so the effect is less noticeable. But play testing in the Pleasant house, Lilith Pleasant with no logic points was stuck with a D after returning from her first day of school. Using the boolprop cheat to up her logic points, she returned with a C.

INSTALLATION:
This MUST be in your Downloads folder, typically found under:

C:\Documents and Settings\UserName\My Documents\EA GAMES\The Sims 2\Downloads


Compatibility:
Tested in Nighlife and works as planned, so far. Please test it out and let me know if there are any problems. This probably works in Uni and the Base Game, although it hasn't been tested. Feel free to try it out and leave feedback, which is always appreciated.

I have tested this in my game and it appears to work fine.

This hack is compatible with most, if not all mods by MATY crew (Pescado, TJ, and CBoy), dizzy, and probably more. Again, up to you to help me determine any possible conflicts.


REMINDER and fine print (to cover my ass ) :
Remember to ALWAYS BACK UP YOUR DATA BEFORE INSTALLING NEW HACKS. By using this hack, you agree to absolve me of any responsibility or liability for any potential loss of or damage to your data. You have been warned.

HOW TO REPORT: Conflicts, problems, or errors
I would appreciate any constructive criticism and feedback that is actually helpful. With that in mind, it would be helpful, when reporting any conflicts or issues, that you include the following:

1) thorough but reasonably brief description of what you were doing
2) clear, comprehendible explanation of your problem
3) list of hacks that may be related to grades
4) archived (.rar or .zip) of log produced by error

Posts which do not include a clear description of what your problem is will be pretty much ignored. (i.e. posts such as "This does not work! I am taking it out! You suck! Nice try! etc.") I can't and won't help you if you don't explain what's wrong.

Please be nice when trying to explain your problem and I might be nice and help you.

:grouphug: Finally, my Thank Yous go to:

J.M. Pescado, twojeffs, dizzy2, and jase439 for being excellent tutors and providing excellent models in their mods. As always, thanks to those creators who've put out some excellent modding tutorials, Quaxi and co for SimPE, and dizzy2 for disaSim2, and the finally letters T and S, and the number 2, all of whom, without which this mod would not be possible.

If I left anyone out, I apologize in advance. You know who you are and you deserve my thanks.

Version History:
v2.00 - Tweaked code to add dependency on additional skills based on personality and aspiration
v2.02 - Added/modified code to lessen cheering.
v2.03 - Changed format to 8007 for backwards compatibility.
v2.10 - Even harder version as requested, needs feedback please.
v2.12 - Updated for Seasons

Here's some pics:

We see Angela only maintains her B with no logic points.



Bumping up her logic points, she manages to score an A. Since she has 6 logic points, she normally would only get a 30% chance of getting an A, but since she's in a really good mood, that boosted her up to a 60% chance.




Finally, with her logic points maxed out and a great mood, she has a 50% chance of getting that A+.



Here's Lilith with her miserable D. With no logic points, her cap is at a D (the game starts her off intially with a D-), with only a 1% chance of improving. With a single logic point, her grades improve to a C.