More walkbys every day [abandoned]

Update 16 October 2008
I will update this hack no more, because now there's a better and newer one, "process-walkbys" by Dizzy, which does the same and also something more.
Check it out at The Laden Swallow, here (it's "hidden" in those comprehensive archives - I strongly suggest to browse them all, many awesome gems, there).
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Walkbys are those sims which walk on sidewalk, sometimes, in front of a played lot: they read or steal newspaper, steal gnomes, stretch, jog, or simply wander a bit around. If you greet them, they became visitors and so on.

The game schedules 4 walkbys/day, at 10, 14, 16 and 18 (10am, 2pm, 4pm, 6pm), and performs various checks to determine which ones, from hood sims pool, are best choices. These checks involve neighborhood type, presence of children, known/friend flags, and some other stuff I honestly didn't managed to understand to a fully extent.

Now, I wanted more and more walkbys/day, and some more randomness in walkbys eligibility.

This hack changes the walkbys parade's scheduling from a fixed-hours-base to a daily hour range. I've made a few different flavors of that range, so you may choose according to your preferences: package naming should be self-esplicative. Of course, use only one of them at the time.

Range types (time notation is european 24h, i.e. 18 = 6 pm):

• marhis_walkbys_10-18.package ---> 1 walkby every hour from 10am to 6 pm (standard range)
• marhis_walkbys_9-22.package ---> 1 walkby every hour from 9 am to 10 pm
• marhis_walkbys_14-21.package ---> 1 walkby every hour from 2 pm to 9 pm
• marhis_walkbys_none.package ---> hermit version: no walkby, none, leave me alone
• marhis_walkbys_always.package ---> nonstop version: 1 walkby every hour 24/24 h
• marhis_walkbys_nocheckonknown.package ---> Experimental: 1 walkby every hour from 9 am to 10 pm + bypassed check on known/unknown relationship flag and relationship score between residents sims and eligible walkbys.

I marked the last one as "experimental" because I don't know for sure how much those checks influence the overall behavior, hence if you want to alter scheduling time only, don't use it.

Addeed on request: Walkbys every hour day & night, non stop. All checks remains unaltered, so a walkby greeted after 2 am will leave, but at least now the greeter knows him/her and will may place a phone call daytime.
If the walkby is a vampire, though, will not leave after greeted, as of normal game behavior.

11 March 2007: Update for Pets and Seasons EPs
This updated version should work also in non-Pets or Seasons installation, but I'm not sure at 100% (currently in testing), so I will mantain the old version at its side, in any case.
Package names are the same, so if you have Pets and/or Seasons just let the updated package overwrite the old one.


How this hack works: Constant values for walkby hours are stored in a BCON; I did not alter that BCON - which contains many other tuning constants - but I addeed a new BCON with these new values only, so they are for sure unused by any other game routine. I Addeed also labels, both for this new BCON and for original one, so it should be very easy to modify these values by yourself in SimPE, if you want a tuning which suits better your preferences (see pict below).


Compatibility: This hack affects only the scheduling time BHAV, leaving untouched any other BHAV and check: I used a BHAV which seems unaltered from base game to EP3, which is the last EP I have. This means that it should be compatible for Pets also, but I can't know for sure. If you find any compatibility misbehavior, let me know, thanks.

Terms of use: Don't use on sims with pink underware, which name starts with letter "B", don't use on Sundays until moon raising, clap your hands twice every monring, shave your head, worship me and all my relatives till the fifth generation, and... ok, stop joking :P; seriously, do whatever you want with this and enjoy

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[updated infos - 29 Jan 2007]
If you like this hack, probably you'll like also:

• twojeffs' Visitor Controller