Postal System for the Sims - Greetings Cards

Even though Sims have a mail box on every lot, I personally think there is a huge gaping hole in the game because there is no way to send cards, parcels or letters to your friends. I imagine that those people who play Historic hoods could really do with this since they won't use computers and can't remotely improve relationships by sending e-mail to their friends, but also even in modern day times it's just nice to receive (snail) mail.

This mod allows Sims to purchase boxes of greetings cards and send those cards to other Sims. It consists of a community lot rack from which the boxes are purchased, and the boxes themselves. However, the main part of this mod is to provide an infrastructure for anyone to make greetings cards to be sent using this system.

An important note about cards to use with this system
Of course this mod on its own is completely useless. You must have some greetings cards in your download folder for it to do anything. Check out the Related Pages tab for available Greetings Cards that you can download. Or you can make your own (see below).

There are two versions - which should I use?
The first version of this mod was discovered to clash with various mailbox hacks - some of which are so prevalent, people don't even know they have them, so the code from the mailbox has been moved. If you were having problems with cards not being delivered to the recipient, please re-download. The original version is retained as an alternative in case the new version also has a clash - be a shame if it worked for you before and now didn't! You cannot use both at once, they have the same name to try to prevent that.

In all cases, if you redownload please delete the package entitled Mailbox.package (which was in the first version) from your download folder.

You must download the greetings-cards-system-Mog-20091223.rar and one of

• greetings-cards-delivery-Mog-20100114.rar
• ALTERNATIVE-greetings-cards-delivery-Mog-20100114.rar

in order for this system to work.

Deliberate Quirks!
These quirks don't have an impact on the basic functioning of the postal system.

• When writing the card, currently I just briefly generate a homework object - aesthetically it's not perfect, but functionally it is fine, and at least it looks like they are writing on something. I will look into replacing the homework object with something in a later update.
• Children can't use these objects (the rack or the card box), nor can they interact with the Mail Box, but they can be recipients of cards which a family member gets out of the Mail Box for them.

So how do I use it
Firstly on a community lot, or any business where there can be a working cash register (i.e. owned business or apartments with the Apartments and Shopping on the same Lot! mod, or home businesses), place your Greetings Card rack (found in Shopping->Miscellaneous in the community lot catalog with all the other shopping racks, and Miscellaneous->Miscellaneous in the residential lot catalog) at a cost of $500, in a prime position in your store.

1. Have your Sim visit the store and direct them to Buy Greetings Card.../card type*
2. Your Sim will take the box to the nearest cash register to purchase it for $30.
3. Once purchased, the box of greetings cards will be placed in the Sims inventory to be brought home.

* Where it says Card Type this will indicate whichever types of cards you have in your downloads folder. This mod is capable of spotting a number of pre-determined card types which are listed below. Any of those which are in your downloads folder will be shown on the pie-menu.

Next, once your Sim returns home, place your purchased box of greetings cards in a room containing a table or a desk. It can be placed anywhere in the room - no need to be on the desk or table in question. Once used, the Sim will use the table or desk that is closest to the box.

1. Direct your Sim to use it, by choosing to Send card type Card, or Send Many card-type Card. This menu will show you the card type this box contains to help you remember.
2. You will then be presented with an address book where you choose the person to send the card to. This dialog will also remind you of the card type you are sending.
3. Your box of cards has an assortment of designs in it, so when you come to send the card to another Sim you will be presented with a choice of all the different designs of your card type to choose one specific design to send to this person. Different designs will likely have different greetings messages in them as well.
4. Once written, the card, inside its envelope, will be ready for posting - if the interaction is cancelled at this point, the menu on this envelope will provide a way to post the card later if you prefer.
   • If there is no space on the desk or table to place the written card or stack of cards, then a location nearby (on the floor) will be found instead.
   • If you are using the Send Many interaction, then a stack of envelopes will appear instead of a single envelope and you will go round again to step 2. Once you have written all the cards you want to write you can choose the cross on the address book dialog, or on the choose card dialog to end the interaction and at this point the stack of envelopes will be taken to the post box.
   • If you empty the box of cards, the Send Many interaction will automatically end and the stack of envelopes will be taken to the post box.
   • If you cancel the interaction before the stack of cards is posted and start writing more cards using the Send Many interaction, say from another box of cards, maybe even a different type of cards, the same stack of envelopes will collect up all your cards and they can be taken to the post box with one trip once you are finally completely finished.
   • Note: You can send one card using the Send Many interaction if you wish, perhaps useful for sending one card from each box, a Christmas card and a Birthday card say, before taking a trip to the post box.
5. If the interaction is not cancelled however, the Sim will automatically take the card (or stack of cards) to the post box.

The sender will get a social boost and a small increase to the Short Term Relationship with the addressee.

Once posted, the card is immediately in the postal system (I decided not to make it wait until the mail carrier arrived to collect it). At (or anytime after) this point, if you switch to the lot on which the addressee lives, the card will be delivered the next time the mail carrier arrives (remembering that no mail is deivered on a Sunday):

1. Your Sim has some mail - a greetings card from the other Sim.
2. When retrieved from the mail box it is placed in the inventory of the collecting Sim.
3. The card can then be placed on any surface to be viewed by anyone.

The recipient will get a social boost and a small increase to the Short Term Relationship with the sender everytime they view the card. No-one else gets any boost from viewing the card, although anyone can view it.

Expansion Pack Requirements
This mod requires you to have either NightLife or an Expansion Pack beyond NightLife. It will not work if you have only the Base Game, or the Base Game + University EP. If you have no EPs beyond NightLife you must download the NIGHTLIFE-ONLY-Pescado-style-anticrash-Mog-20100201.rar or your game WILL crash with this version.


Greetings Card Types
This mod can currently detect the following pre-determined card types. If you want to have any other types added to this mod so that you can make your own cards of this type, please let me know. It is a very simple change to update the mod to cope with new card types. The numbers next to each card type will be meaningful if you decide to make your own cards.



The original version of this mod clashed with a very prevalent mailbox hack so the code has been moved. If you suffer from this clash it results in the cards not being delivered to the recipient. I don't know of any other mods that this mod clashes with, but there is always the possibility. The pertinent information for the owner of the other object is here.


Cheers
Mog

Update History
16Jan2010

• Provided alternative version to avoid mailbox mod clashes
• Added translations - see section below.
• Added additonal card types, "Fanmail", and "Friendship"
• Fixed autonomouse browse interaction on rack so object in hand wasn't a video game (leftovers from cloned object!)

17Jan2010

• Correction to translation - oops, I put some of the Portuguese translations in the U.S. English by mistake!

25Jan2010

• Corrected texture in Landscape (long-card) template package.

22Feb2010

• Added translations - see section below.
• Rack now works on owned businesses - holds 10 card boxes before restocking is required.
• Send Many... menu option now available.
• New card types "Congratulations", "Wedding Anniversary" and "Sympathy".
• Just after upload I spotted a reset on canceling a request to write a card - fixed and reuploaded. Ain't that just always the way?

04Mar2010

• Changed catalog categorisation so that the shopping rack also shows up in the residential buy mode - so you can easily use it in a home business without having to use the Game_Help:Change_Lot_Zoning^wiki cheat to grab community lot items - as requested by joninmobile.

22Mar2010

• Fixed bug where card boxes bought from an owned business were not initialised and did not display the Send pie-menus when brought home.
• Fixed bug where Post interaction was not pushed onto the Sim's queue when the writing of the card was finished.

Additional Credits:
Quaxi for SimPE^wiki
Creators of Wings 3d^wiki
Numenor for the AnyGameStarter.
SIMale for the Simlish Font.
tunaisafish for all the advice that produced this tutorial.
HugeLunatic for fixing my mesh when it was hovering above the surface it was placed on!
Everyone on the Creator Feedback Forum who helped me design this, with particular thanks to Gwenke33 and GeneralOperationsDirector.
Very big thanks go to lientebollemeis and joninmobile for spotting the clash with mailbox hacks.
Pescado for the idea and know-how for the NightLife AntiCrash package.


Language Support
This object is fully translated in the following languages thanks to the much appreciated assistance from the following native language speakers. :lovestruc

• First Batch in 16Jan update
• Dutch (provided by leesester)
• Italian (provided by Numenor)
• German (provided by Scissor Look)
• Swedish (provided by satinn)
• Finnish (provided by kagemusha)
• French (provided by pixelhate)
• Polish (provided by Beata125)
• Portuguese (provided by ABCRic)
• Second Batch in 22Feb update
• Spanish (provided by -_Elyon_-)
• Russian (provided by Love321)
• Danish (provided by Sims2pigen)
• Brazilian Portuguese (provided by Nandonalt)

If you are a non-English speaker and would like to help me produce a version of this object containing your language strings - please go to this thread to provide translation assistence. Credit will be given.