More Dangerous Burglars & Enhanced Car Alarms!

Updates!

• 2024-09-10: Quick update to resolve a conflict with gummilutt's Optional Schoolbus. I copied over her Swedish translation, but will need this line, 0x0028, translated by translators. Unfortunately I had to sacrifice two debug Community Time strings from the original crammyboy version, as gummilutt used the same line. Since they were just debug strings though, and Chris Hatch's Community Time Mod doesn't use these lines, I made this decision. I am working on a larger update to this mod so this is literally just quick and dirty.
• 2024-07-14:
  (1) Fixed a bug in all versions that would lead to an "Invalid constant" error if AL wasn't installed (this is relevant especially for Mac players). Thanks to boybutch for the report. Please re-download if you don't have either AL, M&G or the Ultimate Collection. Otherwise an update will not be needed.
  (2) Optimised the performance of the mod and the compatibility patch a little by removing three cross-references to global BHAV's.
• 2024-07-03: Added a Finnish translation for the Arsonist version. Kiitos paljon, gloomykantele!

We all know Sims 4 is lacking them entirely, but even in the older games, burglars feel rather mellow at times. Especially because burglar alarms are always foolproof, never fail to detect intruders, and never do anything worse than stealing belongings you could just buy back. Why don't we mix things up a little...?

This mod is inspired by dizzy2's Daily/Weekly Arsonist mod - which was sadly discontinued after University and completely broken with the Pets EP - and simler90's Burglar Mod - which sadly crashes my game for unknown reasons, and has hence kicked off this project of mine in the first place.

What can I expect?
Having this mod in your Downloads folder won't spawn more burglars than before, but when a burglar comes around, you'll be facing a higher challenge than before:

• Every time a burglar attempts to steal an item (which can happen between 1 and 5 times per burglar visit, this has not been altered), the burglar may choose to lay down a fire instead of actually stealing the item.
  - The chance for that is 50% for most Sims, but 80% for the most playful burglars (8+ Playful points).
  - Note that the "no-Fires" version of my mod has no burglars laying fires at all.
  - Note that the "Arsonist" version of my mod bumps this chance up to 100%.
• Just like in simler90's Burglar Mod: Ghosts, off-world Sims, birds, penguins, RC cars, robots, Social Bunnies, Therapists, Magical Assistants, babies or toddlers do not prevent burglars from spawning anymore. Did that ever make sense in the first place?
• In addition, burglars have gained some brainpower, depending on their skillset, personality and hobbies:
  - If a burglar builds their Body, Logic and Mechanical skills somewhere (you could even do this yourself - burglars ARE safe NPC's!), or spawns with skills already assigned to them, they may start avoiding burglar alarms - and breaking car alarms. That's right: the most proficient intruders can brick the system in your Sim's car, and make the alarm unusable from there on.
  - Sloppy burglars are a bit more likely to mess up and be detected, while neat burglars are a bit more likely to avoid detection.
  - FreeTime only: Burglars that do a lot of Tinkering activities are more likely to have developed a hack to skip burglar alarms, or a jammer to break car alarms.
  - This may sound scary, but keep in mind: Even the perfect burglar still has a chance to be caught by a car alarm. House burglar alarms are cheaper (as you don't have to buy the car first) but are much more likely to fail to detect the intruder. It's like real life - cheap security systems only hold off the amateurs. :p
• Car alarms can still be triggered by the mere presence of a burglar near the car. However, the distance from which the car can detect the intruder is halved, which will now require the burglar to be right next to the car for it to see anything. If the burglar comes from the right side and head straight for the front door, you'll be out of luck unless they choose to go for the car as the first thing to steal or set fire to.
• However, with the mod, you also get a powerful new tool: A better car alarm. We don't live in 2004 anymore, after all. Some cars never sleep and have cameras all around to protect itself, and its surroundings. And I tried to reenact that in this mod. The price of the better car alarm is premium, but so is its quality. It comes with AES encryption to make hacking it much harder even for the most skilled burglars, and it comes with a 360° surround camera to detect motion from much further away (as in, the original ten tiles of the vanilla car alarm). If you really want to be safe, you shouldn't skimp on security!
• Last but not least, the burglars also got a lot more snarky! They will brag about just anything they mess up on your lot, just to rub more salt into your wounds.

Got some examples?
Let's look at the Pleasantview burglar gang. One of these three will always rob the Caliente household in their first night, and with this mod, it is no longer 100% safe just by you spending §250 on an alarm:
Jessica Ebadi gets a 2.5% chance to avoid a burglar alarm. (3 Body skill points meaning +300 points, and 3 Neat points meaning -200 points).
Gordon King gets a 12.5% chance to avoid a burglar alarm. (2 Logic skill points meaning +200 points, and 8 Neat points meaning +300 points).
Russ Bear gets a 12.5% chance to avoid a burglar alarm. (1 Mechanical skill point meaning +100 points, and 9 Neat points meaning +400 points).
However, with FreeTime installed, each of them also gets random hobby enthusiasm values, meaning an increase in the success chance of up to 25%. In the worst case, that's a 1 in 3 chance the burglar will get through and steal or set fire to the hot tub anyway.

Tuning
Is this all too wild for you? Fret not, you can tune the mod to make your life a little easier... or even harder, if you'd like!

• For the car alarm, you can change how many minutes it takes to install, the cost of the cheap one, the cost of the expensive one, and the detection distance of unwanted guests for both alarms. (Resource: Tuning - Alarm.)
• For both the car and house alarms, you can give burglars a skill handicap to ease the stress on your Sims (by default there is no handicap - 2 will halve the burglar's skills, for example), and you can change how much of an influence the lot classification has. If you don't want to play with those, just set them to zero. The default is +500 points for a middle-class lot, and +1000 points for a low-class lot. (Resources: Tuning - Alarm for the car alarm, and Item Constants for the burglar alarm.)
• Standard version only: You can choose to tinker with the odds of burglars setting fires - either by upping or lowering it, or removing or changing the playful burglar bonus. (Resource: Tuning.)

Translations
Burglars & Alarms / No Fires:

Language	Available?	Creator
English (US/UK)		Me (Blueybre)
French		Nostural
German		Me (Blueybre)
Spanish		matti2k2
Finnish		gloomykantele
Russian		Volkov386
Polish		Meduza

Arsonist Mod (Mafia):

Language	Available?	Creator
English (US/UK)		Me (Blueybre)
German		Me (Blueybre)
Finnish		gloomykantele
Polish		Meduza

If you know your way around SimPE and would like to translate into your own language, feel free to contribute! You shall be given due credit.
The lines to translate are found in the three "Dialog prim string set" resources within my mod file. One is for the burglar alarm, one for the stuff related to the car alarms, and one for the burglar.

Compatibility
Expansion Packs: Nightlife, FreeTime, Apartment Life.
Nightlife introduced cars in the first place so is required. FreeTime is recommended for a better experience, as is Apartment Life, but both are not needed as EP checks are in place.

Additionally, my mod requires Cyjon's Smarter EP Check to take care of the FreeTime EP check.

Overrides

Resource name	Type name	Type	Group	Instance	Not present in
Interaction - Ownable - Install Alarm	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA230	0x0000214A
Interaction - Ownable - Install Alarm TEST	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA230	0x0000214B
Sub - Alarm Arm/Disarm	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA230	0x0000214E
Main - Res - Burglar Check	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA230	0x00002150
Interaction - Ownable - Alarm Toggle	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA230	0x00002151
Interaction - Ownable - Alarm Toggle TEST	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA230	0x00002152
CT - Burgle TEST	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F4EA320	0x00002154
Semi-Attributes	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7F4EA230	0x00000100
Dialog prim string set	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7F4EA230	0x0000012D
Semi-Global Sounds	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7F4EA230	0x00004132
Tuning - Alarm	Behaviour Constant (BCON)	0x42434F4E	0x7F4EA230	0x00002000
Function - Along Route	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7F569EB1	0x00001008
Adult Animations	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7F569EB1	0x00000081
Dialog prim string set	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7F569EB1	0x0000012D
Item Constants	Behaviour Constant (BCON)	0x42434F4E	0x7F569EB1	0x00001001
Burglar - Make an Escape	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7FB3391E	0x00001011	no-Fires
Burglar - Put Item in Sack	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7FB3391E	0x00001014	no-Fires
Adult Animations	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7FB3391E	0x00000081
Attributes	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7FB3391E	0x00000100
Dialog prim string set	Text Lists (STR#)	0x53545223	0x7FB3391E	0x0000012D	no-Fires
Tuning	Behaviour Constant (BCON)	0x42434F4E	0x7FB3391E	0x00001004	no-Fires, Arsonist
people around?	Behaviour Function (BHAV)	0x42484156	0x7FF05BAF	0x00001009

Conflicts and Notes
Anything that also modifies the above resources will conflict with my mods.

• The following mods are compatible as the only conflict lies in the Dialogue strings. I have incorporated all the changed and new lines from these mods into my mod so you can use them together. In all cases, my mod must load last.
  the Community Time Project (I tested it with Chris Hatch's version which PleasantSims links to, but older versions should work fine, too).
  Pick'N'Mix's No Driving Without A Licence mod.
  gummilutt's Optional Schoolbus mod.
  dickhurt's "Vehicle and Taxi Messages" which is included in their Taxi Charges Money mod.
• Also concerning the Taxi Charges Money mod, make my mod load after theirs, and you'll be all good. The mod is normally meant to prevent you from installing an alarm if you don't have enough money for both the ride and the alarm. It does still charge you when you go to the alarm specialist though, and prevent you from going if you lack the money for at least the cheap alarm, so I think this conflict can be ignored.
• midgethetree's Custom Burglar Alarms are fine to use with my mod. As long as my mod loads last, you'll be good.
• reaperwithnoname's Anyone Fight Burglars modifies different resources and thus is perfectly safe to use alongside my mod.
• Chris Hatch's Visit Other Sims mod needs a compatibility patch to work properly with my mod - I have provided one in the Downloads tab. Make sure the compatibility patch loads after the main Burglars And Alarms mod AND Visit Other Sims, no matter whether you use the PetstoAL, AL, the combined Hospital_and_Visit version, or Meduza's compatibility edit (_riders).
• For obvious reasons, simler90's Burglar Mod can't be used with my mod. It's meant as an alternative approach for those that either want even spicier burglars, or are just experiencing the same crashing issues that I had.
• dizzy2's Daily/Weekly Arsonist mod conflicts too, but doesn't work on current game configurations anymore anyway.
• If you use the Community Time compatibility patch for fway's Walk to Lot Fix, please remove it. My mod includes those dialogues, like stated above.

Please let me know if there are any other conflicts with mods you use, and I will see if something can be done about them by load order or through plug-ins.

Credits
Maxis and EA for creating Sims 2 in the first place
The Creators of SimPE and especially the BHAV, BCON and STR# plugins
simler90 and dizzy2 for the huge inspiration to make this mod.
matti2k2 for the Spanish translation
Meduza for the Polish translation
Nostural for the French translation
gloomykantele for the Finnish translation
Volkov386 for the Russian translation

Have fun and happy Simming!
~ Blueybre