Interests Overhaul

Summary:

In games after Freetime, the interest allocation system changed to take age into account, but the way that this is done is very unbalanced resulting in all newborn sims receiving very similar interests. In addition, at the teen, adult, and elder age transitions, sims get their interests adjusted massively.

This breaks anything which relies on interest level to distribute, for example, predestined hobby allocation, possibly wants, and definitely some mods which change LTW generation. It also makes interests pointless because every sim ends up with very similar interests. This has annoyed me for 17 years.

I finally learnt how to write BHAVs, so, I fixed it.

If you like the sound of that and don't care about the details, grab the "MAIN" file, delete my previous interest mod if you have it, ignore everything else. Have fun!

If you have questions, read on. If you have any problems, let me know.



What My Mod Changes

• When a new sim is created (born, CAS, townie generation) their interests are still influenced by their age stage, but this is more random. Instead of being capped at 4 points, they are now weighted. If an interest is capped, e.g. Toys for adults, or Politics for children; they are likely (~60%) to have a low interest level. However they have a chance (27%) to roll a neutral interest level, and a low chance (10-15%) to roll a high interest level. Interests which are unrestricted for that age, e.g. Sports for all ages, Toys for children, Work for adults, roll a random value from 0-10 points.
  
• Maxis code had a lot of capped interests for children (10 in total) and the choices were kind of... weird? Apparently they think children don't like food, and adults don't like animals, among other strangeness. I made it make sense (to me). In case you don't like my changes, customisation instructions are included. Details below behind the spoiler.
  
• Interest generation is overall cleaned and more random. Maxis code had a quota to try to get sims to roll 6 low, 6 medium, and 6 high level interests, which was causing interest points to "bunch up" in the interests which come later in the list, and a lot of capped interests to be stuck on exactly 4 points. I removed the quota. Sims will roll a random level of interest in unrestricted interests, and a weighted level of interest in age-restricted interests.
  
• N.B. Because the quotas are removed, sometimes sims roll very unbalanced-seeming interests, such as having low interest in almost everything, high interest in almost everything, or feeling neutral about almost everything. I was happy to leave this in, as it happens rarely enough that it's interesting when it does.
  
• I have also changed the way that interests are increased or reduced at age transition. Instead of a solid 4 points being added or removed from every category, sims may gain or lose 0-4 points (rarely 5) in each affected interest. This makes the overall effect much more subtle, meaning sims aren't drastically changing their entire scope of interests all of a sudden, because that didn't make any sense.
  
• N.B. Existing sims' interests will not change until they go through an age transition (and then they will only change 5 interests).

Versions:
Pick MAIN or Simply Random version:

MAIN version includes all of the above. Not compatible with other mods which try to fix this problem. (Details under spoiler below.)
Simply Random version keeps Maxis values (age-restricted interests are always disliked, age transitions always add/remove 4 points) and only removes the quota. More widely compatible.

Optional add ons:
Bigger Cap Add-On allows sims to allocate more high-level interests before they start losing random other interest points. If you prefer no cap at all, you want InterestLossHack instead (at MATY)
New Sim Random Add-On means new sims are created without age restriction on their interests. Age transitions will still change interests.





Other mod suggestions/known conflicts:

My older "More Random Interests for Freetime+": Not really necessary with this mod - the benefits of that mod are included in this mod. If you prefer my change there (only Politics, Work, and Toys get adjusted by age) or you have already tuned it to your preference and want to keep that, make it load last and it will work together with this.

EquinoxTS2's Interest Ages Mod: NOT compatible. Won't break anything, but theirs removes all age restrictions whereas mine keeps the age restrictions but makes them softer. My add-on "newsimrandom" plus my main mod gives a sort of combination of both. You could use my "Simple" version with Equinox's mod if you want to.

lilbabydilljr's "Teen Age Transition Interest Change is Random" mod: not compatible. We did the same thing, but in different ways. If you prefer their age transition handling, make theirs load last.

TunaisaFish's Enthusiasm Overhaul, and Cuisine Enthusiasm Fix: Compatible, and highly recommended! His mod stops interests from changing so easily in relation to hobby activities. They can still change in response to the Predestined/True Hobby.

Any mod which changes things such as autonomy, wants, LTWs etc taking interests into account: Compatible and highly recommended! They are the reason I wrote this mod.

Thanks to
Everyone who has written mods before me - I have mercilessly cut up and studied your code.
ADHD medication - I can finally focus enough to code/keep track of what I've done. Amazing. SimPE creators, BHAV modding tutorial writers. Extremely helpful.
Many, many discussions in many places over the years about how interests work.
My husband for pretending to be enthusiastic when I was super excited about this XD