Dolphin's Magic Gardening Gnome (updated 2011-07-07)

Staff Note: This mod is outdated and doesn't work for recent game versions! See here for an updated version.


No update required for Pets

I've tested this and it works with patch 1.25.

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This magic gardening gnome helps you garden. It can cause your garden to grow incredibly fast, and also water, weed and fertilize your garden. Both the speed and what it does is configurable through settings on the gnome itself. As it works, the gnome will change its pose. If you were to turn off all the functions defined below, you'd just get a gnome that changes poses on a schedule.

More information is given below the changelog.

Change Log
Version 1.06 2011-07-07: Fixed a problem that could cause repeated "out of mana" messages or pulse not working.
Version 1.05 2011-01-02: Update growth code so it doesn't try to grow mature omni-plants that have not yet been fed.
Version 1.04 2010-12-24: Fixed a problem that would cause a game crash when you tried to charge it with the wand from the custom magic skill.
Version 1.03 2010-12-23: Added new ability to revive dead or barren plants. You must delete your existing magic gardening gnomes after this upgrade; please use the cheat function to restore your old mana after you buy a new one.
Version 1.02 2010-12-10: Updated string tables for non-English users. It will still be in English but it shouldn't crash or show token names without spaces.
Version 1.01 2010-12-07: Initial update for late night, should work with current patches, but had some language issues for non-English users


The Mana System
I've received requests by some players that don't like to straight-out cheat to make my magical items work in a way that still keeps some game balance. To address this need, I've made this item require mana, or stored up magical energy, to work. This is the same mana system that my magic mood manager uses.

Most operations require 1/4 unit of mana; the revive operation requires 5 units of mana. This is per plant, and only deducted when the plant has a need for it. For example, if the plant has enough water already, you won't be charged any mana for maintaining that plant's water supply.

To charge a magical item, you have three choices.

1) You can use gems to charge a magical item. Currently, you get one unit of mana for each §100 that your gems are worth but I may make this value tunable at a later time for people that want it to be harder or easier to charge magical items.

2) You can recharge your wand using Kolipoki's Custom Magic Skill. This will show up on the object's "Mana...->Recharge with magic wand" menu when you both have the magic skill and have the wand in your inventory. To do this interaction, the Magic Mood Manager must also be on the ground and not in your inventory. Warning: Charging using the magic skill takes a lot of energy. Be sure that your sim has a near full energy bar -- otherwise, you might pass out!

3) If you'd rather cheat than use gems or use the wand, there's a convenient Mana->Cheat menu option which allows you to directly edit how much stored mana there is. This item will also be useful to non-cheaters that may need to delete and recreate the item if they run into a bug while this item is in beta.


Menu Options

Here's the menu options available so you can get a sense of how configurable it is:


Settings...

Functions...

Grow -- Age's your garden 1 extra day per time period
Weed -- Removes all weeds
Water -- Waters all plants
Fertilize -- Fertilize all plants with "outstanding" level fertilizer
Revive -- Revives any barren or dead plant.

Speed...

Medium -- Medium speedup, growing your plants 4 extra times a day.
Fast -- Grows your plants once every 4 hours
Faster (default) -- Grows your plants once an hour
Fastest -- Grows your plants once very 15 minutes
Pulse Only -- Instead of turning on and off the Gnome, you get an option to "Do Pulse" which does all the items one time only.

Turn On -- Turns on the Gnome (wakes him up). This only displays if the Gnome is off and you have a speed other than "Pulse Only"
Turn Off -- Turns off the Gnome (puts him to sleep). This only displays if the Gnome is on and you have a speed other than "Pulse Only"
Do Pulse -- Does a one time set of actions, and changes the pose.

A note about when the Gnome does its work: When in pulse mode, the Gnome will do the entire garden at once, instantly. However, when using another speed and leaving the Gnome on, the Gnome does its work throughout the time it is on. (Specifically, it will do 1/10 of your garden 10 times between poses.) This will make the garden seem to age more naturally (although very fast) instead of the entire garden aging at once. You can still see how often the Gnome works, however, by watching its pose change. If left on, between poses the Gnome will get to every plant on the lot once.

One more thing: The gnome will not age plants that have harvestables on them. This prevents them from timing out prematurely. It will continue to water, weed and fertilize these plants if configured to do so, but will pass over the plants for magically induced growth.

This is a cloned object with a custom script built in. As such, it should not conflict with other hacks. I also believe this mod to be base game compatible, but I do have WA. I'd appreciate it if someone without WA would confirm that it works for them in the comments area.

Obviously this is mostly a cheat, but could also be useful to someone building a lot with plants above normal quality. Had I made this object first, my Tomb of the Underground Garden would have been substantially easier to create!

You can find the object under decor->misc, as shown here:

If you don't get interactions...
How to install package files has changed with the Ambitions EP and the updates that have come out around the same time even if you didn't buy Ambitions. Follow these instructions:

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php...ch_1.12/2.7/3.3

If you install it properly, you will see something like this when you start:



If you don't see something like the above, do not ask me for help. You either don't have the framework installed correctly or you put the package file in the wrong place. Reread the instructions and if you still have problems ask for help in this forum, not here.

That said, if you have problems with the object and do see the screen similar to the one above, post a screenshot of it with your post for help. It might help by showing other mods you have that might conflict. Also, if you had an older version of my gnome and it stopped working when you upgrade, delete it and buy a new one. You can use the cheat function so you keep your existing mana.

So in summary, if you see a screen shot like the above, ask for help here. If you don't, ask for help in this forum.

See Also

1. Dolphin's Magic Mood Manager
2. Dolphin's Magic Orchids
3. Kolipoki's Custom Magic Skill