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Writing is Hard: No Payment for Partial Submissions - UPDATED TO 1.67

SCREENSHOTS
4,095 Downloads 220 Thanks  Thanks 58 Favourited 28,912 Views
Created by analect
Uploaded: 18th Aug 2012 at 6:36 PM
Updated: 22nd May 2015 at 10:25 AM - Confirmed compatibility for 1.67
At long last: updated to 1.67!

Files for 1.67 added, to include the horror and poetry genres that came with Supernatural. If you have any problems, please let me know!

What?

This mod is a very simple set of XML tweaks that will stop sims receiving payments while they are writing books. There are multiple flavours to choose from but, obviously, you must choose only one, and ensure that you don't have any other tuning mod that alters the resource: Writing_0x49f73ba878b269dc.

Compatibility

Built and tested on patch 1.36, although I wouldn't imagine lower patch level should be a problem. No expansions or stuff packs required.

1/09/12: Tested on patch 1.38 - no problems. Works fine for me, but please do report any issues. Thanks!

About

It has always bugged me that sims receive payments for every few chapters they submit of their novels. Sure, it helps them pay for food and bills while they're slaving over their magnum opus, but whoever heard of a publisher paying per chapter?

IRL, not every author receives advances (huge or otherwise), and publishers who do offer them tend to pay one lump sum that is then offset against the first few quarters' royalties, the same way record labels expect artists to recoup on their investment. For simplicity's sake - and maybe a little bit of sadism - I decided to do away with payments for partials entirely, and, as I tend to play on longer lifespans, I've included some optional flavours that also make writing a longer, harder slog for wannabe authors.

Now, your sims can truly be starving poets, typing away frantically with freezing fingers, and not receiving a single simoleon until after publication. Mwahaha. Maybe they'll even have to hold down proper jobs until they can earn enough to give up work.

Flavours

Choose ONE of the following to make life harder for your sims:
  • _writingishard_nopaymentforpartials : Touches nothing except the XML governing partials. Choose this if you're happy with all other aspects of the writing skill, and just don't want sims to receive payments every few chapters.
  • _writingishard_nopayments_harder : No partial payments, plus a series of mild difficulty tweaks. Click the spoiler for details. The basic PPM rate (pages written per minute) is unchanged, so sims will still write at the normal rate.


  • _writingishard_nopayments_longer : Want your sims to spend longer writing their books? Choose this flavour to stop partial payments, reduce the page per minute rate from 0.12 to 0.08, and increase the number of royalty payments from 6 to 8. No other changes to difficulty.
  • _writingishard_nopayments_longerharder : No partial payments, PPM reduced from 0.12 to 0.08, number of royalty payments increased from 6 to 8, and tweaks to difficulty added. Click the spoiler for details.


  • _writingishard_nopayments_muchlonger : This flavour stops partial payments and reduces the PPM rate from 0.12 to 0.06. Royalty payouts are for 8 weeks instead of 6, but it will take sims twice as long to write books. Nothing else is changed.
  • _writingishard_nopayments_muchlongermuchharder : It's a hard, hard world out there. This flavour stops partial payments, reduces PPM to 0.06, and also adds difficulty tweaks. Your sims may hate you. On the bright side, royalty payouts last 8 weeks instead of 6.



Bottom Line:

None of the flavours change the length of books written, or the value of the actual royalties themselves. Your sim just won't receive any payments until after their book has been published. If you are using one of the flavours that adds difficulty tweaks, it will also be fractionally tougher for them to earn high royalty figures and consistent bestsellers, even with a maxed out skill. Sims should also be prepared for more chances of flops or lower value royalties. Hey, no one said writing was easy!

Thanks for looking, and enjoy.
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