Report Card Fixes

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Uploaded: 2nd Jan 2024 at 12:46 AM
Updated: 24th Aug 2024 at 6:38 PM
Updates!
  • 2024-08-24: Added a Traditional Chinese translation for the memory stuff and the F report card. 非常感謝, tokoshietowa!
  • 2024-07-14: Added a Spanish translation for the memory stuff and the F report card. ¡Muchas gracias, areyoufeelingX!


Happy New Year! Despite being on holiday for nearly a month now, I haven't forgotten about Sims 2 at all. In fact, I kept modding anyway! This Yoshi just can't let it go.

I hate getting rid of features the game comes with, but I like adjusting them so then they make more sense. After my countermeasures against Vermin! memory spam, I had to do the same for those pesky D Report Card memories. Both on the kids' and the relatives' side.

While I was at it, I also tweaked school grade calculation as a whole, because it seemed a bit flawed to me.

Let's dive into the details!

Report Card Fixes: What does it do?
With this mod in your Downloads folder, a couple of things change when children or teens come home from school.
  • In a vanilla game, a student gets a "Got a D Report Card" memory each time they come home with a D+ or lower grade, which to me is really only a memorable moment the first time... certainly not every day. I changed the code accordingly - so the memory is still repeatable, but it will only be given another time if the kid's grades have improved above D territory first, but then go down again, for example if a child had a D+, then got a C-, but then went down to a D-.
  • Kids that show up late to school are set to always lose 1 grade. For some reason, being late skips all checks for the Sim's mood by default, which is weird. If you're already late then teachers will certainly not overlook your grumpiness in class. I simply rerouted the instruction so it still performs mood checks as normal, meaning that being late gives an extra -1 penalty on top of the mood penalty or bonus.
  • Since Nightlife, the game performs a check if the kid already had an A+ previously, and will skip all further actions if so. This is just not realistic if the kid's grades end up slipping at some point, and may even cause problems for other processes to function properly, such as letting the player know that grades are slipping, or my Mr. MONSTER mod. So I changed it to this: If a former A+ kid slips down to B+ or worse, they will take their report card out as usual again, and if they make it to A+ territory again, they will also cheer again.

Report Card Fixes AND CHANGES: What does it do?
I wanted to go a little bit further beyond just fixing things, so I did some changes that go beyond the scope of the base mod and put them into an extended version.

Firstly, some more memory stuff I felt needed doing:
  • Teens can get F report cards without being taken away by the Social Worker, but they do not actually get a memory for failing at school - none at all! I thus chose to fill the gap with a new "Got F Report Card" memory. I've thought of it for a while but I decided to make this memory repeatable - hopefully your Sim won't see it so often.
  • Some languages use the worst grade in the memory text (such as a "6" in German) instead of the 2nd worst (would be "5" in German), which never made sense in the first place, so I changed that. If any translator sees this, I'd appreciate if you could check the "Got a D Report Card" and "$Subject Got a D!" memories and adjust their texts as well, if your language has this oddity. Thank you!
Secondly, I also did some changes to the mood influence on school grades. In a vanilla game, the kid's grade increases by +1 if their mood at the time of leaving school is at least +35, and down by 1 grade if it's negative. This is on top of the homework influence, so the actual change is between +4 and -4 grades.
It seems though like Maxis intended to make it more likely for grades to change the better or worse their mood, and even get a bigger bonus or penalty for even better or worse moods, but the effect in the final game is null because the base chance for a grade change is already 100% and the other mood thresholds lead to the same outcomes. So I changed things up:
  • A Sim with a very good (+76 or higher) mood will always experience a grade change: 2/3 chance for a +1 grade change, and a 1/3 chance for a +2 change.
  • A Sim with a good (+35 to +75) mood has a 1/2 chance of no grade change, a 1/3 chance for a +1 grade change, and a 1/6 chance for a +2 change,
  • A Sim with a bad (-1 to -25) mood has a 1/2 chance of no grade change, a 1/3 chance for a -1 grade change, and a 1/6 chance for a -2 change, and
  • A Sim with a very bad (-26 or lower) mood has a 2/3 chance for a -1 grade change, and a 1/3 chance for a -2 change.

Other downloads
The third download is a compatibility patch for syberspunk's Harder Grades, to be used together with my Report Card Fixes And Changes mod. The base mod without the additional changes is not compatible with this mod. See more on this in the Conflicts section below.

The fourth download is a better approach to what Pescado tried to do with his noaplusspam mod, which was coded in a way that it can remove the wrong memories and is prone to errors due to a coding oversight. It also does nothing to prevent the "Sim Got an A+!" memory spam on family members. I have thus created a version that does what Pescado tried to do, but improves on it: Kids will now only get one A+ memory in their life, and parents will only get one A+ memory for each kid. This is a stand-alone mod that you can use even without the main mod.

Download #5 is an extracted resource from twojeffs' Homework Sometimes mod, in case you don't wish to have the other features of this mod and instead only want A+ kids to stop cheering. Pescado's nocheeringfix does it too, but was never updated beyond University and conflicts with my Report Card Fixes With Changes, so I opted for this alternative.

Requirements:
Report Card Fixes, No Cheering For A's, No A+ Spam:
Compatible with the Base Game.

Report Card Fixes And Changes:
Expansion Packs: Nightlife or higher.
This is because of a reference to a different BHAV which did not exist in the base game or University.

Translations
Here is a list of all currently available translations for the modified memory text strings for the "Got a D Report Card" and "Sim Got a Bad Grade!" memories, as well as the newly added text strings for the "Got an F Report Card" memory.
Unsupported languages will display the old, unmodified text for the base game memories, and the English memory description for the "F Report Card" memory.
LanguageAvailable?Creator
English (US/UK)Me (LimeyYoshi)
GermanMe (LimeyYoshi)
SpanishareyoufeelingX
PolishNopke
Chinese (Traditional)tokoshietowa
Thaimiremie
Hungariankaligi

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.
All relevant text strings are found in the CTSS "Catalogue Description" files. See above on information on what needs to change.

Overrides:
Report Card Fixes:
Resource nameTypeGroupAssociated object or semiglobalInstance
Grade - UpdateBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x00002016
Report Card - Memory A+Behaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x0000203A
Find - A+ MemoryBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x0000204A
Function - MainBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7F970AD0Memory - Knowledge - First A+ Report Card0x00001001

Report Card Fixes And Changes:
Resource nameTypeGroupAssociated object or semiglobalInstance
Grade - UpdateBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x00002016
Interaction - Report CardBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x00002032
Report Card - Memory A+Behaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x0000203A
Find - A+ MemoryBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x0000204A
Tuning - GradesBehaviour Constants (BCON)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x00002004
Function - MainBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7F970AD0Memory - Knowledge - First A+ Report Card0x00001001
Catalogue DescriptionCatalogue Description (CTSS)0x7F9F0031Memory - Knowledge - D Report Card0x000007D0
Catalogue DescriptionCatalogue Description (CTSS)0x7F6EB70FMemory - Knowledge - D Report Card - Family0x000007D0
Catalogue DescriptionCatalogue Description (CTSS)0x7F6EB70FMemory - Knowledge - D Report Card - Family0x000007D1

No A+ Spam:
Resource nameTypeGroupAssociated object or semiglobalInstance
CT - Add MemoryBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7F970AD0Memory - Knowledge - First A+ Report Card0x00001002
CT - Add MemoryBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FB09B14Memory - Knowledge - First A+ - Family0x00001002

No Cheering For A's:
Resource nameTypeGroupAssociated object or semiglobalInstance
Report Card - Brainiac MonsterBehaviour Function (BHAV)0x7FBE051BJobDataSchoolGlobals0x00002022

New resources:
My Report Card Fixes And Changes mod adds all needed resources for the new memory "Got an F Report Card!" with the GUID 0x00FF3DAF. Since they have the group 0xFFFFFFFF, they should not conflict with anything.

Conflicts
Any mod that changes the resources listed above will conflict with my mod. Please let me know if this is the case and I'll see what I can do about the conflict.
  • simler90's School Come Home Mod conflicts with Report Card Fixes And Changes but is fine to use in conjunction, just make my mod load after his. I included the fixes simler90 made so then children will route away from the school bus before they take out their report card.
  • Cyjon's Partial Homework Credit conflicts with the base mod and the extended version both but will fully function along with my mod as long as my mod loads after it.
  • noaplusspam from MATY conflicts with the base mod and the extended version both and I will not solve the conflict for the original version of this mod as it was done half-hearted and does not work anyway. If you want no A+ memory spam, please get my version of it, which is the fourth file on this page.
  • nocheeringfix from MATY conflicts with Report Card Fixes And Changes and I will not solve the conflict for it as it was never updated for newer EP's. Please get No Cheering From A's, the fifth file on this page, if you intend to stop kids from cheering over A+ grades forever.
  • syberspunk’s Harder Grades presents an alternative approach to grade calculation based on a Sim’s skills, aspirations and interests. Since I can get behind the approach, I decided to make a compatibility patch for v1 and v2, where v1 is the simple one working only off the Sim's Logic skill, and v2 is the complex one. Only use this with the extended version of my mod, NOT with just the base mod. With this patch in, the memory fixes will still work like in the base mod. Additional changes:
    - v2 only: I dumped their small changes to kids cheering in favour of simler90's school bus routing change that I retained in my base mod. v1 did not make this change.
    - v1 and v2: Kids that are late still won't skip all other calculations.
    - v1 also still has the chance to give +2 or -2 grade changes. The likelihood for that to happen is about the same as with my base mod, but additionally tied to the kid's Logic skill.
    - For v2 only, I had to waive the mood influence changes because syberspunk completely changed the calcs for this version.
    The correct load order for all involved mods is: hardergrades > PartialHomeworkCredit-NL > SchoolComeHomeMod > zLimeyYoshi_ReportCardFixesAndChanges > zzzhardergradesv1/v2. My mods are renamed accordingly so then you don't have the hassle. Unless you have a custom naming convention for your mod library, it should work as intended out of the box.

Mods I know that also change report card interactions but do not conflict with my mod in any way:
  • Homework Sometimes by twojeffs, besides making homework happen only sometimes, affects how children react to A+ report cards (they won't run up to their parents anymore), which does not interfere with my mod.
    Note that if you use this, you will not need No Cheering For A's. The functionality is included in that mod.

Credits
Maxis and EA for creating Sims 2 in the first place
The Creators of SimPE and all its plug-ins
DiLight for their template to make custom memories possible
kaligi for the Hungarian translation
Nopke for the Polish translation and a ton of help to get this mod working correctly
miremie for the Thai translation
areyoufeelingX for the Spanish translation
tokoshietowa for the Traditional Chinese translation
My fiancée for being so lovely to have around

As always: Have fun and happy Simming!
~ LimeyYoshi