...So, I've made a breakthrough on the Level 1 iff but don't completely understand why. XD (I examined the final game's tutorial, noticed something about how it's assigning the stack object, implemented it in MY object, went from the stack object not being a person (usually being a tree on the lot) to the stack object being a person but getting lost (and/or set to 0 but not by any of my code that I remember or know of) halfway through a BHAV to adding extra "assign the stack object" lines (but not to the whole BHAV that was encountering the issue) and then getting the entire "is Ross happy?" function to just... work?)

I don't quite know why what I did worked (or at least why it worked for the entire BHAV when I only had it re-make him the stack object for the next two checks--I suspect something else is going on that I should make look around and try to find). But! I've never gotten it to show me this dialog before! Yay!



More investigation is needed (in part because the only thing I'm sure ran correctly is the one BHAV because Ross was so happy already, in part because the object still needs a lot of work anyway, and in part because even when it's done I want to test it in actual practice rather than on an empty lot with a test Sim XD). (EDIT: Well. Ross WAS happy. I forgot I had the game running while I wrote and posted this and then ate dinner... I came back and he was but a tombstone! )

But have the basegame compatible (functional this time) coffee table as a celebration, lol http://www.simfileshare.net/download/4946942/ (It's only tangentially related to the beta-match objects topic because it's just a downgrade of the Hot Date table (I haven't changed the price or catalog entry). I am going to pretend this is on purpose for differentiation purposes from the "behavior match" version and not because I had a weird problem in the middle of doing it (Edith/basegame throwing C++ errors when loading objects, object loaded and worked fine if I ignored them all) and just decided after reverting to the file with the old strings that it was fine just being a basegame conversion instead of doing it again. XP XD)

...But the main point of this post was to be very excited about managing to get something in Level 1 to work.

MIDNIGHT DOWNLOAD:

Image	Source	Comments	Author	Download
	trash1.iff	This one is straight-up proto-core, as its sprites sample some old graphics for the "can of beans" meal. But otherwise it is consistent to the rest of the game world to an OK degree, and it's canonically cheaper than the original base game trash can. Why wouldn't you buy it? §§§§	LUCPIX	lpx_1998_trashcan.zip

Wow I'm happy for you! It's basically very adequate that it looks like nothing will ever be achieved in the context of getting this thing to work without tons of happy little Accidents... Sooner than you think you'll make some sense of all these errors and rebuild the scenario house in high fidelity using the conversions! Who knows it also contributes to facilitate the process of creating new fanmade scenarios from scratch just for the hell of it =) And thanks for the new, accessible (& nerfed) coffee table!

NEW "that's what Christmas is all about" GOODY:

Image	Source	Comments	Author	Download
	mirrorex.iff	Rare instance where a prototype object only has 2 original sprite rotation types: "back" and "front"; the engine fills the missing sprite IDs with flipped/zoomed out duplicates of them. For the convenience involved, it's the very same case as 99% of the final objects'. So converting this guy here was pretty ez! Who cares how the mirror looks, Sims will be spending most of their time looking at themselves in it instead of at it. Unlike the original, it supports the basic mirror interactions.	LUCPIX	lpx_1998_mirror.zip

NEW GOODY:

Image	Source	Comments	Author	Download
	DresserEx.iff	Back in 1998, Sims did not change (took) their clothes (off), not even pre bathing! This wardrobe is and has always been decorative! Does not have native "doors open" graphics. It enhances the Room score! Makes you look progressive. Not the most interesting item on the list.	LUCPIX	lpx_1998_dresserex2.zip

Exciting Level 1 scenario updates!! (But no object. Yet!) On the test lot I have managed to:

• Verifying every part of the scenario appears to run (i.e. all the parts directly actually copied from the original Level 1 iff run as expected)
• Allowing the player to set the household funds to match the Steering Committee lot (a personal choice, for realism)
• Allowing the player to set the motives to match the Steering Committee starting motives (technically a choice on the player's part but needed in order to keep the scenario from immediately completing if the motives for "Ross" are too high already)
• Resetting the scenario if you want to play again
• Keeping the object from running until the player marks setup complete (i.e. the player sets the motives, budget, etc. and then tells the object when they're done and THEN the level runs)
• Allowing manual setting of the Sim to be used for the stack object!! I DID IT!!!!

I'm glad Level 1 didn't need that last bullet, because the fact it didn't allowed me to take enough time away to really think methodically about what needed to be done to make the manual selection work. And by that I mean focus on other things (the fresh/from-scratch bhavs for budget and motive setting) and then realize what to do out of nowhere while I was watching something.

(I would have needed to figure it out before moving onto the other scenarios because I don't think automatic selection would be as usable in the Sam/Mercedes (/Ross) ones.) As it is, I think I'll leave the behavior of allowing the game to pick a Sim in Level 1 but any other levels I might work on in the future will require the player to pick the Sims the scenario will use.

The object still needs some polish. I need to clean up some parts (the several SEVERAL bhavs and menu items I added to troubleshoot, I need to add some menu checks for some stuff, etc.), figure out some weirdnesses (of note: the game can decide Ross is happy even if he's hungry and I don't know why but I might leave it in if I can't figure out), and make sure none of the places it can potentially end in an error or break are still in the object (of note: I'm pretty sure the object will immediately begin to error if Ross dies). I also want to use the beta match objects in the "real" lot and test things there.

But this is MAJOR progress!!

Don't know if it fully applies to this case/you already did it/it makes the scenario super hard, but consider applying some kind of "Expression"-based conditional branch where it is determined that the scenario can not be fully completed until Ross' Mood character data is no less than 100 — in other words, until his plumb-bob is the greenest it can be! I don't know think ordinary players like me have mastered the art of keeping the Sims' mood bars showing all the 5 green stripes past the 2 first minutes of gameplay.



Love this dynamic where the player can customize part of the lot's/character's setting before the scenario per se kicks off! Maybe it's convenient script different difficulty levels for it, as long as it's plausible and makes sense!

===




On my end, I likewise ain't short of tiny+fun+annoying challenges. The large tv object has been easily the toughest one to port to date! Aligning its graphics' X/Y placement to its prototype equivalent is a piece of cake as it's always been when it comes to previous conversions, but the object is natively so messed up it's really hard to tell if the fact that it's manifesting itself a bit oddly in my game is because of a local whoopsie or it's something its og Maxis equivalent already suffers from!

The good news is that, 90% of times, the latter case is the definitive answer..


Left pic is a prerelease snapshot, right pic is our current conversion attempt.


Right pic is a prerelease snapshot, left pic is our current conversion attempt.

Also: asking TMOG to autoalign the most distant sprites' position taking the coordinates of their closest zooms as reference normally takes me to SUPER unsatisfying outcomes, which is an unusual obstacle that wasn't present in the making of previous CCs. It's basically the program's own way of saying: "There isn't such a thing as easiest path right here, you brat If you want a TV... EARN IT!!". Moving any of the layers away from their intended position as an attempt of making them look more "natural" does not help either, so we're talking about a precision task here. We can assume the work involved rewards one extra human capital points or whatever. Wait... this whole CC making thing is supposed to have a POINT in the end... right?

Yeah, it's a super weird process, or I'm making it weirder than it should, but I can systematically preview that my next post will already contain a download link for those interested. I think our Sims will love it.