Thank you so much for this tutorial. It made the process seem so easy, even for a layman like me.

I have run into an issue though. I went back and edited the major I made because the class descriptions were spilling over into the class times, and the icon turned out to be fugly in-game. The thing is, the changes appearing in-game at all. I've deleted the .bak file, the package file, then replaced it, but nothing doing. Is there something I missed?

Oh, and I've guesstimated the character limit for the class descriptions to be around 88 characters, with spaces. That sound right to everyone?

Amazing tutorial! I've already made five majors in three days this way. They work perfectly in game. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

Edit: They don't work that perfectly. My majors have long hours and my sims learn too much from every class. Their motives drop a lot too, is there a way to change that?
I was thinking, in SimPE there's a BCON called "Grading - Time Chunk" does that affect how much my sims learn every class? and if it does so, do you know how does it work?
And there are BCONs for every motive, "Motive Delta - name of motive" do you know how this ones change the way the motives change? (I'm assuming this are the ones who affect the change in the motives)

If you or anyone else knows, please answer. Thanks

I'm not sure on the Motive Delta. It might have to do with mood and how it affects the grading, but that's just a wild guess. As for the Time Chunk, I haven't the slightest as to what that one does. If you want to change how long classes are, that's in "Tuning-Hours per day." Hope it helps.

I shortened the hours and nothing really changed much, then, I realized they were in Fall, which means they learn faster. That may explain it, because when the season changed, they started to learn the same they have learnt everytime since I have Uni, so I guess that was the "problem", not my major being faulty. And I decided not to mess with the other files, since I don't know what they do.

I did my first major and I am having trouble with it. I can only get the class performance meter to expand so far. My sims have the required skills for the semester, but it won't expand any further. Does anyone know how to fix this. I do know that the major I cloned needs 3 skill points for the first semester and mine only needs 2. Could this be the conflict? If so is there a way to change it or do I just need to add another skill level? I am thinking it has something to do with the BCON Grading - Skill Gates, but I'm not positive. I tried messing with them once and it caused my game to crash. An explanation of what those are for would be helpful. Thanks in advance.

Motive Deltas are the effect that being in class has on your sims. I believe the number is per hour of class. For example a Motive Deltas - Hunger of -150 would decrease the sims hunger by 300 for a 2 hour class. There is a different one for each motive and each is divided out by semester. Negetive numbers decrease the motive and positive numbers increase the motive, so if you have a class that is a lot of fun, you would want to use a positive number for that semester under fun. Hope that helps.

As for the grading time chunk, I'm not positive, but I think it is how much your sim learns per hour of class. If your performance meter is filling up fast from going to longer hour classes you could try lowering the number either that or make the class length shorter by editing the Tuning - Hours Per Day. This is just a guess on the Grading - Time Chunk though, because I haven't played around with it yet.

You're asolutely right about Motive Deltas, Charisa. And the same with Hours per Day - I'm not sure what the Time Chunk does.

Regarding your issues with skills, yes, you need to have the correct number of skill increases for each class - see the table in the tutorial.

(My apologies for the late response.)

No need to apologize. Thanks for this great tutorial. I went back and changed my skills and it works just fine now.

hey.. i have got all the programs, and when i open SimPE, i go the object workshop, and i click start, and nothing happens, its just a white box, i waited for about 5 min, and no "other" showed up, nothing showed up.

I'm pretty sure someone can help me so if you can I'd really appreciate it. Ok so the first part where you work with object workshop goes fine, it's just after that because after I save the file the tutorial says that it will show object data view but nothing happens so I click on it in the resource tree and wait like 10 minutes and still nothing happens. I don't know if something is wrong with my SimPE or if I have to get an update or something because I have the expansion packs university, pets, seasons, celebration stuff, and nightlife. So if anyone can help I'd really appreciate it. Also, my turtle would really appreciate it too if someone can help.

Snake022, SimPE is very resource-hoggy. If your computer is old/slow, or you have a lot of background processes (such as anti-virus or IM programs) running, it can take bloody forever to load. Try closing some background tasks, and if it still doesn't work, I suggest you reinstall SimPE.

Rferniexyz, are you selecting the Object Data file in the right hand pane as well as the left hand?

Whiterider, I must say THANK YOU!! I had used another tutorial and my course titles were not showing-up. I found that one step that I needed to take in order to make the course titles show-up in the non-English version games.

Again, thank you so much.

Thanks for this tutorial, it rocks!

This tutorial is great, but I'm stuck in a relatively early point inthe process. This may not be the area to ask but I cant find the answer anywhere else. I have done everytjhing up to the catalog desription (including custom GUID) but no matter how many times I click the resource thingy (Whatever it is... the CTSS) I do not get the line of text. I have all windows enabled in SimPE and I have checked each one but none of them have it. I think my problem may be with the resource list, it won't show up no matter how many times I try to open and close it. Any help would be appreciated.

oh no
i just downloaded the ap life compatible sim pe and cant find the get guid option
help!
oh dear.

This is the complicated bit!
You need to create a new document in Notepad, Word, or another word processor, or you can use a pencil and paper.
Create a table. Along the top, you need “Skill 1”, “Skill 2”, “Skill 3” and down the side; the numbers 1-8. The numbers represent each semester of your major - 0x01 is the first Freshman semester, 0x08 is the last Senior semester etc.
There is a template table you can use for this if you wish, included in the downloadable .rar file.





University is a preparation for the world of work (ahem), and so we want to give your simmies a good grounding in everything. In the first 7 boxes - that's Skills 1, 2 &3 in 0x01 and 0x02, and Skill 1 in 0x03 - fill in each simmie skill as you see fit. For example:





Now that you've given your students good foundations, it's time to specialise. Choose one main skill required for your major, and three secondary skills. For the purposes of this tutorial, I shall use Creativity as my main skill, and Logic, Cooking and Mechanical as my secondary skills. Now fill out the rest of your skills table as per this system:
0x03 - Skill one already decided; Skills 2 & 3 are any two of your main or secondary skills at level 2
0x04 - The two main/secondary skills not used in 0x03, both at level 2; and one main/secondary skill from 0x03 at level 3
0x05 - Two main/secondary skills, excluding the level 3 skill in 0x04, both at level 3
0x06 - The last main/secondary skill at level 3, and another main/secondary skill at level 4
0x07 - Two main/secondary skills at level 4
0x08 - One secondary - not main - skill at level 4, and your main skill at level 5.
You will now have something similar to this:



So that's the planning done - now to implement it!

Get back to Behaviour Constant: Class Req - Cleaning Max. Now look at your table, and find each entry for Cleaning. My example table only has Cleaning once - 0x03, at level 1. Select the corresponding line, and type the correct value into the box where you put your 0s earlier. Remember that the values are multiplied by one hundred, so a skill at level 1 needs 100 in that box, level 2 needs 200 etc. Fill in all the values and commit. Now do the same for Behaviour Constant: Skill Req - Cleaning Min.



Go through and do the same for all the Skill Requirement BCONs, and Save.



Have a look through the other BCON files - you can change class times and lengths, the number of GPA points lost if your sim misses a final exam, the impact of your classes on a sim's mood, and zillions of other interesting things. Have a play around and see what you can come up with.






lost ya, badly,
PLEASE HELP!

Why is it that some majors I have downloaded cause my game to crash? How do I know if a major is safe to download?

MzzUnvrz, have you tried using the Reset UI button? What does show up?

rori_leaf, need more details, please .

joninmobile, that depends on the circumstances of a crash. Report the crashes on the download thread; just like with any other upload.

I just created a new Major using this tutorial (have used this tutorial many times before to create custom majors), but this time my BAK files are missing! I created another one to be sure, and when I go to the folder where I usually save all my majors my two new ones only had PACKAGE files, but no BAK files! All my old majors that I had created previously were still there and had both BAK and PACKAGE files. What do I do? Is the BAK file essential to the major showing up in the game?

Something's wrong with SimPE too now. Whenever I load it up I just get a blank white screen, no resource tree or any other windows automatically popping up when I load Object Workshop. I think something went wrong because the last time I finished making something I closed each of those little window boxes before closing SimPE. How do I get them back? I've accidentally done this in the past and was never able to get those windows to come back unless I completely reinstalled SimPE.

Talanta, firstly the BAK file is a backup file - you can delete it once you're done.
Secondly, if you look on my first screenshot, d'you see the 7th icon along (last one in the first block)? That's the Reset UI button. Find it on your layout, or in the menus, and hit it - should get your windows back.

I went into Object Workshop, and clicked "start". I went to "other" and then "sim type" and I found nothing. There wasn't anything remotely resembling a major listed... not really sure if there's a way to fix it. Do you have any suggestions?

I don't understand how to download SimPe. I click to download it, and I just get a really long list of files in WinRAR but I don't know where to put them to install it onto my computer. Help?

JC<3ME, is there a Misc section, or somesuch? I don't have access to my main rig right now, so I can't test, but I believe one of the EPs moved the Majors.

Zinthos, make sure you're downloading the windows installer, not the source code/manual installation files/QA version.

ummm...i need an icon for my career i am making...but my SimPE file doesnt have an image file...is there a way to create a file or something