Upload yet another fixed file of my career.

It is POSSIBLE to add custom opportunites in the career, as easy as filling out another xml file. To do so, you may find "Richard's Custom career", which is modelling that I based from for my career. Yet you may want to import hers and filling in the information that suits your career. Try following other's is a good idea, just beware that you must also change the (number).dll (xml one) to know that there is a opp file, you can use the one that modelling used too.

Hope that helps, but lastly I am too frustrated with MY OWN career.

Please see this package. The career only shows the numbers. Rest issues FIXED.

File name is wrong, random number does not replace NoCareer at the moment

And sorted. The numbers needed to be copied into the UnhashedKeys file too. It's been tested and it shows up "Join Tourism Career". I've attached the working file for you

I'm still reading through this (only partway through P 8 so far) but one thing I've noticed is that a LOT of the harder to find problems people have involve incorrect termination or other formatting errors, such as leaving off slashes or the < or > in their delimiters.

ThomasRiordan suggested using Notepad++ but apparently most people haven't taken that advice. People, USE NOTEPAD++. There is a HUGE advantage to using Notepad++ or another editor specifically designed for scripting and coding. Actually there are lots of advantages, but a big one is that Notepad++ will check these kinds of formatting errors ON THE FLY, eg if for every opening command it looks for the matching closing command. Like this:

<SomeVariableName>SomeDefinition</SomeVariableName>

The stuff in between the carets - < and > - are called TAGS. it's part of the SYNTAX of XML (see here for more about XML syntax )

You don't have to fully understand XML to be able to use it, but it makes it easier to find problems if you know a little bit about it at least. So, a lot of the problems I'm seeing discussed here are being caused by improper delimiting of TAGS.

A breakdown of the simple kind of statements we're working with:

<SomeVariableName>SomeDefinition</SomeVariableName>

This is a coding statement which is OPENED by <SomeVariableName> - this is a command that tells the interpreter that you are about to define a value.
SomeDefinition is the value you are assigning
</SomeVariableName> tells the interpreter/compiler/processing unit that you are done defining that variable

Notepad++ recognizes this type of formatting for a SLEW of different scripting languages.

I'm using Twallan's Packer - I should probably check out S3PE to make sure how it works too but I can't download it just now, problems on that site - but anyway, in Packer at least the editor is pretty primitive, which is not surprising because it's customized to do a whole lot of OTHER specialized functions such as generate the random numbers you need automatically etc, and why reinvent the wheel? So in Twallan's Packer you would EXPORT the XML file you want to edit.

Edit that file with Notepad++
Inside Notepad++ set Language (its in the main toolbar menu) to XML

Now Notepad++ will begin to interpret the text according to the rules of XML and one of the (many) things it does is to automatically search out and highlight all the TAGS and make sure they are properly delimited. It won't FIX any errors, but it does make it easy for you to find them. Here's how.

TAGS are displayed in blue text. Values (the text strings we care about) are displayed in black text. So just by glancing at a line of code you can easily see which part of a line of code is a TAG and which part is the value you are assigning (the text)

This differentiation in coloring makes it MUCH easier to scan the text.

If you have an opening TAG that doesn't have a corresponding closing TAG, the interpreter can't correctly scan your code - it won't understand what you want it to do and you'll get an error or things won't work right, and these things can be very very hard to track down in plain text. You may be able to find this in Notepad++ by scanning through the document and noticing that you have a line that DOESN'T end in blue text, but if you have a multi-line command or a lot of lines of code to look through you could still miss it, but Notepad++ can still help you find it without too much trouble.

When you put the cursor inside an opening TAG (such as <SomeVariableName>) Notepad++ automatically highlights both the opening TAG and it's matching closing TAG with PURPLE background to make it stand out. If it can't find the closing TAG - no highlighting.

So if you position your cursor right after the < for an opening tag and then arrow down through the text, you should see these blocks of Purple highlighted text in pairs all the way down, until you hit the one that's not formatted correctly.

VOILA! You have found your formatting error! Now look for missing carets and slashes and you're home free.

Notepad++ is a lot more powerful than that, I've been using it for years and I haven't even scratched the surface of the things it can do for you, but just displaying your code in ways that make it easy for you to read it (it will auto-indent to keep things blocked as well, it really makes it easier to read the code) is a huge boon when you have a lot of lines of code that can get jumbled together when you're trying to scan it.

When you're done, if you've remembered to tell Notepad++ it's an XML file, Notepad++ will automatically save it with the .XML extension. Then go back into Packer and IMPORT the file back into the package.

Possibly S3PE will do this kind of thing for you but I'd be kind of surprised if it does. So I apologize if I'm reinventing the wheel (given the Tutorial has been written to use S3PE). Frankly I've found Twallan's tutorial to be less confusing but then it's also less complete in its current incarnation. It is broken down into sections that describe what the books are and the other different parts of the package, but he refers you back to THIS tutorial for the STBL explanation and unfortunately that is the VERY part of this tutorial that people are having the most trouble with. While ThomasRiordan's re-interpretation of that section goes a long way towards helping, because it's in a separate place it's not as optimal for people to learn what they're doing.

Also, I don't know the issue, but there's a lot of really weird formatting in the Wiki tutorial that makes it very hard for me, at least, to interpret what I'm reading. I have some perceptual issues so probably it's harder for me than for most people. But I'm seeing non-Roman characters jumbled in with normal English text and it discombobulates my ability to track what I'm reading. Has that been a problem for anyone else, or just me?

Only just seen your post, so my huge apologies for the late reply
Check your script errors, the game probably generated one. It should tell you why it isn't showing up
I'm still working on Opportunities, haven't got any working for myself yet, but I have plans to work more on them soon and I'll let you know

I was wondering if there is any way to use a custom vehicle for the carpool? I'm asking because I would like to use a HUmmer for my Army mods.

Hmm, good question. Never tried it, but I suppose you could try opening the .package in S3PE and looking for a GUID?

I'm losing my mind. Does anyone know where to find the text strings for EA's career opportunities and events? I could swear I found them once before, but now I can't remember where! I've been searching through the GameplayData.packages and can find the files to use to set up the opportunities and events, but cannot find the associated text. Aaaargh!! Any assistance is appreciated. Thanks!

Thank you to ThomasRiordan and missyhissy for the help.

Took me a while to figure out but realised that the <KEY> lines from the "Strings MyCareer English" go in the bottom box and the <STR> lines go in the right hand box.

This thread is so useful

OK so I think that by looking through the psychology career by Lily XD i may have found out how to do some opportunities in the career. So I will let you guys know if it works.

EDIT: Couldn't get it to work so just basing my opportunities off the science career opportunities for now

Also does anybody know how to make a custom career linked into degrees?

Thanks :D

Not yet. It's something I will be looking into soon though :D

Thank you, first time modding and I think I am biting off more than I can chew lol

I have now tried doing opportunities with the standard EA ones (for science) and the normal way of doing strings but following Lily__XDs pathways but to no avail.

Can you ask EA where the files are Mflaha? Or am I just being naive?

Also, does this tutorial help? It is from Talwan.

http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Careers+Tutorial

BTW MissyHissy, my girlfriend just realised that the lawyer career works with the communications degree if that helps you out at all

It does? Ooh, that's good to know

She mistook it for ElliotDX s law career lol, sorry about that lol

No worries. I'm going to be toying with my careers over the next few weeks, so I'll see what I can do :D

Hi, I found it This is the tutorial I used http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Careers...l+Opportunities
Also my advice is this - only do one opportunity at a time and use master controller or something like that to force the opportunity to come through. Could I take a look at your file and maybe I could give you some pointers? Also do you have any script errors because opportunities took me forever to get a handle on Also upload your strings and let me see? And finally is there anything more specific or is it just a general "it won't work" problem (I know they're frustrating )


EDIT: Oh and I forgot.. I have a copy of the EA Opportunities files, they're just in the gameplay data package, but I'll upload them anyway

When I try to force opportunity it just simply doesn't show the option for force opportunity, everything else works like a dream, just not the opportunities and events lol.

And I found the regular opportunities files (I based my opportunities on the science ones) and just can't see why it isn't working even though it looks as if it should.

Thank you so much.

EDIT: When I open the folders in wordpad++ it doesn't seem to pick up any script errors. And error trap doesn't seem to be picking anything up that I can see

Also I am using testingcheatsenabled in order to attempt and force event

Actually, I seem to remember it not working that way for some reason... :/ I don't know why. Try using master controller or similar to force an opportunity (I think that also gives you an option to select which one you want) I'd also recommend adding the opportunities one at a time (delete the XML from the file for all but one, you can save the original somewhere else for now) as it makes it easier to see what is and isn't working.

OK so I have attempted to use master controller to force the opportunities (on sim outside workplace) and the only career opportunities I can get are a generic seeming study at home and study at library.

Also this is the first time I noticed this even though I haven't comitted any changes to my mod, I am seeming to get this error message;

NRaas.Careers
Script Error
Engineering.Careers
Engineering.Events

However twallans mod is working fine as is my career (just with the problems I mentioned before)

This is becoming rather frustrating lol

Ahahahha, yes careers are frustrating - but we will get to the bottom of this!

So I took the liberty of downloading and running your career, and my game picked up the same script error you were talking about. Now I haven't been through this whole thread but were going to have us a little script error reading tutorial here - I know it's something no one ever taught me, just something I kind of eventually figured out but I'm sure I was extremely annoying during the time I didn't know how to read them:
Okay, firstly open the script error and ignoring all the crap at the top look down to see where it says "-- Script Errors --". There you'll see where the problem lies. It'll tell you what file within the package the problem originates from and even where to find the issue. For example your script error reads:



So the problem lies in the Engineering.Events file on line 2, 22 spaces in. I took a look in the file and personally couldn't see anything wrong with that particular point but I did notice you had an empty line above what is usually the first line of the file. This is where your problem starts. I deleted that line then ran it again. I got another script error that I'm not quite sure what it means yet but give me a minute and I'll figure it out

EDIT: Think I got it, but I feel that if I run sims 3 again my laptop is in danger of dying so I can't test :') Right, so in your events file you have the event names listed as <EventName>NRaas.Gameplay.OmniSpace.Events.EventReward, NRaasEngineering</EventName>. It should be <EventName>NRaas.Gameplay.OmniSpace.Events.EventReward, NRaasCareer</EventName> You can't change it because this is the scripting class that allows the NRaas career loader to identify the event. If you change it the loader bounces and won't recognise the event - or this is my theory :p

Let me know if changing this does anything

I'm having the same problem as eddymcc. When I use Master Controller to force an opportunity, no custom opportunites show up, and I don't mean just my custom opportunities.

I have corrected one error which showed up in a Script Error concerning my ArmyEnlisted.Opportunities file, but now I have another Script Error which I cannot seem to find. If you all don't mind, I've attached a .zip file with the Script Errors and a copy of my career file (Army Enlisted Career). I would appreciate if someone would take a look and see if you can tell me what the problem is. I included a copy of my Army Officer career in case you want to test the Transfer Career event. Maybe I'm just being too ambitious!

I've used twallan's tutorial referenced by Lily XD, as well as his Mobster Career for the formats, etc., but am still not seeing any success. This is really bumming me out!

P.S. - Lily XD - I already have the Opportunity files you were kind enough to attach to your post above. I'm looking for the file with the text that goes with the opportunity setups.