Post by jerrycnh on Jan 28, 2017 23:41:13 GMT -5
So there's an argument to be made that this post belongs in the Creator Help forum, but I'm putting it here because I also want to discuss the wider implications of what I'm messing with.
I spent some time just exploring the ins and outs of modding and learning about how the process works before I started tinkering. The whole thing strikes me as a big Jenga tower, so the first thing I wanted to focus on was what aspects of the game were at the very bottom of it - things that were solely referenced by the rest of the game, rather than always making references to other parts of it.
What I came up with is that there's five pillars at the bottom - Skills, Moods, Needs, Age and Money.
Would everyone agree with that assessment? Anything you think should be on that list, or shouldn't? I figure Careers always reference moods and skills, Relationships reference all but Money, Traits and Rewards and Aspirations modify all that, and objects, of course, can mess with everything.
So in taking a first step, I thought I'd start with creating a skill. I decided to go with Drawing, because a skill like that could make the most use of existing data without having to alter it (IE if a Teen were doodling in his homework book, it could use the actions of the teen writing in his homework, and then produce an object the way painting does, only the object would go directly into the teen's inventory instead of being out in the world). I don't know if I'd actually implement the Drawing skill in any special way - I'm just getting my feet wet.
And I've already run into a problem, which I suppose isn't a good sign.
(Here's my package if you want to take a look at it.) I took the two Painting statistic files which I believe are the skill itself, and I cloned them, changing the Instance IDs and calling them Drawing instead. (I didn't really bother going too crazy on the flavor text yet, I just changed the skill name and description in my key file). I needed a way to test leveling it, so I also cloned the four painting books, and modified the references in them to level up drawing instead of painting.
I wanted to put the book for sale, but I noticed the Purchase_Books Interaction (which appears in my package unaltered, just for my reference) gets the list of skill books by calling Func_PurchasePicker_Category_Book_Skill (I assume this means the list is in Python somewhere? Guess this explains why the Vampire Lore books have their own special purchase command, even the Maxis personnel didn't want to mess with adding books that deep in the code?) so I grabbed the Bookshelf object and added the Beginner Drawing book to the list of books it starts with, just to test the leveling (my string file also contains a new name for the beginner book, so I could easily recognize it).
I started a new game, bought a bookshelf and looked inside it, and the beginning drawing book isn't there.
So I guess I'm looking both for help with that problem, and an analysis from you experienced modders about whether my approach here has any merit or I should be doing something else to try to learn.
Everything below this line is mostly for me, feel free to skip it. I didn't want to create a new thread for personal notes, and the rules say I can't make a studio until I have a product to share on it, but I do want to share my progress and keep a checklist of where I am, both for myself and for anyone who wants/needs help to know what I can and can't do at this point.
Task List:
Create a Custom Skill - In Progress, Paused
Create a New Aspiration Category - Successful
Create a New Aspiration Track - Successful (With Custom 64x64 DST Icon)
Create a New Aspiration Objective - In Progress
Create a New Complete Aspiration - In Progress
I spent some time just exploring the ins and outs of modding and learning about how the process works before I started tinkering. The whole thing strikes me as a big Jenga tower, so the first thing I wanted to focus on was what aspects of the game were at the very bottom of it - things that were solely referenced by the rest of the game, rather than always making references to other parts of it.
What I came up with is that there's five pillars at the bottom - Skills, Moods, Needs, Age and Money.
Would everyone agree with that assessment? Anything you think should be on that list, or shouldn't? I figure Careers always reference moods and skills, Relationships reference all but Money, Traits and Rewards and Aspirations modify all that, and objects, of course, can mess with everything.
So in taking a first step, I thought I'd start with creating a skill. I decided to go with Drawing, because a skill like that could make the most use of existing data without having to alter it (IE if a Teen were doodling in his homework book, it could use the actions of the teen writing in his homework, and then produce an object the way painting does, only the object would go directly into the teen's inventory instead of being out in the world). I don't know if I'd actually implement the Drawing skill in any special way - I'm just getting my feet wet.
And I've already run into a problem, which I suppose isn't a good sign.
(Here's my package if you want to take a look at it.) I took the two Painting statistic files which I believe are the skill itself, and I cloned them, changing the Instance IDs and calling them Drawing instead. (I didn't really bother going too crazy on the flavor text yet, I just changed the skill name and description in my key file). I needed a way to test leveling it, so I also cloned the four painting books, and modified the references in them to level up drawing instead of painting. I wanted to put the book for sale, but I noticed the Purchase_Books Interaction (which appears in my package unaltered, just for my reference) gets the list of skill books by calling Func_PurchasePicker_Category_Book_Skill (I assume this means the list is in Python somewhere? Guess this explains why the Vampire Lore books have their own special purchase command, even the Maxis personnel didn't want to mess with adding books that deep in the code?) so I grabbed the Bookshelf object and added the Beginner Drawing book to the list of books it starts with, just to test the leveling (my string file also contains a new name for the beginner book, so I could easily recognize it).
I started a new game, bought a bookshelf and looked inside it, and the beginning drawing book isn't there.
So I guess I'm looking both for help with that problem, and an analysis from you experienced modders about whether my approach here has any merit or I should be doing something else to try to learn.
Everything below this line is mostly for me, feel free to skip it.
I didn't want to create a new thread for personal notes, and the rules say I can't make a studio until I have a product to share on it, but I do want to share my progress and keep a checklist of where I am, both for myself and for anyone who wants/needs help to know what I can and can't do at this point.Task List:
Create a Custom Skill - In Progress, Paused
Create a New Aspiration Category - Successful
Create a New Aspiration Track - Successful (With Custom 64x64 DST Icon)
Create a New Aspiration Objective - In Progress
Create a New Complete Aspiration - In Progress
