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dodgy builder
#26 Old 14th Mar 2017 at 6:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Don Babilon
1. I guess it depends on what it is that you want to change. Some settings are trickier than others, especially when they interact with other files.
2. Not via a mod. A mod would apply to all of your games. In that case I'd try to do it with Retuner as the settings there are limited to the save, like most of the Nraas mods. You'd have to import that setting into each new game you start in that particular world though.


Couldn't it be possible to import the venue settings with S3PE like they do with ini files? Perhaps I should ask someone else about that?
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Theorist
#27 Old 14th Mar 2017 at 10:27 PM
If I understand your question Vovenom then yes I think so - keeping in mind I'm not a master modder or anything, but I have looked at the venues.xml and you should be able to copy the code for a particular venue and import it into s3pe. Edit what you want - increase the intensity etc., then save and place in your mods folder. I don't know why that wouldn't work, but maybe someone who knows more than me could weigh in. But what you seem to be wanting is a specific venue type in one world only, and I think that's what Don Babilon was responding to - the game would see that mod in every game you play unless you take it out when not playing that world. Retuner might be an alternative but there again it depends on what you want to edit.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Theorist
#28 Old 14th Mar 2017 at 10:52 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Butterbot
I do that too, basically using the rabbit holes to draw sims onto lots. Unfortunately, there are a limited number of rabbit holes in the game, and some rabbit holes are more difficult to combine with venues in a logical manner (for instance, it'd be a bit strange to put the police station rabbit hole in a clothing store just to draw traffic...)



Thanks for confirming that this is a potential issue... it's a shame, since I prefer smaller lots as they're easier to move around if I change my mind about their location, etc. In Sunset Valley, I'd like to split the large bookstore/theater/grocery lot into smaller lots for venues that don't use rabbit holes (the bookstore/theater/grocery rabbit holes will be relocated elsewhere), but worry that they would get few visitors.


I recently tried to play a bakery lot - it's a small, 10x15 lot - I placed one cooler case from the Baker's Bizarre set and had NRAAS Cupcake fill it up each morning and I also used a modded rack that I made compatible with ani's Savvier Seller mod; that was the rack my baker sim had to try to fill each day. She never could fill it up, btw - takes way too long to bake things! Gets grindy really fast.

Anyway, to get to the point, NO ONE was visiting this lot. I'd used NRASS Tagger to label it as a bakery and clicked on the ground and selected meta-autonomy type > coffee house (I really wanted Java Hut but it wasn't on the list). But still no sims came to visit. Now granted this is a very sparsely populated 'hood because I am adding my own households very slowly, but still, no customers.

So I added Inge's OFB mod for TS3: http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUp...e/uploads/1078/. I set the hours and turned it on, and Voila! I had like 12 sims on the lot and they purchased everything in just a few hours. It was crazy.



The other thing that you could do with sims you are playing is use NRAAS Mastercontroller > Basic > Invite over and select the sims you want to invite to your lot.

Obviously these two methods only work for sims that you are playing and would not be a solution for seeing your lots populated at the town level. Sending an active sim to a lot will encourage other sims to visit using the 'active stalking' function in the game but it still depends on what other sims are doing as to how many will show up (as well as the level of the PC you're using, as I'm sure you know). Still not useful for just observing the lots you've made get used.

I've decided that the lots are going to be there for my sims to buy what they need; I'm rotating households in my current game and so they will all visit those lots at one time or another. But I've found that the Bistro, the Grocery, and the Bookstore RH (or RH rugs as I'm using in my current game) get the most activity so I have or will be combining those with various eateries or shopping establishments. Then I might make a small shopping center and zone that as a Large Market (but I think you need NRAAS to do that). A large market has about the same attraction as a Hangout but different hours.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Instructor
Original Poster
#29 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 2:10 AM
@tangie0906

Thanks for sharing your bakery experience. That's the kind of scenario--no one showing up--that is frustrating about building multiple small lots. Do you recall how many sims were in the world at the time? Knowing that would help get a sense of how low the population can go before having an impact on the liveliness of community lots.

I once used the OFB machine to run a home business and it worked very well. Unfortunately, as you've guessed, I don't plan on running the venues and am more interested in seeing NPCs frequent the lots autonomously, so neither the OFB machine nor MasterController's "Invite Over" would be a suitable solution. Besides, the OFB machine automatically turns off after a while when not on an active lot, so they can't even be set up at different venues and be left to run.

It's useful to know that the bookstore, grocery, and bistro RHs are popular, so that they can be matched with lots that I most want to see populated (it's too bad that there's no way to build a real bookstore at present, unless one's willing to run Awesome Mod and Ani's add-on for it).

@Don Babilon

Bummer. Thanks for pointing that out.

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Theorist
#30 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 2:22 AM
I don't know how useful my experience will be. My world currently has 20 sims in it (5 are toddlers) in 9 households - although when I quit last night it seems that a game generated sim was added to one of the few empty houses I have available. I also have lots of mostly useless service sims although a few are working as register operators and babysitters and the like. I haven't done a total population count with those folks included for awhile.

I'll have to try one of these lots in a normally populated world and see what happens.

Salons usually get a little traffic too. I plan to have a clothing shop on the same lot as my salon.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Theorist
#31 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 8:48 AM
Theres also a plant where, each one placed will attract a townie, who you can specify the name and time they arrive. Can't remember where I downloaded that though.

#BlairWitchPetition
TS3 NEEDS: TENNIS COURTS > BUSES > PIGS/SHEEP
Can't find stuff in build and buy mode? http://www.nexusmods.com/thesims3/mods/1/?
Inventor
#33 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 9:55 AM
^ Pretty sure it is pot ... pot of ivy from Virtual Artisan that is. I think this is what tizerist is referring to http://virtualartisan.blogspot.com/...anysim-ivy.html . It was a bit wonky sometimes in my game so I use Arsil's generic role sim marker and desk instead anymore.

Shotgunning bland cucumbers since 1974
Instructor
#34 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 1:12 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Butterbot
it's too bad that there's no way to build a real bookstore at present, unless one's willing to run Awesome Mod and Ani's add-on for it


I hope that I'm not wrong but in my actual neighborhood that I play in (a custom one), the bookstore is maybe the closest to a real bookstore: the creator built the store completely furnished, placed a Bookstore RH rug inside, plus the Bookstore Register from World Adventures. The game assigned a townie sim to tend the register and if my active sim wants to buy books, the register menu seems to me totally the same as the menu of the bookstore rabbithole, so it's very close to a real store experience, and I don't have any retail/store mods - although I have Awesomemod... do you think the register offers the same books menu as the RH just because of the AM?
Scholar
#35 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 5:05 PM
No, that's how the bookstore register works outside the vacation worlds. I tried that in my game, and it worked fine. I decided I would like to have the rabbithole options as well though. So now I have a lot with two (apparent) shops, one with a bookstore rug and the other with a savvier seller set up selling bookshelves, maps, globes, the Book of Knowledge from here, and so on. It's a pleasant lot. It's zoned Visitors Allowed for now because I just didn't know how I wanted it zoned, but I'll probably change that after I study the list kindly provided earlier.

I think that's the way I'm headed--lots with multiple functions, but not too many, sometimes including rabbitholes, but not more than two on a lot. I'm doing a combination of building new lots and remodeling premades and downloaded ones.I notice a lot of lots are cluttered with two many instances of the same item over and over, making routing difficult and raising the possibility of overtaxing my modest machine to no good purpose. By clearing out the excess I make room to add a function or two.

Like in Lucky Palms, I made the rather handsome large Art Gallery over, adding classrooms with art objects, making the cafe functional with a coffee bar, and adding a Savvier Seller gift shop with interesting relics and art works on the shelves and rugs. I also used the seasonal lot marker to give it changing exhibits (with a permanent sculpture exhibit on the top floor and a sculpture garden in the courtyard). It's my favorite lot of all now, with a lot to do and places to socialize. The restrooms were huge, I was able to make them over as unisex and save space while also improving the routing. But it had good bones to start with.
Theorist
#36 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 6:35 PM
I also have a lot that has the Bookstore RH rug in the back (with it's own entrance on the side of the building) and a 'bookstore' with a books register in the front of the building.

I love what you did to your art gallery lot in LP, lucy kemnitzer! That really sounds like a nice lot now. I started another game in LP recently and made a few changes but haven't even looked at that lot yet.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Inventor
#38 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 10:15 PM
^ nitromon, oh I use the hell out of those, more so the marker than the desk. I have up to 8 placed on some of my club lots alone. I'll vary the hours the role sims assigned to the marker arrive and leave. Combined with the 23 hours club mod, they are almost always busy. I definitely change the traits of the sims to match their purpose, so to speak. Want a sleezy rough bar? Put lots of mean spirited, hot headed sims in it with some party animals, inappropriate and flirty types to get some entertainment going. I use the markers in parks ( pseudo homeless sims, 420'ers, slackers, whatever). I use them in museums, galleries... they function as guards or info desk help. That's absolutely one of my fav Sims 3 mods. Limited only by one's imagination.

Shotgunning bland cucumbers since 1974
Scholar
#39 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 10:31 PM Last edited by lucy kemnitzer : 15th Mar 2017 at 10:39 PM. Reason: 1st: to add reply 2nd: typo of course
Nitromon, with the Savvier Seller register, shelves, and rugs, the sims do browse and buy, though they're not going to buy individual books like they can get from the rabbithole or register. They will buy the Book of Knowledge, but that's basically a whole bookshelf that looks like a single book. My test sim wanted to buy all the bookshelves, mostly, though she bought a botany wall chart too. This was autonomous: after one bookshelf, I felt it necessary to cancel the others.

I just had a thought. If the lot was owned, could the owner pull books out of the bookshelves and then stock the Savvier Seller shelves with those? The Savvier Seller register cashier automatically restocks everything, so that's a thing. I've not wanted to have any of these businesses owned by any active sims, but I could just play them long enough to go through this process.

Mookieblaylock, I'm really interested in how you use the marker to assign background color sims to lots!

Edit: tangie, the community lots in Lucky Palms, and the weird little area over by the dried-up lake, are really amenable to tweaking. Now that I have some experience and know what I want, I think Lucky Palms might be my favorite world. You know what goes really well in Lucky Palms too? Floraflora2's lots! I tend to think of the area as being like some of the former resorts out in the Mohave Desert, so I like California early 20th century design there (I have removed almost all the big expensive residences, and tweaked the rest to be less luxe and more eccentric)
Inventor
#40 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 10:52 PM
^ lucy kemnitzer, I keep finding new ways to use them. Lately I've been on a kick of assigning playable sims to the markers. This wouldn't work well for most I'd imagine. Depends on play style. I never use EA story progression and I pull NRaas S.P. after about the first week because I'm too much of a control freak, so it works for me. Say I know Fred Jones ( a playable) works a 9-5 Monday through Friday,, I'll have him arrive at the bar at 8PM every night and stay until 4AM ( because he doesn't really need sleep, lol. There at the bar he is known as "Fred Jones Loud Mouthed Drunk" thanks to the naming feature on Arsil's mod. If the sim I'm playing arrives at 10 PM, he knows he'll see Fred ( whether he wants to or not!) He'll also see " Lila Loomis Lascivious Lush" who arrives at 9Pm each night. I like alliteration way too much.

Shotgunning bland cucumbers since 1974
Scholar
#41 Old 15th Mar 2017 at 11:01 PM
Oh, that is interesting. I imagine for those of us who do play with Story Progression, we need to pay attention to how promotions and relationships might interact with the roles we assign... I am having Thoughts!
Scholar
#42 Old 16th Mar 2017 at 12:08 AM
I was srsly about to make a topic like this one! Im about to edit Nilxis's Copacabana world which is super tiny, just 2 big lots. Im actually switching the purpose of them. His community lot is a single building that would make a decent apartment/ base camp to attract tourist sims and his giant base camp would make a great rabbithole combo. Since there's only 2 lots I would like there to be a decent flow of sims between them and so wondering about the same thing
Instructor
Original Poster
#43 Old 16th Mar 2017 at 1:09 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Floraflora2
I hope that I'm not wrong but in my actual neighborhood that I play in (a custom one), the bookstore is maybe the closest to a real bookstore: the creator built the store completely furnished, placed a Bookstore RH rug inside, plus the Bookstore Register from World Adventures.


Sorry, I should have been more specific about the kind of bookstore I had in mind. The book register + rabbit hole rug is a pretty good compromise, but it would be so neat to actually have books on tables/displays that sims can browse and purchase from. That's not possible at present, even if one stocked Savvier Seller shelves with individual books, since EA runs a clean-up routine every night at 3AM to delete any books and food on community lots on which the player camera is not focused (this is also why NRaas Cupcake is necessary for NPC bakeries).

@nitromon

I've never used Arsil's professional massage table but would like to add them to a spa (Serenity Retreat + spa rabbit hole rug). Is there an option to make sims pay for the massage? Do NPCs request massages autonomously?

Regarding the generic role object/desk, role sims do move around when on assignment. I used the mod to assign a receptionist/attendant at the gym, but ended up removing it as the sim spent most of his time working out and swimming instead, never sitting at the desk, thus defeating the purpose of the whole setup. Perhaps it works best for roles where some roaming is desirable, like librarians, museum guides, or security guards.

@MOOKIEBLAYLOCK

The way you set up NPCs using the generic role mod is very cool and reminds me of Westworld

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Theorist
#45 Old 16th Mar 2017 at 2:54 AM
But the testing version of NRAAS Go Here will allow you to set a charge on any door. So you could place the massage table in a separate room and have any sim that goes through the door pay a specified amount. Not a perfect solution, but one way for sims to pay for services!

I tried to set up an owned bookstore once. I had my sim purchase skill books of various kinds and placed them on Savvier Seller shelves and displays. At first they all disappeared at night. If I remember now, I had to purchase extras and place them in the register inventory and turn on restock from craftable? Not sure now, I'd have to experiment again.

But I think it only works if your sim owns the lot? I tried so many different things it's kind of all running together now. But even if your sim owns the lot, if you rotate to another household the game will 'sell' any lots that your sim owns that aren't regular Rabbit Holes. Those were the only exceptions. All other community real estate was sold off when I changed households. Since this lot was zoned a Hangout, it got sold as well.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Instructor
Original Poster
#47 Old 17th Mar 2017 at 3:01 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
The massage table is fully automated, so sims would go up and get massages, etc... But I don't think it has a function to let you charge money.


That's good to know--thanks!

Quote: Originally posted by tangie0906
But the testing version of NRAAS Go Here will allow you to set a charge on any door. So you could place the massage table in a separate room and have any sim that goes through the door pay a specified amount.


A bug has been reported with Go Here Testing that affects ice-skating and playing tag. There are many places in my game that can make use of the door charge function of Go Here--this bug is the only reason why it's not installed right now.

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