Caster - Create a Style for The Sims 4

I'm considering abandoning this blog in favour of my Tumblr, since it offers much more opportunities to promote content. I will still link to content form here, but it will no longer be my primary hub for my content.

So anyway, I have released a tool that allows easy creation of custom content for The Sims 4 in a similar way to The Sims 3's Create a Style.

http://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/93595004787/caster-create-a-style-for-the-sims-4

The Sims 4 Create a Sim - Bacchus Roux

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAH! Bacchus loves to party and is as LOUD as he wants to be. It doesn't matter WHO is being effected by the noise, as long as him and his friends are having fun!

The Sims 4 Create a Sim - Ume Shaw

Ume would always try her hardest at whatever came her way, but upon becoming a young adult she realized her life lacks direction. So many things you can do for the world...

The Sims 4 Create a Sim - Yakov Doyle

Yakov Doyle is very cheerful, especially when it comes to environments and the outdoors. His fascination with the world is most certainly NOT because he's actually an alien from another world. What gave you that idea? Stop making up nonsense!

The Sims 4 Slow Motion Trailer #4 - Build Mode

Get a closer look at those amazing houses by watching the Build Mode Trailer in slow motion.

Emblem Logger

With The Sims 4 so close by, most players are getting bored of The Sims 3 and are getting the last enjoyment they can out of it. The Emblem Logger keeps track of your progress in five categories ordered by difficulty - traits, skills, careers, skill challenges and lifetime wishes. Having a trait, mastering a skill, getting to the top of a career, completing all skill challenges for a specific skill, or completing a lifetime wish, will earn you an "emblem" that can be added to the Emblem Logger. It not only reduces boredom by giving you a goal to work for, but it pushes you to try every last feature. You can play any way you like - one household or multiple households, with aging on or off - and the Emblem Logger will log all active Sims.


The Emblem Logger is an object based on the holo computer from Into The Future, and is available from the same category, though it is free. Earning an emblem does not actually effect gameplay, the object merely logs your progress and gives you goals to work towards so you won't just be playing mindlessly.

To enable the Emblem Logger, place it anywhere in the world and select "Turn On" or "Turn On (Household Name Only)" - it is important to know that the Emblem Logger will not log the progress of inactive households, the choice merely determines whether the Emblem Logger should continue logging if you switch households. A new Emblem Logger will not automatically fill with emblems from gameplay that occurred before it was placed, but if you have a Sim in the active household who has the necessary requirements for an emblem, it will be logged at that point.

To view your emblems, click "View Emblems" and all your currently earned emblems will be shown. Emblems are shown by a plumbob graphic along with the name of the Sim who earned it. The game will also play random loading screen music from World Adventures, University Life or Into The Future.

There is an additional category - the Events category, that can be unlocked by enabling testingcheatsenabled, clicking the emblem logger and choosing "Event Emblems ON" - the "Events" category creates an emblem whenever a Sim triggers an "event" in the game's programming. The list of events is pre-programmed into the game and not controlled by me. Chances are, some of the emblems will be unachievable, either because they can't be triggered by an individual Sim or they need to be triggered immediately upon entering a travel world. There is no user-friendly list of event names, so the mod grabs the variable names directly from the enum - however, I have programmed it to add a space before every capital letter in order to look more user friendly, though some of the names may still be confusing.

You can carry the Emblem Logger to other worlds using the Family Inventory (which SHOULD be called the Household Inventory) though you may require cheats to place it in a World Adventures base camp if you don't have your own home in that location. I wanted it to be compatible with the personal inventory, but that seems to require a lot of extra coding to work that isn't worth it since I don't think there's any special benefit to having it in the personal inventory besides it being either to put it there.

Download the Emblem Logger Mod!

The Sims 4 Slow Motion Trailer #3 - Create a Sim

IT'S HERE! IT'S HERE! And now it's in slow motion too!

Blog Redesign

I've redesigned the blog with a complete new theme!

Umm... I have nothing else to say, lol!

THE SIMS 4 FOREVER! (or at least until The Sims 5 is released)

Deluxe Pedestal

I bring you a new mod - Deluxe Pedestal - an object mod that upgrades the clothing pedestals from Into The Future with brand new options.

Download Deluxe Pedestal (Non-Default)
Download Deluxe Pedestal (Default Replacements)

(Obviously, you must have Into The Future for the mod to work)

IMPORTANT: The new options that come with this mod are only available when clicking on the pedestal itself, not the mannequin. It's probably possible to fix that, but I chose to keep it the way it was since you wouldn't want the options appearing when you were just trying to direct your Sim to buy an outfit.

Specialized Shops

You can now choose to only have the age, gender and category combinations you choose to have, rather than being forced to have them all. It appears the ability to only have certain types was already programmed into the object, but was incomplete and not possible to access from the game. I added the option to enable it (by deleting existing outfits from the pedestal) and made it fully functional.

You can delete the outfit types you don't want using "Management" -> "Delete" then choose from the options. Select "Delete All" if you want to completely clear the pedestal of all outfits and build it up from scratch.

The delete options may sometimes fail to delete all the clothes you want if a certain age/gender combination has never been loaded on the pedestal before. Other than that, there are no known issues.

Importing Outfits

You can now import sets of outfits into the pedestal from any Sim who's currently in the world. Select "Import" followed by an age/gender combination and select a Sim, then all of that Sim's outfits will be imported into the pedestal. Also, as an unintentional feature, all face sliders (and custom body sliders that the game thinks are face sliders) and the selected Sim's hair style and colour will be applied to the mannequin when the outfit is being viewed. This is the fastest and easiest way to populate the pedestal with outfits.

NOTE: This will import all of the Sim's outfits. If you want to make a shop that specializes in a certain type of outfit, use the delete functions mentioned above to delete the categories you don't want.

TIP: It is possible to import outfits from other worlds by transferring the lot between the worlds using the lot bin.

Faster Plan Outfit

A new Plan Outfit option has been added to the Management menu that not only allows you to go straight into planning the outfit, but it doesn't require you to own the lot.

By default, the game would crash when trying to use the interaction on an age/gender combination that either doesn't have an everyday outfit, or doesn't have an outfit in the currently displayed category (the latter of which would only happen if you just newly used one of the delete options without changing to a different outfit afterwards). As a workaround for this issue, I've programmed the custom interaction to dump a random Sim of the selected age and gender into the mannequin editor CAS when this problem occurs. In the unlikely event that there are no Sims of the selected age and gender, the active Sim will appear and that CAS session will become next to useless (the alternative was the game crashing) so in order to activate a new combination that is not currently activated, there will need to be at least one Sim in the world with that combination.

The original Plan Outfit interaction is still there. When you use the original and try to edit with one of the problems above, the game will just skip entering CAS and do nothing.

Unfortunately, since the custom Plan Outfit is a new interaction, the changes to CAS made by NRaas MasterController will not take effect. It will still take effect on the original Plan Outfit though.

Price Multiplier

You can add more challenge by increasing the price of all outfits on the pedestal. Use "Management" -> "Price" then set a number to multiply it by. You can also make all outfits free by setting it to 0.

Debug Interactions

The debug interactions previously only available in build/buy, that allows you to quickly set the age/gender without your Sim needing to perform actions, have been added to live mode. They will still only appear if you have TestingCheatsEnabled on.

Change Logs

• The price setting now supports decimal numbers, including those lower than the default.
• Added the default replacement versions.

Event Balloons (Scripted Object)

I've been working on my new mod, Event Outbreak, but eventually got bored. I've decided to release what I've got so far. This version only has the event system, and doesn't have any unlockables.

https://www.mediafire.com/?5sa48rkmy8mnfa1

The Event Balloons are available in the same categories as normal balloons and cost 1,000 simoleons. They allow you to run a variety of events, similar to what is described in Event Outbreak (http://zerbu.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/event-outbreak-announcement.html).

If you have TestingCheatsEnabled on, cheat interactions will be available.

Please be warned that this is the first version. Please report any bugs if you spot them. Please also mention what time during an event (as it was starting, in the middle, etc) the bug occured.

I'm not sure whether or not I'll get to making the full version of Event Outbreak. Hopefully I will, but I'm not making any promises.

Ultimate Careers For The Sims 4: Possibly Unneccesary

For those who haven't already heard, there was a survey on The Sims 4 which listed possible future expansion packs. One of them caught my attention in particular:

Careers - Pick your dream job and take control of your Sims actions and choices through interactive gameplay on location! Tell the story of the aspiring chef whose catering choices will make or break their career, or take on the role of a Criminal Mastermind and rob a rich residence…will your Sims succeeded or fail? Their fate is in your hands!

Note that the careers listed are ordinary careers, not type you see in Ambitions. This means that there is a possibility that workplaces will not only become open in an expansion pack, but will have advanced career-specific goals to achieve, therefore there will be no need for Ultimate Careers. Furthermore, career events and generally better gameplay both in and out of work makes it even more redundant.

At the moment, I don't know what will end up happening. There is still so much we don't already know about The Sims 4. I can only plan based on information I already know - everything else just assumes it will work in a similar way to The Sims 3.

For more information about the survey, I've created a thread on the official forums:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/745049.page

For now, I still plan on making other mods for The Sims 4 sometime in the future, assuming it's possible.

The Sims 4 News At GDC: Confirmed to be Unconfirmed

SimGuruSarah has confirmed that the team cannot say whether there will be new information about The Sims 4 at the Game Developers Conference:

@SimmerTiago Sorry, I can't answer any questions about Sims 4 at this time (I'm really sorry! I'd get in trouble if I did!)
— Sarah Holding (@SimGuruSarah) March 7, 2014

Now for a bit of optimism: in the past, when asked if there will be new The Sims 4 information at an event or live broadcast, they'd just straight up confirm that there was not new information, but this time it was merely a "we cannot say".

Could this be a sign that we'll get new The Sims 4 news at GDC?

Visible Tears Spotted In The Sims 4 Gameplay Trailer

Disasters

Your Sims can now be plagued by dangerous disasters!

Download Disasters 2.0

• Seasons is required for this mod to work!
• Please note that this is an early version of the mod and may still contain unspotted bugs. If you find a bug, please report it.
• Remember to enable the disaster from the city hall, this is required for it to work.
• Disasters will play a significant role in your gameplay, therefore it is not recommended you use this mod simply "because it's there". If you're not prepared for the effects, either don't use this mod, or keep disasters disabled in worlds you don't want to use them in.
• It is possible for Sims to die from disasters if you're not careful. However, as far as I know, Sims who are not either in the active household or in focus (on or near an active or viewed lot) can't die automatically.
• I have received reports that this mod doesn't perform well on lower-end computers and may lead to crashes. If this is the case for you, I'm afraid there's nothing I can do.

Change Log

• 2
• Added the "Extreme Lightning Storm" disaster.
• An active disaster can now be stopped with the new "Post Disaster Solution" interaction on the computer. When used, your Sim will post a solution to stopping the disaster, and if successful, you will be prompted to donate an amount of money (can be customized in the settings) to have the disaster stopped within an hour. The success depends on your Sim's Logic and Science skills. If successful, your disaster rank will immediately increase (by 1 normally, or 5 for disasters that don't have other methods of increasing disaster rank). If unsuccessful, there is a chance your Sim will be temporarily banned from posting disaster solutions. This chance decreases the higher your Sim's disaster rank.
• You can now customize how long each disaster will last, separately from how long a stage leading up to a disaster will last.
• 1.1
• "Donate to Defenses" is now available on the smartphone and multitab. NOTE: For the smartphone, it appears under "Services".
• "Donate to Defenses" will no longer appear if there are no disasters enabled.
• Previously, all the fires have been put out, the only effect of the disaster before it officially ended would be the extremely high temperature and Energy decay effects that already exist in the third stage anyway. Now, the fires will be re-generated!
• When the disaster starts, objects that are currently in use by Sims are protected from being set on fire. There is no way to predict when a disaster will start and therefore the player can't prepare for it properly, so the protection was put in place to make it fair for the player and make it more difficult for Sims to die unexpectedly. However, this protection does not apply to fires that are re-generated after the old set has been put out! Also, this does not stop your Sim from getting caught on fire entirely, it is still possible to get caught on fire from standing between objects targeted by the mod (as was shown in the above video).
• If you are using Ultimate Careers, performance decrease while on the work lot will be disabled during a disaster. Performance decrease off the lot remains, however.
• The chance of having your Energy automatically decay while indoors has been significantly reduced. However, the chance while outdoors is still the same.

About

Disasters can be enabled and disabled through the city hall. Each disaster has five stages that last a random amount of time between a Sim hour to four Sim days (this setting can be customized from the City Hall). During the first stage, nothing happens, it just means the mod has selected for the disaster to happen. During the second, third and fourth stage, strange effects start to occur. The fifth stage is where the disaster actually happens. After the fifth stage, the mod moves onto the next disaster.

For example, for Ultra Blaze:

• During the second stage, the temperature becomes stuck at 100° (regardless of the season) and Sims who go outside will immediately become warm.
• During the third stage, Sims who go outside will sweat, and there is occasionally a chance of them passing out.
• During the fourth stage, Sims who go outside will sweat to the point that they're on the brink of spontaneous combustion, and there is an increased chance of them passing out. At this point, even Sims who are inside will get warm, though not as much as those outside.
• During the fifth stage, where the disaster actually begins, fires will break out all over the world. A percent change from 1 to 100 is randomly generated, and this percent is used for each object in the world to decide whether to set it on fire. After this is over (or is stopped by the town defenses while already taking place), the mod will give you a helping hand getting rid of the remaining fires by setting the weather to rain. However, indoor fires will remain the same.

Luckily, there is a way to stop a disaster, but it costs money. Using a computer you can donate 1,000 simoleons to the town's defenses. Future versions of the mod will add this option to the smartphone and multitab. Each time you donate, there is a 10% chance of the mod starting a countdown which will stop the disaster from progressing once it reaches 0. However, you will not receive any notification that the countdown has started, meaning you will need to either donate more than once (which will cost more) or chance your luck and hope that it was successful. This adds more challenge to the process. You can donate at any time, even while the disaster is in the first stage (where it has no effect). Please note that donations only effect the disaster the mod has currently selected, not any future disasters.

Disaster Rank

But it's not all bad! If a disaster does occur, there are benefits you can get for being a hero. The mod contains a "Disaster Rank" system for Sims. Performing certain interactions during a disaster can increase your rank. Increasing your rank will earn you lifetime happiness points, give you a positive moodlet and increase your relationship with the Sims you know.

You will receive 5,000 lifetime happiness points, making this method very effective - this balances out all the negative effects caused by disasters. The relationship increases gets higher depending on your rank, but it goes no higher than 40 relationship points.

To increase your disaster rank:

Ultra Blaze - Put out fires and extinguish Sims.

Possible Future Features

• The ability for putting out fires to contribute to the Firefighter Profession in Ambitions.
• The option to customize how much money is donated to the town defenses, as well as the chance the donation will be able to stop the disaster.
• More moodlet icons, instead of the same one for every moodlet.
• The ability for the frequency of disasters to change depending on outcome of Oasis Landing in Into The Future.

Lot Events (V2)

Make your world more active and exciting with the new Lot Events mod, currently in development. Lot Events makes use of the "Event Lot Marker" included in the University Life patch to allow for changing lots.

Download Lot Events 2.0.3

To disable the EA standard rabbithole prom, use this tuning mod: http://www.mediafire.com/download/p17086bar78priq/Zerbu_-_No_Standard_Prom.rar

To set the mod up, go into build/buy mode on the lot you want to add an event to, go into BuyDebug and find the object "EventLotMarker DO NOT TRANSLATE" and place it onto the lot. It works just like the Seasonal Lot Marker, where you can allow for different versions of a lot.

After you've done that, click the lot in Live Mode, then select "Zerbu" then "Lot Events" then you'll be given options for when you want the event to occur, what conditions are required to unlock it, what message will be displayed, etc...

Important

• You must have an EventLotMarker on the lot, otherwise nothing will happen.
• The features that involve selecting specific Sims (relationship unlock requirements and push to lot settings) are not very suitable for generational gameplay and best used with aging off, or at least with a mod that uses TS2-style aging or disables aging for specific Sims.
• To enable an event, you must set the percent chance of it occurring. Set this to 100% if you want the event to always occur. The default is 0%, which means there is no event.
• The conditions for event 1 will be checked first, so if the conditions of two events clash with each other, event 1 will be chosen (note: the "Chance" conditions still applies, so if event 1 fails that, event 2 will be selected, or if event 2 fails it as well, no event will be selected).
• "Orientation Layout" is for event 1, "Layout Two" is for event 2. "Orientation Layout" is just a name since the EventLotMarker was only intended for use with them meet and greet (before I changed that with this mod :P) so you can ignore it and pretend it says "Layout One".

Change Log

• 2.0.3
• Fixed bug where a relationship requirement will count as met if an active Sim doesn't know the specified Sim.
• 2.0.2
• The mod is now disabled on "Student Union" type lots as this interferes with the normal meet-and-greet.
• 2.0.1
• Fixed error where Event 2 was programmed to push Sims based on Event 1's age group settings instead of Event 2's.

Changes From Version 1

Lot Events now allows you to have a non-rabbithole prom for teen Sims. This functions much like a normal event, except that your Sims will have a chance of becoming prom king/queen based on what events took place. Your traits, number of friends, and whether or not you used the dream interaction will increase your chances as it normally would. If you do any of the following actions while currently at the event lot, it will increase your chances:

Kiss
Dance
Mind Meld (:P)
Meet Sim
Learn Another Sim's Trait

As an added bonus, you will get 5,000 lifetime happiness points for becoming prom king/queen.

To enable this, select "Prom Event" then "Yes".

To complement this, a new feature has been added to the "Push to Lot Settings" menu to automatically push Sims who are of a certain age stage.

WARNING: The mod is only set to handle one prom event at once. If you have two running at the same time, the system for calculating events that increase the chance of a Sim becoming prom king/queen may act strangely, since this is set to reset once one of the events is over (effecting the other one).

The prom feature of the mod requires Generations. Although it would be possible to just restrict certain features of it, I chose not to as the team needs their sales.

If you want to assign an outfit type to an event, Consort's mod does it nicely: http://modthesims.info/d/477049

Social Rush and Lot Events STBL Strings

The STBL strings for Social Rush and Lot Events are now available for anyone who wants to translate them. The links are on the pages for the mods.

Social Rush: http://zerbu.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/social-rush.html
Lot Events: http://zerbu.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/lot-events.html