MANY Pollination Technicians
#1 15-06-2017 
Hello all! I hope this is the right place to post this...

I am playing Sims 2, and I really, really, REALLY want to have like, 20 Pollination Technicians working at the same time, but I haven't found a page anywhere of someone asking for the same. Is it just me? Is it impossible and I just haven't gotten the memo?? I know the wonderful BO has the Multi PT #8, but before I saw that I went insane and created a ton of aliens and it will add SO much diversity to my game. I have all the expansions and stuff packs, and a Downloads folder full of custom content.

Can anyone help me create this ridiculous Multi PT mod of like 20?? Any advise or tips?? I tried myself, a useless endeavour, so I sucked up the courage to come ask (thanks to BO for pointing me here :-). I know it seems unnecessary, but I would be so happy. Four PTs just don't seem enough for me and my very 'active' simmies XDD (subconscious desire to be abducted, much?)

Thank you all~

#2 15-06-2017 
Welcome to LeeFish! :o Smile

#3 15-06-2017 
Hi Candy, welcome to LeeFish.

About your question: first of all, I think you should take a look at my BO - Multi-PT #4 and #8 mod, in SimPE. You'll see that the #8 version (for eight PTs) is much larger and much more complicated than the #4 version (for four PTs). And I wrote that mod in the most structured and legible manner possible. Now imagine that a #16 version would be even more complicated, and equally much larger. And a #32 version would top that by leaps and bounds once more!
I think that you may now understand that this is quite a formidable task.

You may also have noticed that I doubled the size every time in the above paragraph: #4, #8, #16 and #32. There is a good reason for that: it's much more complicated to use numbers that are NOT a power of 2. So 20, or even 24, PTs is out of the question.

Thirdly, remember that a normal vanilla hood with all the Packs installed contains roughly 1,000 (maybe between 800 and 1200) sims, many of which are NPCs. If there's like 200 to 300 playable sims among them, that's a lot. You could, of course, also use a MegaHood, and kill off most of the NPCs at your initial setup. But even then, you would not have more than about a thousand playable sims. How many PTs do you think you really need? People kill most of the NPCs off to make the game work better with larger numbers of playable sims. Adding a lot of new NPCs is counter-productive.

Also, there is a reason why multi-PTs exist: if there is only one PT, and your half-alien kids would later get abducted, the game would have only two options:
  • have the child abused by his own father
  • have the child go home without making him pregnant
The Maxis makers were wise, and chose to only use option 2: the half-alien kid can not have an alien kid from his own father, so it comes home without being pregnant.
A multi-PT mod only exists to lower the chance that sims get abducted by their own father, so they can become pregnant themselves.
With a #4 mod, half-alien sims have at least a 75% chance that they meet a stranger. So, on average, one in four half-aliens comes home without a baby.
And with the #8 version, the basic chance is at least 87.5%. Only one in eight half-aliens will not be pregnant. That's a hell of a lot better than with only one PT, right?

So you would need a VERY good reason to want even more than 8 PTs. Many people don't even want aliens in their game. And the few people that actually do, are perfectly happy that it's limited to only 4 or 8. More would be overkill. Since nobody has ever made a 16-PT version, I also guess that nobody has ever asked for it. Therefor, I expect that nobody will even WANT a #16 version or even bigger. Except you, that is. Believe me when I say that there is NO modder anywhere who is going to write the #16 selection code for only ONE player. Unless they want it for themselves, of course. And I'm happy with 8. So you would need to do that part yourself!

It may look to you like I'm trying to talk you out of having many PTs. It may even seem that I'm being mean about it. Believe me, both are not intentionally true. Yes, I *am* trying to persuade you to consider making it an 8-PT version at best. But if you can convince me that you have a VERY good reason to have more than 8 PTs, I'm willing to see how I can HELP you achieve it.
But if we do that, you better make sure that you want to go through all the trouble that comes with it, because I'm not writing the code for you. You would have to do it yourself. You *may* use my code, so you don't have to start from scratch, and I will try to explain how it works - even with pictures where needed - but it's going to be YOUR project, because you are the only one ever to ask for this.
And if you're not experienced with writing SimAntics code, then I think you can predict how little the chance is that you're going to get it right soon. A 16-PT mod is probably possible, but even *I* do not want to *think* about writing a 32-PT mod. The chance of making one tiny mistake that is almost unnoticeable, but can crash you game, is way too big there. That's the stuff of nightmares!

#4 16-06-2017 
:-) Thank you poisson~

And thank you BO. I actually do understand, and I won't be standing around stomping my foot for this. I can't imagine the work that goes into coding all these lovely hacks we take for granted, and I am immensely grateful to all the creators out there. Thank you for taking the time to answer and explain to me.

I did suspect it would likely be a mountain. I SHOULD just stick with your 8-PT because hell, that is already a big set. I just had to ask! I love the alien option so much. And I would like to say yes please help me, but I really do seem to be the only nut asking for this, so I should just suck it up and play with what you've given us (thank you thank you thank you for creating the 8-PT version???). I can't give a reason for a bigger mod other than "I'd really love it", so that's not quite worth it to bother you when you've already given us an awesome mod. That's just crazy, so I understand you talking me out of it. Why waste my time when I have a perfectly good alternative! So I certainly won't waste yours!! I just needed to ask, and I did, so now I can put that idea to sleep and use yours like a normal simmer lol.

I had no expectations of you or anyone actually making it for me, that's insane, and selfish, but I don't think I should ask you to explain it all to me either and pretend I won't be more clueless than not, I'd just feel bad for taking up your time like that. I barely managed to to get the courage to ask.

So I won't complicate both our lives, I will use what is here. Thank you for providing the 8-PT, its the closest thing to what I'm looking for and I appreciate your help. And I am definitely going to get your Alien Experiments mod!!!!! Thank you for explaining it all to me BO, I am grateful <3

#5 16-06-2017 
@CandyYYG Dear, I perfectly understand why you had to ask. If *I* had come up with such an idea, and I had not been a modder myself, I would ALSO have asked. Just to see if someone would bite and help me do it. And if they had told me No, then so be it. So please, do NOT feel bad for having asked. In fact, it is a GOOD thing that you asked, because now you know why there still is no such mod yet. And if someone else now wonders about it, they can find out in this thread - that YOU started - why such a mod is not yet available. In that sense, you have added something to the community already.

And why do you think that these Multi-PT mods exist? Because some people, including the modders who wrote those bits of code, like Aliens as well, and wanted some variety. I made the Alien Experiments and several other related mods, just because I like to have aliens AND some fun variety in my game. And I even made my own set of PTs, the way I like them most myself. So, really, I do perfectly get why you had to ask. Aliens in TS2 are pure fun!

And really, you can only take up as much of my time as I'm willing to spend. If I had not been prepared to give an elaborate answer, I could also have simply said "No", and let you figure it out by yourself. But that's not who I am. I don't mind helping. In fact, I *like* helping people if I can. But if whatever someone asks is not realistic, I think the best thing I can do to help them is being honest and telling them why they can not expect it to happen.

And there is another nice thing about Alien Experiments: if a half-alien sim is abducted and the system randomly selects pregnancy and then accidentally, against all odds, *does* choose the father anyway, AE will initiate a single retry for another abductor! If the father then STILL comes up, then your sim is just out of luck, and does NOT get pregnant on the way out.

Now you will just have to figure out which eight of your 20+ PTs you are going to use. And then you'll need to give each of them a unique GUID, and import those into the Multi-PT #8 mod. But on the page of that mod, there is a link to explain how you must do that, so you're not completely in the dark there. And, if need be, you could also send me your aliens, and ask me to do the work for you. Because THAT part, I will gladly do, if you cannot seem to get it right Smile

#6 07-02-2018 
Hi BO, thank you so much for the kind replies and advise. Sorry for disappearing and not replying with a thank you, RL is a miserable drag. I've finally got time to continue my simming, and I am digging into your Alien Experiments mod! It's amazing btw, bless you. Super smart and wonderfully diverse, I'm glad someone requested it, and that you decided to take it on!! I love impregnating every Dick, Tom and Harry (as well as the ladies lol) but having those other effects are pretty dang fun too! *bows* Don't be surprised if I ask you any silly questions on that soon...

#7 07-02-2018 
Hi @CandyYYG. And don't you be surprised if I have the audacity to think that it's funny to supply you with an answer. Because I've been known to do such unexpected things. LOL


Sorry, that is a members only option