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Jathom95
Forum Resident
Original Poster
#1 Old 9th Sep 2020 at 3:48 PM
Default Another Mod Idea - Utilities mod?
If any of you remember that social groups thread I made a little while back, this is in the same vein. Just throwing this out there since it was something I was thinking of recently.

One single thing I think TS4 did better that TS3 was the handling of not paying bills. Instead of just a repo sim just coming and taking your stuff, in TS4 it's basically handled the way it is irl. You don't pay, you lose your utilities. The power goes, appliances stop working, etc. I think it's a great challenge to have, especially on a low income family. I started thinking that this would be a great system to have in TS3. It gives you more incentive to pay your bills other than just the repo man coming to take your toilet.

Not sure if it's even feasible, just wanted to throw this out there to see what people thought. It doesn't seem impossible, TS3 already has systems in place that would simulate this sort of thing quite well I believe. Cutting out power could basically be the same effect as turning off lights for the entire lot by hand, and any other utilities like TV or Computers (internet) could simply have their interactions greyed out and unable to be clicked on when this happens, something that tons of interactions in TS3 already utilize. Same with any other electricity based items. Anyone else have any thoughts?
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Crashley1784
Lab Assistant
#2 Old 9th Sep 2020 at 4:09 PM
I think this is a fantastic idea and of course I'm thrilled that folks are still interested in modding for Sims 3! I think it'd also be an intriguing addition to have a chance of electricity go out during severe storms!
Is there a way to keep plumbing items from working as well, as if the water got disconnected as well as the power? Might be an interesting way to loop in the functional well mod?
Crashley1784
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 9th Sep 2020 at 4:24 PM
Oh! I'm sure you've probably thought of this, but there should probably be a check in the mod if the house has solar panels or windmills, and if so, then their electricity cannot be cut off.
PuddingFace
Scholar
#4 Old 10th Sep 2020 at 1:59 AM
The different use appliances, plumbing interactions have to be replaced with modded versions. So that those interactions can be greyed out when bills are not paid. That's the only way I can think of to make this idea work. I don't know how to detect if bills are paid or not with scripting but I think it's possible.
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Sai Vi
Test Subject
#5 Old 10th Sep 2020 at 1:37 PM
There is an interaction for paying all bills which has to detect if there are any unpaid bills, so maybe looking at the mailbox script will help? I don't know much about scripting (except for cloning beds for custom energy gain...) but I found a fragment like this which mentions "billsLyingInLot" and "allBills":

Code: 
private bool PayAllBillsUsingBillLyingOnLot(
        List<Bill> billsLyingInLot,
        List<Bill> allBills,
        int totalOfAllBills,
        bool bBillPickedFromInventory)
      {
        float num = float.MaxValue;
        Bill theCarriedBill = billsLyingInLot[0];
        foreach (Bill bill in billsLyingInLot)
        {
          float distanceToObject = this.Actor.GetDistanceToObject((IGameObject) bill);
          if ((double) distanceToObject < (double) num)
          {
            num = distanceToObject;
            theCarriedBill = bill;
          }
        }
        if (CarrySystem.PickUp(this.Actor, (ICarryable) theCarriedBill))
        {
          Mailbox mailbox = (Mailbox) null;
          if (Mailbox.RouteToMailboxOnHomeLot(this.Actor, ref mailbox))
            return this.PayBillsAnimationAndFundsUpdate(allBills, totalOfAllBills, theCarriedBill);
          theCarriedBill.PutBillAway(this.Actor, bBillPickedFromInventory);
        }
        return false;
      }
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