I know basically nothing about coding and mods as a mod creator. I know you can open mod files and edit XMLs in s3pe, and I know a few things about S3PE that I've gotten from YouTube tutorials on managing CC but that's about as deep as my comprehension goes.

This mod by Missy Hissy adds 6 new after-school activities for children and teens, but I want to isolate only one, and I have no idea how. Someone asked about this in her comment thread, and she said she would never do so herself since she's no longer actively modding (fair, since The Sims 3 is so dated now, and many have moved on to the Sims 4) but she said to feel free to do so ourselves. I also haven't found anything online about how to make such drastic changes to a pre-existing mod file.
https://missyhissyschool.wordpress....kids-and-teens/


The Cheerleading Club is rendered redundant by Phoebe Jay's fleshed-out mod conversion of the Cheerleading Club from The Sims 4, and the Dance Club is basically the same as the Ballet club the kids have. The Life Skills club doesn't really strike me as a club that teens would join, and it's much more fun to build those skills manually anyway. The School Council Club was also made into a bigger mod by Olomaya, and to me, the Computer Club would be more interesting if it were incorporated into the custom Programming Video Skill Mod or the Gaming Skill. But the Gamer Club is what I'm really after! It progresses the hidden Video Gaming Skill, and I have the Video Game Skill and Livestreaming mod by Twinsimming, and I really love the idea of a sim growing up being obsessed with gaming, growing up, and making it their whole life. I must admit, I wish the Gamer Club were more focused on video games and arcade game-type stuff and less of the dominoes and pool skills but going that deep into coding is too ambitious for a beginner, I know that much. (Not to mention a big way my autism affects my life is my ability to learn new things efficiently)

The same creator made another mod of 10 Extra Afterschool Activities, which also has a lot of clubs I'm not interested in putting into my game. But I love the idea of the Driving Lessons, cause the progression for that skill is so slow and my parent sims never have enough time to fully teach the teens how to drive before they age up. I also like the Creative Writing Class, Photography Class, and the Metalwork Class.

https://missyhissyschool.wordpress....ool-activities/



I know that's very nitpicky, but it's almost OCD how if I don't like something in my game, my brain gets itchy every time I see it lol. Having too many options in a pie menu overwhelms me, and if I see a typo I will literally scream into a pillow. But that's a personal issue with me, and that isn't meant to belittle the hard work creators put into these amazing mods. I've always wanted to learn how to make changes like that myself, but coding just seems so daunting. I don't know if there are any online guides I can be directed to, but I'm someone who would need to be walked through with my specific task. I don't know, my brain just doesn't translate when someone is explaining a concept, but without visual and auditory specifics. Or if the concept of this kind of mod interests a modder on here, I'd love to be walked through the process of it.

I love the idea of it being a New Clubs for Kids mod that adds the Computer club for kids, Gamer Club (perhaps editing the skills it adds? I mostly want it to focus on video gaming but giving it the skills from the Computer Club might be a good way to go, or maybe even adding in the custom Programming Skill if that's even possible) Driving Lessons, makes the Creative Writing Class a Poetry Club, the Photography Club, and makes the Metalwork Class and Ceramics Class into some kind of Welding Club that increases inventing and the jewelry making skill that uses the glassblowing station (the Artisan skill I believe its called)

This entire post may seem like a strange request, but I've heard such positive things about the Sims 3 modding community, and I've seen many modders helping each other with their projects, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to ask. I also figure it's not too big an aspiration for my first project. Honestly, I have no idea lolllll


- Helena =^.^=

Luckily, custom careers (afterschool activities included) aren't anywhere near as complex as diving into script modding from zero.

MissyHissy wasn't a script modder. NRaas Careers is a custom career injector that anyone can use to make new careers and classes without any programming knowledge, similar to how CCLoader is used to make custom recipes. They're entirely written in XML - the script in these packages does nothing other than tell the game to load it It's generated automatically when using the Careers framework - and thus custom careers involve zero coding unless you need to do something very out-of-the-box.

You can definitely have your cake and eat it too.
You can freely remove whichever entries you don't want, change what skills they use, and any other variable controlled in the XML by simply opening the package and then opening that AfterschoolActivityList resource in a text editor. It's all tuning-based and human-readable, no C# to be found. You can also edit the STBL if you want to rename them.
Or you can dive into MH's tutorial to make your own from scratch - these are all lovely ideas you have, so rather than being confined to editing her packages you can make your own, if you wish. But editing an existing file isn't a bad place to start learning how it works.

If you'd like any screenshots or extra explanation about any part of this, I'd be glad to provide.
I wish you the very best of luck!

I'm glad to know it's not too ambitious a task for my first time! So the XML is where I'd change the skills the classes effect, and the STBL would be where I go to change the names of the classes? I know that mod packages often have multiple XML and STBL files so does it matter which one I make changes to? If so, how would I know which one to edit?

And for the Gamer Club, is it possible to add a custom skill to it, or would that be too ambitious here?

When you click on the XML in S3PE, a preview will show on the right-hand pane. For these files specifically, you're looking for the one that says <AfterschoolActivityList> near the top of the preview.
For the STBL, there are usually multiple because there is one for each language. In MH's packages they're labelled, so you can easily find the English one (or whichever language your game happens to be set to).


I recommend downloading the program Notepad++ and setting it as your text editor in S3PE from Settings > External Programs. Then you'll be able to right click XMLs in packages and select Text Editor to open them - and they'll be formatted more helpfully than in the generic Notepad.

The game can be a bit quirky with custom skills, but I know that custom careers can use Store skills so it should technically be possible. No harm in trying!
You'd just have to know what the internal name of the skill is.