Hello,

I'm new here. I have been playing The Sims 1 recently (again) and
I have played this game with the default settings and without any easy cheats
many times. It has become manageable over time, but I realized that having to
keep an eye on my Sims needs all the time is draining and I lose interest in the
game after 8 or 9 in-game weeks.

So I set out to find out if it was possible to make the motives go down more
slowly and I have found a way to achieve precisely this. I have tested it a lot in
my game and it makes it so much more enjoyable. I have more time for
socializing, gardening and my pets.

I would like to ask around here if anyone would be interested in such "mod".

How does it work?

It works without any additional object. It modifies the rate at which needs
decay slower globally both on home lots and on the community lots.

Motives:

Energy:
- slower decay during the day (you get roughly 2 additional hours)
- faster energy recovery when Sims are sleeping (fewer than 6 hours)

Bladder:
- less bladder decay when the Sim is eating
- slower bladder decay both when awake and asleep
(they need to use the toilette rougly once a day - depending on
what they are doing)

Hygiene:
(If they are not gardening or doing something that would make hygiene
go down faster they usually have a bath about every two days)

Comfort:
slower decay for both lazy and active Sims.


I haven't touched any other motive, but those can be changed too.


So if you find it interesting, please let me know here and I will try to upload it
and explain more about how it works and how to install it. I have tested it in
the Sims Complete Collection.

Flame

I would really love a mod like that ! I want to enjoy the game but the survival aspect is kinda... A bit too much for me lmao

OK, I will learn tomorrow how to upload it. I must also
write some short instructions. It's very easy to install.

Very soon in the "Mods" section here under The Sims 1.

A kind simmer created a place for people to upload stuff that doesn't fit into the usual ModTheSims download categories; you can upload your mod to https://simblr.cc/ts1/.

Thank you for the link, as I was not able to upload it here. The update feature here seems to be only for the later games.

I have just uploaded the mod to the web page you gave me.

Here it is:

https://simblr.cc/ts1/mod/3438-slow...collection.html

Yeah, Sims 1 wasn't even in the navbar until like last week!

In the interests of making this mod work with other mods that modify Global.iff, could you tell us which BHAV(s) you modified?

Thanks.

The thing is that I haven't modified any BHAV. The only thing that I have adjusted
are several out of the 17 constants defined in FCNS 1.

The game uses those to calculate the different motive decays. I don't know if
everyone will be happy with those values but, unfortunately I can't do a different
setting for everyone. Ideally people would be able to adjust those values.

However, Iffpencil lets you edit this section only manually, directly manipulating
the hex values. This is what I have done.

I believe that everyone has the same section available in the Global.iff
file. What I'm not sure if all editions have the same functions (BHAVS). But I haven't
touched those.

The globals are added to and not removed from, though I don't know if they're changed. A 1.1 Global.iff (specifically one that's from the leaked Edith build) has 131 BHAVs ending in number 417. A Deluxe plus all other expansions Global.iff (from my own install, which I imagine is similar if not identical to a Complete Collection global) has 251 BHAVs ending in number 506. According to SSOW, the Makin' Magic global.iff would be the same even if you're missing some EPs (i.e. it'd have Unleashed BHAVs in it despite not necessarily making use of them, so an object referring to those BHAVs won't crash a MM install that doesn't have UL): http://www.woobsha.com/diy-epcompatibility.html

(It's worth noting Edith also allows GUI editing of Global.iff's FCNS 1 via its Simulation Constants dialog (and the other FCNS through other constants dialogs), though that's more like a fun fact than necessarily more broadly helpful.)

I have both The Complete Collection and Legacy and both of them have 251 BHAVs ending in number 506.

Yeah, I have the same number of BHAVs. Than you, both Corylea and purplewowies.

btw. Corylea, I have just seen your mods, and I can say I like many of them,
also the recolors. I will definitely use some of your creations in my game.
I usually don't make my game too easy since it would feel like cheating
but adjusting things a little bit here and there can make the game enjoyable.

Thanks for the compliment! And I actually don't use most of my own mods these days, because I don't like making the game too easy, so I hear you. :-) I have several chronic illnesses that greatly limit me, though, and when I'm feeling especially bad, then I'm in the mood for an easier time...

I'm impressed that you figured out the FCNS thing! I've never seen anyone do anything with those before; how did you figure it out?

I learnt a lot during this winter about how the game works and how different
objects do what they do. It took me many hours. I filled like 60 A4 sheets of
papers with information that I learnt, many diagrams ... Things made slowly
more and more sense.

Some things didn't make much sense, like the beds when they add energy
points. They give you either 1, 2, or 3 points per hour and only one bed gives 4.
Does it mean that using one bed the sim would need twice as many hours to
fill their energy need than in another bed? No. The difference between one
bed and a better one was like 20 minutes. Then when they wake up,
"Set Motive Change" is cleared and set back to what? The default? But what is the
default? There had to be something more somewhere, but where? I didn't know.

One day I opened the FCNS and saw the text strings there. There were spaces between
them that were 4 bytes long. It took me some time to realize that those didn't
have to be integer values, but why? Everything in the BHAVs until then rounded
everything off to the next integer. So the conjecture was that these might be
actually floating point values. I had done some programming in the past 20 years or so,
but I never new how floating values were stored. So I did some research on the internet.

Then I tried to convert those hex values to their decimal representation and these
numbers actually made sense. But how the motive decay is calculated? That was
simply an educated guess. Every need spans 200 points, from -100 to +100.
The sims should spend 180 points during a "normal" day and an expected normal
day is 16 days (default). So I divided these numbers and this gave me 11.25 points
per hour. So I created a test object (yes that painting) that monitored their energy
level and report these numbers every hour and the results were as predicted.
Then they should recover 180 / 8 hours = 22.5 points per hour when sleeping.
Adding the points that the bed gives the sims and that check also.
And similar for the others. By comparing my tests with the numbers there it
became clear ...

That's fascinating, thanks!

This may be a very 'unpopular opinion', but I like to play The Sims with my sim's needs in a static mode. I'm more of a builder, so whenever I play in live mode, I don't like having to worry about needs at all (I know this is unpopular with most TS1 players), so this mod is definitely a good deal to me!

I've been using those Simlogical's Hacked Plants CC that keep needs always max., but it crashes my game whenever I travel with my sim.

Flame7, would it be possible to tweak those hex numbers in FCNS in order to keep all the needs always maximized at all times? I'm not requesting for you to do it for me, just asking if you'd be willing to point me in the right direction, I have basic knowledge of editing with IFF Pencil and Codex, so that's something I could try doing. Do you think it'd be possible? Would it affect only my active sim or every sim? Ideally, I'd set it only for my active sim, so it wouldn't mess up other sims' activities.

If the Simulation Constants are edited, it will affect every Sim everywhere in the entire game, provided they're subject to the constants (so it'd affect other Sims in the same family, though I don't know if visitor Sims or townies, etc. are treated the same by the engine or if they're handled differently).

It's worth noting there are also things that patch the exe to unlock included-but-unusable dev cheats and one of those is "motives off" (or "motives on" for enabling) which would disable all motive decay all the time. (The unlockers I know of are https://github.com/FaithBeam/The-Si...-Cheat-Unlocker for Legacy and part of the widescreen patcher https://github.com/FaithBeam/Sims-1...escreen-Patcher for Complete Collection/all-EP original retail.)

I have an object that lets you turn need decay off completely -- which I mostly use when I'm testing other mods. It only works while the sim is on the lot that the object is on, but you can put one on the lot you're traveling to, and use that object to freeze them again: http://corylea.com/EliminateNeedDecayMod.html.

Thanks for clarifying about the Constants. As long as it affects only the active family, it'd be perfect for me, but I don't wish to make townies and visitors static as that would make them stop doing any activities. Which is why I'm looking to create this mod myself.

I have FaithBeam's Unlocker for the Complete Collection and I can use all of the cheats, but the "motives off" cheat doesn't actually turn them completely off, although it does seem to slow them down a little.




I have a subfolder in my Downloads with many of your mods!!! The reason why I didn't install your magic crystal is because, as you recommended on your site, I was using the "Please Yourself Plant" by Simlogical (I learned about it through your website), since I'm looking to keep my needs always full - no matter what. The problem is that the Please Yourself Plant sometimes crashes my game.

I wish I could just turn off my active sim's needs and never have to worry about them again, LoL. I'm already trying to mess up with Flame7's mod and learning about Hex numbers (with ChatGPT, LOL), but if anyone could give me any direction, It'd be much appreciated

Hello, carlao1124

Thsese numbers indeed affect everyone on the lot. When you invite
friends over, they use the toilette less often with this mod.
It's also true on the community lots. The toilettes are not so crowded.
They basically want to eat and be entertained. And of course they will
go to the toilette some time, that's because they are initiated to
somewhat low-ish values.

I have never tried to set these numbers to zero. You would have to try.
Keep in mind that you must respect the structure of the file, otherwise
all kind of things could happen, possibly your game could even crash.

I believe that for what you want it would be better to use some object
(like the Corylea's one) to do the job. I don't know how to make the needs
static a different way.

Bear in mind that if the sim uses an object like the exercise machine,
or they go to work, the energy level will go down and they would have to
sleep and the bed gives the sim just a couple of points per hour.
So it would be painfully slow. Or you would have to use a mod
to bring that energy up again anyway.

I've been using Simlogical's Please Yourself Plant with no trouble in Legacy. Have you tried running Sims Object ID to check for a duplicate GUID?

You can get Sims Object ID here: https://beyondsims.com/games/sims-1/downloads/

It's interesting that motives off doesn't turn the motive decay all the way off--it seems to with Edith, though I only used it once in pursuit of testing an object without having to babysit the Sim on the lot.

...I am now curious to change the constants (in Edith because I'm not gonna try with the hex) to something that would shut off decay just to see what happens.

EDIT: Changing everything but the wake and sleep hours to zero results in no motive decay while not at work (work motive decay is handled by the career file AFAIK)... but also means if your Sim goes to bed/is in bed when the changed constants are loaded they might literally sleep forever--the game will increment the energy as they're sleeping (VERY slowly) even at 0 for the simulation constants regarding energy but even once it stops, the Sims appear not to be able to wake up of their own accord. If a motive drops low enough via other means (going to work, an object literally causing the motive to drop, etc.) then they will do things that help that motive rise again but also don't need to do this often. (Work stops decrementing energy below a certain amount, and the amount it stops at is high enough that a Sim will not autonomously head to bed. Or at least the kid on the lot I tested with (the only Sim there with a "job") didn't.)

Motives are altered by all kinds of things. Turning motive decay off turns DECAY off, but if your sim uses an exercise machine, the machine itself decreases Energy (unless you have my hacked machine that decrements Comfort instead of Energy, because working out in the real world doesn't mean you have to go to bed three hours earlier; it means you have to sit down and rest).

Just as the work.iff file decrements motives while a sim is at work, other objects add or decrease motives according to what their internal code tells them.

You could make it zero by setting the energy decay
equal (but opposite sign) to the increment given by the
bed. ex.: decay -3 and some bed +3. If the decay is more
than that of the bed increment, the energy level keeps
going down even if the sim is sleeping. Crazy.

Yes, indeed the values in the work.iff override the global ones.
I tested it but I forgot to tell at the beginning.

Interesting:

At the lower levels a sim returns from work less tired than the one
that stays at home and the motives of the working sim either
go down slower or stay the same.

I have also observed that sims lose roughly the same amount
of energy while working in different careers and at the same level.
For example at level 9 it's about 54 - 56 points. A sims who works
only four hours (science) is worse off than one who works more hours,
because his energy goes down faster than a sim staying at
home. But in other careers it's the other way around.

A good career at level 10 is "Hacker".

Yeah, I was mostly responding to the suggestion that the cheat merely slows them down instead of stopping them, because that wasn't my experience using the Edith build. 🤔