TUTORIAL - Mod Constructor 3

LET'S START MESSING!

We saw what the Constructor is and can do for us, and we saw the comparison between the constructor UI and a loose xml from the game. We'll now start doing something from scratch, and this is going to be a very, very step by step tutorial to get used to the UI, to where the various things are, etc...

We'll be doing a very basic Personality trait with not many options and no associated interactions, to begin with. 

So, let's open the program and make a new mod, as a first thing we want to add a new element to our mod:

The new element is going to be a Trait, and I'll be doing a misanthrope trait:

The first component I have is Trait Info, and I'm going to fill the description for my trait:

Quick note, you see those little arrows? If you click on them there are some options:

Delete component allows me to get rid of it, in case I don't need it. Set Label allows me to change its name, View Component Type Description opens a help window.

Different components have different options, like, for example, text fields only have Reset:

Which deletes the text in the field.

After filling the Description, I want to change the Icon, click on it:

It opens this window that allows you to browse the icons from the game, or add your own (from the custom tab)

I currently only have the basic icons, but you can download more from the Constructor page. Anyway, let's pick one and click on Select Image.

I want to change the Category of my trait from Emotional to Social in the next component, so I select it from the drop down menu:

I'm going to IGNORE the Core Buff, for now:

This requires a bit of work, so I'll go back to it later.

I don't want my trait to be available to children, so I'm going to Uncheck them: 

There is this other arrow here:

It allows you to Collapse the component:

This is useful when things get complicated. Now, I want to add a species restriction to make sure my trait only works on humans. I want to go to Add Component:

Quick note: the difference between Add Element and Add Component. 

Add Element adds a new xml to your mod, it's the same as doing this in S4S:

Add Component adds a new option to your current tuning, it's the same as doing this in S4S:

Let's add a new component to our current Trait Tuning:

It's already as i want it, so I have to do nothing more:

Now, we go back to the Core Buff:

Let's look at this UI. The Constructor already made a Buff for us. We can:

Add a new one

Remove the selected one

Add references from the game:

Or add a Buff we already made inside the current mod if we want to use it:

Adding a reference from the game means that if I want I can select a Maxis Buff:

Like, for example, the buff Maxis made for the trait Loner, and use it for my trait:

My trait, right now, would have an empty buff (the one the Constructor made for me) and the buff_trait_loner. Now, I don't want to do this, but sometimes you'll ned to reference something from the game. 

What I want to so is open the value for my Misanthrope Buff:

Doing this opens a new tab... and this is another XML:

A xml with only one component in it, which is Buff Info, meaning the name, description and Icon. Let's quickly look at the Loner buff I mentioned above in Maxis tuning:

What I have in my buff right now is just a bit more of what I highlighted in Maxis tuning in the screenshot above. Maxis Buff doesn't even have a Name and Description. This because this buff is HIDDEN:

You never see it in the UI, it works in the background. My buff in the Constructor is currently an hidden buff too, unless I add other elements. 

Maxis Buff, though, also has a lot of stuff going on in here:

Simply put, a Game Effect Modifier is what affect the Sim autonomy and behaviour... what makes them different from another Sim that doesn't have this buff ON.

What the tuning above is telling me is:

This Sim has 3 commodities active. Commodities do a number of things and can be hard to explain at this point... the Commodity_Trait_Loner_Solitude, for example, is the one that gives a Loner Sim a happy buff when they've been alone for some time. You can think about is as a timer. Same goes for the NearLowRelationship, which is the one giving them the tense buff when they're close to people they don't know. The commodity_Trait_Autonomy_Loner affects the autonomous behavior of the Sim, it's referenced in interactions that are favourited by sims with this commodity ON. We'll not be getting into commodities in this tutorial.

Decay_modifiers and Score_multipliers are far easier to work on at this point. What this tuning is telling me is: 

A Sim with this buff has the social motive decaying at half speed than a Sim who doesn't have this trait (the decay modifiers, what this does is taking the decay rate of the motive, let's assume it's 1 - spoiler: it's not - and multiply it for 0.5. 1*0.5= 0.5 < the decay rate of the motive becomes 0.5)

A sim with this buff also has the score for the interactions that references the social motive multiplied for 0.5, meaning that they are less likely to pick a social interaction than other sims without this buff on (works the same way as the other... if a sim is 1 likely to pick a cheat interaction, the score il multiplied for 0.5, 1*0.5=0.5 they have half chances to do it than everyone else)

 The Loner buff also has a social interaction only a sim with the Loner buff can perform:

In this specific case, it's argue about social anxiety. 

Let's go back in the Constructor and see what we can do in our buff:

Pretty much like for the trait, add component give us a list of tunings we can add to our buff...

There are tips to give you an idea of what the various component do, I'm going to add a decay modifier like the one we saw in Maxis tuning:

I'll click on the + icon to Add:

It will ask me to reference something from the game:

This something is obviously the Social Motive:

'cause we really don't want our sim to be social, so their need is going to go down slower:

Even slower than the Loner trait. You can go on and add components to fine tune the behaviour of a sim having this trait:

At this point, if you export the package, you already have a trait, with a buff, that does something (even though not much), but most importantly, you have an idea of how to move around in the Constructor.

You can download the FULL FOLDER with all the loose xmls from the game for the December patch HERE in case you want to look around in Maxis tuning.