Cyjon's Ghost Hack

DESCRIPTION: My modification of the Ghost Hack from Simbology which adds new features.

Updated with a modular version--install only the features you want rather than being saddled with an ubermod.

This mod is a direct evolution of Ghost Hack by twojeffs and I have added many more features over his original. The zip file contains several packages. Install any or all of them but be SURE to install Bug Fixes since it contains a critical fix. Each piece should be a standalone mod, but they are also designed to work together.

  • Amok Servos - Servos who are "scared to death" will run amok rather than dying
  • Anger Tweaks - Nice ghosts will be less angry; Grouchy ghosts will be more angry.
  • Bug Fixes - Contains a critical fix that prevents ghosts from haunting tombstones, potentially destroying them, shredding character data and corrupting your neighborhood. Contains smaller fixes that allow angry ghosts to visit the cowplant, and fixes reversed logic that causes Nice and Neat (rather than Grouchy and Sloppy) ghosts to create messes.
  • Cleaner Ghosts - Happy ghosts more likely to clean
  • Fright Death Tweaks - Plantsims and servos are no longer immune to death by fright. Slightly changes logic for death checks. Significantly lowers motive thresholds for death, meaning sims are less likely to die from fright. This mod works by itself but is designed to balance Scaring Tweaks.
  • Less Cowplant Obsession - Cowplant ghosts will no longer obsessively tease the cowplant to the exclusion of all other activity.
  • Less Flooding - Limits the number of puddles drowning ghosts can create.
  • Pushy Scares - Ghosts can successfully scare sleeping sims rather than giving up before the sim gets out of bed.
  • Quiet Ghosts - Ghosts will not arbitrarily wake sims merely by being in the same room. Can still wake sims when complaining about a missing object.
  • Scaring Tweaks - Scaring frequency and intensity based on a number of factors including ghost personality, relationship with the target, and type of death. Scares drain all motives, including plantsim Sunshine and servo Power. Ghosts scare random targets instead of picking on a single person. Note that this mod will show a conflict with Pescado's yellowpee but they work together as long as my mod loads after his. This mod works by itself but is designed to balance Fright Death Tweaks.
  • Spawn Tweaks - More ghosts on community lots. Bans ghosts younger than teen because animations for younger ghosts are broken or missing. Coffin scare ghosts same color as fright ghosts. Drowning ghosts a little easier to see.

The March 26, 2012 version of this mod has made ghosts significantly less fatal. This was necessary since future versions of this mod will make ghosts more likely to seek out targets to scare rather than simply hanging out in the yard doing nothing. The lethality should balance out in the long run.

KNOWN ISSUE #1: Ghosts sometimes disappear during the haunt cycle. I've never seen it happen--I just notice a ghost is suddenly gone. I suspect it's related to an attempt to scare, but it's infrequent and unpredictable enough I haven't tracked it down yet. I don't know if it's caused by this mod or not.

KNOWN ISSUE #2: If you use Spawn Tweaks, you may get a rash of daytime ghosts on community lots with tombstones. This is a side effect as each tombstone/urn gets into synchronization with the new code. Daytime ghosts won't hang around longer than an hour, and each tombstone should get synchronized after no more than one inappropriate ghost spawn. So it will fix itself.

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT: I have two houses in which haunting is central to their stories. This gives me a lot of incentive to continue adding features to this mod to make ghosts more interesting. Planned features in future versions include:

  • Pets will scare based on personality. Aggressive and Independent pets scare more. Friendly and Cowardly pets scare less.
  • Better wandering. Ghosts will gravitate to objects or people based on personality and history. Ghosts might use personality, interests, hobbies, aspiration, skills, badges, death type, etc. So a ghost with high Cooking might hang around stoves. A ghost with high Art enthusiasm goes to an easel. Drowning ghosts haunt the pool. I don't know which of these ideas I will use. The goal is to get ghosts around people more rather than having them hang out in the yard doing nothing.
  • Signature behaviors. We already have some of these. Drowning ghosts leave water puddles. Starvation ghosts raid the fridge. In this mod, fright ghosts scare more. I want similar behaviors for every death type. Flies ghosts calling up cockroaches or leaving garbage piles. Lightning ghosts summoning storms. Disease ghosts making people sick. I plan to playtest these to keep them from being too annoying (like drowning ghosts in the unmodified game) or too dangerous.

KNOWN CONFLICTS: Pescado's yellowpee mod. I've brought his changes into Scaring Tweaks so as long as that piece of this mod loads after his they will work together. Although Scaring Tweaks is designed to be used with yellowpee, scared sims will generate "normal" blue pee puddles if you aren't using Pescado's mod.

LAST UPDATE: April 23, 2012

REQUIRED EPs: University

COMPATIBLE EPs: All configurations from University through Apartment Life.

INCOMPATIBLE MODS: This may seem obvious, but this mod is not compatible with the original twojeffs Ghost Hack. I use his code so you get the features of his mod. If you want to use mine you need to delete his.

*** THIS MOD REQUIRES Smarter EP Check ***

AttachmentSize
CJ-GhostHack.zip9.53 KB