HELP Changing Aspiration Point Values

Hello again, ^_^

So lately I have been a little more than obsessed with TS2 and also with getting my new neighborhood off the ground and that includes getting everyone paired off and getting the generations growing. All of this has led me to the same conclusion - getting engaged and marriage. My problem with it is that in many ways getting engaged/married just don't seem to have the punch that they should. Let me explain.

For most Sims falling in love and getting engaged and married is a rare occurrence, meaning that if all goes well it will only happen during a Sims lifetime. My problem is that the aspiration points associated with it are pretty lame. I think engagement is 5,000 points or something and marriage is like 8,000. On the flip side though a popularity Sim can get a way higher point value for having X number of best friends all at once. Yes, that is harder to achieve but it is also something that only happens once in a lifetime. While I'll work out the details for myself I just don't really know how to change it (or if its possible) in SimPE.

I found the values in wants.package in the base game and I copied the package and changed the values but the game didn't register the changes.

That leaves me to many conclusions:

1. Maybe I shouldn't have renamed it and just left it as wants.package.
2. another want.package from an EP is overriding the changes.
3. maybe I needed to adjust something else in another package.
4. maybe it isn't possible to change aspiration point values.
   

Thanks everyone. I missed you all

Hey Xander, long time no read.

Let me take you through a few things that I think deep in your heart you already know... (because, heck, you've already mentioned them yourself )

1. If a wants.package from a later EP contains the same wants, it WILL override the ones from BG. So I would start with the latest Wants.package first and work my way back.
2. Just like anything from live.package that one wants to mod MUST be in a file named live.package, the same is true for the contents of wants.package. You can mod it, but you NEED to retain the filename for it to even be considered valid by the game.

So yes, those first two possibilities you mentioned, are BOTH true.

There may still be other considerations that I'm not aware of, but the aforementioned are absolutely certain!

Good luck.

Fantastic!
Thanks Boiling Oil! - I thought I would play it safe with just the Base Game but yeah I realized as soon as I booted it up I was wrong lol. I'll just work my way through the games then and see where that takes me.
Quick question though - if the files are all called wants.package won't I need to put them in their own folders (of course then again if I use MG wants.package I won't need to use other EP packages at the same time.)

If there are wants in an earlier EP's wants.package that do NOT occur in a later EP's version, then it would not be overridden, and you would need to mod it too. But I don't see why you would need to put it in a separate modded file. If the structure of the wants tree allows it, you could put all the modded wants in the same file.

However, if the above is not an option, you would indeed require multiple wants.package files, that need to be in sub-folders in order to all be loaded. It's like my Numbered Business Ranks, which mods the live.package. Any mod that gives your sims new names, *also* mods the live.package. Hence, sub-foldering was required.

But you're right: it's unlikely that you need to mod two versions...

By the way... did you forget? I'm *not* Boiling Oil. ()

Thank you BoilingOil! (No space!)

Well my first two attempts have failed. So I'm hoping my third attempt will succeed. It's always so much fun seeing changes a person has made take form in the game.

Oh yes, failing attempts are *my* nemesis as well! Their ugly faces keep popping up when I least expect them. At some point you think you may have outgrown the silly mistakes and dumb omissions, but nope... Suddenly you make a doozy again, and there goes another test-hood down the drain (at least, if you were smart enough not to test it in your main hood)...

Ain'it cool how they crash your game or make your sims do insane things at the oddest moments?

Hah! Very true lol
Well that attempt also failed and with the added bonus of the game crashing as soon as it gets to a certain point in the loading. But I will prevail I just need to try new things I guess.
I changed the want values for ONLY the wants I wanted to change and didnt rename the package and still the changes aren't taking affect. MGS is the latest one I have but nothing changed. I might have to alter the next one down.... and also create a test neighborhood ;P

With regard to the changes not taking effect - there *may* also be special requirements as to the placing of the package, i.e. the folder where the package is put. It's possible that you need the altered package to *overwrite* the original (of course, you *do* make a backup of the original, first...).

Overwriting the package was what caused the game to crash upon loading. I replaced the original one and bam game loads perfectly.
I was putting it in my downloads folder -> XGC mods so it does load pretty close to last.
Are there any examples of people actually changing Aspiration Point values? Maybe I should change Apartment Life ones next.
This is definitely a fun learning experience though

Examples of people changing experience values? Nope, I've never seen any of those. But there *are* examples of people making changes to the wants.package. I'm going to have a look at one of those paackages, see what it looks like, and if I can get a change to work...