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Smeelia's Guide To Tomb Building
Smeelia
Posts: 2,334 New Member
Someone recently suggested that I could create some Tomb Building Tutorials using the "Create a Story" function on the site here and I thought it was worth a try. Here is the link for the first tutorial:
http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=262768
A guide to the basics of Tomb Building to get you started.
Any comments, constructive criticism, corrections and suggestions are welcome.
I'll also consider ideas for the content of future tutorials, I'm currently thinking of doing tutorials on a few of the main objects and what you can do with them but there are a lot of possibilities so I'm not sure how easy it'll be to cover everything in a sensible order
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http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=262768
A guide to the basics of Tomb Building to get you started.
Any comments, constructive criticism, corrections and suggestions are welcome.
I'll also consider ideas for the content of future tutorials, I'm currently thinking of doing tutorials on a few of the main objects and what you can do with them but there are a lot of possibilities so I'm not sure how easy it'll be to cover everything in a sensible order
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Comments
Thanks for all the helps you have given before. I finally manage to complete a couple of tombs. Here is my latest : http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=3156408 Hehe a bit of shameless self promotion there hope you don't mind
As to your tutorial the only comment I can made is the title. Instead of calling it basic tomb building which is a non-descriptive title perhaps you should call it Tomb building Triggers and objects guide. As I understand it you are trying to show how to link a trigger (foot plate) to a door (object).
Once again thanks for all the helps in this forum and I look forward to more tutorial from you. Perhaps you going to do one for the computer soon?
That's okay, it can help show people what they can do with the tools and hopefully inspire them to give it a go. The point of the tutorials is to help and inspire after all
Well the point of the first tutorial is really just to introduce the basic ideas of linking and ctrl+shift+clicking so I thought basics was okay but "Triggers and Objects" or something similar could work. It doesn't help that the character limit for titles is 40 and "Smeelia's Guide To Tomb Building" takes up 32 of them
I'm always happy to help
One question...in a tomb in WA, after sim opens hidden door by stepping on trigger, the door opens but the trigger is still green, like it been "used." Does this happen when a tomb is made at home? If it does, is there an option to close the door, and if so, does it reset the switch back to "unused?"
Lord, I hope this makes sense.
Thank you
This is why I'll probably end up doing a tutorial for some of the main objects/options
By default Floor Switches are sort of set to be "one use" so they go "green" as you mention and can't be used again if you only have the "Step On" trigger used. If I remember correctly (I don't have the game infront of me to check), as soon as you assign something to be triggered by the "Step Off" option the switch will know to go "blue" when it has something on it (sim or statue) and be re-usable (sims will also stay on until told to get off). I find the easiest option is to just ctrl+shift+click on the Floor Switch and select "Link Triggers..." then "Step Off" and then ctrl+shift+click on the Floor Switch again and select "Link To Activated Behaviour..." then "Reset", if you do this in your example above the switch will be re-useable but the door will stay open when your sim steps off of the switch (of course you can set the "Step Off" trigger to also close the door if you want).
As for the door itself, you can set it to close when a sim walks through by selecting the "Turn Autoshut On" option when ctrl+shift+clicking it (note that "Walk Through" is also a trigger option, if you want something else to happen when a sim goes through). In a home you can just click on the door in Live Mode and you'll get a "Close" option, I think this might also work in Tombs but I'm not sure. If a door isn't told to close either by using one of those options or a trigger then it should stay open forever, which may not be exactly what you want. I suppose you could set up a Processor to close the door a certain time after it has been opened (with the countdown triggered by the same thing that opens the door), I could do a step-by-step on how to do that (if it's possible) later if you like. There are a few other options for auto-closing the door using other triggers as well.
To summarise the response to your actual question (sorry about going on a bit
Closing the door is easy enough but wont automatically reset the switch so you'll need to set the switch up to reset itself (as above) if you want to use it more than once.
The "Torch Lever" is a good option for secret doors that you want to close a lot because they can always be re-used so it's a nice simple option.
I hope that helps, sorry if it's a bit all over the place
Edit: I did some checking, I think the above is all okay
If you're using Floor Switches and you set "Step Off" to "Reset" the Floor Switch, there seems to be an issue with using statues to activate the switch where the switch will lock itself "on" (the "blue" colour) when you push the statue off. For some reason this only seems to happen if the statue goes right onto the middle of the switch and only if the "Step Off" trigger is set to "Reset" so a good option is to instead set "Step Off" to make the switch "Appear" (it wont do anything if the switch is already visible anyway and it allows it to be re-used without problems).
With Secret Doors, you can indeed choose to "Close" them with a click in Live Mode even in tombs but if you select the "Lock" option with a ctrl+shift+click (in Build/Buy Mode as normal) then the door can't be closed using the "Close" option in Live Mode (even at home) and it can't be pushed open either. Secret Doors at home will still get the "Turn Autoshut On" option in Live Mode but it doesn't seem to affect Secret Doors that you've chosen to "Lock".
I hope that makes sense, if not just ask and I'll try to explain it better (these posts of mine always seem to end up longer than I intended)
So, if I'm understanding you right, each time you ctrl+shift+click and choose an action, that will bring up another set of options...which in this case is to reset a floor switch to make it usable again. I have a hidden door in a home now that is protecting loot for this family but after using the switch to get in, the door is staying open, hence the switch is staying green. I suppose that there is also an option to have the sim push open the door themselves, like in foreign locales, which I like also. This is going to take some experimenting on my part.
How clever! Thanks again. I'll be back.
You're welcome and I hope you are understanding right anyway
I know you've seen it already but I thought I'd link to your thread just incase anyone else is interested in the answer (which I hope is accurate, or hope isn't accurate depending on how you look at it)
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/267790.page
Smeelia, thanks for the guide..
You always have the best answer :thumbup: :thumbup:
Hehe
1) It is very confusing to link triggers to computer to objects to sequence thing to happen. So far I have very little luck doing it. The effect I was looking for is: Walk in room, trigger on hidden plat, fire slowly approach from the fire place to the sim. This mean delay firing of trap from the furtherest to the one the sim stand on.
2) Linkage for the Boolean function on the computer. Example sim need to pull the touch then jump of a floor plate then move statues to open door. Any wrong sequence will reset the trap and the sim will have to start again.
I know this is pretty advance stuff and as a result I have fond nothing on the web on it. If you can help that will be great
Thanks for all your help in advance. :-)
Thank you, I'd say it's more like I throw a lot of answers at people and hope one sticks really
I'm always happy to see more tombs around
Hopefully words will suffice because I don't have pictures
1.
I'm guessing you mean the "Hidden Trigger Panel" (the green box thing), the only problem I can see with using that is that it constantly triggers as long as a sim is standing in the area and that could result in the pattern of fire repeating constantly. As long as you only want the pattern to happen constantly after triggering or while a sim is in the area (it might be possible to set it to only ever happen once as well, I'll cover that later) then it should be okay, it's a shame there's not a function to disable the "Hidden Trigger Panel" because it's a useful object with an annoying limitation as it is now.
I'm not sure if you want the fire traps to be purely decorative or dangerous (a kind of timed trap) but it should be easy enough to adjust the process for either
Anyway, you've got the door and then the Hidden Trigger Switch and then some Floor/Wall Traps (presumably either alongside the path or on it) and you should place a Processor somewhere handy (remember it's invisible and can be walked through in Live Mode so it doesn't matter where it is really).
Okay, on to using the Processor
You can set up the timings now if you like as well (or just leave them at default), to do that ctrl+shift+click the Processor and select "Set Clock Period" and you can then choose the time between (let's say) "actions" (in this case, making each trap fire) in Sim Seconds (so 60 is a real second, this is also the default setting). There's also an option called "Set Clock Jitter", this basically adds a random element to the timing and is also in Sim Seconds (so if you set the Clock to 120 and the Jitter to 60 then the wait between "actions" will be any amount of time between 1 and 3 seconds), I usually leave the Jitter option at 0 because I like absolute timings for most things.
You might as well set the Hidden Trigger Switch to be ready to activate the Processor, to do this just ctrl+shift+click on the Hidden Trigger Switch and select "Link Triggers..." then "Hidden Switch" and then ctrl+shift+click on the Processor and select "Link To Activated Behaviour..." then "Arm" (you will probably have to click "More..." once before you see the "Arm" option).
With the Processor set up as above we can start setting up the sequence. If you ctrl+shift+click on the Processor and choose "Link Triggers..." you'll see there are a lot of options marked "Out #" (0-7), basically the way it works is that "Out 0" occurs when the Processor is activated (with the "Arm" option) and then it waits for the "Clock Period" (affected by "Clock Jitter" as mentioned above) and then uses "Out 1" then it does the same for the rest. You can skip any "Out #" if you like and the Processor will still go through it, so if you have the "Clock Period" set at the default 60 (which is 1 second) you can have something happen on "Out 0" then skip "Out 1" and have something happen with "Out 2" and the result will be that there'll be a two second wait between the first thing happening ("Out 0") and the second event ("Out 2"), I hope that makes sense
Anyway, ctrl+shift+click on the Processor and select "Link Triggers..." then "Out 0" (or whatever you want to start with) then ctrl+shift+click on the Trap and select "Link To Activated Behaviour..." then whichever option is the most appropriate, probably "Set To Fire" (which will make it fire constantly) or "Fire Once". Then you basically do the same for each trap in order, the second trap to go off could be "Out 1", the third could be "Out 2" and so on (or you can alter the timings as above).
By default the Processor will just keep going through every "Out #" and then it'll start again from "Out 0" after it has done "Out 7" and just keep going. The best way to get it to stop it (if you want to do that) is to ctrl+shift+click on the Processor and select "Link Triggers..." then "Out 7" (or the lowest "Out #" that doesn't do anything, you could also use the last one that does something without problems) and then ctrl+shift+click the Processor again and select "Link To Activated Behaviour" and then "Reset" (you could also use "Destroy", "Reset" sets it to start from "Out 0" again if activated with "Arm" while "Destroy" just stops it and it'll start from where it was if activated again).
With the present set up (including the reset option above) the sequence will be triggered when a sim is standing in the green area of the Hidden Trigger Switch and will continually restart itself as long as a sim stays there (without the reset it'll continually go through the sequence from the first time a sim enters the green area onwards even after they've left). If you want it to trigger once and only once I found a way to do that (it may be needlessly complicated but it works and it's not much work
I think that's everything, let me know if it's not working or if I missed anything important
I'll get back to you on point 2, I'll have to test to see how that works (I think you might need at least two or three processors, it's fairly easy to have a specific set of switches as a combination but it's a little more complicated to make sure they're activated in a certain order).
I have begin to do some try and error myself on the processor and left some of my note on exchange.
I will see if I can follow your advise tomorrow night. I was really look for a horror movie effect. Where a flame move slowly toward you.
As to the second part I was trying to create a few puzzles that require a bit more than point and click. But I am not sure now there is a lot of demand for more complex puzzle in Sim 3. So if I can't get that done it is no big issue.
Once again thank for all you help :-)
Thank you
You're welcome
I looked into the second part and did some testing, I've found a lot of things that should work in theory but don't seem to work in practice. The problem seems to be the order in which the game does the calculations, it's possible there are also limitations that mean too many calculations cause problems. I had about 11 Processors working on the problem (for just three switches
It's possible I was over-complicating it or made a mistake somewhere so I might try some tests again another time but for now I'm not really sure how to make it work.
I think a lot of people would like more interesting and challenging tombs to be available as an alternative to the mostly easy ones built into the game so it'd be good if we could make ideas like this work
Smeelia thanks for the reply and I try working on it today
I have a small problem
No matter what I do. The trap seem to fire twice before stopping. :?
Any idea why?
Did you use the "Fire Once" Activated Behaviour or "Set To Fire"?
You probably have the switch set to "Arm" the sequence Processor and the traps set to "Fire Once" then the sequence set to "Reset" at a certain point, if that's the case then as long as a sim is in the switch it can trigger the sequence to start again (and that sometimes "queues up" two "Fire Once" orders for the trap, so it fires, fires again after a wait and then stops unless a sim is still in the green area).
If you're using "Fire Once" and want the sequence to keep running after being triggered then make sure you haven't used "Reset" on the Processor. If you just want the sequence to run once then make sure you have the extra Processor I mentioned (as a kind of "brigde" between the switch and the sequence Processor).
If you want the traps to keep burning after they're first triggered then use "Set To Fire" instead of "Fire Once", once a trap is "Set To Fire" it will keep firing until told to stop. If you are using "Set To Fire" you can ctrl+shift+click on the Traps and select "Set Trap Fire Rate...", the default ("0,1") causes it to fire continually while the other options are listed as the firing time in sim minutes (so real seconds) then the wait before firing again (so "3,5" is fire for three seconds, wait for five seconds then fire for three again and so on).
I'm not sure what else it would be, I'd need to know the options you've chosen for things to get a better idea. Hopefully the above will help anyway and if not just let me know
I set it on fire once. I have been doing some try and error but still no luck. I'll try what you mention above a try tomorrow.
However all is not lost. I did kind of make it work by making a catwalk effect. Somewhat like what I am after but I need it to only fire once.
The effect is seen in this:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/269400.page
Making of it tutorial :
http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=264032
Anyhow, not all is lost. While messing with the traps setup I come up with a variation to you setup and make a tutorial on how to make disco/dance floor light.
tutorial http://www.thesims3.com/contentDetail.html?contentId=264224
message http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/0/269752.page#3575070
It does help to enjoy doing the experimentation because you can spend a lot of time and get nothing done so you have to enjoy that part or it feels like wasted time
I read your tutorials and commented, I might not have to do any more if you keep making them
I was just checking my original tutorial and I can't see any of the pictures appearing, is it just my computer or are they not there anymore?
Yes I do like to experiments :-) That what make sim fun for me is to try out new things. I hate doing legacy so it is building or trying out new thing for me
Actually if you got more tricks for the processor please do them. I think I am at my limit with it. Door and traps will be interesting too.
BTW have you experience any problem with the processor when you use it to set off firework?
It seems that when I use it to set off a set of 16 firework. Afterward , the processor and all the processors in the lot are broken. I have to quit and come back before they will function again. :roll: Strange eh?
I did try using the Processor to set off fireworks but I had all sorts of problems (the biggest being all of the fires from the fireworks that went wrong
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/0/255742.page#3377258
You could use the same theory for a lot of special effects really, the Fog Emitter can use all sorts of animations. I'm not sure what else to suggest, I often get inspired by something someone has said or done and then try things out to see if it would work rather than having too many ideas myself
There's a puzzle I quite enjoyed during the adventures where you have to step on switches to open a set of doors, I think it's the James Vaughan Headquarters or something (it's hidden in one of the houses). I think it uses the Inverter mode of the Processor to create an interesting puzzle, although it wastes it by giving you codes instead of making it something to figure out
Would you mind checking my original tutorial to see if the pictures are still there? When I look at it I can't see them at all (the same seems to have happened with the videos for the fireworks displays I did). I might have to re-upload/edit them.
Ah thank you, maybe I'll wait until tomorrow and re-upload them if they're not working