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Carpool & school bus flexibility

SCREENSHOTS
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Picked Upload!   This is a picked upload! It showcases some of the best talent and creativity available on MTS and in the community.
Uploaded: 28th Apr 2017 at 10:55 PM
Updated: 15th Nov 2017 at 6:53 AM
Today is a very exciting day for two reasons. Number one, it's the four year anniversary of my very first mod upload and secondly I am celebrating that by sharing a creation I've been working on for over a year :lovestruc

I never imagined I'd become a modder, but things happen and here we are! I want to thank Violet Padfoot who gave me a nudge and walked me through my first creation, converting teen pants to adult pants. Once she'd got me started poking at things and realizing it's not impossible, dreaming and wishing things were different did the rest. I kept poking and was lucky and suddenly I had modified a global mod to my liking, and if I could do it once then surely I could do it again. So if there's anything I want you reading to take away from this thread, it's that you shouldn't be afraid to try yourself, because you might just discover you can and have a whole world of fun open up for you!

Now on to this upload! I have wanted this mod to exist for a very long time, but I didn't have the skills to make it. Then with hidden interactions mod my code-reading abilities took a leap forward, and I started being able to separate out the pieces of more complex parts of the code. I got quite far and was determined to celebrate my 50th upload with this upload, but I hit an obstacle and time went on and the pile of finished un-shared creations grew large, so I decide to postpone. And here we are! I am so very glad I was able to revive it for this anniversary, so that it still gets to be a little special.

Stop babbling already and get on with it! What is it?
Carpool changes! Underwhelming name, I know Has it ever bothered you that the only way to stop the carpool from coming is to own a car, even though EA introduced other ways to get to work? And for some reason your sim kiddies can't opt out of the school bus even if they'd rather walk. EPs has given us the ability to walk to work, teens can drive cars, and there is a carpool and drive to school option, yet our simmies don't get to tell their school or employers what kind of transport they'd prefer to use.

No more! With this handy global mod, you get to choose. Your Sims can now acquire the carpool pass and the school bus pass, to declare that they prefer to get to work and school on their own. A whole new world of possibilities! Now that couple that starts work at the same time but only has space or funds for one car can carpool together, without the official carpool standing outside honking it's horn. And the devoted parent can drive the little ones to school, instead of having to hand over precious morning time with the kids to the school bus driver and without the school bus showing up every morning even though it ought to have learned that you'll drive them yourself. And your teens can surprise their friends by rolling in to school in their brand new car, without having the surprised spoiled by the school bus showing up for them any way as they get in to their new car.

This consists of two separate mods. One that gives you optional carpools, and one that gives you optional school bus. Because they deal with different areas of the code, I will explain them separately. You don't need to have both, if you don't want to.

Optional carpool
This mod consists of a global mod, and the carpool pass object. If you purchase the carpool pass for your Sim, and put it in their inventory, the game will interpret that as the Sim having declared no carpool for me thanks, and your Sim will have to get to work on their own.

To make it easier for Sims in the same household who go in to work at the same hour to carpool together, Sims will no longer autonomously drive to work when free will is enabled. To remind you there are Sims on the lot with the carpool pass in inventory a pop-up dialogue box will inform you that they need to be at work in one hour, just like it does when Sims own a car.

The carpool pass object is found in general/misc, and it costs 10 simoleons.

Known issues
Sims who walk to work will return by carpool. I may one day try to fix it so Sims return from work walking if they walked there, but for now at least we can send them there with our preferred method of transport.

If Sims carpool together in their own car and get back from work at the same time they should return together in that car, if they get out at different hours the one(s) not driving will return by regular carpool.

Compatibility
I would love to make all my mods available in every setup, but it's sometimes a bit complicated. While the carpool mod might be doable the school one is complex, so at the moment this mod requires Apartment Life or Mansion & Gardens. You must have one of those games to use it.

I will be making a Bon Voyage-compatible version for all you mac-users, I promise. Not sure when I can get it done, but it will come so stay tuned. If you'd like me to inform you when it's done, leave a comment saying so and I will make sure you let you know when it's finished.
Update: I am working on compatible versions of the carpool mod for games Open for Business up to Freetime. So stay tuned!

If you'd really like to have this mod for another setup than AL, M&G or BV let me know what your setup is, and if I have time I will make it for you. It would have been too overwhelming to make versions for every possible setup, but if I have time I would be happy to make it for those who really want it but can't due to not having one of the required EPs.

Conflicts
This conflicts with institution sign's job2009 patch, does not conflict with job201C patch. But don't worry! I realize that most people would probably choose institution sign over this, so I made sure to make a compatible version. If you use institution sign with the job2009 option for work, please download the package called GummiluttOptionalCarpool-InstitutionSignVersion and use that instead of the job2009-package. Keep the institution sign-package, but delete the job2009-patch file.

Also conflicts with mums don't work here on MTS, and Cyjon's Maternity Pay Fix. You cannot use both, load order won't help so you have to choose between my mod and the other one. If you really want mums don't work-style mod, I would get instution sign with the compatible version of my mod, and send the dad to work manually.

May conflict with other mods that affect the carpool and going to work code. Does not conflict with whoward69's upcoming Duvet Days-mod.

Optional school bus
This part of the mod does three things. First it will check if children and teens in the household carry the school bus card in inventory, and if they do, the school bus won't come for that specific Sim. Secondly, it checks if any teens on the lot is set as the owner of a car, and if they are, it assumes they want to drive to school and stops sending the school bus for them. You will be informed of this when you set the teen as owner of the car, in case you forget the mod does that.

Thirdly, because it's no longer a certain that the school bus shows up the message warning you that it arrives in 1 hour has been replaced by a generic "It's time to leave for school in one hour"-message. If your children and teens have decided to opt out of the school bus, you will also get a message when the school bus would have arrived, stating they have to be at school in an hour.

Custom dialogue box options have text in English and Swedish. If you game is installed in a different language, you will get the English text. If anyone would like to add their own language, I can walk you through how to add the text in your language. You will need SimPE, or you'll have to send me the text so I can do it for you.

The school bus pass object is found in general/misc, and it costs 10 simoleons.

Known issues
If one Sim in your household decides to opt out of the school bus, but it still comes for someone else in the family, the Sim that opted out will not be able to get on it. The option to go to school via school bus won't appear when clicking on it. The option will return next time school bus comes, if you unassign the Sim as owner of car and remove school bus pass from inventory. I decided that this was an acceptable complication as I don't see many scenarios where you'd want to opt out with one Sim and not all, and then change your mind when the bus comes. But I figured I should warn you in case you come across it at some point.

Unfortunately this mod won't affect how Sims return from school. There is no interaction for parents to pick up their kids from school, and Sims can't return from school walking. Teens who drive will return in their car, and other Sims who went with them will come back in the car too, if they end school at the same hour. Children who were driven to school will return by school bus. However, if you use my school day changes-mod and they carpool to school with a teen sibling, they will return home in the car with their older sibling. I may continue working and add the ability to walk back from school, but for now, at least we can have our Sims go to school in our preferred method.

Compatibility
While I would love to make all my mods available in every setup, sometimes they have a lot of parts and that tends to make EP-compatibility a nightmare. Because of that, at the moment, this mod requires Apartment Life or Mansion & Gardens. You must have one of those games to use it.

I will be making a Bon Voyage-compatible version for all you mac-users, I promise. Not sure when I can get it done, but it will come so stay tuned. If you'd like me to inform you when it's done, leave a comment saying so and I will make sure you let you know when it's finished.

If you'd really like to have this mod for another setup than AL, M&G or BV let me know what your setup is, and if I have time I will make it for you. It would have been too overwhelming to make versions for every possible setup, both for me and you downloaders, but if I have time I would be happy to make a compatible version for specific players that don't have the required EPs.

Conflicts
Conflicts with inteen's flavor pak "back to school". I tried to make a compatible version but inteen would not have it. I'm sorry, but you'll have to choose between this mod and the back to school flavor pak. It should not conflict with inteen itself.

Conflicts with twojeffs bring friend dialog. I have made a compatible version, if you use twojeffs bring friend dialog please download that version, and make sure my mod loads after his. You will no longer get only one message for school bus and snow days, but you will be able to keep all other aspects of bring friend dialog mod.

Conflicts with alfixes by Pescado, which you most likely don't need (see this thread by Charity for more details). Based on information in Charity's thread I don't believe the conflicting areas of alfixes are needed, so if you make my mod load after alfixes you can use both.

Conflicts with institution sign's School201F-patch. Does not conflict with school200B-patch, so you could use that instead. You can mimic School201F's effect with Inge's flexi school changer if you really want to be able to send some children to school and have others stay home.

Conflicts with Phaenoh's summer vacation mod. Conflict is rather benign, you can use both mods as long as you load mine after Phaenoh's. The only difference it'll make is that Sims won't cheer in whatever context it is they cheer when you use Phaenoh's mod. They will still cheer at snow days, like they usually do.

May conflict with other mods that affect the school bus, going to school, and car ownership. If you find a conflict, please let me know!

Warning! Not all conflicts will be detected by HCDU. This mod modifies a text list, and HCDU can not detect text list conflicts. If the dialogs I added aren't showing up for you in the appropriate situation, you most likely have another mod conflicting. It's not a dangerous conflict, the worst that happens is that dialogs show the wrong text.

Update log
2017-04-29 I will be posting compatible versions of carpool mod for Open for Business up to Freetime. I will also be looking in to making a compatible version of optional schoolbus for twojeff's bring friend dialogue mod. No promises, but I will try.

2017-04-30 Rosebine discovered that optional schoolbus conflicted with MogHughson's Dress me correctly. That conflict has now been solved, so if you have that mod and you downloaded the mod prior to the update, please re-download. Load order doesn't matter, the conflict has been removed completely.
Rosebine also discovered that optional schoolbus conflicts with Phaenoh's summer vacation mod. I will look in to it and see if a compatible version is possible, but for now you'll have to choose between my mod and Phaenoh's mod.

2017-04-30 More information added on conflict with Phaenoh's summer vacation mod. See above.

2017-05-01 Added a new version of optional school bus that is compatible with twojeffs bring friend dialog mod. See above or read me file for more information.

2017-11-15 The bus pass object was missing from the bring friend compatible zip. My apologies, no idea why I forgot to include it the first time around. I updated the zip to include the bus pass object.
Additionally, if you have your game installed in Swedish and you were using the bring friend compatible version, the dialog for bring home a friend would have the wrong text. I forgot to update the Swedish text list when I merged the two mods. This has now been fixed, so please re-download if you had that problem.

Thank you's
Without the advice from many wonderful helpful creators this is unlikely to have seen light of day. I got stuck many many times, and without them answering my questions and pointing out my mistakes I would have been stuck to this day

Thank you SimFused (Michelle and HeartDeco) for allowing me to use your miniature cars as base for what I had originally intended to do, which was tiny decorative ownable cars. I ended up having to scrap that idea, but I am still grateful that you let me use your shrunk down maxis cars as base.

Thank you NixNivis, for your vast knowledge of object creation and bhavs that you were willing to share with this object-newbie. And thank you for reminding me I can do it and that I am not stupid!

Thank you to BoilingOil, who suggested I try an inventory approach when my original idea of tiny ownable cars proved a nightmare to figure out. I would very much have liked to make the tiny cars work, but this is a great substitute. Thank you for also answering many questions about code, both on this and many other projects. Especially on hidden interactions which was such a breakthrough point for me. Thank you!

Thank you mustluvcatz and leefish for answering questions about bounding boxes and joints and the nightmare that is Milkshape and meshing Thank you for being patient with me even though I was the fool of fools, and for helping me find the problem.

Thank you maybesomethingdunno for helping me figure out inventory items.

Thank you Michelle, once again, for creating the card object that I now use for many of my creations. You are a wonderful friend and I'm so glad I've gotten to learn from you.

Thank you to gdayars who play-tested the mod for me, finding my duh-moment errors. She also made the new recolors for the card, which I am grateful for since I am rubbish at that stuff. Thank you for being such a sweet friend. It's great to have someone to talk modding with, and I'm really excited for what's to come!

Credits
Michelle for the card object and the recolor that I used for the inventory objects. You'll find the object and her many lovely recolors in her Bank of Sims Credit Card-upload.
whoward69 for his ideas on changes to the card object as part of his shared parenting PTO-mod, some of which I applied to the inventory objects in this mod.
Inventory card image of car and bus from pixabay (car, bus)