MissPat mod notes:

Why this mod

We were chatting on Discord about cute features from TS4 Toddler Stuff Pack, that we wish existed in TS3. "Play dates" came to mind. Renlyna surprised us all when she said:

Quote: I did have a townie mother once call my active household's mother up and ask if her kids could come over for a play date and I clicked yes and within a few minutes the townie mother came to my sims home with all her kids. I didn't even know that was possible in The sims 3 and I have no idea how it was triggered. It was so random.

The above scenario never ever happened in my game. (It turns out it's a feature that came along one of the Generations EP patches.)

I was curious to see if something could be tweaked to trigger the play dates more. When I looked up the game's code, I found the tuning file related to play dates. I made changes and tested the new tuning files for 3 sim weeks. The testing was successful, so here goes - enjoy the mod.

I tuned the minimum relationship down to "5" to account for the natural relationship decrease between two sims over time. So if your active parent and child start as aquaintances to townies at "20", then overtime, they will still get the playdate requests on week-ends, even if the relationship is way down to "5".

Play dates Insights

While testing the mod I could gather the following insights:

The play date feature seems to only affect child-aged sims. I looked up closely and no toddlers are mentioned in the play dates code. If the townie parent comes along with toddlers to your sims' play date, great! But it is not by design. It would likely require script modding to intentionally include toddlers in the play date scenario.

If after accepting the play date, the townie parent shows up alone sans his/her children, do not panic (like I did)! Townie children enrolled in a school with week-end hours will not show up. Indeed, the custom schools provided by the "Schools" module of Nraas Careers require kids to attend classes on Saturday and Sunday by default. You will need to enroll townie children in EA's default school or tune the days of custom schools, to get these townie children to show up at your play dates.

I had no problems getting townies to request play dates on Saturday, often in the morning. To trigger play date requests on Sundays however, I had to quit the game on Saturday evening or Sunday morning. When I'd restart the game after that, I'd systematically get a play date request on the Sunday afternoon. In the play dates code, there is a line called "clear statistics", and I can only assume that somehow, it takes reloading the game to clear data generated by the Saturday play date, so that a townie play date request can be renewed on Sunday.

Mod Requirements

This mod was built and tested with game version 1.67.

You need

Generations EP

for this mod to work, and your game must be

patched up to the most recent patch

(1.67/1.69).

Mod Conflicts

This mod will conflict with other mods that modify the following ITUN file:

PlayDateManager_0xd2d45d6351131184

STRICTLY THE BEST SERIES DEBUTS AT #1 (VOL. 50) & #2 (VOL. 51) ON 

  U.S. BILLBOARD REGGAE ALBUM CHART THIS WEEK

  This Year's Special Edition Celebrates VP Records 35th Anniversary

Billboard Chats with Label's Co-Founder Miss Pat about Milestone

  VP Records unleashed their latest installments of the longest running reggae series Strictly The Best last week. Both compilations topped the U.S. Billboard Reggae Album chart, Volume 50 debuting at #1 and Volume 51 landing at the #2 spot.

  This year, each volume also features double discs - one filled with the latest trendsetting hits plus a bonus disc highlighting the series' top vintage selections over the years. This special edition also celebrates VP Records 35th Anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, VP Records commissioned renowned artist Michael Thompson (Freestylee) to illustrate the cover art and CD booklet with a 2-page inlay highlighting the label's legacy and its 35th year in business since the founder's Vincent and Patricia Chin moved its operations from Jamaica to the United States. Billboard chats with Miss Pat last week in more detail about her journey in the reggae business. Read full story here:

http://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/news/record-labels/6327829/reggae-pioneer-miss-pat-chin-of-vp-records-celebrates-35

    Volume 50's first disc of the roots and lover's rock collection contains the top tunes from rising stars (Toian's "Kingston Town," Ikaya's "Ugly Girl," Christopher Martin's "Steppin 'Razor," Duane Stephenson's "Cool Runnings" and Romain Virgo's "Stay With Me") and hits from the genre's hottest singers (Etana's "Trigger," Jah Cure's "Life We Live," Maxi Priest's "Gravity" and Gyptian's "Majestic Love" featuring Estelle). The bonus disc features classics from reggae icons including Jacob Miller's "Keep On Knocking," Half Pint's "Greetings," Dennis Brown's "Sitting & Watching," Beres Hammond's "Tempted To Touch" and Tarrus Riley's "She's Royal".