The Sims (Windows)/Unused Behaviors/Sim Features

This is a sub-page of The Sims (Windows)/Unused Behaviors.

Talk Topics

Noteworthy Cases

Sprites.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

Type	ID	Topic	Sprite	Note	Context	Snapshot
SPR#	436	Babies		Sims are born with random "Spooky Stuff", "Beauty" and "Babies" interest scores. However, the engine never calls these subjects' speech bubble icons as Sims talk. The possible reason for this is that the script that manages the topics Sims will talk about — "do I like topic?" — does not call the string ID's associated with them. They're all labeled as "Old Conv. Topic" in the base game, indicating they were deliberately scrapped by the game's team. Given the unused topics' ID hierarchy in "Sprites.IFF" — listed directly close to the used age-specific topics for child Sims, as "Toys", "School" etc. —, it is speculated that they would only be called if at least one of the conversing Sims were a child. These topics are checked in the Baby Cradle programming at the "baby::set child's DNA" tree — even as unused topics, newborn Sims also receive a random amount of those. A notable time the player has a glance of the unused topics is in the the base game's intro video: "Spooky Stuff" and "Babies" are spoken by a female adult Sim to a child. They're also left over in The Sims console and Bustin' Out.	The tree that manages what the Sims will converse about does not reference the strings necessary to call the unused topics when two Sims talk. Both painting and sculpture objects have an obsolete primitive that checks Sims' interest in the unused topics before they View (or react to) them. Baby sims have the unused topics in their "DNA" tree.	In the base game, if the player toggles the interests cheat code, Babies, Beauty and Spooky Stuff are mentioned. The opening video ping-pongs between footage of early 1999 pre-releases, continuity-free. One of them has Sims conversing about Babies and Spooky Stuff.
	437
	438
	439
	440	Beauty
	441
	442
	443
	444
	445	Spooky Stuff
	446
	447
	448
	449

(Source: LUCPIX)

Other Cases

• comeandseeme.iff (an object file that handles the majority of the Sims' reaction toward most of newly bought items) contains leftover constant data that reference in their labels an early set of conversation topics.
  • Same applies to raw string data related to missing sprites.

(Source: LUCPIX)

Personality Traits

Behavior.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

ID	String	Comment	Context	Snapshot
STR#232 - personality ads
5	Generous	Scrapped personality traits ID's. As with the unused conversation topics previously listed, child Sims are generated with a random score of these, however none of the game's objects check how "Generous" a character is, then it does not affect the gameplay whatsoever. Design documents of the game give hints as to how the Generous trait would originally benefit the Sims.	Late 1998 development documents give a shy hint of one original benefit of the Generous trait: Sims would be more frequently inclined to feed their fishes. Playable Sims are born with zero Generous score. Baby sims have the unused trait in their "DNA" tree.	Generous, as seen in a late 1998 pre-release.
6	Selfish

(Source: LUCPIX)

Skills

Behavior.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

ID	String	Comment	Context	Snapshot
STR#232 - personality ads
13	Cleaning Skill	According to design documents of the game, this skill would determine how well and quickly Sims would do home chores, as though it's a less lethal equivalent of the activities that require "Mechanical" skills. The "Cleaning" skill was eventually scrapped in development, possibly in the name of the "Sloppy"/"Neat" personality traits: they determine the Sims' affinity to everything cleaning. The franchise witnessed the actual implementation of a "Cleaning" skill four years after the original game's release, in the second installment.	Late 1998 development documents give a shy hint of one original benefit of the Cleaning skill: Sims would clean fish tanks more efficiently. NPC's as maid.IFF have maxed Cleaning skills.	Cleaning, Gardening and Music as seen in a late 1998 pre-release.
17	Gardening Skill	It seems evident that gardening was originally intended to play a more substantial role in the game. In the final product, however, the mechanics have been drastically reduced to simple watering and replanting interactions, requiring no specific skill.	"If I'm good at Gardening, I will say an unknown vox line as I Look At my flowers outside." In the cache of development ideas that weren't, the Gardening, Art and Music skills once played a bigger part in gameplay.
18	Music Skill	While it's possible for final Sims to develop musical talents, all the artsy faculties a Sim can improve were, sometime in development, condensed into a single "Creativity" skill.
20	Literacy Skill	Leftover from the Steering Committee demo or even earlier builds. It's unclear how it would influence gameplay and the Sims' behavior. Nothing in-game checks it.		The discontinued skills Literacy and Work, plus used skills in different names than their final counterparts, only seen in an early 1998 pre-release.
#Object Types for C&SM
16779	Clean Skill	Early "Cleaning" skill flag.	#Object Types for C&SM
16781	Social Skill	Early "Charisma" skill flag.
16781	Music Skill	Early "Creativity" skill flags.
16783	Art Skill
16783	Literacy Skill	Unused "Literacy" skill flag.
16785	Physical Skill	Early "Body" skill flag.
16783	Work Skill	Unused "Work" skill flag.

(Source: LUCPIX)

Motive

Stress

Global.IFF

ID	Tree	Comment	Context	Snapshot
267	SetStress	Script:global::SetStress Comment: It's the basic script for a scrapped "Stress" motive, where its score is ranged from -100 to 100. While no objects in the final version actively use this motive, a remnant of its functionality persists within the unused "stereos::tweak station inc" tree script. Here, a reference to the motive's ID (labeled "12 - unused") hints at a mechanic where dancing to music could have alleviated stress. Notably, builds dating back to 1997 actively utilized the "Stress" motive.	global:SetStress A loose reference of "Stress" (as the unused flag), at stereos::tweak station inc	A working Stress motive, as seen in a late 1997/early 1998 pre-release. a2o-stress.cmx (See Unused Animations)

(Source: LUCPIX)

Other Cases

• A number of raw string data associated with missing graphics reference an early categorization of Sim motives, even Stress, as documented above.
  • Ditto with raw character data.

(Source: LUCPIX)

Personal Styles

Behavior.IFF — 10 December 1999 14:10

ID	String	Comment	Context
STR#210 - Personal Styles
0	Natural	A scrapped system of six "personal styles", intended to set both Sim personalities and object aesthetics. While string IDs referencing these styles persist in the final game, their functionality remains absent from final object scripts. The last time these were used during development is unknown. A "personal style" is referenced in the early, unused code "stereos::get enjoyment level". It is notably similar to the homonym code observed in TV objects, except TVs (correctly) check the Sim's personality traits to determine whether or not they enjoy a given TV channel. In Stereos' case, it hints that Sims were originally prone to like radio stations based on their personal styles. Intriguingly, playable Sims, whether pre-made or user-created, are universally assigned the "Trailer Park" style (value 5). Conversely, most NPCs, such as maids, burglars, and repo men, bear the "Romantic" style (value 1).	NPC's as the Burglar have "Romantic" personal style. get enjoyment level is an old code that sets the radio stations' likability based on the (also unused) personal styles.
1	Romantic
2	Dramatic
3	Classical
4	Eclectic
5	Trailer Park

(Source: LUCPIX)

Social Interactions

Hello - Unused

Both child and adult Sims contain a menu item dedicated to the appropriately-named Hello - Unused interaction, without sufficient tree data to even cause an action, in case a player commands a character to access it via hacking. It is worthy mentioning that social interactions are always written as verbs, as Tickle and Play. May be a leftover of a much earlier build, as a counterpart of the used Greet interaction.

Complimenting for Kids

Child Sims have a full set of voice lines for both receiving and giving compliments (the same applies to the adults), despite how neither the Complimenting interaction is available to them, nor can be detected adequate animations for this routine.

Play for Adults

The running animation strings that are called during the Play (tag) interaction have adult equivalents to call their own, but are never used, as this interaction is normally only available for child Sims. It can be tested via hacking with flying colors, however it misses appropriate voice lines to accompany the interaction.

Full-House Move-In Outcome

This needs some investigation. Discuss ideas and findings on the talk page. Specifically: In Bustin' Out, try this with 1-2 child sims, or in Malcolm's Mansion where there are no other playable Sims. Also check other languages.

A Sim of a successful adult-to-adult friendly/romantic relationship is not able to ask their interlocutor to Move In/Propose if more than 7 Sims live in their house. Hacking the player's way to both interactions (under the previously mentioned full-house context) trigger this unused text box, forgotten in the dialogs set of SocialInteractions.iff without any translated equivalents; then it's assumable that its obsolescence wasn't a mistake.

The message would eventually be used in The Sims: Bustin' Out if the main Sim in Bust Out mode tries to propose to a Sim from Free Street where their household has 3 Children Sims. This is due to the household system in that game always requiring an accompanying adult Sim, therefore having the Children of the Sim move into other houses rather than just the former.

NPC Features

Base Game

General

Some base game NPC's are named in a format such as job_fafitmed, suggesting that multiple firefighters, maids and mail carriers were planned to be generated live. Similarly, the Hot Date expansion pack does feature multiple variants of cashiers and restaurant staff which will spawn if the same objects are used more than once on the same lot.

(Source: Blayer98)

Bones *Anim Test

Bones (Anim test).

The game has leftover files for Bones *Anim Test an animation test NPC. This Sim causes the game to hang if you try to load it onto a lot, as the skeleton referenced by the body strings (biped) does not exist. If you change it to the used adult, the Sim loads with a missing body graphic, before walking off the lot spontaneously.

(Source: Blayer98)

Burglar/Police Officer

Unused push fight tree for cops.

• thief.iff has the data that orchestrates the acts of the Burglar NPC. It contains two unfinished trees that are not associated with any pie menu items: Attack and Attack Test. Attack is also how are named the physical fight interactions among playable Sims, implying that the burglar was once intended to be able to get in fights with either the people who own the house he invades or the cop NPC. In the final game, no Sim-to-Sim actions exist for him.

• The police officer has a similar fighting code, explicitly referenced in officer::catch thief, however the tree actually skips over the one primitive which runs it in the final game. As consequence, the burglar automatically surrenders himself once he sees the cop. It is unknown why it wasn't implemented.
  • Editing the tree in a way that runs said primitive causes her to attack the burglar once she encounters him.

(Source: LUCPIX)

Gardener

"Show Dialog" primitive with the unused greeting string.

Unused Gardener greeting line.

The Gardener NPC keeps an unused code gardener::do npc greeting. Untrue to the complexity of your average scripting tree, this one only contains one primitive: a dialog box with an unused greeting text. In the final game, no service NPC's say anything as they arrive the Sims' lots.

• This text is, in reality, a string checked as "debug" (indicating it does not show in gameplay, so translators know it does not need to be localized), making one to conclude it was never meant to be normally seen, after all.

(Source: LUCPIX)

House Party Expansion Pack

Party Clown. Not the Tragic Clown from Livin' Large or the Entertainer Clown from House Party. This NPC appears to have been conceived as an entertainer for a children's party. Some ideas were probably rolled into the other Clown NPCs, though. This Sim will crash the game to desktop if you try to load it on a lot. No debug mode error is shown by the SimAntics engine.

(Source: Blayer98)