Comparison of the bed reservation patch and reservable beds

The difference between the patch and a hacked bed – explanation for non-programmers

In a .package containing a Sims bed, there are some lines of code saying what the bed does.  But usually most of the lines just say to look in another file – a semi-global or global file – for the rest of the instructions.   All the original beds in the game share the instructions in the global files.

When I hack a bed, I actually write code in the hacked bed file, and tell it to use that instead instead of looking in the global files for all the code. (it still looks for some stuff in the global file, but not as much as a normal bed does).  The beds that have not been hacked still look in the unchanged global files for their instructions, and they are not at all interested in the stuff I wrote into my own bed files.

However, when I write a patch, I make a file that the game engine is tricked into believing contains the latest global instructions.   So when a bed says “I’ve been told to look for my next instructions in the global file” the game says “here you are” and gives it my patch to look at instead!

When I updated my reservable beds recently,  I put inside the bed packages some of the same bits of the code that were in the patch, but written slightly differently, and told them to use that instead of asking for the global instructions for those particular bits.  That means they won’t be offered code from the patch, and that’s why they are independent from it.

Advantages of reservable beds

• Reserving is totally under your control.  You can send any sim to sleep on the bed but it doesn’t reserve till you tell it to through the menu.
• You can’t accidentally send a Sim to sleep on a bed reserved for someone else.
• Moving the bed outside does not remove the reservation.
• On lots where you choose not to buy reservable beds, you can play a totally normal game as Maxis designed it, and package those lots to share without accidentally giving everyone a hack.

Disadvantages of reservable beds

• There will only ever be a small range of beds to choose from.

Advantages of the bed-reserving patch

• All the wonderful new bed meshes and recolours as well as Maxis originals are reservable

Disadvantages of the bed-reserving patch

• You can accidentally send a Sim to sleep in someone else’s bed, and that will change the owner.
• You could get problems – possibly harmful ones – if you forget to remove any global patch when you buy a new EP.   Hacked objects tend to be safer than patches.
• Global patches can be transmitted with lots you share, and that can upset other players.

Reasons you might wish to have both the global patch and the reservable beds

• In some cases you might want to be able to send any sim to sleep on a bed without it ending up assigned to him.  If you have the patch alone you won’t be able to.  If you use a reservable bed in these situations, it will remain unassigned until you assign it specifically, even with the patch installed.
• On some lots, you may wish to assign beds to Sims who sleep out of doors.  The patch unassigns a bed if it stays out of doors more than 4 hours.

Reasons you might want to have neither the patch nor the beds

• I can’t think of any, I just wanted to murder all my Sims when they slept in the wrong beds all the time!