simrealist

Q1 2020: SNB-Bills 0.3.0.0 (UPDATED 02/27/20)

Added 2020-02-17 23:48:23 +0000 UTC

Mod Summary

This small add-on will revamp EA’s billing system by splitting out Water & Sewer, Electricity, Trash, Cable, Internet, Cellphone and Property Taxes. Each bill creates an adverse effect if not paid.

Mod Guide:

https://www.simrealist.com/snb-bills

Summary of Changes

We added:

MCCC money settings compatibility (this includes child support)
Autopay within Bills (but you can still use MCCC's version instead)
Custom Property Tax settings with correct tax amounts of just the Lot value only instead of Lot Value + Household inventory + Sim inventory
The ability to pay with your SNB account.
Thermostat costs will reflect in the new MISC bills category along with MCCC adjustments, Child Support, Tiny Living discounts, Frugal Trait reward discounts, and any other mod that adjust billing in some way)
Rent is Back! Was removed so that renters weren't being taxed for property they don't really "own." Now they have a proper rent bill separate from their usual utilities/home services.
Free/Reduced Utility Lot traits were added in by request of @Kenta
Other small changes to enhance or better the experience.

MCCC Money Settings

Deaderpool's MC Command Center is a super popular mod that contains some Money settings that didn't work well with 0.2.0 version of Bills. With a lot of blood, sweat, and tears, we've finally made it "work" for Bills. In fact, this allowed any other mod that adjusts billing in some way to work with this mod with the addition of the Miscellaneous Bill Category. Any adjustments or the addition of Child Support will flow through this Bill Category instead of any set EA or SNB Custom Bill. This makes this system super flexible for any additions you might add to your game.

You can access MCCC's Money Settings on computers in-game, or by typing “mc_settings” in the cheat window (SHIFT + CTRL + C).

CHILD SUPPORT

Within the Money, options are the ability to make Sims pay or receive Child Support. This is a super popular feature within this mod because of the Storytelling ability it provides as well as making single parenthood a lot more doable with the number of Bills this mod adds. Now, with Bills installed, if your Sim is the sender or remitter of this payment it will show as a "Bill" in the Misc Category. You will be able to pay it through the Household Account or SNB Main Account (if this mod is installed). Same with the recipient or payee. A credit will show up in the Misc Category, which credits the designated account each time you click to "pay" the bills.

CHANGING BILL & APARTMENT BILL PERCENTAGE

Any adjustments made through these options will also show in the Misc Bill Category. These adjustments apply to EA's original bill system, so if you choose 50% more in the bill, it will be 50% more of EA's bill (or the bill before the addition of SNB-Bills). You can get that value with the cheat snbb.originalbillscost command.

AUTO-PAY BILLS

If you like using MCCC's Auto-Pay feature, you can still use it with this update OR you can simply use our Autopay feature in the Bills App, which allows you to pay Property Taxes automatically as well, whether through the Household Account or SNB Main Account. I should note here that if you are not on the Sim whose SNB account you are using for SNB-Bills Autopay, it will not pay automatically since that Sim isn't your current active Sim. They can still pay by going into the Bills App with the paying Sim selected and paying the bill manually.

If you haven't heard about this mod and would like to learn more or possibly download it, you can learn more here: https://deaderpool-mccc.com/#/doc/overview

If you would like to join us in supporting this mod, you can do so here: https://www.patreon.com/mccc_deaderpool

SNB-Bills UI Updates

MULTIPLE SELECTION SUPPORT

Click - Pay, Click - Pay, Click - Pay...You know when your Sim's money is a little tight and you need to pick and choose what they can pay right now? Well, now you can select multiple services to pay and then click the checkmark to pay for your selection. This also applies to the Home Services setup.

RENT

As I previously mentioned, we brought back the Rent Bill in the place of Property Taxes for Apartments. If you adjust the amount with MCCC, this amount will go to the MISC Bill Category.

BILL DISCOUNTS

If your Sim has a reward whether, by trait or lot type, it will now be appropriately shown when paying bills in the Miscellaneous Bill Categories.

PAY BILLS WITH SNB

You've been stockpiling Simoleons into your Sim's SNB account. Now you can pay bills from this account as well as deposit Child Support to designate those funds to the future betterment of your Sim's family. This will completely leave your Sim's Household Account out of the equation for better money management.

SETTINGS

Within this option, you now have the option to customize the tax % and also setup SNB-Bills autopay.

FREE/REDUCED UTILITY LOT TRAITS

Do I need to activate this mod for it to work?

No. You are no longer able to opt into this. As soon as you load up a save, Bills will be enabled.

I have a suggestion on making this mod even more, where do I leave that suggestion?

Please post your suggestions while this mod is in Development, in our Discord channel - #patrons-forum (https://discord.gg/x6bFyNT)

Can I install this mod and only use it for certain families or saves?

No, this mod will automatically activate requiring Simmer input on starting up Home Services.

Do I need to have SNB installed in order to use this addition?

No. The Bills Add-On was initially created as a stand-alone addition.

What other features are you looking to add to the addition?

We have a few additions we plan on looking into, which are listed below. However, if there's great interest in this and Patron requests for certain features to be added we will look into adding more in the future.

Set up Home Services in Packages or All Services at once option
Government Benefits
Exclusive Child Support System created for the Bills system.
Food Stamps/EBT
Social Security

SNB-Bill Adjustment system
Government and Public Administration (GPA)
Income Taxes
Moving Property Taxes under this system
Fire and Emergency Services Administration
Public Safety Administration
Park and Recreation Administration
Realistic Executive, Judicial, and Legislative Government branches

Homeowner's Insurance and Natural Disasters (tenuous)

Conflicts/Issues/Notable Items Observed:

Your Sim will still be able to use the toilet when they are not signed up for Water. They will just not be able to flush...
If speakers are playing when the Electricity goes out it will continue to play until turned off. This is an EA bug and not something we plan on fixing with this mod in case it is taken care of in a patch.
If you miss a bill payment, interest will be added to that bill. You don't want to miss a bill.
Long Lifespans will see Property Taxes taken place more often since it is currently set to occur every 4 weeks.

Compatible With:

Patch 02/4/2020 - PC: 1.61.15.1020 / MAC: 1.61.15.1220

Changelog:

0.3.0.0-9.0 (01/27/20)

Fixed a bug where the fire situation wouldn't clear out if the household got the insurance money during a fire. (reported by Byrnie#1255)
Added the snbb.insurancefraud command to test out the new fix.

Credits

Victor Andrade: SR Mod Developer
Nichole: SR Mod Producer
roBurky & scripthoge (Mod The Sims) for assistance in the development of these additions
Use of BraveSim's Smarter Trash Emptying custom tuning to overwrite the E882D22F!00000000!0000000000003430.Empty_Trash.InteractionTuning file.
Mod Page Wall Paper and Icons by Freepik from flaticon.com