How to make an object go into the Sim's inventory

So how would you make it so that an item can be used as an inventory/storage? I want to turn an item into a bookcase. And I wanna make the item so that it can store other objects.


MOD EDIT: removed tutorial quote.

Coolspear over at mod the sims might know how to do it, as he made an excellent storage mod which turns some of the nighttables, decorative hutches, etc. into containers.

Thank you for the guide, andrew , it has been extremly helpful. I have now successfully created a tomato tin, which sims can put in their inventory and which will generate 5 tomatos when opened. My functional general store is one step closer.

SimmaFierce have you tried combining the tunings of the bookshelves with those of the storage chests? What you are looking for sounds like that should do the trick, with the limitations of those chests of course. Good, giving the tuning a look I am not sure if you can classify your object as both a bookshelf and a storage chest. If you simply want the bookshelf to have the interactions of the storage chest, adding the chest's tuning to the bookshelf should work, doesn't it?

SimmaFierce

If you enter the following before the retail-options in then _components section of your locker tuning xml, it will add a bookshelf-inventory (and some starting books!):

<V t="enabled" n="inventory">
<U n="enabled">
<E n="inventory_type">BOOKSHELF</E>
<V t="disabled" n="purchasable_objects" />
<L n="starting_objects">
<T>19339<!--bookGENFlirty_02 (Untamed Treachery of the Heart)--></T>
<T>32855<!--bookGENFlirty_07 (Reel Her In)--></T>
<T>32635<!--bookGENPlayful_07 (Crisis Barn)--></T>
<T>33012<!--bookGENInspired_11 (The First Unicorn)--></T>
<T>32969<!--bookGENAngry_09 (The Lord of the Swings)--></T>
<T>32572<!--bookGENSad_04 (Lucas Dark and The Increasingly Unlikely Series of Coincidences)--></T>
<T>32578<!--bookGENMotive_17 (The Glutton Spiel)--></T>
<T>32619<!--bookGENInspired_06 (Orbital Pudding)--></T>
<T>32615<!--bookGENHappy_06 (Love in the Time of Sandwiches)--></T>
<T>18960<!--bookGENMotive_01 (Point Farmer No More: The Downfall of Grant Rodiek)--></T>
<T>33004<!--bookGENHappy_10 (My Pizzi-cat-o Polka)--></T>
</L>
<T n="visible">True</T>
</U>
</V>
<V t="enabled" n="live_drag_target">
<U n="enabled">
<L n="drop_tests_and_actions">
<U>
<E n="drop_type">BOOKSHELF</E>
</U>
</L>
</U>
</V>

If you would like to also have the options to purchase a book, etc. you will have to add those too, as explained in the basic tuning tutorial. You can however not have a bookshelf and a storage chest in the same object, because - the way I understand it - the line which defines the inventory type <E n="inventory_type">BOOKSHELF</E> only allows for one inventory type to be entered.

All (or at least most) ingame objects have certain types of inventory defined, which they can be stored in. Books for example can be stored in the Sim's inventory, in bookshelves and in retailshelves. While a tomato on the other hand may be stored in the sim's inventory, the mailbox, the fridge, the retail fridge and the storage chest. I have copied the respective lines for you here:

<V t="enabled" n="inventory_item">
<U n="enabled">
<E n="stack_scheme">DEFINITION</E>
<L n="valid_inventory_types">
<E>SIM</E>
<E>BOOKSHELF</E>
<E>RETAIL_SHELF</E>
</L>
</U>
</V>

<V t="enabled" n="inventory_item">
<U n="enabled">
<T n="inventory_only">True</T>
<T n="remove_from_npc_inventory">True</T>
<L n="valid_inventory_types">
<E>SIM</E>
<E>MAILBOX</E>
<E>FRIDGE</E>
<E>RETAIL_FRIDGE</E>
<E>STORAGE_CHEST</E>
</L>
</U>
</V>

As you can see, this also means that some items can't be put in certain inventories, for exmaple you can't put books in the fridge or tomatos in the bookshelf. Which means you have to decide which type of inventory you want and then add a variation of what I wrote in my last post to your container/dresser. To find out how, you best look into the tuning file of the object of which you want to copy the behaviour.

The only type of inventory most things can be placed in, is the sim's inventory. As I have written before, Coolspear over at Mod the Sims has made storage-mod based on Sim-inventory which allows you to store just about everything. I have however no idea, how he made it. So, if this approach interests you, you will have to ask him.

Hi Andrew! The tutorial worked gangbusters. I was able to take a magazine from debug and make it both readable and inventoryable. My question is what do I have to do to keep those two function, but also be able to move my new magazine from my personal inventory to the inventory of the "Come and Get It" street store table that came with City Living? For some reason the street store table won't accept my new magazine into it's inventory. Is there some specific line of code that has to be added to the tuning to make this possible? Thanks in advance.

Have Fun !

Now I just feel like giving up on this desire :c

I cant find _components

Again, I have Harmony version

Can someone please help me out?