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Magazine Kit

Note to Patrons: I’ve added SpaDay and Farm and Garden Magazine since the preview release. Also a rack recolor with the covers of the magazines replaced with the ones in the kit.

The Magazine Kit adds functional magazines to the Sims 4. Instead of empty props or imagined activity inside a tent, the Magazine Kit has magazines with useful effects. I tried to avoid making this a cheat mod, since you can just cheat your skills already. I was hoping to simulate the effect of reading a magazine.

There are currently ten magazines. Each one provides a buff that speeds up skill increases 50% for the skills that are appropriate to the magazine, eg. reading Fitness Magazine makes it easier to learn fitness skills. Aside from granting the initial skill if not present, reading a magazine doesn’t increase the skills themselves, like a skill book. They just make learning the skill easier for about two hours after reading the magazine. They also provide a skill appropriate mood to go along with the magazine, such as Energized for Fitness Magazine.

The magazine’s effect also makes the reader have a higher effective value in the related skill and they will be more likely to autonomously perform actions related to that skill. Note: Some actions take the effective skill level into account, but some don’t. Most of the Base Game activities do (fishing, gardening, programming). Many pack-related activities, such as Rock Climbing, do not, but the effect will still cause your Sim to learn Rock Climbing faster.

Some magazines also provide recipes, such as food or fabricator designs, or fishing tips in your Sim’s notebook. Each magazine will only provide one recipe per reading session. Many of the magazine effects also allow use of social conversation topics reserved for higher skill levels in the related skill (such as ‘Provide Advice on…’), since we all know that reading a magazine article makes you an expert (at least for a little while).

Reading a magazine is considered a preference activity, meaning that Sims who like cooking will enjoy reading Better Food and Beverage, while Sims who don’t like cooking will not. Finally, many of the magazines will satisfy the urges for traits related to the magazine. Sims with the Art Lover trait can get their ‘art fix’ from looking at the pictures in the Journal of Visual Arts.

Reading a magazine is also meant to be a warm up activity. Before you workout, read Fitness Magazine first for tips, before going to an art gallery, read the Journal of Visual Arts, etc. You will gain more skills and receive more positive mood buffs. Reading Better Food and Beverage before cooking results in higher quality food and drinks.

The magazine’s effects kick in about 10-20 minutes after a Sim starts reading, and lasts for two hours each time (currently, but may tweak the duration a bit).

Buying a Magazine

Place the Magazine Vending Rack on any lot, then select Purchase Magazines. You can also buy them in Build/Buy mode if you use the bb.showhiddenobjects console cheat first.

PACK REQUIREMENTS

The basic functionality should only require the Base Game. All of the magazines provide at least one BG skill, and I’m hoping that much will work if you don’t have the packs that the rest of the effects are from. I’ve listed the packs that are referenced by the magazine’s tuning below each magazine.

If the magazine tries to give you recipe from a pack you don’t have enabled, it should just skip it (though you won’t get a recipe that reading session). Let me know if you run into problems or LE errors!

List of Magazines and Effects

Better Food and Beverage

  • Cooking/Baking
  • Gourmet Cooking
  • Mixology

Packs used: City Living, Dine Out, Pets, Jungle Adventure.
Recipes: All from City Living, Dine Out, Pets and Jungle Adventure (27 total). If you only have the BG, you won’t get any recipes at all, only the buffs and skill learning bonuses.
Reading satisfies Foodie trait needs.

Wilderness Digest

  • Fishing
  • Herbalism
  • Rock Climbing

Note: This is the magazine that the game says that you read inside a tent. I haven’t connected the tuning from this version of the magazine to the tent interaction yet. It’s still a very handy magazine to bring along on a fishing trip.

Recipes: Fishing bait tips added to notebook
Packs used: Outdoor Living, Snowy Escape
Reading satisfies Outdoor Lover trait needs.

  • Fabrication
  • Handiness

Recipes: Fabricator designs
Packs used: Eco-Lifestyle for fabricator designs
Reading satisfies Maker trait needs.

Literary Digest

  • Writing

Trivia note: This is the magazine that your authors send books to for review.

Packs used: None
Reading satisfies Bookworm trait needs.
Also reduces Writer’s Block

Journal of the Visual Arts

  • Painting
  • Photography

Packs used: None
Reading satisfies Art Lover trait needs.

Fitness Magazine

  • Fitness

Packs used: None
Reading satisfies Active trait needs.

Erratic Magazine

  • Comedy

Packs used: None
Success rate on telling jokes is greatly improved for two hours after reading.

Computer World

  • Video Gaming
  • Programming

Packs used: None

Farm and Garden Magazine

  • Gardening

Recipes: All Livestock Feed recipes.
Packs Used: Cottage Living (for recipes)

SpaDay

  • Wellness

Packs Used: Spa Day

Version History

  • 1.0.0b, 12/26/2021, Initial Patreon preview release (beta).
  • 1.0.0, 3/8/2022, Initial Public Release
  • 1.0.1, 7/26/2022, Changes for Patch 1.90.358
  • 1.0.2, 7/20/2023, Changes for Horse Ranch patch
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