StretchSkeleton Cheat Accessories Kit

The StretchSkeleton Cheat Accessories Kit is a set of external applications that assists users of The Sims 2 with using the  cheat in-game to produce semi-realistic height differences between two or more characters.

Description
The cheat accessories kit began with the StretchSkeleton Cheat Calculator, which was made in response to an algorithm developed by the Mod the Sims user Wolfgeek. The program's purpose was to automate Wolfgeek's algorithm, in order to make it easier for users to properly utilize the stretchSkeleton cheat in The Sims 2 so that they could make Sims be different heights within a reasonable margin of error. This stems from the fact that proper height slider capacity wouldn't exist until The Sims 3, and that all adult Sims are by-default 6 feet tall.

Original packages

 * StretchSkeleton Animation Advisory for QBASIC
 * SSK AdvisoryI.BAS (Imperial units, 4 KB)
 * SSK AdvisoryM.BAS (Metric units, 4 KB)


 * The Sims 2 Stretch Skeleton Height Calculator - Metric Edition for Windows (72 KB)
 * The Sims 2 Stretch Skeleton Height Calculator - Imperial Edition for Windows (76 KB)

The latter two programs could also be officially installed on Windows via an installer program that could be downloaded.

Web port packages
For this re-release, the Animation Advisory Tool was renamed the Love Photo Doctor, to drive home its main purpose: getting kissing animations to align, avoiding issues like clipping or kissing air or kissing foreheads or necks.

There were two flavors made available: Resource-Dependent and Resource-Independent.

Resource-Dependent
For web design fanatics who love formalities, a Resource-Dependent edition was made for each of these HTML file apps. These HTML files call their resources from external files, making the HTML file itself smaller and more capable of loading - even with some resources missing.


 * Stretch Skeleton Height Calculator - Imperial Edition, Resource-Dependent (12 KB)
 * HTML file (3 KB)
 * FindImperial.js (1 KB)
 * sskimperial.css (2 KB)
 * Sims2Stretch.png (6 KB)
 * Stretch Skeleton Height Calculator - Metric Edition, Resource-Dependent (11 KB)
 * HTML file (2 KB)
 * FindMetric.js (1 KB)
 * sskmetric.css (2 KB)
 * Sims2Stretch.png (6 KB)
 * The Sims 2 Love Photo Doctor - Resource-Dependent (55 KB)
 * HTML file (3 KB)
 * lovephoto.jpg (43 KB)
 * doctor2.png (5 KB)
 * lovephotodoctor.css (2 KB)
 * calculatelove.js (2 KB)

Resource-Independent
This version saw three HTML pages be made, which had embedded in their code everything needed for their operation and appearance. All images, icons, features, HTML, CSS, and JavaScript were embedded directly into the HTML files themselves, treating each HTML page as if it were a standalone web app.


 * Stretch Skeleton Height Calculator - Imperial Edition, Resource-Independent (19 KB)
 * Stretch Skeleton Height Calculator - Metric Edition, Resource-Independent (18 KB)
 * The Sims 2 Love Photo Doctor - Resource-Independent (68 KB)

Requirements
The original QBASIC applications required a QBASIC emulator program to operate. The Visual Basic versions were eventually converted to EXE files, able to run on any version of Windows from XP to 10. The web ports are designed to work on any web browser edition made from 2014 to the present.

Inspiration

 * Machinomic demand

Candi's height in Ciem was intended to be 5'7", a whole three inches taller than the Cataclysmic Gerosha version's mere 5'4". But to get her height precise, there was some curiosity regarding how to scale her with the stretchSkeleton cheat so that she would be able to be shorter than most Sims during production of the 2007 webcomic - while still some knowledge existing of which figures to enter into the cheat to change her height any time she got romantic. For scenes where she was making out with Denny Levens or Donte McArthur, her height needed to match in order to avoid glitches. This meant either defaulting her skeleton or warping the male Sim's skeleton with the cheat to match hers, then changing it back once the two were no longer physically touching each other.


 * Original concept

Desire to have this translate into a guideline for character height depiction led to discovery of Wolfgeek's formula, which became the foundation for understanding the stretchSkeleton cheat as an algorithm for depicting altered Sims' heights in relation to a default Sim. From there, past knowledge of making VB.NET applications for assignments at Lansing Community College led to a simple idea: turning Wolfgeek's formulaic table into an actual software program that took inputs and yielded outputs, doing the hard math for the player and leaving the player only to copy the output and paste it into the game's cheat console widow.

After realizing the usefulness of this new program for making Ciem, the fledgling Dozerfleet Labs soon realized that this same application could have broad appeal and demand for a vast number of other machinimators using Sims 2 as their preferred engine.


 * Web ports

The web ports came from knowledge being forgotten over time of how to make VB.NET applications, combined with improved understanding of how to make forms for web pages using HTML and CSS. The plus to designing with web forms using these codes meant that the end results would work in any modern desktop web browser, regardless of operating system. While mobile phone apps sound like an ideal also, demand for a mobile phone app of the Cheat Accessories Kit for Google Play is effectively non-existent, given The Sims 2 came out back in 2004. However, any Mac OS version will be able to load the web ports into tabs using Safari just as easily as any Windows or Linux machine can load them into tabs in Edge, Firefox, Opera, or Chrome. Theoretically, the web ports should also work somewhat well on Amazon's Silk web browser, the default browser for Kindle Fire tablets.

Production
The original StretchSkeleton All-in-One Calculator was a BAS file from 2007 that required QBASIC to operate, as was the Animation Advisory tool. The Visual Basic calculators were self-contained EXE files concerned only with their own internal variables, and did not interfere with the structures of any external files. There was one for metric lengths and another for English/Imperial lengths. An installer file detected if you had a supported version of Windows and would download and install the .NET Framework v2.0 if needed, so that you could run the Visual Basic Calculators automatically.

The web ports, developed in 2014, are in HTML5/CSS3/Javascript, and should work reasonably well on any modern browser. Users of Safari and Chrome are encouraged to add a webkit fork to the CSS if they are having trouble with the background gradients showing up properly.

Distribution
The StretchSkeleton Calculators and Animation Advisory were easily the most popular items from Dozerfleet Labs ever to feature on Mod the Sims. The purpose of the mods was simple: With the StretchSkeleton Calculators, one could have easily found out what cheat code to enter for a Sim aged Toddler through Elder to simulate almost any height should be. With the Animation Advisory, one could have determined which heights were safe for depicting romantic interactions - without causing significant animation problems.

Once figures were generated with a calculator, one could simply type said number after "stretchSkeleton" in the game's cheat console window to yield a character at that real-world height simulation. Boddlers, being treated geometry and not AI, would have used whatever age they looked rather than behaved. However, players would have taken measures not to have any boddlers infesting their games.

Lexx's tutorial at Mod the Sims to set custom heights semi-permanently with SimPE could also have been capitalized on.

Discontinuation of original set
In 2014, Utterly Sims was removed from Tumblr. The original calculators were removed from distribution in 2012, as support for them dwindled.

Web ports
From November 1st-4th of 2014, the calculators were ported to HTML5 widgets and re-uploaded. The Animation Advisory was replaced with a new widget serving a similar function: the "Love Photo Doctor." The re-issues were approved for upload to Mod The Sims on November 8th of 2014. A patch was released soon after for some of the mods' Webkit gradient issues.

By June of 2020, the web ports were once again available via DzMD - this time, on Dozerfleet Labs' blog on Blogger.

Reception
The original files garnered over 5,000 downloads on Mod The Sims in less than a year. On Mod The Sims, the Dozerfleet founder was honored for the creation of this set by being given a "Mad Scientist" badge on his user profile for creating a "modding tool." The specification of "modding tool" came in spite the fact that the programs did not directly alter any game files.

As of 2021, the 2014-uploaded replacement files have been downloaded a total of 3,613 times. In the first 24 hours after the files were approved, they were downloaded a total of 60 times. Download traffic has been relatively low for the MediaFire / Dozerfleet Labs version of the same set.