Requirements:

SimPe 30+
Note Pad/Word Pad
The Sims 2 University (EP)

Alright, first and foremost as with anything that involves modify game files create a backup of you neighborhood just in cause you screw up. This tutorial assumes you have a basic knowledge of SimPe and how to use it.

To create a new major here's what you need to do.

1. Open up SimPE and load the object workshop plugin located under plugins - object workshop.

2. Find a major you want to use as your base. I recommend selecting one that has an icon semi-suitable for what you want since we can't really change the icons yet. For the sake of my tutorial I'm going to clone the literature major which can be found in the Sim Types section of the grouped objects tab of object workshop. Make sure you have clone settings selected and not color options. All the boxes should be checked.

3. You can just click ok on the scenegrapher window when it comes up since there's nothing that requires renaming.

4. Save your file as something that's easy to find in the downloads folder. I personally use Site Initials/University/MyName/Object Name for these types of files. You can use whatever method you like best. These go in the downloads folder unless otherwise noted.

5. Select object data from the list of files and change where it says file name. Rename this Major - Your Major and commit.

6. Now in the same area click on the blue get GUID button. Allow the program to connect to the internet if your firewall asks. If you haven't already register for you own set of GUIDs. If you have click on register new object, type in the name and click on register object. You might want to jot down your GUID # somewhere because you will need it later in the tutorial.

7. Click commit and save.

8. Now here's where the fun gets start. Go the the catalog description section and in plugin view highlight the line 0x0 major name (this will be whatever major you cloned). Change the value from what it is to read the name of your new major. Click on change in all and commit.

9. Do the same for line 0x1 only this time enter in your course description. Click change in all and commit. You can save your work again at this point just in case there's a problem.

10. Now we move on to the text lists. This is where all those nifty class names are stored and where we're going to change them into our own nifty class names. The list goes as follows...

0x0 Not Enrolled
0x1 Not Enrolled Desc
0x2 Freshman Class First Half
0x3
0x4 Freshman Class Second Half
0x5
0x6 Sophmore Class First Half
0x7
0x8 Sophmore Class Second Half
0x9
0xA Junior Class First Half
0xB
0xC Junior Class Second Half
0xD
0xE Senior Class First Half
0xF
0x10 Senior Class Second Half
0x11

The blank lines should remain blank since we're not sure what they're used for if anything yet.

11. Now click on the Freshman Class First Half 0x2 line and enter in a nifty class name for your major. This site has been extremely helpful to me when coming up with class names for my majors. So if you're in need of ideas check it out. Once you've done that click change in all and commit. Repeat this step for the remain classes.

12. Once you're done all that save your work.

13. If you start up the game right now you're major is pretty much useless. Much thanks to Quaxi for his help with the following problem and it's solution. Thanks for explaining it to me, Quaxi. Here's what you need to do to assign your custom major to a college student.

14. In your SimPE/Data folder there should be two files additionalcareers.xml and additionalmajors.xml. You need to open the additionalmajors.xml in any text editor notepad or word pad will work fine.

15. Now that you've got that file open it should look something like this...




Not exactly because I've edited mine already but pretty close to this.

16. Highlight the everything and press delete. Now copy and paste the following into the file...




Impotant make sure that you paste this at the very top of the document. I couldn't get it to work when it was one line off so here's fair warning.

17. Remember when I told you'd need your GUID later. Here's where you'll need it. Enter you GUID between the the two " after <item value="GUID GOES HERE"> So your xml file should now look like this...




Again not exactly like this since this is a copy of my file. Yours should have your GUID #.

18. Alright we're almost done with the XML file. Change >Major< to read your major name and save. Here's a look at the finished file for those who need visual aide.




Now if you want to add additional major in the fute you can just copy and paste the line




into the document again and replace the GUID and major name with your new major.

19. We're almost done but not quite. Close down notepad/word pad and reopen SimPE. This time go to the neighborhood browser plugin and select the neighborhood containing the student you wish to edit. Open the Sim Browser plugin and find the student of your choice (for me I use Veronaville as a testing ground since it's the neighborhood I care the least about) and open them in the Sim Description Editor. Go to the new University tab and look thru your majors and your new major should be found at the very beginning above unset. Select it click commit and save.

20. Now comes the moment of truth. If you've done everything right and there's been no minor problems your Sim should now be majoring in your newly created major. Load up the game and check it out.

There's alot more you can do like changing the class times, mood impact, etc. These can be found in the behavior constants section. I'm not too good at hex editing so I haven't really gotten into that part yet and probably won't unless a plugin is developed. If someone who is experienced in hex editing wants to continue this tutorial feel free.

Here's a shot of the finished product...

Full Credit should go to Nicolafred for the steps needed to do this. I've tried this out without using Gimp and it works for the most part. I'm still working on how to use PSP to do this because I can't get Gimp to install.

Requirements: GIMP 2

Open up your custom major and select the tga/jpg/png image option.

Make a clone of the image by selecting clone via right click on the text field.

Extract the cloned file by right clicking on the text field.

You will get the option to save as a jpg... dont!

Change the file extension to .tga

Save and open GIMP

Open the tga file in GIMP and save as a png image, remembering to preserve the transparency and NO COMPRESSION!!

Edit your png file in a graphics editor... i used paintshop pro because its easier to use when recognising transparancy.

Remember to use the same 1 colour tone of blue, and for a better result, a solid shape.

Save and go back into GIMP.

Open up the png file you just edited and save it back to tga format.

Go into simpe and select the clone file (the second in the list) and right click. Choose replace and find your file. You will need to make sure all files are viewable by the file type options pull down.

Select the .tga file and press ok.

You should now see your edited image, if it looks weird, go back to the editing process until you are satisfied.

Delete the first and original image by right click > delete.

Save the file and exit.

You should have a major looking like this: