Re: Dream Home Decorator

@Psychotps , yes, that is what I thought at first too -- that I was just accidentally hitting their dislikes without knowing it.  But for my next gig I followed @jpkarlsen 's advice about not relying on a lot of clutter to satisfy their Likes, and my next clients loved what I did!  Maybe that was a coincidence, but on the first gig I did I didn't rely one a lot of clutter either (they wanted snowboarding items and I could only find a snowboard and a decorative winter sports rack, so I couldn't rely on clutter at that point!)  and I passed with flying colors (pun totally intended! 😉)  So I think there is also something to what @jpkarlsen suggested. 

Also, I wouldn't necessarily call this "broken" per se because I think it might be more along the lines of "oversight".  But the result is the same either way.

Ironically, this reminds me of a lot of real life TV renovation shows! 🤣  I've seen many a time when I client hated something and failed to tell the decorator they hated something:
Decorator: "we are then going to save space you you can have a proper laundry room by having the access to your master bath behind these beautiful barn doors!"
Client: "Oh no, that won't do! I hate barn doors!" 
Decorator: "You never told me that.  You just said you don't like modern decor.  I can find another way of saving space but that would mean making pocket doors and those would break your budget.  So either you expand your budget so I can keep the design, or else you will have to keep your laundry in the basement." 
🤦‍♀️😅

And the flip side is that sometimes clients ask for "must haves" much later in the renovation, after a good chunk of the budget is already spent on giving them the things that they actually mentioned.  🤦‍♀️😅  

So you might not like how the pack was implemented, but at least there is an element of realism in it! 😉

@PugLove888 thank you so much for taking the time to reply so extensively to my message... I'm clearly a newbie here! Also: I don't have any CC nor mods. I will follow your advice 🙂 thank you so much again 🙂

@Psychotps 

Some of the rooms in Apartments are big enough to be divided up but going over the list of possible gigs there are only few that says add room and one add level. None of these were in Apartments the rest are renovations. You seem to think that you only have one client but that is not the case. The entire household are your clients and just like in real life there tend to be different likes/dislikes. I see way more postings saying it is too easy than it being hard. In fact you are the only one who comes to mind. So let me give a few pointers for people that just started the career or have trouble getting what they have done accepted by the clients.

When it just says renovate room walk around the house before asking questions and settle on a room that you think should be easy to renovate. Now start asking the Sim that you think will be the primary user of of that room for likes and dislikes until the three bubbles are filled. Talk to the rest about it and make a notion of any dislikes. You are now ready to send the hosts away and start renovation after taking before pictures. Start by selling everything that are not on the likes list. Then add any items that are the main sims likes (if any). I find it best to start with wallpaper and carpets then add other items that belong in that type of room you work with avoiding dislikes. 

the above goes for all types of gigs but if it calls for a specific room you renovate a room of that type or if such a room does not exist for instance a walk in closet repurpose another room for it or divide a bigger room up. You do not necessarily need to put up walls.

By the time one gets to the few gigs that require a new room nobody that has done the other renovations should have any problems with that.

@jpkarlsen

That's kinda the problem. Most gigs you only get three "bubbles" of what they like or dislike. I try asking several people to "even" it out, but with only three to go on... I WISH I had the simology panel so I could just look at everyone and see ALL their likes and dislikes, but like I said, it's BROKEN. In the end all I have to go on is the THREE listed and most of the time, they don't help.

Like a bathroom and all I get is "Likes violin", "Hates bowling", and "Hates Purple". What the heck am I supposed to do with that? Since there's NOTHING about decor I can't "Suggest" a new one so I am sure to fail even IF I put a "violin" in the bathroom.

Only a few additions? You've GOT to be kidding. I have like 20-30 gigs on my UI list and HALF of them are "additions". Maybe because I've been skipping them all because the game is broken for them. Edit: Just counted them, I have 37 gigs and 17 of them are "Additions", so just under HALF.

Edit: Just tried ANOTHER "Addition", a "Level Addition".  Said "Restricted to top level". Top level had 3 roof pieces, I could delete ONE but not the other TWO. (And they were all on the same level)  I tried creating walls and got the same error I always get. I tried creating walls EVERYWHERE on EVERY level and still get the same error. I'm forced to cancel the gig, lose the money and a TON of reputation. The whole system is FUBAR.

I can DO the gigs and get paid every time IF I skip "Addition" gigs and somehow am lucky enough to get some decent "likes and dislikes" during the RANDOM selections...

Just like all other packs that have come out the past year, it's COMPLETELY BROKEN.

Why do I keep buying these?  I REALLY need to stop. They simply aren't worth it.

@Elferose , no problem! 💗 We were all Newbies once!  😅 Hopefully this helps with your problems that you have. 

One thing I forgot to mention is that if you find a Bug Report with the same problem as yours, be sure to click the "Me Too" button at the bottom of the first post!  This is very important because it shows how prevalent a problem is, and the more people who click Me Too alerts those trying to sort out the bugs that this is a topic that is very common , which would mean that it gets looked at quicker! 😃

Also, if you have the same problem, it can be helpful for you to add to the thread by clicking the Reply button and listing your experiences!  (For example if the Original Poster of the Bug report saw the problem on a PC, but later another person adds that they saw the same problem on a console, then the people who deal with the bugs now know this is a problem on either platform!).  The more information they have, the more likely they can find what is causing the problem and hopefully fix it!  🤞

Also, a person with the title of Hero named @crinrict is the person who takes care of the Bug Reports section. (Crinrict is a volunteer and not an employee of EA).  Crinrict might have difficulty reproducing a certain problem, and might ask for people's saves so they can see the problem.  So don't worry if Crinrict , any other Hero, or an EA employee asks for your save to help with a bug.  😉

@Psychotps 

You can only see the active sims simology panel. Mine works fine. Since you only see the active sims I don't see how that would help you. Are you thinking of something else?

I don't know why on earth you would place a violin in a bathroom. It should be evident that noone in their right mind would like one there. So I'm not surprised you got a fail on that. May I suggest that you in the future give some thought to if a given item belongs in the room you are redesigning. You wouldn't place a toilet in the living room would you. You say hates purple that one is easy make sure that the tiles and appliances are not purple.

Simple things like that goes a long way to success with a gig.

I mean If I that have never been accused of being a good interior designer can make the entire Caliente household be ecstatic about a simple redesign as this living room then you certainly should be able to pass your Gigs.

Likes Island decor and Garden decor. Dislikes Bowling.

Wall covering doors and rug from Island Living and a Collection of Small Garden Planters at the far wall and a cowplant poster plus a few plants to add just a hint of gardening. No hint of Bowling in sight the rest are mainly from DHD.

If you post before and after pictures of a failed gig thegig description and any likes/dislikes you learned I may be able to give you some specific pointers I haven't done any full levels yet so can't help you there.

@jpkarlsen

Well, If I had those to work with, that would be easy. But if the only options I have are Likes Violin, hates purple, hates bowling... what else can I do but put a violin in the bathroom? Everything else is guesswork besides not using purple or bowling stuff. I suspect that a violin as a single "like" isn't enough. Maybe they like island decor? I don't know because I CAN'T SEE the sim profile panel! All I can do is GUESS. and since there are what... two DOZEN different decor styles... The chance of me randomly guessing the right decor is remote.

If I can get even ONE decor style "like", and preferably one color "like" then I have that gig locked down. Guaranteed. Problem is, most of the time we don't even get "LIKES", let alone DECOR likes. You need both. As I said, I got one gig with nothing but four color likes and NO decor. I failed because I had to GUESS on the decor and I guessed wrong. Just choosing the right colors isn't enough.

@Psychotps 

Just pick a simple consistent style for the bathroom that does not include something purple and don't put something there that does not belong. Do not add too much clutter either. Just as in real life they tend to not like that. If you post the before and after photos (in your screenshots folder) I can be more specific.

That's what I've BEEN DOING.

Since I have to GUESS at the decor, I usually just pick one and go with that.  Most of the time I fail because I didn't randomly pick the decor they liked.

I don't think I'll be continuing it.  Since ALL the high-paying gigs are all "Addition" gigs, and since ALL addition gigs are BROKEN, I only have the $300-600 gigs to choose from. I can get twice that much from writing a single book, painting, or garden harvest.  It's just not worth the hassle. And I HATE having to rely upon "Guessing".

@Psychotps 

Well you are the only one claiming that it is too hard while several others I have seen says it is too easy. That should tell you something. I have offered to help but you do not seem interested in that. 

I hopped on DHD right away, because I was specifically super excited to finally have chaises-longues (a must-have for lux builds, in my book), but usually I try to give packs a good six to eight weeks after release, simply because there are inevitably wrinkles in the implementation of new features.

I try to take bugs philosophically. At least I am learning how the gigs work, and getting practice with the system, so when it is patched, I know what I am doing. Even my guesswork builds have been fairly well received - maybe I have been lucky.

@Psychotps  you mentioned getting conflicting likes and dislikes in a gig.... was that from a lone Sim or from a household with multiple Sims?  If you are getting conflicting likes and dislikes from the same Sim, then something is indeed wrong😓 .  But if it is for a household that is very realistic (it happens all the time on design shows in real life!!! Even with my own parents it was a problem! 🤭 😅 ) 

My first gig was for the Heckings of Brindleton Bay.  One loved gray, the other hated gray.  So I decided it was best to ignore gray altogether.  That only left me with Loves Snowboarding.  So I put one snowboard  and one winter sports rack in the bedroom and just redid a normal bedroom with out using gray.  They loved it!  Here are the pics of the before and after>>>

You can see the aqua colored snowboard on the floor in front of the winter sports rack.


My next clients loved Mid Century, loved orange, and hated something I don't even remember what it way now.  Thee kitchen items for Mid Century weren't classified as orange, even though they certainly looked orange to me, so they might have been tagged as red or brown.  So to make up for that I put in a lot of orange clutter, which was my mistake!  Just like real life, clutter alone isn't going to make a room. ( If you have your big ticket items in French Country, sprinkling a few Modern items won't make your room suddenly modern!)  Here is my failure:



 You can see all the clutter that is just lining the right wall.  ( @jpkarlsen was the one who told me that a lot of clutter doesn't work, and after following his advise on that I've been sucessful! 🙌) They hated it! They hated it so much they sent me several mean letters! 😮😱🤦‍♀️🤣
I still had fun doing the gig, and it was a good learning experience! 

After that I didn't put nearly as much clutter and have been successful each time!  Even when I redid a room for the Spencer-Kim-Lewis family from the base game... there are 5 people to please in that household!  But the gig was for a kid's room, so I concentrated on the little girl to fill up the icons... She loved pink, yellow, and rocket science.  But then I noticed I could ask the other people their likes and dislikes and wrote them down.  Mom also loved pink, Dad hated white, Grandpa hated something irrelevant, and Grandma loved black.  So, I concentrated mostly on pink and yellow, with some bits of black.  Avoided white, Avoided the irrelevant thing grandpa hated, and used the bb.showhiddenobjects cheat to unlock a completed rocket science project (from Parenthood) and the level 1 Rocket Science skill book that I put on her desk!  I don't know if those last 2 items counted, but they didn't hurt since the gig was a success!   That was a very hard gig since I had to please 5 people! 😅 

You can kink of see the rocket project in the center of the room! 

I also did a successful renovation for some of the people in Glimmerbrook, with just a few choice items.  I hardly touched their budget -- in fact I hardly did anything! 🤨 But they loved it! 😂
I did another kitchen makeover for the Landgraabs (I wasn't sure if they would count the dinning room or not since it was kind of open to the kitchen so I did that too just in case.  They all liked it and Geoffrey even hugged me and cried for joy! 💗

I also think it is fun not knowing exactly if your clients will like your work or not!  Kind of thrilling! 😅 However, if I was starting a rags to riches play and failed that wouldn't be as fun, to be sure! But I do enjoy the element of surprise! 🥳


@Sindocat  there is an element of luck to it, I'm sure, but there is also some logic as well. We are all just learning right now anyway.  I think the important thing is to not take it too seriously and have fun with it! 😉  Also, I'm sure there will be people who will play this pack with the intent of giving their clients what they don't want! 👿😅