[Feedback] PartFlag Fixes for Goth Galore Kit and beyond! 🛸

SP48 Goth Galore Kit PartFlag Fixes

These are Google Drive Folders with screenshots of The Problem:

A Tale of PartFlags and Bloated Torsos* - SP48 screenshots included!

The Abhorrent Bloated Torso* Must Be Destroyed - I've been told "torso" is more apt.

⚡ APRIL 22, 2024 UPDATE:

In case you're wondering... YES! I ModFix all of this! Where? Elsweyr!

I've opted to do replies to this, mine own OP, instead of creating new posts.

I need to overhaul the OP with everything I've learned since March. It'll be split into two parts - an explanation of the problem and my solution, and then the GGK portion of this OP. I've realized simmers still don't fully understand what I'm doing here. There's a belief that these Restrict flags are keeping CAS in order when in fact, they're not.

My anti-ROFrame stance has softened because I've seen legit use for it but I still don't want it on Teen+ clothing. "My solution" aims to lock gender-meshed items behind the Fashion Choice flag, giving the simmer the choice to wear an opposite gender/frame item. There are clothing items in the game that only have one gender mesh that have been flagged for both Female and Male sims. This CANNOT continue. Meshes in this game don't work like that unless it's a uni___ mesh, and there are very few if any of those for Teen+ clothing.

My anti-ROGender stance remains in effect except for specific cases where it's absolutely necessary like this and other yet to be discovered issues with other Child (and under) clothing. There's a more detailed explanation of how ROGender affects sims currently in the Urban Homage Kit entry... and here in the OP IIRC. I'm always harping on about this!

Most of these problems primarily affect sims with opposite frames but also affect Female/Feminine Frame sims. I'm currently going through Base Game Clothing Body, Top and Bottom and SO FAR there are no instances of Male/Masculine Frame sims being forced to wear Female-meshed items but there are many instances of Female/Feminine Frame sims being forced to wear Male-meshed Bottoms and one instance of a Male-meshed Top. When I say "forced" I mean these opposite-meshed items are Fashion Choice flagged for the opposite-gender with no Restrict flags, e.g. a Male-meshed Bottom flagged for Feminine Fashion Choice with no ROFrame/ROGender flags. In a lot of these instances there is NO Female-meshed version of this item. If these Bottoms were flagged properly, it would be under Masculine Fashion Choice with no ROFrame/ROGender flags. As it is now, and with AFRandom ENABLED in vanilla, these Male-meshed clothing can appear randomly on Female sims in CAS and Female townies in Live, treating you to an eye-full of visual glitches. All of this is easily fixed without having to create or edit meshes. It's all little check-boxes and numerical flags.

I'm not sure how much I care about maintaining this thread. AnswersHQ might be the "official" place to report bugs and give feedback but it often feels like a giant waste of time and also, the more I have to address the same issues with every DLC release, the less civil I become in response to it. It's been 10 years of this. These PartFlags have been bothering for years since I started playing this game. There are years of reports of PartFlag issues in Bug Reports and yet, as evident by Urban Homage Kit, it's not going to stop. This isn't "a bug" nor is it "an engine limitation aka because the game is old", it's either a lack of understanding of how these flags work in relation to how the gendered meshes in this game work or it's intentional, like the continued use of the "tummy bloat mesh".

I'm committed to fixing this along with finding a proper fix for the torso* bloat nonsense because it affects me. Every time I open CAS, I'm irritated. Every time I equip a clothing piece and realize it's the wrong mesh, I'm annoyed, not because it's the wrong mesh, but because the flags are incorrect. And no, "the solution" isn't Custom Content because even creators get these flags wrong because they are working off of EAxis' flawed approach. Shelve your notions of real world traditional "feminine and masculine" fashion. The game don't work like that. There are male-meshed items and there are female-meshed items and they don't work well together and they don't work well on opposite body frames. If you make a skirt using the Male mesh, you cannot flag it for Female sims under Feminine Fashion Choice because it will glitch on the female body mesh.

⚡ MARCH 4, 2024 UPDATE:

I need to revise my solution. There's an argument for Restrict Opposite Frame flags where SOME CAS items are concerned, like hair. I see that now as I'm working my way through the Crystal Creations Stuff Pack. The current recommendation of not using any Restrict Opposite Frame flags applies to CLOTHING ITEMS ONLY.

THE NOT YET OVERHAULED OP:

Strap in folks, 'cause this gon' be long. 💀

This is a Bug Report and should probably be in Bug Reports but this is not a traditional Bug Report, so where does it go?

In this report I'm going to:

1. Explain the problem.
2. Explain the solution.
3. Explain why the go-to counter-arguments are invalid.
4. List the (TWENTY-SEVEN) 27 CAS items from Goth Galore Kit that require fixes.

PROLOGUE:

EAxis PartFlags are a mess. The issue is widespread. It's not one item, it's many items across most packs including the Base Game.

What's my goal here?

Besides fixing all of this myself and giving it to the community as override mods, I'm hoping EAxis will implement these fixes officially so that our console simmer friends can benefit from dis wok I'm 'bout to put down. I've been meaning to start these reports for weeks but the malware situation took all of my attention. I'm that individual from Reddit. Hi.

1. THE PROBLEM:

As stated in the title this isn't any one particular PartFlag on any one particular CAS item.

Goth Galore Kit requires a total of TWENTY-SEVEN (27) CAS item fixes.

The most egregious errors are a combination of incorrect Fashion Choice and Restrict Opposite flags. These flags screw with sims with opposite frames or as I like to call them, transframe sims, like my sim. Others are just incorrect Restrict Opposite flags, some are missing Gender flags, some are combinations of Gender and other flags and so on and so forth, ad infinitum, much to my frustration.

Shall I go further in-depth to fully explain how messy these flags are, or can we crack on?

2. THE SOLUTION:

... to the "most egregious" combination of incorrect Fashion Choice and Restrict Opposite flags is, for EAxis to REMOVE ALL Restrict Opposite flags then match the Fashion Choice flag to the Gender flag. That's it!

If the item is not actually unisex, DO NOT flag it for both Fashion Choices. For example, a FEMALE MESHED top needs to have a matching FEMININE Fashion Choice flag with NO Restrict Opposite flags and vice versa for MALE MESHED items.

There's an argument to be made here for the use of Restrict Opposite Frame flags but I don't care for it. Easier to just remove both Restrict Opposite flags and leave it up to simmer choice.

3. THE COUNTER-ARGUMENTS:

... rely primarily on an understanding of what EAxis intended to do with these flags, and secondarily on an understanding of how the gendered meshes DON'T work well together.

The proper use of these flags, as I understand it, was as follows:

I'm using a dress as an example. EAxis makes two gendered mesh versions of a dress. One with the MALE top mesh and one with the FEMALE top mesh. Because it's a dress, traditionally it would be considered as FEMININE Fashion Choice, therefore the MALE mesh dress would get the following flags: MALE Gender + FEMININE Fashion Choice + Restrict Opposite Frame, while the FEMALE mesh dress would get the following flags: FEMALE Gender + FEMININE Fashion Choice + Restrict Opposite Frame. Neither dress should get the Restrict Opposite GENDER flag because this would negatively affect transframe sims, locking them into using the WRONG MESHED DRESS.

The reason why this DOESN'T WORK in practice and the reason why I recommend we STOP USING ALL Restrict Opposite flags is because EAxis doesn't always make a MALE mesh and FEMALE mesh version of items they intend to flag for both genders or fashion choices. Yeah, I noticed. Instead, they sometimes just flag the MALE mesh or the FEMALE mesh item for both Gender or both Fashion Choice then make a mess of the Restrict Opposite flags.

As for the secondary, I don't much care about the gendered mesh argument. I understand that MISMATCHED gendered meshes and frames warp each other. I understand that putting a FEMALE MESH top or full body item on a MALE sim or MALE/FEMININE FRAME sim gives them the appearance of having breasts. This is an EAxis shortcoming. The fix that I'm proposing of matching GENDER and FASHION CHOICE flags and REMOVING ALL RESTRICT OPPOSITE flags places items under their GENDERED MESH Fashion Choice, leaving it up to the simmer to chose an opposite gendered mesh item if they so desire.

Does that make sense? I can provide pictures. Many, many pictures! I'll attach the old ones I did for my "Additional Goth Galore PartFlag Fixes" override mod that exists on CurseForge, Patreon, NexusMods and Reddit to this report.

4. THIS LIST OF TWENTY-SEVEN (27) ITEMS:

... lacks an item by item description of whether or not the flag in question needs to be enabled or disabled, but for most of them it's DISABLED. Some of them require Fashion Choice, Gender, or Allow for Random flags to be ENABLED. I can descriptify this list if necessary. It'll just take a little additional time.

• RESTRICT OPPOSITE
  
  • yfBottom_SP48ShortsLaced
  • yfBottom_SP48SkirtPleated
• FASHION CHOICE + RESTRICT OPPOSITE
  
  • yfBottom_SP48LooseSweatpants
  • yfBottom_SP48ShortsLoops
  • yfBottom_SP48StrapSkinnyJeans
  • yfTop_SP48JacketLeather
  • yfTop_SP48SleeveSlash
  • ymBottom_SP48LooseSweatpants
  • ymBottom_SP48ShortsLaced
  • ymBottom_SP48ShortsLoops
  • ymBottom_SP48SkirtPleated
  • ymBottom_SP48StrapSkinnyJeans
  • ymTop_SP48JacketLeather
  • ymTop_SP48SleeveSlash
• GENDER
  
  • yfAcc_WristRightSP48BraceletSpikes
  • yfShoes_SP48StrapBoots
• GENDER + ALLOW FOR RANDOM
  • yfShoes_SP48PlatformBoots
• GENDER + ALLOW FOR RANDOM + FASHION CHOICE
  • yfMakeupEyeshadow_SP48Shade
  • yfMakeupLipstick_SP48Goth
• ALLOW FOR RANDOM
  • yfMakeupFacepaint_SP48ShadeGoth
  • yuAcc_GlovesSP48Buckles
• ALLOW FOR RANDOM + FASHION CHOICE + RESTRICT OPPOSITE
  
  • yfAcc_NecklaceSP48Rings
  • yfBody_SP48TrenchLeather
  • yfTop_SP48HoodieStraps
  • ymAcc_NecklaceSP48Rings
  • ymBody_SP48TrenchLeather
  • ymTop_SP48HoodieStraps

CLOSING STATEMENT:

That's it. We're at the end of the GGK report unless I need to add additional information. I might make edits to this for grammar or typos or clarity, providing it isn't removed.

I've been meaning to do this for a while. I don't mean the report, I mean fixing this mess because we're almost 10 years in and it's still a mess. The Goth Galore Kit with it's (previously) bug-eyed female hoodie was the straw that broke this camel's back. Expect more of these reports as I work my way through the Base Game and every piece of DLC, providing I'm not blacklisted or my internet doesn't go on vacation, which it often does. Third-world problems. ♪ Who ya gon' call?

For anysimmer curious, the override mod mentioned is currently outdated. It works, but DO NOT install it until I've had a chance to refresh/update it for the Feb 2024 patches. I'm currently working on it.

Also, folks, AHQ, y'all misspelled my name. It's not Seijan, it's Sejian. SEJ i AN. It's pronounced Sedge-e-an or See-jee-an, not Sai-jan. Cheers!

Oh! Before anyone asks, yes, I'm fully patched to 1.105.332.1020.

POSTSCRIPT:

Can someone tell the EAxis mesh team to STOP using the bloated tummy mesh or setting, whatever it is that I can't figure out how to fix yet, for FEMALE clothing. It looks HORRIBLE on any and all female sims and feminine frame sims who don't have the tiniest waist possible. The Goth Galore Kit trench coat is one of the most glaring examples of this but MANY other female CAS items use this thing.

#NEXTUP:

My crosshairs are on the Crystal Creations Stuff Pack. The list is already being compiled.

────⋆⋅☆⋅⋆── ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨ ʚɞ ୧⋆ ˚｡⋆

We're in the Malware SIMPOCALYPSE, and internet searching that will actually give you my Reddit OP, hot dayum! Prioritize FIRST-PARTY sources especially for your script mods and install and update TwistedMexi's ModGuard.