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oohdeMolly's avatar
oohdeMolly
6 years ago
Solved

lots work when i playtest, but doesn't when downloaded

So I've been using the #playtested wrong, because it turns out things aren't working properly when people download my builds. This is my process, please help me finding out where i'm going wrong. 1....
gameplay issue
  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    6 years ago

    @oohdeMolly I'm happy to hear that you want to have things working properly! That's an important and admirable point of view for a builder. I also build, and I began using moo within the last year... and it has made my building work and testing work way, way more difficult. Price I pay for drinking the kool-aid.

    First, I'm assuming that what you meant in your post is that you upload your finished home into your game's library then from there you place into lots in your game to 'placement test'.... plus you 'live test' your build with a sim. Then after it has been successfully tested you share the completed and tested home into your library, then from your library you share it to the gallery (which then makes it publicly available in the EA Community Gallery). There are directions here about the difference between the two. I expect this is what you mean, but I wanted to clarify just in case untested versions of your build were being shared by accident. https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26324.0

    First, I wanted to mention... I've noticed that some players put in their description the hashtag #moo and a notation to 'make sure to activate the move objects on cleat before placing the build'. 

    Personally, I never say that in my listings. I make sure that my lots/homes are placing properly from my library, with moo and all cheats off in the game, and on several different lots, before I share/upload them to the gallery. It sounds like this is what you want, so I will add details about how I do this:

    • After you've finished your build/home, please open the cheat window and type in 'bb.moveobjects off' then press enter and make sure you get the message back that the move objects cheat is off. Save your lot, then save and exit the game. Re-enter the game and go back to your lot. Do not activate any cheats now. Open the folder to save the lot to the library, and save it there. Now you can start your testing. 
    • Begin with placement testing. Exit you lot to the world, then place your lot from the library onto a different lot of that size in the world, or in a different world.
    • Enter that placed lot in build mode (no sim owning it yet) and check if everything placed correctly, and if anything deleted. If it looks like everything is there you can re-upload (or go halfway through the process to do this) until it tells you the value of the lot in the 'save to library' process. Once you get the exact same price when re-uploading it that helps confirm nothing is deleting when you place the lot. Keep doing this until nothing is deleting and everything places properly.
    • Next is the live testing. Have a sim purchase your placement tested lot and move in. Have your sim test everything. Every single thing. Same thing... all of this time you never have moo on. 

    Sometimes this process can take many hours.

    Would you be willing to share the exact name of one of the lots that people are saying has playability issues, and share your gallery ID if it's different than it is here in the forum? This way I could test in my game, if you like.

    Can I also clarify something? Do you have Mods or CC in your game?

    Let us know how it goes. Thank you!

    SheriGR ☕ – I don’t work for EA
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SheriGR's avatar
SheriGR
Hero
6 years ago

@oohdeMolly Thank you for your very kind words... you have once again made my day! 🙂

  • I just went back in and re-tested and you're right... the kitchen sink is usable with the metal hunk in place. Sorry, no, you don't need to remove it for the sink  to be used. I think when I noted that I was going by the fact that she left the kitchen a couple of times to use the other sink to wash dishes, get water, etc... but when I later tested by directly sending her to the sink I had already removed the metal hunk. I should have put it back to re-test there. Sorry.
  • No need to remove the potted plant since it's on a shelf. I should have checked with all walls up. I believe I had it on the middle setting (where part of the walls are up, including back walls), so I was making an assumption since most of that wall was showing. Oops again. Sorry.

Again, thank you for all of your sweet replies and feedback. I almost mentioned something else... I try to make sure that I place small appliances/electronics (coffee maker, microwave, computers, etc.) with moo off. There was a bug a while ago that was actually pretty funny. Not sure if the bug is still in place, but until I hear differently I am erring on the side of caution and turning moo off to place them. The bug? The sim could use the appliance/computer just fine, but they would lay things down inside the item, prepare food on that countertop (inside the microwave, for instance), eat literally on the computer, etc.... The up-sides are that the sim can still use the item (and it is rather amusing, if you know what's going on)... and I got my favorite profile pic from it when my Sheri-sim was testing a build I made that was a reproduction of my home. So... I found her literally sitting at the re-make of my desk, eating with her plate on the computer. Mind you, irl I have had to purchase several new keyboards for my computer because I dropped food or liquid into it.
  😬😃🤓☕

oohdeMolly's avatar
oohdeMolly
6 years ago

@SheriGR Your truly are fantastic, thank you so much for being on this, it's absolutely amazing !

Okay, with your update, I'm almost where you are. Desk is working, sink is working (i'm probably going to move metal hunk still), I'm only running into one last issue.

When I go out of the game and restart, I put the house from the uploads on a new lot, and run through it. Then I make a new household, and move them in by using the freerealestate cheat to test with people. When I originally build the house, I made the industrial lamp over the kitchentable smaller, and when I visit the house the lamp is still small. I don't know if that has anything to do with this issue, but I can still sit on all chairs around the kitchentable with a plate... Is MOO maybe automatically turning on when I use freerealestate? Sorry if my rookiness is shining through 🙂

Haha, that is a brilliant bug, and I can so relate, thank god for insurance :D ! And also good advise in general, turn off MOO for things that have to be interactionable, making the probability of it working when testing is higher!

SheriGR you are a savior! Your name is SheriGR in-game aswell right?

  • SheriGR's avatar
    SheriGR
    Hero
    6 years ago

    @oohdeMolly Yes, my name in the gallery and Origin/game is also SheriGR.

    As far as the lamp goes, sometimes you just have to experiment with items. Many items can't be enlarged or shrunken and still function or have the sim interact with them properly. For decorative-only items you have to go on a case-by-case basis. With this light it may be that even if you visually shrink it it is still retaining the limitations/requirements that it had at its original size. Since this table is scooted against the wall (so you have a larger area where you don't need sim-interaction) it may be possible that you could play with tiny tweaks in placement to see if you can get to a point where the sim can use the table properly at the chair positions you have.

    Funny story... My first couple that I began with were her and her hubby... both loosely based on my hubby and I in traits and appearance. So it was fun to see what the children born to them would look like, raising them, and branching out from there. Their 2nd son actually looks a lot like my rl 3rd son, which cracks me up! Rl son pays sims occasionally. I found out at one point that his sim in his game had married Summer (Maxis default game sim)... and I had had this 2nd son of my sim couple marry Summer (neither of us knew this)! I play with aging off and they have been happily paired/married for many, many sim years.  🙂

    • oohdeMolly's avatar
      oohdeMolly
      6 years ago

      I found you, oh my god I love your builds! I can't believe how much you get for your Margaritaville Starter <3 What are the one-square items, I don't get it mentor oh mentor?

      I've made a little movie clip, going through the placement of the lot to testing the kitchen, I just don't understand how i can place the lot from the uploads, same lot as everyone else should be downloading, and still have no problems with the kitchen chairs... The file was too big to upload, so i zipped it, but couldn't send it, so i tried to share the video from google drive, I hope it works 🙂 : https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VljxEEyYYcg4BVFjvZdFY-CDjXuqQ3gW/view?usp=sharing

      Haha, aw that is so cute, and also crazy that sims can actually get genetics so spot on (I'm actually pretty impressed at this, wauw) 🙂 And I love that your son is also into sims, it runs in the family :D 

      • SheriGR's avatar
        SheriGR
        Hero
        6 years ago

        @oohdeMolly Your video was nice! I really hate doing audio - I'm a bit self-conscious because when I do them here they are completely 'unpolished' and casually done... but oh well. If it's helpful to someone I'm fine with that. Anyway, I think you did a great job! 🙌

        Actually, I was just glancing over my initial comments, and though I mention that table clutter (or a low-hanging overhead light) can interfere, I think I was only mentioning that as something to check on since that person in the gallery commented that objects on the table made it 'weird' for eating. I just had my sim sit at the seat on the right and eat just fine. It's not clear what they meant by 'weird' anyway, but I didn't notice anything unusual. It was the last choice for my sim (they probably prefer eating at the more 'cleared' area), but if you tell them to sit in that chair and eat they will. Unlike the desk/computer test, you cannot direct them to eat at a particular place, but if they're already eating you can tell them to sit in a particular place and see if they will lay down the plate and continue eating, which they do.

        So... I wouldn't worry about that, unless you want to adjust anything.

        Thank you for your lovely words about my Margaritaville Starter. I had fun with it. The original was just under $20,000, but on the advise of @kreatora I carved off $1500 to make it affordable for placing on a lot with a starter budget. That part is always painful! 😬

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