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

@SheriGR Wauw! Thank you so much, this clarified a lot, and I see a step or two that I haven't been doing, testing on different lots, and you know, when i read it, I even think there is one of the lots I forgot to turn off moo on when testing. But this really is amazing, and just what I've been combing the internet for, you just wrote the playtest bible, and I will follow your wise words step by step before uploading every time now 🙂 

You're assumption was correct, sorry for not being completely clear, and I feel the same way about the "activate moo cheat" proclaimer, I want it to work for someone who doesn't know how to activate cheats, and doesn't know where to search for answers - I want it to work for everybody, and still look awesome, so your guide is perfect! I'd rather spend hours testing, than upload something that is unplayable. 

Yes I would love for you to look into things, but I do think your bible is going to help me, I know for a fact I never turned the game completely off, I just turned the cheat off, so there are definitely some steps i missed.

I'm a bit embarrassed now, because the plot is shared with #playtested, but yes I would love for you to look at it, and mentor me a bit 🙂 The plot name is Modern Industrial Dream and my player name is also most_molly, people had issues specifically in the kitchen and with the office desk on the second floor. There is some clutter on the desk, and there are some pans on the kitchen wall over the sink.

I don't think I use mods or cc (I'm still quite new at this, please mentor me), i used tray importer once to try to make custom pictures for the gallery, but found out that the lots won't be reviewed by Maxis, so I thought it would just be easier to make my lots accessible for all, and Maxis guidelines approved 🙂 

I will try to walk through the plot myself with all cheats turned off now, I think it will definitely help me find the issue areas. Do you by any chance know if there is any way to change the description text for the lot after upload, I feel bad for having it hashtagged with playtested...?

@oohdeMolly Thank you for your very kind words and feedback! You made my day! 🙂

Nothing to be embarrassed about! Goodness... you are new to the game, and there's a lot to learn! I've done it for a while, and I'm still learning and running across things that are wonky or that I didn't catch the first time. Plus I seem to want to learn many things the hard way! 😉

No, there is no way to edit the description while the lot is shared to the gallery. You need to unshare it, edit the description and do any edits you want to it, then re-share it. I have had to do this many times myself. I've even taken things down where I lost hundreds of downloads doing this since it resets the count when you un-share it (they still have the lot, it just doesn't show on my download count anymore). But if something needs to be fixed or the wording in it is wrong, I do it anyway. Then I re-share when it's ready.

As far as leaving the game after deactivating moo before testing... this is probably not necessary, it's just what I do to fully sever. Over caution. (I should warn you, I have OCD. Literally.) I think that after you turn off moo and save, just going to the world (leaving the lot) is probably enough, or if you went to the main menu that is even one step more severed. But I think it is good to at least exit the lot and save, then re-enter. I've read comments from folks where they thought they had de-activated moo and it didn't seem to have taken and this caused an unrealized issue. If you leave to the main menu or leave the game, even if there were some glitch where it hadn't deactivated I believe that would address that. I get where I have cycled through steps so many times that I find sometimes I can forget if I did a step (muscle memory and all) so I am over-cautious in some of my routines.

Personally, I never use Mods or CC because I worry what effect they could have (if ever) on a build, since I build to share. (There can be glitches that arise with them before you may realize it if they need a fix or update, or the game has an update that clashes with them, and I don't want to have to babysit them that closely). But, I have a builder friend that I know is very responsible who does have at least one well-known Mod that I'm aware of. I also know several builders who also create 'NOCC' paintings for the gallery (I think with the Mod you mentioned) that I (and many other builders) use for my builds. So, in the case of the Mod you mentioned, you may want to clean up after the Mod you tried in the past since it's not being used or maintained, just in case there is any remnant effect from it after you deleted it. I will include instructions in the spoiler tag for doing that.

As far as the issues you mentioned in your build... I downloaded it and tested a few things in the kitchen and study that you mentioned. (Cute build, btw - I love the creativity, and you used some interesting combinations of items for a clever modern feel!):

• I've also had times I found certain lights only work correctly (routing-wise) with the medium or tallest wall heights. The "Industrial Ceiling Lamp" over kitchen table) is one of them.
• The knife block by the stove turns to the side on placement. 
• The sim will only use the corner countertop in your kitchen. This is because for some reason they will not prepare food on 'end' counters. They are slightly less wide. If you move the refrigerator a bit to the right and delete that end counter and copy the regular width counter that the sink is on and place it next to the refrigerator, the sim will then prepare food on that countertop space also.
• You do need to remove the "Industrial Grade End Cap" over the kitchen sink. Unfortunately, though she could then use the sink (wash hands, etc), she preferred every time to wash dishes in the sink upstairs. Sometimes sims prefer a sink or item that is higher quality or in a 'better environment' room, but this may be a case of the current bug where sims will go to another sink far away to wash dishes. https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/OPEN-Sims-using-far-away-sink-instead-of-close-one-Dishwasher/td-p/7325186
• There is a flower pot floating in the air by the bottom of the staircase. Put the walls down to view it if you can't see it.
• As far as the items on the kitchen table, I've found that many items that will fit on the table for decorations turn out to interfere with or make eating there awkward. The sim may be able to sit at all places fine, but you can test this by having them sit and eat at each place on the table.
• In regards to routing in the study, I had no issues. The only places to use are the two seats, and they can sit there fine. Sometimes a sim can get trapped and it is not showing as an issue right away. Did the person have a sim get trapped in the corner area or something?
• I did find that the sim can use the computer with the clutter on the desk only if they're told first to sit in the chair. If they're standing you cannot get them to use the computer with a direct command. If you delete the clutter on the desk you can then get them to directly go to and use the computer.

Hope this helps some. 🙌

SheriGR ☕ – I don’t work for EA

@SheriGR, SheriGR, my favorite sims player by far! That was a rhyme, not a very good one, I'm trying to say you are amazing. Thank you so much for feedback, you are so kind to use all this time, thank you!

I'll do it anyway, I think your "over-cautious"/perfect routine is the way to go for me too, I tried turning off the cheats, maybe it'll work better when I turn of the game completely, like you do 🙂

I agree yet again, I'll take it down, and re-upload with everything in order. Thank you so much for testing it and I'm glad you like it, it's my first really big build, so I'm a litlle sad it didn't turn out perfect, but i'm really glad you like the design (I'm still crying every time I have to do roofing 😉 ).

I followed your mods clean-up guide, there were no cache files in any folders, but I did it anyway, so I hope this will make some changes, since I was still having some weird issues (or lack thereof) in the last playtest with the kitchen sink. 

1. Ah, so much makes sense now, I play on a laptop (I know...), and sometimes the camera angles aren't the best, I'll try to run through the house in first-person aswell before uploading.

2. Haha, now that's a stupid rookie mistake if I ever seen one :D I'll fix the knifeblock.

3. That is SO good to know, I use the endcounters all the time because of the more slick and elegant design, and I don't actually think I can fit a full sized counter there, in-between the fridge and the space it needs in front, and the bar that I clumsely fitted in there, so that's really good to know for future builds. I mean, you are amazing, thank you so much for sharing this knowledge!

4. Now this is really weird... I can still do all the actions, drink water, wash hands etc on the kitchen sink, and have no trouble at all with the "Industrial Grade End Cap". I'll just remove it, but I'm a bit concerned that I can still use the sink when no one else can, maybe there is something I'm still not doing right... 

5. Ah, I used MOO to place it on a shelf that can only be seen with walls up. Would you in this situation just remove the plant, to make everything look realistic with walls down?

6. Perfect, this makes sense aswell, I definitely tested the chairs, but I'm not sure they were tested with a plate of food in hand, I'll remember this one for next run through.

7. Awesome, I am so happy, because I too wasn't having trouble with routing in the office. And this also makes sense, since I probably tested all the chairs, and just sat down before interacting with the computer. The user didn't complain about getting trapped, but I can see how that could happen because of the things behind the desk area. I'll delete the clutter in the new upload 🙂

SheriGR, my muse, my mentor, you are fantastic for all this help, thankyouthankyouthankyou 🙂 !!!

@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.
  😬😃🤓☕

@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?

@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.  🙂

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 

@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! 😬

@SheriGR Haha, I'm happy you liked it, I am with you, i never do videos with audio, my mic is awful and I hate hearing myself, but I'm so glad it was okay:D Thank you so much for checking again, I just couldn't figure it out! You are amazing, I can't believe how much time you used on this, I feel like XP points aren't enough, thank you so so much, I'm so happy we finally got it to work!! I'll leave it as is 🙂

I think it's absolutely amazing what you¨ve fitted in there for that price, and made it look so good! Very inspiring! Haha, I know that feeling, I always end up with two or three less counters and plants than originally 🙂 But i also have so much fun doing the budget challenges 🙂

SheriGR, muse mentor goddess, thank you for all your help, you are truly an everyday hero!!