I wish they make their Expansion Packs More Mod Friendly.

@TS1299

It's funny you should bring this up as only yesterday I was thinking about The spell injector mod which was created by R3m over at mod the sims which has not been updated in a while which is a shame because I remember using several ROM mods alongside the spell injector that worked very well and gave us a lot more magic play to enjoy.

https://modthesims.info/d/633665/the-spellbook-injector.html

LittleMSam has several ROM mods I like to use and one is called Improved practical magic spells and part of this mod has an optional add on spell that requires the R3m injector to use it so over the last few patches I have simply avoided that add on when patching my game because I know the injector mod is outdated however LittleMsSam is very good at updating other creators mods that have left modding and I keep thinking I should get in touch with her to see if she has any further information so your post has prompted me to do that and I will come back if I receive an answer.

This is the mod I am referring to. scroll down towards the bottom of the page

https://littlemssam.tumblr.com/post/188473485983/improved-practical-spells-this-mod-tweaks-random

there is also a better familiars mod

https://littlemssam.tumblr.com/post/187739130958/better-familiars-realm-of-magic-this-mods-adds

Herbalism | New Potions

https://littlemssam.tumblr.com/post/175409443318/herbalism-new-potions-this-mods-adds-new


Zero also has some great ROM mods that uses Scumbumbo's XLM injector mod which is kindly updated by @Triplis and according to several players that are using it after the latest patch report it is working fine so far. Maybe @triplis could help with the answers you are looking for regards anew injector?

https://scumbumbomods.com/xml-injector

while Zeros ROM mods might not specifically deal with new spells there are some good mods that take care of the quirks of the way the game deals with spellcasters and the magic realm. I do believe there is a mod or two regarding herbalism so scroll through and see if there is anything you like.

https://www.patreon.com/zer0_Mods_

I am afraid I cannot speak to anything about Eco living Naps as that pack almost destroyed my game until I modded everything out although I have a reasonable working relationship with community spaces now :)

I understand you are probably looking for something more specific than I have mentioned but I think this is the closest I have got towards my ROM wishes so far :)

EDIT LittleMsSam has tested r3m's The Spellbook Injector and for her own mod Improved Practical Spells add on that requires this mod works fine. She did say "the Spell Injector has an issue with MACs. Windows works fine but some MAC Users can have issues. Maybe it is that what those ppl mean"

Every single CC i use works perfectly fine and i didnt update em in almost two years in some cases. And im using about 20gb in CC content. About script mods (i assume you are talking about those) there is nothing that can be done. The game engine is how it is, and cant be made modding friendly just because. It needs to be coded and designed from the beginning to allow that. And you are basically changing the game code with script mods, so yeah, its perfectly natural (and it happens in every single videogame) that they need to be constantly updated to work properly. This is basic science.

I think for the most part, modding is probably an afterthought, if it's thought of at all. Since they are likely short on time already and then modding is kind of a gray area anyway.

That said, there are a lot of things where it's possible, but few know how and then there are some key things where it's kind of beyond the design of the game.

Like the holiday icons list uses a simdata file with references to the icons, which means you can inject to the xml list of holiday icons to avoid conflicts, but it won't do anything because you still need to add your new references into the simdata, which is handled on a level where you can't just inject to it. So if anyone wants to add new icons, it's gonna have to be one modder doing it and that's it. This is one kind of limitation.

Another is just the UI in general. Anything that uses a precisely-designed UI menu, such as the fame menu, is mostly beyond modding because it's done in the flash and there aren't really tools available for handling the GFX flash files well. And even with a tool to edit them correctly (which is a pain as it is) you'd have that usual problem of conflicts if more than one modder edits the same file. There are certain types of menus that can be done somewhat flexibly, like picker menus, but these have limited use.

So as you can probably guess, some of the issues of stuff not being moddable is because it fits in the context of limitations like these and so short of the sims team redesigning how those systems work, it's not gonna happen. I would love for certain things to be more moddable, but I'm doubtful they would see reason to prioritize such, unless they can somehow justify it as part of a new/modified feature of the game.

Then when it comes to the "few know how" problem, well that's mostly a problem of skill and time investment and all. We lost easily one of the most knowledgeable and helpful in losing Scumbumbo. A lot of modders learned things from him and had work made possible from tools of his. Which is another thing about it... even though this game supports modding to a certain extent, people have had to make their own tools in a lot of cases to do modding for it. Modding always has a skill problem because so much is hidden or hard to get at, and we have no access to things like in-house tools. In an ideal world, the skill required would be a lot lower, but as it is, the closest we get to that is through community-made tools, such as Zerbu's Mod Constructor, that are designed to cut down on the technical knowledge you need to make stuff.

@Triplis

Thank you for that wonderful explanation which unfortunately went over the top of my head but I am sure others will understand more than me :)
I also wanted to thank you for your own mods which I use a lot but from a players perspective i can say that it's not often clear when some mods need updating or have been updated in some instances which can get very confusing. ( I am referring to all modders here-)

I know that a lot of players have stated the spell injector mod either does not work in their game or it causes issues so i had not tried to use it for months until I spoke to LittleMsSam yesterday and found further information about it. By comparison I always feel more confident using the XML injector mod as I know it's you updating where necessary and updates have been reliable. I wish the modder for the spellbook injector was still around as that particular mod made many other mods by other creators possible. I appreciate every single modder as I am sure many other players do I just wish sometimes for better info as I am often left wondering if it's okay to use something or not after a patch.

CC and Mods are two very different things. CC is just graphical images; an overlay on the Sim's 'intelligence'.

Indie teams are okay with making games moddable because they often use older engines themselves. EA's Devs don't have the time to make new packs AND make sure all your Mods work. I don't use any Mods and my game very rarely bugs out, aside from the 'infinite food' going around where my Sims make new food all the time and never pick up old food. And that's not a bug. That's a problem with gameplay. If your sims aren't going to a certain place, it's often a pathing problem, sometimes with bb.code.

Usually when a game breaks with an update, it's because you have old Mods conflicting. Especially the ones that affect gameplay. The Fear Update has probably demolished its way through any emotional Mods you had, and maybe anybody who had made Fear Mods has decided they don't have the time to update.

EA is not responsible for mods, it's not their content, its not there problem to worry about it, it's the modder responsibility to keep it working if they want too, you download mods & cc at your own risk, they are not going too have their game and content revolve around mods etc

Hi @Nikkih

I never said EA was responsible for any mods. I was merely trying to help another player find out some further info on some of the mods the OP mentioned and thanking @Triplis for his input and his/her own mods?

@Loanet

I love it when I read a player can play their games without mods successfully as I simply cannot I need the annoying fixes resolving and a little more gameplay where I can get it :)

"SPARKY1922;c-17785473" wrote:
Hi @Nikkih

I never said EA was responsible for any mods. I was merely trying to help another player find out some further info on some of the mods the OP mentioned and thanking @Triplis for his input and his/her own mods?

I was explaining to the poster of the thread ? @SPARKY1922

Oh okay apologies @Nikkih put it down to a blonde moment shall we then :)