Sims 4 Gallery Questions and Speculations

Maybe they have been building these lots for years and save them up then upload them? Or they never leave their desk. I know when I'm in a creative mood I might spend way too much time doing things in these games that cause my legs to go numb from never leaving my desk.
If I share things it's not something I just did, but finished and held until I created more. (Custom content etc.) If I build lots, yes, I'm a really slow builder, but I don't upload lots as soon as I finished them, either. Those who build can do this pretty fast by having several lots with the base box as a starter on each lot then just take off like a rabbit and finish them. Some builders never play test their lots. That is a big red flag to me, because unless I was just building a replica/model of something in these games, I always play tested my lots then uploaded a clean non played lot copy to the Exchanges/Gallery. If the builder isn't play testing their lots then maybe stop following them.

Someone who builds can do this much faster than an average person because they know exactly where the content they need is located even back in TS2 we could create our own 'collections' to go to that folder and get all the build mode materials without having to flip through a catalog of building stuff. It's quicker if you are building particular styles to have all that stuff in a 'collection' folder. Simple houses don't take an hour. Elaborate houses don't take weeks, unless it is something made up in the head. Most actual builders look at actual homes and blue prints, first. Or pictures of the type of lots they want to build. And they know exactly where in the game catalog those details to use are located.

Maybe they aren't borrowing other people's builds. But it's been known to happen on TS4's Gallery, often.
ETA: the more familiar you become with building the faster it goes. But if you have to sort through hundreds of Maxis content and cc then it is slower, that's why most builders have this stuff somewhere in a catalog in the game (TS2/TS3) I don't know about TS4, so they can quickly grab what they want to use for a style.

"Justa_G00f;c-17935462" wrote:
@Cinebar
Well, you've taught me more than I bargained for. I wasn't aware that you could "catalog" things you often like to use. So, that right there is slowing me down a ton. Knowing that would be a gamechanger.

I have looked at some pics of elaborate mansions online for ideas but, I either don't like them or the game's limitations would ruin the aesthetics of the final product. That said, all my builds are design-as-I-go from borrowed or my own ideas and, with tips/tricks I've recently learned from other players. I have realized I don't build in an organized fashion. Let's just say I don't wait until the end to add a frieze to the house anymore!? I look to build something that screams artistic and as original as It can be, considering the high probability that it's been done already.

I'll admit, I'm guilty of not play testing everything on some builds in the past. I still don't know all the things that could go wrong. I had to pull a posting after realizing you need to use a Living Chair with a Bubbletron or, it didn't work. Honestly, I thought a chair was a chair and was lucky I found out sooner than later. One thing I DON'T want to do is spend weeks on something, be proud of it and want share it then, find out it's defective. I pride myself in doing something, anything, right the first time or not bothering to do it at all. With what you said in mind, I'll be more thorough with my quality control moving forward.

Thanks for clearing things up for me!? I'm not sure if I should leave this thread up or if I missed the current Sims 4 Q&A. I want to use the correct one.

Keep the thread open. If you spot something that looks like it had been reused by another builder you can post a picture of the two lots side by side or something. It's very unfair for people to 'borrow' someone else's work and claim it as their own. I hope those gallery tags still work like they should, but I do know there was a way it disappeared from my own builds if I moved them in and out of my saved files or something, I can't remember, so, maybe you aren't wrong about the person you mentioned, but it takes time to verify things like that because yes, the gallery is faulty when it comes to creator tags remaining on original builds.

Just a thought, but it's something that hadn't even occurred to me until recently. Before I went offline to retain my sanity during the current update cycle, I was going through some of the builds I've saved to my library from the gallery. I was deleting some of them that I had decided I didn't care for or simply had never found a use for; they were unnecessarily taking up storage space. But when I clicked on one item, it seemed different. At first I didn't know why, but then I realized I had hit the Share button instead of Delete (they're right next to each other), so I had accidentally re-uploaded that item. I hadn't made any changes to it, but it could've looked like I was trying to claim something untrue. Fortunately I caught it quickly and removed it from the gallery, but anyway... it would be a massive serial-version of a mistake if the person you mentioned had done something like that, but I guess it's possible. :lol:

@VeeDub Honestly, I'm too new to the sims 4 gallery to make educated guesses of it's inner workings. I just found this situation to be very odd. I sometimes see the the person posting, asking others to hashtag them if they use their shell so, I figured there were some issues with plagiarism.
I also was curious if there was just a trick people use to "power build". In which case, I'm very interested in learning this. Unless it makes things generic then, I'll just keep posting my bi-weekly builds. ? ?

1.posting old builds they built some time ago but skipped posting it at the time for reason or another

2. they had many work in progress builds or like unfinished shell things sitting about that they started finishing up to complete builds

3. idk aliens

4. the unfortunate probability of claiming other peoples builds as their own for some weird reason

if there is any trick then maybe keeping your scrapped builds that you maybe did not vibe with at the moment cause lot of it can usually be repurposed into another build

The could be transferring their own lots to a new machine or resurrecting an old game. Some very old lots have to be uploaded/downloaded again to work.
I've transferred lots via Gallery in the past as it's easier for me. I'm not in the US timezone so they don't get viewed much there.
You can see if lots are originals or not now, I believe.
There are millions of lots in the Gallery so are you following them?

"Justa_G00f;c-17944340" wrote:
@Simburian I'm not able to follow every lot but, I follow that person and I get notifications every time they post. This is what peaked my curiosity.
I wasn't aware that posting a build would "refresh" it. That seems like a handy tool that I'll have to remember. Especially to transfer to a new PC. I might be doing that real soon here.

That saving and reposting was some years ago, I remember. as it happened to me. It must have been a re-tweak on the Gallery then. As for Saving for moving to a new PC, I thought as there were many millions on the Gallery anyway, a few more wouldn't matter and it saves saving to a USB.

The Gallery hates you removing all your stuff though. I used to get a unlimited downloads bug when I tried to take them all off again leaving my gallery stuff empty, so leave some on there.

When you get a new machine you have to make sure you sign off and quit Origin on the old one to sign on the new game in the new machine as only one person can be signed on at one time.

I built 12 lots in less than a week. If I know exactly what I want to do with a build, I can have it done in a few hours, depending on size. That being said, I struggled with a few builds this time, two in particular took me a span of a couple of days to do. Mainly because I was indecisive.

If I build something that I'm not really feeling for a particular lot, such as a library or bar, I'll save the shell for future use. I have several unfinished shells that are waiting for me to decide what or where to use them.

All in all, it is possible to upload several lots in a few hours. Especially if they're smaller lots. Floorplanning is usually what slows me down.

@Cinebar
Well, you've taught me more than I bargained for. I wasn't aware that you could "catalog" things you often like to use. So, that right there is slowing me down a ton. Knowing that would be a gamechanger.

I have looked at some pics of elaborate mansions online for ideas but, I either don't like them or the game's limitations would ruin the aesthetics of the final product. That said, all my builds are design-as-I-go from borrowed or my own ideas and, with tips/tricks I've recently learned from other players. I have realized I don't build in an organized fashion. Let's just say I don't wait until the end to add a frieze to the house anymore!? I look to build something that screams artistic and as original as It can be, considering the high probability that it's been done already.

I'll admit, I'm guilty of not play testing everything on some builds in the past. I still don't know all the things that could go wrong. I had to pull a posting after realizing you need to use a Living Chair with a Bubbletron or, it didn't work. Honestly, I thought a chair was a chair and was lucky I found out sooner than later. One thing I DON'T want to do is spend weeks on something, be proud of it and want share it then, find out it's defective. I pride myself in doing something, anything, right the first time or not bothering to do it at all. With what you said in mind, I'll be more thorough with my quality control moving forward.

Thanks for clearing things up for me!? I'm not sure if I should leave this thread up or if I missed the current Sims 4 Q&A. I want to use the correct one.

@Cinebar I apologize for seeming untrusting. I haven't been able to play for almost a week but still noticed 4-7 postings a day from that person before my gaming PC needed servicing. I figured, if I downloaded a shell from the gallery and finished it with as much detail as this person did, I could do two a day, assuming I never left my PC.
Once I get my more capable PC back, I'll figure out how to post pics here. If they need to first be posted online somewhere else, I don't know how to do that. I'll worry about that when it's time.
Thanks for the reply! I just want to help keep things honest. Seeing someone else get 3 times as many likes for your creation than you did makes for a sad moment.