11 years ago

Gathering your suggestions about Mods/CC use with the Gallery!

Hello to all the mod/CC creators and users out there! I know there are other great communities of Sims modders and creators across the internet, so please share a link to this on your own websites so we can hear from everyone.

This thread is to gather your feedback and suggestions on how we can improve the way mods and custom content interface with the in-game Gallery in The Sims 4. We want to continue to evolve the Gallery, but as it's a tool to help you share between each other, the most important thing we can do is listen to how you want to be able to use it. One caveat... I can't promise that we're working on anything posted in this thread; we're in the phase where we're putting together ideas and seeing what we want to do next.

For mod/CC creators, I'm looking for your ideas on how we can improve the Gallery to get your creations out to more players who are interested in using them. How can we help expose your creations? How can we make it simpler for you to share? Currently you can see CC in Gallery screenshots, but there's no way to download CC, and no way to share/download mods whatsoever - do you want that to change?

For players who simply enjoy using mods/CC in your game, I'm looking for your ideas on how you'd like to use the Gallery to improve the way you add mods/CC to your experience. What would help you find the content you want? Are there things we could add to the Gallery to make the in-game mod/CC experience better? What would make you feel safe about using mods/CC in tandem with the Gallery?

The only specific thing I ask is that you keep your replies in this thread on topic to mods/CC and how we could improve your experience with them via the Gallery.

PLEASE FOLLOW THIS FORMAT WHEN REPLYING:
To help with gathering feedback (and to get the ball rolling with some of my own ideas!), please post your feedback in the following format... List out an idea or feature you'd like, and then give a short explanation of why you'd like it. For example:

1. Increase the character limit of text descriptions.
Currently the text limit that you can write about any content you upload to the Gallery is fairly short. It doesn't allow me to adequately describe what the creation is, especially if I want to let people know about what custom content was used in the upload.

2. Allow copy/pasting text from descriptions on the Gallery.
Even if I include a link in the description to let players know where they should go to download any custom content that was included in my Gallery upload, other players aren't able to copy/paste that text. This makes it really difficult because players have to write it down outside the game, or go back and forth between the game and the browser to manually type out the entire link.

3. Automatically make web links in descriptions and comments clickable to open a web browser.
Even potentially more handy than being able to copy and paste text might be having links in text automatically become clickable so that players can easily get to my mod/CC creations and then download them from my website. If it opened an in-game browser so I don't have to leave the game at all that could be even better!

4. Install/Uninstall CC while the game is running.
It'd be great if I could easily install cool looking CC that I see on the Gallery, and then download that Gallery creation and immediately start playing with it without having to leave the game. If I didn't like that CC after downloading it, it'd be very convenient if I could uninstall it from in-game as well.

5. List CC that was attached to any Gallery upload.
It can be difficult to tell from the picture alone if something like a Sim that's on the Gallery has any custom content. It'd be helpful if the game detected any custom content and provided a list of which parts of an upload use custom content, even if the creator didn't choose to provide any additional information in the item's description.

6. Etc...
Etc...

OK, you get the idea! Post away!

feedback

120 Replies

tastytourist
11 years ago
1. Enable/disable CC from within the game
Some users find it difficult to move files/folders around – in order to differentiate whether an issue (such as crashing) is actually an issue with the game itself or with outdated/incompatible CC, it is important to make sure people test with vs. without CC. Being able to disable all CC from within the game would make that a lot easier for anyone who tries to troubleshoot such issues (like creators who get feedback about "i installed your mod five days ago and now my game has crashed HALP"). NB I only mean temporarily disabling – not uninstalling (that would be a different feature that I'd also like to see though).

2. Being able to upload from the internet
Because why not? I also don't actually see how it should work to upload say a script mod from within the game .. so that would be more a prerequisite rather than a feature. But once that works, why not make it work for lots and sims as well?

--

Also, before I'd upload anything to the Gallery I'd like to know from the horse's mouth what the legal situation is w/r/t intellectual property. You may or may not know that there is currently a third party site outright selling CC (or "reserving the right" to sell it) copied and pasted from elsewhere, and one of their excuses for that is "all CC are belong to EA anyway, so nyah nyah". As far as I can tell, this true to some extent when using EA services (which of course doesn't mean "nyah nyah" for everybody else), so if you want more creators to use the gallery for distribution I think some sort of official clarification on that might be quite helpful. =)

See here if you don't know what I mean .. there are many creators who are extremely opposed to the commercial use of CC in general, even more so when it happens without their knowledge or consent.
ZerbuTabek
Rising Hotshot
11 years ago
1. Allow players to upload standalone CC to the gallery
As well as having the option to download CC along with creations from the gallery, another useful feature would be the ability to upload just CC, without attaching it to a creation. Players could conveniently browse for CC without having to leave the game.

2. Add a custom content filter
As well as the "Include Unowned Content" checkbox, there should also be a checkbox to disable content containing CC from appearing in the gallery.
ruthless_kk
11 years ago
1. Have custom content or modified files automatically indicated on any Gallery offering that contains it.
Many times creators do not specify that a lot or sim contains custom content when it does. There should be informed consent when downloading things from the Gallery that contain CC.

2. Have a way to select a screen shot from the screen shots folder as the cover shot for Gallery items.
This way the creator can show what the CC actually looks like in game. The auto generated pictures do not always do a good job of showing CC and in the case of objects created for lots, they wont show in the cover shot at all. This way the creator could take an image in game and use it to show the creation clearly and Gallery users would be better informed on what they are downloading.
henrikrostedt
11 years ago
Okey, I have one:

1. Uploading a custom content description.
This is intended as a compromise between not uploading content and uploading content. An ability to create a description of the content that actually do not contain the content itself, but the instance id of the content. So when a user uploads content with the custom content the content description is automatically added to a list for that uploaded content. This would allow checking if the content is installed and a link to more information about the content. And for it to be connected to the mod creators profile.
burnsy142
11 years ago
I think it would be a good idea to try and make it so when there is a sim on the gallery with custom content, if somebody downloads it but doesn't have that custom content, they should get it when they download the sim, otherwise it gets replaced and you don't get the sim you want. :)
brytewolf
11 years ago
1. An option to separate cc from in-game content.
I usually upload quite a few things at once, and oftentimes I'll forget what I added if I don't use it immediately. Also, having to dig through all the swatches to hopefully find the one that was just added (especially if you don't know exactly where the creator hid it) is a headache in and of itself. If there could be some way (a button to hide regular CAS items, or tabs for "regular" and "downloaded" maybe?) to easily differentiate between the two while in CAS, I would love that.
SimFeetUnder
11 years ago
1. We need a way to id CC in the game, some stuff is obvious but not always. The asterisk from before or something would help (I've seen people say they didn't use CC but they did, I guess they forgot?)
2. Uploaders to the gallery need to maybe check a box for #WithCC or #NoCC... hardly anyone is actually using the keywords
3. Maybe when someone does the WithCC some additional fields can pop up that we can paste in where they came from? Especially since description field only allows so many characters, we could link to the item's page vs just "find it on simfeetunder.tumblr.com"
4. More screen shots? If browsing the gallery I can tell if a sim has cc on it's upper half (not really for shoes n stuff) if it's used in the everyday outfit but none of the others... makes things trickier than they need to be. Sims3 was cool because we could see each outfit.
KitOnlyHuman
11 years ago
I have a few things that might have already been said, might not have. But you know, late night. XD

1. Tag and link various CC.
CC can be tagged with a small series of boxes. Check "Custom content" box when saving an item on the gallery, then once checked, a small series of text boxes can allow us to post urls (or even shortened urls) that will be able to be copied. Kinda like a spoiler tag on the forums, you can click the CC marked "Dress" and it show the link below where they can copy and paste it in their browser. I would suggest using a copy and paste method to avoid the whole being blamed for viruses and stuff. And a warning in red of course that says "This object contains CC not approved by EA."

2. Small tag under username.
A small tag under the username can let people post a link to their CC website (in text form) or their name. The downfall to this would be monitoring the tags to make sure that they are EA appropriate.

3. Asterisks on CC content thumbnails.
This could also be a filter. Such as Sims 2 and Sims 3, we could tell what was not EA created and downloaded from another source. In this game, it would make sense to have a filter in the gallery (and in CAS) that let's us see the content easier so that when uploading/downloading to the gallery, we can know for certain there is CC instead of relying on the person that posted the sim/lot/room upto remember to put a hashtag on it.

4. Host an EA CC site.
I know this is farfetched and unlikely, but if you'd like to integrate with the CC community, the easiest way would be to directly attach the origin id to a CC site of EA's monitoring. As I know, EA has taken a stance against approving and monitoring any outside CC. But it's a suggestion nonetheless. =)
auntielynds
11 years ago
1. On your profile, an area you can list the CC & Mods you use in general with the ability to link to the creations.
Similar to many tumblr blogs that have a wcif (Where Can I Find) section.

2. A CC & Mod index where you can register your creation with a link to where it is hosted at.
This could work somehow with the internal naming of said CC when it's detected in the gallery?

3. The ability to change the picture on your upload to the gallery.
Repetitive, yes. Generally speaking, if someones taken the time to do a nice cover for their work, it's a good indication of the quality of the upload.
leesester
11 years ago
I think it is great that you are maybe allowing us to share content from our own sites via the Gallery. Of course, the gallery is vast so a lot of us also share CC elsewhere. It would be very useful if we were able to quickly identify all the tray files that belong to a single lot or sim rather than all the files being in a big "blob" together and make it so we are be able to easily package those up and share them between friends.