Buydebug preferences, from the downloader's perspective.

[danefaith]

So it's probably no surprise to any of you that I'm a bit of a building nut... so much so, that even my Simlish is getting rusty!  And excluding CC, I pretty much bar none when building: the building cheats, buydebug, custom patterns, the occasional store item... It got me wondering.  What are your thoughts, from the standpoint of the downloader?  Does finding, say: a masterpiece painting on your lot kill the buzz of painting it yourself - or does finding a nectar machine ready to go in the basement, sparing you the trip to France, strike you as a relief?  I've composed two key questions on which I was hoping for your input.


What are your thoughts on high level sim crafts and reward items?

So I think we all know what happened here.  The incorporation of the Majestic Grotto hot tub has trivialized all the blood, sweat, tears, and false accusations of public urination required to earn the item through celebrity status.  It's the only explanation.

As much as I focus on building, I'm building for a game where these homes are just the vessels for accomplishing the wide variety of goals available in the Sims: many of which surround obtaining items such as these.  What are your thoughts on their free inclusion?  What do you see as the benefits and downfall of them?  Would it be different if their inclusion was necessary and highly beneficial to the overall quality of the house, as opposed to just tacked in for the sake of it?


What are your thoughts on tomb items/apartment markers?

Certain building practices result in floors of space which are essentially redundant.  Placing a frieze in between two floors results in a full floor in between the first and second floor.  A building with a foundation and an elevator into the basement, would likewise result in a redundant floor between the first floor and the basement.  An item exists to bypass this little inconvenience, called the "level skip marker."  Placing it causes that floor to be automatically bypassed when shuffling in between floors.  But there's a catch 22: it marks the home as an apartment.  This apartment marker results in the disabling of most building options: "Homeowner's association rules do not allow this."  When I'm content with a home, I'll normally put level skips where necessary, but I never do so until after the house has been shared.

Not necessarily a problem if a house is essentially, "done," but still, a fickle problem for the future owner to go searching for the apartment marker and removing it, if he needs to make additions or adjustments to suit his or her needs.

We also know that things like simbot recharging stations and emergency showers are getting pretty popular, and as more and more experimentation happens we're sure to see more.  There is also plenty of mystique in hidden rooms...

What would your response be to incorporation of tomb and level skip techniques?  Would you expect full disclosure (in the use of level skips) or would you rather that choice be left to you?  When dealing with tomb objects, do you expect full disclosure, or would you enjoy the prospect of discovering them for yourself?

Hope this inquiry strikes your fancy, and hope to hear your opinions!

[Hosfac]

A very interesting topic!  And highly pertinent considering the recent popularity of "alternative amenities" as of late lol.

What are your thoughts on high level sim crafts and reward items?

A masterpiece painting wouldn't really bother me all that much.  There aren't all that many different versions to begin with, and it would free me up to sell the ones that I paint.  Likewise, a nectar maker isn't all that difficult to get.  All it takes is a little cash and a trip to France to get one.  So I wouldn't see that as a big deal, either.

But for reward items like the Majestic Grotto Hot Tub, it would really depend.  I wouldn't mind at all if it was in a public area in an apartment.  While my sims would use it, it's not really theirs and never will be, even if they move on to bigger and better things.  But in a house, I would prefer to have a standard one, and upgrade it myself.

What are your thoughts on tomb items/apartment markers?

For me personally, it wouldn't take me any time at all to figure out what the issue was if I started getting the "Homeowner's association rules do not allow this" message.  I've played around with apartment markers more than enough to know what's causing it, and I know what I need to do in order to work around it.  And if they were installed in order to make something work (like the skip floor marker), I would definitely want them in there.

But there are a lot of people who don't know, and it would undoubtedly cause them some stress.  A set of simple instructions on how to work around it would help a lot of people who did need to switch things around.

The "alternative amenities" like the simbot recharging station and emergency showers could likely also do with a simple explanation as to their purpose (especially if posting on the exchange), just so people who download don't have to struggle with trying to figure out exactly what their purpose is. 

But...for something like a hidden room or a secret tomb inside a house, the less I knew about it, the better!  As far as how much in the way of "spoilers" I would want would depend on how obvious it is to begin with.  For example:  if the room was located on an upper level, a big black space in the middle of the house would automatically prompt me to investigate it.  However, if there was a hidden room in an exterior basement wall, there's a chance that I might never find it at all lol.  But a mention of a "surprise" somewhere in the house would give me a reason to investigate the less obvious possibilities.

[Seabody]

1. I would find this great. I would be highly excited if I went to the kitchen to find, for instance, a MinusOne Kelvin fridge. Also, a nectar maker, board breaker, training dummy, etc. would be fantastic. It'd save sims money.

2. I'd be fine with that. Friezes are totally worthless, so I would be happy if you skipped them. As for actual tombs... You'd have to mention WA content when putting it on the swap shop, so you should have a training dummy room, etc.

Please advise us about Simbot Recharging Stations, Emergency Showers, etc.

[Ausette]

Ooh, cool topic! I'd love to share opinions . Prepare for a wall of text!

1. I think of finished buildings as works of art, and whatever goes into them to make them work aesthetically can only be good overall. Things like career rewards and World Adventures items not only add something interesting and different to the build, but also indicate a lot of effort on behalf of the builder. To me, paintings, buydebug content and the like are still official content, and using them as such shows how dedicated and imaginative the builder is. Sure you don't earn them ingame, but it seems realistic that an especially rich Sim or a Sim with interests in Martial Arts would get items custom made or delivered especially for their fancy new mansion.

Finally, I like to use custom paintings and photographs not only as decoration, but as little "Easter Eggs" with unique names, subjects, creator names etc. Finding little details like that in other peoples' work is even more thrilling than putting them in myself. 

2. World Adventures items get a solid yes from me, mostly because of the potential for new uses and that for the aforementioned Easter Eggs. I agree though with writing out a solid explanation on some of the more complex setups in the building's Swap Shop thread. Sometimes I use the WA word plaques in the buildings themselves for that purpose, if it's simple enough to explain. In other words, I agree with Hosfac  .

Apartment markers are a bit harder though because, as you said, they limit building ability. My viewpoint is that if the house is "complete", ie. if it's the best house your Sim could live in and has everything they need, you probably won't need to edit it and using apartment tools just makes playing it easier to play. For a starter house though, you'll probably do a lot of editing as you earn money and expand it to suit the family's needs, so apartment markers would just complicate it. That's all common sense, but the hard part is finding the cut off where it's sensible to use them. Personally, if a house was well out of starter range (say a price of $70,000 or more) and carefully decorated, I'd include the markers and add an explanation to the Swap Shop thread saying what they are, what they do and how to work around them if required.

[Hosfac]

Sometimes I use the WA word plaques in the buildings themselves for that purpose, if it's simple enough to explain.

That's something that never even occurred to me!  And indeed, for when all that is required is a simple explanation, those would probably be better than a blurb in the swap shop thread or on the exchange.  It's always with the house, so they'll never have to go searching for it later.

Wow, this also gives me another idea...but I think I'll save it for a surprise. 

[danefaith]

I forgot about the WA plaques entirely, those are a great idea!

[BellaClo]

I feel there is a lot of 'story telling' involved in the act of building a lot or a world. So, all the items which can be found under the 'buydebug' menu are 100% fine with me. If it makes sense to the creator of the lot/world, if it adds something to the 'story' behind the creation, then it's OK. I don't find it cheating or whatever, it's just basically using the whole potential of this sandbox game.

The apartment markers are a slight little bit different for me. Since they limit somehow the player, especially if it's someone not used to the cheatcodes, I prefer when they are used only where it's needed, namely apartments  .

[Jonna]

danefaith,

First of all, I am completely awe-struck by your building talent!  I could never, ever make anything even close to what you could do left-handed and blind-folded.  LOL.  So with that being said...

1. Crafts and Reward Items:

By all means, put them in.  Make the home the way you want it to look.  If I don't like something, I can always go in and sledgehammer away.  Or just replace items, you know.  Whatever.  But I probably won't.  If I want a board breaker, I'm not going to China just to get one.  I'm going to buydebug.  So in that regard, you'll have saved me the trouble.  If there is already a masterpiece painting, I probably won't even realize it.  If there is the celebrity hot tub, I'll probably forget it's even there.

2. Tomb Items/Apartment Markers:

I would have to say that if I want to go tomb-raiding, I'll take a vacation.  I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the tomb items.  Do I want a mummy walking around my home?  Well, no I don't.  Do you mean things like steam traps?  That's up to you, but I would probably just take them out.
As for the apartment markers, it would be inconvenient to have to use rbbb in order to take out said steam traps, but it's certainly not a deal-breaker.  I don't like the elevators anyway because they take too much time and sometimes get buggy.
I also don't like basements because they're kind of creepy.  I don't like playing tombs either.  I nearly had a heart attack when I was almost done with a tomb and noticed there were maybe three mummies walking around looking for a fight.  Creepy.


But I think I should point out that I have yet to download any of the houses on the forum, not because I don't like them, but because it's not practical to my game.  I don't need my sims to live in nice homes.  They don't even notice if they live in a big box.  I don't have the slowest PC but it's certainly not the quickest.  I don't mind not being a great builder because I would rather my game not slow down than for me to enjoy looking at the pretty rooms and landscaping.  I tend to have my sims live on the smallest sized lots, on single floor (I think they're called ranch-style?) homes.  I like being able to see what everyone is doing at all times.  So I love looking at pictures of your homes (and I'd sure love living in them myself!), but I probably won't be playing them any time soon.

Oh, but I should add -- if I'm building a world, then I would download homes off the forum.  Very convenient.  But it's been months since I've even opened CAW; the mood hasn't struck me in that long.

[Hosfac]

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by the tomb items.

What he was referring to was the alternative uses for traps that have recently gained popularity.  Things like Aussete's Simbot recharging station, my inventor's emergency shower, and Seabody's simbot reprogramming station.  I've also toyed with the idea of small, slightly less hazardous tombs on public lots and secret rooms in houses, although I have yet to actually do those.

[Jonna]

What he was referring to was the alternative uses for traps that have recently gained popularity.  Things like Aussete's Simbot recharging station, my inventor's emergency shower, and Seabody's simbot reprogramming station.

Then I addressed the issue.  Thank you.