Testing world (CAW)

[Frey]

Maybe this is a stupid question, but can I export a world into the game, test a little bit to make sure everything is going well, then go back to CAW and go on with other stuff, and so on? I read some tutorial somewhere (don't know anymore where...) that said that doing so could cause bugs but I'm not sure if that's true or if maybe my english betrayed me and I misunderstood it.

What I want to do is export the world, create a sim to test the buildings I have so far, use him to get some books for the library and such and then go back to CAW. Can I do that?

Thanks in advance

[samoht04]

Yes you can export a World and still work on it. When you export a World it doesn't replace the CAW or make it a final it just puts it into your launcher. You then have to move it to your downloads folder and install it. When you are done testing simply uninstall it and reopen CAW and just open the CAW file to continue work from where you left off.

[DeLouche]

Absolutely you can do this! Just make sure that you uninstall it properly afterwards - this includes deleting any savegames you've made with that world.

[Frey]

Great! Thanks 

So, any books I add to any building from a Sim's inventory should stay there even though I uninstall the world from the game and delete the save files? I'm guessing no, so I guess I should just leave that for later, but still, I wanred to check  .

[samoht04]

So, any books I add to any building from a Sim's inventory should stay there even though I uninstall the world from the game and delete the save files? I'm guessing no, so I guess I should just leave that for later, but still, I wanred to check  .

No, anything done in game won't change anything in CAW. There isn't anyway to affect what books are in a lot unless you build the lot in game and then add it in CAW but have those bookcases filled with the books you want. Even then I'm not sure it will work.

[Frey]

Thanks 

[Chuckles_82]

Let us know if you do get the books to stay in the bookshelves! It would be awesome to have a couple of masterpeices and best sellers in the library.

[Frey]

I'm guessing it's not possible since you will delete the save file. But I figured out that I can test the game, bring some special books to the library, also some paintings and stuff, save the lot to the library, go back to CAW and then just replace the original building with the "improved" one after the final export  .

[DeLouche]

That's a really good idea! I'd be interested to know if this causes any bugs though, as I know that importing Sims with things in their inventories etc can cause bugs... they really need to be imported fresh from CAS, and then manipulated in EiG (edit in game). Additionally, horses and ghosts cause problems, so I'd be wary of including custom content like that. I guess the only way to know is to play the world for a couple of generations and see... Because special books etc would be an amazing easter egg for a world...

[Chuckles_82]

Yes, the best way to get ghosts is to set them up to die as soon as the game starts. You can, for example, give a sim the 'on fire' moodlet, and let it run down to almost zero, so they die when you start the game for the first time. The same goes for drowning. Or make them really really old so that they will die within the first few game days. Basically any death that has a moodlet (starving is another one) you can do quite easily.

[Frey]

Yup, I will have to do some testing. I didn't know about the possible bugs but I had thought it might cause some freezing or lagging. I would love to have a couple of books from China, France or Egypt there for instance though . I mean, not recipes because that would take the fun away from traveling, but the novels and maybe Photography I or something. And I'm getting bored of using the same paintings from Buy Mode in pretty much every lot I build, so it would be nice to have a sim paint like crazy for a few days and then decorate a couple of buildings with the paintings -  not too many, but the art gallery or the coffeshop or something like that.

About populating - I have no idea whatsoever how to do that!  as that's the last thing to do I'm just leaving it for the future. What I found weird yesterday was that I already have a sim living there! Is that normal? He's called Robert Newbie and just stands beside the park forever. I didn't create him, he just came out of nowhere.

[thesweetestpea]

About populating - I have no idea whatsoever how to do that!  as that's the last thing to do I'm just leaving it for the future. What I found weird yesterday was that I already have a sim living there! Is that normal? He's called Robert Newbie and just stands beside the park forever. I didn't create him, he just came out of nowhere.

Robert Newbie is an original Riverview resident. I have no idea how he got in there. Maybe he was packed with the world, but I haven't messed around with the Lite versions of worlds enough to know. I'd love to know if you do find out!

[Frey]

Oh! So that's why the name sounded familiar to me! I never really play townies  .

I know, it's the weirdest thing! I don't even have any residential lots yet, I'm only working in community lots for now! 

[thesweetestpea]

It's really odd. I thought that the Lite versions weren't supposed to come with population. Maybe you just caught a bug. I'll load RV Lite up myself later on and see what happens.

[Frey]

Yeah, I was thinking about that. Placing lots isn't working as it should either so I'm thinking I might just save everything to the library and move it into a new file. I haven't done any decorating outside lots yet so it wouldn't be such a pain, and if the file is bugged it would definitely be better to do it now than later after I have everything done. But I will load an empty version of Riverview Lite too and see what happens.

I'm pretty sure he wasn't there when I created the file though. I built that park and no sim was standing beside it on the street... but I haven't even exported the game to test it yet since I want to have some more progress to test before I do it, so I have no clue about where he came from.