Hi all
I thought we might like to have a thread discussing the highs and lows of preparing lots for download.

When I build, I was taught to use a pre-placed, flat, empty lot. I then flatten it again, and check for spawners by turning on buydebug. I was also taught to make a small basement to check for spawners below ground. I found out that unless your basement includes the whole lot, you can miss some underground spawners.

I have a lot available for download for almost a year. It has over 700 downloads. I recently discovered dozens and dozens of butterfly spawners stacked and hidden under the lot. I was aghast. I am surprised no one mentioned it until now. It makes me wonder if most people download lots and do not play with them. Perhaps people deleted the spawners themselves and didn't think to or want to mention it. Perhaps people just deleted the lot. Aghhhhhhh!

I think most people just fix the issues and get on with it.

I build on a custom map (of my own making) that is just roads and a variety of lot sizes, which I hope prevent a variety of spawner issues that might arise from using lots already existing in EA maps. (Of course that leaves me with an often awkward issue of having to find a place to put lots for pictures.) I never place spawners on lots that I will share.

I've noticed a few times (much later) from my pictures that I have errors in builds. A missing column, forgetting to put furniture back in the right place, or an errant wallpaper. I just assume that users will fix those small things themselves. That being said, I knowingly have bits that don't work in my uploads. Like dining chairs (not with tables) against walls that sims won't sit in or benches/couches that sims won't use to view a wedding. I look at things like that as being a "staging" where it looks good for the pictures. Furniture and interior decor is easily changed by users, and I also try make make interior walls easy to modify as well by only having my CFE bits be on the exterior or roof parts.

One thing I always worry about is ground paint. That perfect painted curve for the drive over meticulously sculpted terrain gets shifted/screwed up every time the lot is rotated. But eh, what can you do?

I have downloaded a few lots from people I admire on Youtube. Often they build with sims3pack files and they just live their own life. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don't.

This game is just full of issues. I think if you download others items on a regular basis, you just need a bit of slack.

When it comes to spawners they might require some knowledge to see them as a problem. Some downloaders might just look at them and wonder, then they get on with fixing whatever they want. Spawners is usually only a problem if you turn the lot around dozens of times, they might not do that. If they do and it lags, they probably just post on our forum asking why the game is so laggy, and who would think about blaming the spawners then?

I am kidnapping this post by alverdine from another thread (http://www.modthesims.info/showthre...83483 -post#67).
I had No idea that you can select "add move interactions to all objects in room". This makes Decorators Best Friend SO much more user friendly.
Thanks @alverdine !

OMSP causes lag that increases exponentially as more are used. I will try to find the thread where this was discussed.

How do you respond to feedback? If someone makes a request, what do you say? If someone says your lot crashed their game, what do you do?

I have been building most of my homes for download as base game, no cc. More people can download them, but I am tired of the same stuff over and over. On the other hand, my CASting skills are getting much better.

Someone said my lot crashed their game. My base game no cc lot that I made in a clean install folder and checked with custard. I downloaded it from here and checked it again. Then I referred them to the TS3 help section. Should I have done more?

I haven't gotten any requests.

I kind of follow the same structure as you seem to, attuned... I've gotten a few requests, some of which were things that are completely outside my capabilities (anything involving meshing or modding, for instance, or ANYTHING beyond TS2, which should be obvious, but apparently isn't! )in which case I basically just say "nope, sorry," but I've also gotten a few requests that are possible, and while I haven't done any lots SPECIFICALLY because of a request, they've influenced my future creations to some degree.

If I get a bug report, I'll try to replicate it in my game and see if it's fixable, but given that I build everything CC-free and have scarcely any mods in my game in the first place, there's seldom anything I can do on my end. If it's similar to glitches other people have experienced with other lots, I'll try to direct them to the discussions on solutions, but it's almost never been something I could do anything about.

And, to be honest, I create things and upload them because I LIKE creating them, and I LIKE seeing people using them! I do this for fun, not because I get any benefits from it beyond that. I check them out before I upload them, because I don't want to be giving people lots with obvious problems, but there's a limit to how much work I'm willing to do in that vein. If things work, great! If they don't, I'll take a quick look and see if it's a fix I can manage, but if it's not, or if it's too much work and not fun for me, sorry, you may be out of luck... Especially with my grad school course-load, I don't have a huge amount of free time, so what time I do have is going to be filled primarily with things that interest me, and long quests to replicate single-occurrence issues aren't particularly interesting! If a problem is too big, honestly, my answer is "then don't download it."

I had someone asking about some problem with seeing the lot in ts4, I have been in and out of that game so many times, and it changes. I just referred them to the help forum. I don't really get that many bug reports, not as I can remember. Except that strange lamp from DOT. I think I just deleted it with custard or something. If I get bugreports in ts3, I feel quite secure about that game, but if it is something I'm unsure about, I would send them to help as well. I think I had someone asking a question about some elevator once, and objects in ts3 can be a bit of a science sometimes. I posted myself in the modding forum and was adviced to drop it, it was too much work for me, and even sounded like a bit of a struggle for seasoned modders.

I have got some requests for the same lot, but bigger I think. I just said I never make the same lot twice, and don't take requests. He or She just said she wouldn't force me, which was kind of funny since I consider that to be rather ... well, it would be unsuccessful