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Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 26th Mar 2017 at 9:33 PM
Default Why do people put invisable stereos on lots?
I have no fashion sense, and my houses are stark and utilitarian. Thankfully, there are folks out there who have a sense of aesthetics that I can ... uh... borrow from.

Not sure where I found this nice house, but it has one of those hidden stereos on it. It was driving me nuts looking for it. I found it when editing the world. The lot didn't come with this world, tho. it's hard to delete, because in buy mode, it's invisible. I got it by editing the world in CAW where it isn't invisible. Then I could move it to throw away sim's invantory. Mr. Throw Away seen here...



This isn't the first time I've had the "hidden stereo" problem. So, I was wondering... why do people put hidden stereos on lots and how is it done?

Also, when you do a <Ctrl>+<Shift>+C then "MakeSim" (NRAAS mod Debug, right?) it always makes a male sim. Seems kinda sexist. Sometimes I use MC to make them a woman, just because equality, you know. Okay, usually the throw away sim I use as a service sim.
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Top Secret Researcher
#2 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 1:15 AM
Hi Emmett - I often see a lot of items, including stereos that appear to be floating in mid air in lots I have downloaded and installed. They can be hard to see in buy mode depending upon which floor/angle you are looking at. I often find multiple chairs and dishes all clumped together. These are usually just items left over by the lot builder. When I am able to see them sometimes I just use the little hammer to remove them but most of the time just leave them as Overwatch will clean all the junk out and generates the Destroyed Out Of World Items type script.
Theorist
#3 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 1:44 AM
I'm pretty sure that items floating on the extreme corners of lots was a bug that developed at some point after a patch. It was probably one of those things that was fixed then got broke again after yet another patch, lol! At any rate I hadn't seen it for a long time and here lately it happened to two lots I placed in worlds.

But the items have never been invisible to me. Sometimes I see them by accident and then they come to my attention, but I can see them if I consciously look for them.

Maybe you're experiencing something completely different. I've never heard about an invisible stereo though.

Just turned up this thread on Answer EA: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-M...-3/td-p/5588993

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#4 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 10:49 AM
I have regularly noticed this right from the start since I began downloading houses. Back then I really thought that this was some secretly agreed upon custom among experienced builders (probably from TS2 times) to mark the front of a lot. Because these objects are always on the first upper floor and tucked into a corner, something that could be made with moveobjects on.

However I rather believe now that this is the result of what happens when you install a downloaded house and have some of the furniture missing: tables, counters or other things with surface slots. While the game replaces that surface object it probably doesn't know what to do with objects that had initially been placed on that surface. Rather than placing them back onto the now replaced surface it pushes them all into one spot.

In your case my guess is that the creator of the world had placed a downloaded house in their world and not one they made themselves.
Theorist
#5 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 2:19 PM
That sounds like a pretty good theory, Don. Although I have to say that the last time this happened to me, just the day before yesterday in fact, the objects were all clustered in the farthest back right corner (when looking from behind, they actually didn't even look like they were on the lot at all but were at the tip of the back corner). But they were all basegame items so perhaps you are right that they are game substitutions. This lot started out as someone else's lot and I added quite a lot to it so now I am going to place the original lot some place and see if items show up.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#6 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 3:13 PM
Yeaah! I'm not crazy! or rather, this doesn't prove I'm crazy!!

That link to Sims site that tangie found: I don't think moving out actually solves the problem, I think it just shuts the stereo off. I think gnomes will turn it back on after you move back in. Gnomes like televisions and music. I think real gnomes would play the Sims.

I thought maybe the creator of the house just liked that music and wanted to share. Might not be so bad if the channel was set to 'custom music' and it was what I wanted to listen too. Two stereo's playing different tunes is kinda... annoying.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#7 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 3:22 PM
This might still be an instance of what I described when the lot was built on a plot that faced into the other direction (you know, the arrows you see when you place an empty lot in world editor mode).

BTW, I think I recognise this house. Is it perchance the "Impeccable Manor" that was added to the library with Generations?

This house does have a floating stereo and it is exactly the one shown in the picture. It looks as if it belongs on the dresser that is quite close to it on the second floor but was pushed outside to the lot border.

Here's a thread about it: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/dis...-air-outside-it
Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#8 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 3:26 PM
My gawd Don, you play this game way too much! Yes, that is EXACTLY the house! Impeccable Manor!

You just reached Gawd level on Sims 3 Trivia.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#9 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 3:50 PM
I could say that this was a mere coincidence.

Or I could stay silent and bask in the glory of my deification.
Theorist
#10 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 4:54 PM Last edited by tangie0906 : 27th Mar 2017 at 5:05 PM.
Well now, this is interesting. It wasn't the lot I was thinking of - that lot was a Bridal Shop and it had one lone little base game candle in the rear left corner.*



And it's still there on my remake because I hadn't ever noticed it before!



But here is the lot I was actually thinking of - it's a little chocolate shop* with a ton of CC that I extracted with Delphy's Multi-extractor to turn into package files. I already had some of the CC - in fact I think as these shots show, I have all the CC except for maybe two items which might be represented by the small BG ivy plants. These items were all clustered in the rear right corner of the lot.



Here I separated all of them and painted the ground with sand because it was shady in this spot and they're difficult to see.



The interesting thing is that what I apparently DON'T have were the display cases where all these items were placed by the lot's creator. You can see that there are two empty base game coffee tables in place where the displays with all those chocolates should have appeared.



So I do think that missing CC items might explain some of the floating item clusters but I have another lot where I suspect that MOO might be the culprit. If that's the case to test it I'd have to install the lot with the Launcher on a clean TS3 folder to see if the clustering items still happen. Probably not going to get to that, not today anyway.

Also on occasion I've had things just disappear on me while in Build mode. Happens the most with the shutters which are the most contrary things ever. I've definitely had those appear floating in the air above my house. One time the only reason I found it was the shadow it was casting on the ground got my attention!

*Lot was created by Littlelambsy from the NRAAS forum - she has created a whole bunch of adorable tiny commercial lots, available HERE.
Original Bridal shop is by Elle and available HERE

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Top Secret Researcher
Original Poster
#11 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 5:20 PM
Hey yeah! Savvy seller... Get that with Midnight hollow.

I have this idea where my sims buy everything at Savvy seller stores and there's no "buy" mode. Should be doable with a mod, as you can't buy in a vacation world.

Thanks for the links! I could never make stuff like that on my own. I make boxes with a counter. Decorating isn't something I can do.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#12 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 5:21 PM
tangie: Yes, all the objects you show are "surface clutter" and you miss the original surface.

Plus, after looking at your pictures, I guess the original surface has a different height from the coffee table that is the replacement, perhaps increasing the chances that the clutter gets placed on the lot border. On the bottom left the base game endtable also looks like a replacement, but the clutter is still there, suggesting to me that the game has less trouble with slotted items on replaced surfaces when the replacement has the same slots and slot height - unless these three chocolate boxes were placed by you.

I agree that MOO could probably cause the same when a creator placed an object in a position that is not legit.

Another reason could be a custom object with changed OBJD properties. Let's assume that someone cloned the decorative globe sculpture to create a new deco object and changed the OBJD such that the clone can go onto surfaces, too. Now you install a lot but don't have that new object and the game replace it with the original globe sculpture. The object references in the lot file tell the game that the object sits on a table but the replacement object, the globe, tells the game that it cannot sit on tables. I can imagine that the game then places the globe somewhere "safe" (outside the house). Rather than delete the globe the game shifts it into the "corner".

This is all speculation of course.
Theorist
#13 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 7:36 PM
You could be right about the height issue. The end table was originally a custom end table but the default end table object used by the game is the same height so the clutter remained there.

The even stranger thing, that I didn't mention earlier, is that I actually have that custom case installed that the coffee tables replaced. It's not showing up in my catalog though. Probably a memory issue - I have way too much stuff installed. It's not my PC; it's an i7 6700k with 16GB RAM. But I suppose the game itself can only read so many items before it starts to get 'forgetful'.

Quote: Originally posted by Emmett Brown
Hey yeah! Savvy seller... Get that with Midnight hollow.

I have this idea where my sims buy everything at Savvy seller stores and there's no "buy" mode. Should be doable with a mod, as you can't buy in a vacation world.

Thanks for the links! I could never make stuff like that on my own. I make boxes with a counter. Decorating isn't something I can do.


You're welcome! Just so you know, the Savvier Seller mod by Ani (first available here at MTS but moved to NRAAS) works a lot better than the original Savvy Seller that comes with Midnight Hollow, but then it depends on how you want to use it. If the shops are just for YOUR sims to purchase stuff in then Savvy Seller works. If you want your sims to sell their stuff in these lots then I recommend Savvier Seller mod (original Savvy Seller items are required for the mod to work). Also all of those lots use a lot of CC - I always like to know that myself because I try to carefully manage my CC in this game, so just a FYI.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
Mad Poster
#14 Old 27th Mar 2017 at 10:07 PM
I had that quite a bit for a while. Lots of objects in the air. But I used to clean a lot of downloaded lots with custard as did not want all the CC, so I probably deleted surfaces and so on. It was a pain to remove some of the things. It is good to know that overwatch will nuke them. But there were chairs, etc. too.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#15 Old 28th Mar 2017 at 2:48 AM
Hm, I have my doubts about Overwatch deleting these objects. What routine would that be?
ErrorTrap could perhaps do this but based on what reason? In theory these objects could have been placed there on purpose and it is not impossible to place them there yourself or move them somewhere else in Buy Mode. So, technically, they are neither out of world objects nor corrupt.
Theorist
#16 Old 28th Mar 2017 at 5:25 AM
Well, I have Overwatch installed and that first lot I showed a pic of still had the candle in the corner after a few sim days. So if there is something in the NRAAS mods that deletes those things it hasn't happened in that save yet.

¢¾ Receptacle Refugee ¢¾ ~ Where are we going, and why am I in this handbasket!? ~
Laura's Legacy
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