January, Etc. 2021 Summary: World Update

Oof, man am I behind on the summaries! I am extremely sorry for that, the last few months have been very busy, and more than half of January was spent sick as some of you know from my previous update post, which it turns out that I was sick from Covid (but everyone in my family is alright and I'm doing better). And of course the rest was spent on the cow and some other projects, which the cow is now out for public release if you haven't seen!

Anyways, I have some good news to share though, here we go!

World Update & Modding Discoveries

World: Back in late January Pancake and I finally did it, we cracked the last few files and our custom world map and icon no longer overrides that EA test world icon and map on the world selection menu!!! If you guys remember from my original announcement in October we had trouble discovering the last few UI files and changes that were needed for the world selection menu to recognize a fully custom UI file, because every time we made the two files custom the game would scream at us in protest, so we had to keep those last two EA files intact. But we finally figured it out, that means completely custom worlds are possible! (And we certainly feel silly, the answer was in front of us.)

We also wrapped up some other research regarding lot architecture and lot templates, which I won't bore you with the details but means that we can add pre-made lots without providing save files. We still have to test some details and get them setup, but this is very exciting as this was one of the most difficult things to research. The discovery made us want to yeet EA though for abandoning modders, part of the solution was so simple and could have been answered by them in a few seconds if they were willing, lol.

Also, the video above gives a sneak peak at a second world that we are working on, which we started because we realized the first world that we decided on was too massive, in terms of content, to release any time soon. Like it would probably be half a year before that one released, and that's just too long to go without posting something for the community. We will have a teaser/proof of concept world released first though, which we'll be posting info about as soon as we get closer to finishing. This is still a ways off as we are focusing on other projects right now.

Custom Mannequins: I didn't get a chance to post this to my patrons, but I discovered how to make custom mannequins after someone needed help making one and I decided to investigate. Turns out they are easy enough to make and also have the potential to be a completely new type of deco sim, one that can be dressed and posed anyway you like. I just need to figure out a simpler way for people to add poses (the idea is to mimic Pose Player or ask Andrew to include an optional update for it). Anyhow, this will also be a future tutorial after Styled Looks, which I did not forget about and started, but am not close to finishing. Since I was busy the last few months I haven't had much time to work on it. 

Current Progress

I've worked on several projects throughout the last few months and previewed them to patrons when able to, but since the cow was my main priority there also wasn't too much done. I have a few updates to release for existing mods, two being Human Ghost and Everyone Can Suntan to enable for kids, and I have one small mod to release that's been requested a few times by historical players, which is to have a hat remover system when indoors. I almost have the hat remover finished, and it's already been requested that a rule based on genders be added as well. I have also re-started my files for Arranged Marriages (since they were badly outdated) and will hopefully have previews and updates for you on that soon. And if I can manage, the Styled Looks tutorial as well.

I also made decent progress on the sword fighting mod, but it's still only about 1/3rd done as I have other features to add or fix for version 1. Will have more on this soon though!

Farming Pack Collab

Thank you everyone for your feedback and support! Many of you were wondering if we are doing other animals, and the answer is definitely! We also have some functional objects coming your way later, but our main priority for a while is farm animals. Our to-do list so far includes sheep, goats, llamas, pigs, horses, and chickens. Horses were highly requested even if they weren't able to be ridden (and we can't promise anything yet but are looking into options), and part of the chickens will be an update for Icemunmun's chicken coop to have animated chickens, no more VFX chickens! We are also thinking on some other requests we got, like rabbits, but haven't made a final decision yet. We already have a full plate, but really want to bring more options to you guys!

Our next goal is to release two updates for the cow, the first being bug fixes, translations, and improvements, and then the second update being completely new features, one of which will be an awesome surprise if things workout. 👀 We'll be previewing some of those new features as we work on the update, still holding a few surprises back though!

At the same time we will be preparing and starting the chicken update, and our next animal(s), which we will reveal once we've finished the rest of the cow's features.

We are very excited to continue working on these projects together and that the cow was so well received, we really appreciate it!

Other News

Scarlet's Mods

If you haven't heard yet, Scarlet is retiring from modding. She asked me if I would be interested in adopting any of her mods and I said yes, and I'm very thankful she considered me! They will release as is for now, future updates will follow at a later date, probably around the same time I upload the other updates. For the downloads the posts will be going live in a few hours, sorry for the spam post ahead of time.