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Post by effemar2004 on Oct 25, 2024 18:18:14 GMT -5
I'm new to modding, so I hope you will be patient as I learn.
CAS items in the sims 4 are sometimes encoded with strange or inaccurate tags. This is a common problem that people have with CAS, and the most common method I've seen to rectify this is to create a CC override for the specific item, with the item's proper tags encoded into the CC. This solution does not satisfy me.
With CC items, the tags for the item are pretty simple to edit with the tools I'm already familiar with, but the files that govern the original EA item must exist somewhere, right? I'm not opposed to doing something labor intensive, but I'm limited in my skills.
I haven't ever done build mode CC, but having used Twistedmexi's Better Build Buy mod, I'm aware that he did something (at least to my untrained eye) kind of similar, in that he created a tagging function for items that could be accessed in a certain category. I'd be interested in something like that, but Twistedmexi is obviously very skilled, so I don't know if he altered something naturally in the game or created something whole cloth for that purpose.
What I want is to make some way for the user to alter (maybe even create) tags on an item without the item being flagged as CC, and have those tags show up in the same menu from which you select filters when scrolling through CAS options. Altering the tags of individual clothing items doesn't necessarily need to be done in CAS itself, it might be easier to do some kind of external menu from which the tagging could be accessed. In a dream world, an item's tags could be edited natively in CAS, reassigned in EA categories, and maybe even given entirely new tags that a player could customize.
I think this idea has great potential and is in high demand from the community. Even if it's not feasible to do user selected tags, I would still be interested in setting tags through the mod itself and baking in the alterations. I think there are some things that are so obviously mistagged that a mod like this would still be helpful.
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Post by effemar2004 on Oct 25, 2024 23:03:47 GMT -5
Okay, so after a little bit of digging, I kind of found the parts I'm looking to change. From S4S' tools menu, you can browsing the CAS content. This allows you to view every CAS item. From there, you can view an item's 'CAS part'. The CAS part contains all the data on that specific CAS item, including all the tags, and from that data menu, the tags are editable! Maybe I'm just able to create a mod editing that data, and it would change that item's tagging in the game. I have no idea how I would begin to make them editable from the game itself, but hey, one thing at a time.
For my purposes, this is great. My main frustration was improperly tagged things in CAS, and if I can edit the tags, then even worst-case scenario, I can customize the tags on each item to MY judgement, and use that at least for myself.
EDIT: I found a very helpful thread here. Hoping this works!
EDIT: Well, I can't find any documentation about how to even START to open & edit the CAS part files. I've learned a lot about how to change tuning functions, and learned a bunch of cool stuff about how strings work, but since I can't find a way to extract the CAS part files or how I would go about implementing those altered files via a mod, I'm stumped for now. Maybe it involves some sort of very scary scripting... Hmm. I'm asking for clarification on the thread I linked above, since the wording is a little unclear. Are they actually changing the item in the game itself, or creating another CC item to override it?
I'm realizing exactly how ambitious my idea is. Though, now that I think about it, it's possible I could have my basic desire at least fulfilled. It would be simple enough (I think) to create overrides, and I'm realizing that since they're essentially the same item but tagged differently, any item selected in CAS with the overrides on would just be replaced by the exact "same" item with the overrides off. This, at least, I can do. I've made CC before, and this wouldn't even involve meshes :D What a breeze!
Maybe I can revisit my dream later. I still think it's functionality that's DESPERATELY needed in the game.
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