New-ish to modding The Sims 4. Running into some issues with WickedWhims.

[AutisticTranarchist]

Hello, I apologize if this seems to be a tedious and overly-mentioned issue, I did do some digging around on the forums here but I couldn't find a thread that really fit my issue, let alone one that was recent enough to still have useful advice with the latest updates.

 

I have The Sims 4 and all expansions, I've done some modding in the past but... well, that wasn't exactly well-done. Things functioned but I pretty much just threw all package and scripts directly into the Mods folder with, well, no organisation whatsoever. My goals were less... concerned with longevity if that makes sense. I just threw a bunch of mods together with the intention to have some silly fun for a few hours before putting the game down for another extended period of time. But now,  now I am back, I have more expansions, and I'm willing to take on this game as a more long-term endeavor because, well, I assume you can work out for yourself exactly why I am looking for various forms of long-term entertainment in our current global situation.

 

Oddly enough, everything worked back then... albeit hardly. MCCC Command Center exceptions were frequent and unrelenting, but everything in-game worked fine. Including Wicked Whims! But, well, as previously stated I didn't really care much about how well everything worked back then. But now, I've taken modding more seriously. I've got everything neatly packed away into the right folders, not too deep that they can't be read, though! I've found it quite enjoyable in honesty, keeping track of all the different mods, filing them away neatly into folders, even keeping notes on what version number the mod's on and when it was last updated just to ensure I can keep as on-top of everything as possible. All this with frequent testing of how the game manages every few mods installed.

 

I imagine no one reading this is surprised to hear that the outcome of this has been a far better and smoother performance for my modded game overall! No more am I plagued by constant MCCC exceptions each time I load into a lot, nor am I worried about the game completely falling apart at the seams when two mods which have no right being in the same game inevitably conflict. Knowing me, I made a horrible mistake somewhere which will only reveal itself when I'm ten hours into the game and experimenting with something random but I'll get to that when I get to it.

 

And that brings me to my current... issue, for lack of a better term. Until now, modding's been simple, and the outcome is a game that, as far as I can tell, works well with all the mods I've installed so far. It's even been rather therapeutic, filing away mods properly and keeping accurate notes on them is very pleasing for my autistic brain. But... I've encountered some issues with Wicked Whims. To put it bluntly, it confuses me. I can get the core mod working fine but the confusion for me comes from all the extra mods, mainly the body types and details. It ends up with me having several almost identical looking tabs open with me looking carefully through them trying to figure out if I have what I need for it to work properly, eventually resulting in me getting confused by something like the terminology. It seemingly always ends up with me asking the same questions. "What is a skin? A skin to me sounds like it means details, but this author's terminology makes it sound like they're talking about a mesh. Is a mesh and a skin the same thing? Alright, well, I'll just use this one instead, but I need seperate details for it... okay, I'll try these details, but... they say they're only for a specific type of mesh. Where do I find this mesh?" ect, ect. It's a rather vicious cycle of constant questioning and confusion resulting in a bodged job at the end which doesn't even properly work when I finally test it.

 

So what am I looking for? Why am I posting this?

 

Simply, I'm looking for advice on what I should install as a solid foundation for Wicked Whims. Something that gives me detailed nudity, preferably with a decent amount of customization, which I can then install other packs and options on top of.

 

I'm not really picky on what mods you advise me to use, so long as they look alright and function well. I... admittedly do care about the option of turning a penis on and off regardless of character's gender as I've gotten decent-enough results before but the male model has always had a penis that I can't seem to remove regardless of gender settings in CAS.

 

I would also like it if I can add different things on top of it. More... unique body parts if I wished. I think I understand how those work, and how the "body customizing" works. So, ideally, I would like for my foundation mods to not get in the way of that, as much as possible. Honestly this is more optional, I just like customization, but if I'm stuck with more strict models and options for a sim's features I'm fine with that. I care more about installing custom animations and objects to use with Wicked Whims, I just need help with getting the nudity and all that set up properly.

 

So, what I'm looking for is advice on how to properly set up Wicked Whims and nudity, or if someone was willing to tell me directly what mods to use to remove the guesswork and, frankly, inevitable confusion on my part I'd be thankful. But really, any help is appreciated. I know this is probably something that's very tedious to answer, and I've tried multiple times to figure it out myself but it's just falling through the cracks in my ADHD-riddled brain, unfortauntely.

 

I'm sorry if I came off as "needy" with the few preferences I listed, I considered going into more detailed preferences but, really, I'm fine with anything that functions. I greatly appreciate any assistance offered, and again, sorry for my ineptitude with modding.

[Crashdown117]

Gonna start with the most simple thing here: In CAS there are three little dots right underneath the male/female gender symbols. There you can select body type, clothing preference and pregnancy options individually. With WickedWhims installed, the option to use toilets standing is replaced by "this Sim has a penis".

Alternatively, you could use ColonolNutty's Custom Gender Settings - found here: https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/10563-custom-gender-settings-cgs-by-colonolnutty/

 

 

For body parts and skins simply browse through the TS4 download section here on LoversLab (unfortunately not all skins and body parts seem to be under the "Body Parts" category, so you might need to check other cats like "WickedWhims", too). Additionally I can highly recommend Luumia's skin CC (found here: https://luumiasims.com/post/176210851339/vanilla-skin-luumia) as well as Noir and Dark Sims' stuff - especially the penis models (found here: https://noiranddarksims-adultworld.blogspot.com/search/label/The Sims 4)

For Luumia's CC, don't put anything with "DR" in its name into Mods, as it will cause a conflict. You may also need "add-ons" to make some body parts available in WW's Body Selector - for example https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/7610-luumia-bodeii-add-on-for-wickedwhims/ and
https://www.loverslab.com/topic/125363-luumia-tit-e-body-redux-tops-for-wickedwhims/ if you're using Luumia's nude tops (male chest and female breasts, respectively).

 

When it comes to WW and MC Command Center existing side-by-side, make sure their settings are identical. If WW allows polygamy but MCCC doesn't, there'll be no polygamy.

 

Regarding other mods: Just keep track of them (especially those you recently added and those that haven't received an update in some time), try those that look interesting, and if something doesn't work, go through the usual troubleshooting steps - remove the mod to see whether it was really causing it, take a look at "LastException.txt" if an error occured, or just ask on the forums. When in doubt, go with "trial and error" and always remember to delete "localthumbchache.package" found in "Documents/Electronic Arts/The SIms 4" after you've made major changes to your Mods folder.

 

Finally, a side note about extending your gameplay: There are some mods by ColonolNutty that allow you to have even more different ways of (sexual) interactions in your game, as well as "Nisa's Wicked Perversions" (requires "Basemental Drugs", link on the Wicked Pervs download page) which brings you a prostitution system (among other things) and a few other mods found here on LoversLab - they're all WW compatible AFAIK.

 

I hope these suggestions are of some help to you. If you have any questions or encounter issues, feel free to ask.

[AutisticTranarchist]

2 hours ago, Crashdown117 said:

Gonna start with the most simple thing here: In CAS there are three little dots right underneath the male/female gender symbols. There you can select body type, clothing preference and pregnancy options individually. With WickedWhims installed, the option to use toilets standing is replaced by "this Sim has a penis".

Alternatively, you could use ColonolNutty's Custom Gender Settings - found here: https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/10563-custom-gender-settings-cgs-by-colonolnutty/

 

 

For body parts and skins simply browse through the TS4 download section here on LoversLab (unfortunately not all skins and body parts seem to be under the "Body Parts" category, so you might need to check other cats like "WickedWhims", too). Additionally I can highly recommend Luumia's skin CC (found here: https://luumiasims.com/post/176210851339/vanilla-skin-luumia) as well as Noir and Dark Sims' stuff - especially the penis models (found here: https://noiranddarksims-adultworld.blogspot.com/search/label/The Sims 4)

For Luumia's CC, don't put anything with "DR" in its name into Mods, as it will cause a conflict. You may also need "add-ons" to make some body parts available in WW's Body Selector - for example https://www.loverslab.com/files/file/7610-luumia-bodeii-add-on-for-wickedwhims/ and
https://www.loverslab.com/topic/125363-luumia-tit-e-body-redux-tops-for-wickedwhims/ if you're using Luumia's nude tops (male chest and female breasts, respectively).

 

When it comes to WW and MC Command Center existing side-by-side, make sure their settings are identical. If WW allows polygamy but MCCC doesn't, there'll be no polygamy.

 

Regarding other mods: Just keep track of them (especially those you recently added and those that haven't received an update in some time), try those that look interesting, and if something doesn't work, go through the usual troubleshooting steps - remove the mod to see whether it was really causing it, take a look at "LastException.txt" if an error occured, or just ask on the forums. When in doubt, go with "trial and error" and always remember to delete "localthumbchache.package" found in "Documents/Electronic Arts/The SIms 4" after you've made major changes to your Mods folder.

 

Finally, a side note about extending your gameplay: There are some mods by ColonolNutty that allow you to have even more different ways of (sexual) interactions in your game, as well as "Nisa's Wicked Perversions" (requires "Basemental Drugs", link on the Wicked Pervs download page) which brings you a prostitution system (among other things) and a few other mods found here on LoversLab - they're all WW compatible AFAIK.

 

I hope these suggestions are of some help to you. If you have any questions or encounter issues, feel free to ask.

Thank you for responding! I'll be sure to get to work tomorrow getting those installed alongside WickedWhims, hopefully it all goes fine. I imagine it will, as I now have a rather clear idea of what to do.

I do have another question that just popped into my head. I'm not exactly running the game on optimal hardware, I'm using a three year old acer Aspire and it handles the game fine on medium settings. I can get a frame rate of about 50-ish FPS, with only occasional stuttering and frames dropping that I'm more than willing to take because I managed to get The Sims 3 to run at nearly max settings on a macbook ten years ago which essentially turned it into a bloody slideshow. Ah, rambling aside, my question is:

 

Should I be concerned about installing too many animations and/or items creating issues for performance? I remember last time I got WickedWhims to install with my haphazard, half-arse, and careless approach to modding I installed a lot of different animations and I don't think it impacted performance, at least not significantly, but with a more cautious approach with longevity in mind, is there any sort of limit or restraint I should have?

 

Sorry again for these questions, and thank you again for the helpful advice.

[Scorpio]

51 minutes ago, AutisticTranarchist said:

Should I be concerned about installing too many animations and/or items creating issues for performance? I remember last time I got WickedWhims to install with my haphazard, half-arse, and careless approach to modding I installed a lot of different animations and I don't think it impacted performance, at least not significantly, but with a more cautious approach with longevity in mind, is there any sort of limit or restraint I should have?

As long as you have enough HDD space plus running the swap file the only performance hit might be in games loading time.

 

I don't bother with all the smaller sized animations that only have a few animations made so far.

Best to stick with the bigger main ones like MOTERLOADSIMS, Mike24, OoLala, Lupobianco, Amra72, Lifeline, etc.

 

If your Laptop only has 4GB main memory it wouldn't hurt to get an upgrade to 8GB.

(Since many Laptops share the main memory with the integrated Intel graphics).

(If this is the case, usually you can increase the memory used for graphics to 2GB, but only if you have 8GB main memory available).     

(This may help with improving game performance when running).

 

And if your sim has too many relationships, like 100+, it will also cause a stuttering type of slideshow.

 

I try to limit my use of heavy script mods to just WW, Basemental Drugs, MCCC, and NPCC.

The smaller tuning mods really don't bother game performance unless they have a conflict with another mod.

Also keep an eye out for duplicate (files/cc mods) cause they can cause issues. 

 

[Crashdown117]

In additon to what Scorpio already pointed out:

System specs are really not much of a critical factor, when it comes to using mods. If you can run the game in its vanilla state, you can run it with a bunch of mods, too (side note: I have a ten year old laptop that meets the minimum requirements - except for the 15GB of free disk space).

 

Complex game worlds (lots of Sims, many relationships between them), crowded areas and some really large or complicated buildings will hurt performance way more and sometimes regardless of your system specs. I can run the game on max settings just fine, but when there's a huge party at a big club the FPS drop a little occasionally.

So, if that bothers you too much, simply make your active Sims forget a few people (MCCC has an option for that), delete a few NPC Sims in Household Manager or lower your graphics settings by a bit.

 

And, for reference: My Mods folder contains about 1,500 files and is a little less than 3GB in size. Loading the game takes a little longer than without mods, although I barely notice the difference.