Problems with Building on the Strangerville Secret Lab Lot

[LastingStar]

Right off the bat, I need to specify that I'm not asking whether or not it is possible to build on the Secret Lab lot, I know under normal circumstances it isn't.  But, I have always wanted to have a household live on that lot, and after years of accepting that as impossible, I have finally succeeded in being able to do so with minimal gameplay issues.  By using a temporary mod folder containing only MCCC, Tmex's Secret Lab build-buy mod, and Zerbu's Venue Changes mod, I was successfully able to make a clean save and change the venue type off of the secret lab type and to a Residential lot that I could move a household into, and build with normal household funds.  I was even able to play through the entire Strangerville storyline with minimal bugs.  However, now that I'm trying to build and refine the lower areas of the lab, I'm running into some problems that I really would like to see fixed.  That said, I'm not sure if this qualifies as a technical support issue, since it's not really a bug or problem, at least not one that I'm supposed to be having.

 

The issue has to do with unselectable and undeletable objects on the lot.  There are several of these, most apparent of which are the fences and lamp posts on the exterior of the building, and the pipes and utility boxes behind the building.  This wouldn't bother me much, except that there is another type of these objects present in the basement levels: fake floors and ceilings. 

 

You can see if I delete this corridor, it leaves behind this fake floor (it also leaves a fake ceiling, I just forgot to include that in the picture).  It can't be selected in live or build/buy mode, but it does follow some of the rules for floors, such as disappearing when the Mother Plant pit is placed over it.  As far as I can tell, almost every underground room on the lot has these.  They also cover up the stair wells, and, most obnoxiously, split the Mother Plant chamber in half.  My assumption is that these floors were somehow used to hide parts of the lab when playing in vanilla, which is why they aren't visible in the stairwells and the Mother Plant chamber.  I would really like to find a way to remove these, but I get the feeling that is going to require actual mod making on my part.  I don't really expect anyone to have any answers for this issue, since this situation is one that almost none of you have probably run into.  But, I figured I would ask all the same in case anyone happened to have any insight.  I'm considering using this as an opportunity to get into mod making for the Sims 4, with maybe the long term goal of overhauling Strangerville to make the Secret Lab lot editable and functional with user made lots.  But for now, I would just like to focus on this issue.  If anyone has any idea of how to address deleting these objects, I would appreciate the help, but if not, any tips you could give me on where to start looking insofar as creating a mod to remove these things, would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[ughwhat]

Have you tried TwistedMexi's TOOL mod? You could use it to delete the decorative stuff off and around the lot. Not sure if it would work on the fake floors and ceilings, but you could give it a try, just make sure to back up your save if it turns out you can delete them, because if they're essential to the lot you might end up breaking the save.

Edited March 20, 2022 by ughwhat

[abeautifulprob]

Okaii I have scoured the internet trying to figure this out but could you please give a slightly more detailed explanation of how you where able to live on the secret lab lot!!!!! This would save my feline I swear please && thanks

[LastingStar]

5 hours ago, abeautifulprob said:

Okaii I have scoured the internet trying to figure this out but could you please give a slightly more detailed explanation of how you where able to live on the secret lab lot!!!!! This would save my feline I swear please && thanks

Well, unfortunately it does seem to require a new save.  From my testing, I was able to change the Strangerville secret lab to a normal Residential lot with Tmex's Secret Lab BuildBuy and Zerbu's Venue Changes. 

https://www.patreon.com/posts/secretlab-mode-25321160

https://zerbu.tumblr.com/post/160347810775/the-sims-4-mod-venue-changes

I recommend making a temporary mod folder with just these in them and nothing else, and renaming your main mod folder to something else.  Start a new game, go to Manage Worlds, edit the Secret Lab lot, change the lot type to something other than Residential, then change it back.  I believe this should change it from its hidden special venue type (that Tmex's mod doesn't completely get rid of on its own anymore) to a normal residential lot.  Save the game, exit, switch back to your normal mods folder, then load the game, and you should be good to go.  I haven't tested thoroughly, but that is what worked for me.

 

Another topic I'm thinking about though is... while I would like to get into that Strangerville overhaul I was thinking about, the more pressing issue is that, I would also really like to make the Strangerville story stuff more worthwhile to do.  The gifts you can get from the Mother Plant are good, but they aren't unique to Strangerville, and there are honestly easier ways to get most of them.  Everything else about it is basically pointless though.  There's literally no reason to keep growing the strange plants because Bizarre Fruits have negligible sell value, and you can't do anything else with them, aside from maybe using them to refill your motives in a pinch in exchange for becoming possessed, which is quite an obnoxious solution. 

 

I think, what I would like to do instead, is focus on making the stuff from Strangerville more interesting to play the game with.  The Mother Plant's ability to control minds is really interesting, and I would love to enable my sims to harness that power by researching the Mother Plant and her bizarre offspring and fruits.  I was even thinking about, maybe doing something like allowing your sims to become a host for the Mother Plant itself, and gain her powers and control.  If any of you guys have any ideas about what would be cool to see in a mod, I would love to hear it.  Anything cool that you could get from having your sims grow and research the Mother Plant, Strange Plants, and bizarre fruits.  What do you guys think?  I'd love to hear your suggestions!

[Kevin4fm]

On 3/18/2022 at 8:54 PM, LastingStar said:

... The issue has to do with unselectable and undeletable objects on the lot.  ...  This wouldn't bother me much, except that there is another type of these objects present in the basement levels: fake floors and ceilings.  ...

 

Did you ever find a solution to this? I'm also doing a Secret Lab revamp. I'm able to get rid of the fencing, satelite dishes, etc. but they soon just come back. Gave up trying that and just incorporated them into my design. It's the EA floor and ceiling remnants which are now bugging the heck out of me. Also, don't suppose you ever worked out how to get rid of the ground level tyre tracks, did you?

 

EDIT: LOL, just read your secondary gameplay note. I've had Sims4 for two or three years now, and according to EA I've put in some 3400+ hours. However, I haven't really actually 'played' it yet. Too busy building things, and experimenting with interesting mods!

 

Edited September 13, 2022 by Kevin4fm
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