saves How do you personally separate your saves between WW, other mods & cc, and vanilla?

[MaleBooty]

Hello, 

I'm kind of new to Wicked Whims but familiar with The Sims 4, mods & CC. I was wondering how you guys go about separating your games between versions? ie WickedWhims and Vanilla or Wicked Whims and non-explicit mods/cc.

 

I tend to play The Sims 4 with family and friends where we might trade builds & sims we've created. I don't want WW to get mixed in with my other saves. Going from vanilla to modded is pretty straight forward but what if you're going between two modded versions? ie. explicit and non-explicit? The censor option of WW for streamers isn't necessarily family friendly and I would rather just not have it in the game while playing with other people. From my understanding it's not as easy to organize your Tray & Saves folder like it is your Mods folder. 

Thanks for your time guys!

[LittleRedSonja]

5 hours ago, boybooty said:

Hello, 

I'm kind of new to Wicked Whims but familiar with The Sims 4, mods & CC. I was wondering how you guys go about separating your games between versions? ie WickedWhims and Vanilla or Wicked Whims and non-explicit mods/cc.

 

I tend to play The Sims 4 with family and friends where we might trade builds & sims we've created. I don't want WW to get mixed in with my other saves. Going from vanilla to modded is pretty straight forward but what if you're going between two modded versions? ie. explicit and non-explicit? The censor option of WW for streamers isn't necessarily family friendly and I would rather just not have it in the game while playing with other people. From my understanding it's not as easy to organize your Tray & Saves folder like it is your Mods folder. 

Thanks for your time guys!

I play a lot with wonderful whims (all "family friendly" features in wicked whims, no explicit sex or dialogs), and i simply move wicked whims folder out (and the settings folder) and put wonderful whims (and the settings in). When i want to play vanila i simply rename my mods folder to something else (ie mods2) but  you could also disallow custom content and script in game options. 

The tray and saves i do not see the problem there. You can have a save for vanilla, a save for wicked whims and a save for "no wicked whims". Or are you asking about switching mods and vanilla in the same save? Because that will not work. 

Tray files i really do not know where the problem is. If you simply move between wonderful whims and wicked whims you can still use your same sims in the tray. If you move between moded and vanilla you should not have any problem either. If you use for example mc commander to import random sims from your tray you can add "tags" to sims and then filter what sims mc commander will import into the game depending on tags.

I am sorry if i am missing something, i hope i am answering your question ?

[Crashdown117]

In addition to what Sonja pointed out, the game will simply remove any custom content that is not "available" (i.e. not present in your Mods folder). For example, if you have a strip club with a stage and a dancing pole, not having WW in your Mods folder will make that pole disappear. The stage itself will still be there, but replace that with a dance floor and you've got yourself a perfectly fine night club, including a VIP lounge (seats formerly assigned for lap dances). Same goes for Sims, both in existing saves and from the Gallery, so no need to mess with the Saves and Tray folders.

Bear in mind, though, that what once is lost can never be regained (unless you revert to a previous version of your save file). Saving your game without WW will remove any and all stuff related to WW from that save.

 

As for switching between multiple mod setups, you might want to take a look at batch scripting (or the non-Windows equivalent thereof on any other system). With a second directory like "Mods2" alongside the actual Mods folder, you could write a script that runs a number of MOVE operations between these two. Replacing WickedWhims with WonderfulWhims could look something like this (better double-check the syntax before actually running this):

CD "path\to\Mods"
IF EXIST "WickedWhims" {
MOVE "path\to\Mods\WickedWhims" "path\to\Mods2"
MOVE "path\to\Mods2\WonderfulWhims" "path\to\Mods"
}
DEL "path\to\localthumbcache.package"
CD "path\to\TS4install\Game\Bin"
START "" ".\TS4_x64.exe"

If you have seperate sub-folders for your explicit and non-explicit CC (e.g. "Mods/outfits" and "Mods/sexyOutfits"), you can do the same with these and of course any other mod sub-folder as well. Just run them all through MOVE commands (with IFs ensuring that no errors are produced) and put that DEL command at the end so you don't have to remember doing that part manually before launching the game (which is what the last two lines should do). The CD command takes you to where you installed the game and then further into "Game/Bin", where the game executable is found (replace "Bin" with "BinLE" if running Legacy Edition), and the START command launches the game (delete the "_x64" part for Legacy).

The quotation marks around all the paths (full paths, by the way, so "C:\Users\..." rather than just "Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4") are safeguards, as many of the folder names involved contain whitespaces.

Creating one such batch file for each desired setup might take some time, depending on how many folders you need to move (and how many IF blocks you need in order to make sure that you aren't trying to move a folder which isn't there), but it will allow you to change your mod setup and run the game with just one click.

I should add, however, that I'm a guy who studies Computer Science, so when I see this, I think "easy-peasy". Dunno about "normal" people ?

[LittleRedSonja]

1 hour ago, Crashdown117 said:

In addition to what Sonja pointed out, the game will simply remove any custom content that is not "available" (i.e. not present in your Mods folder). For example, if you have a strip club with a stage and a dancing pole, not having WW in your Mods folder will make that pole disappear. The stage itself will still be there, but replace that with a dance floor and you've got yourself a perfectly fine night club, including a VIP lounge (seats formerly assigned for lap dances). Same goes for Sims, both in existing saves and from the Gallery, so no need to mess with the Saves and Tray folders.

Bear in mind, though, that what once is lost can never be regained (unless you revert to a previous version of your save file). Saving your game without WW will remove any and all stuff related to WW from that save.

 

As for switching between multiple mod setups, you might want to take a look at batch scripting (or the non-Windows equivalent thereof on any other system). With a second directory like "Mods2" alongside the actual Mods folder, you could write a script that runs a number of MOVE operations between these two. Replacing WickedWhims with WonderfulWhims could look something like this (better double-check the syntax before actually running this):

CD "path\to\Mods"
IF EXIST "WickedWhims" {
MOVE "path\to\Mods\WickedWhims" "path\to\Mods2"
MOVE "path\to\Mods2\WonderfulWhims" "path\to\Mods"
}
DEL "path\to\localthumbcache.package"
CD "path\to\TS4install\Game\Bin"
START "" ".\TS4_x64.exe"

If you have seperate sub-folders for your explicit and non-explicit CC (e.g. "Mods/outfits" and "Mods/sexyOutfits"), you can do the same with these and of course any other mod sub-folder as well. Just run them all through MOVE commands (with IFs ensuring that no errors are produced) and put that DEL command at the end so you don't have to remember doing that part manually before launching the game (which is what the last two lines should do). The CD command takes you to where you installed the game and then further into "Game/Bin", where the game executable is found (replace "Bin" with "BinLE" if running Legacy Edition), and the START command launches the game (delete the "_x64" part for Legacy).

The quotation marks around all the paths (full paths, by the way, so "C:\Users\..." rather than just "Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4") are safeguards, as many of the folder names involved contain whitespaces.

Creating one such batch file for each desired setup might take some time, depending on how many folders you need to move (and how many IF blocks you need in order to make sure that you aren't trying to move a folder which isn't there), but it will allow you to change your mod setup and run the game with just one click.

I should add, however, that I'm a guy who studies Computer Science, so when I see this, I think "easy-peasy". Dunno about "normal" people ?

Uuuuh! That is a nice hack, thank you for sharing it! ?

[Crashdown117]

6 hours ago, LittleRedSonja said:

Uuuuh! That is a nice hack, thank you for sharing it! ?

You're very welcome.

 

A (not so) little addendum regarding the IF blocks:

Wtih multiple setups. all mods that belong to one "group" (e.g. all the explicit stuff) can go into one IF block that checks for one of these mods (e.g. check for WickedWhims, then also handle all the other stuff you can get here at LL). If you want to use mods across multiple setups, create an extra IF block for them - unless you use them in ALL setups (in that case, don't bother with them at all and just leave them in your Mods folder all the time).

That way, you can easily "turn on/off" individual sets of mods with something like this:

CD "path\to\mods"
IF EXIST "WickedWhims" {
MOVE all the explicit stuff into your secondary mods folder (e.g. "Mods2"), turning this mod group OFF
proper code for each individual mod would be something like:
MOVE "path\to\Mods\WickedWhims" "path\to\Mods2"
}

IF NOT EXIST "WonderfulWhims" {
MOVE all the family-friendly stuff into the actual Mods folder, turning this mod group ON
proper code for each individual mod would be something like:
MOVE "path\to\Mods2\WonderfulWhims" "path\to\Mods"
}

Adding/removing the NOT and swapping "Mods" and "Mods2" will now easily allow you to make the whole script work the other way around, meaning you'll only have to set it up once and the create copies for your other setups (turning groups on or off as needed). That's also the reason behind the extra groups mentioned above - if you want to add some mods that run alongside both your explicit and family-friendly setups, they would go into another block, that's enabled for both of these setups and disabled for any others you might have (where both WickedWhims and WonderfulWhims would also be disabled).

For a simple binary swap between two sets of mods, this would be total overkill, of course - just do all the moving within a single IF block and then invert that one block for the other setup.

 

And if you really want to keep your saved games seperate between setups, you can do so with a similar control flow and a bit of renaming (just figured that out while I was taking a shower ?). This little snippet of code assumes that you have one saves folder for every setup, called "saves_setupName" when inactive and "saves" when active:

CD "path\to\Documents\Electronic Arts\The Sims 4"
IF EXIST "saves_explicit" {
IF NOT EXIST "saves_family" {
REN "saves" "saves_family"
}
IF NOT EXIST "saves_vanilla" {
REN "saves" "saves_vanilla"
}
IF EXIST "saves" {
REN "saves" "saves_back"
}
REN "saves_explicit" "saves"
}

In this example, there are three setups ("explicit", "family", "vanilla") and the "explicit" setup is to be enabled. The first IF checks whether "explicit" is already active (if it is, there's no folder called "saves_explicit") and the bunch of "IF NOT"s nested into it make sure that any disabled setup can be re-enabled properly later - and yes, you need to run through all of your setups, but you can use copy/paste again and simply swap "explicit" with whatever setup you would like to enable in the copied script. The last IF (also nested into the first block) is a safeguard for the highly unlikely case of there being no setup active but an active saves folder (shouldn't ever happen, but if we're doing this, we're doing it right), and then the final REN can do the one thing that this whole bit of code was supposed to do in the first place.

Again, for binary swaps a simple check with a single IF block and two REN operations is enough.

You can treat your Tray folder in the same fashion, if you want, by adding another REN operation with "Tray" instead of "saves" to every block (no need for an extra set of seperate checks here, except maybe for the safeguard). However, I wouldn't recommend to do so because it'll make using the same lot or household with multiple setups a pain in the rectum (lots of copying, perhaps also name collisions leading to overwrites).

 

Put all of that (mods, saves, deleting "localthumbcache", launching the game) together into one big script and you've got yourself a template that you can easily extend (or even adapt for use with other games), allowing you to have as many different mod setups as you want. Just make sure to get all the IFs and NOTs right, otherwise you might end up with quite a bit of a mess.

Any questions? Feel free to ask.

Edited March 1, 2023 by Crashdown117
fixed some typos

[MaleBooty]

Thank you so much! That cleared stuff up for me. 
 

wow that seems a tad complicated for me haha. I’m in a Mac. But I’m sure people will find this information useful. 

 

I guess I was a little confused on how the tray system works and how they transfer between saves. I have never used the tray folder for my other custom content or mods before. In regards to WW I noticed that some of the links in the additional downloads section come with “required” additional cc, builds, mods and sims. This is where it gets overwhelming for me. A lot of page diving. That’s why I was wondering what’s the best way to go about organizing all of the additional animations and their respective stuff. 
 

In my user case scenario I might play WW for a couple hours a month or two months when I’m alone doing the naughty. But then I’ll take WW out and switch back to either my other modded save or vanilla. By the time I go back to WW there might be additional updates to some of the animation packs and their respective cc, sims, builds, and mods. Going in and figuring out what needs to be updated and what doesn’t without risking starting the game up with broken cc and mods seems troublesome. I assume others are playing with WW in a similar fashion. A lot of videos on YouTube show people with their WickedWhimsMod folder unorganized and I just keep wondering how they go about updating everything? 
 

I suppose this might depend on what animations you are using and how much custom content you have but I find it hard to imagine someone using just a couple animations and that’s it. A lot of these things seem tied together and you end up downloading all of them to have all the features work properly. 

[Crashdown117]

1 hour ago, boybooty said:

By the time I go back to WW there might be additional updates to some of the animation packs and their respective cc, sims, builds, and mods. Going in and figuring out what needs to be updated and what doesn’t without risking starting the game up with broken cc and mods seems troublesome.

That's the neat thing: Sims and builds don't need to be updated in order to work, CC rarely ever breaks (unless EA pushes an update that messes up stuff big time), and animation packs normally only get expanded and improved, meaning you can usually run the old versions as well. All you really need to update, assuming that you update the game, are your script and tuning mods (i.e. everything that changes or adds gameplay). And if you miss an update, running the game with broken or outdated mods will not do anything bad as long as you don't hit "Save" - you'll just see that something is off and maybe get an error notification.

 

1 hour ago, boybooty said:

A lot of videos on YouTube show people with their WickedWhimsMod folder unorganized and I just keep wondering how they go about updating everything?

They use update alert functions and dump everything in there. The more important question regarding unorganized mod folders is: How much more tedious will it make troubleshooting? And the answer is: A lot.

If you want to organize stuff, keep it simple and set it up in a way that suits you. The only hard limitation is that script files can't go deeper than one level of subfolders (e.g. your WW files need to be either directly within "Mods" or somewhere like "Mods/WickedWhims"). For me, having one such subfolder for every major mod like WW or MC Command Center and one for every category of small stuff (clothes, furniture,...) has worked quite well so far. WW animations and body parts also go into their own subfolders, as this was recommended to me by some experienced players way back when I started.

 

1 hour ago, boybooty said:

In my user case scenario I might play WW for a couple hours a month or two months when I’m alone doing the naughty. But then I’ll take WW out and switch back to either my other modded save or vanilla.

This could be done with the intital snippet for switching between playing with and without WW (vanilla can be achieved by disabling mods in the game settings after launching with either mod setup), you'd just need to make sure that you load the right save. On a Mac, you'll probably have the same commands as on Linux, so everything's in lowercase, "MOVE" becomes "mv", and the if-statement might work a little differently.

If you don't want to dabble with scripting at all, maybe consider prefixing all of your folders containing explicit stuff so you can easily find them and move them manually. Putting "=" or "_" in front of the folder names should put them at the top of the list for alphabetical sorting.

 

2 hours ago, boybooty said:

I suppose this might depend on what animations you are using and how much custom content you have but I find it hard to imagine someone using just a couple animations and that’s it. A lot of these things seem tied together and you end up downloading all of them to have all the features work properly. 

If you don't have any of the content that is required by an animation, that animation will not show up in your game (unless you tell WW otherwise). For mods, if their features depend on anything (e.g. WW strip clubs depend on the "Get To Work" game expansion), these features will not work for you, but everything else should still run fine. Of course, if the entire mod depends on something (e.g. Nisa's Wicked Perversions depends on WW), there's no way around it.

 

Aside from that, it's all pretty simple. Mods and CC go into the Mods folder, Sims and buildings go into Tray. Disable automatic game updates or be prepared to wait for a few days until all mods are updated as well. Always remember to delete "localthumbcache.package", found in "Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 4", whenever you make any changes to your mods or the game itself. And most importanly: Support forums exist, "stupid questions" don't.

[Sims2wicky]

?
...I literally reinstall EVERY animation whenever there's a Wicked Whims update...

Now I know I don't have to LOL

[MaleBooty]

Thanks again!!!
I just spent some time trying out some folder organization stuff and it seems to work well. It's just a matter of keeping track of these updates.
Thanks for your time