Mod management apps
Disclaimers: - This is going to be long. - This is all based on my own testing and my own personal opinions. - This is not to spread hate towards anyone. This is purely to add some information & context. Please do not go harass any mod management developers. - I am not an expert.
There's been an app going around recently that was marketed as a crashing & mod assistant. Other creators have raised concerns about it, but I held off on saying anything as I wanted to test it all on my own. This gets into my first point.
An application with a mac-compatible version made by someone who doesn't own a mac themselves and who had not tested it on any mac.
Mac computers are distinctly different than windows computers. They have their own UI, their own commands, their own applications, etc. I don't claim to be a mac-expert, but as someone who has had macs their entire life, I know that making something for a mac computer without actually having one to test is a recipe for disaster. Given that, I'd have to assume AI was used in some capacity to create the mac version and the mac instructions. I followed the instructions as they were written to install the app and get it up and running and I simply would not have been able to if I didn't have some technical knowledge of my own computer and how terminal commands work. If I were just someone looking to install this without much effort, I would've been disappointed and unsuccessful. The disappointing thing about this was that I personally offered to test any mac-related versions/instructions and/or give any mac-related advice before it was publicly released. My offer was not accepted.
The in-app user guide and the way this tool was marketed stated: "Reads your latest crash and exception logs and tells you what to try next."
This is misleading. This tool does not actually read the contents of these error files, or if it does, it does it in a way I was unable to uncover or does it incorrectly. Crash files cannot be read by anyone other than the game developers. There's been numerous attempts over the many years that the game has been around to decode them, but they've all been unsuccessful with how these files are written. Claiming that the tool can read these files is wrong and puts a false sense of "hope" in users expectations. Additionally, I couldn't get the app to even tell me that I had a crash file, probably because the app was looking for lastCrash_##.txt, when sometimes it's just lastCrash.txt. My game crashed, a crash file was created, yet the application told me there were no crash files created? The app's log said: Likely Cause: No clear mod reference found. lastCrash_*.txt Status: not found lastException_*.txt Status: not found lastUIException_*.txt Status: not found Bottom Line No recent crash or exception files were found. But this was what my "The Sims 4" folder showed:
When it comes to the exception log piece, I forced several sets of errors. At least one of them had a clear cause. I was unsuccessful in getting it to tell me anything other than "[the exception logs] were not clear enough to name one broken mod". There are already mods out there to help with error files. Better exceptions & MC Command Center both log exception files in a much easier to read fashion than the basic .txt file. I've already written a post about how to get help with error files on several discord servers, I really encourage people to use these servers as that's what they are here for! However, I can understand that people want to understand things for themselves or don't want to use discord or have had previously bad experiences. I'm happy to knowledge share anything/everything I know about error files as most, if not all of it has just been collecting information over time.
Finding the "problem" mod.
This does a sort of automated 50/50 but it doesn't do it in a way that is systematic. When I 50/50, I always start in a systematic way, for example, I start with just my custom content. My mods folder is incredibly organized, so I can easily pull out all mods and launch my game with just my custom content. I can also easily test mods in batches as each mod has its own folder. I highly suggest everyone organize their mods folder, it makes managing it exponentially easier! The app didn't do that, it was seemingly randomly pulling out folders of things and telling me to test. It didn't do anything to ensure that mods that have dependencies stayed together--which is a key part of correctly 50/50ing. The app was obsessed with quarantining .Ds_Store files as junk files. This goes back to my first point about having an understanding of mac computers. These files are automatically generated and are hidden on mac computers. The key piece being they are automatically generated. So whenever the app would move one out, a new one popped back up. I ended up in a never-ending cycle of 5050ing because it kept "quarantining" junk files. If I were really looking for the problem file, I would have had to manually 5050 anyway as the app wasn't actually helping me, in fact I got more confused because it kept moving out those hidden mac files.
Duplicate files
Part of the quarantine practice was to quarantine duplicate files. This is theoretically a good idea, except it quarantined both sets of duplicate files so you'd have to put one of them back anyway. The file names also have to be identical to be flagged as a duplicate. If you're looking to just get a list of duplicates, you can do that easily with MC Command Center by generating a system info log (Click on a sim choose MCCC > Sim Commands > Logging Commands > System Info Log) & looking at the full mod list. It'll tell you exactly what's a duplicate & where to find the file.
Clears the game cache
The app only deletes the localthumbcache.package file, which isn't the only cache file that you should delete. Cache files or sometimes referred to as L files are certain files that hold onto information that can mess up your game. Good rule of thumb is to delete your cache files any time you make any changes to your mods folder. I personally just delete them before I launch my game every single time, no matter if i have made changes or not. Cache files you should delete include, (if you want some more information about what these files actually include, review crin's breakdown!): Found in "The Sims 4" folder (*Files that can have _### at the end, for example LastException_1234556422.txt): - localthumbcache.package - avatarchache.package - localsimtexturecache.package - LastException.txt* - LastUIException.txt* - LastCleanException.txt* - BE-ExceptionReport.html (could also be BE-ExceptionReport-OLD.html) - lastCrash.txt* Found in your "Mods" folder, where your mc command center files are, if you use the mod: - mc_lastexception.html
Known mod repository
This was something that was hard-coded into the app and was a way for tagging & organizing mods. Unfortunately, it's pretty clear this list was made with AI as it includes items that simply don't exist and it includes a mod that is largely banned in the community--indicating a lack of fundamental understanding of the sims 4 community & "known" mods. The organization piece: - Relied on you organizing your mods in the exact same way that it was coded. - Looked for the folder name & not the actual files included. - For example, I put MCCC in a folder called MC Command Center. The app did not categorize it as MCCC. I changed the folder name to MCCC and put a random piece of hair cc into the folder and it flagged it as MCCC. I really don't see how that's helpful to anyone as yeah the folder is named MCCC but the folder contains something else completely.
The actual list piece: - One of the entries was: "label": "General Pie Menus", "creator": "TwistedMexi", "notes": "Support framework other mods may call into." this doesn't exist. TwistedMexi doesn't have any general pie menus, perhaps this meant to refer to adeepindigo's general pie menu that is required for several of her mods? Or maybe this meant to refer to Smarter Pie Menu by TwistedMexi but then it's not a support framework that other mods may call into. - Another entry was: "label": "S4CL (Sims 4 Community Library)", "creator": "ColonolNutty", "notes": "Shared library used by many script mods." I'm not going to get into the whole history of this mod & this creator, you're free to read about it here (TW). However, this mod is fairly well-known to be banned and "Shared library used by many script mods" is a gross overstatement.
Good developer practices
From any application/tool out there, not related to The Sims 4, I expect the developer to know the tool inside and out, have rigorous testing, fully documented the product, and able to answer publicly any/all questions. The developer of this tool had good intentions, however, there was a lack of testing, documentation, and transparency. I tried my hardest to be nice, supportive & ask probing questions. I offered my own support & advice, encouraged setting up FAQs & discord server for help, working with mod creators & sim support people, and getting a better/deeper/fundamental understanding of our community. I'm all for new people coming into the community, but I really encourage anyone/everyone to be receptive & understanding of the community.
Final thoughts
All in all, manually managing your mods folder is your best practice. There are helpful tools out there, but no tool is perfect and the better you know your own mods folder the better off you'll be. Need to know how to organize your mods folder? Check out this guide. Want to use some sort of tool to help wrangle your mods folder? Check out plumbuddy. Need to know what mods are out of date? Use scarlet's realm! Want help with an error? Come see me on sims after dark ;) or any other support server. Don't want to talk to a person but want help? Check out lot51's bot 51 Want an interactive 50/50 guide? Here you go
If you've downloaded the sul sul saver app, I'd suggest you delete it as the developer has decided not to move forward with this project.
