[Gen.] Whats next + PSA on conflict detectors and error reports (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

1. CURRENT and UPCOMING work

Time to discuss what's up and what's next!

A. CURRENTLY
- as with every new release, there are afterquakes. You probably noticed, but I've been busy working on fixes etc still for the recent release versions of RPO mods over the past week. Things are in good shape but it's always better to polish.

- also working on restructuring.... possibly all my mods. I'm talking about behind the scenes stuff, so you won't see much change in game except perhaps interface improvements. I'll see what exactly I end up redoing or changing before saying more on the matter.

- I have not really started on remaking documentation about my mods but I'm still putting it in the 'now' section, because as I said in my poll post, this is unfortunately a necessary but time consuming task which must be done very soon.

B. NEXT UP

Poll about what should be next work in line has been up for a while for our upper tiers, so here's the results:


These were the details on each option:





I was a bit surprised by the result. But anyways, there you have it.

2. Some Public Safety Announcements

A. On Conflit Reports

This is not really users' fault as that's all confusing, so I don't blame y'all on getting mixed up on this. But.

Said it before but must say it again: IGNORE what conflict detector say about conflicts between my stuff with other stuff of mine. Completely thoroughly ignore it. Including BE's conflict report.
My mods do NOT conflict with each other unless I say so in the 'compatibility' section of their download pages.

In fact, it is often the opposite: some of my resources are DELIBERATELY duplicated between mods for integration or functionality purposes. And conflict detectors, due to not having a human brain that can know these things, label that as 'conflicts'.

The best example of that? The detectors say 'Custom Moods for Some Moodlets' conflict with various of my mods. Why? Because it DELIBERATELY overrides some moodlets of those mods to change their moods. That's its whole point.

Also, do not forget that conflict detectors only can see duplicated xml resources, but cannot see any other type of code conflicts!

In short: Conflict detectors cannot guarantee that two mods conflict together any more that they could guarantee that they don't!

They are useful as what they are, but don't give them powers they don't have 😁

B. On LastException reports

Why do we get LastException error reports?
If you play the Sims 4, with or without mods, you will get LastException errors once in a while. Yes, the game by itself has them too. They are reports and logs on code errors that happen in game, and are useful to diagnose why such an error occurred.
If you play with mods, you'll probably see more of them. First of all, because you'll be using mods such as mccc that tell you when an error happens. Second, because mods add code to the game, and any code added has potential to cause errors or bugs.

When you get a LastException error report and have good reason to suspect it has to do with a particular mod, here's what to do:

- Share the error report file with the creator of that mod (not a screenshot of it, not just say 'I had a LastException' - that does not give us any useful data to fix your problem 😉).

- OPTIONAL: You can also send your error to the Mccc discord or the Sims after Dark discord, which are mod support specialists and have bots designed to read and diagnose common errors.

- Be willing to accept that if a mod is named in the error report, it DOES NOT necessarily mean that the mod is the cause of it, even if BE says 100% (that can still just mean the error is happening while a mod process runs, not that the mod process is the cause - as we see all the time with Memory Panel and Milestones Expanded getting blamed for broken trait mods not by me or improper installation of mods not by me).

- Ideally, be willing to do some tests asked by support people, to figure out if you have a mod conflict, what context caused your error, and / or if new files supplied by the modder for you solve it or not.

Generally, most error reports I see are due to Poor Mod Folder Hygiene (wrong installations, having several versions of the same mod at once, having outdated mods, etc) so the best way to avoid them is to maintain your mod folder well! :)

____

Alright alright, done for now!
You'll hear next from me when I have updates for several mods, most likely. In the meantime, I'm letting your inbox breathe aha.

Best,
Lumpinou