Brazen's WIP Journal

There is so much I could tell you about everything I've been working on and updating but it's so much so I'm going to do my best to sum up the most important stuff here. I've included a bunch of images above, they don't include everything but I think it's enough to give you and idea of what I've been up to. 

Before I move on, I wanted to apologize for the delay on updates. To be honest I underestimated the amount of work it was going to take to get all the new tunings added to the core mods and how much re-organizing/cleaning everything needed to support the new stuff.

Because of that I got stuck in this position where I can't really update anything until I've finished ALL the updates or everything is going to be broken. When I realized this was going to be such an expansive update, I decided to just take the time to add some stuff that I hadn't planned on adding yet, in an attempt to save from another large update later. It's a lot, but I think it's going to save a lot of future time and updates for everyone.

Grass Crafting:

This is what you see in the video HERE. It's a simple mod (with the opposite of simple animations lol) that lets you craft items from EA's Prairie Grass as well as my upcoming custom Grass ingredient. Right now only twine will be available but I plan on adding baskets and other craftables in the future. I'm also going to use the same animation for my corn husk doll crafting mod.

I'm new to working with animations and I know this is a little bit off when sims sit in a chair but it doesn't seem to bad, I think it works for now ;) I'll look at fixing it in the near future.

Preserving:

A HUGE overhaul that I reworked at least 3 times over the last month an a half. It went from a 5 level skill, to a 10 level skill and from simple preserving recipes for ingredients to a bunch of new mechanics that I think are going to make the recipes much more immersive.

Some quick notes about preserving:

• These will work nearly the same as they did previously, but I've done a lot of work on the backend to overhaul them so they work more efficiently in-game.
• I've added a new type of preservable item, primarily in the drying category, that doesn't require you to collect it. After some playtesting I found needing to collect everything to be tedious and decided I needed to balance it out a bit. These items, like dried hanging peppers, just need to be created and placed in the proper climate to dry. There is no more work after that, you can start collecting ingredients from them whenever you like!
• I added some new recipe steps to accommodate the new hanging bunches of dried/cured items.
• Hanging bunches can be attached to the ceiling, walls, and the sides of the preserving shelves
• Preserving shelves are getting a few new colors, no more only orange to choose from! :D
• I've replaced a lot of meshes to create smaller files with less bloat. 
• All recipes now come with a multi and single serving version. All recipes that seem like they should be edible are now edible, like cured olives. This added a TON of new recipes for your sims to have around the house. Most of these single recipes will come in wood bowls so that they look rustic for immersion.
• Object descriptions have been cut short and streamlined. Read on for more info...

Bulk Items (Multi Servings)

• All bulk items will no longer start spoiling until you've taken a serving from them. This means all preserved items will now work as lovely, permanent decorations for your home as long as you don't take from them.
• I've made all spoil timers consistent; once opened, these will spoil in 4 days if Poor Quality, 7 days if Normal Quality, and 14 days if Excellent Quality.
• The price of these items will decrease as you take servings from it. I know this is a game, but the idea that you can sell the last serving of an item for full price bothers the hell out of me lol.
• Once your sim is max skill in preserving you can sell these to the local Food Co-Op, but only if it is untouched, meaning it still has all 8 servings
• Storing these underground in the cellar will make them spoil 50% slower
• Quality will now affect the value of your finished products

Single Measured Servings

• A single serving will spoil in 9 hours.
• If your sim is level 10 Preserving Skill then measured servings will spoil at the same rate as bulk items.
• All items are now labelled as what type of ingredient they are in their description.
• Where applicable, these items will also count as base game ingredients like 'Any Fruit' or 'Any Veggie'. I thought a lot about this and almost decided against it but I left it in for the immersion. I wanted you guys to be able to use them as a substitute for when something may be out of season, like using dried apricots in the winter for a recipe that calls for a fruit. I know this is not super important because harvestables don't spoil - but I'm thinking of creating a lot challenge around that in the future. Either way I'm going to let you guys test this out and see how you like it. I can always remove those tags later if you really don't like it.

Custom Notebook Entries: 

This took a while to get set up because I don't know Python and had to learn enough to figure out how to make Lot51's Notebook Injector work for what I needed it for. I honestly didn't think I was gonna be able to figure it out but I did!!!! 

I've created a custom tab in your sim's notebook for my content specifically. There are custom notebook entries for all crafting items that require special steps like preserving, and I'll be adding all of my custom gatherable or loot-able items so you can find out exactly what you need to do or where to go to find them. 

This is SO much better than trying to squeeze everything into the object description, and a way better option than stopping your game to find the information on my site. 

Harvestables will be added when I get to the harvestable overhaul, which will be after the next set of Indigenous American recipes and mods. 

Waste Not Lot Challenge

I created this so that certain gatherable or loot-able items will only show up if this is active. For example, you will only be able to collect Buttermilk from crafting Butter if this lot challenge is active. I just wanted to make sure that you have more choices on how to manage when you're receiving these and give you the option to take a break from it by turning it off instead of feeling like you have to remove them from your game.

Ingredient Shenanigans

I realized that the ingredients I've been including in the core mod were interfering with people's ability to make certain recipes with Simple Living on if they weren't able to obtain the ingredient so those are getting pulled out as separate downloads. I also realized that using my custom tags for Simple Living recipes were keeping people from crafting them who didn't have my custom ingredients/harvestables installed. I've reworked those ingredients to use base game and cottage living 'Any' ingredients only for food recipes. For the most part, crafting recipes will use specific ingredient for Simple Living unless it's obvious something like 'Any Milk' can be used. 

Wrapping up

I have a few more things I didn't talk about like the Food Grinder and some new ingredients like Wood Ash and Bacto Cultures for curing meats but I'll have more on that as I get closer to release. 

I'm hoping to have this update in the next few weeks, but I took some time off work and I'm going to be working non-stop on this so I'm aiming for the weekend 🤞

Thank you all for your continued support, I can't wait to get this finished for you all!