Testing Food Truck Concluded

For the past couple weeks I have been playing in Lost Lake, paying close attention to the Food Trucks. I am relieved to say that I have not encountered any problems with the trucks. The only significance I can report is that in all the installments of Lost Lake, and all the times I played, the trucks appear after midnight, and they do spawn in different locations.

However, the longer I played an installment the more frequently I discovered the trucks enroute during daylight hours. But, this could be explained as the trucks leaving their over-night operations.

After I was completely satisfied that the food trucks were working properly, I tested the second phase of my hunch. I placed CC food truck parking spaces in a small park and at the beach. I just placed the parking space object, not the food truck object, and a food truck did visit that lot.

This object can be found at Mod The Sims. 

Special note: The article claims that, when using this mod, food trucks will not travel between the different locations. That is only correct if the world in which the objects are placed has not been coded to be a city. Lost Lake has been coded to be a city, and therefore, it does have fully functioning food trucks.

One Hunch Pays Off . . . about the food trucks in TS3

In a previous post about Lost Lake I had mentioned that I was experimenting with some things so as to test some hunches. One thing I wanted to test was the food trucks. Since I am not using custom content, and since "food trucks" are locked objects, I've been hoping to find a way to have food trucks in my created world (without having to resort to using the "buyable food trucks mod" or any mod that unlocks these items).

Some time ago I had discovered the mod that unlocks the food trucks (as well as the mods that would give my game food trucks and parking spaces objects), and in the mod's description it was suggested that at least three "food truck parking spaces" would need to be placed throughout town in order for the trucks to make their rounds. So, this got me thinking (yes, dangerous, I know). Since I have coded Lost Lake to be a city, I imported all of the lots with "food truck parking spaces" from Bridgeport. I placed these lots based on my city's layout (not resembling that of Bridgeport). The important thing was that I have at least three lots with the "food truck parking space". I ended up with more than three. I also placed the lot so that the parking space was next to a road (I don't know if this makes any difference). Lastly, I did not move the parking space on the lot, but rather made any adjustments or creations around the space.

Today marks the third day that I have been playing the latest installment of Lost Lake, and I had intended to test the dance club. So, after sending my Sim to that location, I was pleased to find a food truck on the lot. The next phase of testing this hunch is to later add a modded parking space and food truck (I want to determine if that was the culprit in creating the freezing in Laural Falls).

But as it stands at the moment, it seems it is possible to have food trucks in user-created worlds.

As for the over-all testing . . .

Things are still moving along nicely in Lost Lake . . .  no freezing or jumping.

A vampire did appear last night (for the first time), and today there are no problems.

The only negative aspect I'm having is the terrain tearing. I have also noticed that the bridge (which had no problems in the previous installations) now has to be lowered. I'm thinking this is connected with what ever is causing the terrain tears.

Long Over-due Update

I've not updated recently because I have been busy working on Lost Lake. It's moving along much quicker than Laural Falls did, even though I have tested after each lot creation.

I created a Sim as close to my image as I could possibly make her, and she's been testing things for me. Having been distracted with another project (writing my second novel), I've been a bit lazy in the creative department, so, I simply named her Kheri, since she looks like me.

The important thing about Kheri is that once I got her into the game, I provided her with CC (custom content) clothing, because I wanted to see if perhaps that may be causing the issues I'm experiencing in Laural Falls.

Kheri seems to enjoy haunting the dive bar close to her lake house, and she makes a modest living playing her guitar for tips in the subways. So far I have not experienced any freezing or "jump bugs" (which was the issue I was having in Laural Falls).

 In order to save time and to test out some hunches I've got, I have used some of the lots created by EA, and, of course, I've made modifications that correct pathing issues or enhance realism or both.

This lot (pictured on the left) is modified from the "local watering hole" found in Bridgeport.

Kheri's clothing is CC, and unfortunately these are "premium items" and so I will not provide a link or reference to the creator as I am opposed to "paid sites" (sorry 'bout that).

An important point to make is that, like Laural Falls, Lost Lake is created without CC. However, the limited use of CC that I am currently using with Kheri's clothing is not causing any problems.

There has been NO game freezing at all, not even when NPCs are being generated. In fact, at this point, Lost Lake is running more smoothly for me than Bridgeport runs.

All important lots have been placed and created except for two (which I hope to have finished tomorrow).

Since the focus has been on creating a world which is free of freezing and lag, this world is not as elaborately created as Laural Falls was. It is also much smaller. So, I have paid extra attention on the terrain -- sculpting and painting.

I have not placed decorations, spawners, or effects. These will be placed after I thoroughly test the game with just the lots in place.

One thing that is curious, and that is, a vampire has not yet spawned in Lost Lake, and I did notice that the issues I was having in Laural Falls happened after the occurrence of vampires. I'm not saying that's the problem, but rather I'm simply making observations.

The only issue that has been recreated in Lost Lake that was also in Laural Falls is tearing in the terrain at the lot boundaries (pictured on the right). The image shows a terrain tear in game. 

 

But in CAW the tear is not present (as pictured here).

I have not yet done any research into this, so I don't know how many others are experiencing this problem.

From what I can tell, the tears are not affecting game play, but it looks ugly and is simply annoying. I have had to repair the same tears several times. The tears seem to appear more frequently at roads and sidewalks, but, as shown here, they do also appear at any lot edge.

Laural Falls is available for download

I've not yet been successful with getting the world to show up on the Exchange, and I've read pages and pages of complaints from many folks who have this problem.
So, I have made it available as a download through MediaFire, which is probably a good thing. Now, if I find any more problems, I can correct them and upload the new file (which can't be done on the Exchange).