CAW and Use of Seed Spawners

[daisylee]

Has EA ever advised us as to why we should not be using seed spawners now in CAW? We must be able to use them only on lots? I am redoing a hood I made in the past and am wondering if I need to pull the seed spawners out of that one before making the final revised version.

I just did a search in the Prima Guide and there is not a single mention of seeds in Bridgeport, but I know there are some in the butterfly lot as my Sim found them there.

It sure would make it a heck of a lot easier for us if EA would do more than just add a few words in CAW.

[J. M. Pescado]

I can't think of any particularly good reason, so in the absence of an actual logical reason, I would simply ignore this piece of helpful EAxian advice.

[Zazazu]

I use seed spawners all the time. My current world that I'm working on the buildings for, which I've been playing for the past three weeks, has had absolutely no problems and the seeds seem to have spawned as they should have and are picked up/used properly. I have another world that is still in the CAW stage, spawners place and appear in EiG.

So...EA's a bunch of idiots?

Seeds and such look so much better when they are placed in semi-hidden areas or in remote places. Not on lots.

[Ellatrue]

Perhaps it is related to the new lot placing tool? Could there be issues with making a new lot over an area with a seed spawner--perhaps deleting the spawner, or making it inexplicably impossible to place the lot?

[Zazazu]

Nope, I've done that. Lot places fine when in game. Spawner appears in the new lot and is moveable/deletable with moveobjects on. Lot functioned as needed. In my case, it was a 10x10 lot I placed just so I could plop down some scrap piles and a few broken boats, but sims visited and there was NPC activity. Spawner items were able to be collected.

[daisylee]

I have done the same thing. When I add lots I have no idea as to where I placed spawners when I made the hood ages ago. I have placed a few new lots in places where I probably placed them. So far, there have not been any problems.

EA has been so adamant that we not use them per the verbiage in CAW and in the failure to use them other than on lots in Bridgeport, that you would think that they could/would have told us what is going on regarding them. Foolish me!

It would have been too friggin' easy to explain the change, but that is EA for you.

[J. M. Pescado]

Is it actually verboten now, or do they just whine when you do it?

[daisylee]

I just tested in a brand new world and was able to place them .... so not verboten by EA by disabling them. So once again, EA did not do the logical thing and disable/delete them from CAW if we are not to use them there.

I guess EA does not understand the hard edit concept.

[Zazazu]

Well, if using them in CAW truly causes issues, of course they should block the ability. But they didn't. They also haven't explained any reason why they shouldn't be used in CAW that I've seen. Honestly, I can't find any claim by them that spawners have to be placed in game.

Spawning Time

    * Spawners are a special type of Game Object that creates collectables in the worlds that your Sims can use. Each of the spawners has a ring around it indicating the area in which it affects. When a spawner is placed, objects of that type are created in the area and Sims can go and get them in game. There are also spawners available in the Buy Mode catalog when you're in "Edit in Game" and use the TestingCheatsEnabled cheat and then the BuyDebug cheat. This opens up a category that contains spawners to place on the lots (including harvestable plants which cannot be placed on the world terrain).
    * The water on your world terrain is automatically ocean water (unlike the water that is on Lots which is freshwater), so Sims can only catch saltwater fish. In order for your Sims to catch freshwater fish on the world terrain you have to place Freshwater spawners. There are a few very large freshwater spawners available in the Game Objects > Spawner list of the Metadata section of the tool (so you don't have to place as many - lots of spawners aren't very good for performance). There are also some large Ocean spawners available in the BuyDebug category in Buy Mode on the lots so that you can turn your on-Lot freshwater into saltwater.
    * There are a few things to keep in mind when placing spawners. You don't want to place too many of them - they have visual effects so they are pretty hard on performance, you want to place them in interesting and logical places so that players enjoy sending their Sims to get them and to make your world and your stories more interesting. You also want to place rarer spawners in harder to get to, or further away places so that players have a reason to go there.

Back in July, so BBSers were whining about crashing their CAW when they placed spawners. That was in July. And it was BBSers.

[daisylee]

I find it odd that the warning only is placed on seed spawners in CAW, when I would think that they are the easiest on game/CAW performance as are static. It would seem like the bugs, butterflies, fish, and so on, which are in constant motion would cause more issues than seeds that just sit on the ground and do nothing.