Mods & Modders

Trait Mods

With Chingyu

Welcome to our Mods and Modders section where each month we get the opportunity to talk to one of the many amazing creators within the community. This month we talk to Vicky Sims aka Chingyu1023 who has created over 100 trait mods for simmers to use which enhance their gameplay. As a very basic mod user myself, I am eager to learn more about these mods, what's coming up and the person behind the mod creation.

Hi VickySims or is it Chingyu, what do you prefer to be called?

Hi! Vicky is my nickname used at school and ChingYu is my first name. I like to be called my given name but some of my friends find it hard to pronounce Chingyu.

It’s always good to get to know the background of the people in the community, I think with social media being probably the most used way to interact with people now, we don’t always get to learn much about who simmers and creators really are other than their public profiles. I and I are sure our readers would love to know more about you. How old are you, What country do you currently live in and were you born there? What's your favourite music to listen to? Do you have a favourite comfort food? Which pronoun do you prefer to use? Do you have any pets and if you could meet anyone alive or dead, who would it be and why?

I’m 24 years old and I’m currently living in Hong Kong. I live in a village house with a rescued pet bird and my brother, who I can play video games with. And I love listening to K-pop and re-creating my favorite K-pop idols in the Sims. One of my favorite artists is the late Kim Jonghyun and I feel like he is still forever living in my game. I can relate to his music presumably because we are both romanticists and imaginative. I prefer the pronoun They/Them.

How long have you been playing The Sims and how did you get into modding or what happened for you to decide you wanted to ‘change’ your Sims game yourself?

I have been playing The Sims 4 since 2015. I would call myself a storyteller type of gamer. I like creating interesting characters and writing plots for them. Then I found the game a bit shallow in the personality aspect compared to the detailed CAS editing mode and great visuals. That drives me to create custom traits and eventually did more mods for other gameplay aspects.

Our team had a lot of questions they wanted to ask you so this one comes from The Simming Spoonie: I love that you have some mods focused on inherited traits/rewards. What made you decide to make these types of mods? Are they more difficult to code than regular trait mods?

Personality (CAS) traits are quite restricted because there is a limited number of CAS traits your Sim can have and they can’t be assigned to Sims in genetics. Hence, I decided to make a reward (gameplay) trait version of them so that I can do inheritance mods for them and mod users can pick a version they prefer. It is not particularly difficult to code for the reward version, but building and maintaining two versions simultaneously means twice the workload.

AsGraceCreates asks: Is there a difference between making mods for lot traits and mods for CAS traits? If there is, how is it different? If there is none, which is easier to create?

Lot traits and CAS traits are different in tuning types technically. Knowing the common coding of buff tuning helps to do the core buff for both. Although I have more experience in making personality traits, I personally find Lot traits easier to produce. Conceivably because I create Lot traits for functionality while wanting more in-depth qualities and representatives for personality mods.

SueSimming asked: What's your favourite part about creating mods and What is your favourite mod that you just can't play without?

My favorite part of creating mods is experimenting with mod ideas. I have many new modding visions in my brain and it is always a bliss to see them implemented in the game. I cannot open the game without my Smarter Self-Care simply because I despite forcing my Sims to eat and sleep, especially when playing with a large household of eight Sims. Less Obsession is also a must-have for me because there is no way for my Sims to work on their skills or relationships when they are too obsessed with their computers or an ice cream machine.

I don’t often play live play myself and mostly play with the build side of the game or CAS, so for someone like me who is still very new to live play, can you explain what your mods do and how they can improve gameplay to make it more interesting, which one of your mods has been downloaded the most? I made a wild range of gameplay mods going from ones for improving the base game by enhanced autonomy, more realistic needs and emotions, and more genuine relationships to some pack-specific mods like Seasons Traits,Holiday Tradition Override, andClub Filter.There are also mods to make gameplay more appealing with additional content like Metabolism, Trait Inheritance mods, and Skill Decay. And of course, my 100 Base Game Traits Pack is the most downloaded because of its diversity.

The Simming Spoonie Asks: you have some relationship modifying mods, why do you think people want faster or slower relationship changes? Is this type of mod difficult to code for?

I found it unrealistic for Sims to make best friends and get married to others within a few Sim hours. This’s why I made Slower Relationship Changes, Faithfulness Mod, and other mods to modify social autonomy and prohibit romance on specific Sims. I also provide Faster Relationship Progress for people who desire more cheaty gameplay. It is not hard to code yet it requires diligence to playtest the game to set a suitable value regarding autonomy. They are also more likely to be broken by patches since they edit some common game tunings.

AsGraceCreates and SueSimming ask: How do you manage your mods, especially when there are new patch updates and How long does it take to update your mods after patch day?

I compare the XML of my mods and the tunings after patches to see if there’s a coding change. I then playtest the game with my mods to make sure they work properly in the game for a new patch. I report my mods’ status for patches in a google spreadsheet and announce it on my Discord Server, Twitter, Tumblr, and Patreon monthly changelog post. It usually takes me less than a week to update for patches but a traitbreaking patch could take more time because there are currently 300+ trait packages for me to maintain.

SueSimming and I Ask: You focus mainly on traits, why? and have you ever tried to mod any other part of The Sims, if so what was this for and was it a success or failure?

Traits and other trait-related kits are a major part of my creations because that’s what I

found the game lacks the most as a life simulator. Besides my popular 100 Traits Pack, I do various themed traits packs such as Toddler Traits, Absent Emotion Traits, and Supernatural Traits. Yet, I have many other helpful gameplay mods tweaking autonomy, relationships, emotions, and needs. I enjoy doing tuning mods just as much as my custom traits. The numbers of those mods are actually more than my more well-known traits packs! Who knows!? (laugh)

The Simming Spoonie Asks: How do you decide what type of mod you want to work on next? Do you play and think, this could do with tweaking, taking suggestions from your community, or a bit of both?

I get many random modding ideas when I play the game. I would build a draft to test them first to make sure an idea is possible to be implemented. Then I would ask on my Discord server to see if my subscribers are interested in that type of mod. Although I don’t necessarily take requests except for adding more objects in Less Obsession and adding other creators’ traits in Club Filter, I have accepted quite a few interesting mod ideas. It is important to me that a mod of mine is useful for and well-loved by endusers.

There are so many wonderful modders in the community, have you ever done a collaboration and if so with who and what was it, and if not, is there anyone you would like to collab with and why?

I have been maintaining two mods specifically for other creators, the Custom Traits In Club Filter and Sorted Traits Picker. I also have overrides of my traits to use Lumpinou’s custom moods, and add-ons to add Halaene’s custom preferences with my Age Up Add Preferences. I collaborated with Midiar to assign my Metabolism Reward Traits in her BetterSims. I’m currently working with Turbodriver to integrate my traits into his WW archetype system. It is always welcoming to refer to my custom traits if

you are a creator. One of my main goals in modding is to make sure most of my mods are compatible with other amazing creators' mods.

Modding sounds super complicated to me, I wouldn’t even know where to start with wanting to change something within my game. How hard would you say modding was from your first attempt to how it is now and for other aspiring modders in the community, do you have any advice, tips or words of encouragement that could help them on their way?

Modding can be both fun and challenging. I grow from knowing nothing of XML language to writing codes in S4S. If you are interested in modding, I suggest working on small ideas first, like doing a noautonomy mod or a buff replacement. You can also join this creator server for useful resources and get help from experienced modders!

Thank you so much for chatting with us and letting our readers learn about you and your brilliant mods. Before we go is there anyone you would like to give a shout-out to, anyone in the community who has inspired you, or your followers? And how can our readers find and follow you?

I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my patrons. Even subscribing for only a month makes a big contribution to

supporting my modding work. It has encouraged me to maintain a huge amount of custom traits and mods for the frequent patches and to constantly release new content per month! I was anxious when I gave up my other part-time jobs to focus on modding. It turns out to be one of the best decisions that I've ever made!

And I want to thank many of my modding friends, including MizoreYukii, Kuttoe, Frankk, LeRoiDeTout, and many more, who have helped me with modding questions. I would also like to give a shout-out to Luth, Shino Nox, and Scarlet who are dedicated to notifying us of mod news!

All of my mods are downloadable on Patreon, which are available to the public once pass the 21 days of early access. You can find me hanging around on Twitter and Tumblr. Follow me to get notified with mod updates! For technical support of my mods, you can join my Discord server. I put all my mod info, open resources, and contacts on myOfficial Site.