Sims Nation Magazine: A Moment with Twisted Mexi December 2021 Issue

MAGNUM OPUS:

INTERVIEW BY: ALAERYN EMLU'RATHIAN

The Sims 4 modding community is rich and robust. Full of talented programmers who correct EA script errors, add player-requested gameplay features, and enhance the features of the game which already exist, this community is often described as the backbone of the Sims 4 gaming experience.

But even amongst this immensely talented crew, there are a handful of modders who have become not simply a mainstay of PC Simming but also a vital lifeline for Simmers who love the game and want to take their gameplay to new heights.

TwistedMexi is one of these momentous modders. Twisted is a Sims modding giant; his T.O.O.L Mod and Better BuildBuy Mod enhance a building system that was already top-notch. This brilliant mind managed to program a script mod by which builders swear, a mod which allows them to take tab-mode pictures in build mode, rotate in-game objects, expand the catalogue system for easier browsing, raise and lower items in more precise increments, make use of in-game cheat

codes more readily, resize objects to mathematically accurate proportions, and far more. Builders have used this mod to create astounding new objects from ingame ones, dramatically modify lackluster builds, and even manipulate posed Sims.

The Sims community, including its developers, are endlessly enamored with the T.O.O.L mod; for it unlocks not only the enormous potential of Sims 4’s expansive build feature but also the mind-boggling creativity of its players.

And Twisted is in no way finished.

Sims Nation Magazine sat down with TwistedMexi to peep at the person “behind the curtain, ” to admire their layers of genius, and discuss what Mexi considers their magnum opus, the astounding Create-a-World Mod.

Our interview reveals Mexi as a thoughtful, meticulous force who is deeply passionate about the incredible feats the building community manages with the mod.

Alaeryn: Twisted! It’s such an honor to speak with you. Sims 4 builders swear by your meticulously crafted mods. T.O.O.L, BetterBuildBuy, and now your Create-a-World mod are undeniable staples of the Sims 4 mod community. Did you ever think you’d get here? Do you sleep? How is life treating you?

TMex: Thanks for having me! I certainly do sleep haha, I always try to keep a balance between work and life, otherwise what's the point? I'm a pretty private person when it comes to my personal life but I'd say life is treating me pretty great, certainly can't complain!

Alaeryn: Let’s start at the beginning - where did you grow up and what inspired you to begin programming?

TMex: I grew up in the United States, in West Virginia, not to be confused with western Virginia. I credit the original Sims game and my struggle with getting it installed as the reason I became interested not necessarily with programming, but with computers in general. My interest in programming was just a natural progression of that. There's just something about being able to get a computer to do exactly what you imagined that's satisfying to me.

Alaeryn: What is the mod creation process like for you? How do you manage to take care of yourself while managing such an important mod?

TMex: I'm not really sure how to answer that. I just sort of decide I want to get the game to do something in particular, and I work at it until it does. In general I try to think of things that I believe could function better than they currently do, especially in build mode. As for self-care throughout it, I usually have set days for development, and the other days are for all the other things. I might pop into Discord or Twitter on any given day but actual development stays where it belongs.

Alaeryn: How have you streamlined your creative process over time if at all?

TMex: My creative process just consists of me making a list of what I want to do, and then checking it off once I figure it out in-game. If anyone figures out how to optimize that, I'm all ears haha. Sometimes I end up adding more features as I go, as I'll discover something new in the process of making one of the original items work.

Alaeryn: T.O.O.L allows players to rotate objects 360 degrees, size objects up and down in more precise increments, and way more! What is the most creative thing you’ve seen players do with T.O.O.L?

TMex: I don't think I could pick a single thing as the most creative, as TOOL can be used for many different forms of creativity, and I'd consider them all equal. I've seen players use TOOL as it was originally intended, where they take objects off the lot and add decor or functionality to the world surrounding it, but more frequently I see it used as a way to add finishing touches to a build, majorly modifying a build, or sometimes to sculpt an entirely new object from many existing objects. Others use it as a pose tool, to pull their sim exactly where they want when using a set pose. I'd say the most interesting thing I've seen done with it is when players "wrap" a functional object with TOOL'd items to make it look new, but keep the functionality of the original.

Alaeryn: On that same note, BetterBuildBuy is similarly groundbreaking. It expands the build UI, organizes the debug menu, and even comes with freemoving camera in build mode! Can you walk us through your thought process as you wrote the script for this incredible, game-changing mod?

TMex: Yeah so Better BuildBuy is actually required if players want to use TOOL in build mode, which I personally find much more efficient than using TOOL in live mode. I did this because I wanted TOOL to have minimal mod conflicts and be less likely to break frequently. Better BuildBuy can't be done without those fragile UI changes anyway, so I figured I'd add the build mode integration to that and let them work together.

My thinking was pretty straight-forward for Better BuildBuy. I wanted to make the buildbuy mode better, and I saw several ways it was lacking. Better BuildBuy's magic isn't really in the scripting but in my knowledge of The Sims 4's resource system and tools I've built that generate the organized debug items for me.

. I knew the debug items had technical names for devs to use, they just weren't used in the game, so I built an exporter that would read their names, add it to the game text, and heuristically categorize them based on the categories of similarly named objects. Any objects that can't be automatically categorized get sent to a list where I then go in and refine categorization rules to include them. As far as what makes it so useful in-game is that you can organize without them being marked as CC and it's fairly easy to use since it's integrated with the buildbuy UI.

Alaeryn: What is the most frustrating aspect of mod creation? The most rewarding?

TMex: They go hand-in-hand. When you have a great idea and spend hours, days, or sometimes months trying to make it work, that's frustrating. When you finally do get it to work though, that's the most rewarding feeling you can get. The public's reaction to your mod is always a close second though.

Alaeryn: You’ve just released Create-a-World mod, which allows builders to build virtually anywhere in game. How on earth did you manage this incredible feat? What has community reaction been like?

TMex: Well to be clear, because there has been a lot of confusion on this, Create-A-World is not "released" in the slightest.

It's currently in a closed Alpha. That's not the one week early access "alpha" or "beta" players are used to from triple A game companies.

This is a legitimate alpha, which means there's risks, bugs, and features that aren't working correctly or simply not there at all yet. Those who are participating in the alpha are actually giving me useful feedback that is then going into the mod to prepare it for release. There's a long way to go in that regard but I'm making progress constantly.

Alaeryn: T.O.O.L allows players to rotate objects 360 degrees, size objects up and down in more precise increments, and way more! What is the most creative thing you’ve seen players do with T.O.O.L?

TMex: I don't think I could pick a single thing as the most creative, as TOOL can be used for many different forms of creativity, and I'd consider them all equal. I've seen players use TOOL as it was originally intended, where they take objects off the lot and add decor or functionality to the world surrounding it, but more frequently I see it used as a way to add finishing touches to a build, majorly modifying a build, or sometimes to sculpt an entirely new object from many existing objects. Others use it as a pose tool, to pull their sim exactly where they want when using a set pose. I'd say the most interesting thing I've seen done with it is when players "wrap" a functional object with TOOL'd items to make it look new, but keep the functionality of the original.

Alaeryn: On that same note, BetterBuildBuy is similarly groundbreaking. It expands the build UI, organizes the debug menu, and even comes with freemoving camera in build mode! Can you walk us through your thought process as you wrote the script for this incredible, game-changing mod?

TMex: Yeah so Better BuildBuy is actually required if players want to use TOOL in build mode, which I personally find much more efficient than using TOOL in live mode. I did this because I wanted TOOL to have minimal mod conflicts and be less likely to break frequently. Better BuildBuy can't be done without those fragile UI changes anyway, so I figured I'd add the build mode integration to that and let them work together.

My thinking was pretty straight-forward for Better BuildBuy. I wanted to make the buildbuy mode better, and I saw several ways it was lacking. Better BuildBuy's magic isn't really in the scripting but in my knowledge of The Sims 4's resource system and tools I've built that generate the organized debug items for me.

. I knew the debug items had technical names for devs to use, they just weren't used in the game, so I built an exporter that would read their names, add it to the game text, and heuristically categorize them based on the categories of similarly named objects. Any objects that can't be automatically categorized get sent to a list where I then go in and refine categorization rules to include them. As far as what makes it so useful in-game is that you can organize without them being marked as CC and it's fairly easy to use since it's integrated with the buildbuy UI.

Alaeryn: What is the most frustrating aspect of mod creation? The most rewarding?

TMex: They go hand-in-hand. When you have a great idea and spend hours, days, or sometimes months trying to make it work, that's frustrating. When you finally do get it to work though, that's the most rewarding feeling you can get. The public's reaction to your mod is always a close second though.

Alaeryn: You’ve just released Create-a-World mod, which allows builders to build virtually anywhere in game. How on earth did you manage this incredible feat? What has community reaction been like?

TMex: Well to be clear, because there has been a lot of confusion on this, Create-A-World is not "released" in the slightest.

It's currently in a closed Alpha. That's not the one week early access "alpha" or "beta" players are used to from triple A game companies.

This is a legitimate alpha, which means there's risks, bugs, and features that aren't working correctly or simply not there at all yet. Those who are participating in the alpha are actually giving me useful feedback that is then going into the mod to prepare it for release. There's a long way to go in that regard but I'm making progress constantly. [...]

I call Create-A-World my magnum opus, because I see years worth of improvements and extra features I can add even after release. The amount of moving parts to make this mod work is astronomical, which came with a challenge in its own right - how do I create a mod this complex in a way that won't severely break with every little patch? I believe I've built a pretty decent system where some of the mod files are generated using the player's own copy of the game, so it can update automatically when a patch hits. There's definitely plenty of room for improvement with that system but it's working pretty well in the Alpha so far.

Overall reception has been great, certainly better than I've seen from any of my previous mods. I'd be lying if I said the feedback didn't feel a little underwhelming after two years of research and development, but I figure as the mod gets closer to completion, and finally public release, it will spread pretty quickly among the modding community. I'd love to see some cc creators out there start releasing world decor packs as the demand for it grows. I think once I can show off the template editor and get people's hands on it, that will help signal boost the mod as well. That's where the lot and terrain manipulation will be done.

Alaeryn: This month, Sims Nation Magazine is highlighting the holidays! What are your plans for the holiday season?

TMex: I'm more of a summer vacationer so my holiday plans are just the usual. Visit family and hopefully have a few extra delicious meals!

Alaeryn: What’s next for you? How do you continue innovating a craft that you’ve nearly perfected over the years?

TMex: I would say about every modder, or developer for that matter, worth their salt would agree with me when I say you never feel as if you've perfected it. You could be doing something a certain way for years and one day you just realize a new way that makes you question why you ever did it the other way in the first place.

Then one day you'll find yet another method that makes the one you had found seem just as ridiculous. There's something of an anxiety to it, where you're always curious if there's a better method. It's almost an intrusive thought sometimes where you'll be working on a mod but the thought will pop in,

"What if I could just do this?. " You then have to weigh whether it's worth it to possibly sidetrack yourself on what could potentially be a dead end, or just do it the way you know is tedious but works. I always try to save those for later if I can't pursue them immediately, and go back to it when I'm not pressing toward a particular release. [...]

As for what's next for me, Create-A-World is my magnum opus as I mentioned. It's such an allencompassing mod that there will likely never be a shortage of ideas for it. Apartments, vacation worlds, better terrain tools, etc. In the immediate future, I'm working to stabilize the worldbuilder in the alpha, and bring the exporter online. I will also be bringing TS4CAW.com online as the official exchange for those worlds. When I do this, it will certainly bring my development into an era of gameplay-focused bugs that I'll need to work through as well. Once those are out of the way, then I'll be working on the template editor to bring the CAW ecosystem to completion. No guarantees but I'll most likely be creating that tool using Unreal Engine 5. For anyone who's wondering why I call it Create-A-World if you can't currently modify the actual terrain and lots, it's because I already have done so myself for proof of concept. The problem is I need to make that into a user-friendly tool everyone can use.

So CAW has my main focus, but along the way I'll certainly be releasing updates for my existing mods and occasionally some new smaller mods. I just recently finished the "All Scenarios" mod, which removes all the time restrictions from EA's scenarios. That's not an alpha, but is in early access as a release candidate for patrons until it officially releases on December 7th, 2021. Many don't realize that a lot of features seen in TOOL or Better BuildBuy came from my Project Raven development, or what everyone now knows as Create-A-World. There will undoubtedly be more features I can pass down from CAW to those other mods of mine. All I can say is I'm not going anywhere, plenty of more updates to come, and I can't thank my patrons enough for making such things possible!