🔨 "CAS Unlock" Sims have infested the Gallery! 🚧 12/14/24 - Needs another overhaul.

🏗️ 11/20/24 - POST OVERHAULED + 📷 12/11/24 - NEW SCREENSHOTS

This "CAS Unlock" bullshittery is why I recommend DISABLING these two options under PACK SETTINGS if you own EP16 LOVESTRUCK:

• Enable Gallery Sims in Cupid's Corner

I don't see the point of taking the risk that you will end up with a buggy "CAS Unlock" sim in your game that can potentially infect your household and ruin your save. If they weren't buggy it'd be less of a concern, but they are.

──── ⋆⋅📜 TABLE OF CONTENTS:

• 🧫 What's this ruckus?

• 🐙 How does it spread?

• 💉 How do I protect myself?

• 🩹 How do I disinfect a household?

• ❄️ Sure this isn't a "you" problem? - That's rude, and no.

• 🦄 Postscript - Goddess, give me strength! 

• 💀 A Suspicious Timeline - I like doing timelines.

──── ⋆⋅🧫 WHAT'S THIS RUCKUS?

I refer to this !@#$ as an "infection". Indulge me.

A "CAS Unlock" sim is a sim that you add to your household to unlock hidden CAS items and/or BuildBuy items that you'd otherwise have to unlock through gameplay by maxing skills and careers and whatever else.

I still don't fully understand how to make one of these "CAS Unlock" sims, nor do I understand why some of them are buggy, nor do I really care. I only care about destroying them, because they're buggy and they pissed me off. 😹

This !@#$ infects saves. Infected sims carry the infection into NEW SAVES and will bring it with them if imported into an ongoing save, hence my recommendation to disable parts of Cupid's Corner. Where saves are concerned, the infection isn't malignant. It won't spread on it's own but it will infect other sims that join the infected household. Which means it can be spread via custom save files if they contain infected sims.

Not only is the Gallery flooded with Community-made households infected with this !@#$ but EAxis has at least ONE (1) household also infected with this !@#$ - it's one of the Vampires households, IIRC. Furthermore, there are community-made households available for download outside of the Gallery that are also "unintentionally" infected with this !@#$. SimsCommunity_info also shares "CAS Unlock" sims, but theirs do not appear to be broken.

I don't believe all of these simmers are maliciously spreading this !@#$.

I Want to Believe™ that some simmers, including those in the creator community, don't actually realize that the "CAS Unlock" code is "infectious". They might not even realize that they have a "CAS Unlock" sim in their Tray/Library because of how many there are floating around.

──── ⋆⋅🐙 HOW DOES IT SPREAD?

I trust you read the bit about save files in the previous section?

If you PLACE an infected household into CAS and then PLACE and MERGE or REPLACE another household onto it, the household becomes infected. If you save this newly infected household to your Tray/Library, the infection saves with the new household. If you upload the infected household to the Gallery, the infection uploads with it. If somesimmer downloads this infected household, they're downloading the dormant infection waiting to be spread to new Tray households.

If you import one of these infected sims into a Live game, any sims sharing the household become infected, and if you then export them to the Tray/Library or the Gallery... you get the idea.

──── ⋆⋅💉 HOW DO I PROTECT MYSELF?

In CAS, the infection is observable as "Contains New Items!" highlights on your CAS categories, duplicated items with an orange border, some of which are defaulted to wrong swatches and an "Unlocked" checkbox appearing under the Content filter.

If you PLACE a sim into CAS from your Library or the Gallery and notice any of the above, click CANCEL in the bottom right, then RESET THIS HOUSEHOLD and DELETE that !@#$ from your Library - or not, y'know, you do you.

──── ⋆⋅🍊 HOW DO I DISINFECT A HOUSEHOLD?

There are two ways, neither of which I trust fully.

1️⃣ Create a Sim Preset Override of the infected sim.

"The rogue code causing the infection doesn't appear to attach itself to the *.siminfo file that Sims 4 Studio extracts. More testing is required but using the *.siminfo from an infected sim to mod Sim Presets then regenerating the sim from the modded preset in CAS seems to produce a disinfected sim."

When I remember how to do this, I will explain it. Sim Presets can also be used to re-link your hairstyle to Everyday 0 - which is a guide I was supposed to write since January 2024.

I need to pay SimplyAnjuta a visit.

2️⃣ The refined Sims After Dark Live Mode method has caveats.

• 1️⃣ Merge an infected sim or household into a clean household OR merge an infected sim into an already infectious household (I haven't actually tested the latter).

• 2️⃣ Shift+Ctrl+C and "testingcheats on" / "testingcheats true" / etc.

• 3️⃣ Shift+Left-Click on an infected household sim and Remove From Family. You can then safely Shift+Left-Click on them > Modify in CAS > Save Household.

• 4️⃣ Alternatively, you can select the infected sim and use the Split from Household and Move option in the cellphone then place them on a new lot or toss them into Manage Households by [X]-ing off the prompt.

The first caveat with doing this in Live Mode is 🌌 "the only way we've ever figured out of getting somewhere is to leave something behind", meaning the infection remains on the sim left behind, meaning the save is infected. I suppose you could cheat delete this poor sim if you insist on keeping the save.

The second caveat is that I think sims saved to Library this way retain some Live Mode sim data, 🧠 and so do these simmers over on ModTheSims. Personally, I don't want that so I'm still gonna mod Presets.

──── ⋆⋅❄️ SURE THIS ISN'T A "YOU" PROBLEM?

This !@#$ is in the Gallery and in custom household downloads.

I think it's a community problem.

At the very least, the community should have better consideration for itself and TAG its !@#$ properly so the rest of us know what we're placing in our games. The infected custom sims I've found almost all require CC, so there's no reason for them to be "CAS Unlock" sims.

──── ⋆⋅🦄 POSTSCRIPT [11/20/24]:

Back when I became aware of this, I wanted to do something - https://www.patreon.com/posts/96712921 - I still might.

I didn't at the time because not long after this did the first Malware Incident occur and it ate all of my time and energy, but I've recently become aware that this post is still being read, which means simmers are encountering these "CAS Unlock" sims, because of course they are, these things are everywhere!

──── ⋆⋅ඞ A SUSPICIOUS TIMELINE (AO)

💀 1/14/24 #1 - "I'm noticing some sorcery going on with my tray sims. I'm thinking one of these new mods I've been using is mucking around where it has no business. I'll update later, but the symptom is an orange outline on some random duplicated CAS items. I'm seeing it with or without the mods installed and it's only happening with those sims that were saved while the mods were in." - https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims4/comments/18bkmiq/troubleshooting_thread_bugs_mod_issues_origin/khvg3o6/?context=8&depth=9

💀 1/14/24 #2 - "5 hours later I've discovered that the source of whatever this is is NOT the mods I'm using, it's from a Gallery household I downloaded. Half the NPCs I exported and re-saved to remove their Modded flags have been contaminated with this !@#$ simply because they got dragged into the same CAS instance the household was in after I re-saved it to fix clothes. ALL MY PRETTY RANDOM ALIENS ARE INFECTED, DAMMIT!" - https://www.reddit.com/r/Sims4/comments/18bkmiq/troubleshooting_thread_bugs_mod_issues_origin/khvg3o6/?context=8&depth=9

💀 1/16/24 #1 - This post is created.

💀 1/16/24 #2 - Queue the troubleshooting! "I just realized something. If this infects household members in Live mode, potentially infecting saves... could this !@#$ spread through a custom save file that was made using an infected sim?! Is it infecting lots?! !@#$! MOAR TROUBLESHOOTING? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!"

💀 1/16/24 #2 - I reach out to the Sims After Dark Discord Server and they report that this nonsense is a "CAS Unlock Sim". They give me crude instructions for how to potentially get rid of it in Live Mode and I verify that it works and refine it.

💀 1/17/24 #1 - A Bug Report is created on AnswersHQ - https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/TS4-PSA-Infection-found-in-Tray-Library-and-Gallery-Households/td-p/13402765 - and the contents of this post is copypasted. AHQ isn't amused by my self-censoring or my light sex joke so the entire Bug Report gets removed and I get my first caution from AHQ, as though this isn't a game chock-full of "Woohoo" !@#$.

💀 1/17/24 #2 - "I'm now realizing the Gallery is flooded with this !@#$. Cheers, I guess."

💀 1/27/24 - SimsCommunity_info shares "CAS Unlock" sims...