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The Sims 4 Community Voted Stuff Pack Deep Dive: Plopsy!

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SimGuruConorSimGuruConor Posts: 16 SimGuru
edited March 5 in Nominated Threads
Welcome back to another Nifty Knitting Deep Dive! This is part 4 of our ongoing series where we take a peek behind the curtain (of yarn?) to discuss in depth upcoming gameplay features, and have a little Q&A with members of the development team. Today, let's talk about Plopsy!

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Plopsy is an online arts and crafts marketplace to buy and sell goods. It's sort of an amalgamation of real life online stores, but the themes should feel familiar. For a pack centered around knitting, this felt like a really good add. Afterall, there are only so many times you can gift your significant other a sweater...and yet so many sweaters to knit!

The flow for Plopsy is relatively straightforward - once you’ve crafted an object the List on Plopsy interaction becomes available. Listing an item on Plopsy costs a small fee, and will remain listed on Plopsy for several days. You can keep track of your listed items in your inventory, where you will see the current duration of the item and if there are any interested buyers.

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(it's that easy!)

If someone is interested in buying your item, you’ll be notified with a message. If you agree to the buyer’s offer, you can use the Ship on Plopsy action to ship the object in the mail. You’ll be paid immediately and get a thank you message from the buyer when they receive your package. Alternatively, you can ignore a buyer’s offer and relist the object for sale again.

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(Ship it!)

Plopsy offers a higher payout than selling things the old fashioned way, at the cost of some general maintenance and patience. The goal is to offer a better selling experience for both the stay-at-home crafting professional and the fairweather crafting hobbyist. Plopsy isn’t tied down to a career or a gig, so anyone is free to try it!

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Sims can also purchase things on Plopsy through their phones or computers. This storefront will rotate in random crafted items throughout the day, so even non-crafty Sims have a chance at some cool stuff (including the new knitted clothing!).

We plan for Plopsy to be available for things like paintings, woodworking statues, potions, knitted items, flower arrangements, and more. Hoping to wrap future arts and crafts under Plopsy too!

Without further ado here’s Rick Rodgers, engineer extraordinaire here on our Stuff Pack team, here to talk a bit about coding, UI, and all the bits between.

Conor: Can you tell us what it means to be Gameplay Engineer on The Sims 4?

Rick: To understand what a GPE is (we always say GPE), you need to understand a bit about how The Sims 4 works. The Sims 4 uses a client-server architecture, which means it is essentially composed of two separate programs that talk to each other. The first program we call “the client”, and it is responsible for displaying the game to the player. It handles things like graphics, audio, and the user interface (it’s relatively important!). The second program we call “the server” and it manages what we call gameplay systems like autonomy, interactions, relationships, aspirations, skills, and careers. The server keeps track of those systems and condenses them down into operations the client understands, like “play this animation on this object” or maybe “put this cat on top of this vacuum”. As a GPE, my job is to build (and fix) the gameplay systems on the server and make sure designers have the options they need to create features using them. (Disclaimer: I am simplifying a bit)

Conor: You also work on UI Engineering. How is it different from Gameplay Engineering? How is it the same?

Rick: To me, gameplay engineering is about solving abstract problems like “where and how should a Sim put down the object they are holding?” while UI engineering is usually about solving much more concrete problems like, “What do we do if the Russian word for Tiny Home is too long for this button?”. UI engineering can be really satisfying because the changes we make are usually immediately visible. There is also something fun about changing-up the interface of the game that we stare at all day long. At the end of the day though, code is code. I like to work on both because it means I get to implement the gameplay and UI components of a single feature.

Conor: Is there one thing in Nifty Knitting that you’re really excited to be working on?

Rick: Plopsy – I think partly because the idea of selling things I make at home has always appealed to me in real life. Also, Plopsy breaks some of the assumptions we had previously made about how we would use the crafting system, and it’s been fun to find and solve the problems that have come up.

Conor: What is your favorite feature you have ever worked on in The Sims 4?

Rick: Can I pick two?
Favorite feature to make:
I had a lot of fun adding Freelancer Careers to the game. We had done something similar to Freelancer with the Acting Career in The Sims 4 Get Famous, and we wanted to figure out a way to use some of the things we liked about the Acting Career to make other careers. When we added another Freelancer Career for Fashion Photography in The Sims 4 Moschino Stuff Pack, I felt like my baby was all grown up.
Favorite feature to play:
I really enjoyed working on the Murphy Bed in The Sims 4 Tiny Living Stuff Pack. It’s convenient design, but sometimes prickly exterior, make it the perfect combination of sensible and a little nefarious. You might say I identify with it a bit. I didn’t hook-up the object itself, that was our design team. But I worked on it because we needed gameplay support in code for a bed that was also a loveseat. We had never made anything like that before.

Conor: Thanks Rick!

That’s all I have for this week, Simmers, but never fear, we have one more design deep dive to share with you. I saved the best, and my personal favorite, for last. So be sure to join us next time for the Knitting Deep Dive!

Until then....

~ SimGuruConor

Post edited by EA_Cade on

Comments

  • Sigzy05Sigzy05 Posts: 19,406 Member
    edited May 2020
    Very cool inside info on the Plopsy feature.

    Questions: How will price scaling work though, compared to selling them through buy more or the inventory? Will clients ever make offers bellow the "original" pricing? Also, is there a time limit to having things on plopsy? And if we list something there, will we see it when using Plopsy through the phone?
    mHdgPlU.jpg?1
  • x4m1r4x4m1r4 Posts: 3,901 Member
    This is great! Thanks again for sharing this with us. Plopsy sounds fun! Just wondering, say if the Sims selling items through Plopsy, would it be possible that it's increasing their reputations? I think it would be nice if it can actually affect the reputation since they could at least increase their profit margin because of their popularity (branding).

    Talking about the prices, does it works similarly to the retails where we could upsell it, say depending on the demand & supply?
    OID:- x4m1r4
  • MissyHissyMissyHissy Posts: 2,022 Member
    Another lovely post. I'm really looking forward to the Plopsy feature. I can think of a lot of Sims in my game who will be able to make use of this feature! <3
    *All my mods can be found on The Daily Plumbob*MiAqoAE.png
  • Angie1301Angie1301 Posts: 90 Member
    Is it possible to gain fame or notoriety from your plopsy store? Can you mark up items based on quality of the item or popularity of your store? It would be so cool to have an option of a celebrity promoting your items in some way.
  • illustratedhappinessillustratedhappiness Posts: 261 Member
    Thank you for developing Plopsy!

    From the first moment you told us about it I've wanted it in my game. No more selling paintings to the void! Also, our clumsy Sims will surely appreciate the Buy feature :smile:
  • EnkiSchmidtEnkiSchmidt Posts: 5,331 Member
    Sounds great! I like the balancing of more profit, but with wait times Vs. less profit, but immediate money.

    Two questions:
    1) If we list an object and then immediately switch to another household, will we be able to purchase the listed object with our other household?
    2) Can we sell knitted items through the inventory? I'm toying with the idea of a knitted goods factory like I have for woodworking and canned food.
  • SimGuruConorSimGuruConor Posts: 16 SimGuru
    Sigzy05 wrote: »
    Very cool inside info on the Plopsy feature.

    Questions: How will price scaling work though, compared to selling them through buy more or the inventory? Will clients ever make offers bellow the "original" pricing? Also, is there a time limit to having things on plopsy? And if we list something there, will we see it when using Plopsy through the phone?

    The goal is that clients always offer above the "original" price, what percentage that is can vary. I'd like Plopsy to feel worthwhile, so no joke offers thankfully. Also the listing time limit is still being tuned, hoping to find a sweet spot that feels good.
  • Mandie997Mandie997 Posts: 155 Member
    I appreciate the transparency. How long has the GSE worked on Sims 4? Rick seems relatively skilled if he designed the freelancer gigs. Hoping Plopsy is good in the end.
  • Louise_G0325Louise_G0325 Posts: 1,040 Member
    Heheh, I am very ready to intentionally sell bad quality items to see angry clients' reactions.
  • logionlogion Posts: 4,710 Member
    Thanks for the info, as someone who is very curious about game development it was really fun to read the interview with the Gameplay Engineer.
  • Sigzy05Sigzy05 Posts: 19,406 Member
    edited May 2020
    Sigzy05 wrote: »
    Very cool inside info on the Plopsy feature.

    Questions: How will price scaling work though, compared to selling them through buy more or the inventory? Will clients ever make offers bellow the "original" pricing? Also, is there a time limit to having things on plopsy? And if we list something there, will we see it when using Plopsy through the phone?

    The goal is that clients always offer above the "original" price, what percentage that is can vary. I'd like Plopsy to feel worthwhile, so no joke offers thankfully. Also the listing time limit is still being tuned, hoping to find a sweet spot that feels good.

    Cool! Thanks for the answer!
    mHdgPlU.jpg?1
  • SimTrippySimTrippy Posts: 7,651 Member
    I love the info we keep getting on the knitting pack. This sounds very nice :)
  • popstarsleypopstarsley Posts: 1,086 Member
    Love everything about these features. Thanks!
  • midnightpearlmidnightpearl Posts: 6,578 Member
    This is great, looking forward to Plopsy in my game, now that we have Eco Living EP, hopefully we can sell the hand made candles too
  • MsShaShaMsShaSha Posts: 52 Member
    Plopsy is such a nice idea and an awesome addition to this pack. Very realistic and so nice to have another means for sims to sell their creations and work from home. So stoked! I'm really loving all of this SP!

    Thank you for sharing some behind the scenes and personal thoughts, Rick! - Thank you for keeping us posted, Conor!

    uwxwhgf
    I build things some times. Origin ID: MsShaSha
  • CreativeMom88CreativeMom88 Posts: 53 Member
    I'll become so hooked creating for plopsy since I can't do that in real life.

    If only crafting was that easy in real life, the struggle comes when you want to ship your creations.
    After 6 yrs, I still don't know where first time crafters can afford so many shipping boxes, whatever used to protect creation inside box, where they get money for printer ink, pay for label stickers, pay the shipping fees and be able to get to post office while someone is at the front. How do people do that?
    All that can cost more than or as much as the item you want to sell.
    So after 5yrs & no luck, I threw out things I made, kept my faves, my paints & such tho to pass down.

    But I'll always love crafts & really really want this as my first pack (even tho Island Living was supposed to be my first pack but apparently EA scammed me on the Sims 4 Island Living Xbox One Bundle Pack and I can't get my $$ back!)
  • xSongxxSongx Posts: 1,562 Member
    I am beyond excited about this pack. The fact that we get knitting, metal music, AND Plopsy in one stuff pack is awesome! I love having my sims play at home and so this pack is going to be perfect for my gameplay. Agh! I'm so excited!
    they/he
  • BMSOBMSO Posts: 3,273 Member
    edited May 2020
    @SimGuruConor Would we also be able to sale the fizzy fruit drinks and other craftables from Eco (on plopsy) as well or will there be another system implied since they are technically craftables from another pack?
    Bmso85's emporium - mysims4studios

  • rubytinkerrubytinker Posts: 48 Member
    This is a great idea and much more in line with actual life. Love it!
  • joRN1414joRN1414 Posts: 1,669 Member
    This is going to be super fun!!
    "Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death!" -Auntie Mame
  • divanthesimmerdivanthesimmer Posts: 1,462 Member
    Plopsy seems great - can't wait to use it! Also enjoyed your interview with Rick and that sweater looks cool!
    phULnBI.png
    Check out my SimLit blog here: https://ageekylegacy.wordpress.com/
    Follow me on Twitter @divanthesimmer
    Follow me on Tumblr: https://www.tumblr.com/dashboard/blog/divanthesimmer
    Origin ID: divanthesimmer
  • ScobreScobre Posts: 20,665 Member
    Will Sims be able to sell items made by the Get to Work and Eco Lifestyle 3D printers?
    “Although the world is full of suffering, it is full also of the overcoming of it.” –Helen Keller
  • wildrose011wildrose011 Posts: 4 New Member
    :) can't wait for the release
  • wildrose011wildrose011 Posts: 4 New Member
    it will be a great way for the elders to make money but not have to go to work
  • SimburianSimburian Posts: 6,902 Member
    @SimGuruConor Will the things made and used in this pack add to the environment as 'off the grid' with the latest expansion eco pack installed or will they have no environmental value? I'm thinking of curtains etc.,

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