Welcome to TS4 Mod Hound

There are several ways the TS4 Mod Hound can help you check mod update & status information.

• Option 1: use the automated "Check My Mods" feature (read the next collapsible section for more information on it).
• Option 2: check the "All Tracked Mods" page and search for the mod(s) whose information you want to check.
• Option 3: check the "Public Page" of a specific modder to see information about their work only.

"Check My Mods" system:

view of "All Tracked Mods":

view of a modder's Public Page:

With the "Check My Mods" scan, the Hound analyzes the files you submit (your Mods folder directly or an LE file), and uses its knowledge base to automatically report on your:

• Outdated files
• Duplicate files
• Broken / Obsolete files
• Files with "unknown" status
• Incompatible Mods
• Mods with missing requirements
• Archive files
• Scripts installed too deep
• Up to date "ok" files
• Files not tracked by this system (ignored)

"Check My Mods" system:

All the mod files listed on this site by Modders and Trusted Community Members are part of the Hound's knowledge base. This means that the "Check My Mods" function include and reports on these mods.

When viewing mod info on this site, you can always hover over a status marker for a reminder of what they mean.

Mod Status list:

• '✔ ok': the mod file is okay to use and compatible with the latest game patch as far as the system knows.
• '❓ unknown': the mod file may or may not be compatible with the latest game patch, status is unknown and unconfirmed.
• '❌ broken': the mod file is known to be broken, severely malfunctioning, or incompatible with the latest game patch.
• '🚩💬 warning': the mod file has a warning related to its status or patch compatibility. You MUST read the file's "(update) notes" section to learn capital additional information.
• '☠👻 obsolete': the mod file is not in circulation anymore and you should not keep it, perhaps because it became unnecessary, was discontinued, is broken without any new version planned in the future. Read the file's "(update) notes" section for more information.

Always refer to Modder's notes and official support pages in doubt regarding the status of one of their mods.

The activity feed is a way for you to see changes listed recently for mods.

The "Activity Feed" navigation tab takes you to a Feed page combining the activity of all modders.

Individualized modder's feeds are also visible on each modder's "Public Page".

global Activity Feed:

Activity Feed on modder's Public Page:

An activity feed item is automatically created whenever a modder edits one of the following:

• mod name
• update date
• status
• update notes
• + when adding a new mod file

You ARE allowed to make listings about:

• Mods that fit within the game's own rating (rated "Teen")
• Mods that treat mature themes euphemistically (like the game itself)
• Mods that are borderline with or beyond the game's ratings SO LONG AS and ONLY IF you MARK said listing with the appropriate content filters AND respect the limitations listed below.

Please use your best judgment as you self moderate!

Under any and all circumstances:

• NO sexually explicit words, slurs or terms of non-sim-like violence allowed on Mod Hound
• NO links towards or descriptions of sexually explicit or brutal content allowed on Mod Hound
• NO links towards or descriptions of content explicitly relating to alcohol or drugs allowed on Mod Hound
• NO content relating to or discussion of piracy allowed on Mod Hound

Of course, our Terms of Use also apply.

We also do NOT allow making listings for mods which are under permanent paywalls.. Permanent paywalls are explicitely against EA's terms with us Modders.

Making an account is easy and private. You don't need to provide any info except your Creator Name.

For everyone's safety, we need to ascertain that nobody is impersonating modders.
Hence, to make an account, you must obtain an access code:

• Option 1: contact Lumpinou from one of your known official platforms to ask for a sign-up code. You can do this if you are on Twitter, ModTheSims, Curseforge, Patreon, or are a verified creator on Creator's Musings Discord.
• Option 2: if you and Lumpinou don't share any platforms, you can make a post or comment somewhere on one of your known official platforms, mentioning you are requesting a sign-up code, and then send a link to that post or comment to Lumpinou on Discord or via submission form.

When you sign up, the site will auto-generate private credentials for you to use. You can also use 2-factor authentification if you wish!

The best way to add your mods to the system is to use the "Add Entries From Files" button in the "My Content" dashboard. 

adding mods in bulk:

The elements that are filled in bulk / via automation when adding new files to the list are:

• mod name (inferred)
• file name stem
• creator name
• file type
• update date
• status (assumed 'ok')

Additionally, if you specify a "Mod Index" link in your profile: if you have mods listed for which you did not provide individual link, your  "Mod Index" Link will be displayed to your users for these.

Info loaded automatically for file "Lumpinou_RPO_Collection_M0_CoreLibrary_Required.package", as displayed in the Modder's dashboard:

Your newly auto-added content will be highlighted in yellow (and stay that way until it is ever edited).

Check the Hound's automated work and adjust mod names, status, update notes and links if desired.

Voilà!

The "My Content" modder's dashboard enables you to list and track Mod Files via bulk-automated operations and manual-individual ones.

For each file, the system can record and display to your mod users:

• mod name
• file name
• creator name
• file type
• update date
• link
• status
• update notes
• when this info was last revised (this is always filled in automatically)
• Incompatibilities
• Requirements
• Dependents

a row of info tracked, as displayed to mod users:

You can modify your content in bulk or individually.

The elements that can be updated in bulk and/or via automation are:

• status
• update date
• update notes (when bulk updating 'update date")

modifying mod status in bulk:

All elements except filenames can also be modified manually at any time. For further explanations on filenames and why they are locked, read the 'What is the "Check My Mods" Scan' section below.

modifying elements manually:

That depends on whether the patch is Minor or Major.

What Happens Automatically

At patches:

• Admins record a patch happened and if it's Major or Minor
• MAJOR PATCH ONLY: the Hound switches mods of "Ok" status to "Unknown", because the Patch might have affected them
• An additional section and option appear in your "My Content" dashboard

The additional "Patch" section in Modder's dashboard:

~~~~~~~~~~

What You Must Do

• First, check your mods for the patch & Make mod updates if any are necessary
• Report changes to the Hound via the options in "My Content"

It reads the "last modified" date of your files, automatically detecting which were updated and refreshing your "My Content" table accordingly.

The "Bulk Update 'Update Date' from File(s)" option in Modder's dashboard:

Once you are done making changes to your listings to reflect patch updates:

Click the "Mark All Information as Revised for / Current with Latest Patch" Button to:

• mark all unmodified entries as 'info last revised: now', to confirm to users that the info is still current
• switch all remaining '❓unknown' statuses to '✔ok', if any

And that's it!

"My Public Page"

Your "Public Page" displays your content for your mod users.

view of a modder's Public Page:

Your "Public Page" shows:

• the profile picture you choose to show, if any
• the custom notes you choose to show, if any
• your activity feed
• the last time you made any change to your content list
• your content list (mod files, their status, type, update date, update note, link, and when you last revised each entry)

"My Profile"

Your "Profile" holds your info.

On your profile page, you can change elements that reflect in the Public Page.

You can change your creator name, mod index if any, profile picture if any is wanted, and public notes if any.

viewing and editing profile, with result shown on Public Page:

The Feed Itself

The activity feed is a way for mod users to see changes listed recently for mods.

The "Activity Feed" navigation tab takes user to a Feed page combining the activity of all modders.

Individualized modder's feeds are also visible on each modder's "Public Page".

global Activity Feed:

Activity Feed on modder's Public Page:

An activity feed item is automatically created whenever you edit one of the following:

• mod name
• update date
• status
• update notes
• + when adding a new mod file

You can delete activities from your feed in the "My Feed" page, accessible from the navigation bar.

managing feed items in "My Feed":

The "Generate Activity Announcement" Feature

The goal is to generate an optimized list of your recent activity to share it as a report on other platforms (Patreon, etc).

For example, after a patch, once you've listed your patch changes / updates on the Hound, you might want to share a summary of that on other platforms. That's what the 'Generate Activity Announcement' button is for: it generates that summary for you.

The result is copyable as markdown formatted text, which means it'll show bold and italics on discord, patreon, etc.

Generate Activity Announcement:

General Notes

With the "Check My Mods" scan, the Hound analyzes the files submitted by the user, and uses its knowledge base to report on the user's:

• Outdated files
• Duplicate files
• Broken / Obsolete files
• Files with "unknown" status
• Incompatible Mods
• Mods with missing requirements
• Archive files
• Scripts installed too deep
• Up to date "ok" files
• Files not tracked

"Check My Mods" system:

All the mod files that you list in "My Content" are part of the Hound's knowledge base. This means that the "Check My Mods" function and reports include and address your files.

In practice: if you've listed your content on TS4 Mod Hound, your mod users can check if they have the latest versions of your mods automatically, by scanning their folder or LE files here. Convenient, no?

Explanations on Mod File Recognition

That consideration is: how the filenames filenames are listed in the system

The Hound stores file names stems.

Once again, your ACTUAL files are left untouched and still have their version numbers and dates.

The Hound's "file name" data is simply NOT a direct 1:1 equivalent to the file's file name.

So what IS it? Well, it is:

• The file name,
• MINUS the extension,
• MINUS any date ("July2023", etc)
• MINUS any version number

The Hound automatically processes your file names and chews on them to its liking.

In the UNLIKELY case it doesn't know how to work with your particular file naming conventions, contact Lumpinou so it can be taught.

The following tools are available for modders on the Mod Hound online platform.

1: Tuning Example Finder

The point is to track down Game examples for specific features / TDESC elements.

The Tuning Example Finder:

You Can Use It HERE

How it works:

• Specify what Tuning Types and / or Classes you're looking for, if you know.
• Specify search terms (text, xml fragments, etc) if you have any.
• Check out the results!

2: Mod Tuning Reference Browser

This feature is directly inspired by the "Browse Tuning References" functionality of the late Scumbumbo's "Tuning Browser".

The point is to track down links between mod tuning instances.

The Online Mod Tuning Ref. Browser:

How it works:

• Point to your mod(s) file(s). Then, choose or search for a mod tuning in the drop down to see what other tunings reference it and are referenced by it.
• You can also hit the Preview buttons to see the tunings' XML contents

(The Hound knows how to chew on XML files, and thanks to Frank's S4tk, can also read directly from your PACKAGE files for this!)

3: EA Tuning Reference Browser

This feature is directly inspired by the "Browse Tuning References" functionality of the late Scumbumbo's "Tuning Browser".

The point is to track down links between EA tuning instances.

The Online Tuning Ref. Browser:

You Can Use It HERE

How it works:

• Give the page a moment to load.
• Choose or search for an EA tuning in the drop-down to see what other tunings reference it and are referenced by it.
• You can also hit the Preview buttons to see the tunings' XML contents

4: Override Checker (mostly for Patches)

The point is to see which of your overrides got changed by an EA patch and need your attention - as well as what package they're in.

The Override Checker:

You Can Use It HERE

How it works:

• Give an XMLcompare file (those shared on Creator's Musings, for example).
• Choose the package file(s) to check for overrides that you'd need to revise for the patch.
• Voilà!

5: Bulk Package Extractor

The point is to extract the contents of several package files at once, in bulk.

The Bulk Package Extractor:

How it works:

• Choose to sort extracted contents in subdirectories per package or not.
• Decide whether to extract only Tuning + SimData, or Everything.
• Point to the Package files you want extracted.

Access to package contents is powered by Frankk's S4TK.

6: Basic Buff Maker

For all of your tuning building needs, I heartily recommend Lot51's TDESC Builder.

The Basic Buff Maker below is a web port of a personal desktop program I made before Templates were an option in Lot51's builder.

Its purpose was to speed up the creation of buffs & moodlets, especially those that use custom moods from my Mood Pack Mod.

How it works:

• Give your buff a tuning name
• Specify if it is a Moodlet or not (if not, buff is invisible and moodless)
• IF MOODLET: Give it the strings for the name and description
• IF MOODLET: Choose a BG icon or enter the code for any other icon
• IF MOODLET: Select a Mood and Mood Intensity
• Select a Duration
• Click 'Generate' to create and download the buff (and a loot granting it, if wanted)