Ever spend long minutes combing the build catalog over and over to find that one particular item you KNOW is there but you cant seem to find? Does deciding on a paint color mean endless clicking between different walls to see which ones have a blue option? Cant remember where the heck trashcans are located in the catalog?
Welcome to the club.
It's time to remind you of two handy features that can seriously cut down on the hair pulling frustration: Search and Filters.
The search mode is something many simmers have been dreaming of for a long time: a fast, easy way to find objects in the build buy catalog. We now have it...so use it!
Just start
typing in the name or description of whatever you are looking for in the search
box and the game will automatically bring up anything that has those letters in
the name. To help pin point your search,
it tells you both the name of the object and where in the catalog it is
located.
Click
on any of the listings and you will be shown that object and its place in the
catalog.
Some things
to know about the Search Function:
* The search
function can be used from any Build mode screen. It doesn’t matter if you are in Objects by
Room or if you are in the Roofing menu.
*You don’t have
to know the exact name of the object to find it. In fact, you don’t have to know the name at all. You can use a descriptor word such as modern
or small to narrow your search.
*Hit the x button in the search field to clear out your old search and start a new one.
*The search function will find any object in the
Build catalog, including outdoor and construction items. It is not limited to furniture.
Filters
Another handy way to save time and easily locate
objects is the filter system. You will
see the filter option on the right side of the control panel while in Build
mode or in Objects by Function.
Open the
filter panel to access the different ways to pinpoint your search. You can filter by style, by colors, or by content. You can use one or all of these
filters at the same time. When a filter is active, the build buy catalog will
only show you those items that fit the categories you have selected.
Style
To filter by
style, select one or more of the listed styles in the list. You may select as
many or as few as you like. With the filter now active, the catalog will only
show you those items that fit that tag.
Using the style filter can be tricky
and often frustrating. The modern tag, for instance, yielded almost no objects
even though there are plenty of things in the build and buy sections of the
catalog that I would consider “modern”. What you consider “contemporary” and what the
game considers “contemporary" could be two completely different things. Proceed with caution.
Colors
This is an
extremely helpful filter to use when you are decorating your house! Click on
the color filter and select the color (or colors) you are looking for and when
you browse the catalog, you will only see items in those colors.
The
convenient part of this is that you don’t have to click on individual styles
and check the swatches to see which colors are available. Everything that is blue will be right there
in front of you. This works for
construction items too. If you are considering a particular paint color, using
the filter for your search will help you see all of your options in one
place. It can make decision making and
decorating so much easier.
Content
The final
filter you may employ is the Content filter.
Content currently offers two tags: purchased and unlocked. Purchased
will no doubt become much more useful in the future when DLC is released. In the meantime, “unlocked” can be a handy
tool to locate objects your household has unlocked through achievements.
Don't forget to remove the filters once you are done with them.
Hopefully these tools will help cut down on the frustration of finding objects in the catalog and make the building experience faster and more enjoyable. If you haven't used the color filter yet, I highly recommend it.
