Custom Content and You

[annoellyn]

Just curious how everyone else uses custom content. Do you spend hours downloading new clothes, hair, make-up, and furniture for your sims? Do you only download specific stuff? Are you a picky downloader? Are you content with the game content and could care less about downloads?

For me, i am addicted to custom stuff. Hair is a big one for me; I never ever use original game hair because i can't go back to the awful texturing. So I have lots and lots of custom hair. I also rarely use original game clothing unless it really suits the sim (which is rarely). So i have a looooot of clothes. However, i like EA's shoes a lot so i don't download those. I love getting new furniture since i love a lot of variety. I redecorate the whole house with every new generation and i need a lot of variety for specific styles. I really love bedroom sets and kitchen-dining sets. I scour the internet for nursery sets since i adore cute baby rooms.

Near the end of a generation (adults aging to elder, kids aging to teen) i go on a downloading spree for a few hours. Then i'm good until the next generation is ready to begin. I'm definitely not a picky downloader; i click everything in case a future sim will suit that style.

Okay, now that i sound crazy, it's you're turn!

Annie

[babele44]

When the 1.5 patch broke most cc sims3packs and has remained wonky when it comes to installing third-party content and when the 1.8 patch broke custom meshes on Macs, I removed almost everything I had in my Mods folder and am now very cautious and picky with cc.
My mods folder is currently at 188 MB and there are only something like 4 custom hairs, a few default replacements, some patterns, three pairs of shoes, some accessories and a limited amount of clothing items that have remained stable through all the patch levels since. The biggest amount are mods to fix my game and one merged dbc package file with sims3packs that the Launcher still refuses to install. I do own quite some Store sets, however.
CC objects I only download and use those that add something to my game, like shelves or Buzzler's Box of Seeds, but no additional furniture or decorative clutter.
When I download houses or Sims now, I look mostly for cc free files. Firstly because cc filled houses sometimes refuse to install, too, even when I have most of the cc and secondly I became tired of tracking down all the patterns and things that came with a house when I re-install.

[annoellyn]

I must be really lucky - no patch has ever caused cc to stop working for me. *knock on wood*

Annie

[joof]

When I played TS2, I downloaded things a lot. Hair, makeup, skins, clothes, furniture - anything that I saw and even remotely liked. But, with TS3, I'm a lot more picky with my downloads since it's just more annoying to actually install them into my game! So now, I only download things that I really like or want to have in my game, like Buzzler's scribbling pad. But, whenever a new patch comes out, all of my custom objects break. So I try not to download those anymore, unless I really really want it.
I still download clothes and hairstyles every once in a while, but a lot more rarely than when I played TS2. I get really tired of EA's things, but since I don't download objects as much anymore, I spend less time looking at custom clothes and hairstyles.

[simsamu]

I am pretty much content with the games content at the moment, hairs were a particular weakness of mine with TS2 and I can see it oging that way in TS3 too as they never includse enough hairs and I dont want a town full of hair clones

[Nightlight]

I'm very picky, My mod fold is just 50 mb.

I download only maxis match clutter and make up, so no hair (cc hair often seems - to me - a bit wrong.. too shiny or too big), dress, shoes, etc.

Maybe I don't have a lot of variety but I can play with really good performance :P

[Sorelligirls]

I, too, am very picky with downloads. I use the computer for other things as well as the Sims, so I'm careful on how much space I am using up. I will download things that make gameplay easier but that's been about it so far.

[kennyinbmore]

I, too, am very picky with downloads. I use the computer for other things as well as the Sims, so I'm careful on how much space I am using up. I will download things that make gameplay easier but that's been about it so far.

I have two 2 TB hard drives so I have plenty of space, but I'm picky on downloads too. My downloads usually consists of a some cars,lots, and a few of Twallan's mods. The last thing I want to deal with if my game crashes is trying to figure out which piece of CC is causing it

[Morlock]

I'm about to start sifting through over 5GB of custom content that I have installed. It's great having so much choice in the catalogues, but it is lagging my gameplay quite badly now. I aim to reduce the content by around half and get rid of some substandard stuff I have installed, a mass clean up is needed.

[DigiBlue]

I have just under 1GB of CC, and I honestly think close to 30% of that is skintones. I really haven't download much clothing or hair.. TS3 still has some catching up to do with TS2 at this same point in its lifespan, so I don't download much. If it ever does catch up to TS2 CC wise my computer might explode! (What I mean by that is there aren't as many people making CC as there was for TS2.)

But, really, I only ever download male clothing. I play more male characters.. So I don't really bother with female clothing. I might download something if a girl happens to be born in game, but thats it. And I really do like EAMatch! :P And this gen I have downloaded very few items. Maybe .5% of my CC is furniture or clutter... (I honestly do avoid clutter because it gets all lumped into one huge category and its hard to see what I'm looking for... I really miss collections from TS2... Or maybe we just need more clutter/deco categories to organize it all.)

[noxnoxnox]

Since I had experienced a lot of blue lots, crashes, corrupted saves, I only downloaded the massive sims store collection from the torrent site :( (...guilty...) and lots from trusted builders, some nrass industry mods and check carefully every sims that comes near my bin.

[brillo_pad]

When I had to re-install my game I decided to be picky because, for me anyway, the game runs faster when I have less CC. But recently I've been going mad, but only with CAS things (i.e. clothes, hair and make-up). I don't like to download objects that aren't EA because they tend to be quite high poly count (like I know what that means, ha!) and very intricate - beautiful and too much for my middle of the road computer to handle... I say middle of the road, but it's more idly drifting into the slow lane in need of an MOT. I love combining packages which greatly improves the speed of my game, and I store all the individual files on my external hard drive. Love mods, and they tend to be quite small in size.. yeah.

[jenieusa]

i have never had a bad experience with CC....i have MANY store items...plus some third party hair....a few mods...and about 20 objects from thrid party sites....
oh and thank god you can combine packages...i need that hair!!!

Oh and i do have a download folder with some things in it that i keep "just in case".....

[JackJess]

No affence, but I only download items from the MTS top items category. :)

[malfoya]

I download more than I can ever use :( There's just so much nice stuff out there. And since I barely play (mostly build or create) I don't understand why I always have to download so many outfits. Hehe.

Was thinking one day that the easiest way to keep track of what you have is to start with one family, get them each a nice outfit.. and download furniture for their home specifically. And this you can do for every family you make or so.. just wish I could have followed this from the start :P

[lewisb40]

I am an addicted downloader. I do get picky especially after the WA patch. I have favorite creators that I will download from only, because I trust their work, others I just bypass because something was wrong with the creation and when given feedback the creator doesn't correct it. I do use most of my downloads in one way or another, be it hair (see a style and I will create a sim specifically for it) or objects, I will build a whole slew of homes or community lots using them. Obsessed, yep that's me!

[ShortyBoo]

I have quite a bit of cc, but still not anywhere near as much as I had for TS2. With TS2, I had around 20GB of cc. I didn't want to have that happen again with TS3, so I've been a bit more selective about what I put in my game. Right now, I have a total of around 5GB worth of combined package files. It's mostly hair, clothes and skintones. I also have around 20 or so small mods (stuff like more fish in the big aquarium, idle animation disablers, etc) as well as AwesomeMod and several of Twallan's mods. I've actually recently deleted a bunch of the objects, hair and clothes I had in my game. Most of it was stuff I thought I'd use, but never did, or stuff that looked better in the previews than it actually did in the game.

[lisfyre]

I must be really lucky - no patch has ever caused cc to stop working for me. *knock on wood*

Annie

Me too. Or at least MOST 3rd party CC has not stopped working. I usually wait until most artists/creators have updated their items to the next patch/EP/SP then I download it, replace it and start playing my game with CC enabled again.

As for CC... yes I'm picky. I get EA Store items.. not all of them. Although, I have to say I do have most of them. I don't bother getting hair because I honestly hate EA hair textures. I also don't bother with most of the clothes because they're awful IMHO.. not all but a few are.

All EA Store items are in Sims3packs. I hate that launcher and that's one reason why EA Store CC are in Sims3packs. The other reason is, if you merge all EA Store CC and convert them to .package files, (which I have done a couple times) and bring them into the game, my load times from start to lot is almost an hour so I had to re-install them as Sims3packs and we're good as gold. All 3rd party CC I download is mostly .package files and the ones that aren't get converted right away.

As to what I download - makeup, hair, clothing, jewelry, shoes, room sets, and deco/clutter. I don't have hacks/mods like Twallan's or AwesomeMod or anything to do with those because I like my game without all that tweaking. If skin replacement defaults count as a hack/mod then I have one :)

As of today - I haven't downloaded anything yet - I have 3.9GB/2388 files/306 folders of EA Store and 3rd party CC in my game. I'm sure this number will change before the day is over :rofl:

[fairycake89]

I build a lot of houses and adore build mode stuff, clutter, artwork and so on. I can get unnecessarily excited about glass walls or a divine dining table *drooool*. IMHO the perfect fireplace has *yet* to be built as is the perfect bookcase - There is too much wood and nasty looking junk on most bookcases ... they need to be ALL glass! So I am on an eternal search for those items.

So yeah, I download a lot of CC which is build/house related. I have hardly downloaded any clothing but I do tend to use what I have downloaded for my sims all the time ... Regarding the build/buy mode stuff, there are two creators I'd be lost without - no scrub that, make it three! I won't mention names to spare blushes :bunny:

[Robodl95]

Usually what happens is I clean a lot of stuff out before an EP comes out (like I'm doing right now) and end up filling it up again. I download very little to no build/buy content, mostly my folder contains default hair/eyes, lots of hair, makeup, eyebrows and a little bit of clothing. I'm trying to get to a point where I won't download clothing anymore.

[heartbreak]

It's rare that I go out and seek something specific. Most of the time, I just download things that interest me off of MySims3Blog for that day.

Anything that "looks nice" usually peaks my interest and I download - I rarely install it tho haha

[annoellyn]

Hmm, i thought there would be more big downloaders, lol.

I think the reason i've never had any problems with CC is i always put the stuff i download in a dated folder, that way if i start my game up and something isn't working, i know exactly where it is.

Annie

[DreadWizardDM]

Regarding CC I find it a good practice to totally delete all of it twice a year. Then re-download CC or just get new CC. The game is not very CC friendly at this point. Dont get me wrong, I love the CC and MTS has some of the best of all time, its just that the game needs to mature more before becoming a more CC friendly / stable platform.

[annoellyn]

I don't find the game unfriendly for CC. I've had zero problems and i download a lot of CC.

Annie

[vhanster]

I download anything I think is nice...

[saeda]

I only download gameplay mods, hair, cosmetics, and clothing. I try to prune off things I don't use often because this game runs terribly on my computer (and yet brand new next-gen games run perfectly!) I have about 3g of CC and a few hundred mb of store content.

If this game were better optimized then I would easily use 10g of custom content.

[tomomi1922]

I only download gameplay mods, hair, cosmetics, and clothing. I try to prune off things I don't use often because this game runs terribly on my computer (and yet brand new next-gen games run perfectly!) I have about 3g of CC and a few hundred mb of store content.

If this game were better optimized then I would easily use 10g of custom content.
100% agree with what you say! Although EA will never admit, but their game is so poorly optimized for performance that TS3 taxes my computer so heavily if I put in max graphic setting. And now I still avoid coming close to any large lot, beside the local EA default 64x64 park.

And my computer too can handle any game out the market today with max graphic settings.

[LadyAwesome]

ugh recently I have been on a big CC purge - but that only because I am writing a story and you know. Kinda need heaps of deco items lol. Usually I just had a few clothes, hair, windows and basic build necessities. Now I have gone insane :D

[metal_goat]

I download a lot, but I'm very picky with what I keep. It's mostly clothes, and I'm very picky about how the textures look. I don't like clothes that have a lot of 3D detail, but are 2D.

[tomomi1922]

I download a lot, but I'm very picky with what I keep. It's mostly clothes, and I'm very picky about how the textures look. I don't like clothes that have a lot of 3D detail, but are 2D.
Picky is right. Some CC look great in screenshots but look rather cheap when you really use it in your game.

There is something in between 2D and 3D, which makes EA made clothings very high quality (design may be bad, but their clothes look solid).

I downloaded tons of dresses, but they are just some cheap replica of default EA dresses (and sometimes even of nude body) with some texture painted on. Great as body painting, but look so fake as real dresses. I have nothing against cloning old dress to make new, but the finish product is so ugly.

Clothes made by new meshes (instead of just replica), but a lot of time these meshes are not very well done, the shapes look crude, unnatural, and sometimes downright ugly. There are very few CC that are worth keeping.

And the thing I mention "in between" is the very well done CC. EA made clothings have a lot of "normal map" that makes your clothing really stand out under light sources. Instead of seeing clothing painted onto bare skin, or a flat generic dress, we can tell there are pockets, buttons, lines protruding out. Those are not exactly 3D but not 100% flat either. Normal map, like the muscle slider, is a "fake" 3D map that allows light cause an illusions they are 3D. They look very good if done right, and in reality very light weight because it is just another plain clothes not complicated 3D extensions everywhere.

Too bad, a lot of CC out there don't really take advantage of, or know how, or do well with normal map. I downloaded a lot of CC from sites such as Peggysims or Lianna before, and I rarely kept any of them.

Swimwear is easier to forgive because they are just thin pieces of cloth so I don't mind if they are "painted" onto the skin, as long as their texture doesn't look smudge or low quality.

[brillo_pad]

Hmm, i thought there would be more big downloaders, lol.

I think the reason i've never had any problems with CC is i always put the stuff i download in a dated folder, that way if i start my game up and something isn't working, i know exactly where it is.

Annie

Eh, that's a good idea! I date the combined packages 'cause I use the same name for them like "wardrobe" and "hair" but I never thought of folders, I may try that. I feel as though the problems are my own fault sometimes because I haven't read the instructions properly, but I'm learning slowly...

Erm, I use Sims3Updates practically every day to check out new downloads, too...

Picky is right. Some CC look great in screenshots but look rather cheap when you really use it in your game.

Yeah, there are loads of tops and dresses where the boobs look like one big one in game, but the screenshots are fine. I also hate the trousers that literally make the legs skinnier and any clothes that morph the shape of the body are quite annoying also, considering there are sliders for that sort of thing now.

[Kestie Freehawk]

I have 23.9 meg of custom content of which I use one book and some patterns that are stored seperatly. That is 95 files stored in two folders. My save file is 10.5 gig though and that is pretty typical for me. When I moved from 32 bit Vista to Win7Pro I filled a 16 gig key and two fours with just Sims 2 stuff. I had to go brutal on my CC file a while ago because I picked up something that made the toddlers and children have long legs and naked otherwise when they aged up. I think it has pretty well killed anyones want to download CC for clothes and thats sort of too bad. I wasnt that mad because I knew it was boots from reading here and first took out all the boots and then I had to take out everything but the stuff I had before and knew I could trust. Some great things were just wasted because of one or two bad items but its really hard to find out which one it is unless you take things out one at a time. If you like that naked stuff you can just get the Playgirl Encyclopedia of Sex which is like nasty Sims 2.

[karrie85]

I've never used any Custom Content, unless you count stuff from the Sims 3 Store. For the Sims 2 I was a CC and Mod junkie. I had EVERYTHING. But with the Sims 3 I don't need CC to have fun. I have no desire for CC.

[saeda]

Picky is right. Some CC look great in screenshots but look rather cheap when you really use it in your game.

It's even worse to try to find anything actually fashionable. I have maybe..10 actual designer outfits for my sims? Most of them don't look too hot in game either, but a poorly done McQueen is obviously better than other design-challenged, well-made outfits.

I don't mind so much if my skanky clubwear looks poorly done..it's like mall-quality ingame, perfect for my skanks.

[lisfyre]

Hmm, i thought there would be more big downloaders, lol.

I think the reason i've never had any problems with CC is i always put the stuff i download in a dated folder, that way if i start my game up and something isn't working, i know exactly where it is.

Annie

Unlike Sims 2, you don't have to have all the recolours so you have people like me who used to have a ton of CC because I needed all the recolours of everything. With Sims 3, we just go get the meshes because we have the capability to change the colour and textures. I go crazy with patterns - you can never have enough IMHO :)

I also go nuts with build/buy mode because I'm a builder and decorator primarily. You can never get enough styles of furniture, doors, and windows. I'm not a huge clothes downloader but I do get them since a lot of EA clothes aren't that great IMO. I can never get enough makeup and hair. My sims may not have lots of haute couture but they're a good looking lot :rofl:

[Stina1701-D]

With Sims 2 I used to be an addicted downloader too and my game was overflowing with downloads. But with this game and the new feature to be able to recolor and swap patterns on an object I don't feel the need to download so much for this game although I registered each game addition for the added content EA provides. I can decorate houses and apartments without them and objects looking exactly alike.

That doesn't mean I don't have custom content. Patterns I have most off, also specialized objects like shelfing that I can put objects on, more toys both for toychest and for deco, a few deco items too, and a simbot station. I also have downloaded a few community lots especially for late night. And not to forget the mods I downloaded to day, the story progression and the master controller--I caved in, I can't have EA story progression on and NOT mind the neighbours, I'm too much of a control freak.

I just am much more conservative in my downloading habits now.