When Sim CC makers post their creations, what's the official protocol for notifying prospective downloaders of what EPs are required for those packages to function properly?
Some creators, I've noticed, are extremely conscientious about doing so, laying it out in detail in the download description. Others, while they may not have tested their stuff 100%, are at least honest enough to say so, warning the public that they must install at their own risk. And then, some seem not to particularly care at all.

Specifically, I wonder about the EP icons that appear on the search results. Do those automatically show up, based on what EPs the uploader has reported as having installed? Or are they able to set them for each download, specifically? Not being a creator myself (although I have done some 2-D wall hanging textures), I'm looking at this from the end user's perspective. It can be a little confusing to have all those icons there, if they don't actually pertain to the associated CC. If the uploader is simply stating that they have, for instance, EVERY EP installed, that doesn't necessarily mean that ALL of those EPs are needed for a given package to work... For example, sometimes the description mught state "you need at least ONE EP LATER THAN Nightlife, or this thing will crash your game..." But, looking at the icons on the downloads page, they'll have ALL the EPs listed... or sometimes, NONE. Is it just a matter of personal choice?

I guess what I'm saying here is that, as a website feature, I think the icons are a great idea, and I always appreciate the info, WHEN it means what it says. I personally have an odd assortment of EPs installed, which I didn't purchase in chronological order, and I've skipped a few as well. So for folks like me, it can be critical to know exactly what will work with what I have running. Sometimes I get that info, sometimes it's buried in a lot of over-description, and sometimes I have to kind of guess what's going on... which I've become pretty good at, but I just wish it were possible to get the compatibility reporting down to more of a science, than an art. Even the "compatibility mode" doesn't do the trick 100% of the time.

Kind of a rant, I realize, but I've been thinking about this a lot, and didn't know where to post it... moderators, feel free to re-locate if you need to.

This is wrong rubric to post.
But anyways. To answer your question - look here
Regards Vic ^_^

There are a list of boxes that you tick, so say something is base game you would tick just the base game. There is also a box to tick for the UC or all packs.

Unless the creator specifically removes certain EPs in SimPE, then yes, it will require everything installed because SimPE reads the folders in the default install location.




So while this is somewhat true, if we notice something marked incorrectly it is moderated for them to correct it. Unless the creation uses specific features from an EP, the moderators have no way of knowing which object the creator cloned and then know if the EPs marked are correct. Icons shown are automated based off which EPs the creator marks. I don't think people realize when uploading that they can just tick base+M&G if they have the UC. Unless it's lots, then it needs to be marked as UC.

Cool... at least I now sort of understand what's expected of content uploaders. I guess I was just saying that, as a downloader, I tend to give a wide berth to content that has every EP's icon displayed. While realizing that it's very unlikely that I'd actually need ALL of those, my gut reaction is to view those packages as suspicious, or at least worthy of closer scrutiny, figuring perhaps that their lack of specificity on EP requirements might indicate something less than totally safe to use... again, just my instinct - whether it's a valid one, I have no way of telling for sure. If the description specifically mentions Pets, OFB or Apartment Life as a requisite, then I know the package will be useless to me. But for ones whose descriptions aren't so carefully worded, I sometimes kind of have to scratch my head and try to "divine" what's likely to happen if I install it.

In my former life as an IT guy for a private school, I was notorious for being the "fly in the ointment" of the tech crew, always pointing out areas of possible confusion for the end users of our website - the school's parent body. This invariably got me a lot of eye-rolling from the more tech-savvy members of the team, and I often had to remind them to adjust their expectations of sophistication on the part of the user. Yes, this game has been around for so long that anyone still playing and downloading CC for it is more likely than not to at least halfway know what they're doing. But still... sometimes we don't.

If you have seasons or bon voyage you could possibly use anything marked for pets. Because the game engine for those two EPs is an updated version of pets. Unless ofc it's an actual pet item. :D

Unless you have missing EP's that you need to be aware of when download CC, you can ignore that. I see that you do so that is more complicated. Most times these days it simply means the creator has the UC so they can do nothing else but tick that.