I'm frightened of stuff packs! I keep hearing about all these glitches and things that have stuffed up people's games after they've installed the 'stuff packs' maxis has been releasing lately. It's frightened me out of buying any of them, however, I'm a little disappointed because I REALLY want some new items etc...in my game and I just can't bring myself to download any user made custom content (once again...:indifferent:too frightened of glitches ). I'm a big chicken, I know. LOL The new Glamour Pack that's being released looks excellent essimist:..that's what's prompted me to post this. What I want to know is....am I justified in my fear or should I just stop being a big sissy and buy the darn packs? Had I not heard anything bad about them I would have them installed into my game already (and know if they work or not LOL ). Should I spend the money? Cass.
I don't think the risk of bugging up your game is worth the few new items and clothing that comes with them...
Yeah, I'd probably not bother spending money on the stuff packs. But it's actually not so bad to download user-made stuff. For example, you can choose to download clothes and furniture that is strictly recolors of the clothes and objects already in the game. Also, if you do decide to get items and clothes that require new meshes, then it's only going into the Downloads folder, where it's easily moved out again. You don't have to uninstall anything, just delete the download. My most important lot, the one where my story sims Errol and Kate lived, got buggy for some reason I wasn't clear about, but I deleted the downloads I had added most recently, using the Sims 2 Content Manager, and the lot worked fine after that. I don't know which download caused the problem. I didn't care. I got rid of less than a half dozen items and the lot was OK again. Still is. I'd avoid downloading the houses people build. Stick to recolors of clothes and objects from the sites that other people recommend with high marks and you probably won't have any troubles at all. You can tell if it's a recolor because it will have the same cut or shape as an outfit or object in the game, and there's no talk of meshes. Actually, walls and floors are probably the easiest recolors to start with, and there's so much beautiful stuff out there. I love downloading wall and floor patterns. I just checked: I've got about 3000 files and 68 folders in my Downloads folder. Whew! I had no idea. Aren't computers marvelous!
I download stuff all the time I love having new hairstyles, new clothes, new furniture! And if the stuff doesn't work well, I delete it out of my downloads folder. There, done. I like to get stuff from MTS2, and I always read the comments that people add before I download. If something is not working well, someone has already posted their problem with it.
There are some downloads which can cause problems in your game. However, as others have pointed out, if you add your downloads slowly and test your game in between additions, that's less likely to happen. If something goes wrong, you can just delete the one that caused the problem. And if you added several at a time, there are ways of fixing problems with that, such as going through the downloads with either the Maxis Content Manager or phever's Clean Installer. It also depends on your computer. Some computers don't handle having more memory used up by additions like downloads. (Movies would be a similar problem, and they are made *in* the game.) So if your computer has low RAM or not much disc space, then having to much in your downloads folder could be a problem. However, downloads can be a lot of fun. I am careful about where I download and make liberal use of the Clean Installer (as I learned the hard way to check *before* I install as it's much more work to do it after you've filled the downloads folder). My downloads folder is currently 6.1 gb (as of when I checked this morning) but other than having much longer load times when the game is booting up, they don't affect my game other than to make it more fun for me. Besides, for the most part it's a way to fill my "shopping" desires without spending money! But if you like the content you have and don't want to add more, that's ok too.
Hmmm...Well I don't think I'll bother with the stuff packs, but I'm definately going to give downloading a try now. Thanks for the advice about sticking to recommended sites...I'll make sure I do. I might start with walls and floors. I am kind of sick of the selection I have right now. I might go over to the download site thread and see what people recommend for that. Thanks again! Cass.
lynet.. can you create folders in the downloads folder? you mention you have 68 folders in yours? are you able to catagorize the folders and put say 'walls' 'floors' 'clothes' furniture' etc in seperate folders? i was thinking of doing this as my downloads folder is just one big folder with 2844 files in it, can i put these files in different folders with-in the downloads folder or do i need a program to do it for me?
Yes, you can categorize certain downloads...I can't remember which, but I think some things you have to have in the main downloads folder, but other things you can separate into different folders. Here's a how-to: http://modthesims2.com/article.php?t=46633
Oh wow I wouldn't know where to start lol. I have over 6000 downloads and most don't say in the title what they are. Their file names are often a bunch of abbreviated letters or just numbers or names that mean nothing about what the download is. If I tried to categorise them now, it would take eons to finish lol. I don't think I have the patience... I should have done that from the beginning.
If you change the location of a download that's in use in the game (a character is wearing a downloaded skin or clothing) what happens? Errors out or replaces with a default file (for clothing- say that red shirt and kakis)? Since I've posed 1 question I'll add one more... I've removed some hacks after i added uni and nighlife (even with clean installer) and yet when Sims first boots up I still get a warning of "modded content" (to enable or disable) even though I've removed all of these files already. Any idea why Sims continues to reference hacks that were taken out months ago and that are no longer in my downloads folder? I've enabled and played with one hack so its not a problem...but...just curious.
If you created the lot before you removed the hack it will stay sometimes. It's the same reason why a hack will "piggy-back" itself when you upload it to the exchange. Yes, you can categorize your downloads into folders. It helps me keep them straight. And, when I have moved them from the main downloads folder into sub folders, I've never seen a problem with the game finding it. That long pause while your game loads is actually the game scanning all those files and folders and locating everything you need to play. The only thing that I have had problems with is hair and hair meshes. I had this bright idea to put all my mesh files in a separate sub-folder. That way, if I wasn't sure I had a mesh, I could just open up that folder and look for it. I found out that once I moved the meshes, I had bald headed sims!!! I had to put all the meshes back into the same sub folder as the hairstyles. If you don't know what the files are, just put them in a miscellaneous folder. I named mine "I don't know". I then use the Clean Installer to scan these files and find out what they are. It's very handy.
The truth is, I did not create any of those subfolders. I just found them there, created in some manner when the download was installed. I haven't organized anything and I probably should. Curiously, I noticed that a couple of the folders were for downloads that I couldn't find in the game after they were installed. Just occurred to me that they shouldn't be in a folder like that. Somehow the installation got screwy. Maybe. I'll have to go fool around with it.
