Collections

[noxnoxnox]

I wish we had this feature from the base game, not until Pets when my CC is like ant swarm and still grow with horse speed. Anyway, now that we are going to be able to create buy objects folders, set their names and icons...though it's going to take days to decide what-is-what, to-keep-or-not-to-keep, which-go-to-which-folder...have you guys thought about how to re-arrange the big mess, like to divide them to theme or creator, or download date??? :bunny:

Update: I have enjoyed the collection a little while and I think I don't have to say how useful it is. Also, a guy over Fuzzy Logic Dishwasher did a tutorial on how to share collections and spoiled us super-duper lazy asses with some pre-made collections already, thanks Scarity for posting the link:

OH srikandi beat me to it, i was going to post a tutor my boyfriend found for me :lovestruc

but i will post this instead where the tutor was: http://fuzzylogicdishwasher.blogspot.com/


HOW TO: Share Collections
Step 1. Make a collection.
Step 2. Exit the game. (Do not make multiple collections to share at once- their files are not named and you may get confused when sharing them.)
Step 3. Go to MyDocuments/ElectronicArts/TheSims3/Collections/User
Step 4. Arrange the folder by Date Modified. Find the package file that matches the time you last added something to your collection. It should be the most recent file.
Step 5. Change the name! You can rename collection files. Give it a really good descriptive name so people know what they've got.
Step 6. Share it!

All it takes to share the collection is that one single file. Another player sticks it into their Collections/User folder and it appears in game! You can use objects from any expansion/stuff pack and even custom content- the objects simply won't appear in the collection if the other player does not have them.

http://i1083.photobucket.com/albums/j381/ltt243/examplefold.png

[haricots]

I'll divide CC's to separate collections, like a 'Ultra Lounge' folder for all sets of Ultra Lounge that I've download....
Can't we make a sub-collections? Ultra Lounge is damn BIG!

[Srikandi]

No subcollections, but one neat thing with collections is that you CAN have the same thing in more than one collection. So for instance you could have the late night icky toilet paper holder both under "bathroom deco", and under "grunge". That means you can sort by both style AND function, instead of having to choose one or the other... and I definitely intend to do both.

I am mostly obsessed with sorting out my Decor Misc folder... that will be my first priority... I can never find anything in there! So yeah, bathroom/laundry decor, kitchen decor, kids decor, tools/garage, tech, seasonal, regional, and so on. Those will of course include not just stuff from decor misc but from any other categories as well that have relevant objects. Plus it drives me crazy that things are in the wrong category (and yes I know how to fix that in a mod, but it's too much trouble to do that for every single thing ;) ) Candles for instance... some are under lights, but some under misc decor and quite a lot of CC ones are under plants (since that's what they were cloned from).

Granthes is looking at building support for collections into his v2 beta launcher, and I'm looking forward to that too... that means any CC you have grouped into a set, the launcher can automatically set up a collection for. Great for doing collections organized by creator or stuff you downloaded in a group.

[haricots]

Yeah, it sucks that there's no sub-collections. I don't want my collections to be too complicated. T_T

[noxnoxnox]

Yeah, decor/misc is such a pain, I can't find my 50's glamorous hand mirror anywhere among pots, pans, bowls, cups, pizzas, cupcakes, ice-creams, spices, bottles of perfume...In addition to collection, I am dreaming of the day that EA finally integrates the "google" feature into the catalog, then the enlarged image when you hover over the teeny-tiny thumbnail.

[Srikandi]

Yup, agreed... what we REALLY need is a keyword search, where you can assign your own keywords to items (as well as having them come with predefined keywords). And index the item name and description as well.That should not be so hard to implement, since indexing/searching/querying is one of the things computers do best :p All of that functionality is already in Grant's beta v2 launcher, for CC management.

But in a way collections has a lot of the same functionality as player-assigned keywords... given the fact that a thing can be in several collections. Just think of each collection your thing is in as a keyword, and the list of collections itself as an index.

Course the issue with THAT is that you can't easily get a simple alphabetical labeled list of collections :/ They're identified by an icon, not text, and I don't think there's any way to auto-sort them.

[SommarBlomma]

Finally! I want this feature so badly, as I have tons of CC now, and it is not well sorted. The Deco/misc is the biggest pain, even some pieces of furniture are thrown there among all the clutter, and sometimes it takes too long to find a cabinet or sth. like this when it is not in the menu where it should be, but in misc. This should have been in the game since the beginning, though, it even was in TS@ base game, but it's EA, they took many things out of the base game, and then they are like "See, we have a new feature for you in this new EP, we are so awesome"

[noxnoxnox]

There is a new folder Collection in TS3 profile with package files inside, yay, I think it would be interesting to share our collections with each other, or the creator could create a collection package for their set items. We drop it into our profile and then when we load the game, we just have to open that specific collection, not to run all over to look for every items from the set.
so excited :D

[Srikandi]

There is a new folder Collection in TS3 profile with package files inside, yay, I think it would be interesting to share our collections with each other, or the creator could create a collection package for their set items. We drop it into our profile and then when we load the game, we just have to open that specific collection, not to run all over to look for every items from the set.
so excited :D

Unfortunately, it's not quite that simple -- at least as I understand it. You can't just share the collection packages; you'd also need to update the "collectionorder.package" file to reflect each of the individual collection files. The data format isn't that complex though, if you know your way around a hex editor ;) It's documented here: http://sims3.the-prof.net/sims-3-internals/sims-3-pets-collection-file-formats/

I think we'll be getting tools for this though.

EDIT -- WRONG -- see my post below :D

[Sleepy-Genius]

Yup, agreed... what we REALLY need is a keyword search, where you can assign your own keywords to items (as well as having them come with predefined keywords). And index the item name and description as well.That should not be so hard to implement, since indexing/searching/querying is one of the things computers do best :p All of that functionality is already in Grant's beta v2 launcher, for CC management.

But in a way collections has a lot of the same functionality as player-assigned keywords... given the fact that a thing can be in several collections. Just think of each collection your thing is in as a keyword, and the list of collections itself as an index.

Course the issue with THAT is that you can't easily get a simple alphabetical labeled list of collections :/ They're identified by an icon, not text, and I don't think there's any way to auto-sort them.

OMGosh! Keyword search would be a dream!!

[elanorbreton]

Anyone know if we can add our own icons in to the collections? If so, how?

[Scarity]

I am angry there are barely any collections!! There is goth, horses, and horses again. They could have made some for the stuff that already existed!! I have to do it myself.

[Deestar]

I am excited for collections, now I can have collections by creator, so that I don't have to sort through 2,721 pkg files of CC just to find one deco vodka bottle by Aikea Guinea, or one Birdcage by Repulsive Desire, or the curtain for my pretty bathroom set by Pocci. I am mostly happy for my deco objects since that is the majority of my CC

[Srikandi]

OK, in my post above, I LIED. (Hadn't tried it, should not speculate without evidence ;) ) First time I've ever clicked "Disagree" on my own post!

You CAN easily share collections.

The files are in My/Documents/Electronic Arts/Collections/user. The files in there with a corresponding .sig file are the built-in collections. The other files are yours, and you can just give a file to somebody else to put in their Collections/user and they will have the collection.

The only challenge is figuring out which of your collection files to share since they aren't sensibly named in the User/Collections folder. The time stamp might help, but all the collections you've modified are saved when you exit, I think, so if you want to be sure, just do that one.

Or, if you know how to use S3PE, using hex view, the name is in unicode at the top.

Thanks to Granthes for help working that out btw.

This is REALLY AWESOME... means that a modder who makes a set can very easily share a collection with it :)

Anyone know if we can add our own icons in to the collections? If so, how?

I know that it is possible, but I can't tell you how ;) I've seen it done though. And apparently there's no limit to the number. (Not from the game interface... it's a modding thing.)

[writerchick]

You CAN easily share collections.

I know that it is possible, but I can't tell you how ;) I've seen it done though. And apparently there's no limit to the number. (Not from the game interface... it's a modding thing.)

In TS2, someone (don't recall who... Aikea Guinea, maybe?) came up with a way of putting items ONLY in a collection file, thus not cluttering up the buy catalog with a thousand bits of various deco. You simply went to the collection catalog, scrolled until you found the icon, and then could shop for the specific set of clutter you wanted. This was particularly great for things like sets of art clutter and such.

I was wondering if this would be possible for the TS3 collections?

[Scarity]

OH srikandi beat me to it, i was going to post a tutor my boyfriend found for me :lovestruc

but i will post this instead where the tutor was: http://fuzzylogicdishwasher.blogspot.com/

There are collections there to download already and, it says that if you save a color object it saves that color object to the collection also. So I dont have to even look at all the ugly colors i dont like!! wish I knew that when i already made a collection, though :jest:

[Scarity]

if anybody finds more collections to download can they post them, all google says is for buying the game as a collection or for collecting items?

[Srikandi]

OH srikandi beat me to it, i was going to post a tutor my boyfriend found for me :lovestruc

but i will post this instead where the tutor was: http://fuzzylogicdishwasher.blogspot.com/

There are collections there to download already and, it says that if you save a color object it saves that color object to the collection also. So I dont have to even look at all the ugly colors i dont like!! wish I knew that when i already made a collection, though :jest:

Nice find Scarity! LOL -- that's Shivar's site (some might remember him as Claeric). Nice to see he's still around the community :)

BTW, it seems you don't have to keep the obscure hex name on the collection... you can rename the packages anything you want.

[noxnoxnox]

I'm downloading Shivar's collections right now, this is just amazing, considered we've had Granthes RIG fix for package files, my CC is coming back more powerful than ever.

[elanorbreton]

I know that it is possible, but I can't tell you how ;) I've seen it done though. And apparently there's no limit to the number. (Not from the game interface... it's a modding thing.)
Thanks for answering. Maybe some kind modder out there will provide us all with the means to add nice pretty icons for all the store sets etc, so that us non-modders can have them in our game :bunny:

[Srikandi]

Thanks for answering. Maybe some kind modder out there will provide us all with the means to add nice pretty icons for all the store sets etc, so that us non-modders can have them in our game :bunny:

Yup, I'm sure we'll see mods for this soon :)

[Killc*a]

Interesting. I managed to make default replacements for the collection icons, but I'm not able to make additional icons. I used the FNV Hash Tool in s3pe to change the Instance number, but perhaps that is the wrong way...

[Duncan Disorderly]

Finally, I don't have to search endlessly for items any more, like an animal. Ironic they gave us animals in the same expac.

[Srikandi]

An update to my post above: Granthes updated his custom launcher to support collections. The launcher allows you to group mods into sets, and you can (if you want) associate your set with a collection. You can make new collections, or add sets to existing collections. This makes it especially easy to put everything from a CC set, a particular creator, or what have you into a collection.

His launcher also enables a lot more icons (from the game files) than EA's default collections. His new icons do work in-game.

You can get the custom launcher here: http://sims3.the-prof.net/forums/index.php/board,9.0.html . The download is in the Beta forum. The launcher is still in beta but the current version is a release candidate, so it may see a final release soon.

[granthes]

Interesting. I managed to make default replacements for the collection icons, but I'm not able to make additional icons. I used the FNV Hash Tool in s3pe to change the Instance number, but perhaps that is the wrong way...

If you want new icons to show up in the collection creation menu inside the game, you need to do 2 things. I'm assuming that you (the reader) know how to use s3pe and to mod xml settings resources as well as add new resources to a package. If you don't know these things, please take a look at the tutorials section here on MTS.

1) Mod the EditCollectionDialog resource (TGI:0x0333406C-0x00000000-0xF3FFD9EE5AEB7C14) (GameplayData.pacakge) and add the NAME(s) of the icon(s) to the list.

2) Add the icons to your package (unless you are adding built-in icons). The Icon needs to be a type 0x2F7D0004 resource (PNG), and you will need to know the both the name and the FNV64 of the name.

If you just want a collection to change to a different Icon, you can simply edit the coll_.... file (in collections\user) with s3pe and change the IID of the icon to the one you wish to use. You will need to export the resource, hex-edit it, and re-import it into the package with s3pe. Details of the collection format can be found here (http://sims3.the-prof.net/sims-3-internals/sims-3-pets-collection-file-formats/)

[Scarity]

An update to my post above: Granthes updated his custom launcher to support collections. The launcher allows you to group mods into sets, and you can (if you want) associate your set with a collection. You can make new collections, or add sets to existing collections. This makes it especially easy to put everything from a CC set, a particular creator, or what have you into a collection.

His launcher also enables a lot more icons (from the game files) than EA's default collections. His new icons do work in-game.

You can get the custom launcher here: http://sims3.the-prof.net/forums/index.php/board,9.0.html . The download is in the Beta forum. The launcher is still in beta but the current version is a release candidate, so it may see a final release soon.

Does it only work with simpacks?? Or can you use packages? :(

[Srikandi]

Does it only work with simpacks?? Or can you use packages? :(

It manages both Sims3Packs and Packages seamlessly :) You don't even need to think about which format your CC is in.

[Killc*a]

Thank you, granthes! This was exactly the answer I needed. I know how to do this with s3pe. I thought there had to be such a list, but I was searching only in the DeltaBuilds and forgot the GameplayData.

And with the new custom launcher it will be super easy to sort my CC into collections. Thank you again.

[LE102071]

An update to my post above: Granthes updated his custom launcher to support collections. The launcher allows you to group mods into sets, and you can (if you want) associate your set with a collection. You can make new collections, or add sets to existing collections. This makes it especially easy to put everything from a CC set, a particular creator, or what have you into a collection.

His launcher also enables a lot more icons (from the game files) than EA's default collections. His new icons do work in-game.

You can get the custom launcher here: http://sims3.the-prof.net/forums/index.php/board,9.0.html . The download is in the Beta forum. The launcher is still in beta but the current version is a release candidate, so it may see a final release soon.

I know this thread is almost a year old, but I've tried going to the link there, and it times out... Is this launcher located anywhere else, or can it be shared by someone that already has it?

Thanks in advance for any help...

[ellacharmed]

It is also hosted here on MTS. Check the Downloads area - current version is called CC Magic.
Also, for future reference, we do have a WCIF section under the Help menu, if Google/Bing/search fails to locate it I mean. :)