Hack for buy/build objects?

[FreezerBunny]

Hello! So I read a post about needing some hack to use custom build/buy objects. Is this true? If so, can I have a link? I only use bodyshop stuff, but I was thinking of trying out some pose boxes.

[maxon]

No hack needed so go right ahead.

[FreezerBunny]

No hack needed so go right ahead.

Thanks :bunny:

[larky]

I think you're thinking of the CEP (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=92541), which you only need if you're downloading recolors of Maxis objects.

[FreezerBunny]

I think you're thinking of the CEP (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=92541), which you only need if you're downloading recolors of Maxis objects.

Thankyou! I'm pretty sure I don't need this for poseboxes, right?

EDIT: Another question to add to this. Do poses need to be in a "Hacks" subfolder?

[maxon]

Thankyou! I'm pretty sure I don't need this for poseboxes, right?

EDIT: Another question to add to this. Do poses need to be in a "Hacks" subfolder?
Any CC can be anywhere in your Downloads folder that you like - UNLESS the CC comes with specific instructions to the contrary.

And no, you only need the CEP for recolours of Maxis objects that do not originally have a recolour option. THAT IS ALL the CEP is for before anyone tells you you absolutely must have it or your CC will never work. Well, that and some non-critical (though useful) object fixes.

[sushigal007]

EDIT: Another question to add to this. Do poses need to be in a "Hacks" subfolder?

It's not necessary, but you might want to get into the habit of keeping your Downloads folder tidy now instead of when you SUDDENLY OUT OF NOWHERE find you have 7GB of stuff. ;)

[joandsarah77]

I have pose boxes in my hack folder but as I am acquiring quite a lot I'm thinking of putting them in their own 'pose box' folder. I think why I included them with hacks is a couple get added to a sims pie chart menu rather than being a box. 'Hula and more' is one and 'toddler poses' is another.

[maxon]

SUDDENLY OUT OF NOWHERE find you have 7GB of stuff. ;)
I wonder how that happens.

[Lerf1950]

I think my PC gets online when I'm sleeping, downloads and installs stuff. I'd never add that much stuff.

[maxon]

That's gotta be it surely?

[Naturesque]

Yeah, what Maxon said. You don't need any hacks to use CC. Just download it and you'll be on your way. :D

[FreezerBunny]

Thank you all! I'm building up a downloads folder while I wait for the day when I go to Best Buy and pay like $100 to get my game fixed because I'm too lazy to do it myself.

One more question: Would it be okay to put about 2gb of CC in my game on one go? Because, as I said, building up my downloads folder while I wait. And it's freakishly orangized, I have subfolders for creators, and subfolders inside the creator folders with "Clothing", "Hair", etc and lastly I have a picture of each thing (other then hacks).

[maxon]

Well, it's generally a good idea to test as you go along - it makes finding problem stuff easier. What you could do is keep things in groups and try out one set of stuff and then another, once your game is fixed. You can add and remove most CC at will - so adding in one group, testing, removing and then trying another is usually fine. The only issue, occasionally, is with certain hacks.

[FreezerBunny]

Well, it's generally a good idea to test as you go along - it makes finding problem stuff easier. What you could do is keep things in groups and try out one set of stuff and then another, once your game is fixed. You can add and remove most CC at will - so adding in one group, testing, removing and then trying another is usually fine. The only issue, occasionally, is with certain hacks.

Okay, thanks! I'm only going to be using CAS cc, a few buy stuff, and the SimBlender. Can CAS stuff cause problems?

[Peni Griffin]

Yes! I once had a blouse, one from a good site, too, and that other people had used successfully, that crashed my game when a photo booth photo was made while someone on the lot was wearing it! That was a pain in the neck to track down, believe me! I also had a saved sim that I'd extracted myself in SimPE and never used that crashed the game when I tried to use any wardrobe functions - buying new clothes, changing clothes, whatever.

However, that sort of thing is rare. Any file can become corrupted, but the more inert a file is - what are clothes ever required to do, after all? - the less likely it is to corrupt or conflict. Organizing your folders and testing in small batches as they're loaded makes finding culprits much easier, and can help you head off problems before they occur. Don't forget to dump your cache files and back up your games regularly, too.

[FreezerBunny]

Yes! I once had a blouse, one from a good site, too, and that other people had used successfully, that crashed my game when a photo booth photo was made while someone on the lot was wearing it! That was a pain in the neck to track down, believe me! I also had a saved sim that I'd extracted myself in SimPE and never used that crashed the game when I tried to use any wardrobe functions - buying new clothes, changing clothes, whatever.

However, that sort of thing is rare. Any file can become corrupted, but the more inert a file is - what are clothes ever required to do, after all? - the less likely it is to corrupt or conflict. Organizing your folders and testing in small batches as they're loaded makes finding culprits much easier, and can help you head off problems before they occur. Don't forget to dump your cache files and back up your games regularly, too.

Okay thanks! I haven't deleted my cache before, because I have no idea what files to delete. Do you think you could tell me? :)

EDIT: I have another question I just wanted to add in instead of making a new thread. Is Peggyzone safe?

EDIT: Also, are these sites safe: Raonjena, XmSims, Liana Sims, and Inlimate/Mickey?

[Mootilda]

Here's the wiki article on how to delete your caches:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Delete_Cache_Files

[FreezerBunny]

Here's the wiki article on how to delete your caches:
http://simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Delete_Cache_Files

Thanks!

[iCad]

EDIT: I have another question I just wanted to add in instead of making a new thread. Is Peggyzone safe?

EDIT: Also, are these sites safe: Raonjena, XmSims, Liana Sims, and Inlimate/Mickey?

Most sites themselves are "safe." As for the content...Well, like Peni said, any file can become corrupted at any time and start to do crazy things. Also, human beings make it, and human beings make mistakes, so on occasion you can download something that will internally overwrite, in-game, something else (Usually because of their GUIDs, which is what the game uses to identify an object. If you have two things with the same GUID, only one will show. It doesn't happen often, but it CAN happen. Even to really good creators because they're human beings and the GUID system isn't infallible.) Plus, how a particular file will interact in your game will often depend on what other items you already have. Each person's game is totally unique. So, no one can say, "Oh, you'll have no problems if you download from this site." There are no guarantees.

Which is why, like Maxon said, it's a good idea to put in things a bit at a time, play for a bit, maybe in a testing 'hood that you don't care about, and see how things go. If you have no problems, put a little more stuff in. If you then find a problem, you'll know that it's having to do with the just-put-in stuff, which will make any problems easier to track down. And so forth.

The thing you're most likely to have a problem with is hacks. Now, they generally won't ruin your game or anything, but some won't play well with others. Most people who create hacks are very good about telling you what theirs will conflict with, and it behooves you to make sure you don't have any of those things BEFORE you stick the new hack into your game. Other hacks need to load before or after others in order to work properly and it can take a little fiddling to make everything happy. It all depends on what you already have. I have over 800 hacks, and sometimes I've had to do quite a bit of file renaming to get them all happy with each other. (Files load into the game alphabetically, so that's how you control which loads before or after another.) Especially if you're going to install something hugely global like ACR or Inteen, you DEFINITELY need to read the documentation carefully so that you understand how to install -- and use! -- it properly. (I'm tired of seeing "I installed ACR and now everyone's a sex machine!" complaints. Yeah, kids, that's what happens when you don't take the time to configure it, both globally AND for individual Sims! Oy.) Anyway, be careful with hacks. It's not that you need to be afraid of them. Not at all. They can make your game into exactly what you want it to be, from just getting rid of behaviors that annoy you to adding entirely new features. But you do need to install them properly and test them out a bit to make sure everything works properly when they're installed, given what you might already have.

And...Yeah, that was long. Sorry. The tl;dr version: Download what you want, from wherever you want. Put it into your game in smallish increments and test it to see if anything conflicts and make sure that everything's working properly. If something goes wonky, you'll have to go through the sometimes-laborious process of finding the offender(s), which is made MUCH easier if you put stuff in slowly. If you get into hacks, for heaven's sake, RTFM. Yeah, that's it. :)

[joandsarah77]

Depends what you mean by safe. Make sure you have a good malware protection feature before travelling around places and downloading stuff. Not so much from the actual files-never had a problem with that-but from the sites they are on. My antivirus seems to pick up more malware from sim sites than any other kind. 4shared and ad fly I stay away from. Here and boxnet are good. Careful also from TSR.
Also you will get much better made cc from MTS, GOS and people's Live Journals/Dream Widths then you will from places like Liana Sims and TSR.
(There we go ran the scan and yet more spywear shows up as being caught)

Read any information that comes with a hack carefully before installing it. Especially important is to see if it's up to date for your EP's. Some old hacks still work fine, for examples Dolphin's Control any sim (From here) just make a backup before trying an old hack or any major hack out. Also pays to save your game at 6am or when everyone is home as hacks can reset your game just like a new EP.

[FreezerBunny]

Thanks everybody!

joandsarah77: Thanks so much! I have the virus protection my computer came with. I don't use TSR anyways, pretty much all the nice stuff is subscription. I have a few things from Liana, but most of my stuff is from here, Raonjena, and people's Livejournals.