I was reluctant to post this in help as this isn't a technical issue, so I posted it here instead. I'm sorry if it's not supposed to be here.

I first played the Sims 2 around 2010, and I had the base game, Nightlife, University Life, and I believe I also had Pets. I didn't get too much into it, and I remember dragging my motives up all the time instead of playing legitimately. Needless to say, I'm not familiar with the Sims 2. I did get the Ultimate Collection in 2014, but it just sat in my library since I was occupied by the Sims 3 at the time. I just can't play the Sims 3 anymore, not after seeing the aesthetic and performance of the Sims 4, except I find 4's gameplay boring. So, I want to try out the Ultimate Collection with CC to suit my needs. Since the game's so old, I figured I'd need some sort of bugfixes so the game doesn't fall apart while I play. I downloaded Pescado's Director's Cut, as well as some CC, and I started up a game with a YA sim in a university neighborhood. I noticed throughout the whole first day that no dormmates showed up, and eventually I realized that the cause of this was Pescado's mod. Another thing I noticed was the macro and autonomy options in basically every pie menu, and while the options in them seem useful, I don't really know when I'd use them since I'm not familiar with the game. Basically, I'm not sure if I should keep Pescado's mod, since it seems to fix lots of bugs, or remove it for the time being, so I can experience the game more similarly to how most everyone else has.

I would not recommend using directors cut straight off. Mods for Sims 2 are not like mods for Sims 3, at least not from what I've understood. From what I've gathered Sims 3 has one big mod rather than many little, and are more so required to make the game work at all than TS2 mods. For TS2 There are thousands of little ones that you can pick and choose from to shape the game after your own preference, but that aren't necessary and purely preference. It's unlikely that you'll want exactly the same things as Pescado wanted for his game, so I would recommend picking the mods you want rather than using the entire directors cut. There's a manual that explains what most of Pescados mods do, I would recommend you read it. I'm not sure where it is on MATY so I uploaded it on my SFS (find it here)

There are some bugfixes that are recommended, some of which are Pescados, but most of them are only relevant in specific situations. There's a thread somewhere around here that tells you what the "critical" fixes are. I don't remember the name, but I'm sure someone else can give you a link

Over all I'd say the best thing to do is to play the game vanilla (no mods) first, and add mods for specific things that annoy you. Get a feel for what the game is actually like, and what you like/don't like, before you start changing it with mods

But at least before playing get nounlinkondelete and creaturefixes. Without those a sim smashing an urn or a vampire biting Mrs. C will permanently corrupt your hood/game.

To clarify, smashing an urn without nounlinkondelete will corrupt hood. Mrs. C getting bitten will corrupt installation. But Mrs. C can only get bitten after a vampire bites someone for the first time, and whether or not a vampire bites someone depends a lot on play style. And if you have UC I believe you can use the repair-option to fix that, or did I get that wrong?

Get nounlinkondelete and creaturefixes, as they both fix issues that can permanently break your neighborhood or entire game. As for the rest of it, play for a little while, and if there's something that you don't like, look for a hack that fixes that issue.

While you're at it, I also suggest BoilingOil's No Sim Loaded. It helps with another relatively common issue, the Super-Duper Hug, which comes from installing and then removing poorly-made social hacks (fortunately, though, it's not corrupting):
http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/thread-1665.html

It’s important to set objects.package as read only too, there are instructions step by step somewhere. You might reinstall (or repair the UC), but if you edited your game files for some reason (e.g. fixing graphics issues, installing radiance lights or a want trees replacement mod etc.), it will all get lost. You can copy just that file from the CD (again, there are instructions for that somewhere), but that’s impossible with the UC. When my file got corrupted I got an original file from someone and now when I have it set as read only I don’t need to worry about it

Alternatively, you can just copy the objects.package from the game itself into Documents or something and keep it as a backup.

Or you can just copy it off the disk or, if you have UC, repairing the game will replace it.

I would not ever use the Directors Cut. All you need to start with are the essential mods to stop your hood and game blowing up.
Pescado/MATY mods
No Corrupt Death
No unlink on delete
Creature Fixes (if you plan to play vampires at all)
Bat Box (Forget it's actual name but Google will find that)

No simloaded (by BoilingOil
with Smarter EP check (by Cyjon)

Start with those. Then see what drives you crazy and we will recomend fixes.

Do not delete sims or graves
Do not move sims between hoods
Do not install occupied lots (and that includes ones with graves)

Thanks for all your help. I've kept the fixes to the bare minimum for now so I can get more fixes later if I want them. I have another question, though. Since I was playing with the full director's cut, is it possible to reset the neighborhood, so to speak? I'd like to start fresh to avoid problems of removing over 100 package files from a save game. I've been playing on Pleasantview, more specifically in the Sim State University subhood, and I've been using meetme2theriver's fixed neighborhoods from the very start.

If you rename your user files (the files located in your documents folder), and run the game it will generate a new copy with all the base hoods. Either delete the hoods in your old folder and copy over the newly generated ones, or copy over your downloads and any other changes you might have made (config, CEP extra etc) to the new folder

Just take temporarily out your Downloads folder from My Documents/ Sims 2 into desktop and make revision in it. Then delete whole Sims 2 folder and run the game. It creates new Sims 2 folder. Do not play, just close the game and add Downloads back into folder. Now you are good to go.
It will reset everything to beginning state.

As someone who plays with most of the Director's Cut, I agree that you should never just dump the whole thing in. You might want certain mods but not others. And some things actually have alternative versions by other modders; for example, Cyjon has a "noeatcrap" that I prefer to the original MATY version.

But as to what you should have in right from the start, I'd add the fixed face templates to the list. They won't "corrupt" your game, but some sims will look completely different after aging up, and I personally considering that unacceptable. Here's the link to the "Essential Mods" thread: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=532696 Try to at least skim through a few of the posts, as not everything listed in the first post is really "essential," and aside from a very short list of truly essential mods, what one person considers "essential" can differ wildly from what someone else considers "essential."

That is a good point ^ If you want to play with pre made sims at all.

There is also a fix for broken turn on/offs by Tunaisafish.

I completely agree. For years, I played a vanilla game because I didn't know there was anything I could do about the annoyances.For instance, I absolutely HATED it when my Sims would decide to take a nap, or constantly write in their diary or jump on the bed. And I was appalled that parents scolded their children for having a dirty diaper. And it was also irritating that Sims were too stupid to remember which bed they were supposed to sleep in. I thought I'd died and went to Heaven when I came across fixes for these irritations.

No autonomous jump on bed; napping; writing in diary: http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=11.0
No Lecture Baby: http://www.leefish.nl/mybb/showthread.php?tid=2752
Smart Beds: http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=15.0

Over time, I've found a ton of fixes/mods that I've dropped into my Downloads folder. But I make it a point not to add more than one fix in at a time. This is mainly because of something I'd read about Pescado's fixes. Some Simmers complained that he added undisclosed stuff to his files, things that might affect another areas of game play that we may or may not want changed.

You miss out on a lot of cool stuff if you use Director's cut. I used it for a long time, and when I chucked it, I saw so many cool things in the game!

I am a fan of Pescado's mods and I use quite a number (but not nearly all of them) from the Director's cut. We are, however, not all the same and we don't all use the same play style. So actually, modding your game is a thing that is done over time.

One thing I will say, though - I did the experiment once. Dumped the whole Director's Cut in my game, no harm done. Yet I realised soon that there were things I did not like (no20k handout comes to mind). So I hand-picked the mods I wanted and needed over time - nobabyharrassment, noroutefail, romancemod, noinstantlove are examples of those that I like).

As far as the essential mods go, I believe I have all of them.

I use a small number of other mods (ACR being the only large one) that I like, however Perfect Plants, no autonomous jumping rope from symbology and the face template fix from Aragon seem to be the only other fixes I need.

After I started downloading mods (I played vanilla for years) it has taken me around 5 years to get my game as perfect (for me) as it can possibly be. And I just added and removed 3 or 4 mods during the past week - because I felt that my game was not really improved by having them in. (That does not mean I will not add mods in future - I have a bunch of those elsewhere on my pc that I still want to try out).

At first I read that as you miss out on cool stuff if you don't use it.

I've never tried it but I can imagine.

OP using that will give you a game ala Pescado, which is fine if that is what you want, but I would recommend you make it the way you want and that is best done one fix or mod at a time.

Of all the Pescado mods that are in the directors' cut, I believe the most important one (besides nounlinkdelete, etc) are the "lesswhiny" and "nowhatsthis" mods-These stop dead the inherent tendency for all sims to whine about "What's this?" when they encounter a new object and then complain about missing stuff when you delete it from the lot.

Those two I keep in no matter what else I keep out.

Here's a listing of the DC actual hacks in the AL version: http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com//...somethanyou.txt

But they are not needed fixes, just game annoyances and what annoys one person does not annoy another, and they wont know that until they see it a few times-myself I enjoy 'what's this' yes really!

It is a matter of personal taste, I must agree, but for me, I couldn't stand it after the 1000th repeat of "What's this?' question to every single thing I put in the game by those pixels. It distracts from playing it for me...They aren't 'needed' or necessary, but mostly personal preferences. I'd not play without them. Believe me, I have.

What Pescado calls his Director's Cut is, or was since he doesn't play TS2 anymore, a selection of his own hacks that he said he used in his own game. It absolutely didn't mean that it was the best possible combination that every player should have in his Downloads, far from it (Awesomeland anyone?)
The Director's Cut became famous because Pescado used to sneak mods in there that where not available on the regular page where the rest of his CC was, not because it was some perfect selection of must have hacks or something

My most essential annoyance fix is 'no weather react' -or something like that. Stops sims waking at 3am to weather outside, now that drove me crazy.

I have plenty of annoyance fixes, for example, no autonomous napping, curb all auto read to, replacing stuff face with non-autonomous go shopping...

To be fair, a lot of good modders don't play TS2 anymore.

That does not mean the mods are not awesome And, from reading up on MATY (because I do read up on a mod a lot before installing it) - it does seem that a lot of members there suggested which mods should make the Director's Cut and if it wasn't his decision alone.

I really - after having played the vanilla game intensely for around 5 years with NO cc at all - have no idea what wonderful features of the game are modded out by the mods in the Director's Cut myself. All I can think of is Rod Humble