Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Instructor
Original Poster
#1 Old 16th May 2021 at 10:42 AM
Default Non CC users, why?
I always wondered why some people refuse to use CC, not even maxis match. Isn't it better when you have bigger options when building and don't you care how your sims look?
Advertisement
Mad Poster
#2 Old 16th May 2021 at 12:32 PM
I use loads of CC for the sims, but there are plenty of games I play without CC. Generally to get started with CC is a bit of a process and you have to figure out how it works. If I'm generally happy with how a game works, then I wouldn't seek out CC for it nor go to the effort of understanding the system of installing and maintaining it.

Also, this isn't an issue for TS2 any more of course, but I get frustrated using CC in games which are still receiving updates, because it becomes a pain to make sure the CC is up to date every time a patch is released, waiting for a creator to update to the latest version (if they do at all) and dealing with resultant game breaking issues due to using outdated CC or taking CC out when files have already been saved with it in place.

However I'm not sure you'll find a lot of anti-CC players on a CC-focused website :D

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Forum Resident
#3 Old 16th May 2021 at 1:10 PM
I used to not use CC, but what got me started on it was I think not finding something suitable for some purposes. For example, that shower-tub combo in the base game is lowkey disgusting if not used in the correct environment, and the only other option was the colonial one which wouldn't suit like, a modern house let's say.

Aside from that, I think someone who likes to share builds might wanna opt for CC-free because then it's more accessible. Like lilsimsie: she tries to use fewer packs and no CC, because then her builds are more accessible to fans. And I think something similar would go with sims, for example, in the sims 4 the most popular Geordie Shore household has no CC, and only base game clothes, because it's the most accessible for everyone.

Also, it just kinda feels special to not use CC, imo. Like Yakumtsaki said on their blog once (about the ikea stuff but it's relevant), "It's a lot bigger an accomplishment to make a house look good with the fugly maxis furniture"
Instructor
Original Poster
#4 Old 16th May 2021 at 2:54 PM
Quote: Originally posted by sugoisama
I used to not use CC, but what got me started on it was I think not finding something suitable for some purposes. For example, that shower-tub combo in the base game is lowkey disgusting if not used in the correct environment, and the only other option was the colonial one which wouldn't suit like, a modern house let's say.

Aside from that, I think someone who likes to share builds might wanna opt for CC-free because then it's more accessible. Like lilsimsie: she tries to use fewer packs and no CC, because then her builds are more accessible to fans. And I think something similar would go with sims, for example, in the sims 4 the most popular Geordie Shore household has no CC, and only base game clothes, because it's the most accessible for everyone.

Also, it just kinda feels special to not use CC, imo. Like Yakumtsaki said on their blog once (about the ikea stuff but it's relevant), "It's a lot bigger an accomplishment to make a house look good with the fugly maxis furniture"


I agree, I started it for the same reason because of limited options, which is frustrating becuase it's one of the main purposes of the game. Also the furniture is oudated now and I can't stand the silver metal aesthetic when it comes to modern furniture. I find it fascinating how the wall plasma TV isn't outdated although it was made in 2004 (I mean, modern plasmas don't have large speakers, but still..) The collonial stuff is actually pretty and I adore AL build sets but I hate the wood color options they're too orange and yellow for my taste.

I agree that CC free builds are easier to upload. I wanted to upload a mini bar here but they constantly had a reason to decline my build for CC related reasons and i couldn't understand why.

"It's a lot bigger an accomplishment to make a house look good with the fugly maxis furniture"
That what I also meant, it's also easier to download becaause you don't have to worry about bad and unwanted cc. I absolutely hate when I get wall recolors of some post-apocalyptic themed stuff, clothes, frames and other stuff I won't use because I would rather use the same stuff that has meshes.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 16th May 2021 at 4:08 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 16th May 2021 at 11:25 PM.
I use CC for TS2, but for TS3 and TS4 I've mostly played with very little to no CC (save for some mods and annoyance fixes to make the games a bit more playable).

For TS2 I find the CC to be half the fun of playing, and I love making CC and taking pictures. The game is fun to play too, but I don't think I'd like going back to a no-CC version. For storytelling, half the things I want to do in the game can't be done or looks weird without special CC. I sometimes play a minimal CC game, but still use some CC.

When that's said, I use a whole lot of EAxis stuff when I'm decorating houses. Maybe not always original recolors, but quite a lot of original meshes. A lot of it is quite nice, and some of it just needs a paintjob and it's fully usable. I also like to use a lot of maxis-match buy mode stuff. I mix-and-match a lot. My sims' houses are not quite MM, and the sims are a few steps closer to semi-realistic, but not in a way they're clashing with any of the styles. It means I am much freer in what I decide to use ingame, but then again some items do look a bit off (especially on sims - a lot of the EAxis clothes in particular).



It's all about what you like. If you want to play without CC, do that. If you want lots of CC, little CC or something in between, do that.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 16th May 2021 at 5:32 PM
I used to play vanilla for TS2 on my old computer though that changed shortly after installing UC on this one because I had some issues with old cheats not working as well and some actually breaking a game.I've got tons of CC because it opens up more playing options like a BACC and having towns that start as colonial settlements or homesteading settlements in pre-modern settings.My Pleasentview Epic Challenge is about the establishment of Pleasant Valley as a colony on the RCC colonial act which was first settled in the spring of 1600.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 16th May 2021 at 6:10 PM
The main reason I won't use build/buy CC is because I actually have more fun uploading creations for others to use than I do playing them myself, and making sure that people don't have to track down any extra stuff to download one of my lots makes it easier for them to use my creations themselves. I'm still happy to use CC that unlocks things that already exist in the game (quite a few of my lots wouldn't work anywhere near as well if I didn't have the career rewards available to me, for instance), but I'm not going to put in things that were made up from scratch that my downloaders would then have to go track down themselves.

That being said, I do also have a handful of gameplay mods that I use on the rare occasions when I actually play the game myself, so long as they won't mess up my uploads in any way.

Welcome to the Dark Side...
We lied about having cookies.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 16th May 2021 at 6:25 PM
I can't play TS3 without CC, I just can't stand the way the sims look in vanilla. TS4 is still being updated every 5 minutes so I don't use CC in that. Not that I ever really play either of those two anyway.

Maybe I'm grouchy and old fashioned, but I do miss the way TS2 never updated, unless you physically bought an EP and therefore it was a conscious choice and you could continue to play the old version until you were ready to go through the process of upgrading. OK, there were one or two patches per EP as well. But I don't get this modern system of releasing an unfinished game and then patching in constant fixes and updates 0_o Like ALL the time! To the point that people find it useful to have a special program sitting on their computer at all times working out which games need updates... and then if you decide to play something you haven't played in a while it has to spend ages downloading and installing multiple ones. Just stay the damn same!

My husband gets frustrated because we play games online with another couple weekly and my games are never up to date because I refuse to let Steam, Origin, Gog etc run in the background on my machine constantly.

I use the sims as a psychology simulator...
Mad Poster
#9 Old 16th May 2021 at 6:53 PM
I do remember the days when TS2 was in the process of getting new EPs and SPs and all that, but at least it wasn't the mess of patches TS4 has become. There usually were patches with each EP, but fewer of them, and it didn't have to update every 5 minutes - there was one patch for (most) EPs, and that was it, really. It was much easier to figure out which mod you needed if there were any choices, because TS2 mods are rarely based on anything else than which EPs/SPs you have (and mod compatibility), instead of also which patch/update/etc. you have. With TS4 I've lost track of how many EPs/SPs, let alone patches that thing is on now, and honestly I've also lost interest. Only got it so I could use it for TS2 CC purposes anyway (not sure why now, because if anything clashes it's the style of TS2 and TS4...)

Getting new content is fine, I guess - but all the time, and when uncalled for, and maybe not having the option to say no to an update, at least for a little while? That's annoying. Makes me not want to play (especially Origin - that thing is the neediest thing I've ever come across! You do not need to update every 5 minutes, absolutely not! Honestly, I'd prefer using my old TS2/TS3 CD games)
Scholar
#10 Old 16th May 2021 at 7:56 PM
I use a few mods but have almost no CC except for some old-fashioned dresses and some ivy covering for the walls of PlantSim houses. I occasionally look at houses to download, but if I need some other CC to go with the house, which all too often seems to be the case, I don't bother. I'm just more interested in advancing my Sims' lives than in how they look.
Forum Resident
#11 Old 16th May 2021 at 8:52 PM
I have tons of unused cc since I've been involved in custom neighborhoods for a long time and can't use it in them, so I'm hoping to finish them soon so I can play cc again. In my case it is more to keep the game clean and agile when I am creating, but I love the cc, especially if it is low poly. Perhaps I am more into downloading hairstyles and clothes than objects themselves, since almost every time I download 4t2 objects I end up creating conflicts and crashes and I end up deleting the entire object folder and starting over. So now I have decided to have few conversions and focus on sets that really interest me, look good and don't take up a lot of memory.
Instructor
Original Poster
#12 Old 16th May 2021 at 11:17 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simsfreq
I can't play TS3 without CC, I just can't stand the way the sims look in vanilla. TS4 is still being updated every 5 minutes so I don't use CC in that. Not that I ever really play either of those two anyway.

Maybe I'm grouchy and old fashioned, but I do miss the way TS2 never updated, unless you physically bought an EP and therefore it was a conscious choice and you could continue to play the old version until you were ready to go through the process of upgrading. OK, there were one or two patches per EP as well. But I don't get this modern system of releasing an unfinished game and then patching in constant fixes and updates 0_o Like ALL the time! To the point that people find it useful to have a special program sitting on their computer at all times working out which games need updates... and then if you decide to play something you haven't played in a while it has to spend ages downloading and installing multiple ones. Just stay the damn same!

My husband gets frustrated because we play games online with another couple weekly and my games are never up to date because I refuse to let Steam, Origin, Gog etc run in the background on my machine constantly.


I think the annoying updates are there for the purpose of being very hard to pirate and also because Sims 4 is a half assed cashgrab but that's another story. Imagine the audacity to release the game without pools, toddlers and still not have cars after SEVEN YEARS. I swear Sims 5 will never be made because usually 4-5 years passed between each game.

When it comes to updates I remember being frustrated 10 years ago when my Sims 2 Seasons would crash at startup and not knowing why. I knew cc had to do with it so I thought removing it and starting again will work, or adding it slowly like a couple of seconds passing between moving files. It was so funny when I think of it, I remember Steffor's CC always working and me hating the vibrant shadowless style but still being excited to have CC in my game. XM sims was also my favorite because it never crashed and the style was gorgeous to 12 year old me and was trendy.
Instructor
Original Poster
#13 Old 16th May 2021 at 11:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sokisims
. Perhaps I am more into downloading hairstyles and clothes than objects themselves, since almost every time I download 4t2 objects I end up creating conflicts and crashes and I end up deleting the entire object folder and starting over. So now I have decided to have few conversions and focus on sets that really interest me, look good and don't take up a lot of memory.


That was me in Sims 3 and 4. The objects were nice and the color wheel helped alot but the catalog in Sims 3 was extremely slow and buggy so I stuck to downloading Sim Content only. I also enjoyed alot Sims 3 CAS and managed not to make pudding faces.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#14 Old 16th May 2021 at 11:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by moonlight__
I always wondered why some people refuse to use CC, not even maxis match. Isn't it better when you have bigger options when building and don't you care how your sims look?


I doubt you will run across many without CC here, generally we all have rather more CC than average.

But one good reason would be if they were playing the games on a potato. Better to run the game on your potato than melt your chip and take your potatoes life.

The only time I turn off CC is when building. Uploading CC free lots is SO much easier.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#15 Old 16th May 2021 at 11:47 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 17th May 2021 at 2:29 PM.
The only "huge" problems I can remember I've had with TS2 in relation to CC/mods was once way back when I installed a new EP and forgot to take out some mods, and my sims were jumpbugging all over the place. Temporarily removing the mods and then updating them when possible fixed the problem, so it was an easy fix. The second is the piece of CC that held the "small electronics" hostage for quite a while, until I found and got rid of the little bugger and its clones. The third is probably that when you use CC you need to delete the cache files every once in a while (or a bit more often). I didn't know that for a while in my very early noob days, and spent a lot of time reinstalling my game... Glad I figured that one out . Other than that there's been some small issues here and there, but all in all I haven't had that many issues with CC, at least not after I learned to not just download all willy-nilly like I did at first, and instead follow a few guidelines (don't put all 100.000 files in the same folder, remember to download the meshes, read about the mods and make sure it's compatible, etc.).

I used a lot of CC on my ancient "baked potato", that poor old thing . It did go through a short period of no CC, but I don't know how short because I honestly can't remember (pre-Seasons or Pets, I think - before the hairs started randomizing, because there was a period where all my sim kids got the same haircut and I was often too lazy to do anything about it, or didn't know how to fix it ). Can't have been long, because there's CC popping up in my very early simming pictures. (After NL) I usually got the EPs as soon as they came out.

Lots is one of the places where I've started looking around for CC-free and CC-light options lately. For special lots that kind of need a bit of clutter, like schools or stores and such, I'm all for it - but for houses it's fine with no CC. I hate building the "shells" but I like decorating, and I often prefer filling the lots up with my own CC rather than downloading some I don't want/need. I do have rather specific needs for room sizes and outlays though, so I rarely find lots I can use.
Mad Poster
#16 Old 17th May 2021 at 3:11 AM
There was a time when I didn't use much CC at all-and that was because the computer wasn't really good enough for it. Once I upgraded to a larger hard drive, that era was over.
Now I download tons of stuff at times, and I still have to manage my CC, but find it far easier and prettier to have it than not.
If you think of CC as just being furniture or things, hacks and mods do count for it, too-because they change the gameplay, and they should be considered CC.

No mods or hacks? Never!

Receptacle Refugee & Resident Polar Bear
"Get out of my way, young'un, I'm a ninja!"
Grave Matters: The funeral podium is available here: https://www.mediafire.com/file/e6tj...albits.zip/file
My other downloads are here: https://app.mediafire.com/myfiles
Mad Poster
#17 Old 17th May 2021 at 4:03 AM
If you have no CC beyond the corruption-producing mods, your game loads in under five minutes and travel to community lots is nearly instantaneous.

If you're building to share - whether a lot or a neighborhood - building without custom content expands your potential market. Without custom content, anyone who has the latest EP used by the creator can download it and play immediately, modifying it to suit their own style as convenient; with custom content, the downloader either has to accept or download the CC used, or spend time getting rid of the placeholder items, blank walls, etc., that result from not using the content before they can play with the lot or neighborhood.The downloader of a CC free lot or neighborhood will also have a reasonable idea of how it will look in their game, just by looking at the pictures, and knows they won't be ambushed by an unreasonably high-poly item, a lamp that will overwrite the GUID of an item they like, or 85,000 recolors hitchhiking on one item.

Not everyone cares much about the aesthetic of their game. Some people who do, enjoy the challenge of working with the limitations of Maxis content. And some people are 10 and playing on their older sibling's hand-me-down laptop that flashes pink after two hours of play if it doesn't sit on top of an icepack.

If you want CC, it's out there. If you don't, ain't nobody's business why.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Lab Assistant
#18 Old 17th May 2021 at 7:13 AM
When I was young I played with a vanilla game because I had no idea that mods and CC even existed.

After learning of their existence, though, there was no going back! I don’t think I could ever go back to a 100% vanilla game; I always need a *little bit* of CC. Things that fix gameplay annoyances are my #1 priority for the DL folder. Cosmetic stuff is not always necessary but I usually pop in eye and skin defaults at the very least. As for furniture and build items, I gradually add that as I want/need it - but sometimes that’s a bother and I force myself to decorate with vanilla items instead. After all, EA’s old motto/tagline was “challenge yourself” (As others said, it’s a challenge to decorate with vanilla items and you feel a sense of accomplishment making things look modern/decent with limited/outdated resources)

My simblrIcon credit
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 17th May 2021 at 10:22 AM
I was playing a vanilla game recently for a while primarily because I had accumulated so much custom content haphazardly to the point that I started to worry I was bloating my game unnecessarily, so I decided it would be easiest to just remove everything and avoid lots of overthinking. Recently I'm back to having lots of CC though and it's really hard to control how much I get hehe..
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 19th May 2021 at 9:47 PM
I guess having or not having CC is a matter of weighing up advantages and disadvantages. You just mention the advantage, i.e. having more options.
I have some CC, but not a lot. Therefore, the game loads very fast on my computer and even 15-20 minutes of spare time are enough to play a bit. With more CC, the loading time would be longer and I could only play when I have more spare time.
I also do not want to have too many options ingame. That way I am still able to know what kind of items I have and where they are and I regularly use all the CC that I have. With more CC, I would not be able to know anymore which items I have and I would have to spend a lot of time having a look at all the pages for each category in build mode, buy mode or CAS. And I would have lots of CC in the game that I would hardly ever or never use. It also takes time to search for CC on the internet and to organize the downloads folder in a way that you can find everything when you have to. And the more CC you have, the more likely you have to do trouble shooting when a file is broken.
Regarding not caring how the sims look like: I do care. I just do not think that sims with CC always look better than sims without CC. And even for those sims that look better, this does not necessarily mean that the CC matches my game. I only want to have Maxis match CC in my game and my definition of Maxis match seems to be more strict than others so that it takes more time to find CC that I want to have in my game. Thus, I frequently prefer to play the game instead of looking for CC.
Top Secret Researcher
#21 Old 20th May 2021 at 7:55 AM
I played for several years without cc, then discovered something I really, really wanted and there was no going back. Like others, I prefer to build without cc if I'm uploading but that can be challenging if you want to create something a bit different. When I'm downloading a lot (ie house or community lot) I prefer little to no cc. It depends on how much there is and whether I like it.

(I don't have any cc for Sims 4. I just can't be bothered. So I tolerate the fugly and let the horrid game add stuff with its many updates. None of it enthuses me. I've built exactly one house in Sims 4 and don't bother much with interiors.)
Back to top