I consider my game quite modded, though my downloads folder is leagues under some others' with only 700mb, but I kinda have a system I think is efficient.

Basically, I have four basic categories for mods:
- Annoyance Fixes, with things like the "no met sim memory" or "no Rod Humble", but also some quality of life improvements like equal genetics, fixed face templates, and townie body diversity
- Anti Bloating, with the no respawn mods, plus no sim loaded because it seemed logical at the time, but now I just kinda got used to it being there
- Anti Corruption, with things like the no unlink on delete mod, or the new child ghost fix
- Tweaking and Tools, which is basically where things like the sim blender go, that you need to buy in game, as well as the painting and writing speed-up mods

Aside from these, I also have a seperate folder for MidgeTheTree and Simler90 specifically because I have so many of their mods, a seperate one for supernaturals, and some seperate ones that I either couldn't put in any other category, or was just too lazy to put into a category, like hiders, the fixed subhood selector and the attraction fixes. Also, some one-file smaller mods I also just have in the main folder, things like the naming mod for townies, the aging mod or no20khandouts

I try to keep my mods in some order-if the creator has a lot of them (like Pescado or others) I have a folder expressly for them. The rest that don't have more than one or two per creator I put in folders "Mods A-L" or "Mods M-Z" which is named for the actual mod, not the creator. Some I keep in their own folder because they're so radical that they can change the game immensely (ACR or Monique's) so I can track down which ones I want to pull.

Also, I do try not to add too many mods at any given time because it's so easy to lose track of them, as you can understand.

Just mods, or all downloads?
Still working on sorting them, but I've done a rough cleanup so I know how I want them, but still moving them around a bit.

For all downloads, I have main category (buy/build/clothes or similar), undercategory (if necessary, my Buy category needed some because I don't want to scroll through the first page forever, so it's Deco_Food, or Room_Nursery, etc.. And then I've thrown in the various sets, usually by creator). In some places I have files loose in the folder if all the files in a set sort together neatly by name. I also keep pictures, because otherwise I'd have no idea what I have and I don't care what people say about keeping pictures in the folders, I'd go crazy without them...

For mods I don't have much of a system other than the files being in a folder, being roughly sorted after creator/site name (so I know where I got them - it's my way of remembering, at least roughly, what I have, because I remember stuff best by site, mod name and/or pictures).

If you like using spreadsheets it's probably a good way to keep track of your mods.

Unfortunately I don't have the patience for spreadsheets. After a couple days it's either abandoned in a corner on my computer because it only frustrates me, or there's 20+ variants because I may or may not occasionally have an issue with saving over documents...

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For years I had a similar problem: could not pick the double bed called Easy something. Then last month it started working. No idea.

Thanks Topp

Is there a tutorial somewhere for recategorizing makeup? I have a couple of eyeshadows that I'd like to bin as eyeliner, or vice versa, and I don't see the categories in SimPE (or are they numbers and I need to know what the number for eyeliner is, maybe??).

ETA: This can be done with Wardrobe Wrangler, in case anyone else comes across this post.

I don't have many mods, so can easily see what I've got. For more recent downloads (say the last four? years), I have a spreadsheet of all my downloads which include category, creator and where from. This is easily searchable.

My engaged Sim understands that I want a polygamy family; she want's to get engaged to a second man. I would think there is a mod out there, but can't find. Any ideas?

https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=617914

Is it always ok to use the in-game delete button for maxis object recolors? Like, I have tons of recolors of the cheap maxis fridge that has accrued over time and the most recent one I downloaded is so nice I want to just be rid of the older low-quality recolors.

For Maxis recolours it is okay to use the swatch tool on it and delete each swatch you don't like.

Has anyone fixed the broken animations on "Propose... Stay the Night" interaction? I've had my Sims pause in the middle of turning around, looking around, recovering from dancing, whatever, and freeze while the other sim is asking them. Then they would nod or shake their head and unfreeze. It looks very unnatural and unfinished.

This doesn't seem to answer my question. The one link that works does not let a person get engaged to more than one person. Jealousy is handled by ACR, and the special wedding arch lets anyone marry, But I DO get sims that want to get engaged to someone even though they are already engaged or married to someone else.

Then they need to break the first engagement.

For multiple engagements, @grammapat, you've a couple of options:

Inteen does let you go steady with multiple people--at least teens can with no extra mods. It's been a while since I had an adult with multiple girlfriends, but I think it's possible if you also have ACR. Once a sim is going steady, you can get engaged and have multiple fiances (this part I've done more recently and know for sure) it's just that you'll need the hacked arch to marry them all, or you'll have to set relationship flags with a mod like Sim Blender or the Sim Manipulator.

And that's a option as well; for a long time, I believe people who had sims with multiple spouses would manually set the engagement flags and then use the hacked arch to get married. But I assume, that's not what you want to do, that you want the interactions and everything, right?

Well, Veetie updated Midgethetree's hacked arch mod here. Veetie's mod adds options for arranged betrothals. (It was made before Midge's update to add renewing vows, or else I think that would have been included too). It's a global mod like Midge's, so it affects all Maxis arches, but there are some custom arches (an anvil, a handfasting tree, and a rock) that Veetie added the option to as well. Looking at the files, if you don't want the options on Maxis arches, you should be able to leave out the files affecting Maxis arches and just use the custom arches. But you'll have to test to be sure. Anyway, with Veetie's mod, you can do an engagement ceremony at the arch; it's is very similar to the marriage one, except at the end the pair is engaged, not married. Useful for pictures or if, like in this case, you want multiple engagements.

If you have Inteen, you need to load Veetie's mod last. If you don't have Inteen, you don't need it for Veetie's mod and, at this point, I wouldn't really recommend it for users that have never used it before. It conflicts with a lot of things and I believe with some newer mods out that it's probably outdated. So if you already have Inteen, you should be good to go; if you don't, skip it and just use Veetie's mod.


For the mod organizing discussion, I'm a bit like sugoisama in that I have categories--but I've way more than four. I used to keep mods in one giant folder, and then maybe a separate folder for creators if I had a lot of files from them but I hated this. I could never find anything and when installing new things, it was a pain trying to figure out what similar or related mods I already had installed. When installing new mods I usually double check my folder so I can not only prevent conflicts, but also so I could avoid installing redundant mods. So yeah, that system didn't work for me. I've got a 20-23 GB folder--I've been taking a more serious stab at cleaning it lately so not sure what it actually is, because my folders are in separate places while I test things, but last time I checked it was at 23 GB. Anywho, I do have a Default-Fixes folder for things that shouldn't be removed willy-nilly--things with controllers that reset, corruption preventing mods, etc. My other categories are: Inteen, ACR (those two are separate because they often need to load before other things, so those get separate folders), Aspirations/Rewards/Wants/Memories, Commands/Interactions/Activities/Behaviors, Creature, Debug/Cheats, Food/Eating/Health, Gardening/Outdoors, Money/Finances/Jobs/Business, Objects (for any cheaty type objects or hacks), Relationships, School/Grades/Skilling, and Visitors/Walkbys. There are a couple of mods every now and then that I don't know where to place them, so I might change my categories a bit, but otherwise, this system works much better for me. I can more easily narrow down what I'm looking for and when installing new things, I know where to look for conflicts. Anything that's outside of these folders is because they need a special load order.

Oh, and definitely use a file finder. I started using it I think last year and it made finding stuff in my Download folder way easier.

My problem is with mods.
Other downloads have been quite easy to organize (mostly following the in-game categories, also some sets have their own folder) but my mods folder used to be quite small... and next time I notice it's HUGE.
I have plenty of mods I don't even know what they are for!

I used to download and put them in the downloads folder, that was all, and then I realized I need some categories. I used a system which is similar to what sugoisama comments.
I have these folders: Fixes (for the important stuff that I know I'll keep), Annoyances (things that I'd rather mod out, but the game won't break without them), Behaviour (which means they modify behavioural aspects) and Custom (my mods, or other people's but customized). Also some folders for mods with several files with a very specific purpose, such as Community Time.
And it worked very well for a while.
Then I guess I did not pay much attention to it, and it became messy.
I no longer know what goes into Annoyances and what goes into Behaviour, they've become pretty interchangeable. There are quite a bit of mods which I never bothered to actually put in any category.

And what's worst - sometimes filenames are not clear, and I don't know who created what and what mods are exactly for, so I haven't removed anything just in case. And probably some of them could be removed indeed, because my playstyle has changed quite a bit in the last years.

I don't know, I'm even considering doing a whole revamp of the categories, but I always feel more like playing than actually thinking, so I hope for your wisdom to illuminate my path :D

Amura,
I file everything by creator name first. I used to do buy, build, mod, bodyshop, then subfolder by creator. But that got to be a pain with themed sets that cross categories. Some creators have more than one folder with their name: AHHairs AHHacks, AHDR, for example (Almighty Hat Hairs, Hacks, and Default Replacements, respectively). Things I can't pull are filed according to creator name and kind of thing, so CatEGSkins. (CatofEvilGenius skintones).

If it's the kind of mod that requires loading at the end, then the folder is named with a varying number of z's before the creator name or initials.

These days, most modders will list things they know are conflicts, by who made the mod, which makes it very easy to find the item that needs pulled, since it's filed by creator name. If I'm looking to see if I have something in that category, I know folders with default replacements will have that DR, PT is Pollination Technicians, etc.

Can I make an arts and crafts instructor npc into a townie? with no corruption? I don't have the stealth neighborhoods, but it was created by the game when I painted portraits.

File question:
I have backups of cc as downloaded (zips, rars, etc) from old computers, and the files I've downloaded directly to this computer. Not installed, in game downloads, but the files as downloaded to my hard drives before installation.
I would like to scan all this stuff for duplicate files, by file name would be fine (I need to check to make sure I have the versions compatible to my game now, not to when I just had Happy Holidays, after all!).
I'm using Windows 7.
This is preparatory to a backup of everything and reinstall of Windows 7 (aka you want to back up HOW many gigs? Let me see if I can slim this down).

Does anyone have a tool for this purpose?


@Sokisims even if you can safely make a hobby person into a townie, the next time someone gets a membership won't your game generate another?

I have no plans to get more memberships, I ask this for the remake of my custom neighborhood. (Its creation has been a collateral damage for wanting to add portraits of some families). I erased the memory of the sims who painted the pictures with memory manipulator, and with hoodcheker everything seems clean. I'm pretty sure the hobbie persons are npc safe, but I'd rather be sure, it's just that I hate that they are there as a family. He's the sim who came to give me the card, I do not have and do not appear stealth neighborhoods in my folder, so I think that hobbie person does not have a stealth batch.

How do you all handle aging of the parents who teens go off to collage?

For me the 4 years at collage = 4 days in the main hood.

I use a lot of mods.

One being a different ageing system and each stage is a life stage including YA. My main hood ageing matches with my college ageing.
All YA get 10 days if they go to uni or remain in the main hood
College by the semester changes mod by Cyjon is only 8 days but I add 2 more for either academic probation or free time.
Some of my YA do college some do not. Some have jobs, families and businesses. 10 days passes regardless. 10 days also passes for the parents. 1 day = 6 months and all my age stages fit that. So 10 days at uni is 5 years or from 18-23 years old.

@Sokisims hobby instructors are a safe npc that you can add to your household, etc. so theoretically you should be able to turn them into a townie. Maybe move them in first, though, in order to make sure their npc status is really gone. I'd do it through the normal move in dialog--use cheats to get the relationship high with a playable, move them in with that playable, then make the instructor a townie and use cheats again to fix the relationship.

And you can prevent hobby instructors from spawning by either using Nopke's No Hobby Stalkers or Midgethetree's No Hobby Instructors Regen. Pick one mod or the other--it sounds like you don't want any to spawn, ever, so I'd go with Nopke's version. With that, you can choose if you still want Hobby rewards (memberships, plaques, etc.), or you can prevent everything.

As for aging parents & kids in uni--my uni households are a part of the hood rotation. So after I play the main hood, I play uni, then I go back to the main hood. I play week long rotations and 7 day seasons, so for uni, I play two semesters, or six days, before returning to the main hood. I don't sweat the extra day; six days is close enough in sync for me, but at the end of uni, if sims need time to wrap up and throw parties, they have it.

Okay, I distinctly remember being able to use the Tombstone of L&D to make a sim pregnant, yet when I attempted it just now I got no such option! I also tried the batbox and the mailbox, and no joy.

Ginger and Gavin Newson are both gay, and have partners. Both couples live on the same lot and are friends - although neither spouse is best friends yet with their in-law. Everybody wants a baby. The plan is to go for the old turkey baster method and get Ginger pregnant by Gavin's husband, and Ginger's wife pregnant by Gavin. Do they have to have a high enough relationship for woohoo to be a possibility in order to generate the option? Are there mod conflicts that affect the function of cheat objects? Or am I overlooking something?

That's weird. I'm sure I've used the Tombstone for that purpose, too, and I don't recall there being any need for the playable to have a good relationship (or any relationship) with the intended father for the option to be available. I would guess a mod conflict.