Decided to give the Sims 3 another chance

Seamoan

I have owned the Sims 3 and all the expansions for about a year, but have barely played because I was always on Sims 2. It bugged out on me one too many times and I gave up caring enough to fix it. But now I keep hearing everyone talk about how much fun they have playing TS3, so I want to give it another chance.

Sooooooo.... I'm hoping some of you out there would give me some kind of overview of the modding situation. What do you like? why do you like it? what does it do? - stuff like that. Obviously I can google "top Sims 3 mods" and get some kind of general list, but I like hearing personal opinions from simmers that actually play. Not to mention that I hear the word "essential" thrown around with Sims 3 mods and I'm hoping you all can define it a little more for me.

I'm sure it's been discussed to death already and I'm way late to the party, but please have pity

LokiSimsies

*takes off cranky pants and put on helpful pants*

LOL

Mods....oy vey.....I'm modded out the wazoo. It's why I enjoy the game so much and able to play all worlds without any issues.

Just google the name and Sims 3 after it to find their sites, if my memory has failed me and some of the mods are not at MTS.

NRAAS - almost all of them
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/

Most of the below are found at Mod the Sims
http://www.modthesims.info/browse.php?f=414&showType=1&gs=2

bluegenjutsu_NoAlienAbductionsAndNoAlienHouseholds
bluegenjutsu_NoAutonomousPlayFairySocialTricks
Invisible Fairy Wings by Tremerion
ShimrodsNewMotiveCharmsUnlocked139
ShimrodsNoAttractionCallsGifts142
ShimrodsRomanceVisibilityAttractionDisabler142
icarusallsorts Bartending
icarusallsorts Cook With Any Ingredient
icarusallsorts Fun In The Sun
No More Lunacy
misukisu no Vampire Glow

Cinderellimouse
http://simsinthewoods.wordpress.com/

Cinderellimod Better Bees
Cinderellimod No Murphy Bed Death
Cinderellimod NoVendingMachineDeath
Cinderellimod Wave Station Less Seal Attacks

This creator has taken her stuff offline
Misty_NoAutonomousMagick
NoAutonomousDragonInteractions_Misty
NoAutonomousSmartPhone_163_Misty


When installing mods, especially the ones from NRAAS, do yourself a favor and go over the FAQ's. They will help you set it up nicely so it works the way you want.

If you have never used mods before, look over this link. It will tell you how to set it up.

http://modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Installing_Sims_3_Package_Files/Setup_and_Files

For me, they are all essential because they improve my gameplay. However, most people would agree that if you do nothing else? You need to get the overwatch and error trap mods from NRAAS.

Seamoan

@LokiSimsies‌

You are my saviour. Thank you so much for taking off your cranky pants to post this list . This is exactly what I needed.

LokiSimsies

Seamoan wrote: »

@LokiSimsies‌

You are my saviour. Thank you so much for taking off your cranky pants to post this list . This is exactly what I needed.

LOL, no problem.

If you have all the EPs installed and start to see some error code 12 issues, unexplained lagging, or sudden crashing? And you have the NRAAS mods installed? Try uninstalling pets.

That EP causes me nothing but problems when combined with all the other EPs. It's an issue with routing. I can't ever get them to stop spawning and that is even with turning them off in game and using the Register mod. Horses spawn in houseboats, spawn in itty bitty houses, deer get stuck inside buildings, small animals get trapped at fence lines, animals take boats across the rivers and then the boats are abandoned and cause lagging.

Yeah.....a nightmare but people love that EP.

I think the main reason I pretty much never have issues with my game is the mods and no Pets EP.

Seamoan

LokiSimsies wrote: »

Seamoan wrote: »

@LokiSimsies‌

You are my saviour. Thank you so much for taking off your cranky pants to post this list . This is exactly what I needed.

LOL, no problem.

If you have all the EPs installed and start to see some error code 12 issues, unexplained lagging, or sudden crashing? And you have the NRAAS mods installed? Try uninstalling pets.

That EP causes me nothing but problems when combined with all the other EPs. It's an issue with routing. I can't ever get them to stop spawning and that is even with turning them off in game and using the Register mod. Horses spawn in houseboats, spawn in itty bitty houses, deer get stuck inside buildings, small animals get trapped at fence lines, animals take boats across the rivers and then the boats are abandoned and cause lagging.

Yeah.....a nightmare but people love that EP.

I think the main reason I pretty much never have issues with my game is the mods and no Pets EP.

This is so good to know. I can never have too much information about what to expect in this game, I know it had some serious problems and appreciate the heads up.

LadybugLeslie

That's quite an extensive list that @LokiSimsies‌ listed! I've never heard of a lot of them. I just wanted to say that, when I first played sims a million years ago, I wanted to keep my game "pure" and didn't want to use mods or cc. I thought it would bring up the potential for bugs and glitches. Then I had to trash my legacy sims when I was in their 4th generation, and I did some research, and I have never played without nraas mastercontroller, errortrap, and overwatch ever again. Those I think are truly essential. He has lots of great ones, and I'll have to look into those mod the sims ones, but seriously- you will more than likely have file corruption and glitches out the wazoo without those three.

LaBlue0314

The NRaas Story Progression is also very important, it does not allow your town to die off, EA's Story Progression will. I have tried them all, but have went back to the base and extra on it. Over at Mod the Sims, I have several of those as well, not mentioned in the list above is one that stops zombies from spawning. Zombies are not my thing, and don't want them in my game. It makes it really nice for the families that I am trying to play as close to realism as possible.

dreamerz13

I don't play with the majority of the mods listed here honestly, and my game generally runs just fine.

I have overwatch, and master controller. I wouldn't dare play without those (MC is more for enjoyment though, but it can be handy sometimes when the game is being difficult).

I have a few others, I wouldn't deem essential just enjoyable. Not all I can mention here. Nor can I remember them all at the moment.

I think it just really depends on the person and the game. Some people swear you can't play without a ton of mods, I play with just a few and my game is just fine, I don't need or want a million mods to fix it. I'd probably start with a few and see from there, when people list like 100 mods I think it seems so overwhelming, a lot of people can play just fine without that much.

igazor

And if all of those weren't enough (some overlap here)...

http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Other+Mods+FAQ

Ninjakitz

Nraas Story Progresstion, Overwatch, Master Controller, and Error Trap. Start with those and see how amazing the game works. Story progressions actually makes things come to life and happen. If you plan on staying in a save for more then the span of one YA to elder lifestage, you'll need it. EA's story progression sucked, but it did lay the tiles down needed for this awesome mod.

Seamoan

You are all great. I was thinking of playing vanilla for a few days just to see what I hated, but now that I think about it, that's probably what turned me off last time.

I'm grabbing story progression, overwatch, master controller and error trap right now.

Ninjakitz

> @Seamoan said:
> You are all great. I was thinking of playing vanilla for a few days just to see what I hated, but now that I think about it, that's probably what turned me off last time.
>
> I'm grabbing story progression, overwatch, master controller and error trap right now.
Awesome :D If you have any problems I sure someone will come to your aid in the forums.

ratsrbest

A mod I can't do without is the eyeshadow fix - it sounds really trivial but it nearly drove me mad trying to figure out why my Sim kept getting dark circles under her eyes. Why, oh why, didn't I work out that the eye shadow is bugged

http://modthesims.info/d/494343

Then there's faster homework (or slower if you want to stress the kids):

http://modthesims.info/d/463449

Faster ablutions:

http://modthesims.info/d/430423

AND No Foot Tapping - believe me, this is essential

http://modthesims.info/d/367578

I've got a shed-load more, but these are really helpful. I've tried not to swamp you and, of course, not everyone minds the things that annoy me

TadOlson

I've got a major trainload of Mods including the 71 NRaas Mod files currently have installed and my game runs lag-free most of the time unless there's a badly glitched inventory or stuck sims and the town needs a reset.I still have to go though the households and manually check the inventories to make sure they're not keeping too much in the personal inventories or keeping things in the household inventories that can glitch it out.I use storage CC from ATS to fix those issues up.

LokiSimsies

TadOlson wrote: »

I've got a major trainload of Mods including the 71 NRaas Mod files currently have installed and my game runs lag-free most of the time unless there's a badly glitched inventory or stuck sims and the town needs a reset.I still have to go though the households and manually check the inventories to make sure they're not keeping too much in the personal inventories or keeping things in the household inventories that can glitch it out.I use storage CC from ATS to fix those issues up.

I was poking around in either overwatch or master controller the other day and I could have sworn that I saw a command to clean out inventories.

Have you checked the FAQs on those mods to see if they do it?

It was when I was setting up Sunset Valley with IP stuff and wanted to run all the homeless out of town that had been created because the game decided my Educator townie needed 10 randomly created co-workers when I had already placed 5 of my own co-workers for her.

So....it might have been overwatch under immediate commands.....or it could have been in Story Progression when I was setting up the homeless control section.

Sorry I can't remember which one but I'm almost sure I saw it.

TadOlson

@LokiSimsies-I know there are settings to have inventories cleaned out automatically and found it tended to delete things they need like iPads,computers and vehicles along with the things it was supposed to delete.I find it better to just do the rounds and check manually for issues with inventories and use CC storage from ATS for collectibles and produce or seeds.There's a function to stop the game from filling your town up and placing co-workers in NRaas Register.Overwatch has commands to clean out homeless sims.

LokiSimsies

TadOlson wrote: »

@LokiSimsies-I know there are settings to have inventories cleaned out automatically and found it tended to delete things they need like iPads,computers and vehicles along with the things it was supposed to delete.I find it better to just do the rounds and check manually for issues with inventories and use CC storage from ATS for collectibles and produce or seeds.There's a function to stop the game from filling your town up and placing co-workers in NRaas Register.Overwatch has commands to clean out homeless sims.

Ah......thanks.

I never touched the inventory command so didn't realize it wiped everything out. I give my custom townies cars and stuff in their inventories to make their lives easier and more fun as they go about their days.

Yeah....I have Register set up to control the homeless and co-workers. It was just that when I switched to my educator household to fix her hair that I saw she suddenly had 10 new co-workers. I know the game would eventually deleted them BUT I was setting this up as my master save that I could use to play off later. I didn't want anything made in it that the game would be deleting later.

kiara07

Is there a mod to clean the limousines from Starlight Shores? I like that world and I remember last time I played there it was lagging a lot.

igazor

kiara07 wrote: »

Is there a mod to clean the limousines from Starlight Shores? I like that world and I remember last time I played there it was lagging a lot.

The NRaas Overwatch mod cleans them up nightly.
The NRaas Traffic mod has a setting that prevents Showtime performers from being issues limos (for the most part).

Some limos will still sneak in, such as for proms and very high level (non-Showtime) musicians, but I've never seen the 40,000 or so get cleaned up like others have since putting these two mods to work.

kiara07

igazor wrote: »

kiara07 wrote: »

Is there a mod to clean the limousines from Starlight Shores? I like that world and I remember last time I played there it was lagging a lot.

The NRaas Overwatch mod cleans them up nightly.
The NRaas Traffic mod has a setting that prevents Showtime performers from being issues limos (for the most part).

Some limos will still sneak in, such as for proms and very high level (non-Showtime) musicians, but I've never seen the 40,000 or so get cleaned up like others have since putting these two mods to work.

Thanks @igazor I think last time I played in Starlight Shores I've already had MC so I'm going to try Nraas Traffic mod.

AndyBrains

The ones I really like are by velocitygrass on MTS.
1. AddAnyLotSize is great because it allows you to add any sized lot of your choice. I use this a lot when remaking my town. Or if one lot is too small and there's room I can place a larger lot in that spot. :)
2. OnlyImportantMemories because I found they would be so annoying, I liked the idea enough though so I can choose to keep important things like getting married. etc.

And I use all the nraas as mentioned above. ;)
And cmar Xcas. It gives better options in cas.

And I use pose player with custom poses, it's fun to take photos of your sims in unique positions and makes for good story telling.
And finally shiftable things, they allow you to move mirrors and photos up and down the walls. Small but useful.

TadOlson

I turned immigration off in Register to stop the town from being flooded by new sims.I just updated my NRaas Mods and ended up with 72 NRaas Mod files after updating.I'll have to check my settings to make sure nothing's wrong with them before I resume my usual play.I might want to add a few more NRaas Mods.

Karritz

I also have mods to fix the fountains that don't work.

I recently added a few extra NRAAS mods beyond master controller and over watch. I find adding them slowly helps me get an idea how they work and it helps identify a mod that isn't working. I recently added StoryProgression and my game started taking hours to save. I eventually remembered I had to turn EA Story Progression off. That fixed the problem. So when you do add mods you need to be careful not to add any that conflict.

Edit. Inventories cause massive game breaking unplayable lag. If you get lag check the inventories. Move items you want to keep to the fridge or chests from World Adventures or any of the other storage devices.

TiffanyLea007

I have tons of mods in my game. I like the one where sims can't buy food in fridge unless they have the ingredients and lots of NRAAS mods.

TadOlson

I just checked my settings in my town legacy challenge and started playing a day in one of the households in Winfield.The Campbell family is adding a bedroom for their toddler who's about to have her third birthday in 25 days and will be a child after that.I've got custom storage from ATS and OBP sites.I use that for produce and collectibles.I check household inventories for things that shouldn't be in there and move them out and place them into storage.
@Karritz-I had my game hang on save in the past and it was usually either from installing a new expansion from a faulty disk or having my computer fan dying.It happened over a year ago after installing Supernatural from the first disk which was faulty and later when my fan died and the computer started overheating.