I don't organize them at all. I just have the Mod > Packages folder and put everything there. The reason for this is that I once tried seperating food, clothes, hair and game mods, but half of them didn't show up in game for some reason.
I don’t have enough to necessitate a super-complicated structure, so I just group them into Clothes, Hair, Skins, Accesories, Building, MCCC, and Gameplay Mods.
I use a similar system, but I don't have a huge mods folder, it's under a gigabyte. One thing I do is merge my CC, it cuts down on loading screen time.
With an app/program called Sims 4 Studio you can take a bunch of individual package files and combine them into one big file. This makes it easier to "read" them and lowers the time loading screens take.
This is for CC, clothes, hair etc., not game mods.
I don't organize them at all. I just have the Mod > Packages folder and put everything there. The reason for this is that I once tried seperating food, clothes, hair and game mods, but half of them didn't show up in game for some reason.
You need to set up the resource.cfg folder to read farther than one or two levels down. Back up your original folder (copy it to another spot on your computer or to an external drive like a flash drive), then open the file in a text editor (like Notepad) and enter this string (you can simply copy/paste):
Make sure you save it as a .cfg file not a .txt file. You might not need that many layers but it'll be useful for the future if you want to get really detailed with your sorting or if you use a lot of CC. If you make a mistake, go to the copy of the file you backed up and try it again.
I don't use CC (other than some mods that produce their own CC, such as insect spawners so I can catch them in places other than Granite Falls) so I basically have them sorted by creator. MCCC and related mods (which we can't discuss here) get their own folder (I back up my mc_settings file when I make changes to the settings in game so it's easy to restore them for updates). UI Cheats also gets its own folder. If I use a lot of mods from a particular developer (coolspear1, littlemssam, etc.) those all go into a separate folder; one-off mods (developers where I use only a few) go loose in the folder.
I'm waiting to get involved with CC until I know the game is done and no more updates will be forthcoming, just to be on the safe side -- also hope to get a computer that can handle that much content.
Check out my Gallery! Origin ID: justme22
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
I have a scripts folder for script mods.
Then I have a folder for CAS CC and onde for Build mode CC.
CAS CC folder is divided into Clothing, Eyebrows, Eyes, Hair, Lashes/Glasses, Makeup, and Skin.
Clothing is divided into Accesories, Bottoms, Tops, Full Body, Shoes.
Hair is divided into Men and Women.
Makeup is divided into Cheeks, Eyes, and Lips.
I have Mods/CC for cc. In there I have females and males separately for hair and clothes. In the hairs I have merged package files on long, medium, short hair. In tops for example I have Long sleeved, short sleeved, tank tops, lingerie. For males too.
And in Mods folder I also have my mods. They're there in their own folders, plus one folder for Other mods, that are just tiny little ones.
I organize my mods folders first by category, and then by creator if I have several in that category. For example Hair\Nightcrawler I use different categories depending on what the mods do, I have for example a mod folder called "no-mods" which are mods that disables things in the game, for example "no autonomous take water from sink". I also keep notes about which mods that can cause issues if they are not updated, for example ui cheats extension which can mess up your ui.
Kid CC Dec
Kid CC Jan
Adult CC Dec
Adult CC Jan
Kid Hair and skin details
Adult Hair and skin details
MCCC
Other Mods
Build/buy CC Dec
I separate the CC folders by month as that is easier to find broken cc. My 'other mods' folder only holds mods that fix issues that the devs have not or will never fix.
Yellow for clothing
Orange for objects
Green for hair
Blue for walls & floors (I don’t have many of these)
Grey for gameplay mods
Purple for pose packs
All of my mods are just in the TS4 mod folder and are separate unpacked folders so that the scripts are only one deep. Super easy and quick to just click and delete the mod by clicking the folder. My CC are in folders based on the type of CC it is: hairs, skins, objects, etc... Maybe, if I ever break down and get an actual gaming PC, I will actually get a little more in-depth with regard to CC organization so I can delete the stuff I don't like or that's messed up a lot easier.
I don't know what merging cc means. Can someone please explain to me?
@QueenofMyshuno, Using Sims 4 Studio you can make a single package file that holds as many other package files as you want. So, for example, if you have 123 individual CC hairs, you could merge them into a single file called Hairs.package and delete the 123 individual package files.
In previous Sims games this made a massive difference in load times for the game if you had a lot of CC. The load-time savings for TS4 is relatively minimal in comparison but it definitely can help, especially if you have a slower computer.
The downside is you can no longer quickly remove a single cc you decide you don't want. You would have to open the merged package file and make the change there. It's not really that complicated, but still a few extra steps and the larger the merged file is the longer it takes to repackage it with files removed.
In TS2 and TS3, I always did the cc merge to help with loading times but haven't bothered in TS4 seeing as the loads are so fast (for me at least) anyway. The extra time spent to do the merging and remanage the merged files when I want to change around some CC seems more bother than it's worth.
mods : for general mods
createasim : for cas cc
defaultcas : for default skin and eyes
authormods : for mod compilation from the same authors
scriptmods : for script mods
buildbuy : for build buy cc duh
fandmadepacks : for fanmade packs
mccc : mccc exclusive folder
I need to organize things so I can find them and delete them if/when I hate what I see in the game. I used to sort by cc creator, but that only now makes sense for favorite hair cc creators (I have 3). I don't go more than 3 deep in the folder tree, I think. I do make sure that any scripts are never more than one deep from the main Mods folder. I have never had problems with things not showing up in the game.
However, if you merge files you know you are keeping as I do, I have noted that if you merge already merged files sometimes they don't seem to show up. Also, note that there are 3 creators that I really *must have* in my game, so only those 3 creators have their own main files. Which I keep updated easily. As for game mods, they also have a specific section to keep everything ordered also easily kept updated because of the order. Lastly, I find using a number in front of the file name helps keep sections of things sorted. For example, I prefer Genetics, Hair, Makeup and Accessories above all the room files but under the game mod files. As seen in the below screenshot for ya.
My last tip is if you use a method like mine, you can keep a subfolder in each section you download new things to frequently. Put only the NEW files in there and when you are sure they are ok or that you want to keep it, only then move it to the main section. For example, my section is "casual dresses". I have a "new" subfolder in that section where only new casual dress files are downloaded to. When I am sure I want to keep those downloads, they get moved to the "casual dresses" section. Though I rarely do this anymore lol. But if you are keeping things ordered by date you downloaded, this would work for you.
I have been starting anew every year, so my 2019 files are still on my external drive in case I deleted something I actually wanted. A backup exists for what I used the most last year kinda thing.
Not having read all this until after, I keep a copy of mods on another drive, and in that drive I sort by folder: clothing, cosmetics, furnishings, main, traits, jobs, hair, etc.
Then, I focused on making sure that the main (like mc command center and similar game modifiers), traits, and careers all worked before saving a "basemod" folder with a copy of all those. If I lose my game, I can just restart and drop those in and be reasonably sure they will work.
Then I focused on doing an additional version that adds the sims mods - hair, cosmetics, clothing/ Once O know those work together with my basemods, I created a base+toon folder.
The third level is the manage the furnishings - building, furniture, etc.
However, when I play the game, in the end my mods folder holds all the mods at once. I figured it would be a mess trying to 'see' down levels.
I came to this forum because i had the same problem, I don't know how deep is *too* deep. Anyway here's how my mods folder looks: I don't use any CC, only mods for gameplay. Never mind, I couldn't figure out how to attach an image here. Basically, I just put it one sub folder deep.
I don't have pictures to share, but I place each mod I have into it's own folder, (just one level deep). I do have a few cc items for my Ancestral game save, so I have broken those items into different categories: Décor; 18th Century Women's Cloths; 18th Century Men's Clothes; Hair; Hats; Harvestables and whatever other cc I have. I keep the script files just free in the Mods folder. Then, if I have to pull the Mods folder, I just drag it out of my game folder, update and then put things on hold until I can discover if the Patch was a Mod-buster, or not. Mostly, I've found that it's the gameplay mods (of which I'm fond of) that get nerfed, as some call it. I only discovered today that a Patch was dropped. Oi. Just began my rotation play, too. When testing each mod, I will place the script file back into that designated folder, until I place it back in the game to truly test it. Well, I'm off to Discord to see what's broken. Ta.
Comments
I like to build stuff
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
I use a similar system, but I don't have a huge mods folder, it's under a gigabyte. One thing I do is merge my CC, it cuts down on loading screen time.
On EA forum Stories and Legacies board and on QueenOfMyshuno.tumblr.com
This is for CC, clothes, hair etc., not game mods.
http://sims4studio.com/thread/402/merge-packages-using-sims-studio
You need to set up the resource.cfg folder to read farther than one or two levels down. Back up your original folder (copy it to another spot on your computer or to an external drive like a flash drive), then open the file in a text editor (like Notepad) and enter this string (you can simply copy/paste):
Make sure you save it as a .cfg file not a .txt file. You might not need that many layers but it'll be useful for the future if you want to get really detailed with your sorting or if you use a lot of CC. If you make a mistake, go to the copy of the file you backed up and try it again.
I don't use CC (other than some mods that produce their own CC, such as insect spawners so I can catch them in places other than Granite Falls) so I basically have them sorted by creator. MCCC and related mods (which we can't discuss here) get their own folder (I back up my mc_settings file when I make changes to the settings in game so it's easy to restore them for updates). UI Cheats also gets its own folder. If I use a lot of mods from a particular developer (coolspear1, littlemssam, etc.) those all go into a separate folder; one-off mods (developers where I use only a few) go loose in the folder.
I'm waiting to get involved with CC until I know the game is done and no more updates will be forthcoming, just to be on the safe side -- also hope to get a computer that can handle that much content.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
Then I have a folder for CAS CC and onde for Build mode CC.
CAS CC folder is divided into Clothing, Eyebrows, Eyes, Hair, Lashes/Glasses, Makeup, and Skin.
Clothing is divided into Accesories, Bottoms, Tops, Full Body, Shoes.
Hair is divided into Men and Women.
Makeup is divided into Cheeks, Eyes, and Lips.
And in Mods folder I also have my mods. They're there in their own folders, plus one folder for Other mods, that are just tiny little ones.
My Families Via PlumTree App
I use different categories depending on what the mods do, I have for example a mod folder called "no-mods" which are mods that disables things in the game, for example "no autonomous take water from sink". I also keep notes about which mods that can cause issues if they are not updated, for example ui cheats extension which can mess up your ui.
Kid CC Dec
Kid CC Jan
Adult CC Dec
Adult CC Jan
Kid Hair and skin details
Adult Hair and skin details
MCCC
Other Mods
Build/buy CC Dec
I separate the CC folders by month as that is easier to find broken cc. My 'other mods' folder only holds mods that fix issues that the devs have not or will never fix.
Yellow for clothing
Orange for objects
Green for hair
Blue for walls & floors (I don’t have many of these)
Grey for gameplay mods
Purple for pose packs
I've merged two discussions into a single one as both shared the same topic.
@QueenofMyshuno, Using Sims 4 Studio you can make a single package file that holds as many other package files as you want. So, for example, if you have 123 individual CC hairs, you could merge them into a single file called Hairs.package and delete the 123 individual package files.
In previous Sims games this made a massive difference in load times for the game if you had a lot of CC. The load-time savings for TS4 is relatively minimal in comparison but it definitely can help, especially if you have a slower computer.
The downside is you can no longer quickly remove a single cc you decide you don't want. You would have to open the merged package file and make the change there. It's not really that complicated, but still a few extra steps and the larger the merged file is the longer it takes to repackage it with files removed.
In TS2 and TS3, I always did the cc merge to help with loading times but haven't bothered in TS4 seeing as the loads are so fast (for me at least) anyway. The extra time spent to do the merging and remanage the merged files when I want to change around some CC seems more bother than it's worth.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
@stilljustme2 Thanks for the info on the resource.cfg folder. That is going to help me SO much!
On EA forum Stories and Legacies board and on QueenOfMyshuno.tumblr.com
createasim : for cas cc
defaultcas : for default skin and eyes
authormods : for mod compilation from the same authors
scriptmods : for script mods
buildbuy : for build buy cc duh
fandmadepacks : for fanmade packs
mccc : mccc exclusive folder
However, if you merge files you know you are keeping as I do, I have noted that if you merge already merged files sometimes they don't seem to show up. Also, note that there are 3 creators that I really *must have* in my game, so only those 3 creators have their own main files. Which I keep updated easily. As for game mods, they also have a specific section to keep everything ordered also easily kept updated because of the order. Lastly, I find using a number in front of the file name helps keep sections of things sorted. For example, I prefer Genetics, Hair, Makeup and Accessories above all the room files but under the game mod files. As seen in the below screenshot for ya.
My last tip is if you use a method like mine, you can keep a subfolder in each section you download new things to frequently. Put only the NEW files in there and when you are sure they are ok or that you want to keep it, only then move it to the main section. For example, my section is "casual dresses". I have a "new" subfolder in that section where only new casual dress files are downloaded to. When I am sure I want to keep those downloads, they get moved to the "casual dresses" section. Though I rarely do this anymore lol. But if you are keeping things ordered by date you downloaded, this would work for you.
I have been starting anew every year, so my 2019 files are still on my external drive in case I deleted something I actually wanted. A backup exists for what I used the most last year kinda thing.
Maybe this will help some of you.
[img]https://imgur.com/pK6eSyp[/img]
here's the link https://imgur.com/pK6eSyp
Then, I focused on making sure that the main (like mc command center and similar game modifiers), traits, and careers all worked before saving a "basemod" folder with a copy of all those. If I lose my game, I can just restart and drop those in and be reasonably sure they will work.
Then I focused on doing an additional version that adds the sims mods - hair, cosmetics, clothing/ Once O know those work together with my basemods, I created a base+toon folder.
The third level is the manage the furnishings - building, furniture, etc.
However, when I play the game, in the end my mods folder holds all the mods at once. I figured it would be a mess trying to 'see' down levels.
I don;t know if this helps.
Anyway here's how my mods folder looks: I don't use any CC, only mods for gameplay.
Never mind, I couldn't figure out how to attach an image here. Basically, I just put it one sub folder deep.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/