The Great ReBuild 2010: Paring things down?

[strangetomato]

I'm struggling with this rebuild. At first I was going to package up all the sims that have been born in the those neighborhoods and share them and then do the same for my edited lots, but every time I load the game to do so, I lose steam fast. I've now settled on only packaging up characters and lots that I absolutely can't do without. So that means any story characters that have already been featured (and one that hasn't — Phi's mystery baby), and maybe some lots (the Summerdream place comes to mind), but everything else will be played through and made over again. That'll take some time, but it'll be far less tedious than piecing it together bit by bit.

I think I'm going to start by playing the fresh megahood to give myself a chance to see what I truly miss from my other game. I'm going to keep my cc (though I'm paring that down quite liberally), but I want to try to use the bare minimum of hacks and things like that. That brings me to my question of the day (and it's a classic one):

If you were going to start over with only a handful of hacks, which ones would you consider essential?

Comments

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

As someone who is also trying to keep the amount of hacks at minimum with her new hood, let me suggest you one that is in my opinion essential when playing apartments: No talk through stuffed animals autonomously.

I was pissed when I began to play an apartment at Pleobit Island and my Isaiah Gavigan went to the Monty-Capp apartment, took their daughter's teddy bear and went back outside to play with his wife and later dropped it on the ground. Of course, Buy Mode did not allow me to pick it back up to return it to the Monty apartment and when I tried to ask Isaiah to pick it up, it was not possible because it was an object from outside the apartment. When I loaded the Montys, the bear was in the girl's room so I deleted it, but it showed up when I loaded the Gavigans and, well, I hope I did not screw up the lot. GRRRR!

That and the Uni student's walk fix :)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I'm not really that into apartments these days. They're just so buggy, they drive me crazy.

I'll keep an eye out for that one, though. That's a Simbology hack, right? I'm trying to be very careful of having conflicting hacks this time around, so I'm going to try to keep non-MATY hacks to a bare minimum.

Do you use InSIM these days? I went back to see if there was any newer info on it, and the post was recommending using the Sim Blender instead.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

Goodness, I hope the apartment system is not as buggy as I fear, because I've just finished decorating the first seven apartments of my new hood :P (I am using apartments to promote interaction between my families)

I use the object version of INSIM because for some reason (before I deleted my massive DOwnloads folder), the SIM version was not working anymore. I don't know if it was M&G or a hack what was making it conflict.

I think I will try it out again before I begin playing with Pleobit Island because the select and teleport options were very useful when I had to take pics in Community Lots.

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

I tried to switch to Sim Blender because of that but I must had something that conflicted with it because my game crashed and I had various other little issues. So I went back to Insim because I've never had any issues with it, even though it's unsupported. I did like some of the options better than Insim, though.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, various "don't do that!" hacks from Simbology are very useful. 'Talk through bear' drove me insane long before I had any apartments (and apartments do kind of suck in general, really).

Some of them prevent more than what they advertise, though. No autonmous jump on bed made the 'jump on bed' interaction not work at all, and the one that's supposed to prevent excessive amounts of pet wants killed ALL the pets wants. No one ever wanted a kitten anymore. And that's sad. :(

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I knew about the pet wants hack, but not the jump on bed one. That's good to know.

No pets wants is very sad. :(

[sim-insanity.livejournal.com]

What is this student walk fix and how do I get my grubby little paws on it?

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=13.0

Scroll down to the bottom of the post and you'll find it. No more stick up their butt walking for your Uni Students :P.

[hidden-kitten.livejournal.com]

I would keep any and all essential fixes that should have been included in patches and lot debugger. I can't think of ay actual hacks that I would consider essential.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Other than the ones in Pescado Director's Cut, are there any essential fixes I should know about?

The Lot Debugger is so necessary. I'd never dream of playing without it.

Thank for the input! ^_^

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

*mandatory "almost-everything-by-Pescado-except-the-sexist-women always-take-husband's-last-name-one" comment goes here*

Other than that, a whole lot of assorted fixes by other MATY members, most notably everything by Lord Darcy (which fixes a whole bunch of objects and menu strings, adds slots, etc), Argon's face template fixes... oh, and the random beard/glasses on townies hack, because it's awesome.

ACR2. Not essential, perhaps, but fun. And the sim blender (or insim, if that's your preference) for those annoying little argh-my-character-won't-do-what-I-want moments.

Probably more. I have so many hacks it's barely the same game anymore. Vanilla game would drive me insane. :P

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

That's very similar to what I'm going with right now. Great minds think alike?

Do you know if the Sim Blender generally considered better/safer/more efficient than InSIM these days? A note on the InSIM download page seemed to suggest that.

I had a lot of hacks in previously, and I'm sure I'm going to want some of them back, but I'm feeling very wary of hack conflicts these days, and most creators seem to leave that info out. I'll add the ones I really miss back in, I suppose, but I'm going to try to live with less for now, just to see how it goes.

I'll be using your megahood! I finally get to test it out. ^_^ To ask a newbish question, will I need any cleaned templates to keep the townie count down or does that come with the edited hood? I'm guessing I just need the notownieregen and those sorts of hacks. Would that be correct?

[goldpandaah.livejournal.com]

MATY hacks are a must have for me too. As well as hacks from TwoJeffs.
I recommend also hacks from Marhis and Cyjon. Oh and tunaisafish made also really great hacks/fixes e.g. the "Attraction Traits Fix".
And many more, but I think they're not essential...
Baah, when I'm think about it, I'm a total whore when it comes to hacks/fixes/mods... ^^.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I've never looked at those Cyjon hacks before. Something tells me I'm going to end up with more hacks than I started with! XD *is also a hack fiend*

Thanks for the input and the links, too! ^_^

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Everyone else has already mentioned the ones I would suggest. There are some Pescado ones I *don't* use, like "no baby harassment." My toddlers were being neglected something awful.

I do have InSim, partly because it fills in some holes that the Sim Blender doesn't cover (micro personality adjustments that the Sim Blender won't do, etc.) But mostly, I am a fan of DJS Sims. I have Vampires Sleep Late and one of the no biting hacks, both of which make it possible for me to play vampires at all, the juicer tweaks, and some of the aspiration rewards that can be added, like the Career Flamingo (you can select a career, but you pay a "price"--very nice when playing spares) and the Wolf Watcher.

And I also use the Christianlov clothing rack hack, for quick changes when a Sim ages up (they can buy clothes, change appearance, and still be back at the party. This was really necessary once when I was taking pictures of a wedding and noticed that between the clothing mesh and the skin default, the bride was popping out of her dress. On only one side, too, which made it worse.

[orikes13.livejournal.com]

I tend to think of hacks in four categories: critical fixes, annoyances fixes, feature addition, and utility tools.

Obviously any of the critical fixes are essential. dramafix, nounlinkondelete, romanceurnstonefix, etc. As obstreperous as Pescado can be, it's worth taking note of what he says is a critical fix for a game. He can be an opinionated ass, but he does know what can be a game breaker.

For annoyance fixes, that's up to you and what annoys you. I know I couldn't play without nowhatsthis or the phone hack. Those 4pm calls where a friend says, "you never call me" and then hangs up used to drive me insane. Thing is, those things might not bother you as much as they bother me. I know lots of people despise the YA walk, but it doesn't bother me, so I never bother with that fix.

With feature add-ons, it's a matter of what you want to do to your game. ACR is essential to the way I play my game and I also wouldn't play without Smart Beds or one of the LTW variety hack.

Utility hacks are also dependent on what you want to do with your game. I love the Visitor Controller, but plenty of other people play without it. I've also never been able to decide between InSim or the SimBlender, so I've got both. Not to mention I've got the visual teleporter as well as the teleporter shrub, since they both function in slightly different ways. Probably redundant, but I can never choose between them.

It might be worth it to play a little bit in a completely unmodified game just to remind yourself of the things you'd like to adjust or add. :)

[profbutters.livejournal.com]

Second on the unmodded game. I've been playing a bit on a PC partition to get used to it and I only have essential Pescado fixes in. I can't stand being without the Sim Blender, InSim, or eye defaults. Ew, Maxis brown eyes. I'd forgotten how much I hated that fuzzy gray look.

[inkspottedtea.livejournal.com]

Along the lines of Smart Beds mentioned in this comment, I definitely think "Use Inaccessible Beds" is essential.

[will-o-whisper.livejournal.com]

The only ones I consider absolutely essential are the ones that help keep your game from imploding. I'd want all the game fixes, anti-redundancy hacks, no-respawns, and what-not from Pescado's director's cut. Like everyone else has said. :P While it doesn't keep your game from breaking, I do consider the same-sex marriage hack pretty important; the "joining" thing kinda pisses me off enough to want it fixed.

For non-essential fun stuff: ACR, InSim, lotfullofsims, trips and quads, and that hack that removes the red pause lines. I also really love Twojeff's pregnancy for all genders. And...

I'm not helping. :(

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Speaking of same-sex marriage hack, does anyone know of a hack to make this work for the Celebrations wedding arch as well? :(

[hat_plays_sims (from livejournal.com)]

I'm closing in on four hundred hacks myself, but I'm also one of those icky historical gamers who can't function without InTeen.

So there's no need to mention Pescado, evidently (though I'll tout his clothing tool as superior to every other wardrobe hack I've tried-- it's an object mod so it doesn't conflict with anything), but I've been going to Paladin for hacks and programs since Sims 1. Not only is his site the home of the HCDU, it's the home of such useful hacks as "Get the Closest Plate, Stupid," which not only fixes an annoying pathfinding issue, it has possibly my favorite hack name ever. Paladin and Pescado do fix some of the same things, but while Pescado has No Servo Chores, Paladin has the Servo Chore Controller (under objects/robots) that can be used to customize how much you want to nerf Servo behavior. (Although if anyone ever makes 'Servos never cook,' I'll grab that in a damn hurry.)

I have quite a few things by Squinge, although my favorite is easily the Nurse Babies hack, which just enables the hidden Maxis breastfeeding interaction. Normally you can only see it if you have a parent, a hungry baby, and no way to feed the baby on the lot-- a mini fridge and a barbecue instead of a proper fridge. A vital one is Butler No Cooking, because otherwise a butler turns from a useful servant into an annoying cross between a nanny and a Servo. Squinge also does the most well-known Pregnant Sims Wear Any Outfit hacks.

Inge's mods tend to add features more than fix issues, but I personally love the Annoying Games Suite. Your Sims can only start a game of kicky back if they HAVE a kicky bag in their inventory? BRILLIANCE.

Mog Hughson's goodies are more feature-adding than fixing, too, but the features they add are often so logical that they feel like fixes. Autonomous putting-away of leftovers, pets sharing the foot of the bed with kids, the ability to send greeting cards, writing novels without a computer...

I have a couple of Black Spirit's mods, but the fun one is the Plantsim pollen cloud prank as a way to turn other Sims into Plantsims.

Mike_1102 has a few I use, but the one I heartily recommend is Gardeners Have Gold Gardening Badge (why shouldn't they?) and the one I use but feel conflicted over is Plants Stay After Harvest. I mean, picking ripe strawberries doesn't kill the plant...

I also use Waterproof Servos. Because it's only funny the first time repairing the shower makes them go haywire. And because mine keep rolling wants to take bubble baths.

But... yeah, hacks are a matter of personal taste-- it's about how you like your game to run, after all. But you absolutely need the Hack Conflict Detection Utility-- it won't tell you everything (such as ACR not working properly with age duration mods-- aging off, sure, or Inge's No Aging Patch), and sometimes conflicts are harmless (Atavera's custom instrument hack conflicts with... itself), deliberate (InTeen's flavor packs), or a matter of load order (Pescado's creaturefixes should load after Black Spirit's vampire bite hacks), but it's a great help in preventing tight pants.

[hat_plays_sims (from livejournal.com)]

... And if I'd known LJ doesn't let openID users use HTML properly, I'd've logged into my LJ instead. Dammit.

[jyllandrea.livejournal.com]

I'm sure it goes without saying that I primarily use hacks by Pescado.

Here are some others I use that haven't caused me any conflicts. I think I'm going to get the HCDU just so I have it.

A bunch of Symbology Uni Hacks have recently come to my attention. Saved my sanity and I especially love the fact that I see my Young Adults walking around the hood.

Also Monique's No Spoiled Food is so needed. I don't use the one that is never ending, it just takes the food longer to spoil. It seems that food spoils way too quickly in game. Although now that I have Mog's Autonomous Put Away Leftovers... But then again, if I decide to do a shoot with food ever.

Mog has a great desk location hacked obj and she fixed Ratrace magazine.

Rufio made some nice genealogy fixes which he has on Maty.

Tunaisafish @ Insim (?) made the Attraction Traits Fix. I use the version that makes the custom hair attraction into Aliens. I also use his Less Outdoor Idle animation. The all the time sun saluting thing was just annoying. You can get a version that will totally kill it too. Symbology also has this.

ass-hoods-nag-hack - if you don't want to add a subhood on a hood this will kill that stupid popup. I found this on WCIF at MATY. I have no idea who made it.

Marhis and Inge's Special wedding arch is truly the awesome. You can marry multiple sims with it (polygamy ftw)or marry sims for reason of convenience. It's great for people doing Medieval or Royalty where they want to marry kids and teens to adults. It's just marriage if you don't have teen/adult sex hacks. Oh and it has Marhis' marriage name chooser on it.
She has a fix for the bamboo floor that is a must have if you use that flooring at all. Maxis gave it a minus environment score. Both on MATY. The latter might be at MTS too.

Dumbfools Vehicles Use Garage Doors. Just what it says. Also on MATY.

There is hack, on MATY, called something like, Fixed Objects For Mantels. Except they didn't use the word mantel. It's just nice to be able to place more of the objects on mantels that should go on mantels.

All of Gwillewyn's paintings for annoying wants. I finally had enough of my stupid fortune sims wanting bowling alleys. If there is something better than this, I would love to know about it. They're on MTS and MATY.

Neder at MTS has NoCASSmiling and NoYACASSmiling hacks.

As for fixes:
fway at MTS has a Base Game Nursery Items take ALL Regular Bedding. Now, I don't use this, but on that same page, there is a fix for the crib mapping. Yes. They screwed it up. No, they never fixed it.
Numenor has a lot of useful fixes/removers I use.
Fanseelamb fixed the club counter's dirty state and HugeLunatic fixed the rugs if you place them off grid.

I love it when people fix EA/Maxis screw ups.

I see I have one called IRYSY in my hacks. I have no idea what this does. A google for IRYSY only get's you pics of irises and a bunch of Polish websites. heh

Long post is long (and late to the party, of course), but maybe you'll get some use? Maybe other people will. I know there are some new places for me to check out on other posts. Thanks!

[silentsteel.livejournal.com]

ACR, skin & eye defaults, Insiminator - on hand, not in the game.

Lessee . . the eye fix for aliens, and that's pretty much it. I play a very low-mod class. Hell, this'll be the first time I've downloaded the uni walk fix. O.O

[simlili.livejournal.com]

Delurking to say that I've only recently discovered Cyjon's work, and although I was a bit reluctant, I couldn't do without some of his hacks anymore, and I haven't experienced any problem with them.

I physically couldn't stand anymore my sims having orgasms over a stupid omelette being in the room, so No Smells Yummy is like seated to the right hand of the batbox. I mean stop it, or you and those spaghetti get a room already.
Still non essential but preventing me from throwing objects at the wall is No Chair Shooing, you know when your starving sim drops the plate because Goopy decided to join for lunch and he doesn't want your sim anywhere near the table.
I tried Just Leave Already, which is great but resets everything like when you add a new Ep (all sims out of bed, with full bars), so I took it out for now.

And I thought my new favourite was by him but it appears it's Squinge's No Cuddling Under Sheets, because I hated it that sims had to get up at 4AM to be able to shower and leave for work at 9. And also, I think, if you love hubby you won't ruin his night because you go to work earlier than he does. Now, I can see why you storytellers wouldn't want this one (wink wink at S,HWC) but it's a must have to me.

Good luck with your hood! Thanks to the very useful tips I'm gonna steal from previous comments.