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

[hidden-kitten.livejournal.com]

I don't know, never having gotten the DC. Let me peek...

...I would say DC pretty much covers it (except there's too much in there for me)!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I always grab the DC, then edit to suit my needs. There's too much in there for me, too. For starters, I don't want the hack to completely eliminate Humble from the game and the traditional marriage hack makes me gag, so they must go.

Are there any non-MATY hacks that are essential fixes? I've come across some that claim to be, but I figure it'd have been included in Pescado's arsenal if it was need to avoid game breakage.

[hidden-kitten.livejournal.com]

I got a few from Theo, but the only ones of his that I would say are essential would be caged pet fixes, no autonomous teleprompter play (irritates me to no end), ghost hack, pet pregnancy fix.

I'm also 99% sure that if I were to play my game with only the hacks I'm saying are essential, I would probably wish I had ALL my hacks :D

Oh, and I see you're asking about simblender. I have simblender and teleporter shrub on EVERY LOT (along with ACR, but that's nonessential for me) and there are no issues. I've never used full-blown InSim.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Not a fan of the teleprompter burping? :P Now why would you ever find THAT annoying?

I'm thinking I'll put a lot of them back, too, but I'm going to try this simplifying kick and see how it goes. I'm sure I'd have stopped playing the game ages ago if hacks didn't exist at all.

I've been using InSIM and the Sim Blender in my game, but that's probably overkill. If I can get by with just the Sim Blender, I'm going to stick with that, I think.

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, teleporter shrub/cat! Abosolutely essential for me.

And the seasons changing vase from Paladin's Place.

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

I've never used the Season's changing vase. Can it alter the weather, too?

[meetme2theriver.livejournal.com]

Yep, it allows you to make rain, hail and snow, or "stop weather"/make it sunny if it's raining/hailing/snowing.

[simgarooop.livejournal.com]

I'd also take the zombie apocalypse out. It is included with the DC and I've just realized I had it installed! (Was checking if I remembered to take out the traditional marriage hack). Good thing I went with vampires as supernatural creatures instead of zombies this time!

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I take that one out, too. I'm a little unsure of the creature fixes in general, because I think it messes with vampire autonomy. Maybe I'll check into it again to be sure.

Vampire, huh? I'm interested in seeing what you're planning with them. ^_^