I’m new with the whole “Custom Content” thing. But I’m confused on how to download it. Can anyone help?
Custom Content or CC for short can be pretty tricky with TS3. Same for mods. As far as I know there are Sims 3 Package Files and extracting zipped folders, though I’m clueless about the latter… So I’ll explain the former:
Sims 3 Package Files are what you would get with Sims 3 store content when you download them into your game. Depending on what you got you can get anywhere from a single item (a dress for example) or an entire set (like a bedroom set or compilation/collection for example).
A single item (the dress let’s say) is a single item and should download easily into your game via the launcher. A more complex item like a bedroom set or a compilation will take a little longer to download because they have multiple pieces to them.
Official content aside, you can also download stuff from the Sims 3 exchange (on the Sims 3 website) in the form of these Sims 3 package files. Since the exchange can’t determine CC Custom Content from a third party site (such as Mod the Sims or Sims Resource) and Official Store Content CC (what’s for purchase/on sale on thesims3.com), a lot of custom content on the exchange is completely unregulated and you really have to depend on the creator to tell you whether or not there’s custom content in their creation.
Because of this unregulated CC that gets past the Exchange you can encounter a world of wonder and a world of problems. If you’re a totally new player downloading whatever you find pretty off of the exchange you might find a lot of unwanted content in your game such as unwanted custom skin tones, modded or bugged clothes to make sims look completely nude, clothing that doesn’t mesh correctly and clips with your sims or objects in game, etc. A number of problems can happen if you’re not careful and if you’re entirely new to the exchange.
Not all CC is bad though. The Sims has an amazing modding community and I’ve never encountered CC that’s broken my game completely to the point of me having to uninstall and reinstall everything. However I have wiped my computer a few times before, but each time was caused by something different, not the CC itself (hopefully). I’ve had more problems with THE SITES THAT HAVE THE CUSTOM CONTENT themselves. I can’t use Mod the Sims on my computer because I’ve caught plenty of viruses from that site in the past and so I’m skeptical of the others. However, once again the Sims 3 exchange isn’t well regulated when it comes to custom content so if you wanna get CC from there, you’ll have some fun.
When you download stuff from the Sims 3 exchange it’ll download into your launcher as a Sims 3 package file. Once you download your object or sim of choice into your game, start up the actual game and go into whatever mode you find applicable to the object you have downloaded.
Downloading Sims with heavy amounts of CC can be hard because of the unwanted skin tones, a the multiple hair styles they may come with and the clothing you may or may not want. You should also be wary of clothing patterns that sneak their way into your game as well as stuff that makes your sim look nude. I’ve edited sims like this in the past (all I really wanted was the hairstyles). So i can give you some advice when it comes to editing unwanted CC from these sims, safely getting rid of the stuff you don’t want and keeping the stuff you do.
When it comes to editing the CC out of Sims I’ve done this a handful of times in the past and I’ll soon test it again for the sake of seeing if such a process will work when backing up my DLC and on a USB/Flash drive. Here’s what I’ve done and if you want to see, you can download some of the items from my studio on the exchange.
Step 1: Download the Sims with the CC you want
Step 2: Start the game and go into Create a Sim
Step 3: Find the Sim you downloaded in the ‘pre-made Sim’ tab, it’ll open up a box with all of the pre-made Sims the base game came with as well as any sims you have made and saved in Create a Sim as well as ones you download from the exchange!
Step 4: select the Sims with the CC you want.
Step 5: Take away any unwanted CC from that particular Sim. For instance: if they have a CC skin tone you don’t care for, select a base game skin tone instead; If they have a clothing item you don’t care for, replace it with a base game item; same for the hair, make up and pretty much anything you don’t care for. Same applies to patterns on clothing as well, replace them with a pattern you’ve made yourself or one that came with the base game. Keep whatever CC you like and that isn’t causing any problems and bugs with your game.
Step 6: Once satisfied with the Sim, export it to the launcher by clicking the export button next the portrait of the Sim on the bottom of the screen. This will save the sim you just created in a Sims 3 package file that you can upload to the exchange.
Step 7: Upload the Sim to the exchange
Step 8: Open up the pre-made Sims box again, find the original Sim the CC came from and delete them
You can keep playing but if you want to get any unwanted CC out as fast as possible, I suggest you shut down your game at this point, re-open the launcher, go into the ‘Installed’ tab and proceed with getting rid of any custom content you find there. Most you should differentiate from store content with ease. Anything that looks like it doesn’t belong or anything that doesn’t look like it does on the Sims 3 store page should be deleted and uninstalled. I believe the Sim or Sims you delete from the pre-made Sims box automatically uninstalls upon pressing the delete button in CAS, but if it’s still in the ‘installed’ tab, delete their butt! However, note that uninstalling content doesn’t delete them from your Downloads folder, so if you want to delete them there also, get rid of them!
Step 9: Sign into your Sims 3 account and go into your studio. You should find the sim you just created there, though it may take a few minutes to process. once you find them, download them into your launcher and they should appear. You can download them back into your game and all of the CC you want should be there.
I’m going to test this out properly myself but this hypothesis makes the most sense, even when I backed up store content on a flash drive, uninstalled it and deleted it from the downloads folder and then reinstalled it in my game. So theoretically speaking, the same should work for exchange items with or without CC in them.
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