What do you download the most? What custom content do you download the most? Lots? Clothing? Something I didn't list? Post away!
Mods! More than anything else I would have to say that finding good game mods like the InSimenator and Inteenimator made the Sims 2 three times as enjoyable as prior to having them! I can't imagine the game without them anymore. Epically the InTeenimator! It's like crack, because when a new expansion comes out and I can't use InTeen with the new expansion (until they update it that is), I start to suffer from withdraw. All those teen Sim girls :yummy: that I could once have all of these wonderful interactions with is no longer available. I don't want to think about it... Yeah, Mods are what keep the game from getting lame by far! Fred
Fred, I appreciate your feedback and contribution to this discussion, but please try to keep it family oriented. Thanks
Most of my downsloads, by far, are walls, floors and groundcovers. Several sites have absolutely beautiful walls, including murals. I'm always on the lookout for oldfashioned clothes that are well made. I take lots of close-up pictures and become very unhappy if I find that my sim's head looks detached from the body, or other obvious creator mistakes like that. So I don't have many clothing downloads, because they (old-fashioned) are actually hard to find. And I have no patience to create my own, beyond converting a few to different uses so that a sim could swim in his clothes or wear a jacket in cold weather. I've downloaded some lots created by Mirelly because I trust Mirelly to do it right, and hers are very nice. I worry about other creators. Had a problem with one lot, for instance, that flooded the land and street all around it. Strange. I couldn't fix the road or land and had to delete the nieghborhood. Fortunately, it was for testing things anyway. No loss. Just remembered, I downloaded two by KatAnubis, too. They came with all sorts of recolors of furniture and walls. Very pretty. And p.s., Josh, is Sylla still creating? I downloaded some eye recolors that she uploaded to the Worldsims downloads page. Will she do more stuff?
i don't download much things but i like to download clothes, dresses for elves and i've downloaded some lots too, but some of them didn't work well in my game lol... i'm trying to make my own walls and floors
*blushes* For some reason I can never get enough different hair styles. I like my sims to change their hair styles from time to time and I prefer to see different styles when sims gather together. Some of the Maxis ones are too horrid for use (except on townies) and too many custom ones are too way out (too freaky ) I also downloads tons of furniture because I can't stand seeing sims houses all looking the same inside. Good clothing recolors are important as well as new clothing meshes that add a substantially different look ... not enough decent meshes around, sadly.
Hair! Gosh, yes. I don't have many hair downloads but I'm always, always looking for them, browsing sites, hoping against hope. I don't want pink and purple. I don't want rock band spikes. I don't want hair that hangs all over their eyes so that I can't see the eyes without looking at the sim sideways. I don't want hair that grows right through the cheekbones or their shoulders, or that leaves a gap at the neck that I can see the sun shine through (I know sims are hollow, but sheesh! I don't want to be reminded of it every time I look at them.) I like the natural-looking shiny hair that some creators manage to do. I like, but certainly don't insist on, some animation to the hair. Hair that comes with the game looks like it's carved out of clay. Dull and dorky. Some styles I use because there's nothing else available. Maybe I should just do a futuristic neighborhood of bald sims.
Hair and clothing. I get easily bored with both and need some variety, but I'm with Lynet. Most of my sims aren't punk or wacky. I like realistic, nice hairstyles. I do like the new women's hairstyles that came with Seasons. And the one for men. I think they're realistic and look nice on many of my sims. Nwad Fey, for example, looks adorable with a pixie cut. I also download recolors of Maxis meshes. I try to keep new meshes to a minimum but every once in a while I find one I have to have. For example, MTS2 has a chair mesh to match the fanciest sofa, something Maxis neglected to do. Hey Maxis, you listening? I might actually buy a "stuff pack" with matching meshes for the existing furniture. I like eclectic, but sometimes matching is nice too ... and I hate that that's not an option.
Actually meshes are quite small files. My table mesh is under 30 KB Its the texture map (the color/recolors that barf the downloads folder. The base texture is an 89 KB image and that has to be resized half a dozen times so the game can render the objecta at varying degrees of zoom. The final package with mesh included is 130 odd KB. When I get around to maing the recolor available they will not need the mesh adding in the packages and will therefore be a few KB lighter .... This goes for Maxis recolors as well. Basically you're downloading a hi-res image the game can drape over a mesh. A great many meshers aim to keep the mesh complexity down to help players with average and less quality PCs ... they are also easier to make and done with an artistic eye, they look better than many of Maxis' clumsy designs.
Good to know. I've just seen some that seemed really big, but maybe that's because they included a few recolors. I also just don't like a cluttery catalog. I weed often and just keep the stuff I really like, for example Stinky & Flem have this great modern counter-like table that's so pretty, with backless chairs. I have it in four colors and use it a lot. And I love this one sofa I have, I think by Yggdrasil. But now I'll be less concerned if I want more. So, thanks ... I think.
My 10,000 + downloads consist of: (in no particular order) * Hair - everything that Lynet said * Clothing - new meshes and recolours, for sims of all ages (except elder as I never play elders in my game) * Makeup - mainly lipstick, then eyeliner, then eyeshadow, then blush * Skin tones * Accessories - glasses, necklaces, earrings etc * Walls and floors * Objects - rugs, themed sets such as nursery sets, new meshes for objects and recolours, lots of artwork, garden items.... * Lots - rarely downloaded, usually prefer to make my own for functionality I do not use hacks or modifications in my game, no desire to.
Just to double clarify. When you download a mesh (with the exception of a very few, eg some free clothes meshes from Simchic come with a pure uncolored white skin) it will seem to a big file but only becuase 90% of the content of the package is the colorization (texture file and associated gumph); pure recolor packages are slightly smaller, but not much because the reference to the mesh in the core package takes up plenty of room too. I would guess that maybe hugely complex meshes might be larger files but even then they wouldn't be significant. My middle of the road processor chews thru approx 30-40 files a second during game start up (where the game checks each download to see what it is). So 1,000 files will take around 30 seconds to scan. Hugz, your game should start after about 5 or 6 minutes????? The number of downloads doesn't affect game live-mode performance. They do affect, build, buy, CAS, and Body Shop because the game has more stuff to access. The whole lot is NEVER loaded into memory at once. The same is true for live-mode. When loading up a lot, the game loads each item that is in the house (or on a sim's back). Keep your simss environments lean and mean and minimalist for an optimal playing experience. I have never downloaded houses except as "eye-candy", after NL gave us view of the neighbours. I love plopping down large extravagant mansions, like Kat's recent house brag thread entries ... I wouldn't want to play them, even though they look quite playable ... too darn big for my poor wickle graphics card. I got a nice 8 bedroom dorm on a two by two, with two lovin' rooms for romance sims, an indoor pool, computer/study hall, dining room, TV lounge. I'll be clearing it of custom content tomorrow and uploading it somewhere. Not the exchange ... too much hassle removing my hacks. Easier to package in game and then repack without hack using Sims 2 Clean Installer.
I would have to say that more than anything I download female hairstyles. They make the game so much more real. After that I download female clothes.
Yep, I have downloaded a TON of hairstyles, but many don't look good in the game due to the gap around the hairline by the neck area, or there is 'stray' hair on the cheekbones that shouldn't be there. There are a few artists that I prefer to download from as I can trust their quality, however, I do appreciate the fact that making hair is not a 5 minute job and it takes a lot of patience and time, and skill, which I myself do not possess, lol.
Mine would definately be hairstyles and furnitures. Hairstyles would mainly be for female sims, all my male sims uses maxis hairstyles Furnitures would be preety much everything, I love to decorate my sim homes, I redecorate them almost everytime I downloaded new furnitures
Me? I download objects and houses mainly. I just find that I can't make what I want with the limited things Maxis allows us in the base game.
*Takes a look in my Downloads file* Yeah, it looks like I like to download hair and clothes a lot. :biggrins:
I like wallpaper and floors.... tho I know I have alot that simply don't show up in the game and I don't know why. I like hairstyles and clothes and bedcoverings, very few houses. some furniture. and everytime I swear off downloading someone points out another site with something cool.
I have so many wallpapers and floors that I often need to weed some out. And then Witch Baby gets mad at me because her home decor changes. I'm with you, Michelle. I keep meaning to not download furniture and then I find something that's just too cool not to ... I got rid of a lot of my downloads after I got Seasons, though. I had a lot of stuff for the kitchen that duplicated the new, cute, in game stuff.
