I'm a genuinely curious person and I'm always interested to see how fellow simmers play their game. With the "revival" of TS2 thanks to The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection, I was wondering-

What mods do you *absolutely, positiively have to have* in your own games that you can't live with out?

Mine are as follows:

No More Newspaper mod by smithycpl (http://modthesims.info/d/254022)
* Was tired of having to recycle the newspaper every day
Insimenator (no longer supported)
* This enables me to add Want Locks with ease so it plays more like Promising Wishes in TS3
No intro / No Maxis intro by ellacharmed (http://modthesims.info/d/497903)
* Hop right into the game baby!
No censor by quaxi (http://simpeforum.ambertation.de/si...ur-from-my-sims)
* Remove those pesky mosaic blurs!
Brighter Bodyshop Lighting by WesHowe (http://modthesims.info/d/220884)
* Not much explanation needed, makes creating sims in Bodyshop so much nicer
Pregnancy for all genders by twojeffs (http://www.simbology.com/smf/index.php?topic=14.0)
* Shouldn't have to settle for adoption in my fictional worlds. Unless I'm going for ultra realism. Takes genetics into account as well.

What are your "must haves" when it comes to playing The Sims 2 for you? I'd love to know, maybe I'll find new mods I just can't live without.

Gunmod's Radiance Light System (http://modthesims.info/d/290746)
* Huge improvement over the original lighting and makes everything 10 times more beautiful!
Realistic Live Camera with Ego Perspective (http://modthesims.info/d/504385)
* Perfect for widescreen monitors so you can get a wider, more realistic view of everything.
Widescreen CAS Camera fix (http://modthesims.info/d/292745)
* The UI would always get in the way of my Sim's face before!

Also, isn't that "No Intro" mod you posted for The Sims 3?

Oh my God, my inner child almost cried with joy. I had no idea there was a CAS UI mod for widescreens! Yes! Where has this been all my life?!

Also, does the Radiance mod work well when the game originally has trouble with your graphics card? I'm wary of trying the mod in case it actually doesn't do anything for my game, as I had to edit TS2 files for it to play nice with my newer graphics card.

The lighting mod does require you to set your Lighting option to high, but it is a seriously wonderful, amazing, beautiful, eye-catching mod. It probably won't slow down your game anymore than the original lighting would on high.

Everything is set to High except Sim Shadows since that just created a black box under their feet when they were indoors. I'll give it a try and see if it makes a difference in my game. :D

Came back with awesome news. ; v ; The difference is noticeable even if it's not overly dramatic. It does in fact work.


Apologize for the awful screenshots.

Every thing in this thread: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=527523

Just wait until 6pm and 6am comes around. Then you'll like it even more.

Thanks for this! I'm mostly curious about fun mods or things, too.

@thesammy58: I'm sure it's going to look lovely, looking at some of the Radiance screenshots at sunset looks amaaaaazing.

Checking 'Hacks and Hacked Objects' folder, sub-folder: 'Must-Have Hacks'
processing...

Must-Have Hacks:
ACR v.2.0
InSimenator
Inteenimator + Fashion and Flavor Paks
MATY Director's Cut
See Them 2
Sim Blender
Simply Leftovers

At one point, I had more, but had to cut down on some. These are my absolute essentials that go in my folder for every game session / neighborhood.

I'd love to know what some of these do! For example, ACR, See Them 2, MATY Director's cut. Embarrassed to say that I have heard of these but I have no idea what they do.

Ones I need for general gameplay:
-Chris Hatch's Plan Baby Outfit Mod (BAS)
-School Summer and Spring Vacation (MTS)
-Toddlers/Puppies/Kittens Use Stairs (MTS)
-Community Lot Skilling (forget where I got it- simbology?)
-Allow Toddlers/Puppies/Kittens to Community Lots (MTS)
-Larger Households (MTS)
-Select Your Cemetery (MTS)
-Triplets and Quads (simbology)

Some of these sound awesome! Does the larger household mod have any dangers of game corruption? I'd imagine EA set the 8 person limit for a reason.

I had no idea there was a mod to let toddlers / puppies / kittens up and down stairs. I think I'll have to grab this!

ACR: Autonomous Casual Romance
You can use this mod to have your Sims be romantic autonomously. This includes woohoo. However, the mod gives a lot of options. If you are a player that likes to have control over who your sims interact with romantically, you can turn that feature off (which is what I do, as woohoo-ing autonomously can have a chance for pregnancy). The use of this mod for me is to give Sims the option to interact romantically at lower levels, not requiring crush or love for high-level romantic interaction (Two Sims can woohoo if they are compatible, even when not in friend-status, and Woohoo may not cause love). It's customizable. And it can be fun just giving them free reign every once in a while.

InSimenator:
I use the OBJ edition, which gives a bunch of objects in the catalog that lets you edit different things about your Sim. Add/subtract money, make pregnant, change interests, Maximize mood, lower mood, buy clothes/electronics from home, plus a lot more. There are other editions, like ones where the options appear when you click on the sim (and one other one, I can't remember). For the OBJ edition, I use the Budget Adjustor to automatically pay bills, and the Career Adjustor to sometimes give my Sim a job. The others are used mainly when storytelling for me. A lot of it's abilities can be found in updated mods (like Sim Blender) and I don't think the mod is supported anymore. I use it out of habit mainly

InTeenimator:
Allows your teens to become pregnant. While most of my teens do not become pregnant, I like having the option. With this, teens can get pregnant, get engaged and married, and be independent (live on their own). Also allows romantic interaction between teen/adult.

MATY Director's Cut:
This one's a big one. Basically, a bunch of little mods that fix small things, plus change things within the game. I could not possibly name them all. Within the Director's Cut, there are a multitude of minor fixes, major fixes (ex. No townie regeneration), minor changes (I like the mods that allows skilling on community lots, no 20K handouts upon moving out of the house, yellow pee instead of blue). Honestly, I don't know what they all do, but the changes I do notice, I like.

See Them 2:
Censor blur remover. This is the one I use, but there are others out there.

Sim Blender:
An updated version of the InSimenator. It has one option I couldn't find with the InSimenator (allows changing of any Sims name), mainly justifying it in my downloads folder. But I primarily use the InSimenator (I just know where everything is with the inSimenator). I think most people would say the SimBlender is a better choice, since it's supported (or, it was the last time I checked), but they can both be in your game, so I have them both.

Simply Leftovers:
Allows meals to be put away individually or as a group meal. I always fix group meals, but my single Sim doesn't want to constantly get a group meal out of the fridge, just to get one plate. This amazing mod fixes that problem.

I'm going to take a look at this mod ASAP and see if it's something i want in my game. I like the idea of community skill building and yellow pee, haha. Realism!

As to fun mod's I use
The Simlogical School system so some of my kids go to prep school that I can actually go and play if I want, homeschooled or no school.

I use community lot time along with skill on community lots and sleep on community lots. This means my sims do not get the time at the community lot and the same time at home. If they stayed at a community lot for 3 days they will skip 3 days on their home lot. Eg they left Monday morning and don't get back until Thursday morning. I use this for realism but also it makes a good fake holiday(vacation if you are American) I also use toddlers go to community lots as I don't see why they should be left home, this way they can go on holidays with their parents.

Be careful with See Them as that gives a token. I use Cramboys censor remover as it's just a file in the download folder that can be pulled easily. Or you can set it in simpe.

The shop at home coat rack so you can just get clothes for free or there is a special computer, whose creators name escapes me, but you can shop online, bank and even learn skills like an online course.

Instead of insementor you would do better with the Sim manipulator which is still supported.

A lot of people love ACR, but it certainly is not a must have. I have no interest in it. if you want sims to decide their own partners and sleep around go for it.

I don't think there are any dangers of game corruption with this mod, I've had it for almost two years and haven't noticed any issues with it, I know many other people use it as well and I haven't heard anything bad about it. Also the Hoodchecker I have by Mootilda has never flagged any issues that could be related to this. I think it's a matter of your computer's system and whether your machine can handle more than 8 Sims living on a lot at once.

Mods that you need to be careful with are adding tokens and making new NPC's. Any moving mod is likely to have an NPC making it move around apart from proper road vehicles.

I would not grab a whole lot of mods at once though, I would suggest you play awhile and see what you would like to do, what annoys you or what you simply want changed, ask and we can point you to a mod if it exists. There are hundreds of mods and what I find essential you may not.

With all the mods I was wondering if anyone had found another utility like that of simwardrobe that checked to see if mods conflicted? His utility no longer works with the sims2 UC.

is just a blur remover and some people have trouble with it. You're better using the one you mentioned from the SimPE site.

Edit - I like a lot of the mods already mentioned. I also like the hospital mod, Inge prison mod (a bit like the school one) - these add considerable gameplay. But I also like littler mods that add nice detail - things like the postal system (I would say that I guess, I've made quite a few recolours for that) and the car parking slots and traffic hydrant.

These I have posted in another thread mentioned above but I'll post them all here again anyway ^o^

Mootilda
Sims2Pack Clean Installer
Hoodchecker (Checks your neighbourhoods and can remove corruption)

Pescado
No Unlink On Delete
The Batbox (I don't use this myself)
Creature Fixes (Mrs Crumplebottom is NOT healthy for your game, your sims or for her own self to become a vampire)
No Corrupt Death Memory

By other creators - Optional for your own use, but I recommend them
SuperDuperHug hider (Only the LBFRemovesocial file - stamps down the silly SuperDuperHug pie menu thingy)
Watch TV from all chairs (MogHughson - more Mog mods below)
Park inside the carpark! (Requires Nightlife - self explanatory)
Sit down with your drink (Self-explanatory)
Decorative parking spaces (Goes well with the park inside the carpark mod, generates random unusable cars)
Never lose homework again (Self-explanatory)
Phaenoh's Phone Book (The Yellow Pages of the Sims, basically. Locate any random person in the hood, including townies)
treeag's Book of Talent (For the lazy who cannot be bothered to go on vacation to learn a dance and then go back home again)
Smonaff's Ghost Hack (Alive sims become deadlooking - I used to use this)
Change clothes in the pie menu (Smonaff again - this is really time-cutting by SIM HOURS and I seriously recommend this)
GunMod's camera mod Zoom in closer and see to the corners of your neighbourhood!
Inge Jones' teleporters Bring stubborn townies to your lot! (I prefer the bush but others the cat, ah well, each to their own)

Simlogical and Simbology are both good sites for mods/hacks by Inge Jones, TwoJeff's and other modders out there

Download the ones that are compatible with your game!!!

Aside from some of the ones already mentioned, which I also won't play without (Which for me includes ACR and Inteen), I gotta have Community Time. Because I can't stand reliving time and the messed-up motives that visiting community lots creates otherwise. The FT version in the first post works fine in my non-UC all-EPs/SPs game, aside from some hiccups where it doesn't work at all, in which case nothing disastrous happens; the game just behaves as if the mod wasn't there and I have to relive time and deal with messed-up motives. But that's pretty rare. If I didn't have this mod, I wouldn't go to community lots often, and I certainly wouldn't have Sims own community-lot businesses, which means I wouldn't play BACCs.

So what is wrong with using Seethem 2 I have used it for years?

The Gunmod radiance lighting is a new discovery for me but one of my must-have mods now.

Yes, some people have no problems with it but see Jo's answer. It was always a dodgy mod for some right from the start.

This is just for TS3. Does anyone know of one for TS2?

Just keep the population control under control. I got rid of Inteen and now have ACR - and am forever putting Sims on birth control Most essential mod imo is Boiling Oil's No Sim Loaded (the version which supresses the Super Duper Hug Bug). I can, however, report with delight that I am bothered by that thing no more, since changing to the UC got rid of that thing. So while I can't seem to get the stairs and the two default templates I use into the game, I'd rather be without them than with the Super Duper Hug bug