What is the differences between all mods (core, non-core, anything else...) I'm just a bit dumb about mods... lol

Core Mods change the game core itself, while Non core mods parse information over via XML. Some find XML limiting and there are some things that if parsed over XML would crash the game. With the descriptors, I think that the XML mods though they sound safer are just as risky as non core mods, but Core mods change or write to one aspect of the game and will crash each other if more than one is used.

For Example, I am currently using "The Book Of Talents" and enjoy it greatly. I know that its a book that effects skills so I must not download anymore book objects that do that because they would crash each other and the game.

THe other Controlling mods dont play well with each other either, so if you choose to use one only use one and if you have a question you might ask the mod creator. Though some will not answer you because they think its obvious.

Well... let's see if I can give you a good answer here.

Core mods are generally large mods that do a lot of things, sort of a general "overhaul" of the game, changing a lot of the way the game is coded to fit what the modder thinks is the way it should be. The most popular is Awesomemod, but there's also ones like Extended Game Core (EGC). Core mods have to be updated a lot, and you can (usually) only have one. There are some exceptions but if you see something that says "This is a core mod," then unless it says specifically that you can use it with another specific core mod, consider it the only core mod you can have.

Non-core mods are, well... everything else.

There's script mods, which are kind of like addon mods. They can encompass many things, from "hacked objects" - that is, objects with additional functions added to them that you normally don't get in game to the Pose Player to things like Twallan's Master Controller which is more of a cheat type "suite" of functions. Usually you can have as many script mods as you like as they don't tend to conflict with anything else.

XML tuning mods (sometimes just called xml mods or tuning mods) are modifications of specific in-game resources which are used to lightly tweak certain settings in the game. Usually these do things like increase the number of vegetables you can get in a harvest, speed up the time it takes to do certain actions, make certain items buyable that weren't before, etc... They are rarely "big" changes. You can have many XML tuning mods, but you cannot have two that override the same resource, so it's important that the creator list what resource they've changed so when you download, you know you haven't gotten two that are for the same XML file.

And then there's things like camera mods that can be done either as an .ini (wrong way now that we know a better way) or a .package file containing that .ini (right way) that overrides the in-game camera settings for better camera control.

There's also UI mods that may change the User Interface - usually in Create a Sim. This is usually stuff that increases the number of skintones you can see in CAS.

And texture overrides like skintone replacements and my "tiny texture replacers" that do things that are mod-like (removing or changing certain effects or textures from the game) but do so via the use of invisible or different textures.

Almost all mods can have conflicts in some way (even if it's just between two mods affecting the same texture/file/resource in-game) and almost all mods can become outdated as new patches are released and the game code is updated. So it's a very good idea to read very carefully about the mods you're getting so you know what type they are, what they might conflict with, and how to use them. And then keep your mods separate from all your other content (I have a Hacks and Mods subfolder) so that when there is a new patch/expansion/both, you can easily remove them if needed.

Kestie - The Book of Talent is a script mod and thus shouldn't conflict with anything else, including other book-type mods (the shape of the object is pretty irrelevant) or skill-changing type mods like Twallan's Master Controller.

Ummm... Thanks!

(I'm feeling so dumb... ^_^)

Well, is there anything you're still confused about or was unclear? This stuff is rather complicated and confusing even sometimes to folks who are quite familiar with it all.

That's how they work, but not necessarily what they do. There are some things that only core mods can do, but a lot of things are possible with script mods as well. It's usually just more difficult to do stuff non-core, but that's nothing players need to care about.