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Lab Assistant
Original Poster
#1 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 8:15 AM
The urge to play without CC (a bit of a rant, join in if you like!)
Once upon a time, I'd spend hours and hours on the weekends finding and downloading custom content. I'd never really play the game and just imagine what I could with all the CC I had and how rich my legacies would look with all those fancy nooks and crannies. No, the story doesn't stop there. I still do this and it is literally tiring. I honestly would get so excited downloading stuff for my game, but then I realised that I'm not actually playing the game at all. I was missing the whole point.

Imagine buying tones of clothes, just to leave in your closet and buy MORE clothes. That would a) make you a shopaholic/hoarder, b) cost you a lot of money and c) be utterly depressing and boring. This is exactly what I was doing, and it was taking it's toll on me. I was starting to get things I didn't need; things that weren't even for or compatible with my game. I'd spend hours on end downloading stuff and I wouldn't even realise the risk I took of my game taking forever to load. I've finally had enough.

Honestly, some days I want to take out ALL of my downloads and play vanilla. It just looks cleaner, more organised and runs much faster. The only things I'd leave are Story Progression, Woohooer and other mods by Twallan because they make the world go round. I'd also leave my default skin and eyes, because I just have to have them. *whispers* And maybe my teen/male pregnancy outfits... But anyway!

Vanilla games can look just as pretty as CC-heavy games. Good graphics cards really make a difference. Having better graphics makes your game clearer and brighter, which is quite appealing if you ask me. Sims can also look better by making them either beautifully unique or flawlessly simple. Sims jam-packed with custom content have the advantage of sliders, but vanilla-game sims can look just as pretty if you stay open-minded. Finally, if you're really having withdrawals from CC, make it look like you still have it in your game. When I go on this CC purge, I'm going to make my game colourful and bright (inspired by some simmers out there who, while they still use custom content, keep their game effortlessly simple and bright), create unique sims and try to live as creatively as I can!

Honestly, this could be a great thing. No, an amazing thing. Beautiful, fast games that simmers enjoy playing. Imaging not worrying about crashing mid-game. That would be nice. I'm not challenging you to try this, but just think. It could be awesome. I can't wait to play my vanilla game.

I want to hear from you guys. What do you think, could this be a good idea? Are there any other ways we could make our games more enjoyable without CC? How do you feel about this? And for those simmers with vanilla games, how have you felt playing vanilla? Is it better than games packed with CC? Would any of you want to do this?

Thanks for listening!
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Instructor
#2 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 8:49 AM
While ago started a game where I didn't use any cc on the sims or they house ( still kept all the cc installed, but didn't use them) I don't know if they count as cc, but I went and found EP,SP and Store content that had been converted into base game compatible and just used them, plus the ones I already had. Since uninstalling Pets I lost all the clothes from that so I just had to gt back some of the shirts back. I absolutely love the hairs from Roaring Heights.

Honestly I like EA clothes more than some of the cc clothes. I find them "softer". I don't like how some make the jeans e.g , so realistic. Right now I have very little cc and most of them are make-up or furnitures. You can make even the base game clothes look pretty if you just use your imagination. Use the color chart, that's why it's there.

Anyway, I did notice that the game was running more smoothly just by not using cc in that save, even though they where still installed. One good thing about using EA hair is that you don't have worry about spiky glitch hair or the hair changing when the sims go take a shower. I can't tell you how many times my male sims turned into Fabio everytime they took a shower. Even though the hair was one of my favourite I deleted just becouse of that.
Inventor
#3 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 1:16 PM Last edited by StupidFlanders : 4th Aug 2014 at 2:17 PM.
I can not for the life of me create interesting sims without all my sliders and multipliers, otherwise I would love to join in on this.

edit: With the exception of default replacements, muh sliders and twallans mods I actually could not care less about CC, that was the point of my post.

Quote:
Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.


- poof gone -
Instructor
#4 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 1:19 PM
Quote: Originally posted by miarell
Honestly I like EA clothes more than some of the cc clothes. I find them "softer". I don't like how some make the jeans e.g , so realistic. Right now I have very little cc and most of them are make-up or furnitures. You can make even the base game clothes look pretty if you just use your imagination. Use the color chart, that's why it's there.


I agree on this. Same for the hair. A lot of people spend too much time trying to get their hair and clothes to look uber realistic, which ruins the look of it in game.
To be honest, 90% of all custom hair I've seen is butt ugly just because it's so thin and shiny looking.

Like for the love of god, at least try to fit the look of the game!
Mad Poster
#5 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 1:56 PM Last edited by RoseCity : 4th Aug 2014 at 3:26 PM.
@OP - I think everybody's games evolve over the course of playing - it sounds like your aesthetic is changing to an EA vanilla look. And you should go with what makes you happy.
I know I used to load the lots up with all kinds of clutter, but now I'll use less and I prefer to add usable objects. Also I don't bother decorating interior walls because I play with them down. I was very annoyed when I got that Sandy Shoals house and it was full of EA deco crap underfoot everywhere and on the inner walls. In RL a trunk is useful for storage, but not in the sims. Unless it's one of those WA chests.
On the other hand, I do like to decorate - which would mainly consist of landscaping, curtains, walls, rugs, paintings - things that aren't always in the way. So if I was just stuck with the same old EA paintings and curtains and the flat textureless rugs that would suck. I wouldn't be happy with a vanilla CC game at all.
(I'm not that good at or interested in making sims - but like a lot of CC hair and clothes.)
I agree with you that a good graphics card among other things would be the best Sims 3 investment.
Field Researcher
#6 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 2:06 PM
You can pry my CC from my cold dead hands I can't make the sims or lots I want with only EA stuff, the clothes especially are very limiting. If my game runs a bit slower because of it so be it. It's slow anyway. The key is to be selective in what you download and don't just download all the things because you can. And if you downloaded stuff and you never use it just take it out.

Also I can guarantee you taking out CC will not magically give you a beautiful fast game unfortunately. As much as I enjoy the game it is a bug laden mess and even mods can't fix everything.
Lab Assistant
#7 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 6:26 PM
When I started playing TS3 again, I made myself promise to only download mods that help improve the game's functionality or prevent bugs. Unfortunately, that's kindof spiralled out of control and I've got 61 mods installed now. However, a majority of them follow this rule and are basically to make the game run better or make my life easier (ie: Nona's Super Hamper or Douglasveiga's Tagged Plants.)

From the 61 mods, 20 are superficial and technically superfluous: 10 accessories/makeup, 3 clothing, 1 is for lighting, 1 is custom eyes, 1 is better wrinkles, 1 is a tattoo, 1 is skintone, 1 hair, and 1 object. Except for the lighting and eyes, I could probably uninstall these without losing too much in the game.

Check out my Legacy Challenge:
Chapter 41: Do Babies Eat Sand?
Theorist
#8 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 8:09 PM
Wait, so you want to play a vanilla game, except you're keeping Twallan's mods, some CC eyes, skin, and outfits?

Well then, guess I'm already playing a vanilla game! Except I've got Twallan's mods, Awesomemod, some CC eyes, skin, and custom sliders. Yep, other than that, total vanilla game.

Resident wet blanket.
Scholar
#9 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 8:29 PM
I always limit CC (clothes/objects) for performance reason. So for a part I understand the OP. But I could not play without it completely. Vanilla just lacks complete themes and most of the clothing and hairs are plain boring to me.

The CAS CC (corrupt CC as exception) only makes loading CAS slow for me, and that can even be managed quite well if you combine packages.

Anyway, imo the main issue concerning TS3 performance lies with not thoroughly enough tested worlds and the launcher not being able to test (sims3pack) CC very well. I wish sometimes EA would take after Blizzard if it comes to polishing and testing its product. With TS3 it is the CC (EA worlds with fixed routing and mods that fix the most glaring issues with vanilla) that makes TS3 playable for me.
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 9:23 PM
Well I kind of try for the best of both worlds. I use default replacement skin and eyes and a few little pieces of CC makeup and eyebrows, but I use EA hairs and clothes. Otherwise it feels like a lot of that content goes to waste and it pointlessly bogs down CAS and slows everything down. I use NRaas's Overwatch, ErrorTrap, StoryProgression, and NoCD though to enhance and smooth out the gameplay too.
Scholar
#11 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 9:38 PM
I could probably get rid of most of my CC, maybe about half my mods. Need the NRAAS suite to make the game play properly, as EA's story progression sucks. Need awesome mod for a few things NRAAS dosen't cover the way I prefer. I'd have to keep the bulk of my build mode CC though. If I could, I'd have it set as un-deleteable

Sarcasm is a body's natural defense against stupid.
Lab Assistant
#12 Old 4th Aug 2014 at 10:38 PM
I usually play with a lot of CC but since i'm using another computer (that sucks) for now, I just play with no CC.

Can't believe people still read these.
Theorist
#13 Old 5th Aug 2014 at 1:28 AM
Default I also find downloading sprees addictive and obsessive
I'll go from page to page or topic and before I know it, time has been swallowed up. I'm mired in guilt. I know the game is going to SLOW down. It's going to take forever for Create a Sim to load and to get one done properly. I will be banging my head on the keyboard in frustration.

I also have a crap computer.

But I need those custom skins/hair/eyes to make my Sims look different. Then I start thinking the clothes sort of suck so I have to get some unique clothes. Then it's furniture or interesting art work or whatever.

I think we like our games to look different from everyone else's. Or we like those pretties because we--just do.

"If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went." Will Rogers
Field Researcher
#14 Old 5th Aug 2014 at 2:31 AM
I'm currently stuck going through a couple of hundred pages of cc trying to download as much as possible while I still have internet access on my computer. It's horrible.
I think my addiction started with and has not yet surpassed TS2. With that game you had to have a million different pieces of cc because something always needed fixing or recolouring. With TS3, it's just my greed.
Everything looks nice & shiny & super necessary. Some things are (like nice hairstyles for my black Sims that are properly textured) but others are just cute to have around the house. More often than not I find myself looking more for buy/build mode cc rather than CAS content (as it takes me like fifteen minutes to completely create one Sim anyway).

My computer's much too old for this abuse & I'm sure one day it's just going to give up on me but until then I'm gonna keep going. The thought of playing without cc is physically painful & I prefer to not even go there. But thanks for the nightmares.

Queen of the Land of Typos.

Check out my simblr.
Top Secret Researcher
#15 Old 5th Aug 2014 at 2:57 AM
Right now, I'm testing my mods and have nothing else installed.
I find I don't spend so much time interrupting my play when I don't constantly obsess that my children need new toys or the kitchen needs an upgrade or the walls need a color change. I think I will have to organize my CC sets in CCMagic more along the lines of "Absolutely necessary" vs. "Nice to have". I hope I still know the difference.
Mad Poster
#16 Old 5th Aug 2014 at 3:21 AM
My CC preferences-

Must-Haves
- major core mods like Awesomemod/NRaas to fix the game
- Rebalances and added interactions/fixes to deepen the game
- Skins and other facial features to improve sim looks
- Objects with new interactions

Not Necessary
- More Build mode stuff
- Furniture
- Clothing
- Very similar hairstyles
- Patterns

I like to keep my game is lean is possible, but with CC contributing to a deeper game, not a wider one.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 8th Aug 2014 at 2:32 PM
I've been playing with 58 NRaas mod package files and a major load of CC along with some minor Mods from here and my game runs great and loads very fast though i did go vanilla a while back when I installed new expansions and I'll be doing it again to install more once I can get to a store to buy more.I just switch game files and use a different Sims 3 folder and keep the Mods and CC in my regular folder for when I'm done testing.
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