I'm about to start merging my CC for the first time, and I noticed that several tutorials say that I should not merge Mods, skins, default replacements and sliders. Those tutorials also say that I should try not to have more than 100-150 package files in my Mods folder, but.... my default replacements and Mods combined are already about 70 packages. Oops.
Most of my Mods are only a few kb, though, (like the no Zzz mod) which is why I was wondering if it still isn't a good idea to merge mods? I understand that merging them wasn't a good idea back when TS3 still got regular updates, but now that they stopped updating the game, is it possible to merge them?

And could anyone explain to me if it's true that it's not a good idea to merge skin, default replacements and sliders, and why (not)?

(I had no idea where to post this, so I'm sorry if I placed it wrong!)

I am no expert, but from my knowledge you can merge anything, but merging mods, skins, default replacements and slider is not recommended because mods might need updating and there is no way to extract the old version. As for the skins and default replacements and sliders those are thing that you change often(at least i do). And that's why you should't merge those. But let me recommend a tool CC Magic. This is a tool that will allow you to convert thing with a single click(not literally but still pretty easy) you can also have installed mods but have them disabled because they might be for a certain save. And you can also export them so you can update a mod. This also can convert .sims3pack to .package by it self and no more need for extracting with winRAR. It;s very useful it reminds me of Nexus Mod Manager. It could be a little hard to learn how to use it but follow this tutorial and you should be golden

Phooey, I have over 1,250 packages in my Mods\Packages folder unmerged but nested into subfolders so I at least have a fighting chance of figuring out what they each are.

Are you sure the tutorials aren't saying that one shouldn't merge more than that many into one single merged package?

On the mods question:
Tuning Mods are safe to merge, but it becomes a pain to remove, update, or alter the tuning of any that way if needed. It also becomes far too easy (for some of us) to accidentally install the same Tuning Mod twice or those that conflict with each other when the originals are not as easy to see.

Script and Core Mods should not be merged because they are more prone to malfunction that way. Not everyone will experience this, and sometimes the "malfunctions" are subtle at best. Scripted Objects I would regard the same. Opinions will differ on this, but the benefits of merging any kinds of mods never rose to any kind of measurable level for me; I generally advise against it.

I believe we are told not to merge items like skins, defaults,and sliders because they won't work reliably (if at all) in that form but hope to be corrected if I've got that wrong.

...well I learned something new today. because when learning how to merge .package files I definitely skipped over the part about what you should and shouldn't merge. that or the tutorial I followed didn't have anything about that.

I've merged pretty much everything, except for any mod that I might wanna change out. merging sliders has never caused me any problems, but it could be different for someone else. if any of the script or core mods I have installed have malfunctioned in any way then I certainly haven't noticed it. conflicts or redundant tuning mods aren't something that concerns me too much because I keep careful documentation of all the mods I have installed and I always check for conflicts when I install things.

honestly? if you wanna try merging your mods, I say go for it. just make sure you back things up, in case it goes wrong.

Well I have most of my CC merged into +900 MB package files. I noticed a huge improvement in loading times and overall performances when I did it. I keep a backup folder with all the individual packages so I can unmerge anything I don't want (though it does take quite a lot to load and save those huge files). The only content I don't merge are core/script mods (I do merge xml mods). You can merge pretty much anything, as long as you keep backups there shouldn't be any problem.

Thank you so much for all your replies!

@MeltingMagnetz That definitely makes sense. I can't say I ever really change my skins, default replacements and sliders, though. I might add one every now and then, but that's it. As for CC Magic; I tried to do it yesterday before making this thread, with the tutorial you linked me to, but I got super confused when it came to the actual merging part. But I might give it another go - thank you!

@igazor That's quite a lot as well! I'm... not even sure how many I have, to be honest. But my Mods\Packages folder is about 6GB, which is a lot, but everything's neatly sorted into subfolders
Well, that's the confusing part, to be honest. Some tutorials say that I should try to keep my total number of mod packages under 100, others say I should keep the file size under 200MB, etc.
Thank you for your explaining what's wise and what isn't when it comes to Mods. I'll make sure to keep that in mind!

@MysticCandy I'm glad to hear it all works fine for you! I always make sure to keep backups, so I might just try out a few different ways and see what works best

@Naus Allien Thanks! I think I might try it that way as well!

As a follow-up, just an example of script mod breakage upon being merged to show where my comment was coming from. NRaas StoryProgression is a script mod, admittedly a huge and complex one. Many of us wouldn't really know if some relatively obscure function it's meant to perform just stops working right away. I recall a player was getting really fed up with SP constantly scheduling and rescheduling proms (not something most players think about every sim day unless they have a prom fetish or something) even though they so carefully arranged the mod's settings so that shouldn't happen, dumped the settings, re-imported them, reset them from scratch, started new games, etc. Only by undoing the merge of the mod and its add-on modules were they able to get it working properly again. I'd hate to think what could stop working on a more behind the scenes mod like ErrorTrap for example if it suddenly started working only selectively.

Oh wow, that could definitely mess up someone's game! I'm not even going to try to merge any Nraas Mods, because those are far too important for my game and I'd hate to think what could happen if something went wrong with those.

In my experience (and I've been doing this for 6 or 7 years) you can merge everything. I merge all my mods separately from my CC because that makes sense in numerous ways. Even all NRaas mods including Errortrap with AwesomeMod. Never once have I seen a problem with doing that. The only file I have that can't be merged is DouglasViega Strawberry mod. It just won't appear in game if you try.
As for not merging sliders and skins? Poppycock. Almost all will work exactly as they should.

And naturally, the golden rule is: Don't merge your CC, merge the copy of your CC.