Have any of you guys had your Sims get animated flower effect above their heads every time you enter a lot? I think this effect usually happens when a Sim is near a snapdragon and possibly cologne? Either way neither of these are present. Not every Sim is a victim of these cursed flowers but it's kinda annoying me now because I'm constantly having to nuke "Stuck FX" with the batbox. It only happens in this save. I'm also getting random relationship flags happening more frequently too. Hoodchecker isn't showing anything alarming besides the usual "Neither Sim Exists: Has relationship with self" etc. Am I looking at a BFBVFS here?

I've never had that-and it sounds like a mod is stuck in a bad mode..for perfume effects? Sounds weird or a clash between mods. 50/50 time, perhaps? Have you tried to run HCDU?

Agree with FranH. Also, has anyone made a beauty wish recently? Maybe the effects are from that?

I was beginning to suspect it could be a mod issue seeing as whenever my Sim does something simple like changing their clothes with a dresser, using the bathroom etc they immediately get something random queued up like reading the newspaper or talk to a stranger. This never used to happen. My Sims would normally pause for a few seconds and then decide to do something autonomously.. Not immediately after an action and this particular scenario is happening in all of my hoods. I never use the genie wishes ever since the first time in an old save after witnessing those creepy stalkers who're just as bad as the lecherous drama professors!! So thankfully it isn't that.

Thanks both, I'll update if I discover anything!

Does everybody put their downloads right away in the TS2 downloads folder?
Or is it just me the silly one who goes on a download spree and leaves a ton of zip files in the computer, only to remember about them AFTER I load the game?
So it ends up taking me days or weeks - or more! - to actually use the stuff I download (and half the times I don't even know what it is anymore).

Don't think I've ever forgotten to unzip things and put them in the game, but that's because my zip and rar files open automatically when they've finished downloading, so I just do that right away. If you use chrome you can change those settings if you click the arrow on the download. I'm sure you can do that with other browsers as well.

Nope. If I really need the cc I put it in game immediately. If not needed, they may never make it to my DL folder. I won't call myself a hoarder.

I have a "between station" where I can do my download spree, and sort the things into folders on a different part of my computer (buy/build/CAS/defaults/etc. and which game they're for). I download a ton of stuff all the time, but only a few of those things actually make it into my downloads folder. This way I can download all the stuff I want, and also keep it for if I need it at some later point in time, but I can be very pick-and-choosey with what I actually put into my game *now*. It also allows me to edit items but keep originals intact. I also save pictures, links, and a notepad info piece with everything I need to know about the item. That way if the link goes dead (which has been an issue lately with CC), I have the info saved. Especially important for mods and such, and to keep track of updated items. Been doing this the couple or so past years. I've also managed to keep my newest downloads somewhat in check in a couple places and using roughly the same system in both, so it's easy to update them or round up duplicates if I think I already have the items.

I also run the items through a testing process so I can figure out what to keep and what I either have to edit before I can keep it (edit name/description, category or minor annoyances), or what I don't want to keep (too big annoyances to fix, or just don't like it when I see it ingame).

Anyway, my theory is that with this system I can more easily manage without all that "junk" in my Downloads folder (I used to keep links and all that in the DLs), and can be even more pick&choosey in what I remove from the newer items, removing swatches and items I don't think I'm going to use.

I've learned from previous times where I did put stuff directly into my over-cluttered Downloads folder, and my game would take over an hour to load (I've had upwards of 3 hours loading time on my first laptop...). Now I struggle taking things out of my original Downloads folder, because I have no idea what I've used in builds or on sims (but I have packaged older sims, so that's less of an issue).

But zip files in the Downloads folder? Nope. They hang out in the "between station" to save space.

I put my .zips in a folder outside of the game, my desktop's Downloads folder to be exact . As for unzipping, I put my CAS content into a 'todelete' folder in my game's Downloads folder so I can see what they look like in Bodyshop first. Same goes for CAS/build/buy content via Clean Installer so I don't run into blue flashing/missing scalps. As the name suggests, I tend to delete the temporary files once I'm through updating the lot or sim.

Since my gaming computer has no internet, and since I have multiple Sims2 folders and AnyGames, getting downloads where they belong can be tedious and time-consuming.
Say I download three things that I want in my RetroTheSims2 folder, one thing I want for my BACC AnyGame, and six things I want in my FullTheSims2 folder. I download them to the folder where all my (as opposed to all my husband's) downloads go. At some point, the flash drive to which I transfer all the pictures and albums I intend to use on my tumblr crosses the hall to the internet computer; I move the pictures and albums to the folder I upload to tumblr from, then move the zip files (and anything else I want to move to the other computer, which also has word processing on it) to the flash drive. Because the non-internet computer can't use 7zip, I unzip all my CC folders while I'm still on the internet computer.
At some point, the flash drive gets walked back across the hall, where I make a new folder, named for the date, in my Working Files folder in My Documents. At some point, I go through the files and copy things where they want to go - but maybe I'm actively playing my retro hoods right now and am eager to get back to it, so I only copy the things I downloaded for the retro setup. The others sit there until I change setups and remember to go back and copy the things I want to the different folder.
It's messy and tedious and it often takes me a long time to get a mod where I want it to go. So don't feel bad about your process. It's probably more efficient than mine.

Is there a more complete visual Maxis objects database somewhere else than on Thesimswiki.com ?

Yep, I have sub folders inside of sub folders. I think there's a limit though to how many sub folders the game will go through before the path becomes too long

I'm on my phone right now but mine looks something like:
> Sims 2
>> Downloads
>>> Genetics
- Hair
- Eyes
- Skintone
- Facial hair
>>> Clothing
- Elder
- Adult
- Teen
- Child
- Toddler
- Baby
>>> Objects
>>>>Modded objects

Etc etc. And works fine in my game.

^
- You can have folders inside the Downloads folder.
- It's recommended that you don't use more than two or three layers of subfolders, example:
--> ... Downloads/Subfolder1/file.package
--> ... Downloads/Subfolder1/Subfolder2/file.package
--> ... Downloads/Subfolder1/Subfolder2/Subfolder3/file.package

You can name subfolders as you please, but it's smart to make a system you feel comfortable with, and one where you can find stuff.

- The game doesn't read files if the file path is longer than 256 characters, so keep file and folder names and paths short enough to stay under that limit.
- It's recommended to only use letters (simple A to Z), numbers and underscores ( _ ) in file and folder names. Arguably also dashes ( - ).
- Avoid using other characters, spaces, all other special characters, accented letters, commas and punctuation for the subfolders (and files).

My Downloads folder won't let me have subfolders. Even folders I copy/paste into it aren't retained but its content is just strewn as separate files in the folder. Fortunately I have a rather small collection of custom content in the game at a time, but with 1000+ files it's still very annoying.

Generally I try to put them into the correct game-between the modern game and medieval there are few overlaps (except mods) and I put things into the game fairly promptly so I can see what they look/act like in game.

I always copy the download to go into the games. Then I put the original into another folder once I've installed it.
Sometimes I even remember where I put the original.

Thank you everybody for the replies.
I realize I don't even have a method. I just drop things in folders, and that's it.
I use subfolders, that's true, but I've been thinking about re-arranging them for so long - and never actually done nothing about it.

And maybe I should consider keeping track of the original files somehow, cause more often than not I no longer remember what things are.
I see some of you keep the original ZIP, while others write it down...

The only restriction is really the total file path limit, which is a general Windows restriction and not a Sims 2 restriction. Number of subfolders, special characters, etc. doesn't matter.

I put my downloads in the downloads folder right away. Nothing of mine should be more than 2 subfolders deep.

Edit: I also copy/paste them into some backups just in case.

If you only have Basegame or UNI, then there are some things that can't be placed in subfolders. See the SimsWiki page for more info about subfoldering.

A high number of subfolders could potentially slow down loading (even just a little bit) if the game has to dig through layers upon layers of subfolders for every folder you've got. It's also quite annoying to click through all those folders if you're looking for something, so there's a practical reason to stay away from too many layers of subfolders as well.

The amount of time it takes a program to descend into a subfolder is going to be minuscule compared to the amount of time it takes to load a file.

I see, thanks. But no, I have OFB, Nightlife and Freetime. I just don't get the option to create new folder within that folder.

What happens when you go to your Downloads folder and press CTRL+SHIFT+N?

It sounds like a Windows permissions problem. If you right-click on your Sims 2 Downloads folder and select Properties, you should see a tab marked "Security". (It may be called "Permissions" in some older Windows versions.) On the Security tab you should see a list of "Group or user names". Your own user name for the computer should be in the list. Select it and see what permissions you have for the folder. You should have "Full control" ticked. If you haven't, you should edit the permission to give yourself full control of the folder. How you actually do that seems to me to get mote complicated with each new release of Windows. What version of Windows do you have (or are you a Mac user)?