Hey guys!
I've been a huge fan of the Sims games for years, but I haven't yet played TS3. School and real life got in the way, not to mention I didn't have a computer I could run it on. Well, I've just gotten a new computer for Christmas, and I cannot wait to start playing again. I've missed it a lot.
Anyway, one of my favorite parts of the game has always been the custom content. I'm working on assembling downloads now, but it's all so overwhelming since I'm a few years late to the party.
So what I'm asking of all you lovely people is this: what should I absolutely have in my game? Mods in particular, what do you find to be a particularly necessary mod for your game?

Also, I've been reading on how to install the custom content, and it sounds fairly simple and not too different from TS2. If this isn't the case, would someone be so kind as to explain to me how to do it? I've read a few guides and such but maybe I'm mistaken in how I'm understanding to do it.

So that's it! Please please please share all your favorites. Mods, different CC sites, anything you think is essential!

Thank you all in advance

Y'know what, I'mma sticky this thread so it can be the last "I just bought the game, what mods do I need?" thread EVAR.

If you're a fan of rabbit hole careers, you'll absolutely need Sims MX's Variable Career Metrics mod. With this mod, you're not bound to particular skills for certain careers. For example, you can learn Piano or Bass in order to advance the Music career, instead of just Guitar, or Science skill can be one of the skill requirements for Science or Medical career.

Unfortunately, the mod hasn't been updated for ITF. It still works fine for IP, but not for ITF. Sims MX seems to have been absent for several months... Too bad, he's one of my favorite modders. Fortunately, if you're quite accustomed to tuning mods and S3PE, you can really update it yourself. It isn't that difficult.

Go over "Nraas Industries" of Twallan
Personally i always use:
- Nocd
- Master Controller
- Woohooer
- Mover
- Portrait panel
- Traveler
- Debug enabler
- Master Controller cheats
- Master Controller integration
- Master Controller expanden tattoo
- Woohooer sauna

Thank you to both of you, Baiaana, I'm going to look into each and every one of those. I don't know what I'd do if I actually had to play according to game rules haha.

However the more I'm looking at things the more challenging it's looking to download and install things correctly :/ Any advice?

Read and follow Game Help:Installing Sims 3 Package Files^wiki. You can also take a look at Game Help:Sims 3 CC Basics^wiki, but it covers a lot of stuff (like unzipping files) which you don't need to be told if you've used TS2 CC.

My top can't live with out

1) CC Magic http://modthesims.info/d/461888
this is not a mod but a utility/program for keeping all that fabulous CC organize,. It would be my first stop on the shopping list.
I think it sets up the mod folder for you, I know it unzips for you.

It also has a legacy feature to allow you to put large mods like those that you would get from Nraas Industries, or Awesome Mod in the mod folder. It allows for the most CC be combine so the game runs a bit faster. And for you to run the game with different CC configurations. Great when testing.

Heads up that Counters and Islands for kitchens should be loaded through the launcher so they snap together correctly and still recolor with CASt. Lots and worlds I also load through the launcher. Most other CC can just be throw in the download folder (where you would normally put only sim3pack) then open CC magic to do its thing.

2.Master Controller from Nraas As it allows me to edit sims already in game, including inactives, so their clothes and hair don't annoy me. Switch active house households on the fly, as well as other things. I use the base,cheats,progression,Integration modules

3. Nraas Story progression as it allows me to set up the rules for the town my way. I don't play long without it. I can rename all kids born, choose their traits as they grow up, have or not have supernaturals, divorce/marriage, teens getting part time jobs, It has sooooo much it can be overwhelming to get set up. As has been said in other post in other threads, you might start slow with just the base mod and then add as you see elements you just can't live without in the others. I use all the modules that are not personalities.

4.I normally use Nraas Overwatch and ErrorTrap to keep the game running smoother. And they should probably be higher on the list, but i don't notice what they do
as they work in the background rather than change what I can do in game.


I use many others. So many great mods and many I don't know about so looking forward to checking back

I have never used but love the sound of Sims MX's Variable Career Metrics mod.

Utilities:
CC Magic is invaluable.

Delphy's Dashboard lets me check for mod conflicts - important when you have almost 500 packages installed. (Thats not counting sims3packs or pure CC.)

Easy CASP Editor lets me fix categorisation annoyances in Create a Sim on my own with little fuss.

Save Cleaner - holy crap its awesome if you are starting to get bloaty saves. (I give every sim in my town a make over every time they age up, so basically, my save files balloon quickly and Save Cleaner counteracts some of that)

FPS Limiter - Find one that you like and use it. I've noticed that I get more white objects on lots because it takes longer for my screen to actually display all the textures, but my computer doesn't get as hot and performance over all is less stuttery (probably because its not jumping between 60 and eleventy-billion FPS every time I move the camera).

Scripting Mods:
NRAAS stuff - ErrorTrap and Overwatch and Saver I install even when I'm playing 'mod free' - unless they aren't up to date for the patch or expansion I'm using, they just are not worth living without. In addition, for fun, I also use Story Progression, Careers, Woohooer, Traveler, Mover etc. I recommend avoiding retuner and relationship panel unless you absolutely must have them. They slow down my game and make it stuttery - much worse that Story Progression which is the usual culprit for such poor performance.

Buzzlers Clean House for Everyone - This one hasn't been updated, but it seems to work fine for me for patch 1.63 both with and without ITF. It doesn't just let you order any sim to clean the house, it fixes several bugs in the cleaning routine for both your sims and various cleaning NPC's (maids, bonehilda, the butler). I can't play without it anymore, I get too frustrated watching my maid suck at cleaning.

Sims MXs Variable Career Metrics - I use this, I updated it myself for patch 1.63, but left out all the ITF stuff because I didn't think I was going to get it. Now my GF got it for me for xmas, and I need to update it again. Pah! Silly me.

Sunbathing Fix - I think this one is from Nona, but I can't remember. It stops sims from sunbathing in the snow.

Breastfeeding by Nona - Oh my god I love this mod. Its just delightful. It lets your mama sims breastfeed babies and toddlers. Thats all, but thats enough. <3

Toddler Interactions - Makes toddlers more interesting. Lets them explore around, chat to each other and eat from pet food bowls. I like it because now raising twin toddlers is actually something like work, while simultaneously being less difficult. If the parents don't watch closely the babies make a break for it through any open door (ie why baby gates were invented). Its fantastic.

Play Style Specific stuff:
These are mods that might interest you for specific gameplay reasons:
Deadly poison apples by Nona (simological I think)
Vampire Killer and Werewolf Maul by Enirei (here)
Assassination skill (nraas)
Friendly Werewolf Curse (don't remember where I got it from)
More Alchemy Recipes (simsMX)

Tuning Packages
There's several very clever XML mods that make life better.

No Intro (by Ellacharmed) - Free yourself from the tyranny of corporate advertising! You already bought the product, you do NOT need to be reminded every time you launch it who built the thing.

Autonomy Mods - Peruse MTS and The Sims Asylum for less and more and no autonomy mods until you have tweaked your sims behaviour to your liking. (For this one, I actually recommend playing the game for a couple of weeks and noting everything that your sim does that irritates you on a bit of paper and then going on a huge downloading spree.)

More Conversations by Bluegenjitsu - I play with Relativity (NRAAS) and use it to double the social decay. Combined with this, my sims actually autonomously socialise with people instead of ignoring each other to play with the nearest piece of store content.

Less Gem Cutting and Less Miner reactions (oh my god so useful)

Purity Attraction - overhauls the attraction system. I combine this with WooHooer.

Routing Fixes - I use a bunch including, NPCs Exit rabbitholes faster (bluegenjitsu), no route fail animation/no foot tapping (bluegenjitsu), cats stalk prey routing fix (shimrod), do the locomotion (shimrod), watch animals routing fix (shimrod), sit on more comfy objects (bluegenjitsu), route fix (twoftmama)

I also have a whole parcel of default replacement CC that is basically all just matching pet relationship icons, or fixes to eyeshadow alpha channels or better cut outs for dodgy base game doors and so on. I recommend trawling through the downloads here using the search term 'default replacement' and seeing what turns up, you know, once you've played for a bit and have an idea of what annoys you and what you can live with.

Thank you so much everyone! This is going to be really helpful when I get my game up and running in a few days.
One last general question though, what are everyone's favorite CC sites? I had so many old bookmarked sites for TS2 back in the day and it was always really fun to find new ones that even just had two or three things I wanted. Or is there a list somewhere that I've been missing? I've been looking.

Edit: Also I seem to have read conflicting things regarding this- are we able to organize our downloads into subfolders like we were in TS2?

I think this is actually my last question. In TS2 sims, lots, walls/floors, they were all usually in the form of a package, and to install it you had to double click. And that got tedious when downloading wall/floor sets. There was a program for it called Multiple Simpack Extractor I believe, or something similar. Anyway, my question is, is there anything like that for TS3, or have they made it more convenient and nothing needs to be double clicked?

I do apologize for all the questions. I had everything set up just how I liked it with TS2 and now I'm trying to adjust haha.

I'll see if I can contact him and ask what his intentions are, or whether he'd mind if someone made the update you are alluding to and shared it.

I think you mean "In TS2 sims, lots, walls/floors, they were all usually in the form of a sims2pack", and yes, you can use CC Magic (mentioned above) or the Sims3pack Multi Installer by Delphy.

I get most of my CC from either Anubis or from here, mostly because it's all free.
The Sims Resource has some things for free and there are some things that aren't, at the creator's discretion.

TSR are actually 100% free now.

No person should ever download anything to the game until they know how to play it.

The only script I use is The Book of Talent, after I have once mastered a skill with sims I find it tiresome to do it over and over again. http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=383662 It can also be helpful because you can advance skills one level at a time and still get the rewards but don't have to spend hours watching a sim read or play with a computer.

Arisuka's fabulous Nose Contour is and will always be a favorite of mine.

As is Vicor_Tor's redone age facemask which really helps for subtle wrinkles, since it has recolor-able channels.

My computer was slowly dieing a few months ago, so I tried playing Sims 3 without any mods and I found the game almost unplayable without MATY's AwesomeMod. Some of the more basic things it does that I can't live without is giving actual numbers for stuff like needs, friendship, and "bed energy." I'm pretty sure that's also the mod that lets me plant on community lots, which is fun.

I also really like NRaas Story Progression mod. I originally got it because the game's story progression stopped producing children and my family had the only children/teens in town. So getting a mod isn't always about "breaking the game rules." Sometime you need them just to make the game work properly.

For items, my two must-have's are A Collector's Dream by Lisen801. It's the best way I've found of storing and displaying large amounts of collectables.

If you have Seasons, I'd also suggest NRaas Tempest. I originally got it because there is far too much hail in the game.

This isn't really a mod, but I would suggest limiting your fps to 30 and/or underclocking your gpu if it's high end. When I first booted up sims 3 on my rig my graphics card went ape. I heard the fans blazing, checked the temp was up to 90c in a couple of minutes running at 200+ fps. Shut it down, forced vsync, set up a power saver profile for it and the game runs just dandy with full settings even with my card down to 950v.

Reposted from the other thread that discusses ways to improve the game: (http://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=519698)

Friendly werewolf curse is from me: http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=487180
I like your mod choices too I use a lot of simsmx mods, and most of them work with a little xml update in S3PE. Nraas mods are invaluable, and lately I've been really enjoying consort's grow and age mods. They add so much realism. I also love nona's mods, ani's mods, and MDM's online center. TFM's site is where I get all the awesome tuning mods.

I just checked out the Compendium of Useful Mods. That is a really great list! I'm glad someone made it

This one is in my top mods when my something goes wrong with my game and i have to take them all out but these say in
GrimsTS3AutoSave
This mod when you set it up automatically save your game and i can not live with out it.\
cmoney has a ear slider because i plan on making Ultimate hybrids like i did in the Sims 2 in every neighborhood

Here's my list of required mods:

Start with Twallan's mods at Nraas Industries. They are essential!

StoryProgression (You are definitely going to want this!!)--This replaces EA's story progression with a more intuitive system.
MasterController--Allows for more control over how you play your game
DebugEnabler--Similar to MasterController, this unlocks some more testing cheats
ErrorTrap--catches bugs in your game and keeps them from corrupting your save
Register--allows for better management over the NPC system for venues
Dresser--this manages the rotation of outfits in your neighborhood and can be tuned to blacklist certain items, etc.
Hybrid--this allows the game to create hybrids
Decensor--gets rid of the censor blur
Overwatch--fixes certain glitches in your game at a set time every Sim-day
Traffic--better control over how community vehicles are used in the game
Woohooer--more autonomy in your Sim's romantic interactions, also allows for teen pregnancies

I have a couple of Bluegenjutsu's mods that allow for more autonomy for vampires and werewolves. You'll have to register with that site to access any mods.

I also created my own mod which allows my Sims to have more autonomy, which I can share with you if you wish, but I haven't updated it for ITF yet. It wouldn't hurt anything as is, but certain ITF interaction flags would just remain EA default. Twallan has a similar mod called Retuner. However, his mod requires that each save game be tuned separately, which, considering how many interactions there are in the game, can become quite tedious. (It was my experience that the settings I saved would not import properly to my other save games. Whether or not this was eventually fixed I do not know.) My mod does not require tuning in-game and works for every save, that is if it is your desire that all your Sims have extreme free will. I'm willing to make different "flavors" too. Let me know if you want it and I will be happy to upload to MTS.

Regarding my Sims' appearances:
I use Navetsea's skins with Buhudain's You Are Real map.
A bunch of accessories and hair retextures from Aikea Guinea.
I get a lot of makeup, etc. from TSR, now that they're free.

For more realistic lighting in my game, I use Buhudain's environment lighting tweaks.

And aside from MTS, I visit My Sims 3 Blog daily to see what's new in the mod world.

Oh, and to better manage my mods I also use:
CC Magic--Compresses mods so they take up less space.
Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-Extractor--Turns Sims 3 Packs into .package files so you don't have to use the launcher to install your mods. Especially handy if your launcher takes forever to do anything like mine does.

Is there anywhere i can get stuff to make my sims faces look better. I have a hard time not making pudding faces. I cant seem to find any face templates? thank you for the help

Perhaps this is what you're looking for? There are plenty of other skintones/face overlays to choose from as well if you click on "Downloads" in the site menu then filter by The Sims 3 > Create-a-Sim > Skintones. Also, try posting your question in the WCIF forum for more results.

Recently I found something that I consider a "must have" for the Seasons EP.

If you have Seasons and you're playing a warm climate world (like Lucky Palms), the weather makes no sense. You can unclick "Winter," but then you don't get the Winter Festival or the Gift Giving Holiday. NRass Tempest lets you fine tune the weather, but there are so many variables that it can be big task to do.

After much searching I found this:NRaas_Tempest_ProfileTuning

It's a tuning file that works with Tempest. It comes with the weather of 17 cities "pre-programed" into it.