I was arranging the mods in loading order using the program HcduPlusV4.4. Out of curiosity, I loaded all the downloaded files, not just the mods, and I see that many files for hair, colors, etc., objects need to be loaded before or after... according to the program, do these files need to be loaded in order, or is that only for mods/hacks? Thanks

Most regular CC (as in not mods) is standalone, and don't need to be loaded in a spesific order to function.

Most mods also don't need to be loaded in a spesific order. However, when you've got two (or more) mods were they use the same modified resources for something but other than that have different functions - one loads first with some functions plus the ones they share, the other loads after and either overrides or modifies the behavior of the shared resources.

Some mods don't play nice even with load order in mind, so then you usually have to choose one.

If you've got OBJD mods (for changing prices, recategorizing in the buy catalog, or similar), the best fix is usually to keep one of the files and add on the changes in the other mod, because OBJD mods usually override each other and won't play nice.

Most CC don't share resources like this - clothes have the mesh and the recolors, they're in different files, the game handles this just fine. CC conflicts usually happen because of duplicate files where one has been edited (most identical duplicate files don't cause much trouble), or items sharing GUIDs (last loaded item usually shows, though it might have issues related to the other item). For GUID issues, most of the time when dealing with items meant to be standalone, the best fix is to change the GUIDs of the offending item (and fix its recolors).

Sometimes, you can get CC conflicts from load order - if you've got two files (duplicates) where one has been edited.
* In this case, the fixed mesh would load last, so it most likely wouldn't be a problem: "PrettyDressMESH.package" and "PrettyDressMESHfixed.package" (an addon to the back of the name adds more letters = sorts last)
* In this case, the fixed mesh would load first, which would make the old mesh show up instead: "PrettyDressMESH.package" and "FixedPrettyDressMESH.package" (F comes before P)
The easiest fix to this is to remove the duplicate (or older/not edited) file.

I don't know why the HCDU is listing load order for other files - probably a default setting. Unless you have duplicate files (GUIDs or edited duplicates), there's no need to worry about those. The HCDU probably lists them if there are any.

It's a good idea to read through the text before downloading, so you don't get any surprises in your game. The CC creator usually says if there are known conflicts, or could be potential conflicts.

Thank you so much! I searched for duplicate files using the Sims2Packback program, and I didn't find any duplicates, maybe just modified ones, food, etc. So what I did was put the mods in order and remove one that was causing a conflict. Thank you so much for your help; it was really helpful that you cleared up my doubt! *-*