Hacks and mods just not working - polite request for help from a lurker

[Sita]

Rip me to bits if you must but I cannot get various mods to work. I have checked that the Framework is in place and Awesomemod seems to work, though I do not see all the features people talk about on here. But things like the Supercomputer do not. They simply do not appear. I'm sure it is all marvellously obvious to people who know more than me about Sims 3, but can I please check if I have stuff set up correctly? It is very frustrating to read about all these wonderful things I SHOULD be able to do with my Simmies. I have the latest patched version of the game.

Questions that occurred to me:

1) Can I have subfolders in my Mods/Packages folder or do the packages all have to be in the one Packages folder?

2) I am using only mods that say specifically that they play nicely with Awesomemod; I tried the autonomous sex for instance, and the bathroom cabinet pregnancy thing. I simply couldn't FIND the bathroom cabinet ingame, after trying placing the file (separately) in Packages AND in Packages\Hacks so I dunno if it is installed properly or not. Autonomous sex simply didn't happen and no Try for Baby at all - and this in a couple who were well in love, married and itching to make a baby.

3) I also tried removing (NOOOO!) my Awesomemod files - and the hacks STILL didn't work.

4) I know about deleting the scriptcache file. Is there another file I need to delete to make mods work?

[mistressgemini]

All the answers to the questions you are asking can be found by searching the forums. It is obvious you haven't read some of the basic things about using the mods, I'm not sure how you managed to do that. I suggest reading everything pertaining to AM and the super computer that can be found. Yes it is a lot to read through, sometimes the answer is on page 36.

[nastar]

I had trouble getting any mods working when i was using windows xp service pack 3.
when I uninstalled that and went back to service pack 2 they worked.
This may have been a fluke or maybe just a windows ghost bug that just happens. but thought I would mention it just cause it may help.

[Zazazu]

I'd say it's a fluke. I have Windows XP SP3 and have never had an issue. I did make sure to edit my resource.cfg before subfoldering. It really sounds like that is the OP's major problem.

[Sita]

Yes I have Windows XP SP3, as far as I can see.
I HAVE spent a great deal of time reading the forums, including all the way through the supercomputer thread, which is why I dared to ask now. I do see many people on other fora asking for help with these same mods not working, and their creators do not seem to have an answer for them. I had assumed that all you clever people on MATY might have an answer, as some of you seem to know the workings of the game more intimately than most Simmers.

However, I do seem to have several copies of resource.cfg. Should I edit them all, remove some, or is only one of them relevant? They are in various directories around my Sims 3 install: Sims 3, Sims3\Game\Bin, Sims 3\Gamedata\Shared,  Sims 3\Gamedata\Win32, and Electronic Arts\Sims 3\Mods\Files.
Not being myself a modder, I dare not move these unless advised by some cleverer person... and am reluctant to go through the complete uninstall/reinstall process unless absolutely necessary.

[Sita]

Thank you Jordi. I looked at the Resource.cfg files, didn't move them. Moved all my packages into the root folder Mods\Packages - so they aren't so easy to sort but at least both AM and the computer work fine now. Many thanks to all for advice. See, it doesn't hurt to be moderately nice to people occasionally.

* Sita retreats back into obscurity and lurkerdom.

[gtachampion]

Hey Sita...I applaud your bravery but I'm not sure how anyone expects one to get answers if one never asks questions, correct?

I just thought I'd let you know that I too am running service pack 3 with no problems. You can open your resource.cfg file with notepad and it should look as follows:

Priority 500
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*.package
PackedFile Mods/Packages/*/*/*/*/*.package

If not you should download a new one. This is the resource.cfg in C:\Program Files\Electronic Arts\The Sims 3 (or whatever your directory is). Then you should be able to put hacks in the hack folder if you like. I put AM directly in the Packages folder, I have a folder called NRaas for Twallan's cool stuff and all my other mods are in the Hacks folder. I have subfolders in my Misc, Build, and Skins folders and everything works great.

Hope something here might help.

[nanacake]

Some creators are including resource.cfg files in their compressed files. You should check the contents of what exactly extracted before dumping it your folders. Extract .rar/.zip to a desktop folder and manually place them. That way nothing that you don't know about should sneak in.

[JamesNine]

Wow, I'm impressed with the ability for everyone to work together to solve this problem.

But seriously, do what GTA Champion is saying. That'll make life much easier (and more organized).

[socurious]

@jordi, 

Is it necessary to reinstall the framework to amend the resource.cfg file for the contents to properly work?  I just manually edited, closed, saved and went on about my business.  Is impending disaster looming on the horizon?

[Sita]

Thank you, GTA Champion, I changed my resource.cfg so it looks like that, made subfolder and now for some testing.