More Awesome Than You!

I have been downloading custom content since I first purchased the game several years ago, however I hadn't thought about this until now. I have all the games up to Free Time, and haven't been able to buy Apartment Life, or IKEA yet.

I was wondering how I could clean out my downloads directory of the old non compatible files that I have downloaded for previous versions of the game. Is there a program or some sort of way of figuring out which ones won't show up in my game without having to go through every single catalog and write down names of stuff that appears?

WS

There's no magic button, no.

Only hacks and hacked objects really become incompatible.
Some items, like fridges, computers and book cases need to be updated to incorporate the new features added with the latest EPs.

Unless you keep your downloads carefully sorted and subfoldered, there's no easy way.  Just roll up your sleeves and get working.

Anyway, don't buy.  Pirate!

What is this "buy"?  Why would you pay money for an inferior product.  The store bought copies contain securom, which is bad for your computer, so the arrr copy is clearly superior.


If your hacks/mods are in a sub-folder (...\Downloads\Hacks) all you have to do is delete the contents of that directory and download the new hacks for your latest EP.  Then your hacks are up to date.

Clothing and most clothing meshes do not become incompatible.  Some game objects that include specialized functions may require updating when you get a new EP.  It would be prudent to keep these in a separate sub-folder of Downloads as well (i.e. ...\Downloads\CCObjects).

If your hacks, clothing, meshes, objects, etc. are all in one big Downloads folder (the grab bag approach), you will need to do some sorting and deleting in a more tedious manner.  If you keep your downloaded clothing and other cc in a backup directory somewhere, it may be easier to delete the entire contents of your Downloads folder, create a couple of sub-folders (hacks, clothing, objects, or however many you want to keep yourself organized) and then reload everything you want to keep into the appropriate sub-folder.

*Hopes Wolfskies and SecuROM will be happy together. Couples are always so cute when they are oblivious to reality.*

If you have all your hacks thrown in with the rest of your CC, you can probably find most (if not all?) of them with the Clean Installer.  Let it run on your Downloads folder (if you have a lot of CC, this will take a while).  It will highlight hacks in red and duplicate files in pink.  Might as well delete everything it shows highlighted in either colour and then download new updated hacks.  You can delete files directly from the Clean Installer, simply by right clicking on the file in the list and choosing "delete".

Oh, and yeah, don't buy SuckURom.   :P  Why pay money for a virus?

Well, I am on dialup at this time, so it's either "buy it" or take years to download it off the internet from somewhere. If someone has a better idea, I am all ears. I really want to play AL... :)

Thanks for everyone's ideas. I already have my download directory organized in several categories. Does it matter how deep the folders go, because I did see something that confused me. It said that certain files shouldn't be in sub folders. Is that just a rumor, or is that something that can be substantiated? It says:  eye color, glasses, lipstick, blush, eyeliner, eyeshadow, costume makeup, skin tone, hair color, hair mesh, clothing.

WS

P.S. It's not that I want SecuRom... trust me I don't. However being on dialup is not conducive to help me out of the situation.

At least install on an administrator account and download a no-cd crack for your EP.  That will keep securom off your machine and the no-cd crack can be downloaded via dial-up with less trouble than torrenting the whole game.  I have done that in the past when I was on dial-up.

Not AFAIK.  I have everything sub-foldered to death and have had it that way since at least Nightlife.  Never had any problems.  I forget which EP allowed you to sub-folder skins in Downloads but it was an early one and even if you don't have a later EP, you can always stick skins in Saved Sims.

That one allowed you to sun-folder skins and other files that were previously not allowed.  I even sub-folder sims in my saved sims folder when I don't want them to show up in the CAS sim bin.

Yeah, I do that too - I have them sub-foldered according to type: students, townies, vacationers etc. plus back ups of all my in game sims - a useful way to store them.  It also saves time on loading.  For those who don't know, the game doesn't read sub-folders in Saved Sims.

Does your dialup service charge per hour, or is it an all you can eat plan?

If you aren't charged per hour then torrents are the way to go. Run the torrent all night while you sleep, all day when you're at work, and while you're using your computer for things other than the internet. Just pause the torrent or close the program when you want to use the internet. Your download will start back up where you left off, and you won't notice a decrease in speed because it's using the computer when you're not.

You can get a lot of Internet for the price of every Sims 2 EP and SP.

Well, I have another problem that might not help. All my versions are in THAI, not English. There was this guy on eBay was selling everything up to Pets at the time, for a very good price, and he even through in several free packs. Do you know if a US version installed over a Thai that was converted to English will work? If so, do you know which site I should be downloading it from? There are so many sites out there that have false versions. I don't want to spend a week or two downloading a file only to find out that it's not a workable version. It's so frustrating. *chuckles*

As far as my Downloads directory: I am trying to find a way to view package files so I can see if I want to get rid of them. Don't you hate file names that are all numbers and you have no idea what it is? *chuckles*

WS

I think all versions are basically the same, and you just need to install/modify engrish.zip in /ffs to convert all your versions to Engrish.

Okay, I don't know exactly what that means. The guy that sold me told me that I had to Download disk 1 to my HD, change the autorun.config file to show the language in English and install it from there. Man, too bad I didn't know this when I installed this yesterday. For future reference, could you tell me how to do this encase I have to re-install something in the future?

Thanks!

WS

He's referring you to the hackette he made which does exactly what you asked for and he also tells you exactly where to find it. 

The programmes that allow you to look at what's in Downloads are Clean Installer and Delphy's Downloads Organiser - I prefer Clean Installer, older but simpler.  You can also use SimPE though that's a bit more long-winded and even the Maxis-made version (which is crap).  All of them have their limitations.  The long names of letters and numbers are there because you have been installing lots from the Exchange and using the Maxis installer (which is crap) - that's one of the (many crap) things it does.  If you were using Clean Installer to install your lots, this wouldn't happen because that programme is designed to install lots, you know, cleanly.  Kind of what it says in the name. 

Sorry, I thought he was giving me a command. I didn't think about the ffs directory at the time. I am very new to this site, and have been mostly trying to figure out how to get Sims to run on my PC again.


I have Delphy, but it doesn't always find all the duplicates and I don't think its been updated in awhile. Maybe it has a bug. I had to take all my files and put it in one directory to find duplicates. *frowns* I have never seen an option to view the file itself in Delphy. Have I missed an important feature that I wasn't aware of? I have been using it off and on for years!

Yes, I just started using the Clean Installer. I had never used it before. I kept seeing posts that said to use it because it is supposed to help and not make all those numbered files. Guess I should have downloaded it years ago.

Right now, I wish I could find out why the FT No CD Patch doesn't allow me to use cheats. *grumbles*

WS

See thread where you asked.