Where do you get your custom content?

[Oddysey]

Was wondering about this. I've been looking for good sites, and have found some good stuff, but the sheer volume of content is just kind of overwhelming. Seeing as several of my favorite sites (Decorgal Designs, Gigge's Simply Skintastic) I've been directed to from people here, I figured that asking where people here got their clothes, objects, and build mode things for their sims would be a good place to start.

[Brynne]

I get a lot of my clothes at simsquirts, All About Style, TSR (when I don't mind spending a lot of time sifting through recolors of the same outfit), Pronupsims, Sunair Sims, and MTS2.

[Regina]

One of my favorite creators keeps here stuff at http://www.springhole.net/bogsims

And these are some of my other favorites:
http://www.simplyskintastic.com
http://guppysims.webcindario.com/frame.htm
http://sims-2.gameslife.ru
http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com
http://www.parsimonious.org

I know there are a few more but those are my very favorites.  I don't go on downloading sprees often but those I hit first.  I also download things from MTS2 occasioinally.

[windy_moon]

My favorite little site is AroundtheSims2

http://www.aroundthesims2.com/

Every thing Sandy makes is "just so".  I was completely addicted to her for Sims 1...she's hasn't built up the huge content she had (still has) for Sims 1, but I love whatever she does.  (She's still building for Sims 1, so she apparently divides her time.)

As many walls as I've download all over, I end up using her poured walls here

http://www.aroundthesims2.com/walls_floors/walls/poured_001.html

in more than half my houses.   

[Myrddin]

Some of my favourite sites for downloads:

http://www.parsimonious.org
http://www.strategyplanet.com/thesims/simestates2/
http://www.sterlingsims2.com/
http://www.all-about-style.com/index.html
http://www.sussissogoodsims.com/index.htm
http://www.simsquirts.com/
http://www.pronupsims.net/
http://www.modthesims2.com (helpful to have something specific in mind that you are searching for ex/ renaissance clothing)
http://www.simplyskintastic.com/ (now http://www.sagesims.com/)
http://www.marinasims.net (great build items)
http://www.hairfish.com/mermaidcove/
http://www.sapphiresims2.com
http://simfantasy.free.fr/Sims2/sims2.htm
http://nectardellaluna.angeltowns.com/main.html
http://kimberspace.mattwork.potsdam.edu/sunnisims/index.htm
http://www.thesimsresource.com (paysite with freebies)-have to have a fair amount of time to sift through though
http://www.welldressedsim.com (paysite with a limited number of freebies)
http://www.strategyplanet.com/thesims/simsshowcase/ (this has links to further sites)-every few days will give you links to sites that have updated their content; it really aids in discovering new sites with fab content

[MsMaria]

Thanks guys.     I now have about 10 windows open and I'm d/l like crazy.

[AllenABQ]

I just found this one today.  EXCELLENT new mesh work!

http://www.11dots.com/

[Myrddin]

I just found this one today.  EXCELLENT new mesh work!

http://www.11dots.com/

If you like 11dots you will likely enjoy this site as well: http://simfantasy.free.fr/Sims2/sims2.htm 
The simfantasy owner is the parent of the 11dots owner.

[Motoki]

I'm trying to think of sites people haven't already mentioned.

SimsGogogo was a good site for male stuff for TS1 and he's recently started doing TS2 stuff. There's a yahoo group too and a link from his page to it:

http://simsgogogo.moonfruit.com/

Aussie Top Enders has more classical type furniture including some new meshes:

http://www.aussietopenders-sims2.com/

A couple of Asian sites that have a fair amount of guy stuff: (though it is kind of young-ish and flashy guy stuff)

http://www.simstv.com/sims2.htm

http://hnote.net/

Piggi-sims has a lot of matching wood sets for various furniture and build pieces: (site is currently down)

http://www.piggis-sims.de/

Sunni Sims has railings that match Maxis stairs and floating stairs based on the Maxis ones:

http://kimberspace.mattwork.potsdam.edu/sunnisims/

Eye Candy has some interesting stuff like realistic face mask/makeup etc: (look in the Forum Goodies > Regular Simmies section)

http://tuuliaproductions.net/MessageBoard/

SimderZ is a good place to go if you are looking for quality gothic stuff:

http://simderz.moonfruit.com/

Avenida Sims has some various interesting stuff, less oriental recolors of the Maxis NL rugs, some nice male beards and sideburns, finer wrinkles for adults and elders, Japanese textile bedding etc:

http://avenidasims.com/index.html

I'm really picky about my makeup, but I think Lyran has some of the nicer makeup out there. She's got more natural light blonde hair recolors for most Maxis and a lot of custom hairstyles too:

http://www.lyran.net/ts2/

Also, if you are short on time at TSR or just aren't up to sifting through everything but are looking for nice objects go to objects, then all free and search for all objects by creator name (From the drop down box) Windkeeper, and then DGandy. They make really nice, useful things (IMO) for homes and all of them have reasonable polygon counts.

[idtaminger]

You know what's kinda sad, and an indication of just how much of a download-aholic I am, is that I recognize, and have pretty much been to every single one of the sites pple have listed. Even the "obscure" ones, some of which aren't that obscure - SimsTV has had major bandwith problems of late, which kinda sux, b/c they have GREAT stuff.

Simshowcase is pretty much *the* best resource for d/l surfing, b/c they give you updates from practically every site out there. It's the main reason why I know all these sites. So if you're looking for new sites, you can pretty much just go there. It's like one-stop shopping for the sims.

[Motoki]

I guess I thought most of the Asian sites were obscure for most of us westerners but then again a lot of people go to Sunair and Peggy's place and I see loads of people with Louis' Sim Cribblings pretty boy skins. 

Anyway, I'll edit the post the take out the obscure part. 

[idtaminger]

Anyway, I'll edit the post the take out the obscure part. 

It's no big deal really. I hope you don't think I meant anything by it. Just noting that some of those sites are pretty popular. Which on the one hand is to be expected if they have good stuff, but on the other hand is a huge drag b/c it takes 9 billion yrs to surf the site and d/l everything you want to.

But I guess its a good way to curb download-aholic-ism (yea, that's not a word. I know), b/c my d/ls folder is getting WAY too big. Just a few months ago, I had 2.5 gigs of d/ls. This month, I open up my d/l folder and check the numbers, and all of a sudden I find I've got 3.5 gigs of CC. Not a good growth rate...WAY too fast.

[Motoki]

I used to have tons of crap probably more than you. I ended up uninstalling the game for a while and I didn't bother making a backup personally. I just wiped clean. It kinda hurt a bit, heh, but then when I reinstalled I did it with a clean slate and a totally different, custom neighborhood. Since then I have been FAR pickier about what I download. I'm still accumulating a fair bit, but nothing like I used to have and still well under a gig and this has been a couple of months now so it seems to have helped.

File management in this game is a total nightmare. When I had all those files I spent so much time trying to prune them out and I still had lots of extra junk I didn't need. I honestly feel like it's just easier to trash everything and start over being much more selective this time than it is to prune your downloads. Not unless you want to spend days and days doing it.

[AllenABQ]

Anyway, I'll edit the post the take out the obscure part. 

It's no big deal really. I hope you don't think I meant anything by it. Just noting that some of those sites are pretty popular. Which on the one hand is to be expected if they have good stuff, but on the other hand is a huge drag b/c it takes 9 billion yrs to surf the site and d/l everything you want to.

But I guess its a good way to curb download-aholic-ism (yea, that's not a word. I know), b/c my d/ls folder is getting WAY too big. Just a few months ago, I had 2.5 gigs of d/ls. This month, I open up my d/l folder and check the numbers, and all of a sudden I find I've got 3.5 gigs of CC. Not a good growth rate...WAY too fast.

I think what this syndrome -- and I'm one who suffers from it too  -- is that Maxis DESPERATELY needs to create a better content organziation system in the game.  I download a lot of stuff, but I rarely use it.  It would nice, for instance, if:

Flexible ordering.  Like just a panel that allows you to group stuff according to the order YOU want it to display in.

..the organizational folders allowed you to put together collections according to individual recolor. (Like if I downloaded that "Tropical Alaska" bathroom set, I could have the toilet, shower, counter, sink, and the ice-encrusted potted palm specific to that set put in one folder if I wanted to.)  And consequently if I came back to it later and realized it wasn't worth hard drive space -- bang! -- I can delete everything in that folder.

How about keeping your "page" on the same one when you delete a skin, object, etc., instead of rolling all the way back to the beginning of the category?  It's a huge waste of time to be constantly clicking forward to the place where you left off if you're eliminating stuff toward the end of a long list. 

[Regina]

Oh, shoot, I was a pure download junkie with TS1!  That's why I'm not nearly as much now.  I may take a day every month or two and go on a downloading spree and I've given myself a rule that when it comes to custom clothing, especially, if I get new stuff some of the old stuff has to go.  I did some pruning this past weekend of custom clothing, skins, make-up, etc., then downloaded three new make-ups and made something like 7 shirts for the guys and that was on top of the boxers/swim trunks I made last weekend!    My Downloads folders and sub-folders is at 947 megabytes right now, and my SavedSims folder is 37 megs.  So far I think I'm not doing too badly! LOL  By the way, that SavedSims folder will end up full of things if you're not careful.  That's where all the stuff a person makes in BodyShop hides out.

I found the easiest way to check out my custom object skins is to go into an empty lot, buy a piece of furniture, then use the Design tool and start going through the textures.  When I get to one I don't want anymore I just hit the trashcan icon and it's gone.  Of course everyone else probably figured this out long before I did.

[Dark Trepie]

If you're interested in anime or video game character skins at all this is a nice place.

http://www.spiritworldfiles.com/anime/index2.php

I've gotten a bunch of Final Fantasy character skins from there, thought I never use them really.  I'm just a big RPG geek and downloaded them for the sake of it.

[Motoki]

I found the easiest way to check out my custom object skins is to go into an empty lot, buy a piece of furniture, then use the Design tool and start going through the textures.  When I get to one I don't want anymore I just hit the trashcan icon and it's gone.  Of course everyone else probably figured this out long before I did.

Unfortunately, we cannot do this with hair,clothes, makeup etc. The game forces us to use the bodyshop or CAS to go through them. And the bodyshop will not cache the damned thumbnails on me and takes a long time to regenerate them every time, while both of them scramble up the order of everything every time you delete something. 

[Zeljka]

Damn you all... heh heh,
No it's ok, I'm going to take a pass at the few I wasn't already aware of (for now) because I really need to clean out a lot of crap before adding more.
New meshes are a nightmare. Though I have subfolders for new objects and another for their recolours, and use that feature of SimPE to help, I am still in way over my head.
Also, though I'm usually pretty careful, I have something that crashes my game whenever I try for an expensive curtainless bathtub. It's not a bathtub by the way (that would have been too easy)
Not a creator, but still so disappointed by fabulous 'pot lights', sofas and change tables where you can't click on anything in the room without selecting them. boo.
Don't see listed here
http://reflexsims.de/ where I get some of my most amazing furniture. Beautiful, stylish and well done (some too cheap beds with too great comfort, but stunning work!)
Also, though I suppose it's all female adult, it's well done, pretty and tasteful. Most of my adult women are dressed by http://xmsims.com/ (because not all adults think they're 17)

[skandelouslala]

Ahh all these sites look great...I'm gonna be busy now lol

Need to clean out some things first.  I did a clean out a few months ago and got more selective with my downloads but once again, it needs another one.  I have loads of things I never use..I also  have loads of things that somehow looked wonderful when downloading but proceeded to look like crap in the game..not sure what to make of that..but yeah lol

[SaraMK]

I think my favorites have all been mentioned, except maybe for one. It's no longer being updated (not since last year, in fact), but everything is still available, and there are some great items.

http://gothsims.planetthesims.gamespy.com/sims2/

[yetyak]

http://www.binessimsrevue.de/

This is a finds site, they update every day, with several pages of links.  I'm there checking it out every afternoon.

[Brynne]

http://www.binessimsrevue.de/

This is a finds site, they update every day, with several pages of links.  I'm there checking it out every afternoon.

Yeah, that's in my bookmarks folder, too. Along with Sims Showcase. There used to be a site called Best of Net Sims which was awesome because it categorized the finds. Best clothing finds, best objects, best hacks, best houses etc. That was for Sims 1. I think they were supposed to come back with a sims 2 version, but I haven't checked in a while. Will do so now...

Nope. Still "under construction". It has been under construction for...e...ver...

[Myth]

I have a true addiction when it comes to the contemporary furniture and have just recently pruned and organized my downloads. I'm really fighting the urge to add more to the folder.  Lately I've stayed away from the furniture since I was in starter home only build mode, and now since taking on the Legacy cross again I have been making my own $0 floors and wallpapers or downloading outfits only.

I really would like a decent site for better mens fashions, workout clothes and elder fashions.  I haven't been drawn to anything I've found yet.  Maxi men clothes are either too sloppy looking or as in the tucked in polo shirts remind me of the high belt/pants looks that my 8th grade science teacher wore in the mid 80s. 

And the elders, well their bodies is what makes them so unappealing.  The osteoporosis and breast to the waist is just insulting to any elders out there.

[yetyak]

Definately need more good men's stuff.  Especially hair.  I keep looking for some that is not too long, not too short and not too messy.  Seems I can only find the stuff that is long short and messy.

[SciBirg]

I have a true addiction when it comes to the contemporary furniture and have just recently pruned and organized my downloads. I'm really fighting the urge to add more to the folder.  Lately I've stayed away from the furniture since I was in starter home only build mode, and now since taking on the Legacy cross again I have been making my own $0 floors and wallpapers or downloading outfits only.

I really would like a decent site for better mens fashions, workout clothes and elder fashions.  I haven't been drawn to anything I've found yet.  Maxi men clothes are either too sloppy looking or as in the tucked in polo shirts remind me of the high belt/pants looks that my 8th grade science teacher wore in the mid 80s. 

And the elders, well their bodies is what makes them so unappealing.  The osteoporosis and breast to the waist is just insulting to any elders out there.

All About Style is great for elder and men's clothing that is realistic.
Parsimonious.org is good for workout clothes if you don't mind your sims looking like hippie freaks. I usually don't.