What is considered custom content?

[MrsFlynn]

I've been reading posts from the forum and have seen people talking about custom content. It's made me want to ask, what is custom content? Now, before you answer, I'm just asking generally. I know custom content comes from places like Sims 3 store and exchange, 3rd party stuff that you can put in your game. But what about the stuff you, for the lack of a better term - recolor? Is that considered custom content as well?

I've personally always considered game based stuff custom content of sorts when you recolored or re-pattern it. But unlike 3rd party stuff, it doesn't mess up your game.

MrsFlynn

[Pam]

Custom content is anything from the Sims 3 Store.  Third party custom content is items created by anyone but Electronic Arts (it's the bad stuff that we don't like here).  Just because something is re-colored doesn't make it custom content.  However, if you downloaded the pattern you used to re-color it from the Sims 3 Exchange, that pattern could be third party custom content. 

[malteser60]

From what i know generally 3rd party custom content are items created by player - not EA store items. The reason they may cause issues is that to create a new item, say a skirt, a mesh has to be designed that forms the basis of the item. The mesh has to, obviously, look realistic, such as it has to have 'hinges' so that when your sim moves the skirt bends in the right places. Then you can colour the mesh however you want. If a player is good at creating 3rd party cc then there shouldn't be any issues however you may possibly run into two problems:

1. The mesh design is poor and will cause graphic issues that may cause your game to crash; and
2. The item may potentially carry viruses/trojans, etc. A famous example is the doll item that created havoc in people's games that could be downloaded from the sims3 exchange.

So, in short, unless you are absolutely sure about 3rd party cc then I would think twice about using it. 

[TheChronicR]

I'll have to agree with Pam and Malteser. Items from Sims Store, fan sites or any other place that has it, is considered custom content. Sims Store content is official content created by EA, that probably can't do any harm to your game if you follow the right instructions to install it. Third party custom content is created by players. Most of it is rather harmful. First of all, package files that they come in slow down your game. Second, your game might even crash. Third, it can contain a virus. And fourth, don't want to offend anyone, but it looks unprofessional looking if not done the right way. After all, why would you want stuff not included in the original game, knowing that it's harmful?

[Hosfac]

I wouldn't say that most of it is harmful.  There are a few good coders out there who are familiar enough with how the game works to make CC that is safe and stable.  The real problem is that there is no way to know for sure who made what you are downloading.  And even they make mistakes from time to time.  The risks outweigh the benefits greatly.

To illustrate what I mean, I'll tell you about the most famous example:  the "girldolldressed" incident.

This doll was a re-mesh of a teddy bear, meaning that the creator took an existing item and made it look like something else.  It was made by a young lady who had a good deal of experience with making custom content, and she was somewhat well known in certain circles for her quality re-meshes.  But after finishing the re-mesh, she tried to add an interaction to the object that wasn't normally associated with it (something she didn't have as much experience with), which corrupted the doll.  She abandoned this attempt, and went to upload the normal re-mesh to the site that hosted her redesigns...but she uploaded the corrupted doll by mistake.

While it wasn't malicious by virtue of the creator's intent, it acted very much like a virus by attaching itself to player created package files.  Any time someone who had that doll clicked "Share," a copy of that doll went with it and a lot of people who never used 3rd party CC ended up getting it and unwittingly passing it on themselves.  This resulted in several massive purges of content uploaded to the Exchange and countless other sites, and it took quite a bit of time to get rid of.

One simple mistake wreaked havoc in the Sims community for months.  And for this reason, I am reluctant to download anything from any site other than this one.  I got this doll by downloading tattoos off of the exchange.

[samoht04]

I always think that Third Party Custom Content is CC that is made not using the game or made by EA. So they use a program that can edit meshes and import it into the game. However normal Custom Content I call anything made by EA or that has been made using the EA Tools or Recoloured in the game itself.

My problem with Third Party Custom Content is that when I used it in Sims 2 I had to get a lot of it for enough to make it fit in. If you know what I mean? It's just me thinking it has to fit in and not look really weird. A lot of CC looks so fake and odd to me that I just think that is where a lot of Sims draw the line at Barbie. I kind of like how Sims look anyway, they don't really need all that huge hair and glowy skin with body hair.

Third Party Custom Content also has so many strings attached a lot of it seems to be a pay for thing which I think is just a waste of money or it's bugged or never works (from experience in Sims 2)

[MrsFlynn]

I learned my lesson with 3rd party custom content with Sims 2. A friend had downloaded some - worked great in her game. So she sent me it on cd. I installed it and it messed up my game to where I had to delete the particular family and game they were in. I was not a happy camper.

I haven't downloaded anything from the Sims 3 Exchange since last summer. First time I downloaded anything, I ended up with the girldolldressed thing. That taught me not to download from the Exchange. I'm still leery of the exchange.

Love the Sims 3 store stuff - specially the hair and furniture.  Haven't had any problems with the store items. But those come directly from EA. So it's less likely that there would be a problem.

MrsFlynn

[jeanamariex3]

Anything from (Edited - name of mod removed - ds) should be avoided at all costs, unless you want mutated children and toddlers.

[bshag]

I have seen some really awesome custom content, especially in decor, some of which are gorgoreous and I must say I drool over them.  But my problem is I do not know how to manage the custom content, as this does take some expertise with computers.  It's too much of a hassle to move the stuff around every time an ep or sp is installed...so I don't make it past the drooling stage.   That, and I care about my game too much to continually be messing with it.

[mysticmirror]

I too used custom content in my Sims 2 game. It was great for awhile, until I got a little crazy with it and downloaded something I wasn't supposed to. Completely ruined my game. Every since then I never use custom content whatsoever. I just don't feel safe in doing so. So it's vanilla for me.

[Hosfac]

My sims 2 game was somewhat heavily modified.  I'm not totally sure why, but when I got the Sims 3 I wasn't all that interested in it to start with.  After the next expansion pack was released, I was glad I didn't have any.  Really, it just seems like a pain to have to update the mods every time you update your game.

[jeanamariex3]

@Samhot04: EA and LN have huge hair like that in their game and at the Sims 3 Store.

One thing that is perfectly safe to download from the exchange is custom hair color, because it's something someone created in game, through CAS, and uploaded to the exchange, I like to use it all the time, and even upload my custom hair colors I made too. It's fairly easy to create, save and upload on to the exchange.

NOTE TO EVERYONE: Custom Hair color comes from the paintbrush option in the hair color section, where you create your own highlights, base, roots and tip color, in CAS Mode.

[Tommyo3000]

I have downloaded LOTS of stuff from the exchange on the sims 3 website. Some of it came with 3rd party content but it hasn't seemed to mess up my game. I didn't know it could bring viruses into the game so I'll probably have to be mire careful from now on! 

[IgnorantBliss]

I never thought of the official Store content as custom content. I think of it as an equivalent to stuff pack items downloaded individually, since it's all official EA content.

I'm not currently using any third party content in my game, but I have before, especially with the first two Sims games. In fact, I used to create a lot of custom content myself, so it would be hypocritical of me to label most third party content harmful. I used to have tens of hacks in my Sims 2 game that I couldn't live without. You just have to be aware and cautious about what you put into your game, but calling all third party content harmful because of a few bad apples is also irresponsible. It's not that simplistic.

[RunAmokSims]

I never thought of the official Store content as custom content. I think of it as an equivalent to stuff pack items downloaded individually, since it's all official EA content.

I'm not currently using any third party content in my game, but I have before, especially with the first two Sims games. In fact, I used to create a lot of custom content myself, so it would be hypocritical of me to label most third party content harmful. I used to have tens of hacks in my Sims 2 game that I couldn't live without. You just have to be aware and cautious about what you put into your game, but calling all third party content harmful because of a few bad apples is also irresponsible. It's not that simplistic.

I have to agree. I think CC is anything made by someone other than EA.  I also have to agree that not all CC is bad. The trick is knowing what is and isn't. The big but is that you don't know till you download. I got the "infamous" girl doll dressed form a house I downloaded from the exchange.  That's the only thing that ever made my game go screwy.

I did, however, get tired of beds that became invisible and hair that broke at the neck. I just gave it up because I didn't want to have keep reinstalling my game.