❤️Here is the first version of the New Parents mod, I hope you guys enjoy it!
❤️The New Parents Mod adds more realistic pregnancy family-planning gameplay to The Sims 3. Sims can talk about starting a family, react emotionally to pregnancy news, discuss baby names, plan baby showers, ask loved ones to be godparents, involve children in the pregnancy, and host gender reveals.
Fathers and partners can react positively or negatively to pregnancy news. Some Sims may be excited to become parents, while others may feel overwhelmed, unsure, or scared. Prior family-planning conversations can affect how Sims react later if pregnancy happen❤️New Interactions:
Discuss Starting a Family
Tell About Pregnancy
Positive or negative pregnancy reactions
Relationship gains or losses based on reactions
Pregnancy-related buffs for both parents
Discuss Baby Names with boy and girl name suggestions
Plan Baby Shower with guest selection
Guests gift money for the baby
Ask Sims to be Godmother or Godfather
Ask Sims to be there for childbirth
Tell children they will be a big brother or sister
Ask guests to guess the baby’s gender
Cut Gender Reveal Cake interaction
Gender reveal reactions from parents and guests
Discuss the New Baby with supportive or dramatic responses
❤️How to Use
Click on another Sim and open:
New Parents…
From there, choose the interaction you want.
Use Discuss Starting a Family before pregnancy to set the tone for future reactions.
Use Tell About Pregnancy when a Sim is pregnant to trigger emotional reactions and buffs.
Use Plan Baby Shower while a Sim is pregnant to choose a location, guests, time, and outfit style.
Use Discuss Baby Names while pregnant to generate one boy name and one girl name suggestion.
Use Ask to Be Godmother/Godfather on adult Sims.
Use Ask to Guess the Baby’s Gender before cutting the gender reveal cake.
Place the Gender Reveal Cake and click it to use Cut Gender Reveal Cake. A popup will reveal whether the baby is a boy or girl.
Baby Showers last for 4 hours. Guests will bring gifts in the form of cash.
This mod adds a Campground Map for sims to hike and forage, as well as a new Hiking skill.
This is a script mod that can be placed in your Packages folder. It was built and tested on 1.69 but should work fine on 1.67.
Requirements
This mod requires the following expansion packs to function:
The Sims 3: World Adventures
The Sims 3: Showtime
The Sims 3: Supernatural
The Sims 3: Seasons
The Sims 3: University Life
To access all of the possible collectibles, the following expansion packs are needed, but NOT required:
The Sims 3: Ambitions
The Sims 3: Late Night
The Sims 3: Pets
The Sims 3: Into The Future
Overview
Campground Map
Hiking Skill
Collectibles
Foraging
Ailments, Injuries, Fear, and Insects
Chance of Death
Campground Map
Price: §1690
Category: Sporting Goods
2 CASt channels
Poly Count: 650 poly
Created by Around The Sims 3
Hiking Skill
Hiking is a 6 level skill, and is primarily gained by sims going on hikes under the new “Hiking…” pie menu option on the Campground Map.
There is also a new hiking skill class available at the Stadium rabbithole for §300.
As your sim increases their hiking skill, they will unlock longer hikes and the ability to hike at night.
Going on hikes also raises a sim’s athletic skill, albeit slower than a traditional workout.
Sims who get hungry while hiking will automatically eat, though there is a chance that what they eat may make them Nauseous or fall into a Dark Slumber (poisoned).
Sims with low bladder need will “go in nature,” but they also have a chance of getting the Itchy or Poisoned moodlet after the fact.
If a sim becomes too tired, too hot, or too cold, they will abandon the hike early.
Hiking cooldowns vary depending on how long the sim’s hike took to complete and give sims the Fatigued moodlet.
Sims with the Athletic or Adventurous traits, or with a high Athletic skill will have their hiking cooldown cut in half.
Child sims with the Scouting skill (if The Sims 3: Generations is installed) will get a boost in the hiking skill when they age into teens.
Day hikes can take place between 8:00am and 8:00pm, and night hikes can take place between 8:00pm and 4:00am.
Sims can only hike in sunny weather or during a reviving sprinkle (if The Sims 3: Supernatural is installed), unless they have completed the Seasoned Hiker skill challenge.
Sims cannot hike when it is actively snowing or when there is snow on the ground.
By completing the Expert Hiker skill challenge can lead Beginner, Intermediate, or Advanced hikes during the day to earn extra simoleons.
Upon successfully completing a hike, sims will have a 2% chance of finding a gnome and a 1% chance of finding a genie lamp.
Hiking Skill Unlock Levels
Level 1: Beginner Hike
Level 2: Beginner Night Hike
Level 3: Intermediate Hike
Level 4: Intermediate Night Hike
Level 5: Advanced Hike
Level 6: Advanced Night Hike
Collectibles
While out hiking, sims have a 30% chance of finding collectibles of varying rarities like gems, metals, space rocks, insects, and wildflowers.
Certain traits or occult states can either increase or decrease your chance of finding collectibles by 5% (note: this value stacks the more traits or occult states your sim has):
Increased Chance - Lucky, Gatherer, and Loves The Outdoors
Decreased Chance - Unlucky, Loser, and Hates The Outdoors
Night Owls, Vampires, and Werewolves also have a 5% higher chance of finding collectibles on night hikes.
Day hikes and night hikes each have their own set of collectibles that can be found.
Additionally, the longer the hike, the higher the chance of your sim finding rarer collectibles.
All wildflowers can only be found during the day, and the same space rocks can be found both during the day and at night.
A full list of collectibles can be found on the download page under the header “Collectibles.”
Foraging
Sims can go foraging using the “Forage” interaction on the Campground Map.
Going foraging will give sims a 30% chance to find harvestables, seeds, and honey/beeswax.
Certain traits, skills, or occult states can either increase or decrease your chance of successfully foraging by 5% (note: this value stacks the more traits, skills, or occult states your sim has):
Increased Chance Traits - Lucky, Gatherer, Loves The Outdoors, Green Thumb (or Gardening skill level 5 or higher), and Super Green Thumb (lifetime reward)
Decreased Chance Traits - Unlucky, Loser, and Hates The Outdoors
Night Owls, Vampires, and Werewolves also have a 5% higher chance of finding harvestables while foraging at night.
Sims can forage during the day or at night for 2, 4 or 6 hours at a time, with day foraging and night foraging yielding different harvestables/seeds.
Sims who get hungry while foraging will automatically eat, though there is a chance that what they eat may make them Nauseous or fall into a Dark Slumber (poisoned).
Sims with low bladder need will “go in nature,” but they also have a chance of getting the Itchy or Poisoned moodlet after the fact.
If a sim becomes too tired, too hot, or too cold, they will abandon foraging early.
Foraging cooldowns vary depending on how long the sim’s foraging took to complete and give sims the Fatigued moodlet.
Foraging also carries a 2% risk of contracting Botinitus Minorous, which will turn your sim into a PlantSim.
Upon successfully completing foraging, sims will have a 2% chance of finding a gnome and a 1% chance of finding a genie lamp.
A full list of foraging harvestables/seeds can be found on the download page under the header “Foraging.”
Ailments, Injuries, Fear, and Insects
Both hiking and foraging have a chance of giving your sims different ailments or injuries, scaring them, or giving them encounters with insects.
When hiking, there is a 25% chance of a sim developing an ailment, a 40% chance of injury, a 35% chance of fear, and a 25% chance they encounter insects.
When foraging, there is a 40% chance of a sim developing an ailment, a 25% chance of injury, a 35% chance of fear, and a 25% chance they encounter insects.
All of the possible ailment, injury, fear, and insect moodlets are listed below:
Decreased Chance - Lucky and Athletic (or Athletic skill level 5 or higher)
Increased Chance - Unlucky, Loser, Childish, Clumsy, Coward, Absent Minded, and Hates the Outdoors sims have a higher chance.
Note: If a sim is wearing mosquito repellent (from The Sims 3: Island Paradise), they will not get bitten by mosquitos while hiking or foraging.
Certain moodlets like Bee Attack, On Fire, and Terrified will end a sim’s hike early.
Chance of Death
There is also a 5% chance of a sim dying while hiking via drowning, burning to death, or blunt force trauma.
Certain traits, skills, and moodlets can either increase or decrease your chance of death by 5% (note: this value stacks):
Increased Chance - Unlucky, Clumsy, Absent Minded, Loser, Daredevil, Hates the Outdoors, and Tired moodlet
Decreased Chance - Lucky, Athletic (or Athletic skill level 5 or higher), Adventurous, Brave, and Hiking Skill (level 4 or higher)
Note: There is no chance of death while foraging.
Tuning
All of the tunable values can be found on the mod download page under the header “Tuning.”
Conflicts & Known Issues
This is a new script mod so there shouldn’t be any conflicts.
Uninstallation
Same as with other custom skills, removing the hiking skill may cause issues in saves where the skill has been used. I have created a new cheat called “uninstallHikingMod” to remove the hiking skill from any sims in the world and cancel all hiking interactions that may be active, but use this mod with caution.
Credits
EA/Maxis for The Sims 3 and The Sims 4, Around The Sims for meshes and textures, Visual Studio 2019, ILSpy, s3pe, and Notepad++
Thank You
Thank you to @aroundthesims, @flotheory, @puffkins2000, @nectar-cellar, @omedapixel, @zoeoe-sims, Mihaia10 on ModTheSims, and plumblossom on Discord!
If you like my work, please consider tipping me on Ko-fi 💙
Wake up, babe, new Sims 3 performance mod just dropped!
First things first, DOWNLOAD HERE So that the link doesn't get drowned in text. Now, about what this new thing is, here's the copy of my Nexus description:
Independent of my ASI mod, but the two stack up together nicely to reduce slowdowns and memory issues in general, so it's highly recommended.
By default, the game creates about 80 UI "windows" used for displaying previews, EP badges etc. This is highly inefficient and causes catalogues (build/buy, CAS, create-a-style) to slow down to a crawl with lots of items, and also causes memory runoff upwards of hundreds of megabytes. Only a fraction of this memory gets released. What's worse, opening the same catalogues repeatedly could cause memory usage to grow even more. This is the definition of a memory leak.
The main mod here is a simple LAYO mod (no code) that reworks how the game's catalogue window creation works. It doesn't eliminate all its slowdowns/memory footprint, but it makes the catalogues noticeably faster and significantly less memory-intensive.
CC-HEAVY DECOR: ALL MEMORY WITHOUT MOD:
CC-HEAVY DECOR: ALL MEMORY WITH MOD:
The downside is that the LAYO mod causes EP badges to disappear, so there's an optional complementary file (requires MonoPatcher), if you wish to see them restored. It doesn't seem to always work reliably, and you may need to switch to a different catalogue section and return for the badges to show up. Let me know how it works for you. Also, only one badge displays at a time based on priority, so a CC item with an EP origin would show the CC badge. This is necessary, not a bug.
NOTE: The optional file requires only the .PACKAGE part of MonoPatcher. MONOPATCHER IS A FRAMEWORK AND IS COMPATIBLE WITH EVERYTHING. ANY THEORETICAL INCOMPATIBILITIES ARE ENTIRELY WITH SPECIFIC PATCHES IT LOADS. Let me know if my patch conflicts with any other mods.
Methods replaced in the optional file:
Sims3.UI.CustomContentIcon.set_ContentType
Sims3.UI.CustomContentIcon.UpdateAllWindows()
Compatible with custom UI mods, but conflicts with mods that change EP badge icons since they edit the same resources. Will consider combo patches if authors of such mods agree.
Works fine in Mods/Packages folder, or Overrides if you're concerned about an EP badge mod reverting its changes.
Note that the before and after screenshots use my memory measurement from a personal debugging ASI, you won't get that little window with this mod. You can use Sims 3 Settings Setter or Process Explorer if you want stats for nerds and to check your memory usage.
CREDITS:
Lazy Duchess for MonoPatcher
Sims 3 Creators Cave Discord server for testing
This originally started as a personal edit for my own game. I wanted something that fit my screenshots and overall aesthetic a bit better than the default loading screen, so I tweaked it to match my style and just… never really planned on sharing it.
But after posting a few screenshots, a couple of people asked about the loading screen and where it was from — so I decided to clean it up properly and turn it into my own custom version instead of keeping it as a private edit.
To make it more usable for everyone, I included multiple preset options so you can choose the one that best fits your game and vibe. (1-5)
If you have any feedback or notice any issues, feel free to let me know! Full credits go to the original creator @simmattically This is an edited version of the original file.
❀ Sims 3 Custom Loading Screen
Some backgrounds are by @heldhram and @you-will-never-find-me-anymore
Note: It's important to take care of your pregnant sims since early pregnancy will be harder on them.
Update V 1.3.1
Fixed trait chance.
added more birth outcomes.
Sims will now pay $5500 for Childbirth Expenses when they give birth. The cost will be added to their Unpaid bills if they don’t have enough money. (If sims had a bad birth experience, they will be charged an additional $10,000 due to complications.
Good and bad birth experience depending on mood. (mood value 70and above= good and under 70 = bad)
Medical Advice: All Pregnant Sims including NPC can autonomously get medical advice at the hospital. Send your pregnant sim to visit the hospital and they will get medical advice after visiting.
Sims who are family oriented will more likely get medical advice.
Sims will stay at the hospital for 2 hours.
You will get to choose the baby’s traits when you get medical advice at the hospital because it will increase the chance of having a smooth pregnancy. (this is not always guaranteed because you have to take care of pregnant sims) negative traits might outweigh positive traits.
Spa: All sims including NPC can autonomously get massages at the spa which can help relieve backache. Send your pregnant sim to visit the spa and they will get a massage after visiting.
Pregnancy Tracking:
Sims are in the second trimester when a timer is being shown on the pregnancy buff. (default pregnancy length)
Sims are in the third trimester when the timer is no longer showing on the pregnancy buff. (default pregnancy length)
Pregnancy:
Pregnant sims are now moody.
New pregnancy buff.
Pregnancy is now uncomfortable for sims which will decrease mood by -10.
Nauseous:
Pregnant sims will experience more nausea as a downside of early pregnancy.
Pregnant sims will vomit more frequently as a downside of early pregnancy.
Sims may or may not accept romance when nauseous.
Nausea will decrease mood.
Backache:
Sims have a 100% chance of getting a backache.
Backache can be eased for 3 hours after getting a massage.
Sims may or may not accept romance while having backache.
Backache Will decrease mood by -20
(Sims who were already pregnant before adding this mod won't get mixed feelings)
Anxiously Expecting:
Sims who are anxious about their pregnancy will now have a chance of rejecting romance and socials.
Sims will feel anxious about their pregnancy if they have one or more of these negative traits.
I use a lot of mods to make my game look good, but also to improve my gameplay so that writing stories is even more fun. I thought some of you might enjoy knowing what's in my game. So I decided to make a Mods Masterlist.
This is not my CC collection, however I did include a lot of the default replacements I use. I have divided everything up into categories:
- How I improved my game's performance
- How I made my game look pretty
- How I made my game more fun
Using all of these mods and tweaks obviously comes at your own risk. They can work fine in my game, but make yours laggy or unplayable. That's always a possibility with mods. I won't be able to help you with that, as these obviously work well for me.
First of all, my specs:
Why am I sharing this? Because I think it's always good to know what a person is running with before you install their entire mods list. Just in case you're wondering if your pc would be able to handle the same amount of mod load.
CPU: Intel(R) Core(TM) i9-10850K CPU @ 3.60GHz, 3501 Mhz, 10 Core(s), 20 Logical Processor(s).
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5070 Ti 16GB VRAM
Storage disk my game is installed on: 1TB SSD SAMSUNG MZVLB1T0HBLR-000L7
Game version: Steam edition.
How I improved my game's performance:
DXVK: this has stopped *all* access violation crashes in my game since I installed it. I know I'm probably jinxing myself by typing this, but I for real haven't had my game crash to desktop since I followed these instructions.
Nraas Errortrap, Overwatch, Mastercontroller, Saver: Errortrap catches in-game bugs and glitches and fixes them by resetting the sim automatically for you. Overwatch cleans up the game overnight. Mastercontroller (+ cheats and integration modules) gives you compact mode in CAS and allows you to fully reset the town which is recommended to do once every sims week or after you had a big party event with many sims. Saver prompts you to save your game every 30 minutes as 'Save as...' and this will save your life from losing your game to a crash after hours of gameplay.
Sims 3 Settings Setter: Sims 3 Settings Setter is a collection of patches that improve your game's performance. You can enable them by opening a save game and pressing insert. Make sure to save your settings by clicking 'file -> save settings' at the very top of the UI, so you don't have to redo them each time you open your save. Here are my enabled patches, but please see for yourself what feels good for your game. Don't enable uncompressed textures UNLESS you have DXVK installed and plenty of VRAM.
GPU Patch: I have a very new GPU and need this for my game to recognize my graphicscard. It is basically mandatory to do this unless your pc is over a decade old.
Intel Extreme Tuning Utility: I overclock my CPU with this program. I sincerely advice against you doing this unless you are 100% sure you know what overclocking is, whether your CPU is capable of overclocking, and what a healthy overclock speed is for your CPU. I use IETU to do this, but your computer might have a built-in tool that lets you overclocks safely.
Tweaking my GraphicsRules.sgr: I honestly only do this because other guides told me to. I have no clue if it actually does something. But change these settings to these numbers. They're at the top of the file:
seti cpuLevelUber 4
seti cpuLevelHigh 3
seti cpuLevelMedium 3
seti cpuLevelLow 3
CC Magic: USE THIS FOR YOUR CC. Like, for real, USE IT. It is a life saver. I feel like an idiot for spending over a decade playing this game without CC Magic. Follow this video for easy instructions.
Regul Save Cleaner: I use this every other session to keep my game clean.
Turn off memories, lessons, online features, interactive loading screen: yes, these all cause lag in your game. If you still want to keep some of the memories, use this mod instead.
Set the max amount of fully active/rendered lots to 2 or 4. This will reduce camera lag. I recommend setting it to the amount of houses in the direct vicinity of your sim's house. So if there's only 2 neighbors set it to 3, if there's 3, set it to 4. Don't go any higher than this and don't set it to 1.
Tip: Do not throw the entire Sim 3 store in your game. Handpick what you want to use and only download/buy those. The sims 3 store is 5gb worth of content and having it all in your game severely lags out your CAS and build mode, making it take way longer to load everything.
Just a rule: don't use Sims3Packs. Don't install CC through the Sims launcher period. You can use Delphy's Sims 3 Pack Multi-extractor to turn Sims3packs into .package files. Installing through the launcher works alright, but uninstalling stuff through the launcher is not clean. It leaves behind a lot of bloat. Keep your CC organized and clean, otherwise you'll regret it when you're years into playing Sims 3 and everything is an unsolvable mess.
How I make my game look pretty:
Some of these things work smoothly in my game because I have a very good graphics card. Not everyone can run all the stuff below and still have good game performance. I recommend trying these things one by one and seeing how your game handles it. If something makes your game an unplayable mess, just uninstall and forget about it.
Uncompressed textures patch from Sims 3 Settings Setter: This highly improves the quality of your sims in-game. They will look more like their CAS model and are a lot less blotchy/pixelated. This honestly replaced my need to increase the simrendertexture through the Graphicsrules.sgr, because sims look really good with this patch turned on! Only do this if you have DXVK installed!
Reshade 6.4.1 (with add-on support): Allows you to use Reshade presets that will change the look of your game entirely and make it look a lot better (depending on the preset you choose). Here's a full guide on how to install Reshade 6.4.1.
Shadowmapsize tweak: In my Graphicsrules.sgr, I have set the Shadowmapsize to 8k. That way the shadows in game will look less pixelated and more real.
Lazyduchess Shadow Extender (8k preset): this makes it so that the shadow draw distance in game reaches a lot further.
S-club's 3D lashes: Gives your sims nice 3D eyelashes, available in the eye-liner make-up category and in accessories. Don't forget to download the sliders. And also, I recommend downloading the mod that removes EA's eyelashes. Apologies for the TSR link, they're not available elsewhere.
Mango-smoothie default skin replacement: Nice, smooth HD skin replacement. there is also a link for non-defaults if you prefer it. I also use a bunch of other non-default skins but these are the main ones.
Yumedust's Eye love set conversion by Brntwaffles: my default replacement for the eyes. I use V2.
Agnelid's default hair replacements: these are proper low-med poly and give me the least render issues out of all those default hair replacements out there, so I highly recommend them.
Angelsimoleon's make-up default replacements: These are really good, because now default make up doesn't look like your sim is trying to be a clown anymore. I also recommend the color presets default replacement.
Default replacement for eyebrows: ugly EA eyebrows begone.
Default beard replacements: ugly beards BE GONEE. Also, more beards here. Can't have enough beards.
Muted Maxis Cloud UI: really pretty UI that looks light blue in my game with my reshade preset which I find very pleasing on the eyes.
Plants default replacement: Omedapixel made a lot of default replacements for plantable crops. They only work for newly planted crops. Please read their instructions carefully, it requires some set-up.
The Sims 3 Project Renaissance: replaces a bunch of textures from trees and plants, making them more HD.
Sims 3 HD Textures terrain: I use the 1k version because I was too scared of overloading my game with HD textures. Still makes a nice difference though.
Uranesia Lighting mod PLUS: I use the version with darker nights and intense blue water. Makes your game look very pretty with better shadows and pretty sunsets.
Milky Way Night Sky: For the amazing startfield you see in my nighttime screenshots.
Realistic Clouds: For some pretty clouds.
Simsi45 Improved EA Lights: For better indoor lighting.
Sims 3 Medieval facial expressions override: I've been playing with these for so long I don't even remember what the normal facial expressions used to look like.
Pigtails glitch fix: Ugly pigtails on every random sim, begone.
LazyDuchess Random Sim fixes 2.0: Fixes the puddingface syndrome and the ugly green-blonde haircolor some sims were born with. Also comes with some other minor fixes. This also makes male sims gain body hair on age up, which is tuneable.
Sliders: for better sim creation.
How I make my game more fun:
Nraas Storyprogression: I also have the modules Career, Extra, Money, Population, Relationship and Skill. This mod is absolutely essential to me. I can't play this game without it. However, it is a heavy mod. It will cause some lag in your game. To me it's absolutely worth it. I highly recommend setting the speed to 'snail pace' to make the lag problem minimal (except maybe pregnancy, I have that one manually edited to speed 500, because I need people to make lots of babies, okay.) and to turn off notifications for anyone who's not related or romanced with your sim, it'll save you some hassle.
Nraas Retuner: essential for more autonomy control. It requires a bit of practice to be able to use it properly. I highly recommend you go into the settings of this mod (City hall -> Nraas -> Retuner) and turn on the retuner menu for objects. That way you can, for example, click on the computer, go to the retuner menu, and turn off autonomy for playing computer games. Or click on the radio and turn off autonomy for sims to turn it on.
All other Nraas mods I have: Consigner, DebugEnabler, Dreamer, Gohere, Hybrid, OnceRead, Porter, PortraitPanel, Register, RelationshipPanel, Tagger, Tempest, Traveler, Woohooer, WrittenWord. Just check out their respective pages to see what they do. They're all useful because they either help you control your game more (Register can turn off paparazzi!!), or they add other handy gameplay things. There's even more Nraas mods that I currently don't use (yet), feel free to check them all out.
Simler90's Gameplay core mod: This fixes a lot of annoying stuff in the game. However, if you want to use it alongside Nraas Overwatch and LazyDuchess Random Sim Fixes, it requires a small bit of tuning. To make it compatible with Overwatch: change the Overwatch clean up hour to 5AM (default is 3AM). You can do this in the game by clicking City Hall/any computer -> Nraas -> Overwatch -> Settings. To make sure Lazyduchess puddingface fix takes priority over the one in Simler's core mod (I did this because the one by LD is better), you need to open Simler90's tuning file in S3PE and set the puddingface fix to false. If you don't know how to do this, here you go. There's more things to tune in this mod, so learning this is a good idea regardless. Put it in your overrides and keep Nraas in packages.
More interactions mods: There's a bunch of them. I highly recommend the following:
- Moar Interactions
- More Pregnancy Interactions
- More Baby Interactions
- More Toddler Interactions
- More Romantic Interactions
- Outdoor activities for Toddlers
- Toddlers Can Ride Rocking Rider
- Children Can
No Mutant Hair or Eyes: No more mutations in haircolor or eyecolor, because these were way too common in the Sims 3. Your sims will now always inherit their eye and haircolor from a relative (parent or grandparent etc.).
Expanded Genealogy: adds a lot more family relations to your family tree, so your game will recognize more sims as family members. Like 2nd cousin and such.
Neuroblazer's Random Genetics: overhauls the genetics system so your sim babies become more of a blend between the two parents instead of copy-pasting 100% of their slider values. I only recommend using this if you move town often and keep the gene pool fresh, because if you stay in the same town for a bunch of generations this mod will cause everyone to slowly crawl towards the 0 slider value puddingface. This mod will lag your game a little bit at the start of your save while it loads.
Painting Replacements: Makes the painting skill a ton more fun because it adds so many painting variations to the game!
Routing fixes and less whiny sims: Sims 3 is a lot more fun when your sims aren't constantly suffering from routing errors or blocks. Here's a whole list of them:
- Ohrudi's routing fixes
- Twoftmama's routing fixes (need a free Sims Asylum account)
- No whining about motives
- No whining about route fails
- Better routing for game objects (need a free Sims Asylum account)
- No foot tapping
- More Entry Points: This one makes it so sims don't wait in line forever to go into the school building and such!
Human Lifespan for Supernatural Sims: If you're like me and you avoid occults like vampires or fairies because they tend to live forever, this mod makes it a lot more fun to play around with occults. It gives them a regular lifespan, like any other sim.
Traits enabled for all ages: Tired of your born sims all having the same traits because the choices are so limited at a young age? This mod enables all traits for all ages.
Autonomous toddler skilling: makes teaching toddlers their skills fun, so sims will do it autonomously. Requires a free Sims Asylum account to download.
Faster Gardening: I have picked the 50% option. Now my gardening sims can finally have a life again since weeding and harvesting doesn't take them all day.
No Social Groups (Uni only): Your sims won't instantly turn into nerds just because they like to play games or browse the web. I picked the one that does enable the groups in the university world.
CrossEye Fix: No more crossed eyes when Sims age up.
Be Productive: sims will clean up after themselves more often.
Opportunity Phone Call Fix: If you have into the future installed, this fixes the bug where you'd not get any opportunity phone calls anymore.
New Lifetime Goals: Normally, when your sims complete their LTW, the Midlife Crisis LTR to pick a new one will disappear. Your sim can therefore only complete one LTW by EA's default settings. This mod prompts your sim to pick a new LTW once they have completed theirs, so they always have a new goal to strive for.
Famous Artists: changes the celebrity system so you earn celebrity points for skills and jobs that actually make sense.
No Autonomous Pranks: Because pranks suck unless you actually want them to happen and then you can just do it yourself. You can also just do this with Nraas Retuner of course, but it'll be a bit of a hassle.
Scolding mod: will prompt you to ask you whether you actually want to scold your child instead of it becoming an interaction you can't cancel.
Baking mod: adds a baking skill to the game
Flower Arranging: adds a flower arrangement skill to the game.
Medical career reworked: adds all sorts of extra stuff for the medical career.
Writing is fun! Makes it so the writing skill adds fun instead of depleting it, also extends the royalties to 12 weeks instead of 6 and decreases the amount of books you have to read to get a (hidden) writing speed bonus. Writing is a big hobby of mine and it never made sense to me that it'd deplete the fun bar.
Expanded Active Households/homes+: Really awesome mod by TheSweetSimmer that ads a ton of gameplay to your game in regards to sleepovers, house visits, owning multiple active residential lots and dividing your sims across them, custom babysitters and even a new interactive daycare system.
I know this is very subjective and there are tons of options out there, but I thought I would share my favorite default replacements! Big thank you to all of the creators! <3
Sorry in advance, this list is long! Some were already on previous lists but I wanted this one to be comprehensive, so these are literally all of my DRs (except hairs). Some are fixes and others are just enhancements!
Default replacements don't necessarily need to go in the Overrides folder. It's only strictly necessary if you're replacing something that's inside the Packages folder (like store content, CC, etc)
Lighting / Environment
Lighting
Dream Dimension 2.5 with Aurora Skies Water - I find this water type looks good in most worlds, but if there's a water version available for the specific world I'm playing I switch to that one! Such pretty sunsets and sunrises
Clouds
Dishonored to TS3 Clouds Replacement - These are new and are my favorite clouds I've tried in S3! They almost look watercolor-ish which I love
Stars
Twinkling Stars Night Sky Replacement
Snow
Snow but better! For less memory usage, there's a version posted by mat1122 on the NRaas Forum with reduced texture sizes, or a fix for EA snow by the same creator (only use one of these!)
Shaders
Shader Tweaks
Eye Shader Tweaks - Removes the weird EA catchlights
* These aren't really typical DRs but do replace EA shaders. They need to be installed through the Bin
Sims
Normal Map Replacement
YOU ARE HYPERREAL - Sooo nice and really makes bodies look more detailed (it's more on the realistic side)! Really could not play without at this point
Default Skin
Apple Cider Vinegar v2 - This has been my default skin for such a long time. It's pretty maxis match and not too shiny
Default Eyes
Ephemera MS93 Edit (No Spotlight Version) - I switch these out a lot, but I think these are my longest running eye defaults
Eye Mesh
re:Cerberus Default Replacement Eye Mesh and Sliders - I recently started using this and love it! It makes the irises a bit smaller by default and gives you sliders to adjust them
Teeth
Pearly Whites No Sclera - When I removed this one on accident recently the EA teeth were like a jump scare...
Facial Hair
Default Replacement Beards: Base Game & Expansions
Feet
Sexy Feet - The name is weird but I promise they're better than the blocky EA feet!
Cute Feet - More realistic feet for toddlers and children
UI Poses and Expressions
New UI Poses (Retouched Flavor)
TSM to TS3: Converted Facial Expressions
EA Fixes
EA Eyeshadow Texture Fix
Muscle Slider Fix for Teens and Elders
Fixes for missing pregnant morphs
Clothing
Outfits from Late Night, University Life, and Master Suite with maternity enabled
Improved Maid Uniforms
Kissing Booth Attendant Outfits Default Replacement
Generations Shirt & Sweater Top - Channel Fix
Unhidden Male Open Collar Shirt
You've Got a Package! - Adds a bulge to EA underwear for male sims
Various Store / EP Underwear - I use various ones from this creator, some are DRs and others are just edited meshes
Animations
Walk Cycle Edits - Fixes the weird smiley expression male sims always make when they walk due to an EA oversight
Receive Text Edit
Nicer Vendors + Ask Animation Edits (requires Mono Patcher)
S-Club Eyelash Fixes
S-Club TS3 Eyelash Hotfix (Balanced) - Reduces the polycount of S-Club lashes
S-Club Eyelash Design 2 CASP Fix - Makes it so the lashes don't clip over hairstyles
* These two are compatible by the way! Put both in Overrides if you have the S-Club lashes in Packages
Vampires
No Pale Vampire Skin (requires Mono Patcher)
TS3 Vampire Neck Mark Default Replacement
In-Game Objects
Base Game
Default Base Game Bicycles
Default Taxis
No Flower Stencil Odor Free Toilet
Castable Toy Pegbox
White Formula Default Replacement Bottle Edit: I now use this one instead
Invisible Parking Space - This one makes such a difference!
Sim Painted Painting Frames Made Castable! - Didn't know this existed until recently, this has been bugging me for a while!
Default Easel Paintings - I re-uploaded this with a small preview in this post
Horizontal Clapboard Fixed
BG Altitude Quantizer Stairs Fix
Base Game Half Walls FIXED!!!!
Realistic Fish Mod V2 (requires Mono Patcher)
Fixes for Three EA Wall Sets from the Base Game and Ambitions
Tileable Items Shader FIX
Shiftable Skill Certificates
Shiftable Curtains [Base Game - Island Paradise]
Expansions
Gravestone Plaque Edit V2 (requires Mono Patcher)
Generations: Fixes For "Natural" Family Portrait & Dream of the Windrunner Paintings
Default White Pillows for Fighting
Fix: Asian Window emits light
New and Improved Eiffel Tower
Champs les Sims Distant Terrain Tree Fix
LN Celeb Fridge Texture Fix
Elevator Shaft Placement FIX
Pets Movie Poster Fix
Fixed horse tails (no more shiny horses!)
Default Replacement Ice Cream Trucks
Default Seasons Beach Towels and Umbrellas - works with Buyable Beach Towels too!
Plumbline Pro Phone Default Replacement (Silver)
University Life Alpha Omega Door Fix
IP Hanging Lantern Fix
ITF Perigee Planter Fix
Store
Sharper Edge Window Fix - this one prevents crashes!
Store Fixes: Route Fail
Hang Ten Edit
UI
Dark Cloud Pink UI
S4 to S3 Likes Icon Overhaul
Pretty Pause Frame
Subtle Build Grid Active Level Only
Object Placement Outlines Redesign
The Sims Sans
University Life Visual Fixes
CAS Room Replacement TS2 to TS3
The Sims 4 UI Sounds for The Sims 3
Sims 2 Audio & Musical Cues Replacement
* The last two will show as a conflict in the Dashboard but I haven't had any issues! I think in some cases one may override the other but nbd!
(thanks @simspaghetti for the sounds and CAS room recs! tried them out from your resource page and have been obsessed since)
