Mods said to clash

I'm wondering if someone can take a look at this. I asked on MTS if CJ's Visitors behave clashed with anything assuming it would only clash with similar mods to prevent visitor behavior of which I have none. I was told that it showed up as a possible conflict with Pescado's Creaturefixes. Yikes, I don't want anything that would clash with a game saving mod like that. But the HCDU only shows possible conflicts and not all of them are. Could someone take a look or be able to tell if this is a real clash. I can't see why it should be, but since it is a Pes mod perhaps there are hidden things in it.
CJ's mod http://www.cyjon.net/node/227 I was wanting to stop them using the computer and work out bar.
CF http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/in...pic=1482.0

Hidden features or not, if there *is* a conflict, HCDU will show it. If it did not show conflicts between these two mods, there is nothing to investigate.
And after reading the descriptions, I cannot imagine that there would be any conflicts between these two. I wonder who was the panic monger that told you there would be possible issues. Makes no sense to me.

Besides, I have both of these mods in my game, and have never noticed any trouble. Really, this is a storm in a glass of water.

Someone on MTS ran the HCDU for me (since it often refuses to work for me) and said it showed up as a conflict. I thought that was worth investigating. Then gummilutt came back and said it was something to do with witches and an interaction called unclaim.

I don't think anyone is scare mongering, just reporting what they found.

Ok, so there is a conflict. I've used this combo for years now, and have never had any problems.

Unclaim is something to do with the witches' cauldrons. If you claim a cauldron, only you can use it. Unclaim is the option to make the cauldron available for others again. Apparently, there was something that needed fixing. I'm certain that Cyjon's fix has something to do with preventing visiting witches from trying to use your cauldron. But if you never play any witches and never visit the witches' secret lots, this is totally irrelevant to you. And if you *do* play witches, just make sure that Cyjon's mod loads last, and everything is fine.

I do play witches occasionally, although I have none yet in this new sims 2 folder.

So to make it load last does that mean just adding some zzz to the front of the file name or would it be best if I also placed it in the same folder as creature fixes as well?

It's smartest to sort mods by author. So you should put all Pescado mods in a folder Pescado (or JMP or MATY) and all Cyjon mods in a folder named Cyjon. But because the game will load stuff in alphabetical order, the Cyjon folder would then load first. So you put some zzz's in front of Cyjon's folder.

I do not advise ever changing the names of the mods themselves. They are easier to find if you keep their original names.
Also, some modders want their own mods sorted in a specific way to make everything work properly. (I do that myself, too). Adding zzz's in front of a mod's name would upset that order. The method I named above is really the safest, because it also prevents having two copies of a mod.

Sorry, double-post alert!

I just thought I should upload a picture of what my Hacks & Mods folder looks like, so you get a feel for properly sorting mods.

   


My Hacks and mods folder contains 440 files in 32 folders. Surprisingly, there are only a *few* conflicts, but they are kept under control by the way I've sorted them.
Also, as you can see, in my setup Pescado's mods load absolutely first. There is a good reason for that: his mods are among the oldest, and he *never EVER* made an effort to make his mods compatible with those of others. Other modders did and do. When they write a new mod, they consider what happens when you combine them with older stuff. That's logical. So newer mods should generally load after older mods, in order to properly take care of benign load-order conflicts.

I hope this helps.

Thank you, your folder looks so nice and tidy... unlike mine. Eep, I am guilty of changing the names of a few mods by putting zzz in front of the file name, I did that yesterday with CJ's mod. I didn't realize just doing the folder would be enough.

My mods folder is also rather messy. I do have some Pes mods in a MATY folder but not all and some are loose inside the Mods folder. Yes I know it should be more organized.

I notice you have used numbers, does the game load those in order as well? So 000 will load first?

Edit: the problem I have with just going by creator names is that I like to have mods on the same topic together. My Uni folder is a good case in point. I like to have all my uni mods together. In there I have Squinge's mega pack, College adjuster by twojeffs, harder grades-term required by Ancient Highway, Phaenoh's major revamp as well as a few other mods. If I split them up into creator folders I would not know where they are or remember what I have. I have over 1000 mods. Not all are global I have modded objects in there as well.

Yeah, folder 000 - loads before folder 001 et cetera. Folder 999 - the last folder - is the one that I have my own mods in, loading after everything else.

Really, having mods grouped by topic may *seem* a good idea. But once you start renaming mods to fix load order, it gets problematic. Soon you can no longer tell from a mod's name if you have it or not, because the copy that you have is named slightly differently. And since it isn't sorted by author, you cannot look it up that easily either!
If mods are sorted by author, you only need to know who made a mod, and then you know exactly in which folder to look if you already have that. Also, mods of a single modder will hardly ever conflict with eachother, unless it was intended that way. So within the folder for - let's say - Squinge's mods, you would not need to sort his mods to resolve conflicts.

I would not put modded objects in the Hacks and mods folder. A hacked object does not conflict with others, unless those others are hacks of exactly the same object. I have the non-global stuff ordered in a similarly strict fashion... On the other hand, things like the College Adjuster and Sim Blender - for example - may be modded objects, but I have them sorted with my Hacks too, because they do not directly mod the object itself. I would not put SimBlender in with the Potted Plants, for example, because it doesn't change potted plants. It only looks like one superficially.
But just for your information, I'll let you get a glimpse of how I sort objects...

   

For example: all Arches, Doors and Windows are in the folder named... Exactly! Special Surfaces is where I put all OMSP type mods objects. Garden is full of garden plants, shrubs, trees, lawn chairs and stuff of that nature. Kitchen is full of appliances, and so on. And WTF is the folder for Walls, Terrains and Floors!
Within each folder, stuff may again be sub-foldered by author. I do not dump Leefish's doors into the same folder as anyone else's doors.

If only my RL stuff was sorted this orderly... That's a mess, though.

Hmm. Personally I have all my mods together in one folder called "ZZZmods" so it loads last, and keep my other CC in folders sorted by type. I used to sort by creator but now I find it more intuitive to sort by type, since it keeps similar items together and I don't always remember who made what. When I need to find, for example, all mods that affect vampires, I just run a search on the the folder for "vamp". And I've heard that using spaces and special characters (anything other than letters, numbers, - and _) slows down game load times, so I've removed those from all filenames and folder names.

I like hearing how other people sort their CC - it gives me ideas and is just interesting - but ultimately I think there's no one way that works best for everyone. We have to each do it the way that's most intuitive for us.