Tips and tricks - Never too late to learn or share

[landess]

Sometimes we learn something a lot later that would've been nice to know. I've decided to start this post to do just that - pass on useful information which may have passed player's notice.

 

I have started too many new saves on too many worlds to not have known this - yet I would always start from scratch, starting a new save/world and then having to go into menus to load settings and then tweak them for that particular world.

 

I had NO idea that 'moving' an existing household to a new world would automatically transfer all settings, even removing the need to start Kinky World for example - Everything (NRaas/Story Progression/etc.) was already 'running' as it did before with the original save.

 

Maybe I was the last 'simmer' to learn this . . . .

 

 

 

[Patriguz]

9 hours ago, landess said:

Maybe I was the last 'simmer' to learn this . . . .

 

 

 

No, you're not... I just found out. Thanks.  

[FreakyRufus]

15 hours ago, landess said:

'moving' an existing household to a new world would automatically transfer all settings

 

Since you mentioned NRaas, I just want to mention that there are several different ways to "move" to a new world. Are you talking about the base EA method of using the phone to "move"?

 

Other ways that are somewhat similar are to export a household and then move them in from the sim bin, or to use the NRaas Traveler method of moving, by traveling as if on a vacation and then changing stuff so that the world becomes your new home world. I would expect the Traveler method to keep the settings, but I have no idea of if exporting to the bin would keep settings.

[landess]

5 hours ago, FreakyRufus said:

Are you talking about the base EA method of using the phone to "move"?

 

Yes, Phone , then travel to edge of map - load a new world - transfers settings.

[Brisbane Australia]

This is a good idea for a topic, some points that were useful for me:

 

If you ever have to install TS3 again, install it on a SSD, even a small cheap one, they are way faster at loading TS3 than from a HDD and the time saved waiting it well worth the few $ and most people here have the computer tech skills to put one in.

 

Don't delete your original downloaded CC files, just save them somewhere, you never know when you might need them again and the original site may have gone or the person just took them down etc.

 

If you have Sims you like export them out as a backup from CAS. TS3 can corrupt requiring a reinstall and then those Sims are gone forever, unless you've exported them out that is 😉.

 

Making animations and poses for me has been one of them most fun aspects of TS3, I don't even play the game anymore, but I still like making Sims do "stuff" to post as  screenshots.  The leaning curve is steep but the reward was well worth it, start small with getting Blender and rigs actually working in the game, then move to poses, then as you figure those out move onto animations.  There are many animation tutorials available both here and on YouTube too.

 

S3PE is a really good tool for opening and looking at your package files, it's simple and works, seeing the files can give you lots of ideas how to modify packages for your own use.

 

If an old version of something works I'd rather stick to that, new versions can be slower have new bugs and conflicts with other stuff for little advantage.  Useful not just for TS3 but computers in general.

 

Read the instructions the creator gives with their mods, this can save you from lots of problems later on.

[FreakyRufus]

Something that I do which is probably a bit of overkill is in keeping lots of copies of save games. It has definitely helped me avoid having to completely abandon a save on more than one occasion.

 

What I do:

• use NRaas Saver to automatically save and rotate through 4 saves. I typically configure it to use 4 saves, and to prompt to save every 13 (or sometimes 17) minutes real time. There is nothing magical about that number. I chose it because it is close to 15 minutes, but not exactly 15 minutes. I also chose it because it is prime, which is more of a me thing than any technical reason. This gives me roughly 4 saves per hour. The mod will automatically append a number (1 to 4, in my case) to the name of the save you load from. For example, if you load "Sunset Valley.sims3", it will prompt to save "Sunset Valley1.sims3", etc.
• I never let it overwrite an existing save. Before it would overwrite, for example, save 1 with a new save 1, I rename the numbered saves, changing the save number with a timestamp. I have scripts that do this, because trying figure out the timestamp to use and formatting it manually would be a pain. Following the previous example, "Sunset Valley1.sims3" -> "Sunset Valley - 20250928-143923.sims3" would be used for an automated save that was created on September 28 at 2:39:23 PM. The most recent save game gets renamed just "Sunset Valley.sims3", and when renaming the saves, if "Sunset Valley.sims3" already existed, and there are newer saves, that gets a time stamp.
• At the end of a gaming session, I manually clean up timestamped saves:
  • I keep the very first save of any given month
  • I keep the first save each week, for up to roughly 1 month
  • I keep the first save on each date for up to 7 days
  • I keep the first save from each clock hour on the current day
  • I keep the most recent 4 saves
• My save retention plan lets me roll back whenever I run into corruption in a game, with decreasing levels of granularity the farther back in time I go
• I also use syncthing to sync all of my CC, game configs, etc, to a NAS, and all of my timestamped saves (everything without the NRaas numbers on the name). This includes deleting the saves that I "prune" and don't keep. The NAS is configured to snapshot the Sims 3 stuff every 30 minutes, and has a similar rotation strategy set up to keep or delete old snapshots.

This may seem like extreme overkill to some, but I just recently had a weird corruption issue in my game, where the game would just crash for no reason. I had to use some of my saves from my NAS snapshots and from full system backups to find the earliest save I had that didn't have corruption, without resorting to skipping whole months of gameplay. I was able to find a save at a granularity of roughly an hour between the previous and next saves that didn't have the corruption in it.

 

My setup did cost more to set up than some people might be willing to spend, but I've had it now for a few years, and it has saved my game multiple times. Well worth the expense to me.

[landess]

 

keeping lots of copies of save games

 

I only run the 4 and never needed to go back further than one although when I make a Major change or switch households,  I will either change the save series name or just make a copy and put it in my Saved Game save folder I made to store saves - usually older ones I no longer play but have access to should I need them - AND - also because the limit on number of save files The Sims 3 will recognize.  Around 100 saves and the launcher stops listing them all and one might think they went crazy when a recent save suddenly 'disappears' - they should still find it in the Documents save file folder for the Sims 3.

 

Another important reason is custom sims. I spend a great deal of time making Sims and to keep them ALL in either library (CAS - saved premades) or (Edit town Sim household library) would add extra EXTRA files the current game doesn't need, so the save storage folder is also an Archive of custom Sims - All I have to do is load a save and pull out the sims I want.

 

 

 

install it on a SSD

 

Back in '09' with few expansions/CC the classic HD was fine but yeah, as we turned the game into something that won't run on potato's (which was the whole reason they stayed 32bit - sell more copies) an SSD is almost a must have but it's probably safe to say most any modern systems sold today for any gaming will be way more than the programmers could've imagined and tends to expose the 32bit design as it's most obvious chokepoint.

 

 

 

 

I have made many posts in the past which could conceivably be useful here, so I will add links to those posts instead of making new or reposting them here. Once again anyone else with SIM3 tricks or treats, please post or link them. We have multiple posts dealing with the sex mods and while always helpful, this is more focused on the game itself although being more efficient in any mod use does help the default game which is the purpose as well.

[landess]

 

This link is to a post I made in the 'Where Can I Find' section and deals with customizing accessory toenails.

[jjp7373]

Could you tell me the hair mod in the second screenshot?

[landess]

23 hours ago, jjp7373 said:

Could you tell me the hair mod in the second screenshot?

 

2nd from the top in the first post?

 

The ink we type with is free - go ahead and spend a bit more explaining or even reference the image in your posts. By referencing a post the post creators will get a notification when I log in just like the one you got from this.

 

Also if you would - make the reference in the REQUEST AND FIND section using any post as your reference/copy and that would bring us to your post in the proper place for requests so this post I made remains on point - since there is already a section for that use and others will benefit as well with those 'answers' being in a place they can scan for CC.

[jjp7373]

17 hours ago, landess said:

 

2nd from the top in the first post?

 

The ink we type with is free - go ahead and spend a bit more explaining or even reference the image in your posts. By referencing a post the post creators will get a notification when I log in just like the one you got from this.

 

Also if you would - make the reference in the REQUEST AND FIND section using any post as your reference/copy and that would bring us to your post in the proper place for requests so this post I made remains on point - since there is already a section for that use and others will benefit as well with those 'answers' being in a place they can scan for CC.

Thank you for the explanation. I'll refer to it in future posts. The hair I'm asking about is the second photo in the text.

(English isn't my native language, so I'm a little awkward. I hope you understand.)

Edited October 4, 2025 by jjp7373

[landess]

21 hours ago, jjp7373 said:

the second photo

 

[landess]

 

If you take the Tattoo Artist NPC into CAS to customize them and you remove the default EA tattoos designed for the NPC's spawned to work at the Salon, the next time the game creates them to go to work, they will have all those default tattoos again.

 

They must have at least one Tattoo applied to avoid the 'reset'.

 

This photo is of one I recently experimented with to learn this information. I had removed all tattoos and chose an accessory tattoo and the next day the OG tattoos were back, so I repeated the process to remove them and added one to the upper left shoulder - it appears to work as it continued to look like this every day since.

 

 

[landess]

This is a request more or less.

 

I have some CC I want to modify. The packages in question are ankle bindings with 'chains' attached which lie behind the foot on the floor. There are wrist versions with no chains and I would like to have the same for the ankles - no chains.

 

I did some research yet so much Sims 4 stuff invades a Sims 3 search it becomes disheartening after awhile.

 

I guess the best course for now is to make the request known and to upload the CC in question.

 

If I could simply pull the image from the CC through S3PE, use paint to clear the 'textures' of the chain and then place the modified version back - leaving only the anklet part 'colored', save it and 'reinstall', that would be the best but it seems a bit beyond me given my lack of knowledge about the guts of modding.

 

These are the items in question (disregard) I removed them and have uploaded the set below for anyone else

 

If someone would explain the details of doing so, I'll gladly do it myself - if not and someone makes the modification themselves and up loads the chainless version - that would work as well although we wouldn't learn anything from it.

 

Either - Or      Works for me in the end.

 

 

This is the original location of the find:

https://thesims3medievalfinds.tumblr.com/page/20

Edited October 19, 2025 by landess

[Brisbane Australia]

Okay I had a go at this... (lucky it's the weekend), I had a problem in that I can't find where or what section of clothing this is in CAS.  This creates the problem in that I can't actually see what the item is like in the game or if my mod has actually worked or not.

 

You'll have to test it out because I don't know if it does, or tell me where the item is located in CAS.

 

My mod operation worked like this:

 

1) Download from landess.

 

2) Open packages in S3PE.

 

3) Extract the GEOM files out to Windows.  Usually there are 3 GEOMs, high detail for close up, medium and poor detail for far away.  However here there only appears to be chains on the high detail GEOM.

 

4) Import into Milkshape using Wesley Howe's built in Milkshape importer for GEOMs.

 

5) Select and delete vertexes of chains (see spoiler pic).

 

6) Export back out of Milkshape using Wesley's GEOM exporter in Milkshape.

 

7) In S3PE overwrite the old chains GEOM with the modded GEOM without chains.

 

8 ) Save.

 

Did this for both left and right but dunno if it works or not as explained.

The legendary ladysmoks showed me how to do this in Blender but I've used Milkshape here today because it's fast and I'm used to it.

In theory the mod *may* work because there isn't anything else changed other than deleting the chain vertices but until I see it I don't know 😄!

 

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

Kyrie_Slave anklet Left (Acc)(BA Mod).package

Kyrie_Slave anklet Right (Acc)(BA Mod).package

[landess]

22 hours ago, Brisbane Australia said:

You'll have to test it out because I don't know if it does, or tell me where the item is located in CAS

 

These appear in the Accessories Tab of the clothing options in CAS. I usually find them at the top of the 'socks' location near the bottom of the content listed.

 

I may have to do some changing to the 'Grid' part of the CASP section to include genders and teen/adult use as it seems flagged only for adult males in the original download.

 

22 hours ago, Brisbane Australia said:

Okay I had a go at this...

 

You certainly did!        I already see without several 'tools' there's nothing I could do with the files and 'Windows' alone.

 

I did somehow years ago manage to 'swap' something in a body texture file that gave 'penis' textures for a female skin to use with the 'trans' option in KW so the females didn't have 'plastic' penises, but that was so long ago that when I looked at this one I hadn't a clue how I did it and was unable to even try given what I was seeing in S3PE for the chains. I didn't want to lose the loop on the 'anklet' which the chain was attached to for starters and the entire file holding said textures is 'quite an eyeful'.

 

I will give this a try now and also hope there isn't a conflict with the originals which I've previously 'folded' into a larger combined package. If so I'll just have to rebuild that package without the originals.

 

Has anyone told you lately "You're the Best!". 

[landess]

36 minutes ago, landess said:

I will give this a try now

 

@Brisbane Australia

 

This is the full set now - it appears to have 'overwritten' (superseded) the originals as they no longer appear as another option. Works for me! If you want the whole set for examination on why there appears to be no chains on the wrists while the file in S3PE shows them the same as the ankles, I'll upload the set since this was also a major reason for my confusion. Perhaps the mesh was changed? Beyond my skills . . . 

 

 

Oh, here's the set:

 

Kyrie_slave Binding instrument.zip

[landess]

1 hour ago, landess said:

I may have to do some changing to the 'Grid' part of the CASP section to include genders and teen/adult use as it seems flagged only for adult males in the original download

 

Okay - looking at this part I realized the flags were for Males: Teen through Elder.

I opened them up and changed to include Female (anklets) as the Wrists I mentioned early already seem to have been 'tampered' with - as they have no chains and ARE flagged for females, but not the collar or ankles.

 

Here's how I did that:

 

 

 

After dragging the .package into the empty window of S3PE and authorizing import/denying save after, I found the CASP entry (near top here) and selected it.

 

At the bottom center is a selection for GRID. This brings up the window I placed left of S3PE and have opened the sub-menus to the female selection (true/false).

 

After changing this (or other changes you players may want to try without having NRaas/CAS settings allow everything for everybody) Just save the file - Top Left.

 

I generally copy the file name and add something to identify the change so for these I added (Gender) to the existing name and saved them. I tried them in game.

 

 

Mission accomplished.

[Brisbane Australia]

20 hours ago, landess said:

 

Okay - looking at this part I realized the flags were for Males: Teen through Elder.

I opened them up and changed to include Female (anklets) as the Wrists I mentioned early already seem to have been 'tampered' with - as they have no chains and ARE flagged for females, but not the collar or ankles.

 

Here's how I did that:

 

Mission accomplished.

 

Yeeeaaaaa! 100% awesome!

 

Well I learned something too, I've used the grid before to do my animation sounds but I didn't know you could change the clothing flags in S3PE.

Usually I would use S3OC, similar to S3PE but more useful for cloning packages for modding, however my sim's don't wear enough clothes for me to spend the time modding them.  TSRW is a even more fancy version of that too.  I've found over time I accumulate different software tools for modding and one program does one step while the other does not so multiple programs are needed.

 

With the inconsistent M/F flags perhaps the original modder changed their mind halfway though and thought nobody would notice   .

 

🏆 Today landess joins the mod world, even though they are only flag mods for now everybody starts somewhere and if you're happy with the result then that's all you need .

 

(((((( maaaaan you play a lot of games! ))))))))

[landess]

Added this from a conversation in another post:

 

 

[Brisbane Australia]

Blue sky windows.

 

 

In some of my screenshots the windows have a very blue sky.

 

I make this using an internal window and colored ceiling lights set to blue, but any other color can be used for various effect too.  The walls of the internal room should be white or some light color for best effect.

 

[Patriguz]

At the risk of stating the obvious, but in case it inspires anyone, I'll explain a bit about how I create my photo backdrops.

 

 

 

 

In a basement, I place the backgrounds or landscapes I need (Venusprincess, Jennysims, or Ulito4Ka have many on various themes).

 

 

In front of them, I build a wall with windows, and between the wall and the landscape, I place a light rectangle using the "Buydebug" cheat.

 

 

 

That's it! Decorate the room, and you have your Sim in the environment you want. You can also create a fake street using the fake facades from Martassimsbook and place the Sim in front of the door.

 

 

[Brisbane Australia]

Turns out if you have the MoveObjectsOn cheat on you can also move the sims while an animation is playing using the Alt Key.

 

I'm sure all the experts already knew this but I only discovered it today while trying to solve an alignment issue.

Usually I move the sims using Blender (I just unplug the blender and throw it at them - aim for his nuts).

landess originally told me about the Alt key ages ago, I never knew.

 

Sims moved, example using the famous Amra72 animation.

[landess]

3 hours ago, Brisbane Australia said:

the Alt Key

 

I knew to use   MoveObjects On   to move Sims while in Build/Buy mode - mostly so I could place an object/furniture/etc. where they block such action.

 

Works the same for animations while the game is paused in that mode.

 

So using the ALT key   OUTSIDE   of Build/Buy with the moveobjects 'cheat' turned on does the same thing? Time to try it out. (I've moved sims in animations before so they appeared to be "doing it" somewhere 'unique').

 

 

[Brisbane Australia]

8 hours ago, landess said:

So using the ALT key   OUTSIDE   of Build/Buy with the moveobjects 'cheat' turned on does the same thing? Time to try it out. (I've moved sims in animations before so they appeared to be "doing it" somewhere 'unique').

 

Sorry my mistake I didn't write clearly.  Enable cheat > Start animation > enter Build/Buy mode > move sims > exit Build/Buy and continue animation.