Tag Archives: mods

Getting Started, Modding

A Look at Mods for Sims 3 – Getting Started

Yesterday, we looked at NRAAS mods that will help fix issues with the Sims 3 game.

Today, we’ll look at more NRAAS mods – these will start changing how you play the game.

An update from the Story Progression mod
Story Progression update

Story Progression – I actually ran my game for ages without this one, until I learned how to fix the settings so I wasn’t being notified about everyone in town. I recommend reading this (quick couple paragraphs) and changing the settings they say – it’ll save you having to learn the stories about everyone in your town, unless you want to. Of all the mods on this list, this one will probably affect your game the most noticeably. The only issue I have with it is that sometimes I have to go in and change the settings because the game already had plans for the sim that my sim is interested in. That’s a fairly easy fix though, and other than that, I love it. :)

Picture of the dreams panel in the game
Dreams and wishes are controlled by Dreamer

Dreamer – I love this one. It controls dreams and Wishes, allowing you to complete a wish without

adding it to your 4 choices, and adjusts how long dreams and wishes remain available.

<3 Traveler <3 – One of my very favorites; this helps with issues when sims travel between worlds, along with doing a lot of other things, like letting you decide whether the sims in the travel worlds should age normally, allowing you to move to a travel world or stop the time clock so you can spend as long there as you’d like, oh, and it allows you to use each world you own as a vacation world, so you can send your sims to the beach for a visit. :)

A view of the vacation chooser with Aurora Skies showing as the designation.
Traveler turns all the worlds into vacation designations.

Last, but definitely not least, this list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning Master Controller and Debug Enabler.

There is so much to both of these, that it is hard to just casually mention them in a blog post. I will come back later and post more about what you can do with each of them, but for now, Master Controller lets you manage your sim and the population of your town. You can max motives, make the selected sim your active sim, enter CAS to edit the selected sim, etc. If you played Sims 2 and remember the tombstone of Life and Death, you can do almost everything that you could do there.

Debug Enabler takes it even further. With the two added to your game, there’s really not much of anything that you might want to do to your sim that’s not possible (except for turning your sim’s head into a cupcake – that’s only possible in Sims 4).

The first screen you see for Master Controller
The Initial Screen for Master Controller
Showing the advanced choices for Master Controller
Choices under the Advanced option for Master Controller
Getting Started, Modding

A Look at Mods for the Sims 3 – Basics

I <3 NRAAS mods. They are the only game-changing mods I will use. I have almost all of them and can’t really imagine my game without them now.

This first post will focus on the basic mods that are good for everyone to have. They help with basic issues in the game (like routing).

Error Trap – Be warned, this mod produces Script Error files in your Sims folder. The errors aren’t from this program, they are the errors from your game. I just delete them about once a week or so, although if you have a recurring issue, you can always post them on the Nraas site and let them figure out what’s causing the issue.

An image of script errors in a Sims 3 folder
GoHere – You want this one. You won’t even notice it’s there, but once you’ve used it, you’ll notice it’s absence (it’s a routing program).

Image of Overwatch in the Sims 3
Overwatch

Overwatch – Quoting from the site, “This mod’s purview is the correction of persistent or recurring errors produced by the Core game or other mods.” In other words, one of the most necessary of all Twallan’s mods. Also allows you to turn on TestingCheatsEnabled so that you don’t have to redo it every time you start playing.

Register – Helps fix some of the bugs in the game related to tourists, cashiers, etc.

Saver – <3 Automatically brings up the save box at whatever time period you specify. This has saved me sooooo many times. It also brings up the box when you’re in the middle of a build, the only way I’ve seen to save during a build. I love this one. :)

And that’s it for today. Tomorrow, I’ll share about a few fun mods that can make a major difference to your game.