Thanks for your kindness. I really don't know anything and I've already learned something new, that you can merge all those files inside Sims 4 Studio, which is a tool I was not even aware of. Yes backups are very important, I never thought the scope of Sims 4 was so big, it basically endless for what I have seem so far. There is so much, models can be so detailed, I've downloaded some stuff to see how it would pan out and I was very pleasantly surprised at the results.
Is there anything with the basics anyone should know? I mean, I've already read the first page and did as told and everything is working as intended. I like to take time and organize everything properly, so modding sometimes for me is more enjoying than actually playing.
Hey no prob - so the basics in terms of Mod Management. For starters, seems to be a bigger issue than it actually is. Essentially all mods go into two different folders, either Mods or Tray. Basically if it's not a house or a Sim itself, it goes into the Mod folder, those two, the Tray.
As for managing the Tray folder, dont bother.
Managing the Mod Folder - everyone has their own style on how to manage it. I used to do by creator, now I just do by theme - example, Building, Body, Clothing, Animation, TraitsAspirations, etc. Toss the appropriate mod into the folder.
Youll notice your game slow down as you add more mods. Its not the size of the mod that is the issue, but rather the NUMBER of mods that will slow your game down. Which brings us to merging.
Merging is very simple. Download Sims 4 Studio, free. Simple Google should pop you right there. Run it. Up the top, youll see a section called "Content" Click that, click Merge. A box opens up (think Windows File Explorer). Go to appropriate folder and select all the mods that you want to merge. Now just a heads up - there is a SIZE limit for how big the merge can be, but for example, Ill do clothing like MergedClothingAtoFJan1.package for a file name and grab all clothes that begin with A to F. Then next bunch, G to whatever.
If for whatever reason the "merge" fails, itll show that a majority/portion of the merge was done but will list all the files that weren't merged (you ran out of space). I usually just delete and redo with just selecting less. This will take about 5 or so minutes a pop if you're doing large files. (probably less than that really)
Lastly - Bulk Rename Utility - is another free program that you may want to consider. What this does is rename the files - why do you want to do that? Supposedly the game takes longer as it reads each character in each mod and has to convert characters that aren't letters. So folks will take a file named say [EA Sucks]Baseball_bat.package and itll be changed to EASucksBaseballbat.package.
Again doesnt take long to go through - just need to replace each character at a time (space, dashes, underscores, brackets, etc)
Alrighty, think that covers it in terms of managing mods. GL grasshopper.
