Neighborly Sims 3

It's become increasingly clear that it's next to impossible to share TS3 creations and give credit for CC that others have created, that you've used in your creation.

Even though recolored EA items (i.e. original EA chairs, sinks, or whatever that have been recolored using the in-game patterns) do come up in our buy/build catalogs with the little asterisk (*) on them, they do NOT show which Simmer may have originally come up with that recolored combination.

As a matter of fact, most times you can't even truly see in the build/buy catalogs, what an asterisked item is going to look like, until you try it! To me, it's usually just easier to make my own combination, in the first place, even though I might have actually made that combination in an earlier Lot or Sim file! I do save my recolors as I go, knowing that the last one to appear is the one I'm using in any given lot build. That way, I can go through the lot and always choose that combo.

Once I go on to the next lot, though, I would be hard put to remember what I used, where, and when, in any OTHER lot I've made! It all runs together, pretty fast.

Then there are the downloads of brand new patterns, pictures, and now skins, that I've made. Since I don't download at the Exchange unless it's from one of you members here who have linked to their own files, then I know that I have CC by myself, Kat, Lisa, Susan, and a couple of others. Unfortunately, that CC does NOT show up with any identification in the game! It simply gets listed right alongside all the original EA stuff, with absolutely no way of identifying that it IS, even, in fact, CC!

Nobody, as far as I know, has found a way to even get a creator name imprinted anywhere in the CC. Once it's in your game, if you don't have a printed record of it somewhere (or if you have a photographic memory, which I don't), then you're up a creek! There's no way to accurately give credit where credit might be due!

Then there's the fact that even if you DID give the proper credit, all that means is that unless you identify for each lot or Sim you upload somewhere, the parts that someone would need to download to go WITH that lot or Sim, or if you pack up those parts WITH the lot of Sim, the downloader isn't going to fully get what you created, anyway, because the game is going to substitute something else, entirely, for the CC you put in the lot when you were building it!

So...what that means to us, here, is that the best we can do, at this point, is to make a statement that says, in effect, "I have used CC in this lot/Sim, that I or someone else may have created. Please be aware that this means that what you see in my pictures, may or may not be exactly what you get when you download this lot/Sim. TS3 will substitute something that it deems is "of like value" in your game. If you want to have exactly what you see in my pictures, ask me, and I'll endeavor to discover what it is, and give you the link to download it yourself. Otherwise, you should know that you may be getting something slightly different than what I created in my own game."

I'm sorry, but that's what EA has left us with, at this point in time. If you want to share your creations, and don't want to have to deal with a disclaimer similar to this one, then the only thing I can suggest is not to download or use any CC at all--not even in-game recolors, which is part and parcel of what TS3 is about.

Well said Linda...I do hope that sometime in the future some other way can be devised, either by EA or someone in the community...who usually provide the most useful stuff anyway.

Ah that's nice a clear Linda thank you.

Yes I wish we could tell whats cc and whats not but its very difficult, I try not to use any but my own but still have asked Poppy to check for me that they were in game patterns and not custom ones.

I do have some cc in my game that the thumbnail shows with the creators name or symbol, have to find out how they do that, wish they'd put that in all the programs to make cc with


Also EA has left us with no real means of communication, you can't just post at a Gurus Guestbook or anything, that may be happening at facebook or twitter but I've not ever done facebook or twitter, I feel like its bad customer service

I agree, Susan. I know you've even tried to identify your patterns, but that it disappears in the game, right? I'm thinking that was you, anyway. It might have been SimGnome or Kat...can't remember for sure.

I suppose we could all make our initials in a corner of our designs, but that would make them pop up all over whatever the new pattern is used on, since the patterns are tiled on everything. Yuck!

Yes it was me but it was a custom picture not a pattern, I suppose if I got off my lazy bum and searched hard enough I could find where to learn what to do to change the thumbnail_lol

I did some searches and may have found some things but I kept getting knocked off line so I'll try again later, I searched for how to change the sims3 thumbnail but when I clicked on things my internet cut out each time.

Well, that's weird! Maybe it's something we're not supposed to learn yet, or something!

It's like the took one step forward with this game and another back

lol, yep I think the saying is two steps forward one step back, have you heard that in the UK?

Yes...that's right

I wonder how many of our sayings are the same : )

I'll bet lots of them

I'm sure we've all heard, "Pretty is, as pretty does!"

Anyone have another?

I've not heard that one Linda...but my grandma always said blood is thicker than water.

You can't choose your family but you can choose your friends.

On that same type of thought- my kids say "You can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose."

I've heard (and love) all of the above except that last one (eeewww...grin), which reminds me of one from the Bible, which says, "Take the beam out of your own eye, before you try to take one out of someone else's eye!"

I've only heard Wendy's one...that one is too funny Anika!

I've heard that one, Anika. Too funny.

How about -- "you can't teach an old dog new tricks."

Know that one well Lydia.