Today is a big day in for simmers: the Sims 4 base game is now free-to-play! For new players, we have rounded up a collection of some essential and/or simply good-to-have mods and resources to get you started on your new journey!
Note that when downloading anything from The Sims Resource, all content gets checked by a team of experienced senior artists. Content is checked for completeness (I.E. all textures, meshes, and materials, etc being updated appropriately) as well as for performance markers like poly counts, LOD reductions, and texture sizes. Content is also play tested in game for placement issues, animations, deformations, including checking lots and rooms for routing and pathing accessibility to ensure that all content is fully functioning and usable.
Getting Started
First, jumping into a new game and community comes with an entire language of its own. Jezi has broken down some of the key terms you’re likely to see while out and about in the community.
Second, I have a general guide hosted on our forums that covers installing Custom Content.
NOTE: Some mods may contain special installation instructions that differ from that of standard Custom Content. Always make sure to check for any documentation for any mods that you are installing!
Contents
The Difference Between “Mods” and “Custom Content”
Mods versus Custom Content
Mods
- EA: The game itself considers all 3rd party content to be a “mod.”
- Community: The Simming community generally considers “mods” to be something that alters some aspect of gameplay. This is more specific than how EA and the game label mods. A few common examples of mods include things that change sims’ behavior in some way, things that add additional interactions or gameplay, or things that change the game interface.
Custom Content
- Custom Content (or “CC) refers to additional content that is being added into the game for mostly cosmetic reasons. This refers to clothing, hair, makeup, objects, wallpaper/flooring, etc. If it’s functionally already in the game, but just looks different, then it’s usually CC.
This is an important distinction when troubleshooting content. Mods, depending on their complexity, will often break with game patches and updates. If a mod alters an aspect of the game, and then that part of the game is updated, the creator of that mod will have to update it to match the changes to the game. It is a common occurrence for some mods to break with almost every update.
Outdated mods are one of the most common causes of game issues. As such, you’ll often see people asking, “Do you have any mods in your game?”
Broken Custom Content
Custom Content, on the other hand, is much less likely to break or cause issues. However, regular custom content (or “CC”) can still break when EA updates an entire class of content.
These changes are handled via an automated “Batch Fix,” in which an entire class of content gets fixed in one large batch. TSR runs batch fixes on the entire server as needed to keep content up to date. As a user, there are also smaller batch fixes that you can download and run on your personal Mods folder to fix your downloaded content.
Useful Mods for Beginners
There are an unbelievable number of Mods out there! Anything you can think of, there’s probably a mod for it.
TwistedMexi
TwistedMexi is an extremely prolific modder who has an assortment of all kinds of very useful mods. We have a selection of TwistedMexi’s mods on TSR, and he also has his own website with even more mods.
T.O.O.L
T.O.O.L, which stands for “Take Objects Off Lot,” allows nearly infinite customization of an object’s placement in the game. Rotation, location, height, size and scale, etc, can all be set beyond the standard placement of what the game allows. If you’re the creative type who likes to build, T.O.O.L will be a must-have!
Better BuildBuy
Better BuildBuy incorporates a multitude of various fixes and adjustments into making Build and Buy mode a better place to spend time. Some features include being able to expand the size of the catalog, significantly revamped filters for finding debug and hidden content, as well as turning some cheats into persistent toggle options.
Download Better BuildBuy on TSR here.
Better Exceptions
The Better Exceptions mod isn’t a gameplay mod, per se, but it can be invaluable in troubleshooting your game with other mods or broken CC.
By default, if and/or when the game encounters an exception (or error), it’ll silently write that into an obscure text file. Better Exceptions changes this behavior to actually alert you when an exception has occurred. It creates a much more detailed report, including possible causes and solutions.
When you encounter exceptions relating to mods or Custom Content, a Better Exceptions report is a great place to start troubleshooting, and is often a big help when provided to the original creator of the mod or content in question.
Download Better Exceptions on TSR here.
More CAS Columns
Image credit: weerbesu
This mod is fairly simple and it does exactly what it says: it adds additional columns into Create-A-Sim.
Create-A-Sim defaults to only two columns, which makes it pretty difficult to browse large amounts of content. With this mod, you can increase that to 3, 4, or 5 columns instead! This allows you see significantly more content at once when creating your sims.
Note that the three size options are dependent on your screen resolution. In order you properly display more columns, you’ll need to be using a larger resolution to accommodate the extra columns. The specific minimum sizes are listed with the mod download.
You can download More CAS Columns here on weerbesu’s Patreon page.
ReShade (Advanced)
Many users, creators, and builders make use of a framework called ReShade. You may notice that a lot of screenshots you’ll see look different than what your game does, and it’s probably thanks to ReShade.
ReShade is a general-purpose framework that can be used with a wide variety of programs and games, it’s not specifically for The Sims 4, but it does work for TS4.
There are many tutorials and guides for setting up ReShade and using various presets. For example,
- KatverseCC has an illustrated guide here that covers installing ReShade for TS4.
- SnootySims also has an article here, although it does not include any images.
There are also an infinite number of presets you can download that will adjust all of the settings towards a specific style/aesthetic. There is no central location for ReShade information as it pertains to The Sims 4, but there are a great number of individual users and creators who have written tutorials and shared presets if you’re willing to search for them.
The official website for ReShade can be found here, but do keep in mind that it is a generic piece of software and is not specifically designed for The Sims 4.
Create-A-Sim High Quality Mod (HQ Mod)
The Sims 4 uses a performance-oriented rendering system that, in some cases, severely limits the amount of detail that artists can put into their creations.
The HQ Mod was created to alleviate this limitation, and allows sims to have much more detail and depth.
However, be warned that EA made the game within certain limitations for a reason. The increased size of the assets making up the CC result in this mod being about 26GB, as of the time of writing this. (It grows with every pack.)
This mod also requires your game to be on “Very high” graphical settings. If your computer cannot handle the game at higher settings, or if you are playing on the Legacy edition of the game, then the HQ mod is not a good choice and will negatively affect your game’s performance.
You can read more about the set up for HQ mod and download the necessary files here.
RAVASHEEN
Ravasheen has a massive assortment of gameplay-related mods that add in all kinds of new gameplay elements and interactions.
From entirely new content to expanding the functionality of pre-existing in-game content, RAVASHEEN has countless collections of mods and CC that you can use to bring life in your game!
You can view her TSR profile and check out some of her content here.
She also maintains her own website, with a full listing of all of her content.
MSQSIMS
MSQSIMS maintains a large assortment of quality-of-life mods that alter, tweak, and adjust various aspects of the game – typically addressing issues that players often find annoying or limiting in some way.
You can check out MSQSIM’s profile on TSR here.
Pose Player
The Pose Player, by Andrew on the Sims 4 Studio forums, is a widely-loved mod that allows you to use custom poses for your sims when taking screenshots and telling stories.
There are thousands of poses available for download, for sims of all ages, and for individual sims as well as larger groups.
TSR has a category for poses that you can take a look through here.
“Just Love” by Couquett – Download Here
Also used in conjunction with the pose player is the “Teleport Any Sim” mod, also posted in Andrew’s studio above. This mod simply allows you place the statues and then teleport a sim to be standing in that location – a must-have for when you are trying to pose multiple sims!
Cheats
Lastly, and some would argue most importantly, The Sims 4 has a plethora of cheats! There are cheats that do everything from giving your sims money, to changing their skills, needs, relationships, etc – you name it, there is a cheat that can do it!
Jezi has compiled a very handy list of cheats here that you can save for future reference!
Final Thoughts
For new players who are just starting, there is a whirlwind of content and mods to explore! If you can think it, it probably exists!
If you do encounter any issues with your game in general, a good place to start is over at EA’s Answers HQ. EA also monitors the bugs being reported, which they collect into a monthly “Laundry List” of things to investigate.
As a good reference, there is also this thread over at Answers HQ where mod issues are tracked across various game updates and pack releases as mods become outdated.
If you run into any issues when using content you’ve found here on TSR, there is a “Report” button on every item – this will let you send a quick note to the staff about any issues you are experience with that content.
If you run into any issues with TSR’s website, or with your TSR account, you can contact our Support Center.
