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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 10th Mar 2019 at 7:53 PM
Default Utility: HCDU
Hack Conflict Detector. Google took me to an old thread on MTS, where a link took to a ransom site! Another one said it was on MTS downloads - I can't find. Another (from 2017) had a link that went to a download page, where it would not download.
So now that I think I need to try it..where is it?

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
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Mad Poster
#3 Old 11th Mar 2019 at 2:02 AM
Bulbizarre salvaged the contents of SimWardrobe, so you can also find the HCDU here (Sims2HCDU-02.00.03.zip)

https://simfileshare.net/folder/15697/
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#4 Old 11th Mar 2019 at 8:35 PM
And now to find out how to use. The most credible advice I've heard is that if 2 mods are listed, they DO conflict, and you have to remove one, or have one load last. But how can you tell? And when I used it (long ago) I remember it showing 2 (or MORE!) conflict, when I knew all had been working find and I couldn't see any problems. How to diagnose? What to do?

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Alchemist
#5 Old 11th Mar 2019 at 9:16 PM
Quote: Originally posted by grammapat
And now to find out how to use. The most credible advice I've heard is that if 2 mods are listed, they DO conflict, and you have to remove one, or have one load last. But how can you tell? And when I used it (long ago) I remember it showing 2 (or MORE!) conflict, when I knew all had been working find and I couldn't see any problems. How to diagnose? What to do?


Not always. Sometimes omods are known to "conflict" but the creators intended them to work together, anyway, so research is still needed.

The only inconvenient thing about HCDU is that I have to rename my game path from
C:\Users...Documents\EA Games\The Simsâ„¢ 2 Ultimate Collection
to
C:\Users...Documents\EA Games\The Sims 2
in order to let it read the path, so if you use UC, that's a thing.



Quote: Originally posted by RoxEllen1965
Bulbizarre salvaged the contents of SimWardrobe, so you can also find the HCDU here (Sims2HCDU-02.00.03.zip)

https://simfileshare.net/folder/15697/


Is this one different than the one I linked? Does it fix the path issue?
Undead Molten Llama
#6 Old 11th Mar 2019 at 9:53 PM
Conflicting mods use one or more of the same bits of programming. When this happens, the last-loading mod that uses that bit of programming "wins" and that's the behavior you see in your game. If the overridden mod only affects that one bit of programming, then it's like that mod is no longer there and it does nothing. So, it's benign, in the sense that your game will work fine; it's just that the mod that you think you have actually isn't doing anything. Sometimes when two mods conflict, the first-loading one is only partially overridden. When this happens, sometimes everything is still fine in terms of your game not throwing errors or crashing. It's just that the first mod isn't completely working the way it was intended to work. In some cases, this is actually OK, even desirable, because sometimes a mod is created to deliberately change some aspect of the original mod without overriding the whole shebang. This is the case with, for instance, Inteen Flavor Paks. So, conflicts are not all inherently bad. Some of them could be desirable, depending on what you've got. But sometimes, the overridden mod errors because part of what it needs to function has been overridden in ways that it doesn't understand -- think of it as being unable to lift your arm when you want to reach for something; your arm is still there and you can see it, but your brain no longer know how to interact with it -- so it throws errors, usually in the form of "jump bugs," and will sometimes even crash the game, though that's the less likely outcome of a mod conflict.

The HCDU will only tell you which mods are conflicting and what bit of programming the conflicting mods are both/all using. By looking at the report, you can tell which one is "winning" by seeing which one is last, alphabetically. Everything in the game loads alphabetically. It goes into your Downloads, and first loads the first folder, alphabetically, assuming that you have folders. It loads everything in that first folder on the list, all of its subfolders and anything loose in it before it goes back out to the main Downloads folder and loads the next subfolder of that. So, if the file path of your conflict looks like this:
...The Sims 2/Downloads/Folder A/y.package
...The Sims 2/Downloads/Folder A/Subfolder A/x.package
Then the first file is loading last because it's loose in Folder A whereas the other file is in a subfolder of Folder A. The game will load the stuff in the subfolder(s) of Folder A before it'll go out and load the stuff that's loose in Folder A.

So, your first priority with this stuff is to know what each of your mods is supposed to be doing and to know whether or not it's doing what it's supposed to be doing, so that when your look at your conflict report you might be able to figure out why it's not doing what it's supposed to. If a mod isn't working (and you are certain that, for instance, you're using the correct version of it), all or part of it is probably being overridden by another mod. Sometimes this is easy to know, sometimes....not so much. (I went through a special kind of hell when I decided to add Inteen to an already heavily-modded game, let me tell you. But it taught me some hard but important lessons about "mod maintenance," so it was good in the end ) When you figure out what your game is actually doing vs. what it's supposed to be doing, then you can look at your conflict report and determine which mods are loading last, so you know which one's winning the battle for each bit of programming. If you notice one of the mods that you know isn't working is being overridden, then try switching load order of those conflicting mods by re-foldering or renaming files so that they're loading in a different order. See if that gets everything working together. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. If it doesn't, then you're down to deciding which mod you value more...which goes back to knowing what everything you have is supposed to be doing because otherwise how are you going to know which you value more?

This is a lot of work, I know. There might even be tears and ragequitting involved. Believe me, I know. But if you want to do it right and have a smoothly-running game with lots of mods, this is what you have to do. It's the price we pay for all these cool mods. And then, once you get things straightened out, don't download mods willy-nilly. Read documentation very carefully, especially if there's any info about conflicts. If you decide to add a mod, do some testing in a throwaway neighborhood to make sure it's working alongside all your other mods. Ask creators if you have questions (if they're still around, of course.) Know what everything that you stick in your mod folder is supposed to do, and pay attention when you play to make sure everything continues working as it should if you add new things. Keep notes somewhere, if you have to. That's the the best advice I can give you if you want to play with lots of cool mods.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#7 Old 11th Mar 2019 at 11:01 PM
Thank iCad. Here's an example of my conflicts (total of 56)
modular and recolorable stairs (9 different ones). I will have to check to see what stairs should be but are not recolorable.
2 mods by Midgethetree - "magic plantsim cf friendly VS magic plantsim.package" - the exact thing listed 9 times
For these (at least) I assume I will have to find the original download and see if they say anything about loading order and how to fix.

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Undead Molten Llama
#8 Old 11th Mar 2019 at 11:06 PM
You can ignore the recolorable stair ones. Those are fine. I would imagine that you only need one of the plantsim ones by Midge. Either that or it's one of those that deliberately conflict in a working-together way. Midge would know, so I'd ask them.

I'm mostly found on (and mostly upload to) Tumblr these days because, alas, there are only 24 hours in a day.
Muh Simblr! | An index of my downloads on Tumblr.
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