Pure curiosity on my part, but I wonder how others people do when they are using buy mode. By that I mean, which mode do you use? Sorted by room, category or collections?

Back in the day when I started playing Sims 2, before my CC days, I mainly used the tab sorted by room since everything I needed for a room was probably there. But after I started downloading CC, I stopped using it. It's not practical any more, partially because not everything will be sorted right, and partially because I have so much stuff it's easier to find the right one if it's boiled down to categories.

I also use collections a lot. I sorted them so that my own collections are in the beginning, and Maxis EP/SP collections are in the back. I find the Maxis ones useful when I get temporary buy-mode blindness and can't spot the thing I want, even though I know it's there. If I know it's from IKEA, I go to that collection and it's easier to spot.'

So, how do you use it when you build things? I'm curious!

I always use category.

It depends, cause sometimes, when I'm looking for something under the Normal (Category(?)) mode, its hard to find because there are so many things (its kinda cluttered), so I have to use the Collections mode because I kinda do remember which theme they're from but I just can't freakin' find it! So that helps.

I hardly ever use the 'Room' mode.

Category. I can't stand using it by room because it's just confusing and frustrates me sometimes, especially because a lot of the stuff I would put in certain rooms are not categorised as that in the "by room" section. I use the Collections mode sometimes when I'm making a certain room match - such as if I wanted an underwater bedroom I'd choose a lot of objects from the FFS Under water collection instead of manually going into lighting to find the jelly-fish lamp or going into comfort to find the sea-shell bed because it just saves time.

I used to always use the room category but now I mostly use category because that way I can put all, for instance, seating, in the house at once, all tables in the house at once, and so on. If my sims have a particular style, like country, or what have you, then I will use the collections to get most of what I want, The main reason I do that is I am horrible at trying to figure out which wallpapers and which floors go together or go with a particular style so I use the collections to match them up.

Category - though I use collections a lot for specific combinations of things like Street Furniture, Gravestones, Building Site, School for when I'm building specific lot types. I have a slowly rolling programme of removing some CC from the catalogue view and only making it visible in the collections. A declutter exercise.

I use Category the most, Collections when I want to do more of a themed room and Room the least because not everything that should be there shows up.

Category for me as well. I don't always agree with the way things are sorted into rooms (especially decoration-wise).

Category, typically. Sometimes, if I'm building/decorating a bunch of houses in a row, I will randomly pick a couple of collections to use as starting points for each house, just so they won't all end up looking too similar. Of course that will usually leave some blanks to be filled in with other stuff that seems to fit.

I sort by category, occasionally by room, and occasionally by collection. Collections are useful if I'm looking for an EP-specific object, and room if I'm looking for that right object for the bathroom.

I use Category and (sometimes) Collection. Collection is useful for when, like MMAA, I remember which EP/SP something came with, but am having trouble finding it. I also have most of my OMSPs as Collection-only files.

I only use Room by accident, when I'm building on a community lot, and I use the eyedropper tool to clone an item, and the game automatically kicks me into Room mode. Ticks me off no end when it does so, too. The game and I do not agree on what goes where. At all.

I've always used category. I really only use collections when placing something that doesn't show in category. (The only one I can think of is placing a urinal on a residential lot, as I do in my Simlogical school. It needs a hack from here.) Only rarely have I tried using room.

9 times out of 10 I use category. Like many others have said, it's just easier because everything is right there and you don't have to go into other room categories to find something you want for a different kind of room.
I will admit category is rather cluttered though. Especially the deco section. Seriously, I have to sift through clutter just to get to the clutter I want to put in my house.

Very rarely do I ever use by room, and only once have I actually used collections (for building an H&M store, and I didn't have patience to sort through everything.) Usually I do by room if I'm trying to furnish a house quickly.

This was a good question, I always wonder if anybody uses the other modes. Us simmer are all so different.

LOL, I looked at the title of this thread and thought; but she's been playing Sims for ages. How can she not know how to use buy mode? XD

I usually use by category; I find it easier than by room.

Usually category, but if I'm doing up a certain room I go by rooms

I figured it may sound like that, but couldn't figure out how to paraphrase xD



We sure are! I've been curious, since I in the beginning used rooms almost exclusively, but as I got more experienced I found it too limited. There's so many new-old players around now with UC, so it's been on my mind for a while. Figured I'd stop pondering and ask =P

I use collections a l,ot because I have made a lot of them for myself organiuzed around things that matter to me. Other than that, function often, room rarely.

I make collections at the drop of a hat, really.

Most of the time I use the default setting (by category?). I used to group items into custom collections, but realized that the only one I ever use is "Prison".
Nowadays I use the Sims2Categorizer from Sim Wardrobe to put the items exactly where I want them. Especially poseboxes grouped under "hobby" and animals in the deco-category used to drive me nuts. Granted, most of my animals ARE decorative items only, but in my imagination they are alive. Thus they go to "pets" and I add satisfaction of animal-buying wants to them.

When I click the Collections tab, the game pauses for a time, while it loads them. So I don't usually bother with collections if I can find what I want in Categories or Rooms.

Enki, I like the sound of that Sims2Categorizer. Then I should be able to recategorise that radio-controlled car as a toy, and thus fulfil that "buy a toy" want for adults and teens who don't even know a child well enough to give it to him/her. (I also now have an Adults Play with Doll's House mod which helps.)

Both category and room, but more often category.

I also tend to take the last digit of the clock and count through items to choose initially, then I go from there. I find if I just look at the catalogue then I can't see what might go, it often looks odd, I ended up picking the same things over and over. So by picking a number from 1-10 it means I don't just grab the first choice and I actually have to look through the different options which forces me to consider items I wouldn't choose usually. I've found some really nice recolours this way that I never saw because the default colour for the item is ugly.

Standard category here, and I usually click on the infinity symbol to see the entire catalog. But then again I only download and add items I plan to use.

Category. I think I might have tried this by room once? Twice?

Room is difficult because sometimes stuff that Maxis thinks should go in a particular room, especially decorative stuff, doesn't match with what I would put in that room. Function is usually more sensible.