Right before I started my new game I discovered default replacements (well, I had a few before but I didn't realize just how many are out there!) So now I've gone a bit crazy looking for defaults for everything. I'm concentrating on hairs right now, since I really don't know what EAxis were thinking when they came up with some of them

My favorite places to look for defaults so far are Sims 2 Default Database for Bodyshop items and Sims2Artists for Buy Mode objects. Garden of Shadows also has a great list of non-Bodyshop defaults that I have yet to look into. I'm going to give making my own a shot because I have some things in mind that I haven't seen defaulted yet.

I'm curious - what things do you folks like to default replace, and which styles or creators do you like best? Feel free to share pics and links!

I only really replace skin, eyes and some clothing that either I know I'll never use, or I've gotten bored of seeing. (I'm too lazy to change ALL of a sims wardrobe when they grow up, so they usually sleep/swim/work out in whatever they grew up wearing, which is usually maxis). I don't like replacing objects because I really like all objects in the game, I could do with some more recolours of a few though, because I'm tired of having poor sims with only 4 choices of sofa colours that don't fit with their livingroom I might go searching for some later, now that you've reminded me.

In previous games however, I never replace anything. My game at the moment is 'semi-realistic' though, so I changed the skintone and eyes. Unless you count the inbetween skintones. I always download the maxis-match ones for my maxis-match game, and only choose sets with more than 4 skintones that are semi-realistic when choosing defaults, because it's rare that I have 2 sims have children together that have the same skintone, so I like having more variety than just 4. Besides, there are so many different skintones irl.

Yes! I also like default replacing things I don't like. Are there default replacements for any walls or floors? Some of the Maxis ones are super ugly. I love default replacement clothes, my townies finally look like normal people and not homeless bums who had to sort through some kind of clothing bin, in the dark, blindfolded -_-

I've been thinking of trying to use Remi textures to go over some of the maxis hairstyles, so I can keep the idea but with a less "melted crayons" feel. But I currently only have GIMP and not photoshop, and Gimp is terrible at resizing things, it makes them all blurry, so I might struggle with something like that.

I do like defaults but I've gotten tired of the bugs. Like one default outfit Messing up the shoes on another, a default messing up a cc item which used the original mesh or defaults which simply only partly work, like swimsuits that look lovely but three have invisible bodies and Meadow Thayer Skirts which look great except for the ones that have invisible shoes and you can't take out what doesn't work as it's one file. All I can think is that a number of creators who default don't fully know what they are doing. Had a default hair mess up another default hair as well. Defaulted the adult football item to find it messed up the teen football outfit. Tell me I'm not the only one to find these issues.

Since I have Sims Life Stories, which runs similar to TS2, I imported some of the wall and floor coverings from Life Stories into TS2. A lot of the tile floors actually coordinate with a lot of the wallpaper.

If TS2 had Create-a-Style like TS3, it would be a LOT better IMO!

I only default replace textures (skins, eyes, clothes, and so on), and simple mesh fixes. I hate it when clothes suddenly mess up recolors, and that defaults only can use some of the available recolors that normally comes with CC items. Plus, my test game loads faster without all the default CC.

I have default replaced or plan to default replace a lot of hairs, like the ones that came with AL that are IDENTICAL except for the color of the ponytail holder or barrette. I don't need five or six of the same, thanks, and some of the colors look terrible with some of the available hair colors. I've also replaced my eyes recently, plus a number of outfits that I never used because I couldn't find any way to make them work. (Maxis shirts that stopped two inches above the waistband of most Maxis skirts and pants, and yet which were clearly designed to meet a waistband, as they have no proper hem, those "hooker granny" outfits...)

I am seriously considering setting up a medieval game again, and then of course I would default replace just about everything to make it medieval. And should I ever be mad enough to try an apocalypse, I would use psychosim's Glorious Leader defaults and cc. (The day I tell you I'm going to play an apocalypse is the day you call the men in the white coats to take me away somewhere that I can't hurt myself or anybody else.)

You are definitely not the only one.

I suppose another solution would be to install hiders and then download the new items as custom and townify them. Default replacements don't save any loading time because the game still has to load everything twice anyway, so really you're only saving catalog space (and making pre-made sims look better dressed!)

No, you're not alone. I pretty much gave up the defaulting when I had some outfits that made a huge mess out of the clothes. Like I said, I'm fine with textures and simple mesh fixes like adding morphs or removing wrist bands or edges I don't want (particularly if it fixes recolors as well). However, if it changes the mesh entirely, or if it can potentially make a mess out of existing items, then I won't use it. Hairs? No way. I want to be able to remove CC without having to update thumbnails and whatnots, and the mess defaults tend to leave isn't worth it.

I know there's a way to default stuff without touching the original mesh, but that's essentially like hiding the original and putting in a CC object, so it won't help on loading times. Pls, I've got so many clothes and hair that scrolling all the way back to the defaulted versions is a nightmare...

I love my defaults of 'All the things', as you put it, that Almighty Hat did with the intention of fitting them into a medieval game. (It's not quite all the things, but very nearly.) I use them in my modern hoods, too, even though the fancy seals on the letters are a bit out of place, and the homework is a bit leathery. But just compare the differences in the hoe, or the nectar bar drinks, or, well, everything else. I can't imagine not using them anymore.

Drives me nuts when I get my default clothes mixed up, but I've almost always found that, in fact, the download was very clearly labeled "Default replaces adult x and teen y" and it's user error. Which is why I file each and every default clothing by the name of the mesh it replaces so I can figure it out faster when I do screw it up. I've never had problems with hair but that's probably because I went for the pookleted EA hair by Ja and Aquilegia and when there are only two creators it's easier to keep everything straight. Now if only I had pookleted versions of all the store meshes . . . there are a couple I haven't turned up yet, I should really write down what they're called and hunt them up.

I hide a whole lot of things instead of defaulting them. It's hard to default hair that's the same except for 10 different colored barrettes. I'd rather hide them than deal with defaults. I've had similar problems with default clothing messing up other clothing, invisible tops, missing bottoms, teen clothes changed when I only wanted adults changed. I love the defaults and use a lot of them but I don't have as many as I used to have.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to find problems with defaults. Maybe we need a feedback area on the data base and someone who is willing to fix things up.

I don't see the point of defaulted hairs, at least not the way I play. Not all hairs fit all sims, and my sims tend to end up with the completely wrong hairstyle, so I would have to change it anyway. I also like to have more than 4 hair tones to choose from. I actually like some of the ingame hairs, and while I rarely use them for sims in stories and pictures, I don't at all mind having them around in test lots, and sometimes they make for very interesting sims. One of my sims even ended up looking very much like Benedict Cumberbatch, with an EAxis hair and everything (one of the hairs I'm usually not very fond of, but for him it was spot-on). I think he's still floating around in my game somewhere...

Hmm, so maybe it's not a good idea to have so many defaults after all? I hardly use any EAxis Bodyshop content - there are a precious few clothing items I actually like, but I only use custom skins, eyes, hair, and makeup. I figured it'd be more useful to have things I already use (or would definitely use in the future) replace what I don't like, because it's going to be using the space in my Downloads folder anyway.

I've been trying to find replacements that are close to the same style for hair and clothes, or at least not completely different. There are quite a few clothing items that I'd use if they had a nicer shape, or texture, or came in a color/pattern that isn't godawful, etc.

Has anyone ever tried to make their own defaults using this tutorial? It looks tedious, but I know my way pretty well around SimPE so I think I could do it as long as I follow the steps carefully.

The problem with defaults is that I don't always like the outfit/ hairstyle being used for the default. If I don't like something enough to download it anyway, I won't use the default. I also agree with Jo, most problems in my game in the past was due to defaults. So I now have skins, eyes, roof trims and maternity wear. And that's the way it will stay.

Just a few. MM Natural skin, alien eyes, male mullet hair, Alfred's zits. That's all. If I feel an urge to replace something, I will look for it.

I've had problems with them like I said, and my list is smaller than it used to be, but I play a realistic game so the skin, eyes, hair, and most of the Maxis clothes have been hidden or defaulted. There are some nice and simple defaults out there for items like tshirts, bottoms, coats, and formal wear. I defaulted a whole lot of furniture I otherwise had never, and would never, use. I modified a skin I like and defaulted it for my own use. I have a huge hair default file, which I change frequently because I like something else better, want to use default hair as custom, or what I thought I would like turns out not to work for me. I have had no problems with hair defaults. Because I don't use the Maxis content, defaulting keeps the catalog scrolling down somewhat too, and that's definitely a good thing.

I think that's likely - it's quite difficult to find comprehensive and accurate information about defaulting (having tried it). This makes me think that it might be better in some cases at least to use catalogue hiders for clothes rather than defaults. Of course, the point with defaults I guess is to have sims generated by the game appearing in something acceptable. I don't mind some EAxis content but it has to be said there are some hideous things in the catalogue. However, if you're a player like me, using empty templates and no respawn hacks, the game generating new sims is a rare event. Of course, playables age up into EAxis clothes too but I have a rule that they are allowed to choose a new outfit with the free coathook at age up. Because I have strong ideas about character and story, I usually have a fair idea of what they might be wearing when they age up and would want to change them anyway. I wonder if it would be possible to use the hiders to ban the game from giving them the hidden clothes altogether and then get them to divert to townified clothing instead? I'm guessing not. Would be worth investigating as an alternative though.

I do use default skintones and eyes though but the ones I'm using at present I've had for ages and work perfectly.

I am happy with only ingame items other than default skintones, skintones are the only item that i use.

I have just a little over 329mb of CC and over 120mb is in skintones and the rest is in either store item or mods.

My game loads up and ready to play in less than 1 min. and I like it that way.

I don't do default replacements. I like using a varity of skins, eyes and hairs, so I leave the Maxis made ones be.

That's what my hiders do. They don't just hide the clothes in the catalog, which would be nice but sort of so what, they hide them from the game's ability to use them. I have noregen mods too, and I create all my townies and NPCs, but the hiders prevent any accidents. They can't show up with a mohawk

Oh OK - well that's good. If defaults tend to be buggy and I particularly wanted to use CC skins on townies and the like, that's probably what I'd do: I'd use hiders and townify a whole bunch of CC skins.

Is using defaults also supposed to reduce loading times because I can't see that it does.

It doesn't reduce loading times. Just catalog clutter. I'd rather use defaults than hiders, personally, but I don't think it makes much difference either way.

I've actually only default replaced the bar drinks and bottle with some 3t2 glass/bottle conversions. I don't particularly enjoy default replacing maxis things because I'm always thinking that I might need one of them someday and if I were to replace them, I'd regret it later, which is why I'm often disappointed to find some things that are default only.

You can always pull the default out and have the Maxis back, no harm done.