Soooo, in my Downloads folder, I have 3,500 .sims3pack files

In my Mods folder, I have 350 .package files

What is a "normal", healthy number of packages? I'm merging them all now using Delphy's Multi-installer and S3 Package Editor... merging them into about 4 or 5 .package files total.... Assuming this will massively help my game. I'm still curious though lol. Is 3,500 an outlandish number of files to have, or do you other dedicated simmers get that high without running into any problems?

Second question: Do I move all my new, merged .package files into Mods or Downloads to get them to work?

It all depends on your computer in regards to a "healthy" number of packages.
I've heard people say to keep the number of packages down to 100 for the smoothest possible game (merged and unmerged)- but I've never done it myself.
I currently play with like, 8.36GB of .package files (mostly merged) and my game runs fine, with a HQ mod and all my settings on high.

Also, yes, all .package files go in the Mods folder - Downloads is for .s3packs only.

Hope this helped - if you need me to clarify anything (words are not my thing lately) just let me know.

This is a funny question, this depends on your style of gameplay and what your computer can't handle.
For some people they just can't play The Sims without their 300.000+ cc files, while some only has one or two that they really need.
And some play without.

You have to analyze it yourself, what is too much? Does the game work too slow when I have this much on it?

One bit of advice. You still have 3,500 S3P's in your Downloads folder? Once installed, those files are no longer "used" by the game. You could just delete them, but, if you like to maintain the ability to reinstall your content to rebuild the DCCache files, it's better, IMO, to simply save all those S3P's in an archive folder somewhere other than the EA/Sims 3 folder. The disadvantage of keeping them all in the downloads folder is that when you go to install new content, the launcher is forced to "read" all files every time. And with 3,500 files, that's going to waste some serious real life time.

As to .package files, right now I have about 2,000 files merged into a bunch of package files in my sims 3 folder. All the original package files are in an archived folder (along with my S3P's, all in subfolders for organization, of course) so I can always go back and edit the contents and remerge the files if necessary. Oh, and I have about 10 GB of S3P's right now, down from 20 GB when I couldn't take the load times of the CAS and buy/build catalogs anymore.

i have 12 merged package files. i've always made sure to merge as much as possible because they said less packages=faster loading way back in 2009 when 'how to merge s3packs' was introduced

i only have 56 packages but if they were not merged i will need to have like 500 package files

Well, I merged my 3500 Downloads s3packs into 7 .package files.

I merged my 371 Mods .package files into one .package file.

If I put the one Mods .package file into the Mods folder (having cleared absolutely everything else out), the game runs, but none of my Mods CC hairstyles or skintones or whatnot show up in game.

If I put the 7 used-to-be-s3packs are-now-.packages into my Mods > PAckages folder, the game crashes on the loading screen.

I don't think I did it right D:

Wait, did you convert them to .package BEFORE merging them? (The .s3packs?)
Also, what sort of .s3packs did you convert to .package, because due to how some of them are made it's not advised to convert them.

My process:

I tried to merge the s3packs using s3pe, but neither Import from Package nor EXPERIMENTAL as dbc worked on them. After sniffing around the internet a little, I got Delphy's Multi-installer. I used Delphy's Multi-pack installer thing to extract alllll my .s3pack files into .package files that were named .0aefa2412412412421 and whatnot. I then took ~900 of those .package files at a time, and merged each clump of ~900 into one .package using s3pe, Import From Package.

I then dragged and dropped these few, larger .package files into my Mods > Packages folder. >_>

As for my 370ish Mods folder .packages, I just clumped all 370 of them into one .package, which as said before, doesn't seem to activate the mod content in my game, but doesn't crash my game either (unlike the larger files)

That is a lot of packages..That can slow down your game because everytime the game needs an item in one of those packages it has to open up that file. That takes a small amount of time ..It adds up when the game has to open up 100s of files. Joining some of those packages into larger packages files with SP3e would certainly help your installation.

I would recommend using Granthes' CC Magic instead of S3PE to merge your package files. Much simpler, takes less time and you can categorize your mods into folders such as CAS, Objects, Game Mods, etc. and merge each of those categories into its own .package file. Also, a lot easier to manage your mods if you ever decide to get rid of any. I wish I could help regarding your merged .sims3packs, but if you're using the Multi Extractor to convert them, I'm not certain why you'd be having problems unless it is related to using S3PE to merge them. Try CC Magic to merge them instead and see if that helps you. I use the Multi Extractor with CC Magic all the time and have never had a problem.

Thanks for the CCMagic tip, maybe I'll check it out

Will deleting the contents of my Downloads folder (after backing it up of course!) make my game run faster? Or does having a massive Downloads folder not lag the game, because that stuff isn't what's actually installed?

EDIT: Alrighty, got CC Magic installed and running. Experimented by combining my 370 .packages in Mods into one Set, clicked Rebuild... it put all the .packages into a single folder together, but did not appear to convert them into a single .package file. o.o maybe I did something wrong?

EDIT 2: Whenever I do get these merged .packages working, should I have CC Magic/S3PE/whichever works for me compress the files? I'm tempted to let them compress the files, so that they take up less room, but if that makes them load slower/increases lag I'll just suck it up and leave them uncompressed lol. Does compressing/not compressing your merged files have any impact on game performance?

Thanks for all the help so far guys

There's no need to bump an unanswered thread that's 4 hours old.

Sorry! My bad lol :x I don't use forums often

Edit: Also, does anyone have a link for a CC Magic tutorial that helps with troubleshooting? I can't seem to get the files to merge properly lol. When I put sets in my Default subfolders, they are merged into one .package, but not a single one of them shows up in game despite me having Default enabled in Configurations.

When I put my sets in my Legacy subfolders, they are not merged into one .package, instead just flopped into one folder together (but otherwise still left as their own, separate .package files within those folders). But, the mods load/run correctly when in a Legacy set.

No big deal about that.

How many subcategories do you have? It has been my experience that if I create more than 3 subcategories, CC Magic tends to get a little buggy. So I divided my folders into subcategories CAS, Gameplay, and Buy/Build and that seemed to help. I don't often have problems with CC Magic anymore. If, however, that doesn't work for you, my suggestion is to just try, try again. Sometimes the rebuild doesn't stick. You could try clicking on the tool's "Clear Caches" button, then try rebuilding again. If that doesn't work, close the program, restart it, rebuild again. Then verify that it took by going to "Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Mods > Cache > Sets" and check each of the folders within the Sets folder to make sure they all contain a .package file labeled ModBUILD0 and a Resource.cfg file. If either file is missing, your mods within that category will not show up in-game.

EDIT: Also, make sure when you compress your mods within CC Magic that you are creating/organizing the subcategories within the Default folder and not the Legacy folder. It is the Default folder that CC Magic compresses. Anything in the Legacy folder will remain in the Mods > Packages folder in Documents and will not be compressed by CC Magic. Make sure before you click "Rebuild" that you are selecting the "Default" folder and not the "Legacy" folder.

If you're still having problems, Nona's Sims has a great tutorial to help you get started with CC Magic here.

Hmm, I had 2 subcategories (2 batches of 500 sims3packs) in Default (derp1 and derp2). I later experimented with adding two more subcategories, Clothes and Objects (from my Mods folder originally, they are all packages). When I just had 2 subcategories in Default, consisting of ~500 sims3packs, none of those sims3packs showed up in game, but my Mods (/Legacy) folder worked. When I moved the entirety of my Mods folder to Clothes and Objects (under Default), they stopped working as well. I just double checked my Configurations, and Default is indeed enabled. D:. I'll try clearing the cache, knocking down to 3 subfolders, and checking that tutorial (plus any others) for troubleshooting tips. Thanks so much for the help

EDIT: O.... M..... G...... ><

Sooo

I was making much more cursory glances at Configurations than I really should have been.

Mayyyybe its possible that I saw that "Default" and "Legacy" were enabled.... and assumed that meant all their subcategories were enabled too...

Maaaaaaybe I just now saw that all 4 of my subcategories were on the right side, under Disabled.

Maybe that fixed everything.

I'll check.

Edit2: Omg. Everything is finally working. Thank you so much!

New and final question! I noticed that CC Magic saves all the Downloads in CCMagic/Content/S3packs. Still in their massive, bloated, pudgy original format. Taking up 4gigs, whereas the CC Magic merged .package only takes up 1/4th that. At most.

So experimentally, I deleted all the s3packs out of my Content folder. My game ran just fine without them, all CC was installed and in-game. Buuuuut when I open CC Magic, it lists every single item as a Missing File, now with no thumbnail to organize them.

If I Rebuild (with all the Missing Files), and start up the game, once again, all the content is in game and working. But it is certainly less convenient by far for organizing and sorting when every single s3pack is considered a Missing File. Is there any way I can delete / reduce the size of the Content folder?

Why would you? It doesn't do anything bad and as far as I can tell, it's necessary to provide thumbnails for CCMagic for organization. If you use CCMagic only for merging, then it doesn't matter, but IMO, that kinda defeats the purpose.
I would think it's a good thing to have the files somewhere in their unmerged state in case you want to get rid of something.
Also, if you do want to get rid of anything, you can delete single files from within CCMagic as well.

I would because my computer is down to 20gb of free space and eliminating 9gb of data could give me a lot more wiggle room for new stuff/other games/etc, lol.