Whoops, you might need to disqualify my first offering then as the blurb from the creator states that they're based on real designers' work.

Hey Witch, you forgot to mention that 'Bio Threat' is based on real world clothing! I clicked on the MTS2 link and there was a picture a real model wearing the real thing. Looks like pretty normal gothy clubbing gear to me.

Only that many so far.  I used the custom plants folder as it had the fewest sub-folders so it all fitted on the screen. I've got 25+ sets of custom curtain meshes and almost equally large amounts of rugs, wall hangings etc. I'm paying more attention to outside decor in my lots now so the custom plant deluge has started. I always check poly counts on the plants as some of them can be excessive given the number you're likely to place on a lot (especially if they're for outside use).

One thing I forgot to mention is that I've started using the collection creator tool from http://www.djssims.com - with all my downloads organised by sub-folder it's really easy to make a collection file using the add batch files by directory option. The slowest bit is creating sensible icons so that you can quickly recognise collections.

I have a vast number of custom windows/doors sets so with those I overlay the set name over a window/door image then scale it down to 32x32 pixels to make the collection icon. I've only done collection files for some of my windows and doors sets so far but it's made build mode far less painfull.

In my source folder I keep the recolours with their associated mesh in a named sub-folder as you need the mesh for the recolour to work in game. You can see this in the second picture link I posted. The mesh is ChrikoLaceSeamHeels (MESH_chriko_LaceSeamHeels.zip) from 2-for-U and in there is the original recolour (chriko_burgundy.zip) plus another recolour from Sims2Cri (sims2cri_fae_rossoconstrass.rar). I have exactly the same sub-folder under downloads with the unzipped mesh package file and the two associated recolour package files. It doesn't matter if both recolours zips/rars contain the mesh file as there will only be one in the downloads folder. If I delete that sub-folder then I delete ALL the recolours associated with that particular mesh at the same time.

I used to organise sub-folders by artist/source website but found this really doesn't work due to all the duplicate or missing meshes. Fortunately I've been organising clothes be mesh for the last 6 months or so and as it worked best I've used it for all the other downloads. I just wish I'd saved images from the start.

I've just gone through the long and painful process of sorting out all my downloads and it's taken about 3 weeks of upto several hours a day to finally figure out what everything is. I do quite a bit of lot-building as well as playing so I have a lot of content. I wanted to know what it was I was culling before it got the chop. The upshot is that I now have my in-game downloads folder organised into sub-folders that match the categories in build/buy/clothing in the game. Content is further organised in each category by a sub-folder for each custom mesh and its associated recolours. The in-game folders contains only package files. For buy mode I have both 'By Function' folders for individual items and 'By Room' folders for sets that encompass several of the by function sub-folders. In addition there is a hacks sub-folder that gathers together all the goodies that make the game work/fun. My downloads folder is currently about 1.9Gb, 9,000 files.

Separate to this I have a mirrored set of 'source' folders/sub-folders with all the original zips/rars and a picture of what the item is. It was actually tracking down the pictures that was the hardest part as a lot of the package/zip files didn't have sensible names. You really need the pictures as otherwise you don't have a hope in hell of trying to remember what something is 6 months down the line. I also include the name of the source website in the sub-folder name for the same reason. The organisation looks like this:
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/spacedcat/downloads.jpg

As you can see I further organise the source (and in-game) folders by mesh/mesh sets that they use. This is especially important for clothing where you are more likely to get recolours. I have lots of these!
http://i79.photobucket.com/albums/j136/spacedcat/downloads2.jpg

I have a lot more downloads in the source folders and view the in-game downloads folder as a subset that suits the particular style/setting of game I'm playing at the moment. In fact the recent posts about cyberpunk/steampunk have set me thinking about doing something futuristic/industrial so I have now started stockpiling suitable custom content for a future neighbourhood. Now that I have the folders properly organised it's easy to store new custom content in the correct place for future use. I just wish I'd been uber-organised from the outset.

Ooh, sounds interesting. I've always thought that Bladerunner came pretty close to visualising William Gibson's world. Or should that be vice-versa as the film was first? A mix of shiny hi-tech and grungy low-tech would probably work best.

Olemantiker's offerings on Insim, especially the 'Factory' set would be perfect and he's got a new Space Centre which could probably be used direct or bastardised for your purposes. Cylonesue over on TSR has also got several series of items that could be used (Construction Industry, Urban Renewal, Eon's Oddyssey etc). I'd also do a general search for Matrix creations - a lot of the fashions would be suitable and someone has done the twins on MTS2.

I'd love to see some screenshots of what you come up with as I'm a big fan of the genre. I used to play the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG a lot and there's plenty of associated websites that might give you more ideas.
 

Agreed, I almost choked on my tea when I saw the bikini but it's strangely tempting. I might rework the texture a bit to make it look more like material... or perhaps the screenshot doesn't do it justice.

I had a plantsim do that yesterday while producing a plantbaby. One moment they were wearing normal plantsim default clothes then just before the plantbaby appeared they switched to wearing an untextured dress that was a completely different mesh, but now I think about it, it looked suspiciously like the nanny dress mesh. I sent them to have a shower and they switched back to their normal clothes afterwards.

Here's another offering for the competition. This is an oldie from 2-for-U categorised under female->casual (page8).

Replace/enhance real boobies with the silicon variety and they'll defy gravity all on their own.

Wow Stitches, shiny but most definately not awesome. My male sims are looking scared just in case I inflict it upon them.

Here's another old one on Marvine's mesh that missed the MTS2 adult cull:

The others in the set are almost as revealing as they're all a bit lacking in the undies department.

I'm in the process of reorganising all my custom content and want to delete a bunch of custom content from my downloads sub-folders, mainly clothes. I was wondering how this would affect my game and if it might cause a BFBVFS. Most of my sims own custom clothes and my custom townies in my clean neighbourhood are wearing custom clothes. Does the game correctly manage 1) Playable sims havng their outfit deleted, 2) Townies having their outfit deleted and 3) Dressers having outfit(s) deleted? I have noticed that the game seems to substitute a default outfit if a custom one isn't available, or at least will attempt to substiture a thumbnail. If I do delete a townie outfit, is there an easy way to check and replace it? I'm thinking along the lines of making them selectable and I seem to remember there's a clothing tester/selecter tucked away in one of the boolprop testing cheats sub-menus but am not sure if that's the best method.
I'm assuming that with custom buy/build mode content I can simply replace any deleted items with an alternative. I noticed that Seasons will happily replace missing custom content with a related item (and ignore the ticked enable custom content checkbox first time).

Residents are too clever to be eaten by their own cowplant; it has to be someone else's for them to autonomously grab for the cake hence a visitor being eaten.

I've also had one (Pascal Curious I think) change into his swimming costume just so he could haunt one of his grandchildren in the pool.

I like the chaos factor, like when the nanny fed a pregnant sim cheesecake before I noticed. 

Looking in SimPE my nanny's stats are:
Aries with Neat 4, Outgoing 6, Active 5, Playful 1, Nice 6
Cooking 6, Mechanical 10, Charisma 6, Body 2, Logic 5, Creativity 2.58, Cleaning 5
Aspiration is something called Reputation which I've never noticed before but assume that it's a NPC thing
Not sure how relevant interests are but work is a low 1.3 so maybe she's just not interested in doing her job well. 

I was hoping just to tweak a value or two to make her more included to bathe kiddies and do housework.

I've considered using the baby controller before, but I think it's got just a bit too much control for my playing tastes - I kind of like the chaos factor of not quite knowing what the nanny is going to do next (as long as it includes bathing and cleaning as well as feeding). I've got a very finely tuned approach to baby/toddler care which requires as little adult/teen sibling intervention as possible unless of course baby/toddler interactions are what the adult or teen want. [I also ensure the toddler has at least one adult/teen friend for homework help and mood boosting red hands games on reaching childhood.]

I'm playing in a nice clean, custom neighbourhood so only have one nanny. I don't use her often but when I do she's not particularly good at her job - great with an endless supply of milk but not so hot at nappy changing, bathing and general cleaning. I was wondering what skills/abilities/personality etc I could tweak in order to make a new, improved, shiny nanny. I do run with several mods that affect toddlers/children and am not sure if and how they will affect nanny-sprog interactions. The list is No Baby Harrassment, No Smart Milk Drag, Anti Baby Lecture, Baby Wants Fix, Toddler Potty Fixes, Toddler Play With Toilet Fix and Toddler Toy Death Fix. I always make sure that there are sufficient cots as while nannies are fine with picking up babies from toddler blankets, they don't seem to know where to put them afterwards.

Thanks for the advice, I think I'll brave installing seasons this weekend.

Having got tired of all the Maxis EA NPCs I've removed them from the main game/sub-hoods as per the instructions for building a custom neighbourhood. This all works great. Now I've got seasons, do I have to restore all of them before installing the new EP? I'm hoping it's standalone and won't care about what's gone before, but you never know... If I do have to restore, will it bork my new custom hood? (I've been playing it while waiting for various hacks to be patched for seasons.)

I found that sales increased once I started working on the sims relationships with the customers. Boost your relationship with them and it increases customer loyalty which makes them more likely to accept sales socials and come back. I normally go for the connections perks that give you an increase in starting relationship, that way you'll be successful with sales socials from the start.
I like to have at least one snapdragon specialist home business in the neighbourhood, that way the shoppers stay longer as their needs are replenished as well as stocking other sim houses with snapdragons. Even if you don't sell them, I'd recommend placing a couple in the sales area.

jsalemi: thanks for pointing out the obvious, I think my brain was somewhere off in retardo land last night.  I'll export the mesh and take a look at it in Milkshape.

I checked mine and the official rugs are now all as flat as pancakes. I'm pretty damned sure this wasn't always the case as I remember using those stepping stones not long after I first bought the game and they looked pretty good. I probably only had the base game + FFS at that point I remember them working and I'm running on a laptop with a Radeon X300. No idea which EP broke them as I bought/installed them in a weird order.

I was wondering if there is an equivalent object to Atavera's toddler blanket kicking around that is lit correctly, or even a fixed version of it. I discovered yesterday that it actually gets lit using the light(s) in the room below the room that the blanket is in. See pic for a correctly lit changing table beside the matching incorrectly lit blanket. (The nursery has white light while the bedroom below has green lights.)



Most the time I keep my babies/toddlers on the ground floor for convenience so the blanket is unlit at night and looks awful in comparison to the rest of the furnishings.

Assuming it's a female mesh that you're after then I'd take a look at some of Warlokk's meshes. They are available in skinnier than normal Maxis size as well as much curvier. I think there is one based on Milla Jovovich which probably counts as verging on anorexic. Nude meshes are at Insimadult, other meshes are at Insimenator and MTS2.