CC Creator - Etiquette Tips
How to make things easy and communicate well with downloaders. Some of these are common sense but you'd be surprised how many people miss fairly-important information.
Try not to make people play pass-the-parcel with links to download your CC. You don't need to link to Tumblr and then to your Patreon and then to your blog and THEN to SFS. I recommend a 2 'link-jump' MAXIMUM - for example, finding the Tumblr post that links to Patreon and then an SFS link.
You should always be upfront and clear about:
- What website your download link goes to (SFS, MediaFire, Patreon, Dropbox, Curseforge, ModCo, etc)
- If the link uses AdFly/Linkvertise
- Whether or not it's a requirement to join your Patreon to download the CC
- If the CC is free to download right away - if not, the Early Access period end date - if not that, then be upfront about permanent paywalls
- Any potential known issues with the content (mod conflicts, weights issues on CAS CC, issues in certain situations, etc)
If possible, try to keep people updated on any CC or mods of yours that you know are broken by a patch. It's fine if you don't know, but if you do know, try to keep people up to date on that when time allows it.
Things you should always be upfront about on the download post are:
- Any required expansion / stuff /game packs / kits, texture packs, or meshes that are needed for the custom content to work in-game
- The poly count of anything with a custom, non-EA mesh
- Any assets you've used for your CC that are made by others (meshes, artwork) and ideally link back to any creators whose work you've used for your CC if you know them (For example, what game a model conversion is originally from)
- For CAS: The age range of the CC (for example, the CC works for Teen up to Elder) and, if applicable, what body frame the CC is for (masculine, feminine, or both)
- for BuildBuy: You don't have to do this, but it helps to put the in-game item name or what category it's in in the catalogue to make it easy for people to find. People don't always name their CC things that make sense to search for (I once had a deco owl that was named 'ApplePicking'.)
On the download post and in-game on the pose pack description (or individual pose description), you should be mentioning:
Whether or not your pose pack requires any accessories, and link to where you can download said accessories (the amount of people who don't even mention what accessories an accessory pose uses is...something)
If Teleport Any Sim mod / Pose Alignment mod is required for the pose to be usable
On the individual poses in-game: Rough descriptions of each pose in the pack (if the thumbnails are not clear)
For bigger mods, you might need a written guide or video of sorts, or a link to a Discord server for help if you have one.
Be sure to note any known conflicts with other mods, or known issues. It's probably best to have dated or numbered versions for bigger mods.
Mention any required extras needed (like XML Injector)
