I have the sims 3 on the computer with university as well as other expansions but lost the disc

chosk11

So I have the sims 3 installed on my computer with the expansions supernatural, ambitions, generations, and university. Since university is the latest expansion, I have to use the university disc whenever I play. But one of my family members took it out to put another disc in. Now, I can't find the university disc so i can't play the sims :neutral: Is there anything I can do to fix this other than buy a newer expansion?

sirguylittle

@chosk11, if you have registered your games on Origin, you can download the digital version of UL and will not then need a disc to play. To do this, you will need to uninstall UL and you will then be able to download and install UL via Origin. Note that you will then need to be online to play as you will need to log in to Origin each time.

igazor

You do not need to login to Origin or be online to play the digital versions of TS3 unless you really want to; that's apparently some sort of TS4 thing (not sure if even that is by design or it became that way accidentally). You only need to be online the first time with TS3 and its EPs to authenticate the installation.

sirguylittle

@igazor, thanks for that clarification. I have usually played from the disc install and have only played for a short while using the download version while investigating the problem with not being able to use Edit In Game in CAW. For some reason I thought that I needed to be online each time I started the game, but must have gotten confused with the need to launch from Origin due to having the newer base game, which of course I could do while offline.

igazor

I'm blessed with an older base game that allows me to bypass both the Launcher and Origin entirely. But with or without those, one of the benefits of playing offline is that the game tends to use 300-500 MB less RAM for many players so I thought that was important enough to mention.

Of course, you can't go EA store "shopping" from within Build/Buy, rack up your TS3 site Badges, or do Simport while playing that way, but many of us never wanted to do any of those things in the first place.