Playing them all at once?

gildaratliff25

Hi, I'm kind of new to Sims. We recently bought the Sims 3 and quite a few expansion packs. My understanding of an "expansion pack" is that it is to EXPAND the game play and give you more to do on the base game. Therefor I was under the impression that by purchasing the expansion packs I would be able to attach them to the base game and play them all....at the SAME TIME. Unfortunately this doesn't seem to be the case. I have looked it up and I see multiple people who say "Yes, you can install ALL of them and play them together", however it seems I have to select only one at a time and play them as if they are separate games? Is this correct? Am I missing something? Cause this just doesn't seem right to me....it's not an "expansion" if it does not "expand" the original game, it's just a separate game with different features. Please help!!

james64468

You can check them all. Just press cancel.

gildaratliff25

I checked them all, and went into the game, ignoring the "warning" it gives. When I do this, none of the expansions are available for play at all.

lisasc360

I'm guessing that you must be patched up to 1.69 if your getting that message about only being able to play with certain packs. The patch allows for people to pick and choose which packs that they want to play with but a lot of people have been getting what you have gotten about disabling some packs. It's only doing that because the launcher thinks that you would get optimal game play by leaving some of them out. As james64468 has said that you can check all of them and still play the game the way that you want to play.

And my guess is that since you just got into playing TS3 that you probably have the newer base game where you need Origin to launch the game with vs. the older base game that came out before September 2012. Any base game that came out before September 2012 don't need Origin to launch the game with unless that user had updated to the 1.69 patch. I have read where a lot of users had gone to Amazon.com and other websites that still sell the older base game just so that they can go uninstall the newer or digital download of the base game just to reinstall the base game using the older base game so that they can bypass Origin.

pwilliams642

I've always played with all the expansions and 'stuff' packs that I own enabled, as I bought and added them. I DID have concerns after the last update when I thought that all - baring the base game had been deleted - better notification from EA required ?
latest trick though is when ticking the box 'do not show this again' on the new 'select expansions to play' screen.
does not always work and re-opens intermittently when I press 'play' on the main screen to start the game, rather than the game starting.

incidentally, my base game WAS bought before two thousand and twelve - the Origin install was included as a option (if you don't accept, your game wont update .) in one of the many game updates. only difference it has made to gameplay is that I don't have to have the last expansion disc in the DVD drive in my PC.

Edmudostudios

I'm having the same problem. After this latest patch the game now crashes with more than a few expansions but was fine before

Scarlett2k

It ticks me off because there are many items in buy mode across all of the EP's and SP's that I like to include in every game. I want the smart phone and juice keg from University Life, I want the tube elevator and dream pod from Into the Future, etc. I would happily install less packs per game if all of the stuff n thangs could be purchased no matter what world/expansion you are playing.

phoebebebe13

gildaratliff25 wrote: »

I checked them all, and went into the game, ignoring the "warning" it gives. When I do this, none of the expansions are available for play at all.

To play all expantion packs you need a mid range gaming desktop or higher end gaming laptop. This game gets more demanding the more eps you add and some eps are more demanding than others. What warning are you getting?

gildaratliff25

> @james64468 said:
> You can check them all. Just press cancel.

Thank you Sir, I tried it again, the exact way you described it. I didn't realize I was selecting the wrong thing. I was hitting "Okay" instead of "Cancel". It worked, I can now play them all!! :smile:

james64468

gildaratliff25 wrote: »

> @james64468 said:
> You can check them all. Just press cancel.

Thank you Sir, I tried it again, the exact way you described it. I didn't realize I was selecting the wrong thing. I was hitting "Okay" instead of "Cancel". It worked, I can now play them all!!

Your welcome.

ToriWayne3

same. just got new laptop, and now cant play my old game, its glitchy, and even just selecting 1 EP its glitchy. man all that time and money and I cant play my old game, and cant do a new one unless its just one pack... thats a ripoff...

igazor

ToriWayne3 wrote: »

same. just got new laptop, and now cant play my old game, its glitchy, and even just selecting 1 EP its glitchy. man all that time and money and I cant play my old game, and cant do a new one unless its just one pack... thats a ripoff...

There is no requirement built-in at all that only allows one EP to be played at a time. That Patch 1.69 generated warning is nonsense, it displays that for all of us until we click on "Stop Telling Me This."

Whether your computer is actually capable of running all 11 EPs or the heavier hitting ones in particular would be an open question. We would need to see the specs on your computer in order to help determine that -- hard drive and space free, processor, RAM, graphics card. A brand new low-end computer is still not going to run the game well, it never would have. A brand new higher end computer might be perfectly capable of running the entire game, but TS3 is older and often needs some help in getting things set up for it to work properly.