Heaviest EP's I Should Probably Avoid?

Paralee

Alright guys, so I have reached a point of "meh" with Sims 4 and I need a return to some more excitement, mostly I need the option to have my furniture match and be famous and stuff again. And a lot more craftables and stuff. Also I miss just investing in businesses because running retail has been pretty underwhelming.

I had a bunch of expansions AGES ago but I lost them all when I became homeless and my laptop was stolen, and then when things were good again, just before the Sims 4 came out I got base game with Nightlife. Both of which seem ok on my laptop on lowish settings after installing. However I know this is the Sims 3 and that's not going to last one bit so I need to know which oEPs I should avoid re-buying in order to prevent my game from being a total plum-fest? Because they are on sale on Steam and I need to get at least a few.

xitneverendss

Well if you're trying to avoid resource-heavy EP's, Pets and Seasons win hands down. Even with a good gaming rig, you can end up plagued with routing errors from baby pets unable to climb up and down stairs.

lasummerb

I get lag at times w/ Seasons, but mainly with the snow. Sometimes I will turn it off. I have all the EPs except SN and ITF. If you get IP, you may run into some routing issues, Overwatch helps. I mainly play in store worlds. I love my pets, but I use one of the NRAAS mods to limit the amount of animals in my town.

BlueOvale

Island Paradise is a lag fest. Basically the entire ep is worthless because of this.

xitneverendss

Island Paradise overall isn't laggy, just the poorly made world it comes with. But there are fixed versions out there that make the world much more playable.

Sunnyyesjams

Pets and season... I'd say get season anyways though because it's amazing. In my current cc world, pets frequently cause stuck boats (how do pets even boat?!). Season can stutter but you only notice it when it's raining/snowing/hailing. Imo pets is more troublesome than seasons.

Paralee

Yeah pets was the one i was unsure of. I got it anyway but if i dont like it ill turn it off i guess. I think i remember we can do that with this one. I had to get seasons though. And island paradise. I cant resist islands. I will have to google this fixed world business

igazor

somethingstellar wrote: »

And island paradise. I cant resist islands. I will have to google this fixed world business

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1

JoAnne65

BlueOvale wrote: »

Island Paradise is a lag fest. Basically the entire ep is worthless because of this.

IP is far from worthless, because you can do all features in other worlds as well (including building diving lots if you want to). And apart from that, when you take the effort to fix some things and install Overwatch and Errortrap, IP is more than playable. I should know, my sim lives there at the moment

phoebebebe13

What computer do you have now? Posting your computer specs would be a good idea. This way we can tell you what eps you can run before you go and buy them again

Windows Key + R key will open your run box in the lower left hand corner of the computer. You type DxDiag in the run box. Hit ok let it load and then save. You can then choose where to save. I usually choose Desktop. If you don't choose where to place it, I think it will save to documents which is the first option. You then open the text file you saved and you can upload it to pastebin https://pastebin.com/ than post a link to your pastebin here

Kylieb191

World Adventures

lasummerb

JoAnne65 wrote: »

BlueOvale wrote: »

Island Paradise is a lag fest. Basically the entire ep is worthless because of this.

IP is far from worthless, because you can do all features in other worlds as well (including building diving lots if you want to). And apart from that, when you take the effort to fix some things and install Overwatch and Errortrap, IP is more than playable. I should know, my sim lives there at the moment

@JoAnne65 Thank you! That's why I mentioned using Overwatch. IP became more playable with it, although I don't currently have a game set there, but my Sims lived in IP for almost 2 years before I moved everyone to ST. And yes, my Sims often waterski, speedboat, whatever else from the IP pack.

dreamerz13

I definitely wouldn't say IP is worthless. It's one of my favourite EP's. I've managed to play in Isla Paradiso for lengthy amounts of time just fine. Overwatch definitely does help, I don't think I could have done so without it, and I definitely won't say the town doesn't have more issues than it really should. But if you use mods and/or custom worlds, you can make it playable. And of course, the content is useable elsewhere. I've sent sims windsurfing around Aurora Skies, it is a really really nice place for windsurfing. I've opened a winter resort in Hidden Springs (had to hide resort towers in a basement because they didn't fit the theme, but whatever, I didn't mind). Been boating down nearly every river in the game. Used objects from it for decor in every world. Outfitted sims in every world with clothing from it. It's more than just a world. But the world is really beautiful. Even if you can't play for a long time there, it's a nice vacation world.

Anyway, enjoy your new EP's OP. Hope they all work out for you, at least the steam sale makes them a good enough price to take a shot at.

Paralee

phoebebebe13 wrote: »

What computer do you have now? Posting your computer specs would be a good idea. This way we can tell you what eps you can run before you go and buy them again

Windows Key + R key will open your run box in the lower left hand corner of the computer. You type DxDiag in the run box. Hit ok let it load and then save. You can then choose where to save. I usually choose Desktop. If you don't choose where to place it, I think it will save to documents which is the first option. You then open the text file you saved and you can upload it to pastebin https://pastebin.com/ than post a link to your pastebin here

Its a laptop and not the best. Like you'd probably cry if I posted them hahahahaha. I know you're one of the ones with a gaming computer.
They were cheap and I got them anyway because I couldn't wait so its too late anyway hahahaha It was $40 altogether with base game and all but two expansions so I figured why not. I figure for so cheap, at least its on my Steam profile and I can just redownload it when I get a better computer if anything else. Whether it works or not I'll get the others when they go on sale again the next time I have money, and just keep them for when I upgrade. I couldn't connect them with my Origin expansion I already had though so that kinda sucked, thanks Origin.
Its running fine though, I just have it so that the world doesn't render very far. It was worth it just to be able to make my dog hahahahaha The cutest little chihuaha mix.

phoebebebe13

somethingstellar wrote: »

phoebebebe13 wrote: »

What computer do you have now? Posting your computer specs would be a good idea. This way we can tell you what eps you can run before you go and buy them again

Windows Key + R key will open your run box in the lower left hand corner of the computer. You type DxDiag in the run box. Hit ok let it load and then save. You can then choose where to save. I usually choose Desktop. If you don't choose where to place it, I think it will save to documents which is the first option. You then open the text file you saved and you can upload it to pastebin https://pastebin.com/ than post a link to your pastebin here

Its a laptop and not the best. Like you'd probably cry if I posted them hahahahaha. I know you're one of the ones with a gaming computer.
They were cheap and I got them anyway because I couldn't wait so its too late anyway hahahaha It was $40 altogether with base game and all but two expansions so I figured why not. I figure for so cheap, at least its on my Steam profile and I can just redownload it when I get a better computer if anything else. Whether it works or not I'll get the others when they go on sale again the next time I have money, and just keep them for when I upgrade. I couldn't connect them with my Origin expansion I already had though so that kinda plum, thanks Origin.
Its running fine though, I just have it so that the world doesn't render very far. It was worth it just to be able to make my dog hahahahaha The cutest little chihuaha mix.

As long as it's working for now. Just be careful with pets. It's the most demanding ep in the game and does really require a gaming computer.
I love Chihuahua. I have a JTR mix puppy who I believe is part Chihuahua. I know someone who has a 3 pound Chihuahua. He is solid blue/gray . He is the cutest Chihuahua I have ever seen.

Karritz

I have a few links you might find useful.

For when you want to get a new computer this article may be of assistance. And, since it shows a table with all the EPs and SPs in it then you may find it useful now too.

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements

This might help with your current laptop.
http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Onboard_Graphics

And this short article explains why an underpowered computer can appear to be working well - at first and not so well after a while

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Your_Computer_is_Like_a_Car

audsved

I love my pets and I do like the seasons. I will admit I turn off the snow as I tend to play the island areas and seeing my sandy beaches covered in snow just seems so very wrong and I do shorten that season on others as it does lag my system as well. I do hope if seasons does come to TS4 it is more intuitive to the region and areas and how changes in latitudes changes the effect of the season and attitude of the persons that inhabit it.

Paralee

Karritz wrote: »

I have a few links you might find useful.

For when you want to get a new computer this article may be of assistance. And, since it shows a table with all the EPs and SPs in it then you may find it useful now too.

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:TS3_System_Requirements

This might help with your current laptop.
http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Onboard_Graphics

And this short article explains why an underpowered computer can appear to be working well - at first and not so well after a while

http://www.modthesims.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Your_Computer_is_Like_a_Car

Thank you, I will archive these
I've been doing a lot of file cleaning on my laptop too. Just about every night I've been purging it of all of the uselessness it builds up. I never used to do that and now its purring like a kitten so that helps a little hopefully. I've heard from some that locking the FPS (when I can figure out how to do that) significantly reduces lag as well. And I have heard of mods that keeps my game nice and clean that I will look in to as well.
And I keep my graphic settings pretty low. Like my object details are nicer and so are my sims, but I make it so that it only renders like two properties away. I might even lower it to one because I like to record with OBS for Let's Plays and OBS lags everything so hard.

Paralee

audsved wrote: »

I love my pets and I do like the seasons. I will admit I turn off the snow as I tend to play the island areas and seeing my sandy beaches covered in snow just seems so very wrong and I do shorten that season on others as it does lag my system as well. I do hope if seasons does come to TS4 it is more intuitive to the region and areas and how changes in latitudes changes the effect of the season and attitude of the persons that inhabit it.

I don't like winter to be too long anyway. I have fall and winter set at 7 sim days each, and spring and summer set at 21 hahahahaha I happen to enjoy global warming that way.

Sigzy05

BlueOvale wrote: »

Island Paradise is a lag fest. Basically the entire ep is worthless because of this.

That's a world problem, most of it's content is fine expect for resorts which do make the game laggier.

SimplyJen

@somethingstellar Unless your hard drive had less than 20% of space left, it won't change much. Having a full or near full drive will always cause problems. It is a good idea to clean up junk to make sure it doesn't reach that limit. Try to not run any other program in the background. This includes music or web browser. This will help performance.

Unless you have a dedicated graphics card, it's unlikely you're getting more than 60 frames. Recoring will drop frames. You can check framerate with the in-game cheat fps on. Small numbers will appear in the corner. You don't want it going higher than your laptop's screen refresh rate. I'm not 100% sure on the average laptop refresh rate... could be 60. You can check this through Windows search > Display Settings > Advanced display settings > Display adapter properties > Monitor > (here you will see refresh rate for your screen)

Recording is always going to put stress on a computer. It really shows when the computer lacks the power to keep up. When you finally get your hands on a gaming computer, it's going to be a night and day experience.

Paralee

Simasaurus09 wrote: »

@somethingstellar Unless your hard drive had less than 20% of space left, it won't change much. Having a full or near full drive will always cause problems. It is a good idea to clean up junk to make sure it doesn't reach that limit. Try to not run any other program in the background. This includes music or web browser. This will help performance.

Unless you have a dedicated graphics card, it's unlikely you're getting more than 60 frames. Recoring will drop frames. You can check framerate with the in-game cheat fps on. Small numbers will appear in the corner. You don't want it going higher than your laptop's screen refresh rate. I'm not 100% sure on the average laptop refresh rate... could be 60. You can check this through Windows search > Display Settings > Advanced display settings > Display adapter properties > Monitor > (here you will see refresh rate for your screen)

Recording is always going to put stress on a computer. It really shows when the computer lacks the power to keep up. When you finally get your hands on a gaming computer, it's going to be a night and day experience.

Yeeeaaaaah my hard drive was pretty full. At least it must have been because running it now is a whole different experience hahaha Even opening and closing internet browser windows would take a long time before I did it. My laptop would start acting like I'd just asked it to do some quantum computing or something hahahaha I definitely can't wait to get my hands on a gaming rig though. I want to have those visual settings cranked waaaaay up and to be able to look off forever in to the distance! And still record! ALTHOUGH I do have edge smoothing and object and sim details way up so I really don't mind. It still looks pretty. I just want to observe the open world

It does an amazing job though considering. Sims 4 hates being recorded even more. I hear even the devs can't do livestreams without it crashing

AsunaSama10

I don't like the Sims 4 as Much as the sims 3