Expansion Packs: Most Played to Least Played. «12...Next Go

jackjack_k

Hey Guys!

I was just curious what packs you guys play most, and which packs you find yourself not touching very often (excluding objects and CAS).

I'm going to bite the bullet and play with NRASS, Overwatch etc. because I do like TS3, I just hate mods, and The Sims 3 is unplayable (and I'm not exaggerating) for me without mods, which is why console has been my game of choice.

But I want to explore more now, and don't know which packs are more common amongst players.

Reviews say that Into The Future and World Adventures are the best, but they seem very specific and don't impact everyday gameplay?

Nikkei_Simmer

The ones that I use most are Ambitions, Late Night, Seasons (weather is a must have for my gaming experience). Right now I'm not playing with Pets, because my computer can't handle it. World Adventures, Generations

So in order of the ones needed the most:

Generations
Seasons
Ambitions
World Adventures
Late Night

I have the following expansion packs and I will more than likely get the last four later on.

Late Night
Generations
Seasons
World Adventures
Pets
Supernatural
Ambitions

Trust me, I thought I would only be interested in a few expansion packs...but then I ended up getting bitten by the completionist bug and now I'm tracking down stuff packs and the worlds offered too.

Bananacupcake1

I haven't played sims 3 in a while but I used to love generations. I loved playing as teen sims and pranking everyone and throwing parties. It made the child/teen stage worthwhile which is lacking in sims 4

igazor

I think you will find that the majority of TS3 players on strong enough systems, despite the silly warning from Patch 1.69 that can be permanently dismissed anyway, play with all of our EPs all of the time. So for many of us, that would be all 11 of them.

If what you really meant was which features of the EPs do we call upon most often, even that gets difficult. I wouldn't at first say that IP. ITF, and Showtime directly impact my sims' everyday lives as long as they don't live in the EP worlds...but then I stop to think about how many of their objects, skills, and seemingly unrelated things (like Dip Kissing, Astronomy, and Soil Rugs from ITF; Genies and domino tables from Showtime, CAS parts from all of them, etc.) one can take for granted. Even if my sims never travel, there are so many game elements offered up by WA and Uni that I can't imagine playing without them now.

For a re-introduction to the game, you might want to start out with something basic like base game and one or two of WA, Ambitions, Generations, and LateNite. Then as you play and your game progresses, slowly add one or two EPs at a time into the mix as you go. There's nothing wrong with adding EPs as one goes on, there's only problems with ongoing saves if one tries to remove any. There's even an entire style of play progression based on this slow re-addition of the packs with each successive generation, although of course one doesn't really have to take things quite that slowly.

TreyNutz

The packs that impact everyday gameplay for me the most are probably Seasons, Ambitions, and Generations and UL. I send sims to UL constantly and I prefer my sims to get the additional UL traits whenever possible. I use the self-employment careers more than the rabbit hole careers and frequently have a sim master sculpting or inventing. Seasons gives a nice sense of time progression that I can't imagine playing without. Generations adds afterschool activities (which all my child sims enroll in) and a host of other interactions that I use in every family that I play. I do love WA and ITF. I send my sims to those world frequently and use the objects and interactions from them so much that I can't imagine playing without them but I don't use them in every game I play.

I haven't really incorporated much of Showtime or Pets into my gameplay aside from CAS and Build/Buy mode objects. I enjoy the genie from Showtime but I haven't done any of the careers or played in Starlight Shores.

Scobre

I use all the EPs, but as far as which is my favorite and least favorite to play would have to be Island Paradise for most favorite and Into the Future for least favorite. I like the beach theme and although the Dystopian world is cool in Into the Future, I don't care for the ultra modern look of the Utopian one and often find myself bored in that world. I really enjoy Generations, Seasons, Pets, World Adventures, and Ambitions. Late Night is probably my second to least favorite.

JoAnne65

It's like igazor said, I play with all EP's installed. And use all features through each other (often don't even know what's from which pack exactly, apart from the obvious features like for instance adventuring and open careers).

SultanCanAli

I only have a few but im waiting for some to come.
Most used:
1.Seasons
2.late night
3.Generations
4.Supernatural
5.World adventures
I havent opened university
Waiting for island paradise or into the future

TS1299

For me the pack that I use the most and vital to me is seasons. Just love it, especially with families playing in the snow, it change the way I pkay. The next is probably genarations as I love families in the game. The least that I use are probably the packs that require travelling. While I can load those three EP fast, I just don't think that I had a patience to wait

SultanCanAli

Seasons is the most needed and realistic one!and i use it in all my gameplay

SultanCanAli

[quote="igazor;c-16210079"]I think you will find that the majority of TS3 players on strong enough systems, despite the silly warning from Patch 1.69 that can be permanently dismissed anyway, play with all of our EPs all of the time. So for many of us, that would be all 11 of them.

If what you really meant was which [i]features [/i]of the EPs do we call upon most often, even that gets difficult. I wouldn't at first say that IP. ITF, and Showtime directly impact my sims' everyday lives as long as they don't live in the EP worlds...but then I stop to think about how many of their objects, skills, and seemingly unrelated things (like Dip Kissing, Astronomy, and Soil Rugs from ITF; Genies and domino tables from Showtime, CAS parts from all of them, etc.) one can take for granted. Even if my sims never travel, there are so many game elements offered up by WA and Uni that I can't imagine playing without them now.

For a re-introduction to the game, you might want to start out with something basic like base game and one or two of WA, Ambitions, Generations, and LateNite. Then as you play and your game progresses, slowly add one or two EPs at a time into the mix as you go. There's nothing wrong with adding EPs as one goes on, there's only problems with ongoing saves if one tries to remove any. There's even an entire style of play progression based on this slow re-addition of the packs with each successive generation, although of course one doesn't really have to take things quite that slowly.[/quote]

I did patch 1.69 whats the diffrence?

igazor

SultanCanAli wrote: »

igazor wrote: »

I think you will find that the majority of TS3 players on strong enough systems, despite the silly warning from Patch 1.69 that can be permanently dismissed anyway, play with all of our EPs all of the time. So for many of us, that would be all 11 of them.

If what you really meant was which features of the EPs do we call upon most often, even that gets difficult. I wouldn't at first say that IP. ITF, and Showtime directly impact my sims' everyday lives as long as they don't live in the EP worlds...but then I stop to think about how many of their objects, skills, and seemingly unrelated things (like Dip Kissing, Astronomy, and Soil Rugs from ITF; Genies and domino tables from Showtime, CAS parts from all of them, etc.) one can take for granted. Even if my sims never travel, there are so many game elements offered up by WA and Uni that I can't imagine playing without them now.

For a re-introduction to the game, you might want to start out with something basic like base game and one or two of WA, Ambitions, Generations, and LateNite. Then as you play and your game progresses, slowly add one or two EPs at a time into the mix as you go. There's nothing wrong with adding EPs as one goes on, there's only problems with ongoing saves if one tries to remove any. There's even an entire style of play progression based on this slow re-addition of the packs with each successive generation, although of course one doesn't really have to take things quite that slowly.

I did patch 1.69 whats the diffrence?

The only things Patch 1.69 did was force the tie-in between Origin and the Launcher and provide the Packs and Stuff chooser tab. It generates a warning for everyone to use fewer than all EPs no matter how strong our systems are, the warning is not system specific and everyone playing with more than three or four EPs sees it. The warning can be dismissed every time or the option to "Stop Telling Me This" can be selected.

Other than that, no difference.

1need4kaffee

I would say most of the EPs are worth getting and just go with what you are interested in. WA gives you a lot with new skills and items even if you don't want adventures in your play. UL gives you more traits and skills and my favorite way to earn early cash - dumpster diving (and I think going to college is cool). Ambitions is a must and Late Nite gives you cool bars (and vampires - meh). But there are three four that I would say buy last.

I would hold off on ITF unless you are really into futuristic play. Aside from the soil rugs, you get more bang for your buck with some of the other expansions. IP is beautiful and diving is cool, but the world is broken and can put you off the game if you aren't aware of the issues and take steps to fix it before you start playing. Pets is a love it or hate it gamble. Some people think it is great; I am not a fan. I want to be, and I try every so often, but end up removing it each time. Showtime...is just so annoying. It has Genies and karaoke, but....

comicsforlife

Generations
Seasons
World Adventures
for me
I have all the eps these are the best

GREENEYA

Supernatural the most, Generations the least.

Linamints

Nrass mods make such a huge improvement on game play. When I first started loading up on expansions and everything (before finding mods and maintenance tips) I found the Sims 3 to be unplayable because of how buggy and laggy it was. And it really astounded me how a game that old could run so bad when much much higher end games ran so smooth. With the nrass mods I've noticed a massive improvement, and I use a batch file to do maintenance (I made this by following a tutorial form someone here on the forums to delete the 5 cache files by using just one, I just added a few other files to the list that are recommended to regularly clean out).

That aside, here is my expansion pack list of most to least:
supernatural & seasons I honestly can't decide which of these is more important, so they're in first place together. I tend to make certain characters in every sims game, and my favorites are a family of sorcerers, so supernaturals to me are very essential.
Seasons adds so much more to the environment that makes the game feel more alive and I absolutely love it, plus the plethora of new activities isn't bad either.

World adventures
Growing up my favorite games in the world were the tomb raider series (I love archaeology and ancient cultures, so it adds a tiny pinch of that). World adventures felt very tom raider esque to me. The first time around I was super unimpressed with this pack and shelved it for awhile after I played it. The second time around however I stuck it out a lot longer in terms of investigating ruins and quickly fell in love with the pack. It's safe to say this pack will never be shelved by me again.

Generations
This expands gameplay so much if you're a family simmer (which I am). The objects and new features are super enjoyable.

Island paradise
I love this mod in conjunction with the nraas traveler mod as I can visit the tropics on vacation without having to move there. I also really love houseboats, mermaids, and diving.

Pets
I try so hard not to love this pack, because I always wind up spending a lot of time picking up strays, cleaning them up and naming them, and giving them to Sims around town (if I don't keep them myself). The pets are adorable and the amount of effort that must've gone into some of these animations is staggering. It's just a beautifully done pack.

Ambitions
This one took me awhile to get into (and if I must be honest, I still have a lot of stuff to test out), but the more I explore the content the more I love it. It adds a LOT of stuff to do and a lot of stuff I make regular use of.

Least played:

University life There really isn't anything wrong with this pack, I love a lot of the objects in it. I just haven't had the time to sit down and enjoy the full experience of it, and it seems like there is always something keeping my main family from utilizing the university features, so I haven't really gotten the chance to test it in full. I think the main reason likely is that the Sims I play most had just started a family at the time I got this pack so I'm more involved with raising the sim kids than sending one of the parents off to college. I plan to start a new save once I finish my most recent CAW project and will make sure to use university when i do.

Late night
The vampires were fun, but overall I just didn't get too into the features of this pack. I use some of the objects in it regularly, but not many of the actual features. And the celebrity system drives me up the wall. There is no reason a stay at home mom should have paparazzi and autograph hounds stalking her. It eventually got to the point any household I play regularly has the security fence to keep this irritating stalkers out of my yard and away from my poor sim family.

Into the future
Again, nothing wrong with this pack. I used to time travel on my main sim when she was younger (sometimes with her dad tagging along since I didn't want my teen sim running around unattended in the future). However once she moved out on her own and started having other adventures I just gradually used the time travel feature less. Plus now that I have the nraas traveler mod I have so many vacation destinations it's just less interesting to spend time in the future. The main reason I do so at all anymore is to check on my descendants. Even if I find them to be monstrosities I like seeing how they're doing, and if they're having a hard time I try and help them out by giving them a makeover or polishing up their houses if they're living in hovels.
That aside, I do love the collectibles and plumbots, I still have the plumbot my sim built when she was younger.

Showtime This is my least favorite expansion so far. The only reason I got this pack was for the singer profession and karaoke machine, and the price at the time was dirt cheap.
The online interactive features and achievement system were buggy and very unappealing to me, and I came into the series way too late in it's life span to have used it much anyway (most likely anyway). I also didn't utilize many features of it.

Well that's the end of this rambling post!

gerefteast

Hmm.

Seasons/Pets - I can't decide which should take the first place. Pets was the first EP I got (btw I got it with the main game at once), so I can't imagine the virtual world without pets roaming around, as they were there "since always". Seasons added...well, seasons, and weather, so it made the gameplay much, much more dynamical.

Ambitions - another expansion pack I just can't play without. Why? Because I really don't like the jobs from the main game. Not just particular jobs, but all of them. Again, why? Because most of them includes 7 working days a week, at least at the higher grades of the career. Well, I understand doctors, policemen etc work 7 days a week, that's just like in real life. But there are some careers that in my honest opinion don't have to include that. Ambitions EP added more possibilities to choose from and it's great.

Late Night - I enjoy having vampires, night life and apartments in the game, but as some people said before, the celebrity system is really annoying. At example, I want my Sim to become a boyfriend/girlfriend of another Sim, but oops, that second one is a celebrity, so whole city will know and now paparazzi from all of the neighbourhood will stalk them. Also, honestly, I don't like the new world, Bridgeport. It seems so gloomy for me.

Island Paradise - it shouldn't be on the last place, so...last but not least. I like this EP, but I got it several weeks ago, so I still didn't get into its features - at example, I had no Sims turned into mermaids and didn't discover any hidden islands. I just need some more time :)

These are all the expansion packs I have, maybe I will supply this post when I get something new.

JoAnne65

@Linamints I’ve enjoyed all packs modless. I love the mods I have now, but in no way do they improve the gameplay of those packs.

Linamints

@JoAnne65 I think you misunderstood my post. I didn't mean the mods the OP mentioned changed the core game play features, but rather make the game run smoother because they fix so many issues that were never fixed by EA, this to me, does equal better game play because it's more stable. I was not trying to say the mods changed the core game play in any way aside from the traveler mod enabling Isla paradiso for vacation instead of strictly moving there.

JoAnne65

Linamints wrote: »

@JoAnne65 I think you misunderstood my post. I didn't mean the mods the OP mentioned changed the core game play features, but rather make the game run smoother because they fix so many issues that were never fixed by EA, this to me, does equal better game play because it's more stable. I was not trying to say the mods changed the core game play in any way aside from the traveler mod enabling Isla paradiso for vacation instead of strictly moving there.

Ah, ok, I think I did misunderstand. I agree mods can improve the experience in that respect. I love how much freedom and possibilities Mastercontroller gives me for instance.

SimplyJen

When I'm not playing certain challenges, I play with all packs because each one has something to offer.

Most Used
Seasons because having weather really impacts game play for me.
Ambitions Self-employed careers.
University Degrees and extra trait.
World Adventures World travel which I use to link any world to the home world but this may be doable with NRaas: Traveler alone instead of paired. It used to require WA.
Late Night Real bars! With an added mod to give the realism of alcohol.
Pets I find it hard to avoid adding pets or at least, minor pets. You can bet my sims love reptiles too.
Supernatural Occults
Into the Future Plumbots and the food synthesizer for community lots.

Least Used
Generations Besides build/buy & CAS, I don't use the game play features very often.
Showtime The professions are fun but not something I play often. Genies are cool but I haven't played them much.. This could change. It's the build/buy & CAS that I like.
Island Paradise I'm not sure about this one. It depends on the save/world because some of my sims have enjoyed water sports, boating, and fishing via boat. Traveling by water can be useful for some worlds.

Sigzy05

From most to least :

Late Night
Ambitions
Generations
Seasons
Pets
World Adventures
Showtime
University Life
Supernatural
Island Paradise
Into the Future

If Island Paradise's world worked, I'd play more often with it's features, no other world has underwater lots to dive in and I'm too lazy to make them in existing worlds. But I often do make my sims windsurf and use the beach activities a lot.

igazor

@Sigzy05 - Okay, time to stop. I mean, there's lazy and then there's really lazy.

But on a more serious note, yes although the EP is fine, the Isla Paradiso world out of the box so to speak is an unplayable mess. Yes, it's shameful that it was released that way, sort of as a "serving suggestion" for players to see what is possible and to then create their own tropical worlds with dive lots and other IP content. But come on already it's been years now and that ship has long since sailed, pardon the pun.

A member here @ciane has cleaned everything up for you and offers her versions of the world as Saved Games all ready to play. Just pop the files into your saves and go, no mods (unless you want or were using them anyway), no custom worlds to install, no fancy tricks required unless you want to get really fancy with the more advanced enhancements, all of the extremely well documented things that need fixing and go on for pages have been done for you. If players use the NRaas Traveler mod, then they can connect the nhd file of that save to the rest of their ongoing game and use it as a vacation destination like any other or of course it can just be used as a regular homeworld.
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/811253/removing-ip-lag/p1

This wasn't all entirely new at the time, many of us were able to get Isla P to be playable for us by fixing a much smaller set of critical things before ciane came along, documented everything, and made a playable version so much easier to get to. The only thing ciane did "wrong" was wait until two years after the EP's release to spring her creations on us, all organized and in one place.

I have to admit that IP isn't the first expansion I think of either if I really had to make a list of essential ones, but that the world that came with it is flawed is not among the reasons.

TadOlson

I own the entire collection and play with features from all of them including the stuff packs.I also play with Mods and have hundreds of those to fix the game issues like school overcrowding and routing fails fixed with awsomemod to disable automated school assignments which is a major problem in larger worlds.

JoAnne65

Sigzy05 wrote: »

From most to least :

Late Night
Ambitions
Generations
Seasons
Pets
World Adventures
Showtime
University Life
Supernatural
Island Paradise
Into the Future

If Island Paradise's world worked, I'd play more often with it's features, no other world has underwater lots to dive in and I'm too lazy to make them in existing worlds. But I often do make my sims windsurf and use the beach activities a lot.

So far the world works for me, with my NRaas mods and the fixes I made using this page (ellacharmed). The world definitely is borked (even with those measures I occasionally have to reset* the game), but at least it's playable now.

I wonder by the way, would it be possible to save the diving spots to the bin and place them in other worlds? Or are they too deep for that?

Sindel910

I think I dont play Get to Work that much anymore. I dont really think about the jobs that much so I think the closest I am but I do like opening business and boutiques! My most played and I think favorite one is City Living! Its just so pretty, plus I love the singing skill so much!!