I Need Help... Again

ARRensch

Okay I need help with expansions again. I know there are so many threads on expansions, but I still can't decide what to get.
I have five currently; Ambitions, Generations, Pets, World Adventures, and Seasons.
I just bought Island Paradise and Showtime.
So what has me tied is Supernatural, University Life, and Late Night.

So you know a bit about my gameplay: I love children, my Simself definitely has the nurturing trait. I am always open to new things for toddlers and children! Interestingly enough, I also love new ways to wreck havoc and really enjoy terrorizing the town with laser cannons. I also enjoy making silly and crazy looking Sims and doing things just because I can. Like decorating the graveyard for Christmas. And I really enjoy building as well, usually modern themes, so cool furniture is a good thing. I also enjoy new careers for my Sims.

Supernatural: I want the items really, not the game play so much. I'm sure I wouldn't use the supernatural life states very much but the items would be great to have. What are your favorite of those?

University Lie: I'm wondering if it helps complete a game with families. Helping the kids go through college and all. Do you use this very often with your families? I'm not very huge about parties and stuff like that, they don't appeal to me in real life or Sims. So what are the other good features with this one?

Late Night: Again, I don't really send my Sims to party. I'm not super big on the whole nightlife thing in general and probably would never use the world, I'm not a city kind of person. However I think new instruments would be cool, as well as the acting career. I hear the paparazzi get pretty annoying. (Like zombies from Supernatural.)

So when I asked about Showtime, I found a lot of things about it I didn't know and discovered it looked like fun. I'm hoping that maybe some of you can help me decide what to do here and help me with my decision. I want to try them out, but just can't seem to get myself to click 'buy'.

And is there another expansion I'm missing? (Besides Into the Future, which I don't think I'll get.)

Sindocat

I have all three of those.

University Life also comes with a ton of furniture and clothes that I use all the time. Also includes 3 new rabbit hole career paths for your Sims and ways to unlock two additional Trait slots so you can go above 5. What I found though is that with Generations, I had maxed out my toddler/child/teen's main skills at 10 already by the time they hit YA, and raising skill is key to keeping academic performance high so that kid had to major outside his interest range to really benefit from an education.

Supernatural was my first EP. In fact, I bought it bundled with the base game to start playing Sims 3, so it is hard for me to recall what is content specific to that EP. I think it introduced bee-keeping, and the indoor gardening planter bowls are nice too. Don't underrate the lifestates! But then I have a thing for fairies, so... Also, Moonlight Falls is a nice town to play in. Some say it's too dark, but I find it soothing.

Late Night is in my opinion the weakest of the three. One can totally opt out of the Celebrity system however to avoid paparazzi. The hot tubs are nice but maybe you already have some through Stuff Packs. Additional musical instruments are fun, too. Mixology is a fun skill, and it is nice to have the better juice bars that support it for the home.

ARRensch

Hm, University Life doesn't seem too bad. And I like the idea of a darker town. I'll be getting Midnight Hollow here soon, especially since that graveyard is just freak'n awesome! Seasons introduced a hot tub that I've enjoyed, although to be honest I don't use it very often. I think I've decided on University Life at least. I'll go ahead and get it, it's on sale anyway on Amazon. (Under 20 bucks.)

Still open to thoughts on Supernatural and Late Night though.

Amphora

I bought Supernatural because my sister said she would play Sims 3 if I bought it (Back when I tried to lure her back to playing the Sims again. I failed ) and I wasn't really looking forward to the EP considering that I hate supernatural type life states.

I'm actually really happy I bought it because it's one of my favorite EP's!!

The items included are awesome. I love, LOVE all the new clothing included in it. I tend to use those clothes a lot in my gameplay, and the items in the buy and build mode catalog are amazing as well. I got a mod to stop zombies, but the life states are actually fun to play. The only beef I have (and has made me to stop allowing supernatural lifestates in my game) is that witches (and maybe fairies?) always caused love spells and wreaked havoc in my town with unwanted romances. Needless to say, I literally had kissing cousins in my game because of the love spells...*shudder*...

Although I read that there's a mod to stop that. I plan on looking it up as soon as I post this comment. Lol!


And as for Late Night, the items included are awesome as well. I love having instruments in my game and the clothing is great as well. I'm like you in that I don't really like the city life, but the items included really do transfer well to small town/suburban living.


But to be honest, I think you should get Supernatural. There are a lot more items and game-play situations included in it that make the EP worthwhile

ARRensch

@Mea_93, I'm a bit curious about that mod, in case I get Supernatural. (Still haven't totally made up my mind about it.) I think first I might just check to make sure my game is still running well, not sure how much my laptop can take. It runs extremely smoothly with five expansions, but that could change. I have looked at a few items from Nightlife and do like them. It's really whether or not I should use my spare money on them or something else. (Explore thinkgeek maybe? XD)

Amphora

I play on a laptop myself. I have World Adventures, Ambitions, Generations, Late Night, Seasons, Island Paradise and the SP High End Loft Stuff - I discovered any more than that causes it to lag.

Pets caused the worst lag on my laptop so I uninstalled it to my sadness. I recently uninstalled Showtime and discovered a definite improvement in game play as well. But then your laptop might very well be better than mine. Lol.

Edited for terrible, horrible, no good, very bad grammar :P

KayleiMarie

I have all three and my personal favourite is university, I'm a family player so I like being able to send the kids off to college and then the parents come to the graduation and I get all emotional and give a speech to my dog about all the hard work I've put into getting that sim through uni.

I digress.

Tbh I like all 3, but I think university is more fleshed out than the other 2 and it gives the game more of a realistic feel.

ARRensch

Okay, I just ordered the Sim 3 Supernatural. Now I believe the only expansions I don't have are Into the Future and Late Night.

Also, I'm wondering about how good of a world Hidden Springs is. I like the fact that it's very green with mountains and lots of trees, as I live in an area similar. Although maybe not quite as fancy. And actually, I am slightly turned off by the description of the fancy and rich who live there just because EA's mansions tend to be... not quite my style. I like more modern styled homes, but not very big. Preferably one story actually. I also like wood, not the rustic cabin wood look, but maybe a polished sort of wood too. Not to mention colors like yellows, blues and greens.

I'm also not a big fan of townies dressed in super nice, expensive outfits either. I know EA dresses rich people to be, well, rich.

So I'm not really sure whether or not I like Hidden Springs and whether it's worth buying. More help?

Dark_Tig3r

There's actually away to turn off Zombies using the testingcheatsenabled cheat and alt clicking on the mail box. You can also choose which Lifestates are randomized throughout the world in the options menu. Really cool pack that has a lot of near decorating stuff. I like the pictures personally because some of them change from normal looking sim to some supernatural when the night comes....night or full moon can't really remember and Supernatural has the portal thing that you can use as a vehicle that looks like the TARDIS. Yeah..anyways random.

The only reason I got Late Night was for the vampires. I like vampires but their lifestate didn't turn out to be all that interesting, though hunting can be fun. The only supernatural sims I like are the witches because you can hex people and....yeah that's it.

I got hidden springs a while back and aside from the Fountain of Youth that comes with it and either extends your sims life or changes his traits depending on his luck...I don't really play with it. The town was kind of small and the sims inside it didn't really appeal to me. Though I guess i could have replaced them but oh well.

ARRensch

I might try replacing all the Sims as well. Although it would mean me building more families. I probably have enough in my library as is, but something tells me my Sims Mumushka and Benerby wouldn't quite fit in with the town, lol. (Mumushka and Benerby are both quite strange, hence the crazy names I gave them.)

Dark_Tig3r

Lol they sound interesting. I hear ya on my computer I had so many sims families I could populate a whole sims town in no time when my computer crashed and I got on my husbands I nearly cried because I had to create whole new families just to populate the world i downloaded. It took hours and I wound up skimming through some of the EA Worlds to pick out pre-made families.

ARRensch

Yeah I lost all of my families a few months ago when my computer died. I've been slowly rebuilding new ones.

TadOlson

I've got everything except Ambitions and Showtime and love all of them.I still want the two I'm missing and my laptop is more than capable of running the entire collection with heavy Mod and CC loads.The entire collection would add to all types of play including family play.

Sindocat

Hidden Springs doesn't strike me as being too rich and fancy. Some of the buildings are a bit chichi and over the top with the use of patterns &c. but the Vandenbrugh mansion is actually pretty sedate. And it really is a lovely world to play in, with a few fairly distinct neighborhoods.

It is also one of the smallest of the towns EA/Maxis built, not that it feels cramped - it doesn't, to me - but there is less you may feel compelled to replace, I already have a favorite lot, used with 2 very different houses and 2 different households. It's remote - for HS - but doesn't take long to get down into town (except on horseback, at a walk xD).

Siiiiiiiiiimss3

I don't think you should get showtime, it's quite boring to be honest. University L and Late N are awesome!! they're my favourites, although I don't even have LN yet university life is a bit glitchy and has graduation problems, but if you know how to get around it, you'll enjoy it with no problems. Like there are many graduation glitches : can't get through door, can't graduate. Etc. but on the Saturday it starts at 2??? I think. Just to be safe, get there at 10am because I think it starts at 12 idek I CANT REMEBRR. either 12 or 2. Just hang out in the front of the annex (where they graduate ) until it's time. Then you'll be the first to graduate . All fine!
Late night, neither do I like to party but just to experience differently, make like 3 whole different sims to play with so one goes partying or something. Trust me, you'll have fun! I can't wait to get late night !!