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What is so special with Expansions?
Branthor4000
Posts: 140 Member
This may sound like a silly question, but remember, it is coming from a new player that does not have any expansions. However, playing the base-game is so much fun, and keeps me not only busy but totally occupies with my Sims, I wonder what more can be added to the experience? Exactly what does an expansion add? As I said, I can do so so much with my base game, I wonder if I will ever get an expansion.
Someone please tell me what I must be missing, otherwise, why so many expansions.
Thank you all and have a great night!
Someone please tell me what I must be missing, otherwise, why so many expansions.
Thank you all and have a great night!
0
Comments
I don't know if you mean personal gaming experience wise, or actual game play but the expansions have SO much. They have life stages, new interactions, different objects, different skills. Like late night has bars and vampires. Showtime has new careers and talents. In ambitions you can go explore tombs and other sim cultures.
There's so much to explain, just go onto youtube and watch like, everything. There is so much o-o
Having said that, I did love what the two EPs I have installed did bring to the game. I have Late Night and World Adventures installed (although I have a couple of more EPs sitting under my desk gathering dust which have not been tried).
It's hard to suggest an EP to someone else without knowing their game style. For me, it's all about the genetics and generational games so I could do it with the base game alone.
You really should read up on what each EP brings and see if anything tickles your fancy.
Zumi and the Winchester Brothers
The Watcher's Caretaker - A Limited ISBI
I do have quite a few EPs, but not all. I'm glad I got the ones I have, and especially glad that I waited long enough to get them at a good price. I started buying EPs when I became familiar enough with the base game that it was starting to get repetitive and was no longer exciting. If you're not at that point yet, then why waste money on new expansions? There's plenty of time to wait for a good sale. I say read up on what the EPs offer, and if they interest you, get them when you feel it's time to add something new.
Personally, I almost never play with aging or reproduction, and I prefer to have a small selection of households with unique, distinct sims that I know intimately and play for dozens of weeks. Because of this, doing the same base game things over and over with the same sims gets tiring, so I like having new EPs to give my sims more options for things to do, as well as giving me more freedom to create new sims with more unique appearances and personalities (new EPs add new traits and CAS items). Since I'm a career-oriented person, I especially like EPs that offer interesting new skills and careers.
Here are a few pictures from my own game that they bring.
Skating is included in Seasons.
Magicians are included in Showtime.
Zombies are in Seasons. No he is not attacking her, but instead they were already in this interaction, when he became one. He did not try to eat her either. I'm guessing he managed to keep his mind active at least for a little bit.
Houseboats, and mermaids are included in Paradise Island.
Witches in Supernatural. You might recognize this sim, she is Mortimer Goth's mother in Sunset Valley.
Weather in Seasons, and see the old man with the cane, the cane comes with Generations.
The winner in a Pie Eating Contest, this is with Seasons.
Not sure why she stuck her tong to the ice, but sculpting comes with Ambitions.
Aliens, actually this one was born in game, his mother is full alien.
Plantsims, come with University Life
I hope this gives you a bit of an idea, plus I just love showing pictures.
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_3:_Ambitions
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_3:_World_Adventures
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_3:_Supernatural
http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/The_Sims_3:_University_Life
My favorite so far is Supernatural (with some mods to deal with zombies). After that would be Seasons. I'm not impressed with Late Night. I recently bought World Adventures, which I'm liking, Generations, which is adds a lot of little stuff, and University Life which I have barely gotten into. I haven't gotten much into the new professions of Ambitions, but I like the new skills: sculpting and inventing. I was hoping Ambitions would have a more robust consignment shop than Supernatural, but it's the same awkward, barely functional interface.
Generally, an EP might offer new skills (which often create new ways to earn a living), new careers (either rabbit hole or professions, which require more involved player interaction), new activities, harvestables, gems, personality traits, clothes/hair/objects, lot types (lounges, dance clubs, laundromats, junkyards, consignment shops, etc.), perhaps a new neighborhood, new interactions, new life states (vampire, fairy, mummy, genie, imaginary friend, werewolf, plantsim, aliens, etc.), new lifetime rewards.
I think Late Night added an attraction system and dating. Seasons added new types of parties, as well as seasons, seasonal activities, and weather (lots of weather). I just had my sim throw my first gift giving party in the game. It went pretty well, the family got 3 new gaming consoles. :roll:
Stuff Packs are smaller in scope and tend only to add more objects, clothes, and hair. Carl's has pics of everything available for most of the Stuff Packs so you can see everything before you buy.
Anyway... Here's my personal story with EP:s, and how I thought I'd never need them, but ended up having all of them...
I haven't been playing very long yet. I have played the Sims 1 and the Sims 2 a little. I never got any EP:s for those, but then, I also got bored pretty fast. With the Sims 3 I started playing it the day it came out. And got bored again, really fast. Only a couple of years later I found the game again, and started playing. Again, I first thought I wouldn't need any EP:s. But things got boring again really fast. And I felt the clothes and hair and other things with only the base game were kind of disappointing. Then I spent most of the 1000 bonus simpoints that I got from registering on Hidden Springs, which was on Daily Deal in the store. Even the limited amount of stuff that came with it seemed to open so many new possibilities.
A bit later I heard about Showtime EP, and thought it might be really cool to play with a magician. After a long consideration I got it. And loved it. I played a sim from the start to the top of the magician career. And she even got a genie, which she freed and was going to start dating, when I got bored again.
Around that time I heard Supernatural was coming out, and as I love vampires, I decided I wanted it. Later I got a couple of more EP:s on sale. And after that I always thought about use for yet another EP. Like, when I decided I finally wanted to play with a proper family, I wanted Generations. And so on. And now I have all of them. I don't really think about them as very separate anymore. While I like some more than others, they all bring new things in my game that I like, and might miss if I suddenly uninstalled any of them.
And now that there are no more EP:s for me to get, I'm getting addicted to store content. I always want something new in my game. With some features I play all the time, others I forget about, and then find them again.
So, it all depends on yourself. You might stay happy with the base game. But the EP:s bring A LOT of new and fun things.
But if you end up getting any, get them only one or two at a time. They do have a lot of content, so you might want to have time to get to know the new features with each, before you get a new one
You're thinking world adventures, m'dear. Ambitions gives you a bunch of self-employed careers plus some others that don't involve rabbitholes, and a consignment store. If you like to have your sim garden or fish for a living but hate how the wishes are always telling you to get a job, then this one is for you.
World Adventures had travel for people; and a good deal of the expansion IS done while on vacation. However, a huge portion of it can also be brought home to expand your home life. New fruits and vegitables, new decor in the form of relics to collect and examine, new fish and bugs to catch. New cultures and skills to learn. Martial Arts from China, Nectar Making from France, and Photography from Egypt. If your Sim was "lucky" enough, they may even encounter a mummy.
I'm sure I could go on and on about the various expansions. I decided as soon as I knew I liked Sims 3 that I'd be trying to get all of them. It's just what I do. There's always something that I'd want to do in one save, that might not work with another. So think a bit what you consider to be missing in your game, read up on the expansions and what they offer, and see what you'd like to add. Sims.wikia.com is a good source; as are several other places. Even the Origin store gives a minor look at what's included in each expansion.
It should also be noted that EXPANSION packs and STUFF packs are distinctly different. EXPANSIONS usually add extra gameplay, whereas STUFF packs primarily add.. well, more stuff. Without changing how the game acts.
Today I finally got into playing with world adventures. It's more of a gamey experience with puzzles and questlines.
Supernatural brings in new lifestates which adds a lot of fun and craziness, being that they're mostly magical in some way.
Island Paradise lets you live on boats, go diving, and run hotels.
Ambitions introduces new work options, instead of sending your sim into a rabbithole where they disappear for 8 years, you actually control their actions in new types of jobs like private eye or ghost hunter, and have to actually work for your promotions. Other expansions add more job options to this.
Like others said, it's still dependant on your play style. Late Night for example doesn't do much for me because Im not big on city worlds. Generations isn't much to me because I tend to play a single sim on epic lifespan and pretty much never see them age.
See my Sims 3 studio for latest progress.
Ambitions adds more jobs whereas it's World Adventures lets you go exploring tombs and visit China, Egypt and Paris.
Supernatural adds witches, werewolves, fairies to play with. When they added to patch just right before the EP came out, they also added in CAS along with the life states I just said, you can make a genie if you have the Showtime EP and you can make a ghost and pick out what color he is. The different colors of ghosts indicates how that sim died.
Their is the Seasons EP if you want snow, rain. spring, summer, fall and winter if you get tired of having an eternal summer in your game. You also get aliens in this EP. Your Sims can get abducted and a chance to come back pregnant by them. You can also befriend them and ask them to move in with you.
Here is a good Sims 3 guide that I use a lot. It tells you what each EP has to offer and such.
http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/
http://store.thesims3.com/myWishlist.html?persona=lisasc360
My stories on this site:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/991317/my-sims-stories/p1?new=1
I think you are in a great place - you're enjoying the base game and everything is new to you. My recommendation is to not worry about EPs until you start to get a little bored.
And coming late to Sims 3, you are in a GREAT spot to get those EPs at discount prices. Sweet!
For those of us who came directly from Sims2 (and all of its EPs) the Sims3 base game was rather bland. But I don't recall feeling that way about the Sims2 base game. This is where I got my "gaming" on. LOL Previously, I didn't play computer games — or at least, only on a vary LIMITED basis. I tried playing a Star Trek game, but it was merely about solving problems and if you failed, you had to start all over again from the beginning. Got boring really quickly.
Coming from the Sims2 experience (in which I quickly became addicted to playing) I eagerly snatched up the EPs for Sims3. Not so much for the SPs, however. I bought Fast Lanes and then High End Stuff, but after that decided the upcoming ones didn't thrill me. I decided to supliment my game, instead, with hand-picked stuff from the Store.
Expansion pack are just that. They enhance and expand the gaming experience. If I were you, I'd take a look at what the different EPs have to offer and grab a few while they are on sale.
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
As others have said though it really depends on your play style and what you enjoy and don't enjoy.
I attempted this once, but I found that I was missing some of the interactions too much not to keep them in the game.
I've got a sample of the fun added from Pets.They're all households from my town legacy challenge game in Winfield.I actually switch between all three of them in the same batch of saves.
Here's Eli Jankowsky riding Racer after he grew up.
Lee King adopted a puppy named Spot and lover her very much.
Tanner and Tracy Ivanovitch adopted a kitten named Katy and love her a lot.
EPs, I own most of them and enjoy them a lot. You get a ton of additional stuff to flesh out your game. Like being able to dance on tables/counters from Late Night, working careers that aren't just "Send my Sim there and wait X hours," having an army of cats, spray-painting the crap out of a venue that ****** you off, etc. :P