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Is it worth it to play Sims 2 with only these expansions?
in The Sims 2
So, I didn't like The Sims 2 when it came out and never really gave it a chance. I stuck with Sims 1 until I got bored and quit playing altogether. I love The Sims 4, but I'd like to give The Sims 2 another shot as well, since I was a kid the last time I played it and my tastes have probably changed a lot.
Here's my conundrum. As I didn't get into The Sims 2, I didn't get many expansions for it. Here's what I have:
Pets
University
Nightlife
Open For Business
I'm missing 5 of the expansion packs. Is this going to cause issues with mods, or are they mostly base-game compatible? I play a very mod heavy game, so this would be a deal breaker for me.
Is there going to be enough gameplay variation to hold my interest with 5 missing expansion packs?
Here's my conundrum. As I didn't get into The Sims 2, I didn't get many expansions for it. Here's what I have:
Pets
University
Nightlife
Open For Business
I'm missing 5 of the expansion packs. Is this going to cause issues with mods, or are they mostly base-game compatible? I play a very mod heavy game, so this would be a deal breaker for me.
Is there going to be enough gameplay variation to hold my interest with 5 missing expansion packs?
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I've only ever had the base game and it kept me entertained for YEARS. I only added University this past year. I bought it when it first came out, but never installed it until this past year. I guess it's all in your attitude as to whether or not you get invested in the game. I found that the base game had PLENTY to keep me going for the past decade and more.
I'm going to expand on what she said about mods.
Not all mods are base game compatible. Some are. Some creators are nice enough to leave up old versions of mods for those who didn't buy the newer EP's. You just may not have every feature of the mod.
The less a mod changes, the more likely you'll be able to find a mod for that that's still compatible with your EP combination - especially if it's specific to an expansion pack. An Open for Business related mod that's only about businesses or Servos would likely be just fine. A large complicated mod like Autonomous Casual Romance, not so much. Multiple EP's added new places to woohoo as well as romantic interactions.
Make sure Universlty is installed before Nightlife to get the gadget kiosk from University added to the community lots of Nightlife.
University allows both playable and non-playable teenagers to go to college and become playable adults afterwards. I think it's a great feature especially when you get tired of watching the same paper delivery persons and shop clerks all the time.
If no student at a dorm like cleaning the puddles on the floor, you might add a robot station from 'Open for Business' and make one or more student(s) make toy robots until one of them gets a bronze badge in robotics and can build cleanbots.
You might also add bowling lanes from Nightlife to dorms or community lots at college, or add pool tables from University to community lots at other neighborhoods.
The option of merging households came with University, too, and cars came with Nightlife, by the way.
I discarded Pets, so I can not tell you anything about it.
Get the UC in that case or cross your fingers and hunt for a bargain bin--don't bother with eBay and Amazon, the vendors there price gouge
When I first got TS2 in 2004, I only had one expansion pack until 2008: Seasons. I couldn't imagine the game without it, in all honesty. Now that I have UC, it's hard to imagine playing vanilla again, but if I absolutely had to choose one EP, it would be Seasons. Greenhouses, sunburning, snow, rain... It's all too much for me to pass up.
Personality,depth,humor,consequences,lore,customization.
*chants* OFB! OFB!
I also can't imagine my game with the IKEA SP... malm like furnished all of my sims rooms
I reckon I could play my game without Seasons, but when I found out that some sims get allergies and sneeze when it's Spring, that just made Seasons a keeper for me. I love how each pack profoundly adds new character or gameplay depth to the game.
I am going to assume that mods will always state what patch level they were made with and which expansions are considered necessary for them to function correctly in the mod download information? I have noticed several when I have been searching around for a particular mod that do not require all the expansion packs but it depends what you are looking for.
When I first started playing my main concern was something I could use to control motives but I think the mod I am using at the moment requires AL but you could search for other versions. Then I moved onto other mods for things I wanted to change after I had been playing the game for a while such as no more bugs (annoyance mods) After I tested them all and decided which ones I wanted to keep I moved on to CC so my sims had better skin, eyes, hair, clothes and modern furniture. At first for me it was a shock looking at the 2 graphics coming from 3 but the graphics rules maker will solve that if you want to make those sorts of graphical looks/changes.
http://www.simsnetwork.com/simpedia/the-sims-2/editions/the-sims-2/specials/graphics-rules-maker-improve-compatibility-with
As for holding your interest personally coming from the prospective of only every having played 3 extensively Sims 2 holds my attention more in actual game play because the sims are so diverse and the animations for shopping, eating, dating and getting on with one another is so much more intricate than I had ever been used to before. I have to mention the dancing because in 4 I believe there is still no couples dancing which frankly I simply cannot understand. I have spent a lot of time gathering and testing the mods/CC I enjoy playing with and get a real sense of satisfaction when I have accomplished something I wanted in my game but have had to work at it-) With 4 I do play but I play quite mindlessly almost sort of like a mobile phone game where I don’t have to think too much about what I am doing if that makes sense but with 2 I have a map that I can almost do anything with.
I have added airports, bus stations, newsagents, real estate, fashion catwalk mod and there are many more to go at so I suggest give it a go you may be surprised. I love Nightlife as I love party sims so have spent a lot of time updating nightclubs and the like but I am only now getting into OFB properly and finding I can run so many businesses with it so I set up a business move a family in and get them to run it efficiently then leave and start another type of business somewhere else. Aesthetically I have added water colour mods, lot and neighbourhood sky mods and am currently testing terrain mods so there are lots of things to have a go at.
I also use the Hack Conflict Detection Utility to check if there are any conflicts with the mods I want to use
http://www.🐸🐸🐸🐸/mybb//showthread.php?tid=2063
If you wish to install lots you will need Cleaner installer on the following link
http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/
also, you can check the patch level of the cleaner installer should you require an earlier version
http://sims2pack.modthesims2.com/index.php?page=3
sadly, there is no utility to check CC you are adding to the game so I have tried to limit my CC and test before adding another batch but you can also use the CC cleaner and run it through your CC files and it will show up duplicates of items installed or CC that has not been finished correctly.
If you want to add player made recolours of objects already in your game you will need The "CEP" - Color Enable Package whih is base game compatible.
http://modthesims.info/d/92541
lastly lol nothing I could do would remove those black shadows under sims feet (but I am using UC version and not disc so that may be different with discs) so I used a mod to fix those shadows which is base game compatible.
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=569585
I totally think it's worth you giving it a go can you tell
University and OFB would be my next bets in terms of importance to actually having fun. They both add a ton of functionality to even just the base game sims, regardless of whether you're up to the challenge of playing a university or a business. And they stack really well with Downtown, because of the owned businesses, and the socialization perks that come with University.
Pets was... honestly sort of an underwhelming expansion. It added some construction options that you'd get if you bought Mansions and Gardens stuff, a new supernatural state, and a very limited range of dogs and cats that come in implausible sizes, and caged pets you can't actually see if you can't see fish in the aquariums at your standard graphics settings. Also the idea that you should have to "unlock" new coat colors etc, for create a pet? So against how the sims is supposed to work. Also, the lifetime wants that came with it were a mess.
(Though, if you already bought it you might as well install it, a lot of major mods still have a "latest expansion = pets" version still up. If you only installed OFB it would be a bit annoying to figure out which "seasons version" mods were actually compatible with it and which weren't.)
As long as the mods you want are older and mention that they're OFB or Pets compatible, they should be fine. If I were you I'd dump some into a "test" neighborhood and play several days to see if you get problems.
(Don't worry too much that you don't have all the expansion packs between Nightlife and Pets - the reason you have to go with the newest EP is because of updates to the game engine that overwrite previous expansion packs' updates, not because a mod that makes it easier to train pets requires Seasons or Bon Voyage interactions.)
TS2 Graphics Fix Tutorial]
LIKE my page on FACEBOOK. @jm.violetsims14
With the manual I luckily had I sent a picture to them and she was more than happy to drop the game into my origin account. I'm so excited to be playing the sims 2 again so soon.
Oddly enough I never got around to owning Pet's in the Sims 2 or Bon Voyage, so those two will be a lot more newer to me. XD