Talk me out of it, or convince me I am doing the right thing...

[Jelenedra]

I have been considering re-purchasing OFB for awhile now. With the Pets EP on the horizon it seems I should get it again sooner rather than later.

So...should I? Has it been fixed properly so that it is playable?

Or should I just save my money?

[Avalikia]

Well, I think it's up to you, but between the patches and the fixes here it works swimmingly for me.  Or at least, not any worse than it was before OFB.

[Kestran]

I can only give you my experience. So far...knocks on wood...not counting the adventurous downtown travelling baby, I have not had problems with OFB and i have it patched. BUT I also have not played the biz side of that expansions very much but when I do, I will incorporate some of Pes' special biz hacks/fixes.

I haven't regretted buying OFB. And I bought it/installed it very soon after it came into stores here.

[ZiggyDoodle]

I like it - and love the snapdragons!

[Jelenedra]

Yeah, that was my thing, I don't have a large interest in running a lot business, but I had fun with the hair salon my sim was running out of her living room. Even if it gave her no time for herself. =p

[Kestran]

You know. You can just ignore the business feature all together really. I haven't been setting up any bisnesses except for one little home made bakery that Brandi Broke and her family runs to survive. All the other businesses I have are the ones already in game and I don't really play them at all yet.

And if you want the special items, like the snap dragons or the toys and robots you can download them of sites like MTS2.

[dizzy]

I've only played it a little bit, but OFB does add a bit more value than NL. Not as much as Uni, but in any case the game is horribly bug-ridden and unplayable without Pescado's hacks, and you know he supports the latest OFB + patch.

[Orikes]

I've only played it a little bit, but OFB does add a bit more value than NL. Not as much as Uni, but in any case the game is horribly bug-ridden and unplayable without Pescado's hacks, and you know he supports the latest OFB + patch.

See, I feel Nightlife added far more than OFB. But then, I have absolutely no interest in running a business on a separate lot. I like some of the stuff that came with OFB and have been having some of my sims work on the craft badges, but for the most part, I don't want to deal with having to maintain a business.

To the original poster, it's up to you if you want to get it. IF you're a completist, you may want to get it, but if you're not interested in the business end, the rest is fluff, of sorts.

Oh, and I despise the OFB related LTW.

[ElfPuddle]

I'm a completist. So I got it. I bought it after the second patch came out: I was waiting for the patch and JM to make the game playable. I didn't install NL until the same had been accomplished. I imagine I'll do the same with Pets. (*wishes the name was Pawprints; that's so much better*)

[Jelenedra]

Yeah, I am a completist too. Unfortunately, I always get stuff as soon as it comes out so I got bad taste in my mouth with OFB because I had to nuke my downloads for it. =p

[J. M. Pescado]

Why would you need to *RE* purchase it? Never *REPURCHASE* anything. Don't you already *HAVE* it? What did you DO with it? If your cheap CD simply broke, just download a new one. Don't give more money to the Man. Remember: Clearly, BlueSoup has failed us! You must not!

[twooflower]

I would definitely say that it adds a great deal of enjoyment to my game, espcially now that there are available mods and fixes.

[Skaven]

I'm surprised to hear that Dizzy thinks that Uni was the best EP - I personally find Uni to be a waste of time - I hate growing up kids now because I feel obligated to send them to university and hate actually doing it - I find it is so monotonous.

[ElfPuddle]

Don't give more money to the Man. Remember: Clearly, BlueSoup has failed us! You must not!

What does Soup have to do with giving money to the Man?

[Paperbladder]

If you're deciding on buying Pets, then getting OFB's a no-brainer since it adds things that are actually useful to your "human" sims.  Despite it being only 1 disc, it's got as much content as NL but unfortunately it's lacking in objects.  I actually had no interest in this expansion until I got it, but now I tend to use OFB's features every time I play.

[MsMaria]

Yes, why do you need to Re-purchase the game? What happened to the original? 

I think you would like it if not only for the fact that you can have a Pet Store.

[RainbowTigress]

NL is my favorite expansion and added the most to my game in terms of gameplay.  I never played community lots before because of load times.  There wasn't anything to do, and the only reason was to buy food, clothes, and cellphones.  So I got hacks to avoid having to make those trips (and save the $50 grocery delivery dance).  But with NL, I actually have a reason to get my sims out of the house now and then.  Even in Uni, I am starting to enjoy sending my YAs out and doing stuff rather than just College Rampage/skip to final/rinse/repeat.  I also love the chemistry element in NL.  I wasn't sure I'd like OFB, since I wasn't really interested in running a business.  But it is kinda fun and gives a new side of the game.  Mostly I like the features such as being able to stash food away and being able to supplement income with a home business on the side.  But that's just my 3 cents. 

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm surprised to hear that Dizzy thinks that Uni was the best EP - I personally find Uni to be a waste of time - I hate growing up kids now because I feel obligated to send them to university and hate actually doing it - I find it is so monotonous.

Uni is the best EP from a technical perspective because it introduced the engine-ary features that are most essential, and render it infeasible to support many things under pre-Uni: For instance, multilevel pie menus are a Uni feature, and cannot be backported in any form to the Original. Detecting "original" installs generally requires an extra line or two of code to pick up the legacy-version-tagging.

[Paperbladder]

Just like Hot Date was the best expansion for TS1 due to the fact that it introduced community lots and LTR?  I believe that the engine upgrades from University were included in the expansions after it even though you didn't need them.  Of course, you probably couldn't get the 2 extra wants and jobs without Uni though.

Nightlife was an appendix, it wasn't really needed due to the fact we already had Downtown lots.  It did add a "family style" implementation of HD's dining and an incredibly easy dating system though.

[J. M. Pescado]

What does Soup have to do with giving money to the Man?

Because BlueSoup is MATY's official symbol of clear failure, and thus you must not imitate her. Clearly, BlueSoup has failed us! You must not!

[nikita]

NL is my favorite expansion and added the most to my game in terms of gameplay.  I never played community lots before because of load times.  There wasn't anything to do, and the only reason was to buy food, clothes, and cellphones.  So I got hacks to avoid having to make those trips (and save the $50 grocery delivery dance).  But with NL, I actually have a reason to get my sims out of the house now and then.  Even in Uni, I am starting to enjoy sending my YAs out and doing stuff rather than just College Rampage/skip to final/rinse/repeat.  I also love the chemistry element in NL.  I wasn't sure I'd like OFB, since I wasn't really interested in running a business.  But it is kinda fun and gives a new side of the game.  Mostly I like the features such as being able to stash food away and being able to supplement income with a home business on the side.  But that's just my 3 cents. 

I agree.  Sure, it's a retread of Hot Date but it's a damn good one.  Out of the 3 (4 if you count that which shall get you trashcanned) eps, it's the one I couldn't play without.  The inventory, neighborhood view, cars, being able to jump from one lot to another, being able to go downtown with groups, the loads of new social interactions, it's the best ep yet.  I feel like it's the glue that holds all three eps together and without it, I wouldn't enjoy playing either of the other two as much.  I can't say that about Uni or OfB because the novelty of both wear off quickly due to repetition.  However, I do recognize that University probably added more integral features to the game than any other ep so far.

I wouldn't call myself a completist, I pretty much will buy any ep that sounds like something I would like and also to add something new to my game.  The idea of OfB definitely appealed to me, the execution of the game was a bit of a let-down but I have enjoyed it.  I can't say I've ever had any game-stopping bugs with it and don't have the second patch installed because my game is fine and I'm worried the patch will mess it up but my interest in running my own business is directly correlated to how aesthetically pleasing the business is.  I played the game for hours on end last weekend after downloading a gorgeous boutique set from MTS2.

I would definitely recommend buying/installing it again, there are enough peripheral, non-business related features to make it worth at least 15 dollars and then you can justify the other 15 by not indulging in a frill for the week. 

[RainbowTigress]

Well, I believe that if your substandard CD got trashed for some reason, you'd be justified in "downloading" a copy.  After all, you did pay for the game, so why pay for it again?  If that bothers you, go to EA's website and order a replacement.  You have to send them the damaged disk and pay a fee for the replacement, but it's less than buying the whole thing again.

[Paperbladder]

Copyright laws would still make it illegal to download a copy even though you purchased one, due to the fact that you only bought the license for that disk.  It's also illegal to install more than 1 copy with said disk.  However, supposedly you can't get in trouble for piracy if you don't distribute the product but the most common protocol for this, BitTorrent, makes you share the file.  Then again, you've only heard of pirates getting busted for actually selling pirated copies so you're probably in the clear as long as the ESA doesn't decide to be like the RIAA/MPAA.

I'm wondering how many of those features are in OFB, but everyone's just been slient about getting them.  I know the Attraction system was transferred, but I'm not sure what else was.  If you have a decent computer, being able to see bordering lots makes it quite a bit more realistic than being in the middle of nowhere.

EDIT:Post 300!  It seems that I've got another set of ripped lips, but I'm not sure I actually needed them.  What's the next milestone, 1000?

[ElfPuddle]

(check the FAQ, MisterPaper)

[RainbowTigress]

EDIT:Post 300!  It seems that I've got another set of ripped lips, but I'm not sure I actually needed them.  What's the next milestone, 1000?

Do you mean the next set of ripped lips or the next title?  You get another pair ripped off at 600 (Lipless Loser), but you become a Horrible Halfwit at 350 posts.

Thanks Elfie.   I had already done the hard part when I saw your post.