More Awesome Than You!

I've recently started playing again after a long break, and I'm feeling rather behind.

I only have Uni, NL, and OFB, so I'm looking for some info and opinions on the more recent EPs, beyond the obvious EAxis sales pitches. What gameplay options are added or changed? Do new careers have new LTWs? Most importantly, how badly borked is each one (tolerable with appropriate application of Awesomeware, or too big a steaming pile of bork for anything to fix)?


Moderator edit: Thread name changed to Jolrei's lulzy suggestion, to make our new sticky thread's topic clearer.

I'd suggest M&G just because that will bring you up to date on assorted stuff like build mode options, slots, and cheats.  Also, it will keep you current with new mods and content still being made.

Seasons is good for general ambience and new weather-related activities.  Pets is great if you like pets (obviously,) but it doesn't add a whole lot else to the game.  OFB and AL both expand your Sims' options quite a bit as far as how they can choose to live and work.  BV mainly deals with vacations, but it does also add new accessory options and beach lots.  Free Time mainly adds hobbies, and I believe (verify please, someone?) the secondary Aspirations came with it.

IIRC, OFB was supposed to be quite stable and Seasons wasn't bad.  Pets had some serious glitchiness and I believe AL was a bit of a nightmare (or that could have been BV, I'm not sure at this point,) but all of them have since been patched and modded to within acceptable parameters.

Yeah, FT added the secondary wants. To me, Seasons and Free Time are a must. Both of them add things that are visible in the lives of the sims, no matter how you play the game. With OFB, BV, and AL, the expansions are less pervasive, but are nice options to have if you want them. Personally, I don't really use the OFB or AL features, but I have them simply for the extra items and interactions that came with the packs. BV I use more often, but you might not, depending on your play style. As for LTWs, the only ones I can think of off the top of my head are the "Have 5 top businesses" LTW for fortune sims.

FreeTime is my must-have now. If I had to give up every EP but one, that's what I'd keep, because I've wanted secondary aspirations pretty much ever since I started playing (plus I do like an awful lot of the hobby activities as well).

I like the BV build mode stuff.  FT hobbies and activities are good.  Seasons, well, for seasons.  Pets is only good if you want pets (they're growing on me, I must admit, although none of my sims has a pet yet), and for the room dividers.  AL has ZOMGceilings! which is more important to me than I thought it would be.

All this can be yours for the Arrring!

By the way, how many of these "wut EPs are teh bestest?" threads are there now?  The OP might just read through a few of those, rather than us rehashing all this yet again.

Good point.  We only have four (other) sticky threads in the Podium at the moment; this can be #5.  Hopefully that will prevent additional threads with this topic.

Oooor people could go to the BBS where they circle jerk about this repeatedly. Come on, Dodos, we have other things to CJ about.

I didn't see any, thus why I asked. Maybe I just fail at searching. Now that this one is stickied, it shouldn't be a future problem.


Clearly you misunderstand. If I was seeking Fanboi Zen, the BBS would be the place to seek it. But I think my question would have upset them and disturbed their Oneness with the Fandom, by daring to suggest that any EAxis product could possibly contain bugs.  :P


Now if you'll excuse me, I'm busy hitting the 'Thanks' button for everyone.  "Baaa!"

Or that any one could be inferior.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any EP/SP including and after BV will give you SecuROM. Any EP/SP purchased through EA's downloader thing will give you SecuROM. Read stickied thread re: not getting it.

Blah:

• Uni. Repetitive to the extreme, and the benefits of a college education are minimal.
• Nightlife. I almost never add a downtown to my neighborhoods and I don't have vampires. Dates can be useful. This is a moot discussion, though, because you have both.

Meh:

• Free Time. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think secondary aspirations were carried over to AL. The majority of the crafting hobbies take forever and a day to earn badges in. But it is nice to have more craftables to sell in businesses. FT also adds the option to frame sim paintings. I like the sports objects, though basketball is kind of flat without it being a contact sport, and all sports and jogging drain too much energy.
• Bon Voyage. I don't use vacations. I don't really want my sims' lives being longer, because I like playing the generation game. Beach lots are awesome, though, and I'd have bought it just for that. Also, digging is a huge exploitable loophole in the majority of community challenges.
• Kitchen & Bath. Ok, the two sets of kitchen items are nice. The bathroom stuff is mostly a recolor of existing items. The walls don't really tickle me, and one floor in particular looks like Atwa made it.

Would be quite upset if I didn't have:

• Pets. I like pets. I'm a big animal person in real life. About half my families have pets, and some breed.
• Apartment Life. I live in a city, so having apartments seems realistic to me. Some of the networking perks can be a big boon (my Apocalypse family has over $500k before the birth of gen 3 due to a few good money chance cards and everyone getting the higher salary networking perk).
• Ikea. I like cheap crap. More furniture is always great, and it's a great addition to my dorms and apartments.
• H&M. Good clothes, especially with some cc that converts them to different age groups I have. Jeans that don't look like they're packing cottage cheese.

Must-have:

• M&G. The vast majority of the objects are very well-done and the afore-mentioned game engine updates.
• Seasons. It truly changes the look and feel of your game, even if you don't ever leave the home lot. I also love gardening and fishing, both because they create a new business option, and because you can make sims self-sufficient.

Of course, the thing I always bring up in these threads is that everyone's tastes and priorities in gameplay are different. Pets is an obvious one, because it adds very little besides the actual Pets, so what people think of it tends to depend very strongly on whether they like cats and dogs. Other EPs aren't usually quite so clear-cut (I'm no big fan of weather but I like a lot of other things about Seasons because it's got a lot of features), but knowing what you like best is a good way to decide what to add next. (I'm also big on new things for Sims to do, so FT appealed to me even before I knew about secondary aspirations -- which I do think carry over to AL, yes. Incidentally, almost EVERYTHING that came with NL has been carried over by some later EP, it is pathetic.)

They were not; that is in fact the one thing that still makes me consider arring FT.


This, however, was carried over.[/list]

I like Seasons and Apartment Life quite a bit because I enjoy the farming and apartments (and AL also has the cool thing where you can put multiple paintings on a wall and move them up and down, which I obviously use for covering walls in ridiculous amounts of paintings). I don't often use the new thingies other than furniture added with Pets or BV, but Pets in particular had some fun furniture sets (and it is very cute to see toddler sims, who are pretty useless and boring, cuddling with a pet). As far as Freetime, I didn't think that hobbies would be all that interesting, but them and the secondary aspirations are actually fun. And whichever EPs came with new careers, I'm pretty sure my sims roll LTWs to those. Oooh, and the Education career (which came with Seasons?) is pretty awesome because it has the GOLD BOOKSHELF which has very fast skilling rates for everything.

The list didn't include all the SPs.  Do you need the Christmas EPs to get christmas and new year parties?  Those are nice occasionally.   Then there's Family Fun Stuff which totally sucks in my opinion.  All the furniture & decor is dreadful.

Could we say anything about memory/disk space?  If your PC isn't that great, which EPs are really going to add to the lag?  I suspect Seasons is about the worst, but some awesome comment on that would be a great addition to the thread.

Bon Voyage is just beautiful!  It totally blew me away the first time I played the various destinations.  But, you need to keep changing lots to do it all and the load times become more and more annoying with every vacation.

I'd have to say BV is probably the singularly most superfluous expansion, personally. I don't think there's anything actually IN it that you can't get from a later expansion, IF you are not into the entire vacation scene, and it does tend to get old pretty fast.

I thought that you could only get beach lots with BV.

Depending on how OCD you are, they could ALL be must-haves for various reasons. All the main themes aside, I tried to look at them in terms of "How will this directly effect my gameplay?" when I was pondering what to buy.
I can't part with BV because of the sheer joy of WALKING SOMEWHERE without waiting for a taxi or dealing with the tedium surrounding personal vehicles... the vacation elements leave me cold, really.
Mansion and Garden added the setquartertileplacement cheat, which is easily the most pathetic reason to want an expansion... but man, my anal retentive mind was not pleased with never really knowing if something was properly centred through snapobjectstogrid false.
FreeTime and the dual-core sims, obviously... but man was that ever borked to the point of unplayability before the swath of bug fixes Pescado released. Who in their RIGHT MIND thought the hobby bosses should call you every time you eat, watch television, or take a dump?
Apartment Life added the ability to raise or lower wall decorations IIRC, which is another tiny little nitpicky thing that either is a must-have or makes you go "Seriously? Forty bucks?" Reputation... well... I'm a sucker for anything that adds to the already horrifically cluttered UI of each Sim. The more personalized you can make a Sim, the happier I am.
Not sure which of the last bunch added the roof slope adjuster, but that's also awesome.
Another Aspiration in NL, Influence in University, hairstyle-per-outfit in Seasons... I can never have enough tiny tweaks. Witches, apartments, spontaneous combustion and creepy hobby stalkers I could have done without.
The one single thing they've gotten better at seems to be adding additional "Oh by the way" things that don't directly correlate to the main theme. Unfortunately they've also apparently decided to make beta testers of their customers... FT and AL were just unacceptable as retail products. MATYware makes them a lot more entertaining.

But "walk to lot" is available if you install any post-BV EP (FT or AL) as well.  You do not now have to have BV for that, IIRC.  Consequently, if you're not into the vacations, and don't care about the "ethnic" objects, the only real feature would be beach lots.

I got NL for the cemeteries and the vampires.
I resisted getting OFB for the longest time, and finally installed it because of some build objects.  I was not really interested in businesses at the time.  I find I quite like them now.
I'm not sure why I got Pets - room dividers, I think, which I hardly ever actually use now.

However, I find that the single most compelling reason for installing all the EPs for me has been to be able to use lots that other people have built.  It became quite frustrating to find a good house, only to realize that I did not have the EPs required to run it.

I suspected at least one or two of those elements would end up being a feature-carried-forward. I've had all the expansions for so long that I've nearly forgotten which one does what.

I cannot choose a single one that shines brighter than the other but I always thought Pets was meh. I find small pets adorable in real life but I bolt for the door whenever a dog, cute or otherwise approaches me. In the game, I think puppies and kittens are cute but really, if they could act more like the birds and fish I'd be much better off. Besides I've never played without the pet control cheat on. Or the cancel one.

AL is essential. Because apartments are nice. I love cars though (so nightlife is a must) and not many apt. designs allow them. I don't care much about witches though. I liked them better in Making Magic.

I have every sp/ep (and castaways...I am weak!) except that stupid holiday thing and I forget what came with which (I had been wondering about the paintings frames for a while actually). However, I don't think BV deserves so much bashing. I love going on vacation. I'm not sure why since in the end it never works out too well for me.

Cars are now entirely superfluous post-AL (even if you don't have AL, just MGS), because you can now walk to any lot which is faster than the entire "car pileup".

Wasn't BV which added walk to?

Also, Pes, you unromantic you; they can't woohoo just walking around. Sheesh, priorities, people!

BV added walk to comm lot.  AL added walk to work/school.

These are essential in my game, certainly.  Nobody leaves for school until they are finished that skill point/robot/potholder/other thing they're working on.  Miss the bus?  Too flippin' bad.

I feel like Pets is probably the least important expansion... which is funny, because Unleashed's little neighbourhood renovation made it one of the only expansions the original game sported that didn't seem like a worthless skin and object pack. I absolutely loved watching my first cat in Pets... and within a few days, I was having my Sims pawn their animals off on the adoption agency because they just had no lasting appeal. I still like having the options there, but considering how little the expansion added beyond the aminals it's probably pulling the least weight of the bunch.

Which is funny, because the AI of the Pets is FAR superior to the AI of the sims. For instance, pets never accidentally pee on your floor! If a pet pees on the floor, it's doing so as a deliberate act of code, and not because the AI was too incompetent to prevent it. Once a pet is trained NOT to do so, it will never do so unless you do something crazy like locking it in with no way out. The same cannot be said for sims!

Figures. You train the pets to piss in a box, and you train the Sims to piss in a toilet... the pets remember, the Sims forget. I guess it's kind of telling that Sims display the exact same urinary behaviour whether or not they get the 'training.'
Then again, since you don't control the animals, it's not so irritating that they rush off to the box without your input... if the Sims exhibited similar behaviour I'm not sure I'd be impressed. They're obsessed with their pee enough as it is.
Their AI really is atrocious though... without Awesomeware, they can get caught in energy/hunger failure loops where they slam their faces into their dinner over and over until they die of a brain hemorrhage. The hidden ninth motive is the strongest of all - the need to complain endlessly in order to waste time that could be better spent correcting the problem.

[edited to remove myself from the recursive "which is funny" loop]

Maybe YOU don't. It's not as if EAxis didn't provide us with the opportunity to do so, and most of us do. The thing is, I don't HAVE to control the animals. If I don't spend every moment of my time directing the cats to do something, they don't self-destruct or do stupid shit. Sims, however, will quickly find something obnoxious, purposeless, and disruptive to be doing. Pets can be trained not to do those things. Sims can't, they never learn. The pets are smarter than the sims are.

Yeah, I figured you'd bring that up. The insanity of toddlers and pets is probably the only dark spot I've left in my game after all the cheats and FFS hacks. Screaming babies and pets eating couches serve to remind me of how lucky I am to not have Sims obsessing over turning off their loved ones' computers, bawling about route failures, getting creepy phone calls when they watch television or serve dinner, and waking up at two in the morning to stare out the window at the rain. A little chaos I can live with, but only when it's chaos the idiots who programmed the game intended; the chaos resulting from their ineptitude, the chaos of a game that isn't working correctly, that's not something I'm okay with. Thankfully you've fixed pretty much every dealbreaking example of that already.
It certainly is bizarre that the pets have their shit together when the Sims do not. Like you said, you can train the pets not to do their disruptive behaviours, but the disruptive behaviour of Sims is probably an unintentional side-effect of lousy/lazy programmers. When pets scratch the couch, it's because they haven't been trained not to; when Sims turn on the television in someone's bedroom while they're sleeping or scream at you when they can't autonomously cook a single plate of food because you've directed someone to cook for the entire family, it's because they have no spatial awareness and their code doesn't allow for any sort of self-sufficient undisruptive SENTIENT existence.

What happened to the grammar police?  It should be "betterer" not "bestest"

No, it should not.  "Betterer" suggests a kompartiv, as in betterer in komparsun to wut.  "Bestest" implies which EPs are the stand alone faivrits measured by kwalitti and overall enjoi mint.

-bursts into tears-

But there can only be one "best".  The OP is asking for plural matches to be returned.

Bloody hell, Inge!  It is entirely possible to have a group of things that is the best group, as in "which EPs (as a group) are the best?"  This is perfectly good English.  You can also say, "which EPs are better" but then you have to at least imply "better than WHAT?"  I would say that they are all better than, say, the Base Game, since they all add something of interest to someone, but it's a pretty dull and hopeless thing to say, isn't it?

The OP wanted to know which EPs (out of the list) we thought were the absolute cream (curdled perhaps) of the crop - the best ones.

Please, let it go.

There, I feel better now.

     OFB is a glorified stuff pack to me.  I love the Body shop items and the build/buy mode items, but I stopped dealing with the business aspects of the pack after a month.  I have an anti stuff pack stance, but after looking at what I just said about OFB, I may get a stuff pack one day.  What is the penultimate stuff pack?

The second to last (i.e. penultimate) stuff pack was IKEA.

The Law track is from Seasons.

OFB is easily the single most radical expansion pack out there. While out of the box, it seems like a fairly useless addon that adds similarly useless features, and indeed, without mods, the entire business thing WOULD be utterly useless, the potential for moddings it unlocked was huge, and the ownable lot feature combines with SHINY STUFF to add a level of control you simply cannot achieve without it.

Jolrei I don't care what the original poster wanted.  This matter reaches far beyond EPs and Original Posters.  It's a matter of what am I paying the Grammar Police for?  I expect them to be watching for this sort of issue on my behalf.

Inge, I find your punctuation amusing in context.

My punctuation is appropriate, as always.

I will just repost what I answered to an lj-friend's inquiry about Sims 2 and its EPs ...

A short assessment of the EPs as far as game-play goes:

University: So boring it hurts.
Nightlife: One of the best add-ons I would call it essential.
Open for Business: Thought I would hate it. It's one of my favorites now.
Pets: In one word: Unnecessary.
Seasons: Not of much use either, but you get an annoying penguine to chat with your snowmen.
Bon Voyage: Much like University a game of it's own. Very hard to implement in normal game play.
Free Time: Almost forgot about it. Has some interesting new game features but nothing world-shattering.
Apartment Life: The bugginess it kills us.

So IMO the OP already has the bestest EPs installed (also the crappiest with University). As for the more recent EPs, I would go with Seasons and Free Time before Apartment Life (better/alternatively Mansions & Garden) and Pets, nevermind Bon Voyage. But like others already said this is all really, really subjective.

Seasons and Open For Business enriched my game more than the others (note: not "most").   Between them they opened up infinite options for the Sims' lifestyles.  You can even make holiday homes if you have OFB, and the right hacks so they can stay on their community business lot as long as you want them to.   Seasons of course enabled them to grow their own food and watching the weather IMHO does provide visual interest.

What do you mean, NOTHING WORLD SHATTERING? Free Time was the FIRST and ONLY expansion pack to actually give us LESS PEE. Every other expansion pack has INCREASED the amount of peeing in the game!

Fine.  Have it your way.   ;D


O frabjous day!


If you're crazed enough to try to play it unmodded.  Why would you do this, though?  All you'd end up with is sims peeing in borked apartment lots.  AL added some nice build features, and the new clothing options do not totally suck.

Oh right, the copious amounts of pee. I'm mostly just in plain denial about that. Free Time or not. Therefore this failed to shatter my world, I guess.


AL is still too buggy for my taste, even in modded form (i.e. too much work to make it work). Plus I couldn't care less for the magic stuff. I'll give you the built features and clothing options, though.

See, imo this is precisely why these threads are pointless.

For me, I suppose I could get rid of Bon Voyage, and Nightlife sucks except for the dating. However, I could not play without Uni, OFB, Seasons, FT and AL. Except for OFB, our lists are almost opposite.

Why must these threads come up all the time, and why must they be discussed to death? The idea of a "best" expansion is so utterly subjective that it infuriates me when people ask. Why not ask us what your favorite food is, too? Just do your own damn research, figure out what content each one adds to the game and decide for yourself which EPs you'd like best.

It's because a lot of people like to be told what to do, and are unable to make up their mind on their own. Don't worry, though: if called out they would be offended and will emphasize they are not 12, how do we dare to insult them, we're mean and rude, and every single member will leave this forum forever on their behalf.
It infuriates me as well; embittered Marhis is embittered.

This was my point at the beginning of the thread, and is, I believe, the reason why Bastdawn stickied this thread - hopefully any "discussion" of this sort can be relegated to one thread, rather than cluttering up the boards 2-3 times a year.

I always think that a post like Zazazu's, which provides a list of features of each EP, and possibly some other helpful information (like the NL engine is sort of buggy, but the OFB and FT engines are more robust, etc.) would be a better guide to those trying to make an informed decision about which EP to load next.  However, a thread like this is somewhat useless to those of us who have most or all EPs.  If you're going to load all of them anyway, why worry about which one is the best (or 'better', if you insist).

Why is it even really an exclusive decision, anyway? Pirate Cat doesn't pay for his downloads.

An ancient proverb -
"The Sheep seeks a simple answer, to be told what to do. The Cyberdodo seeks many answers, to find useful information within and to compare answers, to make an informed decision.  The Cyberdodo also points and laughs at those who are so self-important they must reach for tar and feathers whenever a question is asked."
- The Cyberdodo

That has been my intent all along - research. If you feel the need to be infuriated because I've done what you say I should do, well then go ahead and be infuriated to your heart's content.

So far, the responses have been an interesting mix. Some responses have been informative and helpful (Thanks!). Some responses have offered subjective opinions only (taken under advisement). Some responses have bickered over grammar I'm not resposible for. And some responses have been pointed and laughed at.


One request for clarification, though. So far I think only AmberDiceless has answered my sub-question about bugginess. Does that mean everyone is in agreement that Pescado and others have managed to tame even the worst code EAxis has to offer?

The Dodo grades the thread. MATYans barely pass. A bonus question is offered.

LOL, I agree with witch  :D.

Apparently I didn't read your post with the due attention, and I replied directly with generic assumptions in mind. Heh, my bad; althought my opinion stands still, generally speaking, it's definitely not applicable to the case in point.

You were right, and I acted stupidly; not a news, but still, I owe you an apologycaek.

Oh wait, I will go rush to grab my #2 pencils and hurry back to contribute to one of a half dozen threads on this subject, which is all about subjective opinion and not facts anyway.

I wouldn't want strangers to be all disappointed in MATY's lack of enthusiasm for their pet subject.

Also, what do you think about all the pee, Apartment Life's Witches, and Bella Goth's whereabouts? Please fill out this questionnaire in triplicate and write neatly.

OH. I see. Research = asking everyone else what is in the EPs and waiting for us to tell you. My eyes have been opened!

I shall never again offer an opinion on the subject being discussed at the time rather than the original post, either, as clearly such behavior is unacceptable to Cyberdodo.

Jesus Christ. I bet people don't have to shit in your Shreddies. I bet you have a carton of shit that you pour on them every day yourself.

To be fair, Cyberdodo's question was very detailed about it's scope and goals, i.e. not the simple "what EP do you like".

Yes, but this isn't the first thread we've had on this topic.  Given that we've had so many similar threads, it was decided early on to make this a general, stickied thread.

The thread very quickly evolved into something beyond Dodo's original question, and it looks like Dodo hasn't understood that.  Apparently the concept of evolution passed Dodo by.

Oh well done Kyna! Set and match, I think.

Dangit, I'll never be a good bitch; too softy.

I think it is a question that bears asking at intervals.  As we look back from a greater distance, it becomes more apparent which EPs have provided lasting pleasure than when one or the other seems newer and shinier.

Okay here's my opinion, hopefully it pleases the dodo. I've actually never gave my opinion in these billion threads on the BBS or here so here goes.

Uni: College is really redundant and boring IMO. The only thing that makes it entertaining is when nouniprotect is in and the dormies die from not eating and staying out in the winter. The same old dormies get's so boring... you wonder how many times Benjamin longnose can graduate. The cow plant is a must but that just causes your game to clog up with useless dead sims. The greek houses and SS's are fun for the first few times but then it just becomes predictable. It is good for meeting a potential mate and extra time skilling but both of those can be done other ways. Resurrecting sims is also a must but this can be done with other methods in later packs.

NL: While this used to be perceived as the must needed addon by many, it's not anymore. Dates are redundant but it is nice when you get free crap. It's also entertaining to just piss some sim off to get a flaming bag of poo which I believe without the patch got stuck wherever it was placed sometimes. Car's were all the craze but they have since been marked as useless. Vampires are alright but it's annoying that they won't stay in their damn coffin in the day. I also hate that they don't age, the same old Sim everytime I boot the game up is so Sims 1. I do love the poker table though it annoys me when they won't stop being obsessed with it. Miss C is entertaining too, I have no idea why. It's hilarious to me to see some old bat that looks like shes hit the bottle a few too many times get excited about getting a strike bowling.

OFB: This is definitely one of my favorite packs. I love selling pointless crap to townies. The gameplay doesn't bore me because you can sell different crap, not the same old stuff. I also love the crafting items. I think this pack really comes alive when you add other packs to it for more crap to sell. I was surprised that Eaxis actually let us have home businesses... it seems like something they'd just over look. I make a majority of my businesses at home because I hate loading screens but it is annoying when they stop and go all the way up stairs to play with something in their house and it takes ages for them to get back down the stairs to help that customer. This is fixed with BRY as it teaches them how to satisfy motives then get back to work on their own which I couldn't live without. I also love the stages.

Pets: I was really excited for this one. I love animals and wanted my sims to have some too. I was, as with loads of other people, disappointed in it. I can tell they put a lot of work into the pets, they are nearly flawless in terms of AI and the animations are so real it's amazing... but I think they spent so much time getting that right and forgot to add more. I wanted more toys for the dogs. It was so disappointing they got one freaking bone to chew on... wow. And pet's don't need water now? Since when? The furniture that came with it isn't appealing to me either really. Unless you're really into staring at the pets and watching them do the same 1 or 2 things over and over, it's not worth it. Pet's is also where the game started really going down hill IMO. Crashes were around before but they changed something that made the game more taxing in Pets.

Seasons: My favorite EP of them all. I'm a big weather guy and this was the icing on my cake. I think they did the weather effects very very well. The thunder scares the hell out of me everytime! I love the gardening system and the special boosts you get during the different seasons. It seems like they took time to pay attention to detail in this EP and it showed. I love everything about it and the game isn't complete without it. Leftovers are a godsend! My one complaint is I think it was this EP or the patch to it that made townies pretty much immune and the problem got worse in FT. I want them to drop dead damnit!

Bon Voyage: Out of them all, I could definitely live without this one the most. The most boring EP caused the most drama with suckurrom (is that a new variation to it or am I not special?). The 3 destinations were done very very well, don't get me wrong. I think a lot of detail went into this pack too and the vacations are a lot of fun the first few times but after you've discovered everything, you tend to never go back. I also hate that they extend the sims life. I don't mind so much that Uni does that because they are skilling and it's helping but with the vacation it's pretty much pointless. If you take a sim you played through uni on a vacation like I have, you're so damn sick of that sim by the time they turn elder you're looking for ways to kill them. The unique dances, jewelry, souvenirs, food, and the momentos make it entertaining sometimes I suppose but once they learn a few of those thing's they won't stop doing them and you wish you had never bothered. The game engine seemed to take another hit here and this is where the memory leaks started and crashes got a lot worse. The beaches are nice but they cause lag. The walk to lot is awesome though.

FT: This one adds something to the sims that make them unique which I like. Hobbies are something unique to each sim which doesn't quite make them so redundant but the obsessive calling is. I like all the added benefits it adds. It seems like the most pointless pack ever and they really sucked at advertising it but it's pretty good. I don't think it had quite enough features to be an expansion pack which makes it lack but the stuff it did add was needed. I like the sports objects but it sucks more than one sim can't play basketball together. I think if they had focused a bit more on detail like they did with seasons, this one would be perfect.

AL: I haven't touched this one much yet to be honest. The apartments are nice and I like the idea of living with other sims. What I don't like is the neighbors never change so you live with the same people forever. I don't think it would have been hard to make them age and die off but then that would spawn more and more townies and send your game to hell. It would have been nice if they had made the townies already in the hood be the social groups. This pack seemed to do a good job in wrapping up what everyone wanted and they seemed to pay more attention to detail. The magic is like a mini game which is nice but the evil witch spawning a storm and roaches on my business lots all the time is beyond annoying. Thank god for the walk to school interaction. I just wish that damn bus wouldn't even come honking it's horn at me now. Overall I think this one is probably one of those that's needed because it gives your sims different living options that should have been in the base game IMO.

As if I haven't typed enough and you've probably quit reading by now, I'll quickly go through the stuff packs.

FFS: Pointless.

GL: I love this pack and use the stuff in it frequently but there's a few still unfixed bugs with a few of the objects that annoy me. I've been meaning to post about them but I keep forgetting. It's definitely one of my favorites.

Holiday: I think the stuff in this pack is nice though you don't ever use it except around the holiday times. They did pretty good with it though.

Celebration: I installed this around the time it came out and to this day have used zero objects from it. Does that tell you how needed it was?

H&M: This pack is great if you want some fashionable clothes. I use them all the time.

TSS: I love the stuff in this pack and use it all the time. It's about time teens got some new crap.

K&B: I'm still pissed that shower only came in light black, black, and darker black. Other than that, it was alright. I use the kitchen stuff a lot.

Ikea: Great pack, I love the modern stuff. I use it all the time.

M&G: Glamour was my favorite till this one came along. I love the extra interactions they added and just general details except it's annoying they broke the stairs and when sims put trash in their face. I think the objects that came with it are worth the annoyances though.

It is, but alas, the 6-want-slot 2-lock thing is pretty much necessary if you want any chance of combating the want spam that clogs up your puny 4 slots without it. It also tends to build better off of other packs: When you've ONLY got Uni, you're stuck in a boring, repetitive jail with nothing to do. The addition of other packs lets you leave the lot. As always, Awesomeware makes the interminably lengthy and repetitive Uni experience more bearable, with College Rampage until you finish, then the college clock to start the finals when you get tired of it.

Sounds like insufficient Awesomeware. With the Sleep Clock installed, this is a nonissue.

OFB basically NEEDS BRY to run. Otherwise the entire business thing is pointless drudge work with worthless employees that won't work. The presence of Awesomeware lets you really make your own bizarre and fascinating businesses with varied clientele. Otherwise it's always the same random idiots every time.

Yeah, that's pretty much it. Outside of the cute factor, there's not much. But they threw in werewolves as kind of an afterthought, and Pets is the expansion that provides the most in MOAR PEE, making it the most quintessentially simmy.

The boosts are mostly negligible, except for the skilling one.

Yeah, BV doesn't tangibly introduce anything new to the gameplay outside of vacations. Without the vacations, you're left with no real change in gameplay.

The individual sim-perks were a nice touch to let you customize a sim further, but the entire concept needed a bit more work, really.

The witch annoyances are all fixed in Awesomeware. ACCEPT NO KEWIAN-BASED SUBSTITUTES!

Ignoring evolution is all part of being an extinct bird  :D

I'd like to know what is a good recommendation for someone with a low end PC.  I sometimes answer questions from new Simmers wanting to know which EPs they can add without having to upgrade their old PC.  I can say from experience that BV and Seasons increased the lagginess of my game at the time, but it doesn't seem as bad now as it did when I first got them.  Maybe I culled enough downloads to counteract some of the lag, or maybe a newer EP improved the code.  As this is a stickied thread, maybe someone techie could offer a recommendation for a low end PC.   

Something seems to have been improved marginally around the AL/M&G mark as far as performance and loading goes, if that helps.

I run the game on two computers; one is pretty low end.  For that computer I stopped at OFB (and later added Glamour Life), and it works pretty well if I limit the extra meshes I download and keep everything low-poly.  You can install everything up to Pets on a crap computer and still have it run reasonably well, although I would skip Pets as it's much buggier than the OFB engine.  If it's REALLY low end, just get OFB for the engine upgrade and leave it at that.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13832.0.html


1.
"EP advice?"

I personally don't play the game much but often build and occasionally mod it, and so I can only tell my opinions on the buiild mode along with few modding aspects.  Also, I don't buy SP normally and so no comment on them.

EP1:
a. It has multilevelled build objects like doors, door-arch, columns. Note Some multi-levelled columns and modular stair can be found in later EPS like NL.   
b. This is the only EP which can produce lots of >5 levels compatible to the base game when no EP-specific object or texture is used.  (This is the way how I got my base game lots with > 5 levels). 
c. A build cheat for diagonal object placement though some objects won't be sims-functional when diagonally postioned.

EP2:
a. diagonal swim-pool product & swim-pool renovation.  A good is to fix the improper deletion of swim-pool product since the base game, but techniques and build features evolved out of such deficiency. (sorry for self-advertisement, but it can show what I mean.  May check out the "Meijeuloi" lot from the "weirdo zone" of the "Mod squad" from MTS. ) The lot would lose the swim-pool surface and depth layers in a game copy with any EP newer than EP2.
b. garage and ownable vehicle: I never lust over them though not a bad thing to have as decoratives.  They can now be downloaded free from EAxis sites though not the same sets.
c. nightclub objects can be a really nice addition to building aesthetic, especially the various coloured lights.  This can spice up the night scene of a building.  Thus, it caused some problems with some older custom coloured lights only, but it wasn't such a big deal as updates were made to those custom coloured lights.
d. The downtown lots were all deletable luckily.

EP3:
a. the obvious further shapes for roof-tool-based roofs like conical, octagonal, semi-spherical dome, etc.  Note, despite the graphical morphs, they only occupy the some whole grids.  Therefore, sometimes, it looks they cover certain grids while they don't actually do  so, and vice versa.  A way to know is to check out the shadowed tiles at the same level. May tile the region if not.  The shadowed tiles show what the roofs indeed cover.
b. awning products
c. stage foundation: wall built directly at its side can raise the build price tremendously, beware.  Without patch or update, "boolprop constraintfloorelevation false"-based deformation of stage product is crash-prone.  Stage product basically raise the level it's on by 4-click-high (elevation tools)/ 4-step-high(modular/connecting stairs).

EP4:
a. rectangular or romboid preset wall tools:  convenient for those who do simple rectangualr or rhomboid buildings without pressing the "shift" key while dragging? [rolleyes]
b. broken build cheats (individual roof slope cheat? Please correct me when necessary. My memory for that EP is fading.) which can be found fixed in certain newer EPs or its latest patch.
c. incomplete/inept updates on caustic shading codes that probably led to the inability to recolour swim-pool wall.
d. commentised unfinished/incomplete update on vector-reflective swim-pool surface PS shader pass function

EP5:
a. glasshouse fences: supportable for upper level; 1 form and 3 colours; buildable to the penultimate lining of a given lot, namely a row from the lot verge.
b. glasshouse roof: the only glassed roof in only 1 shape but 3 colours.
c. shading change found on attic walls from gradient to entropy shading.
d. attic walls and probably other walls which higher than the standard height 16-click-high (elevation tools)/ 16-step-high(modular/connecting stairs)/ float value as 3 (3D array instance 0x01 in lot packe files) are prone to cause body temperature related problem.  Probably  the check routine(s) for sims temperature got stuck to =<3 as difference between neighbour levels, or the reworded?
e. vector-reflective swim-pool surface PS shader function is finally functional and added.  So, the swim-pool can be mirror-reflective.
f. fixes in caustic codes to allow various non-caustic floor tiles and wallpapers to exhibit caustic animation in swim-pool. but still broken for certain video cards, at least in a Nvidia 5700 FX.
g. bump animations on pool surface once a sims jump of slide into the swim-pool
h. pool-slider added
i. farming: surely a farming region for building aesthetics as well as game-play ethics
j. swim-pool ground surface's invisible tiles and pool depth layers are removed for recolouring of pool tile and pool wallpaper

EP6:
a. beach lots: renovated lotskirt water (the infamous neighbourhood flooding water) into the better looking "borderless-swim-pool-like" beach/ocean/sea. sltered version of the EP5 swim-pool surface PS shader function for the mirrory reflection;  wave makers; new in-lot hidden objects for sims interactions, etc.
b. special build objects like sauna rooms, hot-spring, stony blocks, etc.
c. roof-tool-based pagoda roofs.
d. more functional build cheats.

EP7:
Any? :P

EP8:
a. apartment: multiple sublots in an apartment lot host?
I don't know much about it. :P

After all, Securom is a real threat!  I'd read about it before trying it, and I never dreamed of any unforeseen problem other than those reported at that time.  It can damage certain Securom-incompatible DVD-multiple burners.  My >US$100 DVD-RAM burner lost its all of its DVD-related features after such installation and running of such programme, beware!  I thought it was OK to isntall it in a gonna-be-erased-OS-copy, but that dashed jerk damaged my hardware instead!



2.
Action by Grugly replayed! :D

Neither matters as long as the title and the thread can serve for its purpose.  it's cool that people of different game-play-ethics willingly share their experiences (cons and pros) and preferences (likes and dislikes) to provide a spectrum of view-points so that the original poster Cyberdodo or those concerned can grab "better" ideas on how to choose for their own goods. :) 

"better", "the best", "the bests as a group" are all comparatives.  Before regarded as the best(s), something hath to be better than all the others based on the "need(s)" of a given poster.

"EP advice?" may sound more objective, but regardless of comparativeness, subjectiveness or objectiveness, the same goal can be reached.

The title "wut EPs are teh bestest?" is cool and appealing, but personally "be" will replace "are" for both cases.  :)

Quotation marks may make certain statements clearer. :)

I don't mean to play a police or what but just to state out my thoughts about these, yet I can be wrong.  :)



3.
Fell off my stool! :D



4.
Unnecessarily true, so long as actual facts found the conclusions for readers to choose and decide.  :)



5.
Quote from post 54,

Now, nil is wondering whether to post more on this topic!?  :D with a gut of laughters
Yet, I say something not to be self-important although I understand that such connexion is reasonable in certain viewpoints. :P
It's cool to be kidding and funny though also great to have facts and references.

Some links or references to some organised knowledge-based pros and cons seem plausible.  So-far, there may be the following "needs".
1. theme-interests like pets for pet-lovers or pet-friendlies.
2. game-play ethics : e.g. "social-interaction-oriented"? (why not go out to the public always?),
3. lot-building interests : e.g. build features like conical roof from EP3, undeformable "ceiling" from EP8, some broken build cheats started since EP4 while workable in some later EPs,
4. coding interests :  e.g. game-codes, shader codes, bhav, FX-effects, animations, scripts, file structures, data storages, efficiency, effectiveness, etc.
5. object interests : e.g. what objects are appealing to the eyes, well-made in-terms of the screenshots, usable to sims, accessible to sims, positable to the expected place, properly functional to certain game ethics, etc.


6.
Quote from post 57,

Such evolution is allowed though... :D
Probably, certain helpful posts can be indicated out or highlit for those who want some infos in the first post?


7.
resonances from nil.  :)

Holy necromancy, Batman!

 >:(