More Awesome Than You!

Hey guys.. I have a two-parter for our resident fishes and geniuses.

I went through a proper uninstall this weekend and set about reinstalling (and patching) my game. I have every EP and the two SP's at the end of installing Seasons. Only as I'm finishing do I realize... I missed the base game's patch. >.<

So. First.. do I do a quick uninstall and start over? What would happen if I just told it to run the base game patch while the rest of my EP/SP's are already in and patched, themselves?

Second.. Can someone give me the order I'm supposed to install these in? I could have sworn I had it right, but when I installed GL, it demanded the Pets CD to play. I remember reading in here somewhere that you have to open and play in each house as each pack is added but can't for the life of me remember why.

You can patch any expansion even if you have later ones installed. No need to worry about conflicts or anything. Despite assurances to the contrary, patching will in most cases be necessary. For example the OFB patch fixes errors in the B001 'hood, which you would never get if you didn't patch this expansion.
Keep in mind that for the base game the website has a patch which is a higher version than the one that comes with all expansions, so you still need it.

There is no longer a required install order other than the obvious base game first. You can install in any order, just like you can patch in any order.

GLS asked for the Pets CD since Pets is a higher game version than GLS, and you always need the disc for the highest game version to play (except for Celebrations -- while a higher version than Seasons, both Pets and Seasons override it).

The only reason you would want to open and save every house in the base three neighbourhoods before installing an expansion is if you plan to play them, and want the mini-scenarios to work right. This must be done before installing any expansion, and only once.
If you do not care about these mini-scenarios, don't bother with it.

I have never heard of this before.  What happens/goes wrong if you don't play the houses?

Nothing goes seriously wrong, but the scenarios can break slightly. For example, all bills disappear from the Dreamer lot. There are supposed to be three unpaid bills, but if uni or later is installed when the lot first loads, no bills at all are there.

So as far as "Mini-scenario" goes, there is no mini story mode like in life stories. It's really just how the lots appear when you first enter them. You enter the lot for the first time, things will be set up a certain way, you get a couple pop ups about the sims on the lot, and the mini scenario ends?  Is this also the case if the hoods are created after installing everything? Meaning if I delete the neighborhood folder from the my documents/sims 2 the game will create a new neighborhood folder. Will the mini scenario be proper?

Ahah. Thanks, guys!
So.. I'm SAFE to just patch the base game while leaving all my (previously patched) EP's installed? No go 'splodey? lol

Don't the EPs check to patch the base game upon install?

Strangel: yup!

Chafe: they do, but it is an older version than the one currently on the website.

Given the horrendous job they did on the first Pets patch, I was afraid to install the second one.  Now that the Seasons patch has been out for a while, I have a couple of questions:

1) Does the Seasons patch fix the bug where elders always transition with the same hairstyle (french braid for females, balding for males)?  If not, is there any other compelling reason to install the Seasons patch?  From the description, it didn't sound like they fixed very much.

2) Should I go ahead and install the latest Pets patch, even though I have Seasons installed?  (I don't have the first Pets patch on my current computer, so "fixing what they broke in the first patch" is not a concern for me.)

You can't have forgotten to patch the base game when you installed. When you install ANY of the EPs, it forces you to patch the base game if it hasn't already been done. You may not have gone to do it separately, but the installation did it for you.

Unfortunately, the bills disappear even if you play the lot before installing expansions, but do nothing with the bills (i.e. don't pay them). That's what happened to me, anyway.

ETA: The second Pets patch works much better than the first one did. It does not seem to break anything, and it actually fixes what it's supposed to fix. Personally, I would recommend installing it.