Most worthwhile expansions and stuff packs?

[zherok]

I'm currently running a copy of the Sims 2 with University, Nightlife, Open for Business, and Seasons. I'm pretty happy with what these expansions add, but I don't have a lot of knowledge about the later ones (or Pets). My computer isn't the greatest (2800+ Athlon, 1GB of RAM, GeForce 4 4200 TI) and it's not in the best of shape, so I'm wondering what you guys think is worth the extra load.

I don't much about what the stuff packs add, and while I love extraneous content that I'll probably use once and then never again, I'm not sure if any particular one is worth it overall, any advice there? I'm hoping the question isn't too general, I've looked up what more or less any of the packs or EPs add, but I'm really wondering what you guys feel is the biggest value out of what I'm not running.

I'm a bit leery of running anything that just adds more lots, my performance with lots of sims on any given lot is pretty spotty, and while my load times aren't horrendous, playing something that's really just a minor variation of Nightlife's dates doesn't seem worth the hassle. Again though, I'm not sure of the specifics, so any insight into core gameplay added that makes the bother worth it would be appreciated.

[J. M. Pescado]

I'm currently running a copy of the Sims 2 with University, Nightlife, Open for Business, and Seasons. I'm pretty happy with what these expansions add, but I don't have a lot of knowledge about the later ones (or Pets). My computer isn't the greatest (2800+ Athlon, 1GB of RAM, GeForce 4 4200 TI) and it's not in the best of shape, so I'm wondering what you guys think is worth the extra load.

Pets is basically superfluous unless you actually plan to give your sims pets or make them werewolves.
BV is basically ignorable unless you plan to actually send your sims on vacations.
FT, makes some noteworthy core changes to the game in terms of core options, but...
AL: Probably includes all the global core options that FT did?
MGS: Build mode toys, if you're into that...

And remember, Pirate Cat doesn't pay for his downloads: Say no to SecuROM!

[zherok]

Thanks. I usually avoid the fantasy stuff, I probably spend more time creating houses than playing the game. So werewolves are a pass, and while pets themselves don't seem too bad, eh, passable I guess. BV's a pass too, if it's just themed dates.

I'm looking between FT and AL, and might just get both. AL's apartments are pretty much a pass for me, but wikipedia's lists do seem to add some fun stuff. Kinda hard to tell where they cross though, but I'll just eat the extra load time and try both I guess.

As far as the stuff packs, I'm curious if any of them add anything that would help with say, modern architecture. I'm a big fan of works like Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture (I use the MTS2 Fallingwater windows like crazy).

[rufio]

AL without FT does not have secondary aspirations or LTA points or whatever special benefits from primary aspirations you get.  I've been thinking I should maybe get FT (or arrr it, at any rate) for those features, but I am undecided.

[Zazazu]

As far as the stuff packs, I'm curious if any of them add anything that would help with say, modern architecture. I'm a big fan of works like Frank Lloyd Wright's architecture (I use the MTS2 Fallingwater windows like crazy).

Off the top of my head, no. I live about a block from one of Frank Lloyd Wright's creations, and about four blocks from another. Nothing I can think of really looks right. AL has some good windows that work well for mimicking a lot of the townhomes here in Chicago, but they aren't the right dimensions for FLW.

BV's only other major draw than vacations (which you should bore of early) is beach lots. I love having public beaches and homes on the beach. Not sure if they carried that feature over in future EP.

[zherok]

Anything worthwhile about any of the stuff packs, or are they all just a CDs worth of garbage clothing and product placement?

Beaches are tempting, but gwarg, a whole expansion's a lot of overhead. Probably pass, although good to know when I finally ditch the ailing machine I use now. Hoping on financial aid for this coming semester to solve that!

[floopyboo]

My advice is either buy cheap or don't buy at all.

To be honest though the only reasons I buy them (at ridiculously cheap) are that I'm a collector by nature & I participate in the house of fail comps.

[Mandapotpie]

My advice is either buy cheap or don't buy at all.

To be honest though the only reasons I buy them (at ridiculously cheap) are that I'm a collector by nature & I participate in the house of fail comps.

While nothing is as free as arr'ing, if you are uncomfortable with that, Amazon did just drop Apartment Life down to $14.99.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hoping on financial aid for this coming semester to solve that!

SecuROM is bad, m'kay?

[zherok]

I meant financial aid for buying a new computer. Won't be spending those funds on Sims 2 expansions, I assure you. My computer's about at the end of the line. Had a wireless adapter start overheating constantly, causing BSODs. I now use a 50ft ethernet cable to direct connect to the router.

In addition, all three of the 80gb harddrives I'm using seem to have gotten some form of damage, although I'm not clear whether the BSODs from the adapter exacerbated the problem or it was just inadequate cooling. I've got a case fan, and I run with the case open and one of those swirly desk fans blowing into it (in non-swirly mode...) but either way, they're definitely damaged in some fashion.

Definitely not adverse to arring, AL is currently ready for installation, but I'm waiting for FT to finish so I can install them in order. =)

[floopyboo]

My advice is either buy cheap or don't buy at all.

To be honest though the only reasons I buy them (at ridiculously cheap) are that I'm a collector by nature & I participate in the house of fail comps.

While nothing is as free as arr'ing, if you are uncomfortable with that, Amazon did just drop Apartment Life down to $14.99.

Not so much unable or unwilling as completely useless at installing arred proggies that aren't pretty much point & click. That & the p2p proggies give me the willies. Am willing to provide blanks/replacement costs to anyone willing to ship me anything I don't have, however, I am the queen of bargain hunting & have recently purchased most for less than the price you quoted me. Plus I enjoy haggling. The listed price is rarely the price I pay for anything.

*Edited to fix typos with brief interlude to beat the shit out of the lappy for being such a dick about this spelling & punctuation shit.

[zherok]

I'm sure there's some versions of Bittorrent that don't require much work at all to get going. The sites you get the torrents from are usually the iffier parts. But on the whole it's not as creepy as KaZaa, etc., used to be.

I do enjoy having a physical copy of stuff. And companies are finally sticking with DVDs as a content medium, so no more of "swap to disc 5" crap. Between Baldur's Gate (first one's five discs, second's four), The Sims 2 (four if I recall, but I have the DVD version), and WoW (think it varies when you got it, but my copy is five, plus expansions...) I've had more than enough of that...

[Zazazu]

uTorrent is pretty much plug-n-play. I get my crap from The Pirate Bay. Check comments for complaints of viruses. Make sure the seeder/leecher ratio is decent, then download. Use antivirus to scan the files when downloaded (never been hit since 2003, downloading Spin Spin Sugar with some defunct spyware accelerator). Unzip. Mount .iso with Daemon Tools. Install. Throw in crack. Profit.

[jwaas]

At the moment I own all EPs and no SPs, but am running only certain ones on my laptop.  When I get a new desktop in the relatively near future, I am thinking seriously of either being like Pirate Cat (a thing I never thought I'd do), or just running no EPs after SNS.  Unless it's true what I've heard, that the new re-releases of the older EPs, and even some copies of SNS, also have SecuROM.  In which case I have only one choice.  (Meow!)

Once I have the game working well on a new desktop, I'll probably wipe the hard drive of my laptop and reinstall the system, something I should really have been doing as part of regular computer maintenance until now anyway.  At least that'll get rid of SecuROM, if I have it (which I am not sure).

As for the original question, the bare minimum EP configuration I need is UNI + at least one EP after OFB.  I played base+UNI+FT for a long time, and base+UNI+AL for a long time after that.  I need UNI because I perform plastic surgery on almost every Maxis Sim, and the famous non-awesome mod which provides this, uses a UNI career reward.

Eventually I added NL back in, only because I missed certain items, hairstyles, and clothing.  I do not run vampires at all, nor often play dates or outings.  I put BV back in for the sauna and a few other items, and also so my Sims can dig in the backyard to find rocks and other things, and thus get a bit of extra cash if they're broke.  (I sense a failcat coming for that confession.)  Finally I added SNS back because I missed the greenhouses, the ambient light changes, and -- well, the seasons.  Which brings me up to my current configuration of base+UNI+NL+SNS+BV+AL.

I liked the secondary aspiration idea of FT, and the fact that I could get cars without having NL installed, but other than that it grew old.  I found Pets so buggy that I used it only briefly.  And OFB had some neat stuff in it, but somehow I just don't miss it all that much.

Sometimes an EP will have even one item that is so full of win that I consider that EP almost essential.  That would be true for me with AL's garbage chute.  A bottomless garbage can that never needs emptying, what's not to like?

As for the SPs, I got two of them for almost nothing with Best Buy coupons once -- KBS and TSS I think.  With TSS I got a bunch more slutty clothes for teen girls and adult women, as well as some ridiculous ones for their male counterparts, and a neat refrigerator and stove with KBS (both of which, as we all know, are broken by later EPs).  Not enough to justify the extra load times.  But then again, that's just my tastes on the matter.

EDIT:

K&B fridges should be all right provided that you applied FT patch or have AL/M&G. And K&B stove was never broken.

I stand corrected by the master of such fixes himself.    But I'll still do without either SP, and as for fridges and stoves, I like the FT ones better anyway.

[Lord Darcy]

a neat refrigerator and stove with KBS (both of which, as we all know, are broken by later EPs).

K&B fridges should be all right provided that you applied FT patch or have AL/M&G. And K&B stove was never broken.

[zherok]

I figure once I get a nice new laptop I'll just install the whole lot. If I get a new computer I'm going to just go for broke.

The game's definitely dropped a bit of performance since installing Free Time and Apartment Life. I've only fiddled around with making a community lot for a new community, so all I've seen is whatever items they've added mixed in.

I did see that nice new trash chute. Hurrah for bottomless pits.

Fiddling around with things a bit, I notice I now apparently have talent trees. Unfortunately I can't go tank spec... New interactions from somewhere, those are nice. Reputation I'm not sure about, seems kinda like another social element that only has a minor effect on things. Is magic any fun? I normally avoid the fantasy stuff, but if it's interesting, would be a good place to start I guess.

[Faizah]

I do enjoy having a physical copy of stuff. And companies are finally sticking with DVDs as a content medium, so no more of "swap to disc 5" crap. Between Baldur's Gate (first one's five discs, second's four), The Sims 2 (four if I recall, but I have the DVD version), and WoW (think it varies when you got it, but my copy is five, plus expansions...) I've had more than enough of that...

Yeah, that's great, if you have a DVD drive... (I do now, as of this July, but I didn't when I was still buying EPs.)

Is magic any fun? I normally avoid the fantasy stuff, but if it's interesting, would be a good place to start I guess.

It's okay... The teleport spell is nice, I suppose. I was playing about the other day, and decided to get a Servo into magic. He has the hat and everything, it's kind of cute. He's infallibly good, but he doesn't get the yellow pox that the Sims get, which I think is awesome. I hate that pox. (I haven't checked if there's an evil witch 'skin' for servos yet.)

'That pox':

[zherok]

Ew... Not sure what I think about that...

Cursory look through MTS2 shows this mod. Would that make it bearable? It shows an aura but unless it's a system hog probably not too bad I guess.

As for DVDs, they're like 12 years old as a format now. They can certainly fill them to capacity by now. My brother had a 360 game, 4 dual layer discs. That's about 35gb. And the Vanguard beta (some MMO I never played) was something like 25gb from a screenshot I saw. So we'll be swapping them like CDs soon enough.

[Maygus]

I'm currently running a copy of the Sims 2 with University, Nightlife, Open for Business, and Seasons. I'm pretty happy with what these expansions add, but I don't have a lot of knowledge about the later ones (or Pets).

Pets gives your retired elders something to do - they can raise and train puppies and kittens.  Also with Pets, children can develop charisma skill by talking to caged birds, it's the only charisma-building activity (that I know of) which is available to them.

BV gives you the Mahjong Table which satisfies both fun and social needs.  If you hate TVs as much as I do, you'll have a mahjong table in every household.

[rufio]

Well, there's also the poker table.

[notovny]

It's okay... The teleport spell is nice, I suppose. I was playing about the other day, and decided to get a Servo into magic. He has the hat and everything, it's kind of cute. He's infallibly good, but he doesn't get the yellow pox that the Sims get, which I think is awesome. I hate that pox. (I haven't checked if there's an evil witch 'skin' for servos yet.)

Simsbaby did a "No Witch Overlay" hack.  http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12878.0.html

With that, and a little bit of "Fix Flashing Blue" on the lot debugger, my Good and Evil witches now look like this.

[Faizah]

Simsbaby did a "No Witch Overlay" hack.  http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12878.0.html

I don't want no overlay. I found a replacement for the evil overlay that I can live with, it's only the good one that bugs me. And even the good one is almost tolerable, on S1. I just can't stand that it makes S4 sims look like they have an extreme case of radioactive chicken pox.

[zherok]

Well, there's also the poker table.

Is that from BV as well? Don't believe I've seen it.

[Maygus]

I think the poker table comes with Uni or NL.  Children cannot use it, but they can use the mahjong table.

[Simsbaby]

Simsbaby did a "No Witch Overlay" hack.  http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,12878.0.html

I don't want no overlay. I found a replacement for the evil overlay that I can live with, it's only the good one that bugs me. And even the good one is almost tolerable, on S1. I just can't stand that it makes S4 sims look like they have an extreme case of radioactive chicken pox.

Faizah, mine is two separate files. Just install the one for the good witch.