http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,13832.0.html1.
"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?
EP8:
a. apartment: multiple sublots in an apartment lot host?
I don't know much about it.
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!
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.
[by Inge]
My punctuation is appropriate, as always.
[by Zazazu]
Inge, I find your punctuation amusing in context.
[by Inge]
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.
[by cybersquirt]
Not to nit but the OP asked for "EP advice", at least as a heading, which was subsequently moderated to '.. bestest'.
[by jolrei]
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.
[by Inge]
But there can only be one "best". The OP is asking for plural matches to be returned.
[by Grugly]
-bursts into tears-
[by jolrei]
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.
[by Inge]
What happened to the grammar police? It should be "betterer" not "bestest"
3.
Fell off my stool!
[by birene]
Free Time: Almost forgot about it. Has some interesting new game features but nothing world-shattering.
[by J. M. Pescado]
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!
4.
Unnecessarily true, so long as actual facts found the conclusions for readers to choose and decide.
[by dragoness]
See, imo this is precisely why these threads are pointless.
5.
Quote from post 54,
Now, nil is wondering whether to post more on this topic!?
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.
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.
it infuriates me when people ask. 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.
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.
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.
6.
Quote from post 57,
Such evolution is allowed though...
Probably, certain helpful posts can be indicated out or highlit for those who want some infos in the first post?
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.
7.
resonances from nil.
[by Inge]
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.
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