I'm not ready for Sims 5

[Noodles]

I am not super invested in SIMS, but one thing that would make me consider it is more reasonable DLC.

I find it annoyingly daunting that there seem to be 100 DLC packs that each cost like $20+ ON SALE. Plus a bunch of weird mid tier mod packs that as far as I can tell are a few pieces of clothing for like $10+ on sale.

It's just TOO MUCH.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

I am not super invested in SIMS, but one thing that would make me consider it is more reasonable DLC.

I find it annoyingly daunting that there seem to be 100 DLC packs that each cost like $20+ ON SALE. Plus a bunch of weird mid tier mod packs that as far as I can tell are a few pieces of clothing for like $10+ on sale.

It's just TOO MUCH.

Yeah, they did an odd thing this time around. In the past you just had EP's (expansion packs) and SP's (Stuff Packs). They added game packs. It does get a bit much at times to figure out what you want and what is where. I think it was Beebo that let me on that the butler is hiding in a stuff pack, for example. I will always prefer full expansion packs because I like things that change the game in a significant manner.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I have every single pack - only one I regret is the Star Wars one, and mostly because I paid full price for it. Its utter rubbish for The sims, and utter rubbsh for SW and utter rubbish for a disney attraction in a game. It does none of it well. But there are new food recipes to learn and there is a good number of good build things.

 

[Ghost Pepper]

I also get exasperated with the constant, unrelenting demand of fulfilling Needs. By the time I've run through the list of getting my sim enough sleep, fed, cleaned, and socialized.... it's time to start all over again. That doesn't leave enough time for me to do the fun things, like fish all night. In my latest game I've finally tried to play with this feature, instead of against it. I'm working the Whims really hard to get enough Reward points to buy all the potions that reduce Needs, so that's actually been a new layer of fun for me, but that's only good for one game. I ain't doing that every time, so I think from now on I'll just use cheat codes.

I've only played The Sims 2 & 3. To me it was too much of a chore to play them a lot. It would have been nice to have a mode where they wouldn't need so much.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Is there any way to play the base game without all the expansion packs? I've tried downloading just the base game to my Surface Pro 7 laptop, so I could play Sims 4 while keeping Mrs. Beebo company in the living room. (The installs of Origin and Sims 4 have never worked so far, but that's another issue.) I've waited close to a day for each download because there doesn't seem to be any way to just load the base game.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Is there any way to play the base game without all the expansion packs? I've tried downloading just the base game to my Surface Pro 7 laptop, so I could play Sims 4 while keeping Mrs. Beebo company in the living room. (The installs of Origin and Sims 4 have never worked so far, but that's another issue.) I've waited close to a day for each download because there doesn't seem to be any way to just load the base game.

Interesting. I just assumed that like Steam you could pick and choose what expansions you wanted installed, but for the life of me I cannot find a similar option in the Origin client anywhere under the Sims 4. You can look at your eps but I see nowhere to disable the download of any once you already own them.

Some folks have suggested that you can play in offline mode, but I would think you'd have to be online for at least the initial download and that would automatically download the expansions.

I'm sure the great minds here probably have a better solution but one option ,that would cost money, would be to buy the base game over on Steam, on sale right now due to Winter sale for $4.79/$5.99 Digital Deluxe. If you use your regular Origin ID, it will download the packs, but you could create a different id specific to this install to avoid that so it would think you only own the base game? If and when you actually did want access to your packs you could sign in with your regular id.

Installing the base game without my expansion packs? | EA Forums - 11685442

Hello, I have the Sims 4 and in the past when I had a nice computer I installed two packs, Dine Out and the Holiday one. Now that I have a laptop I... - 11685442

answers.ea.com

 

[Cindy Claveau]

I also get exasperated with the constant, unrelenting demand of fulfilling Needs. By the time I've run through the list of getting my sim enough sleep, fed, cleaned, and socialized.... it's time to start all over again. That doesn't leave enough time for me to do the fun things, like fish all night. In my latest game I've finally tried to play with this feature, instead of against it. I'm working the Whims really hard to get enough Reward points to buy all the potions that reduce Needs, so that's actually been a new layer of fun for me, but that's only good for one game. I ain't doing that every time, so I think from now on I'll just use cheat codes.

I figure it's my game, I purchased it, so "my rules". Cheat codes were the main reason I ever got very far in Sims4. Why would I play in a virtual world crafted to induce fantasies, only to have bodily functions pushed in upon me frequently? It was a cute idea but a non-starter for me. I don't like "wear/repair" rules in games, or "use or lose" a skill like in UOL. But they make one hell of a lot more sense to me than forced potty stuff.

I don't think of them as "cheat codes". To me, they're "Cindy sez" rules. Because I sez.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I'm sure the great minds here probably have a better solution but one option ,that would cost money, would be to buy the base game over on Steam, on sale right now due to Winter sale for $4.79/$5.99 Digital Deluxe.

Ooo, what a great idea! Especially since the Origin download never worked for me anyway. Maybe Steam would work. It's worth $5 to take a chance. Thank you!

 

[Beebo Brink]

Ooo, what a great idea! Especially since the Origin download never worked for me anyway. Maybe Steam would work. It's worth $5 to take a chance. Thank you!

ETA: Jolene, reading over your post I can see now that you warned me about the Origin tie-in, but I didn't quite grasp that part. I can barely keep track of one Origin account, so a second really wasn't an option I was going to try. Once I signed in with the Origin client, all the DLCs started automatically loading. That will take most of the day to finish, but I was able to start a base game right away, and so far that played just fine.

The biggest win is that the Steam to Origin installations bypassed all the technical issues I was having with Origin/Sims before. So if nothing else, the $5 saved me a few hours of frustrated troubleshooting.

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Okay, I don't know if this doesn't install the exp packs and such, but there is a way to turn them on and off.

First, go to this page: The Sims 4 How To Disable Packs — James Turner [he has some other tools too]

Follow the instructions and click off all the stuff you don't want [and that way, if you wanted seasons, for example, you can have just that and base game]

Actually, he includes instructions on where to find the area on Origin.

--------------------

And I made a mode where instead of rarely having bladder needs, I just turned it off entirely, and then made all the other useful traits free, while not making things like fertile free because I don't generally want to control more than one sim at a time.

 

[Beebo Brink]

First, go to this page: The Sims 4 How To Disable Packs — James Turner [he has some other tools too]

Would this disable those packs in just my laptop, though? If I'm using a single Origin ID, I suspect this will affect my desktop setup, where I do want to use all the DLCs.

Looks like I'll need to create a second Origin account if I want to handle the games differently. I'll see how well Sims runs when it's got All The Stuff.

Thanks for your help! I'm slowly making sense of it all. Sims 4 is my first foray into gaming, unless you count Second LIfe (not a game).

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

Would this disable those packs in just my laptop, though? If I'm using a single Origin ID, I suspect this will affect my desktop setup, where I do want to use all the DLCs.

Looks like I'll need to create a second Origin account if I want to handle the games differently. I'll see how well Sims runs when it's got All The Stuff.

Thanks for your help! I'm slowly making sense of it all. Sims 4 is my first foray into gaming, unless you count Second LIfe (not a game).

It does, but... what I do, when I wanted to use the multiplayer mod with my spouse, is keep a copy of the string on one note - then clear it when playing my game, and reapply when I need just the packs he has in common with me.

So, its an extra step, but ought to not take too much extra time.

Be nice if they just had a toggle, but.... its ea.

 

[Beebo Brink]

Perfect! The notepad trick would make this really easy to switch back and forth. And that also answered my next question, which was how would you enable games. I was too cautious to try this before I knew my way out.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

Ooo, what a great idea! Especially since the Origin download never worked for me anyway. Maybe Steam would work. It's worth $5 to take a chance. Thank you!

You are welcome. I hope it all works out.

ETA: Jolene, reading over your post I can see now that you warned me about the Origin tie-in, but I didn't quite grasp that part. I can barely keep track of one Origin account, so a second really wasn't an option I was going to try. Once I signed in with the Origin client, all the DLCs started automatically loading. That will take most of the day to finish, but I was able to start a base game right away, and so far that played just fine.

The biggest win is that the Steam to Origin installations bypassed all the technical issues I was having with Origin/Sims before. So if nothing else, the $5 saved me a few hours of frustrated troubleshooting.

I'm really sorry. . I figured you would use a new and different Origin ID for your device that cannot handle it all, so it would think that you ONLY own the base game, while still using your regular ID for your pc, signing into your normal account to have access to all of your packs there where it can handle it.

 

[Beebo Brink]

I'm really sorry. . I figured you would use a new and different Origin ID for your device that cannot handle it all, so it would think that you ONLY own the base game, while still using your regular ID for your pc, signing into your normal account to have access to all of your packs there where it can handle it.

That's still an option! If the game won't run well with all the packs, then I'll just uninstall and start over with a new ID. If it does run with them all, bonus.

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

Really, for me, I get new iterations of the sims at launch usually. I then usually go back and play the previous version until they actually get around to adding in Seasons. But it gets old to wait 3-6 years for them to get around to adding in stuff that was in previous versions. We've had Seasons since 2, Magic and show Business since 1, Pets since 1, University since 2, and so on. But then the devs don't include these things in the base game, and want to do -new- stuff, so we wait, and wait and wait.

This!

They really need to add this stuff to the base game, then get out their creative thinking caps and come up with new, not rehashed, EP content. After having played Sims 2 with every expansion that came out, and kinda skipping Sims 3, Sims 4 seemed so bland without things like pets, seasons, university, or even toddlers! I don't want to wait years for that stuff to come back in Sims 5!

 

[Katheryne Helendale]

I am not super invested in SIMS, but one thing that would make me consider it is more reasonable DLC.

I find it annoyingly daunting that there seem to be 100 DLC packs that each cost like $20+ ON SALE. Plus a bunch of weird mid tier mod packs that as far as I can tell are a few pieces of clothing for like $10+ on sale.

It's just TOO MUCH.

Oh, I so agree!

EA sees the Sims franchise as a cash cow, and, well, it is. But it seems they're milking it completely to death in Sims 4. I mean, besides the EPs, how many Stuff Packs and other extra crap have they foisted on us now? If someone were to have bought every pack available for Sims 4, I'm betting it would cost several hundred dollars, not on sale. That's just insane!

I don't have any of the Stuff Packs or Game Packs. And I am pretty far behind on EPs as well, as I've had to prioritize my spending lately.

 

[Noodles]

Oh, I so agree!

EA sees the Sims franchise as a cash cow, and, well, it is. But it seems they're milking it completely to death in Sims 4. I mean, besides the EPs, how many Stuff Packs and other extra crap have they foisted on us now? If someone were to have bought every pack available for Sims 4, I'm betting it would cost several hundred dollars, not on sale. That's just insane!

I don't have any of the Stuff Packs or Game Packs. And I am pretty far behind on EPs as well, as I've had to prioritize my spending lately.

I feel like at a bare minimum, for many other games and companies, the "Stuff packs" would just be "free regular updates."

"Hey, thanks for supporting the game, here is some new (themed) items for this quarter/6months.

 

[Jolene Benoir]

If someone were to have bought every pack available for Sims 4, I'm betting it would cost several hundred dollars, not on sale. That's just insane!

As of 6 days ago it was $749.67.

How Much The Sims 4 Costs In 2021

The Sims 4 can cost players a shocking amount.

screenrant.com

 

[Aribeth Zelin]

I feel like at a bare minimum, for many other games and companies, the "Stuff packs" would just be "free regular updates."

"Hey, thanks for supporting the game, here is some new (themed) items for this quarter/6months.

So, I feel almost responsible for helping let EA learn just how much people used to make selling stuff for the Sims 2.... [against any rules and agreements]....

I'm really sorry