Hi, everyone.

After changing mobo, GPU and CPU, I'm thinking of giving TS3 another chance. I already have the base game, World Adventures, Ambitions and Late Night. I'm clearly getting Seasons, Generations and University Life, but I have no idea about the rest of EPs and SPs. Any ideas and recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

One last question: After all this time, has there been done anything about the continuous increased size of saved game files?

MTIA

http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=453511

Pets should definitely be on your list. Unlike the half-arsed Pets pack for The Sims 2, Sims 3's comes with one of the better worlds, a wider range of actual pets and other nice features.

Hi Nalia! :lovestruc

This thread might help also- lots of opinions here:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=453511

It will have to be The Sims™ 3 Island Paradise love it

Recommendations have already been posted so I'll keep it short:
- for objects: Pets, Late Night, World Adventures, Supernatural;
- for activities: Late Night, Seasons, University, World Adventures, Ambitions, Supernatural, Into the Future, Island Paradise;
- not really must haves: Generations, Showtime.

As for Stuff Packs, I only have High End Loft Stuff and love it. The others I don't see any use for for myself.
Recommended Store worlds: Dragon Valley for medieval, Lucky Palms for desert, Riverview for quiet country town. Can't say about any others, haven't played them.


Unless you take steps to prevent it, no, your save games will get increasingly more bloated the longer you play.
- disable memories via the in-game option, then get a mod to prevent them from being formed;
- use the Save Cleaner (link in my sig) to clean your savegame periodically;
- use the Nraas mod suite (link in my sig) - specifically Error Trap and Overwatch - to keep your save games clean;
- if you get Pets, Nraas Register helps keep the stray population down. Otherwise, you can end up with literally dozens getting stuck;
- get fixed versions of the worlds you're playing (here on MTS, by ellacharmed). They do away with routing issues that can lead to immense lag due to sims getting stuck, if left unfixed.

I own all ell expanson packs but I only play with 5, because otherwise my game gets slow.

- Seasons, offers you very much needed variation. Watching the neighborhood getting covered in snow is really delightful. Don't really enjoy the festivals, love the aliens and some of the furniture. Halloween is great, and christmas is incredibly cute.

- Generations, adds family gamplay details which I think the game lacks without Generation. The imaginary friend is irritating as hell after the first time, but it brings a lot of activities and stuff to do for kids, teens, cute walking sticks for elders etc.

- Late Night, love some downtown glamour once in a while. Bridgeport is a unique town which feels very alive with lots of clubs, the new film career is one of my favorites, you can form bands, gets lots of new fun, usable and stylish items, apartments are good but not great. The celebrity system is a bit boring, but can be fun at times if it makes sense if you wanna play a film star or have that kind of celebrity sim. Includes butlers, cute food trucks, subway system, arcade games, proud WooHoo walk. Just make sure to remove the damn ropes at every night club/bar you can find because those bouncers says no to nearly every sim which will give you empty night clubs and bars ..

- University life. This kind of expansion pack doesn't really suit everyone's style of gameplay. I don't send every sim to University but when I feel like spicing the game up a bit I do. The university experience here is in my opinion better than the one in The Sims 2. This pack offers a lot of great new items, interactions, hairstyles, clothes etc. I really feel like this expansion pack offers a new dimension for Sims to be young, dumb and have fun. Not really interested in the new skills, have yet to have a plantsim but it looks fun. I really recommend it. My only complaint is that time goes so fast, so it's either a choice between having fun and getting new experiences or studying.

- Pets. I like it, the new town with a cowboy/farmish feeling I love. All my sims doesn't get Pets, but they can be a fun addition. Collecting the new smaller pets is quite nice, and I love the cute icecream truck. Feel tired of the regular 9 to 5 job get home eat sleep repeat? Quit your job and run a horse ranch! I think you can even make money out of it if you enter competitions. I also like the hair and clothes that comes with this expansion pack. Not really into the unicorns.

There you have it!

- Do not recommend Island Paradise. Isla Paradiso is broken. Yes, I have tried ellacharmed's fix and nraas, but it only makes it slightly better.
- World Adventures is fun, but only the first times you explore something. I tend to not use the objects that comes with.
- Ambitions is great, but I pretty much only like the firefighter career and it's broken with the patch 1.67. The town doesn't really interest me.
- Showtime is fun the first time, not otherwise. Personally I think this is a decent expansion pack with a really good looking new neighborhood and great new items and clothing. If you're looking for the superstar/show experience, you will be disappointed
- I like Supernatural, I just don't have it installed as off now. I tend to get bored with the dull ambiance of Moonlight Falls. Comes with some fantastic objects and decent clothing though. Being a witch offers some great fun. Don't like the new career. Don't like fairies, don't like werewolves, tend to like vampires.
- Into The Future is fun the first time you experience everything but eh, not otherwise. I don't really use all the tons of objects and clothing that it came with in my vanilla gameplay, it just looks odd and mismatched with other furniture and hair. Plumbbots are kind of fun, I guess.

Thank you all for your recommendations and links.

@sweetdevil
I used a tons of Twallan's mods in the past, otherwise the game became unplayable sooner than later. I'll check and definitely use Save cleaner. Many, many thanks for all info in detail.

@ZenGarden
Very useful info on the EPs. I already have Ambitions, and liked it very much mainly because of the freelance jobs of painters, writers and inventors. I agree with you on World Adventures though (I own it as well). I liked it for Sim Fu and wine making, hated it for its adventures and collections, and ended up using it only for buying houses for my Sims to spend their vacations.

@Simsample
:lovestruc
I'll have a look through that looong thread. I'm sure I'll find lots of info [and passionate opinions, I bet].

Rapidly increasing save file sizes seem to have six major causes:

(1) You use CAS a lot in game (dresser, mirror, stylist station or 'Edit in CAS' cheats or mods) to change the appearance of your Sims or any townies. Each time the game leaves behind a set of Sim thumbnails called SNAPs. There is a programme called Kuree's Save Cleaner that can clean your saves from these leftovers: http://www.simlogical.com/ContentUp...e/uploads/1532/
The current version 2.2 does have its bugs though, because it also has the tendency to delete photos that you made in game once you have travelled to other destinations; the older version 1 doesn't have this bug, but I don't know how to get that now. The support thread with the link to older versions is gone.
(2) Memories. Either disable them completely or use a mod to limit automatic memories. All Sims in a town get them and they bloat saves considerably. Here's a mod that can help you in controlling memory production: http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=446281
(3) Photographs. Taken with the camera, the smartphone, photobooths or paintings made from in-game scenes (potraits, still lifes). They will all be stored as IMG files in a save and will remain there even after deleting the photo or painting. No solution other than messing with S3PE in your save files.
(4) Travelling. Each travel action will increase save files. Not only will each travel destination have its own .nhd file placed into a save folder there will also be data duplicated into the export and travel data bases to help keep the data intact. This seems to be only a problem for HD space, however, as the respective destination files are only used while travelling, i.e. not the whole chunk of data is read into RAM at all times.
(5) Too many leftover Sims. In family trees, graveyards, service NPC pools. As long as these are still fully playable, like, for example, resurrectable ghosts, they will still be stored in saves with their full data. MasterController is your friend for managing these.
(6) Use of mods that allows you to change households quickly and lock wishes for unplayed households. Save bloat caused by this can be enormous if you lock too many wishes for inactive Sims. Either don't do it (best option) or clean the wish panel for Sims you don't play that often on a regular bases. A mod like DebugEnablerMasterController by NRaas allows you to delete wishes from Sims without making them active. The decrease in file size after doing so can be quite substantial and I have the impression that this also speeds up the game again.

Now as to EPs: I have them all and like them all to a certain extent. The three I could happily live without are Into The Future and Showtime and University Life, with ITF being the most redundant. I keep them mostly for the objects and not for the gameplay they offer.

Spot on. Do you know if using CAS to recolor objects, and saving presets of clothes/furniture, have the same effect?
I reuploaded the old version of Save Cleaner here. Thanks for linking to the thread, I was unaware that Kuree had reuploaded it. Regarding the program deleting photographs and paintings, I've discovered this guide; apparently you need to put these in your sim's inventory to prevent them from being cleared (beats the hassle of saving lots to the library IMO).
On the same note, does the Save Cleaner get rid of images of sold paintings as well?


I'm curious how this works, can you elaborate?

The Tips For Better Game Performance Document has been updated and includes Mods and Tools to keep your game running smoothly, tips on cleaning up game files and folders and Misc. and System Tips to keep your game healthy.

@Don Babilon & Barbarat
Many thanks for detail info and links. They refreshed my memory as to many things that made me rage quit. Although I won't refrain from over-using CAS -is one of the game's charms, isn't it?- but at least I'll have a chance to better control the game this time. Hopefully.

No, using Create-A-Style (CASt) doesn't seem to have any effect on save size. Objects don't change their thumbnails in action queues or speech or think bubbles when you recolour them. And saved patterns and styles are not saved in the save file but in the separate userPresets.package file and also partly in Thumbnails. All outside the actual save folder.

This doesn't seem to work all times, and I still haven't really figured out what SaveCleaner deletes and why. It seems to be random. The only thing that I've really tested and confimed is that travelling triggers it and that the deletion is not apparent immediately but only after you loaded the cleaned save for a second time. What I mean is that after cleaning the save loads normally and you might think that all pictures are intact. But if you save again, quit and reload then only will the deletion take effect in that second save . It must have something to do with how pictures are both saved into the .nhd and the travelDB.package after travelling, because SaveCleaner will also clean out travelDB, which it probably shouldn't.

Funnily enough, no. Pictures and photos sold in-game can remain in save files forever. Kuree promised to look into the matter, but then TS4 happened.


My mistake. I thought it was DebugEnabler and I still think that there's a command for that hidden in it somewhere. But in this case it is actually MasterController: "Drop All Dreams And Opportunities", selectable from the Town Hall and computer menues.

@Don_Babilon: ohh, thank you very much for clarifying. I've had the game crash several times in the past due to extensive use of CAS/CASt, so I would recommend restarting after a heavy session of makeovers or building. Interestingly enough, if you create custom presets or create/edit collections during a gaming session, the changes aren't saved if the game crashes, as opposed to lots or families staying in the Library even if the game crashes (probably due to them being separate files).


Jesus, right when you think it's working properly, it comes back to bite you, lol. Good thing I'm not too attached to photos or paintings, then XD

It depends entirely on your playstyle, but Pets and Seasons are the two I'd definitely recommend for everyone.

If you do a lot of legacies or have a lot of families with kids, you'll want Generations and if you're like me and love fantasy stuff, Supernatural's also definitely worth the buy. Island Paradise, Showtime, and Late Night are also fun for the activities they offer, so look into those and see if they appeal to you.

I don't have Into the Future, so I can't say how that is, but Ambitions and World Adventures are both a bit glitchy and somewhat lacking as far as content goes. WA has a lot of beautiful objects and build features, though, but that just means it's a glorified stuff pack to me.University is also much the same way, although I like some of the interactions it gives you. If you're going to travel by leaving your game world at all (which I know you can do using University and World Adventures) use NRaas Traveler and ellacharmed's fixed worlds.

Yes, Seasons has always been my favourite pack, no matter what. As for WA and Ambitions, I already have those, so I can only hope things can go a little better this time.

Now, I have finally made up my mind and going to buy Seasons, Pets and University Life. I'd love to get Island Paradise as well, but I hear a lot of people saying it is broken... that's a pity, really.
(On another, kind of irrelevant note, I bought TS3+Seasons+Generations for my Niece, and she is thrilled. I can't believe she is playing Seasons before I do ) Many thanks to everyone who took the time to read and reply. You helped a lot!

I enabled memories, just to see what they do.

First game crash I had since I last had memories enabled.

Wait... I think I see a pattern here.

Yeah... I'm pretty sure that with Memories enabled, you remember that they crash your game.

Memories are useless in TS3, no relation to TS2 memories at all. For example, a Sim married to a celebrity will get a memory about "had woohoo with a celebrity" instead of "had woohoo with my wife/husband". Simply and plainly stupid, in my opinion.

I also think Seasons is the best EP. I also like Late Night and Generations. I only have these three and carefully researched each before buying.

@Nalia - I have also just yesterday re-installed Sims 3 ( on my nice cleaned up, reset Alienware PC Windows 10 OS) What I did was to install just the base game which updates straightaway to the very latest version which adds a lot of interest to the plain vanilla game. Today I invested time reinstalling the free Riverview world, all of my owned Worlds and any of the owned Venues that I enjoy using. ( Downloaded from disc and from the Sims 3 store site).

It has been a while since I last played and my game was over stuffed with store stuff, stuff packs and Expansion packs!

Wanting to recapture and enjoy how Sims felt the very first time I will play with just the updated base game for a while before adding any of the EPs. And this is where I get to reply to your question (along with everyone else!); the EP's we enjoy are those that best suit are style of play. I play Single Sims, Child-free Sims and Families (generation play) as well as the occasional 'challenge'. I plan to gradually add Generations, Seasons, World Adventures, Pets, LateNight and University.

What have you decided ?

@SweetDevil Thank you for sharing the helpful tools. Now, where the heck does one place the Saves Cleaner folder ? ( I have never added any mods or tools to my Sims 3 game.)

I already have: World Adventures, Ambitions and Late Night
I'm buying: Seasons, University Life and Pets.

I am not going to install all the patches. Just the last patch before Origin becomes a requirement. Thankfully, before quitting Twallan had updated all the mods I am interested in, so I am good to go. I'll try loading my old saves with the Sims I had created back in the old days as well. Dai was my very favourite Sim in TS3.

There are no patches that will make Origin a requirement. If you download the manual Superpatch you can go all the way to 1.67 and be compatible with the most up-to-date mods.

I have Ambitions, Generations, and High-End Loft Stuff (the latter two of which i got from eBay a week ago.) I consider both of my EPs essential to my gameplay, but if i had to pick just one, it would be ambitions.

Ah, I see. That's what I'll do then.
Many thanks!