Installation order of the eps and sps?

[simmum]

Yay, my first post since joining!

Hi all, I'm currently living in the Far East and have all the expansion packs and stuff packs up to and including Fast Lane stuff, so I don't have Late Night or Outdoor Living. My husband has gone to the States this week with work and I've asked him to pick up these 2 games while he's there (can't get games shipped to this country through Amazon etc). He's managed to get Outdoor Living but couldn't get Late Night (annoyingly!!!). Am I ok to install OL before getting LN or will this mess the game up when I eventually get LN, in which case should I just wait until then? I seem to remember reading somewhere about it being a problem to install games in the wrong order of release with Sims 2, but not sure if it's the same for Sims3?

Thanks in advance.

[gerrr00]

Welcome to the forum!  I remember activating you. 

It will be fine to install Outdoor Living without having LN.  To keep your game in tip top shape it is best to back up your games, uninstall the games and re-install everything occasionally.  Here is the link for backing up your game and the link for uninstalling/reinstalling.  So once you do get LN just do another maintenance run following the directions on those links.  Enjoy your new stuff pack!

[Pam]

As gerrr00 said, you should be fine installing Outdoor Living before Late Night.  I've heard the same thing about Sims 2 needing to be installed in a particular order.  Most people thought it would extend to Sims 3, as well, but I haven't heard anything really concrete about it.  I suspect you'll be just fine.  Do be sure to back up, as gerrr00 said, just in case.

[Hosfac]

I can say with 100% certainty that it doesn't matter what order the Sims 3 expansions are installed in.  I had the base game, and Ambitions installed before I got WA or any Stuff Packs, and I also installed Late Night before Fast Lane Stuff.  But before I did any of that, I contacted EA customer support and they confirmed that it doesn't matter what order they're installed in, so long as you use the most current expansion installed to run the game.  So even though Late Night will be the last expansion you install, you'll still use Outdoor Living to run the game.

For Sims 1 and 2, it definitely mattered which order you installed them in, but for Sims 3, it doesn't.

[Pam]

Thanks for that confirmation, Hosfac. 

[ratchie]

I agree that you do not need to install the expansion packs and stuff packs in the order they come out.
I too got the base game and ambitions before I got world adventure and any of the stuff packs.

Rachel

[simmum]

Thank you all for your replies. That's great to hear i can install OLS. Just a shame really that my husband couldn't get LN as after seeing Leto's video the other day, it's really made me want it! Still, i'm going back to the UK at Easter so i'll get it then, not too much longer to wait!

[Hosfac]

Yeah, Leto's video is the main reason I play Bridgeport as much as I currently do lol.

[Schipperke]

I know a lot of people feel the expansion and stuff packs should be installed in the order in which they were released, but that hasn't been my experience.  Particularly in Sims 2, I didn't start playing the game until a lot of things had already been released, and then I bought expansion packs (and later, stuff packs) in the order in which they most interested me.  And I never had any problems with Sims 2.  In fact, I can't remember a single bug or glitch in the game, and I played it a lot.  I wish Sims 3 had been as bug-free as S2 was for me.  In Sims 3 I've mostly been buying things as they were released, but I did install the stuff pack with the cars after LN, with no problems.

[Hosfac]

The biggest problems with installing those expansions in the incorrect order was not actually bugs, although that could happen from what I understand. 

Certain items were only available after installing certain expansions.  If you skipped an expansion pack that had a particular type of item, and the following expansion packs had their own versions of that item, the items in question wouldn't get installed because there was no system for them to be used.  If you then installed the expansion pack that contained that item, you would get the items that came with the expansion, but the new versions of that item from the later expansions would not show up in the game.  The only way to get those items in Sims 1 was to do a complete uninstall/reinstall of the entire game in the proper order.  While I don't remember how Sims 2 worked, it may have been possible to uninstall the expansions separately.

I've heard tell that installing the Sims 1 in the proper order could create other problems as well, but I believe the only real issue with Sims 2 was missing out on certain items.

[Seabody]

so long as you use the most recent disc installed to run the game.

Hang on... so if you installed Ambitions, then Late Night, Then World Adventures, would you use the World Adventures disk to run the game?? If so, What!?

I installed the game in this order:
Vanilla - WA - Amb - LN, High End Loft Stuff.
I use the LN disk to run my game.

[Esther1981]

I think Hosfac meant the most recent one out at the time. So yes LN would be the correct one to use.

[Schipperke]

I'm pretty sure it needs to be the disc from the most recent release, which in Seabody's example would be LN as stated.  It used to seem odd to me to run the game off a stuff pack disc (Fast Lane, in my case), but any other disc gives the message that I need to change discs.

[Hosfac]

That didn't quite come out the way I intended it to lol.  Let me try again.

You use the most current expansion that you have installed to run the game, not the most recently installed.  So if you had only vanilla and Outdoor Living Stuff, you will always need the OLS disc to run the game, regardless of what other expansions you install afterward...until the release of the next expansion of course.

I'm going to go back and edit it, to prevent confusion to anyone else.

[Rinkils]

I can say with 100% certainty that it doesn't matter what order the Sims 3 expansions are installed in.

So, just to be sure. Lets say, if I have  base game + latest patch + Seasons, I can just simply install Generations and launch the game from the Seasons pack, right?
I do not have to unistall / unpatch / undo anything...
Also, will my saved games work fine with the newly installed EP?