What's your favorite Sims 3 EP and why?

I can't even think about playing without Ambitions, Late Night, and Generations (you already have two of these). But my absolute favorite EP for the sheer amount of content it adds is Uni. I played for months with all of the at the time new stuff before even getting around to enrolling any sims in Uni World. It so happened at the time that there was an age gap in the sims in my ongoing families so no one was old enough to enroll and the older sims were so far along in their chosen careers that sending them back to study for degrees rather than granting them honorary ones didn't seem realistic at the time.

This is purely a matter of personal taste of course. The two EPs that I would put on the bottom of my must have list might be near the top for others -- those would be Showtime and ITF. They each do have something good to offer though. For example, I can never get rid of Showtime now because it includes genies and dominoes, and ITF gave us dream pods, astronomy, and most importantly the dip kiss interaction. :)

"telmarina;c-17377158" wrote:
@igazor im already thinking about buying Ambitions:) What is ITF? Do you own World adventures? Do you like it? Im thinking about getting it but i wish to use it only as a vacarion destination, but don't know if it's good like that...

Sorry for too many acronyms, ITF is Into the Future. As I responded elsewhere yes I have all expansions and WA is great even if you don't have much of an appetite for quests and tomb raiding. :)

I played with just the base game and Ambitions for years and always had plenty to do. Of course I got bored sometimes, but I kept coming back. Inventing and sculpting are not only fun but useful—I've had a couple of sims that furnished half their houses through sculptures; some of the inventions add functions not available through normal gameplay. And Ambitions can enhance other activities by allowing your sim to be self-employed and track earnings, or sell items from the consignment store for a significant markup.

I like World Adventures too, and Shang Simla is gorgeous. But I don't think the added skills are more special than some you get from other packs. And as igazor has mentioned elsewhere, installing Traveler will let your sims vacation anywhere even if you don't have WA installed.

I haven't played much with all EPs yet, although I do own them all. For myself, I'm most interested in exploring the content that Island Paradise brings, especially from what little I've done so far. I have a soft spot for water-based activities, and the graphics in Isla Paradiso and Sunlit Tides are gorgeous.

However, the world of IP is so flawed as to be essentially unplayable, even with all the mods you can throw at it. The solutions are to edit the world yourself, to download an fixed version (here's the most used one), or to play elsewhere, for example Sunlit Tides or a custom world. The features of the IP pack work anywhere the water is deep enough.

It should also be noted that IP is a demanding pack no matter what world you use. If your computer can handle it, great, but if it's already struggling, adding IP (or ITF, or especially Pets) to the mix wouldn't be a good idea.

Aside from IP, igazor's comments, here and elsewhere, have sold me on University without having enrolled any of my sims. The additional activities seem compelling, and the game is always more fun with extra group activities. Plus there are the well-done smaller features like reading or writing comic books or adding herbs to cooked meals. I haven't spent much time with the content at all, but these are the kinds of details that make me love Sims 3 in the first place.

World Adventures is my favourite, but I couldn’t play without any of them anymore. Sims 3 is more than the sum of its parts.

Yes there are a lot of wild horses running around the world and in town, it’s a bit odd (to see horses running lose in a town) and yes there are strays too, but I didn’t find it overwhelming.

"telmarina;c-17396581" wrote:
@Dianesims is it true that there are a lot of strays including wild horses? Is this overwhelming?

You can switch off strays and wild animals with NRaas Register.

Well, Pets obviously depends on how much you love to care about pets. Unlike my real-life cat, the game one needs a lot of attention and direction (it gets a bit better if you have two). Smaller pets need even more of that (insert rant about about little dogs not being able to leave a house with a foundation in order to pee). You will need to spend a lot of your daily time allotment with those pets, which is why I personally don't really use them anymore, with very few exceptions (my current town has exactly one cat in one household :smile: ). I keep the pack mostly installed because a bird in your sim's pocket speeds up the learning of spellcasting immensely (don't ask how that works - it works). A cat also works, but it has to be close to you, which brings me back to the bird in your pocket.

Which leads over to Supernatural. It's rather similar, your love of the expansion will depend on how much you love to play with certain supernaturals. Personally, I love those witches and alchemy in the pack, although combined, they are a bit of an "I win" button. A high level spellcaster and alchemist can take care of all his needs - no exception - and keep the house clean with some spells and two different potions. I don't care much for the werewolves and fairies in this pack, while others love them. Vampires get a few more gimmicks (like the "immortal" LTR). Some people don't like the zombies during the full moon, but there are ways to get rid of them, and they are not a big deal in general. Keep your garden fence closed.

I have Showtime, but I haven't played enough with it to have a solid opinion on the pack. Also, the animations of that pack broke for me at some point, and I haven 't found the reason yet.

@telmarina : if you decide for Pets: the strays can be handled by NRaas´ Register, with it you can decide if and how many strays you want to have in your game. You can disable the strays completely with it, too.

My favourite EP is Supernatural, I love the town which came with it (Moonlight Falls) and it is packed with so much interesting gameplay! Another EP without I would never play is Late Night, again I like the world (Bridgeport) and it added more instruments and new careers and new items without them I couldn´t play anymore.

But I play with every EP/SP/Store Content available and think (as @JoAnne65 ) that I couldn´t play my game without any of this anymore!

Ambitions and Generations are my absolute favorite packs, but you have one and said you were thinking of getting the other, so.... My two other choices will be University and Supernatural. The college realism is fun, and helps flesh out your Sims' education even more. Supernatural is mostly unrealistic, so if you don't like the occult often, this pack might not interest you. The reason why I still use Supernatural is because of the overall aesthetic to the pack's items, plus Alchemy is one of my favorite things.

Ambitions. :mrgreen:
https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o2v0xjkUznQ/WsUn3NC50KI/AAAAAAAAOQc/dFx41aywAIEFo_ssLWDx3U4uLiS8xY41ACLcBGAs/s1600/Screenshot-29.jpg
Looks like a little too much C4 in that det pack. Ooops.