If I buy a Sims 3 Expansion Pack in Origin as a Download, can I play with out a disc even though the base game uses a disc?

this is very old but: well the base game is on origin but i have all the other sims 3 games on a disc. (origin on my mac). so if i download the discs on my mac, do i need to download the sims 3 base game on disc or can i just  have the base game on origin and the rest expansion packs like seasons etc on disc. would it work?

if you haven't already downloaded and installed the base game you will need to do that , otherwise NONE of the store items/expansion/stuff packs will work as they need the base game installed in order to work

if you do have the base game downloaded and installed then yeah you can install your disk pack's and play from your newest installed released game

for example i have  the base game , pets ,seasons since seasons is my newest one i will play from that one (the rest combine for playing)

Hi,I downloaded the expansion pack "Ambitions" but it has completed downloading and it says that it still downloading and it is still
not showing up on origin.If anyone knows how to fix this this would be awesome,Thanks!

I have to re-install all my sims i got the disk of TS3 and 2 expansions with it but what stops me from re-installing it all is that i have many, many expansions i bought as a download from origin. and i dont want to loose them. can you help?

So if I buy the Sims 3 starter pack online and download the rest on disk will it still work?? because I lost the main Sims 3 Disk but have everything else...

If you have the base game installed then just insert the disk to install the pack once installed then hit play( leave the disk in)

You should be able to download via origin and play Sims through the launcher without needing a disc.

However, before I bought Origin Vault access I had to have my Sims 3 disc in my computer to enable it to work, so keep it handy! 

@minaakbari The DRM used for TS3 was (notice I say was) confusing. For the pc when TS3 was released the DRM was SecuROM and SafeDisc. SecuROM had an install limit and SafeDisc required the latest released to market pack DISC in the optical drive to run the game. If the pack was the download version you didn't need the disc (obviously) and the game would start w/o a disc in the optical drive. When Windows 10 and El Capitan was released they do not support SecuROM and SafeDisc and if you added a pack to the game you then needed to change the DRM to Origin. I for one never liked SecuROM because it was considered a rootkit and now you don't need a disc to play. I am not sure how the mac handles the DRM. When you redeem the base game in Origin (if you haven't already) Origin will update the game to version 1.69 which will remove/disable SecuROM and Safedisc. Origin is the new DRM.