Back from a 4 year hiatus and totally overwhelmed. Could use some advice

I thought I'd just chime in about mods and cc.

As others have mentioned, MC Command Center is a pretty popular mod. I don't use it because I play rotationally, but if you want story progression with your unplayed families, it's pretty great. Littlemssam has a bunch of nice quality of life mods that can really help with the game and of course it's usually worth poking around at Mod the Sims to see if they've got mods you'd like. Zerbu has a bunch of really popular mods that can let your sim go to work or school if you have the Get Together expansion.

As far as CC goes, most CC creators have moved to tumblr, and the best place to get started is Lana's CC Finds (make sure you sort by Sims 4 CC, you don't want to get Sims 3 files in there by accident). I don't know if you like Alpha or intend to go with Maxis Match, but if you go the Maxis Match route, let me know and I can point you to some pretty great cc out there.

Aye, welcome back~

Definitely depends on what you'll be into. I've enjoyed City Living from the clothing, food stalls, new recipes, culture to new semi-active careers as well. Think the only thing I was disappointed in is that apartments are just restricted to San Mynshuno other than that I do like having my sims live there.

Gamepacks are pretty great and focus on the theme they're given. Vampires is pretty well praised. The gothic century furniture to victorian like clothing with some mixes of modern clothing is definitely a must. Forgotten Hollow is a small neighborhood, but aesthetic wise it's a great place for more darker and spooky surroundings. Spa Day has been a favorite of mine since I use a lot of build/buy items from it and there's a lot of nice athletic gear to choose from plus sims being able to do yoga and meditate if you don't want them always getting beefy on a exercise machine.

With Expansions I find Get Together and Seasons to be really great additions.

The UI Mod and MCC mod are just must haves to make things handy.

LittleMsSam is a great mod creator to look at who has a lot of mods form small fixes to extra additions.

SACRIFICAL is also a well known modder who's know for the Road to Fame mod. Basically like a celebrity mod, which is pretty big and he's always adding onto it and adding other features. Never seen a mod this big with so much put into it.

No need to transition from Sims 3 if you still like playing it I still play older games myself. Though I found it hard to go back to playing older games, especially 3 with how multitasking works in Sims 4. Never knew how much I need sims to be able to sit, eat and talk and even watch tv at the same time without interrupting animations. It's just amazing.

Game Packs are actually the most worth it packs out of the three.

If you really want to get your money's worth, I'd say Jungle Adventure has a ton of stuff that will keep you occupied for days.

Parenthood adds some nice new traits to spice your sims' personalities a bit.

I don't really have any tips for a TS3 simmer transitioning to TS4 since I didn't play TS3. But I think the only big difference is the thin UI in TS4. You just have to get used to shortcuts to open and close the different tabs (needs, jobs, etc). Of course, you can also just leave the tab open if you like. :D I just prefer to open it to the needs tab.

Play around with multi tasking and also autofill needs!

I personally would start with seasons as it adds a lot of gameplay. Weather, a calendar, and new seasonal activities such as skating and becoming a floral arranger(?).

This may sound odd to you, but I think I actually prefer the Game Packs. Parenthood is my all-time favorite, so far as I love playing families, the more children, the better. This gives the player a chance to help mold their Sim children into the Sims they hope them to be one day. You get to help shape their values. The toddlers, which I understand many loathed in past iterations, are the best life-stage in this game, as they are more fully developed. Instead of a mere three skills to work on (in precious little time, as in Sims2) we have several areas to help them 'grow'.

I will also recommend the MCCC mod, if you like mods. This game has its limits, as all games do, but this mod helps to give the player back a little more control.

I hope you enjoy playing in the now, again. Best of luck and happy Simming!

I like get together because I can use the club system for other things besides just clubs. I can make any kind of club so the Sims do things together.
I am not a fan of dine put as the Sims play musical chairs too much.
If you like family play as said above the parenthood pack is the best.
I am not a fan of the vampire pack as the vampires are everywhere and being a rotational player my whole town gets over run with them it seems everyone but the house I am playing at the moment is a vampire and when I leave that house and come back they too are vampires. I use a mod to remove the entire EP.
I agree with Gruff man the get to work pack gets old.
The total game sometimes gets old as the Sims stand around too much if you do not have something in th queries all the time.
I can't figure out the jungle pack as there is no guide I am a book learner need the written word.
Cats and dogs is buggy and you can't control the pets.
Toddlers are very cute but as with all the games they are work. The highchair does not work correctly ad the toddlers in my game are,always making messes and running around naked which makes me laugh so that is fun.
Stuff packs are not worth it unless you want certain things that are in them. Gamepacks are worth the money. They add things and some new game play.
It is my opinion that MCCC command center is a must for this game just as NRASS was for Sims 3. I would not / could not play without it. Since there is no story progression in the game you need it to make sense of the game.
The world's are small I wish there was a CAW but there is not but there are world's that others have created within the confines of the world's and you can download their save files and play a different world.
How exciting to start fresh with the game and with a sale going on you should be able to get some nice deals.
Hope you enjoy your investment. T relaxes me to play. I am caregiver to my husband who has terminal brain cancer and going into the game takes me away from the grind of everyday. So worth the investment to me.

Just one quick thought on MCCC. It does add story progression if you want it, but you do not have to play with story progression enabled just because you install MCCC, and the benefits of the mod are really outstanding. I couldn't play without the mod either, and I do NOT use story progression and I do play rotationally. So it's very versatile.

City Living, Parenthood, Get Together and Seasons are my favorites