Have you started to disable/uninstall packs?

I have noticed my save from 2014 is also lagging quite badly.  I have thought about moving some of my sims to a different game.  I made a scenario save, moved a couple of sims I hadn’t played yet to that save.  I’m thinking I need to move a few more over.  I don’t use mods or CC, but I do own all the packs and kits.  I have a good gaming laptop but it is a hybrid and not an SSD which I bought around 2017 or 2018.  I’m hoping to get a couple more years of use from it before getting a new SSD gaming laptop.  I have started turning settings to a little less clarity also.  I wish the sims team could see a way to improve the lag, I know nothing about that end of things, not sure if the engine can handle that, but I sure wish they could find a way to increase the sims count.  I have a few singles in my game that are using the dating app.  The app also draws people in from outside the game ( for lovestruck ).  I have also heard that the amount of things in a sims inventory also matters. I have a lot of sims with many harvestable in inventory and storage boxes.

Goid Luck!  I hope the sims team can improve things.

The amount of packs is one of the reasons why I didn't buy lovestruck in the first place. Along with no interest in the main theme and avoiding relationship decay for households I am not actively playing. This makes lovestruck the first EP in 25 years (living large sims1) I deliberately avoid out of fear my pc won't be able to handle it. That's the consequence of sims 4 going on indefinitely. Sims 4 is a fun game but adding DLC, especially the big EP, can't go on and on and on without loosing performance. I am afraid I will have to be more picky in general and focus on what I really want in the game. So lovestruck is the first to skip but won't be the last. 

I expect to be stuck with my current laptop for a while longer. One of the big positives of the sims 4 was the system requirements. But with all DLC added, the game needs a better pc. 

So far I only use disable packs if I want to make a pack limited build or test something specific. For example I tested small firepits. The ones from the kits and horse ranch only allow to roast marshmallows . Hot dogs aren't an option if outdoor retreat is disabled. 

I have noticed that they are doing performance updates, but as far as these older save files I think it's difficult for them to improve. I think the best one can do is be mindful about what packs to install and maybe be prepared to maybe have to make a new save one day. But I wouldn't really want to do that, in this old save I have done so many different things with many different households and if I would start a new save I would probably want to do that all over again and... I don't think I would find the strength to do that.

That's a good tip that I guess I could start moving some sims over, and not think about moving them all over at once. 

If you are playing a large save then having a fast hard drive like an SSD or in my case, an NVME is a must I feel, otherwise the loading times would be incredibly long. 

I think it's good to be mindful about what kind of save game one have when considering buying a pack from now on. Which makes me wonder if the new Enchanted by Nature is a good pick for my save, adding luck to all my 1500 sims? Maybe not the best idea... depends on how it's implemented. With lovestruck it feels like the turn-on, turn-offs were way too demanding.

The game itself does make attempts to clean the save from time to time, by "culling" sims and relationships, which are all saved in long lines of code (which you can see with MC Command Center as well by using the logging commands for one sim). But in my save I tried cleaning the relationships and it wasn't enough, removing sims is something that I do from time to time but I doubt I would be able to remove many since I like all my sims in my old save.

Hmmm ... weird. 

I thought campfires that allowed the cooking of hotdogs came with Outdoor Retreat. 🤔

My one save file is pretty old as well. What I would do different, if I needed to create a new one, would be to keep all the Townies and just create one sim of my own (my Dulci).

While I love all of the sims I've created for each world (at least one, but sometimes as many as three different households), I've recently become fascinated with the pre-made Townies and how interacting with more of them could be.

Have not disabled any packs yet

I have All EP minus For Rent, All GP, 14 SP, 25 kits

and this one save I have been playing since 2019 and yeah my computer is getting bit loud at times 😅

but I haven't run into major issues after that weird MWS issue where I had to downgrade some driver settings to make the game run at all again, sure some neighborhoods are more prone to crashing still like Glimmerbrook and Tartosa for some reason (which is strange cause I don't even have much anything in my Glimmerbrook to explain that and my more built worlds are fine 😅)

but other than that its been same-ish since I did that downgrade running quite okay I'd say considering my big save with zillion half complete builds and playing all the maxis sims all having their zillion likes and dislikes and turn on turn offs and whatever I have set them up with

Think I'm mainly trying to do population control as my first remedy tbh seeing if there is any sims I might shove on grims list as I go... well one good thing about mainly playing maxis sims is that I can always add them back if I regret removing them 😅 but so far no big regrets.

same with any builds that I keep, removing some unneded decor as I go to make them bit less demanding to run

I probably theoretically could remove some packs I use more rarely but I've just been using whatever wherever so it would be pain to rebuild all the builds/restyle all the sims affected so I feel like I probably won't unless I run into sim apocalypse and even then I'll probably be too heartbroken to start over 😅

If I was going to uninstall something it would be City Living.  I rarely have sims attend the festivals or live in apartments.  The thing I use most is the singing skill as a way to raise fun.

How did you uninstall Packs?  I have a totally broken Business & Hobbies Pack that's totally broken as well as a partly broken For Rent Pack.  I've been avoiding them as well as clearing up any content objects & CAS off my game.  I so want to uninstall these Packs, but I don't know how.  I'm only a vanilla player on my PC.

You disable packs by using startup commands in the launcher, james turner have made a handy guide here. https://jamesturner.yt/disablepacks

Bear in mind, the game will warn you when you load the save that content is missing and things might not work but I have only noticed content from the pack missing like from sims or lots and in some cases sims from the pack missing (like the premade sims). If you make a new save from that save the warning will go away. If you are unsure you can do what I did where I loaded an older save before I started playing with the pack, if you do that you will get no warning when you add the command (because the save was from before the pack was installed).