Community Admin@toddzgrl Hi, this is a fairly long post, I'll try to address the issues you mention.
You mention backing up stuff, you can absolutely do this and you can find a guide to it here: https://help.ea.com/en-ca/help/origin/origin/backing-up-and-restoring-your-origin-games/
Most people would do this with a portable hard drive or a large flash drive, but it's also possible to burn this content to discs as a backup.
Disc versions of the game are also available, but these will require you to be online to register, and usuall require some updates before they'll be playable.
You mention issues with not having full online connectivity. You can set Origin to Offline mode from within the client. Click "Origin" in the top left, then "Go Offline". You'll need to go online for registering new content and for updates, but otherwise you shouldn't have any more issues.
If you're using a laptop and don't regularly have an internet connection, you can bring it to somewhere that has a connection, register your content, update it and then go to Offline mode. Then you can just play your content without needing to worry.
I'm not too familiar with Sims standing around idle, but I think that happens if they have an issue with how their actions are queued. Apparently a quick pause and unpause may help.
I hope this info is helpful for you. Needing to be online to register content is unavoidable, but past this you should be able to play the game offline without problems.
Community Manager
