Expansion and Stuff Pack Manager
Introduction
Surprisingly, Maxis has decided to give us something new for Sims 3: An expansion and stuff pack manager that allows you to active and deactivate expansion and stuff packs as you please. No more uninstalling stuff just because you don’t want supernaturals in a certain save game.
This update also seems to trigger our games to become registered on thesims3.com again (not sure if true for everyone) which gives you the base game (and WA if you have) Simpoints again. You might need to logout and back in (there’s login issues atm because of an expired security certificate)
There’s also a change in how you can change your game language. It was matched to work the same way it does in Sims 4 and repairing the game through Origin works yet again.
If you don’t want the patch, make sure to turn off automatic updates in Origin. Be aware that this will affect all your Origin games and that you will need to manually patch each game if you turn it off. If you turn it on, Sims 3 will update though.
How to get Expansion and Stuff Pack Manager
The Manager is part of the latest Sims 3 Patch and can be downloaded through Origin. You will need to register all your games on Origin in order to be able to take advantage of this. After doing so, right click on the base game in Origin and hit Check for Updates or Update if you are already offered the update.
Is this for Mac and PC ?
No, this is for PC only.
How does this EP/SP activation work ?
To be able to activate/deactivate your expansions and stuff packs, you will first need to install them all. Be aware that all expansions have been moved under i on the base game a while ago and no longer show as individual games in my Games. Please see this for details: Expansions get a new home in Origin.
All packs you have installed will show in the pack selector for you too select. Mark the ones you want to play by checking the checkbox next to the pack.
You can then press play to launcher the Sims 3 with just these expansions and stuff packs.
How will this affect my played save games ?
Any content that is not available anymore will be replaced with other things or removed. Be aware that deactivating certain packs like World Adventure, Into the Future or University Life can lead to issues if your save games was saved in those worlds. Don’t load those while the expansions are deactivated. Also make sure to keep a backup of your saves.
Can the disc version be patched this way ?
Yes, you can patch the disc version this way. This will remove to need to input the disc but it will also remove your ability to play the game without Origin. It will work just like the post-2012 version if you update your game.
You can continue to play the way you have without installing the update.
Is there a manual patch ?
No. One of the reasons for this is to make Sims 3 more compatible with Origin.
Will Origin need to run all the time with this ?
Yes.
Can I get rid of the patch ?
This heavily depends on your base game version. If you have any EPs/SPs as download through Origin, you will need to update to 1.69. 1.67 is only possible if you have everything on disc.
An overview over the existing versions can be found here: Sims 3 Base Game Versions.
Steam and Mac
If you either play on a Mac or on Steam, this patch will not be offered to you. No need to revert.
Pre-Sept-2012 Disc and Download Version
This version does not require Origin in any way and let you bypass the launcher/Origin in the past. If you have the disc one, you can just uninstall your base game, turn off Origin and reinstall it from disc. Then use 1.67 super patch to patch. I tried to just install super patch over the updated game but that didn’t work as the patch didn’t find the game.
If you have the download version, it’s probably not possible to revert because downloading through Origin will automatically give you the new patch. I’ve not seen any workaround yet but a possibility to would be to go try find a cheap disc on Ebay. Make sure that you get the old version that has no Origin-tie-in.
Post-Sept-2012 Disc and Download version
There’s not much reason to go back to 1.67 if you have either of these versions because you already had to run Origin in the background anyways and had all the draw-backs as EIG not working anyways. I would recommend to stay on 1.69 because it actually gives you advantages like the possibility to repair the game through Origin, change the language easily and turn off the expansions.
It also seems that they fixed the issue where clicking on the short-cut would start Origin only instead of the actual game.
If you still want to revert, same procedure as pre-Sept-2012 apply. Only difference is that you’ll start at patch 1.42 instead of 1.0.
Was SecuRom removed from the Sims 3 download Versions ?
SecuRom was removed from Sims 3 base game. download. With the second smaller update, SecuRom was also removed from all expansion packs and stuff packs.
Will this affect my ability to use EIG/CAW ?
CAW is now available in two versions. One for 1.67 and one for 1.69. The 1.67 has troubles running EIG on the post-Sept 2012 disc version, so I recommend updating to 1.69.
For people using the old disc version that want to stay at 1.67, use the old version that’s still available to download.
What about my mods ?
Mods will most likely not break since this is an update to the way the game is launcher and not gameplay. XML mods have already been deemed to be fine as there are no changes to the files.
The exception to the rule applies though since it looks like that we’re getting a new version number (1.69). Core mods will make the game throw an unofficial game modification error.
There have also been reports that CC Magic stopped working with the update.
Popular core mods are ErrorTrap by Twallan and Awesome Mod by Pescado.
Further Reading
