So I am a Simmer who has previously only played via The Ultimate Collection digital download, never discs. Recentlyish I inherited a friend’s disc collection of the base game + all of its expansions. I decided to do a fun little challenge where I install the base game, play rotationally, and add an expansion pack with each successful generation I play. What I’m trying to figure out now are the ‘rules’ for protecting my hood and sims when I add a new expansion pack. I know I should make backups, but are there other best practices to make sure I don’t mess up or glitch my sims?

Unless you plan to play with empty templates, be careful with the Ottomas and Crittur family. Both of them have pregnant members, and without a certain patch the pregnancies might have the wrong fathers. Check this with SimBlender or InSim or another tool, and if the father is wrong just terminate and re-impregnate them.

This was fixed in a game patch, but if the Sims get added before you install it I think it will be broken.

There's a good explanation of the issue by @Peni Griffin in this post. Note that a lot of the stuff in the thread about corruption is now known to be incorrect - while this is corruption, it (hopefully) won't cause too much damage, except maybe some weird DNA.

The Disc collection is basically the same as the UC, except they aren't patched, so you'll have to do that. Preferably in the order of release, but it's not something you absolutely have to do. This is the recommended list (click spoiler tag), and I think the patches are still available here.



If you get in trouble with any of the CDs (especially if you're on a newer Windows version), you can try the Grumpy Loader. https://modthesims.info/t/500523

If you plan on installing all the packs, then you can install all the packs in one go. Patch as you go, and hopefully happy simming. You can use pretty much the same mods/CC as with the UC (maybe with a few very minor exceptions).

If you want to pick and choose expansions, or start with the lower ones, you'll have to be more careful which mods/CC you choose. It's not too easy to find BG/lower-EP mods, since most newer mods these days often are based on AL/M&G gameplay, and most likely you'll have to update them with each EP you add. Some will continue to function, such as some specifically for EP functions (some spesific Pets and Seasons mods, for instance).

You can get cleaned templates of all the hoods here:
https://meetmetotheriver.tumblr.com...tes%20rerelease
These weed out a lot of issues the original hoods have, while preserving and even updating some useful info. Not entirely sure if they're BG compatible - you'll have to do a bit of reading.

Pleasantsim has a list of some potentially useful mods here (anti-corruption, etc.) but not sure which are BG compatible. Some of the modders have added various EP versions of their mods.
https://pleasantsims.com/sims-2-mods/

Thank you!!

You should get LazyDuchess’ RPC Launcher, if you have all the expansions. Also, they have a profile here if you want to talk to them