Installation Order for Expansion Packs

Although there are no specific instructions from EA on how to install or reinstall all the Expansion Packs and Stuff Packs for The Sims 2, conventional wisdom seems to think that it's a good idea to install them in the order that they were published:

1. Base Game: The Sims 2* September 17, 2004
   
2. Patch: The Sims 2
   
3. Expansion Pack: University March 2, 2005
   
4. Patch: University
   
5. Expansion Pack: Nightlife September 13, 2005
   
6. Patch: Nightlife
   
7. Expansion Pack: Open For Business March 2, 2006
   
8. Patch: Open For Business
   
9. Stuff Pack: Family Fun Stuff April 13, 2006
   
10. Patch: Family Fun
    
11. Stuff Pack: Glamour Life Stuff August 13, 2006
    
12. Expansion Pack: Pets October 17, 2006
    
13. Stuff Pack: Happy Holiday Stuff** November 2006
    
14. Patch: Pets Body Shop December 2006
    
15. Patch: Pets Not published yet.
    
16. Expansion Pack: Seasons Probably coming in March 2007
    

You can also download this list in a printer-friendly Microsoft Word file. (That's .doc format.)

IMPORTANT: If you have a working game, back up your entire game before installing any of the expansion packs!

Yes, it does take a lot of time and a huge amount of disk space to make a backup copy of your game, and there's almost half a chance that you won't need the backup. Nevertheless do it! The fan boards are filled with sob stories from people who didn't make a backup first; you don't want to be one of them!

All you need to do is:

1. select your The Sims 2 folder,
2. control-C to copy,
3. navigate to somewhere else on your machine, and
4. control-V to paste.

Then take a long break while your machine copies the files.

If you are installing from scratch, it's going to take you all day to reinstall this software. You can afford the time it will take for your computer to make a copy of your The Sims 2 folder. If you have a separate physical disk drive installed in your computer it's a really good idea to send the backup copy to that disk so that you will be protected from a hardware failure.

We also discussed the update process in considerable detail in this thread at Insimenator.net.


*The Sims 2 Holiday Edition includes Holiday Party Pack, released November 17, 2005

**The Happy Holiday Stuff Pack includes the original Holiday Party Pack with about 20 new items added.


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This note originated in a thread entitled "Sims 2 Installation Order???" in the Discussions & Help section. I decided to capture it all here in this tutorial for me because I'm about to try to install everything up to but not including Pests. I won't install that one until long after the patch gets released and the fan hackers have had a change to analyze and fix it.

The dates listed are for the initial release of the Windows version. Releases for MacOS are always after the Windows release because a different company is converting the software. The MacOS version requires MacOS-X or later.

Greg wrote:

I decided to capture it all here in this tutorial for me because I'm about to try to install everything up to but not including Pests. I won't install that one until long after the patch gets released and the fan hackers have had a change to analyze and fix it.

Everything???Good luck....

Yup! And I'm terrified!

I think I just want to do a backup and then start with everything after University because later expansion packs modify character and household files. But I'm not sure.

Can I just rename my The Sims 2 folder, install from scratch, and then copy over my neighborhood and Downloads?

Greg, you can install much more quickly if you make a local diskimage of each installation disk before you start. Then no more disk-dancing. You will still need the appropriate disk to play of course.

http://www.simechoes.org/sims2/help/diskimage.html - a simplified version of what was said on the BBS. It works for me, and is VERY quick. The slowest part is, as you said, the backup.

I would recommend starting from scratch if only because you have so many hacks installed - then you can reinstall each separately or replace with the appropriate one for OFB etc, and if any are globals, you need a clean install anyway.

You can try what you said - but sometimes it doesn't work. I wound up with several copies - and they were all called Sims 2 trying to work out which version belonged to which EP and which neighbourhood belonged where was a nightmare.

Well, when you decide to where to put your backup, make a folder there called "Sims 2 Uni Backup" and copy everything in there.

One warning, do not play a house where one or more Sims has custom eyes without the eye file installed. The game will detect that the custom eyes are "missing" and, for some reason, assume this condition is permanent, even though it's got a usable copy of the eyes merged into the facial skin stored in the character file. It will then "re-render" the facial skin using the base eyes from the skin tone, usually brown. This condition is at least somewhat permanent. This is why Sheba's eyes turned brown during your first experiment with NL.

To be really safe, make a temporary 'hood and test there.

P.S. The FFS hacks you'll want are at http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/ofb/hacks/



Edit: Fixed the link. -- Greg

Yeah, a test neighborhood is a Really Good Idea.

On the advice of folks over at Insimenator, I just left my Neighborhoods and Downloads folder in place. Of course I made a full backup of my whole The Sims 2 folder first. About 12 GB before installing.

Does the Happy Holiday Stuff Pack not have a license code? I don't see one here.

Can I put the FFS hacks in their own subfolder or do they have to be in Downloads?

Post NL, everything can be in a folder!

miros1 wrote:

Post NL, everything can be in a folder!

Oh yeah,that's really handy.Especially when you've got all of Warlokk's meshes and bodybuilder stuff.But doesn't that mean if you uninstall Nightlife then your sub folders don't work?

Yup, I learned that problem about subfolders not working if you uninstall Nightlife; but I don't plan to uninstall Nightlife if I can get the furshlugginer thing to work.

I have not got as far as learning that I need to use the Glamour Life Stuff Pack disk to get the game to run. I tried starting up by double-clicking the Open For Business icon and it didn't like me.

So far it has taken 10 minutes to load, but at least it's as far as creating a new neighborhood.

I named N019 "Marilyn" in honor of the Glamour Life Stuff Pack.

Now I'm sure it's going to want to create a bazillion subneighborhoods. Nice music.

I managed to create an empty lot in my empty neighborhood and it hasn't crashed yet!

It looks like Squinge's mod that removes extraneous junk from the CAS screen still works!

Aha! It looks like I'll need to quit and restart to get the custom content to show up.

miros1 wrote:

Post NL, everything can be in a folder!

That's what I thought.....but the instructions for the InTeenimator claim it has to be in the Downloads folder only! (No sub-folder).

This is kinda annoying as I'm something of a sub-folder fanatic, but oh well.

-ZW

(Just for the record, the only reason I downleaded the InTeenimator was for the Young Adult pregnacy options! The Teens in my hoods are NOT fertile! I've got enough problems with their randy parents! )

Greg wrote:

So far it has taken 10 minutes to load, but at least it's as far as creating a new neighborhood. I named N019 "Marilyn" in honor of the Glamour Life Stuff Pack. Now I'm sure it's going to want to create a bazillion subneighborhoods. Nice music.

Eek!You've installed everything!GL takes ages to load,especially when you have downloaded something big.I found a awesome Marilyn Monroe sim somewhere,it looked just like her.
Ha!You've now got to wait a very long time for it to create the subneighbourhoods.They really suck.
Edit:Just to try and scare you I'm going to mention the fact that when I installed OFB Bluewater deleted Pleasantview...

Pleasantview would be no loss for me! I've only played it long enough to look around and decided not to fiddle with it.

Well... I did recreate Bella Goth and got her back with Mortimer.