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Forum Resident
Original Poster
#1 Old 23rd Dec 2017 at 1:30 AM

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, Ambitions, Late Night, Generations, Pets, Showtime, Seasons, University Life, Island Paradise
Default Buying steam version of TS3 when in-store retail already installed?
Those of you who use Steam might know there's a sale on, and expansions and stuff packs for TS3 are really cheap. Only problem....they require TS3 Steam. I thought about just buying the Sims 3 Steam version -- $5 for that is still easily recouped through the discounts on the packs -- but it seems like that could cause problems. Has anyone explored this issue?
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 23rd Dec 2017 at 6:31 AM
Yes, you must purchase the Steam version of the base game (even if you don't need it) in order to then purchase the EP/SPs. And you must have the Steam launcher program installed. But you don't need to install the base game just purchased. When you do get the EP/SPs you wanted, Steam throws in Origin codes at no extra charge and that's what you would want to redeem by way of Origin to add the packs to an Orign/disc install.

You can't mix and match Steam and Origin/disc version installs of the same game on the same computer. They look and play the same, but they are different under the hood.

The other way is to abandon your Origin/disc install entirely, uninstall it that is, repurchase everything on Steam, and switch to an all-Steam install. This is what I did earlier this year during a prior such sale after putting up with Origin and Patch 1.69 for a year and not really liking it much. The Steam version of the game would be on Patch 1.67, there is no higher patch level.
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Original Poster
#3 Old 23rd Dec 2017 at 8:45 PM
Quote: Originally posted by igazor
Yes, you must purchase the Steam version of the base game (even if you don't need it) in order to then purchase the EP/SPs. And you must have the Steam launcher program installed. But you don't need to install the base game just purchased. When you do get the EP/SPs you wanted, Steam throws in Origin codes at no extra charge and that's what you would want to redeem by way of Origin to add the packs to an Orign/disc install.

You can't mix and match Steam and Origin/disc version installs of the same game on the same computer. They look and play the same, but they are different under the hood.

The other way is to abandon your Origin/disc install entirely, uninstall it that is, repurchase everything on Steam, and switch to an all-Steam install. This is what I did earlier this year during a prior such sale after putting up with Origin and Patch 1.69 for a year and not really liking it much. The Steam version of the game would be on Patch 1.67, there is no higher patch level.


OK, thanks. Well, Between Steam and Good Old Games' respective sales, I've got Mafia 2 DLC, Cities Skylines expansions, and Windows 10 access to two old favorites -- Civ 3 and SimCity 3000 -- to keep me entertained while waiting for the disc copies of Sims 3 expansions to get cheaper. I've been underwhelmed by most of the expansions so far, and I doubt University and 70s80s90s stuff are worth the trouble.
Instructor
#4 Old 24th Dec 2017 at 7:52 AM
Quote: Originally posted by igazor
Yes, you must purchase the Steam version of the base game (even if you don't need it) in order to then purchase the EP/SPs. And you must have the Steam launcher program installed. But you don't need to install the base game just purchased. When you do get the EP/SPs you wanted, Steam throws in Origin codes at no extra charge and that's what you would want to redeem by way of Origin to add the packs to an Orign/disc install.

You can't mix and match Steam and Origin/disc version installs of the same game on the same computer. They look and play the same, but they are different under the hood.

The other way is to abandon your Origin/disc install entirely, uninstall it that is, repurchase everything on Steam, and switch to an all-Steam install. This is what I did earlier this year during a prior such sale after putting up with Origin and Patch 1.69 for a year and not really liking it much. The Steam version of the game would be on Patch 1.67, there is no higher patch level.


And when you installed an all-Steam Sims 3, was it possible to put your previous Origin Saves into the new game, I mean the Sims 3 folder that is inside Documents/Electronic Arts with all the Saves, Mods, Library, etc.? or you restarted everything from scratch? Or it's not possible to import because the Origins Saves were 1.69 and the Steam game is 1.67?
Mad Poster
#5 Old 24th Dec 2017 at 8:59 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Floraflora2
And when you installed an all-Steam Sims 3, was it possible to put your previous Origin Saves into the new game, I mean the Sims 3 folder that is inside Documents/Electronic Arts with all the Saves, Mods, Library, etc.? or you restarted everything from scratch? Or it's not possible to import because the Origins Saves were 1.69 and the Steam game is 1.67?

The short answer is yes, absolutely.

There's a a couple of gotchas though. Core Mods (there are only five in popular usage)* if being used need to be replaced to account for the correct patch level and Steam vs. non-Steam so as to avoid the core version mismatch warning on startup. Other than that, saved games are totally cross-compatible between 1.69 and 1.67 with or without Steam being involved. There is no difference between the two patch levels in terms of actual gameplay files, only the internal build numbers are different. When I said there were different "under the hood," I mean the way in which they are installed and the DRM is managed, not that they are really different games from each other.

When I switched over from Origin 1.69 to Steam 1.67, I took the precaution of pulling my game folder out to the Desktop for safekeeping and tested the Steam game on the clean folder that generated in its place. After adjusting my Core Mods, I put a copy of the older game folder, saves and everything, back in.

That's where I learned that all of my EA TS3 Store Content had be downloaded over again and redone. That's one thing that doesn't crossover. It was a pain to do, but not that bad. I got rid of my now useless ebc files in the DCCache Folder and redid all of the store content from there. The dbc files (sims3pack custom content) were fine as they were. And my package based content, Library files, and saves were fine as well.

*Core Mods:
NRaas ErrorTrap - Separate versions exist for 1.69 and Steam 1.67.
NRaas UntranslatedKey - There is no 1.69 version. This is mostly for developers.
CmarNYC's XCAS - Separate versions exist for 1.69 and Steam 1.67.
Consort's 2X Weight/Fitness - Separate versions exist for 1.69 and Origin 1.67, but there is no Steam version. (I use this one and have to dismiss the mismatch warning on startup because of it.)
AwesomeMod - The current version works on both 1.69 and 1.67, but there is no Steam compatibility. Should be fine, again with the warning displaying and needing to be dismissed.
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