Ok this may be a stupid question but let myself be clearer, if I place custom content into my sims 3 documents packages folder, it will uninstall my expansions because of this patch?

If I got it right now. EA has shipped a program that let's you decide what exp to play with in this patch. It will on the other hand untick all your exp as default. I think I read you can change that in Origin.

I have old discs from before 2012 and can use ts3 without Origin.

I feel like I'm the only one who hasn't noticed any issues yet...I'm calling it right now, EA is punishing users who tried to crack the binding of the game with Origin.

Okay so I downloaded some contacts off here, unzipped them in the packages folder, and deleted my cache files. However, my expansions are still visible on The Sims 3 Launcher... am I safe?

Oh shizzle am safe... but I think I'll be dead when I log onto origin... aw naw

I may be a little too late to the party, having bought a copy of the Sims 3 base game in 2015 + Seasons and Pets expansion packs(digital copies)in the same year as I bought the base game.
Which means I'm stuck with going through the tedious three step process of logging into Origin(I don't ever play online), ticking the EP's I want to play with, then actually loading up the game. I should have seen this coming and bought a copy a long time ago..
Also, I stupidly updated the game to 1.69 before discovering that it causes more problems than fixing problems, so I have some questions:

1) Will the superpatch still work on my game? Considering I've bought it after 2012. After reading posts about the 1.69 patch, I'm considering to revert back to 1.67, the highest it could get without any major problems. As of right now, I haven't come across any issues with the game itself and/or expansion packs, but my definition of playing the game involves building/decorating lots then going to Edit World and saving the lots to the library. I also do this for sims this being the reason I can't commit to playing a family or a household long enough to become a legacy because of my short attention span and I get bored easily by the mundane tasks in the gameplay that reflects the humdrum of every day in real life.

2) If it does work, should I still downpatch to 1.67? I need advice here. I don't mind ticking each EP when I want to play, it's not an issue for me since I don't play with every EP all at once - my laptop won't be able to handle it anyway. But for people who have accidentally updated to 1.69 and then downpatched to 1.67(or lower), what differences were there - performance-wise and didn't you have any major issues?

3) Do copies of the game bought before 2012(if I got this right)require an installation of Origin to play now? What about copies bought before that are installed together with expansion packs bought at a later year/digital copies? Do you need to install Origin for that, then?

Thanks

I have a mixed install, but I launch with a Pre-2012 Supernatural disc. I don't know if it requires Origin or not, since I do have Origin on my computer, but as far as I can tell the last time Origin was launched was when I was making sure I was logged out back in 2014. But I'm lucky. 1.63 was the current patch when I was setting that up.

From what I've heard, you will need to switch to Steam versions or buy pre-2012 discs if you want to downgrade your patch level. (Or switch to MAC, but that's less viable.) If Origin is involved at any point during a more recent installation, it will upgrade you to the current patch level with no options.

I believe my base game isn't a pre 2012 one, as I bought it at the beginning of 2013, and it forces Origin on me when I install it on a new machine. The most recently I had to do this was December 2015. However, I've never used Patch 1.69. I was able to reject it and use the super patch to manually upgrade me to 1.67. I think it once tried to sneakily put me on 1.69 automatically, but I cancelled it.

I get a prompt to upgrade every time I launch the game, but I'm always able to say no. So unless things have changed since I last installed, I think using Origin in itself won't force 1.69.

EDIT: It's important to note that my base game and expansions are all disc versions. From what I've just read, if any of them are digital versions from Origin, then you do get forced onto 1.69.

I don't know if down-patching is possible, but if not, you shoud do a complete reinstall (after backing up your sims 3 folder if you need to) and use a superpatch
The 1.69 does absolutely nothing for your game apart from requiring 2 extra launchers in the background during gameplay, which probably makes the game run slower.

That's what I was fearing The store that I bought the game at ran out of stock for the two expansions so the salesperson recommended buying digital downloads - I wasn't aware of this issue then and got the digital copies. Guess I'm stuck at 1.69. Oh well.

Ugh, whose great idea was this at EA?? Why did they go and have to ruin nice things for people? Wait, does the launcher run in the background, too? I never check Task Manager to see if the process is running in the background during the game but all I know is that Origin does and the launcher disappears when I press the play button to launch the game.

I'm not sure if there are any pre-2012 discs available anymore, not where I live. Yeah, I've heard that Macs can be problematic with the game. Yes, I believe that I've installed the game prior with the installation of the Origin client so guess I'll just accept the 1.69 patch, even if I'm not too happy about it.

With Sims 4 halfway through the normal lifespan, you might be able to find used copies of Sims 3 online. Just be sure to carefully study the cover art of the box to make sure it's not one of the post-2012 versions.

Or if you think there's any possibility that you could get a refund on your downloads (you would definitely have to call whoever you purchased it from and explain that it doesn't work correctly on your computer and hope you got a person nice enough to work with you) you could always buy from Steam when they have a sale. They usually have several TS3 sales per year and all titles are available at $5. This is the version I have and it's still on 1.67.

This sucks because I installed my game again through Origin and, even though I have "updates automatically" off, when the game installed, it installed with the 1.69 patch and I can't roll it back. It's not letting me do so.

Sorry to hear this, but this thread is very old. IIRC, Origin's default is 1.69. If you want the one without the new launcher you have to use Steam. Good luck!