Question about expansion patches

[Simmitysim]

I'm wondering whether I need to patch each of my Expansion Packs separately. I have all expansions (not all stuff packs or worlds), and I am completely up-to-date on all patches that EA has offered through the launcher.
I've read two different answers.. One said that we no longer have to patch all Expansions separately, that it's all done through the main-game patch (I think that was from EA). The other offered new patches for each Expansion, and the patches had version numbers that were higher than mine (I think that was MTS).
Can I get a definitive answer on this? Do I patch up my expansions, or do I leave them alone? I'm doing a big mods reinstall and want to do it right.

(And I may as well tack this on... Do I need to disable my mods in order to just download a Sim or Lot from the Exchange?)

[ellacharmed]

If you don't encounter any issues at all, the official answer by EA is correct. No need to patch the addons separately from patch 1.22 onwards.

Some reportedly do experience better performance, less crashing (in game and in CAW), with the addon's last batch of "mini-patches". But my experience with user reports is that - take anything they say with a grain of salt. Reports are also useless without context. It is also really hard to gauge effectiveness as some Simmers encounter a bug right off the bat like in WA, and some only see it with later patches (examples are the sneaking everywhere bug or the cannot excavate on slopes bug, among others).
So it's up to you...patching the addons won't have any negative effect, the positive though - maybe it's just the placebo effect. :)

I personally have them all patched, as my last reinstall run was to test all incrementals from the beginning (to write the 1.3x SuperPatch Wiki FAQ). But a few of my Virtual Machines for testing only have the 1.33 done on base game and the rest are "nekkid". Maybe it is testing via VM so the lag and freezes is caused by not being on "native" systems. Which means I don't have a definitive YES or NO answer. So like I said - maybe it's just all placebo.

Let's hope our other members can chime in and share their experiences - if you have just the game patched and also have had the addons patched along with the base game, on separate occasions - do you notice any difference in the performance, issues occurring (or not occurring) on those different settings?

[Simmitysim]

So helpful! Thanks.
A follow-up question, in case anyone looks...
Some of my patches are more than one behind. Do I need to install each version, one by one, until I come to the current one, or do I just install the most current patch for each Expansion?

P.S. (As long as I'm posting again, I have a second question... Do I need to uninstall my mods in order to just download a Sim or Lot from the Exchange? Or can I be a little free with that?)

[whiterider]

There are two files you can download for each patch level - incremental and superpatcher. Some of the older patch levels may only have incremental downloads.
When using incremental patches, you have to install every patch in order (but remember that EA skip some patch numbers, and some patches are for Mac only, so there might be gaps in the sequence). When usng superpatcher, you can patch from any version.

You don't have to remove mods to install lots and sims. Be careful in downloading from the Exchange, though, especially sims - they often come with pernicious broken CC included, which is a huge pain in the ass to find and remove.

[Simmitysim]

Thank you so much for your help. And for your good advice!