I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right place, but I was wondering if it's safe to use the latest versions of the NRAAS mods on the game's 1.63 patch. I purchased the entire sims 3 collection a few years ago on ebay, and the seller gave me installation instructions and product keys, so I don't have the game on Steam or Origin, but it's not a disc version either. The game is stuck on the 1.63 patch, which the seller said was intentional because it's "the most stable patch of the game." I've tried updating it before but it doesn't work. In the past, I've used the 1.67/69 mods in the game and never gave it much thought, but now I'm wondering if it might cause bugs or make a save file unplayable over time.

I'm very sorry, but there is no legitimate "entire sims collection" that can be sold that way. Whether you realized or not at the time, what you were sold was a pirated version of the game and its content. There is no support to be had for pirated games on this site, even those the players had to pay (someone) for, partially because the hacks that make them work are impossible to script mod around without causing problems. That you can get really any of the mods here to work at all on that version of the game puts you way ahead of the curve.

Having said that, even on a legit install there will be issues with some of the mods on Patch 1.63. There is nothing at all unstable about the patches that came after, although we do understand players wishing to avoid 1.69 because of the annoying Origin tie-in. But 1.66 was the regularly scheduled post-ITF set of bug fixes and 1.67, which is the minimum required to run the mods and get support for them, over 1.66 was one trivial EA server-related fix.

My suggestion would be, if you enjoy TS3, then plan to obtain it from legitimate sources. Afraid the above points are not negotiable, so accordingly this thread is now locked.