Okay here's the basic deal. I just upgraded from my old windows 7 laptop to a new more powerful windows 8.1 laptop and I want to set up my sims 4 game on it. However I haven't downloaded the december 16th patch and after what I've heard about it I don't really want to at the moment. Is there a way to set up the game and transfer all the files over with just with my current saves, mods, and updates that are currently on my old laptop or am I going to be forced to fully update if I want the game on my new laptop?

I have had no issues at all with the December 16 patch. As you will be starting on a new laptop when you download from Origin I think it will automatically install the latest version. You can then just transfer your saved files and mods etc. from your old laptop.