All of my gems, rocks, bugs, etc are gone.....

[spudgrl]

I have uninstalled and reinstalled several times, they just dissapeared. I have no cutom content in the game right now. I did when I first installed and it worked fine. Then I noticed a few days ago that when I used the collection finder it only found the fish. So I took out any custom content and tried again, same thing. Uninstalled the game, reinstalled, and same thing, no seeds, no rocks/gems, no bugs etc. Im at a loss. I have been looking thru the forum and I havent seen anyone with the same issue. I figured an uninstall would fix this, makes no sense why its still missing. Nothing has changed on my PC, it runs sims 3 fine, video card works fine. Any ideas? Has anyone else had this happen?

[Zazazu]

Is this a new instance of a neighborhood? It usually takes 24-48 hours for collectibles to spawn, while fish are present immediately.

[jweslake]

Maybe I'm just an idiot, but when you go to your Sim's inventory and you click on the collector helper thinger, you can set it to what you want it to show? Honestly, I haven't had the game long and have only had two Sims get the collector helper reward thinger, but I swear I set one Sim's to only show seeds, and unless I changed it after that it only showed seeds. However, I could be wrong.

[Snooty]

You are right. You have to set it to the item of preference.

[spudgrl]

Yes, I tried setting it for each thing, and nothing. Also the neighborhood was new but it had been over 24 hours and nothing. But Im going to try it one more time and see if for some reason its takeing longer then24 to 48 hours. Thanks for everyones input. I will let you all know what happens.

[jweslake]

Did a Sim in the active household die, and did that Sim have a collector? I bet when another Sim died his/her inventory was emptied into another Sim's. When this happens, the living Sim can't use the collector helper, because they didn't buy the ability. Check if your Sim even has the ability or not. If not sell it. I think its worth over 4,000.

[Marhis]

Did a Sim in the active household die, and did that Sim have a collector? I bet when another Sim died his/her inventory was emptied into another Sim's. When this happens, the living Sim can't use the collector helper, because they didn't buy the ability. Check if your Sim even has the ability or not. If not sell it. I think its worth over 4,000.

Hmnm I have a family with 4 collector helpers, none of them belonging to the bearer, all inherited, and they work normally.

[Zazazu]

Yeah, Jwestlake's on the bad crack. Collection helpers are just another inventory item. You can pass them around from sim to sim. They always work. Also, the problem the OP had was from starting a fresh 'hood and not giving the spawn points a chance to actually spawn.

[jweslake]

I can't explain it but my collector helpers only work if they belong to the Sim who is holding them. If they transfer out of my Sims inventory they won't work with another Sim. Are they supposed to work with any Sim?

[J. M. Pescado]

They're supposed to work with any sim. If they don't work when transferred, have you tried actually turning them ON?