More Awesome Than You!

Wonderful.  I return from my first vacation to find my family standing in a large rectangle of solid blue.  I go to map view to see 90% of my lots in Sunset valley are now missing... they are a solid blue color where the lot used to be.  Residential, Community lots are both affected.  There are a few lots left ... both residential and community so it's not something effecting one or the other. Quit w/out saving and I tried again after taking all my mods out of my Mods folder, leaving only terain paints, objects, and patterns and my skin/eye replacements. Took a family on vacation, returned and all the same lots that turned blue the last time were blue again this time.  The tried taking out my terrain paints, same thing.  Finally,  I took out my entire Mods folder and the Resourse.cfg file and deleted all my compositorcache and simcompositorcache files.   Went on a vacation and came back and houses were there nothing had dissapeared.  

I will now start feeding back my CC back into the game to try to figure out what is causing this and report back here.

But just wanted to post this in case anyone else is having this problem.  I figured simply taking out my mods would be enough to avoid tight pants but it seems ordinary CC may be a problem too.

And in case anyone is wondering I have a store bought version, latest patch that released with WA.

UPDATE - On a hunch - before I started feeding everything back into the game bit by bit... I tried moving my Resource.cfg and Mods/Packages folder to the World Adventures folder that was created when installing WA under C/ProgramFiles/ElectronicArts/TheSims3WorldAdventures rather than C/ProgramFiles/ElectronicArts/TheSims3  - I restarted the game sent my sim on vacation, completed a opportunity, returned and YES! Sunset Valley was normal and all my CC was showing up.  I do not have any true mods in there right now, but it seems as if the Resource.cfg and Mods file may need to be simply moved to the WA folder to get this issue resolve.   I will be playing more with the game as is now to make sure it's actually resolved.  

2nd UPDATE - I switched to another family, sent them on vacation and came back to find all the lots blue again.  So moving the files is not a permanent solution.  Back to square one.

Same problem.  Some houses are spared and most rabbit holes. I wonder if it has something to do with basements/foundations etc.?

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v35/aeval99/Screenshot-2.jpg)

Yep that's near exactly what I'm getting.    Now when I try to change families, the game crashes.   I'm not getting these issues with the other saved game which is Riverview (so far) or a game I've just started as a "new game"  that's Sunset Valley (again so far). 

I did notice that when I first enter my old Sunset Valley saved game, even though it looks like all the lots are fine, the Goth's mansion is a big blue box even before anyone leaves for vacation.

I'm starting to get a sick feeling that my main saved game that I play 90% of the time is now BFBVFS.  I have "restored" to the previous save and the Goth's mansion is still a blue box.   

I'm going to keep playing the new sunset Valley game I've just started and see what happens. 

Glad it isn't just me. I was beginning to think I borked something. My lots in my Goth house save are doing this. I loaded the game and found my Goth family crying over someone who had died all standing Jesus-like on a bed of blue water-like doom square. I can't seem to get rid of it and am hoping that EA gets their heads out of their asses and fixes it. :( So far my new savegame hasn't been affected, but it seems that I cannot play my pre-EP saves now either. I posted on the BBS so maybe, maybe, some one will see it who can provide an answer but I am most likely being very overly optimistic.

edit: Here is my screenshot. The sims on the lot also cannot move or interact.
(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/7125/screenshot85.jpg)

Okay. Having this same issue EXCEPT, my Sim is in Riverview and has not gone on an adventure and whenever I start the game, his lot is black and he also cannot move.

Went into my other saves and the game loaded fine, but my Sims still cannot move.

Cerridwen,
can you look in yours /My Documents/ Electronic Arts/ Sims3 if you have a userpresets file please ?

I think the problem is the bad CC pattern/userpresets
is something Simsample has mentioned in post # 129  moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,16410.125.html (http://moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,16410.125.html)

Ba haha ha! Ah hahaha!

Thanks for that turn-of-phrase.

I've decided to stand down on the patch and the EP and see if this gets worked out.

I may just go back to Sims2; There's a lot I haven't done there anyway.

Yes Heli, I have a userpresets.package file there.  For Kicks, I'll move it out and restart the game to see if it makes a difference.  The save is basically unplayable now as it is.  

I'll report back.

Report - I removed the user presets file, launched my game I'm having problems with, and the Goth house is still blue, I suspect if I took a sim on vacation they would come back to find all houses blue. 

I have custom patterns installed in both my Mods folder as .packages and through the launcher as simspack files.  This is an interesting theory.  Is there something else I should be doing with that file rather than just removing it?

Here is a small list of things for those who are too stupid to know otherwise before you try reinstalling things. You can't expect the new EP to work instantly with CC for a game never made at default to accept such things. If you want to test the new EP so badly, Remove tight pants before reporting problems! To do this a fresh reinstall would be best but if you want to be difficult:

First delete your monkey installer crap, resource.cfg and move your mods folder. Place backups elsewhere of the following files found in
My Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/
- CASPartCache.package
- compositorCache.package
- simCompositorCache.package
- scriptCache.package
- userPresets.package (For those who don't know somehow, this contains all the recolors you made with CAST if you have custom patterns recolored saved in there, it can cause errors. Back it up and ship it out!)
- The DCCache folder has to go who knows what the hell you put it in- it's not going to work with the EP yet! (Looking at you TSR addicts!), back it up or anything installed with the launcher will be gone for good.

Now try seeing how it works with a new game (hood). Test. Stop making new threads. Seriously too many new threads of the same subject. To be expected I guess.

I'm so sorry nanacake, can you please link me to another thread where we are discussing lots turning blue after returning from vacations in the World Adventures Ep? I'll gladly take my posts there. 

I do not use the "monkey installer crap."
I did take out all my custom content. 
Deleted all the cache files.  Now including the UserPresets.

I started a new game and STILL am getting wonkyness.  Now, after playing Sunset Valley Goth house for just a bit, If I try to clone anything using the eye dropper, it registers as "simple flooring" and will not clone it properly.  EVERYTHING is registering as simple flooring .. walls,objects, fences everything.  I did not however remove my DDCache folder, and that does have some non EA created content in it. I will now do that as well and test. Again.  I'm am starting to think this has something to to with custom patterns as well.

I have been deleting cache files, reinstalling, and testing on my old game and a new game since Midnight of the 17th and am still having problems.   

My post was not to address you personally, Cerridwen. Your thread is a good one to keep, I posted to help eliminate the others because there are people posting about this issue in several other areas of the site. So, I was addressing the others who posted in the thread, and watching. I do believe EA is going to have to release another patch to address the problems which is somewhat ridiculous- if this happens to people who bought the CD. Not sure if this problem of blue lots is only for those who have ARR'd it.

If you do remove your DCCache, I wonder also if the custom paterns even created by EA from the store would be causing issues.

Cerridwen,
one User in German Simforum has reported, she has removing DCCache and installed all Content with EA Launcher again. She has CC content the Launcher reported  an Error.
After reinstall of CContent  she has no more blue Lots.

excuse me, I had bad english and try to understand all the problems, by making what you explain, does I lost for exemple "peggysims " créations ?

I aplogize for my defensiveness nanacake, I'm just very frustrated right now.

I deleted all my Cache files again including the DDCache files for the launcher (after backing them up) reinstalled all the CC I had with the launcher, with the exception of custom patterns and tried again.   When I went into my old Sunset valley the Goths house was still blue.  NO resolution there.  I then went into my new game of sunset valley and the issue I had with the Goth house where the eyedropper in build/buy mode was registering everything as "simple flooring" seemed to be resolved.   I then went into some other houses in edit mode and made some changes.   I then went back into the goths and again the dropper was showing everything as "simple flooring"

I will now create yet another new game file of sunset valley to see if that changes anything.   I'm begining to abandon hope of fixing my original Sunset valley that was pre-WA as no matter what I do, when I enter the town for the first time, the Goth house is blued out even before I go on vacation. 

One observation.  I just noticed that there  is now a 'favorites' catagory in the CAS patterns display box.   Was this always there?  Or is this a new feature of WA?

it's a new feature of wa .

(j espère que tu vas t"en sortir !  :-[ )

Yes, the Favorites category is brand new. I'd love to experiment with it but, I'm having other problems like, instead of lots being blue, my lots are black. I keep reading about this problem having to do with hardware but, I've never experienced this before, even when I didn't pay attention to system temps.

Also, I'm having this issue:

[photo removed because it wasn't needed]

My Sims name is fine (Jason Ishmael) but everyone in his town' (new Riverview) name is wonky ie. this chicks name is showing as "World/Riverview/Sims: Rhoda World/Riverview/Sims: Bagley

This nh was created after I installed WA.

OK, I didn't start a 3rd game.  I rolled back my new game to the save before, and all is going fine so far.   I realized I placed a lot that I took from my old Sunset Valley (the borked one)  into my new one. I was trying to avoid having to remodel all my lots from scratch.   I rolled back to a save BEFORE I did that and the weirdness with the dropper registering everything as simple flooring is gone again. 

Note to self- Do not copy lots from saved games that are imploding and put it nice new saved games.  STUPID STUPID BAD BAD

Question to anyone who is NOT having problems with their game. --   I noticed that when I try to use the CAS tool on any existing stairs,railings or fences on my existing lots it does not work.  I need to delete the stair,rail, or fence and then once I place a new one am able to use the CAS tool on it.   After placing a new one, I can use the CAS tool on it normally like anything else. 

Is this the way it's working for everyone else?  Or is it yet another sign of borkage for me?

why ?
The problem is evtl Custom Patterns.

I don't have WA, but to stop my lots from turning blue, I realized it was the saved games and their titles. If you have opened a game file name.sims3 for the 1st time in patch 1.66 or WA, then it will turn into a folder. Once you have the folder, then you must delete the file name.sims3.backup.  That way the game can make a backup folder.

I have been able to save without error and comeback to my game and play. No more blue lots. Hope that helps.

I will try that brownlustgirl. I have tried removing CC (I have no mods) and deleting cache files, and nothing is helping so far. I also cannot change existing stair/railings either as was previously mentioned. But in my new post WA save I haven't had blue lots and sim names are showing up fine. The game overall is fine except that it is ungodly slow in destination maps, takes forever to save and load, and crashed only once during a save. Other than that, all is working as intended (as of now).

I started to get this today after I made a new house (I made it have a basement too).  I exited out after saving and everything was working great.  I downloaded some curtains and added them to my CC folder and out of habit I deleted those cache files that you delete when you update your hacks.

When I loaded back up, my neighborhood is swimming in blue pools.  I tried all the suggestions and nothing fixes it.  When I create a new town everything is perfect.

So I went snooping around in another older save of another neighborhood and in that I found the Art Museum being the only building turned into a pool.  This building had the riddler tiles before the XPack.  I also noticed my pattern favorites is missing (obviously connected to the caches we delete all the time)

So maybe it has to do with patterns and cache files?  I don't know...another stupid frustration. 

I also found I crash when I tried to make a basement in a house that had a foundation and a pool right up against the foundation. I didn't see it written anywhere that you can't make a basement in a house with a foundation that but apparently you can't.

Oh well...starting another neighborhood AGAIN.

I'm not sure what 'evtl' is.  Evil?  I meant I did not put back any of the custom paterns that I originally had in my game before installing WA.  The game I'm currently running is custom pattern free. I do have the Store patterns that were created by EA, but I'm not considering them custom as they are EA created.  

I have been playing my new hood with/out issue so far.   I partially redecorated the Goths house, including adding a basement with the new tool, switched to the Steel household, then sent him on vacation, tomb raided, returned, and no blue lots.  I'm going to continue to mess around with this current game.  I'm hopeful that the issue with the blue lots is in fact resolved by reinstalling CC via the launcher, and not reinstalling any custom patterns.  Unfortunately it appears I've learned this too late to save my original game.  

Hmmm...... interesting about that back up folder too.  I did notice my new game has a .backup folder now as well where before my saves did not.    Perhaps that has something to do with it as well.

I dumped all my custom patterns and only installed my family with no house.  I don't know which it was, but it did the trick and my game is working pretty well.  Rather slow and choppy, but that is a different matter.

That isn't WA related I believe. It happened to me before when some parts of Riverview in the WorldCaches folder was accidentally deleted. Try reinstalling Riverview.

You're right. I totally forgot I took all my EA Downloads out and moved the DCCache folder to my desktop. I've since fixed that. And somehow fixed the blue lots issue although, fuck if I know what I did; I've tried so many things. I think it might have to do with what someone in this thread did with their EA Downloads and re-installing with the Launcher and deleting all of the DCCBackup files.

I have this exact same problem.
At first, I thought it was a conflict with AwesomeMod, because I was playing an old Sim which was using AM before the expansion came out.
But now it's happening to my newly created Sim too :(
Everything as fine yesterday, I played the sim a lot, got most of his skills to max, and then decided to build him a new house. I moved him into an empty lot, and built him a big house, fully furnished. I had not sent him on vacation yet.

Only then did I notice that the house next door to my new pad was a blue square in the world. Going into map view shows the same problem on most of my houses, a quite a few of the rabbitholes/parks. This is Sunset Valley by the way.

I tried moving my Mods folder, and deleting all cache files. I also moved my Downloads and DCCache folders, and tried reinstalling the mods in the downloads folder through the launcher. Nothing worked.

Until there is a solution, I think I'm stuck on this game - there is no point making yet another sim if it'll only end up happening again.

OK, I'm starting to get pissed off.

I played for several hours with my new Sunset Valley, loaded different families, sent some on vacation, and no blue lots.   Thought my issue was resolved.   Saved my Kent family after returning from France, checking to make sure no lots were blue.  Then loaded the Single Moms family, redecorated their house, gave them makeovers, played them for a while, did not send them on vacation as they are broke.  Checked to make sure there were no blue lots, saved and quit.  

Loaded up the game today, entered the SingleMom's saved game and entered to find 90% of the lots blue.   Backed out, restored the save where I was in the Kent household and the game was fine.  

Decided to delete yet again, all my cache files, reinstalled everything via the launcher, tried to load the SingleMom saved game.   All blue lots.   I just can not seem to figure this out.  
What is scary is that the game looked fine when I saved it, but upon re-entering it was totally borked.  
I'm trying figure out what I might have done between the Kent save and the Single Mom save that would have caused this.  The only thing I can come up with is that I did do a save on a color combination in CAS on a custom lipstick.    I'm thinking that may have possibly done it.  

I will now test this and report back.  

REPORT - I have saved a color combination on a custom lipstick, restarted the game and am not getting the blue lots. 

It seems there are people on the official forums with the same problem, and it sounds like it's a problem with the new patch. I suspect we'll have to wait for EA to admit their mistake, get their thumbs out of their arses, and sort it out.

Blue lots are showing up for me now all the time.  The game looks good as I am playing then I save and then quit, and when I reload it the town is blue pools.

I am still deleting things and reinstalling things to see if anything helps.  At least it gives me something to do until Awesome Mod is upgraded...ugh I hate The Sims bugginess.


EDITED TO ADD:
Something I just noticed.  The saves that are fucked up ALL created backup saves.  The ones that work did not make backup saves.  I don't know if that means anything, but just something I noticed.  Anyone else see that happening?

Another EDIT:
I think we have to chose SAVE AS and rename the file totally different from now on until they fix saving.  Doing SAVE or even SAVE AS and writing over the previous save corrupts the save and creates a backup file.

So I am going to try SAVE AS - new name each time and see what happens.  So far so good.

Let us know how you get on. I've been using Save As on this Sim since I made him, using the format "SimName Save 1", then "SimName Save 2", to create some redundancy in case of a problem. Unfortunately both saves have the blue box problems. The only save on this sim I have now that isn't messed up is from so long ago I can't be bothered loading it up unless I know for certain it's going to work.

I'm wondering if it is a corrupted save issue, if the new patch will resolve it.  I really hesitate to load yet another patch on top of an already f-up game.  

Death-Jester - are you saying that you are doing a Save As and are still getting blue lots?

I do not ever do save as.  Perhaps corupted saves could be part of it?  If the game does an auto save when loading a vacation destination, and again when returning home, perhaps during this process it's corrupting?  I'm not super technical so I don't even know if this is possible.

sylmenstra- My saves all seem to create .backup folders whether they are fucked or not.  I'm currently playing a not blue lot game it has a .backup.  

Edit-
Fuck it.   I just installed the newest patch.   Whatever happens happens.  I'll post findings later.

I'm not sure, but I think there is something about not removing the old .sim3 back-up save files that are causing/contributing to this issue.  Please see the threads I linked, below:

Yes. I have 2 saves, named "SimsName Save 1" and "SimsName Save 2". I alternate between the 2 of them when saving, so I always hav a backup in case something goes wrong. Problem is, both saves are buggered.

coconnor - I checked those links. There is no mention of the new folders which the saves are no in, which leads me to believe the 'fix' is a dated one from before the patch.
Also, I have no .backup files at all, borked town or no.
But I'll give it a try and let you know if it fixes anything.

brownlustgirl mentions the folders in her posts in the second thread I linked.  The game will not create proper back-ups in the new folders unless the original files are deleted or moved out of the directory.

Yeah, I noticed that after I posted. The problem is this part:

"Delete ANY .sims3 files (not folders). These include the sims3.backup files. I only had .sims3.backup files."

I don't have any .sims3 files in my save directory! Not even in the new folders.
I got that far with the guide, but I can't go any further, because for all intents and purposes, I haven't done anything (other than copied a few files into a different folder)

Just a thought, but do you have the saves or back-ups in the original save file for the base game?  If so, you could try deleting (or moving) those.  I assume the new saves are under the file directory for the expansion pack.

I'm not sure what you mean. The old (pre WA) saves are in the same folder as the new (post WA) saves, Documents/Electronic Arts/The Sims 3/Saves.
The only difference is the old format used to just be a single .sims3 file, whereas the new format seems to be a folder with the same naming as the old (ie savename.sims3), but inside the folder are 5 files (a .nat, .data, .nhd, and 2 .package files).

Okay this is what I did so far.  I deleted ALL saves in my folder.  Made a new Town (used Sunset Valley).  Made 2 new sims and moved them into one of the newbie lots.  They went on an adventure and came home.  This entire time I did not save once.  When they came home I did save as and quit the game.  Loaded it again and everything looked intact.  Did a few more save as and quit, played around in edit town, changed their appearance, decorated etc.  Save as each time no backup folder created.

Then I decided to throw in a curve ball and I planted down a prebuilt house from the library (one I had made yesterday). I moved my Sims with the phone to this house.  I did Save AS and quit.  Came back and all blue lots.  Those few lots that are for newbies are all that is left.  And they had happened to have lived in one of those in the beginning.

So does the game autosave when you move, get married, move in, etc?

UGH...so save as is not working.

From what I learned in the official forums and reading around several sites, the new patch shouldn't make backup folders. If you have back up folders, they should be deleted cause it confuses the save process. Slymenstra has stated making new "save as" folders is your best bet to continue playing a certain family. Rename the "save as" Your Town 1, Your Town 2, etc will save the one family you are playing. I wouldn't switch families right now cause it may cause the blue water lots. O.o

That is all I can report about things as they stand now.  Tsk, tsk EA. Can't even write code to save games properly.

EDIT:  I don't have WA installed, I am giving a patched base game prospective.

So this is frustrating but I will add what I just did so maybe someone can solve the problem.

I removed my Mods folder and the framework.  I kept my sims content installed through the launcher.  I followed the same steps as my above post and NO blue lots.

My sims look ridiculous but at least they kept their premade house.

So what the hell does that mean?  I had followed the steps to placing the framework and mods folder in the new WA folder and everything was working and showing up.  Something borked in the framework or the custom content or how the game saves this?  Anyone using CC and Mods and NOT having this issue?  Any word about needing updated framework or anything?

I am going to slowly add back CC and see if it is CC.  I know when things go wrong it is usually the CC.  I just love my pretties though.

Personally, I think it's just a fuckup with the patch. Too many people have the same problem, but different things seem to fix it (or not!). I'm just going to hold off until either EA sort it out, or Pescado does :)

I just returned with my Sim from China after updating to 1.7/2.2  and the neighborhood was nearly all blue lots again.   I was so hoping the new patch would fix that but I should have known better.   

I have the same problem and have been reading all I can here, at TSR, MTS, and the official site. I have a totally legit game and I had to do a complete reinstall to patch and add WA which would not install without the update. I have all patches released to now.

I have tried old saves, new hoods, backups, legacys, every type of save possible. I can get a Sim to a vacation and back. Sometimes the Sim returns to a blue lot and sometimes not ....... but then the hood is borked with the blue lots next time I go to play it.

Nothing is working. I can get the lots back only be starting over with one of my backups I made before installing the EP, and then it goes haywire after a vacation, no matter what I do.

Damnit!  I played all day today and had no problems ,even after visiting Egypt and quitting the game once.  Then boom, it's back.  The only thing I can think of that I did differently was that I used the testing cheats.  Anyone else noticing a correlation between "testingcheatsenabled true" and the lots borking?

Aeval - I do not use testing cheats enable EVER and I get blue lots.   I do use kaching, motherlode, fadeobjects off, and moveobjects on.   These are not testing cheats however.

I have now after getting blue lots again after the 2nd patch, removed all my Resource.cfg and Mods folder completly. I also removed all my Non EA created CC from the game, via deleting the caches yet again, and reinstalling only EA created objects.   I do have custom homes installed but they do not contain any CC, so I left them.  

Edit to finish my post-

First thing I noticed after restarting.  Up till now the spawn rate for collectibles in Sunset Valley was crap.   Before WA I had collectables all over the place, pretty easy to find.   After I installed WA, I could barely find any bugs or rocks or gems anywhere. They were there, just very few of them.   I thought it was a new game thing, like EA now wants you to collect on vacation or something.    After removing all non EA downloads and restarting, I right away noticed that all the rocks and gems were spawning as normal.  I cannot fathom what CC would have caused this to happen as I only had objects installed in the game before this.  NO MOD files.   And no modified Objects either.  Just basics like tables, chairs, decor and CAS stuff like shoes,hair and makeup. 
I reloaded the previous "good" save and sent the same sim to china again.   Kept her there the full time, returned and no blue lots.   I will continue to keep playing this until I either blue lot again or I feel that I can say that something CC wise is causing this. 

Oh and for what it's worth, I have the latest patch and am still getting .backup saves in my Sims3 folder.   So the very latest patch doesn't seem to be stoping that from happening.

Well after HOURS of going through my CC I have narrowed it down to Lemoncandy's various clutter/plants etc.  I still need to now go through these items to see what one.  I have 76 Lemoncandy items to check.

What I did was took everything out of my Mods folder.  Created a new town, moved in my people from the library into a newbie house and then edited town, added my premade house onto a lot, and then reentered my new people, had them "move" with the phone to this new house.  Before I ALWAYS got blue lots.  With no mods I can save with no blue lots.  With all my mods, blue lots.  So I started section by section removing them.  FINALLY it appears to be a file from Lemoncandy.  Without those items but everything else I can save with no blue lots.

Of course this means CC you may have but I don't, can be the cause too.  So try to go through the CC and see.

It's late and time for bed, so I will have to go through Lemoncandy's files tomorrow.  But some of them are extracted items, so maybe they are conflicting.

My files all start with lemonc_

I really do hope this is the cause, since it can be fixed!

I have blue lots after a save. I do not have WA but I do have the latest patch 1.7. I have the additional problem of at least one sim in each house freezes soon after entering that house or one is frozen all ready when the house is entered. They don't unfreeze. I do have the latest of Tallwan's super computer, career mod and story progression but, of course, no AM. The one house that has a child and toddler, the new interactions do not work. I do have quite a few lemoncandy items. I'll remove those and see what happens. Why can't EA do things right? They have to patch a patch!  ::)  I thought patches were supposed to fix things not break them.  >:(

OMG slymenstra, you may be on to something.   I also am obsessed with LemonCandys plants and clutter.   Try the plants i think first.   I'm pretty sure the last blue lot save  I had placed one of her floor plants that was extracted from Sims 2, the fig tree floor plant maybe? in one of my houses just before I got a blue lot save, after having many saves before that with no problem.  

I had eleminated about 3/4's of my CC (obscure creators, hack/mods)  but had kept her stuff in because she was such a "known" creator and has such quality work.  Plus I love it to death.  

I also had some clutter from BabaYaga that I believe they extracted from sims 2 as well.  Or at least it looks like it came directly from Sims 2.  

I also need to go to bed now but will start testing this after work tommorrow.    

Shadow - if this is indeed a problem with CC files it is not (in this single case) EA's fault.   There are plenty of things you can blame them for, but this may not be one of them.  

YES! YES! YES! YES!   It's lemoncandy's files.   I put ONLY Lemoncandy's stuff in game.  Launched it, everything was fine.   Edited a house.. added plants, changed colors .. did everything BUT place one of lemoncandy's plants.   Saved and exited.   Reentered the game and it was fine.   Then I placed a single lemoncandy plant.  The fig tree that has the description "From Sims 2.".  I did nothing else. I saved and Quit, reentered and BLUE LOTS.  I've never been so happy to see a blue lot.  I'm now going to start retesting all my other CC, but I think that's it.  I too am wondering if any object regardless of creator, could cause the blue lot issue if they were extracted from the Sims 2.  

Update- I place the following CC into a house, saved and exited and returned to an OK game

TS2toTS3Converswion_HolySimolyAmaranteLoungeSuite- includes chair, loveseat and sofa - from Club Crymson
MTS_HugeLunatic_1025062_HL_KarlstadSeating- includes chair,loveseat and sofa from MTS
MTS_Menaceman44_1027305_MM_PlainBlinds - single tile and two-tile blinds - from MTS
Xerendipity_FantasySwirl- coffee table from Sim National
Xerendipity_Bathtub+Japanese
Xerendipity_Romantic Tub - both baths from Sim National

All were able to be placed on a lot and saved with no blue lots. 
I will start a post in the "good CC" thread as I continue to test.   

I too had lots of Lemoncandy's plant mods. I have removed them all, and I'll see if it fixes it at all.

Edit:

*Sigh* no luck I'm afraid. I took out all of the Lemoncandy mods I had, started a new game, and moved my sim + house into the new town.
Everything seemed fine for quite a while, I was using my normal method of 2 saves, and switching between them. But then , when building a swimming pool, I noticed that the placement was acting up a bit (the pool ladder would not be placed correctly, and the pool floor decoration vanished when I tried to place it in the pool). I saved on a completely new save, and exited the game.

When I loaded up, all 3 saves (my normal 2 and the last individual save I made) had the blue box error.
Now I'm faced with 2 choices - keep going in this broken town, or move and once again lose all my relationships.
None of the saves have .backup or .bad files or folders.

CC may be the problem now but the CC worked before the patch and now it doesn't. The patch screwed up the CC; the CC did not screw up the patch.

I am embarrassed about how much CC I have but so far Lemon Candy's clutter is the only thing when in my Mods folder to create blue lots.  I am also a huge fan of their stuff.  Some of the things from LC that I have were also extracted from the Sims 3, maybe something in that screws it up?  I have to go for a while so I can't test to find out yet.

I will have to contact LC to see if it messes up their game too.

UPDATE!!!!!

Lemon Candy's file group called Buyable WORKS
Lemon Candy's file group called Clutter WORKS

Lemon Candy's Indoor Plants BROKEN

I still have clutter and random objects to test.  Then I will go through the Indoor Plants and see what one or all are broken.

Death Jester are you running a completly mod/CC free game and still getting the Blue lots?  I have confirmed that lemoncandy's files are causing blue lots by running a CC free game with no problems, then placing a singe one of her plants and getting the blue screen.

If you are not running CC free, I would suggest you take everything out and run the game for a while, see what happens.  

Would you by any chance be using any other CC that was taken extracted out of Sims 2?  

I will try to test the pool thing to see if I can duplicate, as soon as I'm able, but I have to work today.  


You are correct that the patch/EP has affected some CC.  But this is expected.  It has been happening since the days of Sims 1.  Not all CC/Mods will be compatible moving forward and some will need to be removed until the creator can update them.   EA cannot resonably be expected to test a patch/EP with the thousands of files of CC out there avaliable on hundreds of different websites.  

Now the fact they released a patch resulting in save errors.  THAT's something we can bash them on.  NOT applying new features of the patch EP like recolorability on stair and fences to their PREMIUM (snert) Store Content,  lets call that a screw up.   Or perhaps you're right and everthing is EA's fault and they evil, horrible, and all around stupid.    I just woke up and haven't had any coffee yet, so that's entirely possible too.

I'll go with your last statement.  ;D  Go get some coffee. 

Taking out LC stuff helped the blue lots but not my freezing problem. That seems to be related to broken objects. The sim that broke the object immediately and permanently freezes.  >:(  Deleting or repairing does not help.

No, I only removed the lemoncandy stuff. When you say 'mod/cc free', should I remove just the 'Mod' folder from Program Files, or the 'Downloads' folder from Documents too?

I have to really go now but my findings so far are files that start with lemonc_Indoorplants (It looks like all of them) are broken and causes blue pools.  I did not get very far to see if any of them are safe.  Broken for sure lemonc_IndoorPlants_VaseWhiteTulip.package.

The best way for you to test yourself is go on a lot place your CC objects on this lot then save as.  Go to main menu select a different save, load it, then go to main menu, reload your CC object testing save.  Blue pools?  Something in there is borked.  No blue pools? Looks like the objects are safe.

From now on it looks like we may have to test our objects before using them in our favorite hood since once you get blue pools the hood is ruined.  So always make back ups!!!  Test objects in another hood!

This is ONLY for the blue pools glitch.  God only knows what is glitching anything else up.  I haven't gotten that far.

Death Jester - I'd try removing my whole Mods folder and try feeding back your CC in a bit at a time.   Just having the file in the Mods folder isn't causing the blue lots, it actually placing the object in a house in buy mode then saving the game and reentering.

I tested just adding a pool to a lot, saving and reentering and did not get blue lots. 

If you are positive you removed all lemon candy's items and are still getting blue lots, I will guess that there is other CC in your game that is also causing it.

Place a few CC items on a lot, Save As, go to main menu, reload neighborhood.  No blue lots?  That CC you just put in your house should be OK, Blue lots?  CC is borked. 

I have to go to work now... will be back later.

I hate to interject the current testing you guys are doing; I'm really interested but I thought I would share some recent tests of my own.

Firstly, I have WA and am patched up current (2.2.8.002002). Since there's no current AM, I won't be opening my current saves, except one that I don't care about. I'm using this save as my test. I also have a lot of Sims3Packs in my Downloads folder which I did not remove for any of the following tests.

Situation 1: Created new hood with all CC and Mods in (hacks removed ie. AM, NRAAS...etc). Long load. Horrible lag. Saved. Quit. Re-opened. BLUE LOTS.

At this point, hacks have been removed permanently. Since some have said the problem might be with saving, I tried this:

Situation 2: Created new hood with all CC and Mods in. Long load. Horrible lag. Saved As X001. Quit. Re-opened. BLUE LOTS.

Situation 3: Created new hood with all CC and Mods in. Long load. Horrible lag. Saved As X002. Quit. Re-opened. BLUE LOTS.

Situation 4: Created new hood with all CC and Mods in. Long load. Horrible lag. Saved As X003. Quit. Re-opened. BLUE LOTS.

Someone here mentioned that at the Crazy Town forum there was a solution so:

Situation 5: Tried the instructions from Twallan's forum about moving the Resource file and Mods folder to the current WA install. Opened a save. BLUE LOTS.

Situation 6: Removed MODS folder and Resource file. Opened old save. Made some changes. Saved as X001. Quit. Re-opened. NO BLUE LOTS. Sent my Sim on vacation for 3 days. Saved 3 separate saves while there just so I'd have a testing sample for later use. Came home. NO BLUE LOTS.

This is the last and current test (Mods and Resource file still out):

Situation 7: Created new hood. Short load. No lag. Saved. Quit. Re-opened. NO BLUE LOTS.

I'm sure there's tons more testing to be done and I probably missed something while trying to find the problem but, I've satisfied my curiosity in knowing FOR ME that it has something to do with Mods/Packages/Resource and I won't be futzing around with package files anymore until there's concrete evidence otherwise. At least I can enjoy WA for a little while.

Edited to fix my dangling participle and other bag grammar. Also, sent another Sim on vacation to China. Came home, no blue lots.

Okay, I've done as you advised, started a new game, with a new sim, on an empty lot. I think I may have narrowed down the problem, at least my problem.
I tend to use some custom 'counter height' windows in my houses (especially in the kitchen). Each time I got blue pools problem, I was using them in the house.
I just tried adding CC bit by bit into my empty lot (first I did all the custom surfaces and seating/beds. Then I went back and tried all decorative items). Finally I got to the windows, and lo and behold, I get the blue pools!

I also had a couple of other things in the game at the time, but I am fairly certain it was the windows (none of the other items were CC). My game crashed (for and unknown reason), so I thought I'd post before trying again, but I'll let you know what I find out from here, and the name of the windows.

Okay, the one window I know for certain is the blame is made by Mutske, from the TSR website. Not all the windows of his/hers cause problems, and I have a lot of them installed, so until I go through them all one-by-one, I'd say stay clear of them all together.

I have removed all of Lemon Candy's files and am really weeding out most of my CC. I saw this update as I was closing down for the night so I will retest (also testing with Babayaga's TS2->TS3 clutter) and will let you know what I find. I know for sure I was using children's clutter in the Goth house that is the main one affected, and I have a theory that Death Jester's problem is coming when moving the house from a corrupted hood to a new hood - it may be corrupted also. Not sure yet how to bypass that, as I have been playing a new sim in a completely new save and have not placed any CC in that save.

Well, the testing I've done was using a new sim in a new town, in an empty lot (I placed 1 wall to test doors, windows and wall hangings).
So far, the only thing I've found that causes the 'blue pools' for certain is a 2-square-wide counter-height custom window.

HOWEVER

Whilst testing the windows, I got the 'blue pools' problem, without the window I mentioned above. I loaded up a clean save, and continued testing. The problem is, I went through all the windows, 1 by 1, testing them to find the one which mucked theg ame up, and they all worked fine.

So either there is some kind of conflict, or the problem is random. I'm leaning towards the latter, because I have also experienced the 'blue pools' when not going into a save.
I mentioned it earlier - I was playing with my sim, I was sorting his house out, and I noticed the 'blue pools'. The point is, I hadn't closed the game, or gone to the main menu. I hadn't even gone abroad. The 'blue pools' appeared whilst I was playing.

This is the last testing I am doing for now - the problem is beyond my ability (and patience!). I have moved my sim and house to a new town, and I'll continue playing him. If it bugs out again, I'll stop playing and wait for a fix.

I suppose the best test would be - if you have had the blue pool problem (because some people haven't), remove all CC and play for an extended period of time without any CC at all (preferably in the same hood, though you may want to save-as just in case). Do everything you'd normally do - edit houses, go on vacation, save, don't save, et cetera. See if you get blue pools. If you can't reproduce the problem without any CC at all, and multiple people report that result, it's a CC issue. Then you can get to narrowing down what kinds of CC cause it.

i have this prob but dont have WA only the updates...

Good research, everyone! I also have almost all of the lemoncandy items, and I have Mutske items as well. I am going to put in just my backup save from before installing WA or patching and pull out all packages and run with no CC and see what happens. I do not have problems with crashes, just the blue lots.

I will send a Sim on vacation and then exit the game and then go back in and see what happens. 

Interesting testing everyone

Just so you guy know.. once you pull up a saved game and the lots are blue when the game loads, no amount of Save As or removing CC will bring it back to normal.  You must restore a previous "good" save file to remove the blue lots.   I've tried everything to get my original game that I spent 5mths developing back to normal to no avail.    Or maybe that's what you were trying to say Shower-Scream.  

I did test 3 of Baba Yagas "lovely clutter" items  The geode, the pagoda, and the chinese doll, saved and exited to main menu, re-entered and no blue lots.  

EDIT - I did a test of the rest of Baba Yaga's lovely clutter items feeding them back in a bit at a time.  NO blue lots.   I then tried adding several custom windows.  Got Blue Lots .

MTS_leesester_980255_Leesester_WindowMissionCounter_Height CAUSED blue lots, just placing a single one on a lot, saved, rentered game.   I'll continue to test the rest of my windows.  

HugeLunatic_WindowColonialArch2X1Dormer
HugeLunatic_WindowColonialTallArch2X1FullHeight
HugeLunatic_WindowColonialTallSquare2X1FullHeight
HugeLunatic_WindowColonialTallArchShort
HugeLunatic_WindowColonialTallArch2X1Short  -- These windows did NOT cause blue lots when placed on a lot, saved, rentered game.  

I have been in and out of the game a few times, first with no resources file and no mods at all. All was OK. I then added my items from:
Mango
Peggy
Rose
Simlogical
SimPlanX
Sims3 Marktpltz
Sims3D
Simstrastos
toolsregame
Vita Sims

And, I was able to get 2 more Sims to vacations and back with no blue lots!
I did not disable CC in the launcher.  I am going to add more back and see what happens. So far, so good!
 

L&P? I'm so paranoid.

(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v170/alanahoney/landp.jpg)

EDIT: Oh and I meant to add, yes. At some point during my testing, I figured if you happened upon Blue Lot Syndrome, then your neighborhood is FUBAR'd and you might as well give that particular hood, a trip to the trash can. But this post from TS3 forums is someone asking if the blue lot hood can be salvaged...I've already deleted all mine.

So, my next tests will be:

- Converting some know bad-blue-lot-causing CC package files to Sims3Packs and seeing if it affects the game.
- Finding a fresh Resource.cfg and a one-by-one folder re-insert to Mods/Packages.

I don't mix all my package files together. Each download gets its own folder so, this is going to be quite painful since my Mods folder has 395 files.

I just added back Desdren, default skins, Garden of Shadows, NewSea, Patterns, XMSims, Xerendipity items, and the no mosaic. I aged up a child and gave her a custom Peggy hair and got her to China and back. I have saved and been to the main menu and back, and so far am OK!  :)

The CC files will not cause the blue lots if they are simply in the Mods folder when the game is launched.   The item must be placed on a lot and the game saved and relaunched before the blue lots will show up.   I saved and relaunched with lemoncandy files in my mods folder before I put them in a house.  I was fine.  I put a fig tree on the lot, saved and relaunched and got the blue lots.   

Well, I don't know what the hell I'm doing wrong. I didn't get very far before being infected again.

Added back a Resource.cfg and created a new Mods/Packages, within the new WA install path, added only Shoes and Patterns package files, opened a legit old save, got a fresh blue lot nightmare. Well actually a black lot nightmare because my graphics settings are turned down to low. I also downloaded some new Sims3Packs and installed those previously. They never caused a problem; my current Sim is wearing a new and slightly tacky dress from TSR and everything is fine.

Everyone else seems to be making some progress with CC; I'm stagnated. Sigh.

So you got the problem again simply by placing the items in the game without actually using them, correct? If so, that means that they do not have to be on a lot to cause problems.  Hmmmm ....

I am going to stick the CC that I have in at the moment on a blank lot and see what happens. I have not added back lemoncandy items yet.

I just threw a fairly large sampling of CC from quite a few sites on a lot and was fine. I then added all the CC plants I have including the lemoncandy ones other than the Sims2 redos. I got the blue again. I had hoped only the redos were the problem.

So, this is another confirmation that at least some of the lemoncandy plants are causing blue lots.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/60/125518.page#1581584
Here are some more reports that the lemoncandy items are an issue and removing them has solved the problem for some players.

I don't have WA yet, have patched to 1.7 and I have just got this same same problem with the blue lots.

I had just reinstalled Lemon Candy's stuff and then took it out again as my game ran almost at standstill....go back in and WTF.

Possily it is a patch related issue not directly a WA one. But I am by no means an expert so it is only a guess.

As it is something I am not too bothered by because I was just tinkering with the game to make sure it would run OK with WA when I get it next week,
I'll just reinstall the thing for now.

 

Someone named Decoyboy is doing a good job listing some of the CC that don't work,  At the BBS (http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/128049.page)

It seems to indicate plants as the worst contender but some non-plant decorations are also case this, I wonder if they were cloned from plants ? Windows are also at fault  (as mention by Death-Jester).

I will not be updating for awhile (I like my CC to much (and my sanity ;))).

Have any of you guys had any further luck? (have been reading the thread)
I've deleted all the mods and caches, to not one difference. And I don't even have the new EP!
I really, really don't want to have to make a new town/reinstall - I've been working with this one family for ages (and I can't even move them out due to the blue), building up their skills and 'want-points', and I'm not about to start again...:/

Oh dear. :(

Just wanted to say from reading that thread from the EA forums, someone posted in here, it was helpful as far as what CC works and doesn't work, but also sadly said that, once your save has gone blue, there is no fixing it. You either have to start fresh, or revert back to a previous save if you kept a backup, to before the blue appeared.

As far as my blue lots of death go, reading through here, and all over trying to get information. I do remember my previous saves, that have gone blue, did have the decorative Lemoncandy CC on them. So I'm also confirming that one for you guys.

I kept wondering why my original save and family, since before WA worked fine for awhile after installing WA, even after going on vacations, then decided to turn blue. I remembered though, the night before the blue happened, last time I had played, I moved my family to a bigger house and redecorated. Normally, I forget about the clutter objects, but this house was a lot bigger then their last one, so it needed a little extra stuff crammed around in it, and I added quite a few of the clutter objects! Then saved and quit, next day all blue.

As I stated in a previous post, I do not have WA and was getting the "blue lot." So it definitely is a patch issue. (I'm patched to 1.7  >:( ) I reinstalled intending to go back to a previous (1.4) patch but couldn't find them. I removed all lemoncandy CC and got rid of blue lots but still had a couple of other issues that I finally narrowed down to a few CC files. I'll test those one by one to see which cause problems. One problem was no thumbnail pictures on the active family list just a blank green square so I couldn't select anyone; whoever was selected when saved was the only one playable. The other problem was weird and caused sims to immediately jump out of bed when directed to relax or freeze if directed to sleep. On the pie menu when selecting the bed it had 'enterrelaxing' and 'bedrelaxing' plus the usual 'sleep.'  ???

ETA: I just started a new, clean neighborhood. I built a house, being careful to use only EA stuff, saved and exited. Went back in and the lot I was working on is blue. I don't have any lemoncandy stuff, I did not use any CC building stuff and I hadn't even started furnishing it. Now I'm really upset!  >:(

anelca and shadow, if I am reading your posts correctly, this is more confirmation that the problematic items simply need to be installed in the game possibly to cause the blue lots.

I cannot remember whether I actually had ever used the lemoncandy plants in the hood where I have had the problems. From your posts it seems that even if not used on lots, incompatible items can cause problems.  And I think Shower Scream had that too, if I recall correctly.

Yes, that is what I meant. I just added them to my Mods without actually accessing the files and still get blue lots.

Also, there's no 5 second rule with blue lots; once the file has been opened, it's infected and can't be salvaged. Back up your saves before any testing.

BUT, I have made some strides afterall. I downloaded a Resource.cfg file that had never been opened on my computer and made new Mods/Packages folder (in both the base game directory and WA directory, just in case?) and added a ton of items in, namely in the category of shoes, cars, hair, clothing and miscellaneous accessories that were downloaded from everywhere from Lillisims to TSR to MTS and am happy to report, NO BLUE LOTS. What did cause blue lots for me at the beginning of my CC trials was patterns. I don't know which ones but, just to make everyone aware...I think I might have had a Lemoncandy terrain paint in with the patterns so, that folder is quarantined for now.

I'm going to be adding back my objects folders soon and will report back (500 MB).

I didn't have any lemoncandy stuff installed at all.  ???

I'm still testing. I'm now rebuilding the house in another new, clean neighborhood. I've save twice and no blue lot. I'm thinking maybe custom design colors, the ones you make in game, may be a problem. I painted some walls a custom color and a floor. We'll see.  :-\

There's no doubt that it's the patch and not the expansion (I don't have WA yet). For me, there's something else in there fucking things up other than Lemoncandy and Vitasims stuff. Really though, I can't be bothered to go through 1,000 custom content files to track down what it is. Why should I do free testing for EA? Since playing without CC is just retarded, looks like it's time to catch up on other games for now.

I'm with you, Krib. I don't have WA either and I'm sick of this. I just started the game and my one and only lot is blue. No CC, custom colors, nothing; I'd just built the shell and was going in to decorate.  >:(

I'm going to try one more time then, I quit! EA can shove it.

What is driving me nuts is there is no consistency from what I am seeing and hearing. Per my earlier post I threw in stuff from about a dozen sites and was fine. And those included plants which are on the bad list per the poster at the bbs.  I was OK with them in the game and not on the lots. I then added the lemoncandy and other items to a lot and had the blue.

Sometimes the lots are bad when the items are not on the lot at all as in your case, and sometimes they are fine even with the bad items in the game and not in lots.  

Aaaaaaaaaaaaargh!

On the bright side, Dragon Age: Origins is quite a good little game.

Completed it with the good ending, and I not enough of a bastard to try for the bad one  :-\

Ok, I think I've narrowed it down to some custom stairs. I'll put everything else back in and see what happens.  ::) 

This may help those with Vista as the OS, but I had the bright idea of opening my game with "run as administrator", played a little and closed by "save and quit".  Started the game again and was surprised by no blue lots.  Tested my hood again, only saving the game, no "save as" and haha, no blue lots.  Stupid me, I never opened the game with "run as administrator" before the patch, always double clicking the desktop icon.

Noticed another thing, the beautiful vista restores when plopping down a lot from the library on it. Don't have to build on the lot to keep it. Something that held true from the patch notes.

Fake Edit:  I deleted all my CC stairs and fences. I am editing all my lots now and the all my stairs are designable. Well, the ones I have edited so far.

I haven't finished testing everything but so far I have not had any blue lots or random CTDs since my previous post.  After I stuck in a large chunk of furniture my game got jerky when spinning the camera.  I got to sort that out.  I guess I really don't need all of these sofa sets!

It'll get worked out and I hope a smart Modder will figure out what is the cause of the object problem.

Please let us know. I got rid of all recolors but so far have kept all new fence and stair meshes.

I have been wanting to do some weeding of my downloads and think this may be a good/forced opportunity. I think I am going to check all I have site by site to see what works and what I want to keep. This has NOT been a fun way to force me to do some download maintenance!

I put everything back into my game except all custom stairs and so far everything is good. I'm too tired of the mess to try each individual stair so, for now, I'm leaving them all out.

I'm with you, Daisylee. I thought games were supposed to be fun.

This is crazy that we have to do this! I just went through my Desdren and Simpossible items and so far found that I got a blue lot from the Desdren shelf DSD02 from the Elegance dining set, I believe it is called. I thought the candles I had might be a problem but was OK with them, and then when I added the wall shelf the lot went blue the next time I opened it.

I completely reinstalled.

Everything worked tickety boo so I added in floorthickness, nointro and nomosaic mods....still fine
ditto with some CC sofas (Karlstad)

added in Aikeas default skins and Morgades nipples ...OK

added in more CC mainly paintings...still OK

Loading times so far reasonably quick and game runs quite smoothly with all graphic options high and on, except for distance and neighbouring lots.
I only can have 2G RAM and have an ATI X1300 card, so not superspecs

added in some CC from Stylist...loading time to Lot absolute pants, therefore removed which improved that

yeah, it's trial and error, and we might have to be very choosy about our CC.
Over at MTS there is a thread in Sims discussion which is suggesting CC of .package variety is causing a lot of people's problems, whereas EA content is fine. I have Store stuff by the ton (thanks to sharing by others here) and loath as I am to say this, it seems not to negatively impact on my game.

I'm finding now that there are two ways I can glitch it --

1) If I load a save from before the 1.7 patch with all my CC (Lemoncandy included), it's instablue once I've opened that game, saved it, and reloaded. As with everyone.

2) If I remove all my .packages, and run from the launcher with the "disable CC" box checked (so no .sims3packs either), when I load one of my saves the Goths house and the museum are blue. Once I've saved that and then reloaded / played with it awhile (sometimes it takes a few reloads), everything's blue.

The fucking question mark tiles are to blame here, I just know they are.

The only way I can avoid getting the blue is by making a new town in my 1.7 patched game and then playing the game, Let's Sort Through Millions of .package Files. I can delay the process by removing just Lemoncandy .packages along with plants and clutter, but the Goth and Museum lots are always blue when I load an old save.

If you have any stairs remove them. I've put back everything but lemoncandy and stairs. It's working, not great but playable.

I had an issue with some candle recolor by Damned Citizen. Caused the blue lots. No issue with that now though.

I did. It happens on all pre-patch saves, even with zero CC included. The solution for me is just to make a new town and add my lots. Sucks, but there it is. I don't want to spam the thread with my personal game issues though, so I'll just hang back now and see if anyone comes up with something that can fix my old saves.

Krib, it has been stated here, and on the official EA forums, that once your lots go blue, there is no getting them back. Unless you have a back up save, that wasn't blue, there is no hope as far as I can see/tell. Unless EA releases a patch to fix them, but I would not count on it.

For those with WA, be aware that the no mosaic mods will stop new effects like fireworks and waterfalls.

Over at CustomSims3.com Amjoie has been pushing through all CC in her game and testing what does and does not bluelot.

So far the objects she's discovered were all clones of the orchid vase or the fig tree and the foosball table was the other major culprit she found.  Lemoncandy did use the orchid vase as the clone base for a lot of her smaller plants and the fig tree for the floor plants, those and any objects by other creators cloned from those objects are at least part of the issue.  Amjoie has been procedurally checking through all of the CC she uses to compile some lists of verified good (at least in her computer) and bad CC.  If you'd like to take a look at the objects that she has found to compare notes or report any specific objects that you've discovered, feel free to check out these threads.

Good CC Thread (http://www.customsims3.com/forum1/YaBB.pl?num=1258836766)

Bad CC Thread (http://www.customsims3.com/forum1/YaBB.pl?num=1258836562)

Thanks for your time.  Hopefully this will shed at least a little light.

Very good information! Thank you!!!!

And, it seems, red assassin bugs. Problematic when you're working on that part of one of the quests.

Rick's no mosaic does remove the effects, but there is a new one over at Crazy Town (http://www.the-isz.com/theisz/index.php?showtopic=3681&st=0) that does work and does not remove the effects. I have tested this one myself and the blur is gone and all the new effects are there.

I suspect these fireplaces with recolored chimneys  (http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=363755) to also cause blue lots.

Blanton Tiger Lillies from TSR by sim_man123 = GOOD


Sorry I miss listed I meant to say Stylist_Sims_Livingroom_01_palm.package = bad also the chimneys from above.  It was early morning and no coffee...sorry!  :o

Are you positive?   I have this item installed on my "clean" game with no problems.  Just to be sure, I placed the flowers on a lot, saved, exited, reentered the game and didn't get any blue lots.   I don't understand how I could have it in my game without issue and someone else couldn't. 

On a more positive note, not that anyone cares but me, I found a  SunsetValley.legacy file in my recycle bin and on a hunch restored that to my game.  Sure enough it was my original hood I thought I had lost.  That's what I've been playing the last couple days with the limited CC I've tested and have had no blue lots with multiple saves, changes of households and multiple vacation trips.   

I  just found out about the .legacy file. You can use it to recover a corrupt hood. Didn't get all this til I fixed my start up.  I wouldn't use the back-up folders, it is as corrupt as the broken hood file.

I have that plant also. No blue lots for me. As a matter of fact, I have a few lemoncandy plants (just the last set she released) and they are okay, haven't had a blue lot. I just chunked it up to having a wonky game cause I didn't start the game right with Vista's OS.

Sad EDIT:  I have to eat my words.  Been playing for 2 days with no problems, til I wrote the above statements. Opened my game today, all blue lots. Arrgghh!

I just got so angry, I just uninstalled the game. Six months of work, I am just gonna go without it. Okay, commence with the P&L.

I'm so frustrated...My Lara Croft hood has blue lots, I believe I lost it, didn't I? .... :'(

I too have some shitty shit ass news: took out all of my CC that I painstakingly tested (2GB's of package files), after all that work, 17 different saves and 25 different game restarts, JUST BECAUSE I wanted to play for a bit without the little lag that I was experiencing from adding back my files. I only moved my fucking Mods folder to my desktop, cleared my caches and started my new reconstructed hood. Blue lots. I was so frustrated, I got up and just left the house without my purse. But now I see that I'm pissed over some computer software and snapped out of it, but yeah.

So apparently, randomly removal of CC can cause blue lots too. And no, the lot I was playing did not have package files CC on it. That particular lot was created without my Mods folder; all CC was in Sims3Pack form which I've never touched so, that isn't the reason.

Is it possible to unpatch the game? Or to install an older patch?

No, you can't unpatch. You have to uninstall and reinstall.

I'm just seeking confirmation. Is this how the blue lots look?

(http://i45.photobucket.com/albums/f65/ciane/BigBlueSquare.jpg)

I don't have WA, but I updated to the 1.7.9 patch. I played about two sim days in a saved file of my legacy. (It's a copy. I only put in three game copies - a starter for each hood, with homes redecorated without cc, and my legacy - after removing the mod file and placing a blank folder in its place, which was then renamed mods. I also made two new folders for the files and packages inside the new mod file. Then I copied in the two files that were in "files" and put the new beta AwesomeMod in the package folder.)

So, I had no CC or mods, besides the beta AwesomeMod. When I went into map view as the teens were coming home from school, I noticed this. When it returns to the house from map view though, the pixels turn into objects and walls. So, I'm just wondering if this is the start of the blue lot syndrome or if this is just wierd graphics that I haven't seen before.

That is different from the blue lots I get. The whole lot square is blue and you cannot click on it. Looks like something is on your lot, also you said that the walls and objects come back. Mine don't.

i had blue lots too so i removed all my cc and played for a while.. no problems... i put back in some "safe" files , like liana's clothes.. it was ok.. i added infusorian's clutter and put it on the lot and when i made my sim travel the game crashed... after that i reentered the lot (didn't remove my cc) and made my sim travel again, just to check if it crashed and it didn't... it's very confusing, looks like there's no logic behind it.. i have no mods and i have my mods folder in the sims 3 root.. not in the WA folder...

This is a blue lot

(http://img109.imageshack.us/img109/1382/bluelot.jpg)

This was the house on it...
(http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/8651/screenshot289k.jpg)


Edit to add quote

 
From Custom Sims  (http://www.customsims3.com/forum1/YaBB.pl?num=1258836562)forum by IngeJones

Well Inge and the rest at Custom Sims are doing better than the programmers at EA. The reply from EA's Support Forum (http://support.ea.com/cgi-bin/ea.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_li=&p_sid=mddjSONj&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPTEmcF9zb3J0X2J5PSZwX2dyaWRzb3J0PSZwX3Jvd19jbnQ9MSwxJnBfcHJvZHM9Nyw2Njg2LDc3OTUmcF9jYXRzPTU2Niw1ODY2JnBfcHY9My43Nzk1JnBfY3Y9MS41NjY7Mi41ODY2JnBfcGFnZT0xJnBfc2VhcmNoX3RleHQ9dHJhdmVsaW5nIGhvbWU*&p_faqid=23852&p_iid=0&p_created=&p_prod=&p_cat=&p_cv=&p_pv=&p_prods=&p_cats=&prod_lvl1=&prod_lvl2=&prod_lvl3=&cat_lvl1=&cat_lvl2=&cat_lvl3=&p_hidden_prods=&p_search_text=&p_new_search=&p_accessibility=0&p_page=&p_lva=23852&nextlink=) has me thinking that our only hope are the modders in the community.

I thought it was pretty much confirmed that the only hope for anything decent in the Sims is from the modders in the community.   ;D

TSR news - TSR downloads are safe (http://www.thesimsresource.com/news/view-post/post/14628/TSR%20downloads%20are%20safe)

Do any of the TSR objects not work in .package format. If the object does not work in .package has anybody tested whether the object form the original .sims3pack works.

(I still have not updated yet but I am going to tomorrow)

I turn the files from TSR into packages.

I do too. All of them. And they're fine as far as not causing blue lots.

Seems to me that it's not .packages causing blue lots, it's what the object was cloned from, or what tools were used. Bad performance though, might actually be .packages and having the framework installed.

I'm not a modder though, and that's only an impression.

How does one go about doing that?

You rip them open with a Sims3pack ripper like s3px, then treat them as regular packagen.

me to

The reply from the EA support forum appears to be to endlessly redirect in circles without ever actually displaying a reply. Which, I guess, makes a lot of sense. I approve of this new efficiency upgrade. Why bother having a PERSON redirect you in circles when the computer can do the same thing?

Out of curiosity, were you one of the 4 out of 23 people who found that answer to be helpful?

There was an answer or a poll? I was just meta-redirected endlessly between URLs without ever actually getting a webpage.

Yes, if you scroll down to the bottom of the page you can see it.
 
         
"How would you rate this answer?"
[Very Poor] [Below Average] [Average] [Above Average] [Excellent]

[Submit Rating]

I had not experienced any blue lots using store custom content only and WA. Just opened my game now to find most residential lots are blue. The last two residential lots I had edited before my last save and quit -were visible, unoccupied and can edit them found everything intact. They both had custom store content. So I want to know is anyone having the blue lots on a lot that is not an occupied residential lot? All my community lots and empty ones still remain visible.

Can not think of what I have done differently, only thing I did was update Awesomemod 6 hours ago.  There is a .sims3 folder of the save, as well as a .sims3.backup folder. I will try deleting the backup one and see what happens.

EDIT: No that did not do anything.

nanacake, your post confused me in one respect.  You use the phrase "custom store content".   Store content is EA-created, and not custom content.  Did you mean "Exchange" content?  That is made by players to share.

I meant just EA's store items. I considered it as custom even though it is created by EA because it has to be installed separately. I also feel like there's more of a possibility (of blue lots) with any downloaded content because they use up more memory. My theory is it could be a lack of RAM/a memory leak, failure to load the lots, then the save becomes corrupted. I ended up starting a new neighborhood.

Haha, no! I didn't click the poll cause I know about the social interaction problems, but the blue lot issue, that answer made me think they are not trying to figure it out. Blame it on users downloading 3rd party CC, that's not T$R. Guess we have to wait on modders to come up with the solution.

Hey Nanacake, did you perchance use a pre-WA (and patch of death) save to get the blue lots? If so, it would match my experience (posted it a couple of pages back).

On another note, game performance with .packages and the framework installed still blows chunks, at least for me. MTS is down right now, but over there in the help forum, someone hit on the idea of using Process Explorer to see what the game is doing. Turns out that for me, within a 2 minute playtime, it called one plant by Mutske from TSR (cactus04, converted to .package format) over a million times. I yanked out that plant, and gained back 7 fps.

I don't necessarily know what I *should* be seeing in Process Explorer, but maybe some of you might. Worth a look (and a run) when MTS comes back up.

My own experience has been pretty consistent with the discussion over at MTS, which is that only certain .package files seem to cause lag. With one Newsea hair downloaded (and nothing else), my game took 5+ minutes to load. With all of my other downloads (currently around 200 mb total), the game takes less than a minute to load. If you're having lagging problems, it's most likely due to certain .packages rather than all of them. Assuming that your computer was able to run the same amount of CC fine prior to WA, that is.

Yes, it was an old save, which immediately upon first loading had used Save As and given it a new name. That save lasted a week before viewing blue lots. I had just updated AM when the blue lots appeared. Then my new save made right after I deleted the broken one became blue lots too. I'm on my third save now, I'm kind of expecting this current one to load blue lots when I open up next.


I did install most of the store items to my mods framework folder as .package instead of letting 3viewer install it to the default directories. It can become laggy moving the camera around. From desktop to neighborhood view takes about 4 minutes to startup. Saving takes about 1 minute and 30 seconds to up to 3 minutes if I haven't saved recently.

I suspect the blue lots to be caused by a problem with the way s3oc decides which resources to include in the package, and therefore to renumber.   This is probably a material or texture definition we have not understood the significance of and cannot just be given any old number.  TSRW programmers may not understand the problem any better, their tool may be creating non blue-lotting objects simply because TSRW only pulls in those resources that are going to be edited.   TSRW may well make blue-lotting objects if the user decided to edit one of the more obscure resources. 

We're still investigating but there has been no breakthrough yet.  If anyone else feels like doing a bit of analysis, the more hands on deck the better :D

In the meantime, please be guided by Amjoie's list of "bad" content and don't clone certain objects using s3oc.

Yes to all of that. I clearly still have something in there that is slowing me down, but not anything that's being called repeatedly to the point that it would be noticeable in Process Explorer. I mean, the stuff in the house I'm playing gets called about a hundred times each on load, but that's probably normal (being hundreds, not thousands or millions). I was hoping that Process Explorer would ease the sorting process, but it's clear that I'll have to do it manually, as I did for the blue lot issue.

On the bright side, I've gone from blue lots and 3 fps to no blue lots and 22 fps. Not how it was pre-patch, but they only owe me another 10fps. And a cookie. I would like a cookie.

 ;D Yes I also demand a cookie, let us all demand cookies  :P

Actually I'm just about to start going though my CC with the Process Explorer, but I have gone though Amjoie's list of "bad" content and removed any I have (and a few suspect one's). So maybe a cookie in a few days ;)

From what I've seen so far it's the orchid vase and foosball table which seem to cause an issue.  I've got someone saying that my Lack shelves are causing blue lots, and I cloned them from the knick knack shelf.  I don't have WA or the latest patch, anyone up to verifying this for me?

http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=379735

Edit:  I just found the knick knack shelf as a possible issue on Amjoie's list, so I suppose I answered my own question. :/

This is likely insignificant, but if you place a house from the bin on a lot and then cancel it, the entire lot turns blue. At least this has been my experience since the original game was released. It never stayed blue though; once back in neighborhood view everything looked normal.

I honestly think that it has nothing to do with cc's. I installed WA and sent a family in Riverview to France. When they got back I found that all 4 of my families that I had created in Riverview had lost all fruit, vegetables and fish from their inventories, all skills and all harvestable plants. I spent some time retrieving their skills so their jobs wouldn't suffer and next day went back to find out that every lot except for two on the neighbourhood were blue and couldn't gain access to them. I had approximately six cc files including the updated Awsome mod and the super computer at the time. ( I had taken everything out to install the patch and ep and then put in those I knew were safe)

I have since gone to Sunset Valley and played some families there. I have not sent them away anywhere and everything seems to be fine. Fron this, I think it definitely is a glitch with the ep. I don't think I'll be buying any other new ep until it has been around for at least 3 months, if then.

This sounds like a completely different issue, unrelated to the blue lot problem. I can confirm that the blue lots I've experienced so far have been directly related to CC. My testing hood has one lone guy living on an empty lot. I put a piece of CC down, then save, exit, and reenter. I tried out HugeLunatic's shelves with this method, and they definitely caused blue lots for me.

Can I just point out that the blue lots are not actually blue.  They are cut-outs.   The blue you can see is the underneath of the sky.  If you get close up to a blue lot on high ground you can look through it obliquely and see the land lower down the hill.

All I can say is every lot except for two were blue lots (or cut outs, thank you Inge :) ) and that this happened with virtually no ccs installed

I managed to track down a piece of cc that caused the cutout in the ground. The problem is I haven't been able to make any cc install tools to work so I have no idea what the cc actually was, as I took it out of the DCBackup folder. I'll try and get the launcher or 3viewer working to see what the faulty piece of custom content there was. None of my sims had any problems with things going awol in the inventories after returning from vacation.

Yes, but virtually is the significant word in your sentence. It's misleading to say that CC doesn't have anything to do with it if you do have some in your game. In order to cause a blue lot (or a cutout), you have to place that specific download on your lot, save and exit, then reenter the lot. A lot of people don't make the connection because it doesn't show up immediately. You don't need to have a huge mods folder, all you need is one "bad" download.

Just wanted to add another step to finding blue/cut out lots, click Map View too.  Your lot that you are viewing may actually be fine, misleading you to believe the CC is okay, only to have you hit map view and see the corrupted lots in the rest of the neighborhood. 

I forgot this step and believed the CC was okay and began to play..only to notice later when I hit Map View that the world had imploded!

It's simpler than that.   Start a new hood. Get one item of the bad cc, and place it in one lot - any lot.   Take any sim, from any lot, on vacation and back again.  Most of your lots will be cut out.
  Repeat with another new hood, putting the bad cc on a different lot.  The same lots will be cut out as before.   So it doens't bear any relationship to exactly where you put that CC, there is something particular about the lots that get cut out that is different from the ones that do not.

I believe this is an EA bug, and it is simply triggered by the CC.

Yes, but virtually is the significant word in your sentence. It's misleading to say that CC doesn't have anything to do with it if you do have some in your game. In order to cause a blue lot (or a cutout), you have to place that specific download on your lot, save and exit, then reenter the lot. A lot of people don't make the connection because it doesn't show up immediately. You don't need to have a huge mods folder, all you need is one "bad" download.



When my Sims family went to France and returned for me to find all their (and 3 other families) skills, plants and inventories los,t I had no downloads whatsoever. I subsequently downloaded the updated AM, Supercomputer and bluegenjutsu's Gain Instant Skillwhidden Toddlers - Elder. Nothing else.

How come I don't need to go to vacation to have blue lots? Just place the cc, save, exit to main menu, and re-load the hood, and you get blue lots.

Simpler still - lol!  I didn't try that.

You not only don't have to go on vacation, you don't even need WA to have blue (cut-out) lots.

Aha!  A clue :D

Anything that reloads the lot will do it, not just going on vacation. I first started with playing with an Awesomized neighborhood, and I don't think I added any of my CC. I was playing with the Supercomputer and screwed something up, so I went back to the main menu and restarted, and blue lots. I started a completely new game, and I'm taking care to use save as into a new file every time I save. Been playing for a few RL days now and no trouble, but I haven't tried placing any CC yet, either. What I have is mostly cloned clutter; I really need to sift through it.

To save me hours of work, can someone confirm whether the content that produces blue lots is all made *after* the 1.7.9 patch, or whether there is stuff made ages ago that also does it?

I cleared all the caches and removed the mods and the framework. The blue lots still remain.

Inge - items made and used before WA were giving blue/cut out lots.  For instance some of the plants were dated August.  I do not know if any newly created items cause blue lots.  Some items might have been in the working stage and just released after WA.

barbara_walters - As far as I know, once your neighborhood has blue/cut out lots it can never be recovered.  Always BACK UP and use a throw away town to test CC.

Thanks Slymenstra

So then, has it been confirmed that the blue lots only appear after going to one of the vacation towns? If that's the case I think I can manage staying home until someone compiles a thorough list of the bad cc to be removed.

Having the CC on a lot somewhere in the neighborhood causes the corrupt lots.  Even in a house you built 3 months ago and just took it out of your library and plopped it in your neighborhood.  The act of saving causes the glitch to appear.  So going or not going on vacation does not matter.  If you have bad CC on a lot and save, it kills your town forever.

Added:
Here is the link to a list of known bad CC. http://www.customsims3.com/forum1/YaBB.pl?num=1258836562 (http://www.customsims3.com/forum1/YaBB.pl?num=1258836562) Since things get buried and no one reads the whole thread.

I don't have WA and got blue lots. It happened in an old neighborhood (third/fourth generation) with old CC, as soon as I installed the 1.7 patch.

Just to confirm, I also suffer from the blue lot insanity.

1.) I don't have WA yet, it started happening right after I patched to 1.7.
2.) It happened both with an old save and a new game
3.) I only have CC dating from before the patch and WA release.
4.) Interesting titbit but possibly a red herring, since I could be very wrong: I seem to remember that at first it was only the Museum of Art that was affected. I zoomed in, went huh?, and after I saved my game most of the lots in my hood were affected. Now I could be remembering it wrong (although I don't think so), but could this maybe have something to do with the "riddler fix" that the patch was supposed to do? When I get back home I'll test that and report back.

EDITED TO ADD:
I also have a problem where every single thing that used to be in my sims' inventories, bookcases and fridges just AWOL-ed the first time I started up after patching (so yes, old game). Dunno if it's connected to this or just to my own stupidity, but investigations are continuing.

One theory I have about the missing lots is that there is no direct connection between which lots are missing and which ones have a problem.  It may be that the lots load one by one, and as soon as the problem is encountered, lot loading is hallted.   Assuming the order lots are loaded in is not just random, then ones nearer the end of the loading sequence will be far more likely to be missing in any error situation.

I know people have tried getting rid of their cc and it has not made those lots come back, but has anyone tried making a note of the lot containing the bad cc and somehow deleting or bulldozing that, and see if the other lots come back?   They may have been sitting there safely on disk and simply unable to load.

When I first encountered the problem I had patched all the way up to WA thus making my game version 2.2. I had just reinstalled both The Sims 3 and WA and because of difficulties in making the launcher work, I had taken out my DCBackup folder from before reinstalling and reinserted it in the newly installed game by taking out the contents in the DCBackup folder and putting it into the mods/packages folder. I started the game up, loading a new game and got blue lots everywhere. By doing the binary search I found the culprit and deleted the bad cc, as I think I have told before. When I started the new game that originally had blue lots, the issue was gone. I am wondering if it can have something to do with the fact that I did not save my game upon finding out there was blue lots in it? Therefor, by not saving, you can avoid blowing up the new save game. I haven't tried loading any of my old saves yet, since I want to make sure the game is stable enough for them not to break.

I thought of bulldozing the blue lot, but it did not allow that option any longer. It did not have ANY options actually :/ It is like you said too though, once the corrupted lot loads, the rest halt and become blue as well. None of my community lots were ever blue lots, only the residential.


If you had an old save pre-patch it will load up fine again with the removed downloaded content. The exception is if the hood was using AM at all, I found that any of my old saved games that used AM prior to the 1.7 patch was FUBAR. After a little while of playing with the new AM (never had loaded the save without some version of AM running) with only EA store content, the hood turned blue lots and some irreversible other borked things happened (sims floating by their house, error messages). So if you have an AM save that is still loading for you at this point, I recommend saving any sims to bin that you care for using editsim just incase things get bad soon. YMMV

Just a FYI lemoncandy over at MTS fixed her plants.  So go redownload them!!

What do you mean by a binary search?

Take out all mods/CC and put them back in small, controllable quanitities til you find the problem file.

A binary search is performed by removing half of your downloads at a time to narrow down your search.

Keep repeating the process until you have found the bad CC.

Be very careful with Sims Lulamai! Their objects (not just decos) blue-lot your neighborhoods. I tested Set Baño (medieval bath set) and Set Cocina (medieval kitchen). Even functioning mirror, sinks, toilet, and bathtub are faulty! I specifically tested them one by one. Set Cocina is posted today!

The only good ones from these two sets:
D&M_Lampara_de_Pie, D&M_Lampara_Sobremesa (two lamps)
D&M_Baul_M (trunk)
D&M_Tapiz_M_1 (wall hanging)
D&M_Cocina_M1 (stove) *The fridge and table from Set Cocina might be ok, but I don't like to have them, so deleted them early on and did not test them.

[EDIT] It turns out the foods and utensils from Set Cocina are good. The faulty one is the SINK!
[EDIT2] The foods and utensils from Set Cocina may not be all good. I first put two cups and a pie, and they were ok. I then put all the rest on lot, it turned blue. Sigh....I give up. But the sink is bad by itself for sure.

The decos from are cloned mostly from:
sculptureKitchenUtensilsCountry
sculpturePlantIvyBallTopiarySmall
At least one deco is from CoffeeCup, one from ClutterTablePerfumes

Non-decos are cloned from:
Bath from BathtubModern
Sinks from SinkPedestalTraditional
Toilet from ToiletModern
wall mirror (sorry, I can't find the file on my computer any more)

As explained here (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,17443.msg504399.html#msg504399).

In related news, I spent the afternoon testing stuff. For ease of reading, numbered list to follow.

1.) I uninstalled and re-installed the base game and updates, deleting all my old saved games (after backing them up) and custom content (I backed up Packages for purposes of comparison, and I have a backup of all unrared CC in any case).
2.) I then re-installed the framework and copied all CC using the sims3pack format into the My Documents Downloads folder, and used the launcher to install them all once-off.
3.) Next I deleted everything in DCBackup and made sure that I had taken out all of the packages in my Mods/Packages folder.
4.) I then went to the folder where I backup my unrared CC files. I copied all the package files from there and placed them back into the Packages folder, and installed AM and amconfig.
5.) The only other thing I did was to install 3booter and the FPS-limiter, which I hadn't done before after patching.
6.) In-game, I placed ALL the furnished custom houses I downloaded.
7.) Finally created a new family and continued to play, played a while, saved, exited and went back in to load 'er up again.

I have not had a recurrence of the Blue Lot of Neighbourhood Death problem yet.

I noticed when I compared the backed up Packages file from the borked game with the new Packages folder as copied from the unrared packages that there used to be a LOT of packages with names like 0x4dd8d638cf3c45e987c1f7688ed340c7.package (like 100 or more) in the old folder.

So, Grimma, you put the stuff back that was bluelotting before, and it has stopped bluelotting?

I put back all the CC I had before, though it's possible that my custom houses in the new neighbourhood didn't actually contain any bluelotting CC. I'm in the process of adding bluelotting stuff, especially unupdated lemoncandy, will report back soon.

EDITED TO ADD: As soon as I added the unupdated lemoncandy stuffs, saved and re-loaded, the entire neighbourhood was borked, so I guess I'm not much help after all.

On that note, is there anything we can do to help you, other than what we're currently doing i.e. testing CC to see which are faulty?

Yeah, that works too. I found my method works better, at least for me.

I've found the following:
1.) It seems that once the game encounters the faulty CC, the rest of the lots are dumped and thus become blue. I had a clean neighbourhood again, and I placed one item of (known) faulty CC on an empty lot, saved and re-loaded town. The lot with the faulty CC loaded perfectly, but most of the rest of SV was blue. I did this 5 times, and every time the lot with the corrupt CC loaded fine, but most of the rest of the hood loaded blue.
2.) I bulldozed said empty lot, picked another lot to play in and while it said "loading", it's clear that it didn't re-load the entire neighbourhood from scratch since the blue lots were still exactly the same.
3.) Since the only way to make the change (bulldozed lot) "stick" is to save and then exit to menu to re-load, and saving the blue-lotted game saves the blue lots as well, bulldozing the lot with the CC doesn't seem to work to solve the problem (unless there's some other way to try to do this?).

Other than one bad nursery set from VitaSims (the Bee nursery crib and change table both cause borkedness) and a few decorative items, I don't have much object CC in my game, and what I have were all been cleared or damned over at custom sims already.

I've narrowed the problem down to the mesh resources.  If I delete the MLOD/MODLs before renumbering, the foosball table causes no bluelotting.

I don´t have ANY CC or mods. Just the base egame and WA. Both patched. But the blue lots remain after returning from holidays.

Khate, you had cc in before didn't you?  Then you took it out after you got blue lots?

I just loaded up an old save from before the 1.7 patch. First thing I noticed was my sims' icons weren't on the left side all lined in a row of 8. All the needs were full green(though no sims to have needs), no lifetime wish, no moodlets, no trace of living sims. So obviously my game was fubar. And as with the above quote I went to map view and the art museum was blue lot and the goth house was blue lot. The negihborhood was Sunset Valley. Which last time I played with said game, both the goth house and art museum were completely covered in riddler tiles. Now since some people are saying they have blue lots with no cc, I am a little inclined to believe the blue lots are in fact EA's fault. Not to mention I have been playing with a new neighborhood started after WA was installed and have gona on vacation and haven't got a blue lot.

Nope. I had blue lots with CC in game. So I just uninstalled WA and base game, deleted all EA  folder (from Documents AND //:C) Install game and EP1 again, patched, played a few days and one day, after my Sim returned from Egypt, there were blue lots in Sunset Valley. Someone noticed EA staff about this problem, but they also aren´t sure what causes it  :-\

I think i found a possible solution to the blue lots problem.

Apparently this is a problem is affecting pc's especially one's using Vista because i myself own a macbook and never had this problem. Anyways here's what i noticed....

To get the game to work if its already experiencing blue lots
1. Delete the saved game folder (yes you'll lose any lots and families in the neighbourhood so if you could package these, do so)
2. Hold the windows flag key and hit R  (The "Run" box will appear)
3. Type misconfig and click continue
4. A system configuration window will appear
5. Click the startup TAB (not the start up in the General Tab)
6. Click Disable ALL then click apply
7. Click the Services TAB, YOU MUST CLICK "Hide All microsoft sevices" option at the bottom (You'll See a Check mark in the box)
8. THEN click disable all (the disable all option would be faded out after you click it)
9. Click Apply
10. Restart the computer for the effects to take place

At this point your game would work perfectly.

Now this is what i noticed, the game would work fine because i started and quit the game about 10 times without the blue lots occurring, even after visiting the world locations
What i did notice however is when you turn off or restart the computer the blue lots would come back.
SO every time you restart or turn off the computer you must do steps 1 -10 mentioned above. If you are like me and never turn off you laptop but only make it sleep you are fine because the settings are saved and only reset when you take the pc off or restart the pc.

So Long story short do step 1-10 if you take the pc off or restart BEFORE opening the game other wise the blue lots would come back so i stress... Do steps 1-10 BEFORE opening the game. Hopefully by now the system configuration is pinned to your start menu to elimate steps 1-4. You know if the settings are saved because in the Start up tab would have noting checked off and the systems tab would have disable all faded out.

Good Luck Guys.... I wish you luck
 

Nope. I'm playing mine on a Macbook under OSX and I've gotten blue lots.

Mizzroyalty, presumably you mean after deleting the CC that originally caused the blue lots?

That's because what you're suggesting is pure voodoo in connection to the blue lots. MSCONFIG is for diagnostic startup and while turning off services/startup not in use can help your game performance, turning off certain services your computer needs will cause some computers to not function correctly. It's not the permanent way to turn off services/startup so that's why when you restart they open again. But this experiment kind of tells me it's correct what Inge said about blue lots being connected to bad loading process. You probably have too many services running to have enough CPU/RAM to load your game properly - resulting in lot corruption.

It's better to adjust your startup services through services.msc. I don't think peasants should try this if they don't understand what it means. (Probably would end up disabling your printer, audio, who knows what else and not know how to fix it) http://theeldergeek.com has a nice service search to tell you what most common services do though and if it's safe or not to disable.

This is really poor advice. You're mistaking a unique situation with your machine for a fix for everyone. All you're saying they should do is disable all the non-microsoft services on their machines. But you don't even mention which one you were running. So what are you saying, "don't run any non-microsoft services and you won't get blue lots?" Sorry, but that's retarded.

If you have bluelots, tell the creators of your CC objects to read this thread: http://forums.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=381540

Inge, thanks for your part for figuring out that cc cloned from particular objects were causing the blue lots.  This information (and the information in the thread at MTS) was the only thing that helped eliminate the blue lots in my game. 

I'm always impressed with the responsiveness of modders and cc'ers in this community who respond to issues quickly, and do their best to resolve them. 

Like all of you I'm plagued with the blue lots and am trying all your suggestions. Maybe I missed something along the way but everyone seems to be having problems with their hoods in my case its not my towns they are fine its my vacation locations. I do have cc but removed the problem ones etc. I send a sim on holiday, they return home everything is OK my town functions well but when I send my sim back to the location its basically covered in blue lots both houses and community. I have not edited the vacation locations theres no cc at all. I have only used one sim and shes dressed in the WA stuff. China has been a real problem now France is blue lotting as well. There are only two or three local houses to be seen. Its bizaree because Sunset Valley and Riverview are fine. Does anyone else have a vacation problem but their hoods are fine? 

I had one save game do that yesterday, but I put it down to the fact that I had recently installed some fucked up cc. Upon removing the bad cc, the game was back to normal. I haven't had the time yet to send the sims on vacation a second time and check if the problem persists.

Well that retarded advice came from the good folks at EA. My friend was having the problem and after doing it the blue lots have not returned to their pc.
As i said i do not experience this problem....... The only reason i took the time to post all of that here is to try and help, no one said it was correct and no one said to try it

Well that makes it okay then! YAYAYAY!

If your vacation lots are Blue Lotting there are some questions to answer.
1. Did you buy a vacation home and decorate it?
2. Did you edit any lots on vacation?

The best way to test is to take ALL of your packaged CC (the ones you install in the Mods folder) out. Create a whole new town and play the same way you were.  Edit things, change their hair, move people around, go on vacation.  Save and reload.  If no Blue lots appear then it is a piece of CC you have.

Not all CC has been listed everywhere that is bad.  You have to personally go through YOUR CC and find the culprits.  A helpful tip also is to look at the dates the files were created.  Anything before August, Sept, and Oct check first.

To check your CC you need to actually stick the CC on a lot and save.  Reload the hood and check.  Don't forget Windows and fireplaces.

And ALWAYS back up your saved games before playing with new CC.

Um, no, you came out and directly stated that following your steps will fix blue lots:


EAxis is known for giving bad advice. If you're passing along advice from their "support" team, always mention that up front.

The weird thing about my vacation destinations is that all the community lots and locals houses are the blue lots. I never edited them in anyway. The vacation homes sims can buy are always fine. I did buy vacation houses and changed them around a bit but was careful with using no cc. Regardless, thank you slymenstra for the advice which I'll follow and see what happens.

Update on the blue lot issue:

After having done the hackdance today I tracked the culprit causing the blue lots in my hood down to this file: 0xd535a1c25e231c854401ac15e7ae1bb2.package
The funny thing is that it was one file from the Riverview bundle. That is, one of the files installed when installing the neighbourhood Riverview. Taking out that file removed the blue lot issue. I have yet to find out what it does to the game in terms of gamepley though. If anyone else does a search for the same file and it is corrupt, I suppose we can conclude that EA is a dipshit hoebag for not checking their own content before creating a patch.

BTW, for anyone who does not know where to find the file, check under My Documents/Electronic Arts/DCBackup, and only if you have installed Riverview.

Edit: Ok, so I sent a sim from a newly created game off to vacation. His home is located in Riverview and after removing the bad file, some glitches showed up. The sims names and houses looks like World/Riverview/Sims: Name/World Riverview Sims:Last Name for instance. I suppose that has something to do with the fact that a large part of the original file has been removed. Either way, Riverview is banned from my game for the time being. There were no blue lots to be found however, in China nor in Riverview. I only played for a few minutes, enough to check the blue lot issue, so I have no idéa what the long-term consequences are for deleting the file. 

Tingeling, please be aware that losing blue lots does not necessarily mean you are free of problem content.  The error in s3oc went across *all* content that contains a TXCT.  Even those that didn't cause bluelotting are/were broken and will almost certainly be a ticking timebomb.   Please check and fix *all* your custom game content.

Ha! Serves me right for not reading up thread. Ah well, best be off and fix those files then.