Just so you know, I have done my own troubleshooting--successfully, I should add--when issues came up previously. I only post when all of my options have been exhausted, or I'm pressed for time. Since I have already acknowledged that I fucked myself by not keeping the original files, I was looking for more than just an admonition (which I do appreciate, by the way, but which doesn't help right now). Even though I know that my options are limited at this point, it would be useful for me to know why this is happening--a script mod, a core mod, an item of clothing or hair, CC beds with unfixed RIG files, etc.--so that I'll know what to watch for in order to avoid the same problem in the future.

I'm having a little problem with at least one of my Sim households. I start playing them on in-game Friday, and by Monday, one of them will be unable to change his/her clothing despite having done the "twirl". The funny thing is, when I direct him/her to the dresser to change clothing, the correct outfit is displayed, and s/he retains it after exiting CAS. Twice I have created a new save file while this is occurring, and the consequences were not good upon opening either of the new saves.

I made the first new save after the female Sim fell victim to this glitch, and the result after loading the new save file was that the UI and Sims completely disappeared. Note that none of the Sims in this neighborhood have gone to a WA location for quite some time, since I had a very similar problem happen the last time I tried that, which resulted in me having to revert to a backup.

It was the male Sim who couldn't change when I made the second save, and the result after loading the new save was that he disappeared from the household. He appeared in his girlfriend's relationship panel, but with randomized clothing, a generic face, and differently-colored eyes. She could not chat or invite him over.

I have the newest patch (1.26), all EPs except Pets, and HELS as my only Stuff Pack. I have the latest build of Awesomemod. I used RigFix to fix all of my objects, but did not individually fix the beds because I have consolidated nearly all of my CC into a few dbc files. I don't have the original packages saved (bad move, I know), and I have no time to look through those enormous dbcs for the rig files of all of the custom content beds. I have tried deleting cache and thumbnail files, and I decrapify everything before I start up the game. Is it possible that this save game has just become too bloated? I have no idea what may be causing this, so please be kind if this turns out to be a problem caused by a non-Awesome mod.

FYI, I did a search of MATY and found one thread about this same issue, but the solution proffered doesn't apply to me. Other searches haven't proven useful.

I also have this odd career-related glitch in which one Sim is always "missing work" even on his days off. I'm putting this out just in case the two glitches may be related. In the meantime, I'll try removing mods and CC to see if I can at least identify what kind of content is causing these glitches.

Thanks in advance.

The problem lot has no ponds, and I've had no problems laying down basements in houses with ponds because I leave a good distance between the ponds and the basement. The lot I mentioned previously on which I could successfully lay down a basement also had quite a bit of variation in the ground level under the foundation, and other lots on which I have successfully built basements had uneven ground elevation as well (and even came with pools).

Thankfully, I can now place basements without crashing on the problematic lot. I moved all of the objects that appeared in -1 to the ground level and deleted the staircase that also appeared in -1. I then saved a copy of the lot to the Library, bulldozed the existing lot, and put a copy back on the plot.

So, if anyone with the crashing issue still encounters it after they followed Jeeves' directions, they should go back onto the lots to move or delete everything that appears in the -1 (or basement) levels, and then follow Jeeves' solution again. If you did it correctly, when you go back into the lot after replacing it, you shouldn't be able to go down to the -1 level.

I've been having the same problem as Rainne, and I tried the method that Jeeves suggested, but without success. It's only happening with one of the existing houses in the custom-made neighborhood I'd downloaded. On one other houses I'd plopped in the neighborhood from the Library, I can successfully build basements even though it had a pool when it was saved to the Library; the only possible difference between this house and the problematic one is that I had built the pool in the former before saving it to the Library. Both houses have basements built in the traditional, pre-WA way (inside the foundation).

I'm going to delete all the objects in the -1 level and try Jeeves' method again to see if it works. It's puzzling...maybe the problem lies in the -1 level itself.

I'm pleased to report that the new version has successfully decrapified all of my problem TravelDB files. Many thanks.

Unfortunately, more than one TravelDB file is causing s3rc to throw the error, and all of the offending files are from different saves of the same neighborhood--the TravelDB files from my Sunset Valley and Riverview saves are perfectly fine, and also much smaller (~1.5MB vs 4.6MB for the Fargo saves). Fargo is the only neighborhood I've been playing for many weeks now, so I will load another savegame the next time I play and see if this problem spreads. I fervently hope that Fargo is not FUBAR.

All of the other package files ending with "DB" (like France_0x0859db50ExportDB) are decrapifying normally.

I've uploaded a couple of them for you to look at, if you don't mind.

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3

I've experienced odd crashes when placing fireplaces after the new patch. It throws an "ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00000010" exception that apparently also occurs with Spore, according to Google searches.

It's hard to describe what caused this crash, because it happens with only one fireplace (the "Washington" one), and only on one spot in my Sims' house, but doesn't always crash the first time I place it. I used the last fact to my advantage and circumvented the problem, but I'm worried about deeper problems in my game. I do decrapify regularly, by the way.

After I'd installed the newest patch (actually, I had reinstalled the entire game along with the patch--long story), s3rc crashes every time it comes upon a TravelDB.package. It does this a few seconds after the file's path shows up in the DOS console. Before the new patch, the program decrapified the same files without problems. Doesn't the patch not even touch the user's files?

@DragonsHollow: I once had my game take nearly that many hours to load--I think some of your custom content may be causing the .package file lag. Process Monitor can help you identify those problem files the next time you start your game, and removing them does wonders to the loading speed and overall smoothness of gameplay.

I'm having extreme lag/freeze issues with my game as well. I have the next-to-last patch and the Aug. 18 version of AM, and I delete cache files almost every time I start the game.

It takes over a minute for the game to go to Build/Buy mode after I click the button. It takes the game from 15 seconds to several minutes to react to just about every command I make, actually. The game only finishes saving to file when I put the computer in standby and restart it; otherwise, the save screen literally stays indefinitely. The speed is normal and stays that way for several minutes upon loading, and it briefly rebounds from the extreme lag when I restore after minimizing. I've also experienced the persistence of sounds, voices, and animations of such things as "z"s and spinning plumbbobs despite the Sims themselves being frozen in place. This seems to occur even when the game is paused.

Alright, so I downloaded the patch, took out the mods, replaced the modified VideoCamera.ini with the original, and installed the patch. It successfully installed, so I put my mods back in, including the newest version of AwesomeMod (the one which is compatible with the newest patch), and deleted all the cache files. The game loads just fine, but the instant I click the "Play" button, the game crashes. It's happened three times before. Here's an excerpt from the text file, for those who can decipher this stuff, generated after the crash:


EDIT: I took out all mods except AwesomeMod, and now I can finally load my saved games. Since the only other core mod is the Indie Stone Mod, could that one be the culprit? I put IndieStone back in, and the saved games can still load.

I have a store-bought copy of the game.

Any help is appreciated.

I noticed these lines in S3_0333406C_00000000_BCCBC0480683938B%%+_XML.xml:


Is there a known way to edit the name lists in Sims 3, and what are the effects of changing the values in the XML tuning file, if any?

I played Agnes Crumplebottom's lot for several Sim-weeks, and noticed that the higher Agnes had built her and Erik Darling's relationship, the likelier he was to come out haunting any given night. Erik Darling's ghost showed up only once every three to four days at the beginning, but once he and Agnes became romantic interests, he came out almost every night. She was awarded the Opportunity to resurrect him at that point.

My self-Sim's in the Law Enforcement career, and did receive a cop car upon reaching a certain level, but once she switched to the Forensics track, it seems to have disappeared. She still carpools to work in a cop car, though, if I remember correctly.

It worked! Thanks!

Still pretty bizarre, though.

Thanks! I'll see if this works...still doesn't really explain how the walls/floors still show up in game, though. So strange.

I'm pretty sure I did, but I'm going to load the game again and make sure.

Yeah, every single time.

I have had to click Enable Custom Content every single time I loaded the game (no less than 6 times), which is odd since the game should remember which option I chose the last time.

I've searched here, on Google, and on other sites but couldn't find anything helpful. So far I'd only found one person who had about the same problem as I'm having, but the commenters failed to come up with any solutions.

What's happening:
Most of the objects that require a custom mesh are flashing blue in my game, and the others just reverted to a Maxis mesh. Custom genetics (hair, eyes, skintones), makeup, and clothing are not appearing in CAS, even though my existing Sims were exactly as I left them before the installation and the randomly generated Sims in CAS still generate with my geneticized skintones, hair and eyes. My hacks and mods also do not seem to be working. My downloaded lots, terrains, walls, floors, etc. still show up in the catalog.

Background:
I did all of the following:

1. Backed up all my downloads and saved games and took out my hacks/mods before installing FT for the first time
2. Sifted through all my hacks, deleting or replacing them as needed with updated ones, before putting them back in the Downloads folder. I loaded the game the second time, and the majority of the custom content objects were flashing blue.
3. Uninstalled and reinstalled FreeTime, letting the game delete the My Documents/The Sims 2/ folder and create a new one, but leaving my Downloads folder on the Desktop.
4. Loaded the game two times after reinstalling, putting my Downloads folder back prior to the second time, but the same objects were flashing blue.
5. Took out only my default replacements, custom foods, and hacks. Nothing changes...still flashing.

I have all the EPs except BV, and no SPs. I had not the gotten flashing blue CC objects or the missing CAS thumbs with the installation of any of the other EPs on this computer, and I had not done anything differently this time around. I'm just glad I made backups of everything beforehand.

ETA: I have the newest version of SimPE, but hadn't touched it yet.

Does FT handle downloads differently? I can't see how, as most people's complaints have little to do with CC. Is it a problem with a corrupt file or files, or was there something that I failed to do at some point in this whole tedious process? Please tell me if I'd missed something glaringly obvious.

Help would be much appreciated!

@Zazazu: I'm pretty sure that all my backups are in my external hard drive, so that can't be it. I even redownloaded the files and placed them into the EA Games/The Sims 2/TSData/Res/UserData/Neighborhoods/N001 folder over the old ones.

@B: I'll give that method a go. Hopefully that's the trick.

EDIT: Lo and behold, taking out the My Documents/EA Games/The Sims 2 folder did the trick. I created a new neighborhood without incident.

Now, I hope that I won't have to do this each time I want to create a new hood...

Lately (in the last few weeks) I wanted to create some new neighborhoods, but for some reason, the game crashes to desktop each time after creating Weather. The last time it crashed, there wasn't even an error message--the game just froze and closed itself. I hadn't created any new neighborhoods in months.

I think it may have something to do with the empty neighborhood templates I downloaded from here, in that post by SaraMK, exactly a month ago (I have Argon's empty Pleasantview, though). I followed all the directions in the posts exactly, but can't help but think that I might have made a misstep somewhere.

I have made backups of the original files, but they aren't where I can get them quickly. I've also searched the threads in this subforum w/out finding a similar problem. Thanks in advance!

Many thanks .

I've seen a Sim-kid with 6 nice points and one with IIRC 9/10 nice points zap other Sims with a static shock. I think it's more a Playful rather than a Grouchy attribute.

I never was a fan of Romance Sims, but I've found that playing single Romance Sims can be entertaining. Don Lothario in one of my Pleasantviews is still a Romance Sim, but he's pretty much "settled down" (resigned himself to?) to family life with Nina and their kid--he's rolling straightforward wants to Woohoo in Bed/Hot Tub with no one in particular and to work out on the exercise machine. He's fairly happy aspiration-wise.

Pleasure Sims are the bane of my existence. I can never seem to keep them satisfied because their wants are annoying and have low point values; I don't like making Sims go on dates for the sole purpose of fulfilling a regular want or a LTW because for me, dates are for falling in love and rolling engagement/marriage wants.

Romance/Fortune Sims seem to be excellent parents, oddly, like some of you mentioned. My Family Sims are more concerned with the creation of babies than the actual care/feeding .

I'd moved families from another borked 'hood to a new one, and unsurprisingly there were problems up the wazoo. That ought to teach me to think I can do these things without first knowing the risks as well as what the heck I'm actually doing.

Well, I do know (I think) how to export a Sim's personality/interest/career/etc. data into an Excel file, just not the relations. If I could find out how to do that, I wouldn't mind using some free time to painstakingly put the entire hood back together. As long as something can be done, even if it takes days, I will keep those Sims around. If I can keep the same Sims around for about 2 years, I can keep them around for a couple more!

- are you more into building lots, decorating lots, creating sims, or playing families?
In order of preference: playing families, creating Sims, decorating lots, building lots.

- lots: do you play highly decorated, with walls up/cutaway, with a focus on 'whoever has the most toys wins"? Or do you play barely decorated, walls down, with a focus on interractions/spawning?
Er...I do something in the middle, though leaning toward the barely decorated/walls down/etc. style. I hate decorating, because I can't ever seem to be satisfied with the results (people even tell me I'm good at it. Psh!) and I'm too lazy to do so. I have no patience at all to sit for an hour or two just putting clutter all over the place if my game's just going to crash anyway.

- is genetics your thing? Do you like watching spawns, and spawns of spawns for how they turn out? Or do you barely get through one generation before you're off to the next family?
Oh, yes. The most important reason why I keep coming back to the game is to see how my Sims' genetics fare in new generations. I do have a billion families, so I haven't ever gotten farther than gen. 4 in any family.

- do you build lots of hoods, or have you been playing one or two hoods forever?
I have lots of hoods. In fact, I have several saved games with ~6 neighborhoods each. As for if I play them evenly--no.

- in terms of what your sims do: are you into relationships and interractions, or are you more into how they skill and climb the corporate ladders?
Before I got the hang of time management, it was mostly about relationships/families/babies. Now, I like to have Sims reach at least one LTW before even starting a family (though ACR's complicated things a bit).

- do you play lots of community lots, or are your sims homebodies?
They're pretty much homebodies. I only send them to comm. lots if they go on dates.

-city/country/suburban?
Mostly suburban.

- do you do themes? (aliens, medieval, Victorian)
Not really, unless you count the one neighborhood with Sims with Genensims' furry skintones. I don't write stories with those Sims.

- do you play with pets?
I used to let my Sims have a pet or two, but since they have a tendency to ignore everything else to play with their pets, I'm not keen on getting pets for them any longer.

- do you do the vamp/werewolf/alien/zombie thing, or are you more a 'real person' player?
I'm mostly a "real person" player, though I like aliens. There are a handful of Servos and two vampires in all my hoods.

- hacks: do you like to make life simpler or harder? insim? inteen?
I like to make their lives more realistic, I guess I should say. Insim = yes, Inteen = yes, as well as 200+ other mods/hacks (incl. ACR, but mostly just anti-annoyance mods) which by some miracle all seem to work fine together.

-custom content: lots or a little? what do you have the most of?
6.57 GB, last I checked. I really need to do some cleaning. I download mostly clothing and hair, occasionally furniture and build mode objects, rarely makeup and accessories.

- and finally, if you share your creations...what do you create?
I'd created a few things, but haven't shared anything yet. I might start sharing if I'm confident that everything I make works and doesn't have any CC that shouldn't be shared.

Like the days of youth
All things must come to an end
I must accept this truth

I don't do poetry, obviously. Could there still be a way to move the Sims to a new hood for a fresh "start" and just delete that P'view? Or is this just another lost cause like everything I'd ever tried...