When you try to split the household and when the little message box saying 'Processing' pops up, is the background blurred or still focused? While that same message box saying 'Processing' stays there can you scroll around the neighborhood by moving your mouse to the edges of your screen? And lastly, does this happen with all the families in your neighborhood when you move/split them either through the Edit Town or the Move option on the phone, or does it happen with one or several particular households?

I've never had a sim that could attend a second class in the same field let alone multiple even after decades of cooldown, altough it would be great if they could do so.

Yes, but this is a different problem, the pause is just a part of it.
I can see Pes already figured it out, as the awesome rabbit hole entry system is no longer an option in the config tool. I discovered this exact same problem with that option enabled with the test mod for LN. I guess EA finally improved the RH entrances? I can't tell for sure, but i think the option conflicted with the mod and gave a flagrant system error that would result in the exact situation as described in the first post. You'll have to re-load the game before the error first occured, otherwise sims will start to freeze randomly from that point on. At least, that's what i got in my case.

I agree, very good layout - 5*

Yeah, whats up with that? Why is it a trend for people to sign their names at the bottom of the post? Seems kind of silly to me

I had this same problem and it is mod related. I can't tell which since i removed several but i suspect the Friendly Age Barrier is most likely since it's values are closest to the issue.

Yeah most of your reported glitches i've already read in a review. It seems they are common for the game. They'll either get patched or maybe some can be fixed by Pes - like that problem with going into the school rabbit hole, where everyone got stuck before the entrance. Perhaps the same system can be applied for the elevators. I'm buying the game tomorrow and hope to experience that puking crowd, sounds hilarious!

I read this yesterday and thought what a weird problem it was and how i never had it. That 3 or 4 hours later i was playing the game with no problems or lags and decided to change the look of a sim. I entered PLAN OUTFIT regularly via the dresser. Changed the outfit and when i pressed accept nothing happened. I tried cancel but same result. The game doesn't freeze it's just you're stuck in the CAS and none of the buttons are responsive. I opened the console and entered 'editsim'  to get out but it just opened the loading screen for the CAS and kept loading into eternity. I recently installed Fast Lane. I never had this problem before and i hope it doesn't repeat itself.

Well it sounds like a lengthy approach for a trivial thing. I thought a less time consuming solution would be an option, but it's not worth to go through all that. Just placing and styling the statues from de-bug is well enough for me, and whatever sculpted statue is not fit for the room can be placed for consignment.

It's the game. I have a configuration more or less like yours and that happens to me too. The engine's made that way, the game loads the textures on the current lot the camera is centered on and that takes time, so until it happens you will only see white meshes of the objects. It will stop to annoy you after a time. Just bear in mind what Sims 2 was like (having to wait for loading screens all the time) and what Sims 3 is like now and this issue becomes irrelevant.
If you jump between several lots i suggest you go to Settings ingame and enable more high detailed lots. In that way the textures from the lots and their detail will remain in the RAM and will take far less time to load up when you revisit it.

I would go with Merlin in everything he said mate. If you're asking me for a hands-free opinion i would go ahead and install the WA if i were you. I don't know a single thing about these bugs you mention since i haven't had any at all and i've been more than happy with WA since i got it and i think that in all the SIMS series (1, 2 and 3) its the top 5 expansion pack.  i feel like i got 2 EPs for the price of one with the adventures expansion. The ambitions EP pales in comparison. In your case the only thing you're going to lose is 1 hour at most to install (and then uninstall it if you don't like it that much) and a gig of HD space. In my opinion its 10 times easier than going around to extract some files that there's a high probability are not even there in the form you need.

What's up with the default simbots from Ambitions? They have to SLEEP like they're human? And EAT scrap? And SHIT scrap? LOL! I mean, come on they have to go to the bathroom, spread their cute little metal ass cheeks on the toilet and take a metal dump? Waste buildup, omg that is so original. Imagine the Terminator taking a dump in some movie shitting rivets and screws in some toilet and clogging it up to the top? Or C-3PO being stuck in the millennium falcon's toilet for 5 hours cause he ate some bad chipotles?

And they have to TALK to someone or something (an appliance - Jesus what are they? Schizobots???) or they feel LONELY?? LMAO!
Seriously, what gives? They're robots, why do they need to do all these things? I couldn't stop laughing when i saw my first simbot go to bed and then those ZZZs came out of his head as if IT was dreaming hahaha. I mean come on, what's the point of making a robot so life like? I made it in the hopes of getting a low maintenance service bot around the household and instead i get a another mouth to feed and is more of a burden than a gain. Is there any way to make most of their needs barred like the hygiene need? I would bar the Energy, Social Interaction and Waste. They could consume scrap (even though i'm against that too, its just plain stupid) but would have to do it once a week. Now THAT would make them true slavebots. Twice the gain and none the hustle.

Does anyone else feel this way about bots or do you want them to be as human as Mr. Data?

He probably lapsed and was thinking WA instead of ambitions, happens sometimes

Anyways i don't know if this what you're asking can be done and if it can if it will work properly, i think these things are coded in the exes.

Yes, that did the trick. Changing the roof also did it. Basically, any change regenerates the lot thumbnail, so thanks

There's two ways the game renders lots in the game. High detail - when your camera is in or close to the lots and you see all the objects and textures as clearly and as detailed as can be, and low detail - intended for the map or distant view. I don't know why but some of my lots don't appear in this low detail mode when i look through the map view or point the camera at them from distance. Where they stand empty lots are displayed until the game loads up the high detail lot, and that's when the walls and objects start to appear.
And more so, i had this lot that had a small 1 level house on it. I bulldozed it, and placed a huge 3 story mansion there, but when i zoom out to map view, the low detailed lot there still displays the previous small 1 level house instead of the current mansion. This has gone on for quite the time. I'm wondering when these low polygon - low detailed lots are rendered (everytime i zoom out or go in and out of buy/build mode?), where/in what files they are stored (in some of the caches maybe?) and what i can do to fix the missing and outdated low-poly lots.

I noticed that it's not possible to change the style/textures on the sculpted items. I assume this is because you could sculpt a statue in wood and then change the texture to wood or whatever, beating the purpose of choosing the material. But it's also impractical when it comes to decorating since the colors would be off for that theme. Wood is always that damp color, stone is always that dark black color. So is there any way to make these sculpted items stylized?

Yes! That must have been it! Chandria thank you for pointing me out to MTS. I gave it another go and enabled LAA on ALL the executables. Afterwards i increased my 32-bit Win 7 page file to 3 GB. And after almost 2 days of playing the game NOT A SINGLE CTD! I stress tested the game by playing on lots with 5 floors in height, and all 3 floors in the basement brim-stocked with objects and textures and inviting over 40 people for a party. Not even a single problem. Then i saved the game during the max memory usage and it saved it under 30 seconds with no crashes. I saved it repeatedly over and over for about 5-10 times in that period just to make sure, and again no problems whatsoever.
I guess my problem was that either i didn't LAA all the execs or that i didn't expand my virtual memory since my last OS re-installation or both.
The game is totally different now that progress is saved and the time line is actually flowing instead of doing the same things over and over and wondering when the next CTD will be. Where EA has failed you guys have helped me big time, i owe you 

Hey guys, thanx for all the useful suggestions i'll try them out now, never hurts to use different methods. I'm running on a 32-bit Win 7 by the way.

It seems the game regularly crashes even with LAA checked from the CFF Explorer anytime i'm in a big lot, or going to a place where sims. Meaning when the memory goes over the top, whether i have LAA checked or not the game CTDs. Kind of a stupid lapse on the developers end. This problem has persisted since Sims 2 and you'd think that after ALL these YEARS they'd say: Hey, our game is crashing, let's do something about this, let's just re-work the engine and make the game take up less space. How about we figure out a way to make the game dump all unnecessary memory once it's used up and cache-in only the useful textures and meshes?

Either way, thanx again, and i'm open for other solutions as well.

A very common problem with the sims 3 is that it crashes to the desktop whenever its usage of ram/virtual memory goes over 2 GB. That happens when you have played too long and lots of sim people have been loaded into the RAM and/or lots of textures have been loaded into the RAM. That can also happen immediately if you play on a lot with a 5 story house with lots and lots of objects, all with different textures and 30 people on the lot. Now i've found a way to avoid that horrible crash with CFF Explorer by making the .exe file use well over 2GB of RAM and these crashes no longer occur while playing. However, if i try to save they still DO happen. Again the issue is that lots of virtual memory has been spent. So i was wondering: What if i empty all the loaded memory and THEN save? It's logical that the game wouldn't crash then. Just like emptying your browsers cache. So is there any command or way to do this ingame prior to saving? Or is this theoretically impossible?

I had this problem with an "cooking ingredients overhaul" mod from mts.info
When i removed it, because of WA, the gardening journal went blank, but only for sims that had accomplished at least one challenge in the gardening skill, it's obvious why. Perhaps this is your problem as well? Or something similar?

Thanx for the info Pes. Here's hoping you implement it in the AM someday. Cheers 

I just noticed that nectar stowed away in racks doesn't age if you're not playing with the household living on the lot that has it stored. I thought that nectar values increase over time and that value is calculated based on the age -> base value x time factor (present time minus time it was produced). But it appears it ages at a particular time of the day/night and only if you're playing the active household. If you switch to another household, the aging never occurs and the value of the wine/nectar stays the same. Has anyone else noticed this or is this only me?

Sims 2 gamers might remember a mod called Merlola's Time Control Clock. It was a custom object which allowed the user to change the pace time passed. I found it very useful and it was my #1 gameplay mod. I can't think about throwing a party or playing a regular game without it. I've searched for something like this mod here and there but nothing so far. Does anyone know of such a mod for Sims 3? Or maybe someone's thinking of making something like that...

I knew the new EP would be incompatible with my fav mod, so prior to starting the game i made a back up of all my save games, in case the game acts weird. Apart from some glitches, everything runs cool without the awesomemod. I removed the supercomputer mod, the work pusher, and the homeworker as these most likely conflict with WA.
I'm looking at the awesomemod config tool now to see what exactly the awesome mod changes so i can know what glitches to expect. For example the mod makes the recepie books not disappear after they're read (magic scrools). I had that option on, so when i started the game, one of my sims that read a recepie book when i last saved from the base game had the interaction queue filled to infinity with read a book task and was holding nothing but thin air. My point is, expect glitches to occur where the mod made changes. But apart from some nuisances, it should be safe to save the game and keep on playing it till the WAAM comes out, but your best off backing up your save games prior to WA.

After reading through most of your posts i think we can all come to the safe conclusion that this game although fantastic in concept is profoundly flawed in execution. To have hours of work of building an interior planning and designing and gameplay sunk into some ridiculous errors and crashes popping out every 15 minutes is appalling. I knew something was gonna be wrong with the game development when i read that "Sims 3 is being pushed from the original release date in Feb to June 2009". The official statement was that EA wanted more anticipation lol, but everyone with common sense knew that something was wrong, and that the game was not yet ready to release cause of lack of furnishing. Even with the extra 6 months core errors, like the limited music channels, instability, memory leaks and the goddamn error codes were not solved. I'm not blaming any dev in ea for this, i bet they did the best they could, but look at the gaming community now desperately trying out to sort out their problems and doing their job. Outside ppl work out solutions for the work pusher problem and the music and these blasted errors that are becoming a frustrating nuisance and whatnot. It's been months since the release and i would have thought solutions to each and everyone of these problems would have been found by now. Too bad. Luckly, you guys are persistent and have admiring resolve in making your game and the game of the rest of the community improve as best as you can. Keep at it