Can't load Riverview saves

[pyry]

Okay, first post from a nervous newbie. I'm not great with computers, I'm casual to gaming (but a long time Sims player), and not a native English speaker so my apologies for any spelling/grammar mistakes. But I would love to be able to play the Sims 3. It just seems like a full time job (and I already have one) to even get the game working, and I'm getting desperate and very mad.

The problem: I bought WA (don't have High End Loft) and finally had time to start playing since it's my holiday. I started building a custom Riverview, creating new families and installing downloaded houses etc. A lot of work but I was happy with the result. Couldn't wait to start playing the game.

But since this is Sims 3 we are talking about, I should have known it's not that easy. Today my Riverview saves completely started refusing to load. The bar goes maybe 10-20 % up and then the game crashes to desktop. I have googled and searced - found out that other people have had similar problems. But I simply haven't found out what I should do to get the game working again. I have reinstalled the game from scratch just before I started this Riverview project. Now I have tried to uninstall and reinstall Riverview several times but it doesn't help. I've tried removing my mods, no effect. The save files don't seem to be corrupted, at least not the way it was with the system errors before.

I found the help sector on this forum and read the instructions there, but I just don't get what I should do. If there is any way to save my neighbourhood, any advice would be welcomed with much appreciation. Gaming has never ever felt this frustrating. I know I don't understand that much about computers or programming (being a social worker...) or whatever, but up until this game I've been able to play my games without much trouble. And if there has been trouble, I've managed it with help from google and forums, including this one.

But now Riverview saves just refure to load and it seems I've once again wasted time with the game.  My sincere thanks for any advice.

[Skadi]

From my experience this is because the riverview.world has corrupted. Try using some of the alternate methods of installing riverview. You may also need to decrapify your savegame in order to get it going again.

[pyry]

Thank you for your answer. I took a look at the decrapifying program and process, and it seems way too complicated for my skills. I can't even run programs with DOS.  Maybe I could ask my brother who is a computer programmer by profession for help, but he's not that interested in these never-ending Sims 3 problems - or even the whole Windows system nowdays.

I will try to install Riverview by using the other methods I've found on this site. If that doesn't help, I guess that's it. Goodbye to Riverview. Too bad I can't stand Sunset Valley's design.

Or maybe I'll just make a bonfire of everything Sims 3 related. Sigh.

Edit: Okay, with the help from my brother I managed to go through the decrapifying program. I was able to load my Riverview save. Yay!
But one more question: Will this keep happening again with Riverview? Should I just move all my families and houses to Sunset Valley and continue there? Thanks again!

[The_Goddess]

Don't add any new custom content without decrapifying it first, and be prepared for disaster every time an expansion pack comes out.  Stay calm and pay close attention to how the regulars here work them out.  Your Riverview is just fine now, but you should always error to the side of caution.  I periodically save my favorite families to the bin to retain their skills if their town needs to be nuked.