4th speed stopped working?

[fondeux]

So when I first got my laptop back in March, the first thing I arr'd was TS3, and it ran perfectly, zipping along even with the highest graphics settings.  I stopped playing for a few months and when I restarted, I immediately patched my game.  After every patch, Windows would pop up with a little notice, saying something along the lines of "this program may not have installed correctly".  Naturally, I ignored the error message, and continued to launch Sims.  When I started it up,  everything was slower, and most noticeably, my 4th speed option had stopped working! What gives? Should I have listened to the error message?  Should I actually go out and buy the game? Forget that, I'm a poor bastard.

[Tever]

Did you remember to remove your mods first? And check for conflicts and outdated ones?

[Cappuccino]

I've been having the "This program might not have installed correctly" message after every patch I've installed without it actually affecting anything. Probably a false alarm from Windows, so I guess you shouldn't worry about that.

[Simius]

I'd completely uninstall,  making sure all the folders are actually deleted, and then reinstall it.  Seems like a logical first step.


Whoops.  It looks like I misunderstood your problem.  The 4th speed is exactly like the 3rd speed except that it goes back to first speed when your sims wake up or something else like that happens, as others have said.

[fondeux]

Did you remember to remove your mods first? And check for conflicts and outdated ones?

Oopsies... Well, I did this today:

I'd completely uninstall,  making sure all the folders are actually deleted, and then reinstall it.  Seems like a logical first step.

And I deleted everything... mods, saved games, registry keys, everything! 4th speed is still the same, if not slower, than 3rd speed. Ruh roh! I haven't used a significant amount of memory, and I'm pretty sure I don't have a virus.  The only things I did before I restarted were update Awesomemod and patch. I haven't updated Windows in awhile, but I don't think that would affect my simming.

Also, I found out that if I crack the game before I patch, I don't get that error message.

[Zazazu]

I think you are having a basic misunderstanding of what 4th speed is. 4th speed is the same speed as 3rd speed, except that it will continue on in 3rd speed until something "important" happens as defined by the game, then dropping down into 1st speed.

[fondeux]

I think you are having a basic misunderstanding of what 4th speed is. 4th speed is the same speed as 3rd speed, except that it will continue on in 3rd speed until something "important" happens as defined by the game, then dropping down into 1st speed.

Seriously? Unless my brains have been addled, I remember 4th speed was really fast. The little green bar under the sleep icon zoomed across within seconds!

[Aimlak]

I think the game tips said that 4th speed was 3rd speed that continued until the selected sim finished their current action, after which it went to 1st. It was never faster than 3rd for me.

[missladee]

The 4th speed is kinda like the 'skip' function on a CD player versus the fast forward. All it does is zoom through the current action until it's complete. Mine is also misbehaving, along with the time in the game sticking for hours. I just don't use the 4th speed anymore. Seemed like a good idea but...oh well...

[bmtphoenix]

Thought I'd pipe up and mention that my 4th speed isn't acting like it used to, either. 

Lots of folks say that fourth is basically third with an auto-pause when something happens, but that's not at all what it USED to act like in my case.  In mine, it used to be ultra-fast, zooming through things like sleeping and working in about two seconds.  Now, however, it is just like third with auto-pause, which sucks. 

I'm guessing that those who say it's third with auto-pause have had their fourth speed broken all along.  It seems to be an extremely common thing. 

[wizard_merlin]

I'm guessing that those who say it's third with auto-pause have had their fourth speed broken all along.  It seems to be an extremely common thing. 

If I hover over the 4th speed selection in game is says something like ultra speed through action, if I hover over 3rd peed it says Ultra speed, suggesting 3rd and 4th are now the same speed.  I always thought 4th speed was a bit faster, but maybe it wasn't.  There were complaints from some people about their game crashing when in 4th speed, so maybe EAxis slowed the speed down a little to stop the crashing, especially if the higher speed was causing issues with slightly older cards.

[Magwitch]

The 4th speed has always been 3rd speed with autopause. Always.

[wizard_merlin]

The 4th speed has always been 3rd speed with autopause. Always.

4th speed has never had autopause for me, never.  Using 4th speed to race through an action causes the game to go to normal speed, not pause at the end of the action.

[Sarafina]

merlin is right, 4th speed has always been 3rd speed through the current action, then it goes to normal speed.  It is similar to when your sim sleeps.  When they sleep it is on third speed, then as soon as they wake up it is normal speed without you having to do anything.

[Narmy]

The 4th speed has always been 3rd speed with autopause. Always.

4th speed has never had autopause for me, never.  Using 4th speed to race through an action causes the game to go to normal speed, not pause at the end of the action.

By "autopause" I think she meant it automatically slows down.

Anyways, I don't ever remember 4th speed going any faster than 3rd speed, and I've been playing since vanilla The Sims 1. (when 4th speed only happened automatically while all your sims were asleep/at work.)

[Magwitch]

By "autopause" I think she meant it automatically slows down.

Yeah, sorry, poor choice of wording on my part. I meant what you guys are all saying - 4th speed is the same speed as 3rd but then reverts to normal speed at the end of the current action. It's never been faster than 3rd speed.

[jezzer]

Can we have six or seven more people state this?  I don't think it's clear enough at this point.