Hi! New member to the site here. I've been playing the Sims since the first ever :smile: I recently had my Sims 3 game stop loading on the second loading screen, after I click on the family. It gives me the "Sims 3 is not responding" error. I have yet to actually load the game up fully. I've tried to remove the whole sims 3 file and start up a new game; that worked perfectly. It loaded right into the neighborhood. Then I added my files back one by one and they all worked until I added in my "Riverview" world download which is where my sims family is. Now, I'm fairly certain that its the neighborhood that won't load. I can bring up my current game, however without the Riverview world I can't play, of course. I deleted the world download and re-downloaded it, however that didn't work. I'm really hoping someone can help me. I've put so much time into this town :(
Hi! New member to the site here. I've been playing the Sims since the first ever I recently had my Sims 3 game stop loading on the second loading screen, after I click on the family. It gives me the "Sims 3 is not responding" error. I have yet to actually load the game up fully. I've tried to remove the whole sims 3 file and start up a new game; that worked perfectly. It loaded right into the neighborhood. Then I added my files back one by one and they all worked until I added in my "Riverview" world download which is where my sims family is. Now, I'm fairly certain that its the neighborhood that won't load. I can bring up my current game, however without the Riverview world I can't play, of course. I deleted the world download and re-downloaded it, however that didn't work.
I'm really hoping someone can help me. I've put so much time into this town
Have you tried this -- uninstall the world (remove it from both Downloads and the InstalledWorlds folder), clear the five cache files that appear on the top level of the TS3 user game folder in Documents, and clear the World Cache* file for Riverview. Then download and Launcher install the world again. Can you then load up a different saved game or start a new game in Riverview? And then does your saved ongoing game fare any better?
*Don't clear the World Cache if you are on the Mac version of the game because that could render your ongoing game in that world unplayable permanently.
I'm nearing my wits end here, guys. Been playing TS3 for a good few years. In fact, I was playing it just the other day, and decided I wasn't totally satisfied with the layout of the buildings in the Shang Simla marketplace. Four hours later, I've rebuilt the lot to my liking and go to play it.
None of the doors or arches work. I've done edits like this before- the basecamp I've made works perfectly fine- but not the market.
I've saved to bin, deleted, and re-placed the lot. Still broken. I rebuilt the lot, thinking I saved a broken lot. Minor improvement: Bathroom doors work. Of course, they might have worked before, no one went into the bathroom that first time.
I even restarted my entire game- As in, deleted my save file and started all over. That's when I built the market the second time, and I'm starting to lose patience here.
I've got nraas mods, like master controller, retuner, errortrap, and all that. Only recent addition to those is nraas Register mod for the cashiers, otherwise they're all the same mods I had last week, when doors still worked.
Looking up the problem lead to a lot of dead ends. People stumble onto solutions but never find the cause, or sometimes the question just goes unanswered.
I'm sorry you are having issues, but am afraid I am finding your posts a bit puzzling. On the "Introduce Yourself" thread, you stated that almost no one helps with mod usage and that you think using them is violating the game's warranty. The game has no warranty, but maybe you weren't being serious about that part.
First of all, I am from NRaas. Supporting our mods is what we do, NRaas has its own message board system for just that purpose so it's a bit unsettling to hear that the mods are unsupported.
Secondly, EA does not itself support game mod usage which means that if you were to approach EA tech support for assistance they will probably ask you to remove your mods first. That's because EA does not make mods themselves. This is not EA tech support, we are your fellow players, and no one here is going to ask you to do that (at least not permanently, although maybe for testing). EA put the structure through which the mods Framework functions in place on purpose even though we have to set things up for ourselves. We aren't breaking rules here, we are extending the game with modded functions as it was designed to be extended. In case you haven't noticed, there are even Mods sub-boards on the TS4 section of this forum. TS3 doesn't have that only because message posting volume here is a bit lower now.
Now then, as to your current issue. Do you routinely clear (delete) the five cache files on the top level of your TS3 user game folder in Documents? If not, that's a good place to start. The caches will regenerate the next time you start up your game. Next thing to look at, do you have any mods that are not from NRaas? If so, I would suggest removing them temporarily (and clear caches again) to see if that helps clear the problem as one of them could be outdated or conflicting with others. And third thing, are you certain that your NRaas mods are the most recent versions, all suitable for your game's patch level? Outdated mods can periodically cause all kinds of problems.
Beyond that, if your could report back on those three things, we will have to ask another player for guidance on the Shang Simla marketplace in particular. I'm not as familiar with that WA world as others are and there could be something special about that lot that needs to be taken into account when editing it. Or at the very least it might need to be MasterController Reset or have invisible objects getting in the way of your doors and archways flushed out (also can be done with MC). Let's try paging someone we know plays that world more often -- @TreyNutz -- and see what suggestions he might have.
Ah, yeah- the um, the warranty comment was entirely a joke. I was frustrated, and didn't mean any offence.
I do routinely clear the cache, but only between times I open the game. Do you think it would work if I quit after establishing the lot, cleared the cache, and then relaunched?
I have a few non-nraas mods, like Free Your Klepto, Moretraits, and the Hatgrip sliders. Stuff I didn't think would interfere, but hey, anything helps so I'll give that a shot, too.
I do routinely clear the cache, but only between times I open the game. Do you think it would work if I quit after establishing the lot, cleared the cache, and then relaunched?
Since I'm not even recognizing what could be causing this issue yet, I would say that's worth a try. It certainly can't hurt, anyway. We'll help get this figured out one way or another I am sure if you stay with it. The only EA special world lot I can think of that is pretty resistant to players messing around with it is the Student Union one in Uni World, and even then only in some specific ways.
Okay, so I only placed down a version of the lot that I'd saved to the bin, so maybe that's what's corrupted. Clearing the cache after placing it doesn't seem to have fixed the problem :neutral:
Time to shift my mods around!
Maybe sometime I can share some pics of it with you :) It's pretty neat, if I do say so myself. I call it "Warrior's Way" because the fountain I made looks kind of like a helmet.
Updated all nraas mods, accurate to my patch level. Didn't fix the lot itself when placed, so I'll try rebuilding. This'll take a while, so accounting for bathroom breaks, meals, and an afternoon walk, I'll see you guys later this evening.
I'm gonna try something a little different, though: I'm gonna clear everything on top and then flatten the lot. Might be a bit fussy what with the tomb trigger switches, but it could be the solution? (Though, that does raise questions as to why bathroom doors still worked. I was able to replace the broken doors with bathroom doors and sims could walk through fine...)
See, one of the big changes I made was with the fountain. There used to be pools on the lot but I deleted them to place fountains instead so that sims would stop swimming/skinny dipping in them all the time without having to restrict any autonomy (after all, I do still like swimming, just... Not in the middle of the marketplace, please.)
However, when I went to place the fountain where the pool once was, I would get the "can't extend pool" error unless I used "constrainfloorelevation false", even though placing pool in the exact same place wouldn't be met by that error. At first I thought this had to do with the tomb rooms beneath the lot, but the blue outlines of a room beneath the level were never in the way of the fountain (I made absolutely sure of that, going so far as to shorten a small room with a treasure chest so that it would be clear)
All in all, a pretty perplexing headache. Here's hoping we can get to the bottom of this!
@NONSTOPSCREAMING - Not a master builder here by any means, but it's the use of the CFE cheat that screams out to me as a highly suspicious culprit from your description.
(Responding to @igazor 's page): I have customized this particular lot in Shang Simla. The only thing I did was raze the general merchant shop and rebuild it without a foundation. I didn't mess with the pools as I don't really mind sims swimming at the marketplace and occasionally my own sims swim there. I didn't actually delete the objects (including the doors); I just moved them from the building and moved them back after I had rebuilt the structure.
What about the doors and arches that don't work? I'll assume the sim is route blocked only (not that sims are being reset on using them). I'd try an MC reset of the lot, or use NRaas DebugEnabler to reset the doors. If that doesn't work I'd try rebuilding in stages. First, leave the pools alone (and any use of CFE). If the doors work then save the game ('Save As') and try customizing the pools. Then check the doors again. At the very least you could narrow down where in the rebuild the doors broke.
I haven't had luck with bulldozing tomb lots and replacing them from the bin. For quests that specifically require obtaining a relic which the game spawns in a chest or hole, those quests break when I place from the bin because the quest item never spawns. For that reason when I customize a tomb like the marketplace or the Temple of Heaven I won't bother copying to the bin.
Well, guys, I just don't know what to tell you. Fair warning, I don't fully understand what happened myself, but I'm gonna try telling the story from the start:
While I was updating the nraas mods, I'd put everything- as in, all my saves and the content of my mods folder (except nointro and an xml thing that looked important)- into a new folder on my desktop I'd named 'temporary housing'.
I make a new save. Grab a random single sim and play as her. Send her on a direct flight to China- Money is no object right now, I just need to know! @TreyNutz had a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 good point about editing the area in pieces to see where it falls apart. The key must be somewhere! Somewhere in the pools!
Shiftclick. Build on this lot. Pools? First thing to go. Pool's closed. Okay, now let's see those doors!
I should mention, as Murphy's Law is likely to blame for this, that I was at a friend's house. He was watching this all go down. I was trying to show him how the doors were broken, and...
They weren't. I'd deleted the pools, and yet everyone walked into the buildings just fine. Right. Fine. It wasn't the absence of pools- maybe it was the inclusion of the fountains, or my use of "constrainelevation", or-
Matt, the stoic companion that he is, watched me 1. put back all my mods 2. reload my old save 3. travel to china 4. use "build on this lot" to edit the market and periodically stop to run in and out of the archway. I don't know what went wrong, or what specifically fixed it, but they're working.
I'm about ready to live up to my username, guys, because I'm losing my tiny mind over here.
Don't get me wrong, though, I'm really thankful for all the help, and am glad I came here. @igazor and you guys were really patient with me, which isn't always easy in finicky tech stuff. <3
Hi, I'm just wondering if anyone could help me with my game.
Specs:
AMD R9 380x 16 GB Ram Intel I7 3770 Windows 8.1
Whenever I don't use my AMD Fps limiter, my PC produces coil whining sounds and my fps is around 200-300 max. Particularly happens in loading screens.
When I do set my fps my game produces screen tearing and I have tried all I can do within the AMD settings to stop this such as their surface format optimization. Anyone help?
@ryanleeoliver - My AMD card is older than yours. I don't get screen tears, but AMD's tools never did a thing to lock my fps rates in. I use and would suggest RivaTuner Stats Server (RTSS) for that. One oddity about RTSS is that it has to be running as an application in order to be effective, but you can set it to start up with Windows and it uses hardly any system resources.
So ive been playing sims 3 and everytime i play it im able to get a solid 60fps with everything on max @1080p , but everytime i zoom out or in or rotate or move the camera the game stutters like crazy yet still staying at exactly 60fps , its to the point where its nearly unplayable
So ive been playing sims 3 and everytime i play it im able to get a solid 60fps with everything on max @1080p , but everytime i zoom out or in or rotate or move the camera the game stutters like crazy yet still staying at exactly 60fps , its to the point where its nearly unplayable
This is common with the game. Lowering lot details to 2-3 may help a little. You can try rolling back your drivers. I'm on an older driver because it cuts down stutter. It's the game. The game plays well on some cards and not others. The stutter is not specific to any specific card. Some get the stutter and some don't. The game is almost 10 years old now.
Thanks, @igazor. I have previously tried that program along with MSI afterburner, D3D Overrider and more. I just tried to take a screen cap of the problem but now it isn't showing up in the pictures, could this be due to my computer/graphics rather than the game itself? Although I don't have any screen problems with any other game.
I have made a quick edit of a screen cap to show you what the problem does look like here: https :// ibb.co / cvHnHH (without the spaces of course)
This only happens when I'm scrolling around the map or around the town itself.
My FPS is being capped and is set at 60fps.
My vertical refresh in the game is set to 60hz, and in my display settings is also set to 60hz (although sometimes it does reset to 59hz). I am baffled as to what the problem could be now. If anyone has any suggestions, help would be lovely as the game is becoming unplayable.
@ryanleeoliver - I see what you mean, but afraid this probably comes down to a bunch of trial and error. Perhaps try capping your fps to 61 or 59 or some other odd values to see if that helps. And maybe try RTSS again, but without the AMD tools attempting to do the same thing (if you haven't already done so). Or it could be that your graphics card drivers either need updating or rolling back to a prior version.
Beyond that, we would have to see if there are other more recent AMD card users here who can offer better specific advice on its settings.
@igazor I just installed RadeonPro as it's under AMD. On the tweaks tab, I set the VSync control to dynamic along with the display refresh rate to 60hz. The screen tearing has improved dramatically and I get minimal screen tearing just after zooming in or out of town view. I'm going to tweak some more settings to see if I can completely get rid of the tearing and I'll keep you updated.
I'm sorry this isn't a "problem", I just was wondering about "move out with home". I know it will take the house with you, as I used before on accident, but my sims have a huge garden. Wha will happen to it? I just want them on a bigger lot.
@FunsizedSimmer i would not move your sims out with the house. It can cause game issues whether you want to move to a different lot in same town or a new town. Go into edit town, save the house and your sims separately to library. Take the house from library , place it on the lot you want than take your sims from library and place them in the house that you placed on a new lot or new world. It's a possibility when you place the house on a new lot, your garden might need some tending to and your garden might be wilted when you move the house.
Hi, I've had Sims 3 for years now and i got a computer about 1-2 years ago. i used to play on a laptop and it would always crash which is explainable, but now that i bought a computer i'm confused on why it continues crashing. Can I post my dxdiag info somewhere? I don't know if my computer is too low on RAM or something.
Hi, I've had Sims 3 for years now and i got a computer about 1-2 years ago. i used to play on a laptop and it would always crash which is explainable, but now that i bought a computer i'm confused on why it continues crashing. Can I post my dxdiag info somewhere? I don't know if my computer is too low on RAM or something.
Yes, of course. You can post the dxdiag right here in multiple posts by section if you want, as it will be far too long to fit into one reply. Or, easier if you could, post in on pastebin.com (the free version is fine, no need to create an account there) and provide a broken up link that we can still make sense out of (use h.t.t.p.s. for example) to get to it.
Yes, got it. The breaking up bit is only because you have New Member status and cannot yet post proper links here.
This computer may have been new to you, but it's a model from four years ago. At the time it would have been considered a "budget" system, under $500 (USD). It should be reasonably capable for routine office and school related tasks, but not so much for graphics intensive gaming. For TS3 it's better than some, but falls short in a couple of ways.
Its 6 GB of RAM should be okay for the game (we usually recommend 8 GB) as long as you run nothing else alongside of it -- no web browsers or other programs while the game is running. The killer is that it has no dedicated graphics card. The integrated graphics chip will put more stress on the processor and RAM usage and it will be expected to struggle to run the base game plus a few of the earlier EPs on pretty low graphics settings in Game Options and not at too high a resolution. The heavier EPs (Pets, Seasons, followed by IP and ITF) would probably be out of the question, as would very long-running games in overly complicated worlds. Given its compact design, I would also worry about overheating if it is pushed too hard.
You could probably add more RAM to it, but not do anything about the graphics as there would be space and power supply issues inside for a card of suitable strength.
If higher performance is expected than that, just for reference (of course age and price are not everything), a new desktop computer in a class above this one expected to carry all 11 EPs well will have at least 8 GB and a strong enough dedicated graphics card. They tend to start in the $750-800 range, although some bargains can be had if one shops around.
Comments
I'm really hoping someone can help me. I've put so much time into this town :(
*Don't clear the World Cache if you are on the Mac version of the game because that could render your ongoing game in that world unplayable permanently.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
None of the doors or arches work. I've done edits like this before- the basecamp I've made works perfectly fine- but not the market.
I've saved to bin, deleted, and re-placed the lot. Still broken. I rebuilt the lot, thinking I saved a broken lot. Minor improvement: Bathroom doors work. Of course, they might have worked before, no one went into the bathroom that first time.
I even restarted my entire game- As in, deleted my save file and started all over. That's when I built the market the second time, and I'm starting to lose patience here.
I've got nraas mods, like master controller, retuner, errortrap, and all that. Only recent addition to those is nraas Register mod for the cashiers, otherwise they're all the same mods I had last week, when doors still worked.
Looking up the problem lead to a lot of dead ends. People stumble onto solutions but never find the cause, or sometimes the question just goes unanswered.
I'm sorry you are having issues, but am afraid I am finding your posts a bit puzzling. On the "Introduce Yourself" thread, you stated that almost no one helps with mod usage and that you think using them is violating the game's warranty. The game has no warranty, but maybe you weren't being serious about that part.
First of all, I am from NRaas. Supporting our mods is what we do, NRaas has its own message board system for just that purpose so it's a bit unsettling to hear that the mods are unsupported.
Secondly, EA does not itself support game mod usage which means that if you were to approach EA tech support for assistance they will probably ask you to remove your mods first. That's because EA does not make mods themselves. This is not EA tech support, we are your fellow players, and no one here is going to ask you to do that (at least not permanently, although maybe for testing). EA put the structure through which the mods Framework functions in place on purpose even though we have to set things up for ourselves. We aren't breaking rules here, we are extending the game with modded functions as it was designed to be extended. In case you haven't noticed, there are even Mods sub-boards on the TS4 section of this forum. TS3 doesn't have that only because message posting volume here is a bit lower now.
Now then, as to your current issue. Do you routinely clear (delete) the five cache files on the top level of your TS3 user game folder in Documents? If not, that's a good place to start. The caches will regenerate the next time you start up your game. Next thing to look at, do you have any mods that are not from NRaas? If so, I would suggest removing them temporarily (and clear caches again) to see if that helps clear the problem as one of them could be outdated or conflicting with others. And third thing, are you certain that your NRaas mods are the most recent versions, all suitable for your game's patch level? Outdated mods can periodically cause all kinds of problems.
Beyond that, if your could report back on those three things, we will have to ask another player for guidance on the Shang Simla marketplace in particular. I'm not as familiar with that WA world as others are and there could be something special about that lot that needs to be taken into account when editing it. Or at the very least it might need to be MasterController Reset or have invisible objects getting in the way of your doors and archways flushed out (also can be done with MC). Let's try paging someone we know plays that world more often -- @TreyNutz -- and see what suggestions he might have.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
I do routinely clear the cache, but only between times I open the game. Do you think it would work if I quit after establishing the lot, cleared the cache, and then relaunched?
I have a few non-nraas mods, like Free Your Klepto, Moretraits, and the Hatgrip sliders. Stuff I didn't think would interfere, but hey, anything helps so I'll give that a shot, too.
Fingers crossed, and many thanks!
I was frustrated last night, but you could say I've... Simmered down since then *fingerguns* *airhorns* ;P
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
Time to shift my mods around!
Maybe sometime I can share some pics of it with you :) It's pretty neat, if I do say so myself. I call it "Warrior's Way" because the fountain I made looks kind of like a helmet.
I'm gonna try something a little different, though: I'm gonna clear everything on top and then flatten the lot. Might be a bit fussy what with the tomb trigger switches, but it could be the solution? (Though, that does raise questions as to why bathroom doors still worked. I was able to replace the broken doors with bathroom doors and sims could walk through fine...)
See, one of the big changes I made was with the fountain. There used to be pools on the lot but I deleted them to place fountains instead so that sims would stop swimming/skinny dipping in them all the time without having to restrict any autonomy (after all, I do still like swimming, just... Not in the middle of the marketplace, please.)
However, when I went to place the fountain where the pool once was, I would get the "can't extend pool" error unless I used "constrainfloorelevation false", even though placing pool in the exact same place wouldn't be met by that error. At first I thought this had to do with the tomb rooms beneath the lot, but the blue outlines of a room beneath the level were never in the way of the fountain (I made absolutely sure of that, going so far as to shorten a small room with a treasure chest so that it would be clear)
All in all, a pretty perplexing headache. Here's hoping we can get to the bottom of this!
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
What about the doors and arches that don't work? I'll assume the sim is route blocked only (not that sims are being reset on using them). I'd try an MC reset of the lot, or use NRaas DebugEnabler to reset the doors. If that doesn't work I'd try rebuilding in stages. First, leave the pools alone (and any use of CFE). If the doors work then save the game ('Save As') and try customizing the pools. Then check the doors again. At the very least you could narrow down where in the rebuild the doors broke.
I haven't had luck with bulldozing tomb lots and replacing them from the bin. For quests that specifically require obtaining a relic which the game spawns in a chest or hole, those quests break when I place from the bin because the quest item never spawns. For that reason when I customize a tomb like the marketplace or the Temple of Heaven I won't bother copying to the bin.
While I was updating the nraas mods, I'd put everything- as in, all my saves and the content of my mods folder (except nointro and an xml thing that looked important)- into a new folder on my desktop I'd named 'temporary housing'.
I make a new save. Grab a random single sim and play as her. Send her on a direct flight to China- Money is no object right now, I just need to know! @TreyNutz had a 🐸🐸🐸🐸 good point about editing the area in pieces to see where it falls apart. The key must be somewhere! Somewhere in the pools!
Shiftclick. Build on this lot. Pools? First thing to go. Pool's closed. Okay, now let's see those doors!
I should mention, as Murphy's Law is likely to blame for this, that I was at a friend's house. He was watching this all go down. I was trying to show him how the doors were broken, and...
They weren't. I'd deleted the pools, and yet everyone walked into the buildings just fine. Right. Fine. It wasn't the absence of pools- maybe it was the inclusion of the fountains, or my use of "constrainelevation", or-
Matt, the stoic companion that he is, watched me 1. put back all my mods 2. reload my old save 3. travel to china 4. use "build on this lot" to edit the market and periodically stop to run in and out of the archway. I don't know what went wrong, or what specifically fixed it, but they're working.
I'm about ready to live up to my username, guys, because I'm losing my tiny mind over here.
Don't get me wrong, though, I'm really thankful for all the help, and am glad I came here. @igazor and you guys were really patient with me, which isn't always easy in finicky tech stuff. <3
Specs:
AMD R9 380x
16 GB Ram
Intel I7 3770
Windows 8.1
Whenever I don't use my AMD Fps limiter, my PC produces coil whining sounds and my fps is around 200-300 max. Particularly happens in loading screens.
When I do set my fps my game produces screen tearing and I have tried all I can do within the AMD settings to stop this such as their surface format optimization. Anyone help?
http://www.guru3d.com/files-details/rtss-rivatuner-statistics-server-download.html
(Be sure to ignore any downloads showing up in the upper right corner if you do not have an ad-blocker. The real downloads are 2/3 of the way down the page.)
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
This is common with the game. Lowering lot details to 2-3 may help a little. You can try rolling back your drivers. I'm on an older driver because it cuts down stutter. It's the game. The game plays well on some cards and not others. The stutter is not specific to any specific card. Some get the stutter and some don't. The game is almost 10 years old now.
I have made a quick edit of a screen cap to show you what the problem does look like here: https :// ibb.co / cvHnHH (without the spaces of course)
This only happens when I'm scrolling around the map or around the town itself.
My FPS is being capped and is set at 60fps.
My vertical refresh in the game is set to 60hz, and in my display settings is also set to 60hz (although sometimes it does reset to 59hz). I am baffled as to what the problem could be now. If anyone has any suggestions, help would be lovely as the game is becoming unplayable.
Beyond that, we would have to see if there are other more recent AMD card users here who can offer better specific advice on its settings.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net
This computer may have been new to you, but it's a model from four years ago. At the time it would have been considered a "budget" system, under $500 (USD). It should be reasonably capable for routine office and school related tasks, but not so much for graphics intensive gaming. For TS3 it's better than some, but falls short in a couple of ways.
Its 6 GB of RAM should be okay for the game (we usually recommend 8 GB) as long as you run nothing else alongside of it -- no web browsers or other programs while the game is running. The killer is that it has no dedicated graphics card. The integrated graphics chip will put more stress on the processor and RAM usage and it will be expected to struggle to run the base game plus a few of the earlier EPs on pretty low graphics settings in Game Options and not at too high a resolution. The heavier EPs (Pets, Seasons, followed by IP and ITF) would probably be out of the question, as would very long-running games in overly complicated worlds. Given its compact design, I would also worry about overheating if it is pushed too hard.
You could probably add more RAM to it, but not do anything about the graphics as there would be space and power supply issues inside for a card of suitable strength.
If higher performance is expected than that, just for reference (of course age and price are not everything), a new desktop computer in a class above this one expected to carry all 11 EPs well will have at least 8 GB and a strong enough dedicated graphics card. They tend to start in the $750-800 range, although some bargains can be had if one shops around.
NRaas has moved!
Our new site is at http://nraas.net