Forum Announcement, Click Here to Read More From EA_Cade.

Lags & Invisible, Frozen & Stuck Sims --> Post here if you have the issue.

crinrictcrinrict Posts: 18,771 Member
edited February 27 in Nominated Threads
Hi guys,

A few links on the issue

BUG: Frozen & Stuck Sims
BUG: Invisible Sims
BUG: Lags & Intermittent Freezes
BUG: Crowd gatherings on community lots
BUG: Crowds in front of the school

Some more info can be found here:
Late Night Bugs - Compiled List in first two posts

There's also threads about this at MTS
Game Help:UI and Sim Issues
General/Other - [Common] Missing Sims and/or User Interface
General/Other - [Common]Data collection and analysis: Intermittent Freezes and Lags

Pics by AndreeAndree: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00

If you have any problems regarding Sim Corruption, please post here: Blank or Missing Sim Icons, Missing UIs, Missing Interactions and Clones

How to post your info in this thread
Reading through your posts I decided it's probably best if everyone just writes down what ever they think important. There is a few info, that you should include though:

1. Basic System info (no DxDiag unless you are asked this info by a guru, they just make it hard to read through everything)
- Processor
- RAM
- Graphic Card
- OS
2. What Add-Ons do you have
3. Are you using Mods/CC
- If you are using mods, please post the bigger ones (no need to list every single one)
- If you have cc, how much do you have (little, moderate, a lot)
4. Do you have any other significant problems like crashing/save errors

Also, if I ask you a question back and you answer, it would be great if you could quote the question. It's sometimes hard to keep track on who I asked what.

Crinrict's Help Blogs -- Twitter
Please do not send me PMs/post on my wall if you're looking for help. I can't attend to those. You can find me at AnswerHQ.
How to report bugs at AnswersHQ
AHQ Tutorial

Post edited by EA_Solaire on

Comments

  • crinrictcrinrict Posts: 18,771 Member
    edited January 2012
    General problem people are seeing

    - Sims get stuck in bed and on other furniture. Reset sim helps once, maybe twice then it stops working
    --> Possible Workaround posted by zerobandwith
    - Sims get stuck on each other, leaving large groups of Sims in one space
    - Sims turn invisible, only leaving the thought bubbles visible
    - Lags because of the stuck Sims or temporary cars that don't get cleaned in the streets and inactive Sims inventories
    - Toddlers get stuck on top of the stairs while trying to interact with t/ya/a/e
    - Sims get stuck in two locations in Bridgeport behind the hospital in Bridgeport for this should be an inaccessible area but isn't
    - Frozen Game where only the animations go on.
    - Invisible Objects that block the Sims path
    - Sims are getting reset and send back home.
    - Sims are getting reset from work and are now standing outside some rabbit hole
    - All sims get drawn to one spot
    - Sims getting stuck in elevators
    - Ultimate loss of your save game: Missing GUI (this can be caused by uninstalling an injector mod the wrong way but that's not always the case)

    Play style, system info, Mods/CC status
    - Most people in this thread have more then adequate systems, are up-to-date and have tried everything from reinstalling to reformatting and nothing works. The error can't be point pointed to any group of hardware. It occurs on all OS, including Mac. The more EPs you have, the faster you have it.
    - Most people in this thread do not have any cc or mods although it shows that people that are using Twallan's mods are inclined to have less problems
    - People have different play styles but lots seem to keep to one household, playing legacy style.
    - The error seems to occur around week 10 or a little later into the game. Once you have it, it seems to infect other save games, also new ones.
    - This problem has been around since the beginning but seems to get worse with every EP/SP that's coming out, LN making it a problem for a lot of people. You don't NEED LN to have the problem and it's not only happening in Bridgeport.

    Invisible Sims - Reasons
    This info is speculation and might or might not be true
    So far I think there are three problems that can render your Sim invisible:

    - Large crowds, stuck sims that make your game laggy and because of this the graphics have trouble actually displaying the Sim. This is only a temporary invisibility and they can turn visible any time. Overwatch gets rid of crowds in front of community lots because of star opportunities.
    - Broken outfits. No clue what breaks them but Twallan pinpoints them on cc that is being uninstalled from the game. That's certainly true for invisible babies when you uninstall bad cc. Could be other reasons. Fix Invisible Sims on DebugEnabler fixes those
    - TestBrawlError. The error occurs at a point in time where the other sims are leaving rabbit holes, buses or other actions that make them temporarily invisible. Because of the error, the game bounces and the Sim does not get visible. ResetSim makes those visible again but there could be other problems following (like the stuck in bed issue). Overwatch and ErrorTrap get rid of the TestBrawlError

    Mods, that actually help with all those problems (don't solve it)

    All Mods are by Twallan. There are others around (Google: NRaas, ISZ).

    Overwatch --> Getting rid of temp cars, broken relationships and family trees and the Sims get drawn to one community lot problem, also has many more fixes, refer to Twallans forum on the details.
    MasterController --> Ability to reset the whole town (Sims & Objects)
    DebugEnabler --> Ability to fix invisible Sims with faulty outfits
    ErrorTrap (CoreMod) --> Fixes dangling references and can help with the missing UI problem and more.

    A solution to the routing problem in Bridgeport can be found here: Bridgeport Routing Fix

    If you decide to use a mod, make sure you remove them before patching your game. Overwatch, DebugEnabler, MasterController and ErrorTrap are save to remove without any special instructions. Simply delete the files and remove your cache files.

    ErrorTrap is a CoreMod and can only be used with the Patch stated in the Twallan's post.

    For instructions on how to get a mod into your game, please check this thread: http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/217955.page

    to be continued ..





    Post edited by Unknown User on
    Crinrict's Help Blogs -- Twitter
    Please do not send me PMs/post on my wall if you're looking for help. I can't attend to those. You can find me at AnswerHQ.
    How to report bugs at AnswersHQ
    AHQ Tutorial

  • KadoshoKadosho Posts: 26
    edited March 2011
    I wondered what happened to the other thread. I came back to check on it and saw I couldn't even open it anymore. :(

    Hopefully everyone will find their way here. In the meantime, here's the link to the game updates page:

    http://www.thesims3.com/game/patches
  • 45rpm45rpm Posts: 2,606 Member
    edited March 2011
    Kadasho
    You would think they could delete one message
    instead of the whole thread. It had over 10k reads and multi messages
    If they cant delete one message perhaps they should get that option.

    Not a word said by EA even though the thread was massive.

    The problem is still here and I hope everyone posts

    I still have sticky frozing disappearing sims and Ive done all you have said
    EA and it still returns. When is a fix coming... We have waited for a very long time.

    I found cache clearing and saving often helps me but it eventually acts up again
    I learnt that trick from another player



  • nickibitswardnickibitsward Posts: 3,115 Member
    edited March 2011
    Hmmm, a troll. Very convenient. Thanks for restarting this, Crinrict.

    Okay: My game worked perfectly - not a hiccup, lag or momentarily pause, except for some reason, sometimes while vacationing in France, since the day I installed it. I have all the EP's and SP's except FLS.

    I DO NOT HAVE CC or mods. Nothing off the exchange, only Store items.

    When I received LateNight, I automatically checked the launcher first to see if there was an update I should install before I installed the EP (made the mistake of not checking once and it destroyed my game so I always check and install any
    update first then the EP).

    Installed LN and played around a bit in Bridgeport getting used to things. No glitches, no problems with butlers or mixologists or people not showing up to clubs. Just worked fine.

    So I started a new game with my favourite Sim (a copy of him from the bin) and
    he wanted to learn the mixology skill so I got him the books. We were good until Level 7.

    There he was, sitting in his chair, no longer turning book pages. Sitting and
    not moving while everything else went on around him. Stuck fast. I tried to reset him and poof, gone.

    Nothing I have done since that fatal day, months ago works. I reinstalled it all, decided to stay out of Bridgeport and played Sunset Valley. New Sim. New
    house. New everything. He's all skilled up, high along in his career and looking good. Tell him to get the mail. Hear the mailbox open - wait a minute?
    Where is my Sim?

    It doesn't matter what Sim, what family, house or town. In about ten Sim weeks,
    the Sim I am playing (not the game) will freeze or just vanish. They are not, in my opinion doing anything specific that might cause them to vanish, like working on a invisibility spell...the last one was talking to the maid.

    I have also had NPC Sims get stuck in park benches on the community lots. A buildup of cars and stereos in inventories, etc., etc.

    None of this has been addressed by EA and it is really too bad that this thread has sat here for so long, ignored, while so much effort was put into it by so many people trying to help each other since, obviously EA cannot or will not, only to have it deleted because of one stupid post!

    (EA sure noticed that post among all the others - wonder if they even bothered to read the thread.)
  • KadoshoKadosho Posts: 26
    edited March 2011
    You're right about how odd it is that they couldn't remove a couple offensive posts rather than an entire thread. Perhaps they don't like the criticism they have received lately. Though their evasiveness and recent actions (or lack thereof) are good cause for it.

    Honestly I don't like to come off saying EA doesn't care. But I can see why some might think they don't. Here's hoping that wiping out entire threads won't become common place in the forums and that a fix will be presented soon.

    I know a new expansion is being made. Lets just hope it won't lead to even more problems rising up as well.
  • KadoshoKadosho Posts: 26
    edited March 2011
    Also, I too want to give big thanks to crinrict for restarting this thread. You are awesome :thumbup:
  • crinrictcrinrict Posts: 18,771 Member
    edited March 2011
    Could we keep this on the subject, please.

    They have deleted my threads and I don't think it has anything to do with the content of the old thread. I saw what the troll posted and it was disgusting.

    The thread got reported by many, including me, that's why they knew that something bad was in it.
    Crinrict's Help Blogs -- Twitter
    Please do not send me PMs/post on my wall if you're looking for help. I can't attend to those. You can find me at AnswerHQ.
    How to report bugs at AnswersHQ
    AHQ Tutorial

  • MistyIyedMistyIyed Posts: 72 New Member
    edited March 2011
    I think the whole thread was deleated because they are tired of hearing from us. Guess they figure we will all go away.
    I'll stop posting once EA fixes the game.
    I have all of the Sims3 games and add-ons, but won't install Outdoor Living until I can actually play again.

    No mods no CC's - just store stuff. Was playing for the longest time with no problems until the patch after Late Nite- then my Sim froze standing through his chair. Tried re-set Sim- which moved him and then he went invisible. Tried going back to my original Sim and only got the map view and couldn't enter any other houses.
    Had to control/alt/delete to quit the game. Turned off the computer and restarted, my sim was still invisible and so was my control bar.

    Went about 6 rounds with customer service until I realized they were repeating themselves. Sent them my dx- that was fine. Customer service was absolutely no help.

    I will not be buying any new games or EP's - nothing with EA's name on it unless they fix what they have ruined!
    I was a loyal fan since the first Sims came out and own every Sim game,EP and Stuff packs they ever sold, not to mention all of their game guides.

    You owe us something EA- a word of acknowledgement would be a start. Sims3 was my favorite game and I miss it. I have been waiting for 3 months now for you to answer all of us.

    Are you working on a patch ? Please let us know.
  • nickibitswardnickibitsward Posts: 3,115 Member
    edited March 2011
    Hi Crinrict: I did see the posting but couldn't see any pictures, just the little boxes with the "X" in them so whatever was posted was lost on me. And it's been so long, I didn't even remember who started the thread. Still not fair to delete an entire thread.
  • LadyLaFleurLadyLaFleur Posts: 2,185 Member
    edited March 2011
    Okay, first off - I do not use mods or CC. Telling people to install a mod to fix a glitch is kind of ridiculous. Second, I play on a Mac so I can't get the mods even if I wanted them.

    The too many cars issue is a serious problem. I shouldn't have to go into each individual household and delete the cars that have built up in their inventories every time I launch the game. This has been reported repeatedly since the EP has come out. It's been months - I'm getting pretty tired of the excuses.
    "This game lends itself to certain abuses." - Calvin
  • KadoshoKadosho Posts: 26
    edited March 2011
    I had Sims 3 and everything up to Ambitions and was able to play with no problem. I made a huge legacy family which lasted several generations and even owned almost every business and lot in Twinbrook.

    About a couple months ago I purchased Fast Lane and Late Night. This is when my problems began. I started a new Sim in Bridgeport and spent the first three days in the new expansion building a huge home on the island where all the celebrities live. When I moved my Sim in and started playing I noticed the game would lag somewhat but shrugged it off as PC issues. Eventually, about six Sim weeks in, I noticed some of his friends seemed to disappear. I wasn't sure if it was a story progression thing or not, so I didn't think of it much. At least not until one night I sent my Sim to bed. After which he got stuck, floating above the covers. No matter what I did I couldn't move him. I even restarted the game only to have it happen again at the same time. Even in beds in other rooms.

    I tried restarting a new game and the same problems eventually returned. I tried contacting EA but they were no help. I also came to the forums here and at Mod The Sims looking for possible solutions. I've tried every fix that was suggested both by EA and other players. I wiped my saves, uninstall/reinstalled, played without anything that wasn't part of the retail copies.

    I also tried fixes suggested in the old thread such as cache clearing, multiple saves, no stairs, story progression off, no more then x number of Sims. I even tried the Overwatch Mod and Master Controller. I've tried every neighborhood and even my Legacy Family again (which I no longer have, thanks EA).

    Obviously nothing has worked as the problems still persist. Its pretty well accepted that the issue lies with the more recent patches of this game. I'm hoping a fix comes soon, but others have experienced these problems longer than I have. Some already having given up entirely on this game and the franchise as a whole.

    Currently I'm playing Sims 1 and Sims 2. I've been enjoying these games immensely, but I can't help but feel a bit cheated that I went out and bought Sims 3 only to go back to the older games to enjoy any sort of story with my created Sims.
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • crinrictcrinrict Posts: 18,771 Member
    edited March 2011
    @LadyLaFleur: Twallan's Mod work perfectly on a mac. Tools don't, but CC and mods are working without a problem. I don't know where you have your user files on a mac but other than that, it's the same.
    Crinrict's Help Blogs -- Twitter
    Please do not send me PMs/post on my wall if you're looking for help. I can't attend to those. You can find me at AnswerHQ.
    How to report bugs at AnswersHQ
    AHQ Tutorial

  • suelorchasuelorcha Posts: 318 New Member
    edited March 2011
    Firstly, my computer specs and Dxdiag have been posted on this forum and been deemed 'good'.

    Lag - my game lagged badly after installing LN. I had to get The Overwatch mod to fix it ( the first time in 8 years of playing sims that I had to install a mod to make my game playable ).

    Frozen sims - my sims became frozen and I noticed many were stuck, in large numbers, outside of the school building. Resetting each sim indvidually was only a temporary fix, so once again I had to rely on a mod ( Twallans Master Controller) to reset the entire town.

    Invisible sims - never had any.

    Frozen game - this is the worst as my whole game freezes up...and stays that way until I exit it.

    I have a small amount of cc and the fore- mentioned mods.
  • PegnationPegnation Posts: 21 Member
    edited March 2011
    I have experienced the freezing Sim bug since Late Night or the Late Night patch. The problem happens after I play one family for extended Sim-time, usually after 5+ sim weeks of play. They freeze in bed, sims freeze around town, meld together, etc. It happens in all towns.

    I play with story progression off, aging on, lifespan on long. I play one family (no switching households) and don't use cheats. I clear caches every time before I play and "save as" with a new name frequently.

    I have NO CC or Mods. All games patched fully, drivers are updated.

    Basic PC info:
    Desktop: Intel quad core, Windows Vista 32, 4GB RAM
    ATI Radeon HD 4850

    I have all games and stuff packs except Outdoor Living and some store content.
    Prior to the LN patch, the main issues I was having were error 12 and error 16 after installing Ambitions, but I alleviated that by saving as and more often.

    I really enjoyed the game prior to this but have had to stop playing because every game is a time-bomb. But I come back here diligently, hoping for a fix.
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • zerobandwidthzerobandwidth Posts: 118 New Member
    edited March 2011
    These bugs are not specific to Late Night, as I do not have it installed (only core, World Adventures, and Ambitions) and experience the same issues. I suspect that it's not Late Night itself, but a core game patch related to stuff in Late Night.

    I have observed something interesting about some of the sim-fatal game glitches:

    - These glitches that cause people to disappear or get stuck will often occur at an hour when people typically exit jobs at rabbitholes. For example, one of my sims started killing the game every time he left his journalism job at the corporate towers. After I had him quit, he no longer caused the problem. This is also why you'll often see non-played sims frozen just outside rabbitholes, particularly the police station, stadium, and school. Resetting sims (played or non-played) generally unsticks them from this situation.

    - Resetting stuck sims loses its effectiveness over time. In the game I'm about to give up on, I was generally able to recover in week 10 by resetting every one I could see, but now in week 17 I've reached a point where the save is unplayable. This leads me to believe that the bug has some sort of cumulative effect which stays with any sim who has experienced a bug.

    - For the "sim stuck in bed" bug, as long as they were asleep at the time, you can sometimes unstick them by telling them to nap. This will cause them to pop back to their feet inside the bed object, and then they'll walk out of the bed and back onto it. However, if they were woohooing, daydreaming, or some other action (that doesn't have an end time associated with it), then they're just screwed, and you have to hope a reset works.

    - DO NOT attempt to move a sim that is stuck in a bed, or move the bed itself, with the "moveobjects on" cheat. It just makes things worse.

    - In general, if you have reached a point where resetting a sim does not remedy the problem, in that the sim immediately disappears again, or gets reset into the floor, your save file is unrecoverable. Your only option is to retreat backward through your save files to one that doesn't die. The quickest way to find out whether your save file is usable is to reopen it and immediately try everything you can to kill it -- send someone to work, someone else to bed, start woohooing, take a class, start writing a book, etc.

    - If you see a bunch of non-played sims stuck at a particular location in town, you can Edit Town and Build/Buy on that lot. That will reset everyone who was there. However, if you're at home, and your played sims glitch out, trying to switch modes will put the whole game in a limbo state between modes, where you can't do anything, similar to the "I travelled and now my game UI is gone!" bug.
  • suelorchasuelorcha Posts: 318 New Member
    edited March 2011
    I can't help thinking this is a pathing issue.

    The first sign of trouble ( I think ) in my towns is when kids don't come home from school on time. They will be INSIDE the school building till about 5pm and the 'send home' command doesn't work.

    Another sign is a sim who is stuck (NOT FROZEN) in an odd place. One seemed to be stuck between floors of the house ( floating sim?) and another was stuck in the hedges. If he couldn't get out then how did he even get in?

    In both these instances the sim would do the " I can't move" gesture.

    In the deleted thread some mentioned their troubles might have begun when a parent tries to feed a toddler who crawls to the stairs while the parent is at the bottom of the stairs.
  • AndreeAndreeAndreeAndree Posts: 307
    edited March 2011
    I keep a flickr page with whatever bugs I find or just funny or interesting things:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00

    I just had the bed bug happen again, and the game was going so well into it's 15th week. I'd had no lagging or freezing or getting stuck in furniture up to that point. Somehow the game had seemed to improve with the last game I played.

    If you go back through some of the images on flickr, you'll find most of the major bugs are shown. People frozen, merged, floating out of their bed or in their bed or in the ground. Cars accumulating, cars embedded in the ground. People in the driving position outside their jobs, stuck in the ground. It's hard to show people invisible, as they aren't there, LOL, but I took a couple of pictures of where they had just been.

    I'm using a new iMac,
    Model Name: iMac
    Model Identifier: iMac11,3
    Processor Name: Intel Core i7
    Processor Speed: 2.93 GHz
    Number Of Processors: 1
    Total Number Of Cores: 4
    L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
    L3 Cache: 8 MB
    Memory: 8 GB
    Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s

    ATI Radeon HD 5750:

    Chipset Model: ATI Radeon HD 5750
    Type: GPU
    Bus: PCIe
    PCIe Lane Width: x16
    VRAM (Total): 1024 MB
    Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
    Device ID: 0x68a1
    Revision ID: 0x0000
    ROM Revision: 113-B9710C-238
    EFI Driver Version: 01.00.417
    Displays:
    iMac:
    Resolution: 1920 x 1080
    Pixel Depth: 32-Bit Color (ARGB8888)
    Main Display: Yes
    Mirror: Off
    Online: Yes
    Built-In: Yes
    Connection Type: DisplayPort

    I have only downloaded and installed items located in the Store that are free, such as the Toyota Prius pack and the Ford Fiesta. Also any holiday free packs for the December holidays and Valentines and Halloween.

    I don't have any other items installed for the game, and only run the base game and Ambitions, which came together in a special box.

    The computer itself has had no new applications added other than Firefox. Everything else installed on the computer is stock, directly from the manufacturer.



  • drewmann3301drewmann3301 Posts: 84 New Member
    edited March 2011
    I agree that this could be a very severe Sim pathing issue, at best. I've had every problem mentioned in this thread (and the 50+ page thread that was deleted), from the beginning signs of the game stalling slightly for short periods of time [plumbbobs continuing to rotate, music notes still coming from radios or instruments, trees and other plants moving in the wind, and all other background animations still working smoothly, while the game itself freezes - Sims stop in place, I cannot interact with the UI or click on any part of the game, and time stops]; townie Sims and my own household of young adult - adult Sims becoming invisible or frozen while either exiting their cars outside of their rabbithole jobs, or being reset to home position when trying to enter rabbitholes for work; children and teenage Sims gathering in large groups in front of the school, unable to enter for whatever reason (recently with my current game, my two 3-star Celebrity teenagers will leave for school at 7am, arrive outside of the school on time, stand directly in front of the school doors as other neighborhood Sims gather, but will not actually make it inside the school and begin improving their grades until after 11-12 o'clock, giving them barely an hour to be in school, negatively impacting their performance and mood.).

    Someone mentioned in the deleted thread something about when experiencing the disappearing or automatically reset Sims problem, they discovered that their Sims could be found on the basement level (even if there was no basement - they would be trapped underground with no possible route to escape except for the resetSim cheat). That made me wonder - though I have yet to check myself, because luckily I have not encountered invisible Sims since I began using Overwatch, Master Controller, and NRaaS Story Progression - if maybe there is a major issue with routing Sims on the way to rabbithole places, mainly for work, that they are for some reason leaving their cars or carpools and then being sent to a nonexistent basement level outside of the rabbithole building. It makes sense to me, because when I first started having these problems in Bridgeport (I'm currently playing in Sunset Valley), the plumbbob of the invisible Sims would appear not distinctly, and possibly slightly lower, closer to the ground, as if they were a level beneath the ground. The plumbbobs would still be visible for me, but they would not be as big as they should, and not in the correct full form.

    I also had problems in Bridgeport with every single highrise bar or club, with a myriad of mixologists appearing in the lobby unable to access the lounge/bar area, which was also inaccessible to my active Sims, and when my Sim would attempt to enter the elevator with a small group of other townie Sims, he would be reset to home position and never reach the floor of the lounge.

    It seems as though pathing is seriously corrupted when it comes to Sim routing, rabbitholes, and high rise buildings. Hopefully we can investigate this further ourselves as players and potentially narrow down the problem if/when EA takes notice of our issues.
  • crinrictcrinrict Posts: 18,771 Member
    edited March 2011
    Thank you guys for all the info.

    @AndreeAndree: I have posted your link on the first post.

    @zerobandwidth: Thanks for all those points you made. I'll try compiling some of it.

    I also would like to explain to you guys that this issue has actually nothing to do with Late Night. The first I saw people getting stuck in beds was shortly after the game came out. Must have been August 09. I tested a game for someone who had the problem and there was nothing I was able to do about it except tell the person to start a new game. I also came across a thread in this forum that was from back in '09 describing the very same problem. So this issue has been around forever. It's just the more EPs you add, the more info gets added to your Sims. This is particularly true for WA that introduced the 'MiniSims'. Those are the sims that you see gray in your relationship panel and that are striped of info to only keep the minimum necessary. There are many things wrong with them and the first invisible Sims appeared when you got back from vacation traveling. Twallan has found that most of these invisible Sims have corrupt outfits which makes them invisible in the first place. That can be corrected with the fix invisible Sims interaction in DebugEnabler but since this rerolls everything you might end up with Sims that look very different then they did before.

    Late Night with all it's new Sims and that bad routing place in the mountains just added to the problem, making it show up for a lot of people and thus making it a common problem. The more data gets accumulated the likelier you get this bug.

    I find it very curious that it seems that once you had this problem, it seems to affect every new game you start, making the error come back a lot earlier. Twallan's Mods do seem to help tremendously for they are constantly cleaning up hung references, broken outfits and temporary items that don't get deleted properly.

    If it really is a routing issue, I'm wondering if Twoftmama's Route Fix mod (formerly Richdre's RouteFix Mod) will also help with it.

    If you are into mods, it's worth a try as well as Twallan's ErrorTrap (that is core).

    That's it for now. Keep posting :)
    Crinrict's Help Blogs -- Twitter
    Please do not send me PMs/post on my wall if you're looking for help. I can't attend to those. You can find me at AnswerHQ.
    How to report bugs at AnswersHQ
    AHQ Tutorial

  • AndreeAndreeAndreeAndree Posts: 307
    edited March 2011
    suelorcha wrote:

    In the deleted thread some mentioned their troubles might have begun when a parent tries to feed a toddler who crawls to the stairs while the parent is at the bottom of the stairs.

    The last game I was playing was single story. I had a toddler. There was enough space in the child's bedroom, and in the living room, that the child could be fed on the floor. Or be picked up.

    And yet several times, when the child would be playing in their bedroom and the parent was in the living room, both the child and the parent would head for the kitchen to "feed on floor".

    Even when the babysitter was going to pick up the child to snuggle, the child would leave their bedroom, head for the kitchen, while the babysitter left whatever spot they were at and also headed for the kitchen.

    It doesn't happen every single time, though. Sometimes the parents will feed the child on the floor in the bedroom or in the living room. Sometimes when I had instructed the parent who was carrying the child to "feed on floor", no matter where the parent was standing around the house, they would also head for the kitchen and feed the child in the same spot. IN THE KITCHEN.

    Here's an image of the location of the child with babysitter (screen shot 259):
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00/5567179477/

    Screen shot 258 is also posted, it's of the babysitter and the toddler in the kitchen. The toddler was IN THE BEDROOM before the photo was taken, and the babysitter had been at the computer in the living room. The babysitter wanted to snuggle/pick up the toddler. Both went to the kitchen, and the location of the sitting toddler in 258 is exactly where the child would go to be fed or picked up...sometimes. Not every time. I'm thinking it has to do with the child wanting to be a certain distance from the fridge...zeroing in on that location, as well as the parents or babysitter. The fridge is hard to see, it's black, but it's the item in the upper left corner of the kitchen shown in the image 259.

    As I said in the deleted thread, if you have the problem with the toddler at the top of the stairs, it's because of the need for the child to go to the kitchen to be fed. Toddlers (as it is right now) need to be on the same floor as the kitchen in order to be fed.
  • crinrictcrinrict Posts: 18,771 Member
    edited March 2011
    I've added some info to the first post. It would be great if you could include that info from now on (only once per user):

    How to post your info in this thread
    Reading through your posts I decided it's probably best if everyone just writes down what ever they think important. There is a few info, that you should include though:

    1. Basic System info (no DxDiag unless you are asked this info by a guru, they just make it hard to read through everything)
    - Processor
    - RAM
    - Graphic Card
    - OS
    2. What Add-Ons do you have
    3. Are you using Mods/CC
    - If you are using mods, please post the bigger ones (no need to list every single one)
    - If you have cc, how much do you have (little, moderate, a lot)
    4. Do you have any other significant problems like crashing/save errors

    Also, if I ask you a question back and you answer, it would be great if you could quote the question. It's sometimes hard to keep track on who I asked what.
    Crinrict's Help Blogs -- Twitter
    Please do not send me PMs/post on my wall if you're looking for help. I can't attend to those. You can find me at AnswerHQ.
    How to report bugs at AnswersHQ
    AHQ Tutorial

  • 45rpm45rpm Posts: 2,606 Member
    edited March 2011
    Windows XP The rest has been given to EA multiple times and there were no problems
    No Mods

    I dont find any consistency why my games starts with the Sims disappearing
    and freezing and time stopping and the game stuttring.
    The last time it started in Egypt when my sim pushing a statue.
    The time before that my Sim was playing a guitar in his living room and his
    wife was exercising in front of the tv. I did however on that one notice
    one of those irritating paparizzi come on the lot just before.

    Sometimes I notice mass freezes and they are usually at schools however since
    I have been emptying the caches it does not stop it but it stops the mass freezes
    at the school as the kids seem not to comeall at once. They seem to come one
    after other.

    When I try to change houses to play another Sim it works fine for a long time
    to until i get far into the game then when I do the change I get the overhead
    view and its frozen. I use the cheat and quit. When I restart the family I have
    been playing when I tried to change has disappeared totally.

    The Jalopys have gone away down in my game with cache clearing but the taxis
    are there in droves. I counted 15 in a very small area. That has to affect the game.

    To sum up I have cleared my caches faithfully and this is not a fix but helps
    me play longer and I got rid of any CC I had which was little and then have
    just installed some patterns which seem fine.
    I know uninstalling the CC helped me. It was all exchange CD (17 items) but it
    was old and the game played longer after i uninstalled it.
  • nickibitswardnickibitsward Posts: 3,115 Member
    edited March 2011
    Windows 7, 64 bit, quad core, 8GB RAM, Nvidia GTX460

    My Sim(s) have always frozen or disappeared at home, not before, after or during their jobs. Jobs they come and go to fine. Not in front of a staircase or in the basement. Just in the kitchen, chatting or on the way to the mailbox or sitting in a chair. For whatever reason, about ten Sim weeks into a new game, the problem starts.

    I don't - will not - use mods - and have cleared all the stuck cars and stuff from every community and non-played lot in town and removed them all from personal inventories. I do not have any CC, only store items. I don't really have "lag".

    I personally believe the base game itself is somehow flawed and every EP and SP added to it is slowly causing it to implode. For some, sooner and for some, later.

    I had no problems until LateNight or the patch preceding it. Others, perhaps with WA. All I know is this game has real problems and EA will not acknowledge
    it. Instead, they throw another EP at us.

    What is the point when you cannot play?
    Post edited by Unknown User on
  • caspinwallcaspinwall Posts: 916 Member
    edited March 2011
    My apologies for this being long; I’m trying to record everything again, since they saw fit to delete the other thread in its entirety (rather than just the troll posts….)

    System info for crinrict:
    iMac
    Mac OS: 10.6.6
    Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo
    Graphics card: ATI Radeon X1600

    I have the whole lot: Sims 3, WA, LN, Ambitions, Fast Lane Stuff, High-end Loft Stuff, Outdoor Stuff. Game is fully patched and up to date.
    I’ve never had any mods or cc from third parties. I have some items from the Store but nothing from the Exchange.
    I don't have any other problems (no crashing, no save errors).

    Timing:
    I’ve only had the game since January of this year so these glitches developed quite quickly for me. I can’t remember how many sim weeks this represents but my game reached four generations of a family before becoming unplayable.

    Problems I have experienced (roughly in order of occurrence):

    1. Pausing and freezing. While the sims are frozen the plumbobs keep spinning, if they are asleep the zzzz keep rising, music or ambient sounds also continue (e.g. bird tweets). The pauses last a few minutes, becoming more frequent and longer. It gets to the point where it is frozen more often than playable and I have to give up on the game.

    2. Sims stuck in furniture or floating half-in half-out their beds. This happened most often while sims are in bed – they float in a rigid horizontal position, part way through the bed. Resetsim works a few times but then stops working, sometimes the “reset” sim remains in the horizontal position but moves away from the bed so that they are floating in mid-air. The problem is not confined to beds - sims also get stuck in other furniture – chairs, bookcases etc. They cannot be controlled while stuck.

    3. Merged sims and sims stacked up around town (e.g. a bunch of kids stuck in a seated position outside the school, as though on an invisible bus). One or more sims occupying the same space and uncontrollable. Similar to sims being stuck in the furniture except they are stuck to each other! Reset sim works for a while but then starts to fail.

    4. Sims resetting themselves. Sims will pause for a moment and then suddenly jump to a reset position. This happened quite a lot while my teen sims were sitting down doing homework – they would suddenly leap up and be standing next to the table, but it also happened for the adults.

    5. Invisible sims. The final symptom – sims just disappear. You can sometimes tell where they are because their thought bubbles still appear. Sometimes you can continue to direct their actions. It resembles the sims get into their cars – you know how they disappear from the pavement and suddenly reappear inside the vehicle – except that when my sims turn invisible they are not travelling anywhere.

    (6. I used to have toddlers stuck at the top of the stairs. This would happen to me when the toddler was really sleepy and I would send an adult to pick up the toddler and pop them in the crib. Toddler would sit at the top of the stairs, adult would walk up and down stairs, achieving nothing. I solved this by instructing the adult to walk to near the crib and the toddler to crawl to the same place. Then they could interact without any stair-related shenanigans.)

    Things I’ve already tried:

    1. I tried turning down some of the settings in the Options panel (e.g. turn off mirror reflections, reduce quality of graphics) but this didn’t help.

    2. Completely uninstalling and reinstalling. I tried this a few times but it had no effect.

    3. After a very long email exchange with Customer Support, they had me try all of the following: clearing cache (no effect), turning off background tasks (I didn’t have any running that I could turn off), playing in a different account on the iMac (no use), resetting SMC, verifying and repairing disk permission, repairing Mac hard drive (none of these three worked because the hardware is not at fault!), provided system info to EA (system is OK).

    4. Eventually, my final email from customer support stated that they were forwarding my correspondence to the team that develops Sims 3 patches. I thought this represented progress, but since the necessary information was in the deleted thread, I wonder what that team will now see (presumably they can still access it at their end). I might email them back and give them a link to this new thread, so they can't use their deletion as an excuse not to act.

    5. What I am doing currently is playing a new game, as Andree suggested in the deleted thread, and keeping a log of how long I can play (in sim days), then which glitches occur and when.
    GeneralSig_SF_03.png
  • aliroosaliroos Posts: 6
    edited March 2011
    I find it hard to believe that they can't just edit/delete one post? This isn't the sort of thread that can go away without blocking everyone on these boards!

    My specs are as follows:

    - Windows 7 32Bit Home Premium
    - Intel Core i3 CPU @ 2.13GHz
    - 4GB DDR3 RAM
    - NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

    I have had all the problems mentioned above, plus a few others:

    1. If I don't know that a sim has gone invisible, any items he might be using (i.e Sim Goggles, Homework etc) if said item is dropped on the floor or table, this goes invisible. Not only can you not see it, but you cannot select it or delete it because it will say it is still 'in use'.

    2. The above seems to also apply to elevators too... One of these 'invisible used' objects seem to be dropped in the lift meaning that they cannot be moved, deleted, or used by anyone else!

    To be honest I have managed to work around some of these bugs... But it has now gotten to the point where it is not funny anymore and I want my money back!

Leave a Comment

BoldItalicStrikethroughOrdered listUnordered list
Emoji
Image
Align leftAlign centerAlign rightToggle HTML viewToggle full pageToggle lights
Drop image/file
Return to top