I went back to playing base game only, until frozen sims, multiple cars are fixed. I will never buy another ea game until they solve the problem. game threads not the players. Do your job EA
Before the huge thread on this was deleted
I posted a new Subject asking the Gurus
If there was any word ona fix for these problems or what was the status
Well it disappeared and then I found it. They had moved it into general
That told me alot.
It certainly was a techinal question. They just refuse to address it.
They likely would of deleted it but couldnt as it was not disrespectful in any way.
45rpm, not to get too off topic, but I think the moderators have battened the hatches, since that troll incident (which I missed). The posts are read as soon as they are posted, and things are being sorted. One of my posts was moved as well, and that's okay by me. The current categories don't work that well for me. I don't know where to put various topics. Like what is the difference between a technical issue and a bug?
Remember they also have Generations coming out, and that may bring in a new group of people with problems. Best to try to keep the various fora organized as they see fit.
@45rpm: Do you want me to link that thread ? If so, please post the link
The difference between a bug and a technical issue is (technically speaking) that something everyone has (like excavating bug, bad mood issue) is more likely a bug than a technical issue. It has nothing to do with the hardware and is there for not technical. It's an error in the code.
Most issues we talk about here are probably bugs and not technical issues. Crashes, EADM problems, graphical issues, CRC Errors, Error messages those are all technical. Since it IS so hard to distinguish and since no mod seems to look in possible bugs ever, most issues are posted here and not where they should belong. I think that's fine and I don't even know WHY they have a possible bugs section, especially since they don't seem to bother to answer there (but then again, that might just be the reason).
I agree Crincit
Most things are bugs. (But so many bugs )
I think part of the problem lies in whenI first got my problme I thought
Is it my machine. It meets all requirements. Its got 7 fans in it all working
but maybe something is wrong. Nothing was and I knew somehow the patch before
late night messed me up. Not all but me.
Then you see loads posting aobut it here so it propogates.
There is a huge thread on the bugs forum to but like here never a reply.
I wont bother linking that message. Its a way way down in the general forum
and I dont know when I could get around looking for it. I don t think it would
help but thank you.
Andree
I dont like the premise that everyone is so busy on the other games.
I dont think any of us know that but it irritates me that once they got your
money they dont care and we are placed on a back burner thats not even turned on.
Thats how I read what you stated.
I wondered whether it was worth linking to threads about these same issues that live in the Possible Bugs section, just to try to join them up somehow? There are a lot of threads - I think we are seeing ever increasing numbers of affected players turning to the forum for help. Here are a few, the first one's pretty big:
Wherever I see people who have only just encountered these issues for the first time starting a new thread, I'm trying to get them to join one of the longer threads, like this one. I don't know whether I'm annoying people by doing that but I figured there's strength in numbers. Plus I was really relieved to at least find out it wasn't just me or my computer and presume that's true of others too.
I just had to start another game. But I was trying things on this one
I loaded every single house with families and the game started to go down
after about 2 Sims weeks of playing. Everything started going wrong. Freezing
disappearing My sim could not enter the grocery store. Just get tossed back to his house and then unable to make invisible sims visible again.
My friend who had no problems but has nevet played that way tried the same thing
on a game. His went down the dumps too.
Its a old song now but it appears adding many families may also play into it or at least
in my game.
Back to my one game that is still good and surprisingly its is the dreaded Bridgeport. There is no rhyme or reason.
On a sidenote.... I sent a question to EA and they told me to put it on the forums
I also note somenoe with a techical/bug problem was also told the same thing
Hi 45rpm: I've started a game in Bridgeport but I'm redoing the town.
I wonder how many families is too many? (I always thought it was around twenty-five or so but have never seen anything posted or printed on the topic). When I last played in Sunset Valley, I killed off some of the in-game families because I didn't like them and because I had eight families of my own to put into town. But the game immediately put new ones into the empty houses until I had at one time about thirty-five. I had to kill those ones off and go into every empty home to delete the furniture, that was the only way to stop the game from replacing them again.
Well I opened my big yap to fast
My Bridgeport game is now acting up
Every single sim is congregating at the Plumbob movie studio
and resettign deleteing the studio
etc does not stop it Also resetSim in the edit town does not fix it.
So that means I will soon have no games active
Im not sure how many is to many families. I ve never figured that out.
Sometimes my games are half empty Other games just fill up fast even if I dont
do anything.
Im sure someone will come and say Oh you just have to have patience yadda yadda
but I ve had it up to here.
If you have any suggestions for all my Sims on one lot Let me know
Thanks.
Hi 45rpm: I read a post this morning in either "Feedback" or "LateNight" from someone who had the same problem, Sims all congregating on one lot - can't remember if it was the studio - and they tried to reset but it didn't work either. They went to Edit Town and into the lot but didn't do anything, just
Edit Town back out and it fixed it.
Something to do with the game not recognizing an opportunity to do with the studio was actually fulfilled.
I have given up on this game - there are so many things wrong about the only thing that will "fix" it is my trash compactor.
Needless to say, I won't be buying "Generations" or any SP or EP until the
invisible issue is fixed - it's a game breaker.
(As for "patience" it's been six months since that update/LateNight)
That sounds right and I know exactly what the task was
My sim had to audition people for a movie role or some such thing
It was not that long back and thats what did it. Ill try the edit town
just in and out and see if that does it.
Anyways I started another game Ha
In Twinbrooks this time and Ive got a good mind to dl Cc and you name
it becuase I dont care anymore but I wont do that.
I ll slog along hoping it works
Im phoning EA HQ on MOnday and Im not going to take
a nothing answer
I asked why the contests were on Facebook when I wont and will never have a Facebook account and it was no huge deal but it was not fair when I figured this was the Sims official sit. I did it in a email and they said well they cant tell me but the Gurus would in the forum LOL hehe
I told them I had already asked in the forums and I had as more chance of them
answering me by going to the end of the street and sticking a poster on the telephone pole. :twisted: I also said you give them a try maybe you will
do better then me getting a reply and I m looking forward to your answer.
If anyone has a game saved BEFORE their sim has turned invisible AND the invisibility occurs every time they start said game, that's one I'd be interested in having. Let me know if you have such a game.
I have a game like that, I just so happened to back up the file before it went crazy. Game has now become pretty much unplayable, I will probably have to try reinstalling, but if it's the game file that's glitched and not the game entirely will it make a difference? I really don't want to lose my legacy family...
Could you upload that savegame (zip-up the whole folder from that savegame) to some file sharing site like mediafire and post the link here ? I would really like to look at that.
I don't think reinstalling will help.
I'm not on my usual PC right now but I will do when I can
New for me is the person sitting in the air. Checking outside other businesses had some in the ground in the driving position. And this guy outside the police department, not sure what he is doing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00/5604037370
Didn't save, just quit, and deleted the caches. Haven't gone back in to see if it happens again.
Well dont feel alone Andree
our games were basically on tghe same weeks and I had 2 running and lost them both
but the second was due to the audtion glitch well the first was all of the above.
I guess we either try again or give up and I keep trying
I however cannot find any real similarity between any of my glitches except
that I play so long and then its just gives up the ghost no matter how I play
I recently uninstalled and reinstalled all the games and current patches due to error codes and it seemed to fix the errors. I then started a new game and everything seemed to be going really well. No errors or problems.
The newest EA downloader patch popped up a week or so ago for me and I installed it. All of a sudden I am back to not only the errors happening, but my butler was frozen in the middle of a bed and there was nothing I could do to move her. I ended up deleting her and hired a new one. My sims started to disappear as if they had fallen through the floor of the game. I tried to send them to town and they would not get there before it magically popped them back to the house. I can click on the ground and have them move to it, but they will only suddenly appear once they get to the spot I have them go to and then disappear again. The game is filled with lag since this started as well. I tried to play today and now I cannot even get them to perform simple tasks or appear.
I have done a ton of searching online for any help I can find and looked through the help menu. I can see many people are having the same issues and am disheartened by the lack of support given by the company. I am posting because it seemed the most relevant thread for my issues and hopefully someone will find a fix and post it. I have spent a lot of money on EA games in the past for both me and my children. I can assure you that I will not be making anymore purchases from EA games until they find a way to fix this issue.
Could you upload that savegame (zip-up the whole folder from that savegame) to some file sharing site like mediafire and post the link here ? I would really like to look at that.
I don't think reinstalling will help.
I'm back sooner than I thought, here you go - link
I just tested it again, and I think the glitch starts the afternoon of the current day, around the time the daughter gets home from school. It's also started via interactions with the baby quite a lot... it might just be a coincidence because it needs attention often, though.
I had some minor/occasional glitches before this save, like sims getting stuck in places, but nothing a quick resetsim couldn't solve, and no invisibility.
Yes, there is an invisible person in there. My first thought cloud from an invisible sim.
There were NO CHILDREN yet in the family.
I have the game saved about 15 minutes or so before noon, sim time, but I'm on a Mac. I'd guess trying to upload the game somewhere wouldn't be helpful, as wouldn't the other person need to be on a Mac too? I don't have a zipping thing either.
Windows 7 64
Intel Core 2 QUAD 3.0 ghz (with large aftermarket heat sink/ fan)
Nvidia 9800 GTX+ OC
8 gigs RAM
ANTEC "Skeleton" open air case with large 8 inch fan on top (its loud but the PC CANNOT overheat)
(2) 1 TB HDD - (WD caviar black)
Sims 3 base game (up to date) + World Adventures + Late Night + a few items from EA store
also using several mods...
My game is now unplayable due to these issues (Invisible, Frozen & Stuck Sims). It started in "China" when everyone eating at the tables @ "home base" became stuck standing "through" their chairs. Like an idiot i saved, and restarted, but it made no difference. I only had a day and a half left on my vacation so i just watched them starve, stink and pee themselves 'til the vacation was over (worst vacation ever). After that the game worked normally for the last couple of weeks (real & game time). It actually started performing more smoothly when i updated my drivers for my video card (to get to a resolution that wasn't so taxing on my system... my screen is 1280 * 720. The Sims 3 game doesn't appear to support that resolution but i was able to pear it down a little... but thats a whole other story). I recently spent hours and hours building and designing a large and beautiful house on a 60*60 lot for my pair of YA females. Now since moving in, they get stuck or invisible within minutes. resetsim does not work (never has). These are my girls! My game (and heart) is broken!
Yes I use mods, including custom paintings, clothes... but after reading a bunch of these posts it doesnt appear that mods have anything to do with this issue. I am probably slightly more tech savvy than most people who play this game (but should you really have to be tech savvy to play a video game that you PURCHASED?) I see that a lot of you people have tried starting a new game (with limited success). Man, I've put tons of time into this household. I cant just start over. I've already lost one family due to a Sims 3 "update". This is the glitchiest video game I've ever played. Why do I keep coming back? I hope this is resolved soon with an "update" that will fix my problem (and hopefully not create more problems for other players).
I have the game saved about 15 minutes or so before noon, sim time, but I'm on a Mac. I'd guess trying to upload the game somewhere wouldn't be helpful, as wouldn't the other person need to be on a Mac too? I don't have a zipping thing either.
It doesn't matter, the save files for Mac or PC are exactly the same. And you can make zips by right-clicking or ctrl-left-clicking on the file and choosing "compress [file name]“ from the pop-up menu (it might be called differently, I have a non-English version of MacOS, but something that is similar to compress).
They really need to sort this problem out its so unfair that they are making all this money & people (I understand not all) aren't able to play!
I love the sims & spend hours on it but I just can't anymore!
It seems like it doesn't matter if you have cc or not as its effecting many people with or without these!
I really hope something can be sorted out by the next game as I love getting the new games but theres just no point if this is going to keep happening! I don't want to have to say "I used to play the sims 3"
I did some tests with the savegame amywelshcastle provided.
First I have to say, it's definitely neither an installation nor a computer problem. Reinstalling won't make it any better and is just a waste of time.
Test 1
Played vanilla - nothing added, no Store, no nothing, just the add-ons and HELS (don't have the others stuff packs)
Sure thing I found an invisible daughter using the slide after coming back from school so I reloaded the game and followed her to school to see at what point in time she's turning invisible. She came out of the rabbit hole ok, she got on the bus ok and I could see her driving in the bus. When she got off the bus however, she stayed invisible. If you look how the games handles Sims coming in and out of rabbitholes or cars you see that they turn invisible for a very short period and then appear wherever they are supposed to. It seems to me that this turning visible after getting out of a car/rabbithole is borked somehow making them stay invisible forever.
I played on and seen the mon and father would be invisible too (they did not get in any car or rabbithole so this seems to be some kind of chain reaction).
I tried the cheat resetsim * and sure enough they all turned visible again but as soon as they went to bed, all Sims using one got stuck in bed. Trying resetsim again made them float above the bed.
Test 2
Added ErrorTrap, Overwatch, DebugEnabler, MasterController and Decensor. No other CC.
I saved the game while the girl was in school and tested from there.
I got two scriptErrors from ErrorTrap which I will provide to twallan. I'm not a specialist on reading those so he will need to tell me what they mean. Overwatch cleaned about 127 cars out of the hood. I again followed the girl around. No invisibility, no stuck sims. I let the game run for over a day and nothing unusual happened (they were all miserable but I did not take care of them).
Test 3
Removed ErrorTrap. Same result as test 2, so it was another mod that cleared the problem
Test 4
Removed Overwatch. Back to result from test 1. So it's Overwatch that cleans something that causes the whole problem. I used fix invisible Sims on DebugEnabler. I got quite a few messages for outfits that got repaired on several Sims (fix invisible Sims fixes corrupted outfits) but the poor little girl stayed invisible. So I used reset lot on MC. There she was again but soon after the butler would get stuck on the pond and the whole stuck sim in bed restarted. Entering Build Mode cured that for the mother but not for the rest of the sim and she was stuck again as soon as she got back in bed.
So, what I would like to do is passed this savegame on to twallan. Maybe he can find out some more stuff, especially WHAT cleanup in Overwatch seems to cure the problem. Let me know if that is alright with you, amywelshcastle.
Test 2
Added ErrorTrap, Overwatch, DebugEnabler, MasterController and Decensor. No other CC.
I saved the game while the girl was in school and tested from there.
I got two scriptErrors from ErrorTrap which I will provide to twallan. I'm not a specialist on reading those so he will need to tell me what they mean. Overwatch cleaned about 127 cars out of the hood. I again followed the girl around. No invisibility, no stuck sims. I let the game run for over a day and nothing unusual happened (they were all miserable but I did not take care of them).
Does that mean if I get these mods that I'll be able to play the game properly? (or at least attempt to?) I'm not sure how they work - I've tried using mastercontroller and overwatch before but they confused me, wasn't entirely sure how to use them.
Comments
I know and I'm sorry. I was in a hurry because I had to go to work. I'll try to get it uploaded tomorrow.
I posted a new Subject asking the Gurus
If there was any word ona fix for these problems or what was the status
Well it disappeared and then I found it. They had moved it into general
That told me alot.
It certainly was a techinal question. They just refuse to address it.
They likely would of deleted it but couldnt as it was not disrespectful in any way.
Remember they also have Generations coming out, and that may bring in a new group of people with problems. Best to try to keep the various fora organized as they see fit.
P.S. I'm up to WEEK 12!!! Woo hoo!
The difference between a bug and a technical issue is (technically speaking) that something everyone has (like excavating bug, bad mood issue) is more likely a bug than a technical issue. It has nothing to do with the hardware and is there for not technical. It's an error in the code.
Most issues we talk about here are probably bugs and not technical issues. Crashes, EADM problems, graphical issues, CRC Errors, Error messages those are all technical. Since it IS so hard to distinguish and since no mod seems to look in possible bugs ever, most issues are posted here and not where they should belong. I think that's fine and I don't even know WHY they have a possible bugs section, especially since they don't seem to bother to answer there (but then again, that might just be the reason).
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
Most things are bugs. (But so many bugs
I think part of the problem lies in whenI first got my problme I thought
Is it my machine. It meets all requirements. Its got 7 fans in it all working
but maybe something is wrong. Nothing was and I knew somehow the patch before
late night messed me up. Not all but me.
Then you see loads posting aobut it here so it propogates.
There is a huge thread on the bugs forum to but like here never a reply.
I wont bother linking that message. Its a way way down in the general forum
and I dont know when I could get around looking for it. I don t think it would
help but thank you.
Andree
I dont like the premise that everyone is so busy on the other games.
I dont think any of us know that but it irritates me that once they got your
money they dont care and we are placed on a back burner thats not even turned on.
Thats how I read what you stated.
If others find any threads that they find worth linking, let me know.
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
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/35296.page
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/318932.page
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/361540.page
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/360231.page
Wherever I see people who have only just encountered these issues for the first time starting a new thread, I'm trying to get them to join one of the longer threads, like this one. I don't know whether I'm annoying people by doing that but I figured there's strength in numbers. Plus I was really relieved to at least find out it wasn't just me or my computer and presume that's true of others too.
Edited later to add another thread:
Check out the pictures on page one, about two-thirds of the way down, on this thread!
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/266875.page
Edited again to add this thread specifically about stuck-in-the-bed sims:
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/282470.page
Edited again, here's another one (so many...):
http://forum.thesims3.com/jforum/posts/list/323859.page
I just had to start another game. But I was trying things on this one
I loaded every single house with families and the game started to go down
after about 2 Sims weeks of playing. Everything started going wrong. Freezing
disappearing My sim could not enter the grocery store. Just get tossed back to his house and then unable to make invisible sims visible again.
My friend who had no problems but has nevet played that way tried the same thing
on a game. His went down the dumps too.
Its a old song now but it appears adding many families may also play into it or at least
in my game.
Back to my one game that is still good and surprisingly its is the dreaded Bridgeport. There is no rhyme or reason.
On a sidenote.... I sent a question to EA and they told me to put it on the forums
I also note somenoe with a techical/bug problem was also told the same thing
Im beginning to think we are are on our own.
I wonder how many families is too many? (I always thought it was around twenty-five or so but have never seen anything posted or printed on the topic). When I last played in Sunset Valley, I killed off some of the in-game families because I didn't like them and because I had eight families of my own to put into town. But the game immediately put new ones into the empty houses until I had at one time about thirty-five. I had to kill those ones off and go into every empty home to delete the furniture, that was the only way to stop the game from replacing them again.
My Bridgeport game is now acting up
Every single sim is congregating at the Plumbob movie studio
and resettign deleteing the studio
etc does not stop it Also resetSim in the edit town does not fix it.
So that means I will soon have no games active
Im not sure how many is to many families. I ve never figured that out.
Sometimes my games are half empty Other games just fill up fast even if I dont
do anything.
Im sure someone will come and say Oh you just have to have patience yadda yadda
but I ve had it up to here.
If you have any suggestions for all my Sims on one lot Let me know
Thanks.
Edit Town back out and it fixed it.
Something to do with the game not recognizing an opportunity to do with the studio was actually fulfilled.
I have given up on this game - there are so many things wrong about the only thing that will "fix" it is my trash compactor.
Needless to say, I won't be buying "Generations" or any SP or EP until the
invisible issue is fixed - it's a game breaker.
(As for "patience" it's been six months since that update/LateNight)
My sim had to audition people for a movie role or some such thing
It was not that long back and thats what did it. Ill try the edit town
just in and out and see if that does it.
Anyways I started another game Ha
In Twinbrooks this time and Ive got a good mind to dl Cc and you name
it becuase I dont care anymore but I wont do that.
I ll slog along hoping it works
Im phoning EA HQ on MOnday and Im not going to take
a nothing answer
I asked why the contests were on Facebook when I wont and will never have a Facebook account and it was no huge deal but it was not fair when I figured this was the Sims official sit. I did it in a email and they said well they cant tell me but the Gurus would in the forum LOL hehe
I told them I had already asked in the forums and I had as more chance of them
answering me by going to the end of the street and sticking a poster on the telephone pole. :twisted: I also said you give them a try maybe you will
do better then me getting a reply and I m looking forward to your answer.
I'm not on my usual PC right now but I will do when I can
Image here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00/5604036582/
New for me is the person sitting in the air. Checking outside other businesses had some in the ground in the driving position. And this guy outside the police department, not sure what he is doing:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00/5604037370
Didn't save, just quit, and deleted the caches. Haven't gone back in to see if it happens again.
sigh
our games were basically on tghe same weeks and I had 2 running and lost them both
but the second was due to the audtion glitch well the first was all of the above.
I guess we either try again or give up and I keep trying
I however cannot find any real similarity between any of my glitches except
that I play so long and then its just gives up the ghost no matter how I play
The newest EA downloader patch popped up a week or so ago for me and I installed it. All of a sudden I am back to not only the errors happening, but my butler was frozen in the middle of a bed and there was nothing I could do to move her. I ended up deleting her and hired a new one. My sims started to disappear as if they had fallen through the floor of the game. I tried to send them to town and they would not get there before it magically popped them back to the house. I can click on the ground and have them move to it, but they will only suddenly appear once they get to the spot I have them go to and then disappear again. The game is filled with lag since this started as well. I tried to play today and now I cannot even get them to perform simple tasks or appear.
I have done a ton of searching online for any help I can find and looked through the help menu. I can see many people are having the same issues and am disheartened by the lack of support given by the company. I am posting because it seemed the most relevant thread for my issues and hopefully someone will find a fix and post it. I have spent a lot of money on EA games in the past for both me and my children. I can assure you that I will not be making anymore purchases from EA games until they find a way to fix this issue.
I'm back sooner than I thought, here you go - link
I just tested it again, and I think the glitch starts the afternoon of the current day, around the time the daughter gets home from school. It's also started via interactions with the baby quite a lot... it might just be a coincidence because it needs attention often, though.
I had some minor/occasional glitches before this save, like sims getting stuck in places, but nothing a quick resetsim couldn't solve, and no invisibility.
It's the pool, thinking about being a pool:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/96179754@N00/5604619476/
Yes, there is an invisible person in there. My first thought cloud from an invisible sim.
There were NO CHILDREN yet in the family.
I have the game saved about 15 minutes or so before noon, sim time, but I'm on a Mac. I'd guess trying to upload the game somewhere wouldn't be helpful, as wouldn't the other person need to be on a Mac too? I don't have a zipping thing either.
I am sure crincit will know though
Intel Core 2 QUAD 3.0 ghz (with large aftermarket heat sink/ fan)
Nvidia 9800 GTX+ OC
8 gigs RAM
ANTEC "Skeleton" open air case with large 8 inch fan on top (its loud but the PC CANNOT overheat)
(2) 1 TB HDD - (WD caviar black)
Sims 3 base game (up to date) + World Adventures + Late Night + a few items from EA store
also using several mods...
My game is now unplayable due to these issues (Invisible, Frozen & Stuck Sims). It started in "China" when everyone eating at the tables @ "home base" became stuck standing "through" their chairs. Like an idiot i saved, and restarted, but it made no difference. I only had a day and a half left on my vacation so i just watched them starve, stink and pee themselves 'til the vacation was over (worst vacation ever). After that the game worked normally for the last couple of weeks (real & game time). It actually started performing more smoothly when i updated my drivers for my video card (to get to a resolution that wasn't so taxing on my system... my screen is 1280 * 720. The Sims 3 game doesn't appear to support that resolution but i was able to pear it down a little... but thats a whole other story). I recently spent hours and hours building and designing a large and beautiful house on a 60*60 lot for my pair of YA females. Now since moving in, they get stuck or invisible within minutes. resetsim does not work (never has). These are my girls! My game (and heart) is broken!
Yes I use mods, including custom paintings, clothes... but after reading a bunch of these posts it doesnt appear that mods have anything to do with this issue. I am probably slightly more tech savvy than most people who play this game (but should you really have to be tech savvy to play a video game that you PURCHASED?) I see that a lot of you people have tried starting a new game (with limited success). Man, I've put tons of time into this household. I cant just start over. I've already lost one family due to a Sims 3 "update". This is the glitchiest video game I've ever played. Why do I keep coming back? I hope this is resolved soon with an "update" that will fix my problem (and hopefully not create more problems for other players).
I love the sims & spend hours on it but I just can't anymore!
It seems like it doesn't matter if you have cc or not as its effecting many people with or without these!
I really hope something can be sorted out by the next game as I love getting the new games but theres just no point if this is going to keep happening! I don't want to have to say "I used to play the sims 3"
First I have to say, it's definitely neither an installation nor a computer problem. Reinstalling won't make it any better and is just a waste of time.
Test 1
Played vanilla - nothing added, no Store, no nothing, just the add-ons and HELS (don't have the others stuff packs)
Sure thing I found an invisible daughter using the slide after coming back from school so I reloaded the game and followed her to school to see at what point in time she's turning invisible. She came out of the rabbit hole ok, she got on the bus ok and I could see her driving in the bus. When she got off the bus however, she stayed invisible. If you look how the games handles Sims coming in and out of rabbitholes or cars you see that they turn invisible for a very short period and then appear wherever they are supposed to. It seems to me that this turning visible after getting out of a car/rabbithole is borked somehow making them stay invisible forever.
I played on and seen the mon and father would be invisible too (they did not get in any car or rabbithole so this seems to be some kind of chain reaction).
I tried the cheat resetsim * and sure enough they all turned visible again but as soon as they went to bed, all Sims using one got stuck in bed. Trying resetsim again made them float above the bed.
Test 2
Added ErrorTrap, Overwatch, DebugEnabler, MasterController and Decensor. No other CC.
I saved the game while the girl was in school and tested from there.
I got two scriptErrors from ErrorTrap which I will provide to twallan. I'm not a specialist on reading those so he will need to tell me what they mean. Overwatch cleaned about 127 cars out of the hood. I again followed the girl around. No invisibility, no stuck sims. I let the game run for over a day and nothing unusual happened (they were all miserable but I did not take care of them).
Test 3
Removed ErrorTrap. Same result as test 2, so it was another mod that cleared the problem
Test 4
Removed Overwatch. Back to result from test 1. So it's Overwatch that cleans something that causes the whole problem. I used fix invisible Sims on DebugEnabler. I got quite a few messages for outfits that got repaired on several Sims (fix invisible Sims fixes corrupted outfits) but the poor little girl stayed invisible. So I used reset lot on MC. There she was again but soon after the butler would get stuck on the pond and the whole stuck sim in bed restarted. Entering Build Mode cured that for the mother but not for the rest of the sim and she was stuck again as soon as she got back in bed.
So, what I would like to do is passed this savegame on to twallan. Maybe he can find out some more stuff, especially WHAT cleanup in Overwatch seems to cure the problem. Let me know if that is alright with you, amywelshcastle.
@AndreeAndree: What snapdragon said.
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Does that mean if I get these mods that I'll be able to play the game properly? (or at least attempt to?) I'm not sure how they work - I've tried using mastercontroller and overwatch before but they confused me, wasn't entirely sure how to use them.
And that's fine, send away!