My Error 12 Ponderings

NinjaGirl11

Hello fellow simmers!

I've been having trouble in my game and I want to know what you all think I should do. My current wishacy game is beset by that terror known as error 12. It is getting more frequent and I'm to the point that I can't get through 2 sim days without that blasted error showing up. I save every 6 sim hours as a precaution (if I lose the save, I only lost 6 hours instead of a full day, you follow me?). I have Twallan's Overwatch and Master Controller and they both work fine and are updated to the newest version. I have never had the error 12 problem until I installed Generations, so bear with me as I am rather new to my game not working! My family is around generation 3/4ish and I would really love not to lose all of my hard work. I have figured that my save file is too large (which I've read countless threads on Generations and the memory systems that bloat the save) and that memories are the root of my problem. I have set the Master Controller to not create any new memories.

Option A: I keep playing as is, and continuing my family at a snail's pace. To minimize the save file, I keep deleting memories around town, hoping it frees enough space. Upside: I get to keep my family, their relationships, and watch the family members I kicked out along the way. Downside: The save file is still huge (as I tried this yesterday and still got error 12) and I don't think I can possibly delete every single sim memory in the neighborhood.

Option B: I save the family to the sim bin with their lovely house that took me a day to build and delete the current save and start over fresh and new. Upside: Error 12 might go away since it will technically be a different save and there won't be any other sim memories other than my family's. Downside: I lose their family tree, their relationships and I do not get to watch the other members of the family I have grown to love outside of the house.

Option C: I completely uninstall the game and reinstall it. Upside: Error 12 might go away. Downside: The save file might be lost to the wind/not fix my error 12.

Help please! Thank you for trudging through the massive wall of text Any insight would really help.

KingOfTheNight

Hi.

That is rather unfortunate for you.

My advice would be to move your Sims out of their home and make a back up save of them. Then uninstall and reinstall all of your games, put your Sims back into your game and hopefully you will have better luck!

Omri147

okay... I noticed that you get EC12 when you mess to much with some things in the game... ESPECIALLY with the Master Controller...

some of the things that I noticed that do that are editing in CAS and "pollinating" other sims using the Master Controller...
it's okay to do that but you should only make a small amount of changes and things, save and quit, and go to the game again...
it worked for me... :P

NinjaGirl11

Thank you for replying KingOfTheNight!

1. By back-up save, do you mean into the sim bin (with or without their house???)?

2. When I install and reinstall, would that delete the current save and hence their relationships and the other people in town? Which would leave me with just my wishacy family in the sim bin, sort of like Option B...

NinjaGirl11

chenmn123,

I used master controller so far only to reset lots and sims that would not be fixed otherwise and to end some bogus Late Night situation that had all of my neighborhood sims standing around the theater. I don't change a whole lot with it unless I really need to. So far I have never edited in CAS or pollinated anything (my sims get pregnant just fine on their own lol).

FORGEBLADE

Twallans error trap maybe another good o e to try, other strategies include deleteing the 4 cache files in the sims 3 folder on my documents only,

NinjaGirl11

Thank you for replying FORGEBLADE,

What does ErrorTrap do? Also, my father has deleted the caches and I still got Error 12 after playing.

FORGEBLADE

I took this from Twallans page on the Error Trap:

This is a core-mod intended to catch and correct data corruption errors that can render a save-game unloadable.

Then for the following 5 events the script will automatically correct, there are other errors the game will 'catch' as well for more detail check out Twallans page: http://www.the-isz.com/nraas/index.php?showtopic=855

1. Corrupted fridge inventories are corrected
2. Corrupted family inventories are corrected
3. Inventory items that are no longer valid are deleted
4. Interactions that are no longer valid are deleted
5. Deleted objects still being referenced by elements are automatically cleaned up

The other thing I would suggest is to do save as when you save and call the new save something different eg save 1; save 2 etc or I tend to use a code that indicates the week of the game eg W2 - week 2, D6 - day 6, S3 - third save of that sim day. So the full code would be mySave_W2D6_S3.

Clearing those four cache files as well should help.

FORGEBLADE

I should say regular saving also seems to help. I.e. Every sim day rather than once a week etc this also protects you as well as there is less of your time lost if you get an error code 12. Though doing all those steps as posted means I very rarely get an error code 12 save problem.