Can't Play Save File? (PLEASE Help!!)

Serabee

So, earlier my game was taking a REALLY long time to save, so I restarted my computer. I had recently saved so it wasn't a big deal. But now it says the save file "can't be loaded" because of maybe an expansion pack not being present, but I haven't changed any expansion packs since playing. Also, I can't see the normal preview image when I look at the file, it's just a blue square.

PLEASE tell me there's some way to fix this! I didn't have a backup for this file (yes, I should've, please don't even say anything about it because I am so mad at myself right now) Is there ANY way to get my game back? I'm DESPERATE!

igazor

Can we confirm that this is for TS3?

The blue square icon is not a good sign unless all of your saved games look that way. Were you saying that a save was in the process of forming, got stuck maybe, and you force quit the program to reboot? That wouldn't be a complete or usable save then. Or maybe I misunderstood that, but regardless saves can always be corrupt even if there doesn't seem to be a reason for it. Do you have anything left in the CurrentGame.sims3 folder? The last step in a save is the game emptying that out, if there is anything left stuck in there now it should be cleared.

I understand that you did not make a backup of your ongoing game save on your own. But are there no prior saves with the .backup extension of this ongoing game in your Save folder that you can revert to by changing the folder final extension from whatever.backup to someothername.sims3? The game itself produces one .backup if Save (rather than Save As) is used and the file name is not changed or there already is a save with that name.

On the expansion pack question, if this file you are trying to load is damaged then I guess any kind of error could display. But if you are on an Origin controlled, Patch 1.69 game, you would want to make sure that all of the EPs you are expecting to see do show up on the Launcher's Packs and Stuff tab, and that they are all selected (checkboxed) for use. If any of them are missing, then the game quite possibly won't ever load until that is fixed.

Serabee

Yes, this is for Sims 3 (it's Steve Cupp and his genie daughter, so definitely Sims 3, lol) I guess what confused me most was that I had shut the game off while saving before, because it was taking so long, and had never had trouble with it before. Sometimes the saving thing actually keeps going after it's been saved, so the game was still saved. Worst case scenario (prior to this) was that the previous save file was available. And I think the expansion pack thing is just the default bug message but I wanted to include that it said that, just in case. But I've checked everything I can now and it appears to be gone for good :c

The GOOD news is that I found a backup I forgot I had. I lost a lot of progress, but I don't have to get another genie pregnant, so that saves me some time for restarting XD

igazor

On the quitting while saving, it sounds like the save was substantially finished prior and got stuck on the final cleanup steps so you were fortunately able to use the resulting save in the past. On the more recent one, if it got stuck sooner than having really finished, you would have had an incomplete file (even looking at the file sizes wouldn't be enough to help determine this) that could never be used for anything.

Glad you found a usable backup, that's great news.

And for heaven's sake, even though you specifically said not to lecture on this I'll do it anyway, make more and differently named extra backup saves along the way! Just assume something like this is going to happen with every game session, even if it really doesn't, and imagine how painful it would be to lose weeks/months of gameplay or an entire game if the current ongoing save were to suddenly malfunction.

SemaviLady

@Serabee - That's great, I'm so glad you did find a good save, but sorry you lost so many hours. But still it is something. Sometimes at the MAIN MENU, I will use the box to make a copy of a game save, for tweaking one or the other with 3rd party game save cleaners.

Defiitely. Use Save AS out of habit. Avoid the SAVE button most of the time, and never use the button to Save and Quit - I think these tips were on Crinrict's blog. https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/

I generally make 3 or 4 revolving saves. DisWorld-1, DisWorld-2, DisWorld-3, DisWorld-4, then around again save as DisWorld-1. And if there is some major KEEPER, I add KEEPER to the name with a hint in the title. I use a mod that reminds me to save set at every half an hour of play. NRAAS has one called Saver but I haven't used that one before. https://nraas.wikispaces.com/Saver

igazor

Yes, Saver is essentially an alarm clock but doesn't do the Save (As) for you. It can be set for intervals according to real time or sim time as the player wishes, and it will suggest the next number up for a Save As if doing the -1, -2, -3, etc. sequencing. It's incredibly annoying, the nagging reminder always pops up at the worst possible time, but it's also very effective.

SemaviLady

I use the one in Awesomemod, and that one names it autosave0.sims3 and numbers them sequentially depending on if how many saves you set it, so initially if you set it up to do three saves, it calls them *0, *1, *2 then starts over again. However since it is programmed to prompt you to save and suggests a change from the name of whatever you were using to 'autosave'<n>, it is just about as effect as Save As. <the name "autosave" is a Pescado hardcode>

Again I haven't used Saver, but if SAVER can be set up to use generic name rather than reuse the defaulting name, it will get past continuous overwriting of the original user's chosen save name? <the name "autosave<n>" is a Pescado hardcode, and you choose the number of overwrite cycles>

igazor

@SemaviLady - It's possible that I don't really understand the question. Saver will inform the player that it's time for a Save (As). If the current name of the game is MyTown or MyTown1, and if the user has selected 6 as the number of save names to cycle through, then the name it will suggest each time will look like
MyTown1
MyTown2
...
MyTown6

Then on the seventh save, MyTown1 again thus overwriting the first MyTown1 if it's still there and then the eighth one will be MyTown2 again. But the player can rename or renumber any of the saves at the time the prompt shows up if they wish, or of course can do so with the folder names outside of the game, and they can choose not to use this structure entirely if they don't like it.

Twallan designed quite a few of the NRaas mod features to work similarly to as Awesome's do just without the need for them to be Core Mods (with the exception of ErrorTrap), so that's no coincidence. Pescado didn't mind, especially as Twallan's efforts were originally hosted at MATY before he split off and I have to think that they collaborated on at least some of this stuff.

SemaviLady

There ya go, yes quite similar, it asks:- Save Now? (or some permutation thereof) and that serves as a reminder. You can cancel the save and give it your own new name or reuse your current default.

Autosave Features
1. What frequency in minutes for saves
2. Save cycles (how many numbered saves)
3. Save only when paused (or not)
4. After a save keep it paused (or not)

Definitely useful for me. I often cannot play fifteen consecutive minutes without interruptions. Interruptions can take moments to hours before I return. So whatever else is on my mind, reminders to save are great. Thanks, @igazor