I hate to be the one to say this because it seems like somebody at EA would've thought about this by now. But your problems with patching, testing and programming could be greatly alleviated by taking the Mac platform waaaayyyy more seriously and hiring some dedicated Mac programmers who actually know and love the platform to WORK WITH YOUR 3RD PARTY MAC PROGRAMMERS TO SOLVE THESE ISSUES!!! I'm saying this as both a programmer and a project manager. What you're doing is like playing the children's game, "telephone". You try to communicate the customer's problem, but by the time it's gone from the customer to the forum moderator, to the PC-based tech support person to the 3rd-party team, you get the "can't reproduce error" problem because there are too many layers of people that the problem has to filter through who don't know Mac before you get to the people who do. In short, this is a really bad management issue way more than it is a tech support issue. Hire some people who know Macs already and start solving problems!
You certainly have enough money from just the people in this forum who've bought your game and all the expansion packs to pay the salaries of a few hard-core Mac coders, so why don't you? I know you don't have any because if you did, they'd be answering questions here instead of you, mostly because they can. Get some Mac coders who's sole responsibility is to be the first line of defense with your 3rd-party coders (and your customers) because they know the Mac OS, Mac error codes and Mac coding in general.
Even better, HOW ABOUT YOU JUST START WRITING MAC CODE FROM THE GROUND UP INSTEAD OF PORTING TO CIDER?????!!!!!! I'm sure it's a cost-cutting measure, but is it really saving you money? Not if you start shedding paying customers because your software sucks. Yes, it's certainly going to be more work up front, but it'll be a helluva lot less trouble than what you're doing now, which is losing loyal customers who love your products and have bought them for years, but are sick of wasting money on games that don't work, don't get patches and don't get the attention they deserve.
FYI, the "can't reproduce error" thing is what 3rd-party developers tell their clients when they don't want to waste the money and manpower paying people to debug their work if the client is still willing to keep paying for buggy code. I've worked for 🐸🐸🐸🐸 companies that commonly use that excuse for this very reason. Why waste money fixing something the client is perfectly happy paying top dollar for broken? As a project manager, I'm telling you, it's time for someone at EA to start withholding the huge sums of money they're paying their Mac service provider until the 3rd-party code team starts swiftly knocking the more serious bugs off their issue logs. You'd be amazed at how much faster and effectively contractors work to solve problems when they think they might not get paid.
The bottom line is that it's difficult to fix Sims 3 bugs in general. The majority of user related bugs have to do with outdated drivers, unsupported hardware, and 3rd party (ie: not EA) mods and custom content.
We're talking about Macs here, not a myriad of Windows PCs made by different companies, using hundreds of different video cards/processors etc. and drivers which have to be updated every 5 minutes. Why is it so difficult to find the problems? Twallan has managed to fix multiple problems and he's not even a TS3 developer so why can't anyone associated with EA fix them?
We have limited engineering resources and our team has to decide what exactly we should spend our time doing. Being vocal about issues helps us determine how badly a fix is needed and convinces producers to squeeze it into our development time.
So EA aren't willing to pay for a top notch gaming experience but expect its customers to stay loyal and buy all the buggy EPs and SPs. Nice.
As for Mac specifically, we use a third party developer to get our game to run on that platform. They are an incredibly capable team that develops for mac across the video game industry. While we could have attempted to develop Sims 3 on Mac ourselves - we simply do not have the knowledge to do that effectively. This provides a higher quality product than we would produce on our own - but causes an extra layer of work to everything we do. Communication, bug discovery, reporting, fixing, etc. All of this now goes through another company during regular meetings.
So EA don't even use Cider themselves? They farm it out to ANOTHER developer to wrap? I have emails from Transgaming stating that EA use Cider to make the game Mac compatible and are therefore responsible for wrapping/patching/fixing. Ever heard the expression too many cooks spoil the broth? And what happened to Aspyr? EA used them for TS1 and TS2, why not for TS3? They wrote the game natively for Macs and it WORKED. Obviously the 3rd party developers EA are using aren't vey good, otherwise there wouldn't be such issues in OS X.
I know I shouldn't shoot the messenger, and for that I apologise, but really?
Bottom line - until people start voting with their wallets, nothing's going to change.
Now Bluebellflora may have further reasons behind her suggestion to install in order, but from an engineering standpoint installing in order will do this:
Install Basegame (1.0)
Install EP1 (patches basegame to 1.5, installs EP1)
Install SP1 (patches basegame to 1.9, installs SP1)
Install EP2 (patches basegame to 1.12, installs EP2)
etc...
Instead I would do one of two things. Option 1:
Install Basegame (1.0)
Patch live to 1.47
Install EP1 (Recognizes basegame is higher than 1.5 and skips patch, installs EP1)
Install SP1 (skips patch, installs SP1)
etc...
OR, if you don't want to be near Seasons because it is unstable:
Install Basegame (1.0)
Install highest product you want such as Supernatural (patches to 1.3X (?), installs EP)
Install EP1 (Recognizes basegame is higher than 1.5 and skips patch, installs EP1)
Install SP1 (skips patch, installs SP1)
etc...
This should take less time with identical (if not .
Hang on, on my website I do specifically state to patch after the Base Game to the latest patch and subsequently after each EP and SP:
I made the merged CC and this has saved me from lag, freeze and crash in the game but not in the cas. I wonder when will address issues on mac there are thousands of people like me NOT ABLE TO PLAY FOR 2 MONTHS.
SimGuruSteve, thanks for being here. I'm struck by your comment, however, that you've only been able to thanks to the generosity of your boss. This highlights EA's biggest failing: they should have a team of people dedicated to finding out and fixing customer issues, not one poor guy hanging out on the forums at the mercy of his manager.
The harsh truth is that the product EA is selling is defective, and customers have no recourse. Imagine walking into a store to make a return, and having the sales associate cover their face and say, "if I can't see you, you're not there!" That's what this whole business feels like, and in most industries it would not be acceptable.
People keep saying, "vote with your wallet!" Well, I've already started. The last expansion pack I bought was Supernatural. Prior to that, I've purchased every single expansion and stuff pack dating to the original Sims 1. I won't be buying more 'til things are fixed, and I know at least two other Mac users who are doing the same. It may only be a few hundred dollars between the few of us, but this is the sort of thing that will spiral more and more if issues aren't addressed.
It just makes me sad, honestly. I've spent so many happy hours playing Sims. I miss being excited for new packs to come out, rather than concerned about their stability. I want to be able to sink into my little digital neighborhoods again without rude awakenings in the form of error messages and crashes. So really, I'm rooting for EA to get their act together.
PS. Has anyone ever reported EA to the Better Business Bureau? Just curious.
Also, SimGuruSteve, if you'd like to pass this along to the 'recreate bugs' team:
I run a powerful 2011 MacBook Pro. I have all expansion and stuff packs up to Supernatural, plus lots of store content. I have no mods or CC. With this set up, these are the issues I am experiencing:
Before patch 1.42, but after Pets, and not yet fixed:
- fish disappear from inventory when traveling abroad, and any that you catch while abroad vanish again when traveling home.
- gems in inventories become corrupted when traveling, and foreign gems you collect corrupt when you bring them home. The data attached to them stays the same, but if you take a raw gem out of your inventory, it will look like Blue Topaz, no matter what it is. Only getting it cut will revert it to its true color.
- inventory items will completely move around each time you travel or return home.
- butterflies are found in fewer places after Pets installation.
After installing patch 1.42:
- crashes in CAS. Happens anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour after starting. If you save custom copies of things you've made, they will be lost. However, if you save the sim you're working on to the pre-made bin, it will stay there.
- 'tend garden' command is broken: sims begin to tend the first plant, then jerk back upright and all commands vanish from their itinerary.
- sims cannot pick wild mushrooms: command is broken in the same manner as 'tend garden'
- installing the patch wiped out all the beetles in my sims' inventories. A prior patch had wiped out all the butterflies.
As you can see, many of my issues deal with the inventory. Hunter-gatherer sims are my absolute favorite, so this is a crucial element of gameplay for me. Certain challenges cannot be fulfilled because of the bugs (ie. the 'bring alligators to work' opportunity).
So.... I've been playing for the past few days with Seasons installed and using the 1.39 patch. I was never able to before, because of crashes, but I haven't experienced any so far. Strange..... I do however save every 10-20 minutes, because I get scared of the Error 12 bug. I played it for a few hours last night saving between every 10-20 minutes and didn't get the error... That's a good sign, I hope. Anyway, I'm wondering why I'm able to play Seasons all of a sudden without experiencing any crashes. Is it because I went from patch 1.42 to 1.39? o.O Hmmm....
The bottom line is that it's difficult to fix Sims 3 bugs in general. The majority of user related bugs have to do with outdated drivers, unsupported hardware, and 3rd party (ie: not EA) mods and custom content.
We're talking about Macs here, not a myriad of Windows PCs made by different companies, using hundreds of different video cards/processors etc. and drivers which have to be updated every 5 minutes. Why is it so difficult to find the problems? Twallan has managed to fix multiple problems and he's not even a TS3 developer so why can't anyone associated with EA fix them?
We have limited engineering resources and our team has to decide what exactly we should spend our time doing. Being vocal about issues helps us determine how badly a fix is needed and convinces producers to squeeze it into our development time.
So EA aren't willing to pay for a top notch gaming experience but expect its customers to stay loyal and buy all the buggy EPs and SPs. Nice.
As for Mac specifically, we use a third party developer to get our game to run on that platform. They are an incredibly capable team that develops for mac across the video game industry. While we could have attempted to develop Sims 3 on Mac ourselves - we simply do not have the knowledge to do that effectively. This provides a higher quality product than we would produce on our own - but causes an extra layer of work to everything we do. Communication, bug discovery, reporting, fixing, etc. All of this now goes through another company during regular meetings.
So EA don't even use Cider themselves? They farm it out to ANOTHER developer to wrap? I have emails from Transgaming stating that EA use Cider to make the game Mac compatible and are therefore responsible for wrapping/patching/fixing. Ever heard the expression too many cooks spoil the broth? And what happened to Aspyr? EA used them for TS1 and TS2, why not for TS3? They wrote the game natively for Macs and it WORKED. Obviously the 3rd party developers EA are using aren't vey good, otherwise there wouldn't be such issues in OS X.
I know I shouldn't shoot the messenger, and for that I apologise, but really?
Bottom line - until people start voting with their wallets, nothing's going to change.
I was waiting/hoping you would appear on this thread and speak up about a few things.
The one statement that struck me the most was: "We have limited engineering resources and our team has to decide what exactly we should spend our time doing. "
I'm glad Steve appeared and was able to give some insight, but you've got to be kidding me about having a limited team for a game as big as this, whether it's for Mac or PC. While it certainly isn't his fault, EA really needs to consider hiring a team that deals specifically with Macs issues and development. Let the PC people stick to PCs and not give us false information on how to handle our Macs (not saying Steve is doing this. He's actually helping out to the best of his ability).
I've already pretty much stated in another thread that I will NOT be buying University (no matter how badly I want it because it looks awesome). EA needs to settle these issues in a professional manner. I've never heard of a gaming company not being this prepared for a game.
I have done the patch and it still doesn't work for me i've got a brand new iMac 27 inch and still after about 1 hour it crashes and goes to the desktop, why is this still happening ??
This is so ridiculous. EA really need to realise that CIDER is the problem. It's not hardware or drivers or operating systems, it's CIDER. Shall I say that again?
CIDER
Chucking more RAM in your Mac if you only have 4Gb will always help but that's only because the game leaks RAM like a faulty tap.
Seriously EA, you need to use another 3rd party developer because the one you're currently using is utterly, UTTERLY useless. Better still though, as everyone else on here is pointing out, why not develop for the Mac OS natively? You've acknowledged that iOS is a massive growth market. Apple's halo effect is not to be underestimated - people buy iPhones/iPods/iPads and they love them so when they replace their PC they consider buying a Mac. And more and more people are buying Macs to replace their PCs. You're in complete denial over the Mac gaming community. Whether you like it or not, more and more people are gaming on Macs and currently EA are falling way behind their competitors on reliability and customer service.
I would love to buy the forthcoming SimCity as I have always played it but if it's wrapped using Cider? Forget it.
Date/Time: 2013-01-15 19:35:45.704 +0100
OS Version: Mac OS X 10.6.8 (10K549)
Report Version: 6
Interval Since Last Report: 1151313 sec
Crashes Since Last Report: 5
Per-App Interval Since Last Report: 429913 sec
Per-App Crashes Since Last Report: 4
Anonymous UUID: BD903ABB-2608-4DA3-BB0F-69BDDDDF5C96
I am so annoyed like everyone else on the mac. JUST TELL US IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIX THIS ISSUE OR NOT. That way we know for sure, and if the answer is 'no' then I'll just go ahead and throw away my games and never buy anything from EA again. Simple.
I'M 100% NOT BUYING UNIVERSITY LIFE
I just can't do it to myself. Even if Seasons is fixed by then I just know they'll mess my game up again with that. No doubts about it. It sucks that other people are raving how great Season's is and we Mac users can't. It'll be the same with University and any other expansion pack.
I agree with the other people saying Cider is the problem, just face the fact and either fix it or use something else EA! I've been told Cider is causing the crashing because it doesn't allow enough virtual memory to be used in the game and NO amount of added memory to your Mac will help because Cider won't let it use more than X Amount.
If any Guru reads this, even if your job ISN'T to fix the game, can you please pass it on to the person who's job it actually is.
I guess SimGuru Steve's 2 days being 'graciously allowed' to talk to us here is up.
Oh well then, that's probably as much as we are going to get for another few years.
Did we learn anything from what he said other than;
EA is not prioritising our Mac issues with the game because they did not know about them 2months before the last patch?????
that it's really hard to fix all the bugs !!!!!
that they don't really have enough people working for them, UH!!! What!!!
the Mac side of the game is done by another company with whom they have to have meetings to let them know if the game has any bugs being reported on the Mac forums, which no-one looks at, really, or they would have noticed over the last 3 years!!! that mac users have a lot of issues.
I know that he was only here to direct folk to a working download of 1.47, but as none of us can play the game anymore anyway, it wasn't really that much help.
Oh well!
Back to the eternal uninstalling, re-installing, crashing, ugly EA Sims, Exception Raised, 5 minutes of play, again.
They were responsible for TS1 and TS2 on Macs - and it worked.
Considering that most of the titles in that pic are actually popular, fully-functional games, it just proves that porting can be done successfully. To even add to that list, Civilization is also one of their top titles that have been ported to the Mac OS (I've played each series, and it runs fantastic on a Mac as I am currently playing Civ5).
EA just doesn't want to admit that their little pet "Cider" is crap. Actually, they don't want to admit much of anything.
I can't build a second story wall and then save because then it crashes I'm not sure if it's because of that patch or if it's because of Seasons in general because I have never built a second story before since I got Seasons.
But I had no problems downloading the patch.
I can't build a second story wall and then save because then it crashes I'm not sure if it's because of that patch or if it's because of Seasons in general because I have never built a second story before since I got Seasons.
But I had no problems downloading the patch.
If you haven't already, try dropping all your settings down as low as they will go and see what happens.
I am so annoyed like everyone else on the mac. JUST TELL US IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIX THIS ISSUE OR NOT. That way we know for sure, and if the answer is 'no' then I'll just go ahead and throw away my games and never buy anything from EA again. Simple.
I'M 100% NOT BUYING UNIVERSITY LIFE
This, so much this.
My favourite TV shows take place in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I was so looking forward to the stuff pack and now there's no point getting it because it simply will not work and while I'm not looking forward to University in quite the same way these's no point in even thinking about it. Even if they fix the issues we have now, the chances of it working with more added are slim.
did what steve/bluebell suggested, uninstalled everything, re installed base game and patched up ( to 1.47 for some reason) installed the EP and SP packs that i do have other than seasons, and its now back the way it was before seasons, still freezes and i get all the same errors, but far less than with seasons installed, so now i can get at least an hour in before crashing as opposed to seasons where you were lucky to get 5 minutes.
I opened up the game every time i installed something so i could check the performance to see if i could narrow down what the problem is, naturally, the base game by its self ran as smooth as hell and it got worse as each expansion pack/stuff pack was installed, choppy glitchy crash messy error ridden you know the drill also checked to see how it acted after i installed store content and mods, neither seemed to effect the game as much as the EP's themselves if not at all, just seems to be down to poor memory distribution, remember to delete those cache files and the contents of the DCBackup folder after every game, that seems to help a wee bit.
did what steve/bluebell suggested, uninstalled everything, re installed base game and patched up ( to 1.47 for some reason) installed the EP and SP packs that i do have other than seasons, and its now back the way it was before seasons, still freezes and i get all the same errors, but far less than with seasons installed, so now i can get at least an hour in before crashing as opposed to seasons where you were lucky to get 5 minutes.
I opened up the game every time i installed something so i could check the performance to see if i could narrow down what the problem is, naturally, the base game by its self ran as smooth as hell and it got worse as each expansion pack/stuff pack was installed, choppy glitchy crash messy error ridden you know the drill also checked to see how it acted after i installed store content and mods, neither seemed to effect the game as much as the EP's themselves if not at all, just seems to be down to poor memory distribution, remember to delete those cache files and the contents of the DCBackup folder after every game, that seems to help a wee bit.
After an hour of gameplay try the following whilst you still have the game running:
- Go into windowed mode if you don't already play in it (CMD and Enter)
- Applications > Utilities > Terminal
- Type in 'purge' (without the speech marks) and hit Enter
- Give it 20 seconds or so, until a new command line appears, then quit Terminal
- Carry on playing
This will free RAM on your Mac so you may get a bit longer gameplay. You can open Activity Monitor to see RAM stats.
remember to delete those cache files and the contents of the DCBackup folder after every game, that seems to help a wee bit.
Hmmm, I seem to remember somewhere that you were NOT supposed to delete the contents of the DCBackup folder for whatever reason. Like you, I did it daily but maybe this just applies to Windows users?
Seriously EA, you need to use another 3rd party developer because the one you're currently using is utterly, UTTERLY useless. Better still though, as everyone else on here is pointing out, why not develop for the Mac OS natively? You've acknowledged that iOS is a massive growth market. Apple's halo effect is not to be underestimated - people buy iPhones/iPods/iPads and they love them so when they replace their PC they consider buying a Mac. And more and more people are buying Macs to replace their PCs. You're in complete denial over the Mac gaming community. Whether you like it or not, more and more people are gaming on Macs and currently EA are falling way behind their competitors on reliability and customer service.
Kudos, Bluebell. You've said exactly what I've been trying to say for the past 2 years.
[...]it said that my game is patched from an unknown source
Wait, wut? There is an issue I had to fix with Mountain Lion that pertains to one of Apple's new features called Gatekeeper. It requires signatures on files downloaded from the internet, so I'm wondering if this is at all related. If you ever do see the message again, I'd be very interested.[/quote]
Hi I've only just found this forum (due to posting on answer HQ and being referred) and have found it to be so helpful!!
Really encouraging to see other people are in the same boat as me and that (hopefully) EA are becoming aware of it! Nice to have a guru understanding where we're coming from too!!
I was just going to mention that I'd had a similar message to the one above except mine said that some files have been modified please reinstall and they haven't been touched? I have never looked closely at the documents and that in sims as have never had a problem such as this. I'm not too worried about this patch now as a result (as it is not improving the crashing so will wait for the next) but just thought about the error message and didn't know if it was worth mentioning!
Comments
I wish I could 'like' this post.....
We're talking about Macs here, not a myriad of Windows PCs made by different companies, using hundreds of different video cards/processors etc. and drivers which have to be updated every 5 minutes. Why is it so difficult to find the problems? Twallan has managed to fix multiple problems and he's not even a TS3 developer so why can't anyone associated with EA fix them?
So EA aren't willing to pay for a top notch gaming experience but expect its customers to stay loyal and buy all the buggy EPs and SPs. Nice.
So EA don't even use Cider themselves? They farm it out to ANOTHER developer to wrap? I have emails from Transgaming stating that EA use Cider to make the game Mac compatible and are therefore responsible for wrapping/patching/fixing. Ever heard the expression too many cooks spoil the broth? And what happened to Aspyr? EA used them for TS1 and TS2, why not for TS3? They wrote the game natively for Macs and it WORKED. Obviously the 3rd party developers EA are using aren't vey good, otherwise there wouldn't be such issues in OS X.
I know I shouldn't shoot the messenger, and for that I apologise, but really?
Bottom line - until people start voting with their wallets, nothing's going to change.
Hang on, on my website I do specifically state to patch after the Base Game to the latest patch and subsequently after each EP and SP:
http://bluebellflora.com/ts3-on-a-mac/how-to-do-a-clean-uninstall-and-reinstall-on-a-mac-2
The harsh truth is that the product EA is selling is defective, and customers have no recourse. Imagine walking into a store to make a return, and having the sales associate cover their face and say, "if I can't see you, you're not there!" That's what this whole business feels like, and in most industries it would not be acceptable.
People keep saying, "vote with your wallet!" Well, I've already started. The last expansion pack I bought was Supernatural. Prior to that, I've purchased every single expansion and stuff pack dating to the original Sims 1. I won't be buying more 'til things are fixed, and I know at least two other Mac users who are doing the same. It may only be a few hundred dollars between the few of us, but this is the sort of thing that will spiral more and more if issues aren't addressed.
It just makes me sad, honestly. I've spent so many happy hours playing Sims. I miss being excited for new packs to come out, rather than concerned about their stability. I want to be able to sink into my little digital neighborhoods again without rude awakenings in the form of error messages and crashes. So really, I'm rooting for EA to get their act together.
PS. Has anyone ever reported EA to the Better Business Bureau? Just curious.
I run a powerful 2011 MacBook Pro. I have all expansion and stuff packs up to Supernatural, plus lots of store content. I have no mods or CC. With this set up, these are the issues I am experiencing:
Before patch 1.42, but after Pets, and not yet fixed:
- fish disappear from inventory when traveling abroad, and any that you catch while abroad vanish again when traveling home.
- gems in inventories become corrupted when traveling, and foreign gems you collect corrupt when you bring them home. The data attached to them stays the same, but if you take a raw gem out of your inventory, it will look like Blue Topaz, no matter what it is. Only getting it cut will revert it to its true color.
- inventory items will completely move around each time you travel or return home.
- butterflies are found in fewer places after Pets installation.
After installing patch 1.42:
- crashes in CAS. Happens anywhere from 10 minutes to an hour after starting. If you save custom copies of things you've made, they will be lost. However, if you save the sim you're working on to the pre-made bin, it will stay there.
- 'tend garden' command is broken: sims begin to tend the first plant, then jerk back upright and all commands vanish from their itinerary.
- sims cannot pick wild mushrooms: command is broken in the same manner as 'tend garden'
- installing the patch wiped out all the beetles in my sims' inventories. A prior patch had wiped out all the butterflies.
As you can see, many of my issues deal with the inventory. Hunter-gatherer sims are my absolute favorite, so this is a crucial element of gameplay for me. Certain challenges cannot be fulfilled because of the bugs (ie. the 'bring alligators to work' opportunity).
I do really hope you read this and pass it along.
I was waiting/hoping you would appear on this thread and speak up about a few things.
The one statement that struck me the most was: "We have limited engineering resources and our team has to decide what exactly we should spend our time doing. "
I'm glad Steve appeared and was able to give some insight, but you've got to be kidding me about having a limited team for a game as big as this, whether it's for Mac or PC. While it certainly isn't his fault, EA really needs to consider hiring a team that deals specifically with Macs issues and development. Let the PC people stick to PCs and not give us false information on how to handle our Macs (not saying Steve is doing this. He's actually helping out to the best of his ability).
I've already pretty much stated in another thread that I will NOT be buying University (no matter how badly I want it because it looks awesome). EA needs to settle these issues in a professional manner. I've never heard of a gaming company not being this prepared for a game.
This is so ridiculous. EA really need to realise that CIDER is the problem. It's not hardware or drivers or operating systems, it's CIDER. Shall I say that again?
CIDER
Chucking more RAM in your Mac if you only have 4Gb will always help but that's only because the game leaks RAM like a faulty tap.
Seriously EA, you need to use another 3rd party developer because the one you're currently using is utterly, UTTERLY useless. Better still though, as everyone else on here is pointing out, why not develop for the Mac OS natively? You've acknowledged that iOS is a massive growth market. Apple's halo effect is not to be underestimated - people buy iPhones/iPods/iPads and they love them so when they replace their PC they consider buying a Mac. And more and more people are buying Macs to replace their PCs. You're in complete denial over the Mac gaming community. Whether you like it or not, more and more people are gaming on Macs and currently EA are falling way behind their competitors on reliability and customer service.
I would love to buy the forthcoming SimCity as I have always played it but if it's wrapped using Cider? Forget it.
How long do we wait? I am very angry! That sucks! Two months have passed and nothing has been solved!
I am so annoyed like everyone else on the mac. JUST TELL US IF YOU'RE GOING TO FIX THIS ISSUE OR NOT. That way we know for sure, and if the answer is 'no' then I'll just go ahead and throw away my games and never buy anything from EA again. Simple.
I'M 100% NOT BUYING UNIVERSITY LIFE
I just can't do it to myself. Even if Seasons is fixed by then I just know they'll mess my game up again with that. No doubts about it. It sucks that other people are raving how great Season's is and we Mac users can't. It'll be the same with University and any other expansion pack.
I agree with the other people saying Cider is the problem, just face the fact and either fix it or use something else EA! I've been told Cider is causing the crashing because it doesn't allow enough virtual memory to be used in the game and NO amount of added memory to your Mac will help because Cider won't let it use more than X Amount.
If any Guru reads this, even if your job ISN'T to fix the game, can you please pass it on to the person who's job it actually is.
Ditto. Bring back Aspyr!
Oh well then, that's probably as much as we are going to get for another few years.
Did we learn anything from what he said other than;
EA is not prioritising our Mac issues with the game because they did not know about them 2months before the last patch?????
that it's really hard to fix all the bugs !!!!!
that they don't really have enough people working for them, UH!!! What!!!
the Mac side of the game is done by another company with whom they have to have meetings to let them know if the game has any bugs being reported on the Mac forums, which no-one looks at, really, or they would have noticed over the last 3 years!!! that mac users have a lot of issues.
I know that he was only here to direct folk to a working download of 1.47, but as none of us can play the game anymore anyway, it wasn't really that much help.
Oh well!
Back to the eternal uninstalling, re-installing, crashing, ugly EA Sims, Exception Raised, 5 minutes of play, again.
http://9to5mac.com/2013/01/16/aspyr-media-talks-porting-games-to-os-x-mac-app-store-the-future-of-mac-gaming-borderlands-2-giveaway/
They were responsible for TS1 and TS2 on Macs - and it worked.
Considering that most of the titles in that pic are actually popular, fully-functional games, it just proves that porting can be done successfully. To even add to that list, Civilization is also one of their top titles that have been ported to the Mac OS (I've played each series, and it runs fantastic on a Mac as I am currently playing Civ5).
EA just doesn't want to admit that their little pet "Cider" is crap. Actually, they don't want to admit much of anything.
But I had no problems downloading the patch.
If you haven't already, try dropping all your settings down as low as they will go and see what happens.
This, so much this.
My favourite TV shows take place in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, I was so looking forward to the stuff pack and now there's no point getting it because it simply will not work and while I'm not looking forward to University in quite the same way these's no point in even thinking about it. Even if they fix the issues we have now, the chances of it working with more added are slim.
I opened up the game every time i installed something so i could check the performance to see if i could narrow down what the problem is, naturally, the base game by its self ran as smooth as hell and it got worse as each expansion pack/stuff pack was installed, choppy glitchy crash messy error ridden you know the drill
After an hour of gameplay try the following whilst you still have the game running:
- Go into windowed mode if you don't already play in it (CMD and Enter)
- Applications > Utilities > Terminal
- Type in 'purge' (without the speech marks) and hit Enter
- Give it 20 seconds or so, until a new command line appears, then quit Terminal
- Carry on playing
This will free RAM on your Mac so you may get a bit longer gameplay. You can open Activity Monitor to see RAM stats.
Hmmm, I seem to remember somewhere that you were NOT supposed to delete the contents of the DCBackup folder for whatever reason. Like you, I did it daily but maybe this just applies to Windows users?
Kudos, Bluebell. You've said exactly what I've been trying to say for the past 2 years.
@SimGuruSteve,
Hi I've only just found this forum (due to posting on answer HQ and being referred) and have found it to be so helpful!!
Really encouraging to see other people are in the same boat as me and that (hopefully) EA are becoming aware of it! Nice to have a guru understanding where we're coming from too!!
I was just going to mention that I'd had a similar message to the one above except mine said that some files have been modified please reinstall and they haven't been touched? I have never looked closely at the documents and that in sims as have never had a problem such as this. I'm not too worried about this patch now as a result (as it is not improving the crashing so will wait for the next) but just thought about the error message and didn't know if it was worth mentioning!
Thanks!