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    Disappearing Households

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    lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
    in The Sims 3 Help & Technical Discussion
    twice now i have had a household disappear in the main menu is this happening to others should i uninstall and reinstall or is a patch to fix this going to be available soon...

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      vivicanavivicana Posts: 374 New Member
      edited September 2009
      do you mean a house as in save file in the main menu?
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      lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
      edited September 2009
      Yes the whole thing keeps disapearing. Ive had to start a new game twice now.
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      BetheljenBetheljen Posts: 6 New Member
      edited September 2009
      I had a household disappear once, but I believe it was because I made them difficult to play. I switched active household and when I went to look at their progression, the difficulty level was lit up red. Later when I went back to play them, they were gone and the house empty...
      So did their kids get taken and they killed themselves? I have no idea...just vanished.
      Was wondering if maybe you household was also off the chart difficult as well?
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      lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
      edited September 2009
      i could not even get in to the town it was all re-set, not sure about the difficulty rating
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      debra1970pdebra1970p Posts: 4,652 Member
      edited September 2009
      Are you giving your saved games unique names so that they're not overwriting older games?
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      lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
      edited September 2009
      yep i only had one game going both times
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      UniQueLyEviLUniQueLyEviL Posts: 26 New Member
      edited September 2009
      This JUST happened to me as well...... -_______-
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      lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
      edited September 2009
      When I get responce from the lovely ppl at EA ill post it. that is if they have an answer....
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      lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
      edited September 2009
      still going back and forward from EA hope to find out soon.
      Post edited by Unknown User on
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      lillybeth73lillybeth73 Posts: 8 New Member
      edited September 2009
      still going back and forward with EA :S
      Post edited by Unknown User on
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      TopazianTopazian Posts: 1 New Member
      edited September 2009
      a number of times now familys that i have created (but not playing at the time) keep leaveing town, how do i get these familys back or how do i stop this from happening?
      Post edited by Unknown User on
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      SimovitzSimovitz Posts: 57 New Member
      edited September 2009
      Hi, the same happenes to me. First it was only one old man, but he was insane, so I underestimated the problem. It was months ago but last week four houses got empty (they didn't move to another place and didn't die - simply vanished!) just in the same way you described before. There are no apparent similarities: one household consisted of eight sims and the other one of one sim, they lived on small and huge lots, and so on... As far as I know many people have the same problem and it's the most annoying especially when your favourite, most often played sims dissapear for no reason. Is anyone going to help at all in this matter? Any clues WHY is this happening...?
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      aizjanikaaizjanika Posts: 56 Member
      edited September 2009
      lillybeth73 wrote:
      twice now i have had a household disappear in the main menu is this happening to others should i uninstall and reinstall or is a patch to fix this going to be available soon...

      I've had this happen twice as well. The first time I was on the 3rd generation of a family. I saved the game and the next day when I opened the Sims to play again, that household/game was gone.

      The second time, I had only started playing the family. I saved the game and when I turned on my computer to play it the next day, that saved game was gone again.
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      SimovitzSimovitz Posts: 57 New Member
      edited September 2009
      Official patch to version 1.3 is said to be fixing this problem by limiting the story progression of non played households to aging only. But, really, what's the point in playing without the real story progression on ??? More over, many people complain that after installing this patch they have even worse problems (for example with population of their towns) :-/ So I don't know what's worse...
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      Mourningdove00Mourningdove00 Posts: 346 New Member
      edited September 2009
      Sims that I created continue to have babies and move away,, and die,,, I have all the patches , and they sure havent helped me

      Also, I have had some just disappear,, with no notice...
      Post edited by Unknown User on
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      kittybadkittybad Posts: 10 New Member
      edited September 2009
      This just happened to me too. A family I spent hours on just gone. Riverview is gone too. EA can't get a handle on this mess of a game, can they?
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      Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
      edited September 2009
      The patch does not stop the moving out of Sims, just the moving out of USER CREATED Sims as many of us were angry when we'd spend hours creating Sims and placing in several homes in our hoods only to have them move out because they were not our active families. So to stop all our complaints EA put a protection on our User Created Sims, but warned us not to overpopulate the town with User Created Sims and not play them or else our towns could become a ghost town if we didn't occassionally play these houses and have them have families.

      I have my game updated since each patch came out and have no problem at all with the latest patches. I also do not use any hacks and I make sure the few hair and skin mods I have are updated to the latest patches - so it is my assumption that the people having problems since patching is because they have not updated all their CC and mods. Unlike Sims 2, hairs, skins, and any other user created CC has to be updated with every patch because of the way Sims CC is being made. Most people do not seem aware of this reguardless of how many times many of us and even EA has mentioned this in this forum. So just like mods and hacks gave people problems in Sims 2 when they didn't update them, all Sims 3 CC that does not install using the installer has to be updated or removed from their game.

      Also without the newest patches, all Sims except the one house you are actively playing can disappear from the neighborhood. This would not surprise you if you had your Sims read the newspaper everyday, as it usually names what Sim or family moved out every day, as well as who got married, and who had babies. If you patch to 1.4 any Sims you personally created should no longer move out, get married on their own, or have babies unless you physically go into their household and play them long enough to make these things happen.

      Believe you EA did not want to do that, but they got tired of us complaining about Sims we worked hard on being moved out.

      I noticed though the protection on our Sims does not seem to stop neighborhood Sims from moving in with Sims we created. I built a house and made a couple for the house that I planned on playing next, and went back to the house a few days later to find 3 other couple living with them. So I had to evict those three couples so I could get my Sims family started. What was most annoying was the hood has plenty of vacant houses they could have moved these Sims into, so I found that a bit annoying - but otherwise my game play precisely as EA said it would and with no problems otherwise.

      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.

      In dreams - I LIVE!
      In REALITY, I simply exist.....

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      SimovitzSimovitz Posts: 57 New Member
      edited September 2009
      Well said, Writin-Reg, although I'm not sure if 'moving away' is the same as 'disappearing. Look, I don't use (and haven't used) any so called mods and objects other than those bought in TS Store. And still the whole families are gone, missing, vanished from my town and it's hard to believe it's got anything in common with the proper story progression. I'd rather consider it as some kind of error. Maybe connected to some particular lots, as it keep repeating itself on a few lots only, with different families being put there. And in my opinion limiting story progresion to aging only is not solution at all since the game was ment to be about this free will and making the town 'alive'. So, like I said, the idea, the project is brilliant, but it could have been much more well done.
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      loulouhloulouh Posts: 196 Member
      edited September 2009
      What you're describing sounds like the same thing that happened to me. I thought I'd copy the post I found by a very helpful Simmer. This worked for me, when I was about ready to pull my hair out with the frustration of losing a whole saved household! Hope it works for you :-)

      Joined: 05/29/09 08:33 PM
      Messages: 2913
      Location:USA
      Offline
      Have you ever loaded your game to find your saved game missing, or error code 13 while saving and lost your progress? To retrieve your saved game, do the following:

      Finding Your Saves Folder
      1. Go to My Documents.
      2. Electronic Arts
      3. The Sims 3
      4. Saves

      After that, find your saved game's name. If you named your game Sunset Valley, you should see:
      Sunset Valley.sims3
      Sunset Valley.sims3.backup

      Instructions
      Rename Sunset Valley.sims3.backup to Sunset Valley.sims3
      Delete Sunset Valley.sims3

      If you have a file that ends with .bad, delete that. Anything that ends with .bad, delete.

      Start up your game, and your town will be back. The game will auto generate another backup file. If you don't have a backup file, all you need to do is just delete SunsetValley.bad, and your saved game should return.

      Conclusion
      Since this is a PC only tutorial, I can't do Mac as I'm not familiar with with it. I'm sure someone such as Lawertend, or Unsecretcrush can help out if you're on Mac.

      Troubleshooting/FAQ's
      Question:
      I don't have a SIMS3 file, but I do have a backup file. What can I do?
      Answer:
      Try making a copy of your backup file, and then renaming it to end with .sims3.

      Question:
      There are only two files - .sims3, and .bad. What do I do?
      Answer:
      Delete your .bad file. Don't worry about having no backup file. The game will regenerate one, automatically.

      Still Having Trouble?

      If you're still having trouble with your game, try these links to solve your problem.

      CRASH TO DESKTOP - Possible Solution
      A list of unofficial bugs and issues with The Sims...*UPDATED 06/18 - 2 NEW FIXES!*


      This message was edited 13 times. Last update was at 08/29/09 08:52 AM
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      Writin_RegWritin_Reg Posts: 28,907 Member
      edited September 2009
      Simovitz do you have your Sims "read" the paper? Are the Sims 'disappearing" sims you created or EA created ones? Only your own created Sims and active household (whether you created them or EA) are safe from the "move out of town" EA monster, that does indeed look like disappearing as they are no longer in the town anywhere, and exactly as EA has repeatedly said the Sims 3 is supposed to work. Without the last 2 patches this would also happen to the Sims you created as well as any households you played if it was not the household you were presently playing, all households were game. Let me tell you that nothing made us madder than play one house for a couple generations then go over to check on how our families grown kids were faring after they were moved out only to discover them totally gone from the neighborhood. To add to the insult, you go back to your main family and find them moved out as well and no where to be found. EA said the game was designed like that on purpose, but many of us let them know in so many words - well we are not liking your design. So to appease us that were screaming at them - they abolished the move out of town monster on any households we - the user had created - and those we actively played, but they only met us half way, and said they would not change the way this happened with Sim households we didn't play or create. That it was necessary to have this feature in the game because of the design of the game and population controller feature.

      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.

      In dreams - I LIVE!
      In REALITY, I simply exist.....

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      BarbKBarbK Posts: 6 New Member
      edited September 2009
      This has happened to me also. I was wondering if you have to give a name to each family you save - I was saving it under the town name thinking it would override the last version and save everthing but my town seems untouched when I go back - ie. back to the beginning of the game - no new stuff.
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      SimovitzSimovitz Posts: 57 New Member
      edited September 2009
      Thanks, Writin_Reg, for explanation. Indeed, it's true what you say. And yes, my sims do read newspapers and they happened not to read any news of families moving away while they actually been gone. Mine and EA sims were disappearing as well. While I reinstalled game to the very first version without any upgrades I understood the game was designed this way: the whole town 'lives' it's own life including households created by the player. And finally the news started to appear: who moved away and why, who died and of what, and so on. It's true it's annoying and off course EA had to do something with it having so many fans complaining. The only thing I regret is that the patches are not selective, 'cos I don't want to give up the whole story progression just to have my families in town for good. It's like fixing the problem by causing another.
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      EmpressJerichoEmpressJericho Posts: 1,028 Member
      edited September 2009
      Yes, I have a family I have been playing. It is on it's 2nd generation. They were moved out and neighbors to their parents, so I could visit every now and again.

      One of the daughters got married and was able to invite said generation to her wedding, yet they are no where to be found in my game. :O

      I read the paper..and it doesn't say anything about people moving away. I also have an issue with babies and toddler dying...ALOT!

      I love Story Progression and I don't want to turn it off, but I also hate looking at the family trees and seeing so many ghost babies. :(

      My lineage will never grow b/c all their kids keep dying at young ages.
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      rickyrodcruz1970rickyrodcruz1970 Posts: 14 New Member
      edited September 2009
      In my game I have been having individual members of families disapearing. Then the rest of the familiy carries on as if they never existed. I hate the fact that there they have no memories. It's messed up that a family member vanishes and no one notices.
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      vylanthevylanthe Posts: 37 New Member
      edited September 2009
      rickyrodcruz i have your problem it's a family member tat vanishes and i've got no idea were tey've gone. i can call and invite them over but tey're not in te town it's awful.
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