Using Downloaded Worlds - FAQ, Tips, and Tricks

RRArtie · April 2015

I thought it might be useful to have a thread that helped the users of custom worlds. We have a large FAQ sticky which has many helpful topics for world builders, but the users of these worlds need a place to go for their questions. Topics that I suggest be covered are:

Installing a custom world. Right now there is a thread asking that question. See the third post for some help.
Playing a world with a save file. Some builders create a world and a save file with a Sims population. See the bottom of the third post for help.
Populating a downloaded world with ghosts. See the second post which includes a process and some tombstone carrying Sims
Dealing with custom world performance issues. See the third post which might help improve performance of a downloaded world.
Locking dive lots for better yields. I have run a test to show dive lots have better yields when locked. The fourth post shws this test and describes how to lock a lot.
I would be happy for any additional suggestions

Populating a downloaded world with ghosts is my main reason for this thread and I will cover this on the second post of this thread. However, I think these other topics need to be addressed in a central place and have put down some of my thoughts.

RRArtie · April 2015

I was playing Sunset Valley Second Edition Final and missed the ghosts that roamed the Remington Mansion. World builders (other than EA) can't put ghosts in the CAW world. I found this suggestion for installing ghosts in a played world (after CAW file creation) here:

http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/700447/how-to-populate-a-graveyard-with-actual-ghosts/p1

That thread described an approach for installing ghosts into a played world and installing a graveyard populated with ghosts into a played world. The approach is useful as far as it goes, but has shortcomings. For one, it doesn't talk about installing ghosts onto occupied lots (Goths, Remington/Jones, and Crumplebottom in SV 2nd Ed Final). Also, it doesn't talk about re-establishing family connections.

I collected ghosts, developed a procedure and installed them in SV 2nd Ed Final and have played it for 2 weeks (Sim time plus 3 vacations) without any lag showing up. I am sharing this information in hopes that players of other worlds will be able to use it. As the above thread suggests, world builders could also create occupied lots and graveyards in a save game file.

In the worlds created by EA, ghosts inhabit grave yards and some lots with graves of family members. For example, Sunset Valley has a large graveyard called Peaceful Rest Cemetery where all headstones are for ghosts. The Goth and Crumplebottom houses have family headstone on the home lot. In Riverview the Jones house (Remington Manor) has three headstones and one urn for the Remington family.

Unfortunately, Create a World does not allow installing ghosts in user built worlds. Some of the best worlds (for example Sunset Valley Second Edition) are based on EA worlds, but don't have the ghosts. A player can bring these ghosts into the world by following this procedure:

For this procedure it is necessary to have NRaas_DebugEnabler.package, NRaas_MasterController.package, and NRaas_MasterControllerCheats.package installed in the Mods/Package folder.

The first step is to collect the tombstones and urns from the EA world for each family that is to have ghosts in the new world.
1. Start playing a new game for the EA world that has the ghosts that you want for your user created world - for example Sunset Valley
2. Build a tombstone collector Sim on a vacant lot or use an existing family in the library or on a lot. This is just a normal Sim that will be the conveyor of tombstones to the user created world. I built Gabby Gravedigger for Sunset Valley and Riverview.
3. Pause the game when this Sim is set in the front yard and all the introduction notices have passed.
4. Turn on TestingCheatsEnabled in the cheat window
5. Place a desk, computer and chair on the lot. This is a convenient access point for the NRaas mod menus. The wall of the City Hall may be used if you are playing a family without a computer.
6. To locate the tombstone or urn of the family member that you want to transfer to the new world follow this procedure:
a. Click on the computer, then in the menu click on NRaas --> Master Controller --> Sim --> Basic --> Find Grave
b. A list of all graves in the world is displayed. Click on the one you are trying to find.
c. Then click on the check mark in the lower right of the list
d. The screen focus immediately moves to this gravestone. If grave site is in a building, you need to go down a floor or two to find the Urn.
i. Occupied buildings need to be opened Click on the building --> NRaas --> Master Controller --> Open
ii. After you have gotten the urn, you could close the building to return to normal
e. For instance clicking on Eric Darling will take you to his tombstone located in the front yard of Agnes Crumplebottom's house
7. Click on the tombstone or urn
a. If the "Pick-up" option is present, then select Pick-up and the tombstones or urn will be placed into the Sims inventory.
b. Otherwise, click on NRaas --> Debug Enabler --> Options: Remains --> Move to family inventory
8. If there are other tombstones on the lot that you want, then pick them up too by repeating step 7.
9. Other family members may be located on other lots and may also be picked up. Repeat this procedure (back to step 6) to locate the tombstones and place them in your inventory.
a. For instance, the list of graves reveals other Crumplebottom tombstones located on the Goth home lot
10. Once you have finished collecting all tombstones or urns that you want in this world place them all in your inventory.
a. Return the Sim to his home lot and change into buy mode
b. Place each tombstone or urn in the family inventory onto the lot
c. Return to live mode and have the Sim click on each tombstone and urn and select "pick-up". The tombstone or urn is placed in the Sim's personal inventory
11. After all the tombstones and urns have been collected and are in the Sims personal inventory, then save this Sim using the following procedure:
a. Go to Edit Town, click on the occupied lot, click on the folder to place the Sim in the library
b. If you want the Sim more transportable to other computers, click on export instead.
12. If you want other tombstones or urns from other worlds, then repeat from Step 2 and install this Sim on a lot in the next world.
a. For instance the Remington family tombstones and urn can be picked up in Riverview, Midnight Hollow is a rich source of ghosts, and IP has drowning victims that might be appropriate for a new world with dive lots
13. Exit the game

The second step is to place the tombstones and urns in the new world. Follow this procedure:
1. It is always helpful to clear all the cache files when starting a new game/world.
2. If the Sim with the tombstones is not in the library (from step 12 above), then install it using the loader
3. Start the world either a saved game that you have played or a fresh start.
4. Set TestingCheatsEnabled on
5. If this world is a saved game that you were playing, you might do a "save as" to work on a new copy of the world and you might want to Retain Dreams & Opportunities as you switch active families
a. Dreams and Opportunities are normally lost when you change active families. If you want the family you were playing to retain them dreams and opportunities while you run the tombstone carrying families, then you want to set this cheat
b. Click on the wall of City Hall or a computer from the menu select NRaas --> Master Controller --> Retain Dreams & Opportunities to set it true, and then close Master Controller.
c. If you are running Story Progression, there is a similar option, but it has to be invoked for each lot.
6. Go to edit town and place the ghost carrying family or families (for instance Gravedigger and Torres from IP) on a lot or multiple lots
7. Make the tombstone carrying family active
a. On a new world go back to the game and select an existing family in the game setup and select the tombstone carrying family
b. On a saved world click return to the game and make the tombstone carrying family active by clicking on the house and click on NRaas --> Master Controller --> Make Active. Don't make active from edit town because the Retain Dreams and Opportunities didn't work from edit town.
8. Pause the game
9. From world view select a community lot or an unoccupied lot where you wish urns or gravestones to be placed and the view will shift to that lot.
10. From the Sim inventory click on the tombstone, click on "Place Tombstone" and click on the place where you want it placed on the lot or into the house. You can drag it around and rotate it for best position. If there are placeholder tombstones or urns labeled "remains", they can be deleted with a Shift-click, select Object and then "Delete".
a. For instance, I placed several drowning victims on beaches, 2 pets in the dog park and a horse in the horse arena and all others in the cemetery. To make finding the tombstones for occupied lots easier, I placed them on the pathways in the cemetery.
11. Repeat step 9 and 10 until you have placed all the tombstones that you want in this game and that this Sim is carrying
12. If there are other tombstone carrying Sims , switch to them by either making them the active household or just switching control to them if they are in the same household and repeat step 9, 10, and 11
a. To make a new family active move the cursor onto their house, click on the house and click on NRaas --> Master Controller --> Make Active
13. In the above steps you are not able to place tombstones on occupied lots. There might be a cheat to do this, but I didn't find it. To move these tombstones from where the tombstone carrier placed them to the occupied lot do the following:
a. Make the occupied house the active house and select one of the occupants.
b. Have the occupant pick up the necessary tombstones same procedure (Steps 6 and 7 in the first collection procedure)
c. Have the occupant place the tombstones on their lot and delete any placeholder remains
d. For instance, I placed Cody, Eileen, Kirsten, and Jasper Remington on the pathway of the Cemetery where they are clearly visible and then had Hannah Jones pick them up and place them on the Remington Manor lot.
e. Repeat the above for each occupied lot that needs tombstones
f. One wrinkle developed - I was doing this at night when most families are at home and asleep, but when a Goth went to pick up Prudence Crumplebottom to place her on their lot, she was haunting the graveyard and I was afraid to move her. I waited and did other Sims and when she was back in her tombstone, and then I picked her up and placed her.
14. The family tree relationship that existed in the EA worlds is lost during this transfer. You can reset this relationship using the following procedure:
a. For an active Sim click on them, Click on NRaas --> Master Controller --> Family --> Add (Parent, child, sibling, spouse) --> Type Sim (and), select Dead Sim in the list of filter conditions and click on the check mark in the bottom right corner. A list of appropriate dead Sims is shown. Click on the dead Sim you want inserted in the family tree. The digital DNA carries some dead Sim relationships, so you might get other Sims added to the family tree.
b. For instance Agnes Crumplebottom has a ghost husband and two parents that could be placed in her family tree. In-law relations are automatically established.
c. To add grandparents, you have to repeat this process of establishing a parent of the ghost parent. It may help to set off firecrackers after midnight near the tombstone of the ghost parent. IF the ghost appears, you can set their relationship to other Sims.
d. You can find Sims 3 family trees for the popular families (Newbies, Goths, Caliente, etc.) on the internet.
15. After all the tombstones are in their final resting place, switch back to the Sims you were playing, go to edit town and delete any families that were just conveyors of tombstones, and save the game.

To help get you started, I created Gravedigger with 28 tombstones in his inventory from Sunset Valley and Riverview including Landgraab, Goth, Crumplebottom, Remington, Bachelor, and Broke families. He is uploaded to the Exchange and is located here:
Edit 5/17/14 http://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8629883 Apparently I violated some terms of service rule. Gabby Gravedigger is available on media fire with other Sims with tombstones for an added bonus. See last link in this post

Place him on a lot and use him to place ghosts in your worlds as described at above. Gabby Gravedigger has skills of charisma, cooking, and handiness. He has a lifetime wish to be a Gold Digger (dance on the grave of your rich spouse). If he is assigned a part-time job at the mausoleum, he might meet a rich widow!

In addition, I have placed five families with tombstones here on media fire:
http://www.mediafire.com/download/nwwc1f1acyoqh04/Sims_with_Tombstones.zip

The five families that collected tombstones are:
Gabby Gravedigger has collected 28 Sunset Valley and Riverview tombstones. These include Goths, Crumplebottoms, Landgraabs, Bachelor, Remingtons and others. Matteo Torres has collected ghosts in Island Paradiso. Other than his parents the ghosts all appeared to be drowning victims and are useful in a world with beaches and dive lots. Mateo also picked up animal tombstones from Appaloosa Plains, and one tombstone from Twin Brooks. The Jones Family has collected Jones and Remington tombstones. The Landgraab family has collected Landgraab tombstones. Agnes Crumplebottom has collected her parent’s and husband’s tombstones.

I have placed these instructions augmented with a renaming procedure and an inventory of the tombstones and their original location for these families (as a pdf files) here on media fire:
http://www.mediafire.com/view/036bjrk6tchh7ql/MovingGhostsProcess.pdf
http://www.mediafire.com/view/ovdigpembflse3k/VariousSims3Ghosts.pdf

RRArtie · April 2015

Installing Worlds and Recovering from Problems.

On this Create-a-World forum there have been several requests for help in installing worlds and using save files for these user created worlds. I thought I might run through the process and point out where it might fail or lead to unexpected results. As they say, experience is the best teacher and I have experienced most of these problems.
Preparations:
The Sims 3 data is large. It grows even bigger with each new world, save game, memory and other downloaded content. A fresh file with just Riverview downloaded and installed it is about 450MB. It might help to clean up your data before starting an install.

Before you start a new world, it is always a good idea to back up your current data. Copy The Sims 3 folder located at My Documents or Documents -->Electronic Arts to some back up location on a thumb drive, external hard drive or the cloud. In case the install goes bad, you can always restore to this point in time.

Articles in Carl’s forums and Simwiki describe how to delete some of the caches. This is a quick and dirty flushing that might help with performance problems and the needed data will be regenerated next time you run. Within theTheSims3 folder do the following:
• Delete all files in the DCbackup folder except ccmerged.package. These files are backup files for any package you have ever used. The file ccmerged contains store content and needs to be retained to continue to use the store content.
• Delete these files as they will regenerate as needed: CASPartCache.package, CompositorCache.package, scriptCache.package, ScriptError_computer and time stamp.xml, simCompositorCache.package, socialCache.package, xcpt*.mdmp and xpct*.txt where “*” is a timestamp
• Within the folder Thumbnails, you can delete all content as it is a thumbnail picture of CAS and Buy/Build parts and is regenerated
• Within the folder WorldCache, you can delete all content as it is a cache of any of the played worlds.

If you are running out of disk space on the disk where The Sims 3 folder is located, deleting some of the save files helps. In my case I “save as” twice a Sims day (AM and PM) and label for each world, person and day. After playing one family in Riverview I could have 14 saves, plus another 14 for each travel location. It is an easy cleanup to go Documents --> The Sims 3 --> Saves folder and delete many of the oldest saves. Or delete them all, if you made the back up as suggested above.

Another way to save disk space is to delete any worlds that you will not be using in the future. Deleting a world also deletes its Saves, so make sure you have back-ups of any useful saved games. Go to the Sims 3 launcher and on the Installed Content tab, click on the world you want to delete and then click on Uninstall. The launcher will remove the world and any save games. After it is finished, Check the Documents --> Electronic Arts --> Installed Worlds and World Cache folders and remove any remnants of that world.

Patch you game to the current level, 1.67. In December 2012, EA released a patch that broke the install process. Worlds wouldn’t install. That has since been fixed, but you need recent patches to get that fix.

Check that you have the expansion packs that the world needs. If you are downloading an Island Paradise type world, but don’t have the IP expansion pack, the world is probably not going to function right. You might get the world to work fine if you were missing Seasons for example. Many of the items in the store and stuff packs default to base game items, if they are missing. If the world creator has a thread describing the world, they probably give advice on what expansions, stuff packs and store items are absolutely necessary.
Getting the World:

The easiest way to get one of these player created worlds is to go onto the Sims 3 web site, find it on the exchange, and click the downward pointing big green arrow. Windows will ask you and maybe your anti-virus will ask you if you really want to let the Sims 3 Launcher run. Answer yes. Eventually the launcher pops up and shows you the progress of the download. Leave everything alone until the launcher finishes. The launcher has put the file newworld.Sims3pack in The Sims 3 -->Download folder. In all this description “newworld” is the name of the world you were downloading.

An alternative to getting the file via the launcher is to download the file to some storage space on your computer. Some world builders have worlds on other sites. My Sim Realty and Mod the Sims are such sites. Some world builders put their worlds on file sharing sites like Media Fire as well as the Sims 3 site. In addition, you can download the file from the exchange by selecting the “Save File” option. Once the file is downloaded it needs to be copied from wherever you saved it (probably a Sims 3 back up download folder) to The Sims 3 -->Download folder.
If the file is compressed (has a name like newworld.zip or newworld.rar) it will have to be unzipped first to get the file newworld.Sims3Pack.

Now open the Sims 3 launcher and click the world and click install. Again, leave everything alone until you see the launcher telling you it is done and then click “Ok”. You should see the world in the Installed content tab of the launcher.
What Can Go Wrong:
A power problem could interrupt the download. Your computer might be on a battery back-up system, but the internet modem might not be. If you suspect only a portion of the file downloaded, you might move the file from The Sims 3 --> Download folder to some back up location and try the download again. After the second download completes you can compare sizes and the largest one is probably complete.

It has been reported that the Sims 3 Launcher can’t handle more than about 200 MB at one time. Since worlds will run around 100 MB don’t try to do more than one world install at a time.

If the world was previously installed and you did an uninstall, make sure the remnants are gone from the InstalledWorlds folder and the WorldCache folder.
Try a Clean Set of Sims Data:

One way to check that the world is usable and to get an install without the possibility of any extraneous data is to completely clean the Sims 3 data folder. An article in Carl’s forum and one in Sims3Crinrict.com (a help site) describe how to remove all data for a clean install. These folders and files are all in MyDocuments -->ElectronicArts -->TheSims 3. Here are the steps:
Get an entirely new Sims folder and clean data
1. Backup you current Sims Folder – Move (which is a copy and delete) the entire TheSims3 folder to one of your backup drives and name the folder something to remind you of date it was backed up (for instance Sims _040415).
2. Start the game through the launcher and when the launcher gets to the welcome screen, just quit. If you are going to install an expansion pack or stuff pack, you can skip this step as the installation of the pack creates a data folder.
3. Look in the MyDocuments ElectronicArts and you should have an entirely new and clean TheSims 3 folder
Install the upgrade and test
1. Install any patch, Stuff pack, or Expansion pack
2. At this point you might want to launch the game and make sure everything works
Now you need to recover any content you need to run the new world. By copying only what is necessary you are reducing the chances of bad interactions. You can come back to this part of the procedure later to copy other of your favorite things and check that they don’t interfere with the new world. You are copying either the contents of a folder or an entire folder from you backup to the new TheSims3 folder. If you don’t have the type of content, just skip the step. For instance, if you haven’t created any custom outfits, you will not have anything in that folder. Here are the steps:
1. Copy the Option.ini file to TheSims3 folder. This file has all the graphics and game play options settings. Alternatively, you can just reset these when you fire up the game later.
2. If you have any custom styles or patterns, then copy UserPresets.package file to TheSims3 folder
3. If you have used the SimPort and have achievements, then copy the PassportData.package to TheSims3 folder
4. If you have downloaded collections or organized Buy/Build into collections, then copy this folder
5. To save a short download copy the ContentPatch.package to the Content patch folder
6. If you have installed custom music (*.mp3), then copy the content of the folder CustomMusic
7. Copy your downloaded content which includes bonuses, store content (free and purchased), and custom content from the exchange or other sources (ModtheSims, Carl’s)
8. If you have exported a Sim, lot, or structure from the gam, then it is gone from the game since the bin has been refreshed. Copy any of these exports that you intend to use from either the Export folder in your backup or from some backup folder to the Download folder.
9. Now launch the game using the launcher. You may need to download the store patch if it wasn’t copied in step 5, and you must install all of the custom content listed in the Download section of the launcher. Do this in small batches because the launcher chokes on larger batches (200 KB).
10. If you are using modifications, then either copy the Mods folder from you backup to TheSims3 folder. It might be wise to install the new world and try it, before adding any modifications.
11. If you have created a Sim or Outfit and saved it, copy the files in the folders SavedSims or SavedOutfits from the backup to TheSims3/SavedSims or TheSims3/SavedOutfits folder
12. For any saved game that you want to continue to play copy the save folder from your backup Saves folder to the new Saves folder. These are large (500 MB) folders, so some judicious trimming her is useful.
13. As a check you can now start your game and play a game.
Using a Save Game
Some world builders distribute an unpopulated world and also a Save game with population and maybe additional houses. If you download a save game for a new world, you also need to download and install the world. Install the world, then copy the save game folder into the Documents --> Electronic Arts --> The Sims 3 --> Saves folder. Now play the save.

RRArtie · May 2015

Performance Problems in Downloaded Worlds
Sometimes, downloaded worlds from Create a World have performance problems including freezes, code 12 on save, and hesitation. Creators of these worlds usually intent to play their worlds, so I am sure they remove many of these problems. However, even the worlds included in Sims 3 expansion packs have performance issues. This post provides three topics that give some suggestions that might help game playing performance and might allow changes to a world that doesn’t perform well.
Improve Game Performance
The first thing to consider is have you taken advantage of the performance improvement steps that some recommend and that fit your style of game play. There have been many posts and discussions about how to make the Sims 3 game run better. It is a complicated game and has to run on a variety of PCs and Macs. So anything that you can do to improve your computer environment will help all worlds including any CAW downloaded worlds. The best and most complete collection of performance tips is here:
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Tips+For+Better+Game+Performance
These tips are extensive and you may not want to do all of them, but there may be some that provide a possible improvement to game play. For instance, this post indicates, that elevators cause lag, but sometimes, you just need an elevator for space. However, you might be able to reduce lag in another way like turning off memories or decreasing graphics settings. I found things in this post I did not know and I am sure you will too. Some of them might be significant enough to get that downloaded world running smoothly.
An additional consideration not addressed in this post is a system upgrade. My posts on Housenfluke Rest had a description of three computers that I tested with. After an operating system upgrade, I showed performance improvements and made these recommendations:
1. Never buy a 32 bit operating system – Windows 7 – 32 bit will address less than 4 GB of RAM, Windows 7 Home – 64 bit will only address 8 GB of RAM. Home Premium will address 16 GB. Pro and above will address 192 GB. I don’t know about Windows 8, but expect it is similar.
2. If you have the means (skill and money) upgrade to a 64 bit operating system.
3. If you have the means upgrade your hard disk to a solid state drive (SSD). Saving the game runs a lot faster and boot up is almost instant.
Find Stuck Sims or Animals
After you have done all you care to do about the computing environment that runs the troublesome world, it is time to look at the world itself. Constructing a world can present all kinds of problems to the builder. Those using CAW and EA can both leave issues. I once played a game where a zombie spawned on a mountain top next to the China Basecamp. He could go nowhere because it was mountain top and too steep to walk on. In the day he turned back into a Sim, but was still stuck on the mountain top. I eventually had to reset him. There are some steps a user of a world can take to reduce these kinds of stuck Sims or animals which might be leading to some performance lag. I will go over some steps to identify them and resolve them.
For this step in the process you will need NRaas Overwatch installed in the The Sims 3\Mods\Packages folder. If you are not comfortable using these modifications, skip to the next topic “Known Issues with Buildings”.
To find where Sims or Animals are getting stuck, change some of the settings. Click on a computer or wall of the city hall and bring up settings by clicking NRaas > Overwatch > Settings. Now change settings as follows:
1. Set Stuck Check Auto-Reset to false. If it is true, then click on Stuck Check Auto-Reset which set it false. Since we are looking for stuck Sims or animals, we need to see where they are stuck.
2. Stuck Check by default is set to True. If it is false, then click on Stuck Check which set it false.
3. Click on the check mark in the lower right to close this menu
Now play the world and you might see a notice in the upper right that a Sim or animal is stuck. Clicking on the picture changes the game focus to a view of the stuck Sim or animal. If the stuck Sim or animal is in a building, you might have to page down a few floors to find them. There are several conditions that you may encounter that could be fixed in edit town.
• If the Sim or animal is stuck in a building, look for constrained pathways. Some of the things that have been troublesome are dressers too close to other furniture, toilets blocking showers, spiral staircases without clear access or games and chairs blocking stages. If you find anything suspicious, you can go into edit town and move, delete and rearrange items to clear a path.
o If the house is occupied, you might have to move out the family, make the changes, and then move the family back into the house.
o Sometimes, there is nothing you can do. For instance, I see small dogs stuck at Varg’s and have never found a solution.

o Sometimes, the building is not accessible by Sims. The fix might be to save a copy to the library, bulldoze the building and reinstall it.
• If a Sim is stuck in the open there is probably nothing you can do at this point except reset the Sim. Like the China basecamp example above, sometimes a Sim spawns in an otherwise inaccessible spot and the only way to fix that is in CAW.
• If an animal is stuck in the open there is probably nothing you can do at this point except reset the animal. If animals continue to be an issue, you can eliminate them from the game. Use the NRaas Register modification to set the number of each animal allowed. At City Hall click on the wall then click on NRaas > Register > Animal Control. Then set the number of each kind of animal. I used this to eliminate wild horses that seemed to always be stuck. I think they wanted to go to a different island (grass is greener there), but couldn’t swim.
• To reset a Sim or animal, you can use the Sims cheat or point to the Sim or Animal and click on NRaas > Master Controller > Advanced > Reset Sim.
Known Issues with Buildings
Some CAW worlds use buildings from the EA worlds as a short cut to avoid building every building from scratch. This is a fine approach except that some EA buildings have routing issues. In addition, world builders may have copied this style and inadvertently put in this kind of routing issue.
Ellacharmed has fixes for EA worlds posted on the modthesims.info web site. Many of the fixes are routing mistakes within the world, but some are within buildings. By studying theses descriptions we get several categories of building problems. You might check any buildings in the world that give you problems and look for these types of problems.
Arch Enemy (sorry I couldn’t help that) – Arches are fine inside a house, but IP included several houses (Personal Paradise, Adobe Abode) where an arch was placed outside a front door. This makes the entry alcove a room and you can’t mark the front door as the front door. Sims don’t know how to get into the house. Adobe Abode is pictured below:

To fix this problem go to edit town, get rid of the arch either by deleting it and the wall or moving the door to replace the arch and mark the front door by Cntl-shift-clicking on it and selecting “Front Door”. While you are editing this lot, Cntl-shift-click on the front of the lot to make sure it is selected as the front also. My modified Adobe Abode with the arch and wall section removed is pictured below:

Furniture and Appliance Placement – Sometimes too much furniture is squeezed into a room or not placed properly. A Sim will want access and end up with the routing tantrum. And then that process repeats. One example is the end table interfering with a double bed in the basecamp in France. Another example comes from IP. The bedroom of the Island Beauty house has a dresser too close to the bed. This can be fixed in a number of ways including moving the dresser, enlarging the room, replacing the table with the dresser or using a smaller dresser. The picture below shows the original arrangement:

Shower Placement - The post by Ellacharmed that shows the fixes for Isla Paradiso have a before and after picture of a small bathroom (3 x 2 squares) in the Floating Fortress house boat. The toilet is placed by the left side of the tub/shower. That is the entrance to the tub/shower and Sims can’t use this shower. By moving the toilet to the right side of the shower, a Sim can enter the tub/ shower and use the toilet. In general showers have access points that need to be kept clear. Study the image and you will see any conflicts. The before and after pictures are here:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=514909http://
Mailbox and Front Steps - Another post by Ellacharmed shows the before and after picture of the Ernest lot in Sunlit Tides. This is an example of too much at the front. Trash, mail and stairs collected too close caused mail to be dropped on the ground and the paper to be delivered to the back of the house. Make sure that any troublesome front area is not too crowded with bushes, trash, steps and mail. Sims need room for access. The before and after pictures are here:
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=516342
I hope this information allows you to play your favorite worlds.

RRArtie · May 2015

Locking Dive Lots
I like to play worlds with scuba dive lots. It is fun to explore a new lot and to collect sea life shells and bottles. Many of the CAW worlds have dive lots. I have noticed that many builders leave the dive lots unlocked. This is probably a convenience to allow the resetting of the dive caves to avoid the pop to the surface bug. However, I felt that an unlocked dive lot yielded less fish, bottles and seashells.
I ran an experiment to demonstrate that difference. I have been playing Sunset Valley Final 2nd Edition. This is a remake and expansion of the original Sunset Valley with many of the new community lots from recent EPs and with the four dive lots from IP placed in the ocean. All four dive lots are unlocked and all don’t have the dive experience level set which allows a diver at any skill level. Here is what I did:
Unlocked Dive Lots
For my first trial run I left the dive lots unlocked and selected Jamie Jolina to play. He attended dive class at the science facility and then went off to dive at Rocky Reef for 2 Sim hours. He found and collected or caught at
Rocky Reef - tuna, anemone, black goldfish, red herring, and 2 polyps.
After surfacing he went to a logic class, depressurized and then dove at Pearl’s Deep for 1 Sim hour. He found at
Pearl’s Deep - squid and a cat fish.
After the dive, he ate dinner at Flying V’s and went to sleep. The next morning after a shower and cereal he dove at Mermaid’s Grotto for 1 Sim hour and found at
Mermaid Grotto - cat fish and octopus.
For each of these dives he surfaced when I could not find any more fish, sea shells and bottles.
After surfacing at Mermaid Grotto, I used NRaas Master Controller to give him enough lifetime happiness points to buy the Collection Helper. Using the Collection Helper I surveyed all four dive lots with the following results:
Pearl’s Deep – 5 fish – 1 sea shell
Rocky Reef – 3 fish – 2 sea shells
Davy Jones’ Locker – 5 fish – 1 sea shell
Mermaid Grotto – 0 fish – 2 sea shells
Total - 13 fish + 6 sea shells + 10 collected during dives = 29 fish and sea shells (didn’t see bottles)
Locked Dive Lots
To prepare for this second trial I erased all the cache files in the Sims 3 folder and started a new game. Before selecting the family I went into Edit Town and locked each one of the dive lots. I went back to game setup and selected Jamie Jolina again. I followed the same daily schedule and ended up with these catches:
Rocky Reef - eel, polyp, red herring, urchin and octopus plus I saw one of the big sharks swimming around but didn’t observe it
Pearl’s Deep – shark, clown fish, octopus, crab, and angel fish
Mermaid Grotto – 2 clams, shark, and clown fish
With Collection Helper
Pearl’s Deep – 3 fish – 0 sea shell
Rocky Reef – 4 fish – 2 sea shells
Davy Jones’ Locker – 6 fish – 3 sea shell
Mermaid Grotto – 4 fish – 0 sea shells
Total - 17 fish + 5 sea shells + 14 collected during dives = 36 fish and sea shells (didn’t see bottles)
Setup Dive Lots
It appears from this very limited test that you can find about 25% more sea life and sea shells by locking the dive lots. But you also have to deal with the pop to the surface bug when exploring a dive cave. There are two approaches to fixing this bug:
• Use the modification package called ShimrodsDiveCaveResetFix155 to permanently fix this bug
• Reset the dive cave before each attempt to enter it

If you are using the modification here are the steps:
1. Get the Modification which is a rar archive file, unpack it, read the Useage.txt file, and install the package file in the Mods\Packages folder. You must also have the NRaas DebugEnabler installed in this folder
2. Start the game you wish to play and go to Edit Town. Enter the cheat testingcheatsenabled on and enablelotlocking on.
3. Now for each dive lot, unlock it by clicking on the dive lot and click on the lock on the right of the row of icons, click on the edit icon, page down to see the sea floor, zoom in and pan around to find the dive cave(s), Cntl-shift-click on the cave, select reset from the menu.
4. While you have the dive lot unlocked, you might want to make any other adjustments that match your play style. For instance, you could adjust the skill level on the dive buoy, set a cave alternate exit and/or its skill level.
5. When you are finished with the dive lot return to Edit Town, select the dive lot again, and lock it by clicking on the dive lot and clicking on the lock on the right of the row of icons.
6. Repeat these steps for any other dive caves, turn off the two cheats if you like, and return to the game. Any game based on this save will have the caves reset and ready for use.

If you are going to reset the dive cave before each use and want to increase you diving yield, then lock the dive caves and unlock them to do the resets. Here are the steps:
1. Start the game you wish to play and go to Edit Town. Enter the cheat testingcheatsenabled on and enablelotlocking on.
2. If you want to make any adjustments to the dive lot do step 3, otherwise skip to step 4
3. For instance, you could adjust the skill level on the dive buoy, set a cave alternate exit and/or its skill level. When you are finished with the dive lot return to Edit Town.
4. If the dive lot is unlocked, then select the dive lot and lock it by clicking on the dive lot and clicking on the lock on the right of the row of icons.
5. Repeat these steps for any other dive caves, turn off the two cheats if you like, and return to the game. Return to the game setup and play the game.
6. Anytime you have a Sim that wants to go into a cave, you must reset that cave. Do this reset by, turning on the cheats, going to edit town, unlocking the dive lot, moving the dive cave out of its place and pressing escape so it resets into its original position, returning to edit town, locking the dive lot and returning to game play.

Like World Adventure and University, Island Paradise type worlds have fun things to do. I hope this helps play a world with dive caves.

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