If I were still on my old computer I played on a few years ago, I would have had to answer completely differently, because back then my game had crashed every time I played, and sometimes I had barely gotten to do anything.
Thankfully for the last year or so, after getting the desktop that I play on now, and then finally identifying a bad piece of CC I had downloaded, I get to quit the game myself every time. Yes, I continue to have a strict way to play the game, 'save-as'ing everytime I save, testing all new CC, and I started better organising my mods/packages folder so I can easily pull newly added CC right back out if I ever need to. I play the game in windowed mode, in order to take photos with an external program that will show the reshade2.0 filters, without the issue external screenshots of Sims 3 have in fullscreen with the darkness in screenshots - so I cap my fps using the same program I use to take screenshots and videos(Since Sims 3 will only cap its own fps in fullscreen mode, and won't cap fps itself in windowed mode). That means I can bring up certain things while Sims 3 is running-like the file explorer-but I can't bring up any program that will make bandicam disconnect from my game and stop capping its fps - because when the fps goes wild it stresses the computer out.
I play Sims 2, Sims 3, Sims 4, and The Urbz: Sims in the City on gamecube and ds. Main Game: Sims 3
I just remembered something else that can cause my save to crash. If a sim has a corrupt work outfit, it can cause problems. For instance, the sim not being able to go to work (and the sim being constantly reset by the game whenever I queue them to go to work) and if I try to edit their corrupt work outfit while they are wearing it by using the dresser, the game will be stuck in a loading screen until I open up task manager to close the game. I will then have to reload my game, have the sim change into an outfit that is not their corrupt work outfit, and then edit the outfit with the dresser. I could then set a new work outfit for them.
I came across this thread again, I answered in it previously when I was playing on my old laptop. When I was on that one I had semi-frequent crashes, even more often if I tried to go into a different tab real quick while the game was open at the same time. But with my new computer I have not had a single problem with my game crashing. I can even have the game running in the background if I need to momentarily switch to a different tab.
For me, The Sims 3 is a game that has the program slowly going worse over time. When the loading cursor (when in loading screens or saving) turns into Windows default one, then it's time to restart my game so it won't crash soon.
Latest crash happened just last week for me. The textures glitched out for me. Choosing an outfit painted the whole sim's body and at one point the clothing used the skin texture. Then I switched outfits and crash it goes!
It did last longer in World Adventures save. Interesting...
The save I used it in was my "futurization project" save, where I have my stylist and interior designer sims fill the world with Into the Future stuff, making the world slowly become futuristic. So a lot of build mode and CAS...
I don't think my game has ever crashed; but, the worst freezing I experienced happened when a sim of mine was due for an age up; she was over at a friends house and the camera panned over to her. Once she aged up, the entire screen froze, and although, I had control of my cursor, I had to do a hard shut down of the game. When that happened, I was playing on a computer which wasn't built for gaming. I can still play games on it; but, the Sims 3 is too hard on the system. When I finally loaded the game back up, all I had enabled was the base game; I didn't disable anything, it was due to the game not shutting down properly; but, it was frozen.
My game only crashes when I've had the game open for over 10 hours (left it on in the background and forgot to close out of it) and one time I did that and decided to keep playing it in the morning. I soon regretted that because my sim had just got done proposing and the game immediately crashed. Luckily I had saved 30 minutes beforehand but I had to have my sim wait a couple days before proposing again because this time the other sim was too busy to go on a date at the same time.
I had a recent issue where my game would crash to desktop whenever I tried placing a lot just outside the routable border of a world. The world editor would allow me to place a lot down but if I tried to put a premade lot onto the empty lot, the game would crash. No warning, just crash to desktop immediately. I just thought it was interesting that the game sometimes allowed me to place a lot right outside the world's border, but if I tried to build on the lot the camera wouldn't move anywhere near the lot. I am not sure if sims would ever be able to visit the lot either.
I play with all the expansions installed, and putting my laptop through that caused the game to crash fairly regularly no matter what kind of troubleshooting I did. However, since moving to a desktop pc that can handle gaming better, I haven't had many crashes at all. In fact, there's only been one that I can specifically remember.
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Thankfully for the last year or so, after getting the desktop that I play on now, and then finally identifying a bad piece of CC I had downloaded, I get to quit the game myself every time. Yes, I continue to have a strict way to play the game, 'save-as'ing everytime I save, testing all new CC, and I started better organising my mods/packages folder so I can easily pull newly added CC right back out if I ever need to. I play the game in windowed mode, in order to take photos with an external program that will show the reshade2.0 filters, without the issue external screenshots of Sims 3 have in fullscreen with the darkness in screenshots - so I cap my fps using the same program I use to take screenshots and videos(Since Sims 3 will only cap its own fps in fullscreen mode, and won't cap fps itself in windowed mode). That means I can bring up certain things while Sims 3 is running-like the file explorer-but I can't bring up any program that will make bandicam disconnect from my game and stop capping its fps - because when the fps goes wild it stresses the computer out.
Latest crash happened just last week for me. The textures glitched out for me. Choosing an outfit painted the whole sim's body and at one point the clothing used the skin texture. Then I switched outfits and crash it goes!
It did last longer in World Adventures save. Interesting...
The save I used it in was my "futurization project" save, where I have my stylist and interior designer sims fill the world with Into the Future stuff, making the world slowly become futuristic. So a lot of build mode and CAS...
First of all the sound went weird and then boom, it just crashed on me.