Fixing Town Lag? Constant Error Trap "Stuck" Sims

simmerorigin · April 2023

Hi all,

Based on the several decade-old threads on the forums that I didn't want to necropost in, some towns have worse routing issues than others. Particularly, the town I'm playing in, Roaring Heights, is a big offender.

Sure enough, I've been playing it a lot and Error Trap is finding a lot of stuck sims around town. It's causing lag such that time stutters and sometimes freezes. It's significant.

My questions are, what exactly is causing this? Is it bad EA lot design? How do I fix this so it doesn't happen as often? Do I need to go into premade lots and start renovating them?

There's a Sims Forum thread of people mostly complaining about the lag and off-topic chatter about premade-Sim Ainsley Andrews for some reason (?) without any real resolution or proposed fix.

Hoping in the past 10 years there's been some innovation on this front? 🙏🙏🙏

tallcoolone · April 2023

That's odd, I'm playing it and I don't have these issues and I've been playing the whole town and moving people in/out and around. When I did have a problem it was the tree of prosperity from Lunar Lakes given as a wedding gift that was the issue and even that cleared itself. I use error trap and overwatch a lot of store content, no cc but it doesn't sound like that's your issue. I have Ainsley married with her spouse and their baby in that boathouse. I do have to reset some of the cars for some that abandon them during saves, but not often.

Karritz · April 2023

The only two worlds I'm aware of having major problems are Isla Paradiso and Bridgeport.

There are ways to work around or fix both of them. With IP it's poorly made and sims get stuck everywhere. With Bridgeport, I think it has something to do with the multi level buildings and sims going up and down using the lifts. I rarely play in Bridgport for other reasons, so don't have much experience with it. I play in Isla Paradiso often but have a fixed world in my game to replace the version that came with Island Paradise Expansion Pack.

She has fixed other worlds too. Here's a link to her fixes. You might find something there that helps.

https://ellacharmed.wordpress.com/2013/10/05/isla-paradiso/

simmerorigin · April 2023

Update: I'm noticing that the stuck sims are occurring when they are home. I've gone to edit town to take a peek at the houses in build mode but I'm not seeing anything that could be causing routing issues.

texansky · April 2023

@simmerorigin

If you have Overwatch, it is defaulted to auto reset stuck Sims, so if you click on their picture on the notification, they will be at home near the front door either inside or outside when they have been reset.

If you want to know where they are actually getting stuck, turn off auto reset (click true to make it false). Leave the notification set to true. The next time you get the stuck notification, click their picture to find the "real" problem location.

Be sure to reset them manually after the message or they may stay stuck forever and could die of starvation.

Turjan · April 2023

A powerful new computer is able to brute force its way through all those routing errors, but I have the same experience with Roaring Height as the OP. If you look at the floor plans, you can see lots of one tile wide hallways or one tile wide entry ways to sometimes huge mansions. Layouts like that don't work in the Sims3.

Of course, if you just start the town and use a mod like NRaas SP, it will have to work through the whole town during the first sessions, which will result in the occasional freezes. Those will be gone later on.

Roaring Heights needs quite a bit of remodeling. For example, the many bars and cafes are in need of making them functional, other than as hangouts.

simmerorigin · April 2023

texansky wrote: »

@simmerorigin

If you have Overwatch, it is defaulted to auto reset stuck Sims, so if you click on their picture on the notification, they will be at home near the front door either inside or outside when they have been reset.

If you want to know where they are actually getting stuck, turn off auto reset (click true to make it false). Leave the notification set to true. The next time you get the stuck notification, click their picture to find the "real" problem location.

Be sure to reset them manually after the message or they may stay stuck forever and could die of starvation.

Yes, that explains why they are always home. I'll change the settings, thanks!

Karritz · April 2023

Turjan wrote: »

A powerful new computer is able to brute force its way through all those routing errors, but I have the same experience with Roaring Height as the OP. If you look at the floor plans, you can see lots of one tile wide hallways or one tile wide entry ways to sometimes huge mansions. Layouts like that don't work in the Sims3.

Of course, if you just start the town and use a mod like NRaas SP, it will have to work through the whole town during the first sessions, which will result in the occasional freezes. Those will be gone later on.

Roaring Heights needs quite a bit of remodeling. For example, the many bars and cafes are in need of making them functional, other than as hangouts.

When I first got Roaring Heights I tried to play in it and found I didn't like the fake highrises. I didn't play in the world for long enough to be aware of lag in it. I keep thinking I need to give it another go but so far have found too many other things I'd rather be doing. Still feeling I need to have a proper play in it one day. Thanks for the info about the narrow hallways.

ts1depot · May 2023

Spiral staircases placed incorrectly can cause lag and routing issues. For instance, there's one particular lot in Isla Paradiso that is particularly responsible for grinding that town to a halt, because the bottom step is turned into the wall.

Another problem are public markers not placed in elevator shafts. I never played Bridgeport long enough to know whether this is the case for all the lag issues there, but I discovered the problem in one of my own worlds when sims weren't able to navigate to the second floor and were stranded in the lobby.

@Turjan is absolutely correct about too narrow spaces causing lag. This issue is part of the reasons why Isla Paradiso is so laggy and has serious routing problems. Too many bathrooms and bedrooms are only 2x2 tiles wide, which is a recipe for disaster.

simmerorigin · May 2023

Thank you for your suggestion @texansky. I found my first victim at the downtown gym:

🥴🥴🥴

bklienhart · May 2023

Yeah, EA is just really bad at building lots. I've been playing in Barnacle Bay lately and the Goldbeards and the Inkbeards were getting stuck all the time. I finally just used edit town to move them out, bulldoze their crappy houses and put down one of my larger houses to move them back in. Problem solved.

thuggishsplicer · May 2023

Roaring Heights is my nemesis because of that. I tried to play there a couple of times but the lag got impossible and the renovation was tiring. I ended up retiring the world and I try not to look at it.

Another world that behaves badly on my computer is Hidden Springs, but I wasn't as psyched as when I bought Roaring Heights.

mw1525 · May 2023

So far, I haven't had an issue with stuck Sims in Roaring Heights. Although, I haven't played in that world too often. My problem world is Bridgeport. In Bridgeport it is often the residential buildings which cause the biggest problems with sims getting stuck between walls/levels.

Since, I'm a simmer who likes to re-imagine the worlds which I play in, most (if not all) of my towns/worlds get completely made over with fresh custom builds. While this is not a solution I would recommend to anyone, it does seem to cut out the issue of them becoming stuck.

simmerorigin · May 2023

I've had a ton of issues in Bridgeport such that I stopped playing that town.

Pary · May 2023

Ah, thanks for posting that screenie. I went in to RH this morning and fixed up those stairs to prevent traffic buildups.

Bridgeport actually runs quite well if you remove the ropes for Bouncers and just let anyone in to any clubs. I also removed the NPC doors in apartments and replaced them with decorative doors instead as my mixologists were spawning inside fake apartments but for some reason were unable to get out ( don't ask me why, it seems ridiculous that they couldn't open a door )

I also use a mod to reduce the amount of ambient traffic in BP, and went into each building looking for trouble spots, such as too tight 1 tile walkways, awkward furniture layouts, and any other areas that were likely to cause routing issues.
It can be a time consuming process, but if you save the game while in Edit Town, and use that as your base save, you'll only ever have to do it once.
I found it worth it to be able to play there with little lag from stuck sims.

mw1525 · May 2023

Thanks @Pary for the suggestion to remove the bouncer ropes. I'll have to do that for the club buildings I decide to keep. I assign jobs in my town with NRaas' 'Register' mod so I don't have a lot of natural NPCs working. When it comes to real estate, I build manageable apartment buildings (not skyscrapers), gated communities and the likes for them to reside in.

First, I find out which NPCs are living in which buildings and then I add them to game world. I place them (as a group) into one of my multi-dwelling builds. They are able to keep their job via NRaas' Register mod and BlueNinjitsu's mod which unbinds them from EA's slave hours and allows them to have and live their lives. My Bridgeport is still a work in progress, but I have found the shell buildings at ATS3 to be helpful when keeping up the 'big city' appearance. Plus, it doesn't drain my PC!

ATS3 Shell Buildings:
https://aroundthesims3.com/objects/room_downtown_61.shtml

simmerorigin · March 3

After cleaning up a lot of the funky Roaring Heights builds, I have to say I really enjoy playing that world!

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Fixing Town Lag? Constant Error Trap "Stuck" Sims

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