Tons of problems with Late Night

[sparky1922]

Thanks for that Juxtaposition,

I am so glad I asked as I got this crazy idea I needed to do something with the EA manager 

Thanks for explaining how to do this I suppose its going to take me ages but need to bite the bullet here as its destroying all my game fun! 

one quick question, I actually only just reinstalled the two games I had been playing for some months  (Sims 3 & ambitions) onto a new computer then installed late night a couple of days later so are you saying that it may not be the late night expansion pack that could be at fault and that it could be either of the other two games that are corrupted as I only noticed all these glitches after downloading late night?

Hope that makes sense am just wondering..............

Regards Dawn

[Juxtaposition]

Most likely it's late night, and possibly just installing that could fix everything.  But when one of my games goes glitchy after a new expansion or patch, I just take out everything and start over because I feel better safe than sorry.  Maybe just doing the most recent would fix, but for me, doing all of it from the beginning has been the most reliable path.

It's hard for me to answer too specifically because I don't have access to your computer

[sparky1922]

Thanks Juxtaposition,

Total reinstall it is then -) I pray it all works as I have never had so many problems like this before.

Thanks for all your help.

Regards

Dawn

[Pam]

Dawn,

Be sure to take a look at our Technical Help board for assistance in saving your files and reinstalling the game.  Good luck!

[Saltypaws]

I do have a question.  If mostly everyone is having the problem with invisible sims, sims stuck in bed, etc., even after a reinstall and you get to that point in the game again, wouldn't it stand to reason, it is going to happen again?  I am not saying reinstalling does not work, but if it is the game and not a corrupt file, then I would think it would.  Only reason why I am asking, is that I had never had a problem with any game, until recently, then all of a sudden, I started having sims stuck in bed and invisible sims.  So I am just wondering what happened to change that if I had not had that problem before.

I have not really had any problems with LN, in fact, that is one town I have the least problems in, go figure.  Bridgeport is starting to be one of my favorite towns, I just don't have as many nooboo's in LN.

[Juxtaposition]

A link with some basic info on how a file can become corrupt

http://ask-leo.com/why_or_how_do_files_become_corrupt.html

[NancyJ]

I do have a question.  If mostly everyone is having the problem with invisible sims, sims stuck in bed, etc., even after a reinstall and you get to that point in the game again, wouldn't it stand to reason, it is going to happen again?  I am not saying reinstalling does not work, but if it is the game and not a corrupt file, then I would think it would. 

The stuck/invisible sims thing isn't a corrupted save file, its a bug in the game and reinstalling wont help (unless you don't patch - I think that bug came in with the most recent patch). There are mods you can download that fix the problem because they add error-handling routines that for some reason don't exist in the game.

[Pam]

We can't recommend the use of mods to fix anything in the game because they often cause a whole new set of problems. 

[sparky1922]

Thanks Pam,

After thinking yesterday that I needed to delete my games through EA launcher/downloader and was put right by Juxtaposition believe me I am reading everything before I do anything.

Juxtaposition thanks for that link on corrupted files I am defo going to reinstall and was going to do it today until I found one game left that seems to be running okay and decided to play it to see how long it is before the glitches come back into the game. (as it has them all)

I know it sounds very silly but I get used to my Sim families and hate the thought of loosing them after so much time and effort.

Saltypaws,

I understand what you are saying too regards current bugs and patches however my only frame of reference for all these newly related problems was after installing late night last week followed by tons of problems most seemingly appearing after using services for the butler and having babies etc. After that the whole stuck in beds and invisible stuff started and many more I have mentioned in a rather long post on this thread  


It has got to the stage for me where I don't have beds of any kind on the lot so have to use cheats to keep the energy bar up instead. I don't hire any services and if something needs repairing I replace it so no one has to visit. I don't have parties or friends over as the stuck problems have also occurred after those events. No pregnancy for Sims either as that also seems to cause problems.

In this last game for example its a good job they are vamps as clubbing all night helps,  then when they should be sleeping they have skill based activities, and finally they visit friends and invite them out to the clubs when they are going out so gameplay has gone down tremendously.

To be really honest even after the reinstall I probably will not play late night fully because I will just be waiting for the problems to reoccur so will still stay away from butlers and babies etc as from reading a lot of other posts on these forums it appears to be a glitch that has occurred for a lot of simmers. I do miss the home parties and inviting other Sims over though.

As my games are downloaded from the EA site is it possible to go back a patch so to speak does anyone think that would really help with something like this?

Also does anyone know how to reset the cant move object (bed) as the Sim is still using it when they are not? I am aware it can be deleted/moved with moveobjects on but then doesn't the game think your Sim has been deleted or something with it?

Warm Regards

Dawn

[Slingsby]

I'm trying to think back to when we started getting the 'stuck in bed' problems: I'm fairly sure it was happening before we got NL, but I couldn't guarantee that.  Certainly everything in TS3 started going sour after we installed NL. 

What triggered the issues I have no idea [certainly not vampires, because we don't play that angle].  The game didn't seem to like my own-build houses in Bridgeport, so we don't go there any more.  In fact, Bridgeport is virtually unplayable with our existing family ... we've shifted houses, re-installed, you name it.  I'm guessing we have to abandon the family completely, along with their 5-star celeb status and level-10 careers, and just start over.  It's a shame, because we were just about to let Dave and Vicky Beckmann get round to producing Brooklyn Joseph Beckham, Romeo James Beckham and Cruz David Beckham   

[Audren]

I had the stuck in bed bug since vanilla Sims 3, but it may have been revitalized with LN. I've also had few problems with LN. (certainly not as many as WA)

[sparky1922]

Arrrrrrrrrrg.

It's so sad when all we want to do is play our games. I have had slight glitches pre Late Night, but nothing ever like this.

OMG Audren, I can't believe you've had this problem since vanilla Sims!! This does not bode well.

Slingsby, so sorry you have to abandon the celeb family -) and intended siblings. I can't remember ever having to play without bringing children up, so once reinstall is completed I think I will try making all my family mum, dad, grown up kids if you can do that I am not sure............ never had to do that before.

Don't think I dare ever trying for children in Bridgeport again   And yes when you spend so much time on them and maxing out skills, etc., it's so frustrating to keep beginning over.

Warm Regards

Dawn

[Audren]

Well, back then, it was much more unusual, and for me, it was only a one-time deal. In fact, all I had to do is move to a different house. (I didn't know about resetsim at that point)

[Hosfac]

The stuck/invisible sims thing isn't a corrupted save file, its a bug in the game and reinstalling wont help (unless you don't patch - I think that bug came in with the most recent patch). There are mods you can download that fix the problem because they add error-handling routines that for some reason don't exist in the game.

My experience with it indicates otherwise.  If it was a bug in the game, it would happen much more often than it does.  But in two years, this bug has only ever happened to me once.  Likewise, it didn't come with the latest patch since it happened to me well before Late Night even came out, and I've been hearing about this bug since day one.  While those "error-handling routines" might help, there's no way to know for certain if they even do help, since this bug is very uncommon to begin with.  But the question that remains is:  what problems does this mod cause.  The makers of these mods do not fully understand how this game works, nor are their mods "bug-free" themselves (and why introduce bugs into a game that already has them?), and anyone who tells you otherwise is being a great deal less than honest with you.  That's why they all tell you to use their products at your own risk.

[BellaClo]

That's why they all tell you to use their products at your own risk.

If only EA games could (would?) make the same statement 

Recently, I was hit by this infamous Invisible Sims Bug. I find myself lucky enough that it's just very recent, although I have some idea about why I had never met this behavior before (but it's nothing I'm allowed to speak of here). I did some research to understand what was happening. From all the tidbits of info I found around the web, it seams that this bug has indeed always existed. It was just much more rare in the base game than now. Every EP has increased the occurrence/probability of being hit by it. In fact, it's probably every patch too.

Why? The bug is in the code. A game is just a software, pieces of code. So that must be where the problem lies, since we are all speaking of unmodded games. This is just my guess, I'm not a programmer and I don't work at EA games, but there are probably several 'small' bugs lying around. Each EP adds more code... and more bugs! At some point, there is some kind of resonance or snow ball effect, all those bugs generate bigger ones => eventually invisible Sims and the likes.

If the bug is in the code, its effects are registered in the save files, these become 'corrupted'. The game (software) can't handle correctly what's written in those files. Once the files reach that point, they're just lost. There is no way of fixing them.

What could explain the fact that not every players experience it the same way, or as often as others, is that we all play in very different ways. The longest you play a save, the more bugs are registered. The more your Sims interact with their environment, the higher probability for the game to do something wrong (like in the Rabbit Hole challenge for instance).

Then, the whole patching process doesn't seem very stable. Even EA games acknowledges it and advices to unistall  the game completely - with registry clean up - once in a while, and preferably with every patch.

Well, that's a long rant! If only they could put more developers on the task...