So many game-play glitches

[brittaniwray]

Hello friends! I have a laundry list of issues with The Sims 3 gameplay, and as patient as I've been, it just seems to keep getting harder to run the game. First, I only run the The Sims 3, no expansion packs whatsoever. And I play on a Mac with OSX Lion, which I know isn't ideal to begin with. I just love this game too much to give up on it! So, here are my 3 main problems thus far:

1. Crappy graphics: When I create Sims, their eyes are weird. After that, their faces are distorted by line patterns in all of the icons, and if I scroll in close to them, the same thing happens to their entire bodies. I know this is a common issue with my graphics card, and it doesn't bother me enough to deter me from playing. In any case, is there anything I can do? Does anyone know if EA has plans to patch? I read somewhere that updating my operating system to 10.7.2 would take care of this, but it didn't.

2. I can't fish using bait. Ever. On any lots. I've tried several tactics trying to trick my Sims into using bait, but they just walk to the water, stare for a second and then cancel the action. I suppose this isn't really that big of a deal, but I'd really like at some point to make Ambrosia, and you can't catch a deathfish without bait.

3. During a save, something went horribly wrong and one of my Sims was deleted from a household of 5. He was an elder grandfather living in a house with his son, his son's wife and newborn twins. After I attempted to save and exit, the game froze just after it saved. I was stuck with a black screen with a white patch in the middle where the saving icon had been before. Music was playing, but nothing else happened. I tried to Command+Q to exit the game, but that didn't work so I had to force quit instead. When I loaded the game back up, my entire household was gone, but I clicked on the lot where they lived and it all magically came back, minus the grandfather. Now, I can't access family trees, pieces of furniture are still linked to him (his bed, a workout machine that claims to be in use by him) and honestly, I miss him. I know he was old, but he had some unfinished business to take care of before he died. Plus, he's a great babysitter. I tried the resetSim cheat to see if it'd bring him back, but it didn't. Also since then, I can't change my active Sim. There's just one selected, and if I left click on another Sim's icon, it just selects that one too. If I click on all of them, the borders all turn from blue to white as if they're all selected. I can deselect the extras when I right click on them, but I can't move off of that original one. And it's one of the babies, so I can't perform any actions.

Finally, if the solution to my problems is to uninstall/reinstall, will I lose everything and have to start over? I'm just not sure I can cope with that until after finals are over. Haha.

Any and all input is greatly appreciated!

[Seabody]

Hello brittaniwray and welcome to the forum!


First of all, do you have any modifications (mods) or third-party Custom Content (things like a chair you downloaded from a website that is not the Sims 3 Store)? If so, I'd say that your issue is that.


If not, can you go into your saves directory and tell us if any of them end in ".bad"? To do this, you go to "Documents - Electronic Arts - The Sims 3 - Saves" (at least, on Windows you do, I don't know about Macs). Look through them all and find (and delete) any files that end in ".sims3.bad".


As for the graphics, I can only say that a new graphics card would fix that, or you could try lowering settings. In game, click on "..." in the bottom left hand corner, and choose "Options". From there, pick the "Graphics" tab, then lower some options.


Fishing with bait - what is your patch level? Open up the launcher, and hover over the "The Sims 3" icon in the bottom left. If the first three digits are "1.26", then you're patched up to the current patch. With this patch, fishing got broken. Most people cannot fish with bait. For Ambrosia, at Level 10 Fishing, you can catch a deathfish without bait, at the appropriate time (between midnight and 5 AM sim-time).


As for the horribly wrong save game, you might be lucky. If there is no ".sims3.bad" saves, then you may be able to Recover a previous save. Read the article I linked to for instructions.

Hope this helps, and I hope you can get back to simming soon.

[Pam]

Great information, Seabody.

I would only add that you can browse the stickied topics on the Technical Help board for assistance with backing up your game and how to best do a clean uninstall/re-install.  We have a good deal of information already posted that may be helpful.

[brittaniwray]

Thanks for the insight! My current version is 1.27.5.013001. Maybe that's a newer one for Mac users? Hopefully they get that fishing thing fixed soon! My Sim was not a level 10 fisherman when he tried to catch the deathfish the first time, but he is now so I'll give it another try.

I tried once to download a couple of custom pieces of clothing from the game launcher, but they failed to install or something. I figured it was because I'm on a Mac, but I could be wrong about that. In any case, I decided it wasn't that important after the first try and deleted them then. I assume they're gone because nothing shows up in my downloads list or my installed content list, but I'm not incredibly tech savvy, so I could be wrong about that.

In my "saves" folder (which is conveniently in the exact same location that you listed! yay continuity!), there are only 6 files:
Sunset Valley.sims3.legacy
1a5tf1l3.dat
meta.data
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3c.nhd
Sunset Valley_0x0859db3cExportDB.package
TravelDB.package

The last 5 are in a folder called "Sunset Valley.sims3," but the first one is just floating by itself in the "saves" folder. There's also a "Sunset Valley.sims3.backup" folder with the same 5 files in it.

So, with that information, I'm going to give your recovery methods a try.
As for the graphics card thing, I just bought my machine in August so the card is pretty new. I dunno anything about the quality of it, but I do know that the particular type has been troublesome across the board. All of my settings are as low as possible. Maybe eventually EA or Apple or both will have a viable solution for that. Speaking of patches, does EA ever make an announcement about when they plan to release patches? And do patches need to be installed separately, or does the most current patch fix all the previous patches' problems too? Sorry for all these noob questions, but I haven't played the Sims since the original version! This is all new territory for me.

[Seabody]

Yes, that's the newest Mac update. Patch 1.26 applies to Windows users, and I got the two patches confused.
As for fishing, I can't guarantee when it'll be fixed, and EA has a track record of having patches fix one thing and break another (no EA bashing intended).
EA announces patches here, usually. And if you're connected to the internet, the Launcher will prompt you about new patches, and ask if you want to install them.
As for the clothing, did you download them from thesims3.com, or another website? If you downloaded it from thesims3.com, did you download it from the Exchange? If you did download it from another website, please don't link to it or name it.

[brittaniwray]

Good news! I followed the instructions to delete that folder and changed the name of the backup and now I can select and control the Sims like normal. It didn't bring my grandfather Sim back and I still can't access the family tree, but hey, I'll take what I can get!

The Exchange sounds familiar, I'm fairly certain it was that. Honestly, I didn't even know you could download and install third-party content... heh.

I'll keep my eye out for a new patch! Again, thanks for all the help! I'm impressed and humbled by how knowledgeable and prompt you guys have been. This is a great forum!

[Pam]

I'm glad we were able to help.  There's a lot of stuff to learn when you first start playing the game, that's for sure.

Regarding your graphics card, even though your computer is new, the graphics card may not be the right one for the game.  My computer was new when I first started playing Sims 3 two and a half years ago, and it's a powerful computer.  But the graphics card was no good.  Carl explained to me what the problem was and recommended a new card for me.  He gave me the link to purchase it at a reasonable price, too.  Since I got the new card, I've been very pleased with the game.  So far, it's able to keep up, but I know that some day the game will need more than what I've got.  Electronic Arts is only going to get more and more advanced with the graphics for Sims 3 (and Sims 4), so, unfortunately, we can't expect a patch or anything else from them to fix the problem.

[brittaniwray]

Alright, I have some new glitches! Haha.

First, when I call for services (i.e. maids, repairmen, babysitters) no one shows up. I had the maid service for a long time, and I noticed that they had stopped coming, so I called, canceled and called back to start it again, but no one ever comes to the house. With the sitter and the repairman, my phone says that they've been hired, but it's been weeks and no one has ever showed up.

Also, half of the time, I can't see my relationships. The window on every Sim is blank like they've never met another Sim. And sometimes I can't use some objects, like all the computers in the house. I'll hover my mouse over them and when I click it says that there are no actions available. They Sims will sometimes use them through autonomy, but I can't tell them to use them.

Lastly, I left my house lot to do an opportunity, and my Sim went to the art gallery instead because there were a couple of elder Sims dying. When he got there, they were still full color like a normal Sim, but they were floating in the air and I couldn't interact with them. About a dozen other Sims were there mourning their deaths. I left the gallery, finished my opportunity and went home. Now, a couple of Sim weeks later, I went to do another opportunity and my Sim went back to the art gallery. The two "dead" Sims were still there! And the same dozen or so other Sims were still there mourning as well. Does this happen a lot? Is there anything I can do get these guys out of limbo?

I'm beginning to think that I'm going to just have to scrap what I have and reinstall. All the little problems are starting to stack up so much that gameplay is getting frustrating.

[Pam]

Is this happening in all of your game files?  If you're just playing the one game file, I suggest you start a fresh new game and see if these same things happen.  It's possible that your game file is just corrupt.  If it is, you won't be able to fix any of the problems, but a new game file won't have the same problems.

[Ricalynn]

I'm sorry I didn't see this the first time around but I wanted to point out that the issue you were having in your first file about Sims looking a little strange is actually talked about on the official forums as a graphics card issue and if it's the one I'm thinking of, it's one that EA has said they are trying to fix it. 

Also there have been some serious problems with Lion and that's why I haven't even bothered to upgrade past Snow Leopard yet.  I don't know the exact issues but I know at least one of our forum members stopped playing for a while it was so bad.  You might want to check the Mac forums (I hate to tell a person to do that) just to make sure that some of your issues aren't also because Sims 3 and Lion don't coexist well.


Being that you're on a Mac, remember it's not exactly a quick fix to change out the graphics card like it is a PC.  I would do as Pam says and start with a new family in a new game.  I would also make sure to delete all the cache files and DCBackup folder.  (As a Mac person don't ever delete the world cache files)

I hope it gets better.

[Seabody]

You might want to try a Global Reset.

Press Ctrl+Shift+C (or whatever the relevant buttons are on a Mac).
Type in exactly this (without quotation marks): "resetsim *"
Press Enter.

Your game will appear to freeze for a few seconds, but then all Sims would be reset. That would clear up the dead person issue.

[brittaniwray]

Thanks guys! I had read about all the Lion problems before I bought the game (it was a birthday gift from my boyfriend who plays games like Starcraft and wanted me to something to while he's gaming haha). Initally, Lion was completely incompatible and the game would freeze almost immediately after loading. We waited until the 10.7.2 update, because it was rumored to work just fine after that. And everything aside from the graphics had been just fine until that corrupt save that deleted my elder Sim and screwed up my family tree/relationship menus. It just seems that the longer I play, the weirder stuff gets.

I only have the one game file, so I'll try all the resets you guys mention. If those don't work, I'll scrap everything and start over.

Will report back with what's going on! Thanks for everything!

[Figwit]

Brittaniwray, I am sorry but it sounds as if you have the Intel HD 3000 graphics card.  There are issues with that graphics card/Lion/Pets combination as you have seen with the patchy sims with the funny eyes and who knows what else.  There is nothing you can do at the moment except wait for a patch from EA.  They have been promising one for a while now.

[brittaniwray]

So, I did all the resets and it cleared out the people at the art gallery, but it didn't fix the other issues, so I started a new game. So far, it has no glitches. I'll chalk it up to the corrupt save. Anyway, starting over hasn't been too painful. And I'm downloading the new patch now! Happy Simming!

[Banksia]

Hey I'm just wondering if you heard the advice to use the "save as" button and give each save a new name.  It helps you to go back in time if there are glitches.

You could save your family to the library and then plonk them in a new town.  (It's sad when they lose all their community connections tho)

Hope this helps