Broken saved game

[pallyndrome]

I thought I'd finally start a thread just for this problem of mine - I have described the different stages in my story thread, a showtime thread, and briefly in a mods thread.

I play with an entire neighbourhood. I turn story progression and aging off. I've documented this through my story 'The (Ordinary) Lives of Barnacle Bay' - see the link in my signature. A few months ago my game froze and would freeze every time I reloaded it. I thought that the file was too big, so I then split the neighbourhood into 2, and moved half to Union Cove, and half to Lunar Lakes. I played for about 16-20 sim days in Union Cove like normal, then it froze again. It froze on the same family that it froze with the last time (in Barnacle Bay) so I decided it must be something wrong with that family. I reverted to an earlier save (still in Union Cove), got rid of that family (Fang) and moved the Lunar Lakes half back in (as splitting the town didn't seem to have made much difference and I was bored with LL anyway). I started playing again, but it's been 1 (normal) day (or less even) and it's freezing again. I have today added both twallan's Error Trap and Overwatch, but it doesn't seem to have helped. I have tried a complete reinstall, a factory reset, and a few deletions of dcbackup and compositor cache files. The latter seemed to work once, but has made no difference since.

When it freezes, it usually happens very soon after opening the saved game, and the page freezes and I can't click anything. The only thing I can do is press Ctrl Alt Delete which takes me to task manager, and sims comes up as having a 'problem' and asks to be shut down.

I am quite miserable about all this. I have been trying to fix this for so long, gone through a few different theories to no (permanent) avail. This is the only file I want to play on sims - without this I don't want to play sims at all (because I love the story-making and the multiple families - one family is just boring). I don't know what else to do to fix this. I'm just hoping that maybe someone here can help? Or maybe I should even contact EA or go on the official forums... I am desperate.

[pallyndrome]

I have just chatted online with people from Origin (EA help) and they tell me my game files must be corrupted and I need to delete all and start again. That's quite upsetting, since I put so much work into that neighbourhood...

I am considering remaking the entire neighbourhood in CAS, but not sure. I'll have to take photos of all the sims' faces...

[loveSims]

I'm sorry Pally! Wish I could help you, but I'm not good with tecnical stuff. 

[Pam]

Hi Pally.

When you look in your saved files folder, do you see "bad" as part of the any file names?  Sometimes when a file gets corrupted, the game will actually tag it.  For example, if your file name is "Barnacle Bay.sims3" the corrupt file would be called "Barnacle Baybad.sims3" or something similar.  Also, if you have a bad file like this, it can spread to other files in your game and corrupt them, as well.  You could try making a backup of everything you currently have, then try running the game without those files and see if it does the same thing on a fresh new game file. 

Another thing to consider, does your computer meet all of the game specifications?  Is there a chance you're running it on a computer that's not powerful enough or doesn't have a good enough graphics card?

[Figwit]

On the EA Mac forum, a lot of Mac users have trouble with that sort of freeze and one of the fixes that helps some people is to play in windowed mode.  It might be worth a try even if you don't have a Mac. 

Twallan has a Porter mod that you can use to transport your population to a new town if you wanted to use that.  It will keep their relationships/friendships intact.

Your style of play sounds very much like Sims 2.  Unfortunately, I think you are in for more heartbreak if you keep playing this way in TS3 - just going off my own experience.  The game bloats up too easily and head hopping around the neighbourhood will add to that bloat

[pallyndrome]

Thanks lovesims

Pam, none of my saves have 'bad' in the title. Fresh games work just fine - it's just this particular file that isn't working. I think it's highly unlikely that my computer does not meet the requirements, since I got a brand new model in July last year with a good graphics card, memory, etc. And after that it played noticeable better than my old mac.

Figwit, I will try windowed mode, but I think I read somewhere that that is only temporary solution? Thanks for the pointer to twallan's mod - I'll use that if I ever need to move sims, but as this hasn't worked with this game so far, I see no reason to try moving them again. Yes, I like to play like sims 2, but I love sims 3 so much I could never go back. The file was taking 20-30 mins to load before it froze - that I can handle, but the freezing made it unplayable .

[loveSims]

Pally I check my saves every night when I'm done playing for bad saves. And I delete the caches every night.

[Anushka]

Pally, I can think of 2 things to do - delete everything from their inventories (move what you want to keep somewhere on lots), and use "reset everything" option in Master Controler Mod by Twallan, you can also check all of their household inventories and everything really with same Mod.
You can recreate Household from CAS - save them to the CAS bin and recreate them, you can even set the skills, celebrity options, career, even add siblings or parents/children living in town (with same mod I mention before). Are your Sims carring tombstones, special objects from professions?   

[wednesday21]

Hi pallyndrome,

I'm sorry you're having such nasty problems. Could you please post a few important details of your computer (ram size, graphics card, CPU specifications, etc.)? You can even just post the manufacturer and the model - I can find what I need myself that way too lol. It's just very important for your computer to at least exceed the game requirements by a little -- simply matching them just won't do; it will lag, throw you errors and all that familiar stuff; speaking from experience.

I'm afraid Figwit is correct...In order to play Sims 3 that way continuously, you need the best high-end PCs. It was different with Sims 2 because the game didn't have to load all of the lots in one gameplay session, unless the user wished so. It was optional. Now we have an open world, thus approximately x40-ing the number of tasks the game has to do in only ONE gameplay session. Our computers are working very hard to deliver us this game, think about it.

P.S. - I'm not saying you shouldn't play the way you want, but it definitely would be good to consider a few things before doing so.

[pallyndrome]

Anushka, may I ask why you think deleting inventories would help? I don't really want to download an extra mod if I don't have to...

Wednesday, here's the stats for my computer (below). I played like this for 5 months or so just fine (a bit slow to load the only problem) until it froze.
Aspire 5750G
Intel Core i7-2630QM 2GHz
with Turbo Boost up to 2.9GHz
NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M, Up to 1760MB TurboCache
15.6 HD LED LCD
8 GB DDR3 Memory
750 GB HDD
Blu-ray Disc drive
Acer Nplify 802.11b/g/n
6-cell Li-ion battery

... it's windows 7

[pallyndrome]

Anushka, I am not sure I want to go to that effort of removing everything from the inventories - that would be a lot of work and I'd have to go back to a previous save anyway and play until it freezes again. EA help did say the game file is unfixable, so I'm not sure whether I should try anything more. I just really hope that if I start again afresh, this doesn't happen again. So, wednesday, I'll be interested in what you think of my computer specs...

[wednesday21]

So, wednesday, I'll be interested in what you think of my computer specs...

Your computer specs are very good. 8GB ram is great since recommended ram for Sims 3 is 4GB. With geforce GT540M you should be able to play pretty great on high settings.

I've watched a few videos showing Sims 3 gameplay on Aspire 5750G and it's impressive. My gameplay doesn't even come near to that in terms of smoothness lol.

[Anushka]

Anushka, I am not sure I want to go to that effort of removing everything from the inventories - that would be a lot of work and I'd have to go back to a previous save anyway and play until it freezes again. EA help did say the game file is unfixable, so I'm not sure whether I should try anything more. I just really hope that if I start again afresh, this doesn't happen again. So, wednesday, I'll be interested in what you think of my computer specs...

I was talking about Master Controll mod as it has the option to browse and delete whatever you want in all inventories from all townies, actually it has several options that are helpful - browsing all objects in the world and reseting everything (objects and Sims).
Still, I understand if you're not up to downloading and getting familiar with new mods to try to save that file, it seems like you gave up on it..
Your PC should handle the game more than well, but something in the game itself is troubling. You may try removing one by one household and see which one are causing the freez, but it may take too much time and still not solve the problem. I guess recreating families in CAS and starting from a fresh game may solve the issue..

[pallyndrome]

Thank you Anushka and Wednesday, I appreciate your help. I ended up uninstalling and reinstalling because I wasn't sure I had it in me to keep trying with those game files. Maybe I should have tried that mod though Anushka. Still, I had so much I would want to keep in the inventories that I would have to go family by family to remove what I wanted to keep. But now that I've reinstalled, I don't want to have to do that and reinstall all over again if the game files still aren't fixed by those suggestions. It's a hard decision - I really did love that file, but I'm feeling a bit over it all at the moment. I'll see how I feel in a few days I guess.

[MrsFlynn]

Hi Pally,

I am really sorry to hear about your game freezing up. It made me really heartsick. I read this thread the other day before Hubby helped me install Master Suite, Showtime and the patches. It made me worry that my game would start freezing and crashing, as I too play for hours in one town, with my sim families.

Sounds like you started a new game from a fresh re-install? Do you have some/all your families - or your favorite families saved back as .sim3pack files?

I try to save back-ups  from time to time, of my often played with sim families in their own saved game file along with their own .sims3pack files, just in case my game goes wonky. I can reinstall the particular sims3pack files and be good to start playing again.

I was thinking if you do have recently saved pack files of your favorite or most played with sim families, you could pick a town and place the families. Then give each family their own saved game file. When you're done with one family and ready to play another. Save them as a .sims3pack file and add them to your current active family's game. So they can get to know each other.

Hopefully this way there will be less to go wrong with the game saves. It's helped me out tremendously to do things that way. My older computer used to crash a lot while playing Sims 3. So Hubby and I had to figure out some way to keep a little peace of mind that I wouldn't loose my families and houses.

I know my suggestion might not be able to save your broken game. But I'm hoping it will help your future game saves.

MrsFlynn

[pallyndrome]

thanks for the suggestions mrs flynn. I am hoping I'll be able to play them all in one neighbourhood though for a variety of reasons including that I edit the towns to my own liking and don't want to have to do that over and over again.

... I uninstalled/reinstalled, but there's something I found a little strange. I didn't have to redownload my shop and exchange items - they were still there as if I'd never uninstalled the games. And my second "sims 3" folder from the old factory reset is still there too. Did I do something wrong? I uninstalled the normal way (through control panel). Last time I did it, I uninstalled manually, but with the same result of the still-existing downloads...

[MrsFlynn]

Hi Pally,

Hubby and I like tweak our own towns as well. We tweak our towns and then save them for later use. Then re-save them with a different name when we go to play them. I usually give my game saves either the family's last name or first, and then the date. Which ever fits better or is easier to remember.

I think that's actually happened to me before, a long time ago. What had happened is that I forgot to rename my existing Sims3 folder to something different before uninstalling Sims3.

Did you re-name your Sims 3 Folder before un-installing Sim3?

MrsFlynn

[pallyndrome]

I was not aware we had to change a folder name before un/reinstalling - do you mean a factory reset, where that is necessary? Because I'm not talking about a factory reset, but uninstalling each expansion then the base game, then reinstalling them all over again. I've never heard of changing a folder name when doing that. Perhaps you mean backing up my files? Because I did do that.
Has anyone else experienced an un/reinstall where the downloads (swap shop, sims shop) don't need to be re-downloaded or re-installed?

[Anushka]

Pally, when you uninstall base game, you should get the pop up asking Do you want to remove saved games and custom content - it looks like you chose Not to remove them

[MrsFlynn]

Oh no, Sorry, I didn't mean it was a have-to thing. I was just saying it might be a good idea to do that so you can start with a totally fresh install of the game.

MrsFlynn

[pallyndrome]

Pally, when you uninstall base game, you should get the pop up asking Do you want to remove saved games and custom content - it looks like you chose Not to remove them

I don't think I got any such pop up. Looks like I'll have to do it again. Might try that last idea of yours first Anushka. And that's fine mrsFlynn. I did mean to start with a fresh install but looks like I didn't do it right.

[pallyndrome]

Hello everyone again.

Since I last posted about this problem, I have uninstalled and reinstalled everything (including all store and swap shop content). I have started a fresh neighbourhood (Union Cove), and completely redid everything (deleting families/lots, and adding all the community lots I wanted). I have recreated some of my old sims through CAS and added new ones (from other neighbourhoods) that I have edited with the edit-in-cas cheat. I just started playing again like I used to, with my first couple (and I was just about to restart my story The Ordinary Lives of Union Cove). I played for a few sim days (like 5) during which I made them a house, and had the couple marry and have a baby. Then I opened it again, and it froze within minutes of playing. Every time I have opened it, it has frozen (it's taking less and less time to freeze). I restarted the computer, but still the same problem.

I am quite depressed by this as this was the same problem I had with my last game. I don't understand how it can happen as this is a completely fresh game file. It must be something to do with how I play - story progression/aging off - or how big my neighbourhood is. I desperately want to only play this way - I'm not at all interested in playing the way most people do (with a single family) - and I am now thinking I will have to give up on sims altogether, which is very disappointing (I love this game).

[Twinmum]

Have you tried in a different neighbourhood  Pally? I've given up trying to play Union Cove as it always freezes shortly into the game.

[pallyndrome]

I chose Union Cove because it had the best open space to make a neighbourhood customised to my preferences. But my original problem (from before I uninstalled/reinstalled) was in Barnacle Bay, so I would doubt that the problem is due to being in Union Cove. But perhaps I will try another place, I just will need to spend a long time recustomising a new town  .

[loveSims]

Pally Apaloosa plains have a lot of empty lots if you want to play around and change things.

[pallyndrome]

I really don't think it's just the neighbourhood, but thanks lovesims. I have contacted EA (again) and they said they'll get an expert to email me. I really hope I can still play - I love this game.

[MrsFlynn]

Hey Pally,

Did you ever hear back from EA about your game?  If so, what did they say?

MrsFlynn

[pallyndrome]

Yes I have heard back from them twice over the last two weeks. The first time they told me to delete temporary files and stop background programs, and give them my computer details if that didn't work. Then when I told them that didn't work, they told me to run a special exploratory thingy (that I've forgotten the name of), which I haven't done because:

During the last two weeks I have also been doing my own testing. I have concluded that the problem does not lie with my cds, or my downloads, or zonealarm. It seems to be something to do with my computer. So I had my dad completely reformat my computer, and I am now playing again with sims reinstalled. It is still freezing, but not in the same way, and not in a repetitive fashion like it used to (freeze at the same spot each time I play) so while I am annoyed that I have not pinpointed the problem, I can seem to play like this so, so far so good...

[MrsFlynn]

I'm sorry to hear your still having some problems. But happy that your still able to play Simmies the way you want too.

MrsFlynn