Nuts and bolts of the official patch?

[DreadWizardDM]

Hello simmers, I noticed during my 680mb patch yesterday afternoon that it did not go into specifics as to what it was all doing. I looked on the official site and it said

World Adventures: Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features

Ambitions: Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features

Late Night: Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features

Generations: Additional bug fixes and polish to existing features

Not much information, I know. Anyways, has anyone heard what the specifics of the fixes and polish are?

[Laisanae]

Anyways, has anyone heard what the specifics of the fixes and polish are?

Nail polish?

[JackJess]

Nail polish?
Actually, in the scrabook there was a big splodge of nail polish :)

[joof]

Speaking of the patch, does anyone know if it fixes the "well rested" moodlet glitch?

[Captain THPS4]

Buzzler updated his fix for the moodlet glitch, so unfortunately EA didn't fix it. I've read on the official forums that the vampire bed glitch where vampires wouldn't hover directly over it was fixed though.

[DreadWizardDM]

Buzzler updated his fix for the moodlet glitch, so unfortunately EA didn't fix it. I've read on the official forums that the vampire bed glitch where vampires wouldn't hover directly over it was fixed though.

Thanks for that information, I did not know that. Hopefully we can figure out some of the specifics of what the patch fixed.

[Daleron_B]

Sorry if it was posted before but I haven't found any information about it.

Does any of the patches fix the "family tree" bug and/or "disappearing sim" bug? I had those happen to me in Gen 5, Late Night exp., and won't be buying any more expansion packs until they fix this.

[310175]

Has anyone checked whether the adventure board issues have been resolved in the latest patch?

With all the problems I don't feel like patching.

I'm starting to dread new expansions, instead of looking forward to them because every time, I spend a day or so re-installing and it will take longer the more expansions come out.

Now they can't even say if and what they fixed. I'm about ready to install Sims 2 again.

[ani_]

At least the instrument spawn hasn't been fixed. Everybody in my test hood got got a random instrument now that I was testing there thing in vanilla mode. I hope they have at least fixed the car spawning, that's extremely annoying.

[BenC0722]

I know the patch broke WA cameras and by extension, the photography skill. Ergo, it also breaks any mods that affect or depend on cameras.

You can still take screenshots though, with the "C" key.

[Shimrod101]

I hope they have at least fixed the car spawning, that's extremely annoying.

The cars issue isn't fixed. NRaas Overwatch finds the same #s of cars it did before.

[JosephTheSim2k5]

I'd never even noticed the size of the patch haha.. just downloaded and installed haha :)

[AngelicScot]

Haven't gotten the patch yet. I still run the game via the exe. file like we had to when the game first came out. I haven't seen that anything in my game isn't functioning the way it's supposed to, so I generally don't grab the patches if the game isn't broken. And since they (EA) seems to be having problems with the patch, I can't see the point of getting it until all the issues are ironed out.

[tomomi1922]

Haven't gotten the patch yet. I still run the game via the exe. file like we had to when the game first came out. I haven't seen that anything in my game isn't functioning the way it's supposed to, so I generally don't grab the patches if the game isn't broken. And since they (EA) seems to be having problems with the patch, I can't see the point of getting it until all the issues are ironed out.
So what patch are you on now that seems stable?

[Buzzler]

Can anyone confirm that the dessert stage is unavailable in the EatHere restaurant interaction? Without my Moar Interactions mod that is.

Buzzler updated his fix for the moodlet glitch, so unfortunately EA didn't fix it.The bug works in the other direction now, though. Sims now get a semi-permanent +10 boost from every sleep cycle in a cheap bed. That isn't due to code changes of course. ;) The bugged code is unchanged; but the tuning is now always being read from the basegame packages.

[DreadWizardDM]

Can anyone confirm that the dessert stage is unavailable in the EatHere restaurant interaction? Without my Moar Interactions mod that is.

The bug works in the other direction now, though. Sims now get a semi-permanent +10 boost from every sleep cycle in a cheap bed. That isn't due to code changes of course. ;) The bugged code is unchanged; but the tuning is now always being read from the basegame packages.

Hmm, if all tuning is now all handled through the base game only, this might actually be a small boon. Perhaps make it easier to identify and fix? Either by EA via a patch or by a mod. This could also explain some of the weird stuff currently going on with slider mods.

Thanks Buzzler. :beer:

[Mishy]

weird, after installing the last 2 patches, not the last EP yet, i noticed my sim earning a couple of thousands of simolans, while sleeping, and now befriending a vampire! mmkey :wtf:

is this a known bug? i havent played for a while, but i dont rememeber anything like this.

[Buzzler]

Hmm, if all tuning is now all handled through the base game only, this might actually be a small boon. Perhaps make it easier to identify and fix?Nah, it's just reduced redundancy. Instead of storing "stuff" in multiple locations, it's just stored in one place now. That stuff was supposed to be the same to begin with, though, and the game only used one version of that stuff anyway. In the LN gameplaydata.package the default value of the WellRested buff was 25 (to be replaced in the code by the actual tuning value of the bed in question), but since the code does certain things in the wrong order, it subtracts this value from sims' mood before the buff gets applied and then adds the actual value to the mood. Additionally to the actual buff.

So, with LN tuning and the brass bed (buff value 10), the bug causes (-25+10) a -15 mood impact. For the basegame tuning (no value in the tuning, thus defaulting to zero), the bug causes (-0+10) a +10 mood bonus for the brass bed. Causes the mood to skyrocket of course, so instead of being desolate for no reason, sims will now be ecstatic for no reason. The prior has more impact on gameplay of course; that's probably why there are claims the bug were fixed.

weird, after installing the last 2 patches, not the last EP yet, i noticed my sim earning a couple of thousands of simolans, while sleeping, and now befriending a vampire!Not sure what you mean by befriending a vampire, but the money out of nowhere issue is a known one. There are a few things in the code that are only supposed to run for active sims. The devs obviously trusted that it would only ever run for active sims and didn't implement checks if that's actually the case (terrible idea, mkay?). So instead of looking for the household the sim in question belongs to, they let stuff happen for the active household... I'm not sure it happens that much, or at all actually, for unmodded games, though.

[Mishy]

while my sim was sleeping i got the message that she befriended a vampire and if i wanted to make a memory of this special moment, or something like that. thank you for solving the money mysterie. i guess its not a too much of an annoying bug, and the money was well spend. even though it feels like cheating.

[tizerist]

The patch (or Generations) appears to have borked the item 'A nearly perfect pedestal'. (It's a white block)
You can't recolour it, it gets stuck in endless loop.
Darn it, that was an essential building tool.

[CleoSombra]

I'm going to the library tomorrow - should I download this patch then or hold off on it?

[ani_]

Has anybody else noticed that when you click on a Sim (active or anybody else), the game freezes for a second, and continues after the pie-menus for the Sim you clicked on appears.

[mamxnb]

mm got the new patch today for ambitions automatically so it all coming together for everyone i think

and this was from ea maxis patched through my launcher , and of course generation game will get installed later tonight now i have it , hope all goes well.

[Kestie Freehawk]

I have gotten to the spa in the facebook rewards ;) The Bunch family rules for memories. Did anyone get a spiral staircase with the patch or just the sort item for it?

[harlequinzombie]

I get that befriending a vampire glitch that Mishy was talking about. My sims will be asleep and then I'll see that they've made friends with vampires around town while snoozing. The patch also messed up my aging. I have aging and story progression turned on but it froze the aging process. I have two teen boys who were halfway done with their life stage and a week later they're still only halfway done. I turned aging and story progression off and then on again but it still didn't work. I'm hoping that when I get back on today after quitting the game last night and letting it sleep for a while, it will be fixed.

[whoden]

The only thing I've noticed is I've gotten these objects that look like spawners, but there are no pictures on them, just white boxes. They can't be deleted or even picked up unless moveobjects is on. And when I do pick them up, the objects are called "SHOULD NOT APPEAR IN GAME".

[Mishy]

oh dear...now why are my sims, what are they called..thinking bubbles?, empty?
or, most of 'em.

http://i55.tinypic.com/20rs65k.jpg

anyone have any idea?
i got rid of any mods before patching, and havent put them back yet.

[Mishy]

nevermind.
i found some misplaced files in my maps.
(ends game without saving)
hope things look better tonight.

[DreadWizardDM]

The patch also messed up my aging. I have aging and story progression turned on but it froze the aging process. I have two teen boys who were halfway done with their life stage and a week later they're still only halfway done. I turned aging and story progression off and then on again but it still didn't work. I'm hoping that when I get back on today after quitting the game last night and letting it sleep for a while, it will be fixed.

Hi Harlequin, try deleting the cache files and if needed you can try doing ResetSim (1st name last name) That might help.

[lisfyre]

THe patch didn't do much in my game... no lags, no glitches... I think my game's running faster and that's with all my CC finally in the game. ~~knocks on wood~~

[harlequinzombie]

Dread, it actually went back to normal after I opened the game back up later that day. Thanks for the advice though. :)

[stanberg5]

I patched my game last night to the newest version and ever since I can't even get my launcher to open. When I click on the thumbnail absolutely nothing happens...anyone know why?

[lewisb40]

I patched my game last night to the newest version and ever since I can't even get my launcher to open. When I click on the thumbnail absolutely nothing happens...anyone know why?

I never click the thumbnail to start the game or the launcher. I usually right-click and choose "run as administrator" to start. Have you tried that?

[stanberg5]

I just tried that and a message poped up asking whether I would like The Sims 3 to make changes to my computer...the launcher worked perfectly fine last night before I patched my game. Could it possibly be something on my computer that's keeping it from opening like Norton?

[lewisb40]

I turned those notifications off in my computer, but my niece's computer ask the same and I pressed ok. The game starts fine. I don't know if the changes needed because of the patch, but it seems the patch needs to change the game, thus getting the notification.

[stanberg5]

I ended up uninstalling Norton which was just a trial from when I rebooted my computer to factory settings and that seemed to do the trick. Once I restarted my computer I used to run as adminstrator and it is working now. Thanks a bunch!

[Mishy]

ok, i just noticed a problem in my game, all community lots are functioning normally.....except for the grocery shop, which has no options at all.
now all other cities have a normal funtioning grocery shop, so i removed generations from my system and installed it again, but..no change :|

anyone got an idear whats going on, or recognizes this?

[tomomi1922]

ok, i just noticed a problem in my game, all community lots are functioning normally.....except for the grocery shop, which has no options at all.
now all other cities have a normal funtioning grocery shop, so i removed generations from my system and installed it again, but..no change :|

anyone got an idear whats going on, or recognizes this?
If it is default EA lot, why don't you start a brand new neighborhood of the same map and see if it works, because it should work. If new map works, then save the lot to bin and replace it in your current neighborhood.

[Mishy]

ehh...again, nevermind, google provided me the answer again.
seems my newly created simmy wasnt allowed in the shop while having seeds in her inventory, so i took them out and now its fine.

Weird.

[Mishy]

If it is default EA lot, why don't you start a brand new neighborhood of the same map and see if it works, because it should work. If new map works, then save the lot to bin and replace it in your current neighborhood.
Thanks Tomomi.
i had tried that but it wasnt the solution.
i appreciate you responded so quickly.
;)

[Punkface]

I'm not impressed with this patch, to be honest. It's caused all sorts of nasties in my game and I'm non too pleased. It could be because I have yet to install Generations, but I do have the patch. I'm currently running the base game, Ambitions, World Adventures, High-End Loft Stuff and Late Night.
I removed my mods folder entirely and played after first installing the patch, and then again, and then again, to test for consistencies. This is what I found:
*Loading a pre-existing Bridgeport makes my game crash. Because I can't get into the city, I don't know if it's just the family I last saved on or what. The load bar doesn't even start to fill, and the entire game shuts down.
*In Riverview (which now I have two of in my list of towns I can create) all of my families have disappeared - all of the Sims of the family I last played are still in the game and you can see them in the world, but they have no pictures in the UI and they are uncontrollable, even though I was playing in their household. This happened in every household I tested and then when I tried to move a new family into a random empty house, the game crashed. I eventually deleted this town completely.
*In Sunset Valley (the only city that loads without complications) my Sims don't retain their friendships and acquaintances when I save and quit the game. Also, they don't retain their relationship statuses with the people in their household - their friend count and their relationships are reset to 0 - even their family members are acquaintances! I'll play and build up their relationships, save and quit the game, and when I restart the game all of their relationships are set to 0 and anyone outside of the family they haven't even met yet, though everything ELSE in the game is exactly how I saved it.
*I noticed an extreme increase in the rate at which meteors spawn, in Sunset Valley. I had three in one day, and then 2 in one day a week later. I've been playing this game since its release and before yesterday I only ever saw 1 meteor - yesterday I saw 5. I had to get a mod to decrease the rate, so my Sims would stop dying (on a side note, totally not fair that my teens can't leave the school when a meteor is heading for it. Instant, unavoidable death, and then awkward game glitch when the Grim Reaper can't enter a rabbithole and retrieve their spirits).

I'm hoping it's just because I patched without installing Generations, and that once I install the game these problems will go away. Hoping.

[AngelicScot]

I haven't patched yet, and at the rate everyone is having problems, I may not anytime soon. I hope everyone gets things sorted out, or for once EA comes through and fixes what they've broken.

[lewisb40]

*In Sunset Valley (the only city that loads without complications) my Sims don't retain their friendships and acquaintances when I save and quit the game. Also, they don't retain their relationship statuses with the people in their household - their friend count and their relationships are reset to 0 - even their family members are acquaintances! I'll play and build up their relationships, save and quit the game, and when I restart the game all of their relationships are set to 0 and anyone outside of the family they haven't even met yet, though everything ELSE in the game is exactly how I saved it.


This just happened to my sim in Finnington. I thought she got disgraced, but she didn't even ask about her old friends. So they are just lost. Wow, thanks for that in the update EA. *sarcasm* :wtf:

[Punkface]

Yeah. It was weird, they weren't even acquainted with anyone else in town. It's a consistent problem, too. I tried another household - a young married couple - and when I restarted the game they didn't even know each other any more! They weren't even listed as married - they were strangers living in the same household.
I'll have Generations by the end of the week, and hopefully I'll be able to report that it's been fixed.

[Punkface]

Also thanks to this patch, minus Generations EP: I am alerted that carpools are going to arrive in an hour, but they never come. My twin teen boys were late for school because the bus never showed up. Also, at 2 hours before school, before the patch I was able to click "Go To School" in their school/career tab and they would go to school early. Now it tells me "School is not in session" if I click it more than an hour before school starts. The latter is a minor inconvenience, but the carpools disappearing is a big deal.

[kerryanne13]

I'm downloading the patch now because I just got a new computer and had to reinstall all the games so I needed allllll the patches too. Ugh, I've been doing this for 3 hours now and my internet connection is so slow, it's taking longer to patch thing thing then it was to install the game and all the exp. packs and stuff packs. I really hope this doesn't bork up my game because I've been waiting a long time to play it. The more I read the more worried I'm getting T_T

[Punkface]

General consensus says if you've installed Generations, you should be fine lol. At least, that's what I've been hearing from MOST everyone else. A few problems here and there, maybe. Hopefully it turns out alright. Good luck to you!

[tomomi1922]

ehh...again, nevermind, google provided me the answer again.
seems my newly created simmy wasnt allowed in the shop while having seeds in her inventory, so i took them out and now its fine.

Weird.
How could we imagine some "seeds" would bork up the grocery store so badly. Was it that bad or just that particular sims can't access the store? Either way, I am sorry you had to go through so much to solve the problem. And I am glad you fixed it.

To save the rest of us more future headache, cares to elaborate what "seeds" it was that caused such problem? And what google link shows how to fix it? I wouldn't imagine any seeds can cause grocery store to stop functioning, but I guess I learn something new everyday.

Do tell do tell.

[babele44]

That's an old bug that came with, I think, World Adventures. Seeds in your inventory can prevent you from using the grocery store and/or fishing. I haven't encountered it recently but had it in one game last year and I think it was all sorts of "unknown" seeds.

[simbalena]

I installed the patch without Generations and have played my most recent Riverview game a few times with the only negatives being increased lag and increased save/load times.

[Asuka123]

Also thanks to this patch, minus Generations EP: I am alerted that carpools are going to arrive in an hour, but they never come. My twin teen boys were late for school because the bus never showed up. Also, at 2 hours before school, before the patch I was able to click "Go To School" in their school/career tab and they would go to school early. Now it tells me "School is not in session" if I click it more than an hour before school starts. The latter is a minor inconvenience, but the carpools disappearing is a big deal.
I have the same problem even though I have Generations installed. Sorry to kill your hopes or getting rid of this problem by installing the new EP. (that is a serious inconvenience, I must say.)

[Punkface]

I installed the patch without Generations and have played my most recent Riverview game a few times with the only negatives being increased lag and increased save/load times.

Nice! Lucky. Must just be me then lol. :faceslap:
I'm on hiatus until I get the game, because it only results in me threatening to throw my brand new, hand made, specially assembled gaming computer off of our third floor balcony O_o. Hubby might get mad at me lol.

[Punkface]

I have the same problem even though I have Generations installed. Sorry to kill your hopes or getting rid of this problem by installing the new EP. (that is a serious inconvenience, I must say.)


I found a carpool disabler mod that doesn't conflict with the Use Your Own Car mod (both here on MTS <3) and I'm hoping it works. This is a big inconvenience, but in comparison to the bigger problems I'm having, if this is the only thing that doesn't get fixed I'll still be happy lol. I might have the game tonight (hope hope hope).

[Catwalk]

Ever since I installed the new patch, the game won't even start. The launcher drops itself out and closes as soon as I start it. Lovely.

[CharlieSteal]

I haven't played the game more than 10 minutes since installing generations and the patch because the patch made my camera excruciatingly slow to rotate or zoom out for some reason. (zoom in works normal) and i also noticed the zoom of map view is closer and changed the angle. Plus the right-click camera panning is extra fast now. WTF? Since im always moving the camera around to see whats going on this is a huge frustration for me and i probably wont play until its patched again or someone comes up with a fix mod.
Ideas anyone?

[Mishy]

How could we imagine some "seeds" would bork up the grocery store so badly. Was it that bad or just that particular sims can't access the store? Either way, I am sorry you had to go through so much to solve the problem. And I am glad you fixed it.

To save the rest of us more future headache, cares to elaborate what "seeds" it was that caused such problem? And what google link shows how to fix it? I wouldn't imagine any seeds can cause grocery store to stop functioning, but I guess I learn something new everyday.

Do tell do tell.
http://crinrict-help.blogspot.com/2011/02/bug-sim-cant-use-grocery-store.html

and all the seeds my sim was carrying were indeed the special and rare ones.
such a simple solution, if only i knew before i started deleting cities and reinstalling generations, 2 times! oh well :duck:

[rawrbabycakes]

Ever since I installed the new patch, the game won't even start. The launcher drops itself out and closes as soon as I start it. Lovely.

my game does the same thing

[Mishy]

That's an old bug that came with, I think, World Adventures. Seeds in your inventory can prevent you from using the grocery store and/or fishing. I haven't encountered it recently but had it in one game last year and I think it was all sorts of "unknown" seeds.
never encountered it before, and that same sim can fish without a problem.

[Punkface]

I haven't played the game more than 10 minutes since installing generations and the patch because the patch made my camera excruciatingly slow to rotate or zoom out for some reason. (zoom in works normal) and i also noticed the zoom of map view is closer and changed the angle. Plus the right-click camera panning is extra fast now. WTF? Since im always moving the camera around to see whats going on this is a huge frustration for me and i probably wont play until its patched again or someone comes up with a fix mod.
Ideas anyone?

Mine too! I thought it was just my computer lagging! A camera mod (I used them all the time for TS2) would be awesome! I'm sure someone can make one. We got some pretty smart modders here!
It's manageable (if your Sims cravings get out of control) if you use the buttons on the interface instead of a scroll wheel to zoom. I've had better luck with normal zooms when I used those buttons. My old computer used to lag out a lot and that was a trick I learned to ease the tension of a slow-to-respond computer. For whatever reason, it always zoomed and rotated faster when I used the rotate/zoom/tilt buttons in the interface.

[RainbowJennyLove]

Ever since I installed the new patch, the game won't even start. The launcher drops itself out and closes as soon as I start it. Lovely.

I don't know if this will help or not but i found that patching my game caused itself and the launcher to crash, turned out DEP (Data Execution Prevention) was the problem so i followed these instructions:

http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Data_Execution_Prevention/TS3W

And after that my game works fine, it lags a fair bit but at least i can play it without it crashing to desktop every 5 minutes, I haven't seen any glitches as of yet :bunny: xx

:!: EDIT** I realised that only tells you the .exe for the game itself :faceslap: , for the launcher add the launcher .exe's too (: if there are more than one (i believe there are 3) i advise adding them all i think i have added 2 of them haha sorry about that!
I also read that people with expansion packs should add the .exe's for those, it can be such a pain in the :duck: when you don't know what's causing you problems.

[Sisaly]

Ever since I installed the new patch, the game won't even start. The launcher drops itself out and closes as soon as I start it. Lovely.

Just an FYI, you can copy a shortcut of the .exe file in the bin of the latest ep and paste to desktop and use that to play. Better than going thru the launcher.
Here's where it is, but I don't have Gens yet, so it will be under there and say TS3EP04.
http://i64.photobucket.com/albums/h200/sisaly/EXE.jpg

[Punkface]

I don't know if this will help or not but i found that patching my game caused itself and the launcher to crash, turned out DEP (Data Execution Prevention) was the problem so i followed these instructions:

http://www.simswiki.info/wiki.php?title=Game_Help:Data_Execution_Prevention/TS3W

And after that my game works fine, it lags a fair bit but at least i can play it without it crashing to desktop every 5 minutes, I haven't seen any glitches as of yet :bunny: xx


Thanks for the help! I thought this would work for me, but it does not : / I still had all the same problems, and Bridgeport still crashes my game in the load screen.
I *still* don't have Gens yet :( The source I'm getting it from ordered the disk on Sunday and it hasn't arrived yet. Maybe by the weekend. I'm done hoping lol.
Starting to have withdrawals....

Oh, and I learned something entirely unrelated and new yesterday! My hubby had the opportunity to talk to a guy who just happened to be a programmer for EA in Michigan (I didn't even know they had a Michigan branch) and he said they programmed the game so that if you had a modification or downloaded content that you weren't supposed to have, and if it was conflicting with something, it would produce catastrophic events in your game, such as (as it was with me) tons of meteors over a short span of time. Or ridiculously increased chance of uber destructive fires, or your Sims will suddenly forget how to swim. See, my hubby told me all of this because (a) he hates the Sims, and (b) he thinks my custom content is causing viruses in the game and on my computer. So I don't actually know if it's true or not, but it's interesting. This would relate to me if only I had any mods in my folders at the time the meteors hit (lawl). :rofl:

[tomomi1922]

Thanks for the help! I thought this would work for me, but it does not : / I still had all the same problems, and Bridgeport still crashes my game in the load screen.
I *still* don't have Gens yet :( The source I'm getting it from ordered the disk on Sunday and it hasn't arrived yet. Maybe by the weekend. I'm done hoping lol.
Starting to have withdrawals....

Oh, and I learned something entirely unrelated and new yesterday! My hubby had the opportunity to talk to a guy who just happened to be a programmer for EA in Michigan (I didn't even know they had a Michigan branch) and he said they programmed the game so that if you had a modification or downloaded content that you weren't supposed to have, and if it was conflicting with something, it would produce catastrophic events in your game, such as (as it was with me) tons of meteors over a short span of time. Or ridiculously increased chance of uber destructive fires, or your Sims will suddenly forget how to swim. See, my hubby told me all of this because (a) he hates the Sims, and (b) he thinks my custom content is causing viruses in the game and on my computer. So I don't actually know if it's true or not, but it's interesting. This would relate to me if only I had any mods in my folders at the time the meteors hit (lawl). :rofl:
It is interesting to know. Although it is rather odd that EA would do that.

First, how do they define "not supposed to have" custom content? Second, is he even a part of TS3 developments to know for sure or what he knows is just corporate rumors?

In any case, if they can detect conflicts, I rather see a pop up or a red light flashing telling us what the conflict is. So far, we only have Sims 3 Dashboard by Delphy that detects conflicts that doesn't even work 100% not because Delphy is "not good enough" but because outsiders do not know the actual "road map" of TS3 design and only find things through a tons of trial and errors.

However, I still prefer taking "catastrophic events" over Error 12 message on save or corrupted neighborhood. :rofl:

When you get your Expansion installed, post in Sims 3 Help and we will get you going. No point in trying to fix the game now because Generations is only 1-2 days away right?

[lisfyre]

Ever since I installed the new patch, the game won't even start. The launcher drops itself out and closes as soon as I start it. Lovely.

It did that to me until I uninstalled the EADM and reinstalled it. Then I had to be logged into the EADM before the launcher would work. I hate that launcher. If you use the launcher to launch your game everytime, you might have to be permanently logged into the EADM. I just use the launcher for patch updates and for EA Store items so I don't need to be logged in forever. I use the .exe file to launch my game.

[lilfixit]

Mine too! I thought it was just my computer lagging! A camera mod (I used them all the time for TS2) would be awesome! I'm sure someone can make one. We got some pretty smart modders here!
It's manageable (if your Sims cravings get out of control) if you use the buttons on the interface instead of a scroll wheel to zoom. I've had better luck with normal zooms when I used those buttons. My old computer used to lag out a lot and that was a trick I learned to ease the tension of a slow-to-respond computer. For whatever reason, it always zoomed and rotated faster when I used the rotate/zoom/tilt buttons in the interface.

Same here.

I'm also getting the constant asteroid attack thing. If it IS related to having CC in my game, I'll be so pissed off. I am so fed up with their coding team.

I don't believe I have changed anything that would affect the mods I have installed either, but twallan's decensor mod doesn't work for me anymore, and it used to. Buzzler's vanishing script doesn't seem to be working for me anymore either, I dunno if that's related. (EDIT: Master Controller does still work though. And I do have the newest version of Twallan's mods.)
I think I'm also having the issues with relationships being reset back to zero, but it could have been that I quit without saving after my sim was killed by an asteroid attack, I'd have to check on that.

There is such a variety of bugs, and they all have a large impact on gameplay. How does EA let this happen?

EDIT: Camera issue seems to just be because of poor graphics card or computer performance, since last time I played it was a little bit better.
Also the game is retaining my relationships. Yay!
Decensor now works. No idea why it wasn't working originally.
After updating Buzzler's mods my other problems went away.

[mariomaster101]

I am not thrilled with the new patch either. My game runs smoothly for the most part, except I tend to get random errors about "exceptions raised. do you wish to debug?" which regardless of choosing yes or no, inevitably leads to a CTD either way.I know a few other people have gotten this idiocy as well, and as far as I know, there is no fix for it. At first it was only when opening the memory scrapbook, but now it just pops up at random other points, such as when I go to open the options menu, or when I go to quit the game. It's really annoying, and it never happened to me prior to this new patching.

Is there any fix for this, or is this some sort of EA nonsense that is currently a mystery of bad programming and game design? Honestly, some of the people here at MTS should get a paycheck in the mail, as they often end up doing more work to ensure the game works than they do!

[lewisb40]

Just patched each of my EPs and SP, so I will see if any of this crap will improve. Report back later.

[Punkface]

Same here.

I'm also getting the constant asteroid attack thing. If it IS related to having CC in my game, I'll be so pissed off. I am so fed up with their coding team.

I don't believe I have changed anything that would affect the mods I have installed either, but twallan's decensor mod doesn't work for me anymore, and it used to. Buzzler's vanishing script doesn't seem to be working for me anymore either, I dunno if that's related. (EDIT: Master Controller does still work though. And I do have the newest version of Twallan's mods.)
I think I'm also having the issues with relationships being reset back to zero, but it could have been that I quit without saving after my sim was killed by an asteroid attack, I'd have to check on that.

There is such a variety of bugs, and they all have a large impact on gameplay. How does EA let this happen?

It's like you're me! lol
That's when I first noticed it, too. I'd been playing for hours and had plans for my twin teen boys (they were going to start my first Generations legacy) and was NOT happy that they died. So I quit without saving.....and when I loaded the game again, they didn't know anyone, and had no relationship even with each other. Their mother, who had a child with a man from China, wasn't even acquainted with the child's father anymore.
This has happened on every single lot, with every family, even in new towns that I've created since the first time, just to see if it would.

[Punkface]

It is interesting to know. Although it is rather odd that EA would do that.

First, how do they define "not supposed to have" custom content? Second, is he even a part of TS3 developments to know for sure or what he knows is just corporate rumors?

In any case, if they can detect conflicts, I rather see a pop up or a red light flashing telling us what the conflict is. So far, we only have Sims 3 Dashboard by Delphy that detects conflicts that doesn't even work 100% not because Delphy is "not good enough" but because outsiders do not know the actual "road map" of TS3 design and only find things through a tons of trial and errors.

However, I still prefer taking "catastrophic events" over Error 12 message on save or corrupted neighborhood. :rofl:

When you get your Expansion installed, post in Sims 3 Help and we will get you going. No point in trying to fix the game now because Generations is only 1-2 days away right?
Very true. I should have it this weekend. If I don't, bully on the source I was going to buy it from, I'll just get it from the local Walmart.

Like I said, I don't actually know if this developer thing is true. My hubby tends to be that guy that is right no matter what, to the point that he'll extend the truth sometimes to make it sound like he knows what he's talking about. It's an annoying habit, but I don't think he'd tell an outright lie to me. He does speak to a litany of people every day (he works for a lawn service company and speaks to his customers face to face) from local celebrities to Detroit Lions to newcasters, etc. He may very well have come across a customer that WAS in fact an EA Developer, or a member of the Dev team.
And I agree, a meteor WOULD be more fun than an Error 12. lol

[Punkface]

Update: went through and removed 88 old/unnecessary/unknown files from my mods folder. Tested the game out for fun and profit. It ran a liiitle bit smoother, which was nice, but changed nothing else. I played long enough for my Sims to make friends (thank goodness for testingcheatsenabled true lol) and then saved and quit, then ran it again, and all of their relationships were gone, and they weren't even acquainted with their roommates, still. I didn't have the patience to test anything else.
And I know it's not a core mod confliction because the only core mod I use is AD85's EGC which has not been updated yet, but it also hasn't been in my game folder since before these problems arose.
Hmmm......do you think I should have removed the resource.cfg that I replaced the last time I updated the core mod? Because that is still there. I didn't think it could hurt anything.

[Punkface]

Also, and I can't believe I'd forgotten about this, but every time I start the game and load a world (old worlds that have been played pre-patch) it asks me if I want to place the Ambitions lots. Every time I play. If I place a few but remove the ones I don't want/don't use, the next time I load the game it asks me again if I want to place the ones I didn't place before. I always choose "not now" or whatever the option is. The "no" option lol. Then I save and quit, and restart the game, and when the world loads and I can play, it asks me again.
Anyone else having this problem too, on top of everything else?

[RainbowJennyLove]

Thanks for the help! I thought this would work for me, but it does not : / I still had all the same problems, and Bridgeport still crashes my game in the load screen.
I *still* don't have Gens yet :( The source I'm getting it from ordered the disk on Sunday and it hasn't arrived yet. Maybe by the weekend. I'm done hoping lol.
Starting to have withdrawals....

Oh, and I learned something entirely unrelated and new yesterday! My hubby had the opportunity to talk to a guy who just happened to be a programmer for EA in Michigan (I didn't even know they had a Michigan branch) and he said they programmed the game so that if you had a modification or downloaded content that you weren't supposed to have, and if it was conflicting with something, it would produce catastrophic events in your game, such as (as it was with me) tons of meteors over a short span of time. Or ridiculously increased chance of uber destructive fires, or your Sims will suddenly forget how to swim. See, my hubby told me all of this because (a) he hates the Sims, and (b) he thinks my custom content is causing viruses in the game and on my computer. So I don't actually know if it's true or not, but it's interesting. This would relate to me if only I had any mods in my folders at the time the meteors hit (lawl). :rofl:

ahh i'm sorry I couldn't be of much help :faceslap: , i really hope you manage to find a fix for it! (: I'm not very technical so i have no more ideas :lol: i'm even edgy about getting an EP because when i bought WA it was incompatible so i'm settling with my base game for now while it works, it's the first time i've patched it and it's actually stayed working :blink: xx

[Punkface]

I'm contemplating mutiny. I really don't want to spend the rest of my night uninstalling and reinstalling all of my EPs and my one SP, but I think it might help. Thing is, I'm really going to regret all that time wasted if it doesn't make things right, you know?

[lewisb40]

Hmm... looks like I am in the same boat with having to reinstall my game. Just updated my EPs and SP and now I can't open any old saves. Keep getting [exception info] Type: ACCESS_VIOLATION reading address 0x00000014. Tried looking up what that means, but all of it indicates CC problems. Since I don't want to go through all that (although I suspect it may be my hacks) and don't want to lose my saved games, will have to reinstall and update to the last patch, no updating EPs, or SP. Just a bit of a warning.

EDIT: Updated my niece's game also, but she doesn't have any CC. Her game is fine.

[Punkface]

So if I do reinstall everything, would you suggest I patch each and every EP as I go, or just wait until I'm done to patch it all at once?

EDIT: Also noted, the loading screen plays the Ambitions theme now, but Late Night was the last EP I installed.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna reinstall everything. Just overhaul everything. Bah humbug.

[tomomi1922]

So if I do reinstall everything, would you suggest I patch each and every EP as I go, or just wait until I'm done to patch it all at once?

EDIT: Also noted, the loading screen plays the Ambitions theme now, but Late Night was the last EP I installed.
Yeah, I think I'm gonna reinstall everything. Just overhaul everything. Bah humbug.
Definitely patch the base game to full before EP, and patch each and every EP as you go. Launcher is notorious for not checking base game or older EP for patches and people always get that "game version not up to date" error message upon running.

When I reinstalled mine 3 months ago, I used this method. The whole process went smoothly as I didn't have to hunt down patches manually, I just clicked "Update" and let it run.

Strange, you have LN installed and it shows Ambition loading screen? Do you see any LN content, like Bridgeport neighborhood, bar/club lots?

Oh about earlier, I was not questioning your husband, but rather the guy who claimed working for EA. What he said may or may not be the entire truth. But get this, I haven't seen any Error 12 since Generations installed. But I haven't seen any meteor either.

[Punkface]

SUCCESS!!!!! After uninstalling and reinstalling all of the EPs and SPs I have, I now have a functional game.....
....without cc. I purposely took my mods out before uninstalling and haven't put them back in yet. Working on reinstalling all my store stuff but Shop Mode can't seem to remember my password between downloads even though I tell it to, so I'm gonna have to do it the hard way, and download them again from the website. Hopefully THAT works. Not holding my breath. :turtle:
Will update again after I add my mods to the mix, and we'll see how this goes. Keep your fingers crossed!

:!!: EDIT: Thesims3.com Store is down for maintenance, which would explain why Shop Mode isn't working. Store stuff will just have to wait then. :!!:

[Punkface]

Strange, you have LN installed and it shows Ambition loading screen? Do you see any LN content, like Bridgeport neighborhood, bar/club lots?

Oh about earlier, I was not questioning your husband, but rather the guy who claimed working for EA. What he said may or may not be the entire truth. But get this, I haven't seen any Error 12 since Generations installed. But I haven't seen any meteor either.

All patched up and everything is running smoothly :)
And no, it shows the LN loading screen, but plays the Ambitions loading music. Or maybe it's base game loading music. Whichever, it's not the snappy, funky LN music I was expecting. Before I reinstalled everything it would play the Not-LN start-up music every single time I played. Now that I've seemingly fixed everything (cross your fingers) there seems to be a fifty-fifty chance that it will play the LN music. Sometimes it will play the correct music, sometimes it won't. There doesn't really seem to be any connection between which song plays, and how the game runs. I've had bad plays and I've had great plays in both circumstances. Weird.
And that is really weird about the meteor thing. But no worries, I didn't think you were accusing my man of lying :)

[Punkface]

Dang it.
I am sorry to report, fellow Simmers, that the problems I am having are related entirely to CC. Everything was running fine until I got my custom content working, so now I have to endure the tedious task of figuring out what it is. O_o

[rockergrrl37203]

*In Sunset Valley (the only city that loads without complications) my Sims don't retain their friendships and acquaintances when I save and quit the game. Also, they don't retain their relationship statuses with the people in their household - their friend count and their relationships are reset to 0 - even their family members are acquaintances! I'll play and build up their relationships, save and quit the game, and when I restart the game all of their relationships are set to 0 and anyone outside of the family they haven't even met yet, though everything ELSE in the game is exactly how I saved it.


This is the exact same glitch I am getting in my game and I do not own Generations. I updated to the latest patch last week. I have been using Twallan's Master Controller to adjust family relationships but I have to do it every single time I start the game because when I go back to my family they are all acquaintances again, even the husband and the wife (they have two kids!). Also the job performance bar does not move even though my Sim's job performance shows as positive and the green arrows are above the bar like it should be filling up. I finally had to just promote him to the top of his career because he couldn't build relationships with his co-workers so they all hate him and his job performance stayed the same no matter how hard he worked or even if he did the stay late and help out opportunity. Twallan's Master Controller has been a life saver because I would not want to play my game if my Sims can't form relationships with each other or get promotions and move up in their chosen careers. Please fix the patch EA!

[lilfixit]

Dang it.
I am sorry to report, fellow Simmers, that the problems I am having are related entirely to CC. Everything was running fine until I got my custom content working, so now I have to endure the tedious task of figuring out what it is. O_o

Great...That means I'll have to sort through all my package files...I'm using basically every one of Twallan's updated mods, a ton of sliders, and some vanishing object mods, and now no mosaic since I couldn't get decensor to work. Buzzler's something hotfix and digsite fix. I think that's it. I wouldn't think sliders would cause a problem, one of the vanishing scripts could possibly be responsible for the darker mood bars I guess.

So now I'm only having issues with job performance only increasing by 3 per day and getting the dirty surroundings moodlet, and of course the asteroids. It does seem like the attacks have slowed down after 10 sim days though.

EDIT: Everything seems to be working fine now after updating Buzzler's mods. Also the decensor started working, I guess there's some kind of weird time delay (not talking about the one-second-flash) that I wasn't aware of, not sure.

[HarVee]

Is it just me, or has any one else noticed a decrease in frame rates after installing the latest patch? I was running with 45fps average before the patch, now I'm lucky to be running at 27fps.

[Punkface]

Good news everyone!
I figured out exactly what was causing problems with my game. Buzzler's Carpool disabler (I installed it two days ago in the hopes of side-stepping the problem of my carpools and busses never coming) and Buzzler's Scribbling pad, both here on MTS2. It makes me very sad because I love both of those mods :( But since I took them out, I have had no problems whatsoever. None. Carpools and busses are now on time, relationships stay where I saved them, all my lots and towns save and load just fine - I even noticed a performance increase. Everything is running exactly how it's supposed to.
I encourage everyone who is having the same problems as me to try taking those two mods out and see if it helps. Then, maybe we can all write kind, polite messages to Buzzler to see if they can update so we don't have to miss their lovely mods!

EDIT: I discovered it was these two mods in particular by downloading a custom launcher I found here, by Granthes. It found errors in those two packages and when I removed them, the game ran fine.

[Redhead Creations]

Really? The scribbling pad? I have that one installed too, I'll take it out and see if that improves my game at all...

[simsample]

:here: Guys, if you are having trouble with your game then please try this:
Game Help:Sims 3 Game Problem

:here: If you cannot resolve your game problems then please post in the help forum:
http://www.modthesims.info/forumdisplay.php?f=551

[lilfixit]

Buzzler updated his mods though. They were the source of my problems until I updated, now the game works fine.
Now I know why it's important to keep your mods updated...:)
But I still think it's odd that his mods would cause the problems I had. EA is weird.

[Buzzler]

EDIT: I discovered it was these two mods in particular by downloading a custom launcher I found here, by Granthes. It found errors in those two packages and when I removed them, the game ran fine.It found errors... Actually it probably complained that the mods' script version didn't match the version of the TS3 core libraries, or something in that general direction. Grant's launcher and how it handles that is the very reason why I set the version header in my mods to begin with. So people who use it see that they're using outdated mods.

[Fyrefly555]

Hi!
Since I updated my game, it became impossible to use the "freerealestate *name of the family*" console code... That really gets on my nerves, because I used it a lot when starting new worlds in the past... Now, it's a pain in the (_I_) (<= I'll let you use your imagination on that smiley! ^^) to place families imported from a world to an other one... U_U

Sometime, I just don't get EA's work...

EDIT : Okay, "freerealestate" is still in the game, but it doesn't work the same way anymore. Now, you juste have to type "freerealestate" as a code, without adding any family name. Once it's typed, just choose the family you want to give a house to, and click the house, even if the empty house logo on top of the lot is greyed. You shouldn't have to re-type the code if you are planning on installing more families in other lots, as long as you do not quit the "modify town" mode nor use the build mode. ^^