Hi there! You are currently browsing as a guest. Why not create an account? Then you get less ads, can thank creators, post feedback, keep a list of your favourites, and more!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 13th Dec 2014 at 12:36 PM Last edited by pepoluan : 14th Dec 2014 at 11:00 AM.

This user has the following games installed:

Sims 3, World Adventures, Ambitions, Late Night, Showtime
Default How to quickly find a sim experiencing routing issues
I keep seeing the notification (by Nraas Overwatch, I believe) that a particular sim keeps experiencing routing issues.

How do I quickly find that sim, to fix whatever is causing the routing problems? Hopefully while he's unroutable so I can fix the issue.

Note: I'm currently playing Sunset Valley 7.0 from Carl's Sims 4 Guide.
Advertisement
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#2 Old 14th Dec 2014 at 10:57 AM
Okay, here's how I solved my issue:

1. Install Nraas HomeOpener so I can peek into NPC's house.

2. With "tse on", shift-click on mailbox and "make my sim knows everyone"

3. Right click on the afflicted sim, and follow his movements.

In my particular case, the afflicted sim was a venue's proprietor, so right-clicking did nothing. I have to wait until the proprietor's working hours before he appeared. Also, the problem was improper placement of the autospawned proprietor's standing spot. Due to how the venue's lot was built, route to that spot was blocked by doodads.

So, I quit without saving, remove the HomeOpener, and enter Edit Town after loading my save, to place an explicit spot on the problematic lot.
Top Secret Researcher
#3 Old 15th Dec 2014 at 12:27 AM
This is really helpful advice. Thanks!
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#5 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 5:23 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Hey Pepoluan,

This works for a residential lot, any idea how to check commercial lots? I think there's a couple of rough spots in my home world, got a couple of resets every now and then. Since the reset sims are different each time, I'm assuming it is not a residential lot. It kinda sucks that when overwatch report the issue, they're already reset back to their home lot. Actually, I think overwatch can be tweaked so it will report the stuck sim without resetting it. Not sure. Appreciate any other methods of tracking down routing errors.

Well, first I'd make sure that I'm using a fixed world by @ellacharmed

Afterwards, I'd just follow the townies around. In my case, it was relatively easy because it was the same townie again and again and again, so I just follow him.

If the townie that gets reset keeps changing, that would be more difficult; however, analyzing the ScriptError files generated by ErrorTrap would be helpful. At the very least, we can see what interaction caused the reset.

For example, after my problem above, every now and then I'd see a notification that a townie had been reset. Checking the ScriptError, I see that the last action they did before being reset is "Bartender"-something-something. So, I'd just have my sim go bar-hopping until he got reset, noted the location, and fix whatever needs to be fixed.

RoutingError problems are much harder to fix, though... I'm still not sure how to get the "last known location" from ScriptError... So I just resorted to following a townie for a day or two...

Nobody is Perfect. I am Nobody. And I'm trying to make something wonderful for The Sims 3.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#7 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 10:49 AM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Lol, that's hilarious. I tried going to every lot to check out what's on, but I can only do that when it is paused. When there's a routing error, the game keeps pausing and lagging. If it is a water taxi or boat issue, at least I can find those in the neighborhood view. Right now, I'm on Bridgeport and recently there has been lots of pausing mini-freezes. One time, just out of pure luck, I switched to a household and all 3 of them were trapped in the "hidden" area of the high-rise. All were tired and pissed on themselves. I don't know why overwatch didn't reset them.
Overwatch most possibly did reset them and caused the problem in the first place. Overwatch's Stuck Check is highly risky in worlds with apartment buildings, because it cannot really distinguish between hidden rooms and proper areas and so you'll most often end up with the reset Sims terminally stuck in the hidden room areas.
There are three possible solutions:
1- Turn off StuckCheck completely (that's what I do); it has never helped me very much. On the contrary: it once ruined a save completely for me when it was still in early development.
2- Leave StuckCheck on but disable the reset function and search for the stuck Sims manually. That way you'll also learn that StuckCheck gives 95% false positives.
3. Add a regular door to all hidden rooms on ground floors, so that Sims can leave the area on their own.

Tracking Sims is much easier with either NRaas Tagger or AwesomeMod, which also has a tagging function. That way you can track your inactives' routing from Map View. When I test a new world I always have everyone radar tagged and let the game run for a few days, only watching their whereabouts from Map View.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#9 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 1:09 PM
Those doors might be set as NPC doors?
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#11 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 1:55 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Don_Babilon
Overwatch most possibly did reset them and caused the problem in the first place. Overwatch's Stuck Check is highly risky in worlds with apartment buildings, because it cannot really distinguish between hidden rooms and proper areas and so you'll most often end up with the reset Sims terminally stuck in the hidden room areas.

Although I'm not 100% sure, I think Overwatch merely uses the game's built-in resetsim functionality... in which case, the blame lies squarely on EA for making a shoddy mechanism.
Quote: Originally posted by Don_Babilon
There are three possible solutions:
1- Turn off StuckCheck completely (that's what I do); it has never helped me very much. On the contrary: it once ruined a save completely for me when it was still in early development.
2- Leave StuckCheck on but disable the reset function and search for the stuck Sims manually. That way you'll also learn that StuckCheck gives 95% false positives.

Especially with @ellacharmed's fixed worlds

However, for other custom worlds or EA worlds from the store, better use the Stuck Check at first.

Nobody is Perfect. I am Nobody. And I'm trying to make something wonderful for The Sims 3.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#12 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 4:45 PM
Quote: Originally posted by pepoluan
Although I'm not 100% sure, I think Overwatch merely uses the game's built-in resetsim functionality... in which case, the blame lies squarely on EA for making a shoddy mechanism.
Not really. Overwatch uses a hard reset, i.e. it destroys the Sim and rebuilds a new version, which then gets placed in the world on its home lot in what OW deems a safe location. This is not like the resetsim cheat, and so far I haven't seen a resetsim Sim get stuck.

Quote: Originally posted by pepoluan
However, for other custom worlds or EA worlds from the store, better use the Stuck Check at first.
As I said, I don't and haven't encountered anything game-breaking yet. I'm not a particular fan of the Stuck Check. I tried it initially in Setra when I played this cc world first and ended up with mixologists stuck in foundations, a unicorn catapulted into a pond and several Sim in hidden rooms. I use it sometimes manually and without the reset function enabled, and while it always reports several dozens of allegedly stuck Sims, using the focus function from the notifications and MC's Open command has so far always revealed that none of them were really stuck, just immobile while in low detail. I seriously believe that Overwatch's Stuck Check causes more harm than it does good.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#13 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 5:51 PM
You know, I just had the darnedest Routing Error EVER.

@Don_Babilon, your insistence on not letting Overwatch perform auto reset made me experiment with Overwatch. So, I kept "Stuck Check" on, but disabled "Stuck Check: Auto Reset" off.

Within several sim-hours, I got alerted that 'David' was stuck. Checking his location, I did not see how he could get stuck. So I had MC do a Reset Sim.

Several sim-hours later, 'Brian' got stuck. At the same place. Now, this is weird... So I did a "Build on This Lot" and try moving things around... and in the process found out that the lot maker managed to MOO the Trash Compactor so it got fused with a counter.

Some quick fix ups later, I've unfused the Trash Compactor and the counter. Even so, a couple of sim-hours later, 'John' got stuck. At. The. Effing. Same. Place.

I used MC to have John "Go Home". He didn't move. Well, he's already home...

Something's weird here, folks. 'Brian', on the other hand, was busy making himself some sandwich.

Then I noticed a door. The door was ajar.

It was ajar when Brian got stuck.

It was also ajar when David got stuck.

I went into Build mode, and clicked on the door. The game said, "Can't pick up object being used by Theo"... but Theo was nowhere to be seen!

Tried resetsim... door still stuck, unpickupable. Tried delete-dragging the windows on each side of the door, the door refused to be removed.

Finally, did a Shift-Click on the door, chose "Object > Delete"... and suddenly the household sprang alive!

Readded the door, and no routing problem up to now. Not yet.

Not sure what had happened. But my guess: Theo came in the room, tried to go to the Trash Compactor, failed several times in a row, got reset by Overwatch autoreset. But the door's state did NOT get reset, making it stuck open and possibly interfering with other sims' routing.

So, after experiencing this firsthand, I support the notion of disabling "Stuck Check AutoReset", but I still keep "Stuck Check" enabled. Because I wouldn't have realized there had been a serious problem with the lot without "Stuck Check".

Nobody is Perfect. I am Nobody. And I'm trying to make something wonderful for The Sims 3.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#14 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 6:59 PM
Interesting connection, because this very error with doors has repeatedly been mentioned and discussed at the NRaas forums. I myself have never encountered this yet, but you are suggesting that it is probably caused by Overwatch or rather the NRaas reset function? It would make an interesting observation to find out whether some problems that the mod is supposed to fix are actually caused by it. I go by the frequency by which this problem appears on the site that issues the mod, while I rarely read about this anywhere else.
I now remember that I have also disabled another Overwatch routine, and that is the reset of elevators. The last time I had it enabled my Sim happened to use an elevator when the routine fired and I had to restart that save because neither the elevator nor the Sim acted properly afterwards.

And one additional word on MasterController. The Reset Sim command there is the same that Overwatch uses. Use it with caution and only sparingly as an emergency action to fix a broken Sim (stuck while giving birth or stuck while aging up, for example). You can tell the difference between a hard reset (that most NRaas mods use) and a "soft" reset, btw: A hard reset Sim will be treated by the game like a new Sim, so if you click on the Sim's bed the menu will say "Sleep in Sim Name's bed."
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#15 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 8:27 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Don_Babilon
Interesting connection, because this very error with doors has repeatedly been mentioned and discussed at the NRaas forums. I myself have never encountered this yet, but you are suggesting that it is probably caused by Overwatch or rather the NRaas reset function? It would make an interesting observation to find out whether some problems that the mod is supposed to fix are actually caused by it. I go by the frequency by which this problem appears on the site that issues the mod, while I rarely read about this anywhere else.

I tend to view it this way: Overwatch indeed fixes the problems it originally set out to fix, but the drastic way it implements the fixes inadvertently caused something other to break.

TS3 is such a fragile app, I really need to get my sims3.scaffolding project going. With better visibility into TS3's in-memory data structures, we perhaps can start paint a more coherent picture -- and fix things 'more properly'.

Quote: Originally posted by Don_Babilon
I now remember that I have also disabled another Overwatch routine, and that is the reset of elevators. The last time I had it enabled my Sim happened to use an elevator when the routine fired and I had to restart that save because neither the elevator nor the Sim acted properly afterwards.

Now that you mention it... I remember a couple of months ago, I had a problem with my sim's apartment elevator. It was not my sim that got resetted, but the elevator just won't work. I had to delete the whole column and re-added the elevator elements to make the game function properly again.

Somewhat similar to the problem I just experienced, don't you think?

But I never had any problems with elevators afterwards, so it might just be a coincidence... or not.

Quote: Originally posted by Don_Babilon
And one additional word on MasterController. The Reset Sim command there is the same that Overwatch uses. Use it with caution and only sparingly as an emergency action to fix a broken Sim (stuck while giving birth or stuck while aging up, for example). You can tell the difference between a hard reset (that most NRaas mods use) and a "soft" reset, btw: A hard reset Sim will be treated by the game like a new Sim, so if you click on the Sim's bed the menu will say "Sleep in Sim Name's bed."

Can't test, it was a townie that I hard-resetted :P

Nobody is Perfect. I am Nobody. And I'm trying to make something wonderful for The Sims 3.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#16 Old 7th Jan 2015 at 10:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by pepoluan
(...)
Now that you mention it... I remember a couple of months ago, I had a problem with my sim's apartment elevator. It was not my sim that got resetted, but the elevator just won't work. I had to delete the whole column and re-added the elevator elements to make the game function properly again.

Somewhat similar to the problem I just experienced, don't you think?

But I never had any problems with elevators afterwards, so it might just be a coincidence... or not.
I think this is exactly the issue that Overwatch tries to remedy by cleaning out elevators once a day. It's similar to the "door still in use" issue, only for elevators. Elevators tended to become unusable in the early days of Late Night when a Sim using it was reset or otherwise prevented from its use while using it. There was also a problem with one of the later patches, which somehow shifted all existing elevators and broke the shaft connections. I was forced to replace all elevators in an existing save back then.

The problem that I got after OW reset an elevator while my Sim was still in it is that it broke his walkstyle and he continued to use only the slowest walking style possible, no quick walk, no run, only ForceWalk.


Quote:
Can't test, it was a townie that I hard-resetted :P
Yeah, I only mentioned this to distinguish between the various modes of resets.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#18 Old 10th Jan 2015 at 7:51 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Don_Babilon
I think this is exactly the issue that Overwatch tries to remedy by cleaning out elevators once a day. It's similar to the "door still in use" issue, only for elevators. Elevators tended to become unusable in the early days of Late Night when a Sim using it was reset or otherwise prevented from its use while using it. There was also a problem with one of the later patches, which somehow shifted all existing elevators and broke the shaft connections. I was forced to replace all elevators in an existing save back then.

The problem that I got after OW reset an elevator while my Sim was still in it is that it broke his walkstyle and he continued to use only the slowest walking style possible, no quick walk, no run, only ForceWalk.

It's not fixable by Buzzler's Walk Style Fixer?

Nobody is Perfect. I am Nobody. And I'm trying to make something wonderful for The Sims 3.
Department of Post-Mortem Communications
#19 Old 10th Jan 2015 at 9:11 AM
Quote: Originally posted by pepoluan
It's not fixable by Buzzler's Walk Style Fixer?
It is, of course
Test Subject
#20 Old 10th Mar 2018 at 6:03 PM
I'm playing a world that's having routing issues, but I'm not sure where or what action is causing the problems. I thought it was a lot, but I don't think it was.
Back to top