New to mods - understanding them

[beardeux]

Hi all,  I've never used mods before but have heard enough good things about them I decided to try them out.  They've been recommended to me for various issues I've had although I was able to more or less resolve them without the mods.  I downloaded 4 a couple days ago; 1 Error Trap, 2 Overwatch, 3 Porter & 4 Once Read.  I've not used Porter yet but probably will and Once Read is self explanatory.

I think the overwatch is the one that removes cars & turns off tv's and stereos.  When I first entered each neighbourhood, it removed a goodly number of cars, then each night it removes approx 30-45 cars.  Are all these cars just spawning and roaming the towns every day?  I've gone through all neighbourhoods and deleted cars and parking spots to help with this issue.

Overwatch also contains error correction.  What does that mean to me?  Another thing that has happened since I installed the mods is that all my hoverbeds (~10) have stopped working).  The sims get the credit in the moodlet panel but the beds don't hover.  This disappoints me.

Error Trap has given me messages regarding character errors and that it has recorded errors.  Most of these messages have been anywhere from approx 2-100 errors but I've had a couple huge ones, over 200 (Nightlife) & over 300 (Union Cove) errors recorded.  I don't know what it is telling me or where to find any info, if there is any?

Overall, I'm glad I did it.  On single player lots it has all but eliminated the freezing of game play which I love.  Not so much on lots with families of 6.  Can anyone help me understand them.

[NonaMena]

Hi beardeux. Let's see if I can be of any help.

Are all these cars just spawning and roaming the towns every day?  I've gone through all neighbourhoods and deleted cars and parking spots to help with this issue.

Inactive sims tend to spawn cars whenever they need to go somewhere, especially if they don't have their own car. I wouldn't recommend deleting cars off of inactive lots, but it shouldn't be a problem. Your game sounds about normal in terms of cars being deleted.

Overwatch also contains error correction.  What does that mean to me?  Another thing that has happened since I installed the mods is that all my hoverbeds (~10) have stopped working).  The sims get the credit in the moodlet panel but the beds don't hover.  This disappoints me.

About your hover beds: I am not entirely sure that it was Overwatch that caused them to break. The Hover beds have been known to break on occasion, for whatever reason. You can buy new ones by using testingcheatsenabled true and entering buydebug into the cheat menu. You will find the Hover Beds in the misc objects. They cost 4000§, but I recommend you cheat to pay for them, since it's not your fault they broke. Think of it as a lifetime guarantee.

There are a number of different errors that Overwatch corrects, so I won't be able to list them all off of the top of my head. One example is broken genealogy, which can cause an active sim to be removed from the active household. Another is that Overwatch can fix broken situations, such as the never-ending field trip situation, which is responsible for sims being unable to attend after school activities. You can get an idea of some of the other things that Overwatch does by looking at the Overwatch Revision Notes.

Error Trap has given me messages regarding character errors and that it has recorded errors.  Most of these messages have been anywhere from approx 2-100 errors but I've had a couple huge ones, over 200 (Nightlife) & over 300 (Union Cove) errors recorded.  I don't know what it is telling me or where to find any info, if there is any?

Please post your errors at the Nraas Wiki, in the ErrorTrap Issues discussion. You will need to register to upload the files (put them together in a .zip file), and then become a member of the Wiki. Follow these directions: How To Upload

Overall, I'm glad I did it.  On single player lots it has all but eliminated the freezing of game play which I love.  Not so much on lots with families of 6.  Can anyone help me understand them.

Large households, along with large towns, can really up the computing requirements for the game. If your computer is a bit on the low-end, this might be what you cna expect. I can't really say for sure without knowing more about your computer, or what is going on in those particular games.

[beardeux]

thanks so much for responding.  I've only deleted cars on community lots and left one parking spot. 

I like your suggestion for the hover beds and will take you up on that.  I've had them break before, but never en masse like this.  I have always regained the points to get them back.  A time consuming pain. 

I have wondered why my kids weren't attending after school programs at times, but didn't know why.  I'll be watching for that.  thanks.

I'll check into the Error Trap Issues at Wikki.  I didn't know about this at all.  I still don't know where the files would be to upload or even what I'm looking for.  Hopefully Wikki will show examples of them.

I run quite a fast computer and graphics.  A good gaming machine.  I am really pleased with the performance overall. 
thanks again for all your help.  I appreciate it.

[NonaMena]

I have wondered why my kids weren't attending after school programs at times, but didn't know why.  I'll be watching for that.  thanks.

You'll need to use Overwatch's Cleanup Situations if your kids stop going to after school programs. It's no on the daily routine by default, but you can add it.

I'll check into the Error Trap Issues at Wikki.  I didn't know about this at all.  I still don't know where the files would be to upload or even what I'm looking for.  Hopefully Wikki will show examples of them.

You can find all the ScriptErrors in Documents\Electronics Arts\The Sims 3.  They will start with the name "ScriptError" so that's how you know it's a ScriptError. You can open the ScriptError in NotePad to look at what happened. Once you are familiar with the different kinds of errors, you might be able to know for yourself which errors are bad and which are not a big deal. It will take some time though, so you can just upload the ones you have now at the Wiki and twallan will let you know what's going on to cause all those problems.

And yeah, my computer is a great gaming rig too, but the Nraas mods just improve Sims 3 performance so much. I wouldn't consider playing without them for any extended amount of time anymore! Not sure about your lots with 6 sims though. There might be something else going on there.

[beardeux]

I don't think I've not seen any script error files in the Sims 3 folder.  I check it every time I play and delete those 4 cache files.  Only the regular files are there.  I'm not even sure I've seen msgs for them.  I'll play tomorrow and write down which msgs I see.  Some of them have townies names in them and there is one that tells me 'X no. of errors recorded'.

I do know I have one type of file ext, .xcpt, which I've seen periodically for a long time.  I think I have a bad character.  One I created.  I changed her name at one point (and I've done this on a few occasions with other sims) and I think a glitch must have happened.  That's when the msg first appeared.  I can't think of any other reason for it.  I usually only get 2 files show up once in a while.  I've just been deleting them.  But with the mods installed I got 6 of them and another time 4 of them.  Again, delete.  I don't want to lose the character because she has done a lot of the puzzle things for China - accumulating 8 days so far - and a few for France.  (I detest puzzles and don't want to do them again-hence I put up with the files).  It doesn't seem to affect the game.

[NonaMena]

.xcpt files are created when you get the error "The Sims 3 has stopped working" and then your game crashes to the desktop. You can use the Crash Log Analyzer to get a hint of why the crash might be occuring, but the tool is not perfect. I use it more as a guideline.

In any case, if you have a number of .xcpt files recently, then you've been crashing to desktop. You might be experiencing a problem with patch levels and mods, or you might have a corrupted game. Do you have any other mods than the Nraas mods you've listed?

[Chuckles_82]

In any case, if you have a number of .xcpt files recently, then you've been crashing to desktop. You might be experiencing a problem with patch levels and mods, or you might have a corrupted game. Do you have any other mods than the Nraas mods you've listed?

Aha! Awesome! Thanks for that Nona. It made me realise that I probably didn't fix my default.ini file after I fiddled with it trying to get CAW to work again after the recent patch (I didn't get it working, so will just leave it for the time being). Luckily I backed it up before I changed the version numbers in it, so I had the original to check it against. I thought I was having an unusual number of crashes to desktop whilst trying to load a town! Usually it's only SSV - and only for the first time I load it, for some reason after restarting it loads fine the second time. I can probably work that one out too if I run it through the Crash Log Analyser.

[beardeux]

I haven't had a 'crash to desktop', 'Sims 3 has stopped working' or an 'Error 12' message since I upgraded my machine about a month ago.  It's been a pleasure.  I have had and 'Error 16' though, new for me.  I get a '.bad' file but I just play for a few more minutes and then I save again in a few minutes with no loss of game time or crash.  Later I just delete the .bad file.  All of my neighbourhoods are playing without incident.

I've only have the 4 mods I mentioned.  I also have the most current patches which I get through the EA launcher.   The EA launcher says I have version 12.0.273.015001.  Not sure if that is patch level.

I'm going to fire up the game now and I'll be back a bit later when I have a better idea exactly what the messages say.

How do I use Overwatch's cleanup?

[NonaMena]

Aha! Awesome! Thanks for that Nona. It made me realise that I probably didn't fix my default.ini file after I fiddled with it trying to get CAW to work again after the recent patch (I didn't get it working, so will just leave it for the time being). Luckily I backed it up before I changed the version numbers in it, so I had the original to check it against. I thought I was having an unusual number of crashes to desktop whilst trying to load a town! Usually it's only SSV - and only for the first time I load it, for some reason after restarting it loads fine the second time. I can probably work that one out too if I run it through the Crash Log Analyser.

At least something I said was helpful I would say most of my crashes have been from bad or conflicting CC or mods., so it might be one of those. The Crash Log Analyzer is sometimes not very helpful because it doesn't say "it's mod xyz crashing the game," and sometimes it's not really right. I had a bunch of crashes when playing in windowed ode without using an FPS Limiter. Once I turned that back on, my crashes stopped. But the Crash Log Analyzer did think it was custom content, most of them time.

I haven't had a 'crash to desktop', 'Sims 3 has stopped working' or an 'Error 12' message since I upgraded my machine about a month ago.  It's been a pleasure.  I have had and 'Error 16' though, new for me.  I get a '.bad' file but I just play for a few more minutes and then I save again in a few minutes with no loss of game time or crash.  Later I just delete the .bad file.  All of my neighbourhoods are playing without incident.

I've only have the 4 mods I mentioned.  I also have the most current patches which I get through the EA launcher.   The EA launcher says I have version 12.0.273.015001.  Not sure if that is patch level.

I'm going to fire up the game now and I'll be back a bit later when I have a better idea exactly what the messages say.

How do I use Overwatch's cleanup?

Beard, Take a look at the date on the xcpt files. They must be old and you can just delete them. Also, even if you are patched to 1.33, you might experience problems if you have certain expansion packs but not their patch. Take a look at Game Help:TS3 Patching Find Gameversion, and go to the section titled Sims3Launcher. That's how you find your base game patch level.  You can use the Sims 3 Patch Downloader to help you download any patches you might be missing.

To run an Overwatch interaction manually, click on the City Hall in your game and go to Nraas / Overwatch / Immediate. You will see a list of options. Choose what you want to run (you can select more than one a time) and then click the check mark.

[beardeux]

Hi Nona.  I believe you are right about the .xcpt files.  I checked the ones which were generated today and they are 'XML documents', 3 of them.

My EA launcher says the game is up to date and I have all the EP plus Union C, BarnacleB, Riverview, Hidden Sp & Lunar Lks.   My son (the computer & game whiz) helped me install the mods and he checked the most current patches I had.  He is confident we have the right mods.  I believe the level was 1.33.

I have some examples of the msgs I'm getting.
1 Lunar Lakes - 2 msgs - a) Error Trap recorded 1 / b) NRaas Error Trap^Script Error^Alastair newbie (I presume a townie).
2 Barnacle Bay - Error Trap recorded 1
3 Bridgeport - Script Error^Ryan Atkins (I presume another townie) On my first run through I had tons.

Upon installation of the mods I went into each NH to see what the mods did and I had lots from a few to 75ish (a couple NH's 200 and 300) of these kinds of msgs.  Now it seems to keep to 1 to 3 or so...so I know it's working ;-) just don't know what it's doing.  I'm not finding any weird files in the Sims 3 folder.

I also checked and the Overwatch is set to 'ALL', so can I assume it's looking at everything it's supposed to.

[Chuckles_82]

I had a bunch of crashes when playing in windowed ode without using an FPS Limiter.

That might just explain the rest of the crashes - it's only when loading a town though, but I'd have to downlaod something like Fraps to be sure.

[NonaMena]

That might just explain the rest of the crashes - it's only when loading a town though, but I'd have to downlaod something like Fraps to be sure.

If you have an nvidia card, you can get the latest nvidia driver and then download EVGA Precision X.  This will let you check your frame rate and limit the frame rate. But if you're crashing while loading, not once you get into the game, it's probably not a FPS issue.

@beardeux, the xcpt files from crashes are actually .txt files (and .mdmp files, which you cannot open). ScriptErrors are .xml (which can be opened in NotePad). If you're not getting as many as you were, then likely ErrorTrap was just reporting that it fixed some broken stuff. Since the broken stuff is now fixed, it won't produce as many error, unless more stuff breaks. ScriptError files are named like this: ScriptError_YourComputerNameHere__05-28-2012__11-48-50__27E0CA66.xml

I recommended the Patch Downloader because the Launcher will not download separate EP/SP patches. It will only download patch 1.33 (or whatever is the latest). However, before Generations, every EP and SP had their own patch level. EA does say that it is not necessary to patch the EPs and SPs which had their own patch levels, but many people have reported crashes without doing so. Whether it actually helps for certain, I really don't know. If you're not crashing to desktop at all, you probably don't need them.

[beardeux]

Nona.  Thanks for your explanations and help.  I really appreciate it.  You've been awesome.  That script error now makes sense and is a relief to me.  I thought it was a character because that's her name in part.  So I thought it was related to her.  I'm so glad it isn't.  She's kind of special to me because of all the AW puzzles.  I can relax and appreciate the msgs and the files I have to delete now.  I'm not crashing at all now so I will leave the patches for now.  I'm really pleased with the overall performance of my computer and the game.  Love it so much.

[NonaMena]

Nona.  Thanks for your explanations and help.  I really appreciate it.  You've been awesome.  That script error now makes sense and is a relief to me.  I thought it was a character because that's her name in part.  So I thought it was related to her.  I'm so glad it isn't.  She's kind of special to me because of all the AW puzzles.  I can relax and appreciate the msgs and the files I have to delete now.  I'm not crashing at all now so I will leave the patches for now.  I'm really pleased with the overall performance of my computer and the game.  Love it so much.

Great to hear!