LateNight and Barnacle Bay shuts down to Desktop

[Jancy]

Hi All,

Last week I installed Barnacle Bay-When I decided to play I had to do the patch update when clicking on.  Did that, went into start BB, made my Sim and every time I go to purchase a house it shuts down to the desktop.
 
I'm using an iMac - new- a month old. All the other games are working fine. SV, Twinbrooks, Riverview.

I also tried using a pre made family but again closes to the desktop. No error message.

I deleted the cache files, uninstalled BB, reinstalled BB same problem.

Today I installed Late Night to see if maybe it would fix this but it is also happening in Late Night.  Made my Sim, picked an apt, clicked OK and it closed down to desktop.

Any suggestions?  Thanks

[Naga]

Welcome to my world. Well, mine and at least another thousand people's.

The problem is not in LateNight, and not in Barnacle Bay. It's in the patch.

After trying a mountain of methods, I gave up and now am waiting until the next patch to hopefully be able to play (should be around November's 26th).

If you find a solution, you get my kudos.

[Jancy]

Sorry to hear that Have you tried reinstalling everything?  Wondering if I should go that route again.

[Naga]

Absolutely not. I refuse to go through the trouble that is reinstalling the whole game because of another one of EA's mistakes. Even if I did, the patches are mandatory, which means I wouldn't be able to "not-patch" to the last patch (aka Would remain bugged.).

[Jancy]

I tried what I read on another website.  I named "The Sims 3" folder to "The Sims 3 Backup"

I started LN and created a Sim since none of the ones I made prior to renaming the folder where in there. I was able to play the game and no crashing to the desktop.

I then re-downloaded all my purchases from the Sims 3 site. Riverview, Barnacle Bay, and all my furnishings.

I added back all my saved games and so far everything is working.   I started up Barnacle Bay, created a Sim and no crashing to desktop. Right now it's playing fine.

The only things I am not seeing are my Sims that were saved in the bin.  They are in the game living where they were so they are there but not in the bin.  I didn't check on the Salon and Consignment Store yet that I had in Riverview.  I redid all the landscaping etc so I need to see if it is still like that when I start up Riverview. Also custom hair colors that I created are not in CAS.  Nothing major-nothing that can't be redone.

At least (as of now) I can play the game without any problems.  I'll post back if I come across anything else.

[Naga]

Apparently you just lost your custom content. Maybe it has something to do with misdirecting from the My Documents folder to the one in wherever you installed. Could you PM me with more details?

[Jancy]

I sent you a PM

[Chris]

Jancy,
I have been having this same problem and I believe I have found a solution.  There appears to be an issue with having multiple ambitions lots saved to your library.  It appears that saving Twinbrook or custom made ambitions lots to the library prevents the game from properly placing the ambitions lots in new towns. Typically the ambition’s lots will be replaced with a blue or grey community lot that is set to no visitors allowed.  I have found that as long as I delete these lots or add the appropriate building to them in edit town mode before actually playing the game it will no longer crash.  The other option that works is only having the premade ambitions lots in your library.

It sounds like this is the same issue you have since you mentioned you no longer see your sims in the save bin.  The reason they are not there is because you did not move your library folder from your Sims 3 Backup folder to your new Sims 3 folder.

[Jancy]

Thanks for the help--
Do I just move the whole Library folder from The Sims 3 Back up to the new Sims 3 folder and that will put all my stuff back into the bin-for example my made sims and the lots I worked on?

Actually I just counted- there are about 105 .package items in my library folder.  Is that too many to put back in and could they have been the cause of my problem?
 
Thanks

[Chris]

Yes, moving the library folder to the new Sims 3 folder should restore all of your saved sims and lots to the bin.  I highly doubt restoring all of them will have any negative effect on your game, and the amount of files you have in the library folder is not what is causing the crashing problem.  The problem occurs if any of the saved lots in the library folder are the fire station, salon, junkyard, or consignment store.  If they are, it will likely cause the ambitions lots that are automatically placed every time you start a new town to be buggy (for lack of a better word).  In my experience this is what is causing the game to crash.  Hopefully this issue will be fixed in the next patch, but until then either remove all the extra ambitions from your library or go to edit town mode and replace or delete the gray ambitions lots in the town before selecting a family. 
Let me know if I didn’t explain it very clearly.