Cheating Causing Errors - Gray Ovals

[Alakazaam]

Hi, so I was wondering if using cheats cause errors every now and then.

Most of the time I don't use cheats until later on in the game (mostly to edit my Sims in CAS when they age up), and that's around the time when I'll start noticing the gray ovals that Sims can't walk on. I have no idea if it's from using cheats or if it's from playing on the same world for a while though. I'll usually keep playing until three or four gens into a save before I get bored and move on, and usually won't have kids until after my Sims complete their lifetime wish (and usually after they have a wish show up to have kids too! So it takes a bit longer to move from one gen to another.)

So is there any connection between using cheats and those gray ovals showing up, or is it just my world bugging out?

[Pam]

Welcome to our Forum.

Using the testing cheats isn't known to cause any errors or bugs.  However, I'm not sure what the gray ovals are that you're talking about.  Could you get a screenshot of them and post it here?  To do this, you need to upload your image to an online hosting service and post the image link here.  This thread has instructions.

Also, I'm moving this to the Miscellaneous Help board. 

[Alakazaam]

Thanks for the reply! Sorry I posted in the wrong place, I'm still new to using the forums. I can't load up my game right now, but I did find the oval I was talking about on photobucket already, so I guess I'll link that since it's the same thing (I hope that's not a problem since it's not my picture.)



That little gray oval that shows up and doesn't allow your sim to walk on that area and won't let me put anything there if I'm in build/buy mode. I have to turn on cheats so I can delete the object myself but they just show up randomly.

[Pam]

Thanks for the reply! Sorry I posted in the wrong place, I'm still new to using the forums. I can't load up my game right now, but I did find the oval I was talking about on photobucket already, so I guess I'll link that since it's the same thing (I hope that's not a problem since it's not my picture.)

That little gray oval that shows up and doesn't allow your sim to walk on that area and won't let me put anything there if I'm in build/buy mode. I have to turn on cheats so I can delete the object myself but they just show up randomly.

No worries about the post location.  You'll get the hang of it. 

I could be wrong, but I think maybe your file is bugged.  Is it a file you've been playing for a long time?  The game can get buggy after a lot of play and there's really nothing that can be done.  Someone else may come along that has more information about these odd ovals, but that's the best I've got.  It's good that you can at least delete them using cheats, but I know it's got to be very annoying.

Also, after seeing your problem, I'm going to move this thread again over to the Technical Help board.  If it's something to do with game bugs and particular files, it's a technical issue.  I'm sorry if it's confusing. 

[Alakazaam]

Also, after seeing your problem, I'm going to move this thread again over to the Technical Help board.  If it's something to do with game bugs and particular files, it's a technical issue.  I'm sorry if it's confusing. 

So confusing ahaha. I'll get the hang of it eventually though.

I guess it's a save I've had for a while. It's the first save I've made since I had to re-install everything. I didn't think I had been playing on it for that long though. Mostly a few hours at a time every couple of days when I have time to play (when before I'd leave the game running for a few days at a time because I'm not a smart woman). But this happened to me a lot even before I re-installed everything so I doubt that's the problem too.

I'm mostly just curious about what might cause the ovals and thought maybe other people had more information. They're really annoying if they don't show up at first (edit: and by that I mean they're invisible but making it where my Sims can't walk on the area it would be) and I can't do anything about them. The last few times they've shown up in my Sim's house was after I added the house from the library when in edit town mode. I do sometimes see the ovals in random places in town, too.

[Pam]

I edited the title of this thread to include "Gray Ovals", so hopefully someone will see exactly what you're getting and have information.

Yeah, it's not a good idea to leave the game running for long periods of time.  Our technical experts suggest restarting it every two or three hours because things get clogged up and restarting will reset some of the things than can cause problems. 

Also, have you looked at the actual files on your computer to see if they are bad?  If you're on a Window operating system, you need to go into My Documents/Electronic Arts/Sims 3/Saves.  This will show you every save file you have in your game, plus the backups the game generates.  If you see anything that has "bad" in the name of the file, then it's a corrupted file and needs to be deleted because the corruption can actually spread to your other save files.  It's heartbreaking sometimes, but we end up completely losing save files sometimes.

[Alakazaam]

I looked and none of my files or backups have bad in the name. Though since I usually run the game for hours without restarting, that might be part of my problem. I'll start doing that more often and see how it goes. Thanks for all the help though!

I might just go ahead and delete all the save files and start over, restarting more often as I go. I think that would be a good way to see if that's what my problem is or if the gray ovals are just something I'm doomed to have. I'll be sad to leave my family, but one of the fun parts about the Sims is creating a whole new one and starting a new life for them.

[Seabody]

Welcome to the forum!

It's called the "Social Jig". Basically when the game plays an animation it spawns one of those to work its magic. All that's happened is that it didn't properly delete itself, so you can just go ahead and use MoveObjects to delete it. Don't delete your family just yet!

[Dellena]

These can also be deleted by activating the testingCheatsEnabled true cheat. then hold shift and click the oval thing, and delete it

[Alakazaam]

I knew about the testingcheatsenabled true cheat to delete them. That's what I normally used to do it. Is there any way to stop them from sticking around though? Sometimes they're invisible for a while until I move my family out and look at the house later, so it's really annoying sometimes (especially since once it spawned in the small kid's room and my Sims wouldn't use the main door to the room since the social jig was in the way, so they ran all the way outside to the other door. I couldn't even rearrange the bedroom because it took up so much space).

[Dellena]

It's generally a sign of a failed social interaction of some kind.  It can be someone in your household or an inactive as well.  I don't have them happen very often (and in fact can't remember when I had the last one).  If you're getting them frequently after a restart, maybe it's time to put your family in a fresh town.

[Alakazaam]

Yeah, I was considering moving my Sims to somewhere new. After a while most of the town Sims are married or related to my Sims in some way so I move them out. I've been wanting to try out some other towns too, so overall it seems like a good idea to me. Though, I haven't noticed more of the circles lately, other than one I think is invisible in my current house right now. I'll do a quick check of the town then probably move them out regardless.