Can't control sims - Please help!!

[Plumbob95]

My sims went on a vacation to Shang Simla and ever since they came back I havn't been able to control them. The sims' thumbnails on the left hand side have disappeared and I can't extend the arrow to see their needs (hunger, hygiene etc) Also the family takes a while to load and is forever processing when I try to copy the family and house to the library, so I can't even delete the house and place the copy to fix it that way.

I will also try to upload a picture of what this looks like later as it will make it easier to understand the problem.

Please can someone help me out because I have had this family for a while now and I really don't want to re-start the game as this is the only family that it's happening to. Thanks   

[Leto85]

Hi Plumbob95 and welcome to the forum.
The issue you're describing is a known problem among many owners of World Adventures. I also have suffered from it occasionally and the only working solution I know of is restarting the game from before I went on vacation, or one from when I was on vacation and tried again to get home.
Next time, always save your game under two different names, one saved in your hometown and the other for when your family is on vacation. But go ahead and upload a picture. Who knows someone with a better solution would know what else to do.

Good luck.

[frozenbeat]

That's also the same thing that happened to me, though it happened while I'm in Al Simhara.
My family had 3 sons, I let them accompany their parents. The dad was continuing a tomb exploration, when we arrived back at our hometown. Poof! Two of the son's icons became green, unclickable and unselectable, while the other one was totally gone. But, it's kinda weird, cause the game announced that it will be the son's birthday in a few days. So I guess, the game still acknowledges them as part of the family.

too bad... I already collected fragments for a sarcophagus, and it's actually a legacy family that I am playing, I think, it's because, I let one of their sons join the travel. The parents were not yet elders when I first brought them to Al Simhara. I read something online, that it's actually a common glitch in the World Adventures. Some say the glitch is because of the family tree mechanics.
*sigh* I love that family so much, I was planning to post online their stories.

[Plumbob95]

Thanks for your replies Leto85 and frozenbeat, much appreciated.

To Leto85, that seems like good advice and I would love to try it but please can you explain how I restart thye game before the sims went on vacation as I'm not sure how to do it. Thanks. 

To frozenbeat, I am sorry about the problems you are having with your game, I can really relate to that haha, it can be annoying when things like this happen. 

As I said, I will try to upload a picture of it so people can get a better idea, thanks! 

[Audren]

Thanks for your replies Leto85 and frozenbeat, much appreciated.

To Leto85, that seems like good advice and I would love to try it but please can you explain how I restart thye game before the sims went on vacation as I'm not sure how to do it. Thanks. 

I'm not Leto, but I can answer. Do you have a save file from before you went on your vacation?

[Plumbob95]

Hi Audren, I think I do but I can't be sure. Do you mean a file that's in my documents/electronic arts/saves etc, or is it something other than that?

[Leto85]

Hi Audren, I think I do but I can't be sure. Do you mean a file that's in my documents/electronic arts/saves etc, or is it something other than that?

Im not Audren, but I can answer. It can be a document in that file, but most likely you will see it when you are on the Main Menu in the sims. The thing is, there is only another file when you have saved your game under two different names. Its not that The Sims automatically keeps an auto save or so, simply because those files can take up so much memory.
Thing is, if you dont have it saved under a different file you don't have it. And then we need to find another solution.

[Plumbob95]

Haha - When you say 'different file' do you mean the backup file? If so, I don't have one. However, I have dates of when my sims visited other holiday destinations before I sent them to Shang Simla (the place that messed up my game) so is that something to go off?

[Plumbob95]

^ I'm not sure if that last message will be of any help but it was worth a try asking haha 

[Leto85]

Haha - When you say 'different file' do you mean the backup file? If so, I don't have one. However, I have dates of when my sims visited other holiday destinations before I sent them to Shang Simla (the place that messed up my game) so is that something to go off?

Im not Leto but... wait, I am.
No, I didnt meant the backup file, but now you are talking about it, that actually might work. Just trow away the bugged file (place it somewhere else for in case it one day might decide to start working again) and remove the "backup" text in the backup file so the game will see it again as the actual file.
Nice finding Plumbob.

[Plumbob95]

Hahaha, sorry to burst your bubble but i tried that and it didn't work. Awkward. Anyway what different file were you on about then? I'm really bad with this kind of thing hahaha 

[Leto85]

Hahaha, sorry to burst your bubble but i tried that and it didn't work. Awkward. Anyway what different file were you on about then? I'm really bad with this kind of thing hahaha 

Yeah, well I was just talking about a backup I was hoping you would have made, but I now dont have a clue on how to fix this.
Hey, why dont you mail Pam about this? She is more at home with this stuff. Tell her I have send you.
I actually just get around my own problem once because I do save sims families under different names. I highly advice you to do the same from now on.

Ps. Audren is quite so it seems.

[Plumbob95]

Aha, well thanks very much for your help Leto I will try to contact Pam if i can't find a way to fix this soon.

Just wondering, would i be able to make more back up files by copying and pasting more of the file I'm using at the moment and adding 'backup' on the end or something?

And yes Audren seem very quiet hahaha 

[Audren]

When you're reading journals about 8 Sims being paranoid about the other 7, you kind of disappear for a while. 

Sorry that it's still causing problems, Plumbob.

[Leto85]

Aha, well thanks very much for your help Leto I will try to contact Pam if i can't find a way to fix this soon.

Just wondering, would i be able to make more back up files by copying and pasting more of the file I'm using at the moment and adding 'backup' on the end or something?
(...)

I have no idea if that will work. I assume it would, I mean: why not? You may want to try that out yourself, but if you do: back it up first. You don't want to end up with multiple not working files.