Can't return back home from vacation

[Mikayla]

I have purchased all my Expansion packs on Amazon other than Pets. Everything always worked fine so far – until I downloaded World Adventures.

All of them (base games and expansion packs) are registered online on sims3.com.
 
I have the
Sims 3
Late Night
Ambitions
Pets
World Adventures
Supernatural
 
On the Sims3.com site it only shows the Pets, Sims 3, Late Night and Ambitious as registered.
 
On the Launcher on the other hand, ALL of them are visible.
 
So as far as the problems in the game play AFTER installing World Adventures:
- I can never go back home when I go to China, France or Egypt
- Game doesn’t save anymore
- is extremely slow
 
I am pretty sure I need to update something. But whenever I check for a patch or upload it says game is up to date. Or it says new patch is available and when I try to download it, it doesnt work because it keeps asking me to download the patch.
 
Anybody ever had that problem and can help me with it?

[Shirin]

So as far as the problems in the game play AFTER installing World Adventures:
- I can never go back home when I go to China, France or Egypt
- Game doesn’t save anymore
- is extremely slow

1) When you say you can't go home, what precisely is happening? Does departure time in China/France/Egypt come and go, and your sims are still bopping along? Do you get the loading screen of eternity? Do you "get home" and your sims have disappeared into the green box of invisibility?

2) Is this during a Save, a Save As, or Save and Exit? If only one, have you tried the others? For example, I can no longer Save and Exit - so I now am required to Save (or Save As to have a recent save) prior to exiting the game.

3) Define extremely slow. If your pre-WA speed was a 10, what is it at now? Did you change any graphics settings? Does it happen only at certain times or at certain events?

[Mikayla]

I am sorry if I have been writing things down confusingly.

The game doesn’t send the sim home when time is over. He just stays in the other country. If I try to send him/her home the little computer / phone icon shows up in the screen, disappears away and the sims stays in the country. There is no way I can send my sim home. I mentioned my registration/update problems cause I figured it could have something to do with it. Departure time only shows up after the 3 days afterwards it doesn’t anymore and my sims just acts like he is at home. I don’t know what the other 2 questions mean I am sorry. What is a loading screen of eternity? And what is the green box of invisibility?

It saves the game and when I try to load it again, its at a point where I left it off before I installed WA.

It is now at maybe 3 … It is very slow. No I didn’t change anything. It happens all the time not just at certain events. Sometimes it freezes as well.

I tried to contact EA but I never hear back from them ... So I figured I would ask here. I am not as experienced as a lot of people here so I hope I wont upset someone with not knowing so much about this game

[Wai]

I wish I could help more.  I always "Save As" then after the save is complete I "Exit" otherwise if I "Save and Exit" my game occassionally crashes.  There can often be a significant lag when your sim should return home, though I don't think I have experienced longer than a day (hard to tell as the clock stops.)  A few minutes to a couple of hours is quite frequent.  I just let my sim carry on as usual while I wait.  Practice meditation, read, anything that will not be affected if it terminates suddenly.  China can lag badly during play because of some bad pathing problems in two of the larger venue lots.  This can be solved quite easily.  Short term, try "resetsim *" without the quotes.  A permanant fix is more complicated.  If after using resetsim * your game speeds up Then I can tell you how to do the permanent fix, or you can find instructions for this on this site.  Spritedtreasure wrote up the method under the heading "making uneditable lots editable" I think.

If none of this helps, I, personally, would try a factory reset and if that fails a full re-install.

Finally, I would call EA for help, you may have a faulty disk.  Did you get a "data reading" error while installing.  It's quite easy to miss and if you sellect continue, the install will continue but your game will have unpredictable glitches.  The phone number for EA, if you are in the UK is 0870 243 2435.

[Mikayla]

That is okay, I appreciate everybody that tries to help! Unfortunately I have tried all saving methods and nothing worked.  It doesn’t show an error it just doesn’t save the game. Do you know if it could change if I just erase every game and start all over again with installing the Expansion packs as they came out?
With my game my sim doesn’t return which sucks cause then I have to live in the country I choose to travel to.
I am sorry but what means resetsim?! I am not not a pro in the sims like almost everybody else on this site.
Factory reset as far as reset my whole computer?!
I wrote EA a werek ago and for some reason they have not gotten back at me and I opened numerous cases, well 3 over the past week.
I did not get any error while installing the sims unfortunately!
I was looking into phone numbers to call EA as well and for some reason I cant find the one for the US. Do you know where I could get that from?

[Wai]

Mikayla,

resetsim * is used to return all sims in the game to their home position if non player sims get stuck and cause the game to lag.  Press Ctrl - Shift - C to bring up the cheats editor at top of screen.  Type resetsim * and press return (enter).

Factory reset sets the game back to it''s original state before playing any games, but allows you to return your saved games.  Instructions for this are given in the "technical help" section of this site and are very easy to follow.

If the factory reset does not help, I would try a full re-instal although it is a pain to do.

I still think it sounds like a faulty disk, but I am no expert.  I had problems after installing "showtime" a few weeks ago, diferent from yours, but still game spoiling.  I did a full re-install and noticed the "data reading" error though I didn't notice it when I installed the first time.  EA replaced the disk and I am just about to install it now.

Sorry, I can't help with the USA telephone number.  However, there should have been a white leaflet with your game, the game code that you need when installing the game is on the front.  Open the leaflet and the telephone number will be top right under the heading "Need Help" assuming that the USA packaging is the same as in the UK.

An other thought, did you try to save after the returning home message appeared? I would think that would cause a crash, though I don't know.  Have you tried saving and reloading the game while in your destination but before time to return home?  As a matter of routine, I always save just before travelling and soon after arriving (using different names which I overwrite on my next trip).

[simchuff]

I too am having this issue. Not sure when the file got corrupted, but I went to Egypt no problem with my founder, and returned. Now with my 2nd gen in China, he can't get back home. I did a factory reset. I've seen suggestions that deal with clearing out inventory, I'm thinking it might be something to do with this weird "omni plant" bug I seem to be having, I have like 20 or so in different sims inventories who have checked the mail, and once it is in there, I can't get rid of it. I resigned myself to the cluttered inventory, but it would suck if this is the cause to my traveling bug.

I am opening different save files (I have quite a few) to see which one starts producing this bug, and what changed.

[Pam]

I'm moving this to the Technical Help board.

[Wai]

The omni plant gift boxes spawn at anytime, not specifically when travelling.  My current sim has more than twenty in her inventory right now. I have no problems returning home after travel, other than the occassional long delay.  I keep my sim happy, and wait it out when this happens.  She has even maxed skills while taking her extra vacation.  How long have you allowed the game to continue after the clock stops at the end of the vacation?  Guessing from playing without a running clock, I would say that nearly 24 sim hours is the longest I have waited.   But, it could be more.

If your sims are definately not going to return home, I would say that the only option is replay your game from the last, pre-vacation game.  I believe, if this is an official dynasty you will need permission to do this.

This is just my take on delayed returns, but, it seems to me that delays occur when you have a sim doing a skill maximisation activity at midnight.  The game seems to continue until this activity is completed, then, sometimes, it just does not return home immediately afterwards.  The sim gets tired, hungry etc., so you have to attend to their needs.  But eventually the game realises that you ought to br home.

[simchuff]

I havent waited long, about maybe 6 sim hours max, assuming it would be fruitless to continue if I was stuck in another world. I bring up the omni plant, because I have noticed that this issue did not arise until my sims began receiving these omni plant gifts. I have gone through about 10 different save files 8 of which were before my gardener became level 10, and before I started getting these omni plant gift in my mailbox (I add in the garden level because it was around the time she became level 10 that the gifts appeared during my observations in previous saves), and 2 afterwards. Without the gifts in inventory my sims have no problem traveling and returning, with them, I guess is the delay. I will play it out with him in China and see if it is just a delay or if he truly never goes home. Thanks for the tip.