Combating Long Load Times Without Shortening Them

[Gameactive]

I have six expansion packs running on my system right now, and no matter what I do, the load times just won’t improve. So instead of trying to shorten them, I’ve just decided to pull out my 3DS and play some Mario Kart 7 while I wait. (It’s the end of the 2nd or 3rd race by the time it’s fully loaded, BTW.)

Anyway, what are things you’ve done while waiting for the game to load? I’m interested in what people have done with that extra time spent waiting on that blammin’ bar to fill up.

[TheTripWasInfraGreen]

Alt-tab out and read the forum.

[Seabody]

I...

Alt-tab out and read the forum.

...or check my Dynasty spreadsheet, which is a good thing since I very nearly thought my Dynasty was over when I thought one of my Immortals was actually 2 BlackOps short of Immortality (but she wasn't - phew!).

[CSquared2]

I have three books, two five-pound weights, a glass of water and two coffee mugs.  Between them, I manage.

Oh, also a stress ball.

[grimsoul]

I keep a puzzle book on my desk to work on while waiting.

[Justwright]

Read from my Kindle

[sunnydays]

I usually abandon my games within a few sim weeks, so they never get so large that they take ages to load. They still take a few minutes, though, so I'll just check my email or browse the internet while I wait. When I first started playing The Sims 3 I was using a cheap laptop, and played the game from the time I got up in the morning to when I went to bed, so I'd just grab breakfast while it loaded.

[Twinmum]

I play SongPop and Draw Something on my ipod, so I usually take the waiting time as a chance to catch up on those games.

[Ausette]

This may be a little off-topic, but I find this tip helpful for managing load times: While I'm happy to distract myself with books and websites, I tend to get too distracted and tab back in to find several in-game hours have passed. My solution is to have a Sim use the "Throw Party" or "Move Out" action before I save and quit. When the game re-opens, the Sim reaches for their phone and the resultant pop-up box pauses the game a few seconds in.

[Schipperke]

This may be a little off-topic, but I find this tip helpful for managing load times: While I'm happy to distract myself with books and websites, I tend to get too distracted and tab back in to find several in-game hours have passed. My solution is to have a Sim use the "Throw Party" or "Move Out" action before I save and quit. When the game re-opens, the Sim reaches for their phone and the resultant pop-up box pauses the game a few seconds in.

That's a good suggestion, Ausette.  I usually make sure my Sims have tasks lined up in their queue when I quit the game, so if I miss the start at least they'll be doing something constructive.  But I really like your idea and am going to start using it - thanks! 

[Roxanne07]

Yes, that is such a great suggestion! I've always been looking for a solution to that problem and now I've got one. Thanks, Ausette! 

[sunnydays]

This may be a little off-topic, but I find this tip helpful for managing load times: While I'm happy to distract myself with books and websites, I tend to get too distracted and tab back in to find several in-game hours have passed. My solution is to have a Sim use the "Throw Party" or "Move Out" action before I save and quit. When the game re-opens, the Sim reaches for their phone and the resultant pop-up box pauses the game a few seconds in.

That's brilliant! I was disappointed when a patch or new EP some time ago stopped The Sims 3 from remaining paused next time you enter the game, but I usually tried to combat it by having my sims asleep in bed before I quit the game. Then if I forget to check back on my game right after loading it up, I've got a few real life minutes in which all they'll be doing is sleeping. But yours is a much better solution.

[pallyndrome]

I used to get out and browse the Internet while sims loaded but I discovered that every time I did that, my game would freeze and crash sometime in the game. So now, once I've pressed the play button, I let it load while reading a book or something like that.

[Gameactive]

Wow, I completely forgot about that! Since I have twallan's Saver mod installed, I had set it to where the game always pauses once it's loaded up, even if it didn't trigger the save.

My game tends to freeze if I alt-tab out of it while it's loading/saving, but I still can read this forum from my 3DS. Sometimes reading a thread gives me an idea that I'll use on the Sim I'd be making!

[Fysh]

This thread scares me! I currently only have the base game, but have ordered one expansion, and will probably get all the others when I find them on a good sale. What sort of wait times could I expect if I have most of the expansions?

I timed loading my base game from the initial double-click on the Sims3 icon, through the various loading stages, until I was actually inside the game ready to give orders to my sims. It was approximately 4 minutes.

This is what I said (in my head) while my game was loading: "elephant 1... elephant 2... elephant 3... ... ... elephant 59... elephant 60... elephant 1..." etc