Overwatch mod

[Gingerkid]

Launcher came up.

Ran the start up 'The Sims 3 Seasons' screen

Then the screen, that you select which game you want to play, is that the menu screen?

No pop up still.

[SimAd]

OK, but still no intro video? If indeed not, that means that your Mods/Packages folders etc are all OK.

What is the file you placed in the Packages folder exactly (for the OverWatch mod)?

[Gingerkid]

No, no intro video

The files in the Packages folder are
NoBuildSparkles.package
nointro.package
NRaas_Overwatch_V92.zip

[SimAd]

Ah, OK. The OverWatch mod is still in its .zip package. If you double-click it, you'll see the .package inside the .zip file, that .package is the one that needs to go in the Packages folder (with the rest of them).

Think of a .zip file as a sort of wrapper or box, it can contain something, in this case the Overwatch mod, but while it is still wrapped it won't work. So you'll have to take it out of the wrapping.

[Gingerkid]

Ok so if I double click to open it then copy it & paste it into the packages folder? Is that enough?

[Gingerkid]

I copied it and put it in that folder & restarted the game and the mod pop up came up. Hooray!

Now I'm waiting for game to load (takes ages) & I'll check to see if the missing sims have turned up.

Let you know in a min (or several as it takes an age to load)

[Gingerkid]

No missing sims still missing. Have I got to do something else to get them back in the game?

I hope I haven't wasted your time after all this.

[SimAd]

Well, at least you've learned how to install mods. :-)

What you can do is this, go in game to a computer (or to the town hall), click on it, and find the NRaas interaction. In there OverWatch. Choose Immediate, then in the list look for "Recover missing Sims". Highlight that line by ticking it, then tick the V button for "ok". Let the game run for a few Sim minutes.

Note that OverWatch is a powerful mod, however it is not magic. It can indeed recover missing Sims if there still is something left to recover, but if all traces of the Sim are gone, there is nothing OverWatch can do.

[Gingerkid]

I've done that but no missing sims do far. Will they just reappear if they're going to?

[SimAd]

Yup, they should. In fact, they should recover at their mailbox. Were those actives or inactive Sims?

[Gingerkid]

They're babies mostly. I dip in & out of houses & play lots of families & jobs etc
They had babies while I was in another household & when I went back to then the babies weren't there. They show in family trees but not in the houses.

Would that mean they were inactive?

Do you think (as a sim guru) lol that I can find these babies?

[SimAd]

Hm, that's hard to answer because I've never "lost" babies in my town but I'm using a list of mods as long as both of my arms. :-)

I DO know that inactive babies are a "special creed". Inactives will NOT call a babysitter for example when they go out, instead the game simply hibernates them (takes them out of the game and makes their needs static). Also, their needs are met on a statistical base. Using some mods you can "open" an inactive household and peek in on them, and it's hilarious to see they've dumped their babies somewhere on the porch or in the garage (really!!) but as the camera gets put on them and so they are brought in what is called "High Simulation", they suddenly scramble to feed/pamper their babies and decently put them in a crib.

However, without mods you only see part of that when you make that household active again. Since I assume you do know the name of the "missing" Sims, what happens if you try the "resetsim" cheat on them (after you've made that household active)? (just to be sure, I mean the cheat you do by pressing ctrl-shift-C, then in the command box type "resetsim firstname lastname" (without the quotes)? An active Sim should then re-appear at their mailbox or at least pop onto the portrait panel if you do the OverWatch "recover missing sims" bit.

[Gingerkid]

I haven't tried the resetsim cheat for them actually. It didn't occur to me as they weren't showing on the side panel. But I'll try that along with recover again maybe they'll appear. Fingers crossed.

I'll try that later then. Thanks

[Gingerkid]

I've tried the resetsim & the recover missing sims but it hasn't worked

[SimAd]

That might imply the Sims are really really gone.

You might want to try play your game for a few Sim days, with the Overwatch mod installed. It does work on its own, for example it will check for Sims that are stuck and automatically reset them, also at 3am it runs a "clean-up" routine, you might get a notice that a number of cars have been deleted. Those are extraneous cars inactive Sims have used for routing, and are not properly cleaned by the game itself.

During that check it will also try a recovery of missing Sims, and it will attempt to evaluate family trees and correct them where need be.

So it might be worth a try, while apparently you'll not recover the Sims that are missing now, it may prevent new mishaps. Whether your game really improves is something you only can judge after some time.