Game crashes and how do YOU deal with them?

[Widonja]

Recently, I started playing the Sims 3 again (was absent for a long time) - mostly because I heard that University and Seasons are really good. So, as usual, I spend a very long time working on my sims and an even longer one working on my house. (I was thinking of this as a new story for the forum too!)

So, I spend a good 8 hours on setting up my game and just start going to University with my sims. It was very late (2-3 am) at that time so I was very eager to go to sleep. I clicked on 'save' (for the very first time at that time so no backup for me  ), and accidentaly manually turned on my computer. So there I was, lost 8 hours of my life. That inspired me to make this topic!

How do you deal with game crashes? I think that it takes a lot of enthusiasm away from the game. It's a thing that usually drives me away from The Sims when it's time for my 'annual break'. It's even harder when you're in a story progress (like a Dynasty...) and this happens... I had 4 wonderful sims, an amazing house, but now it's all gone I really can't get excited about playing the game at the moment... hope I do, though.

So, share your game-crash stories and how do you deal with crashes? Do you start the same story/game again (or, if you already have a save, start from the last save again?) Does it make you want to start an entirely new story (in the spirit "Well, I'm not trying all that again...")? Do you have a philosophy to get you motivated again?

[Chuckles_82]

I'm the start-over queen, but crashes don't often take too much of my playtime a) because I save regularly, and b) I almost never have crashes. That said, my game crashed the other day when I had made some decent progress with my dynasty. It was very disheartening, so I left if for a few days, and switched to doing some builds instead, then working on my world in CAW. I'm not playing the challenges at the moment, because my perfectionism is killing the game a bit for me right now, but if I were, I might have switched to that instead also. I picked up my dynasty again tonight, and it wasn't so bad as I thought. I think I lost 2 sim days playtime, and I was concerned that my sim's wish to grow perfect life plant would not turn up again, but sure enough, it did. I think it's linked to the career.

[Widonja]

This is a thing that I sure wish they fix in the Sims 4. Not many games still need manual saving. Sims with Autosave? That would be something!

[saltpastillen]

I save all the time. That's the best recipe for minimizing crash anxiety. Also, if I'm building a house, I save the lot using edit town before saving the game, that way I can just place it again if the game crashes during saving.

[Vinyl]

If it's not an official challenge file, I use Nraas' saver mod.  It prompts you to save every x minutes (you choose how often), and also prompts for rotating save as by adding the numbers 1-4 in sequence to the end of your file name.  After learning the hard way to always Save As and never simply Save I've had much fewer corrupt games.

If it's an official file, I try to use a timer to remind me to save frequently.  It's a lot easier to recover a lost half hour of play than a lost day of play.  I've had the loss of hours of play before, and it is quite disheartening.  If the household wasn't terribly interesting to begin with and I lose hours generally I won't pick them up again.

[Eldridge]

This is a nice thread.

I usually save more often with "Save As", especially when after I do some makeover for Sims/Building things.
So, when crashing occur I don't have to worry anymore. And I choose not playing for a long time, well because I don't have a good computer.

[Esther1981]

I save alot, using the save as method plus I name the save rotating numbers 1-10. Than when I hit save as and see it's at 10, I subtract the -0 and start over. It prompts me the name is already there but I give it the go-ahead.

The other day it crashed on me, but thankfully I had saved when he was in bed so I only lost about 1 day, maybe day and a half. I skipped a day of playing than started playing him again.

[azokka361]

Start a new game and play until I get bored, then lock them all in little cubicles until they die of starvation.

One thing that I find very soothing after a bad crash is starting a game with an evil witch. I use her to trap and lock up a bunch of helpless townies, then torture them constantly with curses and zombification. It's quite calming.

[Shadowkeepernoir]

I create my people or person, place them, save as "city xxx #", build part of house, save, finish house, save, get job, save ... I save or save as frequently, and anytime I have a milestone I save. I have had some horrible crashes, couple required re-earning the lifetime wish (it always takes longer the second time), some crashes corrupted my game file (at the time I was only keeping one file, instead of "saving as" and essentially making back ups). The last patch killed my kids games and mine, they were all completely non-playable afterwards ... guess it comes down to live and learn.

[Chuckles_82]

I'm more likely to have a fuse go and lose everything that's open and unsaved. As what just happened. I think there's either something wrong with my kettle, or something wrong with that power socket, because it's always the kettle that blows it. I just got the kids to bed, and asleep, and was making a cuppa to sit down and play my sims Back to my last save.

[Gameactive]

I was searching for the “Things that annoy you…” thread, but I’ll post something here and read that later.

I cannot tell you how many times twallan’s Saver mod has literally saved me from so many losses! Yes, my game crashes, and yes, it does so frequently. I often would forget to save my game at all until I quit, but if the game crashes before I quit, all my hard work is lost! Fortunately, the Saver mod reminds me to save my game at 12AM, 8AM, and 4PM Sim time (those values can be customized), so I don’t usually lose too much data anymore. I just wait about thirty minutes and re-do anything I hadn’t saved.

Although, there was an incident earlier today: I had a collector find a huge quantity of rare gems, but the game crashed before I could save again. Unfortunately, the gems had spawned after the previous save, and they weren’t there when I loaded the game back up! Argh, so frustrating!

[Seabody]

I save regularly, and before and after important events. Such as Graduation, I saved at 1 AM on Saturday Morning, and as soon as De Arbol returned home. I tend to save every other Sim day, and back up all my saves to my desktop. I usually overwrite previous saves, but hugely important events get their own save file, and I do the same every other week.

[bubbles]

I, quite simply, aim to save at least every 6 in-game hours and after any major household events (Birthdays, weddings, new baby, etc.). I also save after doing a major part of a build. However, it is always the time when I forget to save regularly that the game decides to crash. Quite often, when the game does crash, I just do that part again and try not to make mistakes. However, once I had a sim give birth to twins three times before I could save before the game crashed! That was frustrating!

[thelittlepakeha]

I put Overwatch in so that I get crashes a little less often and I make sure to save at least once every game day. If it does crash, if it hasn't been long I often just reload the game and keep going, but if I feel like I've done lots since the last save and I'm frustrated I'll go and do something else for a while so that I'm not going straight back into the game and seeing exactly how much behind I am and getting angry. Every so often I do save as, just alternating between two files, especially before something big like going on a trip or to uni or moving house.

[tatygirl90]

I used to have a few crashes with my old computer. Usually I'd curse loudly and then start over. But now I've obsessively started saving and it helps that I upgraded my computer and it can handle the game better than the one I had up until about a month ago.