Sims 3 freezing, not saving and stops working

[lahaygood]

progress report... i got the family moved into houseboat last night temporarily and was able to save twice.  when I attempted to save the last time, I got error 12 again.  I did save with "save as".  cleaned out the cache files and dcbackup folder.  moved current game to desktop and shut down for the night.  I'm going in this morning to see how things are working. 

I figure this is progress.

will update again later!
you guys are the best!
LA

[KhaineGB]

Houseboats are known to cause issues because of the massive amounts of pathing problems they cause.

[lahaygood]

lol.. this family is becoming vagabonds!  they are moving to a land house today!
thanks, Khaine!
LA

[KhaineGB]

If you continue to have problems, I would suggest moving them out of Isla Paradiso.

Whenever I play Kahlee, that place sometimes lags REALLY badly!

[MrsFlynn]

Hi LA,

Yep, that is progress!! And it sounds like the game, all though being played in IP is going okay for now?

Like Khaine mentioned, if IP starts to lag or get glitchy, move the family to a different town. IP is known to be a glitchy, laggy world.

I've tried it twice, and had lag and other annoyances that I packaged up my family and moved them to a different town.

MrsFlynn

[lahaygood]

i moved them into twinbrook and was able to save a couple times using "save as" after the first time; however, I just had to do the cache cleanout and save the current game again. crossing my fingers that it comes back this time correctly. 
will update again... progress is progressing.

[MrsFlynn]

It should come back okay. Sounds like your game is running better and saving better, which we're happy to hear about!!   Hopefully it continues to run better.

MrsFlynn

[lahaygood]

well, it seems I have messed up yet again.  I saved the new game as hocuspocus2.sims3, then played a few minutes more and "save as", error 12 message popped up and now hocuspocus2.sims3.bad is there with no backup or original game either. 

I've started this new game over twice now and i'm still having this problem in Twinbrook.  should I "save as" with a different name each time I save?  how often should I need to save? 

thanks bunches again!
LA

*Edit* Addendum:  I've tried to insert the current game folder into the saves folder by renaming it xxxx.sims3 but it won't load in to play properly.  what am I doing wrong?

*Edit* Addendum:  another quick question... since I use the origin launcher to get to my sims3 launcher (downloaded games), should I "play" the sims 3 base game or should I "play" the latest game I own?

thanks bunches!
LA

[MrsFlynn]

Hmm.. Okay, I had an idea just pop into my head.

Let's try a new test.  You did say you had saved the household only and their house separately? to a backup folder outside the Electronic Arts folder, Or at least to the Exports folder in your Sims3 folder, right?

If so, let's try a Factory Reset -- Move your Sims 3 folder to the desktop or some where safe, and rename it something like Sims 3 Current. Click the Sims 3 icon to create a new Sims 3 folder. (This is different from a total-game reinstall - This just sets the game back to factory default.)

Go ahead and copy your family and their house from the Exports folder into the downloads folder of your newly created Sims3 folder and install them. Open the game and create a new game to see if this helps. Just to note, you may have to reset your graphics settings. Due to this being a whole new Sims3 folder.

When you go to save. Still try Save As, but give it a different name each time.

MrsFlynn

[MrsFlynn]

It doesn't matter, they both play the last expansion you installed.

MrsFlynn

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*Edit* Addendum:  another quick question... since I use the origin launcher to get to my sims3 launcher (downloaded games), should I "play" the sims 3 base game or should I "play" the latest game I own?

thanks bunches!
LA

[lahaygood]

I moved the family to the library inside the game.  is that the exports folder?  I'm not sure I understand. 
step one:  I move the sims 3 folder to the desktop.  got that.
step two:  clicking the sims 3 icon to go into the game.  is this the play button on the sims3 launcher? 

*edit* another question:  is there supposed to be an exports folder in my sims 3 folder?

Let's try a new test.  You did say you had saved the household only and their house separately? to a backup folder outside the Electronic Arts folder, Or at least to the Exports folder in your Sims3 folder, right?

If so, let's try a Factory Reset -- Move your Sims 3 folder to the desktop or some where safe, and rename it something like Sims 3 Current. Click the Sims 3 icon to create a new Sims 3 folder. (This is different from a total-game reinstall - This just sets the game back to factory default.)

Go ahead and copy your family and their house from the Exports folder into the downloads folder of your newly created Sims3 folder and install them. Open the game and create a new game to see if this helps. Just to note, you may have to reset your graphics settings. Due to this being a whole new Sims3 folder.

When you go to save. Still try Save As, but give it a different name each time.

MrsFlynn

[MrsFlynn]

I'm kind of weird when it comes to saving my games. I like saving at various stages in the game play.

Boyfriend/girlfriend stage
married stage
Baby stage
Baby 1 becomes toddler
Baby 1 becomes child
Baby 1 becomes teen
Baby 1 becomes YA

I do this with all the baby's my family has. I also save every now and again when they go up a skill or two, or rankup in their job.

I also save the game like SV-JacobsFam-01, SV-JacobsFam-02, SV-JacobsFam-03 and so on.

My save file usually goes initials of town I'm playing in, the last name of family I'm playing or their initials and then followed by a number.

I "share" the sim person(s) at each of these "stages" so if I want to go back later or need to go back later I can.

Sorry if that was a little long winded, but thought it might be helpful.

MrsFlynn

[lahaygood]

I like this idea! 
LA

I'm kind of weird when it comes to saving my games. I like saving at various stages in the game play.

Boyfriend/girlfriend stage
married stage
Baby stage
Baby 1 becomes toddler
Baby 1 becomes child
Baby 1 becomes teen
Baby 1 becomes YA

I do this with all the baby's my family has. I also save every now and again when they go up a skill or two, or rankup in their job.

I also save the game like SV-JacobsFam-01, SV-JacobsFam-02, SV-JacobsFam-03 and so on.

My save file usually goes initials of town I'm playing in, the last name of family I'm playing or their initials and then followed by a number.

I "share" the sim person(s) at each of these "stages" so if I want to go back later or need to go back later I can.

Sorry if that was a little long winded, but thought it might be helpful.

MrsFlynn

[MrsFlynn]

No the library inside the game is different than the Exports folder.

What your looking to do is save your family and house from the library. Once saved they go to the Exports folder which can be found by following this path.

--> Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Exports

If memory serves correctly, find your family in the library and click on them to share them. Once you share them then they go to the Exports folder. Do the same with their house - find their house in the library and click on it to share it and it will go to the Exports folder as well.

Yes, click whichever button gets you into the game.

I just click the Sims 3 icon on my desktop to run the game myself.

MrsFlynn
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I moved the family to the library inside the game.  is that the exports folder?  I'm not sure I understand. 
step one:  I move the sims 3 folder to the desktop.  got that.
step two:  clicking the sims 3 icon to go into the game.  is this the play button on the sims3 launcher?

[lahaygood]

wonderful!  will try that next!  thank you, Mrs. Flynn!  You and Khaine are awesome! 
LA