Family tree, ghosts and glitches oh my!

[BlindingEchoes]

Hi all, i am very new here, first post actually, and i am desperate for help. I've tried the official forums and have gotten no where, so i was hoping i could find some help here. I have a couple problems with my game, two of which are driving me to the point of insanity. First of all, for the last two days i've had this issue with the family trees. The characters that are normally related are now marked as without having families or even more annoying, are still on the family tree but now just marked as 'old friends' opposed to daughters/sons/etc. It's lead to some odd issues, such as family members dating one another. I swear i am not kidding, i have a uncle and nephew now dating and a father who got a wish to have first kiss with his eldest daughter. It's driving me mad! I need to know why this is happening and how to stop it, because i know for a fact that these characters are related, some of them are 3rd generation for crying out loud.

Another issue i'm having is recently my town have suffered a rather random wave of deaths, which i don't mind. Not all of my characters can live forever, obviously. But what is bothering me is that there are absolutely no ghosts, anywhere! I've moved the urns/gravestones to the lots of the houses where they died/lived and not one ghost yet. I've been trying to get the Oh My Ghost opportunity, but haven't been able to get it so far. I was wondering if there was anyway to get the ghosts to show up? Is there a reason i can't find them? I want to make my widower happy again by having his wife as a playable ghost, if only the ghosts would show up. The town i've basically taken over is Bridgeport, and i know there are a lot of glitches with that town. Like a few bars being unaccessible and a couple roads overlapping one another, and i can live with those. But the family tree issue and the complete lack of any and all ghosts is really bothering me, please, for my own sanity, let me know if there's something i can do to fix these. Thanks!

[pallyndrome]

First of all, welcome to the forum.

Your first problem seems to be similar to what is known as the 'family tree glitch'. I don't think we've found a cure for it yet unfortunately. See this thread: http://www.carls-sims-3-forum.com/index.php/topic,1039.0.html

As for your second problem, one of your active sims needs to have a tombstone/urn in their inventory for the Oh My Ghost opportunity to appear. And even then, I don't think it always does. Try dragging tombstone/urn into your sims inventory, or if you're at the graveyard I think you can 'manage' ghosts? Or maybe you have to befriend the ghost at night before you can take their tombstone home. I'm not sure about this. But you don't need to wait for the ghosts to appear on other lots, and I think they take a few days to appear anyway. I'm not completely sure on this, hopefully someone will correct my errors here.

Also, one little thing, most of your grammar is great (as per forum rules), but don't forget to make your I's capitals, k?

[Naga]

The best thing you can do about family trees is move your household to a new neighborhood (or even Bridgeport, but it has to be a new, fresh Bridgeport). It seems most likely that this particular problem was caused by a mod.

As for the Oh My Ghost opportunity, you do not really need a tombstone or urn in your inventory for it to appear; It is completely random, and can appear any time, as long as your Special Opportunity slot is free.

[pallyndrome]

Yeah, Naga is right, I had it appear the other day completely randomly (with no urn/tombstone) so sorry about that. But I do think the chance increases if someone in your household (or a close family member?) dies. And even once you get the opportunity, you need a tombstone/urn to complete it.

[Pam]

Ghosts only come out between Midnight and 6:00 a.m.  It would be hard to catch them if you're not on the lot all the time.  You could move them to your own lot to have a better chance of seeing a ghost.  They generally come out every 2 or 3 nights, in my experience.  Also, ghosts are not directly tied to the Oh My Ghost opportunity.

[BlindingEchoes]

Thanks for the help guys ^^ I wouldn't be surprised if the ghost issue is more me being impatient than anything else, although considering i've never seen one in the town outside of the Ghost Hunter profession, i still wonder.

As for the the family tree glitch being caused by a mod, it couldn't be, because i've never used a mod on the game. I've considered it for my own reasons, but never gone through with it. This was just a random thing that started, and normally it wouldn't bug me but when father's start macking on their daughters, then I get a little annoyed.

Also, thanks for the heads up about the I's being in capital, I have horrible grammar and such due to some brain issues, so I sometimes need a reminder ^^

[pallyndrome]

I agree I don't think it's caused by a mod, I have a similar problem myself (I have no mods). Though father's hitting on daughters is a bit extreme. Maybe you could try contacting EA?

And do the ghosts come out at night at the local graveyard? Because there should usually be a few there every night. If there aren't, that really is wierd.

And no worries about the Is, I had to get used to it myself and still make that mistake sometimes.

[Lilygirl]

I've recently had my Dynasty family tree "rearranged" by a trip to France. In the extended family not living in the household, I have a son married to his mother. The only reason I didn't have one of my Sims break up that nasty relationship when it started is because the mother was already an elder so no threat of children; the nastiness stops there.

[Naga]

Oh, yes, I forgot to mention that; Traveling to World Adventure's locations can [and most likely will] mess up your household and family tree, not to mention having random children with the natives. I still think that moving to a fresh new neighborhood can fix both your ghost and your family tree problems.

[Juxtaposition]

I think your Bridgeport may have extra bugs in it, I play only in Bridgeport and I can get in every bar, and I don't think I've ever seen any streets overlapping.  I would export and put them in a fresh Bridgeport, I predict your issues may only get worse.  Also, in all my time playing in Bridgeport, I have only ever seen one ghost pop out of the graveyard, and none on any lot other than my own.  I'm not sure you can get random ghosts just running around like that, but I could be wrong, it's been known to happen 

Good luck and good Simming.

[AriaGirl77]

Family Tree bug strikes again!  I hate that one.

It has nothing to do with mods, but everything to do with travel.  Even if nothing seems wrong when you get back from a trip you can discover days/weeks later that you've been hit by it.

The only way to fix it is to move your family to a different town, or just scrap the whole game file and start over.  I'd honestly recommend starting over, you'll just end up with more bugs and trouble the longer you keep playing that file.

[Naga]

And at some point, you'll figure "I wish I had started over instead of sticking to this file... Now it's too much to remake". Personal experience.