Saving A Family Tree

[joparson]

Ok I have a problem, I've played the entire sims, series ever since I was young when the original was released. But there is a problem I have with Sims 3. I've been playing this family which I'm trying to get the first character to stay alive for as many generations as possible, and the firstborn of every generation must live in the main house and bring on the next generation. Anyway, I play with story progression mode on, and I find a bug eventually if I play my game so long, it starts selecting more then one sim at once, random sims seem stuck on the road-edge of my lot everywhere, and every sim starts getting stuck when entering buildings. I found a fix for this on another site, save your family with house. Then start a new game and import your house into the same spot, simple! So it takes a long time before you have to do this but now this is my third time having to do it (it lasted a long time seemingly this last time) and now I have encountered my problem. My new family tree is only the sims in the active household, and you can only fit 8 sims in there! my family tree is a lot bigger than that. I currently have 3 houses around Twinbrook, my main family, extended family, and now this new house I had to buy because there was no room for more kids in the other one! I tried importing all 3 houses to the new game but that doesn't work. The sad thing is once the link breaks from my 1st to 2nd gen, because all the 2nd gens die, then if I have to start a new game the 1st gen will no longer be related to the rest of the family. Does anyone know how to help me on this? I haven't seen any mods on this site I don't think...but is there a mod for fixing family trees or something? Any help is greatly appreciated you all. I'm not really much of a forum person but have been coming to this site for a while now. Thanks in advance!

[Schipperke]

Welcome to the forum.

First, you need to be aware that discussion of mods is strictly prohibited in this forum.  They can do a lot of damage to the game.  The forum rules which you agreed to when you joined clearly state there is to be no discussion of mods.

Second, broken family trees are a common game glitch.  I've had it in my games from time to time.  I'm not sure if there is a fix for it, but if there is perhaps someone else will have a suggestion for you.

[joparson]

Ok, no more mod talk!

[Pam]

Welcome to the Forum, James Blake.

I read through your first post and had to do quite a bit of editing on it for incorrect punctuation.  Please read our Forum Rules so that you are able to post properly and get the most help.  I did the best I could on your post, but it's still a little confusing.  Now that you know we don't allow talk about mods, would you explain your problem again?  The part that's confusing to me is the different houses you're placing in a new town that contain your family.  Any time you move a family from one town to another, you lose all family and friend relationships except for the Sims living in the house you move. 

[RubyLovesSims]

Any time you move a family from one town to another, you lose all family and friend relationships except for the Sims living in the house you move. 

But the family tree is kept, right?

[Seabody]

Nope. In Katie's World (my story), Katie, Amelia and Leila all lost their sisterhood and parents when they were saved to the Edit Town Screen.

[RubyLovesSims]

Nope. In Katie's World (my story), Katie, Amelia and Leila all lost their sisterhood and parents when they were saved to the Edit Town Screen.

Really? For some reason I thought family trees were saved. I don't know why.

[Pam]

Really? For some reason I thought family trees were saved. I don't know why.

It would be nice, but no.  Once a family is put into the bin and dropped into another town, the family tree outside that household is severed.  Remember, you are putting that family into a brand new town, new save file, starting back again at week one.  The Sims outside your household no longer exist.

[TheChronicR]

Yes, what Pam says is right. And that works for not only your Sims, but Sims out of your control aka townies. In the Pieces Dynasty, Reeses had twin daughters with Malcolm Landgraab, but after Malcolm and his family moved out of the town (by the force of Story Progression), they now show up like adopted children - only one parent.
You can do without the family tree, really. But indeed, it would be rather weird to see your daughter flirt with your husband.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

Do sims still show up on the family tree even after they die?

it would be rather weird to see your daughter flirt with your husband.

Yes! It definitely would be! How strange.. I never knew that could happen..

[TheChronicR]

Do sims still show up on the family tree even after they die?

Yes! It definitely would be! How strange.. I never knew that could happen..

Yes, Sims still show in the family tree after they die. But, their picture is grayed out, meaning that they aren't alive.

It can happen, but only if the "supposed" husband doesn't have any relation to the "supposed" daughter. I mean, you had a Sim family in a previous save, then you save mother and daughter to the bin, without the father. After some time you decide to also include the father. You go back to the previous save, copy the father, paste him in the new save, in the house with the mother and daughter. The "father" wouldn't have any relation to the daughter (or mother) anymore, thus allowing any social interactions, including romantic ones.

[Hosfac]

If you retain custody of the family's remains, wouldn't that keep at least part of the family tree intact?  Obviously, this is not a fix for live sims living outside the household, but I would think that it could help retain at least part of the family history.

[joparson]

Welcome to the Forum, James Blake.

I read through your first post and had to do quite a bit of editing on it for incorrect punctuation.  Please read our Forum Rules so that you are able to post properly and get the most help.  I did the best I could on your post, but it's still a little confusing.  Now that you know we don't allow talk about mods, would you explain your problem again?  The part that's confusing to me is the different houses you're placing in a new town that contain your family.  Any time you move a family from one town to another, you lose all family and friend relationships except for the Sims living in the house you move.  

Sorry Pam, I'll try to spend a little more time on editing my message before I post next time. Also great job on the site, been using it for ages. It's where I learned the top two highest valued nectar combinations. Which still, 180 something combinations later, are the two highest valued combinations my sim has ever made! (9 Life fruit, 1 Pomegranate;7 Life fruit, 2 Flame fruit, 1 Watermelon)

As for your confusion, yes, I tried to move all the different houses that contain members of my family to the new town (actually the same town, same lot, just a new game), to see if they would remain intact...but they do not. You are completely right, you lose all family tree relations besides those in your active household.

So I guess my question then would be, how does anyone play families for so many generations without eventually having to start a new game to get rid off all the bugs and choppy gameplay experienced after a few generations of playing in a new game. (I play on the 2nd slowest game speed, if thats any difference to you.) So you can understand my concern I started this family around last December and am about to bring in my fifth generation, but the last of my 2nd generation is about to die, so the next time I start a new game my family tree will be completely irrelevant....my 1st gen wont know the 3rd gen is his grandson! I think I may just start a paint file and just print screen my family tree every now and again and paste the pictures into a paint file to create my own family tree...although it wont be in game, ill still have it for my own recolections...

TheCronicR, i know you can do without a family tree..its not a very large aspect of the game....but its so much better with it! The family tree in game could be so much better with so many of these problems fixed...you must admit it would suck if you were playing a game since December but know eventually you will have to start a new game, to avioid bugs and crashes, in which your 1st and 3rd gens no longer think they are related, another problem is that once the family tree is broken the later gens will no longer inherit traits such as eye color, hair color, from older gens, now broken links in the family tree...


As for your question Hosfac, even if the family members remains are in your family inventory that person will no longer be in your family tree once you start a new game....sadly.

[TheChronicR]

TheCronicR, i know you can do without a family tree..its not a very large aspect of the game....but its so much better with it! The family tree in game could be so much better with so many of these problems fixed...you must admit it would suck if you were playing a game since December but know eventually you will have to start a new game, to avioid bugs and crashes, in which your 1st and 3rd gens no longer think they are related, another problem is that once the family tree is broken the later gens will no longer inherit traits such as eye color, hair color, from older gens, now broken links in the family tree...

Hm. Yes, in your game, the Family Tree does play a huge factor, I see. And since December... Wow!

[Pam]

@James Blake:

I'd say just keep playing as long as you can with your current file.  Look through our Technical Help board for tips to clean up your game and your computer to help it run better.  I was able to get to 13 generations in one family before I called it quits.  On a different family, I got to 9 generations.  I could still play that family if I wanted, but I went on to other things.  Sooner or later, there will eventually come a day when you'll have to say good-bye to your Sims family.  But until that day comes, just play them the best you can.