Game Crash Grah

[MegTrog]

I know, I know.... I should save often.  But I always forget... so when my game crashed while my family were on holiday in Egypt, I wasn't sure when I had last saved.  It turned out that I had lost about 24 Sim hours.  Unfortunately, those hours contained a promotion, two birthdays (and consequent makeover), a house refurnish and exploring an entire tomb (I was just about to return that missing briefing!).

So I replayed, and was relieved to find that I still got the promotion.  I went through the whole process of redoing my teen sim again, so that her look suited her personality.  It was a legacy, so I wasn't sure if I should re-roll her latest trait or just choose computer whiz, the one she got last time.  I chose to randomise again, and I got commitment issues.  Sigh.  Anyway, all that done, I hurriedly booked a vacation, and sat back in relief.... as the family went to China.  I had forgotten to change the destination.

I know you're not supposed to do it for a legacy, but I figured this was a special case, so I quit without saving.  The worst part?  I hadn't saved once while replaying the lost day.  In despair, I gave up on playing and re-organised my real life house instead.   

I did do the whole thing again later, this time saving regularly.  My game crashed again in Egypt, shortly after I got there, which is a bit off-putting.  I am definitely going to be more paranoid about saving from now on.

[Metropolis Man]

I religiously save every day. I rarely have crashes (knocks on wood), but you just never know when they'll occur. When I put a Sim to bed, that's the cue I have to save.

[Arafel]

I've been getting more and more paranoid about saving often. My game doesn't crash too often but it has in the past and usually when I've been playing for 3 hours straight without a single save since I opened up the sims -thus, I lost a lot of information.

One time in particular, I made a new "Heartbreaker" sim. She was cute and sweet -totally didn't look like she would play with your heartstrings  . I designed her clothes to fit this black and white theme I was going with. I created her house from scratch complete with a pond in the front yard and driveway and garden, and then took the time to decorate the entire house. She even got far enough to be involved with 2 sims and then WHAMMO!!! 
The desktop pops up and my sims game is gone.  I never bothered to remake her.

I'm gonna try to start saving when they sleep too. I usually do it after something big happens (babies, promotion, achievements or anything that's really annoying to do that I DON"T want to do again). But I think saving after every day would be the safest thing to do.

[jmz95]

Wow, that must have sucked. In your case, I would have just picked the Computer Whiz trait again, since the first time you played that day, that's what she rolled and you could do nothing about the game crashing. Yeah, ever since reading about so many people's games crashing, I too have started saving maybe twice every hour, or after something happens that is completely random (like a work opportunity resulting in an immediate promotion). Sorry for your losses though   

[MegTrog]

Wow, that must have sucked. In your case, I would have just picked the Computer Whiz trait again, since the first time you played that day, that's what she rolled and you could do nothing about the game crashing.

I have to confess that one of the reasons I randomised again was because I wasn't too interested in the computer whiz trait.  I realise that it's one of the more positive traits, but she was artistic and absent-minded, with the lifetime wish of a world gallery, and I just didn't feel that technical things were in line with her personality.  Commitment Issues might have been interesting to play out for a Legacy, but I randomised again and ended up with disciplined.  How can a Sim be both absent-minded and disciplined??  Maybe I'll have her Dad give her some Martial Arts training to help with her tomb exploration.

At any rate, she's stuck with that now that I've finally remembered to save!

[Pam]

I have to confess that one of the reasons I randomised again was because I wasn't too interested in the computer whiz trait.  I realise that it's one of the more positive traits, but she was artistic and absent-minded, with the lifetime wish of a world gallery, and I just didn't feel that technical things were in line with her personality.  Commitment Issues might have been interesting to play out for a Legacy, but I randomised again and ended up with disciplined. 

Uh oh!!  Not supposed to randomize twice in a row for sure!  In a Legacy challenge, you have to take the first trait that comes up. 

[MegTrog]

Yes, but this was after a crash, when she had to grow up all over again.  I wasn't sure whether I was just supposed to randomise again, or (since I had the option to choose) to pick Computer Whiz again.  I opted for randomising.  And then since I'd randomised the second time she grew up, I randomised the third time she grew up as well.  Basically, I figured I could at least be consistent.   

Since I always accepted the first trait that came up, I think it's arguable that I'm sticking to Legacy rules, but I decided at the outset that I wouldn't stress too much about sticking exactly to the rules, and I'm not trying for points either.

Anyway, my game has crashed for a third time in Egypt, so I've come to the conclusion that it doesn't like Egypt.  I'm saving quite frequently now, but the last time I saved, I got an error message, so I'm not sure if it worked.  Sigh.  I tend not to play for more than an hour at a time anyway, which was one of the reasons I hadn't got into the habit of saving mid-game (I just hit 'save and quit' usually).  Having glitches like this is going to make it very frustrating to complete this vacation.

[RockinRobin]

Before you play next, try to go ahead and delete your cache files first and then when you save, do a save as and name it something a little different and see if that helps.

[MegTrog]

I tried saving the game under a different name, and it played for a couple of hours last night with no crashes at all.  Thanks!  I don't know how to clear my cache files though.

[jmz95]

I tried saving the game under a different name, and it played for a couple of hours last night with no crashes at all.  Thanks!  I don't know how to clear my cache files though.

Here's how:
Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 and there will be several cache files and folders in the Sims 3 folder. I'm not sure which one you need to delete, but someone else probably does.

[RockinRobin]

The cache files you need to delete are:

CASPartcache
compositorCache
scriptCache
simCompositorCache

Located:  My Documents--> Electronic Arts--> The Sims 3

Sometimes, for whatever reason, the game files get corrupted and it causes the game to crash more frequently. If you make it a habit to clean out the cache files after that happens, it forces the game to create fresh cache files when the game loads. I usually delete mine after about every third time I play just to keep them cleaned out and I haven't had any crash issues in awhile. <knock on wood>

[Pam]

Note that for Vista and Windows 7, it's the Documents file, not My Documents.

[MegTrog]

Thanks all!  Hopefully things will run a little more smoothly in future!