Frozen Games are Awful

[LivvieLove]

Here I am, currently with Sims 3 minimized, waiting on it to finally go back into Live mode. I've already done this once before and I know I'm pretty much left with no other decision but to exit without saving, but part of me wants to stop that because... well... the awful thing is, I just spent an hour (yes one whole hour doesn't seem like much) redecorating an entire house. The house was one that was even meant for this game, it came with the base game. I think its Miramin-something, it's the largest one that has 6 bedrooms. I didn't like anything that was already in there (like most houses in the base Sims game) so I fixed everything up, switching from live mode, to build/buy mode without a problem, but it's like it sensed (SENSED!) that I was done making it look better and as I switched to live mode, it got stuck, and made the mouse make that circle thing, I can't access anything, I can only move the mouse which gives me reason to believe it's "thinking" like when a computer gets the hourglass (or if they changed it in recent models, I'm not that into technological things) when it thinks too.
Anyone else experience this problem? I saw a few other freezing problems but mine is a little different. I have Sims waiting in live mode, and I'm not in the Edit Town mode either.

[Pam]

I'm pretty sure mine has done this more than once.  It's frustrating, but there's nothing else to be done except a hard restart.

[LivvieLove]

I'll try again tomorrow, maybe then I can get what I want accomplished before it freezes... Bye bye hard work. Now time to use task manager to exit my poor Sims game.

[catlover]

I'll try again tomorrow, maybe then I can get what I want accomplished before it freezes... Bye bye hard work. Now time to use task manager to exit my poor Sims game.

I feel your pain... Oh do I ever feel your pain...if it wasn't the computer freezing on my game, then it was the error codes that pop up sometimes when saving. Either way, you sit there in agony, dreading what must be done.....you have no other choice but to just let it go and start over again. Just take a deep breath, click the cursed keyboard keys, or send the mouse to click the option to exit without saving or whatever, because either way you go, it just feels plain evil to be forced into doing the inevitable... and then - just dive back in.
 Now, I save often, sometimes after redecorating or building a new room addition or just "sense" that I have spent enough time working on something and I had better save just to be sure I wasn't "pushing it". Because of my new saving habits, I just successfully completed building a beautiful 3 level log cabin sitting on the lot by the big waterfall. It has a walk around deck on each of the two upper levels, and is fully decorated inside and out. I have spent many hours on this beauty and I learned the hard way, believe me when I say the hard way...because I had to start from scratch several times over during this long and sometimes painful project because I didn't save often. So, now I've learned, and it is worth the extra few minutes to save my progress as I go along. I can sit back and let out a big sigh of relief now because it is finally finished!
My computer and I are now at peace with one another again, now that we have come to a new meeting of our minds...lol...yes, I freely admit that I am slightly looney at this point, but overall, it was so worth it in the end.

[Saltypaws]

I feel your pain too.  I did a dumb thing too, only mine was playing for 10 hours, no saving, how stupid could I have been, just into the game and it was a marothon day, I guess.  The game froze, I waited and waited and then poof, it was gone.  I really learned my lesson that time, now I save alot.

[LivvieLove]

See the thing was I couldn't get into Live mode to save... I guess you meant I should have saved it before I was done while switching, I've only had this happen to me once or twice before. I had it happen terribly on the Sims 2 once. Those who know me well know that I don't build houses that are very beautiful unless I take FOREVER to build one. I had built one that was absolutely amazing, and I was so proud, but it closed itself out right before I saved... I had lost it all... I vowed then to never ever spend so much time on a house except for occasions when I feel it's necessary. So often times my Sims live in boxed houses with boring windows and one door and a roof. However this time I was moving them into a house and the house was just so awful and gross looking, (the main room looked so cold and unwelcoming, everything looked almost spooky!--I had to do something about it!) So I attempted to do something the first time, just by fixing up the wall colors and the flooring, then I couldn't get into live mode the first time and had to exit before I was done, but it didn't bother me so much, I tried again, however this time I switched back and forth between live mode and build/buy mode to go through each of my Sims so I could customize their rooms to suit their favorite colors, I made it all the way up the 4 story thing and eventually finished and was so relieved! I clicked live mode... but it froze. This was my point of near breaking down and falling to my knees while screaming "noooo" however I was already sitting down, so I decided I would just take a deep breath and move on.

[Pam]

You were doing well to switch back and forth between build/buy and live modes to save in pieces as you worked.  It was just bad luck that your final piece froze.  I don't build houses from scratch very often because I'm not creative that way, but I do remodel existing houses.  I've learned to switch to live mode and save often.  Sadly, that's just not always enough. 

[Saltypaws]

I am like you Pam, I do not build from scratch too often, just don't have the imagination or creativity I guess.  My sister loves to build and has built some gorgeous houses.  It is a good idea to save frequently, but sometimes we just get caught up in the building or playing.  Not quite sure why it does that, but Metro did say that tuning things down a bit in graphics and turning off the game if you have played for a while and restarting again.  After I did that, I found it does not freeze or shut down.  I still save though.

[Pam]

The game is definately tempermental, to say the least!  Sometimes I even have to shut everything down and restart my computer to help with the freezing and such.  It's worth it, though, because the game is just so awesome and wonderful! 

[Saltypaws]

You are right about that Pam, I am so addicted.. lol

[catlover]

The game is definately tempermental, to say the least!  Sometimes I even have to shut everything down and restart my computer to help with the freezing and such.  It's worth it, though, because the game is just so awesome and wonderful! 

That is a very good word for this game, tempermental. And I agree, in the end, it is still an awesome game and I am definitely addicted. I love to build from the ground up and I am having a great time going to each of the town's homes and redecorating, remodeling or buying special things to spruce up their homes for them. One of the things I have learned during my limited experience is to not get discouraged, just go with the flow despite the glitches and bugs, and just have fun with the things you can do in the game.

[Saltypaws]

I know in the sims2 there were so many problems freezing and crashing.  I cannot count how many times I had to start over.  I know I got three computers in that time frame too, you try to be patient, but at that time I was not very good at it.  At least I know there are so many people that love this game too.  Speaking of freezing, I do have this one game that keeps freezing on me, it stops for a couple of seconds and it continues and it does this over and over.  It the biggest lot in Riverview and it is a very large house.  Not sure if that is the reason or not.  It is very annoying trying to play this lot.  No trouble any other house.

[Pam]

Saltypaws,

I have found that large houses on large lots tend to freeze like that.  And sometimes the furniture doesn't render properly and looks solid gray for a moment.  I think it's because the file is just so large and there are so many items that the game has to sort through.  I especially have this problem if I play an elaborate house from the Exchange.  I try to scale it down a little and seldom play on the largest lots unless it's a legacy.  I don't think there's really anything to fix the problem.

[Saltypaws]

You're right about that.  I don't play this house very often, I should have figured that anyway.

[catlover]

I have found that since I changed all of my settings in options to low, that made the game work better and faster. I live in the biggest house in Sunset Valley and freezing and pausing was getting very bad. I still have the rendering options enabled, I just set the other options to low where there is a slider scale. My objects and Sims still look good and I really don't see a big loss, just the game runs better for me. I have discovered that I need a better video card thanks to the thread about overheating on the forum. I checked my "fps" like suggested, and my computer was in the single digit range. My Son was helping me and he said, Wow Mom, that is like really bad. So, you might want to check your computer too to see if the video card is part of the problem.