Problem since Showtime

[pallyndrome]

I just installed my showtime expansion and the online content. I went to open the game, and it loaded fine into the family. Then it asked me if I wanted to add the new lots. I said yes. It changed to the edit town layout, then froze. I tried again, same thing. I tried saying no to adding the new lots, then going to edit town the normal way - it froze. This was on my normal town which is Union Cove (with a lot of  changes). I tried on a much simpler file, and it seemed to work fine on that. I am quite sad about all this, because I only just got this file working again (see my latest troubles on my story - click my siggy and go to the latest posts). I have already tried deleting my dcbackup folder.

[Branr]

Well, I can say that it's not the UC would itself.  First thing I did was add the ST venues to the town, and had no problems.  Razed the diner and added the private venue, razed the theater and added the karaoke bar, razed the military base and added the big venue (which is a theater also), added a lot behind the cemetery and placed the coffee bar (which is also a diner) added a 30x30 lot and placed the big park /w stage, and finally added a smaller military base to the 50x50 plot.

[Ricalynn]

I have had a lot of freezing as well.  Sometimes it fixes itself after what seems like forever and sometimes it doesn't.   Do you have any mods installed?

[Carl]

I've had several freezes and just did the Factory Reset to try and battle them. This is the buggiest EP I've encountered. All our experiences are different of course, but with this one I'm having serious trouble publishing content because of them. Also, this:



People have been able to make generalizations about the populations of towns. Uglies in Twinbrook, the well-endowed women of Bridgeport... Starlight Shores hopefully isn't known for this: she's cute but one would do.



Edit: In my case, I installed mods to try to combat the freezes. Unfortunately they don't address whatever's going wrong.

[Ricalynn]

I actually uninstalled my mods so that the freezing would stop and in a couple of instances it has.  I no longer get the 2 am everything freezes except Z's and plumbobs.

[Cas]

I don't have Showtime yet, but do have the 1.31 patch, and I just bought Lunar Lakes a few days ago.  Whenever I try to add a chunk yard to my world, it also freezes, so this could be a 1.31 issue rather than Showtime specific, or perhaps it's just an unlucky coincidence.  After three freezes in a row I stopped trying to add the lot!

[kattiq]

Mine froze on me also while I was in Starlight shores. I am going to try a factory reset and hope it fixes it.
I always get the random freezes when I switch back and forth between speeds.

[StamperCat]

I am having freezes as well and I never had them before. Actually mine started before ST. I installed UC and things got really got bad. I thought I just needed to uninstall and do a clean install of everything. I have all EPs and all Stuff Packs. Things seem to be going OK and I took a chance and installed UC and although not as many freezes, I still had problems. It did run better after I deleted some of the huge mansions and some families. But it was still flaky and I gave up. Uninstalled it and now I have ST installed. I have had freezes from time to time and something that has NEVER happened to me....2 freezes in CAS!! I have also had problems with sims getting stuck in walls and having to reset the sims. Another thing that has NEVER happened to me until ST.

Mac OS 10.7.3
8 GB Memory
2.2 GHz Intel Core 17
AMD Radeon HD 6750M  1024 MB

[Hosfac]

I've been lucky with the freezes.  I get the occasional 30 second pause but it always starts back up.

I've experienced several problems though:

Tattoo Bug:  Showtime not only expanded the game, but it expanded this bug as well.  When you go to the salon to get a tattoo, it changes your default outfit to a secondary outfit and adds a random outfit as your primary.  It also adds a secondary swimsuit outfit that is identical to the one you have.  This will happen every time you get a tattoo, so remember to go to a dresser and remove any excess outfits as I believe this caused a problem where my household got bugged.  She would no longer automatically change into her career outfit to do her performances and would just drop the action from her cue, and the household funds wouldn't show up unless she was in build or buy mode.
Sound Bug:  A lot of the time, there would be no sound while my singer was performing.  This has proven to be an issue caused by an outdated sound card driver, and I can confirm that updating your drivers fixes the problem.  Computer manufacturers are terrible with driver updates for peripherals, so you are often required to manually update your drivers yourself.  However, I would not suggest that you do this yourself unless you're comfortable with doing it.  Otherwise, ask someone who is a little more computer savvy to do it for you.
Performance/Relationship Bug:  Another thing that I have noticed is that if you are performing at a venue (not playing for tips), your relationship with the audience will drop instead of increase.  The better the performance, the bigger the drop.  And if you talk to an audience member, they will often be "insulted."  Performing for tips still works as normal.

[Missa]

Ever since I installed Pets the only world I can play in is appolossa plains. All other worlds have freezes every couple of minutes (where all the animations are going but time is frozen) to the point where the games are unplayable. I have a really good computer with a really good graphics card so I don't know why. The only thing I thought was that maybe the randomly created animals running through we're more difficult for the game to handle in worlds created before Pets. So I've just been playing only appolossa which is kind of a bummer but a workable solution. When I tried to play in starlight coves the freezing was so bad that I stopped after only 2 sims days but I started the same person in appolossa plains and it's fine. Very frustrating! I have some of Twallens mods but mainly because of this problem. I did update them with the new patch and I have the same problem even if I uninstall them

[Saltypaws]

Well, the sound problem is not the sound card, in my case anyway.  I tried updating the driver and it said it could not find a better match.  I have never had the sound problem before, so personally, it is probably just another bug in the game.  I went back into my game and sound was back.  Freezes are not too bad, have had a couple of short ones, but that is about it.  Funny how some people have some bugs and others have different ones.

[pallyndrome]

Ok, I'll try a factory reset. I have no mods or cc, though I am wondering whether one of twallan's mods might actually help, since this seems to be an issue with my big game files (due to my no story progression way of playing). Anyone experiencing the exact same problem as me? - that is, freezing when going to edit town? I will try it again to see whether it unfreezes after 30secs...

[Hosfac]

I tried updating the driver and it said it could not find a better match.

If you're going through your PC's manufacturer to find them, then this is no surprise.  They are utterly terrible with keeping up with that (which is why automatic driver updates don't work much of the time).  That doesn't mean there isn't a better driver available, though.  If your driver wasn't made in 2011, chances are excellent that the driver has been updated.

You need to go to the card manufacturer's website and see if they have an updated version.  I had to do this with my video card drivers (for issues with Rift, not Sims) and, just yesterday, my sound card drivers.  It fixed my problem, although there's one song that is still a bit buggy on occasion.  It's 100% better than it was, though.

I have never had the sound problem before, so personally, it is probably just another bug in the game.

The problem is more a result of advancing codec technology, and programming trying to take advantage of these advances, but the PC manufacturers have no desire to keep up on legacy drivers.  My driver was from 2008, and my PC manufacturer's website said that it was the most current.  The Realtech website said otherwise, so I downloaded one made in late 2011, installed it, and haven't had any problems with it since.

[pallyndrome]

Could we maybe split this thread up? I didn't mean it to be a thread about any problems since showtime, just a problem like mine. Not saying the other problems don't warrant discussion, just that it would be nice to have the space to concentrate on each one individually.

[pallyndrome]

I have done a factory reset, to no effect. I have also done some investigating, and it seems this problem is only with this particular union cove file. If you know of the history of this problem (outlined in the story thread I mentioned earlier) then you can understand my frustration over this issue. I really really want to play this file, and it is annoying that the addition of a new expansion has done this.

If no one can offer any more ideas, my last hope it seems would be to ask twallan if one his mods would help - I have until now been totally against mods.