ErrorTrap: My Hero

[Carl]

I had two big problems with Showtime. First were the crashes. I took care of that with a Factory Reset and put in Master Controller/Overwatch to help prevent future problems with stability (Saver is installed as well to remind me to save so I never lose an hour of gameplay again). Sadly, I had another problem that kept popping up - way too frequently for me to get anything done, and the mods nor the factory reset fixed it. My Sim and his phone would become unclickable for up to 6 Sim hours, and that's no good for a Magician that needs to perform for tips. It's the sole means of accessing the command. After suffering a bit longer, I remembered there was a third mod I hadn't yet installed: ErrorTrap. It catches scripting errors and prevents problems by taking appropriate action when they crop up. It reloads a Sim automatically on an error more thoroughly than any resetsim cheat, and also prevents the game from failing to load on a bad save file.

When I loaded the game after the simple install of ErrorTrap (placing it in a folder), the bug happened immediately after my next gig. However, a message popped up. ErrorTrap has caught a scripting error. For a moment, I could not use my Sim as he was reloaded by the game. After about 3-4 seconds, he returned to normal and so far the bug has not recurred.

This "mod" is great and I think everyone should use it. Sims is far from perfect and far from stable and anything that brings it closer is very welcome. It's something people who have trouble with the game should consider, and can only do positive things for your gameplay. It's better to have it in before bad things happen so you never experience them in the first place.

[Katluvr]

I just installed ErrorTrap last night in my non-challenge folder even though so far I haven't been plagued with too many problems with Showtime (perhaps I just haven't played it long enough yet).  It's great to hear that you found it so helpful.  I will say that I have a tremendous amount of respect for Twallan and other trustworthy modders.  I can't believe how much better my game is since I started using Overwatch and some others.

Many thanks to you, Carl, for relaxing the forum's rules so that we have a place to come for reliable information and mature discussion.

[wednesday21]

This "mod" is great and I think everyone should use it. Sims is far from perfect and far from stable and anything that brings it closer is very welcome. It's something people who have trouble with the game should consider, and can only do positive things for your gameplay. It's better to have it in before bad things happen so you never experience them in the first place.

Couldn't get any truer. Sims has never, under any circumstances, been a perfectly stable game. It's packed with bugs and if Electronic Arts hasn't fixed the good half of them in about twenty game patches, it's a bit too optimistic to expect them to fix those bugs now.

You might want to note that ErrorTrap, in essence, is a core mod. This means that it requires updating with every patch update. It can also conflict with other mods (as far as I know). So, in brief, it needs good tending to work correctly and do its job without any inconvenience.

Now on to my own experience with this game modification. It's undoubtedly very useful. My sim was having his bachelor party and one or two of the guests got stuck when performing certain tasks. ErrorTrap smoothly reset them and I got a few notifications in the upper-right corner which told me why this was needed. I haven't had any corrupted save files since the start of my sims3 experience so I don't know about that part. Though I'm guessing that the mod is as excellent in that aspect of its functionality as it is in the aforementioned one. It's Twallan, after all, the mod god.

[Carl]

Yeah, it'll need updating. Since patches are always approached with caution anyway, I will wait to update until ErrorTrap is ready (I saw he's fast at doing this). Unless this specific problem is fixed in a patch, I will not update without it as my problem will return immediately and I've already done the factory reset!

[wednesday21]

Ironically, ErrorTrap was one of the mods to be updated last when this latest (1.31 I think) patch was released. So it is indeed a good idea to avoid patching up until this mod in particular is updated.

Slightly off-topic: One of the SimGurus announced that a new patch will be released soon to fix minor problems such as custom content transferring with simport. Who knows, it might be able to fix your problem as well. Time shall tell.

[grimsoul]

I agree, Error Trap is great. It's caught things several times and saved my game.
Twallan has always been quick about getting his mods updated with the latest patch. I don't know how he gets them out so fast. But I never patch my game until the mods I use are ready.

[jeanamariex3]

I still kick myself for not using it sooner, even in my earlier days of membership here. I hear so many complaints about all the different bugs and gamebreakers from this latest patch, and I never experienced a single one! Overwatch is great too!

Master Controller has really improved my Sims lives since I started using it over a year ago.

[DeNile]

While I do have Error Trap, it seems it's not picking up this error. I have been unable to click on a sim for several sim days, and Error Trap has yet to pick up the Error. *sigh* Back to the drawing board.

[Figwit]

Please note too that ErrorTrap has been updated again for patch 1.32. 

Agree, that it is a very useful mod and it, along with several others of Twallan's, are probably the only reason I have stuck to this game.

[Carl]

That was the issue I had, and when it came up after installing the mod it caught it and has not happened since. Sorry it's not working for you too 

[pallyndrome]

I have never used mods before, but I am trying twallan's error trap in the hopes of fixing one of my save game file (see my thread about it: http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,9296.0.html). I tried to follow the instructions on Jeana's step by step guide (http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,9187.0.html) and I think it worked all right - there were a few indiscrepancies like I thought I was on vista, so downloaded winrar, but I'm on windows 7 but winrar still worked. Anyway, I loaded the game and it said there were mods active, but I saw no other sign of it. I'm not really sure what I'm looking for - will error trap show up someway in the main menu or individual games? My game file still doesn't work.

[Seabody]

To my understanding, ErrorTrap will not have any effect on your game, aside from trapping any game errors that pop up. So you shouldn't see hide nor hair of it until it tells you it has prevented an issue.

[Hosfac]

Error Trap is one of 3 mods that I absolutely refuse to play the game without.  Between that and Overwatch (which requires Master Controller), my Sims playing has made a complete 180^o turn from maddeningly frustrating to pleasantly enjoyable.  I've used them all for a bit less than a year now, and I'll never go back to vanilla.

Likewise, I can't possibly say enough good things about Saver.  I have nothing remotely resembling any type of short term memory, and Saver has literally saved me several times already!

[Hosfac]

To my understanding, ErrorTrap will not have any effect on your game, aside from trapping any game errors that pop up.

Error Trap not only catches game breaking errors, it logs them and it tries to fix them.  You essentially know it succeeded if you stop getting notifications about an error.  However, if you keep getting it, you can upload the error log (stored in your Sims 3 folder) to NRaas Industries and Twallan can tell you what's causing the error and what needs to be done to fix it.

It's also a good idea to look in your Sims 3 folder from time to time and clean out old error logs that you don't need, because they will build up in there.

[Pam]

Carl started a topic about this mod, so I'm going to merge this with it.