Forum Discussion

srpjnz's avatar
5 years ago

Nraas Household Size

Hi
I don't know if this in the right place (couldn't find a sims 3 mods section), so my apologies if it is in the wrong place.
I was wondering if there is a limit to the amount of sims that can be in the household at once, even with the nraas mod. In one of my save files, once my household size exceeded 24 sims (it went to 27), I could no longer access the save. Every time I tried to open the save, it came up with the 'there has been a serious issue loading (save file), it is seriously recommended that you restart the game' message.
Anything I can do to get around this, or is this more of an issue with my computer which means I'll just have to keep my households under 24 sims?
Thanks
  • There is no hard limit to the number of sims that can be in a household when using NRaas mods. If you have more than the 24 that PortraitPanel can possibly fit on one screen, the space bar can be tapped to advance through them into the "next page" of thumbnails and back. However, after a certain point, and this is difficult to define as it will be different for players on different system hardware and will depend on how busy the game engine is with the world being played, game performance will suffer and potentially grind to a halt.

    Personally I don't find it fun to play households greater than 15 or so (perhaps not counting pets) because it's just too many sims to try to keep track of all at once. But that's just me, other players reach their tipping points in different places. And it also can make a difference as to whether this household is the actively being played one or not as to how it behaves -- if it is ever made inactive even for a moment, the game will stand to dissolve such a household unless NRaas StoryProgression is in place and set allow one of such a size.

    The serious error on startup usually means that a game file is being held open by some other power when the game tries to load it. Sometimes it's enough to have portions of the TS3 user game folder open in Windows' File Explorer, others have had issues with anti-virus and backup programs getting in the way. Reported a bit less often, it could be a corrupt save or one that has an unexpected character in its name. Do you have any other saves featuring this household that you can try to load?

    For future reference, a pretty good place to bring such questions is to us at NRaas. It's kind of what we are there for. :)
  • UlanDhor's avatar
    UlanDhor
    Seasoned Novice
    That's a good example for how you let the player set his own limit. Technically, the limit is lifted, but practically, there just comes the point where I think it isn't worth it anymore. For me, 12 still works "nicely" (sort of), and 15 is the point where I draw the line. My system is bottlenecked by my rather ancient CPU though, which isn't ideal for simulations.
  • "igazor;c-17312283" wrote:
    T

    The serious error on startup usually means that a game file is being held open by some other power when the game tries to load it. Sometimes it's enough to have portions of the TS3 user game folder open in Windows' File Explorer, others have had issues with anti-virus and backup programs getting in the way.


    This is what it was for me, my external hard drive backup program was getting in the way. When my drive is plugged in, Sims 3 will NOT WORK at all and I get the serious error message. Unplug the USB, and everything is fine.
  • "LilyBear94;d-968832" wrote:
    Hi
    I don't know if this in the right place (couldn't find a sims 3 mods section), so my apologies if it is in the wrong place.
    I was wondering if there is a limit to the amount of sims that can be in the household at once, even with the nraas mod. In one of my save files, once my household size exceeded 24 sims (it went to 27), I could no longer access the save. Every time I tried to open the save, it came up with the 'there has been a serious issue loading (save file), it is seriously recommended that you restart the game' message.
    Anything I can do to get around this, or is this more of an issue with my computer which means I'll just have to keep my households under 24 sims?
    Thanks


    You mean you actually want to have more than 24 sims in the household if only it was possible?!? :open_mouth: :fearful: :cold_sweat: (Excuse me while I faint).

    The most I've ever had is 12, but that was totally involuntary, the darn Neighbourhood Pet Adoption Center being the culprit, described in this thread.

    Normally I limit the household size to anything between 1-8, pets included. To even think about having 24 or more makes my head spin. :dizzy:
  • "SuzyCue72;c-17313781" wrote:

    You mean you actually want to have more than 24 sims in the household if only it was possible?!? :open_mouth: :fearful: :cold_sweat: (Excuse me while I faint).

    The most I've ever had is 12, but that was totally involuntary, the darn Neighbourhood Pet Adoption Center being the culprit, described in this thread.

    Normally I limit the household size to anything between 1-8, pets included. To even think about having 24 or more makes my head spin. :dizzy:


    My head used to spin at 3, but then I decided to try for a legacy type of household and now I can pretty consistently handle 8 sims as long as I can limit my sims to having a maximum of 2 kids. Right now, I have 1 set of grandparents in the adult stage, 1 set of parents in YA stage, aunt in YA stage, and 3 children (2 in child stage and 1 still in toddler stage). I've been reluctant to move anyone out because I don't want them to do certain things, like the adult grandparents to have any more kids - unless they adopt a child stage sim or something like that. I've bought them another house so they can spread out a little, while I can still keep track of them.
  • Thanks all for the replies! And yes, I had my mods folder open while the game was running *sigh*
    And to those asking how I can bear having more than 24 sims, it's for a challenge :smile:
  • NikkeiSimmer's avatar
    NikkeiSimmer
    Rising Adventurer
    Yep sometimes those issues can happen on the slightest conflict with a running program and sometimes programs on the computer can be running in the background not visible to desktop so it takes a lot to find which one is the culprit. Glad you found it so you can get back to playing your game. @LilyBear94