Forum Discussion

Seasoned Ace

8 years ago

Safeguards?

Hello all! :) I'm technically not new to Sims 3. I have all of the expansions, most of the stuff packs, most of the worlds, etcetera. I just haven't played much at all since Sims 4 came out. And even before that I didn't really take things like saving and clearing caches (all of the important stuff!) seriously. Which is probably why after Sims 4 came out and I later went back to play my Sims 3 100 baby challenge something went wrong and it crashes when I try to get into the save! But this question has nothing to do with that.

Now, I have a save/story that I'm really attached to. I don't want to lose it. What I want to know is what safeguards are there other than backing up saves on an external drive like I do with everything? This save at this point is 3 different worlds including uni and one of the households I plan to move around and explore some other worlds so after a while, there will end up being several worlds sort of interconnected and probably several households when I get bored with the two I'm currently playing and start new ones... sort of like a rotation. So if somehow something happens to this save I would lose not only one household and not just one world and the townies and builds in them. And I would have yet another story on my blog that would just abruptly stop because I'd lost the save file! :/

For Sims 4 I back up my Saves folder, repair my game, and clear my caches once a week. I have up to 5 "save as" files for each save/story. But from what I hear Sims 3 is a more volatile game. So! Safeguards? What do ~~paranoid~~ cautious simmers do in Sims 3 to avoid losing everything? Is there a guide somewhere because if there is I haven't found it. Any advice would be appreciated.

34 Replies

StormyDayzGamez
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
@igazor Yes, I realized that it was a much better idea to look only at the nraas wiki for answers and usually I find them. The population page you linked was very helpful, thanks. Now if I can just figure out why nobody ever works at the resort I'll be set for NPCs I think. It's not like a pressing issue anymore but it drove me bonkers when I was trying to have my sim live in a run-down hotel. It's insane that they can't even sit in the chairs because they're not staying there.

I got the new world set up with like 15 families and I'll need to turn on immigration soon for sure because all of them are breeding like rabbits! I've already had to edit two houses and add cribs and beds.
StormyDayzGamez
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
@igazor and anyone else!

I have a question. Do default replacements slow game performance? I have skin, eyes, and a few other things. That file in my mods is 44.6 MB. I can understand that a huge amount of CC clothing and the like (which I have none of) would slow things a lot but is this enough to make much of a difference? I've been trying to find references to size vs performance but all I can find is people with like 6GB! :D
igazor
8 years ago
I think it depends on the replacements, the user, and their system. Those that are known as HQ or are higher-def will have more of an impact. For more standard ones, we won't even feel it (much of the time). Not sure we can always go by file size in this case, but guess the answer is try them and see if you like them.
StormyDayzGamez
Seasoned Ace
8 years ago
"igazor;c-16244120" wrote:
I think it depends on the replacements, the user, and their system. Those that are known as HQ or are higher-def will have more of an impact. For more standard ones, we won't even feel it (much of the time). Not sure we can always go by file size in this case, but guess the answer is try them and see if you like them.

Thanks. I haven't seen a noticeable difference so far. The skin is a lower HQ one. I don't want all the sims looking like supermodels or something I just don't like the rubbery look that regular in-game skin has. Added with the other default replacements the townies look like I gave them all makeovers! ...other than their clothing of course. :D Thank goodness for the Dresser mod! ;)