Corrupted files
Hi, Last night my Sims 3 game never fully loaded. There is no panel showing in order to access the Sims Inventory, etc. Also, there are no character icons showing to control them. In EA Help, the ...
Forum Discussion
@jeanmarie618 Please open Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > CurrentGame and delete everything inside; this folder should always be empty unless you actually have a save loaded. In the same Sims 3 folder, delete the five cache files as well (again, if you did it previously):
- CASPartCache.package
- compositorCache.package
- scriptCache.package
- simCompositorCache.package
- socialCache.package
Try to load your save, and if it works properly, let the game clock run for a few minutes, then use "save as" to rename the save, so you have a backup in case you need it later.
If the save is still borked, quit without saving, then inside the Sims 3 folder, open Saves and look for a folder labeled [your save name].sims3.backup. This folder contains the data from the second-to-last time you saved; if you rename it and delete the .backup extension, you'll be able to load it from the Main Menu. Delete the cache files and everything inside CurrentGame again, then see whether the backup will load. Again, if it does work, use "save as" and rename it.
Exchange items are not considered custom content by themselves, but cc can attach to Exchange uploads and then install itself in your game. Often enough the creator doesn't even know that their content has cc attached, so the "no cc" tag can't always be trusted.
The empty stage is a known issue, and the extra proprietors might be as well—it kind of sounds like something the game would do—but I haven't looked into that in particular. The easiest way I know of to solve the latter, at least, is with mods. Let me know if you use any or are interested in adding a few. You might well need mods to fix your save anyway, given the state it's in at the moment.
As for EA support, this isn't really the kind of issue I'd expect a support rep to be able to solve. Corrupt saves are more the purview of forums like this one and forums.thesims.com.
@puzzlezaddictThe first suggestion did nothing, but when I tried the second, I found something strange. You said:
If the save is still borked, quit without saving, then inside the Sims 3 folder, open Saves and look for a folder labeled [your save name].sims3.backup.
My saved game has a file extension called "bad." The extensions are:
.sims3
.sims3.backup
.sims3.bad
Edit: I found a reference to .bad files...
Sometimes you will also find folders called .bad. Those are usually created when you have an Error 12, 13 or 16 and should be deleted right away. You don’t need to keep those.
https://sims3.crinrict.com/en/2011/01/faq-user-files.html
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I did get an Error 12 recently. I used to get them all the time. Not enough Ram, I guess. This saved game is very unusual for me, because it has been running so smoothly for so long (several generations of Sims). Even though I kept adding buildings, Sims from my library, skilled up most of the town, added subways... I've never been able to do this much. Using maybe 6 expansion packs, too. It is an old PC, so this save is highly unusual. But then it died, lol. Maybe it was the Subways. Those are new as of yesterday.
I tried cheats for the first time over the summer and now I use cheats constantly. Mostly to give money and promote in jobs after I skill them up. Do cheats cause any harm?
Edit #2: I deleted the .bad file and no change. On to your solution now.
@jeanmarie618 Most cheats are fine, but a couple can be problematic. In particular, you should never object-delete a sim, which can and will corrupt your save. Using moveobjects on a sim can mess up routing; whether it causes broader issues probably depends on where you use it and the sim(s) involved.
Subways aren't problematic in and of themselves, but they do change world routing, and it's possible the game takes more resources to calculate sim routing when there are subways present than not. But just spending a lot of time in Edit Town can put your save over the RAM limit, at least in that play session, when it's getting close already: Edit Town takes more resources than normal gameplay.
Yes, you should delete the .bad save, you're not going to be able to load it anyway. It's still worth trying to load the one that ends in .backup, since that's a slightly older version of the save and may be less affected than the newer one.
>>>In particular, you should never object-delete a sim
I've seen that Object thing and hope I didn't accidentally do that. When I need to get rid of a Sim I usually move them out of their home, then leave them on the clipboard and return to game. If it is a zombie, I use resetSim. I do use resetSim often on zombies.
Trying the .backup now.
